Born in Chicoutimi in 1985, graduated from the National School of Humor in 2010, Simon Delisle took 12 years before unveiling his first real solo show, Invincible. The experience must not have been too unpleasant, since here he is again two and a half later with a second opus entitled Stain.
“It looks like my show titles came straight out of a Tide Pods ad,” said the comedian on Tuesday evening within the walls of the Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts, where friends and colleagues had gathered for his Montreal premiere.
We rarely laugh out loud, but we have a big smile on our faces from start to finish. Shooting faster than his shadow, Simon Delisle fully deserves his reputation as a “gag machine gun”. In a spare style focusing on observation and confession — a stand-up classic who does not reinvent the wheel, but who knows how to spin it at very high speed -, the comedian laughs at himself and his contemporaries with the same enthusiasm. We are talking here about a rolling fire, a cascade where each line is entitled to a punch, each situation, to an unexpected twist. We are still enjoying a gag that four others have added on top. To avoid missing any of this delicious and generous millefeuille, you will have understood that it is essential to remain vigilant.
Suffering from polyendocrinopathy, an autoimmune disease, but also vitiligo, alopecia and diabetes, Simon Delisle has visited clinics and hospitals a lot since his early childhood. Far from letting the situation get him down, the 39-year-old comedian has become a champion of self-deprecation. As was the case in his first show, illness takes pride of place in Stain. It is not the main subject, but often the background. A visit to the emergency room, an appointment with the psychologist, a consultation with an otolaryngologist: it is a context, a pretext, a skillful way of talking about oneself while talking about others.
After settling scores with a few sporting disciplines, such as the detestable cross-country skiing — “the pedal boat of winter” —, the comedian directly addresses his bodily specificities, from his pigment spots to his overweight, including his lack of weight. hair and fur.
He takes the opportunity to slightly tease Simon Boulerice, author of Cloud shovelera book whose young hero suffers from vitiligo for poetic reasons that are less easy to find cute when he is struggling with said spots at 39, but also Mariana Mazza, who highly recommended her private trainer. “If he can take care of a man like her, he can definitely take care of me!” », he dares to say. Let us point out that the main interested party, sitting right in front of us, was bent over backwards.
Able to shoot a few arrows at a failing health system, to mock old white men who cling to power and even to remind life coaches that it would be in their best interest to finish their CEGEP before lecturing others, the comedian does not shy away when the time comes to address his own failings. When he talks to us about his anger management (caused by a poorly toasted bagel at Tim Hortons), his difficulty in seeing existence as a blessing (#mercilavie, what a stupid hashtag) or even the terrible humiliation that he lived in primary school (a “fart sauce” that it was impossible to continue to deny), we have access to a hilarious vulnerability, a rich vein that we hope will be inexhaustible.