“If particular comedians are recognized as truth-tellers, does that imply that comedic speech may also lack truth?” (Zijp 2026). This central question, posed by Dr Dick Zijp in the seminar “Navigating Entanglements in Stand-Up Comedy: Humour, Truth-telling, and Situated Knowledges,” identifies a key tension shaping contemporary stand-up comedy: the collision of different “truth-regimes.” Drawing on…

Theatre and performance have always been a gathering space throughout many different cultures and times. This is because historically, theatre has worked as a force that connects people: whether for sharing knowledge between community members, rehearsing future life events or introducing others to a new idea. In this view, performances can be understood not just as…

In line with the examples cited by Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink and Sigrid Merx during the discussion of their new book, “From As If to What If: Simulation and Speculation in Contemporary Dramaturgy”, I was reminded of Phobiarama by Dries Verhoeven. This performance does not simply present itself as something other than theatre. The performative installation…

What struck me most in the seminar by Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink and Sigrid Merx was not simply the theatricality of Unified Estonia, but the unsettling precision with which it staged the conditions that make political reality believable. Rather than parodying politics from a distance, the project operated as if it were a real political party—complete…

In his seminar “Humour, Truth-telling, and Situated Knowledges”, Dick Zijp reflected on the truth-telling role of comedians. Zijp first introduced the Foucauldian concept parrhesia, with which comedy practice is associated, meaning “fearless and courageous speech” (Zijp 2026). When applied to contemporary stand-up comedy, it suggests that comedians are parrhesiastes who speak truths via their “liberal…

During the Transmission in Motion session on humour and truth-telling, Dick Zijp argued that humour does not simply reveal truth but is embedded within what one might call a ‘truth regime’. A set of implicit rules that determine what is considered recognizable or legitimate. Reflecting further on his lecture, I turned to De Ideale Wereld,…

At the most recent Transmission in Motion seminar, “Humor and Truth-Telling,” Dick Zijp brought Donna Haraway into dialogue with stand-up comedy. He juxtaposed her framework of situated knowledges, traditionally associated with scientific and ecological inquiry, with the deliberate construction of humor in performance. The parallel is striking. Much like scientists, comedians navigate complex entanglements, but…

The success of stand-up comedy heavily relies on shared experiences and nuance of language which leads me to believe that the identities that comedians hold are important within the context of the reception of their performances. British comedian and academic Oliver Double identifies that stand-up comedy is characterised by ‘personality,’ ‘direct communication’ and ‘present tense’…

How can we be many? A seemingly simple question, yet it became the red thread of the latest Transmission in Motion seminar “Culture for Democracy, Democracy for Culture”. Lars Ebert returned to it insistently, using it as an opening within the increasingly narrow space the cultural sector seems to occupy. How can the cultural sector…

During the seminar led by Lars Ebert, Secretary General of Culture Action Europe, I found myself reflecting on the temporality of value. The conversation moved through policy, inclusion, advocacy, and institutional structures, but the underlying tension of how quickly something is expected to prove its worth to justify public investment resonated with me. Culture seems…