Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CULTURE

Dan The Stranger: Russian comic finds refuge in Germany

Dan The Stranger had to flee Russia after criticising the war in Ukraine. Now the stand-up comedian is winning over audiences in Germany, where he pokes fun at local bureaucracy.

Published: 9 December 2023 10:50 CET
Dan The Stranger has become a comic sensation in Germany.
Dan The Stranger has become a comic sensation in Germany. (Photo by Pauline CURTET / AFP)

In a club in Munich, the laughs come easily from the crowd although the jokes from the Russian comic onstage come from the darkest of places.

Running to escape the police, struggling with depression and spending a childhood with an alcoholic father are all fair game for Dan The Stranger.

The Russian comic with piercing blue eyes left his homeland after death threats when he spoke out against the war in Ukraine. A funeral wreath was even delivered to one of his gigs before he left for Turkey with his wife and their three dogs.

Now the 35-year-old is building a new life in Germany and looking for a new following with a finely honed act of side-splitters delivered in English.

“I mostly talk about my trauma,” said Dan, who prefers not to give his real name. “And of course if you lived in Russia, you have trauma — you have enough for your whole career,” he said with a grin.

He is now selling out shows like the one in Munich and has 40,000 followers on Instagram thanks to his short, deeply wry posts.

“Every time my German friends tell stories from their childhood, everyone laughs. Every time I tell stories from my Russian childhood, everyone offers help.”

Or his morning routines — staring at a blank wall for half an hour — or checking social media.

As soon as wakes he feels the need to “read the opinions of incompetent or simply crazy people on all important issues. Now I am ready to start my day.”

Meditation doesn’t help, he complained in another post, because “it is impossible to relax listening to a meditation in a Russian accent.”

Group therapy

At his Munich gig more than 100 people including many young Russians who now live in Germany packed the club.

His one-hour set is classic black comedy covering his schooling in Russia, his childhood in a small town not far from the Ukrainian border and run-ins with local police.

The tension builds as he recounts threats on his life after he condemned Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

But the mood shifts again as he takes on Germany’s infamous red tape and cheerless bureaucrats, which draws appreciative nods from the audience.

For some, his act can feel like group therapy.

Russian emigre and IT specialist Xenia, who moved to Munich several years ago, said there are “lots of depressing things, obviously, that go through your head” when she thinks about her home country.

But Dan “makes it possible to joke about it — I think it kind of makes it easier”.

Confounding stereotypes

Another tech worker Aleksander, 25, a fellow Russian who follows Dan on social media, said he hopes the fact the comic performs in English will allow him to reach a bigger audience.

“When people from other countries explore the Russian reality through Dan’s jokes, they’re going to be surprised,” he said.

“I believe that it’s very much different from the overall public image of Russia.”

The comedian is also touring in Spain and Portugal, which hosts a large Russian diaspora, as well as Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris.

But a return to Russia is not on the cards, especially after his long, ultimately successful battle to get an artist visa in Germany which spared him the even more complex procedure of applying for asylum.

Only around eight percent of the few thousand Russians who applied for refuge there were accepted in the first 10 months to October, according to official figures.

At the end of his show, Dan posed for selfies with fans and chats with members of the audience, often in Russian. Many thank him for coming.

“We feel like we need to get in touch and check if everyone’s OK,” said Dan.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CULTURE

Barbaras Rhabarberbar: How a German tongue-twister became an unlikely viral hit

A tongue-twisting German rap about rhubarb has become the latest unlikely musical hit to storm the internet, racking up millions of views and inspiring a viral dance routine.

Published: 19 June 2024 09:06 CEST
Barbaras Rhabarberbar: How a German tongue-twister became an unlikely viral hit

The song by musical comedian Bodo Wartke was first posted on YouTube in December 2023, but took off earlier this year thanks to a dance video made by two Australian students.

In May, the track briefly reached number 12 in the TikTok music charts, ahead of US R&B superstar Beyonce.

The charm lies in the song’s tongue-twisting title, “Barbaras Rhabarberbar” (Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar) — a bit like the German equivalent of “She sells sea shells”.

The song tells the story of Barbara, a woman famous for her rhubarb cakes who decides to open a bar in her village.

As the song goes on, Barbara is joined by an ever-growing cast of people whose names add to the tongue-twister — such as barbarians and barbers.

Wartke, 47, teamed up with German content creator Marti Fischer to make the video, the two men taking turns at the microphone to recite the tricky lyrics.

47 million views

Wartke is delighted with the unexpected success of the song, though he admits he doesn’t actually like rhubarb very much, “except when it’s made into a crumble or jam with strawberries”.

“Even in our wildest dreams, we could never have imagined such success,” said Wartke, who has been performing as a cabaret artist in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for 27 years.

“Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar” has racked up more than 47 million views on TikTok and has been translated into several languages.

It has also inspired all manner of copycat dance videos, including underwater, on ice skates and on rollerblades.

Wartke, who performs comic songs on the piano, once wanted to be a German teacher and has a penchant for a linguistic challenge.

He has recorded several other songs based on tongue-twisters, such as “Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische” (“Fisherman Fritz catches fresh fish”).

“Until now, I always thought I was talking to a German audience. I thought you had to understand the meaning to appreciate it,” said Wartke, who grew up in northern Germany but now lives in Berlin.

“But apparently this kind of alliteration combined with hip-hop has an appeal beyond the meaning of the words,” he said.

READ ALSO: 8 German tongue-twisters to leave your mouth in knots 

Image problem 

Wartke hopes the song will do something positive for the image of the German language around the world.

“Lots of people think that Germans have no sense of humour, don’t know how to have fun and that German is an aggressive language,” he said.

“Now they’re reconsidering their prejudices, which I am delighted about. People write to me saying that our song has made them want to learn our language.”

As if to dispel any last perceptions that Germans are serious and boring, Wartke and Fischer have posted a video of themselves doing the dance, with Wartke wearing a pink suit.

“Dancing is not our speciality at all, we had to do a lot of practising,” he said.

Buoyed by their success, the duo are thinking of taking a Barbara-based comedy routine on tour to non-German-speaking countries.

“The songs would remain in German but we would present them in English,” Wartke said.

There has even been talk of the Eurovision Song Contest — and with Germany having finished in last place in 2022 and 2023, Barbara could only raise the bar.

By Céline LE PRIOUX

SHOW COMMENTS