A graduate of the École nationale de l’humour in 2011, nominated in the Discovery of the Year category at the Gala Les Olivier in 2022 and 2023, Pascal Cameron makes sure that he cannot easily be placed in a box or linked to a fight. “I am wary of obligations,” says the main person concerned. I especially do not want to be caught in the role of the comedian defending dogs. When you join causes, you become dependent on them. This is why I never clearly take sides, even for fights that are in line with my values. I want to keep the possibility of criticizing. A comedian, in my opinion, is a free thinker, a court jester who must have the privilege of pointing out all the inconsistencies, whether they concern the left, the right or the center.”
After a notable stint in the show’s first season The next stand up (2020) and a victory in the fourth season of Roast Battle. The great duel (2022), the comedian’s career has taken on a new lease of life. “Between 2013 and 2019, I was still in research, learning my craft,” Cameron admits. “In 2020, I think the industry saw that I had matured and that I was capable of achieving my goals. Now, I have a better command of what I do, I am more confident, I can bring my ideas to fruition much more quickly. I also feel a balance, an alignment, a greater coherence between what I say and what I look like, as if my age finally matched my words. I would dare say that my job gives me more pleasure than ever.”
Humor for two
Without needing to be dragged into this territory, Pascal Cameron confides about the couple he has formed for nearly five years with the actress and screenwriter Florence Longpré. “This is the first time I’ve been in a relationship with a girl who does the same job as me,” he reveals. “Florence offers me invaluable support. Because of her autonomy, her free will, her freedom of tone and thought, she is a great inspiration to me. She often reminds me of the importance of remaining myself, of doing what I really want rather than trying to please. Achieving success while doing things my way makes me so grateful.”
For the first time this summer, at the ComediHa! Fest, Pascal Cameron will share the stage with his partner. On August 13, the couple will host a gala unlike any other at the Grand Théâtre de Québec, which will be filmed for television and will bring together a dozen comedians. “All our guests will play a character,” explains Cameron. “José Gaudet plays Jocelyne Top Modèle. Katherine Levac plays Paidge Beaulieu. Patrick Groulx plays Curé Poirier. Sylvi Tourigny plays Carole. There’s also Mona de Grenoble and Lady Guidoune, two very colourful creatures. It’s a concept gala, a unique event that really strays from the usual conventions. Expect silliness, completely wild comedy, with lots of music, special guests and surprises.”
Pascal Cameron manages to channel his joyfully offbeat mind and his unique point of view on the world around him into the most diverse professional commitments. Between recording an episode of his podcast, Arkand a shoot for Sweety saltywhere he will be conducting some very entertaining interviews this summer, the comedian is working on his first TV series: “I wrote two episodes that I had Florence read and she thought it was really good. I presented the project to a production company, who loved it and gave me the green light to write the sequel. It’s a real drama, with little touches of comedy, and I would be the one playing the main character. But television being what it is, it’s quite possible that all this won’t see the light of day for another seven years.”
On stage, in his previous show, mockingly titled Disappointingand even more so in the one he is currently working on and which still does not have a title (we will know everything this fall), the comedian, who refers to Mike Ward as well as Denis Drolet, cultivates a mixture of absurdity, irony and sarcasm, a scathing social humor, but generally with a touch of sensitivity, even naivety. “I notice that I rely less and less on the text,” says the one who has just entered his forties. “I now favor emotion, acting, rhythm and physical performance.”
A democratic humor
During ComediHa! salutes Montreal, Pascal Cameron will host Stand-Up at the Place des Festivals: “It’s at 8:15 p.m., on the outdoor stage. I do an opening number and I present three different comedians each evening. It will allow the audience to make discoveries. It’s a sort of appetizer for the big show that follows at 9:15 p.m. on the same stage. I think it’s important, free shows, I think we need to protect that. Humor is not elitist, it’s the art of the people, it must remain accessible to everyone. Everyone can laugh at a joke, regardless of their salary.”
There is no doubt that for Pascal Cameron, humor rhymes with democracy: “I mean that if you exist, I will surely talk about you on stage. To make people laugh, I do not forbid myself any subject, even if it means disturbing or even momentarily angering part of the audience. I think that all human beings, from the richest to the poorest, from the most powerful to the most vulnerable, deserve to be talked about. The only condition is that your joke does not create animosity towards a person or a group of people. Arousing hatred is not the job of a comedian.”