Raoul Louis Heertje (; born 11 March 1963, in

Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the province of North Holland in the Netherlands near Hilversum. Since 2016, Bussum has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren. Bussum had a ...

) 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 ...

.Maas en mensen weet ook niet meer wat typisch joods is
''

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 Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...

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 ...

programme '' Have I Got News for You'' (on

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 Raoul Louis Heertje (; born 11 March 1963, in Bussum) is a Dutch comedian. Being Dutch Jews, Jewish himself, his comedy performances include Jewish humour.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") , image_map = , map_caption = , 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 ...

Arnold Heertje Arnold Heertje (19 February 1934 – 4 April 2020) was a Dutch economist and professor at the University of Amsterdam, writer and columnist. He became more generally known for his opposition to the Betuweroute. Life and career Heertje was born ...

Comedytrain

''Comedytrain'' was the first

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

. 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. ...

Theo Maassen Theodorus Wilhelmus (Theo) Maassen (born 8 December 1966 in Oegstgeest, South Holland) is a Dutch comedian and actor who grew up in the village of Zijtaart (municipality of Veghel) in the Dutch province of North Brabant. He currently lives i ...

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 ...

Thomas Acda Thomas Acda (born Amsterdam, 6 March 1967) is a Dutch singer, actor and comedian, known as former member of the duo Acda en De Munnik. Acda grew up in De Rijp and after graduating high school at havo level, Acda started the theater school, b ...

, Ronald Goedemondt,

Jan Jaap van der Wal Jan Jaap van der Wal (born 1 November 1979) is a Dutch stand-up comedian, cabaret performer and television presenter. Television He is known as team captain in '' Dit was het nieuws'', the Dutch adaptation of the BBC show '' Have I Got News fo ...

, and

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.

References

External links

*
Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heertje, Raoul 1963 births Living people Dutch Ashkenazi Jews Dutch columnists Dutch stand-up comedians Jewish Dutch comedians Jewish Dutch writers People from Bussum Secular Jews