Theatre review: An Evening With David Hasselhoff, Pleasance Grand

NO-ONE does an encore in the Fringe. Ever. If they do, then there’s an angry stage manager waiting in the wings to tear a couple of strips off them about run time and the next show waiting to set up. Normal conventions don’t apply to the man, the myth, the legend that is the Hoff, however.

An Evening With David Hasselhoff

Pleasance Grand

Star rating: * * * *

After all, this is a man whose stellar rise to fame has been built upon a talking car and a slow motion view of Pamela Anderson’s magnificent assets. An Evening with David Hasselhoff is much like a Christmas selection box you discover down the back of the sofa in March, an unexpected novelty comprised of lots of deliciously wrong little packages verging on their sell by date.

Slashed from a two-hour run time when it premiered at the O2 Arena in London, the one-hour production features video montages of highlights from his career, including that infamous Sponge Bob movie scene, performances of his favourite songs and, um, the limbo.

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What marks Hasselhoff out from his professional theatrical contemporaries is a willingness to roll with the punches. Technical difficulties are part and parcel of theatre in Edinburgh in August and Hoff continued his performance in the face of failed sound and dodgy microphones. Chatting easily with the audience and returning effortlessly to the song as the sound returned, he sets an example that more self important performers might want to follow.

While chaos abounds and it’s obvious that no-one’s taken the time to properly edit down the original show into a tighter production, the Hoff makes the hard work that’s gone into creating the musical revue look effortless.