(Foot. Marcin Mann)
Wojciech Mann gave an interview to Katarzyna Kubisiowska. In the interview, “Echo” mentions, among others: the beginnings of a radio presenter’s work at Trójka and the creation of the cult satirical program “In a moment, the program continues”, and also reveals what fascinates him in life.
“Echo”, the title of the new interview you gave to Katarzyna Kubisiowska, brings to mind the recurring sounds of the past. Do you like thinking about what has passed?
I am in constant contact with what was. I like to compare and draw conclusions, and even make some adjustments. So I feel detached from the past. It accompanies me every day.
Have you taken stock of your life?
I took stock some time ago during a very interesting conversation with myself. I was wondering what answer I would give to the question, “Are you happy with your life choices?” After analyzing the events, those that I remember positively and those that I remember with regret, without coquetry, I would answer affirmatively.
Already in the opening interview of “Echo”, you come across as quite an optimist. Hunger for life?
Only now, when I am very wise after so many years, I believe that the hunger for life is the driving force that made me want to take advantage of every opportunity that came my way. He motivated me to try to avoid the twists and turns of fate and enjoy the moment even when it wasn’t straight. Of course, I won’t lie that I was always forward-thinking and knew what to choose. But, as I mentioned, the balance is correct. However, I must admit to you, although it may sound paradoxical, that today I want to live more than before. I function and work, even though I am well beyond retirement age, which is probably a sin of pride for some. Meanwhile, I feel no pride, only pleasure in the fact that – as old actors say – the phone is ringing and there is engagement.
You’re always thirsty!
Since childhood, I have absorbed the world and what interested me, i.e. music, films, books. And I always got pissed off when one of these things ended. And I wanted one more page, a few more minutes…
What makes you angry about the world?
On a basic level, what I consider idiocy pisses me off. Sometimes I can’t stand it and let my guard down. Then I get hit in the head because not everyone thinks like I do. I once asked myself: what would happen if I decided about important matters? I would end up on the scaffold or on a monument. Depending on the outcome of my actions. (laughter)
Your comments on Facebook have often ignited hateful reactions. And yet, people watching your profile should theoretically be on your side.
(Foot. Marcin Mann)
Have you been brave in life?
This is a difficult matter because people who point out my age remind me of the system I lived in. It is very unfair for them to write that I obeyed communism. Although you can actually say that I worked in propaganda, there was no other radio. I tried to smuggle in what I thought was worth telling the listeners. So I had enough courage to do my thing despite various prohibitions and slalom around the restrictions. Besides, the music editorial office of Trójka remained on the margin of the interests of the propaganda of that time. However, I have to label myself because I never had a head-on collision with the authorities, like those who later ended up in prison. So maybe I was only moderately brave?
Let’s leave the ideological and political conditions aside. You must be brave to start working at Trójka at the age of teenager?
Of course, it was courage in every sense. I met people who mastered the art of radio, such as the legendary announcers Zbigniew Lutogniewski and Ksawery Jasieński. It makes me proud that I also learned from Jerzy Wasowski. I felt chills just thinking about these people listening to me and judging me. Of course, like a young person, I sometimes found older employees very formal and stiff. However, I admired their mastery of the elementary principles of radio work. Only when I acquired the skills could I afford to modify my own programs and modernize them.
Today, your voice is widely known, but at the beginning of your professional career, did you hear that you had a “radio voice”?
No, I have never heard such a compliment. Of course, at some point I was accepted by other radio people. I was given permission to speak into the microphone. It was an ennoblement for me. As for my voice, I had doubts about it myself. I got terribly angry when I happened to say something in a higher tone or squeak. Later I tried to lower the pitch of my voice because I thought it would be sexier. He’ll help me get a microphone card. The exam was a huge challenge, but after passing it you received master’s papers. Fantastic feeling.
What did you need to get a microphone card that gave you permission to work on the radio?
Once you appeared before the committee, various types of tests were carried out, e.g. on theoretical knowledge of how the radio works. There were also diction tests – from simple ones, such as correctly reading a text filled with foreign names; there was also a long text that had to be summarized while retaining its essence; the next one, short, had to be expanded. There was also an article that had to be presented in your own words. We performed various types of verbal gymnastics. Reflex tests. I have the impression that they would be impossible for some of today’s students of radio journalism. That’s why now they are rebelling when they hear that the exams are to come back. They say it will become a tool to eliminate people.
(Foot. Marcin Mann)
How did you develop your radio personality?
At the beginning of my career, we recorded my programs on tape. I had the comfort that when I got lost while driving, we could repeat, cut something, add something. It was a radio with heavy makeup. When I jumped into the microphone of a live show on my own, I had to have complete control and let go of the fear of being censored all the time. Thousands of people listened to me. Any of my slip-ups could end in laughter on the other side of the receiver. It worked out somehow.
After more than half a century behind the microphone, have you developed any radio preferences?
I definitely prefer live radio. I take them with all possible mistakes and mishaps. I deeply believe that even a reasonably intelligent listener prefers to be aware that the person on the other side of the receiver is a human being. At the beginning, I liked being alone in the studio, for example during nightly broadcasts. I felt then that more depended on me, I could afford more and do it my own way. I feel like a link between the listener and the content.
Do young radio men and women ask you for advice?
Not really. This worries and surprises me a bit, because I have always been ready to express my opinion and give advice. I don’t know where their reluctance comes from. Maybe they are afraid that I will be critical? Or maybe they are convinced of their talent and think that instructions are unnecessary? I have no idea. Unfortunately, I observe people who want to speak out and speak at the same time as others. The message is zero, the recipient does not know what it is about. This is counterproductive radio.
You said in “Ech”: “The process of creating my radio is like modeling from plasticine.” So how?
You caught me saying that I wouldn’t be a good teacher because I have to think about how to respond vividly… When I host a program – recently on the Internet Radio Nowy Świat – I have space in front of me. To fill it, I think about accents and proportions in my head. About what the music should be and how long it should be. What’s more, before the broadcast I already know more or less what I’m going to say. This may be a sign of professional perversion, because I think about this radio all the time. However, there are also hosts who enter the studio several dozen seconds before the broadcast and go with the material. They’re all doing great.
Unless it doesn’t work out…
You are not only a radio presenter, but also a satirist. From today’s point of view, when political correctness reigns supreme, has our sense of humor changed?
It hasn’t changed, but it’s hidden in the corners. I suppose self-censorship has increased. People are afraid that if they even slightly go beyond the acceptable norm of joking, others will bash them on the Internet for being boors. Meanwhile, when assessing certain jokes, I try to find their intentions. After all, even obscene words without the intention of offending are absolutely appropriate, because they add color to the statement. However, a censored word that we say with the intention of hurting or touching someone may sting more than a slur.
Sometimes I reach for archival materials that we once did with Krzysiek Materna. I hold my head thinking: “It wouldn’t work today.” This annoys me terribly, because when the skit premiered, people were laughing, repeating the joke, writing us letters!
Do you think that, for example, the program “The program will continue in a moment” could be created today?
It could, but would the broadcaster broadcast it? When there is no government censorship, which in a sense relieves the burden of policing what is permissible, there are a whole host of various editors and smartasses blocking programs for the sake of the audience. Their decisions can be completely hopeless. Recently we have had extreme events, e.g. Polsat, which banned all live cabarets. But there are also cuts made quietly and not publicized. Today, “The program will continue in a moment”, although I would love to come back with it, would probably have to have a “Permitted from 18 years” option. Not to be shocking, but innocent jokes would probably be considered sacrilege.
Before our conversation, I watched a few clips of the show on YouTube. I’m afraid that Krzysztof Materna in the guise of sister Irena could outrage, not necessarily the extreme right, but only left-leaning twenty-year-olds.
Not only that, Krzysiek was dressed as a nurse, but there was also an erotic element. Irena was unhappily in love with Dr. Werner, played by me. However, not only did he not love her, but he actually hated her and pointed out that she was “flat as a board”. It wouldn’t work.
(Foot. Marcin Mann)
In an interview you once gave about the time of filming “The program will continue in a moment”, you said, quoting a friend, that “Poland was the land of smiles. Absurdity followed absurdity, there was a double reality. What makes you laugh in Poland today?
Two trends. The first is ridiculing people who have a penchant for being role models, mainly in politics, but also in some areas of culture. I can clearly see how terribly shallow their pursuit is, how thin their layer of manners is. Meanwhile, straw is coming out of their shoes.
What makes me laugh, but it’s true, are traces – not to say remnants – of good humor. I love it when I hear or see something and laugh, honestly and genuinely. It is joy in the paradox of the observed situation. Sometimes it is enough to remember something from the past. I value these moments the most because they are cleansing.
And malicious, mocking laughter is poison.
