Mario Bart
Five facts about the feisty comedian
Mario Barth: Extremely successful with role clichés for over twenty years
© imago/Georg Ulrich Dostmann
Hardly any other comedian polarizes the nation like Mario Barth. Five interesting facts about the record champion of cliché jokes.
Some love him as a brilliant entertainer who always manages to get entire football stadiums going wild with jokes and anecdotes about male and female role stereotypes. The others consider him a clumsy macho who serves the base instincts of a ballerina and angry bourgeois audience. But no matter what you might think of the man with the huge Berlin snout: Mario Barth is a giant of the German comedy scene that you just can’t get around.
Five facts that might make the comedian appear in a new light to one or the other:
Mario Barth started his comedy career as an altar boy
Mario Barth comes from a religious household and attended a Catholic private school in the Neukölln district of Berlin. According to his own statements, he gained his first stage experience as an altar boy. The entertainer reported on these beginnings of his comedy career in 2017 in an interview with “Stern” The following: “That’s when I discovered the power of performance, so to speak. At an Easter mass, I waved the censer. And I saw: the more I waved, the brighter the embers glowed. I found that fascinating. I waved wilder and wilder until I got the thing whirled around like a madman and fire came out. In the crowded church. That caused trouble. But I noticed: people laughed. I kind of liked that. Maybe that was the hour of birth of the comedian Mario Barth.”
Mario Barth’s girlfriend can laugh at his jokes
As is well known, the everyday relationship with his girlfriend plays an important role in Mario Barth’s stage shows. In the beginning she always operated under the name Uschi in his anecdotes, meanwhile it has transpired that her real name is Paula and that she works as a marketing specialist. Apparently his partner has no problems with Mario’s sense of humour, which is often accused of being sexist. He once explained to “Bild” that he almost never shows himself with his life partner by saying that they shy away from the public and that he naturally respects this. “I wouldn’t force her to ride a roller coaster with me either if she didn’t feel like it,” says the comedian.
Mario Barth is a two-time comedy world record holder
America may be the comedy nation number one, but comedy world records are set in Germany. And by none other than Mario Barth. In 2008 he set the world record as “the live comedian with the most viewers” at Berlin’s Olympiastadion by beating 67,733 fans there with his show “Men are primitive, but happy!” entertained. Another place in the “Guinness Book of Records” he secured it when he filled the Berlin Olympic Stadium to capacity twice in a row on the Pentecost weekend of 2014 and played to a total of 116,498 spectators. Since then, he has held the world record for the largest audience by a comedian in 24 hours.
Mario Barth has more female fans than male
Mario Barth confidently refutes the accusation of making money with comedy that despises women by pointing out that around 65 percent of his audience is female. With a certain justification, the comedian asked in the “Stern” interview after: “Would they pay money to be insulted by me? I show the everyday oddities in the coexistence of man and woman. Both sides get their fat off. Women and men laugh about it. I do the show for my fans and not for any critics or super smart colleagues.”
Mario Barth’s humor has its limits
The enterprising comedian can laugh about a lot, only when it comes to marketing his merchandising articles does he stop being funny. Barth is known for securing slogans such as “Nothing rhymes with Uschi” or “Don’t talk, do it” as a word mark and to take it to court if competing pranksters also want to use this wisdom. He has also successfully defended his “Capital Heroes” brand against outraged capital city losers.