What should we have expected from Marthe Laverdière’s comedic one-woman show? Pure Marthe Laverdière, of course, the new idol having no use trying to “reinvent herself” at 60, well married to her inseparable “kitty” and adored by a public who already expects her to sold out across Quebec in the coming year.

We therefore anticipated frankness and jokes below the belt in the candor specific to Marthe Laverdière: gags of “tuft”, of male organ and spontaneous chuckles we actually had, the charming smile of the lady in the pink cap did not never leaving his lips.

From the outset somewhat humorous in her gardening vignettes and her now countless TV appearances (the networks are snapping it up, from Bonsoir bonoir to Sucré salé), the colorful star horticulturist officially adds the profession to her already endless curriculum vitae with a first show, Marthe Laverdière puts on a show!, which she unpacked in its Montreal premiere at the Gesù, Tuesday evening.

An unpacking without white gloves, without finesse or lace, but filled with heart and sincerity. And greeted with many, many laughters, which celebrate the irresistible authenticity of a badly yelled at, but so generous, Marthe Laverdière. The ribald humor can be disturbing; one might say that, in the mouth of Marthe Laverdière, it becomes almost folkloric. The collective attachment to him already amounts to 40,000 tickets sold for this comedy tour which has barely started.

Our Marthe therefore completes the crystallization of her public persona in this production by Mario Jean, carried by a flowery and sunny decor of pretty moving drawings and transforming according to the paintings.

The good nature of Marthe Laverdière systematically establishes an intimate atmosphere with her audience, with bursts of “I told you something…” and “I have to tell you that!” ”, with which she sprinkles her stories. Stories brought to you in the language of Bellechasse, in joyfully massacred French, which alone bears witness to his life very far from the Plateau Mont-Royal. And judiciously served by her expressiveness, her grandiloquent facial expressions, her talent as an actress and her colorful words.

Marthe Laverdière has a whole lot of anecdotes to tell. The descriptions she gives of the various colleagues, clients and other passers-by she meets in her life are worth listening to in themselves. It is on her slices of life – all true, we specify from the outset – that Marthe Laverdière makes her show! Throughout, Marthe relates, imitates her interlocutors, embodies the situations, to the great pleasure of her crowd.

Among other gems, this sample of a former “envelope closing” job in a company working in “souvenirs”. “Remember”, as in “we make people remember that they owe us money”, courteous and polite way. Marthe was left with a tongue numbed with glue. The “seed” of “kitty” apparently still remembers.

Or this other episode, remembered with a tuque with drawstrings and a winter coat on the back, where, with the hemorrhoids clinging to the tonsils (see the image?), in a cold that made the amniotic fluid “frost”, Marthe understood that she was to become a horticulturist, an easy profession to practice even in a bra with springing pins.

From Ti-Gilles, the macho client with three-colored, home-dyed hair, who “gets his shit together” while talking, to Raynald and his difficult time on Marthe’s massage therapist’s table, including the first meeting at 15 years old , with “minou” and his powder blue turtleneck and his “marde brown” pants, you will have understood that we do not torture ourselves with human meandering, with Marthe Laverdière. We giggle boldly and, above all, without complexes.

We will nevertheless deplore the sudden breaks in tone which insert and conclude the short segment on his severely handicapped granddaughter, Jeanne, too brief to be really touching, stuck between two burlesque vignettes. We would have taken more of this moment of strong emotion, delivered by Marthe Laverdière with a trembling voice.

In her irritation – she self-diagnoses herself after all as “non-medicated hyperactive” – Marthe Laverdière also sometimes gets carried away to such an extent that her high-pitched intonations or her overly rapid delivery make us lose bits of it. Details that will be easy for her to temper over the course of Marthe Laverdière’s performances!

Without touching too much on the rest, because it would be difficult to make her more endearing and entertaining, this Marthe Laverdière, who demonstrates much more than the “seed” of a comedian…