When you suspect of fandoms, you in all likelihood consider teenage women weeping over Robbie Williams leaving Take That and shrieking at One Direction concerts.

What your thoughts doesn’t right now visit is guys of their thirties putting round on a freezing bloodless pink carpet and shouting their idol’s call.

But the fandom surrounding Jean-Claude Van Damme is simply as dedicated as your common Beyhive, Belieber or Directioner.

At the most suitable of Amazon Prime’s new unique collection Jean-Claude Van Johnson in Paris, loads of fanatics hung out of doors Le Grand Rex for a sight of the Muscles From Brussels, retaining out VHS copies of TimeCop and vintage picturegraph albums, hoping for an autograph or a image with their hero.

And in the cinema, the devotion changed into even greater palpable.

Cast of Jean-Claude Van Johnson
Jean-Claude stars withinside the new Amazon collection Jean-Claude Van Johnson Picture: Rex)
As Jean-Claude himself – acceptable up in a tuxedo, but carrying his signature shades – and the solid of Jean-Claude Van Johnson sat on level for a Q&A, cheers rung out whenever the motion hero spoke.

And any time his call changed into even mentioned, shouts of ‘Jean-Claude!’ rang out from the balcony.

A as an alternative surreal response for a person who spent maximum of the noughties filming directly to DVD films and is understood to many because the big name of Coors Light ads – however in case you understand anyone who watched JC’s movies withinside the past due 80s and 90s, you’ll recognize the appeal.

Jean-Claude is a legend. Even in case you haven’t watched TimeCop, or Bloodsport, or JCVD, you realize who he’s, you realize he can do the splits, you could pay attention his accent. Forget who he’s gambling – he’s simply Jean-Claude Van Damme.

And that’s precisely who he’s in Jean-Claude Van Johnson. The display sees the 57-year-vintage gambling himself and trying to make a go back to his day job – however now no longer simply performing. No, JC is sincerely a secret agent known as Johnson, and has taken on many jobs to inflitrate crime rings.

TimeCop
Films like TimeCop have received Van Damme a large fanbase Picture: Rex)
The display is completely absurd, however there’s no denying it’s complete of laughs. The motion films JC have become well-known for are lovingly lampooned, with the actor mocking himself at each turn – only a minute into episode one, Jean-Claude has defined his movie TimeCop as ‘Bruce Willis’ Looper, however better’. He additionally receives wrong for Val Kilmer whilst ingesting ramen, and says that he’s ‘retired, however now no longer Nic Cage retired’.

And Jean-Claude reckons the display is his first-rate performing but.

Speaking in Paris, he stated: ‘If I understand I’m going to die tomorrow, I could say [my favourite project is] Jean Claude Van Johnson. I desired to reveal greater of myself than I did earlier than in phrases of performing. It’s the first-rate display I did as much as today. It’s the primary time I’m happy with performing truthfully.’

The solid capabilities stars such as The Cosby Show’s Phylicia Rashad, Moises Arias and Kat Foster, with all of his castmates realising the ‘enigma’ surrounding JC after they signed up for the project.

Kat, who performs JC’s love interest/hairdresser Vanessa, stated: ‘Dudes among the a while of 25 and forty freak out after I say I’m operating with Jean Claude Van Damme. They simply lose their minds. He has a lot enigma round him.’

Jean Claude Van Damme
The collection lampoons Van Dammes motion big name character Picture: Amazon)
Phylicia hadn’t watched any of Jean-Claude’s movies previous to her casting, however stated she changed into acquainted together along with his paintings via her son.

And Moises, no matter being simply 23, changed into additionally aware about Van Dammes’s super-stardom.

He stated: ‘My own circle of relatives is Colombian so in my domestic it changed into generally Spanish tv and movies. Jean Claude is… I understand approximately his movies, I hadn’t visible lots of them, however the picturegraph that usually got here to thoughts is the Bloodsport picturegraph of blood coming down his nose. And rap song says his call a lot.

‘He’s in each medium, you may say. So after I were given the possibility to paintings beside him, it brings a degree of discipline.’