Harry Klynn

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LISTEN SOME OF HARRY'S RECORDINGS
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Powered by eSnips.comThe characterization "Greek Nation's Joker" was given to Harry Klynn by the journalist George Liannis, in a notorious interview published in the daily edition of the paper "TA NEA" about 20 years ago.
Since then, a lot more names have come to add in the long list of attempts to describe this great satirist who has managed to depict modern Greek reality in a unique and remarkable way. "Bitter thinker", "Modern Greek's sarcasm", "The revolutionary comedian" are but a few of those.
"Harry Klynn is a popular artist, in the sense that his performing and writing style receives wide acceptance and enjoys a great appeal. But this does not make him any less of an intellectual. His intentions are clear, right from the start, his goal specific. He works with his means, choosing carefully his forms of expression and leads his audience. He is not just a populist reflecting the public taste. There lies his difference from the usual pseudo intellectuals in this business: Harry Klynn uses the ancient, well tested, method of old Socrates, irony and dialectics. He pretends to be naive, he wonders, he leads the public to a dead end and then unfolds with them the skein of life, hidden and trapped in misinformation, propaganda, trends or habit. He is like an oxfly clinging to the back of authority forcing it to give up its indolence and reveal its horns and kick. The most frequent mistake of pseudo intellectuals is that they consider themselves smarter than their audience and express it on stage. Harry Klynn owes a lot to his years in the American underground cabarets and music halls which usually fed upon the anger of the suppressed minorities (Jews, blacks, Latin Americans) of the American intellectuals.
His humour's recipe includes a lot of despair ( the scent of irony), plenty of sarcasm (and self - sarcasm as well, which makes it convincing to the others), and plenty of demonic madness, utopic arbitrariness and anarchic euphoria. Harry Klynn gave Greek citizenship to this admirable recipe. His rhythm, his pauses, his gestures, his joyous face have been recorded as part of the greek acting history and surpass it at the same time, by keeping a critical stand against it. Every one of his performances is a political, cultural, as well as purely artistic comment" was once written about him in one of Kostas Georgousopoulos's play reviews.
And the great Greek actor Kostas Kazakos adds: "When Harry Klynn stands before the unsuspected spectator and thunders him away with his satire, unravelling the obsolete norms that our people are constantly bombarded with and thus disrupted, castrated and lured away of their own roots, their own tradition, their own civilization, when he mocks our world's conservative ways, his fake ideology, his individualism, his inertness, his superficial knowledge, his vanity, his arrogance, his self righteousness then he could cause a major catastrophe. He could cause an overturning of the balance in his spectator's mind. This outcome would be inevitable if Harry Klynn pretended to be honourable.
If he stood right in front of you and passed judgement if he had humour if he was western. But he is a true child of the orient. And his infallible instinct drove him to self ridicule. He shows himself as the bearer of the exact same mentality he mocks. Therefore, the man who stands in front of you is someone familiar, someone who stands by you and shares the same wounds and curses we all possess.
Through those cunning and shrewd eyes, that pepper shaped nose, comes the strong odour of comedy, a comedy that is bold and healthy and can generate simultaneously the wildest chuckles and the most sacred indignation, emotion and anger, compassion and the most uncontrollable laughter, valuable ingredients that come to us through the ages, from the old carriages of the grape harvesters, and the wine-presses and the bread threshing floors and our great ancient democracy.
That is why people leave the Harry Klynn show with a sense of relief. Because they feel cleansed, like some of our human mud has been washed away from us"
THE EARLY YEARS
Harry Klynn was born in Thessaloniki north Greece. "I was born and raised in the immigrant ghetto of Kalamaria, my parents being refugees from Pontos. They were poor, hungry and desperate, as was my generation too. I started working at the age of five now I'm over sixty and I haven't stopped yet. But I believe in my children, in the children all over the world. I ve been believing in the future ever since I was a child and this is how I grew with hope". School and work. At night walking the streets with a skep of peanuts or sesame rolls and afterwards back at the school desk
His old schoolmates told us that he came first in everything. He said for himself "I was good but a permanent pest, I was teasing on the neighbors, my classmates, my teachers, but everyone was fond of me because I made them laugh.
He was kind of the neighbourhood monkey. The salt and pepper of his company. Years passed and Kalamaria Primary School soon turned into 5th Boys Highscool of Thessaloniki. In the summer of 1958, he was preparing for his exams to be accepted to the medicine faculty of the University of Thessaloniki. But fate wouldn't let him be a doctor. "I became an artist by chance. I remember it was during the annual HELEXPO when G. Ikonomidis had come to Thessaloniki once again with his group. They appeared at the "Luxembourg" and me and my gang climbed a nearby wall to watch the show. That night was talent night. First prize for the winner was one golden sterling, a suit, and a camping gaz. We were having fan when one of my friends popped the big question "Come on Vasilis, these people are a joke, why don't you go up and show them how this job is done". A couple of others just pushed. "I don't remember how I got in, what I said or what happened in general. All I remember is that I left that night with the sterling, the suit and the camping gaz.
October 1958. Ikonomidis asks him to join his group in Athens. Harry Klynn spent three years next to this remarkable artist and mentor. "Kastro", "Vrahos", "Trokandero", "Alsos", "Green Park" It was in these places that he made his first appearances. At the same time, he studied acting at the P. Katselis acting school. Then came the first years he was on his own. "They were difficult years" he recalls ?the money was pitiful but our dreams were big. Taverns, Bars, Cabarets. Cabarets proved to be a great school. It was my first contact with foreign artists. Dancers, singers, jugglers, comedians. I had to constantly tell myself that I'm better than them. And really believe it. I was always rehearsing, working in front of the mirror day and night. I wrote without pause. Slowly, I started to draw public attention. It was the time when I shot my first to film "201 canaries" and "The Greek Wedding". Everybody was talking about the bright new talent then. My income started to increase, to a point that allowed me to eat two times a day. And just when everything seemed to be fine, I was then invited to make a few appearances in a club in Montreal, Canada and I decided to go. Those shows ended up taking the next ten years of my life.
1964-1974
"I lived and worked in USA and Canada for ten years. Even if I wanted to come back at the time it was impossible. I've been running after the Left movement all of my life and at that point it came to chase me in return. Even now that we are apart, I feel that we are still together. But it was in America that I formed my personal artistic style. I worked wherever I could. In Greek night clubs, in bars or small underground theatre cafes and experimental stages. In the meantime I kept writing. In New York, I was mostly known as a writer rather than an actor or an entertainer. In America I also met Hariklia. We got married in Chicago, during the winter of 1965. It was there that, two out of my three children where born, Nicholas in Chicago and Apostolis in Montreal. Korina was born in Athens. So was my grand daughter, Hariklaki. But most of those years, I spent in Montreal, Chicago and New York. I worked together with great comedians at a time when harsh social and political satire was slowly showing her face in America. It was what they later decided to name "stand up comedy" We used to call it "Theatre for the Poor". It didn't take long for me to develop and establish my own personal style which I brought back with me in Greece, when I returned after 10 years of wondering around"
During that stay in the States he was collaborating with a number of newspapers and magazines, providing mainly satiric pieces which he sold one at a time to whoever was interested. He still does write one liners and satiric monologues for several comedians. He kept a steady relation with PLAYBOY magazine, the DAILY WORKER, the VILLAGE and ON THE DOUBLE. But his work was mostly published in underground magazines that flourished at the time in Chicago and New York.
1974 AND ONWARDS
Harry Klynn returns to Greece in the winter of 1974 and starts appearing at the underground clubs of Plaka. First at "Egokairos" then "Zigos" and "Diagonios". At first, he just seemed awkward. "People were laughing but I don’t believe they knew why. They were just laughing. I was something new to them. Later on, much later actually, when they started sensing the reason why, they started criticizing but still they didn't know. Satire in these halls as well as in music theatres was restricted to petty jokes and meaningless wisecracks at the time". Pretty soon enough, his name started spreading from mouth to mouth establishing him as the top name in the night clubs.
He collaborated with almost every major singer and composer in the music business (Grigoris Bithikotsis, Vasilis Tsitsanis,Stratos Dionisiou, Poli Panou, Filippos Nikolaou, Dimitra Galani, Viki Mosholiou, Lakis xalkias, Manolis Mitsias, Dimitris Mitropanos, Giannis Parios, Giannis Poulopoulos, Tania Tsanaklidou, Elpida, Haralambos Garganourakis, Antonis Kalogiannis, Eleni Vitali, Haroula Alexiou, Anna Vissi etc). His name became better known, with the release of his first record entitled "Gia Desimo" (Crazy) by Columbia Records, in the autumn of 1976. About fifteen more followed this release, and they all managed to leave their mark in Greek music history. His last attempt, entitled "Harry Klynn X Files" came out in 1998 by PolyGram. Each and everyone of these records has been an important event. Fifteen albums which document in an admirable and remarkable way the true Greek satiric code that you will not find in books. All throughout the ninties, Harry Klynn ruled not only over the world of night clubs and theatres but also over the world of football (he was president of the FC APOLLON KALAMARIAS as well as the President of the National Football Clubs Union).
His theatrical shows at "Delfinario", "Orpheas", "Alsos" and "Minoa" have set a landmark in the history of music theatre. Until a few years ago, it was only the people really close to him, that knew of his painting talents which he had been developing since 1958. He never wished to expose the outcome of these attempts, until 1998 when he decided to present his work "Red Circle" to the public, at the "Ikastikos Kiklos" gallery. At the same time, he publishes books and poem collections. To this day, he has written more than ten poem collections, novels, essays, plays, and numerous scripts for film, television and revues. Only a small part of those has seen the inside of bookstores till now. "One day you will see them all", says he, based on the fact that "Kastaniotis" Editions has agreed to release his complete works. The first nine out of those include the album "Alaloum Kai Pasis Ellados" (chaos over Greece) comprising of his best features published in "Ta Nea" daily newspaper, four poem collections entitled "Epi Skinis" (On stage), "Polis" (The City), "Peri" (About), "Mythologia Kimilion" (Mythology of the Relics) and four novels "Happy Birthday Nikos", "Trifera Agathia" (Tender Thorns), "Analamvano tin efthini" (I assume responsibility), and "Otan vrehei ta helidonia petoun hamila" (Swallows fly low when it rains). At the same time he writes film scripts, plays, which he personally directs, gives pieces to several daily newspapers and stars in cinema and TV productions...
His first appearance in the movies took place in a short film by Dimitris Galatis entitled "Sighisis" (Confusion) in 1960. In 1961, he played a small but decisive part in "Greek Wedding", a film by Vasilis Georgiadis and the next year he was starring in "201 Canaries', a film by Grigoris Grigoriou, whose script bear the signature of Nikos Tsiforos and Polibios Vasiliadis. After his return from America he shot the feature film "Alaloum", in 1982, a film that proved to be one of the three biggest box office successes in our country, together with "Lieutenant Natassa" and "O anthropos me to garifalo" (The man who wore a carnation). Then followed the film "Eis Mnimin" (In the memory of)this film was made in 1981 for the national television, but the censorship division never allowed it to air. After a series of additional shootings, the film was released in theatres in1984 and met with great success). In 1983 he shot the film "Made in Greece" and ten years later he made a guest star appearance in the film by Nikos Zervos "Ginaikes Dilitirio" (Poison Women). 1994 saw him act in a short film by Giannis Mpotsis entitled "Volta sta Sinnefa" (A walk in the clouds) before 1995 when he came to star in his own son film "Radio Moscow" showing an entirely different face.
As long as the state monopoly held Greek Television captive, naturally Harry Klynn, as many more artists who seemed to be annoying, in some way, to the political status quo, were pushed aside and buried under the bureaucratic censorship.Facing this constant denial to host his own show, from the state channels, Harry Klynn resorted to an alternative way. He earned his air time by appearing into commercials. The TV spots in which he starred (and which have been awarded by the Union of Greek Advertising Companies) became an outrageous phenomenon. National TV were forced to play them since they were spots paid, but what they didn't expect was for them to be so successful that viewers would stay glued to their TV sets just at the off chance that they would catch these 25 second masterpieces. Each and everyone of them made a fuss among the people with their slogans staying at the tip of everybody's tongue, regardless of the viewers age or social background.
The birth of private TV stations saw Harry Klynn's star shine once again. Harry Klynn Special Shows, which he hosted for four years in a row with ANTENNA TV proved to be the one original thing Greek television had to offer. Each and everyone of them became an event of his own. In 1995,"Citizen Klynn" was created, a spectacular one man show that came as the Greek answer to the typical Italian shows that had flooded private and state channels. The structure, style and character of "Citizen Klynn" has been adopted by a number of subsequent shows, without any of them reaching the same level of excellence. And it is not without reason that many people in show business feel that "Citizen Klynn" has been the cause of the great crisis that TV shows undergo at this point, having proved so unsuccessful in copying him.
For forty years and more, the "Harry Klynn phenomenon" continues to grow and this "miraculous man from Pontos" establishes himself in the mind of the people as one of the most important personalities not only of our cultural but also our political life. Nobody would be surprised at the idea of Harry Klynn taking a seat in the Greek Parliament, next to our nation's fathers. Apart maybe from himself
"I am not sure the Greek Parliament is in need of a person like me, anyway it has its own comedians" he comments. But we believe we need Harry Klynn, because we consider him to be one of us, wherever he is