It is this Tuesday evening with the poster of “Treize à table” on France 2, then on January 15 in Nîmes. He evokes these two meetings and his thirty-year career. Already! Laughter to escape loneliness.
Are you not too disturbed by the confinement?
I was especially destabilized by the first confinement. The second allowed artists to continue working. I was able to rehearse the play Thirteen at the table that France 2 broadcasts this Tuesday. It’s a boulevard classic by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, created in 1953 and made famous in the 1980s by Marthe Mercadier. I’m going to play the piece with Virginie Hocq. A magnificent text, the story of a superstitious housewife devastated by the idea of meeting with thirteen guests on Christmas Eve. She invites an additional person but another cancels herself, she goes nuts. It’s an infernal mechanism.
Will the play only be performed once?
It’s a bit complicated at the moment to do theater in public, so I do it for television. It’s a way of continuing to do my job.
I love the boulevard theater where I discovered Jacqueline Maillan, Michel Roux, Maria Pacôme, Jean Lefèvre… I have a bit of nostalgia for the TV show At the theater tonight that I watched during my childhood. I also liked the shows of Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier, The Grand Chessboard, Apostrophes… My vocation was born by watching At the theater tonight!
TV isn’t the same today?
She is subjected to the laws of the audience which does not always leave time for a program to settle and which very quickly cuts heads. Today TV is more quantitative than qualitative. But there is resistance, especially on France5, Arte, and France 2.
You have just celebrated your 30 years on the stage. You wouldn’t say it.
This is the advantage of having started young. At 52, I am proud of what I have done but I keep a great appetite for the future, I keep the envy for projects, artists with whom I want to work. I am happy with my journey.
What are your main reasons for pride?
My collaboration with Muriel Robin, of which I co-wrote all the sketches. And then the fact of remaining a comedian still awaited on the roads of France because today there are many of us. I’m happy to resist the new wave.
And then I am proud to have created a troop by making discover young talents.
How do you see the new generation of comedians?
There are some very good ones and others that we will soon forget. Many feel funny in life and decide to become comedians. But humor is not enough, it also takes seriousness, sincerity, anger. Blanche Gardin puts everyone in agreement. I also like Paul Mirabel and Tristan Lopin who make me laugh a lot. I like singularity, elegance, and I hate vulgarity. In fact humor became an industry in the 1990s, when I arrived, with Muriel Robin, Dany Boon, Bigard, Elie Semoun, Dieudonné… Before there were only five or six big names, Devos, Bedos , Sylvie Joly… But humor has turned into a market with the tours, the videos. Today the competition is tough, the best will stay.
You seem very attached to theatrical writing.
Yes I like the precision. I had great admiration for Jean-Loup Dabadie. I am impressed by people who improvise or take hold of the news. I’m not good at doing this. I prefer timeless things like family, couples, friendships, bonds between people.
Will you be back on stage soon?
Yes with my favorite sketches from the ten one man shows of my thirty years on stage. Not necessarily tubes. We find Scrabble, President, but I also pulled out of the drawers of little-known texts by choosing those that did not take too many wrinkles. I hope to reach a new audience, young people. I am always very happy when I make others laugh. This sharing makes me less alone in a life where I feel very alone, too alone.
Do you still continue to write?
Of course. I will also resume Assume bordel !, a piece written during the first confinement. I played it a bit this summer. It’s a gay couple housework scene, a gay version of They love each other.
You, personally, have you finally found your soul mate?
I’m not sure if I find it, I’ll claim it in the press. But I’m still single and more and more convinced that to be happy, you have to live in hiding.
In the meantime you have returned to the Grévin museum …
Yes statufie next to my girlfriend Muriel Robin. It makes us inseparable for life it’s touching.
You really have a special relationship with Muriel Robin.
She is my Mu, my sister, my confidante. We tell each other our happiness, our misfortunes. We are constantly discussing our personal and professional lives. Neither has secrets from the other. Not to mention our artistic collaboration. All the shows I did with Michèle Laroque, Muriel was behind.
Michèle Laroque, is this the other decisive meeting?
This is so far the highlight of my career, my most popular show. People only know me through my duet with Michèle Laroque. I don’t know how we did it, but we embodied a universal couple. A great adventure!
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