Manuel Stahlberger

Manuel Stahlberger
Manuel Stahlberger
© BAK/Gneborg

Manuel Stahlberger

Dissected nonsense

Nominated for the «Schweizer Kleinkunstpreis» 2016

Manuel Stahlberger was born in 1974 and lives in St. Gallen. He is a cabaret artist, dialect poet, musician, singer and cartoonist. Together with his earlier duos – “Mölä & Stahli” from 1994 to 2002 with Moritz Wittensöldner, and “Stahlbergerheuss” from 2003 to 2011 alongside Stefan Heuss – he made a name for himself chiefly in small theatres. From 1998 to 2005 Manuel Stahlberger drew the monthly cartoon “Herr Mäder” for the culture magazine “Saiten” in eastern Switzerland; the collected drawings were subsequently published in two books. Since 2009 Stahlberger has been a member of the eponymous band, together with Michael Gallusser, Marcel Gschwend, Christian Kesseli and Dominik Kesseli. Manuel Stahlberger has received a number of awards, including the Prix Walo in 2001 in the variety/comedy section with “Mölä & Stahli”, and the Salzburger Stier in 2009.

To date, Manuel Stahlberger has created two solo programmes: “Innerorts” and “Neues aus dem Kopf”. His stage presentations are multifaceted and multilayered – because that is what Manuel Stahlberger does: in songs, sketches and caricatures, he shares with the audience his attempts to dissect the familiar order of things and explode it by introducing a hint of strangeness. His songs and stories rarely have a particular point to make; but, for that very reason, they disconcert and prompt us to reflect on the absurdities of our world. This is underpinned by his characteristic, somewhat impassive and unruffled delivery, in which the transition from the possible to the impossible and from fact to fantasy flows seamlessly.