Olaf Schubert und seine Freunde - Jetzt oder now!

That a thinker of Olaf Schubert's calibre has an answer to every question is common knowledge - practically taught in primary school. But now Schubert is taking his next big step. He's asking questions. Important questions, like this one: "Jetzt oder now?". A question that itself raises questions. The fact that the snake bites its own face here is entirely the artist's intention.

Almost as a side effect, he has created a programme title with an international ring to it. This tells us that Schubert has become multilingual - if not outright bilingual. Having reached the very tip of the globalization iceberg, the whole world now lies before him. And yet the exceptional artist stays true to his roots - he still plays concerts in Germany, not many, but around 745. Proof that he has achieved what few manage: staying grounded despite enormous success. He wants to be an Olaf you can actually reach out and touch. Sadly, almost nobody does, as he recently admitted to a major news magazine. On stage, Schubert reinvents himself completely - and that is precisely why he remains exactly the same. He follows his own path consistently, but he's not one to cross red lines. No - he undermines them. Yellow lines, on the other hand, he leaps over. This allows him to shift boundaries, even invisible ones, in all directions at once.

How he pulls it off, he probably doesn't know himself. Watching him do it during his show is a magnificent spectacle - not least because the odd sharp joke gets fired off along the way.

So almost everyone who has ever seen him live (his grandmother included) comes away deeply moved and simply says: Thank you, Olaf!

His friends Jochen M. Barkas and Herr Stephan are of course along for the ride, as always.

Photos: Amac Garbe