Van der Laan and Woe

30 min

NL, EN

Through their impressive singing and musical talent, Van der Laan and Woe have won a special place in the hearts of Dutch audiences. Their shows and performances continue to be innovative in which they always manage to find the perfect balance between humor and music.

Niels van der Laan and Jeroen Woe have always placed a strong emphasis on music in their cabaret shows and television appearances. Their songs are often humorous and perceptive, with lyrics that address current social and political issues in an accessible and often hilarious way. Their musical skits and songs are characterized by their versatile singing voices and use of various musical genres, from ballads to parodies of well-known hits.

They met at the Academie voor Kleinkunst in Amsterdam, where they graduated in 2004. In 2005 they won the Wim Sonneveld Prize at the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival, and earlier in 2004 won the Residentie Prize for Most Promising Playwrights at the Theater Aan Zee festival in Ostend, Belgium. In 2014, Erik van Muiswinkel's performance Schettino! directed by Woe won the Poelifinario.

Van der Laan and Woe work as teachers at the Amsterdam School of Drama and Kleinkunstacademie and as directors and writers of various theater projects. They were former participants in the VARA radio program Spijkers met koppen. In 2010 and 2012, the duo participated in VARA's New Year's Eve Conference, which also featured Mike and Thomas, Erik van Muiswinkel, Sanne Wallis de Vries and Ronald Goedemondt.

In the years 2006-2008 they performed with their cabaret program Ctrl+Alt+Del. In 2007 their first full-length show premiered. Their third program, Superlative, was awarded the Neerlands Hoop 2011. Their fourth program, Buutvrij, was nominated for the Poelifinario, the award for the best cabaret show of the year. Van der Laan and Woe are part of vocal formation Stanley and the Menzos. Niels van der Laan was a reporter for television program Rambam from 2011 to 2015. He also appeared in the children's program Studio Snugger by Thomas van Luyn, which also featured Jeroen Woe.

In addition to their appearances, Van der Laan and Woe presented a satirical news quiz with Rob Urgert and Joep van Deudekom on Paul de Leeuw's television program PAU!L (later Langs de Leeuw). In 2013, the show became an independent program titled De Kwis.[1] In March 2018, it was announced that this program was coming to an end after more than 7 years and 10 seasons. The reason arose mainly because Joep van Deudekom and Rob Urgert wanted to continue coming up with new formats. Woe and Van der Laan would have liked to continue and expressed a desire to return to the tube with a similar program.

Almost a year after De Kwis stopped, they came up with a new program called Even tot hier, in which they let their musicality and humor loose on current events again,[2] for which they were awarded the gold Televizierring in 2022 and an Honorary Zilveren Nipkowschijf in 2023.[3] Even to Here is characterized by musical parodies (in the first two seasons an entire musical), a song explaining a complicated subject in 1 minute, questions to the audience and a musical guest performing his or her hit song with lyrics rewritten by Van der Laan and Woe.

Their fifth theater performance was called Alles eromheen and their sixth full-length performance Pesetas. Their performances are a succession of absurdist scenes, acts and songs, which eventually come together to form a story.[1][4] Niels van der Laan and Jeroen Woe will tour the country starting in 2022 with their seventh full-length theater show: NG.

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