A CLASSIC at Karl’s Kühne Gassenschau

Karl's Kühne Gassenschau has always been a fantastic experience for me. A mixture of action, acrobatics, theatre and witty dialogue. The performances were always also a bit borderline, which only made the excitement and the show even more brilliant.
I read in the newspaper about KKG's next event. SILO 8: It was supposed to be about a retirement home of the future. Old people's home of the future? Our CLASSIC could not be missing. Unfortunately, I had to attend a course lasting several days and the premiere of SILO 8 was in a few weeks. I did everything I could: on the way to the event, which started very early in the morning, I recorded some instructions on the company's answering machine. Frank was to convert a standard CLASSIC to 48V. The acceleration should be set to the absolute maximum, the speed should be increased as much as possible: Around 60 km/h should be feasible, right? He was supposed to do the conversion in the morning. In the afternoon, Lukas had to go to KKG with it and present the vehicle to the main actor Paul Weilemann. I signed off and started my workshop. On my return, I was of course very curious to see if Lukas was allowed to audition with the special CLASSIC. Lukas had indeed been received. Paul briefly turned the throttle and was completely stunned: the CLASSIC shot off so fast that Paul could only control it with difficulty. It was obviously too much of a good thing.

Lukas had to leave his standard demo CLASSIC there and he took the modified one back with him. After that, we heard nothing. Then: A call asking if we could come over? This time Paul wanted to know exactly how the CLASSIC was to be programmed and optimally adapted to the programme? So it seemed to be interesting for KKG. The more training Paul had, the more acceleration we could demand from the CLASSIC. The premiere came closer and by now it was clear that the CLASSIC would be used. We were even allowed to attend a rehearsal and I was surprised how concentrated the whole team worked. The same scenes over and over again, now and then video recordings were consulted and the number was polished. Then came the premiere, to which we were invited. The play SILO 8 was set in the future. In a fully automated old people's home, the residents were strictly controlled and automatically fed and washed. Then the main scene: Paul, in the play "Wädi" and his opponent "Danilo" delivered a racing scene with the CLASSIC and a homemade quad bike, which led across the whole stage several times. Paul popped a wheelie and he even did a jump. Obviously, he had mastered the CLASSIC perfectly in the meanwhile. The racing scene ended with a loud bang - the vehicles were in the back, out of sight of the stage and a front wheel came flying. Paul, holding a battered mudguard in his hand and supported by Danilo, limped back onto the stage. They had their fun and decided at that point to break out of the retirement home.
Thunderous applause! After the premiere we were asked to join the core team of KKG. They were very relaxed, all the tension of preparations and hard training had paid off. Paul, the artistic director told us that we seemed like saviours to him. They had miscalculated with the preparations, especially with the construction of the stage. They were not ready in time. At the same time, they were writing the play. They had this quad, but the whole story didn't make sense to them - until we showed up with the CLASSIC. They would have rewritten the whole piece again after that! We were gobsmacked. Paul asked if it was possible to get a second vehicle as a backup. Yes, of course! We wanted him to be able to switch to a reserve vehicle in case of a defect. This reserve vehicle was never used. But we heard from Markus Heller afterwards that Paul had not walked a single metre since that moment. He always drove around in "his" CLASSIC. From that year on, one of our products has been present at every performance of Karl's Kühne Gassenschau.

I learned from that:

• This is how real professionals work.
• Act, even if you think it's too late.
• If it fits, it only needs a few words. But those cases require more action.