Hans Eduard Marie Teeuwen (born 3 March 1967) is a Dutch

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and occasional

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

. His work has been described as absurdist,

apolitical Apoliticism is apathy or antipathy towards all political affiliations. A person may be described as apolitical if they are uninterested or uninvolved in politics. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased p ...

and confrontational.

Dutch career

Theatre

In the Netherlands, Teeuwen became well known in 1991 when he won an award at the Dutch

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

''Cameretten'' for his show ''Heist'', together with his friend Roland Smeenk. Just before the ending of the try-outs of this show, Smeenk died in a car accident in 1992. Teeuwen decided to go solo as a ' ''cabaretier'''. (Dutch cabaret is a sort of

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

often lasting for an hour or two, which has a storyline or theme, and can include

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

as opposed to purely stand-up comedy.) Initially he did five shows, ''Hard en Zielig'' (''Hard and Sad'', 1994–1995), ''Met een Breierdeck'' (''With a Knitter's Deck'', 1995–1997), ''Trui'' (''Sweater'', 1999–2000), ''Dat Dan Weer Wel'' (2001–2002, ''So There's That'') and ''Industry of Love'' (2003–2004). Then after seven years he made a comeback in 2011 with his show ''Spiksplinter'' (''Brand Spanking''), followed some years later by ''Echte Rancune'' (''Real Rancour'') in 2016. One of the other comedy projects he has worked on is ''Poelmo, Slaaf van het Zuiden'' (''Poelmo, Slave of the South''), a series of shorter comedy shows with his friends and colleagues Pieter Bouwman and Gummbah. Bouwman and Teeuwen also worked together on a radio comedy show that was mainly improvised, called '' Mannen van de Radio'' (''The Men on the Radio'').

TV & film

Apart from a few comic parts with popular Dutch absurdistic comedy group Jiskefet, he acted in the 1999 film '' Jezus is een Palestijn'' (''Jesus Is a Palestinian''). Together with

Theodor Holman Theodor Holman (born 9 January 1953, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch journalist, presenter, and writer of Indo descent. He studied Dutch language and History at the University of Amsterdam. He was editor of the satirical student newspaper Propria Cure ...

he co-created the idea for the film ''

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...

'', directed by Theo van Gogh in 2003 (and remade in 2007 in the USA by

Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi (,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself. It is not uncommon for people to pronounce his name or instead. ; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his work as an acclaimed character actor. Mul ...

). He wrote and directed the film '' Masterclass'' in 2005. A couple of years later, he starred in the film ''Gewoon Hans'' (''Just Hans''), written and directed by friend and colleague

Diederik Ebbinge Diederik is a Dutch language, Dutch male given name. People with the name include: *Diederik Aerts (born 1953), Belgian theoretical physicist *Diederik Bangma (born 1990), Dutch football goalkeeper *Diederik Boer (born 1980), Dutch footballer * ...

from comedy group De Vliegende Panters ("The Flying Panthers"); this film premiered on Dutch television on 30 December 2009, and was released on DVD in January 2010.

Singing career

From 2006 onwards, Teeuwen performed as a

crooner A crooner is a singer who performs with a smooth, intimate style that originated in the 1920s. The crooning style was made possible by better microphones that picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to acce ...

in an

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

, ultimately resulting in a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

titled ''Hans Teeuwen Zingt'' (literal English: ''Hans Teeuwen Sings''), on which he sings songs by artists such as

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop ...

and

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

, together with his band. In 2008, Teeuwen performed at the

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. ...

. He released a CD consisting of self-written songs, titled ''How It Aches'', in March 2010. A CD in Dutch language titled ''Popstukken'' appeared in 2015.

International career

In 2005, Teeuwen announced he would no longer perform, incidentally coinciding with the politically motivated assassination of

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

and close friend Theo van Gogh. However, in 2007 he decided to try a new challenge: performing in English. He appeared at the 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

as part of the Amsterdam Underground Comedy Collective, which spurred him to do a longer show. In 2008 he performed solo at the Soho Theatre in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He also returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008, and performed at Suffolk's 2008

Latitude Festival Latitude Festival is an annual music and arts festival set within the grounds of Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. The first edition of the festival took place in 2006 and has continued annually (apart from 2020 when it was cancel ...

. In October 2008, he performed a show in the Leicester Square Theatre, London that was recorded for a future DVD release. In 2009, he performed at the Leicester Comedy Festival and the Belfast Festival at Queen's.

Political views

Although his work is typically devoid of

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

, in real life Teeuwen has repeatedly acted as a fervent supporter of

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

, especially after the

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

of his friend Theo van Gogh. His

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a term o ...

and speech at the unveiling of a statue in memory of Van Gogh was an example of his views. A

video clip Video clip may refer to: *Short videos, especially short-form content ** Video clip (online media), a short snippet of a video uploaded on the internet *A music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that ...

of Teeuwen advocating freedom of speech while being interviewed by three female Muslim TV presenters was chosen as "Dutch TV Moment of 2007".

Personal life

Hans Teeuwen is married to photographer Eva Boeter. In September 2013 their child Nika was born.

References

External links

HansTeeuwen.tv
*
Hans Teeuwen
at The World Stands Up
Hans Teeuwen
at Chortle * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Teeuwen, Hans 1967 births Living people Controversies in the Netherlands Counterculture of the 1990s Counterculture of the 2000s Counterculture of the 2010s Counterculture of the 2020s Dutch cabaret performers Dutch cabaret singers Dutch comedy musicians Dutch satirical musicians Dutch film directors Dutch comedy film directors Dutch humorists Dutch impressionists (entertainers) Dutch male film actors 20th-century Dutch pianists 21st-century Dutch pianists Dutch republicans Dutch satirists Dutch stand-up comedians Dutch surrealist artists Obscenity controversies in television Obscenity controversies in theatre Obscenity controversies in film People from Cranendonck Religious controversies in television Religious controversies in theatre Religious controversies in film Surreal comedians Television controversies in the Netherlands Religious controversies in the Netherlands Dutch male comedians