Matthias Walz sings “Layla” in Volkach and not only criticizes the FDP

Was it the umbrellas under which the 700 or so people had gathered on the Volkach wine festival grounds? Or was it the topics with which Matthias Walz started his program at the Volkacher Kabarett Sommer on Tuesday evening? In any case, it took a while for the spark to jump over to the visitors.

After a storm warning and dark clouds, the Karlstadt resident comes on stage an hour late, when the thunder has passed but the rain is getting heavier. Walz shows himself to be an expert on Volkach’s local politics, jokes about the financing of the outdoor pool – and compares the demonstrations in Mallorca with those on the Altmain in Astheim in 2020 when it comes to mass tourism.

Sharp-tongued jokes about politicians ignite more than local issues

But the local topics are less catching on. Or does the rain drown out the reactions under the umbrellas? As the umbrellas are gradually closed – and Walz sings about the “supervised partying” of over-40s and “the ugly 80s” – the evening picks up speed.

At the “Despot Waltz” the guests seem to get exactly what many have travelled long distances for: a cabaret artist who not only dissects the behaviour of those in power, but also the gap between expectations and reality. “Morality is a question of mentality – love passes, hectares remain,” sings Walz – and he doesn’t just mean Putin and co.

Political cabaret can hurt a little

This is what Birgit and Ingo Nolte from Bergtheim like: “We really like political cabaret that hurts a little bit,” says Ingo Nolte. Shortly before the start, his wife was “totally excited to see how he would set up the evening in Volkach.”

Beate and Lea Sommerer, as well as Sebastian Pasch from Wunsiedel, traveled to Volkach especially for Matthias Walz, who for them is the highlight of Carnival in Franconia. “He rarely performs,” ​​laments cabaret fan Beate Sommerer. She brought her goddaughter Lea Sommerer with her to the wine festival grounds: “This year I’m being introduced to culture,” says the young woman, laughing.

At 24, Lea Sommerer is well below the average age of the guests at the wine festival. Will Walz succeed in getting them excited about musical cabaret? The applause gets longer and louder when he takes aim at politicians and parties. Markus Söder and Hubert Aiwanger get their fair share of criticism. “If Hubert Aiwanger were a machine, he wouldn’t pass as artificial intelligence,” says the computer science graduate.

The FDP is taking an even bigger hit, with Walz equating “peeing in the parking garage” with “voting for the FDP” right from the start. Now he’s talking about the Liberals’ proposal for more cars in the city center and says: “This is what real desperation looks like.”

Walz also takes on the Ballermann hit “Layla”

After a short break, Matthias Walz picks up the tempo again. He plays and sings sexist hits from the 1930s to today, including “Layla”, to show how exaggerated the handling of the Ballermann hit was in the summer of 2022. “How did I come up with the idea of ​​giving such a dirty song such a platform?” the Karlstadt native asks his audience.

As he rides through the decades, he not only proves how much this topic has long shaped pop music, but also how well he can sing and make music. His appeal afterwards: Instead of a wave of outrage over “Layla”, people should “simply vote for parties that stand up for equal rights for women”.

From the Winnetou shitstorm to the solo entertainer Walter

With the number about the Winnetou debate and the shitstorm triggered by the Bild newspaper, which Walz already thrilled with at “Fastnacht in Franken” 2023, the evening seems to have reached its climax. But the 47-year-old goes one step further and makes people laugh until they cry during his encore as solo entertainer Walter in the Gürtelröschen retirement home. With “Ihr bist ja unersättlich” he returns to the loudly applauding audience with a second encore before he says goodbye for good.

And what does the audience say about the solo program? “Lovingly bitter,” praises Ingo Nolte. And his wife calls the cabaret artist “absolutely likeable.” For Nadine Wild from the Volkacher butcher’s shop of the same name and her employee Nadine König, the “very good evening” was also a pleasure, even though work was the main focus.

And in the Fichtel Mountains, Matthias Walz has won real fans. The young Lea Sommer enjoyed the evening and thinks that the cabaret artist has improved over the course of the evening. Sebastian Pasch is enthusiastic about the “sophisticated topicality” and Beate Sommerer says: “He sets standards.” Her hope for 2025: an appearance by Matthias Walz at the Luisenburg Festival in Wunsiedel.