The first show that Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais attended? It was that of Daniel Bélanger, at the Théâtre du Vieux-Terrebonne, during the tour Dream better. He was 8 or 9 years old. “And what struck me,” recalls the new host of the ADISQ Gala, “was his humor. My parents knew that I wanted to be a comedian and that I also wanted to do music and they told me: “See, he does both, in a way.” »
About twenty years later, Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais also creates humor and music, somehowalthough it would never occur to anyone to place his irresistible funny refrains in the same category as Dry your tears And Say everything without saying anything. The music family, the star of the last Bye will join her more officially next fall, by grabbing the baton handed to him by Louis-José Houde, the most celebrated host of Quebec galas this millennium has known.
Faced with the two options presented to them – elect a successor in the lineage of the one who has brightened up their prize distribution for 18 years or dare to do a 180 degree – the ADISQ monks obviously chose the first. Among the many points in common between the two comedians: college studies as an instrumentalist (Pierre-Yves perfected his imperfect guitar playing at Cégep de Lanaudière) and a reverence for those who have chosen to make music their life.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais
This is not the first time that Pierre-Yves has succeeded Louis-José on stage (in a way). The anecdote has followed him since his beginnings, but remains too touching not to mention it again: when he was only nine or ten years old, Pierre-Yves attended a show by his hero during which his mother – “She’s a character, my mother! » – pushes him to interrupt a moment of improvisation by the comedian and ask him for an autograph.
Louis-José [Houde] asked me what I wanted to do in life, I answered comedian and he told me: “You will come back at the end to tell a joke. » And after his reminder, he hadn’t forgotten me: I went to tell the joke about the guy who wanted to join the police.
Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais
In his heart
Unlike Louis-José Houde, who said to The Press last November having never dreamed of hosting the great zique celebration before it was offered to him, Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais grew up in a world where, because Louis-José Houde was piloting the ceremony, a such a mandate was part of the register of possibilities for an aspiring comedian. He already expressed his interest in succeeding him on the benches of the National School of Humor, from which he graduated in 2017.
“But hey, it’s easy at 21 to say to yourself “I would really like to it will liven up ADISQ, I could have the gig tomorrow and I would be ready”, but then you get older and you wonder: am I really cut out for this? Is this too daredevil? », confides the man who was approached shortly after Monsieur Champagne Showbiz announced that he was hanging up his suit.
But in fact, isn’t it too daunting to go after Louis-José Houde? “The answer I arrived at is that I’m not going to try to calculate everything to show that I’m different from him,” says the man who won a Félix in 2022 in the Show of the Year-Humor category. . “I don’t want it to play in my head. It’s a unique gig and I have to take advantage of it. »
The main quality of a gala host of this type? “You have to really carry music in your heart. »
An effervescence
In the sunny agora of the new Maison de Radio-Canada, Catherine Pogonat, who had just turned off the microphone for her daily broadcast on ICI Musique, approached Pierre-Yves. “We don’t know each other, but I wanted to congratulate you. » “Nice to meet you, Catherine. I listen to you quite a bit every day,” he replies, visibly flattered.
A few moments earlier, in the elevator of the public broadcaster, Claude Saucier had also congratulated. Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais, 29 years old, auditor of It is so good ? “Let me listen It is so good ! There’s nothing I love more than when Claude makes himself laugh. »
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais in interview
Karkwa’s return last December to MTELUS? He was there and he talks about it with the intensity of someone witnessing a mystical experience. “Is it just me or is François Lafontaine like…better?” » No, it’s not just you, Pierre-Yves.
Lou-Adriane Cassidy, whose hoodie he was wearing that day? “I saw her at Sala Rossa and it was heartbreaking! »
He was also there at Club Soda last November to The King, the Rose and the Lou[p], the generational show by Lou-Adriane and her friends Ariane Roy and Thierry Larose. “The beginning, with the three of them singing a part of each other’s song, on paper, it’s super simple, but it represents everything it has to be. »
If he is so delighted to host the ADISQ gala, it is because he feels that there is currently “an effervescence, something happening” in Quebec music. » Something that embodies the collegiality uniting Thierry, Ariane and Lou-Adriane, but also a whole cohort of twenty-somethings in strong rotation in his headphones, including Comment Debord, P’tit Belliveau and Gab Bouchard.
What I didn’t experience in the 1990s with Les Colocs and Jean Leloup, I have the impression of experiencing it now.
Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais
As a teenager, Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais played covers of Trois Accords with his big brother in their group fabulously called The Nipples. A few months ago, he attended one of their shows for the umpteenth time.
“Charles [Dubreuil, batteur] saw me in the crowd and at the end, while the guys were taking their applause, he waved at me, meaning “Come have a beer with us in the dressing room.” I couldn’t believe it: I was going to have a beer with the Trois Accords! » We bet it won’t be the last.