As funny as she is endearing, Michelle Desrochers offers her first solo show, Ballwhere she is not afraid to play with self-deprecation, without everything revolving around her.
The first comedy shows, like all the first works in fact, are often an opportunity for the artists to introduce themselves, to talk about their life until now, to give the public the chance to meet them. We rarely escape the strong biographical tendency. Michelle Desrochers shows us who she is, but in another way. Above all, she reveals to us her very endearing personality by talking about everything and nothing. She tells her story, presents us with anecdotes from her life, but she also offers observations on everyday facts (with a slight tendency to focus on the work of others) and it is through her vision of the world that we also discover it.
During the Montreal premiere of the show, when she arrives on stage at the Gesù – where she will return on December 9 –, after a solid opening performance from Jessica Chartrand, Michelle Desrochers begins with aplomb. A long first issue is devoted to her “boutte”, or the lower part of her stomach, which she talks about in tender terms, but also very amusing.
Body acceptance will be part of the show, from the beginning, in a few comments throughout, and then at the very end.
But the comedian does not try to be too direct, to give us the impression that she is making a plea. It is through laughter, sometimes self-deprecation, that she will show us what she thinks.
After a few minutes of listening to it, we are frankly captivated. His performance is impeccable and captivates us. If her monologue is not a long linear narration, she excels in transitions, so much so that we never let go. His facial expressions, his gestures and even his silences also provide a comic effect.
In short, the technique is good. Above all, the content is more than good. The funny moments of her life make us all laugh when it’s her who recounts them. The time when his thighs rubbed against each other in the village of yesteryear, his parents’ divorce that took too long, his grandfather’s funeral, his escapades at the gym, his (mimed) misadventures with the divacup: l he comedian manages to provoke laughter every time, even with what, on paper, doesn’t necessarily seem very amusing.
PHOTO ERIC MYRE, PROVIDED BY PRODUCTION
Michelle Desrochers’ facial expressions, gestures and even silences provide a comic effect.
The direction, by LeLouis Courchesne (who is also an author), is as simple as it is effective. Under pink and blue neon in the shape of a ball of wool, Michelle Desrochers is only accompanied by a classic stool on stage (which she uses sometimes for her gags). Lisandre Coulombe’s lighting design plays a huge role in the show’s impact. Subtle, but skillfully considered, the play of light allows relevant changes of atmosphere throughout the comedian’s narration.
Michelle Desrochers has fun at her own expense, but also at the expense of others. She wanders in the middle of the show towards a very amusing skepticism, which mainly first attacks the profession of land surveyor, a profession which “does not exist”, according to her. The number that follows is excellent, one of the best in the show. And because she is launched into the professions, she then attacks the optometrists and imitates them, in another striking moment of her monologue. Ultimately it is the real estate brokers, who scare him, who go there.
As we said, it is by talking about everything and nothing, by not clinging to a main theme, that Michelle Desrochers manages to always keep us interested and, at the very least, with a smile on our lips.
Without being irreverent, she is not all wise either. She asks her audience which of them have a 9 to 5 job and notices the “little suicide clap” when the people concerned respond with applause. She brings up the fact that she studied literature, which is why she slips a little “however” between “two seed jokes”. She allows herself to note that she finds it strange that “the most beautiful dogs are given to the blind”. “We should give them the ugly ones,” she pleads, frustrated at not having the right to pet the help dogs.
Constant and pleasant to listen to, very funny and sometimes even hilarious, Michelle Desrochers has everything right with this first show.
Ball
On tour throughout Quebec