CULTURE. The character of Marcias Portelance, a wacky dairy farmer who has become a master of entertainment, will soon be flying off to France, bundle in hand. The author, performer and nephew of the character, Jimmy Hamel, is delighted with his dream come true.
Marcias Portelance wanders around fairs, music festivals, well-cooked evenings, tournaments and many other events. He likes to get his groove on and use his talkative talents to promote and raise awareness among citizens about the importance of agriculture and agri-food in Quebec, through live art, storytelling, animation and humor.
“I originally created it at a friends’ party in 2009. It was a farmer because I didn’t know how to dress up. I took my overalls that I had bought in Japan when I was a model and my beach hat. This material gave Marcias the costume,” explains Jimmy Hamel, the manager of the cheerful agricultural fellow.
For several years, Marcias remained a character to laugh at among friends, then he began performing at the Widewood, Festival of Musical Solidarity, today called L’Ultime Édition. For Jimmy, the ten years at the Widewood under the thick moustache of his fictional uncle were the incubator of Marcias. There he developed his improvisation skills and refined his techniques of sophisticated animation.
In addition to the field experience, he had inspiring encounters like that of his colleague and friend Rami Renno. The latter describes Marcias as “the most organized, prepared and funny animator artist a festival could dream of.” These compliments also encouraged Jimmy Hamel to start, in 2018, a course in exploring an entrepreneurial idea in Quebec City. This training guided him towards his ambitions and in 2019, Jimmy revealed his character to the general public.
Towards the old continent
In September, Mr. Hamel will realize a long-held dream of introducing France to Marcias. During his entrepreneurial training, Jimmy took part in an exercise that he describes as “cliché” but nonetheless relevant: a collage workshop. At that time, he had to identify his ultimate vision of Marcias through images. “In what I had pasted, I had put French cheeses, cows and a map of the world,” reveals the Shawinigan native.
Projection, a basic principle of psychology, seems to have worked since on September 28 and 29, he will be master of ceremonies at the Vaucelles neighborhood festival in Caen, France.
He specifies that social networks have greatly contributed to the character’s effervescence. The web capsules during the pandemic “How to train as a locked-up farmer” and other atypical exercises such as throwing the hay bale, have allowed him to increase Marcias’ visibility and internationalize it.
A multi-generational inspiration
Originally from Shawinigan, Jimmy Hamel drew inspiration from his ancestors to develop the folklore of his educated farmer. Marcias and he share, among other things, the common roots of Jimmy’s great-grandfather, Gédéon Caron, a farmer from Sainte-Flore. However, the person who most shaped the character as endearing as his suspenders is Hélène Caron.
“Marcias was born to this grandmother who taught me about agriculture and that until you’re 84 you can keep a 30 by 15 foot garden. She would lift her rocking chair with one hand and mow the lawn with the other. […] A caning made thirty years ago, she opened it with her middle finger and thumb only,” he says proudly. “She was a super strong and super silent woman. So, I find her strength in this character,” says Jimmy Hamel, visibly still amazed by the exploits of his loved one.
“Not only did Mimi (Mrs. Caron’s nickname) show me the agriculture that comes to her from Gédéon and Bella who had a farm, but I am a big foodie and I love everything that is healthy and local food. As well as all the beauty of promoting the agri-food industry and the agricultural sector is fascinating and above all admirable for me,” adds the storyteller and comedian.
All these aspects connect deeply with his values. “My character was created from my love of music and humanity, that’s why I can apply it elsewhere and that in all this I try to put a little agricultural touch”, underlines the artist who campaigned for Greenpeace in his twenties.
From international model to social worker
At the age of 15, while attending a show at the Quebec Summer Festival, Jimmy Hamel was spotted by a headhunter from the Next Canada modeling agency. He then traveled the world and accumulated contracts for brands such as Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein.
“That’s where I fell in love with traveling. I went to Japan, San Francisco, Paris, New York and met so many people,” he says, grateful for his experiences even though he has been the target of prejudices surrounding modeling.
Since then, he has placed people at the center of his work. This is what led him to undertake a DEC in art and literature with a theater option, then a bachelor’s degree in psychosocial intervention with a major in drug addiction and social work. In addition to being a storyteller, comedian, actor and model, he still practices social work.
Skills as broad as a wheat field
The man with fertile artistic talent offers a range of diverse and sometimes unexpected services… Agricultural yoga, why not? In the form of cultural mediation, Marcias and his disciples reproduce animal postures and replace breathing exercises with the imitation of animal sounds. “The goal is to make art accessible to people without necessarily saying you are currently making art. It is to explore culture through an artistic medium,” says the proudly uncertified yogi who will perform at Festifraîches on August 17.
Among his specialties, Marcias Portelance does sought-after entertainment. “It’s like traveling entertainment, but with research preparation prior to the event,” specifies the one who, according to legend, drinks 25 coffees a day. Also, Marcias occasionally puts on his shirt displaying forest edibles and starts telling stories with a mycological flavor. He gets drunk with his audience and shares the fables of The Little Red Mushroom, those of The Wrinkled Pholiote Got Lost and To the Rescue of the Queen Truffle.
In full creative harvest
The young forty-year-old does not consider himself completely trilingual, but says he has enough command of English and Spanish for Marcias to be able to stretch his vocal apparatus in several languages. “I would like to be able to gather the farm workers from Spanish-speaking immigrants and welcome them in Spanish. Then, Marcias will tell them jokes, but also teach them words in French.”
His energy in the shovel also leads him to learn Japanese and to want to try it Stand-up comic. In this new format of live art, he will combine humor and storytelling and spread laughter along the way.
For the rest, “Sky is the limit, as the English would say”, Jimmy lets slip with the voice of Marcias Portelance.
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Jimmy Hamel, aka Marcias Portelance, is reaping the rewards of his creativity and will soon perform in France. Cyclopes Photographie
