Dirk Stermann

Stermann's daughter is getting married and the comedian throws a party for her. But something is wrong, and the exuberant celebration turns into a reckoning with the TV star's fatherly qualities. A hot piano and a creepy babysitter, a hallelujah and the truth about the good ORF man from Sezuan. Dirk Stermann's first solo program is as amusing as it is abysmal, and in the end he dances all by himself.

Dirk Stermann was awarded the prestigious radio prize for German-language cabaret, the Salzburger Stier 2024, for ZUSAMMENBRAUT!

Press reviews
"A damn strong piece." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
"In his first solo program, Dirk Stermann talks, sings, dances and drinks brilliantly." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
"Stermann's solo has everything you could hope for: sparkling punchlines, high and low humor, self-deprecating exposure while maintaining a minimum of human dignity, and simply a good story with hand, foot and brain." (Der Standard)
"Yes, it also works solo." (Der Standard)
"Dirk Stermann shines with his first solo cabaret: the tragicomic wedding satire ZUSAMMENBRAUT is his license to entertain alone." (Der Standard)
"Cynical, melancholic and yet incredibly funny." (Oberösterreichische Nachrichten)
"An entertaining evening with a high density of gags, sometimes mangy jokes such as "Slow Food am Klo" and a refreshingly abysmal wit." (Kurier)
"ZUSAMMENBRAUT mixes the real with the narrative, gives the whole thing a good shake and thus blurs the boundaries. In his solo debut, Dirk Stermann plays the comedian who looks in the mirror and loses his laughter despite his punchline accuracy. Cabaret sweet and sour, and flirtatious." (Ö1)
"Cleverly constructed, almost like a monologic mini-drama. (...) In the end, you have been quite shaken. And that's a very good thing." (APA)

Dirk Stermann
Born in Duisburg in 1965, has lived in Vienna since 1987. He is one of the most popular cabaret artists and television presenters in Austria and is also well known in Germany for his television and radio shows, films and stage programs with Christoph Grissemann as the Stermann & Grissemann duo. Since May 2007, he has co-hosted the weekly late night show "Willkommen Österreich". With his novels "Sechs Österreicher unter den ersten fünf" (2010), "Stoß im Himmel" (2013), "Der Junge bekommt das Gute zuletzt" (2016), "Der Hammer" (2019) and "Maksym" (2022), Dirk Stermann has successfully joined the ranks of German-language fiction authors. In 2016, Die Welt wrote: "A funny German media star who should be taken very seriously as an Austrian novelist." His new novel "Mir geht's gut, wenn nicht heute, dann morgen" about the psychoanalyst Erika Freeman was published in October 2023.

Photo: Ingo Pertramer