According to The ParisianFrench justice has chosen Moroccan actor and comedian Gad Elmaleh to buy the cabaret business at Michou, a legendary establishment in Montmartre in Paris, in financial liquidation.
Since the death of Michou, its founder, in 2020, the transformist cabaret was experiencing significant financial difficulties which led to its closure in June, and the dismissal of its 23 employees, on the eve of the establishment’s 68th anniversary.
A place dedicated to comedy
According to a press release published Tuesday by Gad Elmaleh’s communications service, he “will make it a place of comedy and humor, while keeping the soul of the place“. If the place will no longer be called Chez Michou, as revealed by Catherine Catty-Jacquart, Michou’s niece, at Parisianshe says she is convinced that Gad Elmaleh will “make ita very beautiful place“. The Moroccan director and actor is preparing to transform the former cabaret into a Comedy Club, thus joining the list of comedians to have a stand-up stage dedicated to young comedians, like Jamel Debbouze and his Jamel Comedy Club.
This news was greeted with the same enthusiasm by the mayor of the 18th arrondissement of the capital, Eric Lejoindre, who sees this takeover project as “a good surprise and good news» and considers Gad Elmaleh as “someone serious» that he will have «pleasure to meet when the time comes», saluting in passing the fact that the establishment at 80, rue des Martyrs remains a place of spectacle and humor.
A nod to the character of Chouchou
It’s hard not to see in Gad Elmaleh’s takeover of this cabaret a nod to the character of Pettransvestite artist in a transformist cabaret, Place de Clichy, performed on stage then in an eponymous film by Gad Elmaleh.
Read also: Gad Elmaleh: “I was born in Morocco, I take responsibility for it 1000%. I am Jewish, I accept it 1000%”
Moreover, the reference did not escape Michettes, the transformist cabaret artists, one of whom, Antoine Chaudeur, was baptized Chouchou upon his arrival on this Parisian stage in homage to the character played by the actor, reveals Le Parisien. “Gad Elmaleh hasn’t contacted us but you never know, maybe he will invite us to perform one day in his new comedy club», hopes the transformist artist.
In addition to the acquisition of this emblematic place of Parisian nights, Gad Elmaleh has other equally ambitious projects. Thus, as he prepares to celebrate his 30 years of career next December in Montreal, where he made his debut, he has announced a new international comedy festival which will be held in Nice in October 2023, and which he will organize with Grégoire Furrer, Swiss boss of the Montreux Comedy Festival.
