Manu Van Acker admits in ‘The smartest person’ that he had sex in a disabled toilet: “Oops, that’s going to haunt me” | TV

With his haircut, blue suit and white shirt casually open at the neck, the funny little guy seemed like the perfect, young version of Erik and he also did a great job as a stand-in. He announced the 3-6-9 round with remarkable ease, without a single slip of the tongue and with the right gestures to emphasize his message. Up-and-coming talent must be cherished, but after the intermezzo there was no explanation from Erik as to where the sudden change in personnel came from. Just: “You did that so well that I’m afraid I’ve lost my job. So you have to leave now.”

It could have been the fulfillment of a dream for the new season of ‘The Dream Factory’, but it wasn’t. It was just a nice gimmick from the editors, who had already seen little Kasper at work in ‘James, the musical’ about Erik Van Looy and invited the boy. Erik himself thought it was funny and dismissed the boy with: “Cute, huh? He did that well.”

Who did less well was newcomer Spinvis, born and raised as Eric de Jong. The sympathetic one-man band that Erik praised several times for making such beautiful songs, did not really seem out of place in the quiz. Erik had clearly invited him mainly because of his idolatry, but Spinvis visibly lacked interest and competitive spirit. And even knowledge of the rules of the game, because during the photo round he suddenly repeated all the answers already listed, which is of course not the intention.

The 62-year-old singer was fascinating with his strange and dry anecdotes. For example, he keeps his cremated father’s ashes at home in a washing powder box. And about the serious traffic accident with his tour van in Flanders, he said: “My father, as a musician, was also in that overturned van at the time. He only had one leg and therefore wore a prosthesis. When the ambulance wanted to take him away on the stretcher, my father shouted: ‘My leg’. After which we retrieved his prosthesis from the back of the van. That ambulance didn’t understand what was happening.”

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No, Spinvis did not go for the laughs or points. That trick was reserved for the two other candidates. MNM voice Manu Van Acker scored with his cute high-pitched voice and beautiful, but very noisy opera voice. Hours after singing the opening melody of “Bob the Builder” and then “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” some of his eardrums still ached. His unfiltered confession that he once had sex in a disabled toilet also returned like a funny boomerang a few times in the episode.

Director Robin Pront, the other candidate and seller of more than 700,000 ‘Zillion’ cinema tickets, did not hide his winning mentality for a moment, but scored again this time with his hilarious childhood memories. Such as: “My mother only allowed me to watch the film ‘Street Fighter’ with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the cinema if I didn’t have a note in my diary for one full week at school. I finally had to see the film on video.”

Although jury member James Cooke was also witty when he said that he used to have no chin and therefore opted for plastic surgery twice: “There are six screws in my jaws. In the past, whenever I spilled soup, it always fell right down. Very embarrassing.”

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The game sequence, with a sign language interpreter in the studio for the first time, was anything but exciting in episode 17, because Spinvis didn’t really seem alert or certainly not combative enough. He never competed for the prizes and that didn’t seem to bother him. What a contrast with striver Robin Pront, who clenched his fists ostentatiously but was still able to suppress a huge cry of joy and the steam from his ears when he won the game with 635 seconds. That’s the fourth best score ever, by the way. And after 21 seasons, that means something.

The final round then provided the most boring television of this season, because it was completely unnecessary. Manu had a lead of 238 seconds or 12 correct answers. Well. Erik did his best with his white lie: “You realize that everything is still possible”, but Spinvis was rightly a lot more realistic: “It was very nice to be here”. Erik asked in the absolute final phase: ‘What do you know about Facebook?’ The icy calm Spinvis muttered, very typical of his participation: ‘Pass’. Spinvis undoubtedly conquers many hearts with his gems of songs, but with such an answer you can of course never become the smartest person in the world.

Nathalie Meskens talks about the birth of her son in ‘The smartest person’: “I pulled him out of my stomach myself”

James Cooke explains in ‘The Smartest Person in the World’ why he had his chin operated on

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