An essential step in the creation of a show, humor break-in takes more and more different forms. Attempt to clarify, on the eve of a summer when the stars of laughter will be numerous to release new jokes.
Separation. Self-confidence. Solitude. Kijiji. Anxiety. Montreal Metro. Ski. Massage. Paul McCartney. On a large whiteboard, Guillaume Pineault has written a series of seemingly unrelated words, but which will weave part of the fabric of his next show.
During what he calls his white board challenges, the comedian asks his audience to choose from the themes at his disposal the one in which he wishes to hear him dive first. And so on, until the end of the evening.
“If I had written my number on friendship at home, on my computer, I think it might have turned out to be a beautiful poem,” he quips. Whereas when I’m in front of people, my brain takes me to areas of my mind that don’t light up when I’m sitting alone writing. I know the anecdotes that I want to tell and the presence of the public helps me to add gags, because it is in my nature to want to make people laugh. »
A practice formalized in the late 1980s at the Vieux Clocher de Magog, where comedians would settle down for several evenings to polish their new material, breaking-in now takes on different forms in the laughter industry, all year round, and not just during flip flop season.
Preliminary versions of certain shows often bear their own name today, as is the case with Guillaume Pineault, who gave the title En rodage (du petit 2e) to his current project, with the main concern of not misleading buyers. tickets, his first tour having not yet ended.
“To me, a run-in is a show that’s funny enough that you don’t mind people paying to watch it,” he clarifies, the reason his whiteboard challenges were reserved. to the members of his fan club, who participated for free, “because there are certain evenings when it could have looked more like a lecture by Jean-Marc Chaput on loneliness, perseverance and friendship”, he said, laughing. Of the 24 themes explored during these evenings, only 6 have found their way into his current new hour, which he will continue to refine until at least 2024.
Beyond the infallibility of the jokes, it is the consistency of a show that the break-in allows you to experience, after it has been tested in ten or twelve minute increments in comedy clubs. It also cements the universality of a statement, which should resonate with Quebecers in Montreal, Matane and Rouyn-Noranda.
“If you want to build a show with a red thread, with good links, to test the story you’re telling, you have no choice but to run in,” thinks Marilou Hainault, of the Hainault management house, who notably represents François Bellefeuille, Maude Landry and Simon Gouache.
Guillaume Pineault nods. “I don’t want people walking away from my show thinking, ‘I laughed the whole time but I don’t remember anything.’ This is what I hate the most about some comedy shows that I go to see. I want there to be a talk. »
The preliminary break-in stage will certainly have gained momentum over the past two decades, let alone over the past five years. If a comedian could, in the early 2000s, be satisfied with a residency of a few weeks in the same room and rehearsals alone with his director, a new show now generally benefits from 50 to 100 release dates. ‘test. Guillaume Pineault’s first? “Look, I must have done 177 break-ins. No wonder he called it Detour.
Marilou Hainault agrees that the word “break-in”, which technically continues until the media premiere, can designate works corresponding to different states of achievement. “But it is certain that in the few weeks before the premiere, we are more in the fine tuning”, specifies Guillaume Pineault. Now sometimes even referred to as “pre-run” to describe the more exploratory early stage, with tickets sold at a price reflecting the stage of the work.
“There are those who like to see the different formulas, who come to run in and come back to see the finished show. It’s interesting to watch an artist go through this process,” says Pascale Gougeon, director of programming at the Odyssée hall in Gatineau. It is not uncommon in the Outaouais for a comedian to first wander around the foyer of the hall (144 seats), or in the auditorium of the Polyvalente Nicolas-Gatineau (588 seats), before migrating to the big enclosure (830 seats).
One thing is certain: the trial and error inseparable from running in is generally largely redeemed by the pleasure of witnessing the moment of grace when an idea sees the light of day. “The quality of a break-in show is in its very nature more variable, believes Marilou Hainault, but the chances that you will see something born that did not exist the second before are much greater. »
