Marie-Lyne Joncas may have built herself a character as a daughter of party always ready to raise the elbow, the reality is quite different. His definition of happiness is being in his living room at 5 p.m., the remote control at hand to “listen to his shows”.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
As surprising as it is, the comedian’s revelation validates our choice of time slot to conduct the interview: in the middle of the afternoon, so that she has enough time to answer all our questions and return. home for supper time. “I’m an old person,” says the main interested party, without flinching.
The next day, on the phone, Ève Côté, his accomplice in the Grandes Crues, confirmed his words by saying that they were “capable of being a watcher during the week”.
Marie-Lyne Joncas’ confession will particularly surprise the 100,000 people who attended the Grandes Crues show, a two-women show aptly titled Su’l big wine that they have been hanging around since 2018 and in which they are drinking alcohol at high speed.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Marie-Lyne Joncas and Ève Côté, who form the humorous duo Les Grandes Crues, in 2018
But during our meeting at the playful Pastel Rita, a café-boutique in Montreal’s Mile End district, the rising star reveals her homebody side between sips of coffee – and not of a natural wine on the menu.
I’m not a girl who wants to be in Sept-Îles on a Tuesday. Or who wants to run in a number at L’Abreuvoir on a Wednesday. Leaving in a car with two technicians, doing my make-up at 7:15 p.m. before going on stage and having to drive 10 hours the next day, that’s not what makes me trip.
Marie-Lyne Joncas
In other words, Marie-Lyne Joncas no longer wants long-term tours. After that of the Grandes Crues, which will end next December, she will not imitate Ève Côté by undertaking her own solo adventure… unless she can travel by teleportation.
“I love being on stage. It’s the schedule that bothers me. In fact, I could be humorous every day… if it were in a room in Montreal from noon to 1 p.m. »
Unsweetened version
Marie-Lyne Joncas did not accept our invitation to talk about cocooning, but to promote his new show on Noovo. As of today, she takes the reins of the Fabulous Spring by Marie-Lyne, a daily 30-minute appointment in which she interviews personalities from different fields. All interspersed with segments in which an eclectic lineup of eight collaborators takes part: his faithful accomplices Ève Côté and Sacha Bourque, comedians Mona de Grenoble and Preach (“a guy with an opinion who is not afraid of anything”), actors Geneviève Schmidt (“Quebec’s greatest comedian”) and Félix-Antoine Tremblay, rapper Samian (“a fascinating man”) and host Marie-Josée Gauvin (“a music lover”).
Marie-Lyne Joncas discusses the show with great enthusiasm, especially since she has just had a taste of it.
“I was really stressed. I was like, “All of a sudden it’s not my color?” I have great confidence in the team, but I still have a grating tone, which sometimes crosses the line. I was afraid that it would be cut during editing. I was afraid of being watered down! But I watched the first two episodes, and that’s exactly me. It’s funny, it’s punchy, it’s silly, it’s imperfect… I’m freaking out! »
IMAGE OF SACHA BOURQUE
Marie-Lyne Joncas (in the middle) and her colleagues from Fabulous Spring by Marie-Lyne
A softer facet
The fabulous spring of Marie-Lyne is produced by ToRoS, Julie Snyder’s production company, with whom the comedian has had a relationship of trust since OD+ live in 2017.
“One day, Julie came to see me and she said to me: ‘You remind me so much of me when I was young! Your crazy, colorful side…” I quickly felt that with her, I could be completely myself. »
Julie has the reputation of being a very intense person at work. She’s a girl who knows what she wants, and sometimes that bothers people. We are the same on that. Me too, I know what I want. And like her, I can have an ultra-vulnerable side despite my strong woman’s shell.
Marie-Lyne Joncas
This softer facet, Marie-Lyne Joncas exposes it – in part, at least – when she speaks of Guy Ménard, her stepfather. The latter entered her life when she was 5 years old, after she had lost her father in a car accident a few years earlier. In 2021, she officially became his daughter, after an adoption procedure. And last winter, she signed the preface to Gone Running – Pandemic Chronicles, his first book published by Editions Victor and Anaïs. All proceeds will be used to support research for a cure for multiple myeloma, a type of cancer he contracted.
“Guy has such a beautiful pen,” she said. It deserves to be a bestseller it’s so good. »
The supreme dream
Marie-Lyne Joncas grew up in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, then in Montérégie. She studied theater at the Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe before enrolling, during the 2012 Maple Spring, at the National School of Humor.
“I was in communication at UQAM. We were on strike. I had nothing to do. I worked in a bar. I had zero desire to do stand-up, but I found it cool to learn all the basics of humor. I told myself that afterwards, I was going to be able to write series, direct and act. »
His meeting with Ève Côté changed his trajectory. But today, with The fabulous spring of Marie-Lyneshe feels that she is approaching the goal she set for herself at the start of her career.
“I still dream of having a late-night talk show like Marc Labrèche, François Morency and Julie Snyder. A late night show an hour a day for me. I had lots of good comments when I replaced Julie Snyder [à La semaine des 4 Julie] This year. But it was not my plan. I was driving someone else’s boat. The fabulous spring of Marie-Lyne, it’s my business. It is the most beautiful front door. »
But in the event that she lands her own late-night talk show, how would hosting such a show mesh with her desire to spend her cushy evenings at home? “I would finish at 10 p.m., I would take my tank, and I would be home at 10:15 p.m.! “, she says.
A “calm” summer… or almost
Once the 10 weeks of Fabulous Spring by Marie-Lyne completed, Marie-Lyne Joncas would like to rent a convertible and travel the roads of Italy with Ève Côté.
“In friendship, Marie-Lyne is very present,” says the other half of the Grandes Crues, on the other end of the line. “She is outspoken, but she listens a lot. She thinks a lot about others. »
The rest of the summer, Marie-Lyne plans to spend it in Lanaudière, where she owns a cottage, a wharf and, above all, fresh herbs that she likes to watch grow.
“I decided to take it calm,” says the comedian, just before indicating that she will record “a few little things to Double occupation with Sacha Bourque” and that she wants to advance the writing of an “edgy” romantic comedy script with two friends. All this without mentioning the twenty performances of the Grandes Crues on the agenda.
In short, the couch will have to wait.
Noovo presents The fabulous spring of Marie-Lyne Monday to Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The host will start the season with Rémi-Pierre Paquin, Christian Bégin, Mariana Mazza and François Arnaud. Marie-Lyne Joncas is also piloting the third season of Speed Geniuseswhich begins this Monday at 9 p.m. Z.