Hey, what’s that shiny thing on Instagram? Ah, it’s Bas Smit’s polished ego! “I am so jealous of your life! Even if I only get 10 percent of that!”, says Frank Dane.
Bas Smit shows day in and day out stories on Instagram about his perfect life. He shows all the highlights and then does his best to comment as casually as possible, just to emphasize that for him this is all very ordinary and casual is. The final goal? Make your followers jealous and thus give your ego a big boost.
Frank is jealous
Mission completed! Frank Dane wallows in jealousy as he views Bas’s page. “I check you on Instagram. I see a lot happening on Instagram. I see people trying very hard to show that they have a great life and it leaves me ice and ice cold, but you did it! I just felt a tiny bit of jealousy.”
Jelte van der Goot, his sidekick on Radio 538, agrees. He saw Bas’ vacation to Richard Branson’s billionaire island and says, “I’ve been screaming at my screen.”
Their 42-year-old interview guest Bas then: “Yes, but that is not the intention at all.”
Well, of course not!
On vacation with Ed
Another present on that island was Ed Sheeran. Frank: “I really thought: Bas, this is… You went on holiday with Ed Sheeran!”
Bas nonchalantly: “Yeah, just for a week, huh? A week. But it was fun.”
Frank: “On a billionaire’s island.”
Bass: “Yes. It was just great fun. We’ve been doing that for a long time and I never really know who I’m going with. We are actually always with ten families and it is always a surprise who I am with. They are always friends of the family and now Ed and Cherry suddenly walked in with their two daughters.”
‘How do you get there?’
Frank envious: “How did you get to that billionaire’s island? Why are you being asked by those families?”
Bas: “No, Richard is friends of ours. That was twelve years ago. We happened to be having lunch somewhere and he comes up to me and says to me: ‘I don’t know, but that woman of yours… If you don’t ask her to marry you, she will soon be gone. Then do that on my island!’”
And then? “Then I said: ‘No, dude, we’re not doing that at all.’ And the next day he came to me again. He says, “Do it on my island where I got married!” And then I said, ‘No, I won’t.’ Then I came back to the Netherlands and a friend of mine said: ‘Google that island. You’re crazy for saying no.’”
Name dropping
In the end Bas went anyway. “Then I texted him, she got pregnant in the meantime and then I texted and we have been doing fun things every year since then. And there are always crazy people around, right? We were also with Kate Winslet. Natalie Imbruglia was also there this time. From Torn. You know? That song. This was a really relaxed group.”
Huh, two names? We can’t do this name dropping to call?! Oh wait. “Every time we have very special figures and they don’t always want to say that publicly. All those types go there, you know. Beyoncé is always there, Obama goes there, Oprah goes there. All those types are just sitting there.”
He continues: “Then you are simply on an island where no one bothers you. Then suddenly I’m sitting there, that’s really bad for them, hahaha.
‘I can say Ed’
Frank, who clearly looks up to celebrities in an unhealthy way, just wants to be that Bas Smit. “Bas Smit, what a dream! Tell me about this moment, when Ed Sheeran was going to give a kind of private concert.”
Bas: “Well, Ed is just… Ed comes in and Ed is immediately cozy.”
Frank: “You can say Ed?”
Bas: “Yes, Ed. That took two days. He’s a huge joke teller. You should call him sometime on a Friday afternoon, really, like, “Do you have another one?” You have to contact him for that. (…) I texted him: ‘Would you like it, Friday afternoon?’ But if you don’t have to!”
Ten percent
Frank can’t take it anymore. “Bas, I would be happy with ten percent of your life.”
Bas: “No, but that is not the case at all, because I am also unlucky. The earpieces of my AirPods just fell out and my car stopped working. But no kidding: this was just luck.”
Frank: “Do you have Ed Sheeran’s phone number?”
Bas: “We are in contact, yes. Well, Nic has his wife’s number and he sent me an email saying we’re going to see each other. We’re going to see each other, we’re going to see each other soon by chance. We agreed on that.”
Dear friends
Frank: “Well, Bas, really…”
Bas: “He is also just a human being!”
Finally, Frank: “I have another Dutch question: it wasn’t all free, was it?”
Bas: “It was really just completely free.”
So as a billionaire can you just buy all your friends and what do you end up with? Oh well, saves another house photographer…