O-Ton Ute

1999 - 2005 Berlin literature, music and performance group, presenting work in Schokoladen, Mitte. The group's own self-definition varied over the years, from "Lesebühne" or "Kleinkunstbühne" to "Vaudeville" and "Punk Kabarett". By classic definition, O-Ton Ute was all of these at some point or another.

Over the years the group had many different incarnations, the most consistent members of the group being writer/musician Elis and writer Robert Rescue.

Elis and Robert first performed together on February 12, 1999 with writer and performer Jan Kettner, calling their trio 'Elke Fo'. Future O-Ton Ute member Wello Rausch performed with them as a guest in the same year, and never left. Thenceforth the group was known as "Elke Fo und die Alsterspassband featuring Wello Rausch". Brisk Rockstroh also soon began performing as a regular guest in the 1999. Jan Kettner departed the same year to Israel, and was replaced by C. Rudy Hoppe.

In the year 2000, the group began performing in Mitte's 'Schokoladen' under the name 'O-Ton Ute'. Show were presented on every Sunday of the month except the first, and drew crowds of up to 250.

O-Ton Ute differed from the other Lesebühnen (reading stages) and Kabaretts of the underground scene of the time by having a large performance component alongside or integrated with music and literature. Every Sunday show was predominatly new material, often improvised from pre-arranged structures.

Brisk Rockstroh regularly performed live radio plays, many songs were accompanied by scruffy "floorshows". The arrival of Pavel Drebic, and New Zealander Ryan McFadyen (later Hans Haustier) as core group members saw the shows take a sharper turn in the direction of Kleinkunst.

In late 2003 writer Kirsten Fuchs joined the group, and remained the only core female member of the group until the group's demise.

The group disbanded in June 2005, the only contemporary stage in its scene to voluntarily do so. The group cited a desire to work on more independent projects, along with the threatened closure of the Schokoladen, as their main reasons behind the split.

Projects that have developed out of the core O-Ton Ute group include Wello Rausch's rock band "Tollkirsch", Elis and Brisk Rockstroh's foundation of the music label "Den Pferden", publication of two novels by Kirsten Fuchs, the founding of the "Brause Boys" by Robert Rescue, and the figure "HRH Die Prinzessin Hans" by Hans Haustier. November 2007 saw the premiere of the six-month kabarett project "Zirkus Zaboteur", also in Mitte. The project brought together Elis, Hans, and Kirsten Fuchs again for the first time since O-Ton Ute disbanded.