A thousand bad choices | Louis-José’s moment of truth

At the start of his new show titled A thousand bad choices, presented Tuesday evening in Montreal premiere at the Lion d’Or, Louis-José Houde confides two regrets: not having a child yet, which will prevent him forever from being a young father, and his participation in the show Tipsy recipes …

At 44, we can’t say that Louis-José Houde made bad career choices. He is one of the most established comedians in Quebec, he is drowning in Olivier trophies, everything he touches turns to gold – he has played in mega-successes From father to cop we have seen no one other than him hosting ADISQ since 2006, and he has sold 1.3 million tickets since his debut.

In short, a flawless course (except for certain haircuts).

But it is different in his private life, he suggests in A thousand bad choices, which is the show where he reveals his intimacy the most, he who nevertheless flees confidences in the media like the plague.

The premise of this show was born during an improvisation at the end of his tour Prefer November, while he was living a rather public love break with the actress Magalie Lépine-Blondeau. The break from the pandemic allowed him to delve into much darker themes than usual. “I make humor that reaches everyone, but not tonight”, he launches as a warning at the opening.

And yet it is Louis-José Houde all spitting, this show, in a little more cynical and disillusioned mode, perhaps. I saw him at the Petit Champlain in Quebec, because it was his plan to perform in small venues and to do a shorter tour.

“It’s like a little novel or a long story,” he told me, just after the performance, apologizing for stammering at times, because his “mouth” was “tired” when he left the stage. Am I imagining something, or is his particular flow different in this show? “Yes,” he confirms. I try to better cultivate pauses and silences. My voice gives more often in the bass. Playing in a small room, too, makes me not move the same way, because you don’t have to physically move to touch everyone, and that’s a really nice feeling. ”

It’s been a few months that he rode this show and I had heard between the branches that it was more intense, even heavier than usual. Personally, I really liked (and laughed a lot) to see a less cute and more acidic Louis-José Houde. But he admits that at his first performances, he destabilized part of his audience, and that he had to adjust his tone. He believes it is because he was still too glued to the events he is relating. And besides, certain segments touch sensitive chords, the spectators make “hooons” in places, as if they were expressing pity, which he especially does not want to arouse.

“That’s why I try to write the text with my usual energy. The show is dense, I must deliver it with aplomb. At first, I was doing it too down. But it’s all behind me now. I like to talk about it in the past tense, to feel like it’s a year of my life and not quite there anymore. ”

The only thing I was afraid of A thousand bad choices was to attend a settling of scores with his ex, or to hear another comedian talk about his midlife crisis (they all did). But Louis-José Houde is not the best humorist of his generation for nothing; he avoids these pitfalls by telling details and being very frank about himself. It comes from the heart and the belly, he insists. “I tried to be as honest as possible, saying that what is going on in my life right now is that. ”

Social defector

And that, it is his pains of love, his balloon which deflates after having bought a big house in Outremont which was to welcome his future family to end up sleeping alone and eating alone at an empty and too big table.

He’s sort of talking about his growing pains more than his midlife, as a public darling and privileged artist who makes a very good living writing jokes, now surrounded by neighbors who are doctors, lawyers or Hasidic Jews, and of course parents. He talks about this feeling of absurdity that social defectors experience, because he is no longer a beginner who pulls the devil by the tail. When he tested his material at the Brothel, his fellow comedians pointed out to him that he had an angle that no one else could have.

He also reveals in this show that he experienced depression, that he happened to go to shows of 1200 spectators crying, which he finds funny in view of his profession. He takes antidepressants, thus joining the tongues that loosen up on mental health. “Somehow people see me as someone who smiles at everything. I have a very good life and I am very lucky on a lot of levels, but I think if I say that at the moment I need this to keep going, there might be a lot of people out there. who’s gonna do good to hear that. The goal is to be transparent and true, I didn’t really hesitate to put that in the show. ”

This revelation did not surprise me. I always thought that the job of comedian was at high risk of chemical imbalance in the brain, when you spend your time receiving waves of laughter and adrenaline on a stage. What Louis-José Houde tells on stage.

“I think it really comes from the bottom of my soul when I talk about this. I started young in this profession. Making people laugh puts you in a kind of daze. At some point you forget to take care of yourself for real, you’re so always on a high. That’s really what dopamine does to your brain, when you step off the stage four nights a week. “

Things like what? that I ask him. “The little things in life,” he replies. But isn’t he a specialist in the little things in life in his art? “Yes, but …” he drops with an enigmatic smile, and he won’t want to dwell on the subject. I relax the atmosphere by telling him that if he wants to become a father late in the day, he is doomed to go out with younger women, poor man. He confesses to me that he has been trying to write a joke on Mick Jagger, who had a child at 73, when he was a great-grandfather.

Telling the truth is rarely a bad choice, among a thousand others. I don’t see how he could regret doing it with this new show which will be presented for a short time. It is really worth seeing it, because it is not a “new” Louis-José Houde that we see there. Rather a comedian at an important turning point in his life, which he shares with his audience, before going elsewhere.

A thousand bad choices, on tour throughout Quebec until 2022. Note that 16 additional new performances have just been added.