Vincent van der Voort has described his appearance on the TV show Marble Mania alongside Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld as “the most uncomfortable four hours of my life.” Speaking on the podcast Darts Draait Door, the former top darter reflected on a chaotic recording day that included ill-fitting vests, a furious Van Barneveld, and a standoff over shirt colours.
Van der Voort revealed that problems began before a single marble rolled, as Van Barneveld had emailed production a week in advance to ensure correct clothing sizes. “Raymond had already sent an email a week earlier: make sure it’s big enough and that all the clothing sizes are correct,” he said. But on arrival, the vests didn’t fit, leaving the trio in T-shirts. “Raymond had his own Barney-attack because it was too small. So he was completely done with it. His mind was already in the car on the way home.”
The tension escalated when Van der Voort and Van Gerwen were asked to calm Van Barneveld down. “He says: ‘If Raymond comes in now, you need to say it’ll be fine. Because he’s flipping out at the moment.’” When Van Barneveld stormed into the dressing room asking, “Guys, seriously. Can this work?”, the pair burst out laughing. “He storms out of the room and starts swearing a bit. This show is not going ahead,” Van der Voort recalled. Eventually, they talked him into taking part, but “he was fuming, man.”
Van der Voort also felt awkward during filming, as the crowd cheered him despite him having no control over the marbles. “Then those marbles drop into a box and the crowd is cheering me on. I can’t do anything about those bloody marbles,” he said. “Come on what? It felt so awkward.”
A further dispute erupted over colours. Van der Voort was told he had yellow, but he insisted on blue, even threatening to pull out. “I say: ‘That’s possible, but then the show won’t go ahead. I’m just not doing it.’” Van Gerwen eventually saved the day by taking yellow. “Then Michael said: ‘I’ll take yellow then.’ So he came to the rescue.”
Despite the chaos, Van der Voort won the €15,000 round, while Van Barneveld took the €5,000 and €10,000 rounds. Although it was basically a draw, host Winston Gerschtanowitz declared Van der Voort the winner, leaving Van Barneveld fuming – until he learned the winner had to visit a preselected company to present the prize, costing a day. “Then he almost didn’t mind as much that he hadn’t won,” Van der Voort said. Reflecting on the experience, he added: “I’m sure the entire production said afterwards: we should never do this again. These guys are just absolute idiots.”
