“I was super impressed.” A few minutes after his meeting with Pope Francis, Manu Payet crosses the long lapidary gallery of the Vatican which houses a rich collection of antiquities. The comedian, who remembers attending the mass of John Paul II during his trip to Reunion Island in 1989, would not have missed this morning for anything in the world. Invited by the Vatican to hear Pope Francis give a speech on humor, he took the opportunity to bring his mother from Reunion Island. “I had the opportunity to give the gift that many sons would like to give to their mother,” he confided to some French journalists in Rome. With it, he offered a small painting representing his island which the Argentine pontiff commented on with a broad smile. “Afterwards I don’t know anymore, it was blurry,” says Manu Payet, still moved.
During the audience, Pope Francis insisted on the beauty of the profession of comedian. “When you manage to bring intelligent smiles to the lips of even a single spectator, you also bring a smile to God,” he assured them. Make God laugh? “In any case, I sometimes hoped that he might have laughed,” murmurs the actor, who also agrees with the Pope when the latter assures that it has become easier to do tragedy than comedy.
“Today’s news doesn’t make you want to laugh,” he emphasizes. “Sometimes you have to go to work, do your show. And then if you turn on a news channel, you don’t want to go there anymore. But that’s when we have to go even more!” he continues, happy that the Pope recognizes and encourages artists. “There was a time when making people laugh was not received like that,” he assures. For the 48-year-old comedian, it was therefore important to come to the Vatican to “greet” and “celebrate the modernity of this Pope”.
Alongside many Italian and American artists, such as Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg or the presenters Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon, Manu Payet was able to hear the prayer that the Pope has recited every day for 40 years, that of Saint Thomas More: “ Give me Lord, a sense of humor”. A prayer that the French comedian will undoubtedly bring back from Rome.
