''Studio Kafka'' was a Flemish sketch comedy radio show presented on the radio station

Studio Brussel A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial d ...

between 1995 and 1999. It was presented by Belgian cartoonists

Kamagurka Luc Zeebroek (born 5 May 1956), better known as Kamagurka, is a Belgian cartoonist, playwright, comic strip artist, painter, comedian, comedic singer and television producer, known for the absurd nature of his work. He created various comic st ...

and

Herr Seele Herr Seele, the pseudonym of Peter Van Heirseele (Torhout, Belgium, 13 April 1959), is a Flemish cartoonist, author, actor, piano tuner and piano collector. He is mainly known for the absurd humor comic strip ''Cowboy Henk'', for which his col ...

and aired each Sunday afternoon between 13.00 and 14.00 p.m.

Historical background

and

were well known cartoonists in the Flemish magazine ''

Humo ''HUMO'' is a popular Dutch-language Belgian weekly radio and television supermarket tabloid. History and profile ''Humoradio'' (meaning a portmanteau of 'humor' and 'radio' in English) was first published in 1936 as a Dutch-language counterpar ...

'', who had already made stage shows, novelty singles and television series during the 1980s and 1990s before their own radio show on

aired. Just like these past endeavours ''Studio Kafka'' was full with absurd comedy sketches, some of them based on earlier material.

intercut these sketches with songs and atmospheric music from his personal record collection. Some of their assistants, Gunter Lamoot, Piet De Praitere and Bart Vanneste had previously won the ''Grote Prijs W.P. Stutjens'', a contest for new comedy talent. Kamagurka was one of the jury members and hired them as co-actors on the show. In 1999 Flemish singer

Eddy Wally Eduard Van De Walle (12 July 1932 – 6 February 2016), known by his stage name Eddy Wally, was a Belgian schlager singer from Zelzate, East Flanders, and the once self-proclaimed "Voice of Europe". As a crooner and showman, Eddy Wally toured ...

was co-host.

Recurring items

The show was notable for several recurring segments, among them Kamiel Kafka, an absurd philosopher and poet whom Kamagurka had already played during stage and television shows. Kamagurka also narrated the adventures of

Cowboy Henk ''Cowboy Henk'' is a Belgian absurd/surreal humour gag-a-day comic strip series drawn by Herr Seele and written by Kamagurka. It was originally published in the newspaper ''De Morgen'', but later taken over by the magazine ''HUMO'', in which it ...

, while Herr Seele did the voice of Henk. Piet de Praitere presented a segment called "Etienne met het Open Verhemelte" ("Etienne with the Open

Palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

"), in which the character Etienne is unable to make himself understandable to listeners due to his condition. Another recurring item was ''De Tactloze Top 100'' ("The Tactless Top 100"), a parody on hitparade music, where Kamagurka played bizarre music by acts like

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

The Residents The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, ''Meet the Residents'' (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music vi ...

Barnes & Barnes Barnes & Barnes are an American musical duo, formed in Los Angeles in 1970. Though commonly associated with novelty music and comedy rock, their music has also incorporated elements of new wave, synth-pop, and folk rock. The duo formed in 197 ...

and his own novelty singles. In 2000 a compilation CD with Kama's music from "De Tactloze Top 100" was released.

Spin-offs

The 2002 radio program ''Kamagurkistan'' was a similar show. It was also presented on

between 13:00 and 14:00 and similar in absurdic style, but with a different co-host, Tomas De Soete.

Sources

{{Reflist

External links

A recording of the pilot episode
Belgian comedy radio programs 1995 radio programme debuts 1999 radio programme endings Radio sketch shows Radio programs based on comic strips Surreal comedy radio series