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Vienna looks back on a
thriving tradition of cabaret,
a form of popular theater which often consists of short sketches,
songs and parodies presented by a 'Conférencier', an
eloquent entertainer. The first cabarets in Austria were staged
at the beginning of the 20th century in Vienna.
Fritz Grünbaum and Karl Farkas were early
masters of the cabaret and developed the form of 'Doppelconferénce',
a voluble version of Stan and Olli. They were directors of
a Viennese cabaret institution: the 'Simpl' theater. After
Grünbaum's death Ernst Waldbrunn became Farkas'
partner. Their conferences were amusing rather than critical.
Political topics became of interest
in the early 1930s as opposition to the tendencies which lead
to Austria's annexion to Hitler's Germany. After World War
II both traditions of cabaret were merged and many cabaret
artists presented programs with a good mix of easy laughs
and political and social criticism and biting satire. Soloprograms
became more frequent than sketches and songs presented by
an entertainer. Helmut Qualtinger and Carl Merz focused
on the literary quality of cabaret and created with their
program 'Der Herr Karl' an Austrian cabaret classic and a
haunting portrait of a philistine.
The 1980s brought a downright boom of cabaret in Austria.
New theaters like the 'Kulisse', 'Wiener Metropol', 'Kabarett
Niedermair' or the 'Spektakel' and new artist like Lukas
Resetarits, Josef Hader, Andreas Vitasek,
Dolores Schmidinger and Roland Düringer
emerged with bestselling programs and sold out shows often
transcending the traditional form of cabaret.
Cabaret artists and popular programs play an important role
in Austria's film industry.
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