by Google
Patrik Herman, a well-known presenter from shows such as Lampáreň and Reflex, openly talks about his childhood in a teaching family, the difficult life trials that they shaped him, and his work on Markíza and RTVS televisions. In the interview, you will learn about his work with the civic association Nie kankarek, his memories of Trnava and his challenges for the younger generation.
Patrik, you come from a family of teachers. How did it affect you?
It's not easy to have teachers in your family. My mother was a teacher, my grandfather was a teacher and principal of an elementary school, my aunt also taught - simply the whole family was a teacher. We children were the guinea pigs for all the papers and tests. One minus was a bad grade, but I'm not complaining. On the other hand, it taught me many things that I later appreciated.
Besides coming from a teaching family, what kind of childhood did you have?
I grew up in a family where my parents divorced - even twice. Today I have many brothers, but only one sister whom I always say is the best sister in the world. Of course, divorce and a broken family took its toll on us. There were moments that were really challenging. At one point I even almost found myself on the street with my brother. It was a difficult situation, but today, with the passage of time, I realize that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
I later got accommodation thanks to good people who helped me. I remember living in a high school dormitory where the lady cooks would leave leftover food for me in the evening when I came home from school and work. These small gestures from good people kept me afloat. There were a lot of positive things around me and even more good people who helped me overcome that difficult period. Without their help, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it myself.
Have you wanted to be a moderator since childhood?
I never thought I would become a moderator - the only one who knew it was my grandmother. She was clear already when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was sick at her place, I sat on the couch with an open diary and read from it like a Czechoslovak television announcer. I even read Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev's obituary.
Maybe you weren't alive at that time, actually, I'm not even sure if I was alive during his lifetime. However, I remember that one Soviet official died. And it's strange what a person remembers from his childhood - you can suppress many things, but some details remain. For example, I still remember his function to this day: he was the General Secretary of the Constitutional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Grandma stated then: "You will be the moderator."
em> However, I learned this much later, in high school.
What moments from your do you still remember your student days and how they shaped you?
Everyone has a professor in high school who they respected - such a legend. At Trnava grammar school we had a professor of Slovak, who also obtained this status with me. I remember how she once refused to accept my essay on "The Hard Life of a Student". I submitted it after the deadline because I was sick. Her reaction was: “You were at home, you were bored, you were doing nothing, you could have written it and sent it. You have a five. Feel free to send it to the newspaper now.”
I'm not the type to do things out of spite, but that's when I decided to give it a try. I sent the opinion to the district newspaper and about two weeks later it was published in the weekly Trnavský hlas as an editorial. I got my first fee for it - about 50 or 60 cents. Along with the fee came an offer for cooperation, so I started contributing regularly.
Of course, the professor registered it. One day, in chemistry class, she pulled me out of the classroom by my ears and took me to a room where older students were preparing the school magazine. She told me: "You will write here." And so I started. At that moment, I literally fell in love with writing and with our school magazine, which was called Blesk, later Nový Blesk.
Our chemistry professor then came up with a brilliant idea - she invented a "pouring coupon". We published this coupon in the magazine. The student could write it out and hand it in at the beginning of the day, thereby being excused from the exam and papers. It was a marketing move that made the magazine immensely popular. We sold more of it, we had more money, so we could invest in better technology and better quality paper.
With this success, we participated in national competition of school magazines in Zvolen. We presented our idea there, and a year later magazines all over Slovakia had it. Today I am a judge for this contest and some magazines still use our "pouring coupon".
Do you remember your first audition in the media?
I had a group notice that I had a microphone voice. I myself was not aware of it at all - because everyone, when they listen to themselves, has the feeling that their voice sounds strange. However, my friends signed me up for an audition, in which I succeeded, so I became a moderator of a commercial station, which at that time had coverage in western Slovakia.
I moderated free blocks, morning and evening broadcasts, and we even had a student column. Those were great times. Sometimes I broadcasted until midnight and again from five in the morning so there was no point in going home. I often sleep over the radio on an inflatable and later other colleagues joined this habit.
It had its own charm. After the evening broadcast, I prepared CDs and jingles, and in the morning I got up just a few minutes before the start of the broadcast. Since no one could see me, I sat down at the microphone in sweatpants, sometimes in a T-shirt, sometimes without it, still blindfolded. I played the jingle, welcomed the listeners and played the longest songs possible so I could brush my teeth in the meantime and prepare for the next broadcast. By three quarters of an hour, when my colleagues started arriving, I was already combed, dressed and ready to continue.
What about the audition for the Marquise?
My friend Matúš was waiting for me in front of the house on the morning of the audition in his Fiat Punto and literally kidnapped me to the audition. Without him, I wouldn't have even made it to Bratislava, so he kept me there against my will. There were about 3000 people at the audition, it lasted two or three days and they only chose three.
During those days we got countless tasks . I remember making it all the way to the final round where I was tasked with doing a live entry. Imagine the situation: you are on the D1 highway near Piešťany, where a mass traffic accident just happened. I had 30 seconds to prepare and within exactly 30 seconds I had to start the one minute live entry. It was a difficult task, but I managed it.
The head of the commission Peter Susko looked at me and said: "Okay, Patrik, but our assumption is that news editors will always tell the truth, not mislead and lie. And you think we can't count? ” I didn't understand what he was talking about. They sent me away and I had no idea what happened.
Only later did I learn that the problem was in the application. There was an age box, and since they were looking for editors over 25, my age of 21 was a problem. However, that application was written by Matúš, and I didn't know what he wrote there. I couldn't even admit it. I was leaving devastated, after three demanding days that seemed wasted to me. I was already reaching for the doorknob when suddenly it was said: "Goodbye doesn't mean goodbye." See you on Monday.” And that was the moment.
Your career began in news. How do you remember this period and the situations you had to face?
The younger generation mostly knows me from Lampárna or Reflex, but few remember that I started my career in a television newspaper as a reporter. In the beginning, I was only in charge of education and social affairs - after all, I was still a "little ear". I preferred to avoid politics.
At that time, however, Slovakia was going through a tumultuous period of the mafia klondike. The mafia literally divided the country here, and crime reached incredible proportions. And where to send an editor at one o'clock in the morning to a crime where someone was shot - for example, in front of a hotel in Bratislava? Of course, they sent the youngest, unmarried and childless – that is, me. In the end, covering the most tumultuous years of the underworld, there were only two of us - me and Eva Černá.
I experienced several unpleasant moments during that period. I lived in Dúbravka in a sublet, and those who rented my apartment had no idea that one morning I found a severed cat's head on my mat. Another time, "thick-necked" boys were waiting for me in front of the house, who loaded me into a car and took me to the Bratislava freezers. There resided one of the underworld bosses who needed to talk. He made it clear to me that my reports complicate his business - especially those that reported on attempts to assassinate him. After such news, no one wanted to enter into further agreements with him. He explained to me "friendly" that he would not want me to inform about him further.
They were moments full of coercion, but otherwise they could not harm me. Maybe I was somewhat protected by the viewership and popularity of television. If something happened to me, everyone would immediately know who was behind it.
What memories do you have of the Lamphouse? ? Did you also have bizarre complaints?
About a third of the tips we get are really weird. I often think to them: For God's sake, what are these people solving? " For example, someone has a hectare of land, but argues with a neighbor about one centimeter. When people ask me about the success of cases, I answer that half of them should not exist at all - those problems are solvable.
If a problem arises that it really points to a systemic failure, such as a bad law, section, or misaligned processes, it can be criticized, pointed out, and rectified. But interpersonal relations, which are based on aversion and malice, cannot be solved even by a report on television. On the contrary, reporting can make such conflict even worse.
How did your civic association NIE RAKOVINE come about?
The No Cancer campaign was created as a response to my father's death. We didn't have any oncological diseases in our family before, so there was nothing to warn us to be more careful. And yet it happened. Tatino fell ill with colon cancer, but already in an advanced stage. I remember exactly that phone call from a family friend of ours, who is a doctor in Myjava. She told me: "Patrik, do something quickly, solve something quickly, because dad has bad results."
Paradoxically, I spent the most time with my father when he was already in the hospital. We had long conversations and we both knew the end was coming. We also knew that it could have been prevented. There was a simple preventive test for stool bleeding, but we had no idea about it. No one in our neighborhood, in the family, or in the media talked about it then, and the state did not care about education. If dad had taken this test in his fifties, he wouldn't have died three years later.
I remember him saying to me one time: “Son, you have the ability to make people listen to you . Let there be less hell in families." This sentence of his strongly resonated in me. His death was unnecessary and untimely - ignorance killed him.
Since then, I've been trying to fix these two things: increase awareness so that people know how they can protect themselves and at the same time help patients who are already fighting cancer. We have established patient consultation rooms in oncology, we currently have five of them.
Why did you decide to switch from Markíza to RTVS?
It was very difficult for me to imagine leaving my colleagues. I had an incredibly good relationship with them, and that's still true today - maybe we even meet for coffee more often than when we worked together. It was difficult to clear my mind that I leave them.
RTVS I perceived as something more complex. It's still a creation, but it offers a space for me to act in a session that has the potential to really help. Of course, the current atmosphere around this institution does not please me at all. It's crazy and scary.
But if you're wondering why I decided to go there, it's because this opportunity offered me completely new horizons and possibilities .
What are your plans for the future?
I have a huge number of projects and sometimes I don't even know where to start. My goal is to complete at least some of them - whether those related to oncology, prevention or efforts to move the system forward.
I am grateful for every meeting with ZŤP children in Trnava that I have under my care. I really wish and pray that I can always find enough funds for them to go on rehab stays.
This is something that still bothers me - I realize that nothing what I do is not just about me. I couldn't do it myself. I always need people to join me, to convince and gain their trust. Fortunately, there are always those who will help, join in and together we can treat someone to something. It's all about trust and joint effort - when people come together, they can do great things.
What would you say to the younger generation?
What would I pass on to the younger generation? Be even more predatory than we were. Take matters into your own hands and move this country forward significantly and faster. We, the middle and older generation, will be extremely grateful to you for this.
