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David Wiberg on the breakup, dissatisfaction and comeback
Of: Rosanna berg
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Photograph: Leif R Jansson / TT
The gang in Varan-tv 1997.
The humor group Varanteatern was successful in the late 1990s, but closed shortly after.
Now they are coming back.
– We may still have some kind of obligation to try again, says one of the members David Wiberg.
“Everyone must look … again” is Varangruppen’s updated slogan. After 20 years away from the spotlight, the comedy group Varanteatern is making a long-awaited comeback, to say the least, with the cult series “Varan-tv.”
– We may still have some kind of obligation to try again, says one of the members, the author and the actor. David wiberg, 47.
It is also he who has taken the initiative for the return.
– That the original seven members are involved, it is quite rare when it comes to such a large group. I never thought that everyone would say yes when I submitted the proposal.
Why they choose to return right now depends on the answer the group often finds even today.
– In recent years, I have been struck by the number of people who have approached us in the group and have told us how much “Varan-tv” meant to them. That has influenced their choice of profession, made them meet their partner, and shaped or colored entire groups of friends, workplaces or leisure centers, says Wiberg.
Last Friday they started a campaign through the fundraising site Kickstarter. Partly to check interest, but also to make return possible. The goal was to reach 300,000 Swedish crowns. In just a few hours a million crowns had been raised and at this time the sum is almost up to 1.9 million.
– It feels completely improbable, I could never have believed it. It means an incredible deal for us. We hope we can bring joy in a simple way.
Photo: Pontus Lundahl / TT
David Wiberg. Stock Photography.
“We were a little weird”
The product group was formed in the late 1990s and consists of Anders Andersson, Fredrik Ljungberg, Jonas sykfont, Magnus thomson, Olof wallberg, David wiberg and Fredrik Åkerman. The young people in their 20s from Lund decided to do comedy skits and the first season was broadcast on SVT starting in April 1997. They described the series itself as “a crazy show with more than 400 kg on stage”.
“We did things without thinking about who would actually see it, but we did exactly what we wanted, and then there can be a certain kind of humor that becomes very stubborn and limitless,” says David Wiberg.
Prerecorded sketches were mixed with sketches live in front of an audience. Characters like Uncle watermelon, the reporter Godzilla Hårddisksson and the synth tape The Germans of Lund it became an immediate audience hit. Why it happened, thinks Wiberg, depends on the wayward humor.
– We were a little weird and a little strange and stubborn, you have to say it. If so, I don’t think it comes close to the Swedish people, but it makes a very deep impression.
Photo: Press photo
Varangruppen 2020. Top row: Magnus Thomson, David Wiberg, Anders Andersson, Fredrik Åkerman. Bottom: Olof Wallberg, Jonas Sykfront and Fredrik Åkerman.
Established after the second season
But despite the success, the show was discontinued after the second season in 1998. David Wiberg says that many of them were in the middle of their continuous training and that they “started to move in different directions.” Today they are approaching 50 and have chosen different careers in life. One became a teacher, another is a fire engineer, and another urban developer, to name a few.
Was there any conflict in the group?
– As in all groups that work creatively, there were conflicts. Some came out better together than others, and then you have a different take on something and we’ve known each other since we were in high school. You get your roles as usual in a group, or in a workplace or in a rock band.
How is your relationship today?
– I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous before our first meeting, when we first met six months ago. It was fun. It was a bit like reuniting with family in a very simple way. We respect each other. It feels like there is some kind of love between us and an idea of where what was going on with us was.
You are highly anticipated, do you feel any kind of pressure to live up to expectations?
– What I probably think about the most is that we should not try to do something that we are not simply. And understand what constitutes the core of “Varan-tv”. Then you will be worried and nervous about how it will be received anyway. But as long as we don’t get lost in that, there isn’t much more you can do.
What do you like about “Varan-tv” when you see it today?
– The years after we did that, I could be quite dissatisfied with different things and I didn’t think it would turn out as planned. But 10-15 years after they were broadcast, I looked at the sketches again and then I could see the quality and really laugh at them. It was so stupid, it was too much somehow. It didn’t seem to matter if the loose beard was on the muzzle, it was so undressed somehow. You weren’t intended to look a bit cool and smart, but it was 100 kilometers straight to the rock wall. How it will look today remains to be seen.
– It is not possible to recreate that youthful idiocy, he adds.
Exactly how the production will go, the surprised David Wiberg cannot say at the moment, it is a premature stage. But they have more or less promised that the characters will return in one form or another.
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