Comedy star Felix Lobrecht
From the psychiatric hospital to the red carpet
Felix Lobrecht has spoken openly about his great need for confirmation.
© imago images/Funke Photo Services/Maurizio Gambarini
Felix Lobrecht spoke again about his recent hospital stay – and also specified his time-out plans for 2024.
Podcaster and comedian Felix Lobrecht (34) spent the first three and a half months of the year in a psychiatric clinic. In the interview podcast “Hotel Matze”, the 34-year-old revealed new details about this time. For Lobrecht, the year 2022 was “the most successful” of his life in terms of comedy.
But after the second arena tour with his comedy program “all you can eat” he fell into a deep hole and was constantly physically ill. “It felt like it kept going downhill,” reveals Lobrecht. He then admitted himself to the clinic on January 1, 2023.
“From the slap to the red carpet and back again”
In particular, the outlook for his professionally demanding year 2023, including the premiere of his autobiographical Neukölln film “Sun and Concrete”, posed mental problems for Lobrecht, as he had an “insane workload” ahead of him. The podcaster and comedian also reveals that he continued to work during his hospital stay. The production of his weekly podcast “Mixed Hack” with Tommi Schmitt (34) continued from the clinic during this time.
Lobrecht also commuted from the psychiatric ward to events such as the Berlinale premiere of “Sun and Concrete”: “I really went from the slap to the red carpet, that was completely crazy, and back again,” reveals Lobrecht.
Felix Lobrecht specifies his time-out plans for 2024
In view of these events, Lobrecht had already announced at the beginning of the year that he wanted to take a break from the show for at least a year because he felt sick and exhausted. In his new interview, the comedian confirmed this with the words: “I’m taking a break from live shows, touring and so on for at least a year now, the podcast continues, on the one hand because I enjoy it, because it’s not that much effort, and on the other hand we have simply contracts.” You can’t “just chill out,” but that’s also “completely okay.”
“I’m really taking a year off from the job I did before,” says Lobrecht. During this period he only wants to dedicate himself to writing new material in a way that is as stress-free as possible and free from deadline pressure. The comedian also plans to “just be in Berlin for a bit”. In his opinion, he hasn’t had enough opportunities to do this in recent years due to constant tours and other commitments.
Lack of “self-sufficiency” is a big problem
Lobrecht also offers a very personal insight into his inner life in the conversation. In his opinion, people who regularly appear on stage professionally need “too much confirmation from outside” “in order to be able to appreciate themselves in any way and think that they are good”.
“Encouragement is important to me because, as dull as it sounds, I haven’t learned in my life to develop something like self-sufficiency, that I’m enough for myself, without external confirmation, in order to feel good about myself.” says Lobrecht. For him, things like “affection” and “affirmation” are “always linked to performance. You have to do something so that other people appreciate you, find you cool, like you, whatever.”
After his stay in the hospital, however, he was already feeling much better with these problems.