Jan Keizer, known from the former Volendam band BZN, has let himself be chased by Maarten van Rossem. He thinks that the TV jury member talks disrespectfully about his village.
Jan Keizer does not like it at all that his beloved Volendam has a certain image. He thinks that a lot of criticism is based on prejudices and he thinks that should stop sometime. He can handle a joke here and there, but it goes too far if someone like Maarten van Rossem just starts bashing, the singer thinks.
Angry at Martin
For example, Jan points to Theo Maassen, who once made a sensitive joke about the Volendam café fire. “An evening on which I too lost family members. It would have been a bit different if he had done that, so to speak, a week after the disaster, because things are a bit more sensitive then. But now, ah, he may do as he pleases.”
He continues in the New Rev: “As a cabaret artist, it’s also a bit of your job to kick sacred cows, isn’t it? He is a smart man, pleasantly disturbed and good at his lyrics. Rather that than that annoying Maarten van Rossem who only talks about our ‘backward village’ in De Slimste Mens.”
‘We are not retarded’
According to Jan, Volendam is not retarded at all. “Sure, there are enough weaklings living here, but just as many top players. For example, we have the most actuaries in the Netherlands and quite a few football players from here have ended up in the Dutch national team. We Volendammers are incredibly ambitious and want to achieve our goals at all costs.”
Many singers also live in the village, including his former BZN buddy Anny Schilder. How often do they see each other? Hardly, he confesses in the Weekend. “No, you know what it is, she lives all the way on the other side of the village. When it’s her birthday, I’ll call her.”
In the supermarket
It’s getting watered down again, Jan confesses. “That’s how it goes. We are very good with each other, I am good with everyone these days. But we don’t see each other much.”
It is according to Jan as it is. “When I run into Carola Smit in the supermarket, we talk for half an hour, you know. That is very pleasant.”