Luc Caals

Luc Caals came to comedy by way of music. He first made his name with the orchestra The New Born, and in 1974 he spent a short spell accompanying the singer Micha Marah. From 1980 he was artistic director of Bredene Palace, a job that kept him working on the coast and in front of live audiences long before television made his face familiar.

His comic reputation was built in the theatre. With Staf Permentier among others he played Bobbejaanland in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Echt Antwaarps Teater brought him to a wider public in the early 1990s. Later he developed his own stage programme, Caals en Van Vooren, and in 2007 he started the Caals Comedy Club, an annual event in Middelkerke.

For most Flemish viewers he is a VTM face. He played dikke Louis in Lili en Marleen and the gnome Smul in Kabouter Plop, a role he carried into the Kabouter Plop cinema films, and he appeared in Bompa, Familie and Crimi Clowns as well as the film Crimi Clowns: De Movie. In De Collega's 2.0 he took the part of Adelbert Dockx. Throughout all of this he kept recording, with albums and singles released over several decades.