Dubai Telegraph - Funny-side up: Comedy booming in French-speaking Canada

EUR -
AED 3.938479
AFN 73.284283
ALL 98.19234
AMD 417.267449
ANG 1.943348
AOA 978.447316
ARS 1071.53141
AUD 1.629089
AWG 1.930079
AZN 1.82711
BAM 1.955647
BBD 2.17713
BDT 128.849948
BGN 1.9562
BHD 0.406468
BIF 3183.551653
BMD 1.072266
BND 1.425189
BOB 7.467417
BRL 6.152562
BSD 1.078316
BTN 90.972903
BWP 14.300884
BYN 3.528725
BYR 21016.42052
BZD 2.17343
CAD 1.49386
CDF 3073.115756
CHF 0.939162
CLF 0.03726
CLP 1028.119797
CNY 7.698019
CNH 7.63378
COP 4640.937963
CRC 551.556973
CUC 1.072266
CUP 28.415058
CVE 110.256399
CZK 25.259812
DJF 192.015021
DKK 7.459869
DOP 64.934934
DZD 142.958848
EGP 52.835878
ERN 16.083995
ETB 133.503285
FJD 2.399951
FKP 0.820465
GBP 0.830088
GEL 2.916983
GGP 0.820465
GHS 17.683621
GIP 0.820465
GMD 76.671173
GNF 9295.27488
GTQ 8.33535
GYD 225.592402
HKD 8.336174
HNL 27.205878
HRK 7.386875
HTG 141.888931
HUF 407.236454
IDR 16786.168917
ILS 4.020796
IMP 0.820465
INR 90.481213
IQD 1412.489812
IRR 45134.375558
ISK 148.766647
JEP 0.820465
JMD 171.076654
JOD 0.760348
JPY 163.686863
KES 139.08915
KGS 92.433433
KHR 4378.658423
KMF 493.644665
KPW 965.039476
KRW 1499.246878
KWD 0.328832
KYD 0.89853
KZT 530.808592
LAK 23665.153893
LBP 96559.167469
LKR 315.465391
LRD 204.33406
LSL 18.869628
LTL 3.166124
LVL 0.648604
LYD 5.232592
MAD 10.648369
MDL 19.338491
MGA 4988.610841
MKD 61.5252
MMK 3482.679288
MNT 3643.561097
MOP 8.633826
MRU 42.957649
MUR 49.75717
MVR 16.566921
MWK 1869.754141
MXN 21.634265
MYR 4.699212
MZN 68.521819
NAD 18.869628
NGN 1788.626462
NIO 39.676905
NOK 11.794827
NPR 145.556645
NZD 1.797446
OMR 0.412628
PAB 1.078316
PEN 4.044584
PGK 4.328662
PHP 62.679371
PKR 299.424042
PLN 4.325898
PYG 8431.342275
QAR 3.931893
RON 4.977143
RSD 116.980874
RUB 104.99181
RWF 1478.084695
SAR 4.02742
SBD 8.943509
SCR 14.390377
SDG 644.972153
SEK 11.594849
SGD 1.4214
SHP 0.820465
SLE 24.501684
SLL 22484.885861
SOS 616.251927
SRD 37.497551
STD 22193.748611
SVC 9.435264
SYP 2694.101668
SZL 18.864528
THB 36.687634
TJS 11.462006
TMT 3.763655
TND 3.347839
TOP 2.511359
TRY 36.822021
TTD 7.327428
TWD 34.580984
TZS 2878.975413
UAH 44.514627
UGX 3946.692121
USD 1.072266
UYU 45.046486
UZS 13787.924411
VEF 3884341.194834
VES 47.874003
VND 27101.532073
VUV 127.301648
WST 3.003615
XAF 655.905833
XAG 0.031788
XAU 0.000394
XCD 2.897854
XDR 0.808437
XOF 655.905833
XPF 119.331742
YER 267.878982
ZAR 19.79817
ZMK 9651.687743
ZMW 29.35571
ZWL 345.269328
  • JRI

    0.1600

    13.53

    +1.18%

  • BCC

    1.4700

    142.32

    +1.03%

  • BCE

    0.3000

    28.37

    +1.06%

  • GSK

    -0.3700

    36.29

    -1.02%

  • RBGPF

    61.4000

    61.4

    +100%

  • CMSD

    0.2350

    25.125

    +0.94%

  • RIO

    -3.0400

    64.43

    -4.72%

  • SCS

    0.0600

    13.14

    +0.46%

  • CMSC

    0.1600

    24.84

    +0.64%

  • BTI

    -0.0100

    35.39

    -0.03%

  • RELX

    0.3200

    47.98

    +0.67%

  • VOD

    -0.0100

    9.31

    -0.11%

  • RYCEF

    0.0100

    7.15

    +0.14%

  • BP

    -0.8800

    28.93

    -3.04%

  • NGG

    -0.3600

    63.94

    -0.56%

  • AZN

    -0.2000

    64.49

    -0.31%

Funny-side up: Comedy booming in French-speaking Canada
Funny-side up: Comedy booming in French-speaking Canada / Photo: Derrick CAKPO - AFP

Funny-side up: Comedy booming in French-speaking Canada

Home to a prestigious comedy school, the world's largest annual laughs festival and nightclubs that pack in audiences for dozens of weekly stand-up shows, comedy is serious business in Montreal.

Text size:

Hundreds of comedians regularly ply their trade in the French-speaking Canadian city after the number of local stages offering to showcase their talents exploded in recent years.

Improv, topical, observational or deadpan comedy in both French and English, from pioneers such as Tom Green -- host of a popular MTV show in the 1990s -- to newbies trying to find what works on stage, every stand-up style imaginable can found.

Appreciative audiences fill the brisk Quebec night air with laughter, in a province in which comedy shows are a top entertainment draw.

"Comedy in Quebec, we take it seriously," said comedian Simon Delisle.

At the popular Bordel Comedy Club in Montreal, Charles Deschamps -- with a microphone in hand and a staid brick wall as a backdrop -- lets loose on a packed room with joke after joke, eliciting giggles and guffaws from the audience.

Opened in 2015, the comedy cabaret presents several shows a night -- and usually sells out even before the line-up is finalized, said Deschamps, who is also part-owner of the club.

Building on its runaway success, the cabaret doubled its capacity by opening a second stage last year and expanded its bookings.

"It's a way to relax," says a grinning Manuel St-Aubin, 27, a regular at the club.

At the Bordel, "the laughter is loud, people applaud a lot," observes Certe Mathurin, contrasting Canadians' outbursts with more muted Paris audiences.

The French comedian plans to start his fourth comedy tour in Quebec, calling the Canadian province -- which has hosted Just For Laughs, the largest international comedy festival in the world, for decades -- "the Mecca of humour."

"It's a pilgrimage for comedians: whether you're French, Swiss, Belgian... you have to go to Quebec because they are at the forefront of French-speaking humor," adds the 37-year-old.

- What's so funny -

Before performing on stage, many seek training at the National School of Humour in Montreal.

Founded in 1988, the school graduates about 30 comedians each year, including Roman Frayssinet who went on to great success in France -- which current student Felix Wagner, 27, hopes to emulate.

Inside a classroom with curtains drawn, one of Wagner's schoolmates rehearses a comedy routine. His teacher, Stephan Allard, tells him he needs to "work on the material so that it flows better."

There are also lessons in creativity, improvisation, and career management, and each week students are required to present in class a new five-minute stand-up routine.

Allard says they help students locate their funny bone -- whether they mine their own lives for inspiration, or find their material in news or pop culture -- and zero in on which bits "are funniest on stage."

The program also helps them firm up their writing and to develop a "signature" style to differentiate themselves from others, he added.

"Going to the school allowed me to perform in comedy clubs in Paris, even though they didn't know me, in places where it's normally difficult to get a gig," such as the Paname or Fridge comedy clubs, said Virginie Courtiol, a first-year student who uses the alias "Beurguy" onstage.

The 34-year-old French comedian riffs on topics such as menstruation and having had an abortion.

Once that kind of humour about women's bodies would have been taboo -- but as Deschamps says, "there is always an evolution."

Y.Rahma--DT