Posted at 8:00 a.m.
You were a lawyer before arriving in the world of humor. Did law and humor intersect or did you first close the chapter of your old career before launching?
It crossed paths and I don’t see it at all as a chapter with a serious job and after another where I decide to go and make jokes. It always coexisted because I always did improvisation, I never stopped, even when I was a lawyer. I had related projects in my spare time, I was doing comedy related stuff. And that led me to want to give more space to that. Three years ago, I decided to take a break from law after practicing for about four years.
You talk about a break. Is the idea to continue to write and make humor as long as it turns you on and to eventually return to your career as a lawyer? Or is there no specific plan?
I go there a bit day by day. But when I stopped studying law, I really went into writing. I arrived [dans le milieu de l’humour] through improvisation. And it’s the fact of writing for others that led me to do a bit of stage work. the stand up, it wasn’t even really in the plans. I like that, but ideally it would be a sideline while I’m writing. I’m happy to present the first show, I’ve never done a 60 minutes. But I realize that it’s taking, the stand up, and I don’t want it to be just that, my career. I’m lucky, I’m still in a moment where I can try a lot of things.
Knowing that it wasn’t really the plan to do stand uphow would you describe your relationship to the stage now?
I decided to give it a try because I saw people I admired doing it. An improv friend was organizing an evening of stand up for people who had never done it. I really got hooked. I discovered a medium that I wanted to explore.
There is this side of writing in the stand up and it gives me access to this creativity that I had developed in improvisation.
Suzie Bouchard
You write for the shows of other comedians (Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Jean-Sébastien Girard, in particular), for your own documentary series Decolonizing History and for television (Bye bye 2021, Between two sheets, The eye of the cyclone). What attracts you to the job?
Writing gives a lot of possibilities, since you remain somewhat anonymous – even if it is perhaps less true than before. I can do a lot of different things and I had the chance to touch everything. It’s a challenge in itself to write a number for others, it’s easier to write about yourself, but at the same time, I can write jokes for other comedians than I would ever do. And on television, there is all this possibility of imagining complete characters. In fiction, it’s still crazy to be able to reach people I would never see.
How would you describe the humor you present in stand up ?
Before, I would have said that I was doing observational humor, but I wonder if that’s really what I do. In any case, I’m talking about me, of course it’s very personal, I’m talking about things I know. Like everyone else, in the hope that it will reach people.
Let’s talk about the show you’re going to put on at Zoofest.
It’s my first 60 minutes. That’s how we say in lingo, I’m just using the words of connoisseurs! It’s not at all my first one-woman show, which will come later with Just for Laughs, and which I’m going to work longer. The point of this show is to try it, because I’ve never done it before. To see, for one, if I’m just going to pass out! [rires] I see it as an exploratory exercise. And I do it a couple of times in a row so that I gain experience.
Things are moving very quickly. There are all your writing projects, your chronicles The evening is (still) youngyour participation in the Next stand-up, your presence at the Pier-Luc Funk and Phil Roy JPR gala. Now that first 60 minutes. How do you envision things going forward?
I continue to write, it remains my priority. I won’t be working full time on my one woman show, but I will continue to progress in parallel. I write a lot, I write all the time, so I know I’ll have new jokes, even though I don’t know what this eventual show will be about yet. I trust the process!
Performing on July 15, 16, 17, 24 and 25, at the Monument-National