After having shared the stage alongside Marie-Lyne Joncas within the Grandes Crues, Eve Côté feels ready to throw herself into the arena alone. At 37, after many detours, the Gaspésienne with a claimed accent finally presents her first one-woman-show : Eve side. A show that wants to be a mirror of the woman she is, the ” girl next door from the region with an uninhibited outspokenness, the one who can be a big flood as well as a touching and intelligent girl.
Eve Côté assures us: those who liked the pungent, even saucy humor of her comic duet with Marie-Lyne Joncas will not be disconcerted. But she still specifies that she wanted to explore areas where we have not yet seen her. “The character with the glass of wine isn’t there, but that doesn’t mean we’re bringing out the girl’s big flood! We find the great flood in all the personal stories that I tell. It speaks a lot about my origins, which I don’t deny at all. Yes, my accent is evocative, but people will really understand where I come from,” she promises.
From her native Gaspé, nothing predestined Eve Côté to make a career one day in the world of humor. As far back as she can remember, however, she has always had the conviction that it was her calling. But she hid it for a long time, beginning studies in mathematics education, in communications, to finally end up in police techniques.
Then, her brother — to whom she is very close and who incidentally co-signed the texts for this first show — lost the use of his legs in a snowmobile accident. For Eve Côté, it will be the revelation that we only have one life to live.
The one who until then was content to go on stage at Cégeps en spectacle was finally accepted at the National School of Humor in 2012 and moved to Montreal. A shock for this Gaspesian with a strong character: “I tended to try to normalize my accent when I arrived. It’s Luc Senay [son professeur à l’École nationale] who told me to stop it. He made me understand that my accent was my color, that was what was going to allow me to differentiate myself. Since that time, I’ve given a damn about how I spoke or what I looked like. I am entirely at the service of humor. »
Female comedian in 2023
Since graduating from school in 2014, Eve Côté has not been idle, so much so that she has constantly had to postpone her first-year project. one-woman-show. It can be heard, among other places, in the morning in the Montreal area on Rouge FM. She was also the narrator of the reality show At the table with my ex in Novovo. With her tipsy bachelor character, she toured Quebec with Les Grandes Crues thanks to the hit tour Su’l big wine until last December.
The stage is what Eve Côté prefers above all. In 2016, she opened for her idol, Lise Dion, whom she considers a pioneer for all women in humor.
“I never felt that being a woman hurt me. On the contrary, I notice that there is a great growth of women in humor, of which I am proud to be a part. But I know that 10 years ago, if there was a girl at a gala, it was beautiful. I know that for Lise [Dion] and Kathy [Gauthier]it was not bad rough. If I don’t have to fight to find my place in humor as a woman, it’s because others fought before me,” she concludes with gratitude for those who came before her.
The call of the scene
Eve Côté drew on the history of humor to design this show. She recounts having read about La Poune, about Ti-Gus and Ti-Mousse, and having immersed herself in the old Bye by Dominique Michel. What give his show a cabaret side. The comedian, who can sing, even promises a performance number during the evening. A risk at a time when the stand up dominates in humor. Some will also see the influence of Joël Legendre, who directs Eve side.
” I can not wait ! It comes at the right time because I am strong from the experience of the Great Floods. I learned to swim and now I’m ready to swim in another lake. At 20, I’m not sure I would have had the necessary experience, ”believes the 30-year-old, who was inhabited by a great sense of pride a few days before the premiere.
It remains to be seen now if this first one-woman-show is a “great vintage”.