Η κωμωδία είναι το αντίδοτο των Ελλήνων στην οικονομική κρίση. Αυτό αναφέρει η Guardian, στο εκτενές άρθρο της για το γεγονός ότι πληθαίνουν οι παραστάσεις κωμικών και μουσικών στην Αθήνα, καθώς εκεί αναζητούν παρηγοριά οι Ελληνες για τα βάσανά τους.
Στο εκτενές δημοσίευμα φιλοξενούνται δηλώσεις του Λάκη Λαζόπουλου, τον οποίο η βρετανική εφημερίδα χαρακτηρίζει ως τον κορυφαίο Ελληνα κωμικό, αλλά και του Λάμπρου Φισφή, ενός από τους πιο γνωστούς στο είδος του stand up comedy.
«Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα που δεν σατιρίζει. Στην τωρινή παράστασή του, από τους διεφθαρμένους πολιτικούς ως τη φοροδιαφυγή και τα μαύρα χρήματα και την Ανγκελα Μέρκελ, όλοι δέχονται τα πυρά του και το κοινό δεν τον χορταίνει», γράφει η Guardian για τον Λάκη Λαζόπουλο.
«Οι Ελληνες έχουν ανάγκη να ανακουφίσουν τους φόβους τους. Το γέλιο είναι η άλλη πλευρά του φόβου», λέει ο κωμικός μιλώντας στη βρετανική εφημερίδα. Παρομοιάζει τον εαυτό του με ένα.... θερμόμετρο, που καταγράφει την θερμοκρασία της κοινής γνώμης και πιστεύει πως οι Ελληνες έχουν φτάσει σε «σημείο βρασμού», ενώ δηλώνει πως ανήκει στην πλειοψηφία, δηλαδή εκείνους που δεν είναι αισιόδοξοι. «Σε κάθε σπίτι αυτή τη στιγμή υπάρχουν ιστορίες απελπισίας. Το βέβαιο είναι πως η κατάσταση θα χειροτερέψει αν δεν αλλάξουμε πορεία», λέει και προσθέτει πως είναι ρόλος του να κάνει τους Ελληνες να γελούν, αν μπορεί.
Η κωμωδία μπορεί να είναι το αντίδοτο στη μιζέρια, αλλά η οικονομική κρίση έχει αποτελέσει έμπνευση, όπως αναφέρει η εφημερίδα και παραδέχεται ο Λάκης Λαζόπουλος. Οπως σημειώνει η Guardian, από αυτή την κατάσταση έχει προκύψει μία νέα γενιά κωμικών, σε πολλές περιπτώσεις αυτοδίδακτων.
Ανάμεσά τους αναφέρει τον Λάμπρο Φισφή, που από το μάρκετινγκ έγινε κωμικός, με τα σκετς του να είναι ιδιαίτερα γνωστά, ιδιαίτερα έπειτα από την τηλεοπτική εκπομπή «Κάψε το σενάριο». «Οι περισσότεροι Ελληνες έχουν απελπιστική ανάγκη το γέλιο», λέει ο 30χρονος που εργάζεται σε μπαρ και καφέ της Αθήνας, όπου οι βραδιές κωμωδίας έχουν απογειωθεί. «Εχουν ανάγκη να απελευθερωθούν και να ξεχάσουν τα προβλήματά τους. Το stand up comedy δεν χρειάζεται καν μεγάλο προϋπολογισμό. Το μόνο που θες είναι ένα μικρόφωνο», εξηγεί.
Πηγη: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/dec/27/greece-comedy-sketches-musicals-economic-crisis
Five nights a week, every week, the worn velvet seats of the Bretania theatre heave to the sound of thunderous applause.
The man provoking the clapping and peels of laughter is Lakis Lazopoulos, a stocky figure who spends the best part of three hours prancing across the stage in flamboyant costumes and wigs.
Greece's most famous comedian, Lazopoulos is said to be the funniest man in the country, a modern reincarnation of the ancient satirist Aristophanes.
There is nothing that the comic will not lampoon. In this, his latest show, corrupt politicians, treasured customs – from evading the taxman to pocketing "ta mavra" [black money] – Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and the Greeks themselves are all in the line of fire. Audiences can't get enough.
"Greeks need to unburden their fears," says the comic, the scent of cologne permeating his dressing room after he has danced, sung and quipped his way through another rendition of "Sorry … I'm Greek". "Laughter is the flip side of fear. And what I have seen is that every day it gets a little louder."
The show is among a host of comedies and musicals that have taken Athens by storm as the austerity-whipped nation braces for its hardest winter yet.
Lazopoulos, who likens himself to a thermometer gauging the public temperature, believes that Greeks are at boiling point and readily accepts that he belongs to "the vast majority" who are anything but optimistic.
"In every home now, there are stories of desperation. And what is certain is that the situation will get a lot worse if we don't change course," he says, lambasting the fiscal policies enforced on the debt-stricken state in return for rescue funds from the EU and IMF.
"We're living a catastrophe. Greeks are being destroyed. It's my role, if I can, to make them laugh."
Comedy may be an antidote to the drudgery and misery of everyday life in a nation enduring record levels of poverty and unemployment. But Greece's economic crisis – its worst in living memory – is also the inspiration for much of the mirth.
"There are developments all the time. It's given us a lot of copy," concedes Lazopoulos, who has ensured that with tickets at €20 (£17) or less, cash-strapped Greeks can afford the show.
From the crisis has come a whole new generation of self-taught, stand-up comics often hooked to YouTube to learn the tools of the trade.
One of them is Lambros Fisfis, a bespectacled former marketing employee whose most popular skits include a sketch mocking the extremes to which qualified young Greeks resort in the hope of finding a job: promising to work ludicrously long hours, forfeiting benefits and holidays, and even giving away their home to secure the post.
"More than ever Greeks are desperate for a laugh," says the 30-year-old, who works the bars and cafés of Athens, where comedy nights have taken off. "They need the release, they need to forget their problems and stand-up is low budget, it's very adjustable. All you need is a mic."
Diaspora Greeks have also helped. The Greek Canadian comic Angelo Tsarouchas, who was in Athens recently, says he was left stunned by the response when he held a workshop for aspiring comedians. "I expected 15 to turn up at most and 125 came instead," he said, pearls of sweat trickling down his face after giving a particularly well received one-night show.
"They were all so keen, so thirsty to get into comedy and listen to comedy. Oh, and they were funny. The girls in particular were fearless."
Known as the funniest Greek abroad, Tsarouchas, 49, derives much of his humour from the frequently hilarious stories of growing up in a traditional Greek immigrant family in Montreal. It was with some trepidation, he says, that he moved outside his comfort zone and came to Athens for a single performance in November.
The show kicked off with one of the comic's all-time favourites: the acute embarrassment his name can cause when pronounced wrongly. "I'm flying between LA and New York, there's a change in my ticket, and this how they call my name: 'Paging passenger Angelo Tsar-touch-ass. Tsar-touch-ass. I didn't touch anyone's ass!" he screams as the audience erupts with laughter.
"I was nervous doing this show," he said afterwards, noting the thin line between humour and pain. "But as they say, comedy is tragedy plus time. Most comics are comfortable being uncomfortable."
The rebirth of comedy has been matched by an upsurge of musicals, with producers taking the unprecedented step of putting on productions of all-time classics such as Fame, Chicago and Cabaret in the four years since the outbreak of the crisis.
"Precisely because of what is going on in Greece, people need to express themselves," said Tsarouchas. "This is the best time to make Greeks laugh."
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