David Castello-Lopes is an authentic person. This is the title of his one-man show – to be seen or re-seen in Lausanne on September 21 and 22, 2024 (sold out) and from January 2025 in Bulle, Delémont, Monthey and Geneva – which says so. Is the 43-year-old columnist, who started out as a journalist at Canal+ before making his mark on RTS with his offbeat videos on Switzerland, as real as he claims? We wanted to check by subjecting him to a true-false.
You prefer Switzerland to France. True or false?
False. But Switzerland has better marks on many points: reliability, punctuality of people – and trains -, performance of public services, beauty of landscapes. I am still quite regularly blown away by this country, in particular by the Lake Geneva region with the lake everywhere. I like it a lot. It’s just that France is my home, and we always have a fondness for home. But it may be that Switzerland, one day, will overtake us.
Swiss chocolate and watches are the best in the world. True or false?
For watches, that’s true, but not for chocolate. The Swiss are very good at milk chocolate. And I admit that for me, it’s still a kid’s thing. It’s very sweet. Can a zombie movie be humanity’s greatest masterpiece? Meh, it’s still a zombie movie. The best chocolate in the world, in my opinion, is from Savoy: it’s Bonnat.
You got your job at RTS through nepotism. True or false?
False. Vincent Veillon and Vincent Kucholl (editor’s note: from the show “52 minutes”) called me after seeing what I was doing on Canal+ and asked me: “Would you like to make videos about Switzerland?” I didn’t know them. They weren’t anyone’s parents, not even friends of friends. Total strangers.
You are a better comedian than a journalist.. True or false?
True. When we talk about excellence in journalism, we mostly talk about people who put their pen in the wound and go get shot in Ukraine to get exclusive information. That wasn’t the case for me when I was doing this job. I did some reporting on paramilitaries in Colombia, but it wasn’t in the middle of the jungle with bullets flying. On the other hand, I think I make good jokes.
You could have gone into politics, like your childhood friend Clément Beaune, former minister of Emmanuel Macron. True or false?
Wrong, because I am touchy and sensitive. But politics consists of throwing great meanness in each other’s faces all the time. And therefore receiving a lot of it. I would have cried if someone had told me: “Sir, you’re taking the piss, really!” But we are still friends, Clément and I. When we were teenagers, we were very close. Now we see each other much less, but regularly all the same. I like him a lot and I think he likes me too.
I heard you’re a star on TikTok. True or false?
Wrong. I have about 400,000 subscribers, which is nothing compared to other people. So to say that I’m a star is a bit of an exaggeration. I’m more of a small personality. I don’t go on TikTok very often, in fact, because when I spend too much time there, I feel like death has suddenly come closer. Every day, I delete the Instagram app on my phone so that I’m not tempted to go and watch. And I end up putting it back because 100% of what’s offered to me, I think it’s great. Like this American guy who gets marshmallows thrown at him from far away and catches them with his mouth. He’s made 80 videos of it. I never get tired of it.
