I started performing as a stand-up comedian at a really early age. At 22, I reached the finals of the Amsterdam Studenten Cabaret Festival, the Stand-Up Comedy Concours at AFK and the Culture Comedy Award, which included an extensive theater tour through the Netherlands. At 24, I joined legendary comedy collective Comedytrain at Toomler, which had always been my dream.

But there I got stuck. I didn’t really know who I was and what I was doing, relying on feedback of others too much, which was often too harsh. So after two long hard years, they let me go. I performed at Quatsch Comedy Club (in German) for a couple of years after that, before quitting comedy altogether.

But I never stopped loving live comedy. When I heard of a new place in Amsterdam where international comedians where performing in a living room setting, I went to see it. It was called That Comedy Thing and I loved it. These sensitive, super funny performers felt much more like my kin than the harsh egos of Toomler. I started visiting Mezrab (the House of Storytelling) more and befriended Lara Ricote, who encouraged me to go on stage again.

Since then I’ve been doing stand-up again, this time in English. It feels really good. I’m older, wiser, calmer, hopefully funnier. I’ve performed all over the Netherlands, having a lot of fun.

I’ve done workshops in improv with David Elms among others, as well as an intense 5-day clowning workshop with Dr. Brown, which taught me a lot.

Together with my comedy soulmate Rein Mulder I’ve also done some sketch, which was really fun.