Richard Groenendijk regrets that his good friend Marc-Marie Huijbregts left him like this when he needed an outstretched hand. “Some people are like that.”
Richard Groenendijk’s big breakthrough as a comedian came late. Very late. It wasn’t until the age of 40 that he won a prestigious cabaret prize and made it to the broadcast of The World Keeps Turning. It was a dream come true: he had been trying for years to end up on the much-watched stage of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk.
Richard’s DWDD wish
A performance in DWDD used to guarantee rising ticket sales, but Richard did not intervene. “De Wereld Draait Door was an impregnable fortress for me. That was really difficult. I once experienced that I was on my way there in a taxi, from a holiday in South Limburg, and then I was called off.”
Dieuwke Wynia, Matthijs’ much-discussed horror assistant, did not want Richard. He reveals in the interview show The 10 Questions: “That editor-in-chief, that Dieuwke we keep talking about, someone who did my PR once asked her at a party: ‘Wow, can you Richard…’ And then she said: ‘Well, we really want to name .’”
Sneak at Dieuwke
Richard chuckles when he sees Dieuwke again in the news about the DWDD scandal. “Then I can sometimes think: well, that one [naam] yours is now in the newspaper a few times, so that is very nice.”
In the end, other TV appearances pushed Richard’s ticket sales after all. “I really noticed it in the ticket sales if I had been with Pauw & Witteman, for example.”
Marc-Marie doesn’t help
Presenter Rob Kemps wonders where DWDD piece of furniture Marc-Marie Huijbregts is in this story: “If it is so difficult at De Wereld Draait Door… Marc-Marie is a good friend of yours. Couldn’t he have talked you off that stool at the table?”
Richard: “Yes, you would think so, yes. No, that didn’t happen. No, well, some people… Yes, no, yes, that’s right, yes. Some people choose not to do that and I can also imagine that you think to yourself: yes, then it is my fault if things do not go well later.”
‘I’m not like that’
In any case, Richard himself is not like Marc-Marie. “Personally, I have always thought: if I become something myself later (…) or have achieved something, then I will help people. I always do that too.”
All in all, it seems that this wrinkle in their friendship hasn’t been completely ironed out yet.
