case for theater socks | Lower Austria

“I sometimes wish there was a function in Microsoft Word that puts bad jokes in red and good jokes in green,” he says, and it sounds so frank that you want to pat him on the back and say, “Everything will be fine.” Growing up in Hausleiten, is a man Previous insurance with a young face at heart is not hidden by doubt; His dry, sinister sense of humor was a real treat from the first show — and won awards. Never run out of shame.

LOWER AUSTRIAN: You start with your second show, Tenderness. what is all of this?
Christopher Fritz: About a year ago I started writing stories from which the topic of convergence emerged. Then I realized that it also fit the times – because of the pandemic, people distanced themselves. Humor can be a good tool for discovering closeness.

Have you processed your experiences in the past years?
The pandemic, and more specifically the end of the lockdown relationship, is just the starting point. I didn’t want to do Covid, but I didn’t want to pretend it never happened either. I go in search of intimacy and tenderness.

Where can you find it?
in a burglary in France or in urology; One can also discover affinity in overcoming shame.

You have been praised so much, you have been described by Oberösterreichisches Volksblatt as “a wondrous boy of taboo-free humour”. Are there taboos for you?
No, but it has to do with the way you talk about things, what the point of the joke is, and who gets fat. I make sure to step to the side or up and not down. I’m not going to joke about minorities, I’m just kidding about people who make fun of minorities.

You have left your insurance job. How is life as an artist?
I thought it was hard being on the road alone so much, but I rarely feel alone on the tour. Tension before the show is a good companion. Sometimes it’s strange to walk into the hotel by yourself afterwards and lie alone in the double bed, where there is only a blanket and a pillow. You get the feeling that your face is being rubbed, and you are on your own.

What is it like to start a new program?
I have to get my confidence back a bit. It’s a hard process: you have to listen to yourself and the audience and find common ground. Sometimes I wish I had insurance in the place I wrote the balance sheets and knew what to do. Finally, the supervisor says if it is appropriate. It is open with a cabaret. You might not get a lot of audio feedback, but when you come out, a few people will tell you it was great. That’s why it’s a good idea to make sure you’re doing what you want. You are also from the audience on stage yourself.

What is a beautiful performance for you?
An evening when you surf and people laugh regularly. I avoid direct contact a bit, despite being told I should try to face the audience.

after the show?
exactly. I’m more of a back door guy. My therapist said that maybe I could face my fears by standing in the bar afterwards, and if two people in the audience spoke to me, I would note anyway that they wouldn’t say it was the awful night they had at all, but mostly a nice thing.
Last year, after an outdoor event, a man my mother’s age told me he had never laughed much in his life. It’s something I try to remind myself of when I haven’t felt upbeat.

How hard is it to face the judgment of so many people?
The rating one receives and feels can be very deceptive. If I don’t like the performance, it’s hard to tell if the audience doesn’t suit me or if it’s my fault. If you go to a restaurant and eat shrimp for the first time and it doesn’t taste good, it’s not necessarily the shrimp’s fault. They may not have been well prepared. There is a lot of personal in what I do on stage, even if there is a little bit of biographical manipulation. But even if it’s all made up, humor is a personal thing. I want to learn how to separate a little.

your strategy?
The outfit helps some colleagues. I figured I could get theatrical socks off.

How does your family react to your success?
What proud? When I left my secure job at the insurance company, there were doubts about whether this was a smart move, but they later realized it wasn’t a bad decision.

What do you wish in the future?
World peace, a little more room for tolerance in the world and for me: I am satisfied with the program and well received. I’ve already noticed with the old software: it’s exhausting telling the same stories 200 times. I look forward to feeling fresh again.

Short Bio

Christoph Fritz was born in 1994 and raised in Hausleiten. He studied European economics and worked in an insurance company. When he was in his twenties, he started doing comedy at local venues. In 2018, he started his first program “The Smallest Face” and was awarded the Sponsorship Award from the Austrian Cabaret Prize and the German Cabaret Prize Sponsorship Award. The second program, “Al-Raqqa”, has been presented to the public since the end of September. In Lower Austria, he will play on October 15 at the Tullner Danubium and on October 21 at the Bühne im Hof ​​in St. Polten.
christophfritz.at