S01E14 Freddi Gralle, German speaker - From Berlin, Germany🇩🇪

Your host Kuan-wen describes Freddi as one of the best kept secrets to comedy audience in the UK and the US.

Freddi has been a veteran on the Berlin stand up comedy scene, one of the largest in a non-English-speaking country in Europe thanks to the large number of expats in the city. In fact, it should be two scene"s", since Freddi used to perform both in German and in fluent English and the two only have a limited amount of crossovers. Most expat comedians perform only in English; more German comics perform in German.

When Comedy Central sought localised content across the globe, Freddi got on national TV in astonishing speed, as she and her generation of Berlin comics just got enough experiences at the right place and the right time. Then the pandemic happened and Freddi decided to give up performing comedy in German.

Your host Kuan-wen reunited with the "old friendly acquaintance" of his to discuss her journey and how she made up her mind. Freddi shared her insight into stand up comedy remaining a underground-ish sub culture in Germany for now. Freddi also explains how she finds it difficult to joke about her faith to Germans or to joke about sex club culture outside Berlin.

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Episode timeline

00:37 Intro

02:36 Freddi’s very American accent and its origin

05:51 German colonialism

08:08 Credential to joke about the Nazi grandfather

10:46 The make up of comedy audience in Berlin

14:19 Political Cabaret (Politisches Kabarett) in Germany

17:27 German audience not getting modern stand up comedy

18:59 Why Freddi gave up performing stand up in German

21:49 German audience not receptive of discussing someone’s faith in public

28:13 Changes in Berlin’s comedy scene

34:09 Not necessarily easier for the comedian to tell and write jokes in their mother tongue

39:23 Sex club culture referenced in Freddi’s Berlin jokes lost in translation in Edinburgh Fringe Festival

43:00 Freddi’s relationship with her (ex-) Christian faith

46:53 Is German an ugly-sounding language?

48:14 Freddi’s social media and her full German name

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe