Dieter Nuhr

Dieter Herbert Nuhr (born 29 October 1960) is a German kabarett artist, comedian, author and television presenter.

Nuhr's stage program nuhr in Berlin (the title is a pun; for explanation, see below) is the first German stand-up comedy which was created exclusively for Netflix.

Nuhr is one of the most successful cabaret artists in Germany, with more than 200.000 viewers per year.

Nuhr is regarded as a mediator between classical comedy and intelligent Stand-up comedy.

In his work, he gives a critical glance to social behaviour in society and media, often satirising relationships and families.

Nuhr has also been known to caricature the typical German know-it-all.

A saying of Nuhr is frequently quoted in forums and newsgroups due to its provocative nature (and use of the semi-offensive word Fresse): "Wenn man keine Ahnung hat: Einfach mal Fresse halten", which roughly translates to, "If you haven't got a clue: Shut your puss for once."

Nuhr was born in Wesel but his family moved to Düsseldorf when he was four years old.

Growing up he attended the secondary school Leibniz-Gymnasium.

In 1981 he started to study art and history at the University of Duisburg-Essen and received his teaching degree in 1988.

From 1981 to 1989, Nuhr studied art and history at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen.

His first appearance on stage was with a school theater group where he also started to write his first own texts.

(This program title contains, like most of Nuhr's titles, two different meanings. It could be literally translated as "just grumbling" or as "Mr. Nuhr is grumbling" because the German word "nur", meaning "just", is homophonic to Nuhr's last name.) From 1982 to 1992, he was an active artist, and several of his works were exhibited in the Rhineland.

He has since gained notoriety for his numerous television appearances on Die Harald Schmidt Show, Genial daneben, Schillerstraße, Quatsch Comedy Club (Channel Pro7) and 7 Tage, 7 Köpfe (lit. 7 days, 7 heads) on the channel RTL.

In 1986, he and Frank Küster founded the cabaret-duo V.E.V.-K.Barett.

Their first official appearance on stage was part of their program called "Haben Sie sich ihre Schranknummer gemerkt?", which can be translated as "Have you memorized your locker-number?".

In 1987, he appeared for the first time as a cabaretist.

In 1989, the duo developed their second stage program "Pralle Pracht" (lit. bulging opulence) and after a name change in 1990 to V.E.V.Kabarett the duo performed their third stage program "Schrille Stille" (lit. sharp silence).

The last project of the group called "Zipfeltreffen", which is a play on words in German (Gipfeltreffen = summit conference whereas Zipfeltreffen = summit of dicks), followed.

In 1994, Nuhr started his first solo-project called "Nuhr am Nörgeln".

In 1998, the stage program "Nuhr weiter so" (lit. "Simply go on") received an award: the Deutsche Kleinkunstpreis in the category cabaret and in 2003, he received the Deutscher Comedypreis (German comedy award) for best live performance, making him the only person who received both of these well-known German awards.

His performance "Ich bin's Nuhr" was visited by approximately half a million people.

After presenting a humorous review of the year's events in 2004, he has been broadcast on ZDF with a similar TV show at the end of every following year.

In an interview with the newspaper Westdeutsche Zeitung in 2006, Nuhr was asked how he had developed his unique style: "I started my solo career because the manager of a theater in Mönchengladbach had talked me into it. He allowed me to perform on his stage and directed me. While I was practicing my program more and more requisites went missing because he took more and more of them away. So when the day of my first performance came close there were no requisites left anymore. I just stood there and talked to the audience. This is how my very own style was born. At first I thought that this could not work at all, but the fewer requisites I used, the better it finally worked out for me. So I thought that this is what I should do: not use any requisites but talk to the audience in my own way."

(28 January 2006).

Nuhr presented the German comedy award for the first time on 24 October 2008 and did so over the course of the following five years.

Since 3 October 2009 his four-part comedy series has been shown live on ZDF on four Tuesday evenings.

In 2009, Nuhr was asked whether he would like to participate in the album "A Tribute to Die Fantastischen Vier" for the 20th anniversary of the group Die Fantastischen Vier.

It is a compilation album with varied artists covering songs of the hip hop group from Stuttgart.

Nuhr recorded the song "Buenos Dias Messias" in his office room.

In this song he played all the instruments himself and recorded it with his equipment, which he uses for radio shows otherwise.

In addition to that, the album includes a conversation between Nuhr and the initiator of the album project Andreas "Bär" Läsker.

He replaced Mathias Richling, whose contract ended in 2010.

Nuhr produced a two-part TV special concerning the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In doing so he referred to the topic soccer in an ironical way.

Furthermore, he produced weekly cabaret segments for the radio station WDR 2.

From 20 January 2011 until 2014, he presented the TV show "Satire Gipfel" on ARD.

In the year 2012, Dieter Nuhr was mentor for the "ARD-Themenwoche" (a special TV format, covering a weekly particular topic) with an emphasis on the topic: living with death.

Together with Ralph Casper he presented the quiz show "Null gewinnt" in the early evening time slot of ARD from July to March 2013.

In October 2014, this TV format was replaced by "Nuhr im Ersten" which was presented by him as well.