Jill<br><br>Jill (99) Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 Just who is he, anyway? I'm posting this here because I seem to think I may have seen the name on this website, somewhere, but assumed he was just some French actor in films I didn't know. However, my son recently came home from his Karate class (in England) saying that there was going to be a 4 hour seminar by Jean Claude Van Damme at a cost of £99. The carrot to encourage everyone to go to it is that they will get graded to the next belt earlier. Or perhaps this man is a famous authority on Karate and they will get a lot out of it - I just don't know. I understand he has been in 32 films, but I've not heard of any of them and the majority of them were never shown in cinemas, apparently. Are these films in French, American, Flemish, or what? Someone said he is Belgium's answer to Scharzenegger - even more off-putting! My son is getting criticised by his teachers and peers for not knowing who he is and because we said that £99 is far too expensive and we are not prepared to pay for him to go. As a dancer/dancing teacher, I was keen to see Nureyev dance - but I wouldn't have paid anywhere near £99 to see him. I believe that when I did see him dance, the year before he died, I paid less than £20 and it wasn't that long ago. In my field, there are classes available with well known dancers/choreographers, but not at £99. I think we paid about £20 for classes with Wayne Sleep. So, just what has this Van Damme done which makes the Karate world think he is worth paying £99 for? Apparently it is £45 to go and watch him. I would not be prepared to pay that to watch a theatrical production, so again, that seems ridiculous to me too. Would you pay £99 for a 13 year old to do that? Is it like asking if you would pay £99 for a 13 year old to do football training with Beckham in which case I wouldn't be prepared to spend that sort of money on that either. Very few of my pupils were prepared to pay to have a class with Wayne Sleep, for example, and that was much cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 Jean-Paul Van Damme. The Muscles from Brussels. He is Belgian. He has trouble speaking without sounding an idiot. He has a fit body. He has had lots of bimbo wives but finally saw sense and went back to one of his first.....Don't pay. Tell your son to laugh scornfully when his name is mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 All I know is that like many famous french people he is belge.And no, £99 to see this bloke is way too much. His films are action hero things and the sort of thing husband would put on after a 13 hour shift as he could drift in and out of sleep on the settee and still know what was going on. After his shifts he never likes anything on the box that he needs to concentrate on and J-C VD's don't need any brain activity at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 And when he's not kicking seven bells out of everything, he makes cakes. The coffee layer one isn't bad but a bit pricey in Super U compared to other brands! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill<br><br>Jill (99) Posted November 22, 2004 Author Share Posted November 22, 2004 Thanks for these comments. Sounds like he is a Schwarzenegger equivalent then! Duh! As I suspected. I don't know why the Karate club are making such a big thing of it. I'll certainly pass your comments to my son. You have reasurred me - thanks! I feel less guilty about not letting him go. I'm suffering from guilt syndrome at the moment because he wanted to go on a school trip to Berlin and we hadn't let his sister go on that one either. It is £289 for 4 days and they only stay in a hostel. It's harder to say no to him when there are both of these things as being possible, but his sister is going to Berlin for a week on work experience/language exchange and it's at least £100 cheaper for a week. She's doing AS level and as she'll be mixing with Germans it does seem more worthwhile than a normal school trip. In 3 year's time he will be given similar opportunities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 Jill, don't forget that he is a karate-ka and was a champion too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piprob Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 Cor blimey mister! And I thought he was a foriegn geezer with a clapped-out transit who keeps creating those massive tail backs on the motorways! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Riff-Raff Element Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 I spent one of the more sureal evenings of my life being royally entertained in an Amsterdam café by a group of Canadians who had convinced themselves that I was Jean-Claude van Damme. I possess a passing resemblence to the great man in very bad light, it is said, and this was enough for them, even though I was able to present both passport and driving licence in my own name and was unable to name any of the films in which I had allegedly appeared. (Having seen J-C vD being interviewed since, I can imagine that he quite possibly can't remember the names of films he's been in.) I have a feeling that they may have been stoned out of their gourds, which may have helped them suspend reality enough not to notice that I was much too tall and far too weedy to be the real McCoy. Still, I drank deeply of their beer, signed a few autographs and was finally allowed to escape after four hours when one of the group fell off his chair and split his head open which distracted them for the few seconds I needed to bound for freedom. At the time my manner of escape may well have confirmed in their minds that I was just who they said I was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill<br><br>Jill (99) Posted December 7, 2004 Author Share Posted December 7, 2004 Just thought I'd let you know that the aforementioned event was a huge disappointment to those who parted with their money! Luckily we didn't! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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