Director, Screenplay, Production design, Producer
Hildesheim

Biography

René Marik was born in Hildesheim on July 1st 1970. At age 15, he began an apprenticeship as an auto mechanic, which eventually quit within the first year. Instead, he went back to school and later enrolled as a mathematics major at Siegen University. In 1993, he relocated to Berlin where he continued to study. At the same time, he joined  the squatting scene and became a member of the punk band "Die fickenden Turnschuhe".

When Marik casually attended a puppet show, he discovered his future passion. In 1995, he abandoned mathematics and instead enrolled at the renowned Ernst Busch academy in Berlin in order to become a puppeteer. From 2000 until 2004, he was a company member at the Theaterhaus Jena. During that time, he designed his unique puppet characters, including a blind, speech-impaired mole, a frog named Falkenhorst, and Kalle, an ice bear. These puppets became the protagonists of Marik's "Falkenhorst Show", a blend of puppet theatre, songs, lectures and skits. His major breakthrough came when he filmed some of his acts and posted them on YouTube: The clips turned out to be immensely popular, and made Marik known as a puppet comedian. This was followed by performances at venues like "Quatsch Comedy Club" and "Bar jeder Vernunft", TV appearances  and highly successful stage tours throughout Germany.
Over the years, Marik won several awards, including the 2007 Cabinet Award for Comedy and the Jury Prize at the 2008 Prix Pantheon.

Despite the ongoing success, he made a farewell stage tour in 2012 and announced that he would make no further live performances with his puppets. 2013 saw the release of the feature film  "Geld her oder Autsch'n!", which-was co-directed by Marik and in which his puppets star alongside human actors like Christoph Maria Herbst.

 

Filmography

2012/2013
  • Director
  • Screenplay
  • Animation
  • Producer