Freek de Jonge


Frederik "Freek" Jan Georg de Jonge is a Dutch cabaret performer and writer.

Biography

Early life and career

De Jonge was born in Westernieland as son of a pastor. His family moved to Workum, and later to Zaandam and Goes. At age 11, De Jonge had his first performance on stage. After barely making it through high school, he studied cultural anthropology in Amsterdam. During his studies he met and Johan Gertenbach, and they formed a group of comedy performers,.
In 1978, Neerlands Hoop became famous for their opposition against the participation of the Netherlands national football team in the football world cup in Argentina, though their show Bloed aan de Paal.
In 1979, Neerlands Hoop split up and De Jonge started a solo career of comedy performances. Starting in 1983, he also regularly performed on Dutch national television on New Year's Eve, humoristically looking back on the past year.

Writer and musician

Besides performing in cabaret, De Jonge has written the novels Zaansch Veem, Neerlands Bloed and Opa's Wijsvinger. He has been the host of television shows and wrote two films: The Illusionist and De KKKomediant. He also wrote a hip hop song with Dutch rapper Brainpower.
In 1994, De Jonge started to work with Nits. Under the name Frits, they performed covers of old Neerlands Hoop songs, translated Nits songs and newly written material. An album was released in 1995: Dankzij de Dijken. De Jonge continued to work with their keyboard player Robert Jan Stips: Stips released two albums: Gemeen Goed and Rapsodia. A cover of Bob Dylan's "Death is not the End" reached the first place of the Dutch charts in 1997.

1997-present

From 1997 to October 2000, De Jonge was a columnist of the daily newspaper Parool.
In February 2004, he went to Iraq for a week to perform for the Dutch troops.
On 12 November 2005, he received the Groenman prize from the Genootschap Onze Taal; this is a society which works with the Dutch language.

Personal life

De Jonge is married to Hella Asser, daughter of Dutch writer Eli Asser.

Shows

With Neerlands Hoop