Felix Lobrecht

Felix Manuel Lobrecht (German: [ˈfe:lɪks ˈma:nuεl ˈlo:pʁεçt, -e:l]; born 24 December 1988) is a German stand-up comedian, podcast host, and author.

Life and Education
Lobrecht was born in Mettingen, North Rhine-Westphalia. After his mother died of breast cancer in 1993, his then single father Frank moved him and his two siblings, Julian and Sophie, to Berlin. Lobrecht grew up in the neighbourhood of Gropiusstadt in the Berlin borough of Neukölln.

In 2001, he began attending the Hannah-Arendt-Gymnasium in the Neukölln neighbourhood of Rudow. He was expelled in 2003 due to bad behavior. He then attended the Clay-Gesamtschule where he graduated with a Realschulabschluss in 2005. After that, he worked at a gym and a plants‘ wholesale. In 2008, he graduated with the German ״Fachhochschulreife“. In 2012, he passed the Abitur exams, which he studied for by himself without attending school. In the meantime, Lobrecht had dropped out of an apprenticeship to become an industrial clerk and journalism studies. In the winter semester of 2012/13, he started studying political science and economics at the University of Marburg. In 2016, he started attending the University of Potsdam. He took a break from attending university before continuing his studies at the University of Marburg in the summer semester of 2021.

Lobrecht lives in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg at Kottbusser Tor.

Career
Lobrecht first gained recognition as a poetry slammer and, since 2015, as a stand-up comedian. Since 2017, Lobrecht does not perform as a poetry slammer anymore but only as a comedian. He toured Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. On stage, he mostly tells absurd stories of everyday life garnished with bad puns and long pauses. He also often utters some words or phrases in the Berlin dialect of German.

He became famous through appearances on TV shows like the Köln Comedy Nacht XXL 2016 and Comedy Champions 2016 on RTL Zwei. His first live tour was called Kenn ick! (“I’m familiar” in Berlin German). Until 2020, he toured with his second show called Hype and appeared at comedy events like the 1LIVE-Hörsaal-Comedy or the TV show Nuhr ab 18 by Dieter Nuhr.

His first book is called ''10 Minuten? Dit sind ja 20 Mark!'' (“10 minutes? That’s 20 Mark!” in Berlin German). It was written in collaboration with poetry slammer Malte Rosskopf and was published by the Satyr Verlag in October 2015. Lobrecht's second book Sonne und Beton ("Sun and Concrete") was published by the Ullstein Verlag on March 10, 2017. In this book, he tells stories and anecdotes inspired by his childhood and growing up in Neukölln and Gropiusstadt. In February 2023, a movie by the same name was released at the Berlinale. The movie is based on the book. The screenplay was written by Lobrecht and the director David Wnendt.

Since September 2017, Lobrecht and the author and TV host Tommi Schmitt have released a podcast called Gemischtes Hack on a weekly basis. The podcast is available on Spotify exclusively since September 2019. The title has several meanings: It translates to “mixed ground meat”, which usually contains pork and beef in Germany. The two podcast hosts are like pork and beef in the sense of that their different biographical backgrounds contribute to the overall character of the podcast. The word Hack also alludes to life hacks which are often the topic of the podcast. Lobrecht and Schmitt also had a show on 1LIVE in 2019. It was called Was machen Sachen? (“What do things do?”). In the show, Lobrecht and Schmitt answer absurd questions. The show was published on YouTube on a weekly basis.

From October 2019 until September 2021, 1LIVE published 38 episodes in the category Wie geht? ("How does it work?") starring Lobrecht. In each episode, Lobrecht is shown common utensils and he has to guess what kind of life hack you could do with them.

Since February 10, 2022, Lobrecht hosts the show 1 Live 99 Problems on 1LIVE once a month. The show is about two hours long.

The New York Times published an article about Lobrecht on February 12, 2021. It was on the cover page of the print version of the NYT on February 17.

Awards

 * Deutscher Comedypreis 2018 – Best newcomer
 * 1LIVE Krone 2019 – Comedy award
 * Deutscher Hörbuchpreis 2020 - Audio book of Sonne und Beton was the favorite of the WDR audience
 * Deutscher Comedypreis 2020 – Best comedian
 * Deutscher Comedypreis 2020 – Best comedy podcast (men) for Gemischtes Hack
 * 1LIVE Krone 2020 – Comedy award for Gemischtes Hack
 * Bayerischer Filmpreis 2022 – Screenplay of Sun and Concrete

Publications

 * 10 Minuten? Dit sind ja 20 Mark!, zusammen mit Malte Rosskopf, Satyr Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-944035-55-0.
 * Sonne und Beton, Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-8437-1477-8.

Extnernal links

 * Official website
 * Bringing Some Cool to German Comedy. In: The New York Times February 12, 2021.
 * Bringing Some Cool to German Comedy. In: The New York Times February 12, 2021.