Kim Bård Hansen (born 9 July 1954), better known by his stage name Herodes Falsk, is a Norwegian comedian, actor, author, and songwriter.
The two shared a similar musical taste, listening to artists like Jethro Tull, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and Led Zeppelin.
According to his autobiography, when reading a short newspaper story about Frosk in 1972, he realized that the band and its members were "too average", looking like regular long-haired boys with ordinary names, and that an image change was needed to make it in the music industry.
Together they wrote a collection of comedy sketches and humorous songs in the summer of 1976, and were later joined by former Popol Vuh singer Jahn Teigen whom Falsk had become friends with on the road.
Falsk, Teigen and Mathisen also shared a common sense of absurd humor, and decided to form the musical comedy group Prima Vera.
Annoyed by this, Falsk included "Arne Belinda" on the debut album's track list, with the line "Censored by Erik Bye" written underneath.
[2] For their 1978 follow-up album, Brakara, Prima Vera decided to include "Arne Belinda" anyway, by slightly altering the song's melody so that Erik Bye could no longer be credited as composer.
[4] The rumored lawsuit from Erik Bye never came, but in his 2004 autobiography Falsk credits the "Arne Belinda" debacle as the single-biggest reason Brakara topped the charts, claiming this was "the kind of publicity you couldn't buy with all the money in the world",[2] and helped make Prima Vera a national phenomenon.
In 1979, Prima Vera released their third album Salmer og sanger vi gjerne hiver, which stayed in the charts for 11 weeks, peaking at #2,[5] only beaten by Pink Floyd's The Wall.
The original album cover had a superimposed image of Teigen, Falsk and Mathisen standing behind King Olav V, Crown Princess Sonja and Queen Elizabeth II.
Even though the image itself was quite innocent, with no evidence that any member of Norway's royal family was ever offended by the picture, the band was forced to withdraw the album from the market, and re-release it with a different cover.
The first was Fantomets glade bryllup (The Phantom's happy wedding) which was performed on Centralteateret in Oslo in 1978,[11] and became a box office success despite lukewarm reviews.
In October 1986, Falsk and Mathisen returned to the theatre for their first show since the Prima Vera breakup, called Fusk, and for once they received mostly positive reviews.
The TV show was basically an extension of Falsk/Mathisen's live act and featured sketches, songs, television parodies and bits of Falsk's stand-up material.
[14] The album's title track was also released as a single, and the following year, Falsk/Mathisen took Fylla har skylda to the stage, and performed a series of sold-out shows at the prestigious Chat Noir revue theatre in Oslo, followed by a tour.
In 1992, they wrote a new show, Tar'n helt ut, which also sold out Chat Noir, and created a second TV series, called Sen lunch.
In 1993, the duo released the album To grunner til å ikke ha sex i kveld, which peaked at #10 in the charts,[15] and was followed by a Chat Noir show in 1994.
After performing for sold-out audiences throughout the summer of 1995, Falsk reunited with Mathisen to create the TV series Nådeløs kveldskos, which introduced some of Falsk/Mathisen's most memorable characters, like the drunken Sami chef Ante Valente, the spaced-out hippie Donovan Østby, and disco singers Børre & Gibb.
After taking most of 1996 off, Falsk/Mathisen returned in 1997 with the album Chili Kick and the TV show Høy puls, which aired on TV3 and included Falsk experimenting with jazz poetry.
However, in 1999, after the funeral of their mutual friend, guitarist Marius Müller who died in a car accident, Teigen and Falsk talked for the first time since the breakup, and cleared the air.
[18] Following the Prima Vera reunion, Falsk again went solo, and performed the stand-up show En gentleman fra Drammen at Scene West in Oslo during the summer of 2001.