Hoff the Record

   He’s fun, he’s mad and he’s self-deprecating so what’s not to like about BAYWATCH legend David Hasselhoff’s whose new spoof series, Hoff the Record, plays on the surreal nature of his everyday life. We spoke to the star about stepping into the world of semi-improvised comedy.

So what’s ‘Hoff the Record’ all about?

We try to turn my life into a comedy because nobody would believe what’s really going on! ‘Hoff the Record’ kind of plays with your emotions of whether this truly is David Hasselhoff’s life or not – a lot of it really is true and we just magnified it and had a lot of fun.

Who did you enjoy pranking on set?

Well I wind up my girlfriend all the time, it’s really quite easy to do. I have been known to wind up my assistant too – one day of filming for example, the phone rang right in the middle of a scene and it was my assistant. I was doing a scene with Dieter, my illegitimate German son on the show, so I said, ‘There’s a German in my room, he’s saying he’s my son!’ The assistant was saying, ‘Get him out of there right away!’ I said, ‘I’m trying to!’ and then Dieter is going, [heavy German accent] ‘Who is that?’ and we kept on playing it. My assistant was freaking out getting in a car to try and save me!

In real life, what’s the strangest thing you’ve asked an assistant to do for you?

When you’re an assistant your job is 24/7… A lot of the time I have one press agent to keep me in the press and one press agent to get me out of the press!

Why do you attract such media attention?

What I realise is that I’m so famous that no matter what I do, I’m gonna get press out of it. When I had some bad press in the past I was playing Roger DeBris in ‘The Producers’, which Mel Brooks wrote and produced. He’s one of the greatest comedic geniuses of our time and he called me and I said ‘Hey sorry for all the press’ and he said, ‘we’re sold out! Do me a favour and go out and do that again tonight and for the next ten weeks!’

What moment or scenario from your life would you have liked to include from your life for ‘Hoff the Record’ that didn’t make the cut this time?

I went into rehab when I was 50 and I have so many amazing stories – I wanted to do a show called Treatment and Recovery! It’s funny, everyone was like, ok we’re here to get better and to figure out what’s wrong but there are so many scams, so many different things… opening up a closet door and your roommate falling out with a thousand beers around him. We’re actually doing that in our second series because there are so many weird, tragic situations that you can find a little bit of humour in. If you follow me round with a camera for 3 or 4 days you’re going to have a story for an episode.

Watch ‘Hoff The Record’ on DAVE Thursdays @ 9pm