Posted by Jan den Breejen on December 21, 2000 at 04:30:47:
Michel Romeyn (Dutch comedian, maker of the Jiskefet tv series)
Some of his characterological idiosyncracies:
- 'I love to stay at home, in bed, in my nest, for days…thinking 'just fuck off everybody''
- 'my humor originates in sadness'
- 'I've allways had a bit of melancholy, that worrying thing…..when I was a boy one day I kept my mouth shut. My mother asked me why I wouldn't talk anymore. I was afraid I would run out of my stock of words'
- 'I lived in my own little world…school was horrible, when my mother put me into the building I quickly sneaked out again; they really had to push me through the schools gates…in class I was just looking around..
- 'when I concentrated (in youth) I could leave my body and hover towards the ceiling, to look at things from another point of view' (rich imagionation/inner universe, compensation for his fear to go/look 'out')
- 'It started with a candy floss, which I ate at a fair, when I put it in my mouth it simply melted away…disappeared, but then I thought; perhaps everything is fake, I didn't trust anything anymore, I turned inward, agrofobia, streetfobia, I had sweat all over my body, no saliva in my mouth, I just sat down in a doorway to calm down again, after some time I could stand again and shuffle a bit…..I haven't been to school for a year, I am over-sensitive, I have an allergy for too many impressions; to deaden the stimuli I wore sunglassses.'
- 'I was bullied at school, left school and tried working at an office….horrible experience, with 40 men in a room….I left the office by the fire exit; just run away from it…I earned some money by sticking playbills to buildings at night….when the police caught me I said to them I said I worked at the zoo and that the bucket I had with me was filled with hypo sperm for artificial insemination'
- 'when a man kicked my dog I got red hot angry; kicked the guy and threw him over a distance of many feet' (counterfobic 'courage')
- 'In New York I was completely overwhelmed by the city sounds and images…needed valium'
- 'I am a shy guy, a bit clumsy, neat; but nobody believes that'
- 'At a funeral I am afraid I will suddenly burst out laughing…sometimes I am afraid of the Peter Sellers syndrome, of not being able to distinguish between myself and the comical types I play'
It's interesting to see in which ways Michel Romeyn learned to live with his fears; he started imitating the (narcissistic - self confident and succesful) people he was afraid of, doing comical sketches, also he started teasing, playing the clown, being artistically creative. He clearly is a Sensitive Style character, having counterfobic moments.
Another person who turned his character succesfully into a 'job'!
Jan