Aron Flam

Aron Flam (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɑ̌ːrɔn ˈflamː]; born 12 June 1978) is a Swedish stand-up comedian, screenwriter, author, television host, podcaster, and actor. He started his career in stand-up comedy in his hometown of Stockholm in 2007. Flam was awarded the "Rookie of the Year" award in 2009 at the Swedish stand-up gala. He is a co-host of the podcast Till slut kommer någon att skratta alongside fellow Swedish comedians Soran Ismail and Petter Bristav. He is also the host of SVT Play's political satire web series Folkets främsta företrädare.

Aron Flam
Flam during a seminar at Kulturhuset in May 2015
Born (1978-06-12) 12 June 1978
Bergshamra, Solna, Sweden
MediumStand-up, television, podcast
NationalitySwedish
Alma materStockholm University
Years active2007–present
Relative(s)Harry Flam (father)
Websitearonflam.com

Early life and education

Flam was born in the Solna Municipality of Stockholm to Harry Flam, a professor of economics at the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University, and Eva Meyersohn. He is of Jewish origin and has spoken frequently on this in his stand-up comedy routines.[1] Flam attended the prestigious Enskilda Gymnasiet in Stockholm, where he participated in the social science program.[2] After high school, he attended Stockholm University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in film studies. He subsequently obtained a master's degree in financial economics at Stockholm University. Flam is together with his father also active in the reconstruction of the Jewish comedy scene in Sweden within the Israel Paideia framework.

Career

Stand-up and podcast

Aron Flam debuted in 2007 as a stand-up comedian in the competition at the Stockholm Comedy Club, which he attended with his friend and colleague Jonatan Unge, with whom he had previously written the book Sista ordet: citat och fakta om döden. Flam won the competition and the following year, 2008, he won the award "Komikaze of the Year". The following year he became the winner in the category "Rookie of the Year" during the Swedish stand-up gala. He has performed at clubs including Stockholm Comedy Club, Norra Brunn, and the television show RAW.[3]

In October 2010, started Aron Flam podcast Till slut kommer någon att skratta (TSKNAS), along with comedian Soran Ismail and Petter Bristav.[4] In January 2012, however, he left the podcast due to burnout,[5] but later returned in March of the same year.[6]

In spring 2015, Flam formed a stand-up tour called SEMST of Comedy (Super Titan Epic Mega Sweet of Comedy), together with comic colleagues Jonatan Unge, Branislav Pavlovic and Ahmed Berhan. The tour started in Malmö on 9 April 2015 and concluded in Stockholm on 3 May 2015.[7]

Aron Flam also operates a stand-up club "Till slut kommer alla onekligen att skratta" ( "TSKAOS"), together with the comics Soran Ismail and Petter Bristav.[8]

Dekonstruktiv kritik

In January 2016, Flam started his own podcast Dekonstruktiv kritik ("Deconstructive Criticism") in which he conduct interviews in Swedish or English with an invited guest on a wide range of topics. Some of the topics are, or have been, considered sensitive, controversial or even taboo[9] to examine or criticize in the public discourse in Sweden. Some recurring topics are drugs,[9] immigration, feminism,[9] socialism[9] and Sweden during World War II. As of September 2018, 95 episodes have been produced.[10] The podcast is published on several platforms like Acast, SoundCloud and YouTube and is (2017) considered one of the most financially successful pods in Sweden.[9]

Film and television

In 2005, Flam appeared in the TV3 program Rivalerna as one of the 12 participants. He dropped out immediately, however, because he felt that the program was an "incompetent production."[11]

He has also appeared in VAKNA! med The Voice[12] and starred in the television program Grillad.[13] In spring 2010, he starred in Nyheter24's comedy program "Någonting annat" alongside Soran Ismail.[14]

Beside his stand-up career, Flam has also starred as an actor in the 2011 feature film Certain People by Levan Akin and Lisa Östberg and played Death in Michael Rendell's 2012 short film When the Man Comes Around.[15] He has also played a coroner in an Italian thriller.

Aron Flam is one of the writers for Kanal 5's Kristallen-winning program Betnér Direkt.[6] The same year he was also the editor of Jag bombade, an anthology concerning life as a stand up comedian.[16]

In autumn 2013, the first season of Flam's self-produced program Folkets främsta företrädare aired on SVT Play. Folkets främsta företrädare is an infotainment television series with satire on various parts of the Swedish government and similar topics. Flam speaks to the camera, together with others including David Druid and Henrik Dorsin. The program began its third season in autumn 2015, in a partially new format. The third season has longer episodes and is recorded weekly with a greater focus on news and current affairs.[17]

The Svensk Tiger controversy
See also: En svensk tiger

In 2020, Flam published a controversial book titled "Det här är en svensk tiger" ("This is a Swedish Tiger") which addresses the official policies of Sweden during World War II. In the book, Flam claims that under the guise of neutrality Sweden assisted the German war effort intentionally and consistently. He casts Swedish efforts to save Jews from Nazi persecution as insignificant, and criticizes the appraisal of these efforts by many historians as highly exaggerated.[18] Swedish prosecutors seized the entire third print run of the book (2000 copies), claiming that an image on the cover of the book, a tiger sporting Sweden’s national colors of blue and yellow, infringed on the copyright of a war-time information campaign, now owned by the Swedish Military Preparedness Museum (Beredskapsmuseet). The matter was presented to court on 24 September 2020, and ignited a vigorous debate in Swedish media on censorship and the boundaries of satire. Flam was found not guilty by the Swedish courts.[19]

Bibliography
  • Flam, Aron (2020). Det här är en svensk tiger [This is a Swedish tiger] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Bookea. ISBN 9789189180345.
  • Flam, Aron (red.) (2012). Jag bombade: scener ur ett ståuppliv [I Bombed: Scenes from a Stand-Up Life] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Ekerlids. ISBN 978-91-7092-206-0.
  • Flam, Aron; Unge, Jonatan (2006). Sista ordet: citat och fakta om döden [Last Word: Quotations and Facts About Death] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedts. ISBN 91-1-301585-0.

References
  1. Flam, Aron (8 May 2014). "Extremt politiskt korrekta skämt om min kulturella identitet" [Extremely politically correct jokes about my cultural identity]. youtube.com (in Swedish). Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  2. Lundin Ziegler, Lovisa (17 March 2015). "Ett möte med Aron Flam" [A Meeting with Aron Flam] (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  3. "Aron Flam". rawcomedy.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  4. "Till Slut Kommer Någon Att Skratta". itunes.apple.com (in Swedish). Apple Inc. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  5. "Till Slut Kommer Någon Att Skratta (TSKNAS) - Avsnitt 65: "År 2011"" [Till Slut Kommer Någon Att Skratta (TSKNAS) - Episode 65: "Year 2011"]. podcasts.nu (Podcast) (in Swedish). 29 December 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  6. "Till slut kommer någon att skratta (TSKNAS) - Avsnitt 76: "Supa sönder kuken"" [Till slut kommer någon att skratta (TSKNAS) - Episode 76: "Supa Broken Cock"]. podtail.nu (Podcast) (in Swedish). 17 March 2012. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  7. "Sveriges "SEMST":a komiker förklarar vad humor är" [Swedish "SEMST": a comedian explains what humor is]. mynewsdesk.com (in Swedish). Mynewsdesk. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  8. "TSKAOS Standup-Klubb" [TSKAOS Stand-Up Club]. scalateatern.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  9. Thomas Nilsson. "Tjänar 100 000 i månaden på sin podd – anklagar SVT för censur". Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2018.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Resumé, 26 August 2017.
  10. "Dekonstruktiv kritik", soundcloud.com. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  11. "Till Slut Kommer Någon Att Skratta (TSKNAS) - Avsnitt 106: "I'm Felix Baumgartner, welcome to Jackass"" [Till Slut Kommer Någon Att Skratta (TSKNAS) - Episode 106: "I'm Felix Baumgartner, Welcome to Jackass"]. podtail.com (Podcast) (in Swedish). 17 October 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  12. "Özz Nûjen och Aron Flam Roastar Vakna gänget del 1 av 2". youtube.com (in Swedish). NRJ Sweden. 2 March 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  13. "Rå humor i "Grillad"" [Raw Humor in "Grilled"]. Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (in Swedish). Helsingborgs Dagblad. 10 March 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  14. Rosén, Eric (13 June 2010). "Någonting annat: Centerpartiet" [Something Else: Centre Party]. Nyheter24 (in Swedish). Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  15. "Aron Flam". IMDb. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  16. "Jag bombade: scener ur ett ståuppliv" [I Bombed: Scenes from a Stand-Up Life] (in Swedish). LIBRIS. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  17. Lindqvist, Anton (12 November 2015). "Folkets främsta företrädare blir matigare – med Dorsin i ny roll" [Folkets främsta företrädare gets fuller – with Dorsin in new role] (in Swedish). SVT. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  18. AFP (17 July 2020). "Sweden seizes book by Jewish comedian criticizing war-time collaboration". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  19. Stavrou, David (29 July 2020). "What made the Swedish police confiscate the entire print run of a book by a Jewish comedian?" (in Hebrew). Haaretz. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
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