Bötschi asks Torsten Sträter: "Now a Swiss person has to rub my nose in it"
28.12.2022

He stood on stage for the first time at 40 and suffered from depression. Comedian Torsten Sträter talks about a career with detours, suicidal thoughts and why he loves Switzerland - but still doesn't want to live here.
Torsten Sträter, I'm going to ask you as many questions as possible over the next 30 minutes. And you answer as briefly and quickly as possible. If you don't like a question, just say "go on".
Okay, cool.
Tie or bow tie?
Tie.
Language virtuoso or mocker?
I prefer linguistic virtuoso.
Hazel Brugger or Michelle Hunziker?
Hazel Brugger anytime.
And Michelle Hunziker never again?
(Laughs) Now you're coming up with a restrictive question. I like that. The answer to that is no. But if I had the choice, I would choose Hazel Brugger.
Typical Torsten Sträter words right after getting up in the morning?
Suck me round and call me Bärbel.
The best of 2022
At the end of the year, blue News brings you the favorite pieces of the past year once again. This text first appeared on October 26, 2022.
When was the last time you received a message on your phone that was topped off with what you described as a "fucked-up emoji"?
Hang on, I'll have a quick look. Please stay tuned ... My son recently sent me a little heart. Otherwise, my WhatsApp messenger seems to be clean. Please hold on, I'll keep looking. Keep at it ... keep at it ... ah, there's another emoji.
What kind of emoji?
A smiley next to a thumb pointing upwards. That's just fine. Apart from that, everything seems to be really clean. Those around me know that I hate these exaggerated smiley faces. They really make me want to vomit.
They say that you are worshipped like a deity in the Ruhr region.
Torsten Sträter laughs uproariously.
You're not so well known here in Switzerland. So, without further ado, a commercial on your own behalf.
My name is Torsten Sträter. In Switzerland, you would love me even more if you all knew that I do quite sensible things on stage with the eight times higher fees you pay compared to Germany.
Harald Schmidt said in an interview: "For the Germans, Switzerland is the unattainable ideal."
That's true.
There are many Germans who move to Switzerland. Do you understand that?
Yes - if only because of the landscape.
Have you ever considered moving here for tax reasons?
No. If they're already renovating all the highways in Germany with my money, I want to use them too.
About the author: Bruno Bötschi

blue News editor Bruno Bötschi regularly talks to well-known personalities from Switzerland and abroad for the question-and-answer game "Bötschi fragt". He asks them lots of questions - always direct, often funny and sometimes profound. It always remains open until the very last question as to where the fast-paced ping-pong will lead.
As a teenager, you suffered a painful testicular prolapse in Switzerland while you were on your way to Italy with your parents for a summer vacation.
That's right.
Do you have any fond memories of our country that you can share?
I like everything about Switzerland. It starts with the incredibly clear air. As a child, I was stunned every time we drove across the border to you in our green Fiat. Despite my parents' concerns that they couldn't afford it for financial reasons, we would occasionally take a two or three-day break in Switzerland to catch our breath. During one of these breaks, we visited an incredibly beautiful technology museum. There was an airplane hanging from the ceiling. It completely flashed me.
You may have been at the Museum of Transport in Lucerne.
That could well be.
It sounds like you haven't been to Switzerland for a while.
It's been a few years since I performed at the Casinotheater in Winterthur. But I still remember walking through the place, which is so beautiful that I felt like I was being taken for a ride.

We're on the phone together this afternoon because your new book "You can leave everything, you just have to want to" will be in the stores from tomorrow, Thursday. Which text from your book should a Torsten Sträter layman start with?
Oh, I handed the book in six weeks ago and I don't even know which texts are in it anymore (laughs). I would recommend the text "Insurance" to a layperson. It's incredibly well composed, like a song.
And for someone who knows Torsten Straeter, which text should they read first?
I would tell connoisseurs not to make such a big deal of it and just open the book somewhere. They'll quickly find something they find funny.
I was looking forward to the first sentence in your new book - when I read it, I was disappointed.
What is the first sentence in my book?
"I find it almost mega-flattering that you're holding my book in your hands."
That sentence is okay. Yes, of course, I would have preferred to explain to you in the first sentence who really shot US President Kennedy. But to be honest, I'm always very flattered when someone buys one of my books.
I just thought that after your comedian colleague Kurt Krömer opened his book "Du darfst nicht alles glauben, was du denkst" with the best first sentence of all time, i.e. "Torsten Sträter was right", you wanted to follow it up with at least the second best sentence of all time.
Now it's too late for that. But of course you're right, I should have started with that sentence. Oh, I messed it up. And to make matters worse, a Swiss person has to rub my nose in it just before my book is published. Thank you very much.
Excuse me, but I don't want to kick the door down, so I'd like to ask you in advance: is the subject of depression triggering you today or can we talk about it?
If that's what you want, we can do that.
You make no secret of the fact that you - like Kurt Krömer - suffer from depression. Hence the question: How are you?
Good. I'm pretty exhausted at the moment, which feels a bit like depression. But don't worry, as a professional, I know the difference between these two states very well. Yes, I can say that I've been doing really well for a few years now - with one exception.
Which one?
In the fall of 2020, I was overcome with hopelessness due to the lockdown. We always had to be home by 10 p.m. in Germany. At some point, I wondered whether I would ever be able to work properly again. Apart from that, I'm really on the sunny side of life.
It's been a year and a half since comedian Kurt Krömer first spoke publicly about his depression on his show "Chez Krömer". His guest at the time was Torsten Sträter.
Video: Youtube.
Why are you so tired at the moment?
I've done a lot of appearances and haven't taken a vacation, which takes its toll.
You said in an interview : "You have to keep fighting. Until depression gets the better of you." What does this fight look like at the moment?
Working too much is definitely not particularly helpful. I'm mainly doing it for my ego. I want the audience to find me funny and see me as a special person. But sometimes I get so tired that I don't know what to do. But that ...
... doesn't sound good.
That's why I'm now getting treatment and trying to live more mindfully in future.
Do you want to make your ego smaller on medical advice?
My ego has already shrunk back to a healthy level in the last two and a half years. The coronavirus pandemic has made me take a more realistic view of my existence again. Nevertheless, I still can't stop rubbing my hands together at 7 p.m. when I know I'll be on stage from 8 p.m. and thinking that people will probably find me funny.

How do you feel after a performance?
I used to think I would fall into a deep hole or that I would be driven by an insane euphoria. Today I know that I'm neither. So I'm not sitting at the hotel bar celebrating myself. Nor do I fall into a hole of insignificance because no one is applauding me anymore. Instead, for 20 minutes I feel a sense of satisfaction that I've got through the evening elegantly and with lots of laughs.
And afterwards?
I realize that people will be back in their everyday lives by the time they get home and get on with their own lives again. It's the same for me, I'm the real-time type. I'm always very stable after a gig. I try to eat something, maybe finish watching a movie on the iPad and then go to bed.
In your new book, there are two texts on the subject of depression: in my opinion, "Why I'm not writing a book about my depression" and "Eight unhelpful nuggets on the subject of depression" are among your strongest texts ever.
Thank you. I wrote the "Klopper" text for my TV program "Sträter" when Kurt Krömer was my guest. I had to write down the other text because I am constantly asked why I don't write a book about depression. And that really is a serious answer. You are the first person, apart from my editor, who has ever read this text. It's great that you like the text "Why I'm not writing a book about my depression".
I wrote it down because ... it still triggers me when I talk about my former suicidal thoughts. But I can't put together a whole book about this topic. I can remember large parts of my childhood, but I have a problem with the order. That's why I have great respect for the actor Mario Adorf, who can still remember the fourth year of his life in his biography and goes through everything chronologically. I don't have that.
You are a person who likes to take detours. That's why I think you agreed with Kurt Krömer that you would only publish your book about depression once his book had fallen off the "Spiegel" order list.
(Laughs) No, no, I haven't discussed anything with Kurt Krömer. I'm always happy when I see him, but that rarely happens. Incidentally, we only recently exchanged telephone numbers. You know, many good friends of mine have already written books about depression - most recently the Cologne comedian Maxi Gstettenbauer. A great book, just like the one by Kurt Krömer.
But my story is too thin. I only needed three or four pages to write it down. That's all I have to offer at the moment. If I have something to say about depression again in the future, I will write another pointed short text.
Do you ever think about what would have happened if your career as a comedian hadn't worked out? Would you still be alive today?
Yes, I would still be alive today. I have permanently overcome the thought of suicide. I have meditated on and discussed this topic. Today I am convinced that life has to be lived. There is no shortcut. And everyone should please stick to it, everything else is nonsense.
It's ridiculous and dubious to kill yourself if you haven't been to the seaside at least once beforehand, haven't stroked a pony and have never walked through New York. As I said, I would still be alive even without a career as a comedian, but between you and me: once a week I pat myself on the back, celebrate my life and am infinitely grateful that everything turned out well after all and that I haven't yet slipped into a midlife crisis.
The response to your appearances - whether on television or on stage - is great. People of all ages laugh at you. How do you explain that?
I can't explain it. Maybe it's because I unite a lot of people - women, men, old and young people and non-binary people. My audience is the intersection of German society, so to speak. I'm always happy when there are no Nazis in the audience.

Did your appearance hinder or help your stage career?
Neither. I think I'm in a neutral zone there (laughs).
Is it really true that you only wear your beanie hat because you needed something to catch your sweat?
Yes.
Have you ever tried a nice hat?
You know what, I collect beautiful hats and I love wearing them in my private life. Hats only have one problem: they shade your face when the light comes from above. That's why I usually look like The Undertaker on stage when I'm wearing a hat. I'm just saying: not good.
Basically, what drives you as a comedian and cabaret artist?
What drives me is always being able to write something new. I get uneasy when I think about having to repeat the same texts over and over again for four years in my appearances on stage and on TV. I'm not up for that. That's why I produce new material almost every week.
Is writing lucky for you?
All beginnings are difficult. While writing the texts for my TV show "Sträter", I sometimes think: How am I supposed to find enough words for a 45-minute show? You may be familiar with this as a journalist - but then suddenly the text unfolds and I can feel my thoughts synchronizing with the words on the sheet of paper. And then I'm happy that it's going well.
You were on stage for the first time at the age of 40 - as a poetry slammer. What memories do you have of that performance?
There used to be a school performance. But that was so long ago that I honestly can't remember what I performed back then. My first performance as a poetry slammer felt ... well, I stood on stage, hid behind my text and read it out. It went quite well, although I was worried that stage fright would engulf me on stage. But that wasn't the case. Maybe it had something to do with my big ego or maybe I'm just too stupid for stage fright.
What happened next?
After that, I was swept away by the maelstrom of the poetry slam, which incidentally also took me to Switzerland. Everything grew very slowly. There are always people who say I have an express career. Let me explain to them here and now: that's not true. What is true, however, is that I sometimes wish I had started doing comedy and cabaret earlier.
You are a trained men's tailor and once worked as a men's outfitter. Have you ever thought about why you had to take a career with detours?
Well, life is a constant detour. I used to be pretty sure that I would always be poor - poor in the sense of earning 1100 euros net a month. But I was very lucky. Among other things, I have comedian Dieter Nuhr to thank for that, who gave me a lot of exposure on his TV show and thus made me known to an ever larger public.
As a comedian, you have elevated the form of entertaining digression and meandering to an artistic principle. Do you also like to take detours in your private life?
Um ... I think you can tell from my answers in this interview. I say something, then I think of something new, because I think it's something enlightening, and then with a lot of luck I might come back to your question, if I haven't forgotten it by then. While I cultivate detours on stage, I try to get rid of them in my private life.
What are the advantages of detours?
More distance. You see more of the area.
And what are the disadvantages?
If you've ever had a destination, it takes time to get there.
Is it really true that you always iron your clothes yourself before every performance?
That's true. As a rule, I'm usually the best ironer at the places where I perform. This also has to do with the fact that I don't travel with a large entourage. If things are going well, my driver is with me, but he has driven and then has to take a break and eat schnitzel. That's why I iron my own clothes, eat schnitzel afterwards, go to the potty and then go out on stage.
Really no special requests for the backstage area?
A few vegetables, an iron and ironing board and unlimited coffee.

Would you like to write for the rest of your life?
Yes.
Do you write your texts differently today than when you were 40? Slower? Faster? More carefully? With more detours?
Good question. Not bad. I don't know. I've never had an inner censor that prevented me from writing nonsense in the first place. I'm somewhat grateful for that, although it has led to some bad writing in the past, but so be it. Now that I've probably written a few thousand pages, fortunately I know more quickly where I want to go with a story. I used to be able to throw away 80 percent of my texts, now it's 50 percent.
Where do you write?
In my office. But I can actually write anywhere - except on the train.
Perhaps you should try train travel and writing in Switzerland sometime soon?
I've already traveled by train in Switzerland. There's something totally sublime about it. It starts with what you eat on the trains. There's also a lot to see when you look out of the window: Wow, a total blast.
"You can do anything, you just have to want to", Torsten Sträter, Ullstein Paperback, 288 pages, approx. 25 Fr.
You can find even more "Bötschi asks" interviews under this link.
Suicidal thoughts? You can find help here
Do you need help? You can talk here
These services are available around the clock for people in suicidal crises and for those around them.
Dargebotene Hand counseling hotline: Phone 143, www.143.ch Pro Juventute counseling hotline (for children and young people): Telephone 147, www.147.ch
Further addresses and information: www.reden-kann-retten.ch
Addresses for people who have lost someone to suicide:
Refugium: Association for survivors after suicide: www.verein-refugium.ch
Sea of fog: Perspectives after the suicide of a parent: www.nebelmeer.net