Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 5985, 1964.
Dutch promotion card by CNR, Leiden. Photo: Weekblad Weekend.
Dutch promotion card by CNR, Weesp.
The talent of amusing people
André van Duin was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1947. His birth name was Adrianus Marinus Kloot, which he legally changed to Adrianus Marinus Kyvon in 1966, a few years after taking the pseudonym, André van Duin. His father worked as a warehouseman at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij. As a young boy, Van Duin saw performances at staff parties by Johnny Kraaykamp and Rita Corita, among others. Following this, he learned to imitate Dutch celebrities. At school, he developed an image as the class clown, partially due to his red hair.
After primary school, Van Duin went to technical school to train as a machine bench fitter. His main interest, however, remained parodying artists, although his teachers were often not happy with the moments Van Duin chose for his impersonations. At the age of 15, he sent letters to several TV networks, requesting an audition. At 16, he was allowed to make some appearances for the radio programme 'Minjon'. In 1964 he was discovered when he won the TV talent contest show Nieuwe Oogst (New Harvest). His act was to playback to a medley of Cliff Richard, comedian Toon Hermans and the variety duo Snip and Snap, on a tape he had edited himself at home on an amateur recorder. On 8 August 1964, this parody formed the support act for the Rolling Stones' legendary concert at the Kurhaus, after which he received many offers.
He started appearing as a guest in TV shows, including that of singing father and daughter Willy Alberti and Willeke Alberti. In 1965 he got the opportunity to do a television programme of his own, Een avondje teevee met André/A TV evening with André. Together with director Guus Verstraete, Van Duin created five episodes of the show which received a good critical response. From 1967 onwards, he took an apprenticeship at comedians Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar's Snip & Snap theatre shows.
After the good response to his first television show, theatre producer Joop van den Ende cast Van Duin for a revue production, ''n Lach in de ruimte' (A Laugh in Space) (1970). Initially, Van Duin would play the straight man to Frans van Dusschoten, but during the tryouts, Van den Ende decided that Van Duin was better suited to play the role of the everyman. Their stage revue, 'Dag dag heerlijke lach' (Hello Hello Delicious Laugh) (1973-1974) with Corrie van Gorp became a great success in the theatres. The show was televised from 1974-1975 and in 1975 Van Duin won the Gouden Televizier-ring, a major Dutch TV award, for Dag dag heerlijke lach/Hello hello Delicious Laugh.
In 1972, André van Duin began the radio show 'Dik Voormekaar Show'. First with broadcasting company Radio Noordzee Internationaal, later with the NCRV and TROS. He involved his then technician, Ferry de Groot, in the show, becoming the character Meneer de Groot (Mister de Groot). The show continued to air on the radio (and for a period also on TV) as recently as 2009. André van Duin debuted as an actor in the TV series Het meisje met de blauwe hoed/The Girl With The Blue Hat (Dick van 't Sant, 1972), playing an army recruit opposite Jenny Arean. It was a TV version of the film musical Het meisje met den blauwe hoed/The Girl With The Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934), with Truus van Aalten and Lou Bandy in the Van Duin part. Van Duin also recorded several popular songs such as 'Angelique' (1972), 'Het bananenlied' (1972), a wacky parody of Harry Belafonte's 'The Banana Boat Song', and 'Bim bam', a hilarious Dutch version of Jean Villard's 'Les trois cloches' from 1939, made famous by the singer Edith Piaf. André van Duin's version became a big hit in both The Netherlands and Belgium.
Dutch postcard by Postcheque en Girodienst, 's-Gravenhage. Illustration: n.n.
Dutch postcard by Nederlands Artisten Management, Rotterdam.
Both serious and wacky
André van Duin made his film debut with Pretfilm/Fun Film (Robert Kaesen, 1976) in which he played various characters with his cronies from his stage and TV comedies, Frans van Dusschoten and Corrie van Gorp. In 1981 he starred with the same team in another comedy, Ik Ben Joep Meloen/I am Joep Melon (Guus Verstraete, 1981), which was another reasonable success.
In 1982 his most ambitious film, De Boezemvriend/The Bosom Buddy (Dimitri Frenkel Frank, 1982), was partly an adaptation of the Danny Kaye film The Inspector General (Henry Koster, 1949). Van Duin portrayed charlatan dentist Fred van der Zee who is mistaken for Napoleon's delegate. De Boezemvriend was considered a failure and Van Duin hasn't returned to the big screen since.
In 1976, Van Duin had a massive hit with the song 'Willempie'. Parents of mentally challenged children considered his performance offensive. Van Duin escaped legal action by apologising on television. Later that year, Van Duin released 'And're Andre' (The Other Andre), an album stripped of wackiness that became the first of five volumes.
During the 1980s Van Duin stayed unchangingly popular as a comedian in the Netherlands. In the mid-1980s he became especially known for several of his alter egos, which he sometimes performed alongside Corrie van Gorp. In 1981, he presented the Flip Fluitketel Show as his alter ego Flip Fluitketel, which at its peak attracted an estimated 5.8 million viewers in the Netherlands.
Cartoonist Toon van Driel created André's own comic book series in 1987. Very popular was the WWF-promoting TV series Animal Crackers (1988). Van Duin and his new stable-mate Ron Brandsteder were team captains in the TV show Wie ben ik?/Who am I? (1989), hosted by Caroline Tensen. Between 1993 and 1999 Van Duin made television shows for RTL. In 2007 'André's Nieuwe Revue-tour' was launched. Belgium was visited in November 2008 for five shows in Antwerp. In 2009 he made a new series of Dik Voormekaar Shows. In 2010, Van Duin released the CD 'Dubbel' (Double), made up of both serious and wacky songs.
Dutch postcards by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Antwerpen, 1979. Photos: NAM / Direct Promotion. Publicity stills for the TV series De Dik Voormekaar Show (Guus Verstraete, 1977-1979). A TV version of the popular radio program with André van Duin and Ferry de Groot in which the various characters were portrayed on screen by hand puppets in the first season (1977-1978) and full body costumes in the second (1978-1979).
The Great Dutch Bake Off
During his career, André van Duin had 41 singles in the Dutch Top 40, 22 of those reached the Top 10 of which 3 singles became number one. André van Duin was in a relationship with Wim van der Pluym from 1974 until 1995 when Van der Pluym died. Van Duin married Martin Elferink in 2006.
In 2013, he returned to TV as Petrus in the hit series 't Schaep met de 5 pooten/The Sheep with Five Legs (Frank Krom, a.o., 2007-2015). On stage, he impressed critics with his role in 'The Sunshine Boys' (2015).
In 2016, he took over the presentation of the very popular TV show Heel Holland Bakt/Holland Bakes from Martine Bijl, after her brain haemorrhage in 2015. The show is the Dutch version of The Great British Bake Off. In 2017 and 2019, Van Duin played in the TV series Het geheime dagboek van Hendrik Groen/The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old (Tim Oliehoek, 2017-2019). In this drama series, he starred alongside Kees Hulst and Olga Zuiderhoek.
He also appeared on television with the programme Denkend aan Holland/Thinking of Holland (2019-2022). Together with Janny van der Heijden, with whom Van Duin had already worked in the television programme Heel Holland Bakt, he explored parts of the Netherlands, especially from the water. In 2020, his husband, Martin Elferink died at the age of 55 from the effects of bone cancer. Van Duin himself was found to have colon cancer in the summer of 2020. He underwent surgery for this in January 2021. In 2022, Van Duin announced his new relationship with Fernando Reyes.
In 2024, Van Duin has been in show business for 60 years, but retiring does not occur to him. He recently made the TV programme Denkend aan Zwitserland/Thinking of Switzerland, in which he and Janny van der Heijden travelled by train through Heidi and Peter's country, plodding up a mountain through deep snow. Nienke Schipper in Trouw: "Delightful gab television that two million people watched per episode - and in which Van Duin is a relaxed version of himself. He no longer needs a character to make people laugh."
Dutch promotion card by CNR, Weesp. Photo: Hans Hofman.
Dutch promotion card by CNR, Weesp.
Sources: Nienke Schipper (Trouw - Dutch), Wikipedia (English and Dutch), NPO Radio 5 (Dutch) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 1 February 2024.
No comments:
Post a Comment