“Risk-takers”. Chajzer for Gazeta.pl: There will be specific benefits for participants

Gazeta.pl: After many years, you return to entertainment and the general public as the host of “Risky”. The big countdown is already underway! What emotions accompany you moments before the start of a new program?

Zygmunt Chajzer: It’s definitely a big challenge, but I’m glad that I can implement such an interesting and important project. I hope that it will not only be entertainment, but also concrete benefits for those who take part in our program and will find there important information about themselves and themselves.

In the case of recruitment for various shows, entertainment formats, and game shows, organizers often assess candidates in various aspects, including their tendency to take risks. Will risk appetite also be an important aspect here?

I think that the most important decision will be to take part in this project. However, to what extent we are risk-takers and how much we can approach this topic calmly will become clear during the program itself.

Was it controversial to you that it was a men-only show?

Difficult question! I will say this: there are situations to which men react a little differently. I don’t know, maybe they are less resistant…? But all this will be revealed as we go along.

Can we talk about Zygmunt Chajzer’s great comeback?

In a sense, yes. Although this project is still shrouded in mystery – and let it remain that way.

Comeback suggests that there is something to return to. Let’s follow your career: the turn of the millennium saw viewers’ awards, Telekamery, a few years of the absolute hit “Idź na miłość”, then “Moment of Truth”, more game shows and commercials… Zygmunt Chajzer visited almost every Polish home via television. This beautiful career continues to this day, but things have been quieter for you over the years?

I am still very professionally active. I work in the radio, I have been associated with the radio since the beginning of my professional career in the 1980s, first in “Sygnały Dzień”, then in the sports editorial office – I have had quite a long career in radio. And of course “Summer with the Radio”, which turned out to be a huge success. At the moment it is Radio Pogoda – a radio that gives me a lot of satisfaction and is in my first place.

Television has always been an adventure. Television programs and media forms have always been an addition to what is most important: working on the radio. There was indeed a period when I was extremely successful and had huge viewership. Television is undoubtedly the medium that creates popularity. The voice itself does not gain much in the media. It is possible, but of course it is television that gives recognition. I managed to get it.

I’ve had a few TV offers recently that I didn’t accept. For various reasons. However, I consider what we are doing at the moment important, necessary and useful – and that is why I am happy to take part in it.

Working on television is also risky: pressure, rushing, exposure to millions of opinions, both positive and unpleasant. One mistake can harm or even destroy your career. Would you say you are a risk-taker at work?

In a sense, yes. Another thing is that in the years when I started working with television, the pressure was not so great. There was no Internet, no hate, only direct contacts, sometimes people asked about something. Currently, the risk taken by people who expose themselves in the media – because with every public appearance we show a piece of ourselves, our personality, our psyche – is greater. We are undoubtedly exposed to many different new dangers.

I have a lot of experience behind me – in a way, I can call myself a veteran of media appearances – and I have become immune to many things. I am not impressed by individual outtakes or other people’s opinions. However, I realize that for many people, especially when they start their media careers – and not only in the media, because we constantly live in an environment that judges us – dealing with this assessment and appropriate approach to stressful situations is very important. I hope that the “Riskmakers” program will show people the reality around them and tell them how to deal with it.

Are you a risk-taker in life? You once said: “If I have a chance to do something new – I try, at most I will fail. Then we’ll see what happens.”

There is a scene in the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” when Jack Nicholson, who plays the main character, tries to tear a sink from its pedestal. In this way, he wants to break down the entrance and open a path to the world. There’s no chance of doing that. At one point he says: It didn’t work. But at least I tried.

And with “Risk Takers” – will it succeed or not…?

I hope so! First of all, we will interest men in this topic and they will be drawn into the emotions associated with the program. And thirdly, that they will draw wise conclusions for themselves.