Dam Yankee

The sudden passing of Morgan Heritage lead singer Peetah Morgan left the reggae world reeling, but for his brother Mojo Morgan, it sparked a spiritual awakening. On this episode of Dam Yankee with host Zack Newmark, Mojo reveals the family band almost retired until Gramps Morgan received a supernatural message while grieving in the Philippines. His resilience drives Mojo's sharp critique of mainst...

Ray Ellin is a New York comedian, Comedy Cellar regular and the owner of Aruba Ray's Comedy Club, the number one nightlife activity on TripAdvisor in the entire country of Aruba. He started going to Aruba by accident in 2012, fell in love with the island and opened the club a year later. His colleagues thought he was nuts. They were wrong. Known for his crowd work and his entrepreneurial streak, R...

Rael Lomoti grew up in the Turkana region of northwest Kenya, where girls as young as 12 are given away in marriage, football is only for boys and education is considered a luxury that communities cannot afford.  Her father moved the family to Nairobi so his children could go to school. Her mother died working in a flower plantation, exposed to pesticides with no worker safety protections. A Germa...

Tom Cotter has been doing stand-up for 40 years. He is the rapid fire comedian who made it to the AGT finals, lost to a pack of dogs, performed with Joan Rivers in what turned out to be one of her last national television appearances, did eight years on cruise ships, and once had to run out through a kitchen because a heckler wanted to kill him. He is now on his first tour of the Netherlands with...

South African comedian Kevin Fraser is celebrating ten years in comedy with his Decadence tour  and he is doing it the hard way, with sold-out shows across South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and now Europe. Known for his viral observational comedy and character work, Kevin brings something most comedians do not, twelve years as a professional DJ before he ever picked up a mic for a punchline. Th...

Two-time Grammy winner Gregory Porter is known for Liquid Spirit, Take Me to the Alley and No Love Dying. Behind those songs is a story that most people have never heard in full. In this episode Gregory goes back to the beginning, growing up in Bakersfield, California, with a minister mother who dragged her church to the streets, a brother who believed in him before he believed in himself, and a c...

Jiaoying Summers is one of the most fearless comedians working today. She owns two comedy clubs, runs a production studio, hosts the Tiger Mommy podcast, and is currently on her first European tour. She is also 35 weeks pregnant and has not slept properly in weeks. Success has come far faster than happiness for comedian Jiaoying Summers. In just a few short years, the Chinese immigrant went from h...

... and how Seth Meyers outed Shapiro on stage as someone who likely has ADHD. In this episode of the Dam Yankee podcast, host Zack Newmark sits down with comedian, voice actor, and American Netherlander Greg Shapiro. Best known across the globe as the voice of Donald Trump in the viral "America First, Netherlands Second" video, Shapiro gets real about the high stakes of modern politics. He doesn'...

Swiss-French DJ, record producer and #dreamtrack inventor Quentin Mosimann sat down with Dam Yankee host Zack Newmark fresh off a sleepless night after announcing a sold-out show at the Accor Arena in Paris for 19,000 people.  After 15 years as a DJ, something shifted in the last two years. The social numbers went up, the gig requests went up, and suddenly Quentin was playing 150 shows a year whil...

Join host Zack Newmark on this unforgettable episode of Dam Yankee for a profound and deeply personal conversation with six-time Grammy-nominated Afrobeat legend Femi Kuti. Currently traversing Europe on a massive tour to support his introspective new album, Journey Through Life, Femi stops by to reveal the complex man behind the roaring saxophone and pulsating rhythms. In a raw, highly vulnerable...

He’s the world’s most famous purple philosopher, but even global icons get tired of living out of a suitcase. In this milestone 50th episode of the Dam Yankee podcast, host Zack Newmark sits down with the one and only Randy Feltface for a raw, hilarious, and unexpectedly vulnerable look at the fabricated man behind the comedy. The show is out now on YouTube , Spotify , Apple Podcasts , and more se...

How does a 20-year "identity erasure" lead to a career in dark comedy? In this episode of Dam Yankee, host Zack Neumark sits down with Israeli comedian Nira Tal to uncover the raw reality behind her midlife pivot. After moving to the Netherlands for love, Tal admits that for two decades, "There was no Nira." Following a severe corporate burnout at age 38, Tal turned to the stage to reclaim her voi...

In an era of "alpha male" influencers and aggressive internet posturing, Rogier Bak is offering a different kind of rescue. Speaking on the latest episode of the Dam Yankee podcast with host Zack Newmark, the Amsterdam-based comedian dissected the friction between modern masculinity and his own upbringing. Bak, known for his viral takes on cultural identity, noted that his skepticism of the "manos...

Zack Newmark sits down with Amsterdam-based comedian Daniel Yazbek. Originally from Johannesburg, Daniel traded a master's degree in computer science for a microphone and hasn't looked back since. Daniel opens up about growing up with two heroin addict parents, the complicated relationship with his mother, and how a childhood shaped by chaos became the foundation for his comedy. He also talks abou...

Why Rashi Agarwal says your "lazy" racism is the least interesting thing about her How does a privileged woman from India become a "Person of Color" overnight? In this episode of Dam Yankee, host Zack Newmark sits down with stand-up comedian, storyteller, and activist Rashi Agarwal to discuss her viral rise in the Amsterdam comedy scene and her refusal to "play it safe" for Western audiences. The...

Zack Newmark sits down with Amsterdam-based drag queen performer Charlene Coco, to talk about identity, fear, freedom, and what it really means to show up as yourself. Charlene Coco was voted Best New Drag in Town after her debut appearance in Amsterdam in 2019. Charlene is the drag persona born from the mind of Charlie Robertson, a British performer based in Amsterdam who also uses drag to help o...

Amsterdam documentary director Kiriko Mechanicus on ethnic fetishes, unusual challenges, and her new documentary on the Atlanta Asian spa murders, set to debut at SXSW in Austin When news of the 2021 Atlanta massage parlor shootings reached Amsterdam, filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus felt a chilling connection. "I realized when I had read about this incident that it somehow also felt as if I was part o...

From her childhood playing classical piano in China to her emergence as a multilingual pop talent, Irène Schrader has used music to bridge the various cultures she calls her own. Traveling from her current base in Paris back to her familiar former home of Amsterdam, it was the pivotal moments experiencing the Dutch capital's electronic scene, her parents' varied music taste, and their occasional "...

Comedian Nadine Froughi's viral hits blend Dutch directness with her "outsider" view Nadine Froughi describes herself as "spiritually" Dutch, yet her comedy thrives on the friction between her adopted home and her complex, international roots. This week on Dam Yankee, the comedian sits down with host Zack Newmark to discuss her sudden ascent from the local Amsterdam scene to viral social media sta...

A €1,900 scam inspired stand-up Sjoerd Scott's law thesis, and sparked his comedy career In this episode of the Dam Yankee podcast, host Zack Newmark sits down with Sjoerd Scott, a Sint Maarten-born comedian whose path to the stage was paved with irony. While repeatedly failing his law thesis on financial crimes, Scott fell victim to a €1,900 telephone scam. A fraudster posing as a Dutch Supreme C...

Strong family, love for admin work got Tennessee improv comic Laura Maynard to Amsterdam It took a decade of grinding in Chicago’s comedy scene for Chattanooga native Laura Maynard to find her way to the canals of Amsterdam. Now a full-time ensemble member at Boom Chicago theater , Maynard sat down with host Zack Newmark on the latest episode of the Dam Yankee podcast  to discuss the winding road...

Amsterdam performer Fer Rodil's darkly funny take on his harsh year facing cancer & loss What happens when a professional storyteller is handed a narrative too painful to tell? That's the question Fernando Rodil, a screenwriter and director, was forced to confront over the last 12 months. After moving to Amsterdam from Buenos Aires to follow love, Rodil's life imploded when his close friend Ma...

Firebombs, slim finances couldn't stop Mike Manicardi from growing Amsterdam's Badhuistheater   Ask long-time Amsterdam resident Mike Manicardi whether he is an actor, director, community leader, or entrepreneur, and he'll give you a complex answer making it clear why he worked 80 hours per week for most of his career. The founder of the Badhuistheater in the capital's Oost district, Manicardi say...

BAFTA-nominated director Marc Isaacs on his "scripted" IDFA film, the myth of purity in documentaries, blurring the lines of truth and AI BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Marc Isaacs joins host Zack Newmark to discuss his latest provocation, Synthetic Sincerity, currently in competition at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Isaacs challenges the myth of the "pure" observational...

Emmy winner Sacha Hoedemaker’s odd career from neo-classical, improv, to Frenchcore   After 14 years, over 3,000 shows, and an Emmy win, Dutch musician Sacha Hoedemaker is making a dramatic exit from the improv comedy stage at Amsterdam's Boom Chicago. Hoedemaker joins host Zack Newmark to detail the biggest leap of faith in his career, leaving stability to focus on his deeply meditative neoclassi...