Runtime: | 30 – 45 minutes |
Creator: | Dan Patterson Mark Leveson |
Starring: | Patrick Lodiers Ruben Nicolai Ruben van der Meer Tijl Beckand Jeroen van Koningsbrugge Arie Koomen Sara Kroos |
Country: | Netherlands |
Network: | BNN Nederland 2 (S1-4) Nederland 3 (S5-9) |
Num Episodes: | 73 (regular episodes) 85 including specials |
Num Seasons: | 9 |
De Lama's (translation: The Llamas) is a Dutch television show made by BNN and first aired on 26 June 2004. It is an adaptation of the Channel 4 show Whose Line is it Anyway?.
Patrick Lodiers hosts the show, which contains both well-known and more obscure elements of theatresports. The most important of these is improvisation.
De Lama's consist of the following comedians: Ruben Nicolai, Tijl Beckand, Ruben van der Meer and Jeroen van Koningsbrugge. Jandino Asporaat, Ad-Just Bouwman, Sara Kroos, Arie Koomen, Kristel Zweers and Martijn Oosterhuis are ex-Lama's. Unlike the British and American series, every episode of De Lama's features a Guest Llama (Gast Lama), a well-known Dutch (or Belgian) person who offers suggestions for games and always joins the regulars for one or two games at the end.
At the end of 2006, regulars Sara Kroos and Arie Koomen left the show (the latter later returned for a single episode), leaving it with only three regular performers. To help alleviate this problem, broadcaster BNN organised a televised competition, Lama Gezocht, in order to find a new performer to round out the team. Ad-Just Bouwman eventually won this competition, and joined the Llamas. He, however, is no longer part of the troupe, reportedly because his artistic style didn't fit in with the other Llamas. Another recently 'llamafied' performer, Jandino Asporaat, left at around the same time to focus on his own theatre production, although rumour has it that his style clashed with the remaining three members as well. Jeroen van Koningsbrugge is the only new member to remain with the Llamas until the end.
In 2006, the show won the Gouden Televizier-ring, a prestigious Dutch television award for the year's most popular program on TV as chosen by the audience. It was the first show broadcast by BNN (founded in 1997) to win the 'ring'.
On 4 April 2008, The Lama's announced on a Fan day that they were going to quit with the TV-show. There was going to be one more season on TV and they planned a goodbye theatre tour through The Netherlands (and Belgium).
The name of the show originates from a remark the original team of Lama's used a lot: "hoor ik daar een lama schijten (of zei je wat)?", which translates roughly as "do I hear a llama taking a shit (or did you say something)?". The more-or-less matching joke in English would be "Does a llama shit in the woods?"