After establishing a dubious image as Denmark’s biggest Bush fan, Brügger went to America and took part in the U.S. president’s re-election campaign. The process was captured on video and turned into the documentary “Dance for Bush” that became a major hit on the Net. Brügger’s latest effort was broadcast in four parts. What parts of the Stalinist state caught his eccentric eye?

The formal purpose of sojourn was “comic performance for the purposes of cultural exchange.” Brügger and his troupe had prepared a satirical version of “The Princess and the Pea” by Hans Christian Andersen. But North Korean officials were less than amused. Not only did the play concern itself unduly with the decadent aristocracy, it had a happy ending to boot.

“Well, you could say that 50 years of thought control and of censorship has really made its mark on the North Korean sense of humor and comedy,” the Danish comedian said in a recent interview with Radio Free Asia. Somehow, the North Korean officials managed to turn his comedy into pro-government propaganda. Even though the play was a slapstick comedy, the audiences reportedly showed no reaction whatsoever. As it was a wordless play, the language barrier cannot be blamed.

Brügger brought a big pizza shovel or “peel” as a gift for Kim Jong-il after hearing that the North Korean leader in the early 1990s invited an Italian pizza chef to Pyongyang. The chef later wrote a book titled, “I Made Pizza for Kim Jong-il” describing Kim’s odd dictatorship. “We decided to give him a pizza shovel because it has been told that the dear leader really likes pizza, you know, he's supposed to be constantly on the move, what they call ‘on-the-spot guidance,’” Brügger said. In the documentary Brügger and his friends are shown explaining how to use the pizza peel to North Korean officials, who listen intently with serious expressions on their face.

The North Korean authorities took the team to a massive anti-American demonstration in Pyongyang, making them stand in the front lines. With thousands waving their arms to the rhythm of their slogan, “Stop the U.S.’s provocation of nuclear war,” Brügger and his friends can be seen taking part rather awkwardly. He said the government may have wanted to show foreigners who support the regime to the outside world, but the harder they tried the more forced it looked.

“Before coming, I read books about North Korea, but nothing can really prepare you for being there because -- and that is very important to understand -- that even though you are there, you are not there.” The reason, he says, is that all experiences including the people you meet are fabricated, in a kind of virtual reality. Brügger added if the thought control and dictatorship of the North Korea regime were simply shown as they are, people from outside would consider it a twisted satire.

(englishnews@chosun.com )