Jade Mintjens takes advantage of her cheerful image to unexpectedly attack with stronger jokes ★★★★ ☆

It’s great to see how things keep moving in the small world of year-end convention since Geert Hoste last performed in 2016. In the six years that Kemal Kharmash has been doing now, Michael Van Bell has stopped and not only started Bert Gabriels, but also stopped. He hands the baton for this year to Jade Mintjens, who will also participate in addition to the podium perfect world It works so it is only natural to extract humor from the news.

Together until 2022 It’s also Mintjens’ first full evening show and that’s a risk, because how can you show as much of your person to the world as possible when the outlines have already been laid out by the newspapers? Part of the answer is: discard newspapers if you can’t use them.

Mentens, dressed in a bright pink suit and camisole for the occasion, would rather recite a favorite joke about her grandmother, who died in 2022, than brag about major analyzes about Ukraine and the crisis in which she was not. It makes the performance not only personal but also surprising. Everyone can talk about the World Cup in Qatar, but who’s still happy about the Brits taking the Ponte out of the box for celebrations?

With jokes about Fabrizio and Charleroi’s new Legoland, Mintjens keeps the light and lives up to her reputation as a cheerful Frenchwoman, but she also abuses that image to attack unexpectedly with harder jokes. Maintaining atmosphere after name dropping michel martin slams audience admiration like the mole Or speaking sternly to onlookers without turning on you is a talent too.

The well-known song arrangements sprinkled throughout the show ensure it never gets too heavy. With a two-man band at her back, Mintjens talks about PFAS long enough, satirizes Karl Vannieuwkerke and has the entire stage singing a haunting ode to Stan Van Samang.

Criticism points? Just two, and they’re minor ones: On some songs, you’re missing an extra musician who could really make the band sound full and you can see the joke about climate activists coming from a very long way.

We also look forward to next year, when Mintjens comes out with a more personal performance. This year’s end was definitely one of my year-end lists: the perfect balance between heavy and light, between coherence and sharpness and current affairs not as a tight jacket, but as a coat rack to hang a bright pink coat on. Conference by the rules of art but Jade Mintjens has made it her art.

It was seen on December 23 in Arenberg, Antwerp