Between 1998 and 2019, Patrick Sébastien had a successful time on France 2 with The largest cabaret in the world. Despite still decent audiences – as was also the case for his other show The happy years -, the public channel decided to abruptly end the program.
The entertainment, broadcast on Saturdays in the early evening, has given rise to a new generation of artists of all kinds. On the humor side, the host, who found himself at the heart of a heated political controversy, revealed Shirley and Dino to the general public. The duo, composed of Corinne and Gilles Benizio, experienced a meteoric rise thanks to their performances in The largest cabaret in the world.
“We didn’t want it anymore…” : Shirley and Dino leave everything in full success
In full success, those who are couples on stage and in town have decided to stop everything. They radically changed their lives a few years ago to devote themselves to new projects. In 2022, Gilles Benizio explained this to the newspaper La Provence. “The soul of Shirley and Dino is there, but the characters, their costumes, the Vichy dress, it’s gone. We didn't want it anymore…“he confided before adding: “We didn't want to be less good and bore people. We put them in a retirement home to do something else“.
From the plateau of BuzzTV/Le Figaro on Thursday October 31, 2024, Patrick Sébastien gave news of the star comic couple of the 2000s. “They're still artists. Gilles sent me something the other night, but it was just because he was at a party where people were singing Les Sardines. They did lots of things. I'm not too aware of what they are doing at the moment, but they are real artists”he declared.
The characters weighed on them…
“It's a special case. Before, they were called Achille Tonic and they played music halls. They cooked, they served the dishes… So they were pure artists. And at one point, They were fed up. The characters weighed on them because they were husband and wife in the city.”he added. The former star host of France 2 then drew a parallel with his book The Carnival of the Ambitious.
“It's true that it was interesting to analyze why this ambition. They included characters who could have allowed them to live… But they did not want to become mechanical. They did not want to become sales representatives of the valve…“concluded the one who also revealed to the general public the ventriloquist Jeff Panacloc and the illusionist Dany Lary from the stage of the Largest cabaret in the world.
