Review of Vulnerable by Guillaume Pineault | Uninhibited vulnerability

Guillaume Pineault, in his second solo show entitled Vulnerablediscovers and reveals himself, deploying all his skills as a storyteller on stage, for our great pleasure.

The connection between the titles of comedy shows and their content can sometimes be somewhat nebulous. No reproach is addressed to the artists here, the art of titling is a very thorny one. But, occasionally, the promise of a title falls so far short of being fulfilled that you can’t help but feel a little cheated. Because he named his second solo show Vulnerable, Guillaume Pineault had a very big promise to keep. Certainly, he could have addressed vulnerability by bypassing introspection and the process could still have hit the nail on the head. But we hoped that it would be him, on stage, who showed himself vulnerable. And that’s exactly what he did. While being very funny.

The precept of the show is in itself an admission that puts the comedian in a vulnerable position: Guillaume Pineault has a lot of trouble with solitude. So, following his high-profile breakup, after a seven-year relationship, he struggled with a lot of inner misery while having to deal with being alone.

The first segment of Vulnerable consists of numbers where he refers to this difficulty of not sharing his life with someone. From there, he skillfully weaves a web in which we don’t even realize we’re getting caught. He tells stories, like his adventures at Matelas Bonheur or his adventures with his heavy cover, without us really realizing to what extent we have deviated from the initial subject to get caught up in an anecdote that is as funny as it is eccentric and well told. .

Thanks to his talent for taking his audience deep into his stories and then landing them exactly where they started, Guillaume Pineault offers a show full of diverse stories, while remaining clinging to a common thread that never ends. don’t impose it.

Example: because he manages loneliness poorly, because he is anxious, he says he wanted to consult a psychologist, then tells us that some therapists are not always competent, then explains to us that he himself was a terrible therapist and ends up recounting how a patient once threatened to kill him with a pencil to the neck. And when the circle comes full circle, we return without hassle to his desire to consult and he continues on the subject.

Knowing how to tell stories

Being a good storyteller is not for everyone. It is rather impressive to see Guillaume Pineault manage to speak so quickly (never too quickly, fortunately), taking such convoluted paths to recount anecdotes, without ever losing the attention of his audience, who laughed heartily at his gags for about an hour and a half.

He interacts with the crowd a few times, including during a number about the penis photos some men send without consent. A sensitive subject that he approaches in the right way, making people laugh and creating a feeling of unease that does not hurt, but rather makes people think: no man applauds when he asks them how many of them have already sent photos of their genitals, then the majority of women clap to indicate that they have already received them. The comedian then points out that the figures should be revised, because something is not working in the results of his survey.

The issue retracing his first (and only) encounter with cannabis is surely the one that caused the most reaction. This is saying something: a story of bad trip a priori nothing very original or surprising, yet Guillaume Pineault managed to imitate himself even though he reacted very badly to overconsumption of jar and make us burst out laughing. This segment rivals the one during which he realized, while spending an evening with his best friend and his three children, that he was not doing well. The comedian, once again, skilfully recounts his comparisons between his goddaughter and his dog Pauline, the moment when he yelled at this same goddaughter to drink Windex and his recriminations against his friend’s maneuvers to make his house “baby proof”. “.

Finally, the segment during which he devotes himself to describing his personal journey (largely with the help of a psychologist and by analyzing his family dynamics) is among those which convinced us the most. This is, above all, where he comes closest to the vulnerability promised on the poster. If he does it throughout his show, this last part (which we won’t say too much about) is both touching and particularly funny.

Almost every time he wanted to make the crowd laugh, the comedian succeeded. Guillaume Pineault demonstrates that sometimes we have everything to gain from being vulnerable.

Visit the comedian’s website

Vulnerable

On tour throughout Quebec

7.5/10