Doing the Limbo Dance – With The Hoff

7 1/2 years ago I started this blog with the intention to document my quest to meet the myth, the man, the legend David Hasselhoff.

With tears in my eyes and Limbo Dance still playing in my head I’m sitting here trying to put what happened yesterday into words.

Slowly but surely I am realizing more than ever that I haven’t been alone on this epic quest.

The general consensus today was that everybody can now die in peace after I managed to meet the Hoff.

This just showed me again that The Hoff still has the talent to unite a lot of people and make them happy – just as he did 30 years ago in Berlin.

And of course fate had it that our meeting took place in Berlin close where the Berlin wall divided the city into 2 different halves.

But before I will tell you how I managed to meet the Hoff there are some things you haven’t read on this site.

How I got so close but yet so far from meeting The Hoff before

I mentioned before that it took me 7 1/2 years to meet David Hasselhoff.

In truth it took me 30 years to meet my childhood hero, Michael Knight or Mitch Buchannon or just simply The Hoff.

From elementary school onwards I have been a fan of his music (Top 3 are Looking for Freedom, Crazy for You and of course Hooked on a feeling (Ooga Chaka)) and his TV shows.

And to this day there is not a single week where none of his songs blast through the stereo or my headphones at work and it puts a smile on my face every single time without failing.

So you can imagine the excitement I felt when a colleague of mine from Groupon won a Meet and Greet with The Hoff in Austria in 2010.

And you can imagine the pain I felt that this stupid vulcano in Iceland called Eyjafjallajökull had to erupt exactly at this time and made it impossible for us to fly to Vienna.

However my brother quickly came to the rescue and drove all the way from Regensburg to Vienna to meet our childhood hero in person.

I will never forget the evening when I was sitting on my couch just minding my own business when my phone rang and The Hoff just started singing Looking for Freedom for me.

So in the most exciting moment of his life my brother not only managed to get 3 signed pictures of The Hoff but also had the brilliant idea to surprise me to ease my pain of not meeting The Hoff in person myself – The Hoff probably was very proud of this much brother love!

Then there were times when David has been visiting Berlin for one reason or another – and usually staying at the Adlon or Kempsinski Hotel.

So as I have my priorities straight I did occasionally skip work (it’s alright relax, I have been Freelance already by that time) and hung out in cafes on the other side of the road of the Hotels he was staying in reading a book, drinking a coffee and hoping to bump into him.

Then there were times when I sent emails to managers, set Google keyword alarms to trigger when something like “Meet and Greet David Hasselhoff” popped up or friends of mine entered weight loss challenges to win a meeting with The Hoff.

But all to no avail. The Hoff seemed so close and yet so far.

People “suffering” from my David Hasselhoff obsession

Suffering is a strong word – Affected is maybe more fitting in this context.

But it is safe to say that everybody who had more than 5min contact with my in his/her life has been aware of the fact that I am quite a big David Hasselhoff fan.

I once had an American roommate who made the mistake to tell me on our first day of living together that he did not know that The Hoff was also a singer.

So every morning for half a year he woke up to me blasting “Hooked on a feeling” on full volume through our flat in Nürnberg.

In Chile I was living with an awesome crew of French/Chilean guys and girls and our house where we lived got the name “Casa Ooga Chaka” because every single evening when partying this song came on.

But it didn’t stop there – even in my work life I introduced The Hoff to everybody.

Ask any Ex-Groupon colleague what happened every Friday evening at 6pm sharp and they will tell you that the SEM-room had “Looking for Freedom” blasting through on maximum volume.

And even though these and many more things always happened with me around I am still lucky to have some friends left that somehow tolerate my Hasselhoff obsession.

The Universe aligns for the Meeting

Fast forward to 3.10.2019 in Berlin Max-Schmeling-Halle 21.30 Uhr.

The first half of yet another excellent David Hasselhoff concert (3rd one in 10 years in Berlin) is already over when I notice a small commotion at the right side of the main stage.

Without thinking much I just pulled a friend of mine along to check out what is going on.

And before we know what is happening we are told that we are the 2 last guys to get a sticker to access the backstage area of the concert.

Standing there someone starts explaining to us that towards the end of the concert David will play one of his all time favorites “Limbo Dance” and we are to come on stage and do the Limbo Dance.

And so it happened that during “Crazy for You” we get called backstage and get our final instructions.

Without hesitating I just go ahead of the line (I think nobody else really wanted to be first on stage – don’t understand why but hey) and stand there waiting for the Limbo to start.

Then there is the sign of the crew to go on stage and do the best Limbo Dance you can do.

Life starts to slow down (this is how it must have felt like for The Hoff and Pamela Anderson running in Slow-Motion on the beaches of Malibu) and I make my way towards The Hoff.

I am not 100% sure but I felt like the whole universe in this moment stood still while David and I lock eyes while I slowly Limbo my way towards him.

His right hand is already way up high in the air anticipating the most legend-wait-for-it-dary high five of all times.

As if he would have known that Barney Stinson could not have demanded a higher of High Fives himself.

It took all my mental strenght to not just run towards David to give him the long awaited High Five.

But I still had to Limbo first before I could finally make it happen.

So down I limbo past the girls holding the Limbo pole, getting up elegantly on the other side and then – Bähm.

One High Five to end them all while our eyes lock.

And in this moment – I kid you not – I saw in his eyes and he in mine that the universe was perfectly aligned as it always should have been.

Time speeds up again to its normal speed, I limbo down the stage and back into my circle of friends waiting for me – Each of them at least as happy for me as I am myself.

The concert finishes off with yet another legendary performance of “Looking for Freedom”, but honestly I barely register that anymore.

Now with one night of sleep and with my heartbeat almost back to normal again there is this sudden realisation that this is it… I met The Hoff.

And from all the messages from my friends and family coming in I get the feeling that The Hoff managed something really big.

Even though this chapter in my life might be closed now – as will be this website – The Hoff taught me a very important lesson.

Always believe in yourself and follow your dreams. If David would have listened to all those nay-sayers he wouldn’t be the most successful TV Star of all-times.

So if people tell you that your dream is ridiculous and you won’t make it – don’t listen to them.

Surround yourself with people that believe in you and that celebrate with you once you realize your dreams.

So my final words and thank yous go out to all my family and friends that have always supported me and always hoped for me to meet my childhood hero The Hoff.

And now enjoy the Limbo Dance with The Hoff.

The End.