Compère
Decades ago, Johan Bennink from Aalten performed as a compère under this name. Nowadays, he might be called a ‘stand-up comedian’. His stage name was a reference to his actual profession: a plasterer.
A visitor to our Facebook page reported the following:
Johan Bennink regularly came to have his car washed in the car wash at Kempers. Most cars got a good service, but some cars needed extra attention. His car always fell into the latter category. Johan had an oversized, gold-coloured Fiat sedan that sagged quite a bit on its suspension because of its contents. He used it for his work as a plasterer. You can probably imagine that there could be thick clumps of mud from the building site on and under the car. For me, as a lad, it was always a challenge to make his car look beautiful again when Johan drove out of the garage. We couldn’t do much about the interior. Nor did we have to. It was packed to the rafters with a small ladder, tools, overalls, and all sorts of buckets with stuff that he would spread on walls or ceilings during the week. He always said: “Leave that to me, it’s my own little shed.”
Achterhoek Plat
On YouTube, we found a recording of Johannes de Gladstrieker from the well-known series ‘Achterhoek Plat’:
Who has more information about Johan Bennink, alias Johannes de Gladstrieker? We are also interested in information about other Old Aalten artists, especially if they performed in the regional dialect.
