André van Duin (NL)

About

Also known as: Andre Van Duin, Koos Grandioos

André van Duin has been making the Netherlands laugh since the mid 1960s, when he won the AVRO talent contest Nieuwe Oogst with a six minute playback act that ended in a chicken dance parody of Surfin' Bird. That wild performance earned him a spot on the Zaterdagavondshow and launched a career that has never really stopped. He built his name through revue theatre, a long running radio show called the Dik Voormekaar Show, and a string of hit singles including Willempie, Er staat een paard in de gang, and De balletjes van de koningin. On radio and television he created characters like the alter ego Dik Voormekaar, and his televised revue Dag dag heerlijke lach won the Gouden Televizier ring, the biggest TV prize voted by the Dutch public. Later in his career he took on a straight acting role for the first time in the stage play The Sunshine Boys, stepping away from the comic personas he had hidden behind for decades. The Algemeen Dagblad summed it up in 2017, calling him the greatest popular comedian the Netherlands has produced in over half a century.