Dr. Omar Sarsam

“The cabaret just happened to me.”

Dr. Omar Sarsam combines the best of all professions: cabaret artist and doctor. The new program STIMMT is currently being completed.

(Bild: Bubu Dujmic)

Does everything HAPPEN? It certainly does for Omar Sarsam. Although the multicultural Viennese originally wanted to become a musician, he now successfully combines his two professions and vocations as a cabaret artist and pediatric surgeon. In times of constant troubleshooting, he relies on positive STIMMung.

He often wears his white coat on stage. In his surgery in Vienna Donaustadt, his color is turquoise, or "surgical green": Dr. Omar Sarsam, specialist in pediatric and adolescent surgery. Caring, confidence-inspiring, experienced in his field, always with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. This immediately takes the pressure off young patients and their parents that an illness or impending operation creates - at least as important as the treatment itself.

His grimaces are legendary

However, most readers will be familiar with Omar Sarsam from the cabaret stage. Grimacing, singing, dancing and always with his proverbial finger on the wound. True to his profession, but healing instead of painful. Accordingly, he is currently also designing his new program "STIMMT".

Musically, medically and culturally mixed, with a special aspect, as the artist emphasizes in an interview with krone.at: "I have always tried to connect people with each other in my programs, this time I also want to connect them a little with themselves. To show playful situations that people might otherwise not dare to address or laugh about. I want to give the audience the feeling of being in contact with themselves and with a group of people who are happy just to spend a nice evening together. And with one or two suggestions to allow themselves to feel joy. I hope I manage to do that, because I still really enjoy being on stage and being allowed to do so."

I want people to have as much fun in the audience as I do on stage.

Omar Sarsam, Kabarettist und Künstler

Bild: Bubu Dujmic

First solo program and a monkey in the theater
Omar Sarsam has been doing this for around 20 years now - he simply missed, or rather overplayed, last year's anniversary. In 2016, he improvised his first solo cabaret at Vienna's Kabarett Niedermair - and before that, he passionately embodied a monkey in a children's theater play by Austrian writer Franzobel. Today, by the way, he is just as passionate as a father of two.

How did a doctor become a cabaret artist?

"It just happened, I never specifically decided to do it. At the time, I didn't even realize that you could become a cabaret artist. But I always wanted to make music, which is why there are musical and vocal numbers in all my programs. I actually slowly grew into the genre by trying to speak serious texts. The more serious I tried to be, the more people laughed. I always enjoyed making people laugh. It's stayed that way to this day and doesn't feel like work at all. But writing the program does.

Children don't have a lobby. But investing in them and supporting them is an important contribution to our future.

Dr. Omar Sarsam, Kinderchirurg

Bild: Bubu Dujmic

The Viennese comes from a multicultural family, grew up in Kagran and addresses clichés in a conciliatory way. "We have to forgive ourselves for the prejudices we have, but take a closer look. Question: What is normal? Actually, the entire human spectrum. Not even laboratory values can be interpreted in the same way for every patient."

How can the two different professions be combined? "It requires a tight schedule, but I'm a doctor and I like being one. Pediatric and adolescent medicine is time-consuming and it has to be! It works very well in a team with my colleagues.

Appointments

The premiere of Omar Sarsam's new program entitled "STIMMT" will take place on 25 February at STADTSAAL in Vienna and will then tour throughout Austria.

A highlight of this season: the performance at the Vienna State Opera on July 2 as part of the Intermezzo festival, the summer festival of humor. All dates for the new cabaret program can be found here.

Leaving a heartprint instead of a footprint
"The beauty of the cabaret stage is that you can fail, make a mistake, even admit it publicly and incorporate it into the program." This is what makes Omar Sarsam's texts so special. Food for thought with a twinkle in the eye, a positive mood as an amplifier and the underlying question: "How can I leave the biggest mark on my heart? Most children think like this and are brought up in a positive way. I want to create this mood."