My Seine-Saint-Denis by Yacine Belhousse - Seine-Saint-Denis

Seine-Saint-Denis by Yacine Belhousse in three places

Georges-Valbon Park in La Courneuve

It is a place that I love very much. In Paris around me, hardly anyone knows him even though he is incredible. I still go there from time to time for a walk, but in childhood and adolescence it was a very important place for me.

Stains Studio Theater

It’s a beautiful place! By the number of rooms and for everything they and they do! In 2000, my friends and I were welcomed so that we could put on our show when we weren’t part of any structure. We went to see them and not only were we encouraged in our creation, but the Studio Théâtre found a place in their end-of-year program with the schoolchildren so that we could present our play, a parody of English Big Brother (at the Loft story period had not yet been released in France). With the friends we met at the Quick des 6 routes in La Courneuve where we spent hours writing our play. I lent my Millenium pass to the security guard so that he would let us squat for 4 hours in a row! The people of the Studio theater adapted to our desire without remaining within their framework. It’s rare ! It’s a founding moment for me because I understood that it was possible to seize the theatrical tool to express oneself…

The Le Corbusier high school in Aubervilliers

This is where I took my first acting class with a professional actress and where a real click took place. I was in my teens and it marked me a lot. When I hear all the talk about the suburbs, my high school years come to mind a lot and my point of view on this question is very influenced by this period. Also, later, as a university student in Saint-Denis, the riots following the death of Zyed and Bouna in Clichy-sous-Bois in 2005 caused me to change my mind and way of seeing the world.

Interview with Yacine Belhousse

In your documentary on Netflix you make a declaration of love for stand-up and a trip around the world to celebrate it. Who are the artists who have most influenced your work, the “founding icons”?

Yacine Belhousse : In addition to Jerry Seinfeld (New York stand-up artist), Eddie Izzard! It was Kader Aoun when I was at the Jamel comedy club who compared me to him and advised me to watch his shows. And indeed he quickly became an inspiration, a model. And although English, for me he is a typical person from Seine-Saint-Denis! (Laughs). In the state of mind. Because he is someone who has always struggled to be able to exist. She is a person who wanted to be who she really was and a supporter of complexity. In Seine-Saint-Denis we have to be in favor of complexity because we live on a very complex land. Things are not binary. Eddie is someone who, in his trans identity, had to try a lot to work on accepting the other, while existing. In the 80s in England he was attacked many times but he did not let go. He preferred to show himself in a self-respecting way to respect others, and give love. The people of Seine-Saint-Denis are always forced to fight against an image which is projected onto them and which comes from outside whereas the reality is once again much more complex. And then for me Eddie represents the English intelligence of humor. The English are extremely funny and yet they do not winnow. It’s situational, cold humor. It cannot be explained, it is lived…

In an interview you gave on the show Clique, you said that the inhabitants of Stains are the funniest in France. It’s true ?

Yacine Belhousse : Obviously it’s an opinion… I haven’t done a scientific study on the subject but for me the people of Stains are the funniest in France. It’s through my experience, the moments I spent there. I’ve never laughed so much in my life as in Stains… It’s in this town that I blossomed culturally and then it was my life as a young adult, a period when we generally have a lot of fun!

Making people laugh is one of the hardest things. Where does this gift come from?

Yacine Belhousse : We are funny in my family with a surprising and unexpected way of apprehending life. I also think that in Seine-Saint-Denis, for example, when there is a form of pressure linked to difficulties, it transforms in me into the ability to make others laugh. Because I am indeed very funny in situations where there is a need to break a tension, to calm the atmosphere. From my point of view, being funny does not lie in the ability to say jokes but in the ability to express a different perception of the world, to be out of step with what people say in general. Being funny also means asking questions that others wouldn’t.

What are your current projects?

Yacine Belhousse : The film The Story told by socks with Dedo (also from Seine-Saint-Denis). I’m also joining the Clique team with Mouloud Achour for a new show, and then on December 26 I’m preparing a nice date in Paris around my show 2022.

You who have traveled a lot, how would you describe Seine-Saint-Denis to a foreigner?

Yacine Belhousse : It’s quite easy. You just have to find the place where the populations are more mixed, whether at the social level or by origins. And there are in every country. And also compare with neighborhoods in the process of improvement where there are new constructions (we build a lot in Seine-Saint-Denis, it is a land of welcome, there are a lot of cranes, all the time). For me Seine-Saint-Denis is a place of intense crossroads, of great cultural and intellectual strength. The survival strategies that we must put in place to be able to live together make us much more capable of finding solutions very quickly. But for me this ability to adapt is a great form of intelligence and something very beautiful. So when I chat with English people, they will talk to me about East London or Birmingham… But I was in Birmingham and there is indeed a concrete side. But there are still things that people don’t see, in East London as elsewhere. Culturally the bricks like those of old Stains or those of Aubervilliers in the Stalingrad park with the caretaker’s house, tell the worker aspect which is set aside for the benefit of the rest and which I would like to point out.

Where did you grow up ?

Yacine Belhousse : I was born in Bondy but at the time my parents lived in Bobigny. Then we moved to Aubervilliers, to La Courneuve… I had a fairly nomadic childhood but I did all my schooling in Aubervilliers and my studies in Saint-Denis. Besides, I still live in Aubervilliers, which I adore. Everything on line 1 of the tram, it’s the best! (Laughs).

Did you live in a city or in a suburban area?

Yacine Belhousse : I did both. I grew up in a housing estate in Bobigny, then in the Hemet housing estate in Aubervilliers, then my parents moved to a house in La Courneuve surrounded by large housing estates.

… suddenly you tested several forms of housing in Seine-Saint-Denis…

Yacine Belhousse : Apartments and pavilion and this life in a pavilion was too good! My parents lived in a lot of different habitats. He and she started in accommodation where there was no running water when they arrived from Algeria in 1958 at the age of 10 and 12. Besides, my mother makes me laugh when she tells me their story: “I don’t understand why we talk about immigrants because I moved from France to France!” she told me. (Laughs)

You talk about love for your department but on stage you make little reference to Seine-Saint-Denis, do you?

Yacine Belhousse : I am not focusing my comments on the suburban side. I’m the suburbs, but I don’t need to say so precisely to avoid the “made in the suburbs” branding aspect. If you grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis, you are Seine-Saint-Denis, you are nourished by all this culture. Once again, what fascinates me are the strategies that people put in place to get out of it. This comes out of genius and that’s why I quickly spot people who come from 93…

On stage you wear a t-shirt with the old logo of the General Council of Seine-Saint-Denis. Is it a nod to the inhabitants of this territory?

Yacine Belhousse : This is for my personal pleasure. This t-shirt I made it flocked.

During the Covid crisis, I was looking for things that made sense because I was very demoralized that I could no longer work. For 15 years, I went out every evening for my work and suddenly, everything broke. I love my department, I love its inhabitants, who have a very particular way of seeing life and it felt good to go and find things that represented me… like a coat of arms, to as much as this logo no longer exists! Today only the letters remain, the cube has disappeared. Another example, I long for old trash cans… When I go to the Stade André-Karman in Aubervilliers, there are only a few left. This urban furniture has a reassuring side for me, which reminds me of my childhood. But from that time not everything has disappeared. Solidarity, for example. My parents are fans of the La Courneuve health centers and how the caregivers take care of them. During the confinement, the municipal police came to see them and the other elders, to take news and do their shopping. While we imagine the Seine-Saint-Denis full of perils and danger, here is the reality of my parents. I just want to say my gratitude to my department but by claiming it in a different way, different from what is generally expected.

The old logo of the Department worn during the program Autour de Yacine Belhousse with one of the sequences to review or discover here https://youtu.be/pCS1i7d8Utc

Interview by Sandrine Bordet

Photo credits

Portrait photo: Martin Lagardere.

Parc Georges-Valbon in La Courneuve and Studio Théâtre de Stains: Jean-Louis Bellurget.

Le Corbusier high school in Aubervilliers: Nicolas Moulard.

Yacine Belhousse in five dates

1981 : Birth at the Jean-Verdier hospital in Bondy

2000 : First play as an author at the Studio Théâtre de Stains

2006 : Jamel comedy club on Canal+: begins to make a living from his profession

2014 : 26 performances in English at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, the biggest performing arts festival in the world

2020 : His documentary “Do you want to laugh with me tonight” is released on Netflix.