"Murder on Ex" in Vienna: True Crime as a Live Spectacle

Successful podcasters have discovered live tours for themselves in recent years. On the "biggest podcast tour in Germany" are currently Leonie Bartsch and Linn Schütze from "Mord auf Ex". And it hardly gets bigger in Austria: On Wednesday, the duo made a stop with the elaborate show "Linn & Leo in Hollywood" at the Vienna Stadthalle. At the center was a true crime case from Hollywood that had the young, predominantly female audience partly on the edge of their seats.

One might have thought Harry Styles was in town. Even shortly before 8 PM, there were long lines in front of the Stadthalle, and crowds formed in the foyer in front of the merchandise stands. Many of the predominantly under-20s had come with their friends, some with their mothers, few with their "boyfriends", for whom "we also brought out the pyrotechnics," as Schütze sardonically explained at the start. For 19-year-old Mara, who had traveled from Leoben specifically, the two podcasters have "felt like friends" over the past few years, as she said in an APA interview. She only discovered "Mord auf Ex" two years ago, but has since listened to all the weekly episodes from five years. "For me, the two are role models because they are strong, confident women who have come a long way on their own," added her cousin Caroline.

True Crime as a Live Spectacle in Vienna: Star Host, Interviews, and Pilates as Visual Highlights

"We are fully aware that in such a large arena, it can be exhausting for people to actively listen for two hours," Leonie Bartsch explained in advance in an APA interview. "Normally, you listen to podcasts while cycling, tidying up, or on the way to work. It has become a background medium." When and how the fans listen to the podcast was tested by the duo at the beginning of the two-and-a-half-hour evening by having the audience stand up and answer questions like "Who listens to true crime to fall asleep?" or "Who has listened to all the episodes twice?" by standing or sitting down. Well warmed up, they then started the show, which was framed on the stage's back wall by the German TV host Steven Gätjen. Since the case takes place in 2001, he played the individual chapters in the form of videotapes on a tube TV.

The stage itself resembled an intersection in Hollywood: In the background, a digitally generated alley with cafés and restaurants, on the right the set of "Vitello's Italian Restaurant", on the left a police station, next to it a three-piece live band, and in the middle two armchairs on a podium. "We will get visual," the two had previously announced, and so the narrative around the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley (the wife of US actor Robert Blake, who was never proven to have murdered his wife) was accompanied by numerous inserts. Bartsch and Schütze were accompanied by a camera during their visit to Hollywood and sprinkled in some ironic scenes - such as Pilates on the beach in neon sportswear. Old photos of the murder victim and an emotional interview with the deceased's sister also flickered across the screen in the middle, while a live camera projected the two podcasters onto the screens to the left and right of the stage.

"Mord auf Ex" in Vienna: Confident Performance in Front of a Large Audience

The excitement that was noticeable in the two beforehand was blown away on stage. Already during the first appearance, accompanied by fireworks, the two moved confidently in red and pink oversized suits across the stage, before Bartsch and Schütze spent the rest of the evening elegantly in different evening dresses, while individual scenes such as police work were reenacted by extras. Only the idea of comparing a conversation between the two spouses to a chess game, while the two podcasters moved the pieces on the board in grotesque veils, overshot the mark and seemed like a foreign body in this perfectly choreographed evening, in which the already cult "podcast grandma" also had a recorded appearance.

Bartsch and Schütze not only manage to convince in the intimate atmosphere of the podcast studio but also have a live audience of thousands under control. That the two podcasters (born in 1994 and 1996) are quite aware of their influence on young people was shown recently before the German federal election with an episode about the Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele. "We find it more important than ever that we do not forget these crimes," the two emphasized. The Austrian audience was certainly thrilled with their live performance. Standing ovations ended the evening.

(By Sonja Harter/APA)

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.