David Hasselhoff Drops in to the Edinburgh Evening News

Just another day at the office? Not quite for the staff of The Scotsman and the Evening News, as David Hasselhoff dropped in to say hello.

The TV legend stopped by briefly to record a podcast interview, which will be available to download for free tomorrow morning, but he still found time to greet surprised staff and take over EN editor Frank O’Donnell’s office.Check out the podcast here!David Hasselhoff Live, the Hoff’s first Fringe appearance, can be seen at the Pleasance.Here's a picture EN editor Frank O'Donnell tweeted today when David took over his office:

Source: The Scotsman

Edinburgh Festival 2012: David Hasselhoff Interview

David Hasselhoff, whose one-man show runs for a week at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, talks to Celia Walden of the Telegraph.

David Hasselhoff’s pet pig has made him late again. “I’m sorry,” exhales the TV star, sinking into a deckchair on the beachfront of a Santa Monica hotel. “He was stuck in the house scratching at the door asking to be let out. Then the water dragons needed feeding.”

Welcome to Hoff-world: an alternative universe where pot-bellied pigs govern schedules, conversations veer off on wild tangents and waitresses swoon like schoolgirls. It’s no surprise that the actor and singer turned talent show judge – who maintains his position in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most famous TV star on the planet – can’t stop smiling. “It’s fun,” he says when I ask whether it ever occurs to him that his life is ridiculous. “Isn’t it fun?” He turns the full, electrifying force of that smile onto his girlfriend, Hayley Roberts – a delicate-featured 31 year-old from Glynneath in Wales. It is, she concedes, fun.

Hayley must be doing something right. The 60 year-old, tanned and lean in blue jeans, an emerald green T-shirt and white jacket, is a different man from the one I first met four years ago, on the set of NBC’s America’s Got Talent. The manic, restless quality is still there behind the eyes, but a vicious optimism has replaced the torment. His talent-judging days may be over, but with a one-man show opening at the Leicester Square Theatre this month followed by a week-long run at the Edinburgh Festival, the Hoff is undergoing yet another resurgence.

“That’s what the show is about – my crazy journey. My whole life I’ve been like, woah!” he whoops. “Then, 'Oh what happened?’ Woah! 'Oh what happened?’”

Hasselhoff’s 30-year career has been up and down enough to bring on motion sickness. The Baltimore-born actor’s early roles as Michael Knight – a crime crusader saving the world one person at a time with the aid of his trusty black Pontiac – and then as Mitch Buchannon – the patriarchal lifeguard in Baywatch – saturated the public consciousness throughout the Eighties and Nineties, leaving Hasselhoff a multimillionaire – and typecast.

“But you know, 30 years on, the shows still hold up. Yesterday these kids were asking for autographs, and they didn’t know me from the SpongeBob movie or America’s Got Talent – they knew me from Knight Rider.”While a secondary singing career kept him afloat between hit shows in Austria and Germany, where he continues to conduct sell-out tours (his song Looking for Freedom became the anthem for the fall of the Berlin Wall), it took a video of the inebriated actor eating a cheeseburger during a divorce battle with his then wife, Pamela Bach, to catapult him to a new league. Overnight, Hasselhoff made the transition from figure of fun into The Hoff – a man deserving of his own lexicon, a TV legend fiercely defended by his ''Don’t Hassel the Hoff’’ T-shirted fans.“Ninety nine per cent of people now call me The Hoff – and it’s out of respect,” he assures me. And an overriding fondness, perhaps? (How can you not love a man whose business card is also a hand sanitiser?) “I think people know that I’ve got a good heart,” he nods. “If I do something wrong, I’m the first to say 'Boy, did I f--- up’.”Nowadays his alter ego’s celebrity is such that he endorses endless products (“The Hoff makes a lot of money; David Hasselhoff doesn’t”), makes lucrative guest appearances at Hoff-themed parties (“I went to this school in Hertfordshire where 2,000 people were dressed up in Hoff wigs – and they weren’t making fun of me”) and counts Justin Bieber as a fan.“He wanted to wear a T-shirt that said 'I’m with the Hoff at the MTV awards.’ Can you believe that? I got Bieber Fever.” Why does that matter to him? “Because it means I’m current with the kids.” And why does that matter to him? He looks at me like I’m mad. “Because it means I’m hip.”Whereas he enjoys “the craziness of Hoff-world,” he takes his role as a modern-day knight a little more seriously. “Celebrity means that I can affect people in a positive way. And that’s why it was difficult doing America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent because it’s hard for me to criticise. Knight Rider was all about making a difference, and so was Baywatch. In a cornball way, I think being a celebrity is about making a difference, too.” Hoarse-voiced with emotion, he tells me about the little boy in a coma he went to visit on Christmas Eve. “'How do you keep your faith?’ I asked his parents. 'Because you came,’ they said. They prayed for me to come and I came. That’s when I realised the power of celebrity – and that maybe I got Knight Rider for a reason. When you start to get self-pitying about the parts you didn’t get, you remember those moments.”Ask him to describe the rush of being on stage and he doesn’t have to think about the answer. “Control. I feel like I’m in control. I’m so much more in control on stage than I am off stage,” he explains, a shadow crossing his face, “because I don’t know what’s going to happen off stage. Now, I tell kids that life isn’t fair. Don’t assume that somebody’s really your friend or that you’re going to do another year on Britain’s Got Talent. Once you assume that s--- happens, it’s really f------ easy to move on. I’m the guy who was up for everything: James Bond and Superman – I met with Spielberg for Indiana Jones…” Yet he’s still smiling? “Because it’s like the song I sing in my show: This Time Around I’m Going to Get it Right.” Does he believe that? Does he still crave recognition? “Oh, I’ve got recognition,” he flings back: “I get full houses and standing ovations.”His strong, Germanic features soften as he looks over at his girlfriend of a year and a half, shivering in the ocean breeze. Hayley has got him into curries and football, he tells me as we head down to the beach for our photo shoot. He’s pretty sure he wants to marry her. “We’ve been talking about a baby, but what scares me is having to share her.”On the sand, it’s pandemonium. “The Hoff is back!” slurs a homeless man. “Back?” gawps a British blonde. “I didn’t realise he’d ever gone away.”

'David Hasselhoff Live’ is at Edinburgh Festival 2012 at the Pleasance Grand (0131 556 6550), August 21-26

Source: The Telegraph

My Edinburgh: David Hasselhoff, Actor

David writes to the Independent about the Edinburgh festival:

My last experience in Edinburgh was when I did the Scott Mills Show at midnight. It was really awesome. I got so much love from the Scottish people. They were saying "We love "Britain's Got Talent" and "We love Knight Rider" and "We love Baywatch". Just wonderful.

There are so many shows going on in Edinburgh. It reminds me of The Renaissance Fair that happens every year in Topanga Canyon. It was there that my girlfriend found a David Hasselhoff look-a-like walking down the street, advertising his show by saying "I'm the third best David Hasselhoff impersonator in town". It was that that gave me the idea – hey, if he can do David Hasselhoff, why can't I do David Hasselhoff?My show starts at 6pm and I think, when people have the right level of ale in their system, it will be a really exciting show. We're going to do everything from Scottish anthems like "(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles" to "Rock'*'Roll" to "Jump in My Car" to Baywatch to Knight Rider.I feel so much better being on stage performing than being on Britain's Got Talent judging people. Some people are born to play football, some people are born to play guitar but my strength is to entertain people. I love people.Anything goes here, from musicals to mandolins to people dancing in the streets to medieval shows, to heartwarming shows to crazy David Hasselhoff doing a tribute to his life on Broadway.David Hasselhoff's Must-See EventsI've missed Amnesty International's "Stand Up for Freedom" already this year so I want to go to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at the top of the hill – with all the fireworks, pipers, drummers, singers and dancers.

David Hasselhoff Live, Pleasance Courtyard (0131 556 6550) to 26 August

Source: The Independent

Guy Love For David Hasselhoff and Scott Mills

Britain's got talent judge David Hasselhoff put his own singing skills to the test when he got on stage with DJ Scott Mills at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The Baywatch and Knight Rider star was a guest host at Radio 1's Fun and Filth Cabaret at the BBC Bubble on Potterrow.The finale of the live show was a duet between Mills and The Hoff of "Guy Love" from the comedy series Scrubs.Hasselhoff's daughters Hayley, 18, and Taylor-Ann, 21 also performed at the show as double act Bella Vida.Read what David had to say at Hoffspace.

Source: BBC / Hoffspace

David and Bella Vida on Scott Mills With the Power of Hoffism

Bavarian Hasselhoffs? The power of Hoffism? There is some craziness in Edinburgh on Scott Mills' radio show on BBC Radio 1. It was also pretty amusing to hear Scott Mills singing. We also meet a Hasselhoff impersonator that makes the real Hoff feel kind of weird. The fake Hoff says he's converted 600 people to the power of Hoffism, which is making Hayley and Taylor crack up with laughter. The real Hoff suggests he's "Hoff his rocker," but says he's quite honored yet scared.Check back at the BBC Radio 1 Scott Mills site for the podcast.