“In my head, everyone loves me,” says Mike Ward with a laugh. Even if he knows full well that his name will remain on the blacklist of several Quebecers, the comedian draws a line under his legal drama with Modeste, a sixth show relieved of the acerbity of his previous tour.
What planet does Mike Ward live on to think everyone loves him? This is because the comedian has built a healthy safeguard around himself: it is impossible to contact him privately on social networks. This protects it against a number of potential gall spills. “I only receive comments when I do shows,” he explains in an interview in the second room of the Brothel, where he records his popular podcast Sous Listen. “That’s what keeps me surrounded by happiness all the time. »
And if he has made peace with the contempt that he continues to inspire in those for whom he will remain the antichrist – “I know that there are some who hear my name and who come angry” –, he does not intend to reopen on stage the thick file of his legal soap opera.
A good part of Noir, his previous show launched in March 2019 while he was still awaiting his verdict and recovering from depression, carried a certain rage against certain employees of the Human Rights and Human Rights Commission of youth, as well as against the universe in general. Then, in October 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in what was called the Jérémy Gabriel affair.
Exit therefore the indignation and the acerbity: without playing in the flowerbeds of Rachid Badouri, Modeste promises to be a lighter show, inspired by several stories that are not modest at all. Buying dozens and dozens of tickets in the front row of a fight between mixed martial arts fighter Olivier Aubin-Mercier and handing them out to his friends? No problem ! Board a private jet? Nothing too good for comedy class!
“I am a contradiction in that regard,” confides the one who, without children, admits that he does not live with the financial stress of studies and braces to pay. “Sometimes I’m the most humble guy on the planet and other times I’m such a show-off. »
Mike Ward is, however, undoubtedly not the only Quebec comedian to have the means to indulge in this type of crazy princely spending on occasion. But he is certainly one of the few who does not feel embarrassed to talk about it. This is because before his rooms filled up, he earned his living for a long time in the more or less brown bars of the province, at a time when the circuit of comedy evenings was not as well-marked and comfortable as Today.
In September, Mike Ward reached the milestone of 50 years, a milestone he welcomes with equanimity. “I feel more and more like one of the old guys in the comedy world,” says the man who, thanks to Sous Listen, has become a sort of stand-up sage among his comrades, the one to whom we turn. turns for advice or an idea. In recent months, artists as different as Louis Morissette, Jay Du Temple and Yvon Deschamps have confided to your journalist their esteem for their not-so-hateful colleague.
A respect that someone who has been on stage for over 30 years attributes to his stubbornness. “I arrived at a time when people said it was impossible to make a living from my kind of humor,” he recalls. But I continued to do my business in my own way, with the support of my manager Michel [Grenier], who always managed so that I could pay for my food and my rent. »
“As I got older, the trashy and vulgar guy became the guy with integrity, who does things his own way,” he illustrates. But the difference between the honest guy and the trashy young guy is just the time that has passed. »
Speaking of time, the man in black is surprised and amused that during the last Les Olivier Gala, some veterans were offended that we were mocking the humor, and the look, of the 1990s. There’s someone who should have been shocked, it’s me: I had them, leather briefs and a super ridiculous haircut! It’s one of our big faults, comedians: it’s our job to laugh at everything, but when the world laughs at us, we’re touchy. »
It is easy to imagine a world in which, under the influence of his legal setbacks, Mike Ward would have transformed into an angry apostle of the time-honoured formula according to which “we can no longer say anything”. His new show, which he began running last summer and whose media premiere is scheduled for April 2024, will prove the opposite, he predicts.
Mike Ward fortunately counts on disciples who are not only knowledgeable, but fervent, who Sous Listen will have greatly contributed to retaining. “For a while, I felt not that I was going to be completely canceled,” he recalls, “but that I ran the risk of being marginalized, of becoming the guy who was funny in the days of MusiquePlus, then which reappears once in a while. And I think maybe my fans were more afraid of that than me. It’s always good to see someone fall and get back up. »
