Didi Sommer - Finally Summer!

Most men don't like to talk. And not much. Didi Sommer does. And he talks about very personal things.

Dietmar was born in winter as Dietmar Sommer. This was the first of countless tragic challenges in little Didi's life (okay, he was never little; he came into the world weighing 4.30 kg). Then he had to grow up in the Mühlviertel. What a start to a cruel, cold Upper Austrian world!

Despite these initial adversities, his life turned out surprisingly beautiful. He has now lived and worked in Vienna for more than half of his life. He came to cabaret through poetry slam, and after three successful programs, the fourth is now in the works: "Finally Summer!"

Nomen est Omen - for "Diet" means "people" and "mar" means "legendary," so he is a storyteller from the people. People enjoy laughing with him about life. And they enjoy laughing at him and his life.

Didi Sommer tells his stories in his dialect: rustic, authentic, and honest. Sometimes too honest. He shares secrets about growing up in the Mühlviertel: Where children are doped with fertilizer and are forced to learn an exotic foreign language in elementary school: German. Where 12-year-olds zoom to school on mopeds without helmets, and no one finds it strange when teenagers pick up their girlfriends from the disco in a tractor.

He chats about the inner life of a man around fifty: What hurts, why it hurts, why it doesn't stop, and why he can no longer tolerate alcohol. Didi talks about his suspicion that men also go through menopause, and he shares his story of a broken heart, as being left behind at an older age doesn’t get any easier.

He also addresses global political issues that unfortunately no one can ignore at the moment because a nobody is currently shouting very loudly, and the world economy is "tariffing." Didi wonders why hurricanes with female names are deadlier than those with male names. And he doesn't understand why homosexuality is supposed to be curable, as the "thankfully-only-almost-bishop of Linz," Wagner, once put it. He has a very personal anecdote about this Mr. Wagner.

Didi Sommer tells such and many other intimate and perhaps familiar stories in the Upper Austrian dialect. Unfortunately, dialect has a bad reputation and is often associated with a lack of intelligence. Or worse: with boisterous national pride. Didi wants to dispel these prejudices; he knows that every dialect is worth preserving and that one can articulate a reality that is difficult to convey in High German. Dialect is an emotionally unique expression. As the saying goes: "One does not live in a country; one lives in a language."

Dialect as the language of humor connects people. And Didi Sommer speaks humor.