Cabaret - Karsten Kaie "Forget it"

After his huge success as Caveman, now finally the new program "Forget it".

In a furious journey through time, Karsten Kaie takes us into the ludicrous abysses of his and the German soul and tells us how he accidentally wins the Oscar. Why a robot wins the famous TV show, DSDDD, Deutschland sucht den deutschesten Deutschen. Who wrote the most successful book in the golden twenties: "Treue aus Faulheit". When we finally provide for ourselves with wild meadows on the walls and fireflies in our heads for our own inner enlightenment. In 2068, as a centenarian, he looks back on our future and realizes that today was more beautiful then than yesterday will be tomorrow. He asks himself: Who will we be or not be with AI and ChatGPT? On his journey through various stages of life - from book title inventor to show star or from late-night lie presenter to Oscar winner, for example - Karsten Kaie takes an unsparing look at reality. "Forget it!" is a program between comedy, cabaret and theater and simply hilarious.

"The best surprises are his linguistic and literary cabaret excursions, when he dedicates a poem to the green bell pepper in Heinz Erhardt style or successively deletes letters in a speech until he stammers furiously."

[Süddeutsche Zeitung]

Parodies and voice imitations are among the highlights, and Kaie yaps his way through the entire political prominence, through the colorful world of stars and starlets and makes the German dialect landscape shine in the most exhilarating way." [Münchner Abendzeitung].
[Münchner Abendzeitung]

"This time the expert known as Caveman pours out his whole cornucopia"

[Passauer Neue Presse]

"Deceptively true: Kaie's new solo program"

[Leipziger Volkszeitung]

Grandiose One-Man-Show"

[Passauer Neue Presse]

"To laugh out loud!"

[Augsburger Allgemeine]

Finally, an interview from the Süddeutsche Zeitung (from 2022):

"I'm a border crosser"

The actor and comedian Karsten Kaie, who grew up in Augsburg, on his new program "Forget it!"

Probably not even the original "Caveman" Kristian Bader has performed the play as often as Karsten Kaie, who was born in Augsburg in 1968. He has been touring with Rob Becker's comedy success since 2001. At the same time, Kaie has been performing in his own plays since 2005 ("Lügen, aber ehrlich"). His new, third work "Forget it!" has now celebrated its premiere at the Drehleier. A difficult birth, as he reports.

SZ: In the new program, you look back on your life as a centenarian. How did you come up with the idea?

Karsten Kaie: Various things came together. One was the break caused by the pandemic, when I thought it might be difficult to build on my previous cabaret. In the fall of 2020, the idea of taking stock emerged: What have I done, who am I, what am I. Why don't I tell my life story?

So it's really autobiographical at first, from the dance lessons in Augsburg to the culture shock in Berlin?

Especially where you might not believe it, a lot of things actually happened exactly like that. Other things aren't exactly like that after all, for example the "lying late night show" on TV that was scheduled for 2019. It really was planned, but it hasn't happened yet.

After that, you create space for yourself by using the trick of looking back from the year 2068. How do you imagine the future?

I imagined what I would like to achieve, which is unrealistic. You can draw humor from that. I'm not so presumptuous as to think I'll win an Oscar one day. But I've always imagined how funny it would be to give that speech. Or looking at the German chancellors from Willy Brandt to Johannes Friedrich Kretschmann. Nobody believes it, but this son of Minister President Winfried Kretschmann really does exist, and he also ran for the Bundestag in some mini-constituency. But he failed miserably against the CDU candidate. But who knows - he studied in Berlin for ten years, is now around 40 and a late starter. In my view, he will become Chancellor in 2038, which would still make him younger than his father is today.

Do such speculations particularly excite you?

I've always really enjoyed playing, which also expresses my political and moral stance. And when I have to slip into a persona that can celebrate that. The new program is also built in such a way that timeless numbers are combined with current interchangeable ones.

"Forget it!" is your third own, self-written program. What was the path from actor to author like?

I studied theater studies in Berlin and acting in New York. Abysmal, profound, intellectual - I've played everything from Sartre to Camus. Then I came back and got the chance with "Caveman". I was 30, no longer very young and needed the money. I thought it would last three months and be fine. Then, shockingly, I really enjoyed it and it became a smash hit, which is still going strong. But at some point you want to do something else again. So I wrote "Lies, but honest". In utter despair and in tears, I wasn't a writer and didn't know how to do it. I wanted to have everything in it, and then people said: That's very intelligent, but Caveman was funnier. That really annoyed me, of course, so I wrote "A million is gone so quickly" with an eye on the audience. Then I was suddenly told: But "Lies, but honest" was more challenging. Now I said to myself, I'll just do what I want: a general store of my life. And suddenly I'm really enjoying it, and lots of people like it because everyone can find something for themselves in it.

So comedy is just like parody, cabaret or theater?

Yes, I'm a crossover artist. A serious actor. But also a silly folk comedian who loves Heinz Ehrhardt. And someone for whom everything started with cabaret. As a student, I interviewed Gerhard Polt and Sigi Zimmerschied for my dissertation. They were my heroes. Their mixture of one-man theater and cabaret elements is still unmatched. That was always my dream, and with "Vergiss es" I've now come closer to it than ever before. I went home from the premiere with the feeling: I'm now starting where I wanted to go as an 18-year-old.

All the more reason to direct. How did you come across Heinz Kreidl?

Heinz is a very successful classical theater director. I got to know him as director at the Jagsthausen Castle Festival. We stayed in touch and he was the first person I told about "Forget it! He said: "You have to do it!" And I said: "Only if you help me."

They performed all their programs in Munich at the Drehleier. So you have a special relationship with the house?

You could say that. I used to play at the "Schloss". When that was no longer possible, a Tollwood employee recommended the hurdy-gurdy to me. I simply went there, back then still to Werner Winkler, and was immediately impressed. About the house, which is such an ugly duckling on the outside and then so great on the inside, and its history with all the big names. But also of the colorful program, which, like me, is not quite locatable and suits me perfectly. There is a lot of love and an old cabaret ethos, even with the new boss Manuela Hoffmann.

You mentioned the Tollwood Festival, so you must also have close ties to it?

It really was a second home for me. Also because of the fantastic other artists you met there. I played there continuously from 2003 to 2019, summer and winter festivals. Six weeks in a row and often sold out three months in advance. The Caveman, my play and even once as director of "Triple Espresso". I owe Rita Rottenwallner and the team an incredible amount.