“The most difficult thing is to make people laugh”: comedian Christelle Chollet is on stage at the Castel de Châteaubernard on Wednesday

“Nabilou is the worst of all influencers. She has no barriers, no modesty. »

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV4Uc9Tm_6o?feature=oembed

Why does this title “Reconditioned” mean making something new out of something old?

Christelle Chollet: Yes, that’s exactly it. After six shows, I asked myself what new things I could offer to bring people in and wow them. Until now, all my shows, from “L’Empiafée” to “N°5 de Chollet”, were entities which essentially spoke about my life, with stand-up and songs, but there were very few characters. I said to myself, that’s what’s new. “Reconditioned” is a way of saying that I am going to make Chollet, but with optimization. And then I find that “reconditioned” is a word that brings hope, with a new world opening up, new ways of consuming, as in the past, without throwing away but repairing. This is a positive momentum.

You therefore play a host of characters: an influencer, a sadistic teacher, a sexual predator and even a bull…

I was very interested in looking closely at these new professions. Take the love coach. Before, there were matrimonial announcements, now there are love coaches to learn how to go on the networks, to be able to create profiles and introduce themselves. That intrigued me. The same goes for influencers, who have become extremely important. It fascinates me. Nabilou, my character, is the worst of all influencers. She has no barriers, no modesty, nothing bothers her, she shows everything, she says stupid things all the time. It’s a very enjoyable character to interpret because precisely, it’s no limit. And at the same time it is very touching because it is rough.

Your music teacher is also very successful…

She is incredible and it is the favorite sketch of families and teenagers. I play a music teacher who corrects the copies of all the fashionable singers – Jul, Vitaa, Slimane, Aya Nakamura… She dissects their songs that everyone knows and people are bursting with laughter.

In your show, you ask the public the question about what we have the right to make jokes about. Are there any that you prohibit yourself from doing?

My limits are mine. There are things I don’t want to talk about. And the show afterward, I might want to. There, I ask people the question because it’s funny to say, can we make jokes about religions, about Putin, about Macron? Because in the end, that’s what I’m going to do during the show. The same goes for battered women, a subject that was close to my heart because we are in a hallucinatory madness, as the Pelicot affair showed. This all annoys me and I have to talk about it.

In what way?

By reversing the roles. We put a sexual predator in front of a commissioner and everything makes sense, everything is very funny, because she has no limits.

What is more difficult, singing or making people laugh?

Make people laugh, without any hesitation. Sing “All by my self” by Celine Dion? Fingers in the hole! Making people laugh has nothing to do with it, even if laughter and song are scores. Laughter is very demanding, you can’t do just anything. Sometimes it’s down to the word, to the breath. We can miss a valve for a missed breath, because we didn’t give the audience three seconds for the joke to get to the brain. Sometimes a little word, an interjection, and it’s no longer the same laugh. Making people laugh is clockwork.

You are already preparing for the 7th^e show. What is it going to be about?

We already have a pretitle, it’s called “Twenty Years Already”, and I’m going to let go, because it will be 20 years since I started with “L’Empiafée”, in 2006. I have a little surge of pride because the most complicated thing in this profession is to last. I am very happy about it because in twenty years, I have experienced incredible things with the spectators. And it’s not over yet!

“Reconditioned”, by Christelle Chollet, Wednesday January 22 at 8:30 p.m. at the Castel. Single price €36. There are still places left. 05 45 32 76 81 / lecastel.fr

The Swiss Yann Marguet at the Avant-Scène

If you missed the first burst of humor of the week, Wednesday, with Christelle Chollet, catch-up session Friday January 24 at 8:30 p.m. at L’Avant-Scène de Cognac. Comedian Yann Marguet, who also serves as a columnist on France Inter and the show Quotidien, will be on stage to present his show “Exist, definition (from the infinitely great to the infinitely stupid). » A reflection on the meaning of our lives and our daily habits when we know nothing of our presence in this infinity that surrounds us. A guide to putting things into perspective, very essential at the start of the year.
“Exist, definition (from the infinitely great to the infinitely stupid). », by Yann Marguet, January 24 at 8:30 p.m. at L’Avant-Scène, Cognac. Prices: from 5 to 27€.