Auerbach with laughing fit

For seven years, Dominic Deville and his team entertained SRF audiences. He stepped down at the end of May. We wanted to know from the Lucerne native with the pedagogical training, the punk past and the Salzburg bull on his shelf where his journey is going now. And which places in his adopted home of Zurich make him laugh.

Dominic, your show "Deville" has been history since the end of May. Good thing?
Yes. It was the completely right decision. But when I stood in front of the Folium in Sihlcity, where we recorded the show, for the first time a few days ago, there was a bit of melancholy.

Why?
I miss the team. We did it for seven years and worked extremely closely together. After a while it went like clockwork.

Was the decision to stop actually voluntary?
Yes. Whereby: Swiss television has long since built up other formats alongside us: Michael Elsener, Patti Basler and Renato Kaiser all had their own vessels. Then two years ago they said: "We are now building up three new formats. If they don't work, you're welcome to continue. But otherwise we'd like to take one of them." It was clear to me then that that was it. I didn't want to be a stopgap.

Since when have you been thinking about what happens afterwards?
The fact is: I still don't know exactly. What I do know is that I have a tour with 50 dates next year. It's booked and ready to go. The premiere is on 27 March.

And otherwise?
Not much. I have a working title and a few loose ideas.

You're flirting now.
No, not a bit. I really have no idea yet. It's already a challenge: the TV character Deville was different from the one you knew from "Kinderschreck" or from "Publikumschreck". But television on stage doesn't work and nobody wants to see a Deville late night show at Hechtplatz either. So I have to find a balancing act. These things are bouncing off each other in my head at the moment. I want to do something new, but I also don't want to completely alienate the people who know and appreciate me from television.

Where do you start?
At the Brocki. Recently I found two huge rubber gloves there. Like demon gloves. Really badly moulded and painted. They look really weird. I'm sure they'll be used.

The Brockenhaus as a source of inspiration?
Definitely. Gabriel Vetter and I once had the idea of doing a show in various Brockis. A show with the things we find there. Let's save that for later. Anyways: I look for stuff that inspires me and makes me realise what I want to see on a stage.

Will the new play have a music component?
I don't know. The punk rock theme is kind of through. At the readings I told my biography on the basis of records. That's enough for now. And it probably won't be about kindergarten either. Although I still get an astonishing number of enquiries about it. A sequel to "Kinderschreck" would be the safe option. But that doesn't excite me one bit.

Do you have no theme, no gags?
No, that's not the problem. It's about the vision. I've always had a picture of myself on stage performing the programme before I've even written it. I do NOT have that now.

Does the "Deville" team help you with the writing?
No, I do that myself. Maybe I have one or two people look over it at the end and maybe they have some input, but I do 95 per cent myself. That's the standard. I also wrote a lot of the programme myself. It's not like I'm out of practice.

And yet that's common practice.
Of course, I know exactly who writes their own stuff and who doesn't.

Improvisation would also be a possibility.
That's right. But it's really hard - and I want to maintain a certain level. I think I'll always save a few minutes of space for that. But the majority will be worked out.

In order to work something out, you have to have ideas. And for that you need inspiration. What inspires you about the city of Zurich?
It sounds like a cliché, but I live in the middle of district 4 and all you have to do is open the front door and you immediately see ten interesting people or situations. An estimated two tram accidents happen there every day. Luckily I can't drive a car. The Langstrasse/Badenerstrasse intersection would be my certain death.

Do you actually do social studies consciously? Two hours of people-watching in the Migros restaurant? An afternoon at the zoo by the monkey enclosure?
I move around this city every day. And I don't own a smartphone and use public transport. That already provides a lot of input.

Let's talk about the funniest places in town. Which one comes to mind first?
The Letzibadi.

Why?
I'm not the one who often laughs out loud. I find little really, really funny. But what does happen from time to time is an inward smirk. But all around and on diving platforms, it can even be that a broad grin appears on my face or an amused sound escapes me. On the one hand, it's about watching other people - mostly fathers, like myself, who want to relive their youth. On the other hand, it's about jumping myself. I am a very passionate diver and used to follow it quite seriously. That's why I only go to swimming pools with a 5- or 10-metre tower. Without one, I get bored.

What have you got?
And if I haven't done a clean backflip off the ten-metre once a summer, then I feel really old. But I always like to try things out: Kick the Moon, Auerbach, backwards headers from the 3 metre, double somersault, backwards with half a twist. Death diving is really popular now: opening the body completely and only pulling everything together at the very last moment. That leads to pretty violent impacts (laughs). Then both take place under water: The fight with the pain and a short laughing fit.

Does any form of interaction with other people take place?
No, I don't like that so much. I'm smiling there for myself. With one exception: Urs, an old friend from Lucerne. With him, small competitions take place at irregular intervals.

Next you took us to Hardaupark. Why?
We used to live nearby and I appreciate the urban flair of the place. You wouldn't expect to find the square here because it's hidden behind the Hardau blocks.

And where's the joke?
It's there, in the form of a 15-metre-high slingshot with a swing. A symbol of youth resistance. The statement: Youth should always remain rebellious. And it has remained so: the swing was or is constantly broken. In the past, every time I walked past with the pram, some city authority was trying to protect the thing with a new, ingenious method against acts of vandalism. All to no avail: The Hardau boys took the thing apart every time. In the meantime, they have probably given up on it. I found it very amusing that the symbol for the rebellious youth had to be maintained over and over again in front of the eyes of the rebellious youth. Apart from that, it's just a cool piece of art. Because when you use this slingshot and swing it, it starts to glow orange. It looked really nice.

Now we are sitting here with an iced tea on the barracks grounds.
I am here quite often. Sometimes with the children, sometimes alone. We live nearby. And somehow it's a nice oasis in the noisy Kreis 4. I especially like the labyrinth garden. I have a weakness for mazes and labyrinths. When we go on holiday, I plan everything around a maze visit. Good, and now you're wondering why this plant maze here is supposed to be particularly fun, right? I can tell you: Because I'll be practising my new programme here over the next few months.

You haven't mentioned a single obviously funny place now.
That would have been boring. I've hardly been out and about for the last couple of years either. But I imagine that the Kir Royal on Langstrasse is a good place to have a laugh. On the first Monday of every month, comedian Moritz Schädler holds his pub quiz there. I wanted to go twice, but then immediately backed out because Moritz immediately made me a verbal target. Maybe next month I'll make the next attempt.

About him
Dominic Deville, born in 1975, is a trained kindergarten teacher, punk musician and entertainer. At the age of six, he moved with his family from Munich to central Switzerland, where he grew up and also had his first job as a kindergarten teacher. From 2016 until mid

2023 he was on SRF with "Deville Late Night". At the end of last year, he was awarded the 2023 Salzburg Bull. From the end of March 2024, he will tour the whole of German-speaking Switzerland with his new programme.

More information at dominicdeville.ch

Bilder von Tony de Faria