Thomas Raab "READING and other embarrassments"

For 18 years, THOMAS RAAB has been traveling through Austria with his crime novels (the Metzger series, the Huber series, STILL), taking to the stage, opening his books – and finding less and less time to read. Because the in-between is simply so much more fun. The free storytelling. The anecdote-sharing. The digressions. The shared laughter. The direct exchange with the audience.

Finally, THOMAS RAAB fulfills his long-held wish to make exactly this the conceptual core of an evening. A literary cabaret solo format beyond the classic author reading. The idea: VERLESUNG - and other embarrassments.

A writer sits on stage, his books beside him – and he spectacularly fails to read from them.

Instead, he shares behind-the-scenes stories:
About writing and failing, about deleted passages, particularly disastrous published sentences, outrageous spelling mistakes... About embarrassing moments that never made it into the book. About readings where everything went wrong, about the absurdities of the literary world. About his time as a teacher at a Vienna high school – and what a math or gym class sometimes has in common with a reading... and much more. A writer sits on stage, his books beside him – and he spectacularly fails to read from them.

VERLESUNG is not a classic reading and not a cabaret with a barrage of jokes, but a personal, very funny evening that blends literature, storytelling, and self-revelation. An evening about the life of an author who never really wanted to be one (dyslexic. German in school: challenging.) and who has nevertheless been on the road for 18 years – with more stories in his luggage than can fit into books.