Paul Taylor is at a crossroads in his career. “After three bilingual shows, I decided to make people laugh with my mother tongue.” A few hours before going on stage at Sony Hall where he is hosting the second edition of the Frenchy Comedy Club, the British comedian who has been living in France for 15 years retraces his story on our microphone.
You are hosting the second edition of the Frenchy Comedy Club this Friday, January 19. What should we expect?
“There will be a majority of French speakers in the room, but not only that. The audience is slightly different from mine and I will be able to play with both languages. The comedians want to offer an American-style show and different from the Comedy Club in France. More like a gala. I come back several times during the show, so that the audience stays warm before each artist appears and I will also do a sketch of around ten minutes.
What’s it like performing in New York, the comedy mecca of the world?
This is not my first time in New York. I did open scenes there when I was starting out in 2013. I was still working at Apple at the time and I had the chance to do training not far from New York. Last July, I also performed my show twice in Comedy Clubs. It is certain that, for a French speaker, this city represents the Mecca of humor, along with London and Los Angeles. In New York, there is a different energy. As French speakers, I am less confronted and mixed with the English scene. I’m going to take advantage of this to do English scenes to develop my new project.
“Telling my life as a British expatriate in France, a theme that imposed itself on me”
Is this play of two languages your trademark and also what differentiates you from other comedians in France?
It is an honor when I am told that I am a Franco-British because that is not the case, but it means that my French is quite good. I even consider it a holy grail to be able to integrate to the point of thinking that I am originally from France. Our job as comedians is to tell the world in which we live. And as I am an English expatriate in France, the theme stood out to me. In the same way that a comedian with a disability could treat this theme with humor. And besides, I was lucky that the British immigrant who makes fun of French culture was not a niche yet seized in France.
You exploited this topic. But to make people laugh, the French public must have self-deprecation. Have you encountered any difficulties in this regard?
Yes and no. I believe that to make fun of French culture, you have to do it with a lot of credibility. The French probably hated Emily in Paris because the series is too caricatured. On the other hand, there are subjects that the French find very funny. I made myself known thanks to a sketch about kissing, in which I said that I was uncomfortable in the evening, that I never knew which cheek to start with. The French public found itself in this subject. It’s “French bashing”. But, to do it well, the mocking theme must be indisputable, infallible. For example, I have a joke about the fact that the French don’t know how to count, taking the example of the television show Sept à quatre, which starts at six in the evening. You should not resort to gratuitous jokes like “oh this waiter in France, he is so rude…”.
You tell us about the kiss sketch, the one that made you known to the general public. Was it at that moment that you said to yourself “I have my own style of writing and humor”?
I don’t know if it was a conscious decision, I think it came naturally. It was a sketch that I had been doing on stage for three years and we chose to film it in sequence. Bingo, it worked very well. It’s a trigger that you feel on stage: If the 10th time you make a joke, it’s still not funny, you have to change it because it’s perhaps a subject that’s too sensitive for example… like a process of ‘elimination.
You mention a new project. Can you tell us what it will consist of?
After these eight years and the production of three bilingual shows, I decided to take on this new challenge and produce an entire show in my mother tongue, which I have never exploited to its maximum potential. At the moment, when I have toured internationally, I only speak to an audience of French expatriates who understand the English moments very well. I think I have reached the limit of what I can do with bilingualism. And ending my third tour with a Zenith isn’t so bad! From now on, I want to see how far I can go in the English language and focus on English-speaking countries. Humor is a very saturated world. I arrive as a blond, heterosexual man in my thirties. Perhaps I won’t have any added value compared to other comedians.
Ultimately, is this a huge risk in your next career step?
It’s like opening a French bakery in New York. With my French background, the store will be a hit because in the United States, they don’t make good bread. But, if it falls, I will realize that my bread is not that good when I return to France and compare myself to French bakeries. This is the analogy I’m making today: from now on, I’m going to compare myself to some pretty incredible stand-ups from the English and American scenes. Why anyway? Quite simply because stand-up has existed longer in these countries. For example, jokes about veganism have existed for 10-15 years in the United States, in England… I have to innovate.
Are you alone to write and construct your sketches and shows?
I made the choice to write on my own. This is perhaps the purist side but I only find that in stand-up: delivering your own feelings and your opinion on the world, no need for a co-author who could dilute your opinions a little. But I understand the comedians who surround themselves. The biggest artists, like Chris Rock or Kevin Hart, work with big teams because they have the pressure to put out shows very often. In stand-up, it’s interesting to get feedback from comedians who accompany you during the evening and who advise you on certain jokes that you have just made. But they are not official co-authors. My manager or my wife also share their feelings with me.
To finish, do you have any last words, or rather a punchline to this interview?
It’s really incredible to have the opportunity to play in other French-speaking cities, such as Brussels, Luxembourg, Monaco, but also that there are people like Coline Carteau to launch the Frenchy Comedy Club in New York and make spread French humor throughout the world!”
2024-01-18 16:35:17
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