Felix Fally is crowned cabaret bird 2025 in Graz!

Felix Fally is crowned cabaret bird 2025 in Graz!

The Graz cabaret competition 2025, which took place from April 9th ​​to 13th, ended with the victory of Felix Fally, who won the coveted Graz cabaret bird. The 32-year-old cabaret artist from Vienna impressed the jury with his character Peter Ostermann and is now part of an illustrious list of winners that includes names such as Mike Supancic, Michael Mittermeier and Paul Pizzera. Loud Krone.at The jury praised Fally's wit, observation skills and enormous potential.

Fally, who began presenting his works in the form of short videos on social media around a year ago, appears in various roles and draws his inspiration from observing people. The cabaret artist plans to develop a full-length program to further deepen his art.

Voices of the viewers

The “Steirerkrone” audience bird went to Sebastian Humi, who deals with his identity as an Arab, Catholic and gay comedian. Humi, who talks about his mother from Baghdad and incorporates his humorous relationship with her into his stand-up programs, received the audience award with an absolute majority. He also organizes open mic evenings in Vienna and events with his “comedy collective” throughout Austria.

Humi is currently working on his first performance entitled “The Torn Child”. His commitment to the art scene is reflected in the events he regularly organizes to promote new talent and strengthen exchanges among comedians.

A look at the competition

With a total of 18 starting places, the 39th Graz cabaret competition attracted a large number of artists from the fields of cabaret, stand-up comedy, songwriters, mime and staged readings. The preliminary rounds between April 9th ​​and 11th led to an exciting finale on April 12th, 2025, followed by an exhibition on the last day of the competition, where there was no longer any competition characteristic, but the finalists were still able to demonstrate their skills. This was held in the renowned theater café of the Hin & Wider cabaret in Graz.

The judges, who were different members in the preliminary rounds and finals, decided on the award winners and demonstrated the importance of promoting diversity of genres and performances. Winners of the competition not only receive prize money of 1,000 euros for the cabaret bird, but also engagements for their evening-long programs, which gives the artists additional visibility.

The cabaret and cabaret sector has a long tradition and has historically been viewed as a valued medium for art and culture. Throughout the history of cabaret, talented artists such as Aristide Bruant and Yvette Guilbert have paved the way for the art form to become a magnet for intellectuals and aristocrats like the Research on cabaret shows. This tradition of dealing with social issues in a socially critical and humorous way is still alive in the competition today.