Nightmare Stage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nightmare Stage is a late night talk show on Croatian TV station Z1 hosted by maverick traveller and author Željko Malnar.

The show, airing on Saturday nights, pushes the boundaries of television programming. The host throws all tact and taste through the window, taking rough manners from the street to the screen without either diluting them with etiquette or stylizing them for theatrical effect. He asks his guests uncomfortable and aggressive questions in order to expose their flaws and often resorts to flat insults. The show also has elements of a freak show, featuring pitoresque recurring characters with unusual mental makeups (nicknamed Cezar, Tarzan, Jaran, Remzo, Laki, Ševa) from the streets of Peščenica, Malnar's neighborhood in Zagreb. Malnar has ostensibly proclaimed Peščenica an independent republic with him as president and this cast as his cabinet.

Nightmare Stage is also the title of an article written by Malnar, regularly appearing in the weekly Globus. Globus invited Malnar to move his show to their pages when it was banned between 1994(?) and 2000.

In 2002(?) Nightmare Stage hosted Dennis Rodman who came to Zagreb only for the show after his good friend, a Croat, showed it to him through internet streaming. When the usual receiving of viewer's telephone calls occurred, many female viewers flirted with Rodman and wanted sex with him. He readily invited them to his hotel room and told them the address while being live in the studio.

In 2004 the cast of the show starred in a feature film of the same name.