It is May 15, 2023, during the Gong Show, the Bordel Comédie Club’s popular competition for astonishing amateur talents. Marthe Leclerc has just finished a no worse saucy number, during which she notably uttered the words “gang bang”, a guaranteed source of laughter for a woman who one imagines more in a group trip than in a game of legs in looks like a lot of people.
And the guest judge that evening, the actor Stéphan Allard, exclaimed: “Invite me to dinner!” I have so many dull aunts who always tell the same stories. »
“You’re going to have fun with me,” Marthe replies, the complete opposite of a boring mother. “I cook well too. I make good cream sugar. »
But there was no question for Marthe of only spending her old age simmering sugar and cream. In 2016, she enrolled in evening classes at the National School of Humor like others taking up backgammon. “I had retired and wanted to write. I said to myself: “Writing humor must be easy.” » She frowns. “But it’s not that easy, oh no!” »
“I don’t want to steal any punches from you, but I was the oldest in my class,” says the 73-year-old who worked as a dispatcher at Urgences-santé and who owned a thrift store on the Plateau. Even if she had no ambition to go on stage, she would not have been able to resist the group effect. “I said to myself, ‘Everyone does it. If I don’t try it, I’ll regret it.” »
Mimi Levert has been at the top of the bill for a long time. She was in her early thirties when she flew to Paris, where she enrolled in a theater school. “It was a bad decision,” she says at 66, because I wasn’t the girl I am now. When I was young, I apologized for breathing. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Comedian Mimi Levert
Which is no longer the case for the woman who made herself known on the web as a dog trainer (under the name Mimi-Griotte) and who presented her first comic act last July. On June 20, on the occasion of Minifest, the festival bringing together all the fringes of Montreal humor, she will share with Marthe Leclerc the poster of The age of derisiontheir first joint show.
His ultimate goal? Nothing less than a one-woman show. And an Olivier too, well. “I would like to become the oldest Discovery of the year. And before I enter a CHSLD, if possible. »
What beautiful madness
Every time they come off stage, it’s unmissable that Marthe Leclerc and Mimi Levert are told that they are inspiring. “So you have some courage,” exclaims Marthe, her hands on each side of her face, exaggerating her swoon.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Comedian Marthe Leclerc
“But I don’t call that courage,” she corrects. “It’s just that I’m crazy. And that I don’t like old people’s things. No, I won’t go to the senior citizens’ club to play bingo and pockets, otherwise I’ll get depressed. »
Those who tell me that I have courage are often people my age who would like to get out of their comfort zone, but who never dare. Stop telling me I’m inspiring and do something! If you don’t do anything, nothing will happen to you!
Marthe Leclerc, comedian
So does this mean that they like getting old? “I like it, yes, because I do what tempts me,” replies Marthe. I’m freaking out about everything. And I stay active, even if I’m not jogging or climbing mountains. » She adds, with a teasing eye: “But I have already done an open mics marathon, for example. »
Embrace your dreams
Although they are generally well received by the other comedians with whom they participate in open mics, these two experienced recruits obviously do not draw from the same bag of topics.
“Young people make a lot of jokes about dating or couples, jokes about their mother and their father,” observes Marthe, whose favorite comedian is the master of the absurd Jean-Michel Martel, 40 years her junior, “but Me, my mother and my father, they died a long time ago! And then the young people talk about their children. It’s terrible, having children, to hear them talk. But I had children, and I didn’t die! »
Mimi tries to inject a little seriousness into our conversation. “We have incredible life stories, it’s the right material for comedy acts,” she emphasizes, which is actually not always the case for all the twenty-somethings who grab the microphone before even though their navel has dried up.
Any advice for young people? Marthe doesn’t need to be asked. “You have to dare, all the time. You are healthy, you are beautiful, you have everything. Don’t wait after others. You are capable of getting out of your mess yourself. »
Mimi continues in a more serious tone: “I would say that you have to dare to embrace your dreams. It doesn’t matter how old we are. »
The age of derisionJune 20, at 7:30 p.m., at Bistro Le Ste-Cath
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