Laughter allowed – despite everything
Who is still in the mood for jokes despite the seriousness of the situation?? A goal that still laughs! The exception: at astor. The word acrobat from the north of munich opened the second series of events on the bohmerwiese on wednesday evening, joking his way through the ratoromanic family of languages, lurking for gestures in the audience, in order to cut a spontaneous joke. That succeeded from the first point there, already the first joy tears rolled down the cheeks. These locks closed only minutes later, the sky gates however were well-disposed to the approximately 200 visitors.
200 visitors? The corona-uncertainty is traceable at every corner, on the whole festival area of the gartner family bohmer with all the specifications of a sophisticated hygiene concept, at the organizer, at the artist and at the visitors behind their masks. While willy astor's wordplay attracted almost 800 visitors to the lake stage in bad staffelstein almost a year ago, the crowds in bamberg remained modest. What also applies to the cash crash. The two weeks of the event will not yield much profit. But gay heyder from veranstaltungsservice bamberg doesn't want to take stock yet. "Let's see what will come until sunday."
The heyders have been friends with willy astor for many years. "35 years ago they have already organized me as the very first at my first outbreak from upper bavaria there somewhere at the harbor. And then I'll stay true and stay loyal." In the meantime, astor has also performed at private family celebrations, and even when the show was cancelled on sunday due to continuous rain, he personally made an effort to find a replacement date.
Even if solo artists have it easier at the moment, even a well-known cabaret artist like the 58-year-old, who turns 59 on sunday, has many open pages in his schedule, as he reveals at the end of the show. "From october i have no more confirmed dates." And then it gets melancholic. The former toolmaker at BMW takes up the acoustic guitar and mutates from a phrase writer to a serious musician, who opens the program with the "sounds of islands" and sings a song of praise to his rough role model reinhard mey.
But in the 90 minutes before, the witzbold, the willy michl, had triumphed in him. He verballhorns his audience ("in daylight you look into the faces and there you need a certain basic tolerance") – "klogange are furrowed with me"), celebrates with the bohmers on the box seats of their terrace, fights against the glockner of st. Otto, who was in a frenzy ("what was going on?? The others have also made it in points."), makes fun of the illuminated wax house as a red light district and the exhibited vehicles of a sponsor. The reward comes during the intermission and after the performance, as astor is patient and affable and allows himself to be spoken to, photographed and signed autographs.
In between, gags and punchlines like pearls on a string. Some already worn out, others brand new, because created during the lockdown ("my toilet paper, my securities"). He also messes up the hits of many colleagues in his own way with new lyrics, juggling uniquely with phonetics and semantics, which becomes a great pleasure with concentrated listening. Sample? Who guesses the drink, when in the doof-genius spirit gag, a schnapps idea of a self-help grappa, it's about "he jeans a on hot". No less entertaining the frivolous autotour or the a-story or the erotic franken-hymn with loud hard bs.
Self-irony and string art
Always on the move as a linguistic researcher, astor was also brimming with self-irony. "There is no greater contradiction in the german language than 'urlaub mit kindern'." As a father of three he knows what he is talking about. "I have just had one of these and now need a cure." Or the rap about the (ba-) chiller in the nursery/hotel mama: pupertier is in the house ("order is half of life, the other part is given to me").). Astor's string tunes are heard in the world hits medley, with the lyrics naturally being taken through the wringer by him. So an abba-hit turns into an invitation to the wedding day, when the marriage sponsor is told that "we're eating at esso today". No one is spared – from trini lopez to prince to helene fischer.
The 200 visitors enjoyed the gags and word games with great enthusiasm, whether witty or banal. Even a passionate club fan paid tribute to the composer of the bavarian anthem "stern des sudens" highest appreciation. A frenchman can't give out more admiration than that.
After the dampfhammer-franken bembers on thursday guest on friday, 4. September, still arnd ruhlmann as hanuta gonzalas as well as "chapel, hyde&porzel" on saturday as well as "chapeau claque" and "viva voce on sunday".