Bastian Bielendorfer in an interview about criticism of the performance (video)

I am not Switzerland. I don’t have to be neutral. You don’t have to agree with me, but I can decide for myself which people I want to perform for. Once someone threw a beer at me at Lake Constance, I remember that. But I’m like a cat. I can dodge.

Bastian Bielendorfer is critical of the AfD during a performance, and a viewer doesn’t like that. The comedian then refunds her the ticket price.
The star spoke to Bielendorfer about the incident.

What did you say that upset this viewer?

I recorded my program for RTL, and at the end of the program, during the recording in Duisburg, in the Marine Theater, I spoke about the fact that we are currently experiencing division all over the world. That means it’s about forces trying to pull us all apart and to emphasize the differences between us. Whether that was still the case in the White House a few years ago, or if we look to the East to see what is happening right now. It’s also about bringing people apart in the end. And then I talked about the fact that we had fascists in the German Bundestag again and said the sentence I don’t think anyone with a heart in their chest and a brain in their head could wish for right-wing radicals to still be in this country have something to say. And 1198 people in the hall we agreed, and two didn’t. And dissent is always okay. I can live with that, but the woman wrote to me afterwards and also publicly wrote under my post that that would be presumptuous. And she has probably already concluded who I must have meant, although I didn’t say the party name. And that then drew surprisingly large circles. And I have to honestly say that it irritates me that such people come into my programs, because I have always openly expressed my opinion and because I am firmly convinced that the AfD, for example, is an infallible party in which too many right-wing extremists and simply people who, from my point of view, have no understanding of democracy, have found a home.
How is your program political?
I opposed right-wing long before I did this job. And I’m really into what I do on stage. I’m not a cabaret artist. My programs do not revolve around political issues. But when people accuse me of not being able to express a public opinion, that’s my show in the end. And that’s my microphone, that’s my stage, that’s my camera at the moment. And you can disagree with me, but I can use what I always want. And what I said there on stage, I would say again and again, I will say it again and again. And you don’t have to agree with me. But I can decide for myself which people I want to perform for. And I can decide for myself which audience I want to have. And if I make a conscious decision to forego the money, I forego the entry of such people, then that is my right.

How often do you get feedback like this on your program?
I’ve rarely had it as extreme as in this case. Once someone threw a beer at me at Lake Constance, I remember that. But I’m like a cat. I can dodge. And then he also yelled I’m not here for your political opinion. I think he yelled I have to be neutral. I say I’m not Switzerland. I don’t have to be neutral. That’s not my job. I can be whatever I want on stage and you can agree to that or you can disagree to that. But in the end, with the purchase of the card, you have to live with the fact that you do my opinion or at least my humor. What if you don’t like it? Get up, go home. And now if other people come along and say I think it sucks so badly and I don’t like what you’re doing at all, I’m definitely not going to start now. The great redemption. Now, I can’t give everyone back their money who doesn’t like it. But if someone comes like her again, then I can live with saying that I can do without it.