Cabaret artist Gassner:

“My hobbyhorse is malice”

Thomas Gassner(Bild: Gassner)

At his very first major appearance as a cabaret artist, Tyrolean Thomas Gassner won the jury prize and the "Steirerkrone" audience award at the Graz Kleinkunstvogel in spring. Now he is presenting his first program at the Theatercafe.

"I'm basically not funny. My hobbyhorse is malice," says Thomas Gassner. This can really only be a joke, because this spring the Tyrolean won the Graz Kleinkunstvogel with his first appearance as a cabaret artist.

But Gassner is no newcomer to the stage: "My day job is acting. But then came the corona period and suddenly nothing worked and I was just sitting around pointlessly," he recalls. He saw it as an opportunity: "As an actor, you're always part of an ensemble and have to make compromises. I wanted to do something on my own - without anyone holding me back," he says.

And so he started writing his first cabaret programme: "I was preoccupied with the polarization of society. Everyone is only in their bubbles, everyone only talks about each other and no longer with each other," he explains. "I developed a character who finds everything and everyone stupid." The result is called "The Last Round of Humanity" and is an unrestrainedly malicious look at left and right.

"I've finally arrived artistically"
Gassner now wants to take off as a cabaret artist: "I still have few contacts in the scene and have to work hard to find my audience. But I have the feeling that I've arrived at what I really want to do as an artist in cabaret," he says.

The fact that he won big at the Kleinkunstvogel in spring with a first excerpt from the program (he won both the jury prize and the "Steirerkrone" audience bird) has encouraged him. "Now I'm looking forward to Graz, because the audience here was very attentive and curious," he says. From Tuesday to Thursday he will be performing at the Theatercafe in Graz - starting at 8 pm.