AS DER Fuhrer himself says, this show might be a little bit out of “mein kampfert zone”.
To be honest, what else should you expect from a show that reimagines Hitler as a Las Vegas lounge crooner?
As Stephen Fry remarks climbing into a loud and brash 1900s car in the Sherlock Holmes movie, “It’s so overt it’s covert” and that’s the case here, too.
While Frank might ponder how he’s not been cancelled, it’s take a special kind of idiot to be offended after walking into a show advertised by posters showing Frank, resplendent in a tux and with a certain someone’s trademark cows lick and toothbrush moustache.
That said, it takes a lot to shock me comedy-wise but there’s an Epstein gag in this brand-new show that made me choke on my beer and produced gasps from the rest of the sold-out audience.
It’ll never be shortlisted for the Funniest Joke Of The Fringe award so the only place you’ll hear it is here, in Frank’s nightclub bunker under Le Monde.
To be fair, there are more “Oh, Christ, really?!” jokes in this hour than you could shake a swastika at – including the best Nicola Sturgeon gag I’ve yet heard – but that’s just part of Frank’s charm.
In fact, I saw him twice at last year’s Fringe and while that was so good I went twice, it felt like a musical show with a few gags chucked in whereas this feels like a well-crafted comedy performance.
But, oh, those songs. Don’t be fooled, Frank can really sing. In fact, just before this show I saw a play about Sinatra upstairs at Le Monde fronted by a man who has recorded with Sinatra’s old band and who has a fabulous set of pipes, but for me Mr Sanazi has the edge.
It’s joyous to see the look on the crowd’s faces when they hear the intro of a fabulously famous Sinatra number, only for Frank to subvert it masterfully – see “You’ve Got Me Under Berlin” and “Sieg Heil With Me” for further details.
For this performance Frank was joined by fellow Iraq Pack members Dean Stalin and Osama Bing Crosbie – the latter reducing the very perjink Edinburgh lady sat next to me to paroxysms – and next week he tells me he’ll be joined by his daughter Nancy Sanazi and Liza Mussolinelli.
I’m booking my tickets now and I suggest you hurry up, too, as they’ll be as rare as Hitler’s testicles.
Frank Sanazi: A Little Bit Of History Re-Putin, 20:30, Le Monde – Shanghai, August 7-8, 13-15, 20-22, 27-29.
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/frank-sanazi-a-little-bit-of-history-re-putin
