Die Maiers

Comedy Trapeze

By Dominique Jando

Sabine Maier was born in 1965 in a village in the Black Forest, in Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany; and so was Joachim (“Yogi”) Mohr, just a year later. However, Yogi grew up in Hannover, in Lower Saxony, while Sabine remained in Baden-Württemberg, eventually moving to the university town of Freiburg im Breslau at age 18 to finish her education.

Then Sabine, who had begun to design and make clothing, went to Kassel, in Hesse, in the center of Germany (and south of Hannover), to study Art and Design. But she had also other artistic aspirations, and she went to train at Fooltime, in Bristol, England—an experimental circus and circus school where she learned a host of circus disciplines, including aerial arts. Meanwhile, Yogi moved to West Berlin (in 1985, when Germany was still divided between East- and West-Germany) and subsequently to Switzerland, where he worked at various jobs, none of them related to the circus.

When Yogi returned to Freiburg in the late 1980s, he began to juggle, and finally met Sabine. Recognizing their common interests and a shared sense of humor, they enrolled together in the École sans Filet, a well-known circus school in Brussels, Belgium, and eventually created their comedy trapeze act. In 1990, they settled in Berlin, from where they went on to work with great success all over Europe and in the United States, mostly in variety.

Sabine Maier still designs and makes costumes for the stage. She and Joachim have three children, Luca Eleonora (b. 1996), Branca Yolanda (b. 1999), and August Valentin (b. 2006).

See Also

• Video: Die Maiers, comedy trapeze act, on French TV's Le plus grand cabaret du monde (2007)