Making fun of people is one thing Dutch really love! We have our own word for a person who does that in public for his job: Cabaretier - also know as a standup comedian. We know quite some (in my opinion ) good cabaretiers, like Hans Teeuwen, Youp van 't Hek, Guido Weijers.
A condition that jokes are funny, is that you are not involved in them. Making fun of people and positive stories doesn't go together. Simply, because that's not funny. What is funny, is when people make stupid mistakes, when they say odd things or when they are convinced of A but act like B.
Yesterday I have been to a performance of Greg Shapiro, who is a comedian as profession. He calls himself the American Nederlander. He has lived here for a long time and is maried to a Dutch woman. Therefore he has quite some experience with the Dutch and our culture.
Besides because I'm Dutch, I also thought it could be interesting to go to his performance to get inspired for my workshop Dutch Habits & Traditions (which by the way, will take place 14th of April again). In his show 'Pride to be Orange' he tries to go a bit further besides the normal prejudices like cheapness, (non) openness. What he did in quite a good way is to turn negative prejudices into a positive light. Like, the reason we keep the cookie tin closed after serving 1 cooky, is not being stingy, but it is for YOU - to keep the contents fresh, in case YOU want more. Isn't that sweet of us!
He also discussed the 'inburgerings cursus' (integration course). Man, what are some of those questions difficult!! Why do immigrants have to know all those things like 'where does nutmeg come from?' I really don't have a clue. But yes, other questions really made me proud if you look at our history, all the entrepreneus, painters, writers. And yes, we created our own land: Flevoland. Not that everybody is really proud of that provence, but besides that, it is new land!
I'm already looking forward to Koninginnedag, 30 April. I will wear ORANGE, with PRIDE!
A condition that jokes are funny, is that you are not involved in them. Making fun of people and positive stories doesn't go together. Simply, because that's not funny. What is funny, is when people make stupid mistakes, when they say odd things or when they are convinced of A but act like B.
Yesterday I have been to a performance of Greg Shapiro, who is a comedian as profession. He calls himself the American Nederlander. He has lived here for a long time and is maried to a Dutch woman. Therefore he has quite some experience with the Dutch and our culture.
Besides because I'm Dutch, I also thought it could be interesting to go to his performance to get inspired for my workshop Dutch Habits & Traditions (which by the way, will take place 14th of April again). In his show 'Pride to be Orange' he tries to go a bit further besides the normal prejudices like cheapness, (non) openness. What he did in quite a good way is to turn negative prejudices into a positive light. Like, the reason we keep the cookie tin closed after serving 1 cooky, is not being stingy, but it is for YOU - to keep the contents fresh, in case YOU want more. Isn't that sweet of us!
He also discussed the 'inburgerings cursus' (integration course). Man, what are some of those questions difficult!! Why do immigrants have to know all those things like 'where does nutmeg come from?' I really don't have a clue. But yes, other questions really made me proud if you look at our history, all the entrepreneus, painters, writers. And yes, we created our own land: Flevoland. Not that everybody is really proud of that provence, but besides that, it is new land!
I'm already looking forward to Koninginnedag, 30 April. I will wear ORANGE, with PRIDE!
No comments:
Post a Comment