Comedian Paul Haenen is shocked by the death of Wim T. Schippers. The artist, program maker and voice actor died last Wednesday at the age of 83 in his hometown of Amsterdam. “He was always cheerful and so incredibly brilliant,” says Haenen.
Schippers was the voice of Ernie in Sesame Street for years, Haenen that of Bert. They knew each other for more than fifty years. “We did a lot together. I also knew him well personally,” says Haenen. For example, Haenen experienced his ‘disruptive’ sense of humor, which, according to him, often resulted in comic situations.
“Now we were together again for the first time: Wim 83, I 79, we are the oldest Bert and Ernie in the world,” Haenen said at the time. The voice actor now considers the recordings as a highlight after Schippers’ death.
Haenen (80) saw Schippers during a dinner at the end of last month. “He looked good. Incomprehensible,” says Haenen, upset. Haenen says that he already admired Schippers as a teenager, when he appeared in the VPRO program Hoepla, which he devised. “Very innovative,” he says. He also praises Schippers for his ‘craftsmanship, complete enthusiasm, his passion for television and art’.
‘Shoveling and shoveling’
Broadcaster VPRO, for which Schippers worked for many years, is also upset. According to editor-in-chief Sarah Sylbing, it is indescribable what Schippers has meant to the broadcaster. “It is much more than his witty, highly original and absurdist oeuvre that he made on radio and TV for us all those years. It is a way of looking, creating and kicking that we still try to follow as an example to this day.”
According to Sylbing, Schippers messed with the image, the language, the structure and all other conventions. “Everything had to change. He wanted to give people things that they did not like in order to disrupt them and make them look at things differently.”
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