Beat has the privilege of interviewing musical theatre star, healer and Australia’s Got Talent contestant, Jan van de Stool (aka Queenie van de Zandt) about her show for this year’s MICF. Van de Stool’s world famous voice-healing workshops have even attracted talent like David Wenham. “He’s really famous,” says Woy Woy’s megastar of the stage. “I didn’t even know he was there. He will probably ask me to be in one of his films now.” Dutch born Van de Stool’s says her MICF show functions like the initial workshop in her musical therapy course. “I bring therapy to the people,” she kindly explains. “I have always had this talent with my voice. I have this gift and for years I didn’t even know. I have a name for it now – it’s ‘heal-arious’. Helen, who makes the tea and coffee at the Scout Hall where I work, and who’s my pianist, she made that up. It’s a power. I can go on stage and sing to the tulips and they’d wither, just like that. When I was young my mother would send me out of the house and I would sing to the cows at the top of my lungs and they’d stop milking. Who else can wither tulips or curdle milk with their voice? Only me.”
Now that she’s “TV famous”, Van de Stool says she’s in an ideal position to help others. “I am a very great person to help people – really famous people. People don’t always realise they can benefit from musical therapy. I can help people with affluenza. I can help people even when they are in the south of France, say, or when they’re drinking piña coladas; I can help the whole of Australia.” Bringing comedy and healing together in one show is something of an added bonus for audiences. “Everybody finds my work ‘heal-arious.’ Musical therapy involves people sharing their stories. We call them harmonic narratives. They’re actually songs but having the fancy title for their stories also helps people.”
Does Van de Stool think that being from the Netherlands makes her different in any way? “Oh, yes,” she says. “Dutch people are brutally honest. We are very good like that, we have lots of opinions on lots of things and we are very judgemental. It’s really useful. I can tell what a person needs by looking at them. I look at you and I can tell you what’s wrong with you. You can expect criticism from me, and you can grow from that.” Van de Stool’s alarming gifts also extend to the paranormal. “I have many qualities. I am also a very good psychic,” she reveals. “In the world of spiritualism I’m known as a medium rare. I have that rare quality.”
Van de Stool also enjoys the support of her husband and cousin, Pieter. “He cooks and keeps the house, and pays the bills. But he is very shy; he doesn’t have a lot of confidence.” Is he threatened in any way by her success? “Oh, no. He has his own life, he gets into his craft. He’s makes lovely cheese sculptures out of Edam and Gouda – it’s a really hard thing to do. I do get a bit irritated with him, because he gets things wrong. He spends time with his group of theatre ladies. They all love to go to Oxford Street in Sydney and go to their theatre dinners. They are very flamboyant. And they are all very tall too. They must be related.”
By Liza Dezfouli
Venue: Trades Hall – The Music Room, Cnr Lygon & Victoria St, Carlton
Dates: March 24 – April 17 (except Mondays)
Times: 8.15pm (Sundays 7.15pm)
Tickets: $22 - $28
