Humor: Alévêque does his funny press review with the TdG

“The idea is simple. I arrive in Switzerland. A stack of newspapers from previous days was prepared for me. I sit at a table. I study, I take notes. And when the evening comes, I improvise.” This is the principle of “Press review” by French comedian Christophe Alévêque, who arrives Tuesday at the Comédie de la Gare. His Swiss agent is categorical: among the pages browsed by the artist, there will mainly be those of the Geneva Tribune. Emotion. The public will therefore be delighted with the prose of colleagues.

The entertainer has been doing this exercise for years now. “I acquired the art and the way of mixing local, international and French news, making fun of everyone a little.” The economy, the news, politics, wars… Alévêque’s satirical mill is firing on all cylinders.

The thundering bell

“There are still Swiss items that you would never see in France. I remember, a few years ago, a paper on a foundation that was too rich and which called for ideas on how to spend its money. Or a double page about a village bell that rang all the time. It was a mystery. An affair of state. You have this art of transforming nothing, non-events, into real stories.” We don’t really know how to take this. Wrong?

But Swiss journalism is aligning, according to the comic. And it’s very sad. “It was an enclave, unique in Europe. I notice, a little disappointed, that particularisms tend to disappear in your newspapers, in favor of news items for example. But, rest assured, I still have enough juicy news.”

From these readings and his notes, Alévêque improvises. “When I started my press reviews, self-censorship was already wreaking havoc among comedians. To protect myself from this, I decided not to write anything in advance and to throw out without filter everything that comes out of my head. There are some brilliant moments…others not so much. I’m on a thread, and people follow me. To tell the truth, given the increasingly anxiety-inducing news, the show is turning into group therapy. I help the public to gain distance, to burst the abscess. At the end of the evening, I received more thanks than bravos.”

Pathetic clowns

Hey, let’s talk a little about the current French political crisis which, seen from Switzerland, can make you smile. The involved Alévêque, who tried to bring together the left in 2016 and even considered running for president, does not mince his words. “They are pathetic clowns. They only think about their butts and not the country. Fewer and fewer people are going to vote: it’s going to end badly. The political landscape will explode.” For once, the entertainer “no longer laughs”. Damn, then!

A little information to finish. If the Geneva public gets along well, the Press Review at the Comédie de la Gare could well become a regular event. Two other shows under our skies are already planned. With real TdG songs in it.

Jérôme Estèbe directs the cultural section and the weekend supplement. It covers, in particular, gastronomic and oenological topics. He is the recipient of the 2002 Berner Zeitung local journalism prize. More info

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