At 47, Jean-Sébastien Girard knows he is risking a lot by presenting his first show, A boy not like others. An ambiguous title, a clever nod to a song that some would call a guilty pleasure, like the character who made him famous at There sevening is still young. But this time, he hopes to reach an audience that goes beyond his Canadian radio base. For this, he had to learn the hard way a new profession, that of comedian, a challenge much less easy than could imagine at the start this former snob from the world of the theater.
“Initially, I went in all directions. I was trying to do like all comedians and I felt like I wasn’t being original. It took a few readings for me to find my common thread. I realized that what worked best was when it left me,” he says, seated in a small Italian restaurant in La Petite-Patrie, between two sips of latte.
A latte, with added sugar, as if to hide the bitterness. There is still in Jean-Sébastien Girard this teenager who drinks coffee without liking the taste. This slightly juvenile side is expressed in his humor, which skilfully navigates between the little teasing and the more scathing mockery. And as for children who are a little too restless, but gifted, we end up forgiving him his excesses. Because we know that deep down, his intention was never to hurt.
The Jean-Sébastien Girard “in real life” is ultimately not so far from the mischievous character that listeners rubbed shoulders with during the ten years of The evening is still young. As on the radio, he never balks at a somewhat caustic joke about an old star who has emerged from mothballs. And yes, he is infatuated with covers of human earth and has her own mother as her best friend.
All this, of course, is reflected in this first one man show very personal, but not only, he makes a point of specifying: “I go all the same further in the confession than in The evening. It’s not a conference, but I allow myself to be more serious. I still want people to take something away from it. Yes, fans of The evening will find some things, but you should not expect me to make allusions to running gags what we did on the air. I don’t want this to be a show just for insiders. »
Long apprenticeship
The scene is also completely different from the radio. The aspiring comedian understood this during the break-in process, which led him to give about forty shows since this summer. “Good bad jokes don’t work on stage. While I made my trademark to The evening around a little “pocket” jokes that went too far and bad puns. I always had the public to boo me in the second degree. That, I don’t have that on stage. I had to realize that I’m not right in front of 50 hipster at the bar Chez Roger”, underlines this eternal anxious, who does not hide his nervousness a few days before the media premiere.
Jean-Sébastien Girard was more than hesitant at first, when Patrick Rozon, from Just for Laughs, offered him to produce his first one man show. Admittedly, he had been hooked for the stage when the boys from The evening is still young presented the show Predictions 2017 at Place des Arts six years ago. But he also always remembered their catastrophic passage at the Gala ComédiHa! in 2016. That night, the four boys believed that the irreverent humor that had made them so popular with Radio-Canada’s trendy audience could also charm Quebec City audiences. Serious mistake. They will leave the stage under the boos of the crowd, which was nothing of the “second degree” this time.
“To be honest, at the beginning, I dreaded my first shows in the region because of that. Finally, my rooms where it laughed the most, it was Lavaltrie and the Petit Champlain ”, is surprised the one who now says he enjoys solo on stage.
Do not sulk his pleasure
He had never considered being a comedian before. Even less so when he was studying theater at UQAM and liked to look down on everything that came even a little closer to popular culture, he who is nevertheless passionate about variety songs among the ranks of daisies and faded soap operas. Jean-Sébastien Girard dreamed of becoming a great actor. But he quickly became disillusioned. “I was really bad,” he admits with a laugh now looking back.
The day after his graduation show, he remembers being the only one of his cohort not to have been quoted in the review by the journalist who had attended the play. Ultimate humiliation, which will above all prove to be a great lesson in humility. Jean-Sébastien Girard never dared to audition for a role afterwards. He contented himself with the shadows, as a researcher at Radio-Canada, before being spotted by Dominique Poirier, who made him one of his columnists on his show. The afternoon brings advice.
He was no longer expecting his late fame, but today he is taking full advantage of it. Jean-Sébastien Girard does not play the tormented false artists, who say they hate stardom, but who are in reality frightened at the idea of falling back into anonymity. He likes to be known, to be recognized and he never spits on a project. He likes to animate his new talk show on the First Channel, Jeannot BBQ, than going to play a trivia game or to confide in his difficult relationship with his father in a program at prime time on TVA. “When I studied theatre, I wanted to be a kind of Roy Dupuis and give a shit about all that stuff, but I’m so not like that. The truth is that I like it too go to two girls in the morning “, he confesses with a lot of self-mockery.
Jean-Sébastien Girard is without a shadow of a doubt “a boy like no other”. It remains to be seen now if, in the already very saturated world of humor, he is also a comedian like no other.