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Already celebrated New Year's Eve before Corona: Sebastian Hotz alias »El Hotzo«
Photo:
Diana Pfammatter
Sebastian Hotz
, born in 1996, is an author, podcaster and comedian.
Under the pseudonym "El Hotzo" he reached hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter and Instagram.
SPIEGEL:
Because of the corona pandemic, big New Year's Eve parties are canceled this year.
Mr Hotz, this is nothing new for you: you recently revealed on Instagram that you have been celebrating New Year's Eve alone since 2018.
How did that happen?
Sebastian Hotz:
I don't have a deeply rooted circle of friends in my home village and I wasn't in the mood for a strange regional league team binge.
So I decided to celebrate alone.
Not with my parents, not with any friends and not at some New Year's Eve party to which I had invited myself.
I thought it had its charm, I had no planning stress and something to talk about.
SPIEGEL:
How was the turn of the year really?
Hotz:
He was absolutely strange.
I was only in the sauna.
There I enjoyed that I could sweat without being judged and that I wasn't the most dilapidated body.
There were couples there who probably had to spend their first New Year's Eve alone because their children were drinking in some forest huts.
I also got myself food that you normally eat in company: a raclette.
With raclette and champagne, without people
SPIEGEL:
Have you used all the pans?
Hotz:
That would have been a full evening program.
No, I only had two pans and I sat with them in my empty shared kitchen.
I ate tons of cheese and canned vegetables and listened to my neighbors having a lot of fun.
I had that too.
SPIEGEL:
Just alone - and that was a nice feeling?
Hotz:
Raclette warms from the inside, then I got into the hot bathtub, which warmed me up from the outside, and, like in the film, drank champagne, the most expensive from the discounter.
Self-chosen loneliness has a special taste.
"I know that being ostracized - although it was mostly involuntary"
Sebastian Hotz alias "El Hotzo"
SPIEGEL:
Actually, loneliness sounds bitter.
Hotz:
I've been alone many times in my life.
I know that being ostracized - although it was mostly involuntary.
That sounds dramatic, but I just went through the classic path of a strange child in school, so without much popularity.
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SPIEGEL:
At midnight, alone in the shared kitchen, you had no gloomy thoughts?
Hotz:
Of course at twelve I was aware that otherwise everyone would fall into each other's arms and I would only have myself.
At that moment I fell apart for a moment.
At the same time, I was able to satisfy my adolescent, toxic writer romance with this seclusion.
SPIEGEL:
You now have two solo New Year's Eve ahead, because you celebrated 2020 alone.
What advantages did that have for you?
Hotz:
I didn't have to look for someone to kiss cliché at midnight, whom I would have preferred not to have kissed soberly.
And the next day I didn't have a skull, but went out into the fresh air voluntarily.
Although I had a stale stomach in both years, after all the Aldi sparkling wine and because of my lactose intolerance, which struck after the cheese, everything else was fine.
Better not to post from the lonely New Year's Eve
SPIEGEL:
This year, many will celebrate alone.
Do you have any tips for a successful evening?
Hotz:
Go shopping early, so if possible not on New Year's Eve.
Especially this year.
Or use up the canned food you bought in the first lockdown.
It has to be very warm - it's best to turn on the heating to celebrate the day, because heat from the outside warms up from the inside at some point.
And don't share so much of the evening on social media because we're all going to have a depressing New Year's Eve.
So you can save yourself a loneliness post, this is totally normal this year and not at all special.
»After a day of sauna and what felt like a kilo of cheese, my face was no longer suitable for selfies«
Sebastian Hotz alias "El Hotzo"
SPIEGEL:
Did you post stories from your first New Year's Eve party alone at the time?
Hotz:
I didn't want to tell the others so much that I'm celebrating alone in my apartment.
And I'll say how it is: After a day of sauna and what felt like a kilo of cheese, my face was puffy and no longer suitable for selfies.
SPIEGEL:
Last year you wrote on Twitter: "I don't want to recommend this to anyone, but I think if we come to an agreement across Germany and shoot grandmas together with firecrackers, the stuff will be banned pretty quickly." The fireworks ban now came without shooting Grandmothers.
more on the subject
Fireworks on New Year's Eve: Fireworks until the doctor comes By Philip Bethge
Hotz:
An unbelievable number of gags can be derived from the firecrackers topic, because it is a concentration of the human unreasonable.
It pollutes the environment.
It is dangerous.
It is good that it is banned this year because the intensive care units are busy enough.
But I understand the fascination of fire and explosions and I am a big fan of pyromania.
SPIEGEL:
Your suggestion at the time: Throw sausage instead of firecrackers on the street.
Hotz:
That would be more animal-friendly.
Arch enemies and especially good friends
SPIEGEL:
Let's talk about good intentions.
This year you wanted to get yourself an archenemy.
Did it work out?
Hotz:
Absolutely sure, I have various arch enemies.
However, only on social media.
Because of my very clear political positioning, there are not only people who unreservedly celebrate what I am saying, but also those who express their criticism in the form of death threats.
It's just the internet.
"It's a bad feeling, but 2020 was the best year of my life"
Sebastian Hotz alias "El Hotzo"
SPIEGEL:
And do you have a resolution for 2021?
Hotz:
It's a bad feeling, but 2020 was the best year of my life.
I no longer have to work at the bakery, but earn my rent with letters.
In the next year I want to break the limit of 280 characters - the tweets should no longer remain my only intellectual output.
And in 2020 I deepened friendships with people I really like and who not just happened to have followed the same educational path in the same region.
I want to end this circle of friends in 2021 as well.
SPIEGEL:
Are you thinking of having at least one digital party with these friends this year?
Or would you prefer a lonely New Year's Eve?
Hotz:
I decide spontaneously.
After nine months of pandemic, I went to my first Zoom party a week ago.
It was better than expected.
We were about 20 people and we played a song quiz, which I think saved us from having that weird chat room atmosphere.
In front of my screen, I alternated drinking beer and whiskey sour.
It's funny to put yourself in there alone.
SPIEGEL:
Don't you already know this feeling?
On New Year's Eve 2018 you drank bubbly alone ...
Hotz:
... at that time I had absolutely no thought about it.
That helps with a lot of things in life.
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