In the ‘Icons’ series, we each time add a new portrait to the hall of fame of North Holland greats. This week it’s Youp van ‘t Hek, one of the Netherlands’ most successful comedians. He has now announced his retirement and is busy with the last round of his favorite theaters.
biography
name: Youp van ‘t Hek
born: Naarden, 1954
profession: comedian, columnist
honors list: Johan Ticket Prize (1988), Edison Oeuvre Prize (2014), VSCD Oeuvre Prize (2016)
We meet Youp van ‘t Hek in the dressing room, just before his show in Theater Singer Laren. The suitcase is unpacked. The valve is open. The inside is plastered with photos of loved ones. The cabaret case has been around for forty years, so all loved ones are now quite a few years older. A single child already has children of their own.
The suitcase also contains a number of fixed items such as his laptop because he still has to write a column, and a good book for relaxation. “That suitcase,” Youp says, “has never changed. At the end of the season, I take out all the junk. This suitcase is sacred.”
“I wanted to be a comedian with a face”
After a show by Toon Hermans, where he was with his parents, little Youp knew for sure: he wanted to become a comedian. When he shared this wish with his father, his answer was: “Well, you already made the first joke.” His father laughed away the desire to have children, but it was no joke for Youp. But he did want to matter, or as he puts it himself: “I didn’t want to end up in Gerard Joling’s backing choir. I wanted to become a comedian with a face.”
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glasses
In addition to the cabaret case, Van ‘t Hek has even more indispensable attributes when traveling. There is the transmitter band, which seems to have been around for a long time and seems to have had its day. It is almost worn out to the thread, but Youp hopes to make it to the end of the tour with it.
The goggles for the performance are another item that should not be missing. “You don’t see it on stage,” he says, “but I’ve been wearing handmade wooden glasses for twenty years and my microphone is attached to them.” The glasses were made by a Dutch fan from Australia. “He always reads my columns and therefore stays a bit aware of what is going on in the Netherlands. Out of gratitude he wanted to make glasses for me. Those glasses are also a bit sacred.”
“From the next day the hall was full. The whole tour. And it has remained that way”
Borrow, borrow, pay, pay
Van ‘t Hek’s shows have been sold out to the last spot for years. But he hasn’t forgotten that it was once different. “Up until ’84, the performance was complicated,” he recalls. “In the summer I regularly thought: ‘Should I continue with it?’ Then you played for forty people somewhere, but the year before it was twenty. So the number had doubled, so I thought: maybe it will be eighty.
Then in 1984 that moment came with the song Borrow, borrow, pay, pay on the television. From that moment on it has been filled. The hall was full from the next day. The whole tour. And it has remained that way.
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Never to Ziggodome
Despite the successes, Youp has set itself limitations: “Never to the Ziggo Dome. Never to AFAS Live. The largest is Carré. For the rest I have remained loyal to all small theaters. Because I really like it myself, but also because I think those small theaters should exist.”
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