Sugar Sammy is not the only one to present numbers combining the language of Yvon Deschamps with that of George Carlin. The comedian of Acadian origin JC Surette, who provides his first parts, also practices the bilingual joke.
Everyone on Earth is connected by a maximum of six degrees of separation? Between Antonine Maillet and Sugar Sammy, there is only one: JC Surette. The Acadian comedian’s first contact with the Quebec public? “It’s when I worked in the Pays de la Sagouine and I hosted activities for tourists,” says, half seriously, the native of Dieppe, New Brunswick, who did indeed work at the popular theatrical village. , but who will only really get to know the Quebec public by mingling with the circuit of comedy evenings, upon his arrival in Montreal.
“It fed my reflection on my language to export myself to a place where it was always me who had an accent”, recalls the one who received his diploma from the National School of Humor in 2011 and who is one of the few Quebec comedians to work in comedy cabarets on both sides of the Hand. “It’s the traveler’s risk, of having to make an effort to go towards the other, but it’s also his richness, it’s what allows me to adapt to different audiences. »
If he speaks relatively little today, if at all, about his origins on stage, JC Surette – full name Jean-Christophe – remembers the many compliments both nice, but also always a little involuntarily condescending that he received about his accent, “charming”.
Funny observation: at the time when he immediately put his Acadian identity on the table in his numbers because he was afraid that people would think he was Anglophone and sympathize with him less, spectators often confided in him not having understood all his jokes, which no longer happens. Would the accent be more in the ear of the one who hears it than in the mouth of the one who speaks?
The richness of the language
It was while attending a show by Louis-José Houde at Moncton High in 2004 (an evening immortalized on a compact disc released in 2006) that JC Surette was diverted from his path – that of teaching – by the popular comedian, whose he has since ensured the first parts.
That evening, I laughed at my life, but I also had the click that it was really a profession, a comedian. I saw the artist on stage who did more than just make people laugh. I saw the musician who matched the rhythm of his metronome from beginning to end.
J. C. Surette
Although he presents every evening as a curtain raiser of you’re gonna laugh 2 a number zigzagging between English and French, JC Surette, 39, generally offers his performances in one language or the other, so many opportunities to refine a joke from several angles.
It helps creativity to work in both languages because I can’t directly translate word for word. In English, you can go faster to punch, it’s a more brutal language, whereas the French language is richer, more colorful. It is a poetic language.
J. C. Surette
But isn’t he afraid that French will fade under the weight of English? “When I saw the government’s advertising, I felt bad that hawks were being trivialized,” he jokes, before answering more seriously: “I think there is beauty in regionalisms. There is a French spoken in Montreal that can be compared to Creole or Chiac and there is a richness in that. The key is to learn that there are different languages for different contexts and to continue to speak more normative French when appropriate. But all these languages can coexist. »
Tempo is humor
As head of opening acts for Simon Gouache, Louis-José Houde and now Sugar Sammy, JC Surette was at the forefront of the creative process of the elite of his profession.
“And playing with Louis-José and Sam, I really saw the yin and yang of Quebec humor. ” That’s to say ? “With Louis-José, even in the first versions, we are in a work to the comma, while with Sam, there is a lot more writing that happens directly on stage, bits that are born because it allows himself to digress with the public. »
And the first party job, thankless contract? “No, it’s a great and beautiful responsibility. It’s you who starts the metronome, who sets the pace for the rest of the evening. We accustom the public to a certain rhythm, we set the tempo of humor. You machine-gun, you machine-gun, then you leave a very hot public to the other. »
A word from Sugar Sammy
JC is someone I adore! It’s a breath of fresh air on the English scene and also on the French scene. He opened my shows during my Canadian tour and he will also be there for the Quebec tour! His number, like mine, is in both languages and is excellent. I am lucky to be able to witness his growing career!