Urban priol in an interview: “i will continue until 2033”

He sees himself as a "randbayer with a french-hessian migration background": on friday, 22. September, urban priol, who was born in aschaffenburg, makes a guest appearance in the middle of upper franconia and presents his program "gesternheutemorgen" (yesterdaytodaytomorrow) with in the dr.-stammberger hall. BR talked to the 56-year-old about his favorite target, role models and a returnee named KT.

Mr. Priol, you're in dusseldorf right now – how's the election campaign going there??
Urban priol: since a posterboy named christian lindner comes from dusseldorf, i do wonder: how do people here stand it that this florian silbereisen knockoff grins at them from every tree and every lantern?? The combination of lindner and this telekom magenta is also close to the pain threshold: the country's two most sympathetic people happily united in one color scheme…

Election campaign times are good times for cabaret, or?
The election campaign itself is so-so, the government has tried to put it to sleep. But if you take a closer look, there are a few exciting things to see. Good: the eternal chancellor will stay – but what's going on around her: who will end up in 3rd place?? Who will be a coalition partner, who will do what in the opposition?? It's a bit like the bundesliga soccer league: bayern becomes champion and behind it the wrangling starts.

You yourself want to continue until 2033, as long as the chancellor also governs. You started doing cabaret with helmut kohl in 1982 – or rather, he started doing it with you. Have you ever thought that such a seemingly everlasting chancellorship will be repeated again??
To be honest, I feared it as early as 2005. We didn't want to make the same mistake with angie as we did with the "fat one" with his nimbleness. When angela merkel arrived with her biedermeier tone, i thought to myself: oha, this is going to be a leaden time…

And what do you think about the return of the FDP??
Oh yes (sighs deeply). There seems to be a deep yearning in the people for the oh-so-successful coalition of the union and the liberals. Maybe some people have to give themselves another four years of black-yellow to finally understand what's going on. But it's like with cars: after the diesel scandal, VW has sold more vehicles than ever before. It is not understood.

Fellow satirist dieter hallervorden has often campaigned specifically for the FDP. Have you also once acted as a political advertiser?
No. I have always tried to maintain a critical distance from all parties. I have never let myself be harnessed to the political cart. I have my personal preferences, of course, but you can't get inhibited in my job just because you're too involved somewhere.

Black-yellow coalition from 2009 to 2013 – that was also the time of the high phase for them in "neues aus der anstalt" on ZDF. Since their departure it has become quiet around urban priol on TV. Was it a conscious decision?
I had seven years the live broadcast in the second, before four years a format on 3sat. To make regular television, that's a box that you have to lift first of all. I now enjoy being a guest with colleagues. My year in review "tilt in the ZDF I make yes still. And of course I am well occupied with my stage program.

So they'll be performing in kulmbach next friday – two days before the federal elections. Earlier, in the days of a "windshield wiper with dieter hildebrandt, it still hit: before elections no kabarettsendung may be shown and/or directly after satire may not be elected. The iron law seems to have been lifted.
That's great, isn't it?? In addition, just come to the city, where recently also the gross plagiator celebrated his kulmbach comeback: karl-theodor zu guttenberg. And this with a joke, which, unfortunately, ten days earlier was already in the FAZ. "Old people don't love rosneft" on gerhard schroder's new position on the supervisory board. He obviously remains true to himself, after all, he had already copied the introduction to his doctoral dissertation from the FAZ… Maybe he reads nothing else. I found it personally funny that the responsible editor immediately tweeted what was going on. Once a plagiarist, always a plagiarist.

That is for them found food.
Well, the return of KT is really a miracle, isn't it?? Whereby, he is also only used by horst seehofer. Watching the rankings of the CSU is quite something.
You are from aschaffenburg, i.E. You are a randbayer, and yet you were allowed to vote in bavarian elections. As a border crosser between the worlds and almost hessian, you can observe it from the outside: the bavarians still haven't understood that democracy and the right to vote also apply in the free state?
The CSU has managed to pretend for all these years that it is synonymous with the country. That has manifested itself in the head. If there is a coalition like the one with the FDP back then, it borders on insulting the state. They had to use the word "coalition" first google.

And it was proof that dieter hildebrandt wasn't right in assuming that in bavarian voting booths the pen is so short that it only reaches to the top line with the CSU.
That's exactly how it is (laughs).

Speaking of hildebrandt: the grand seigneur of cabaret died in 2015. Other colleagues like volker pispers, but also their longtime departures georg schramm have said goodbye to the stage. Are you the last mohican?
It come to the luck, as one also at the new "anstalt" sees, young and politically very active satirists after. I myself just have so much fun with everything, that's why I keep going. Dieter hildebrandt was a role model for me: wide awake, curious and argumentative until the end. I hope I can say the same about myself. Besides, where am I supposed to go with all my pent-up rage??

Are you still in contact with your colleagues from back then??
Yes, regularly. I just spent four days on the road with georg schramm. With him, frank-markus barwasser and jochen malmsheimer, i am on 17. October in the "institution to guest. I talk to volker pispers on the phone every few days.

Is there a chance of a return to a broadcast format, no matter what that looks like??
Let's see. At the moment I am quite content, as it runs. And I enjoy being on the stage. Live is just live. We have at that time in the ZDF on the high point aufgehort and wanted to appear afterwards consciously rather dosed in television. But you should never say never.

Let's look at the colleagues of the (no longer quite so) new "institution, max uthoff and claus von wagner: is their kind of enlightening satire actually what journalism normally had to do in the country??
Partly yes. Complex interrelationships are often explained very clearly and then humorously underlined. Cabaret is still first and foremost entertainment. But I do wonder why it is that we cabaret artists have to do this kind of enlightenment? Some journalists simply don't follow up enough and nail the politician down to what he or she has said.

For example in talk shows. If you want to inform yourself about the current political situation, you should also take a look at the following talk formats?
If it cannot be avoided, then I do it to myself, it is also my duty. It's always interesting to see the broadcasts with will and maischberger, where the chancellor keeps her private audience, because she's afraid to enter into direct discourse with others. If the highest woman in the state is then courted in such a way, because she virtually pays homage to the broadcaster, I don't know whether the necessary critical distance can be present at all. You don't want to alienate her and hope that she'll come back, if she's going to stay with us for the next few decades (laughs).

You've been working your way up the ruling "buttonhole" for years as you say. Interesting: in a survey, 70 percent of respondents thought the chancellor was good and 70 percent thought the government was bad – in the same survey, mind you. How does that work?
Gell, that's sensational! But only we germans can be so schizophrenic. No one will associate the chancellor with domestic politics. But I have to say: I'm glad that we are nevertheless experiencing a repoliticization. I experience this in my restaurant: you talk about politics at your table – and suddenly the neighboring tables start to interfere. That wasn't the case for years, no one wanted to hear about politics. I was always interested in people debating after my shows, even if it was even later for me. It's obvious that the chancellor hasn't quite managed to completely depoliticize a nation.

The afd in particular is currently giving the stammtisch a hearing. Does that worry you as a burger?
I'm not afraid, I'm resistant. I'm just saddened by how it's all gone wrong. Back in the eighties, we were still on the streets ourselves and protested against renegotiation. I have always wished that people would also go to the streets when they don't like something. That these pegida noses, of all people, started it and such a movement emerges from it is something we certainly didn't wish for. I find that disconcerting, quite apart from the blustering theses as an expression of an often rather simple courage. I hope that the afd phenomenon will be disenchanted quite quickly – namely when their representatives have to face the confrontation in the daily political core work. In the state parliaments, they are most conspicuous for their pointless questions and motions. It seems to be enough that they are now also allowed to shuffle along at the trough.

Afd is also an issue for them on the stage. Some of their appearances last three hours. How do you keep it up?
I am very self-disciplined. My dramaturg is my text guillotine. I see to it that I get by with two and three-quarters hours, including the break. In kulmbach it is the friday before the election, so the penultimate appearance for me before the vote. I'm sure I'll have to react to the latest developments and then ask myself what I'm leaving out again.

You still go to the polls?
Self-evident. The voting room at my place is in an old grammar school. The people can get an idea of the dilapidated state of our educational facilities right there on the spot. The whole misery live. I would argue that the ballot boxes should be placed exactly where the republic is at its worst.