Manager of Heino

For over a decade our nephew and his friends and family have held an extremely silly but very serious Oktoberfest party at their house. They have a bar in their garage with many homebrews on tap, pretzels hanging from the ceiling (traditional after the first batch was rock hard and converted into decorations). There are many competitions (best stein, best costume, prizes for various beer styles) and then there is a jig-off at the end. Why? Who knows. It is traditional.

You may not bring children.

German costumes are mandatory.

Because my leiderhosen days are behind me and you are not going to find me wearing a dirndl, our first appearance at Oktoberfest was as Ralf and Florian, half of the German band Kraftwerk. We were robbed, frankly, when we were not allowed to compete in the stein or costume contests that year -- now there are separate competitions for non-traditional stein and costume.

Where do you go after Ralf and Florian? If I were attending this year dressing as Angela Merkel would be a no-brainer, but starting in 2007 mrguy and I began attending Oktoberfest as the German schlager singer Heino (me) and Manager of Heino (him). I think I won the stein contest two years in a row, carrying a Heino record with me so everybody got the reference but then completely making up the story of the stein, told with a cheesy fake German accent. Like I said, Oktoberfest is silly.

Starting with Oktoberfest 2007, Heino and Manager of Heino are our alter-egos. When I am invited to speak in a far-flung location, I really can't do it without Manager of Heino. He arranges travel, escorts me and holds me together while I get nervous and have to do human interaction stuff that is difficult for me. Plus anything is so much more fun when we do it together. He has helped me be Heino (so to speak) in Japan in 2008, Sweden in 2018 and now Copenhagen in May 2020.

Thank you, Manager of Heino.