Don’t doubt it: Julien Lacroix still has talent and a sharp wit that no one can obviously take away from him.
But we can’t detach Time to time of the life of its author. The comedian himself devotes a good part of his second one man show to his “cancellation”. And it is the way in which he approaches this thorny subject which is confusing, even capable of creating certain discomfort.
With this new production, the 31-year-old comedian marks his return to the comedy world. That is, four years after being targeted by allegations of sexual misconduct.
Moreover, it is all this time away from the stage which marks the common thread of his 90 minutes of show.
In front of a fairly young audience, made up of a few minors, Julien Lacroix recounts what he went through after his withdrawal from public space. Like the comments he received on social networks, his entry into rehab, his relationship with his girlfriend who stayed by his side despite everything, his first steps as a father, etc.
“I was called a narcissistic pervert. Do you know what it is? It’s when a girl gets left, her ex becomes a narcissistic pervert,” he said, among other uneven jokes.
Julien Lacroix appeared on stage with a very sober setting, leaving plenty of room for his sharp, sometimes clumsy jokes. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Le Soleil)
With Time to time, the comedian also looks back on his previous life and his inappropriate behavior. Those he had all those years when he loved “the skid”, during his adolescence and at the start of his career when he accumulated successes at the same rate as his “head swelled”.
Always grating and visibly inhabited by a thirst for justice, Julien Lacroix did not hesitate to criticize the media which investigated and wrote about him, in particular The dutywhich he describes from the first minutes of his show as a “student newspaper”.
His many moments of improvisation allowed him to profusely scratch his audience, asking them to laugh or applaud when they did not react quickly enough.
Two dissonant facets
Although he affirms that “time has made things” and that he has changed, Julien Lacroix nevertheless returns to the stage with the same character as before: an arrogant man, a bit of a slob, who does not hesitate to slide towards black humor when it suits him. Sometimes even crossing the line with vulgar jokes with sexual connotations.
The comedian has unfortunately not gotten rid of this second skin which has certainly earned him a lot of success in the past, but which awkwardly contrasts today with the speech he makes in the media about the “new Julien Lacroix “.
With Time to time, Julien Lacroix dares to tackle the elephant in the room head-on… but perhaps too much and in a disjointed way. As much if not more biting than before, above all it gives the impression of returning to its audience as if nothing had happened, with almost a detached air. This is a missed opportunity for not having delivered a new, more vulnerable and more human character.
Julien Lacroix will present his new show Time to time everywhere across Quebec in the coming months. He will return to the Albert-Rousseau Hall on September 19.
