STAND-UP COMEDIAN MICHAEL MITTERMEIER
Michael Mittermeier is the best selling Live Stand Up Comedian in Germany, Austria
and Switzerland.
Born on 4/3/1966.
In 1972 he enrolled at school in a red corduroy suit.
As a child his parents forced him to play the flute.
He has performed stand-up comedy since 1987, a year during which he had a special
experience: during a U2 concert in Munich, Bono brought him on stage, gave him his
guitar and let him perform one song with the band: „People get ready“. Was it a
coincidence?
Michael Mittermeier is one of the hardest working German stand-up performers. Since
1987 he has performed more than 4000 solo evenings.
His nationwide success in Germany came in 1996 with his solo show „Zapped – A TV
Junkie is going crazy“. Euphoric reviews translated into over 400.000 live viewers
between 1996-1999. The CD „Zapped“ sold over 380.000 copies and was on the official
German CD Charts for 48 weeks. „Zapped“ was then released on Video and DVD
(80.000 copies). The show was subsequently turned into a TV Special on PRO 7 with
3.5 million viewers.
Michael has appeared on all the big TV shows on every television station in Germany:
RTL, SAT 1, PRO 7, ARD, ZDF etc. (e.g. 20 times on the German Late Night show
„Harald Schmidt Show“.
Mittermeier received the German Comedy Award for „Best Live Comedian“ 1999, 2000,
2002, 2004 and 2008. In 2001 he got the coveted „Echo“ for best Comedy act.
2000 was the opening year of his solo stand-up tour „Back to Life“. It was a huge
success, with 530.000 audience members between 2000 and 2002. The DVD „Back to
Life“ filmed with 12 cameras in the Berlin / Tempodrom with an audience of 3500
people was groundbreaking and sold over 135.000 copies. „Back to Life“ aired as a TV
Special on prime time on PRO 7 and garnered 4.2 million viewers.
Since “Zapped” and “Back to Life” every program of Mittermeier appeared on CD as
well as DVD (which gets awarded every time) and was also aired on TV to millions of
viewers.
In 2001 Mittermeier created a comedy music crossover called „Mittermeier &
Friends“. With befriended singers and bands he released a CD with songs based on
routines out of „Back to Life“. A Mix of successful German Acts like Reamonn, Xavier
Naidoo, Sasha, Guano Apes and international bands like Tito & Tarantula and The King
guaranteed a great Rock’n’Roll album.
The first single out of the „Mittermeier & Friends“ was a hardcore version of the
traditional „Kumba Ya“ now a metal-traditional-crossover called „Kumba Yo“, together
with the German band „Guano Apes“, and sold 350.000 copies (it reached No. 6 on the
charts). The music video „Kumba Yo“ was on constant rotation on MTV and VIVA.
In 2001 Michael came full circle as he was the support act for U2 on their elevation
tour in Berlin / Waldbühne in front of an audience of 24.000. Bono was impressed and
invited him to Dublin to attend the legendary Slane Castle concerts.
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In 2002 Mittermeier performed at Germany’s biggest two open air venues (Rock in the
Park & Rock at the Ring) as a headliner, together with Lenny Kravitz and Santana. The
audience averaged 50.000 people during each performance.
From November 2002 till end of 2003 – at the peak of his career – Mittermeier took a
sabbatical year. He went to live in New York for half a year where he began
performing stand-up routines for the first time in English. He started with small open
mike nights and then had appearances around the city: at Boston Comedy Club,
Ha!Comedy Club, Caroline’s On Broadway, Comic Strip Live, Underground Lounge,
Stand Up NY, New York Comedy Club...
In February 2004 Mittermeier, in cooperation with Broadway Video New York,
presented a best of America’s „Saturday Night Live“ on German TV station RTL. He
hosted six episodes with 3 other famous German comedians in which they came
together on Saturday night to watch the best video sequences of „Saturday Night
Live“. Up to 3 million viewers saw this unusual show.
In March 2004 he opened his new solo stand-up tour „Paranoid“. The show has been
played across Germany, Austria and Switzerland every night in front of an audience of
up to 3000 people.
2005 was a special year for the comedian Michael Mittermeier. In February he held the
laudatory speech for Jerry Lewis getting the important German “Golden Camera
Lifetime Achievement Award”. After Michael’s presenting routine Jerry Lewis said:
“You’re crazy. You seem to be a damned good comedian.” Since Lewis is one of
Michael’s heroes of comedy, it was a very special moment.
In July the same year Mittermeier co-hosted the “Live 8” event in Germany / Berlin in
front of a 200.000 people live audience.
In February 2006 he was the host of the TV-Show “Happy Birthday, Jerry Lewis”
broadcasted on the occasion of Jerry Lewis’ 80th birthday. A dream became true…
In March 2007 he held the laudatory speech for Bono and gave him the ECHO in the
category “Global Engagement”.
After a smaller Club-tour from April until July he premiered his new programme
“Safari” at the 2nd of October 2007 and simultaneously celebrated his 20th anniversary
on stage. The “Safari” tour ran until December 2009 – the show has been playing
across Germany, Austria and Switzerland every night in front of an audience of 2.000
to 5.900 people!
In September 2009 Michael Mittermeier performed during the CAPE TOWN
INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL as the first German Comedian ever; he was
part of the International Mixed Nights but also performed a Solo One Man Show with
90 minutes!
In February 2010 he released his second book “Achtung Baby!” (so called with the
kind permission of Bono/U2) that has become a No. 1 bestselling book in
Germany/Austria/Switzerland.
In September the same year it was released as an audio book and – like his programs
before - his brand-new solo show, sharing the same title, premiered in October 2010.
This tour ran until July 2012 and was successfully aired on RTL (and released as DVD).
In June 2010 Michael Mittermeier presented the movie “This prison where I live” at
the Munich Film Festival. The documentary is about an (back then) imprisoned
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Burmese comedian named Zarganar. The movie was realized in Burma together with
Michael and the English filmmaker Rex Bloomstein and was presented at several
international festivals around the world. (e.g. the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh)
A year later and totally unexpected, Zarganar was released from prison, much to the
joy of everyone involved. Michael’s documentary „This Prison Where I Live“ was
broadcasted shortly after on ZDF and also came out on DVD with Senator Home
Entertainment (November 4th 2011). In June 2012 Michael Mittermeier and Zarganar
finally met in London for the very first time and since then performed repeatedly
together on stage.
As the very first German comedian ever, Michael was invited to perform at the largest
and most well known international Comedy Festival “Just for Laughs” in Toronto
and Montreal, Canada in July 2010! He played there (in English) in Mixed Nights as
well as in three solo shows (60 min) and extended his English-speaking international
comedy set. He also had the chance to be in the Canadian radio comedy show „The
Debaters“ on CBC (together with the Irish Comedian Andrew Maxwell)
At the end of 2011 RTL aired „Michael Mittermeier live in Canada – Just for
Laughs 2010“, a documentary about Michael’s performances and shows in Canada.
The film was screened very successfully and was seen by 2 millions of people.
In August 2010 Michael performed at the “Fringe Festival” in Edinburgh, the
world’s largest arts festival, at the benefit show „Stand Up for freedom“ in aid of
Amnesty International.
In July 2011 Michael traveled to Canada to, once again, take part at the “Just for
Laughs Festival”. This time he not only performed in various Mixed Nights (e.g. the
well-known „Ethnic Show“ at the Club Soda) but he also had his own Stand Up TV
Show (30min) for the Canadian TV channel OMNI.
In September the same year, he took part in various Mixed Shows in London (the
“99 Club”, the “Funny Side”, the “Comedy Café” and the “Monkey Business”).
In January, February and December 2011 Michael Mittermeier was on tour with
Germany´s most successful singers Xavier Naidoo, Sasha and Rea Garvey, performing
the Show “Alive and Swingin´” – a tribute to the legendary Rat Pack. Because of its
success and the big fun of “The four”, this tour was continued in November 2012.
After a few English Previews in Zurich, Berlin and London, Michael performed again at
the legendary „Fringe Festival“ in Edinburgh in August 2012 – presented by Eddie
Izzard!
He was on stage for a whole month with his international 60-minute solo show “A
German on Safari”, which became a total sell-out in Edinburgh.
Two months later - since the show was such a huge success - Michael performed “A
German on Safari” two weeks in a row at the legendary Soho Theatre in London.
Again it answered the expectations of the Londoner and was soon sold-out.
The year 2013 is again marked with international performances, being on stage with
his English show: “A German on Safari”
In March Michael was performing within the Altitude Festival, a 6 day comedy
festival held in Mayrhofen, Austria, featuring a range of international known
comedians.
As the support act of Eddie Izzard, he toured with his comedian colleague not only in
Vienna, Berlin and Zurich but also in UK (Brighton & Cardiff) in April / May 2013!
In the same month he was on stage at the Soho Theatre in London for another 2
weeks.
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Since May 2013 Michael is successfully on tour with his new German program
“BLACKOUT” and in 2014 released his solo “BLACKOUT – die LIVE Show” on CD
and DVD which additionally was aired on RTL in November.
Besides his German tour he pursued his international career and in May 2014 played
support for Eddie Izzard - this time and as the first German comedian ever on
Broadway - at the famous Beacon Theatre in New York City. Honored and thrilled
to be part of Izzard’s tour, it turned out be a huge success and was received more than
positively by the audience.
After a few additional English previews in Munich, Zurich and London, Michael
performed once more at the „Edinburgh Festival Fringe” in August 2014.
For 2 weeks straight he was on stage with his second international 60-minute solo
show “das Blackout”.
In February 2015 Michael Mittermeier was booked to play his show “das Blackout” in
Amsterdam (Toomler Comedyclub) for two nights and in London (Soho Theatre) for
one week straight.
May was the month for two unique nights of international comedy. Michael and 5 other
international comedians. Eddie Izzard (UK), Yacine Belhousse (France), Igor Meerson
(Russia), Francesco De Carlo (Italy) and Alex Engelman (USA) took part in two very
special nights of comedy in English. On the 8th of May in Berlin and on the 9th in
Moscow they came together to show that laughter is one of the greatest ways to celebrate
and promote diversity. With the claim Comedy Sans frontières (comedy without borders –
and not borders without comedy) they called great attention with this unique comedy show.
Since September 2015 he is on tour with his 7th German solo WILD.
Additional international shows in 2015/2016 are to be scheduled!
Contact:
Astrid Eckstein Live! GmbH – Plinganserstr. 24 – 81369 Munich / Germany
Tel.: +49.89.5505 474 0 - Fax: +49.89.5505 474 10
[email protected]
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Astrid Eckstein Live! GmbH: Geschäftsführer Astrid Eckstein – Sitz der Gesellschaft: München – Amtsgericht München
– HRB 211856 - UID: DE295380828
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