Joachim Meyerhoff, one of the most popular actors at the Burgtheater Vienna, was trained at the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule in Munich. His experience in this prestigious acting school is presented in the third volume of his autobiographical „novel“ ‚Alle Toten fliegen hoch‘ (2011–2015). This paper suggests a reading of the protagonist’s artistic development as a process of breaching rules, of staging himself as an ingenious anti-hero. One of the striking initial impulses to transform one’s own self into the role of another person occurs by chance at an auction of old stage costumes. Here, the young actor is able to perform for the first time jauntily in a glamorous woman’s robe. This scene is compared with Malte’s self-discovery in front of a mirror in Rilke’s ‚Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge‘.