Vince Ebert (born 23 May 1968) is a German comedian, lecturer, presenter, author, and recipient of a degree in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

Education, career, private life

Born in Miltenberg as Holger Ebert, Ebert grew up in

Amorbach Amorbach () is a town in the Miltenberg district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany, with some 4,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the small river Mud, in the northeastern part of the Odenwald ...

in Lower Franconia (

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

). Ebert's classmates gave him the name "Vince" when he was 14 years old because he was a fan of

Vince Weber Vince Weber (October 26, 1953 – February 23, 2020) was a German blues and boogie-woogie pianist. Biography Born in Hamburg, West Germany, Weber started taking piano lessons aged ten, in 1963. His sister introduced him to the blues by givi ...

.''Interview mit Vince Ebert: „Steinzeit-Menschen in Hugo-Boss-Anzügen.“''
In: '' Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'', vom 17. April 2014. After his military service with the Signal Corps, he studied

at Julius Maximilian University in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

from 1988 to 1994 and majored in experimental solid state physics and minored in

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

. He earned his degree in physics in 1994. Ebert worked from 1995 to 1997 as a consultant at the management consultancy Ogilvy & Mather Dataconsult in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. He discovered his talent for satirical revue while giving PowerPoint presentations.
/ref> From 1997 to 2001 he worked as a strategic planner for the

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

Publicis in Frankfurt. He is married to actress Valerie Bolzano. In 1994 he became Bavarian champion in beach volleyball.

Satirical comedy

In 1998 Ebert made his first appearances as a comedian on various revue stages. He presented his first solo set Die jetzt aber wirklich große Show (Now A Really Great Show) in 2001 at the Neues Theater Höchst. He was discovered by Susanne Herbert, Eckart von Hirschhausen's. manager. Under the direction of Eckart von Hirschhausen, he created his first science satire program: "Urknaller – Physik ist sexy ("Big Bang – Physics is Sexy"). The premiere took place in 2004 at Frankfurt's "Käs". Although he is an atheist, he performed at the

German Evangelical Church Assembly The German Evangelical Church Assembly (German ''Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag'', DEKT) is an assembly of lay members of the Evangelical Church in Germany, that organises biennial events of faith, culture and political discussion. History ...

(Evangelischer Kirchentag) in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 2013. Since September 2016 Ebert has been touring Germany, Austria and Switzerland with his seventh solo routine Zukunft is the Future (Future is Future). In 2014 he and Eric Mayer started a family-friendly science show "Schlau hoch 2 – Vince and Eric reisen zu den Sternen" ("Clever squared – Vince and Eric Travel to the Stars"). In his comic work he explores scientific concepts.

Solo programs

*2001–2003: Die jetzt aber wirklich richtig große Show (Now A Really Great Show) *2003–2004: Alles gelogen (All Lies) (Director: Mathias Repiscus) *2004–2007: Urknaller – Physik ist sexy (Big Bang – Physics is Sexy) (Director: Eckart von Hirschhausen) *2007–2010: Denken lohnt sich (Thinking Pays Off) (Director: Eckart von Hirschhausen) *2011–2013: Freiheit ist alles (Freedom is Everything) (Director: Eckart von Hirschhausen) *2013–2016: Evolution (Director: Jim Libby) *2014–2016: Schlau hoch 2 – Vince und Eric reisen zu den Sternen (Clever squared – Vince and Eric Travel to the Stars) (with Eric Mayer) *As of 2016: Zukunft is the Future (Future is Future) (Director: Jim Libby) *As of 2018: Sexy Science (English Show, e.g. at Edinburgh Fringe)

Events and shows

Ebert also moderates events such as the "Felix Burda Award", the "Brand Gala" and the annual ThyssenKrupp IdeenPark reception (co-moderated by Thomas Gottschalk). In his capacity as

Keynote speaker A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

, he gives lectures on scientific and economic topics, at the Alpensymposium, for example, or on Bühnen des Wissens (Sprecherhaus). Also in English since 2016.

Television

Ebert appears in various Television shows such as Mitternachtsspitzen ( WDR),

TV total ''TV total'' is a German late-night television comedy talk show which originally aired from 8 March 1999 to 16 December 2015 on ProSieben, hosted, created and produced by entertainer Stefan Raab. Following a six-year hiatus, it was revived on 10 ...

(

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

) and is also a regular guest on talk shows such as

Markus Lanz Markus Lanz (born 16 March 1969) is a German-Italian television presenter based in Germany. Early life Lanz is a member of the German-speaking majority in the Italian province of South Tyrol. He grew up in Geiselsberg, a village located 1,3 ...

(

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

), the NDR Talkshow and the Kölner Treff (WDR). Between 2009 and 2011, Ebert appeared as a "guest lecturer" on the WDR show Der dritte Bildungsweg, which was moderated by Jürgen Becker during this time. In 2012, together with Eckart von Hirschhausen, he hosted a season. Ebert has been hosting the show Wissen vor acht – Werkstatt ("Science Before Eight – Workshop") on ARD since 2011, where he explains interesting concepts in physics in less than three minutes.

Published works

Literature

*2008: Denken Sie selbst! Sonst tun es andere für Sie. (Think for yourself! Otherwise others will do it for you) Rowohlt Verlag, *2011: Machen Sie sich frei! Sonst tut es keiner für Sie.(Free yourself! No one else will do it for you) Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag,

Reinbek Reinbek (; probably from "Rainbek" = brook at the field margin; Northern Low Saxon: ''Reinbeek'') is a town located in Stormarn (district), Stormarn district in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein within the metropolitan regio ...

bei

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

2011, . *2013: Bleiben Sie neugierig. (Stay curious) Rowohlt, . *2016: Unberechenbar. Warum das Leben zu komplex ist, um es perfekt zu planen (Unpredictable. Why life is too complex to plan it perfectly) Rowohlt Polaris,

, .

Audio

*2003: Die jetzt aber wirklich richtig große Show (Now A Really Great Show) (Live recording of stage performance) *2005: Urknaller – Physik ist sexy (Big Bang – Physics is sexy) (Live recording of stage performance) *2008 **Denken lohnt sich (Thinking Pays Off) (Eichborn Verlag, Live recording of stage performance) **Denken Sie selbst! Sonst tun es andere für Sie (Think for yourself! Otherwise others will do it for you) ( Eichborn Verlag, Live Reading) *2011: **Freiheit ist alles (Freedom is Everything) (Eichborn Verlag, Live recording of stage performance) **Machen Sie sich frei! Sonst tut es keiner für Sie (Free yourself! No one else will do it for you) (

der Hörverlag Der or DER may refer to: Places * Darkənd, Azerbaijan * Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US * Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq * d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Oc ...

, Live-Reading) *2014: Unberechenbar (Unpredictable) (der Hörverlag, Live recording of stage performance) *2016: Unberechenbar (Unpredictable) (der Hörverlag, Live recording of stage performance) *2017: Zukunft ist the Future (Future is Future) (der Hörverlag, Live recording of stage performance),

Columns

*2007–2009:

Frankfurter Neue Presse The ''Frankfurter Neue Presse'' (FNP) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main and focused on local and regional topics. History The FNP was founded on 15 April 1946 under a license of the American military government. It was lic ...

, weekly column Witzig und wahr *2008–2018: Absatzwirtschaft, Monthly column Marketing Life *2009–present: NovoArgumente *2009–2011:

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...

, weekly Column Denken Sie selbst *2011–2012: Monthly column in Prinz Magazin *2013–present: guest contributions in Spektrum Neo *2013–2017: weekly column in Focus Magazin *2015–present: Blog Stiftung Rechnen *2016–present: Biweekly column on Spektrum.de

Awards

*1999: Bielefelder Kabarettpreis (Bielefeld Cabaret Prize) *2002: Kabarett Kaktus *2003: Bayerischer Kabarettpreis in the Categorie Senkrechtstarter (Bavarian Cabaret Prize, category: Shooting Star) *2007: Sprungbrett (Springboard) (Prize from the Handelsblatt))

Philanthropy

Vince Ebert is a patron of the Galileum Solingen. Additionally he sponsors the Technoseum's "Jugend für Technik" (Youth for Technology) initiative in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

. He is also an ambassador for the MINT Zukunft schaffen and for the Stiftung Rechnen which aims to impart basic mathematical and scientific knowledge.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebert, Vince 1968 births Living people German male comedians German television talk show hosts Kabarettists People from Amorbach People from Miltenberg 21st-century German male writers German comedy writers Lecturers Comedians from Bavaria