Writer and cabaret performer Paulien Cornelisse dies at age 50

Celebrated writer and cabaret performer Paulien Cornelisse, known for her popular books about the Dutch language, died on Wednesday of cancer.

The 50-year-old was a jury chair on the popular TV quiz show De Slimste Mens as well as authoring a number of books, including Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding or Language is really my thing.

She announced in 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer. During an appearance on De Slimste Mens last month she wore a blue beanie to cover her head after losing her hair to chemotherapy.

Broadcaster KRO-NCRV announced on Wednesday that the evening’s episode of De Slimste Mens would be cancelled.

“I am incredibly sad. Paulien was sweet, funny, and also – between treatments – greatly energetic,” her co-host Herman van der Zandt said in a statement.

Cornelisse began her career as a cabaret performer. In 2008, Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding was published and became a bestseller, with over 700,000 copies sold.

She later wrote absurdist novels about a guinea pig working in an office, starting with De verwarde cavia (The Confused Guinea Pig), which was also a bestseller. The follow-up, De verwarde cavia – Terug op kantoor (The Confused Guinea Pig – Back at the Office), won the NS Public Prize last year.

She wrote a weekly column about language for the NRC for 10 years, and had been a front-page columnist for the Volkskrant since 2018.

Volkskrant editor-in-chief Pieter Klok said her death was “a loss for the whole of the Netherlands.”

Cornelisse was born and raised in Amsterdam. The city’s mayor Femke Halsema wrote in a post on social media that she was someone “who loved the small, the everyday, the absurd, and the theatre.”

“Sadly, that stage was no longer granted to her,” Halsema said.