Improtein spreads its wings to exhibit 2024 from coast to coast

This December 31, Improtein will therefore not only skim over the significant events of 2024 as they were perceived in Ontario: Nadia Campbell, Vincent Poirier, Olivier Nadon, Stéphane Guertin and Martin Laporte will celebrate the New Year by embracing the news of French Canada. coast to coast.

The concept and tone of their review of the year, however, do not change one iota or one acute accent (that of Orléans): the gang improvisers will continue to divert the news in documentary mode and real-false interviews… even if it means inventing scandals, through their improbable investigations “based on real facts”.

Click here to watch the official promotional videoImprotein exhibits 2024.

ICI Télé has also kept the format of the show – 60 minutes flat (44 minutes of actual content, in reality) – which will be broadcast just before (or just after, depending on the time zones; see details below) on Bye Bye québécois.

The improvisation group celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. A documentary (a “real” one this time) is also being prepared to mark this anniversary. This documentary will be broadcast on TFO at the end of February or in March, to tie in with the month of Francophonie, suggest Stéphane Guertin and Vincent Poirier.

Campaign for scurvy?

Cherry on his sunday party, the Franco quintet also offered a completely improvised show, on December 10, at the Shenkman Arts Center in Orléans, its Ottawa rear base. This show (not to be confused with an improv match) took the form of a crazy concert, since the public was invited to pitcher to the quintet themes as spontaneous as they are eccentric. Improtein, a team experienced in the art of respecting creative constraints, had to immediately seize the opportunity through various exercises.

During the second half of the performance, its members even took on the challenge of concocting songs (helped by two musical acolytes, Jean-Michel Ouimet and Brian St-Pierre) by integrating the “silly suggestions” of a public delighted to put “spoke blocks in their wheels”.

“We pretended to be a band mythical, and it is the public which reminds us of our greatest successes”, summarizes a hilarious Vincent Poirier, whose face, like that of his companions, beams at the mere mention of this “moment of great happiness”.

On stage, the gang even took the opportunity to “campaign for the return of scurvy”, advises Martin Laporte. The show had nothing to do with the show, but we think it would be useful to say a few words about it to explain to the ROC (this dyslexic Canada who remains outside Ontario) to what extent playing with truth and falsehood is engraved in Improtein’s DNA.

Search for pan-Canadian “common references”

Regarding their new review of the year, the difficulty was to identify — from a distance — the big news of 2024, not always “easily identifiable” in their eyes, from their little corner of the country. “We called on spies in each province and territory to help us make choices,” agrees Vincent Poirier.

The issues surrounding the Francophonie are as diverse as the country is vast: “apart from the World Acadian Congress, which immediately seemed essential to us, especially for residents of the Atlantic provinces, the people of Acadia do not know [nécessairement] news from the Yukon and vice versa,” illustrates Nadia Campbell. And to argue that this example applies more generally to all the other large territorial zones of this federation where a news triggering a seismic shock in a given province does not necessarily tickle, or barely, the neighboring provinces and territories. )s.

However, humor presupposes “common referents”, she notes. Inventing a false scandal is not enough in itself, if “we want everyone to have fun”, from coast to coast: we must take care to clarify certain things, and refine the links.

Less studio, more land

Once the topics were determined, the team members went to the site. This is the biggest change to the formula: fewer studio recordings, and more field reports. “For me, the highlight of this year, it is the road trip that we did”, indicates Martin Laporte, who had dreamed of this type of topos made for a long time on site.

“Sometimes we pretend to turn on locationbut we are in the studio in Ottawa. It contributes [au jeu consistant à mêler le vrai et le vraisemblable]to false investigations and false interviews,” specifies Vincent Poirier.

If certain themes and issues – such as “car theft” or “provincial elections”, announces Stéphane Guertin – intersect or “overlap”, it was necessary, for each subject, to select a province from which to deal with the subject. from a more local perspective. “The fact of banning cell phones in schools has been talked about everywhere,” concedes Nadia Campbell, whose gang chose to address the issue from Manitoba. “The challenge was to make it as simple as possible, to make it easier to understand,” adds Vincent Poirier.

Francophonie

On the Saskatchewan side, “French-speaking schools charge a very high amount of money,” says Stéphane Guertin. “We allowed ourselves to question whether this is a good idea for the Francophonie,” at a time when questions surrounding linguistic rights – their access as well as their solidity – remain a crucial issue, even a permanent battle.

Conversely, we had to come to terms with the idea that certain geolocalized news resonates less than others. Certain provinces therefore found themselves hidden from the final edit, Improtein having been keen to keep only “the best possible sketches” in this 44-minute summary.

It was also necessary to agree to disintegrate A little. Because the LCBO strike may well energize the province’s editorialists, it ultimately leaves the rest of the country completely indifferent.

“We had written a show [pouvant durer] an hour and a half. We had to cut” with a view to puncher the rhythm, mentions Vincent Poirier.

“It was a year of new things and dizziness, this 3rd edition. We felt like year 1. It’s the same gang [y compris l’équipe de production, la boîte de productions audiovisuelles torontoise Moi et Dave]the same concept and the same humor, but everything needs to be reconsidered. We couldn’t sit on our laurels,” she adds.

Patrick Groulx among the guests

The band, on the other hand, was able to build on the reputation of the first two reviews of the year, which facilitated the positive responses from the guests that Improtein had solicited.

Because yes, several “Franco” personalities will come and participate in the show again, whether in “their own role” or in a more caricatured mode, during real interviews likely to contain falsehoods, because such participation constitutes “ candy for the public,” says Vincent Poirier.

Comedian and host “Patrick Groulx is coming to say hello this year,” says Nadia Campbell, as is ice hockey player Catherine Dubois, whose presence was considered important, women’s hockey having made headlines in all the major regions of Canada, both for the performances of the teams of the young Professional Women’s Hockey League and for the exponential enthusiasm of the public for the prowess of the athletes. “Even in the West, where there is no [d’équipes de cette Ligue]the media and people “were interested in it,” advises Martin Laporte.

Feet in the flat

Nadia Campbell, on the other hand, is more hesitant to identify by her own name “a politician” who has come to make an appearance. But his accomplice Martin Laporte will escape during our discussion: it is the Ontario MP Francis Drouin, whose – hum! – notoriety has gone beyond the borders of the province.

He found himself at the center of a controversy this spring when he described “extremists” as “full of on tuesday» two researchers whose data dared to make links between the pursuit of post-secondary studies in English (in Quebec) and anglicization.

“We were so happy when Francis Drouin got involved in the on tuesday! We said to ourselves “Yes! We’re going to be able to talk about Franco-Ontarians,” sneers Martin Laporte. A good player, the member for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell nevertheless “jumped in with both feet” in the show, notes Vincent Poirier.

“We managed to talk about Doug Ford and integrate alcohol, the cost of the grocery basket and monopolies… with a real political scientist, in addition, who explains to us [les liens] in an interview,” says Vincent Poirier.

“When it comes to scandals, politics is more abundant than the arts; This does not mean that music or theater are less important, but, in the context of a review of the year, it was less appropriate,” suggests Stéphane Guertin.

“And when we haven’t found one, we invent one!” laughs Nadia Campbell – who, this year again, wears several hats: screenwriter, actress, “content producer and other related tasks”, all the way to the editing table.

Bypass Quebec

Anxious not to encroach on the flowerbeds of the Bye ByeImprotein preferred to ignore certain pan-Canadian subjects which risked being discussed at length in the year’s review dear to Quebecers. Thus, the issues surrounding homelessness and demovictionsor even the opioid crisis, have been deliberately excluded from the field of reflection.

“When it also affects Quebec, we [préfère] let them talk about it,” summarizes Martin Laporte. “We talk a little about the housing crisis, but through a completely different subject,” corrects Vincent Poirier, suggesting a more eloquent or more relevant subject for Francophones in minority settings.

“Same for the grocery store file [inflationniste]: we mix things up, we reinvent the news,” suggests Nadia Campbell.

“We definitely forgot important things in our review. We just can’t talk about everything. There are deliberate omissions… and others, no!” smiles Martin Laporte.

Broadcasts ofImprotein exhibits 2024 » on ICI Télé:

• December 31 at 6:05 p.m. (in Ontario, Ottawa-Gatineau and Western Canada).

• January 1 at 1:30 a.m. and January 2 at 9 p.m. (network broadcast, national)

• January 5 at 7:30 p.m. (Acadia)

• the show will also be accessible via the Tout.tv website