Youp van 't Hek
Encyclopedia
Joseph Jacobus Maria "Youp" van 't Hek (born February 28, 1954) is a Dutch
comedian
and a columnist
for NRC Handelsblad
.
, a wealthy region to the southeast of Amsterdam
. His youth there served as an inspiration for his ironic attitude toward the rich, the successful and all those who are pretending to be either. After being kicked out of several high schools, he finally completed the one where he also led the school theater, and moved to Amsterdam
. There he was one of the founding members of Cabaret NAR (Cabaret Jester). Throughout all the changes in Cabaret NAR, Youp was the only constant factor in it and because of him focusing more and more on their shows, he gradually became Cabaret NAR. In the beginning he (or Cabaret NAR) was not very successful, often not even successful enough to pay for their own shows. During all this he worked in some of those boring, mind-numbing, riskless, black-and-white, have-to-wear-a-suit, 9-to-5 kind of office jobs, which later inspired many of his jokes and imitations.
In the early 1980s Cabaret NAR success declined and Youp moved on as a solo artist. From then on he has had great popularity. Though his shows and statements may be considered controversial, he has developed himself, not only as a comedian, but also as an idealist. His humor is always mixed with a sense of irony towards modern life, culture, and national and international politics. Other themes often found in his shows and humor are death, hypocrisy, the innocence of children, the sincerity of the elderly, the gap between what society expects from you and what you, deep in your heart, want the most, and the question: "When would you call someone crazy and when would you call him/her normal or healthy?".
His big break came in 1983 on KRO
's "De alles is anders-show". His energetic performance made him a household name overnight.
He is known as "the Buckler of Dutch comedians" because he ridiculed Buckler, a low-alcohol beer
brewed by Heineken
in his 1989 end-of-year show so effectively, sales plummeted and the brand was eventually withdrawn from the market. Youp has often cited this as the best joke in his career and has subsequently referred to it in all his retrospective shows.
Youp van 't Hek is the brother of field hockey
international Tom van 't Hek
.
(keyboardist of Kayak
), who has composed almost all of his songs. In most of his shows he also worked with multi-instrumentalist Rens van der Zalm. The music to Youp's songs is mostly played on piano
, accordion
, violin
and acoustic guitar
, which reflects Youp's preference for classical music. One example of this is his rendition of the song Flappie
, ostensibly about a Christmas he experienced in 1961.
Sports columns:
General columns:
Other books:
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and a columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
.
Biography
Youp was born and raised in the GooiGooi
Het Gooi is the area around Hilversum in the centre of the Netherlands. It is a slightly hilly area characterised by its green landscape, its historical charm, the wealth of its inhabitants, and its villas. Het Gooi is known in the Netherlands as the home of the rich and famous.- Name :The name...
, a wealthy region to the southeast of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. His youth there served as an inspiration for his ironic attitude toward the rich, the successful and all those who are pretending to be either. After being kicked out of several high schools, he finally completed the one where he also led the school theater, and moved to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. There he was one of the founding members of Cabaret NAR (Cabaret Jester). Throughout all the changes in Cabaret NAR, Youp was the only constant factor in it and because of him focusing more and more on their shows, he gradually became Cabaret NAR. In the beginning he (or Cabaret NAR) was not very successful, often not even successful enough to pay for their own shows. During all this he worked in some of those boring, mind-numbing, riskless, black-and-white, have-to-wear-a-suit, 9-to-5 kind of office jobs, which later inspired many of his jokes and imitations.
In the early 1980s Cabaret NAR success declined and Youp moved on as a solo artist. From then on he has had great popularity. Though his shows and statements may be considered controversial, he has developed himself, not only as a comedian, but also as an idealist. His humor is always mixed with a sense of irony towards modern life, culture, and national and international politics. Other themes often found in his shows and humor are death, hypocrisy, the innocence of children, the sincerity of the elderly, the gap between what society expects from you and what you, deep in your heart, want the most, and the question: "When would you call someone crazy and when would you call him/her normal or healthy?".
His big break came in 1983 on KRO
KRO
KRO, or Katholieke Radio Omroep , is a Dutch public broadcasting organization founded on 23 April 1925. Broadly Catholic in its spiritual outlook, KRO broadcasts the bulk of its television output on the Nederland 1 channel. KRO is also responsible for managing broadcasts made by the Catholic Church...
's "De alles is anders-show". His energetic performance made him a household name overnight.
He is known as "the Buckler of Dutch comedians" because he ridiculed Buckler, a low-alcohol beer
Low-alcohol beer
Low-alcohol beer is beer with very low or no alcohol content...
brewed by Heineken
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
in his 1989 end-of-year show so effectively, sales plummeted and the brand was eventually withdrawn from the market. Youp has often cited this as the best joke in his career and has subsequently referred to it in all his retrospective shows.
Youp van 't Hek is the brother of field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
international Tom van 't Hek
Tom van 't Hek
Maria Thomas van ’t Hek is a former field hockey striker from the Netherlands, who played 221 international matches for the Dutch national field hockey team, in which he scored a total number of 106 goals...
.
With Cabaret NAR
- Your Youp for you (1973)
- Meer geluk dan wijsheid (More luck than wisdom) (1973)
- Gele ellebogen (Yellow elbows) (1974)
- Blaffende honden (Barking dogs) (1975)
- Alles in Wonderland (Everything in Wonderland, a wordplay on Alice in Wonderland because alles sounds similar to alice.) (1976)
- Romantiek met mayonaise (Romance with mayonnaiseMayonnaiseMayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
) (1977) - Geen vakantie voor Youp en Jan (No holiday for Youp and Jan) (1978)
- Zat ik maar thuis met een goed boek (If only I were home with a good book) (1979)
- Zonder twijfel (Without doubt) (1981)
Solo
- Man vermist (Man missing) (1982)
- Gebroken glas (Broken glass) (1983)
- Verlopen en verlaten (literally: Faded and abandoned, or more freely: Down and out) (1984)
- Tunnel zonder vluchtstrook (Tunnel without hard shoulder) (1986)
- Hond op het ijs (Dog on ice, as in "dancing on ice", not as in "champagne on ice") (1987)
- Oudejaarsconference 1989 (Old-Year's-Show, a show on New Year's Eve looking back on the most important/funny events of the past year) (1989)
- Alles of nooit (All or never) (1991)
- Ergens in de verte (Somewhere in the distance) (1992)
- Spelen met je leven (Playing with your life) (1994)
- Oudejaarsconference 1995 (Old-Year's-Show) (1995)
- Scherven (Shards) (1996)
- De waker, de slaper & de dromer (The guard, the sleeper & the dreamer) (1998)
- Mond vol tanden, oudejaarsconference 1999 (literally: "Mouth full of teeth", meaning: "speechless", Old-Year's-Show) (1999)
- De wereld draait door (meaning both "Life goes on" and "The world is going crazy") (2000)
- Youp speelt Youp, oudejaarsconference 2002 (Youp playing Youp, Old-Year's-Show) (2002)
- Prachtige paprika's (Wonderful paprikas) (2003)
- Het zelfmoordcommando (The suicide command) (2005)
- De schreeuwstorm (The shoutstorm, a wordplay on the Dutch "sneeuwstorm", meaning "snowstorm", and "schreeuwen", meaning "shouting") (2006)
- Troost (Comfort, Old-Year's-Show) (2008)
- Omdat de nacht (Because the night) (2009)
Music
Youp van 't Hek has worked with a changing group of musicians to supply the music to the songs in his shows. The constant factor in his musical backup during almost his entire career has been Ton ScherpenzeelTon Scherpenzeel
Ton Scherpenzeel is a keyboardist and a founding member of the Dutch rock band Kayak, together with Pim Koopman and Max Werner whom he met whilst at the Hilversum Muziek Lyceum ....
(keyboardist of Kayak
Kayak (band)
Kayak are a Dutch progressive rock band formed in 1972 in the city Hilversum by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman. In 1973, their debut album "See See The Sun" was released, including 3 hit singles. Their main popularity was in the Netherlands, with their top hit reaching #6 on the Dutch charts in...
), who has composed almost all of his songs. In most of his shows he also worked with multi-instrumentalist Rens van der Zalm. The music to Youp's songs is mostly played on piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, which reflects Youp's preference for classical music. One example of this is his rendition of the song Flappie
Flappie
Flappie is the name of a Dutch Christmas song written by comedian Youp van 't Hek in 1985. The song became popular in The Netherlands, and it has been played as part of the rotation of Christmas music every year since...
, ostensibly about a Christmas he experienced in 1961.
Columns and Books
Youp has written columns on sports and later on general topics for NRC Handelsblad since 1988. Several collections of these columns have been published by Thomas Rap publishing. This company was founded by a friend of Youp, and has printed the texts of Van 't Hek's shows from the very first, unsuccessful days, when publishing them seemed a waste of money. Because of this, Youp never switched publishers. A list of the titles of his books that do not contain the texts of his shows:Sports columns:
- Niks spel, knikkers ("Not the game, the marbles", it's the opposite of the saying: "It's not about the marbles, it's about the game", meaning that playing is more important than winning) (1989)
- Het hemd van de leeuw ("The undershirt of the lion", reference to a Dutch football song for their national team) (1990)
- Sportgek (Mad about sports) (1990)
- Floppie, Yourie en andere helden (Floppie, Yourie and other heroes) (1992)
- Eerst de man, dan de bal (First the player, then the ball) (1993)
- De selectie ("The selection"/"The squad", a compilation of his best sports columns) (1997)
General columns:
- Amah hoela (wordplay on Amah, a domestic servant, and a Dutch expression "Amehoela" or "Aan m'n hoela", meaning "no way" or "my ass") (1994)
- Ik schreeuwlelijk (I bigmouth, with bigmouth used as a verb) (1995)
- En het bleef nog lang onrustig in mijn hoofd (And my mind remained restless for a long time) (1996)
- Majesteit, (Majesty) (1997)
- Fax (FaxFaxFax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
) (1998) - Zaterdag (Saturday) (1999)
- Het zal me jeuken (literally: "it could itch me", meaning "I couldn't care less") (2000)
- Iedereen is in de war (Everybody is confused/crazy) (2001)
- 166x Youp (a compilation of his best columns) (2001)
- Het platte land (literally: "The flat land", referring to the Netherlands, when written as "platteland" it means: "countryside") (2002)
- Liegangst (Fear of lying, wordplay on Fear of flyingFear of flyingA fear of flying is a fear of being on an airplane , or other flying vehicle, such as a helicopter, while in flight. It is also sometimes referred to as aerophobia, aviatophobia, aviophobia or pteromerhanophobia....
) (2003) - Hartjeuk en zieleczeem (Hartitch and souleczema) (2004)
- Het leven is wél leuk (Life IS fun, with the emphasis of denying that "Life sucks") (2005)
- Oelikoeli en andere goden ("Oelikoeli and other gods", Oelikoeli is a god that Youp made up. Youp is its only believer, because he says that as soon as a god has more than one believer, the believers start fighting each other) (2006)
- Youp is leuk? ("Youp is fun?", a compilation of his best columns) (2007)
- Iedereen is eigenaar van iets (Everybody is the owner of something) (2007)
- Bacteriën moeten ook leven (Bacterias have to live too) (2008)
- Omdat jij mijn beste vriend bent (Because you're my best friend) (2009)
Other books:
- Rijke meiden ("Rich girls", short storiesShort storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
) (1991) - Liedjes van A tot Z ("Songs from A to Z", an alphabetically ordered collection of lyrics) (2003)
- Komen & gaan, een week scharrelen rond Gare du Nord ("Coming and going, a week of wandering around Gare du Nord", poetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
) (2004) - De wonderlijke broertjes Pim en Pietje ("The amazing brothers Pim and Pietje", children's book) (2004)
- Bob & Youp (Surprising pictures by Bob Bronshoff with Youp improvising a column on what just might be the story behind the picture) (2009)