It has been twelve years since Kiki Schippers graduated from the Koningstheateracademie in Den Bosch. It is the place where the comedian, who is best known for her beautiful songs, invented herself. “We were in a squat and everything was allowed and possible. I wanted to do an internship in Argentina. Well that was possible, that was very good.”
Kiki was attending the theater academy in Maastricht when she once played a role in the performance of ‘De Bloeiende Maagden’. She fell in love with the city of Den Bosch and transferred to the Koningstheateracademie. She talks about it on Wednesday in the TV program ‘KRAAK. asks further’ from Omroep Brabant.
At the academy they told her: “You are very musical, but you are limited by what you can do on guitar and piano. You are as good as your hands are.” The advice was: collaborate with other musicians. “I did that too, then I went to jazz café Paradox in Tilburg and very nice things came out of it. After that she became mainly known as that girl with that beautiful voice and that guitar. And those idiosyncratic songs: “People are washing ashore, hands and feet (…), push them back into the water, push them back into the sea.”
But after three solo programs she can now be seen in the performance ‘Kiki and band’. She loves it. “Of course you are less flexible. If I am alone in front of a room, I can do what I want. Now I am more in a structure.”
Being alone
Kiki had to deal with it as a child. Her parents divorced, her father no longer wanted to see his children and before there was contact again he suddenly died. She thinks that is why she has made many songs about being alone and about being abandoned, such as one of her most popular songs ‘Guus’.
My time in primary school didn’t help either. She was left out and bullied. That decreased when she skipped a grade and especially when she went to grammar school. “That’s where I discovered I was funny.”
She was left with one thing: that connecting with other people does not come naturally. While she really looks forward to it in the audience. In her new performance she even goes ‘speed dating’ with people in the audience. During the break she writes a song about it. “I feel very much at home on stage. I have the feeling that I can be who I am there. I have that much less of that in everyday life.”
Love pain
For example, she struggles with love. “I tend to look for treasure in the mud. I look for love in places where I’m unlikely to find it. Maybe because that causes a pain that I’m familiar with.”
‘Kiki en Band’ can be seen in the spring in Valkenswaard, Veldhoven, Den Bosch and Helmond.
‘CREAK. asks through’ is broadcast every Wednesday at 5.15 pm and then repeated. The program can also be viewed via Brabant+. There is also an extended podcast version.