It's Getting Hot in Here | Comedy Opening Night Warming Up Festival
Feeling the heat? This year's Warming Up Festival opens with a night that trades climate anxiety for laughter.
Join us at our Comedy Opening Night, ' It's Getting Hot in Here', where four of the Netherlands' best English-speaking comedians take the stage for an evening about how strange, funny, and occasionally absurd it is to be alive right now. In between sets, we quiz the audience with a short game show-style format with prizes up for grabs. We all could use a little laugh, so let's come together and kick off the festival with humour and a fun evening!
Featuring comedians: Phoebe Perry, Sjoerd Scott, Ronan Brosnan, Nadine Froughi, MC: Rashi Agarwal
Phoebe Perry: Born in Nebraska, USA, Phoebe Perry is a comedian and theater maker who breathes life into characters with physicality and sensitivity. The work she creates is equal parts confessional and absurd, often exploring themes of belonging, longing and being late. Phoebe is a regular comedian at Comedy Club Haug in Rotterdam and the opening act for Derek Scott Mitchell’s “Let’s Double Dutch II” tour. Phoebe is a frequent co-host of Femilicious as well as Mezrab ALT COMEDY NITE. Theaterkrant recently described her as “one of the freest spirits you can meet on stage”.
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Sjoerd Scott: Sjoerd is a beacon of humour with magnetic charisma and unique cross-cultural appeal, which has quickly propelled him to acclaim. His comedic style, a masterful blend of personal anecdotes and insightful social commentary, has solidified his status as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary comedy. He has a knack for connecting with crowds, consistently delivering performances that are not just hilarious, but also deeply engaging. His distinctive comedic voice has resonated with audiences across Europe, making him a sought-after performer in comedy clubs throughout the continent.
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Ronan Brosnan: Ronan is a hairy Irishman with a caustic wit and an inferiority complex. He came to the Netherlands to make the housing market more expensive for the natives, and in the meantime he enjoys going to comedy shows to legally scream at strangers. He is currently touring his show ‘Life is Shite’ around Europe as he awaits World War 3 and the glow of the mushroom cloud.
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Nadine Froughi: Nadine is half Iranian, half American, raised in the UK but now mostly Dutch. With millions of monthly views across social platforms, you might have seen her on the internet. IRL, Nadine is a regular at Boom Chicago’s Comedy Embassy and Comedy Café Amsterdam, but isn’t that loyal, so you can see her perform at clubs, theatres and festivals across Europe. Her debut solo show Daydreamer has been featured at the Boom Chicago Comedy Festival, Utrecht International Comedy Festival and more. Aside from telling jokes, Nadine makes a really good shallot pasta and can deadlift over 100kg on a good day.
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The Tolhuistuin Warming Up Festival is an annual climate festival that focuses on the connection between art and climate. This year, the Warming Up Festival is not asking how you can live more sustainably. It is asking why so many people, particularly young people, have disengaged from a conversation that perhaps affects them the most.
Not out of indifference, but because of mental exhaustion. Because of climate-related stress and feelings of guilt. Because of a system that emphasises individual responsibility, whilst the biggest polluters and fossil fuel subsidies largely escape scrutiny. And sometimes also because of a climate movement that seems to demand perfection rather than engagement.
Over three days, the festival brings together art, journalism, music and discussion centred on the question of how individual choices relate to systems that are largely beyond our control, and where, as a collective, we can actually exert influence. It is a festival that makes space for imperfection, for doubt and for new forms of engagement.
Check the entire Warming Up Festival program here.
Over de programmapartner
Rashi Agarwal: You may know Rashi, the tallest Indian in the Netherlands, from her viral show 'OV-Takes' asking people their 'Dutch Take' on the OV. Her comedy and content move through identity, feminism, colonialism, race, and sustainability, balancing sharp observations with a willingness to turn that same lens on herself. Hailing from South India, she has become more Dutch than she would have liked, and her videos about life in the Netherlands have gone viral, earning her a rapidly growing international audience. The first edition of her debut show, 'Person of Colour ', sold out in one day and hasn't stopped since: 14 shows and counting.
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