Raoul Louis Heertje (; born 11 March 1963, in Bussum) is a Dutch
comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing
Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...
. Being
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
himself, his comedy performances include
Jewish humour
The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the ancient Middle East, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States ove ...
de Volkskrant
''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.
Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...
'', 15 February 2003
Biography
From 1983 till 1984 Heertje studied International Relations and Theatre Studies at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
. After that he studied in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
till 1986.
The notable international appearances he made were in the TV shows of
Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax (; born 19 April 1953) is an American-British actress, comedian, writer, television personality, and mental health campaigner. A classically-trained actress, Wax was with the Royal Shakespeare Company for five years and co-starred on t ...
,
Clive James
Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Jeremy Clarkson and in the British
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
series 9
The ninth series of the children's television series '' Hi-5'' aired between 11 June 2007 and 10 August 2007 on the Nine Network in Australia. The series was produced by Kids Like Us for Nine with Helena Harris as executive producer.
This was t ...
) in 1995. A year later he became a panelist in the successful Dutch version of the same show: ''
Dit was het nieuws
''Dit was het nieuws'' (; Dutch for "This was the news") is a Dutch television panel show, produced by AVROTROS and broadcast on NPO 1, wherein two teams give a satirical account of the previous week's news. The program has the form of a game show ...
''.
Raoul, and his brother Eric, founded comedyclub Toomler and Comedytrain, the stand-up comedy collective that introduced
stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...
in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
in the year 1990. In 2007 he is one of the members of
The Amsterdam Underground Comedy Collective
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
.
Heertje also wrote columns voor ''
Het Parool
''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...
''.
His father is the
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...
collective in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. It was founded in 1990 by Raoul Heertje. Comedy club Toomler in Amsterdam is its home theatre.
The word Comedytrain is a combination of comedy and training. Its main goal was to give talented comedians, who did not succeed at once in making an hour and a half one-man show, a place to perform and develop, to try out, fail and succeed; to evaluate others and be evaluated by them.
Over the years Comedytrain has become the home of famous Dutch comedians, like
Hans Teeuwen
Hans Eduard Marie Teeuwen (born 3 March 1967) is a Dutch people, Dutch comedian, musician, actor and occasional Film director, filmmaker. His work has been described as Surreal humour, absurdist, apolitical and Off-color humor, confrontational.
...
Najib Amhali
Najib Amhali ( Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⵉⴱ ⴰⵎⵀⴰⵍⵉ; born April 4, 1971) is a Moroccan-born Dutch stand-up comedian and actor.
Life
Najib Amhali (born Najim Amhali) was born in Nador
Nador ( Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⴷⵓⵔ) i ...
,
Hans Sibbel
Hans may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Hans (name), a masculine given name
* Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician
** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans
** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...
Ronald Goedemondt
Ronald Goedemondt (Tegelen, 1975) is a Dutch comedian and actor.
Biography
Goedemondt was born in Tegelen in Limburg, but he moved to Eindhoven after four years. His father is Dutch, while his mother is of Italian descent. He studied the HEA ...
Sanne Wallis de Vries Sanne may refer to:
Places
*Sanne, Germany, a village in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
* Sanne, Nepal, a village in Nepal
* Sanne-Kerkuhn, another village in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
* Salaise-sur-Sanne, commune on the Sanne river, Isère department, Fran ...
.
Comedytrain is still a place where young comedians find a stage for developing as performers. Twice a year auditions are held for new talents to enter Comedytrain. The comedians do not only play the Toomler stage weekly, but also tour the Dutch theatres together, perform for companies and parties and play the many stages in theatre café's and bars all over the country.