Hermes Ahmadi

In his debut show, Hermes Ahmadi asks one central question: when is someone truly welcome? As an Afghan refugee from a hospitable culture, he now keeps track of his shared expenses with a spreadsheet.

Through jokes, stories and anecdotes about first dinners with Dutch friends, integration, climate change, Flixbus, frikandellen and Flitsmeister, he offers the audience a fresh perspective on other cultures. Hermes is a natural storyteller who also delivers sharp, unexpected punchlines, memorable characters and situations that are both relatable and absurd.

Hermes started performing cabaret in 2018 and quickly reached the finals of the Leeuwarden Cabaret Festival and Puck's Cabaret Talent. In 2024 he competed at the Leiden Cabaret Festival and made the final of Cameretten. Last year he made his TV debut with a cameo in RTL's The Box.

What the juries say:
"An important story with underlying social critique, delivered with self-deprecation and great jokes" - Jury Leiden Cabaret Festival
"Incredibly skillful how he cuts through his engaged, loaded pieces with razor-sharp jokes" - Jury Cameretten
"Through jokes about the Efteling and the quirks of the Dutch language, Ahmadi sharply shows what bizarre situations you end up in as a refugee integrating into the Netherlands" - de Volkskrant