(Paris) “My grandmother taught me that having fun is like windshield wipers, it doesn’t stop the rain, but it keeps you going! “: Six years after his last solo performance, Gad Elmaleh is back, for the first time since accusations of plagiarism, in a more intimate show.
Posted at 10:04 a.m.
At 50, it is by assuming an artistic turn, imposed according to him by the age of maturity, that the comedian finds the stage.
“In the career of an artist, there is a moment when he gives himself up without apprehending the consequences. That’s my case. The desire to please is no longer the priority. Pleasing is no more than a pretty consequence, ”he confides in an interview with AFP.
“Do you think all the jokes were his? “, he makes say in this new show to an imaginary fan, triggering the giggles of the 4500 spectators of the Dôme de Paris-Palais des Sports where he performs until February 26, before a tour until the end of May.
In 2019, the star comedian was accused of plagiarism on social networks, before recognizing that same year “some of the truth” in these accusations.
In his dressing room, Gad Elmaleh confides to having felt them “painfully”: “this moment of my life was very violent. A questioning that led me to sort out my professional and friendly relationships”.
“I have some responsibility. I analyzed it,” he adds. “This shock served me even if the execution was disproportionate. My answer, it is on stage! “.
“I feel elsewhere”
His new lines are inspired as much by his relations with the Monaco family since his relationship with Charlotte Casiraghi – with whom he had a son – as by social networks, parents of overly invested students or living together.
In all situations, Gad Elmaleh, born into a Moroccan Berber Jewish family, believes that he will always be a “blardard”, hence the title of this new show: Moreover.
“Everywhere, I feel like I’m somewhere else. The Blédard syndrome is when you’re invited and you think we’re not going to let you in”, he sums up on stage, recounting a dinner “à la bonne franquette” at the Palace of Monaco, in the presence of his mother.
“My ex’s uncle is the Prince (Albert of Monaco, editor’s note). Me, my uncle, he has a driving school in Sarcelles, ”he says to the public. “My mother bowed to him from Ouarzazate, a city in Morocco, and called him Mon Ordonnance”.
“The Prince saw the show. He has a lot of self-mockery, ”assures Gad Elmaleh to AFP.
“It’s on stage that I feel good,” adds the comedian.
Born in Morocco, Gad Elmaleh recalls that if he is indeed a French resident and pays his taxes in France, he only has “a residence permit”.
“A few years ago, I took steps for French nationality, but I got discouraged. The only thing it would bring me, and which is not insignificant, is the right to vote”.
“Without bothering the other”
On stage, Gad Elmaleh assures “that he loves France even more since a stay of several years in the United States” where he tried the American dream. A little later, he hilariously praises the chosen celibacy that allowed him to visit Venice in the deepest solitude, with the comfort of a saddened gondolier.
On a more political level, Gad Elmaleh advocates living together from early childhood “so that it is organic and not choreographed”, believing on stage that “secularism means practicing the religion you want, as we want, but without bothering the other”.
In the end, the comedian imagines his funeral in a church: “the Catholic funeral is class. People cry with dignity. There is not an aunt who throws herself on the coffin”.
“I want us to laugh,” he warns, however, in memory of his grandmother for whom he made his first sketches as a child, imitating the neighbors of Casablanca. “There isn’t a day when I don’t try to convey the fun”.