Ivan Mládek

Ivan Mládek (born 7 February 1942) is a Czech recording artist, composer, and comedian who gained success in the mid-1970s.

Born in Prague, He started his career in the mid-1950s, and moved to Paris in 1968, before returning to his homeland in the early 1970s.

He is best known as a songwriter and singer for his 1977 hit parody "Jožin z bažin", which later become a parody by various artists and singers. Mládek is known for creating the Guitariano guitar, a guitar shaped synthesizer. Mládek also performs with his country band Banjo Band in the mid-1960s, along with his frequent collaborator, Ivo Pešák. In addition to music, Mládek was also a successful comedian and actor in the 1980s. He has written 233 songs over his long career. 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 "Stephan," in Slavic "Štěpán."