As befits a star, Michael Mittermeier had a “support band” for his performance at Circus Krone. He had his colleague Max Osswald, who was a quarter of a century younger, do the warm-up. At the end, Mittermeier not only pointed out its premiere in the clubhouse, but also generally recommended a look at the lively Munich comedian scene. At the beginning of his career he had to look abroad in search of “Open Mike” and stand-up references. So comedy 1.0 was on the program, the classic variant, which, however, has remained at the cutting edge of the 57-year-old Mittermeier, who has grayed his honor, and – which will be discussed later – has taken on a special tone.
The new program “# 13” – which is actually number 15 due to corona interludes – even starts with a political detour, with the Chinese-American confrontation. “Spy balloon” doesn’t sound like China at all, it suits Austria better, he decided, to underpin it with a nice Falco parody. And so he was prompt when it came to age, which – later increasingly with his 15-year-old daughter as a projection surface – became a kind of basis for the program. Whether in the long digression about his “favorite series” Love Island, this “brain immodium” where you could hear the elder’s amusement at the young “Wimperellas und Rillensepps” and their inevitable tattoos as “QR code for reality shows”. Whether in the very funny description of his first colonoscopy. Or with pithy attacks on influencer and social media excesses.
That life experience and – pardon! – Insights into old age can bring depth to the almost professionally young and emphatically “light” comedy subject, Mittermeier made clear after the break insistently and resonantly. Because that’s when the man who, as the co-winner of the fourth LOL season, proved his ability to remain serious, became stable, so to speak, as you might say in Young German.
Humor isn’t just entertainment for no purpose
He spoke about his “beef with God and his staff”, not only because of a beating chaplain in his youth and the abuse scandals. But above all because he and his wife were not allowed to adequately bury and mourn their four stillborn children due to a lack of baptism (as well!), yes, according to Catholic teaching, two of these innocent children even stew in limbo forever until 2007.
It became clear that for Mittermeier, humor is now not just purposeless entertainment, but also a weapon and therapy. Even as in cabaret with the claim of enlightenment. “Like everyone else as you would like to be liked yourself,” he said at the end, a categorical comedy imperative, so to speak. Let’s see if his LOL co-winner Kurt Krömer can keep up at the same place on Friday. In addition to his funny public side, he also recently revealed a serious personal side.