In rehearsal with Simon Gauche | Everything is around the corner

The late Dominick
Press

In the studio at Studio Biz on Avenue du Mont-Royal, script-editor Pascal Mailloux, director Marie-Christine Lachance and Simon Gouache try to improvise a piece from his third show, in which the Montreal-raised comedian recently established himself in the suburbs. , firefighters… volunteers!

“Is that your hobby, fireman?” Do you want me to give you another one? “Pascal will launch first. “Yoga, ultimate frisbee! Adds Marie-Christine, but we’re not there yet. “If you feel like socializing, you can do it in a less suffocating place! exclaims Simon, impeccably emphasizing the adjective “breathtaking.” Everyone bursts into laughter.

If he doesn’t write any number on paper (“It’s not common,” according to Marie-Christine), Simon Gauche is an incurable perfectionist who writes constantly in his head and tirelessly moves sentences, even commas, until he achieves it. The right effect. These encounters, during which the trio dissects the artist’s most recent performances, often turn into comedic ping-pong sessions like this one.

But a few minutes later, the journalist was excited by a volunteer firefighter’s joke, as Yvonne Deschamps had just made. Unions, what does OSA give? Under his eyes, the director goes there with a warning: “There are many lines here that made us laugh and did not work on stage. His wisdom is confirmed the next evening, at the Golden Lion, where Simon Gauche tests the gag in question, swinging it a little faster. The result: a confused response from the crowd.

“It’s a shame you didn’t come the next day, I think it was one of my best performances in four years,” he said in an interview a few days later. Apart from a line or two that came against the silence of the library, apparently new, he nevertheless delivered during the performance Press We hope for the best for the media premiere of, attended a solid show liveScheduled for February 2023.

“When it’s a few days after I give a show, I do everything fast and I don’t always take the time to play my gags,” explains Gauche about one of the greatest strengths: his unforgettable edition of CrossFit about the text, like a pantomime. “The next day, Mary said to me: There, this evening, you take the time to play all your gags. I listened to it and here’s what we got. »

Endless thoughts

The son of a doctor, Simon Gauche enrolled at the National School of Humour, though barely, after a brief and stressful university career. Graduating in 2007, he only really met his audience ten years later. Although rarely seen on TV or radio, the 36-year-old belongs to the elite of Quebec comedy – we can understand to some extent by observing his tenacity in the rehearsal room – although on paper, certain things make it special. .

There is no crazy stage character or remarkable presence in social networks: like Jack White, performing like everyone else, but better than everyone else, Simon Gauche weaves observations, reflections and stories like dozens of other comedians, but with the precision and ease of a goldsmith, worn things (his life as a young father , dating apps, baldness), almost magically allowing him to gather material from.

He asks in one of the best segments live, the well-worn phrase, “We can say no more.” “But it’s a number that changes a lot during break-in,” he says. When I started, I was very moralistic, saying in a settler voice, “We can’t say anything more,” and it took me a few months to realize that I was alienating everyone in the public. Already said.

“And when I stopped, it changed everything, because I was no longer in judgment. Again, it’s all about perspective. »

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