column | Castricum Taxi – NRC

I participated Castricum Taxi, a TV show in which Rutger Castricum plays a taxi driver who takes you to a destination of your choosing. Along the way He Hears You, interrupted occasionally by director Andre van der Torn, who has been a voice over for years Highway users.

I didn’t think they were an unpleasant couple.

I’m always fresher than the taxi driver, but not this time because Rutger was seated right next to me in the Tesla that was packed with cameras for the occasion. Rutger likes to work from the car as an interviewer. During election time, he drove cross-country with second-tier politicians and also drove a “climatecar,” giving talks about sustainability.

We drove from Wormer to Arnhem, where I was going to do a book promotion, so the trip was fine. I had many books with me, but it was no coincidence that the conversation stumbled in a completely different direction.

I used to do everything to promote my books, but no program was inviting me. The truth now is that I can go anywhere with my book, and the drawback is that the book is secondary.

The interviewers think it looks pretty, and sometimes they even grab it, like you’re eating a sandwich when you’re not hungry, but basically interested in everything else.

I had several books with me, but the conversation stumbled in a completely different direction

The question that arises is whether I have made any progress with all this attention. I thought I had outdone the televangelists by asking Andre in advance to shoot for half an hour maximum so that it would be impossible to cut the book. The plan was to change cars in a common car lane near Amsterdam. The plan worked until Zaandam, where we ended up moving slowly into steady traffic.

Andrei, who has experienced a lot on the highways professionally, said that the traffic was the same, and then we had a whole conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of driving a Tesla. He also had a box of Snelle Jelle’s, biscuits and water. We started eating that an hour later, when we were stuck on the regret highway. I swallowed defeat silently, with my book in my lap, discussing all the bullshit I had gotten myself into. I was promised the cover would come out fine. In head-to-head confrontation, television always beats writers.

Marcel van Roosmalen He writes an exchange column with Elaine Dikowitz here.