It will be his first New Year’s Eve conference for the 34-year-old comedian. After Jan-Jaap van der Wal, who was 28 at the time, he is the youngest cabaret performer to provide the year-end closing.
Beautiful hall, fantastic audience
On Radio Noord Pannekoek explains why he chose the Groninger Stadsschouwburg as the location: ‘I have my last performance Later everything was better also recorded in Groningen. ‘
‘I think Groningen is a beautiful hall, a very beautiful theater. And above all: I think the audience is fantastic. It’s a nice mix of down to earth people, young people, students. And they can take a beating. I don’t know if that is because of the earthquakes. And let me be very honest: after a few days of recording, it is also the nicest city to linger in the pub for a long time. ‘
Tradition
Pannekoek says he considers the New Year’s Eve conference an honorable task. ‘It’s a wonderful, wonderful tradition. Everyone will soon have an opinion about it, which is nice. But you do have to recognize that tradition. ‘
How do you do that? ‘You have to fully master this tradition and realize that people do expect a kind of end-of-year overview. Herman Finkers did that very well: his New Year’s Eve conference was a real Finkers performance with Finkers jokes, but he picked up different news than other colleagues probably had done. Still, it was a wonderful New Year’s Eve conference. ‘
Freek and Youp as examples
The comedian realizes that he has big shoes to fill: ‘Freek de Jonge and Youp are my great examples when it comes to the New Year’s Eve conference. Freek has always been so innovative and groundbreaking, stepped outside the box. And I think Youps pace and consistency are very clever. He’s been making good and funny performances for so long and never gives up. ‘
Pannekoek has the working title of his performance New blood given. He is already busy preparing: ‘What I’ve been doing since January 1 is reading a lot and jotting down things. Then I hope to get a little overview this summer. From the end of summer we will try-out and hopefully make a beautiful performance. ‘
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