Stand-up for Mormons on Dutch TV

Humor U’s open mic night was a success thanks to two new members. The next Humor U show is free and will be filmed for Dutch national television. All students are invited to the show, which will take place at Dave and Cranky Chuckies restaurant south of campus on Sept. 25 at 8 p.m.

Maarten Van Rossem is a Dutch celebrity who is a writer, historian and presenter. He was invited by De Haaien, the Dutch public television channel, to do a four part mini series called “Maarten Van Rossem for President,” which will air in October. Van Rossem and his film crew are traveling around the United States to display what the American campaign trail is like for their documentary, focusing primarily on the 2012 election.

Humor U is a BYU stand-up comedy group. It’s president, Aaron Woodall, a Senior majoring in Italian from Bowie, Md. is excited to put on a free show for Van Rossem and De Haaien.

“He’s like the Dutch Jon Stewart, if Jon Stewart had a Ph.D. in history and was a renowned expert in American politics,” said Woodall about Van Rossem.

Woodall was contacted in May about being a part of the documentary. The main purpose of the documentary is to understand the American presidential campaign  process. Since Mitt Romney is in the run for president, De Haaien planned on focusing one episode on Romney.

Dutch public television contacted Humor U in May and met with some of the members in June about the possibility of being on a segment of their documentary. It was not until August that De Haaien confirmed they will come to BYU and film one of Humor U’s shows.

“They explained that they are doing a mini-series on the upcoming election and that one episode would focus on Romney and Mormonism, and they wanted to talk about funny Mormons, and Mormons and humor, since their host is something of a political comedian,” Woodall said.

One of humor U’s newest members, Alex Bennett, a junior advertising major from Chicago, is looking forward to the show.

“To have a Dutch television production come all the way to BYU, I think it’d be worth seeing,” said Bennett.

The free show will be about half an hour due to Van Rossem wanting to interview the Humor members following their acts.

“We felt that we had an opportunity to show a part of the world who Mormons are, who BYU students are, that we’re normal, that we joke and laugh just like anyone else,” Woodall said.