First anniversary of Mirco Nonchev’s death
The man who could do what no one else can
Mirco Nontschew was known for his sometimes ludicrous play of countless characters.
© imago images/Eventpress
It’s been a year since Mirco Nontschew passed away unexpectedly. With the comedian’s death, the comedy scene turned significantly grayer.
Colorful, absurd, full of energy, amazing and quite simply entertaining: This and countless other ways describe the work of Mirco Nontschew (1969-2021). A year ago, the German comedian, who brought TV viewers so many amusing Saturday nights, passed away unexpectedly on December 3 at the age of 52.
Nobody mastered the game with facial expressions and grimaces, meaningful gestures and noisy background music like Nontschew, who was born in East Berlin at the time. Whether in a crazy costume or in civilian clothes, the gifted comedian switched back and forth between sometimes almost insane roles at the touch of a button – and that for decades.
“This man was 100 comedians in one”
With Nonchev, the world of entertainment didn’t just lose a comedian. “This man was 100 comedians in one, a crazy surprise bag of humor, a star,” wrote cabaret artist Torsten Sträter (56) after the death of his colleague became known on Twitter. Carolin Kebekus (42) will remember Nontschew as one of “the greatest comedians in Germany”, she told the news agency spot on news. “Mirco leaves a ditch. Nobody can do what he could. He was just an exceptional talent and incredibly nice.”
Together with Kebekus and other colleagues, Nonchev stood in front of the camera for the first and third seasons of the Amazon Prime Video format “LOL: Last One Laughing”. The principle of the show: The participants try to make themselves laugh and thus seal the end of the others. An excerpt on YouTube suggestshow incredibly difficult it must have been for everyone around Nonchev to keep a straight face at his nonsense.
“Thank you dear Mirco, you were a great gift,” said a full-page obituary in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” at the time. Among them were numerous names of his “LOL” colleagues – including Michael Bully Herbig (54), Anke Engelke (56), Rick Kavanian (51), Annette Frier (48), Bastian Pastewka (50) and Sträter and Kebekus . The third season was not shown until several months after the comedian’s death.
Mirco Nonchev was just like that
“The noises and gestures when he spoke and played were not trained. He was like that. And I will miss this way and his warmth and down-to-earthness very much,” said Nontschew’s former “RTL Saturday Night” colleague Tanja Schumann (60). back then spot on news. It hurts “to lose him, even though we haven’t seen each other for years”. Both Schumann and Nontschew belonged to the regular cast of the legendary 1990s comedy show alongside Wigald Boning (55), Olli Dittrich (66), Esther Schweins (52) and Stefan Jürgens (59).
At the end of October, RTL showed a unique revival entitled “RTL Saturday Night – The Reunion”. In this, of course, the stars also remembered Nonchev. “So it is, Mirco is no longer there. There was a huge hole,” said Hugo Egon Balder (72), former producer of the format, during the show. After Nonchev’s death, people thought about whether the evening should take place at all. “We then said to ourselves, we’ll do it because Mirco would probably have done it too if it had hit one of us.”
How popular Nonchev was not only with the audience but also among colleagues was also shown on social media after his death. Numerous big names in the industry came forward with only warm words to say goodbye to him, including Herbig and Balder as well as Ilka Bessin (51), Guido Cantz (51), Otto Waalkes (74), Mario Barth (50), Ralf Schmitz (48) or Chris Tall (31).
Moderator, author and podcaster Nilz Bokelberg (46) wrote about: “Oh man, that got me a lot more than I thought. Bon voyage Mirco Nontschew and thank you for being there. You made this world a whole lot better.”