Episode 736 - Gad Elmaleh
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:All right, let's do this.
Marc:How are you?
Marc:What the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fucking ears?
Marc:What the fuckadelics?
Marc:What's happening?
Marc:I am Mark Maron.
Marc:This is my show.
Marc:WTF, thank you for joining.
Marc:Thank you for being here.
Marc:Thank you for wherever you may be.
Marc:I appreciate your patronage and allowing me to be in your head.
Marc:Right?
Marc:Just me and you.
Marc:Before I do forget to plug myself, you can still get my special more later as a digital download for a special price.
Marc:It's available exclusively at WTFPod.com for another week, and it's only $7.99 before it goes to iTunes next month.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com.
Marc:There's a link right on the homepage under today's episode, as well as in the merch section.
Marc:Also,
Marc:Get tickets for my Carnegie Hall dates.
Marc:You can go to nycomedyfestival.com.
Marc:That's the New York Comedy Festival.
Marc:November 4th, I will be performing at Carnegie Hall.
Marc:I will be at the Albuquerque Journal Theater September 3rd.
Marc:There's not many tickets left for this hometown show, but you can go to wtfpod.com slash tour to check out, you know,
Marc:where to get those tickets i'll be at the comedy club in rochester new york september 9th and september 10th you can get tickets for that again wtfpod.com slash tour for those rochester dates the wilbur in boston september 24th uh the vic theater december 3rd uh in chicago uh today on the show god amala i hope i'm pronounced god amala he's uh he's a french comic
Marc:And he's a Moroccan Jew.
Marc:And he's somebody that a lot of people in this country have not heard of.
Marc:But he's an international superstar.
Marc:It's one of those situations where it's like, what?
Marc:And I was happy to meet him.
Marc:I never know what to expect.
Marc:And he has been in the country here in the United States a couple of times in the recent past.
Marc:Actually, he's a native French speaker.
Marc:And he's doing his act in English.
Marc:And it was very interesting to watch.
Marc:Somebody, you know, actually trying to do a completely English act and not being an English speaker.
Marc:It was it was impressive because the sort of skills you have to rely on comedically sort of shift.
Marc:from what you're used to and and i had a lot of respect for the guy and had a great time talking to him my first time i ever met and that first time i've had a a french person on the show and the first time i've met a moroccan jew uh so there was a lot of new a lot of new uh things a lot of firsts yeah so i'd gotten estranged from my buddy mike
Marc:You know, there was, you know, it just, you know, sometimes things get difficult.
Marc:You know, he needed a couple bucks a while back.
Marc:I gave him a couple bucks and I didn't hear from him.
Marc:And then we got weird and then things got weirder.
Marc:And then you get to the point where you don't know what's really happening.
Marc:And I didn't know where he was at or where I was at.
Marc:And then this was the fucking thing, man.
Marc:You know, your life should never be at a point, if possible, where you see somebody that you were friends with out in the world and you avert your face and hope that you don't see him, that he don't see you, you don't see him or her or whoever.
Marc:that you don't want to deal.
Marc:I mean, life's too fucking short to have that shit out in the world when sometimes, you know, all it takes, all it takes is just to, you know, sit down and face the fire.
Marc:You know, what's up?
Marc:What is up?
Marc:where we at how can we make this right so that happened man a couple weeks ago i saw him and i was like oh god and he didn't see me and i was relieved but right after that i'm like this is bullshit you know i didn't get sober to have fucking weird bullshit out in the world with people and as often as i talk to people here you know face to face i don't always know these people and a lot of times when i work through problems here
Marc:They're one time things that just, you know, kind of stick in my craw or stick in their craw and they become like a dark, dark pearl of resentment.
Marc:Nothing shiny about the dark pearls of resentment that kind of stick there under the the fine emotional membrane of your of your heart.
Marc:And over time, you know, the membrane just keeps rubbing on it.
Marc:And it just takes on this weird kind of sucking luster, the black pearl of resentment.
Marc:The problem was that, you know, there was unresolved business between me and my buddy.
Marc:And I said, what the fuck is up?
Marc:Which is not the best way.
Marc:That's not a great opening salvo to what should be an apology or a resolution.
Marc:But I was like, you know, I was defensive.
Marc:So I was prickly and he was prickly and we went back and forth and it didn't seem like we were going to get closure.
Marc:And then it was finally like, fuck it, dude.
Marc:Let's get in it, man.
Marc:Let's just fucking have coffee and deal with this shit.
Marc:It was really simple.
Marc:It was fucking just misunderstandings.
Marc:Misunderstanding.
Marc:and assumptions you know he thought i was mad that he wasn't paying me back a few bucks and i thought you know you know he was you know ignoring me because he didn't want to and then there was other shit involved there were just layers of shit and all that got compounded by the fact that neither one of us were talking to each other over a meaningless sum of money and it just was fucking stupid and then when we got together within minutes it was like oh fuck
Marc:What a relief.
Marc:And then we kind of went point for point and worked through shit.
Marc:And, you know, we hugged it out.
Marc:And, you know, we're back on track.
Marc:We're friends again.
Marc:And it was like my entire life became better.
Marc:Yeah, some things they just, you don't realize.
Marc:They take precedent over how you're looking at your world.
Marc:They buckle and constrict your perception because it's unresolved and it's hurting your fucking heart.
Marc:fucking clear that shit up if you can because now we're good and you know it's just it wasn't that hard because we both thought things that were untrue you know you make these decisions in your mind about people i do it all the fucking time
Marc:99% of the time when someone comes into this garage just to talk, I have an idea of who they are.
Marc:And I'm always amazed because it's always never that idea and it's always much more.
Marc:And a lot of times when you got to beef with somebody, you've made a decision to sort of just fuel your goddamn contempt or your resentment or your judgment.
Marc:And the decision is based on nothing other than your own fucking anger.
Marc:Got no bearing on reality.
Marc:There is a reality there.
Marc:It may have started with something, but what blossoms from that is just bullshit.
Marc:It's just malignant imagination, you know, running away with you, and that will ruin your entire fucking day or week or life.
Marc:Okay, so I've been exercising.
Marc:I've been doing what I've got to do to try to have a good last part of my life.
Marc:That sounds dark.
Marc:It's just funny how we push ourselves and how in our mind, and I've talked about this on stage before to some degree, just that I don't really sense that I'm getting older.
Marc:I don't really sense in a real way.
Marc:I still think that I'm in the best shape I've ever been in, and I might be.
Marc:But I was in Phoenix a few days ago, as I told you, and me and Ryan hiked up Camelback.
Marc:It's 105 degrees out.
Marc:You got to go up there before like 7 in the morning.
Marc:And I've done it many times before because I've been to Phoenix.
Marc:My first wife was from there.
Marc:My brother lives there.
Marc:But Camelback Mountain is a nice little hike.
Marc:It's about an hour up, about an hour down.
Marc:But you go up.
Marc:and it gets scary because people have been dropping dead up there, and they actually closed a mountain because there was three or four cases of extreme heat stroke.
Marc:I had water, and we got lucky.
Marc:It wasn't that hot out, but I'm a 52-year-old dude, and I'm fucking climbing up this mountain.
Marc:I got to stop a couple of times because my heart was pounding out of my chest, and it was hot, and the sweat started to come.
Marc:And we made it.
Marc:Ryan and I made it up.
Marc:My brother made it up.
Marc:His stepdaughter, Brooke, made it up.
Marc:And there we were.
Marc:And I'm heading down.
Marc:And you start to realize your age.
Marc:And you start to say, I got to be a little more careful.
Marc:Because we just think we can do things.
Marc:And there was just this weird, beautiful...
Marc:gross buddha moment where you know i saw a dude i'm coming down i saw a dude with some other dudes who look like he's about my age and he was on his knees on the ground puking his guts out and this was me i'm not even halfway up the hill i felt bad for him i hope he was all right
Marc:but the other dudes were like, come on, let's just go back down.
Marc:He's like, no, no, no.
Marc:He gets up.
Marc:He wipes his mouth.
Marc:I'm all right.
Marc:It's just all that fucking fish oil I've been taking in the morning.
Marc:So I don't know why to me that was revelatory, but it's just that, you know, this weird, you know, desperate place we get at a certain age where you're like, man, I got to take these vitamins.
Marc:I got to get that exercise in.
Marc:I got to, you know, you just, your whole life is built around maintaining these performance levels or staying healthy and, you know,
Marc:There he was, couldn't even make a quarter up the hill, and he's puking up vitamins.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know what that is.
Marc:I don't know if it means anything, but to me, it stood out as sort of like, hey, hey, man, maybe we should take it easy.
Marc:Just, you know, let's not go too hard, man.
Marc:We've made it this far.
Marc:Let's not hurt ourselves.
Marc:trying to be 25 or trying to think that we have to do this thing out of pride, this exercise is pushing ourselves to the limit.
Marc:Maybe it's time to just stay in shape.
Marc:the best we can without hurting ourselves and enjoy fucking life and not throw up fish oil vitamins a quarter of the way up a mountain.
Marc:Maybe that's it.
Marc:Not judging that guy.
Marc:I related to him.
Marc:So, uh, God of Mala.
Marc:All right.
Marc:He's got, he's got a bunch of shows here.
Marc:This, as I told you before, he's a French comic internationally, huge, uh,
Marc:And I didn't know him until I met him here at Largo, and he charmed me, and I liked him, and I was curious about his journey to do an act in English as a French speaker, and I got a lot more.
Marc:I really had a nice conversation with the guy.
Marc:He's got like eight big shows here in the U.S.
Marc:and Canada starting next week in Boston.
Marc:He'll be here in L.A.
Marc:on September 9th.
Marc:You can go to his website, gadamalo.com.
Marc:That's G-A-D-E-L-M-A-L-E-H.com for tour dates and tickets.
Marc:And this is me and God, you know, having a good time, having a nice talk.
Marc:He's a charming, funny guy.
Marc:And he's a Moroccan Jew.
Marc:I never met a Moroccan Jew before.
Thank you.
Marc:God.
Guest:Elmaleh.
Guest:Elmaleh.
Guest:E-L-M-A-L-E-H.
Guest:Elmaleh.
Guest:Elmaleh.
Guest:You know what?
Guest:Every night the hosts in clubs come in panic.
Guest:I'm sorry, how do you pronounce it?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:What's your first name?
Guest:What's your last name?
Marc:It's a problem, you know, because we're not used to the strange names here.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But when Trump is going to be president, you're going to get used to it.
Marc:Even less of you.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:No, no, more, more, more.
Marc:Oh, yeah?
Marc:We have a plan.
Marc:Oh, you do?
Marc:Good.
Marc:But I saw you at Largo.
Marc:You've got friends in the American comedy world, Gottfried, bothering me.
Marc:You gotta get gad on.
Marc:You gotta get gad on.
Marc:I'm like, I don't know who this guy is.
Marc:Gad.
Marc:Gadfried.
Marc:Gad.
Marc:Gadfried.
Marc:So then I do a little research, and it's very fragmented.
Marc:the research I do.
Marc:I'm like, who is this guy?
Marc:He's like, well, Jerry's his friend and you brought him over.
Marc:And I'm like, what do you mean Jerry brought him over?
Marc:Seinfeld brought him over.
Guest:Like I was adopted.
Marc:Yeah, it's like he decides, well, I knew what happened.
Marc:This happens occasionally.
Marc:Big stars here, they go around the world and all of a sudden they're like, oh my God, there's whole popular people that I know nothing about.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He seems to be a professional of some kind.
Marc:Maybe he'd enjoy America.
Marc:But you were here before?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I just started to do stand-up in English.
Guest:But you know what?
Guest:This happens.
Guest:I talk about that in my show, but this happens really often.
Guest:Sometimes I'm with some American friends and French people, they recognize me, you know?
Guest:Right.
Guest:On the streets, in a bar, and they freak out because French people get so excited.
Guest:And it's good for girls, you know?
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Marc:They're excited to see you because they know you.
Marc:I mean, that's happened.
Marc:We have Russell Peters, who none of us know as an American star, but all we hear about is Russell Peters.
Marc:Everywhere else in the world, he's the biggest comedian in the world.
Marc:But not here, also here, no?
Marc:I think, yeah, people know him.
Marc:They know him, but not like that.
Marc:They don't know me.
Marc:At all.
Marc:At all.
Marc:They can't even say my name.
Marc:Right, because now there's a language barrier.
Marc:No, not anymore.
Marc:But this is new, is what I'm saying.
Marc:Yeah, because I worked so hard to learn English.
Marc:I saw that, and it was interesting when I saw you at Largo, because I know that you're now internationally, you speak French, because in other countries, people speak more than one language, especially in France, but you go other places.
Marc:You're big in other places, correct?
Guest:Yeah, in Europe and North Africa and Middle East.
Marc:North Africa, now you used to do French.
Guest:I was born in Morocco, raised in Morocco.
Guest:But it's still French.
Guest:First language is Arabic, obviously, Moroccan Arabic.
Guest:Do you speak Moroccan Arabic?
Guest:Oh yeah, of course.
Marc:You say that like, you know, of course we speak nine languages.
Guest:No, I mean, I grew up there, you know, and because I grew up in a Jewish Moroccan family, I also speak Hebrew.
Guest:So you speak Hebrew?
Guest:Yeah, Arabic.
Guest:Arabic, French, now English.
Marc:English was the last, the final frontier.
Guest:Italian, a little Italian, yeah.
Marc:But a little Italian because it's also a romantic language and it's some similarities?
Marc:You got it.
Marc:But the Arabic and English, Arabic and Hebrew, I imagine, some similarities?
Marc:Very similar.
Guest:Very similar.
Marc:So once you get the knack for that, if you got the brain that was wired that way when you were a kid, you kind of pick that shit up.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:English is the hardest one, right?
Marc:English is hard.
Marc:You have no idea.
Marc:I can't imagine.
Guest:I barely speak.
Marc:I don't speak it well.
Marc:I know.
Marc:I have a hard time with it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't know what a lot of things mean.
Marc:I use words wrong.
Marc:It's ridiculous.
Guest:i mean expressions i you know and sometimes you guys have things that you think are so logic and normal for us we learn okay this weekend i was talking to a girl by text i said let's go for dinner she said i'm down
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I swear, Mark, I swear she was depressed.
Guest:I'm like, okay, so let's do that some other, another day.
Guest:She said, no, why?
Guest:I said, if you're down, respect, I'll wait.
Guest:I said, no, no, I'm totally, I mean, I'm, I swear, she said, I'm totally, I mean, I'm totally up for it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Now you think you've got a depressed girl that's going to be fighting her depression that you're going to hang out with.
Guest:Yeah, I don't hang out with a depressed girl who's totally down for it.
Marc:Well, you said something else in the act, too, about the I'm good thing, which is very funny.
Marc:It had a nice long English bit with a callback.
Marc:It was very good.
Marc:It was impressive.
Marc:You're excited about the word fuss.
Marc:I mean, I understood all that, but I found myself watching you thinking like, how do I just see this guy in French?
Marc:Because I bet you it's just like crazy.
Marc:Just because when I saw you get animated, I'm like, well, he does a big act somewhere.
Marc:Because American stand-up is sort of specific, and you're dealing with the language, and you're dealing with the timing, and it's going very well, but it seems like that you're a lot more mobile.
Marc:In France, in Europe.
Marc:Yeah, that's right.
Marc:It's right.
Marc:But let's talk about how one comes up in comedy coming from Morocco.
Marc:See, I'd like to go to Morocco.
Marc:You should go.
Marc:I should take you to Morocco.
Marc:But is it okay?
Marc:And by the way, the Morocco... Is it okay?
Marc:My parents are... Everyone's very afraid.
Marc:They're like, don't travel now.
Marc:Come on.
Marc:You can't travel now.
Guest:It's safer than some places in Europe.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:They really protect people who come visit.
Guest:And by the way, the stand-up scene in Morocco is getting very, very... Isn't that what?
Guest:Good?
Guest:Good.
Guest:Great.
Guest:What do you mean?
Guest:People do comedy all around the world.
Guest:That's relatively new.
Guest:No.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:No.
Guest:Come on.
Guest:Comedy has been, you know- Stand up or some sort of weird- Ah, see, different.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:There's been funny things for a long time.
Marc:I know, guys.
Guest:You have this idea of us in Europe and Maghreb and North Africa doing comedy with, I don't know, props.
Marc:Not props.
Guest:Just very broad.
Guest:Birds.
Guest:Broad.
Guest:Jerry always make fun of me.
Guest:He says, oh, I'm sure you do some mime things with a rope and you bring someone- No, I don't.
Marc:I don't think that, but I think that there is a physicality in other countries that is different.
Marc:American stand-up is sort of a thinky, individual, singular person.
Guest:Yeah, but I like it.
Guest:I like to mix those two things.
Guest:Because the only dry, standing up, telling jokes, very serious, is not my thing.
Guest:And only moving around and dancing and doing body language is not my thing.
Marc:I just know that in Montreal, for two weeks, they have the French comedy thing.
Marc:And I'm like, what is that?
Marc:It's just a lot of people going... Walking around with their hands up, making funny faces.
Marc:You know what I'm like?
Guest:I want you to come to Paris and say that.
Guest:I'm going to take you.
Guest:They're going to hate you forever.
Guest:I want to take you.
Marc:Am I wrong?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I'm judging.
Marc:Maybe that's being a little... No.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:By the way, because... No.
Guest:Now, it's a funny example.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:For a bit.
Guest:I think you could do that as a bit.
Guest:That would be a funny bit.
Guest:Maybe you already have it in your act, but...
Guest:If you take the very specific Montreal, Quebec example, they do stand-up in French that looks really, really like English stand-up.
Guest:They're North American.
Guest:Only the language changes.
Guest:We in France do something more theatrical, right?
Guest:Very act-out.
Guest:And the body language and the music and the lights.
Marc:Well, let's go back to your childhood.
Marc:Because what I learned and what made me interested in talking to you is that I found that backstage at Largo, when we were talking, that you're just this insecure Jewish guy from Morocco who speaks French.
Marc:And I'm like, I understand that.
Marc:That's a good start for comedy, no?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, it is.
Marc:But I didn't know that.
Marc:When I first saw you in New York, I'm like, who the hell does this guy think he is?
Marc:Mr. Suave.
Marc:And then I was like, I talked to you for five minutes.
Marc:I'm like, oh, he's a comedian.
Marc:The guy is a comedian.
Marc:Jewish comedian like me.
Guest:That's funny because when I heard about you and I meet you today, it's the opposite.
Guest:All what I thought before is true.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which is good.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:The lonely man, the garage thing, the crazy, everything.
Guest:That's true.
Guest:It's true.
Guest:Someone told you otherwise?
Marc:No surprise.
Guest:They talk about it in France also.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:They talk about this?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, good.
Marc:But like, how do you, like, I don't understand.
Marc:See, like, it's new to me that I know there are Persian Jews.
Marc:I know there are Iraqi Jews.
Guest:Now I know there are... What is Iraqi Jews?
Guest:Iraqi Jews.
Marc:Oh, Iraqi.
Marc:I heard Rocky.
Marc:They're, you know, Moroccan Jews.
Marc:Like that community seems like I don't you know, all I understand from my life experience is sort of middle class Jewish shit.
Marc:Like, you know, so, you know, American middle class Jew stuff.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Third generation, second generation.
Marc:It's American.
Marc:But this fascinates me.
Marc:It's funny because you did an impression of your Jewish mother on stage in English that was a little different than the classic Jewish mother here, but the French understood it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:There's a French Jewish mother apparently.
Guest:But this is a new perspective that I want to bring here.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Because Sephardic Jew, which is so different than Ashkenaz, and in Morocco obviously we're Sephardic.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Sephardi.
Guest:Which means Arabic based.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, the word Sepharad in Hebrew means Spain because Sephardics are from Spain, obviously, and they were kicked out by Isabel the Catholic.
Guest:Sure, during the big thing.
Guest:Inquisition.
Guest:Yeah, Inquisition, yeah.
Guest:So, Sephardic Jews, it's a great story between the two communities, by the way.
Guest:It's one of the only places on earth where two people, Muslims and Jews, lived in really good harmony for decades.
Guest:Where, in Spain?
Guest:No, no, in Morocco, in Casablanca.
Guest:They had the Jewish neighborhood.
Guest:It was very, very like peace, you know.
Guest:Um, now you brought something interesting because the cliche that you guys have and use in the American comedy of the Jewish mother has nothing to do with our Jewish mother, which is so, I mean, the Jewish mother here in America is not sexy.
Marc:Uh huh.
Marc:you haven't met my mom it's very very sexy i have a very specific like i did relate to the experiences like i almost bought you a cookie that yeah but selfish like selfish there you go a little selfish oh no that's that that travels oh really oh yeah yeah completely self-involved it's my thing oh yeah if i do something good for you yeah it's because it's me it's for me it's for me
Guest:Look how great I am.
Guest:I did the good thing for you.
Guest:Like my mother with my son, the little one.
Guest:If there's no audience, family, friends, she would be okay with my little one.
Guest:No problem.
Guest:But as soon as there are people, like...
Marc:friends yeah and then she puts on a show oh she's the best grandma right but alone she's a little selfish yeah yeah exactly when they leave the house it's like okay i'm tired yeah exactly yeah my mom's a little more like that i guess the classic jewish mother stereotype here is the overbearing smothering uh you know eat some more you know no no my mom doesn't cook
Marc:My mother doesn't cook.
Marc:Mine neither.
Marc:She barely eats.
Marc:They should meet.
Marc:They should.
Marc:Completely vain and worried about her looks, but doesn't eat much.
Marc:Terrible cook.
Marc:You know what she did?
Guest:She did something crazy.
Guest:My sister was traumatized.
Guest:The day of my sister's wedding, my sister was getting ready in the hotel room.
Guest:So my mom, she knocked out the door.
Guest:My sister opened the door and my mom looked at my sister and asked her, how do I look?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My sister was traumatized.
Guest:Really?
Guest:She talks about it every week.
Guest:It was all about your mother.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The wedding day.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Then she divorced.
Guest:Did she?
Guest:The sister?
Guest:Not because of that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But your parents are still together?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:50 years.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:I would not like to be with someone for 50 years.
Guest:How about your mother?
Yeah.
Guest:You stuck with her.
Guest:She said a great line last summer, very cute.
Guest:I took them to Capri in Italy.
Guest:Now I feel I have to explain.
Marc:Yeah, it's the beach, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's the sea, right?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:By the ocean.
Guest:Flip-flops, right?
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:That kind of thing.
Guest:I see a romanticism and Mark sees flip flops and shorts.
Guest:No, no, it's beautiful.
Guest:Everything in Europe is beautiful.
Marc:It's always beautiful.
Guest:So I take them to Capri, you know, and we have this big party with all the family and the grandkids and the kids and everyone.
Guest:We're in a club dancing and she looks at me and she said, you know what?
Guest:Only for this moment that I'm having right now with you, it was worth to stay 50 years with this man.
Marc:They get an understanding.
Marc:They get a pattern.
Marc:These married couples that you think are crazy.
Marc:They're both crazy, but somehow or another, they talk a lot about this or that, but they're still together.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:So how many people in this family of yours?
Marc:You got a sister.
Guest:Three kids.
Guest:My sister is a writer in France.
Guest:She works for TV.
Guest:My younger brother is an actor, pretty serious actor in theater and plays.
Guest:All the arts.
Guest:My father was a mime.
Guest:Really?
Guest:A Moroccan mime?
Guest:I mean, this is funny.
Guest:Was he really?
Guest:I swear.
Guest:Because you know you're French, right?
Guest:Even that phrase, my father was a mime is a funny one.
Guest:If you add my father was a mime in Morocco, it's even funnier.
Marc:But like here you were like, you know, like poo-pooing the idea that like we have this weird judgment of French comedy.
Marc:Like Jerry's saying, do you do the rope?
Marc:Do you do the wind?
Marc:Are you in a box?
Marc:And then with all sincerity, you tell me your father's a mine.
Marc:And like, we're the assholes.
Marc:You think we're going, it's obviously a job in show business that people do there.
Marc:You know, no one ever in America goes like, I'm going to go into mine, but clearly it's something that happens over there.
Guest:It's not some weird stereotype.
Guest:Marcel Marceau.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Have you heard of Marcel Marceau?
Marc:Of course.
Guest:He's the one guy.
Guest:He's the one guy who teached to Michael Jackson how to moonwalk.
Guest:He did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:And my father was a big fan of Marcel Marceau.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was a mime.
Guest:He did that as a hobby, right?
Guest:Like in private things, clubs.
Guest:As a hobby.
Guest:Not a professional mime.
Guest:Nah.
Guest:How could he be a professional mime in Morocco?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I don't know the landscape there.
Guest:I don't know what a night out is in Morocco.
Guest:And first time...
Guest:First time I went on stage in my life was with my father.
Guest:I was presenting his routine, you know, with the board and doing... Oh, you're the guy that walked out that said... No, no, no.
Marc:The wind.
Marc:No talking, but just written on it.
Guest:Written on it.
Guest:What kind of outfit?
Marc:Showman in a restaurant, want to kill each other, I don't know.
Marc:Oh yeah, right, got it.
Marc:So that was your first experience in show business, carrying signs for your father so people would have some context for what he was about to do.
Guest:Yeah, he would have, some comedians should put that sometimes before a joke.
Marc:Because, you know, at the beginning, it doesn't take 10 minutes.
Guest:Yeah, the setup.
Guest:Yeah, the setup.
Marc:Just a quick setup, please.
Marc:Get to the point.
Marc:Right, or a segue, you know.
Marc:A segue.
Marc:I like that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But that's interesting to me.
Marc:So, you know, he loved Marcel Marceau.
Marc:So, I guess mine was actually very popular, and I think that Marcel Marceau popularized it, like, obviously, over there.
Guest:and i got what is the so so but he didn't do it professionally no it was you know a hobby i think he he he would have loved to be a professional mime but it was hard was he good at it yeah very good yeah he was the only one
Guest:The only one in Morocco?
Guest:He had the market cornered.
Guest:Looking for a mime?
Guest:There was not another mime.
Guest:He was the mime.
Guest:The mime of Morocco.
Guest:Now we have a very important comedy festival in Marrakech.
Guest:It's funny, I was just talking to this.
Guest:Did you play it?
Guest:Yeah, of course.
Guest:Yeah, because you're the guy.
Guest:You made it out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Of course, they're proud, you know.
Marc:What do they do?
Guest:They bring all the French comedians because obviously everyone talks French in Morocco because Morocco was colonized by France, you know.
Guest:And also they bring Moroccan comedians, obviously.
Guest:And Jamel DeBouze, who is the biggest comedian.
Guest:He's Moroccan, but he's maybe the second biggest comedian in France.
Marc:Really?
Guest:What's his name?
Guest:Jamel DeBouze.
Guest:i think i've seen him yeah i was talking this morning about what i was going to do here and he says but podcast we don't have this in france we don't care about podcast i think you probably you might i guess not well you don't care about a lot of things right i don't care i don't care about that conversation yeah yeah i don't i don't know i
Marc:It's very funny, though, like the way you characterize, like I thought it was kind of interesting that, you know, by doing your act in English, you know, you're speaking to there was a like, I guess probably about a third of the audience were French people living here.
Marc:And, you know, by choosing to do it in English, you kind of make it a more personal experience for people who are French who live here because you're talking about being French, learning English and dealing with America.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:As opposed to just come out and do the French act.
Marc:That would have made them all happy.
Marc:But I think you spoke directly to their experience as expatriates.
Guest:That's a very good point because it's true.
Guest:Obviously, I do the show in English and a lot of Americans are in the room, but the expats, as you say, relate really strongly to the frustration they feel with Americans and how with the language and some habits.
Guest:Yeah, you're right.
Guest:I do this because it's a mixed crowd, but when I go to where we met, at the cellar, for example, in New York City, I do only bits that could be understood only by Americans, obviously.
Marc:And that's a pretty international club in a weird way.
Marc:It used to be more so.
Marc:They get a lot of people from all over.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I feel so.
Guest:I like that.
Guest:I like that.
Guest:I saw comedians from South Africa, from Europe, from Middle East, and it's great.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:So when you started out in Morocco, you're just a Jewish kid from Morocco, and you've got obviously parents that are very supportive of doing the arts.
Marc:They encourage it.
Marc:What is your father's business outside of doing a mime?
Guest:Nothing special.
Guest:He worked here and there as an employee in many things, in rest.
Guest:restaurants, real estate, whatever.
Guest:It was just trying to- Hustler.
Guest:To, you know, to what?
Guest:How do you call it?
Marc:A hustler.
Marc:Making its meat.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:A lot of different things.
Marc:Hustler.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's a store on Sunset.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But that's the, yeah, the skin mag.
Marc:That's a dirty magazine.
Marc:It's a, Hustler Industries was built on Hustler Magazine, which was pussies and, you know, and tits.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:So my father was not working at that.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:And Hustler is also, as a slang- Oh, to hustle.
Marc:A male prostitute.
Marc:But somebody who-
Marc:We're gonna get to my real father's job.
Marc:No, but like a guy who's like, he does a lot of things and he's just, he's figuring out the angle to make some money.
Marc:Exactly, yeah.
Marc:He tries at the end of the month, oh, okay, then to bring food for the family.
Marc:Right, that's it.
Marc:So that's a fine way to use it, but I'd be careful using it in conversation.
Marc:No, I won't.
Marc:Now I understand.
Marc:Yeah, because if you were just with your broken English to say, my dad was a hustler, they'd be like, really?
Marc:That sounds sad.
Marc:So he had a, he was a male prostitute, and you're like, no, no, no, no, no, like the other guy.
Marc:But, all right, so you grew up in this environment, but like I know from being an American comic, you know, we, you know, stand-up comedy is, you know, part of the fabric of our entertainment industry, and it's very specific, and there's a sort of a way to go about it.
Marc:Like, I like Richard Pryor, I like Woody Allen, whatever.
Marc:How do I do that?
Marc:And then some people figure it out, and now it's a little easier to figure it out.
Marc:But as a kid in Morocco, you know, what inspires you to do this thing?
Guest:That's funny because I have the same models, I would say, when you talk about- Role models, yeah.
Guest:Role models.
Guest:Woody Allen and Richard Pryor and even more recently Jerry Seinfeld and- You're seeing these guys?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When you're younger?
Guest:Not younger because I didn't speak English, but I've seen French comics, Moroccan comics when I was young.
Guest:Like on TV?
Guest:So we didn't have, because in Morocco when I was young, we had just one channel.
Marc:As an American you're like, oh my God, how did you survive?
Guest:We had one channel and didn't work during the day.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, I'm not kidding.
Guest:I believe you.
Guest:We would come back from school, do the homework, blah, blah, blah, on only the weekends.
Guest:And we would watch Dallas, the series.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Dallas with the South Fork Ranch, Bobby Ewing.
Guest:Sure, yeah.
Guest:By the way, they would cut all the scenes where they kiss or touch or whatever.
Guest:So Dallas in Morocco was taking place basically in an office all the time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No drinking, no.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:J.R., you know when J.R.
Guest:had his bottle?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He would go toward the bottle, cut, boom, he's in the office.
Guest:And that was what, religious reasons?
Guest:No, really, like his little censor, you know, so.
Guest:For what reason, the white censor?
Guest:You know, the kiss.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:You know, like, ah.
Guest:So it was really funny, you know, just to... But I didn't know that, you know?
Guest:Right, sure.
Guest:You just thought that these people... I thought it was... They were working really hard and never get to the glass of the... And never kiss anybody.
Marc:Never kiss anybody.
Marc:No one sleeps with each other.
Guest:So then we didn't understand why they would fight, you know, because they don't see when they kiss and they... It was really interesting.
Guest:But the business part of it was really, really strong, intense, you know?
Guest:It was oil, right?
Guest:It was oil.
Guest:So we were...
Guest:All about oil.
Guest:We were focused on, it was a cereal about oil.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Only oil.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:And horses.
Marc:And people that never quite made it to the drink or the bedroom.
Guest:Never.
Guest:And horses.
Guest:They would ride horses and do business.
Guest:So you didn't really get the full experience.
Marc:The cleanest cereal on earth.
Marc:That was maybe a little peculiar because it didn't quite make sense.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was on Friday.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it's a whole, you know, it's all messed up because Friday was Shabbat also.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In Morocco.
Guest:You live religious?
Guest:No, but tradition, we would do Shabbat at home.
Marc:Was it a Jewish neighborhood, a Jewish community, a Jewish area?
Marc:How did it work?
Guest:There's a Jewish community who get really along, as I told you, with the Muslims.
Guest:They know about Jewish community.
Guest:We know about Muslims.
Guest:We had a really, really great relationship.
Guest:So you watched them in Dallas?
Marc:Yeah, Dallas.
Guest:One station.
Guest:So the channel, the TV would start around, I think, 6 p.m., not before.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then something happened crazy.
Guest:I was maybe 12, and the private second channel came, and wow.
Guest:It was like the revolution.
Guest:Like cable?
Guest:Cable.
Marc:Not cable, but the second one, private.
Marc:Yeah, right, new.
Marc:But we had those... Private as opposed to what?
Marc:State?
Marc:Like, or as opposed to... Like... One channel was run by the government?
Marc:Yeah, and the other one was more... An entrepreneur, like some guy started a TV channel.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:But we would watch French shows, obviously, entertainment show, talk shows from France, on a cassette... Video cassette?
Guest:Video cassette, like older cassette, from France, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:So family who moved to France many years before would send us by someone the talk show of this famous, I don't know, host and some comedians were on the show.
Guest:But because, you know, it was rare, you know, we would get one cassette every two months.
Guest:And they'd be dated, old stuff.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Old material, but also I would watch and watch and watch the cassette every night.
Guest:With the comedian.
Guest:After school, because with comedians.
Guest:So this guy, Thierry Le Luron, big French comedian, he would do only impressions of politicians and artists and performers, singers.
Guest:I was amazed by that.
Guest:I was really impressed.
Guest:So I was watching this, and the first movie I've seen, I was maybe six-year-old, in the cinema with my father, was the kid, Charlie Chaplin.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:and people would smoke in the movie theater and no kids.
Guest:I was there with my father and I saw the kid.
Guest:It was a shock.
Marc:Jackie Cooper.
Guest:Yeah, the little kid.
Guest:Big shock.
Guest:Why was it a shock?
Guest:because i wanted to be that kid oh yeah and it was it was great you wanted to be in the movies yeah i wanted to be in a movie you know what they used to do in in movie theaters in morocco they would take the film yeah and the a guy with a bike yeah would go and deliver the the the real yeah the real the real yeah to another movie theater
Guest:yeah and one day i was in a movie theater and we were waiting for the film yeah and the guy said he come on the stage he said i'm sorry the guy with the real real he fell with yeah with the mic yeah the movie so we're just fixing now
Marc:So you had to wait.
Guest:Wait, and we're gonna bring, don't worry, we're gonna bring that.
Marc:Is that how you saw movies when you were a kid?
Marc:Do you go to these theaters?
Guest:I go, I went, well not a lot, because we didn't have enough money to go all the time.
Guest:How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?
Guest:I'm now, I just turned 45.
Marc:so you really like so in a way it seems uh just in in relative to to what we're used to entertainment wise a little bit primitive oh totally and it's not that long ago no totally and then i moved to to to canada i stayed four years in quebec in montreal what for school school yeah i studied a little bit so you so your experience as a kid so you like the charlie chapel movie and you like this french impressionist
Marc:So, but, you know, as a child, you did not see Woody Allen movie.
Marc:You didn't see... No.
Marc:I discovered Woody Allen.
Guest:I was maybe... Yeah, I was 15, 16, you know?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you saw it.
Marc:But you know you wanted to be an entertainer.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And at this time... More than an actor.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you like the comedians.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:A lot.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because it's a very specific job.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:You got to make them laugh.
Marc:It's a very specific thing.
Guest:And you got to get something from them right now.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you can also be yourself to some degree.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So... Yeah, you can tell your story and you can be yourself, which is better than, you know... Pretending to be somebody.
Guest:I did movies in France.
Guest:I did also some movies here in America, but...
Guest:To be very honest, I get really, sometimes I get bored.
Guest:You're waiting around a lot when you do TV and movies.
Guest:I wait and I don't know.
Guest:I don't want to play this guy named, I don't know, Frederick.
Guest:He's a dentist.
Guest:I don't believe.
Guest:I don't believe in that.
Guest:He's just divorced and he has a dog.
Guest:I don't like dogs and I have to deal with the dog.
Guest:It doesn't sound like acting's your thing.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I like to kiss a very beautiful girl.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Well, that's probably because it was denied to you by Dallas when you were a young kid.
Marc:You're like, I just want to.
Marc:That's a good callback.
Guest:You got it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But so what are you doing as a kid?
Marc:Are you playing instruments?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What do you play?
Guest:Outlet percussion.
Guest:And piano.
Guest:Moroccan drums?
Guest:Yeah, Moroccan drums called Darabuka, but also drums, guitar, and piano.
Guest:Piano was my thing.
Guest:I thought, okay, when I was a kid, I would play music every day, and I thought I was going to become a pianist.
Marc:Oh, yeah?
Marc:Like classical?
Guest:No, jazz music.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:I'm a very, very, very big jazz fan.
Marc:So was your dad into jazz?
Marc:Where'd you start hearing jazz?
Guest:No, he plays a little piano, but I was listening to jazz all the time at home.
Guest:Back in the day, it was my father's stuff, like Louis Armstrong and Diddy Bridgewater and the singers more.
Guest:And then when I traveled and I played and I went to concerts and traveled...
Guest:i discovered the the other you know from brad meldo today to chick korea and um ahmad jamal and you like that stuff oh yeah yeah jazz music i love to go to festivals i love jazz music this is the only thing that i can do all by myself i could go to a jazz concert in the city i don't know i can fly there
Guest:yeah jazz and comedy yeah i can go see comedy stand up yeah like when i land new york l.a whatever boston yeah i go by myself i need a beer yeah and the time yeah and watch them stand not even money they they let me yeah get in for free yeah because you're you're a guy you're a comic yeah you're a comic yeah come on in you want a soda yeah
Marc:Get you a drink.
Marc:How much is... I don't know, you're a comic.
Marc:I like that.
Marc:Just sit back there.
Marc:I love it.
Marc:Oh, yeah, me too.
Guest:You know, the first time they gave me money in a club in New York, I felt something very, very strange because obviously we make money by doing movies, but I didn't feel what I felt.
Guest:I mean, I didn't... One day wired me money for a movie.
Guest:I didn't feel what I felt when they pumped me those 30 bucks.
Marc:Yeah, here's the 30 bucks for your 10 minutes.
Marc:I loved it.
Marc:I loved it.
Marc:And that was in New York?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But recently?
Marc:Recently.
Marc:Oh, but you get paid to do big shows, but you got like a manager and you don't see the money until later, but just the sort of like, you just were up there, here's your $20.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're like, I earned that.
Marc:I like that.
Marc:Oh yeah, it's great.
Marc:That first time you get paid in a comedy club.
Guest:The only thing is they make me sign something.
Guest:I would love to have just the money and a handshake.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:Well, it used to be that way.
Marc:It used to be that way.
Marc:Then the clubs are sort of like, well, the tax people, they need some proof.
Guest:Maybe I would even prefer more like, you know what?
Guest:I'll pay you tomorrow.
Guest:I can't tonight.
Guest:That would make it so real.
Marc:Oh, you should have started here.
Marc:That would have happened a lot.
Marc:You should have struggled here.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:You do gigs and the guy... You do a week and the guy's like, I'm a little short this week.
Marc:Have a drink.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:I'll send you the check.
Marc:There are guys that have stories about guys that didn't pay him 20 years ago.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:So how do you...
Marc:start doing shows i mean do you start as a like it's interesting about jazz is jazz has a much bigger life in europe yeah that that you know that that's really where jazz uh lives as a popular medium like you know it just seems like a lot of jazz musicians end up spend a lot of time in france they get it here there's a whole school if i may say that yeah for jazz music
Marc:But not for stand-up.
Marc:No.
Marc:But what's the evolution of you as a performer?
Marc:Where do you start performing?
Marc:What do you start doing?
Guest:So I started to perform a little bit in Montreal when I lived in Montreal.
Guest:Were you going to college?
Guest:The college, yeah.
Guest:I went to college.
Marc:In Montreal?
Guest:Yeah, in Montreal.
Guest:And I started to study at the University of Montreal political science.
Guest:What was the plan?
Guest:Comedy.
Guest:You're right in here.
Guest:right there yeah yeah so they say that's yeah you gotta tell your parents something that's the right place yeah and I was watching those guys who you made fun of the but those guys are great because they're from Montreal and they do comedy they do stand-up and I was watching them in French
Guest:Yeah, this is where I said, oh, wow, they do stand-up comedy like my idols, like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock and this and that.
Guest:But in French, I'm going to bring that to Europe, to France.
Guest:So then I moved to France.
Guest:I went to the acting school.
Guest:after after college after college and then you know i was 20 years old and i really i quickly started to write some things and we don't have clubs yeah in france we have one now what we didn't have back in the day we didn't have clubs so here you can work out the material 10 minutes by 10 minutes no there you had to have like one hour when i were 15 when i were 30 they don't know you have to bring the family you have to bring tv you have to bring everyone
Guest:And you do an okay show, and then the show gets better by the time.
Guest:That's how it works in France?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But did you do- But I prefer how it works here.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Because if you have an hour or an hour and 30 minutes, it's only good stuff.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:You got to do it in sections, and you go out every night.
Marc:It's like going to the gym.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Whereas in Europe, you got to show up with the hour.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's okay, or if it's not great, they're a little more forgiving.
Marc:I noticed that they'll give you a little more leeway.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Like if you go to Edinburgh.
Marc:Do you go to Edinburgh?
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:So you see these performers, they come every year with a new hour, but it's not punchline.
Marc:No.
Marc:It's sort of like, wow, this is it?
Marc:I guess getting the laugh every 30, 40 seconds is not that important here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But there are some guys like some British comics that are very punchline efficient.
Marc:But I noticed that you show up with the show, there's different expectation.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:They're in a kind of ambiance, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:When I go to the cellar, for example, again, the cellar.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Where we talked about the other night.
Marc:You and I have been doing stand-up.
Marc:How long have you been doing it?
Marc:20 years?
Marc:20, 22.
Marc:I've been doing like 25 years or more.
Marc:But yet you go to that club and somehow you can do a set and you get off.
Marc:You're like, holy, do I know how to do this?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I was so happy when I heard you said that because you're like, you know, you're who you are and you do stand up for 25 years.
Guest:And when you said that, I was like, oh man, that's great to hear that.
Guest:Like I can feel really, really like, ugh, like a beginner.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I've been doing this for 20 years, I think I bummed, I just bummed.
Guest:And again, because the seller, they, I mean, it's a very strange and radical, I love it, audience.
Guest:It's either you got a laugh, a real laugh, ha ha, you feel it, you hear it.
Guest:or nothing nothing nothing not even the how you say a little chuckle yeah chuckle nothing no yeah we have chuckle yeah in in europe yeah yeah yeah oh i it's like oh i know what you want to say like it's not funny yeah no in new york oh let's just leave you hanging there
Marc:Nothing.
Marc:All alone up there.
Marc:No friends in the room.
Guest:So that's why when I go there, when I go up, I'm like, I'm going with my strong bits, you know?
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:You got it with the cellar.
Marc:It's not a workout room.
Marc:No, that's what I told you last night.
Guest:Like, when someone was telling me, are you trying new things tonight?
Guest:No.
Guest:Fuck.
Marc:I'm doing old great things to look good and feel like I'm good.
Marc:So when you go from Montreal and you get to France and you decide you're going to put together a show.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So where do you get booked for something like that?
Marc:Small theaters.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Very small.
Guest:Got a production, taking care of everything, going on tour.
Marc:So really, when you go, it's not just sort of like you show up and do the set.
Marc:You got to book a theater.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You got to get a stage manager.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Got to get some producer involved.
Guest:And you stay there six months.
Marc:every night like five nights five nights a week this is how we do it over there that's how you build your app yeah and then tv guys come to see your radio guys and media and they get interested or not in your thing so it's really more of a it's more like a theater production oh yeah exactly so what was the first show what did it include now that you've watched your french uh the french comedy in montreal
Marc:So when you decide I'm going to... No, I was a little boo-boo-ba-ba in the beginning.
Marc:There's nothing wrong with it.
Guest:No, it's okay.
Guest:The boo-boo-ba-ba.
Guest:I'm sure you do a little bit of that now.
Guest:A little bit.
Guest:A little bit.
Guest:Sometimes.
Guest:I don't do it at the cellar.
Guest:If you want to see me do the boo-boo-ba-ba... You got to see it in French.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I won't do the boo-boo-ba-ba like at Carnegie Hall.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:I will do only sharp, efficient, radical, straight...
Marc:But no, I'm just saying that you, like, I have nothing against, you know, I'm not being dismissive, but I'm just saying that the actual theatricality of what I notice in, you know, what I assume is, you see it here, too, with Latino television and stuff, that there is a broader performance style.
Guest:But I would say L.A.
Guest:Comics are more a boo-boo-ba-bam than New York.
Marc:There's a variety.
Marc:Yeah, you got a little more room on the stage here.
Marc:But, yeah, no, it depends who it is.
Marc:But I'm just saying, generally speaking, the theatrical element of comedy in French comedy is a big part of it.
Marc:It's just a tradition.
Marc:It's not, you know, it's not like some bad thing.
Marc:No, no, I understand that.
Marc:I understand that.
Marc:And also, I think with Middle Eastern comedy, when I see like, you know, Persian acts or people that come from an expressive, it's not heady.
Marc:It's not thinky.
Guest:It's thinky, but it's also, like, there's a guy I really like, Sebastian Maniscalco.
Marc:I love that guy, yeah, Sebastian.
Marc:He's very funny.
Guest:He's hilarious.
Marc:When I watch him, he's very physical.
Marc:Oh, no, no, he's very physical, and it's very specific.
Marc:But it's not boo-boo-bah-bah.
Marc:No, no, no, no, no, no, it's a character.
Marc:Character.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:And it helps to, you know.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, he's got a very weird way about him.
Marc:It's very unique.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, I like that guy.
Marc:Where'd you see him?
Guest:I saw him live in Boston, and I watch his stuff on the internet.
Guest:I'm, I'm,
Marc:I really like his work.
Marc:Because he's an L.A.
Marc:guy.
Marc:He calls a comedy store a lot.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I don't know where he's at.
Marc:He's a good guy.
Marc:He is a very specific thing.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:But it's his thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Sometimes he does things with your body language.
Marc:Yeah, it's very funny.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:He does a thing.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I like it.
Marc:But I think that, you know, I guess generalizing the boo-boo-ba-ba is that there is a, and you did it in your show.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's just by virtue of where you come from.
Marc:It's not a bad thing.
Guest:I get it.
Marc:It's just like, you know, even when you say, when you do the bit about, when you ask a French person for directions, the singing thing, that there is obviously a type of French character that's very familiar.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Not unlike, you know, we have characters here.
Marc:You got your New York character, you got your Southern character, you know, you got your hippie character, whatever.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It's always a question of perspective, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:For example, when a comic goes on stage in France holding a mic, and if he has a wire, we're going to be like, this guy has no money.
Guest:The production is so poor.
Guest:He has no manager.
Guest:They cannot even afford a headset or a love thing on his clothes.
Guest:Poor guy, he's really struggling.
Guest:But here in America, he show up with the headset.
Guest:You're like, who the fuck is this guy?
Guest:Who's this guy?
Guest:Is he a magician?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Is he a Vegas Cirque du Soleil?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:That's a relatively new thing.
Marc:It's a new phenomenon, the headset.
Marc:It's within the last decade.
Marc:But if I go on the road, I prefer a wire.
Marc:I don't like wireless mics.
Marc:They're too big.
Marc:They don't fit in the thing right.
Marc:You're always struggling to get them back in the goddamn holder.
Marc:And the lavalier thing, I'm always worried about it.
Marc:And if I go on the road, I'm like, I want a fucking 58 with a wire.
Marc:A Shure 58.
Marc:The SM58.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:With a wire.
Marc:Why the wire?
Marc:Because I want to feel like I'm connected to something.
Guest:I think that's the best conversation between comedians is about the microphone.
Marc:No, 58 on a stick with a wire.
Marc:That's what I want.
Marc:I want a fucking stand like this thing here.
Marc:Yeah, the stool, right?
Marc:No, no, just a mic stand.
Marc:I want a straight stand.
Marc:I need the strand with the round bass.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:No, I need that.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:No, no, no.
Marc:Or the tripod, the three.
Marc:It's gonna fuck you up.
Marc:Oh man, if I see a tripod... No, no, you can't.
Marc:I don't go.
Marc:Yeah, because you're gonna wrestle with it.
Marc:It's gonna cause you trouble.
Marc:At some point it's gonna be a problem.
Guest:But the wire, I don't get it.
Guest:Why the wire?
Marc:For me, the wire, they haven't made a cordless mic that feels right to me.
Marc:because they're too fat and the clip is always fucked up.
Marc:It's like always getting it in and out of the clip is always a little more of a trouble than you just slide it in with the wire.
Marc:You just slide it in.
Marc:It's a nice little, it's the right size and the fucking mic would know the one and then I don't trust it.
Marc:I don't trust it.
Marc:I think it sounds weird.
Marc:But this is, you know, this is just the preference.
Guest:Yeah, but if you're going to be moving around on the stage and doing some... Yeah, I get it.
Guest:I get it.
Marc:You need, you know, wireless maybe.
Marc:No, I get it.
Marc:I get it.
Marc:You're playing big rooms.
Marc:You don't have to rub it in.
Marc:You play in big places.
Marc:Yeah, big places.
Guest:Big places in Europe and Middle East also.
Guest:Do you do the act in Hebrew?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I put some Hebrew stuff in my act when I played my shows in theaters in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in French.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:because there's a very big French community there so I've done shows and I put some Hebrew because I told you I speak Hebrew and also Europe but also there's something interesting I did a lot of shows I started to do shows in America in French for the French communities everywhere this is how I started how many years ago
Guest:Like three years ago.
Guest:And then I was putting here and there some English to try, you know?
Guest:Yeah, and how'd that come?
Guest:It was, in the beginning, it was hard.
Guest:And then, you know, I felt more confident.
Guest:And now I do all in English, you know?
Guest:I was not able to do what I'm doing right now with you today.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Two years ago.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I was studying English every day for two hours with a teacher.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:This is very hard.
Marc:Yeah, I imagine.
Marc:But the first show, so you come from Montreal.
Marc:You can do your six-month run to build the hour.
Marc:What is that hour?
Marc:It's about my story.
Guest:Born in Morocco, and then going to the acting school, and I talk about my first experiences on the theater.
Guest:It's a one-man show.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And is there music?
Guest:No stand-up.
Guest:Is there music?
Guest:Music, one-man show.
Guest:So you play some piano?
Guest:No, not at this.
Guest:No, I play some guitar on the second show.
Guest:Singing?
Guest:Singing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Impression.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Totally boo-boo-ba-ba.
Guest:Totally boo-boo-ba-ba.
Guest:Ladies and gentlemen, boo-boo-ba-ba is... Boo-boo-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:All right, stop.
Guest:No, no, man.
Marc:But it's still a one-man show, which is, I think, the difference in American stand-up really integrating into Europe, that was the difference.
Marc:That most of it, early on, like Edinburgh style, you do an hour that has a theme, that has a story, and it's not about jokes necessarily.
Marc:It's about the story.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then my second show.
Guest:So that was my first show, one man show.
Guest:Second show was more characters.
Guest:And my third show, I was watching.
Guest:Now, this is a year you put in these shows.
Guest:You do a show.
Guest:You're in that show for a year.
Guest:No, for three years, for two years.
Guest:I go on tour and I travel.
Guest:and then i started to watch all those guys and especially jerry yeah and i was like wow i'm connected i this is what i want to do my observations it's always i feel connected to this kind of of writing and taking small things and making them big well that's because once you establish not unlike a lot of us do in a different way you know you you're comfortable with who you are on stage because you fucking talked about it
Marc:So like, you know, you now found where you live up there and now you have a point of view from telling your story.
Marc:Now you want to take that point of view and apply it to the world and not to yourself.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:For example, I do material now in America about, oh, I'm from France, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I hope in one, two years from now, I will not talk anymore about, oh, because my French perspective.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Oh, you say that.
Marc:Right.
Guest:I just want to be a comedian.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Just a funny guy.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Oh, yeah, he's from France.
Guest:I don't care.
Guest:I just want to be a funny man.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Well, you are a funny man.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:You're already a funny man.
Guest:All right.
Marc:But you've taken on this- You give me the visa, right?
Marc:You need a visa?
Marc:For a funny man.
Marc:There's a stamp, boom, you're a funny man.
Marc:Yeah, funny visa.
Guest:Oh, you want to hear a very funny story, by the way.
Guest:I mean, not funny, but strange.
Guest:What?
Guest:With Jerry Seinfeld that happened in Cannes.
Marc:Yeah, in Cannes.
Marc:In Cannes Film Festival.
Marc:You were both at the Cannes Film Festival.
Marc:So wait, before we get to the Jerry story, which I'll make note of because I'm a professional, is that... But there's no assistant.
Marc:There's no people with cards showing you what to do.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:Just you and me.
Marc:I'm riding the knobs right here with the levels.
Marc:I'm watching your voice.
Marc:This is how this works.
Marc:So you did go to acting school, though.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:For how long, the whole thing?
Guest:For two years.
Marc:That was the whole time.
Guest:They gave me a scholarship, by the way.
Guest:From the Montreal school?
Guest:No, from the Paris school.
Guest:Oh, you auditioned?
Guest:Audition, yeah.
Guest:And that was great because I worked for the whole summer in a hospital in Montreal to pay my school and everything.
Guest:I got there and I do the audition at school and they give me the scholarship.
Guest:So I have extra money.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:And what do you learn?
Marc:You learn all the basics?
Marc:Basics.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:From Moliere to Shakespeare and Alfred de Musset and, you know, Tennessee Williams and Eugène O'Neill and new guys and Israel Horowitz and, you know.
Guest:Oh, yeah, you did Indian Wants the Bronx?
Marc:Oh, great.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I love this play.
Marc:Okay, so you're doing all that.
Marc:You're doing scenes, you're doing plays.
Guest:Plays, some little scenes from plays.
Guest:Mostly comedy.
Marc:I like comedy, so obviously those teachers are like, no, we're going to give you.
Marc:But that was the template.
Marc:That's how you thought.
Marc:You thought when you entered your own show that you do a theatrical show.
Marc:That makes sense.
Guest:Yeah, but I had no interest in, I don't know, I just wanted to be funny and do funny things and do my shows.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But it helped, right?
Guest:Yeah, they offered me to do movies, so I did a lot of movies in France.
Guest:You did?
Guest:A lot, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Are you a star in movies in France?
Guest:I starred in movies, yeah, like first lead role for, I don't know, 20 movies.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, French movies.
Guest:You're a big star.
Guest:Yeah, this is what, yeah, Boo Boo Baba.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:No, but the movies, they're not Boo Boo Baba.
Guest:I know, but.
Marc:They're painful romantic comedies.
Guest:painful man yeah i it's very hard to do movies i don't i don't want to do i did i did movies here in america small roles with very big directors it was great experiences you know with woody allen with steven spielberg and what'd you do with woody allen um midnight in paris oh yeah i love that detective at the end of the movie very funny scene i gotta go back and look yeah yeah and what'd you do with uh tintin
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Tintin.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was a great experience, you know, here.
Guest:I was also in a movie with Adam Sandler and Al Pacino.
Guest:Obviously, they gave me the French chef to play in Jack and Jill.
Guest:What movie?
Guest:Oh, Jack and Jill.
Guest:Jack and Jill.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A crazy movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:but i was you know i was happy to meet with al pacino and he came to see my show in new york at joe's pub um a new show my this show right now that i'm doing now and i went to see his play but i'm not i think i think movies are not for comedians you know our pacing our way of thinking our it's that's not for us
Guest:This is not the way we think and the way we... Right, right, but it's just a thing... I respect, you know.
Marc:You can do it, though.
Marc:The thing is, if you separate it, this is not my thing.
Marc:This is me playing this character.
Marc:It's exciting.
Marc:I'm in the movies, but you're already tired of it.
Marc:You do 20 movies in France.
Marc:I've done that.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:I guess here's where we're at now, and we'll get to the Jerry story.
Marc:You tour around the world.
Marc:You're very successful.
Marc:You probably live in a nice house.
Marc:I met your son, so you have a couple of sets of kids, a couple of marriages, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And, you know, and you're good.
Marc:You're good.
Marc:I mean, you're a fucking star.
Marc:But there's some part of you that somewhere in you, you're like, oh, I got America.
Marc:I got... What the fuck is that about?
Guest:The fuck is... I think there's two things.
Guest:There is the American thing, but there's also the personal and deep and very personal thing about challenging myself.
Guest:I say it as a joke in my show.
Guest:You do.
Guest:But... Because I make fun of Americans about challenge.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Passion project.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But...
Guest:It's not totally true that it's a joke because it's great to step out of this, you know, to go out of this comfort zone, to take a risk.
Marc:But is there some part of your brain that no matter how big your success is internationally, that if you can't make it as a comedian in America, you haven't made it?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:This is what I think.
Yeah.
Guest:i'm sorry you create a hell of a challenge for yourself yeah this is a big challenge by the way i yeah so what is this jerry story that's funny there's two stories about jerry the first one is he made fun of he used to make fun of make fun of me like why why do you want to come here to america to do comedy where'd you meet him it's like so in canton
Guest:Why is he in Cannes?
Guest:Why are you in Cannes?
Guest:To promote the Bee movie, so animation, animated movie.
Guest:Oh, okay, okay.
Guest:He wrote and they produced with Steven Spielberg, and he did the voice of this bee thing there.
Guest:And then, so we were supposed to be on the same talk show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I'm invited on the show, and he's invited, and we're going to be on the same show.
Guest:And the producer of the show says, okay, you're a big fan.
Guest:Do you want to meet with him?
Guest:I say, yes, of course.
Guest:I want to meet with my, his, you know.
Guest:You're an idol.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I'm sitting there in a hotel room.
Guest:It's a mess.
Guest:It's a fuss.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's crazy.
Guest:People running all around.
Guest:The publicists and Americans are loud.
Guest:Big fuss.
Marc:Big fuss.
Marc:About Jerry.
Guest:And then Jerry walks into the room.
Guest:There are like 12 people sitting there, me, my friends, blah, blah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I swear, and I'm not making that up, and he said he was honest about that.
Guest:He never saw me before.
Guest:So he point to me like that.
Guest:Point at me or point to me?
Guest:He point at you?
Guest:He point at me.
Guest:And he said, oh, you're the funny guy.
Guest:And he didn't know that?
Guest:Never.
Guest:So I said, what?
Guest:oh you googled me i said yeah he said no never and i said so how do you know i'm the funny guy he said because in a room you know who's the funny guy i said what do you mean because there's always one funny guy there's not two and you are the funny guy yeah it's like when he said i saw your material in french it's good i said you don't speak french is it funny is funny
Guest:that's flattering but yeah so the story is one day we were sitting at the cellar and Jerry what happened in con did you guys talk did you hang yeah of course we did the show and then and then he he offered me to do this the French version of the B movie so I made the French voice of B movie I did also Despicable Me right Steve Carell movie I did it in France
Guest:so then we you know I go I see his show on tour and he comes to Paris and you know one day we organized something where he performed in English in Paris and we become friends you know and he comes to see my shows in New York City and by the way when he offered me to open I'm going to open for him and as a joke I said so you have to open for me too he said yeah
Guest:oh i said when he said thursday do you have a show on thursday i said sure so there's this guy who is supposed to open for me every night harrison greenbone yeah new york comic yeah i say harrison you're gonna do it but you're gonna do a two minute yeah warm-up yeah and you're gonna bring up jerry seinfeld yeah he said is this a joke or what no no yeah because jerry's gonna open and
Guest:So then he said, ladies and gentlemen, Jerry Seinfeld, the audience thought it was like a joke.
Guest:They didn't even do like, what?
Guest:And then when he showed up, bananas, as you guys said, they went bananas.
Guest:I like this expression.
Guest:Okay, yeah.
Guest:So, and then I did my show.
Guest:How'd that go for you after Jerry?
Guest:Bananas.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Oh, it was good.
Guest:No.
Guest:No good.
Guest:No, no, it was good.
Guest:It was good.
Guest:He made fun of me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He said to the crowd, oh, because he said to someone, how do you know, where are you from?
Guest:You're French.
Guest:So the woman said, first of all, she said, no, I'm American.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So he says, so how did you hear about this guy?
Guest:What, you just saw him on the top of the cabs?
Guest:Because I had a whole ad zone.
Guest:And you said, oh, this guy is funny.
Guest:And this is Joe's Pub?
Guest:Yeah, because he's on the top of a New York cab.
Guest:She said, no, I read in the New York Times something about him.
Guest:And he said, what did you read?
Guest:She said, I read, here's the Jerry Seinfeld of France.
Guest:And then he said, oh, oh, so you came to see a shitty version of me.
Marc:Oh, boy.
Marc:but it's okay he did 10 minutes yeah and that that's is that going to be the last time you have the biggest name in american comedy open for you it's it's not open for me not now not now that's not open it's just his you know i love you did a guest spot yeah no guest spot so not bait right that's the whole difference i guess that's true no it's probably true right you didn't pay him did you no uh-huh that's nice of him
Marc:But you didn't have any problem following?
Marc:No ba-ba-boo-boo, no during that night, right?
Marc:Right.
Marc:So those are your experiences with Jerry.
Marc:So Jerry's sort of like you become friends and he's supportive of you here and that's a nice thing.
Guest:Yeah, we talk a lot and how does it go?
Guest:Because it went very, how do you say that?
Guest:Organic.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:The way I got here.
Marc:While you were here and I'd heard about you and Godfrey, who I like.
Guest:Because I have to say that.
Guest:It's not to, we have an expression in France.
Guest:What is it?
Guest:It's called, I don't want, okay, if I translate literally.
Guest:I want to hear it in French.
Guest:Je ne veux pas te passer de la pommade, mais, but, okay.
Guest:Passe de la pommade means I don't want to rub you with cream.
Guest:But let me tell you when I say I'm going to go do Marc Maron, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:People are, you know, they're like, oh, well, that's big.
Guest:That's really big.
Guest:That's huge.
Guest:That's huge.
Guest:Oh, it's great.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:And then some people, they say it's even more important than TV, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:They have a whole thing.
Guest:So I don't know why I'm telling you this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So for me, so...
Guest:Oh, the way it worked with us.
Guest:I love you, with us, because we have a friend in common, right?
Guest:We know a guy.
Marc:Well, you have a friend in common, but also it seems like an interesting story.
Marc:It's not a story that I've talked about.
Guest:But I'm glad that you get interested, because if... I'm sorry to interrupt, but because it's very good to do that, because you could have said, ah, people don't know him.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Ah.
Marc:Well, it wasn't like my first impression, to be honest, like I said to you before, I didn't know what to make of you, and I heard about you, and then I met you at the cellar, and I'm judged, whatever, based on nothing.
Marc:But until when I went to see you at Largo, because I have a little time now, because I'm not shooting the TV show, I'm like, I should go watch this, guys.
Marc:That's great, yeah.
Marc:And then, like, when I talk to you afterwards, like, and then I realize, like, oh, he's just a comedian.
Marc:You know, so, like, I like being able to do this.
Marc:I like, you know, like, it's easy for me.
Marc:I live down the street.
Marc:You're not here for that long.
Marc:And after I saw you, I might just come over and do it.
Guest:I've never, okay, I've never done something that way, you know?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:No, neither in France or... You got the big, Jerry calls the posse.
Guest:There's a lot of people.
Guest:No, no, no, no.
Guest:Jerry, he's my friend.
Marc:Right.
Marc:He's making fun of you traveling with people.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, because the entourage.
Marc:The entourage, yeah, right?
Marc:Yeah, the entourage.
Guest:No, but if you go on a TV talk show here in America or in France, even radio or something, it's going to be the whole, you know, the publicist and the assistant.
Guest:I love that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I still didn't believe when I came in front... Of my house?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Came in front... No.
Guest:When I... Yeah, can I mean another thing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No.
Guest:When I... You didn't do that.
Marc:I would have noticed it.
Marc:No, I...
Guest:When I came into your house, no.
Guest:Yeah, it's fine.
Marc:It sounds a little bit sexual.
Marc:I don't like that.
Marc:You're not going to come into the house and be like, don't flatter yourself.
Guest:All over the house.
Marc:My French cock.
Marc:I entered the house with my cock first.
Marc:Beep, bleep.
Guest:No, there's no bleeping on this.
Guest:There's no bleeping.
Guest:So when I arrived, I was like, it's like, is this real?
Guest:No.
Marc:is this like this is this real the thing with the publicist and the assistants and the being ushered in do you want coffee mr french guy all that shit that that you're gonna ask me if this is real i made the fucking coffee right there yeah i'll give you the coffee the cat yeah the cat the lonely the yeah the house yeah i know silence yeah it's nice the neighbor yeah the neighbor's over there nice guys hello yeah
Marc:This is how show business works here.
Marc:No, this is the American dream.
Marc:It is the American dream.
Marc:American way of life.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So this challenge that you've given yourself, so what's the hope that you build a following here of not necessarily French expats?
Marc:Oh, no.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:How's that going?
Marc:What's going on with the Joe's Pub Show?
Marc:What do you find?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I get a lot of Americans now because of...
Guest:Okay, because Joe's Pub is a very small venue, I hang out after the show at the venue, which I never do in Europe.
Guest:I cannot.
Guest:Right, because huge.
Guest:Because it's arena.
Guest:900 people, pictures.
Guest:It's, I don't know, it's 12,000 people arena in Belgium.
Guest:You don't hang out in front of the venue, you know, this parking lot.
Marc:See, that's another difference is that like now you're learning how to do intimate comedy.
Marc:I love it.
Marc:Yeah, well, that's where it happens.
Marc:I love it.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So I hang out there and every night I'm surprised and I'm very happy to meet with the Americans who come to my show because they read something about me because they've been brought by some French guys who want them.
Guest:Or maybe there's a French guy dating American girls.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:So the French guy brings them and the American likes the show and the French guy goes, you should see him in French.
Marc:No, and the French comedian goes with the girl, with the American girl.
Guest:No, I mean, it's a mixed ground.
Guest:A lot of expats from different countries also, I'm always surprised because I have nothing to do maybe or related to Armenia, Iran, Australia, Brits.
Guest:And they come to my show because they relate.
Marc:So the experience.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The experience.
Marc:This is very funny.
Guest:I was talking to, I think when you were here or the night before with the girl from Argentina.
Guest:She was like, oh, this is, I feel like, I feel everything you said, I feel about when I first moved to America.
Guest:They relate as a foreigner.
Marc:Right.
Marc:It's an immigrant experience.
Marc:Yeah, immigrant experience.
Marc:So obviously, of course.
Marc:That's interesting because that's a good angle.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you're going to attract international audiences in America.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So I should perform in Times Square.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Well, you do.
Marc:Close.
Marc:Close.
Marc:Down the street.
Marc:Down the street.
Marc:Not far.
Marc:But that speaks a lot to the cultural landscape of America at this time.
Marc:You know that that there is that you are being sought out by people that the immigrant experience or the transition Into becoming an American or living in America is something common with a lot of people.
Guest:Yeah, but but let's not Underestimate no no no how Americans also
Guest:hear that story as a new thing and perspective right i was really amazed by some comments they say about my they don't know maybe about my story about morocco whatever friends whatever but they're very they they connect to the story and it's i love that this is the best compliment i can get when i what's the other side look out
Marc:It's the other side.
Marc:Americans, they have not necessarily an arrogance, but they have, it's not even entitlement.
Marc:It's just that we assume a certain thing about America.
Marc:And we don't necessarily empathize with what the immigrant experience is.
Marc:So to hear your frustrations for an American, it's sort of like, oh my God, that guy was going through that.
Marc:It's refreshing.
Marc:I just said, hi, how you doing?
Marc:And he looked like he was in panic.
Marc:And now I get why.
Marc:It's because he didn't know how to react.
Marc:So you're giving the other side of that.
Marc:It helps us be more empathetic.
Guest:a culture with comedy and a sense of it who is that is very very strong with Americans really I was surprised in the beginning like I was oh can I do that big I do the self-deprecating is in the American culture
Guest:is very, very present.
Guest:As a comedian.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:No, even the audience.
Marc:In general, yeah.
Guest:I mean, they know.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They know really well.
Guest:They know what this is.
Guest:They go to the club, they sit there, and they know there are comedians.
Guest:They know more than Europe.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:We think about ourselves a lot here.
Guest:here yeah yeah and they'll but the self-deprecating yeah yeah thing is well accepted by americans and i like that because the underdog it's yeah it's a culture it's a culture you know yeah so again going back to your friend jerry yeah and when he i i told him i was gonna do comedy he was like why would you do this in english
Guest:Really?
Marc:He said that?
Marc:Yeah, because he was making fun of me.
Marc:And this is a guy that can't understand you're acting French.
Marc:So all he knows is that you're a funny guy and he likes you, but he has no fucking... No, but he saw my jokes in English and he gave me the best advice on earth.
Guest:He said, why are you going to do this in English?
Guest:The best, right?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:No, he was like in the beginning was making fun of me because I shot a documentary about doing stand-up in English.
Guest:It was called 10 Minutes in America.
Guest:I was building my 10 minutes.
Guest:So I did interviews with Sarah Silverman, Woody Allen, and Jerry and other comedians.
Guest:And Jerry was, as a joke, in front of me, he said, oh, you're going to come to America and do, but this is America.
Guest:They know.
Guest:I mean, it's like, okay, it's like if I go to Germany and I say I'm going to start to build cars and then I go to Italy and I'm going to do pasta factory.
Guest:I'm going to start a pasta factory.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And then I go to France and I'm going to start a new kind of baguette.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then I'm going to go to America and do stand-up comedy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't think that's right.
Marc:Me too.
Marc:It's a little off as a metaphor because comedy, humor, laughing is an international human thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it was just making fun of it.
Marc:No, it's style.
Guest:Yeah, it's style.
Marc:Yeah, it's an American thing.
Marc:Like, why would you do that to yourself?
Marc:I guess the concern really and the concern for me too in watching it is that...
Marc:You know, your observations are good and your structure is good and your performance is all good.
Marc:But I think what you're up against is that, you know, you have to have the point of view that you have right now because that's showing you how to use English and do the jokes.
Marc:But I think what Jerry might be saying is that, like, you know, are you, do you have more creative range in your own language?
Marc:Oh.
Marc:Do you know what I'm saying?
Marc:There's something challenging and endearing about your struggle with English and your struggle as somebody who is here.
Marc:But can you express yourself to the best of your ability better in French?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So that's the tricky thing.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But this is again part of this crazy challenge.
Guest:This is why I told you I would like in a few months, few weeks, talk about different things, not only... And you will.
Marc:Because that struck me in the show today, the way you're writing and the joke structure, because Jerry's very much a technician.
Marc:And, you know, like even when you had the callback with the I'm down.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm good.
Marc:I'm good.
Marc:I'm good.
Marc:Right.
Marc:It's very clever.
Marc:You know, they had to come back around.
Marc:Now, is that a device you use in France as well?
Marc:No.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:No.
Marc:I learned that in America.
Marc:I noticed.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I said, well, that's good.
Marc:He's understanding the structure.
Guest:That's funny because I'm working now with a French comedian on a project in France.
Guest:I'm going to be doing it in a few months.
Guest:And my vision changed totally.
Marc:Right.
Marc:About writing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So they write me back, oh, why are you so exigeant?
Guest:How do you say?
Guest:Exigeant.
Guest:how do you say, exigeant, like very hard on what we're doing.
Guest:Oh, right, right.
Guest:Why don't you just, that's a good joke.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I say, no.
Guest:It could be better, right.
Guest:We need to get it sharp and clear and sweet and boom.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they're like, no, no, no, that's great.
Guest:It's very long setups.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Those emails are very long.
Guest:And I cut the fat.
Guest:I'm like, boom, boom, boom.
Guest:I cut all the fat and I send them back.
Guest:I say, that will work like this.
Guest:Boom.
Guest:Three lines, one setup, a joke.
Guest:Do they agree?
Guest:Yeah, but it's a little bit, you know.
Marc:There's not enough.
Marc:Boom, boom, boom, ba, ba.
Guest:We had to boom, boom, ba, ba.
Yeah.
Guest:But we have to mix those two cultures, right?
Guest:Sure, sure.
Guest:The boo-boo-ba-ba can be fun, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But if you only do the boo-boo-ba-ba... Could be better.
Marc:Could be better.
Marc:Like the joke could be better.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You get away with something.
Marc:But I like a good joke.
Marc:Sure, because the boo-boo-ba-ba, you know, it's a lot of charm.
Marc:It's a lot of charm.
Marc:Seduction.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:You can do boo-boo-ba-ba even with no jokes.
Marc:That's exactly right.
Marc:Nice suit.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Nice suit, music, good lighting.
Marc:Sure, it's character-driven.
Marc:Boo-boo-ba-ba.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:No, come on.
Marc:Let's make a better joke.
Marc:Well, that's interesting.
Guest:You know, that's...
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you're going to change French stand-up.
Marc:A lot of guys that were getting away with it.
Guest:No, we brought, not only me, but we brought, we kind of brought this way of doing comedy in France, stand-up, talking directly to the audience, not with an imaginary third, how do you say that, third wall?
Guest:Yeah, fourth wall.
Guest:Fourth wall.
Guest:We brought this with Jamel, this other guy in France.
Guest:So now we gotta go one step further.
Guest:We have to stand up, we have to be more efficient.
Guest:Sometimes I go see some shows in Europe, not only in France, and there are like four minutes with no laughs.
Guest:setup and theatrical it's okay it's fun they do it very well the thing moves the music the life yeah but now that i'm here i don't know i kind of change my yeah i want the joke i want to laugh that's interesting to me that you're gonna like to integrate that into a tradition of of entertainment that it's what you're really also short sets not we you know sometimes i go to europe and i see shows two hours of comedy two hours right that's too much
Guest:You cannot be funny for two hours.
Guest:It's impossible.
Marc:Even if you're a genius, you cannot.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:But that's interesting that you're really up against different expectations.
Marc:Like maybe a French audience doesn't know that this could be better because they've gotten so used to the, here's the music, here's the guy in the suit.
Guest:But it's exactly like the American audience.
Guest:No, I think it's good.
Guest:They don't know that maybe with a little physicality would be crazy.
Marc:No, that's right.
Guest:When I do it sometimes, even at the cellar sometimes or other clubs, I put a little expressions.
Guest:They like it.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:Well, it's a natural thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's not necessarily French, but there's a way of doing it that you're used to.
Marc:I think your muscle around physicality has to do with that's what you do.
Marc:So like when you just...
Marc:when you like temper or when you trim it, when you make it more efficient.
Marc:Because I noticed that right when you started doing physical, I'm like, you're very comfortable doing that.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Guest:We're having a real conversation right now.
Guest:It's great.
Marc:Right.
Marc:That's what I do.
Marc:Never happens.
Marc:No?
Marc:On the radio.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that's the podcast.
Marc:that's different yeah well that i but i'm excited about that i like the idea of that of of like you know working within this tradition of of comedy in france and then you bringing this new skill set to it and kind of changing the face of french comedy while you learn how to do because you want me to go back there that's that's why i'm not exactly saying that but
Guest:I love that you came here to take some great ideas and go back to your country to use them over there.
Marc:I think that was Jerry's point when he said, I don't go to Italy and make pasta.
Marc:But he's indulging you and it's nice.
Guest:No, I mean, he's right when he talks about how New Yorkers are so aware of the... They know the stand-up.
Guest:This is where stand-up was born, you know, in America, in New York City.
Guest:So, obviously, he's very sarcastic, but also, it's true.
Marc:But he comes from that tradition, too.
Marc:But I think what you're doing, it's not by me saying that I want to send you back to France.
Marc:I just think it's exciting that you take a form, which is not unlike jazz, which has a lot of roots and integrates a lot of things, that you're conscious enough to know the difference between what has become, not necessarily stale, but expected in France and
Marc:And you say, well, why don't we integrate what I'm learning here into trying it there and seeing what happens, making a different expectation.
Marc:It might be surprising.
Marc:There's actually this opportunity to take a form that's very, again, I'll say traditional in terms of how entertainment works, but taking these new skills and just seeing how that joke works now.
Marc:Have you seen the results yet?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's interesting.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:And is it working?
Marc:Oh, it's great.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:But they don't know why.
Guest:they don't know oh it's great that's exciting that's a very exciting thing it's great you know it's like it's like i don't know i was thinking about um analogy but it's not a good one i was thinking about thinking about a sexual analogy like yeah like you took something and you're very performant and then but she doesn't know right right the the you that you've been with another woman learning new things yeah
Guest:Or having so many pills.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:She had no idea.
Marc:Don't tell her you took the pills.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:What happened to you?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It's you.
Marc:It's you, baby.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But my question to you is, is the opposite would be true?
Guest:Like, would you go, you or another comedian go to Boo Boo Baba land?
Guest:I do more now.
Marc:And would watch something and get inspired.
Marc:We have our own version of that.
Marc:No, we have our own version of that.
Marc:And it's not the same in that whatever we're calling Boo Boo Baba is really just the way French comedy has worked for years.
Marc:That's all.
Marc:And we have, you know, there are certain types of comedy that have existed here for years.
Marc:But lately, for me, I've become more, a little more lighthearted.
Marc:Like, I open up a little more.
Marc:And I'm very envious of natural, physical comedians.
Marc:I know that I have the ability, but I don't have the comfort.
Marc:And I do it a little more now.
Marc:And that's something I'm consciously doing.
Marc:But I don't think of it as boo-boo-bah-bah.
Marc:But I think of it as like, why not, you know, why not be a little more physical?
Marc:Try it.
Marc:You know, you have the skill...
Marc:Yeah, but you have a character.
Marc:I saw you on stage.
Guest:We don't expect that from you.
Marc:Right, well, that's why I like to do it now.
Marc:Oh, you see?
Marc:You're challenging yourself.
Marc:Sure, and I'm challenging to take those risks.
Marc:I mean, if you saw me in another environment, like tonight I'm going to do the Comedy Store, where I'm doing these newer bits, where I do do physical stuff.
Marc:In my last special, I'm a lot more physical, but I'm aware of it.
Marc:I know that instead of looking at it as...
Marc:something like that indicates a certain side where you're sort of making fun of it.
Marc:It's just another way of another tool.
Marc:It's another way of doing what you do.
Marc:You integrate these different things and you know, you want to best be funny and make it fun for you.
Marc:I'd like to hear that.
Marc:Yeah, oh no, yeah.
Marc:I'm kind of a dick initially, but I get it.
Marc:Because for me to be watching you and actually be craving in a genuine way to see you perform in all French, just to experience that, to see what you're the most comfortable with, was not to go, look at this fucking clown.
Marc:It was to see you're a good comedian.
Marc:I'd love to see, because I never see French comedy.
Marc:I make fun of it.
Guest:I don't know anything about it.
Guest:But I want to go back.
Guest:Which is American.
Guest:I want to go back on I'm a dick.
Guest:You said I'm a dick.
Guest:Because no one else than someone who doesn't speak English can picture better this expression.
Guest:Because what we do immediately is we translate.
Guest:But you guys, it's an expression, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, he's a dick.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But because we know what the word dick means.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we don't speak English.
Guest:Oh, then you don't know the expression.
Guest:We have to say, oh, all right.
Guest:Oh, he's talking.
Guest:So we translate.
Guest:And we're like, oh, he's talking about penis.
Guest:And then he's a penis.
Marc:It's never going to make sense.
Marc:Never going to make sense.
Marc:You would have to translate it as that.
Marc:It would be more like he's a judgmental, ignorant American that does not allow himself to experience different things.
Guest:That's a dick.
Guest:Because he's stubborn.
Marc:That's a dick.
Marc:To you it would be a dick.
Marc:To me it would just be like, I'd be talking to a guy and be like, I don't fucking like that shit either.
Guest:that's a bit no that's a bit for you that's a bit for your you're probably right i need new bits i'll listen back to it yeah listen only that part who signed this hey mark icky pop oh well he came here yeah yeah a lot of people come here all right so let's wrap it up wrap it up so good we're gonna wrap it up um good expression also because i see the you know how would that translate to french
Guest:We don't have this.
Guest:What's the expression?
Marc:C'est fini.
Guest:It's finished.
Guest:C'est fini.
Guest:Merci beaucoup.
Guest:Ça m'a fait très plaisir d'être avec toi aujourd'hui.
Guest:You know what marron means in French?
Guest:Chestnut and brown.
Guest:No.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Two things.
Guest:I hope they're good things.
Guest:There's one who's not a good thing.
Guest:Marron means brown.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But marron, if I say we are marron, means fucked up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like if someone says, oh, oh man, where's the car?
Guest:You didn't bring the car?
Guest:And it starts in two, three, we are marron.
Guest:We are marron means we're fucked up.
Guest:We're fucked.
Marc:That's more fitting.
Guest:Than brown?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Thank you, Mark.
Marc:Thank you.
Thank you.
Marc:That was lovely.
Marc:That guy's a lovely man.
Marc:I didn't know if I had time to play guitar, but I think I might.
Thank you.
Marc:Boomer lives!