Audience: A show based on improvisation, it’s hard to summarize for the promo…
Kheiron: It’s true ! The beginning and the end are written: I know where I am leaving and where I am going, but not how I am getting there. Along the way, lots of things happen, I stop at people’s homes, I reflect on what they tell me by creating characters…
Isn’t the absence of text exhausting?
It requires special gymnastics. I have to be alert, remember the first names of the spectators, the information given, locate myself in space. The main thing is the rhythm.
Do some take your valves badly?
But I don’t clash with people! Besides, I don’t ask them to go on stage, to put themselves in danger. But of course, things are happening in the room. I put passages on my YouTube channel, of which I am proud: it is the first of a French-speaking humorist to have reached 100 million views. It’s very cool ! Especially since in 2014, when I was offered to create one, I didn’t want to hear about it. I said : “You bunch of nerds, YouTube will never work! You have to go all out on Dailymotion.” (Laughs.)
“I am very homebody”
You often try to fit singles in the public. And you ? Already caught a spectator?
Once, and I married her! But we have since divorced…
Today, are you stuck?
No.
Do you want to ask yourself, become a father?
I don’t ask myself the question. Anyway, when you want something, it doesn’t come. For me, it’s not an end in itself to be in a couple: it’s not a failure not to be, nor a success to be.
Opponents of the Iranian regime, your parents fled their country when you were a baby. Did they tell you a lot about this course?
Yes, but without getting drunk. I didn’t bear the weight of them, even if they didn’t hide anything. When I was asking “Why don’t we see this uncle anymore?”, I was answered “well, he is dead, killed by the Government. Here, pass me the pasta” ! Death was a natural thing. The link I have with Iran was forged in particular by food or even Farsi, the language I speak with my parents. But for the rest, they raised me like a little Frenchman.
As a child, were you into humor?
Yes. To exist small, you have to be “the most” something: the smartest, the most beautiful, the biggest, the strongest. Me, I had none of that. And I understood the power of humor. It’s the same love of words that pushed me towards rap. Growing up in 93, it was natural. In high school, it gave me an identity: I was the guy who released a rap album!
You also skipped the baccalaureate to give a concert…
Yes, my parents took it very badly. My father has bac +9; my mother, bac +7. That their only son did not even pass the baccalaureate was an absolute shame for them! They would hide that I didn’t get it, and imply that I was in college.
“I was blacklisted by comedians!”
Series Short celebrated its tenth anniversary. How did you experience the sudden notoriety?
On the one hand, it was great, because it was an adventure between friends. In addition, my first show was written and the series therefore had a real impact on my career: people were going to see Kheiron’s show, Short. But being identified with a role of sex maniac was more embarrassing… You become the redneck friend of all France! Sometimes I walked down the street and they yelled at me “fuck her!”, the replica of my character. The unlivable thing in the evening for example…
Did it make you a homebody?
I am very much. Home is my haven of peace. Everything is feng shui. I am not someone who drinks glasses, who likes noise, I am very quiet.
In humor, the bad buzz is never far now. Do you censor yourself?
Completely ! Not on stage, the only place where I dare to be myself. But this is the worst time for humor. I love Twitter, but when you’re targeted, it’s really hard. People find themselves unemployed because of rumours!
You yourself were targeted when it was said that you were CopyComic, this Internet user who denounces the plagiarism of French comedians…
Yes. I’ve been accused of something heroic! I then said that I was not him, but that I thought his work was necessary. CopyComic taking on the powerful, I was made to understand that I would be in trouble. They made me pay off. If today I was not autonomous in my projects, on stage as in the cinema, I would no longer work! I have been blacklisted. But I’m not complaining: I found my audience, which consumes what I do.
You say you haven’t voted for a long time. No exception in 2022?
No. Politics is made in such a way that the people cannot win! We make you feel guilty if you don’t vote, but I find the rules distorted at the base: we know what will happen. Seems to me like a scenario. This time, we are introduced to Zemmour as the anti-system guy, but he’s the one we see the most on TV! I have the feeling that he is there to make Macron win. And then the candidates are financed by the powerful to whom they will have to render accounts! Politician should not be a profession, but a temporary service rendered to the State, with people drawn by lot as the Athenians did. Otherwise, it’s like the NRJ Music Awards: no matter how much we vote, it doesn’t change our lives. (Laughs.)
Key dates
1. November 21, 1982
Birth of Manouchehr Tabib, his real name, in Tehran. His parents, opponents of the Shah’s Iranian regime, fled to France in 1984.
2. August 2011
Beginning of the broadcast on Canal+ of the series Bref, in which Kheiron plays the hero’s clumsy friend. Already passed by the Jamel Comedy Club, the comedian explodes.
3. November 2015
He directs his first film, Us three or nothing, where he plays with Leïla Bekhti. He tells the story of his parents and plays his father, imprisoned for seven years in Iran.
4. January 2021
The comedian keeps the rhythm in Paris and on tour with 60 minutes with Kheiron, a unique show based on improvisation. We run to reserve your place on kheiron.fr!
see also: Michel Leeb: The comedian announces terrible news, his fans react in an astonishing way
Maelle Brown