Youp van 't Hek

Youp van 't Hek

Youp van 't Hek in 2013
Pseudonym Youp van 't Hek
Birth name Joseph Jacobus Maria van 't Hek
Born (1954-02-28) 28 February 1954
Naarden, Netherlands
Medium Comedian
Author
Columnist
Singer-songwriter
Playwright
Critic
Nationality Dutch
Years active 1973–present
Genres Stand-up comedy, Cabaret, Observational comedy, Musical comedy, Cringe comedy, Satire, Political satire, Sarcasm, Blue comedy
Subject(s) Marriage, Relationships, Family, Childhood, Midlife crisis, Elderly care, High society, Everyday life, Human behavior, Current events, Self-deprecation, Social criticism, Religion, Death, Oranjegekte, Dutch culture
Spouse Debby Petter (m. 1984)
Children Sterre (stepdaughter)
Anna (daughter)
Julius (son)
Relative(s) Tom van 't Hek (brother)
Notable works and roles Buckler
Website (Dutch) Official site

Joseph Jacobus Maria "Youp" van 't Hek (born 28 February 1954) is a Dutch comedian, author, columnist, singer-songwriter, playwright and critic.

Biography

Youp was born and raised in the Gooi, an upper-class region to the southeast of Amsterdam. He was one of the founding members of Cabaret NAR (Cabaret Jester). In the early 1980s Cabaret NAR's success declined and Youp moved on as a solo artist.

His big break came in 1983 on KRO's "De alles is anders-show". His energetic performance made him a household name overnight.

In his 1989 end-of-year show he ridiculed Buckler, a low-alcohol beer brewed by Heineken, as a result sales plummeted and the brand was eventually withdrawn from the market.[1] Youp has often cited this as the best joke in his career and has subsequently referred to it in all his retrospective shows.[2]

Youp van 't Hek is the brother of field hockey international Tom van 't Hek.

Shows

With Cabaret NAR

Solo

Youp van 't Hek in De Kleine Komedie, 1988

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 Scherpenzeel (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.

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:

General columns:

Other books:

References

  1. ↑ Leezenberg, Michiel (2001). Contexts of metaphor. Elsevier. p. 246.
  2. ↑ "archiveDay" (in Dutch). Trouw.nl. Retrieved 2014-08-03.
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