Jazz, blues and nostalgia, by Sjaak Roodenburg. Today on timeless cabaretier Wim Kan.
What Kan can, only Kan can do. He was the Emperor of the New Year’s show, With his subjects slipping from our memories, such as politicians as Witteveen, Schmelzer and Zijlstra,Wim Kan’s star fading. But beside those, Wim Kan could be extremely witty on timeless subjects. This is also the subject of this Palace of Nostalgia: Wim Kan mocking ridiculous commercials, who links his love for the violin to his annoyance with people who always talk through music with his ‘Pattefoon’ and who jokes about the lyrics of the song ‘Ik zag twee beren broodjes smeren’. In a lecture to students of the Kleinkunstacademie, he expands on his craftmanship, like how to get an audience to sing along.
And there is also a hurt, even furious Wim Kan, who, just like his wife Corry Vonk, had suffered in Japanese camp and to his dismay had to experience how the royal family received the Japanese emperor for dinner. In his heartbreaking railroad song, he expresses these feelings. An hour of Wim Kan (1911-1983), the sensitive, doubtful worrier who reveals his real self in his song ‘Zwart-wit Liedje’.
