Ivan Mládek was born in Prague, where he spent most of his childhood. His father, a lawyer and painter, taught him to paint, but he preferred music and started his now-famous Banjo Band. The Banjo Band first performed in 1966. In 1968 Mládek emigrated to France to pursue his music career in Paris. He soon returned to Czechoslovakia and became famous as a musician in the second half of the 1970s; he has written over 400 songs as of 2007. He became known as a comedian in the 1980s. Mladek's first humorous story was published in 1980 in the magazine Mladý Svět. Many of the stories that followed may be found in the eight books that Mládek wrote. Mládek has a wife named Eva and son named Štěpán.
Guitariano
Mládek is credited with designing the Guitariano, a guitar-shaped synthesizer. In place of strings, keys are arranged on the fretboard of the instrument, their pitch corresponding to the pitch of a string depressed at the same fret, and there are controls for automatic accompaniment on the body of the instrument.
Comedian
Ivan Mládek has been a widely known comedian since the 1980s. His shows "The Country Estrada" and "ČundrCountryShow" were on Czech television for many years. Eventually "ČundrCountryShow" was cancelled. "Country Estrada" was on TV NOVA until 2005 when it was abruptly canceled. A new similar comedy show aired on NOVA but was short-lived. Mládek himself has since claimed that he has no plans for another show, and that no station will finance this type of show anymore Re-runs of Mládek's older shows are still regularly aired on ČT. His comedy routines include standup, skits, and wordless skits accompanied only by the humorous lyrics of one of his songs.
Actor
Ivan Mládek has had a limited acting career, his roles being mostly minor. He has played in the Czech films "Ještě větší blbec, než jsme doufali" and himself in "Na druhé koleji". His new projects are sitcoms Cyranův Ostrov, Cyranův poloostrov and later Noha 22
Composer and notable songs
Ivan Mládek has authored at least 233 songs. He writes the lyrics and music to most of his songs, which are primarily country-style songs with traces of dixieland and often contain humorous lines and puns. Many of his songs have become cultural icons in the Czech Republic. Some of them are:
Zkratky — a song written almost solely with abbreviations.
Jožin z bažin — possibly Mládek's best known song, which he even called the "National Anthem" of his country show. In January 2008, the song became popular in Poland and Hungary, winning several radio hitparades, and later on also in Russia. In 2011 this song was made popular in Catalonia, thanks to a TV show called APM?.The song is a surreal tale of a mysterious man-eating monster living in the swamps, who could be defeated only with use of a cropduster. This song was later covered by American Thrash Metal band Metallica during their concert in Prague in April 2018.
Ivan Mládek has a regular cast for his shows, some members of the "Banjo Band" and some of them independent entertainers. Some of Mládek's regulars include; Ivo Pešák, Lenka Plačková, Milan Pitkin, Jan Mrázek, Vítězslav Marek, Libuše Roubychová, Lenka "Kalamity" Šindelářová, Pavel Skalník and others.
