0s | [Music] |
3s | Noah Telson, I'm a comedian and |
6s | improviser and I run and own my own |
8s | theatre here in Berlin. I was born in |
14s | Germany but raised in Woodstock, New York. |
16s | My wife is also an artist. She's a dancer. |
19s | Between her income and my income from |
22s | the theater, we're able to make enough |
24s | money to survive. |
27s | [Music] |
28s | Berlin is a very artistic city. A lot of |
31s | people move here to sort of explore |
33s | their creative sides. I think the "poor |
35s | but sexy" description of Berlin is more |
38s | or less true. Here the concern is less |
40s | about paying the rent and more about, how |
43s | can I pursue some of my dreams and |
45s | actually make a career out of it? Rents |
48s | are relatively low, although that's |
50s | changing now. Berlin was just named the |
52s | number one increase in property values |
55s | in the entire world. |
57s | [Music] |
61s | I moved to Berlin |
65s | with my wife eight years ago. This |
67s | apartment is €980 a month. It's 94 |
71s | square meters, |
72s | has two bedrooms, a dining room, a |
76s | kitchen and a bathroom. Large, spacious |
78s | apartments in Berlin are actually quite |
80s | common, especially if you have an old |
82s | house like this. In the morning, we have |
91s | breakfast which usually consists of |
94s | toasts, fried eggs, |
96s | probably an avocado on top of that. We make |
103s | most of our food here at home. We're able |
105s | to cut down on a lot of costs by- by |
108s | cooking here and then eating leftovers. |
110s | [Music] |
115s | For lunch, sometimes we'll go to a small |
119s | restaurant here in the neighborhood that |
121s | we usually take to go and we'll eat it |
123s | either at the park or here at the apartment. |
125s | We'll do that maybe once or twice a week. |
129s | Public transportation in Berlin is |
132s | actually quite expensive and it's quite |
133s | good. It's 24 hours, you can get pretty |
136s | much anywhere in about 30 minutes I'd say. |
138s | There is definitely infrastructure |
145s | for biking in Berlin and I bike |
147s | everywhere. |
148s | I have public health insurance. Probably |
151s | a majority of the population has public |
153s | health insurance. I pay €150 a month |
156s | for my health insurance and that is the |
158s | lowest here for someone who's earning a |
161s | living wage. Because of the nature of the |
170s | work that I do, my night life and my |
173s | social life is pretty much confined to a |
176s | Comedy Cafe Berlin which is the theatre |
179s | that I own. |
183s | Fridays we have improv comedy |
186s | performed with a group that I'm with for over |
190s | five years now, so yeah, I do drink there |
192s | and I do hang out there and I do have |
194s | fun there. The cost of drinking in Berlin |
197s | is still quite low. For like a standard |
200s | German beer, it'll be anywhere between |
203s | €2.50 and €3.50 |
208s | I don't think I could have started |
214s | something like this really anywhere else |
217s | for 100k just to start a business from |
219s | the ground up and have it still running |
221s | two and a half years later. I would |
223s | attribute that to being here in Berlin. I |
225s | do see myself staying in Berlin for |
227s | quite a while. Having a business is |
230s | kind of like having a baby and I can't |
231s | take that baby with me so we will be |
234s | here as long as Comedy Cafe Berlin still |
236s | exists. I don't really see myself wanting |
239s | to leave Berlin. |
241s | [Music] |