How I became a world record holder

Matthew d'Ancona

13 September 2008

At a Google conference in Rhodes, Matthew d’Ancona finds himself part of a bid to break the world record for Zorba dancing — and to relive one of the greatest scenes in cinema

We all need to get in touch with our inner Zorba from time to time, and I did so in the unexpected setting of a Google conference in Rhodes, on a balmy Aegean night. I was there to chair sessions on the future of the web, but the organisers had planned something rather unusual for the second evening. The massed Googlers (with me along for the ride) were challenged to break the world record for simultaneous Zorba dancing, which had been set in Melbourne in July 2004 and stood at 1,280. Why, you might ask. As Zorba says: ‘Will no man ever do something without a “why”? For the hell of it!’ What better reason?

To the spirit of Zorba was added the spirit of McWhirter. Something about the human condition drives us to break records, the more obscure, and in some cases absurd, the better. As any devotee of Roy Castle and Record Breakers knows, dedication’s what you need (‘If you want to be the best,/ If you want to beat the rest,/ Oh-oh, dedication’s what you need’, etc). Michael Phelps needed it. Usain Bolt needed it. So did Mohammed Rashid, the 67-year-old Turk with the world’s longest moustache (1.6m). So did the 451 people who dressed as Smurfs at Warwick University in 2007 (a Croatian bid to break the record failed earlier this year). So did Joey ‘Jaws’ Chestnut who, in July 2007, beat the world competitive eating record held by Takeru ‘Tsunami’ Kobayashi, by consuming 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. And so, now, did I.

As anyone who has encountered Google knows, dedication comes naturally to its employees, as well as a healthy sense of fun. So around the margins of this international conference were groups of alpha-class engineers and salesmen rehearsing studiously for the big night in their blue Google T-shirts.

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Suresh Dogra

September 15th, 2008 5:37am Report this comment

Zorba the Greek is an interesting novel.I don't find the movie measuring up to the poignancy of the text.Besides,it is good as a work of fiction but to think that the character or alternative vision of life presented in the novel can or should be emulated in real life
is a serious misunderstanding.Zorba is an unproductive bohemian maverick.Thoreau says be not only good but also be good for something.What is Zorba good for? Kazantazakis' vision of life as reflected in the novel is superficial and the movie based on it is no better.

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