THE COMEDIAN

About the show

In Germany, cabaret and comedy have traditionally been arenas where power is caricatured, contradictions are exposed, and social ills are brought to light. But what happens when the very system meant to be criticized imperceptibly helps shape the content, reproducing the inequalities it purports to address? Canberk Köktürk—an award-winning comedy writer and the creator of the satirical investigative piece Fascholand—has developed a story about a comedian’s career into a tragicomic stand-up show, commissioned by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. Emre Safoğlu bravely stumbles from one open-mic night to the next until he finally achieves his big break with an appearance on a popular late-night show. However, within the predominantly white structures of the German media industry, Emre quickly runs up against the limits of "artistic freedom" as defined by the majority society. He is forced to tailor his performance to an audience that finds jokes about racism particularly funny only when they come at the expense of those affected by it. Bassam Ghazi, who served in the leadership of Düsseldorf’s Stadt:Kollektiv from 2020 to 2023, directs the evening. Central to Ghazi’s work is a rhetoric of unsettlement and provocation that incites political discourse.