Magda Vášáryová (77) a Milan Lasica († 81) they were married for over 40 years. But after his departure, the actress and diplomat admitted that life with the popular humorist was not easy at all. Although they had two daughters together – Žofia and Hana – according to her, their relationship was more a realistic union of two strong personalities than a fairy tale. For even she talked about things that only those closest to him knew about him.
Milan Lasica died on July 18, 2021 in Bratislava. Symbolically for his performance majesty and outlook on life – on the stage, during the audience’s applause after the performance of the last number of the performance with Bratislava Hot Serenaders entitled Ja som optimista. Even the rescuers could not help the artist, who had already suffered from heart problems. However, his heart was not the only thing that troubled him.
“He was diabetic for 40 years. No one could have noticed it because he never spoke about it. He was a big tall guy with a nice figure, straight legs, but at the same time he was physically very frail.” revealed his wife, who took exemplary care of him and thus probably added several years to his life. Vášáryová also hinted during her speech that it was banned after 1968 and “the pranksters and whistleblowers returned”.
“What do you mean? That the political system was to blame for his health? I’m not ruling it out… But rather I think they all partied too much, when they were young, and it caught up with them. All my father’s friends and colleagues had diabetes, but also cancer, cardiovascular diseases… In short, they spared no expense, father first,” she supplied them daughter Hana (44).
Milan Lasica was born on February 3, 1940 in Zvolen. Before his birth, his parents lived in Košice, but after 1938 they moved back to Zvolen. His father was a bank clerk who got a job at Tatra Bank after his son was born, so the family moved to Bratislava. Events after February 1948 intervened in the family’s life, when the communist regime abolished Tatra banka and the father was sent to production. Soon the parents divorced and the future successful artist found himself in Pliesovce with his grandmother and his father’s sister.
After a year, he returned to his mother in Bratislava, completed elementary school and studies at the First Eleven-Year High School, today’s gymnasium on Grösslingová Street. After graduating in 1957, he began studying dramaturgy and theater science at the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava, completed his studies in 1962.
They met Satinský already in the early 1950s of the last century as children in the Pioneer Palace at that time. They also played together in one of the children’s shows. They introduced themselves as two of the twelve moons who are talking to Santa Claus from Kamchatka.
Their author collaboration began during their studies at VŠMU. In the years 1959 – 1960, as university students, they performed their comic dialogues during the so-called Youth afternoons in the Tatra Revue cabaret. They impressed with a new, original speech and text, in which they moved banal life situations to an absurd position.
In 1962, they demonstrated their unconventional idea of acting, humor and approach to the theatrical text in the graduation performance of the Čapkov brothers’ play Fatal Love at the VŠMU Studio. National artist Janko Borodáč called their speech unprofessional. Despite the criticism, they continued to develop a unique idea of the author’s theater of small forms.
In the years 1964 – 1967, Lasica also worked as a dramaturg of Czechoslovak Television in Bratislava. From 1967 to 1970, he worked in Bratislava’s Divadlo na Korza, where he profiled himself in a comedy-cabaret duo with Satinský. Their best performances include the play Not Waiting for Godot (1968), in which they also responded to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In addition to this play, they had two other premieres of their author’s plays, Soirée and Glad Tidings for All Those Who Have Bladder Difficulties, in a small basement theater for 90 spectators.
At that time, they also began to appear on television screens in the programs Evenings for Two (1964), New Year’s Eve on the Danube (1966), or the program Boomerang (1968). After the start of normalization in 1970, the Korze Theater was closed and Lasic and Satinský were banned from performing in Slovakia. They went to the Czech Republic and in the years 1970 – 1971 worked in the theater Večerní Brno. After returning, they performed at Bratislava’s New Stage. They appeared on the screen again only in the New Year’s Eve program from 1977, which was presented by Vladimír Menšík.
Poetic and cabaret theater Studio S was founded in 1982 in the premises of the popular Tatra Revue. Here they started acting as a couple again. They created several now-legendary performances of the cabaret plays Deň radosti, Our friend René and Jubilee. The musician and actor Jaroslav Filip also successfully assisted them in the performances. He also collaborated with them in the late 1970s and early 1980s on the TV project Who’s Behind the Door.
Milan Lasica also presented himself as an actor in dramatic works. Under the baton of director Vladimír Strnisko, he performed as Don Juan, Orgon, or Čičikov. In Studio S, he successfully performed alongside Marián Labuda in Slawomir Mrožek’s play Emigranti, before that they had a huge success with Výrobc štúci based on the satirical novel by Vladimír Mináč, where they performed together with Marián Zedniković and Vladimír Černý at the actor’s gala. The Weasel Unforgettably portrayed Cyrano on the boards of the Studio S theater. Together with Satinský, Jakub and his master excelled in Milan Kundera’s play. In April 1999, Studio S changed to Studio L+S and Milan Lasica became the owner of the theater.
He made his debut in front of the film camera in the 1961 film Vvi može poži večinje. He gradually created many characters in the successful films Sweet Games of the Last Summer, Paris Life, Infinite Non-Performance, Bulldogs and Cherries, Greetings from the globe, Three veterans, Jožko Púčik and his career, Let’s Run, Let’s Go!, Freckled Max and the Ghosts, Dear friends, yes!, Saturnin, Traps, traps, traps, Hanel, I served the King of England or the Hostage.
He also demonstrated his talent as a lyricist. Together with Jaro Filip, he is co-author of the legendary albums Bolo nas jedená, S vetrom o pretéky, My. He also collaborated as a lyricist with Miro Žbirek, Richard Müller and Peter Lipa (for example, the albums Lipa spieva Lasica 2005, Visit after the years 2013).
He also introduced himself as a singer, for example he sang on three albums of old evergreens with the musical group Bratislava Hot Serenaders (I am an optimist 2001, The whole world is cloudy 2002, When time stood still 2011).
He independently published three collections of texts, There were eleven of us (1985), Songs about nothing (1989) and Songs and other texts (2003). Together with Satinský, they published the books Waiting for Godot (a collection of skits and short stories in 1968) or Three Plays (1988). He wrote the book Zoči-voči with his lifelong friend Tomáš Janovic. With Ján Štrasser, he participated in the book Lenže ja som iba komik (2005). Under the name Bodka (2007) and Bodka II. (2009) his feuilletons were published as books.
Since 2005, he also served as the president of the International Film Festival (MFF) Art Film Fest Trenčianske Teplice (currently Art Film Fest Košice). In 2014, he was also awarded the Karel Čapek Award.
He received several awards for his versatile artistic activity: Crystal Wing for Lifetime Achievement (1997 together with J. Satinský), Medal for Merit 1st Class from the President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel (2003), Pribin Cross II. class for significant merits in the field of culture (2005), the Dominik Tatarka Award for the book Bodka (2008), the European Trebbia Award for creative activity (2014).
