“I’m ready for love”

You have been on stage for thirty years. Are you one of those who think it was better before?
So not. Before, I saw my job like that [il écarte les bras au maximum]. Today I want it like this [il rapproche ses mains]. I want the text to resonate, to be effective, in a refined framework and with tight timing. I no longer want 14,000 spotlights on me, with crazy music for my entrance on stage, and I’m done with 3:30 a.m. shows. I don’t want to exceed 1:20, 1:30 maximum. I don’t think you can be funny non-stop for more than 90 minutes. Look, in the cinema, the best comedies are the shortest. “The idiots’ dinner” is 1:20 a.m., “Tanned people go skiing” is 1:30 a.m.

“Before, I had a more theatrical approach to the profession”

Since you performed in comedy clubs in the United States in 2015, you no longer swear by stand-up, which generally serves to launch careers, not to crown them…
Let’s say that this is the form of spectacle that suits me now. Before, I had a more theatrical approach to the job, with a whole story, lots of lights, staging, costumes, wigs, props… Now, I’m naked. That there is only a microphone and not my face on the poster for “Him-itself” says it all: I’m looking for something other than showing my face, and the microphone indicates that I have things to say to the audience.

The first thing you address when you enter the stage is your age-related white hair…
Until not long ago, I dyed them or reduced their whiteness with a gel… And I wondered what that meant. Since I stopped, I feel so much better, so good about myself! My head breathes and, therefore, my mind too. And if I talk about it immediately, it’s because I know what the public is asking: why white hair? That’s the rule of stand-up: telling the audience things they see and can relate to. Imagine a comedian arriving on stage with a bleeding nose and missing a tooth: he can’t start by talking about anything else! And then, for me, opening up about my “new head” is a way of starting a much more written chapter: “I have aged.”

The rest after this ad

At school, I was already passionate about history, macroeconomics and geopolitics, for example. More recently, it was theology, I developed a passion for the Virgin.

Gad Elmaleh

In “Himself”, you say that your parents, who are always there, kept telling you when you were little: “Stop being shy!” It wasn’t more like, “Stop being interesting!” ?
Yes, and it humiliated me. It still humiliates me today, in fact. Because it’s like someone unmasked me. It underlines a truth. Yet it’s touching, someone who makes himself interesting: he wants to be loved. And then, in fact, it’s interesting! The reproach would be: “Stop acting uninteresting!” Me, always and even more today, I am interested in everything, I am eager for knowledge and meeting people. At school, I was already passionate about history, macroeconomics and geopolitics, for example. More recently, it was theology, I developed a passion for the Virgin. There, everyone went into a tailspin: “What do you mean, are you converted?” But, guys, you don’t understand: tomorrow I will be in another delirium!

Have you always wanted to be a comedian?
Yes. And I went to Canada for that. Because I had uncles, aunts and cousins ​​who had lived there for a long time. There is a large Moroccan Jewish community in Montreal. And then it’s Canada, it’s America, but in French. Accessible, yes! However, I learned and practiced English there. I was born artistically in France where I was well received, spoiled even, and I am full of gratitude for this country, but it was in Montreal that I gave my first show. It was December 10, 1994, in a room with twenty or thirty seats. And I’m going back next December 11 to celebrate the date.

In the same room? !
Not really: it will be at the Bell Center, 10,000 seats! And it’s complete. It’s going to be crazy.

You say on stage that you stole a valve from your son. Was it to address the accusations of plagiarism you faced?
Yes, because, in reality, I didn’t steal a valve from my son. I wanted to approach the subject gently, without pride or complaint. I have my share of responsibility in this plagiarism story, but it represents so little compared to everything I have written. About twenty years ago, a lot of colleagues and I took a lot of inspiration from the Americans and took some little jokes from them. I assume. I was pilloried for that, but my career did not suffer and, above all, this affair taught me a lot of things about the profession and about my “friends”: it allowed me to make a big spring cleaning! Which doesn’t stop certain comedians who spit on me from coming back today to ask me to open at the Dôme de Paris. It’s not that they don’t have face, they just forgot. They are not evil or ill-intentioned. They just expressed what felt right in the moment.

Looking for love

You seem to have a growing interest in the many emerging comedians…
I’m not trying to be youthful: I’m approaching them to better understand when I’m becoming old-fashioned. In the themes, in the way of writing… As Jerry Seinfeld says: “Comedy is simple, but it’s not easy.” It’s like tennis in the 1980s and today: it’s the same sport, but it plays much faster! Before going on stage yesterday, in Lille, I went to Spotlight, a comedy club. Whether at Red Line in Montpellier, at Paname in Paris or at Garage in Marseille, I do this in every city where I perform: I take the microphone for five minutes and I play. Like a warm-up. A comedian who doesn’t constantly work on his humor is like an athlete who doesn’t train. You have to stay sharp.

For you, what are the important milestones in your career?
“Hi cousin!”, by Merzak Allouache: my first film and my first “leading role”. I will meet Merzak again for “Chouchou”, another hit. And before “Chouchou”, there is “The truth if I lie! 2” which propelled me. Beyond 8 million admissions, the film has become cult and still conveys popular joy today. “Chouchou” is the spotlight on a character created in “Normal Life”, the one-man show that people talk to me about every day. Quite a few young comedians even tell me that it motivated them to get started – even though I moved so far away from this type of show, which was a series of sketches based on people I observed…

The raw material for your shows now is you?
It’s me, yes, but less in everyday events than in interiority, reflection on age, maladjustment, spirituality. What I’m experiencing! When I say on stage: “I love each other and it’s reciprocal”, I laugh, but it’s true. I’m finally starting to love myself. There is nothing pretentious or egocentric about this. We are full of pride when we don’t love ourselves, we protect ourselves because we don’t know how to love or how to be loved. And we blame each other for everything, especially in a romantic relationship, where, in the event of separation, it is necessarily the other’s fault. Well let’s see! We all have our share of responsibility. And now I’m ready. I’m ready for love.

You realize that by saying this there will be a jostling at the gate!
We’ll see. It’s funny how people meet today. I even registered on an app – don’t look, I’m not there anymore – I had some sometimes surprising, superficial encounters there. There were little adventures, beautiful friendships too, but in the end, I found these relationships artificial. I’m old school, me. I would like to go to a dinner or a party and crush on someone, create a bond. The problem is that I don’t like going to dinners or parties! Maybe I should try harder.

In the age of #MeToo, are you a single person wary when a woman approaches you? In your show, you are ready to have documents signed before taking action…
I am not suspicious, but I am aware that my words, my gestures can be misinterpreted, or even transformed. Afterwards, when you know your values ​​and have nothing to reproach yourself for, there is no need to be suspicious. The humor and spiritual refinement move me. I can fall in love with a woman or want to become a man’s best friend for a witticism. I don’t find anything sexier than a woman with wit. As the women’s magazines say, I am a sapiosexual. Excitement comes from the top, not the bottom. I didn’t wait for #MeToo to know what was right or wrong. The danger in today’s society is debates where everything is polarized, where you have to choose a side. Whether for gender relations, the conflict in the Middle East, politics… Can we choose the side of peace, humanity, nuance?