Mimefields

During the Nazi rallies of the 1930s, it certainly wasn’t all hard work and hand-raising. Indeed, foreign minister Herr Otto Schlankgeist raised more than the occasional eyebrow when it came to the raucous, lavish banquets laid on for higher-ranked attendees. During these occasions, Herr Schlankgeist would amuse fellow guests by imitating with stunning accuracy playing a variety of the instruments used in the background music. An ex-mime by trade, Schlankgeist would pretend to play the tuba, the piano and the accordion with astounding dexterity, minus the instrument in question. His ability was particularly honed to the Spanish guitar, and this soon got around like such wildfire that a regular slot would be penned into the rally banquets in honour of “Herr Guitar”. Schlankgeist would compete in realtime with a genuine Spanish guitarist, who would improvise to make it as difficult as possible to be mimicked. This was no match for Schlankgeist, who eventually became responsible for the guitar-mime phrase “schpielen die ‘Herr Guitar’”, which eventually became known as the playing “air guitar” in the American 1980s.