Behind the scenes of the new challenge taken up by the disabled champion in Slam, every day, at 5:20 p.m., on France 3. Interview with host Théo Curin.
Your arrival on the small screen has just taken on a new dimension with the presentation of the show Slam, how did it gradually take shape?
I made my first appearance in 2015 in the series “Vestiaires”, I was 15 years old, then in “Plus belle la vie” I also participated in Duoday with Marina Carrère d'Encausse in “Le Magazine de la santé ” when I was 17 and I had a feature on his show.
But things really accelerated with “T’es au top”, the children’s show and the “Théo le Taxi” column. And today, Slam, it’s crazy!
How did you prepare for this challenge?
As I was preparing for swimming competitions. I watched a lot of Cyril Féraud shows, I trained in my living room and I passed the casting call. Then, it was probably the longest days of my life… The phone didn't ring, I said to myself “it's not me”. And one day, I was told that it was me… It was a great source of pride.
How are you experiencing these first days of presentation?
Super good! I'm still a novice, there are still quite a few things I can improve on, so much the better! But I am very attentive to the feedback from viewers on social networks and they are quite good. France Télévisions also does it to me daily.
And, from the beginning of September, I felt that I was really starting to enjoy it, I freed myself a little from the mechanics of the game to live the moment with the candidates, the public, I love this feeling!
I can't wait to go back on set to continue learning and having fun.
Did this require any special adjustments to take your disability into account or did everything happen exactly as it did for Cyril Ferraud?
There were only a few adjustments to the stage, during the final, normally Cyril held the cards in his hands. For me, it's a little more complicated, so we added a desk so that I can put them down and really concentrate on what the candidate is saying.
Other than that, there are no big changes.
People with disabilities are barely visible in the media. Was this one of your motivations?
To be completely honest with you, at the time, my primary motivation was to realize a childhood dream: to host a daily game on television.
I didn't immediately think about the message, the impact of my participation in this show. I didn't think it was going to make so much noise, that it was going to be so historic, in the sense that, it's true, we've never seen this on a daily,
So much the better if things progress, I'm very, very happy. Now I hope that the doors will open even more for others because I am not the only one with a visible or invisible difference. But I think things are changing. There was a real click with the Para Games, so I hope that we will continue this momentum.
You also talk about a childhood dream, what is your relationship with television?
I have always watched TV, since I was little, a lot with my parents, on weekends, in the evenings, at lunchtime also during games, when I came home from school, so it has always been a dream, but I thought it was impossible to achieve for many reasons and today the doors have opened.
Now, it's up to me to prove myself in the long term, it's a marathon, we'll have to persevere, work, progress so that people take more and more pleasure in following the shows that I host, I hope that it will last a very long time.
Television accompanied you at the age of 6, during all those months of hospitalization for meningitis which then led to your amputation of your arms and legs. Does this also explain this intimate bond that binds you to small screen?
When we're in the hospital, the only thing we have in our rooms to pass the time is television, and I watched it a lot at that time.
I was in and out of the hospital a lot at the time and the games and shows kept me busy, I grew up with it. I remember, I don't know why I think about this, that I was coming back from the operating room one day, I was completely stoned after a general anesthetic and there was “The Price is Right” starting, there was music, “la la la” (he sings the theme song) and my parents were dying of laughter because I was singing the song and I couldn't stop.
When I saw myself again on that hospital bed, I was far from imagining that one day it was going to be me on the small screen. It's a beautiful message.
From this hospital room to today's television sets, how have you experienced the gaze of others?
I always came across quite kind people, I was very lucky. Obviously, there are everyday looks, a little unusual, people have lots of questions in their heads when they see me, but I learned to grow up with that and today I don't pay attention at all. .
I am very attentive to school bullying, because I saw things when I was younger, but I was never concerned, the young people were rather cool with me, quite accommodating, in everything. case before me. Behind my back, maybe it was different, but it's not a big deal.
I also immediately showed that my disability was absolutely not an obstacle to the social life that we were going to have together at school, or outside.
France experienced an enchanted interlude with the Olympic Games, but also the Paralympics, where you were, moreover, in the spotlight during the opening ceremony. What image will you keep of it?
It's a general success, because the French were there. The stadiums were full! On the second day of the Paralympic Games, when I go to the aquatic center to watch my friends swim and realize that there is no seat left, I tell myself that that's it, we've succeeded.
We often took London as an example in 2012, today the French have gone ahead because something really happened. The athletes were exceptional, with performances never seen before, and, above all, this was an accelerator for their visibility.
We saw it from the opening ceremony, there were ten million viewers in France and that was unthinkable twenty years ago.
People were increasingly prepared for this event. France Télévision highlights athletes with disabilities, many companies have also created teams with athletes with disabilities, in each area things have improved.
How do you think we can keep this momentum going?
I don't know, I'm not political, but what we managed to do during the Paralympic Games, I don't see why we wouldn't do it afterwards.
Raising awareness about caregivers, supporting the little ones: Théo Curin’s commitments
“Caregivers, it’s time to help them”: this is the name of the program broadcast on October 8 by Théo Curin, in prime time on France 5. To better understand the daily life and the difficulties faced by these 11 million guardian angels, the presenter of Slam offered Bruno Solo and Clémentine Célarié to replace two of them for forty-eight hours. A show to (re)watch here on france.tv.
“I had caregivers for a long part of my life, initially,” explains Théo Curin, “I was helped by my parents, then I left to study in Auvergne, I had a helping for seven years, these are people who help us without counting, there is a lot of love, but many caregivers end up forgetting themselves and being exhausted, sick. There is one caregiver in three who dies before. the person being helped is alarming figures”
“The idea of this show is to create small sparks in the lives of these people, but above all also to think about the future, to help them concretely,” he underlines.
This program is visible in free access on france.tv
“I want to continue doing lots of things that are a little different,” continues Théo Curin, “with sometimes shows like this one that are a little serious, where there is something concrete to defend, like “You’re on top” , on France 4, the show that I host for children, the idea is to tell them believe in yourself, believe in your dreams, and to simply support them, I have a bit of the role of big brother on this show.”
People became attached to the athletes they discovered this summer, now it's up to groups, businesses, politicians to push this and put budgets in place.
You are the man for all challenges, what is your driving force?
I like to go into areas that I don't know. That's what I did through sport for years and that's what I do today on television because it's still a risk to land on such a basic show with a daily rhythm. .
It gives me energy in the morning when the alarm goes off early in the morning, I get up because I'm going to push myself, it's going to be a little hard but at some point during the day I'm going to have a feeling of indescribable satisfaction . I like to be like that, a little awaited at the turn because there is an excitement, a tension, a positive pressure, it keeps me alive.
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