Nearly 35 years after founding one of the most important comedy festivals in the Francophonie, in Montreux, Switzerland, producer Grégoire Furrer is attempting a first foray into Quebec with EXCLAM, a humorous laboratory where will be presented from Wednesday experimental shows.
Supported by his spouse, Quebecer Chloée Coqterre Bernier, the Helvetian arrives in Montreal with the avowed objective of opening the doors of the Francophonie, and those of the rest of the world, to Quebec comedians.
“There’s a lot of innovation in Quebec, but it’s still a small market. There are always more artists, but they have to share the same cake, which is therefore getting smaller and smaller. What we want to do is enlarge the cake. We want to introduce Quebec comedians to the 300 million French speakers elsewhere in the world, ”says Grégoire Furrer, who is convinced that humor is exportable.
He sees international potential in many contemporary Quebec comedians, citing a few in passing, such as Rosalie Vaillancourt, Mariana Mazza, Adib Alkhalidey and Virginie Fortin, who was also invited last year to the Montreux Comedy Festival.
That said, we feel that for this young generation of comedians, a career abroad is no longer such a popular ambition as it once was. In the 1990s, almost all Quebec comedians tried to break into France in one way or another.
A successful bet for Stéphane Rousseau and Anthony Kavanagh, who have become huge stars across the Atlantic. But since then, one would be tempted to believe that France is no longer so popular in the world of Quebec humor. Besides Sugar Sammy, perhaps, very few Quebec comedians have succeeded in penetrating the French market to the point of being recognized on the Champs-Élysées or on the Promenade des Anglais.
And yet, Chloée Coqterre Bernier is formal: the rest of the Francophonie has never been so accessible to Quebec comedians. “At the time of Stéphane Rousseau, it was still the old way of doing things. It was necessary to settle in Paris, to make shows in small rooms, to perhaps then hope to make a tour in the region. If we had the misfortune to return to Quebec for three months, it broke, and everything had to be redone when we returned. Today, it is much less complicated, and fortunately. With social networks, artists can stay in touch with their audience without always having to go to shows,” she says with her Quebec accent, slightly broken after several years abroad.
From Abidjan to Montreal
It was she who initially dissuaded her spouse from settling in Quebec, he who had announced his intention to buy Just for Laughs after the fall of Gilbert Rozon, only to finally withdraw. The situation was not favorable at the time. The duo, who live between Switzerland and Los Angeles, preferred to increase their presence in France above all. But above all, his company continued its expansion in Africa during this period, where it produced two festivals, one in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the other in Johannesburg, South Africa.
A market where everything remains to be done, unlike Quebec, where two big names, in this case Just for Laughs and ComediHa!, are already in the saddle. The first edition of EXCLAM is taking place when Just for Laughs has just announced the end of the galas in French, which were nevertheless at the origin of the success of the festival. In recent years, public interest has been waning. But Grégoire Furrer and Chloée Coqterre Bernier still believe in this formula.
“Our angle is very different from that of Just for Laughs. The shows that we are presenting this year, for example, are creations. We do not ask comedians to take the best jokes from their show to make a number that they will come to present in a gala, “said the one who just started her career with the Montreal group.
Innovative concepts
To stand out from the competition, EXCLAM, of which Chloée Coqterre Bernier is the artistic director, relies on an experimental approach. The first event, which will be hosted by Richardson Zéphir, will mix stand up and virtual reality, while the second, presented by Rita Baga, will combine humor and music. But it’s the last show that promises to be the most ambitious. Under the leadership of Mike Ward, he will bring together on stage comedians from all over the Francophonie, from Haiti to the Maghreb via Switzerland and Acadia. South African laughter star Jason Goliath will present a number in Afrikaans and Zulu that the public will be able to follow thanks to the magic of simultaneous translation.
A risk-taking that is welcomed as a breath of fresh air by several artists. But the promoters of this new festival, which is not quite one, also know that they are being observed with circumspection by the industry.
“That the artists welcome us, for us, that’s all that matters. Afterwards, it is quite normal for the industry to be skeptical. We still have to prove ourselves. For us, it’s very stimulating to have to start all over again here,” says Grégoire Furrer with humility.