Jan Jaap van der Wal

About Jan Jaap van der Wal

Jan Jaap van der Wal auditioned for Comedytrain at the age of 17 and was immediately offered a spot. He often performs in theaters with Comedytrain and its offshoot group Fresh Wagon. For the TV program ‘Dit was het nieuws’, he writes scripts and also contributes columns for AVRO-tv (De Ochtenden), AVRO-radio, and Spijkers met koppen. For the NPS radio program ‘Het Podium’, he writes a column during the recording based on keywords from the audience.

The youth program Yoy aired a portrait of Van der Wal in 1998 in the context of events, issues, and situations that affect young people. In early 2000, he missed out on the NPS Culture Prize but did win the internet audience award. In May 2001, he succeeded Thomas Acda and Marc-Marie Huijbregts as team captain on Dit Was Het Nieuws.

In 2004, he was nominated for the Neerlands Hoop with his program ‘Staat’, an award for the cabaret artist with a remarkable program or one who has undergone a notable development. With ‘BSUR’ (2006) and ‘Live’ (2012), he was nominated for the Poelifinario, the award for the most impressive performance of the season.

Van der Wal seeks new challenges. He performs his show ‘Dystopia’ exclusively at pop venues like Paradiso and Tivoli. In 2015, he moved to Flanders to create a new program ‘De nieuwe Belg’. This led to a weekly appearance on the talk show Café Corsari. In 2016, he participated in the Flemish version of De Slimste Mens. Additionally, he remains active in the Netherlands, where he reviews political news for RTL Late Night every month. In July 2016, he even discussed the highlights from the news daily for the program.