Yesterday on tv an old interview with Freek de Jonge, a famous Dutch comic. The interview was 15 years old and represented the yesterday Freek. But apart from that ‘today’-Freek was there, watching his younger self and commenting.
The older interview was not so revealing in my opinion. However I was very much intrigued by something the ‘current Freek’ disclosed. It was about the nature of drama. Freek has always been specialised in one man shows. He has developed a cunning in that direction that you don’t see often. In the 70ties he sort of defined the comic show. All of the comics after him are in a way based on his shows in the 70ties. Special in his shows was the ‘red thread’ within a highly associative story line. He sort of glued completely different funny stories in a sort of meta story.
What struck me most was his experience on how you get drama across. In his view there is a miracle going on. ‘How can someone on the back row in the theatre, who is not able to see the expression of my face able to react on expressions in my face?’. Freek explains this as a phenomenon that is manageable. He saids: ‘You have to bring yourself in a state where you are able to do this. You cannot explain how, but you know you can. This takes a special concentration. And you have to bring the audience in a state that they will react in this special way. It takes time to do that. You know when this happens, but you cannot analyse this.
I think that everybody working with a crowd -even a small one – has this experience. The magic that enables some politicians to fly high above there ‘human state’ (Reagen, Clinton, Obama).
Tags: comic, concentration, crowd, miracle