Hape Kerkeling is one of the most popular comedians in Germany, although he has not been very active for several years. It seems like he is making way for the next generation, despite being only in his fifties. He became a bestseller author in 2006 when he published an account about his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I loved the audiobook of that one because of his wonderful narration. He has published a few more books since, but I was looking for something short, and settled on a collection of columns that he wrote for Gala, a German celebrity magazine (at least it is one that is a little more classy than others). He wrote the columns collected in this book from summer 2017 to summer 2018. They deal with many different topics, foremost with celebrities since Gala is that kind of magazine, but also with current events and scenes from everyday life.
I liked those columns best in which the author tells us something about his own life or recalls some interesting memories. For example, he explains what the introduction of same sex marriage in Germany meant to him (finally being able to properly marry his partner instead of just registering a life partnership), he reminisces on the day he was part of the Federal Assembly and voted for the President of Germany, and he tells a funny story about celebrating carnival with fellow comedian Hella von Sinnen.
A lot of the columns deal with royalty, especially Dutch and British royalty. These were a little interesting because his thoughts were relatable to me. However, the columns about celebrities were neither funny nor did they hold any interest. In general, I found that Kerkeling's humor in these columns was not really mine, and I had hoped for more funny thoughts or more witty moments.
I still like Kerkeling's reading voice and his style of narration and the audio book served the purpose of providing a few hours of light entertainment, so I don't have any regrets, but next time I will seek out his proper books instead of something like this. ( )