André Carrell

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André Carrell (1960)

André Carrell (born December 27, 1911 in Alkmaar , Netherlands , † March 15, 1968 in Neu-Loosdrecht , Netherlands), actually Andries Kesselaar , was a Dutch comedian and master of the arts . In Germany he was known almost exclusively from appearances on the Rudi Carrell Show . Rudi Carrell was his oldest son.

Private life

André was born as the twelfth of thirteen children, his father Johannes Jakob Kesselaar also came from Alkmaar. His friends used to call him Dries, as an abbreviation of his real name Andries. As a child he had already built a tent with cloths and broomsticks in order to play scenes he had made up himself. André shared a passion for the theater with his father, who occasionally appeared as an amateur actor.

André Carrell learned to be a baker. On March 7, 1934, he married Catharina Houtkooper (1907–1990), who was also born in Alkmaar. At that time he no longer worked as a baker, but was an insurance agent, at times also unemployed and so he took on various activities. Like many Dutch people, Carrell did not succeed in finding permanent employment during the global economic crisis:

"My father had sold all sorts of things, vegetables and potatoes, somehow he even managed to get meat on the table once a week."

- Rudi Carrell

Carrell had four children: Rudolf Wijbrand, called Rudi (1934-2006) took over the artist's surname from his father and continued his activities. Geertruida (* 1936), regardless of her comic talent, never dared to step into show business. Today she lives with her husband in Hilversum . Adriaan (* 1941) played puppet theater with Rudi and once accompanied him on a tour as a secretary in 1960, but show business was not so much for him, which is why he went into the insurance industry. Andries (1944–1994) worked for the television producer Joop van den Ende for many years and died of a heart attack at the age of 49.

Like his father, André also increasingly tended to consume excessive alcohol, which prevented Rudi from enjoying high-proof drinks throughout his life. In 1967 André Carrell ended his career for health reasons. He died of lung cancer in March 1968, with lung diseases being common in the family. Thousands of mourners attended his funeral.

Career

As an amateur artist

At the age of 16, Carrell began directing amateur theater. He later founded the comedian quartet De Vier K`s with his brothers Piet, Jan and Klass , which performed throughout the province of North Holland . André was the only one in the family who wanted to become a professional artist.

When his son Rudi could just walk, André was already a well-known man in Alkmaar who was greeted by everyone. No wedding and no club evening took place without his appearance, all the children in the city loved his puppet theater and his magic tricks.

The idea for the stage name came from the magician Emil Moretti, with whom André often worked. He suggested making Andries "André" because a French sound would be advantageous for an artist. In addition, Emil thought the surname inappropriate, and since he had just read something about the well-known surgeon Alexis Carrel , he suggested André Carrell.

As a professional artist

Although it gave him great trouble to support the family with his work, Carrell went increasingly to become a professional artist. He went from village to village as an emcee and comedian. The situation only improved during the war , when there was great demand for entertainment. André was able to use his versatile talent and accept a wide variety of engagements, for which he was rewarded with food. However, he always had to hurry to be home before curfew, which began at 8 p.m. He was now in the Alkmaarrer address book as a cabaret artist. In 1941 he was allowed to take part in the radio program Bonte Dinsdag-Abend (Colorful Tuesday Evening ) for the first time and then received engagements throughout the Netherlands.

After the war, André Carrell led the artist group Het Nederlands Cabaret and was with her in the colony of Indonesia for six months in 1948 and in November 1953 he performed with her in the Palais Soestdijk before Queen Juliana. Until television became widespread at the end of the 1950s, colorful evenings were extremely popular in all towns and villages. The organizer could also book individual artists or an ensemble like the one put together by Carrell. Depending on the price negotiated, all or only some of the members came. Although this did not enable Carrell to achieve immense, it did achieve acceptable prosperity. So he was able to buy a television set as early as 1952, one year after regular operations were introduced.

In November 1952 his son Rudi came to the group, at first only as a secretary in the background, then he also played on the stage. André even had his first television appearance in 1960 as a guest on his son's first show. Later André even starred in two films, in 1962 in Kermis in de Regen (Carnival in the Rain) by director Kees Brusse (1962) and in 1965 in De wolf en zijn zeven Dochters (The Wolf and His Seven Daughters) by Tom Manders .

Rudi Carrell described his father as a good lyricist, actor and emcee who had an outstanding talent for putting jokes into practice. As an example of this talent, he usually cited an incident from November 1954: André and Rudi could not sleep in a hotel double room because of the traffic noise, so they talked about gags. As an example of a good gag, André came up with the idea of ​​swapping the unequal sized dentures of the comedian duo in the neighboring double room and setting up a fire alarm. The two comedians came out of their room with swapped prostheses, which was a strange sight and also astonished Rudi, as he had not expected that people in a panic situation would still use their prostheses.

André Carrell's and his son's personal lives were very different. Rudi was constantly looking for ideas for his radio and later television shows, so that he hardly had time for his family. André, on the other hand, was able to lead a quiet family life, he could play his program at the many small events for years and therefore hardly needed to change it.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e A Life for the Show , Chapter A Childhood in Holland
  2. ↑ a b c Give me back my bike , Chapter 2nd day
  3. Jump up ↑ A Life for the Show , Chapter 12 Behind the Scenes
  4. ↑ a b c Acteurs - en Kleinkunstenaarslexicon
  5. ↑ a b Give me back my bike , chapter 1st day
  6. ↑ A Life for the Show , Chapter Conférencier Kesselaar
personal data
SURNAME Carrell, André
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kesselaar, Andries (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch comedian and emcee
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Alkmaar , Netherlands , Kingdom of the Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1968
Place of death Neu-Loosdrecht , Netherlands , Kingdom of the Netherlands