Michael Mittermeier talks to Emma McAlpine about Germany's evolving comedy scene, improvising in English and the dissident Burmese comedian Zarganar.
“If you go on safari in the jungle you have to watch your back to survive. It's the same on stage. You can't show any fear or you're dead, especially to a British audience. They won't give mercy to a German comedian.”
I’m talking to Michael Mittermeier about the title of his first full-length English stand-up show, A German on Safari. One of Germany’s top comedians, he’s won dozens of awards in his home country and reached gold and platinum status in Germany, Switzerland and Austria for DVD sales. He’s also performed in front of 25,000 people supporting Bono in Berlin. Us Brits may not have a clue who he is but that could all be about to change. Soon he’ll be in London performing his hit Edinburgh Fringe show, which, despite mixed reviews from the critics, consistently drew large crowds. Mittermeier enjoyed the challenge.
“A year ago I was in London and had some difficult shows, like the Comedy Store at midnight, but I like the situation. It's tough and it's honest, there's no bullshit. My experience in Edinburgh was very positive this year; there were packed rooms and lots of laughing. But I didn't get any credit from anyone - from the people or the press - for doing it in a second language. The attitude was very much ‘make me laugh’.”
It’s ironic that he received no praise for performing comedy in English, from a nation notoriously lazy at learning other languages. But British comedy audiences aren’t known for their generosity. We pay to be entertained and to laugh; we don’t pay to watch someone do a good job of speaking in a second language. What should really impress however, is that while up in Edinburgh this year, Mittermeier performed at Paul Provenza’s Set List, an improvised comedy show where comics are handed a never-seen-before ‘set list’ of topics and made to improvise a whole routine on the spot. Most comics would baulk at the thought of performing in another tongue, let alone improvising in one. Mittermeier loved every minute: “You really have to empty your brain totally. It's like a ship in the mist; you have to listen and feel. I had a great talk to Paul Provenza about it, I told him it was like a drug and he agreed. It's the beauty of doing something you've never done before.”
Performing in English has been a long term goal for the 46-year-old. Growing up watching American comedy legends like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor had a profound effect on him. “I had a vision that I wanted to perform in English, where comedy was born so it was always in my head”. But it would be some time before the German comedy scene caught up with America and Mittermeier could perform suitable routines to English-speaking audiences.
“Our comedy evolvement was delayed, it’s in our history. We killed all our performers and a lot of Jewish entertainers left. Then after the war in 1945, no one really felt like doing comedy. It took 20-30 years after that for a scene to evolve. When I started doing stand-up in the '80s it wasn't called comedy, it was called cabaret, with political satire and cheesy stuff, no so called stand-up as such. When a lot of comics my age came across people like Lenny Bruce, theirs was a very different style to ours.”
By 2003, Mittermeier was an award-winning German comic, living in New York. It was there he first tried an English routine and was thrilled with the laughs he received. He started performing in English at festivals like Just for Laughs in Montreal. Then last year, he was approached by fellow multilingual comic Eddie Izzard who, having watched him perform in London, offered to produce his first English show. “We share the same spirit. He was very successful in his country and I am very successful in my country. There is no need to go to another country in a second language but that's the point, we know we have to do it for ourselves, to explore something new.”
Mittermeier is all about the exploring; A German on Safari is based on his travels across the globe, from the African savannah to the concrete jungle of New York. One country that he is particularly fond of is Burma, after he spent some time there making a documentary about Zarganar, a Burmese comedian who was jailed in 2008 for 35 years, after protesting about the government's response to cyclone Nargis. He was released last year. “We (comics) don't lead much of a dangerous life in Germany or England but in Burma, you go onstage and tell a political joke and you're in prison for years. He's the most daring and courageous comedian I have ever met.” I ask him about Burma’s comedy scene, something I know little about. “The Burmese love to laugh,” he tells me. "It's not really a comedy scene, it's more of an entertainment mixture with singing, dancing and comedy all together, but there will be a comedy scene there in the future. You can’t stop comedy. Not with weapons, prison or a dictatorship.”
It strikes me that Mittermeier is something of an unstoppable force himself. His passion for comedy, constantly seeking to develop his art, and managing to have a lot of fun at the same time, is palpable: “It might take another few years to really discover who I am in English on stage but I’m really enjoying it. Yesterday was my 25th year as a touring comic. I have to keep pushing myself or I will lose interest.”
Michael Mittermeier: A German on Safari is at the Soho Theatre from Saturday 13th October-Saturday 20th October, at 9:45pm.
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