Willem Cornelis "Wim" Kan (15 January 1911 – 8 September 1983) was a Dutch

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

artist. Together with Toon Hermans and Wim Sonneveld, he is considered to be one of the Great Three of Dutch cabaret. In 1936, he established the ABC Cabaret, which soon became one of the most successful Dutch cabaret groups, in which several artists debuted who later became famous. In 1940, the ABC Cabaret was touring the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, and because of the German invasion could not return to the Netherlands. After the Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies, he was deported to camps at the Burma Railway. Because of his experiences at these camps he later agitated against

Hirohito , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...

's visit to the Netherlands in 1971. Wim Kan is possibly best known as the originator of the tradition of the so-called Oudejaarsconference. These are performances of political cabaret on (or around)

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

, discussing the events of the past year. Wim Kan made the first oudejaarsconference in 1954, which was broadcast on radio. His first televised oudejaarsconference was in 1973, scoring an

audience measurement Audience measurement calculates how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic. The term is someti ...

of 75% and record appreciations rating of 8.8 (out of 10). Although he actually made only 5 television conferences (1973, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1982), they made such an impact that many people remember it as a yearly tradition.

References

External links

De Wim Kan Pagina: New Year's Eve cabarets, historical audio, and quotes, in cooperation with the Dutch World Broadcaster (Radio Nederland Wereldomroept).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kan, Wim 1911 births 1983 deaths Dutch male comedians Dutch comedy musicians Dutch cabaret performers Dutch cabaret singers Dutch political music artists Dutch stand-up comedians Dutch satirists Dutch satirical musicians 20th-century Dutch male singers Entertainers from The Hague World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan Burma Railway prisoners