No, not the Cat. More like a camel. Let it be said without pejorative connotation. Significant personal memory, that’s all. To meet Geluck, even 26 years apart, is to see him again on the stage of the Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville, in Spa, even if his famous tongue-in-cheek character with a fat head cat still and always makes his fortune, nourishes his fame, makes him happy and opens the doors of the museum world to him as far as New York. A camel by his side. ” Oh yes ! The famous camel! He hasn’t forgotten his participation in… Sttellla’s party.
Deux t, trois l, the Belgian group Sttellla and its master punster Jean-Luc Fonck. Geluck admires him today as yesterday. “Jean-Luc [Fonck] is a pun genius, an incredible entertainer, he should be known all over the world, at least as much as the Cat! »
It was in the summer of 1996, as part of the brand new Francofolies de Spa. A tribute to the Belgian electronic alternative pop duo Sttellla, the couple Jean-Luc and Mimi Fonck. “A magical and crazy moment, remembers Philippe Geluck, laughing. There was also Jean-Luc’s mother. Which had asked me to participate the same day, without rehearsal. We sang Hélène loved Alain. A funny thing as all. »
An extract ? Let’s not deprive ourselves. Out loud, please. “Only Alain loved Hélène / As much as Hélène loved Alain / He was very fond of Higelin / She was very fond of hygiene”. That tone.
The man who smiles
“I don’t remember if the camel sang with us, but I remember that it was accredited. Yes, with his camel photo on the badge, to identify him properly. “Ah, but it’s that we know how to have fun, us Belgians, all the same”, commented Geluck hiccuping. The route of the little book that brought him to Montreal in November, volume of the “Je chemine avec…” collection, where he joined Hubert Reeves, Nancy Huston, Angélique Kidjo and a few other not-anyone, is thus sprinkled with funny anecdotes. Philippe Geluck likes to smile and he smiles a lot. It’s even the first thing he does in the morning. “Especially on the days when, as we say back home, I have my head in my ass a bit, I force myself to smile at myself. I see myself in the mirror, I stop for a moment, and I say to myself, this guy! Such a handsome guy! And I smile. »
I have happiness without much effort. I am a good car. I turn the knob, and it starts.
And then ? “I’m making myself a little coffee. And then, it’s stronger than me, I say bullshit that makes my wife laugh. » Without Cat or camel. Him alone, natural, with his good Philippe smile. “I have happiness without much effort. I am a good car. I turn the knob, and it starts. When he draws, he is happy. When he makes an audience laugh, most often on a TV set, he is happy. Not stupidly satisfied. Really good about himself. “In the book, I tell how I went through the theater, children’s shows, Lollipop, The game of diconary, all that, I took such pleasure in making the kids explode with laughter, I never wanted it to end. This extended to all of my interlocutors. Arousing laughter makes me happy. It is an extraordinary pleasure. »
Character and creator at the forefront
Unlike a Franquin, never very comfortable in front of a camera, but also different from a Hergé who took great care of his posterity (“I was told that he went to bookstores to ensure that all the Tintins were there”), Geluck is simply adaptable to all situations.
“I have this phenomenal chance to be able to be alone in my studio and invent my stuff, keep only the good ones, and publish them. That would be enough, but I happen to make people laugh. I must have a funny face. I am capable of insolence, of a certain bite [le Chat arbore parfois un sourire carnassier], but I laugh with it, I don’t laugh against it. One understands by seeing me that I am rather benevolent. »
If he is not overly ambitious, we understand by going from chapter to chapter, we see that he is no more embarrassed for his Cat than for himself. Success does not dismantle it. His years spent at Can’t wait for Sunday, Michel Drucker’s great variety show, allowed him to tell the grown-ups what he thought of them. “I was there to read a letter of my own to each guest. We recorded on Thursday afternoon. Well, I launched into my letter that very morning, at 9 o’clock sharp, and I wrote pages and pages to the Empress of Iran, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Monica Bellucci, the Formula 1 champion Schumacher , and hundreds more. I just started, that’s all. I discovered as I went, I went there, and then poum poum poum, it was done. Ready to read. It was magical. »
Museums for fun
Similarly, his Cat entered the museum world, exhibited at the Musée en herbe, in Paris, as well as at the Soulages museum, in Rodez. Large bronze sculptures of his big cat have been installed on the Champs-Élysées. “On the base of one of them, I wrote: ‘This is the first time that a car has been run over by a cat.’ It is the same spirit as in two dimensions. »
The day before our meeting, he was in New York to study the feasibility of transferring the sculptures to Central Park. “Nobody is waiting for me there, that’s what interests me. Can the Cat make you laugh without its reputation preceding it? I do not know. I am like all creators, in continual doubt. But I like this uncertainty. Will my next gag be funny? »
And Philippe Geluck to evoke his meeting in New York, the day before, with the consul of Belgium. Yes, the compatriots caused… Tintin. Geluck related the famous anecdote of the young reader complaining to Hergé that Captain Haddock did not have the same voice in the cinema as in the albums… “I happened to have experienced something similar. One day, I come across a kid doing my shopping, who stops, petrified, in front of me. I ask him what’s up. He said to me: “I didn’t know that you also existed in colors.” He had black and white TV, the kid! »
The Bronze Cats, after New York, could well end up at the Place des Festivals, in Montreal. It’s in the air. “For me, anything is always possible, as long as we have fun. And sometimes, the more you dare, the bigger it is, the more you are seized by a big laugh that feels good. So saying, he smiled his kindest smile. “I made the customs officer laugh today. It’s a good day. Brave Geluck: Could have been a camel.