On YouTube, he explains Renaissance, Impressionism, or Expressionism in 100 seconds each. Jakob Schwerdtfeger is also an art historian who gets straight to the point. He has to, because in his current main profession as a stand-up comedian, hesitant reasoning would be counterproductive. Schwerdtfeger, born in 1988 in Hanover, studied art history and worked for several years in the field of art education at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.

The glorification of art, as traditionally practiced in museums (and still partly is), is not his thing: "I think art is often talked about in a way that is way too elitist and detached. I want to change that, bring humor into the art world, and create entertaining approaches to art." For this, he uses various entry points: book publications ("I see something you don't see"), TV appearances, podcasts, social media, and comedy shows. With his current stage program "Masterpiece" and the reading show "I see something you don't see," he will tour through Germany until spring 2026.

The icing on the cake of his career as an art comedian is his debut as a curator of a photo presentation by Felix Krämer at the Municipal Gallery Viersen (January 19 – March 1, 2025). How did the contact with the director of the Düsseldorf Kunstpalast come about? "In 2009, I was his first intern at the Städel Museum when Felix Krämer was the curator there," Schwerdtfeger recounts. "After two weeks, he offered me to address him informally, and today we are friends. Krämer wanted a funny, quirky exhibition, so he asked me if I would like to stage it. Of course, I wanted to!"