This is your first time at the Off d’Avignon festival. Why did you wait so long (he is 76 years old) to participate?
Until then, I didn’t have much to do about it. This time I’m coming with a musical theater show, something different. I would have liked to do eight to ten days in the Off but we only found two possible dates. It will be a deflowering, a deflowering. I have never come to Avignon during the festival. I have heard from several friends who have done it. Some came out happy, others unhappy. But I will tell you: the principle of the producer is not to know how much he will gain but how much he can lose… (smile)
“Gotainer brings back his phrase” is not a concert. How would you describe this atypical show?
I revisit my songs, “Le Youki”, “Le mambo du décalco”, “Primitif”, “Le Sampa” and songs from the last album. I tell stories to make little skits, in duo with Brice Delage, an ideal guitarist.
Is this another side of you that you are presenting to us? The other side of the fanciful?
I come with stories that I hope are nice to re-savour. We laugh a lot in this show, but we also come across moments of tenderness that pinch the soul and the heart a little. I have always rather put forward the red nose. Here, there are also things in half-tone, which please a lot. It is like a ride on a merry-go-round, a time in the air at the bottom, where we laugh, a time almost on the verge of tears. And then it starts again. I like to surprise rather than hammer home the same nails.
On stage, what is Brice Delage’s role alongside you?
He’s on stage with his guitar, and we’re both doing a kind of ping-pong. We worked in the countryside to find the right formula and avoid sound illustrations. Before we met, Brice already had a hobby: he made sound effects with his instrument, he recreated mosquitoes, slamming doors, falling raindrops. We have fun, in a tight clockwork mechanism. The game consists of mixing sound effects and melodic allusions with my texts from all eras.
Is there a narrative construction in the show?
There is no logical sequence. It is a bit like a tourist brochure, around texts that take flight, sometimes more by being spoken than by being sung.
In 2024, what does Richard Gotainer’s sociology of the public look like?
There is my core clientele, of a certain age, their children whom they educated at Gotainer. One day, a lady told me: “I bought two tickets for my husband and me. When he learned that you didn’t sing on stage and that you said your lyrics theatrically, he said to me: ‘I’m not coming’. So I asked my 20-year-old son to come with me. He was thrilled by the show. That, honestly, is velvet for an artist!
Do you have an album in the works?
Not yet. I’m having a bit of trouble finding what I want in the world around me. What’s happening around us right now doesn’t make me want to laugh…
What is your daily life like when you are not on stage?
I try to make my life a little artistic, all the time. I like cooking, gardening, shopping at the flea market, laughing with my friends. I have a polished shoe in Paris and a rubber boot in the countryside. I love watching my plants grow as much as discovering neighborhoods with spectacular architecture. See something else, or see them better, by turning your head. I love the objects and the decor. Moving them around my home is a passion, otherwise they become transparent.
“Gotainer brings back his phrase” at 9:10 p.m. at the Paris theater, Avignon, July 3 and 4; €17.5/25
