David Castello-Lopes perfectly assumes his double role as journalist and comedian. On the other hand, he conducts interviews for Konbini, delivers his morning columns on France Inter and does his “Interesting” on Arte in “28 minutes Saturday”. On the other hand, he is on tour with his show Authentic in which he dissects this notion, from social interactions to marketing strategies, with pedagogy and absurd and spicy humor. 20 Minutes spoke with the 43-year-old artist.
In journalism school, it is said that “Journalism leads to anything as long as you get out of it”. What do you think?
I think it’s true. It’s all the easier for me because I didn’t have this vocation. At 10 years old, I didn’t look at journalists and tell myself that I too, when I grew up, would change the world with reports. I was a curious boy. I was a dandy, a bit of a wanker. When I say that, you imagine a guy who plays video games while smoking bangers throughout his twenties, but that’s not the case. I went to a very good high school [Condorcet]so after the baccalaureate, some of my friends were on very serious track. One of them was Clément Beaune, who became minister [délégué, chargé des Transports de 2022 à 2024].
I did an internship in publishing, where I learned things a little every day and I saw friends who were doing journalism. I thought it looked pretty good. I studied at the French Press Institute in Paris and the University of Berkeley in the United States. There, I discovered American journalism and I said to myself “Oh yeah, okay, I’m an idiot actually” and I took it more seriously. I learned a lot about new formats, which allowed me to sell projects to Mondeturnkey. I did the reporting, the editing, the photography, the graphics, the code… that was around 2009. Then, I joined “L’Effet Papillon” [une émission de Canal+]as a stooge, I was 29 years old, it’s a little late to be a stooge… For a year and a half, I was very bitter, I felt invisible. I proposed a column, “Le Chiffroscope”, a cartoon explaining things about the world, current events, with figures and jokes, which was accepted, and overnight, I became the cool guy who had sold something to Canal. Then there was “Since when?” », for “Le Petit journal”, where I was able to do what I wanted, what I had in mind, by putting my style, by integrating songs. At the same time, I entered the Monde [comme codirecteur du service vidéo, de 2016 à 2018]. These were very busy years.
When did the switch to becoming a comedian take place?
Until I went on stage, no one called me a comedian, although I think my videos were watched because they contained jokes. The “Switzerland? » that I started in 2020 for RTS were successful for that. For people, I was a journalist who explained things in a funny way. It was only from the moment I went on stage that people began to see me as a comedian. In 2022, I put on my show on my own with my own money in a small theater in Lausanne, Switzerland, which gave me very good conditions to do it. Just before, I did thirty dates at La Petite Loge, a tiny Parisian venue with 25 seats, but it was thirty minutes much less work. I wandered around. In Lausanne, when I put the tickets on sale, they sold very quickly because I already had a little notoriety. I did nineteen dates, then I played ten evenings in France, I went to the Avignon Festival and the real tour started at the end of September 2023.
Would you say that you do stage journalism?
In my show, there is less pure journalism. There are times when I explain things, a guideline on the notion of authenticity. When I talk about the Portuguese anthem, I say true, historical things, which I mix with jokes. This is exactly what I do in video.
A journalist must respect the truth of the facts. Humor allows more freedoms. On stage, do you allow yourself to lie?
There are realities that I simplify, something I will never allow myself to do in my journalistic work. At the beginning of October I released a book, The origins [éd. Denoël] inspired by my chronicles from Europe 1. I tell lots of stories that are my own, everything is true. In my show, I summarize so that it goes faster. When I talk about the girl who blew me away in Madrid, for example, in fact, there were two of them, we were a group of people. On stage I say that we were alone, it’s an arrangement with reality. But in journalism I will never do that. It’s very clear, I think, to the public. Just because I make a joke doesn’t mean I’m saying something wrong. I can make a fair observation about reality, which turns out to be funny.
In journalism, you have to take care of the attack on your article, your report. You start “Authentique” with a parody trailer imagining a Portuguese version of “Schindler’s List”…
What’s crazy is that it doesn’t set the tone of the show at all. This has nothing to do with what follows. It’s just that it’s a joke that I wanted to make. My initial idea was much longer, I summarized it in two and a half minutes. She didn’t say anything about authenticity, she was unbelievable anywhere, so I decided to start with that.
However, it allows you to talk about your Portuguese origins and your Jewishness…
Indeed, but I could have addressed that at another time. Above all, I then had to take into account the theme of authenticity. Afterwards, this opening is grandiloquent, with the lights, it sets up the screen, the fact that a dialogue will take place between me and the screen, it sets up the device.
The concept of “situated journalism” designates the fact that journalism is expressed through the prism of its origins, its experiences, its experiences. Is it the same for a comedian?
It’s a very 68 thing, the Maoists said “Where are you talking about comrade? » And it comes back. Now, “who’s speaking?” » becomes almost more important than what is said. In 2018, I made a video on zouk where I argued that it was sexual music. The inventor of zouk, whom I interviewed, explained it to me himself. I said the exact same thing in the video and made jokes about it and got caught shitstorm. I think that I was not criticized for the substance of what I said but for the fact that I said it as a white, Parisian. On the other hand, I don’t think we blame Francky Vincent for saying pornographic things about zouk. I try to fight against it a little, even though I conform to it. I will never again do something about zouk, I understood that it upsets people, that it saddens them. I don’t want to hurt anyone. But, deep down, I think that a sentence is either right, or it is wrong, or it is offensive, or it is not, but that we take too much into account the person who says it .
In “Authentique”, however, there are jokes that other comedians not of your origins would probably not allow…
Yes. The show begins with “Jew, Jew, Jew” [scandé à l’écran]. Then people see the trailer with the Nazis speaking Portuguese and go “wow, what is that thing?” »And then they understand. “Oh ok, David Castello-Lopes is Jewish”. They are relieved and say to themselves that I have the right. This is why I say that as a Jew and Portuguese I have total immunity on this. Because “who is speaking?” », situated humor, all that…
Why did you choose to focus the show on authenticity?
I wanted a guiding theme and a demonstration from start to finish. Authenticity is a theme that has been close to my heart for a long time, about which I have thought and written a lot. At the age of 25, I discovered the work of Witold Gombrowicz, mainly centered on this theme. It’s a universal subject that can give rise to lots of jokes. It is the place of all human pettiness and our weaknesses and it allows us to make lots of funny observations.
You are continuing your tour, but do you already have desires, dreams, for the future?
I would like to make much longer videos. I haven’t done anything longer than eight minutes. But it’s difficult. This was actually one of the challenges for the show – in addition to getting on stage. How can you not be boring for an hour and a half? Because my videos are frantic, go in all directions. That could last a while, but if I spread it out over 90 minutes, someone would want to slap me. We had to find breaks in rhythm.
Would you like to make a documentary?
Why not. In any case, in what I do, there will always be a documentary aspect.
Have you considered dropping one of your two hats?
No. Why should I make a choice? On the contrary. I’m an interviewer, I do my things on Arte where there are a few jokes, I’m on stage where I do a lot more. I’m going to continue making videos, music, it’s very important for me to write songs. I never liked choosing. I managed, somewhat unexpectedly, to find a professional activity where I can do everything I love in life, at the same time, merged into the same object. It’s perfect!
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