Neerlands Hoop - Nieuwe Revu interviews illusionist

This week: thoughts illusionist Jochem Nooyen (39).

What is your best decision in the last twelve months?

"Earlier this year, I was busy preparing a new TV show. However, the financial plug went out a week before the shooting would start. I was really fed up with that. It made me wonder, why am I still doing what I do? I used to figure that out for myself at the Academy of Drama. At the time, my answer was that I wanted to surprise people so that they open their eyes and can look around them with a fresh look. A bit of a silly sentence, perhaps, but a truth like a cow. In the meantime it is no longer entirely for me. I was ready to have that clear to myself again. "

And what is your answer to this?

'I don't have it completely clear yet, but it comes close to wanting to show the dead person on a stage. It doesn't always have to be the superhero in the spotlight, and it doesn't always have to be the polished side of humans we see. The less beautiful side of us and our lives may also get a place on the podium, so that people who are in that less beautiful side can benefit from it. It still sounds a bit vague, but it has that tendency. "

How does a person become an illusionist?

'I was about twelve or thirteen when I saw someone juggling with a friend at Tilburg station. We were fascinated, because he was really good. We started practicing that day. A year later we were juggling burning torches in the squares of Brabant. Our girlfriend went around with the cap and we went out of that money. "

How many times have you burned your ficks on those torches?

"That happened a few times, yes. Eating fire and walking on glass, I've done all that. After the juggler I bumped into another artist, a figure balloon maker. Together we then came up with an act around a cocktail bar. He made balloon figures, while I read the thoughts of the people at the bar and could guess what cocktail they wanted. He is now a balloon importer in Belgium, and I specialized further in mind-reading. '

What was your first major act as an illusionist?

“My breakthrough was with the SBS6 program The New Uri Geller. There I also did that cocktail act: I reminded celebrities of a cocktail and with whom they wanted to drink it. After that I did a cool act with the same TV program that I came up with together with a colleague. We had made two rooms on the stage, with a wall between them: me in one room, fashion king Maik de Boer in the other. He had to complete five assignments. If he had to set the clock at a certain hour, I would too. If he chose something from the clothes rack, I would grab the same. Not only the choices, but also the route we walked through the room was exactly the same. ”

Privacy is the greatest illusion we have given ourselves

What do you like about this course?

"That's really that wonder. That you are in the audience and think: I know it is not possible because he is an illusionist, but could it be? Something so different from normal happens, you put people on it.

What do you want?

'I would be happy if more people managed to find my theater show, because I really made something beautiful. I do not say that quickly myself, but I receive emails from visitors who write that they love it and are going to tell all their family, friends and colleagues. I worked very hard on this performance for a few years and I am proud of it. So I want it to be busier. "

What makes your performance so good?

"It's unique, and that's the problem right away: people don't know where they're going. It is not sliding with large boxes like Hans Klok and I do not, like Victor Mids, explain how it works in the brain. My presentation is about our online privacy. How do algorithms work? Why does Facebook know when you will end your relationship? Why do some supermarkets realize that you are pregnant before you? Another example: Amazon's algorithm knows that you first look at a product five times before buying it. If you look at something for the fourth time, they will send the product to a distribution center near you. So that you immediately have it at home when you click on order the fifth time. In my performance I mimic those algorithms: I bring how it works in the digital world to life in the theater. '

How did you come up with this idea?

'When I was out and about with a group of friends in Antwerp, one of us wanted to put some photos of the evening online. Another friend then said, "Prefer not to." In no time there was a huge discussion that got quite out of hand. Normally our group of friends is fairly unanimous, but now two camps really started. Anything online about you is hackable, but we think our thoughts are safe. Because what's in your head, no one can reach it. But even your thoughts turn out not to be safe, at least not with me. Privacy is the greatest illusion we have given ourselves. "

Cow funk

You may know him as Barteljaap Gustaaf Balneger from the comic series Cow funk, but Jochem is first and foremost a brain juggler.

Lost pin

The AIVD's director-general Rob Bertholee had to change his pin code after Jochem managed to steal it during a show.

Privacy

Jochem's new mind illusion show Privacy can be seen in various theaters until April 30. More information: jochemnooyen.nl.