What is Katherine Levac proud of? Of his children? Yes of course. But Katherine Levac is also proud to have learned to say no, she who has long struggled to decline an invitation. But never mind, the comedian has agreed to be the first episode of this new podcast series.
In the life of a cultural journalist, there are artists with whom affinities develop, even without looking for it. Katherine Levac is one of them, since that promo day in 2018, during which we met in the strange decor of a suite at Hotel 10 in Montreal. A “very Notting Hill” scene, notes the comedian, who knows his classics.
There’s also the time Katherine Levac, just weeks after giving birth and a few days away from going on Everyone’s Talking About It, gave me a phone interview while shopping for the dress she would wear. in front of Guy A. “My worst interview ever,” she judges far too harshly. She was thinking, she admits today, of giving an interview to a celebrity magazine and realized, halfway through, that the guy on the phone was employed by a serious newspaper.
It was of course necessary to return to his hosting of the gala Les Olivier, acclaimed by critics, but to which certain colleagues of a certain age reproached, with varying degrees of quarrel, his mockery and that of his guests on the subject of humor Quebec from another era.
Could the ceremony have been more age inclusive? The truth is that 33-year-old Katherine Levac considers herself an “old comedian” and it was important to her to roll out the carpet for her juniors. The laugh veterans she contacted, she adds, were all “at the cabin up north” on Sunday and didn’t want to leave to “come and present a podcast category.”
But above all, I retain from this interview the healthy detachment that Katherine Levac now displays in relation to her profession, a healthy attitude with which she envisages the running-in of her new show, L’homme de ma vie, and with which she also considered the animation of the Les Olivier gala.
“I took it to heart, instead of taking it seriously,” she sums up. But because we live in a society that fetishizes anxiety, where those who tyrannize those around them with their anxieties are valued more than those who breathe through their noses, this calm will have worried some around her.
Katherine Levac has “better pledge” her ambitions since the arrival of her twins. She imagined herself to be comfortable relying entirely on the services of a nanny, but realized after they arrived that she wanted to spend time with them. A beautiful problem. She broaches the subject of tour-family balance without being asked any questions on the subject: “It’s our duty to talk about what we experience as mothers and creators and to say how much it is tough. »
Fathers, even those who do not entirely delegate the care of their infants to their partner, have a head start when it comes to returning to work, she observes with resigned bitterness in the face of this biological injustice incumbent on motherhood. woman who has borne a child (and who is breastfeeding). “My organs came out of me,” she says, something no dad can brag about.
Katherine Levac will participate this summer, during Zoofest, in the Womansplaining Show, a feminist cabaret co-hosted by Anne-Sarah Charbonneau and Noémie Leduc-Roy. You have to see the sparkle in the eyes of these two newcomers when they show their admiration for Katherine – they obviously can’t get over sharing a microphone with her – to understand that while Katherine Levac may not be not an “old comedian”, her trajectory already represents something that other women can aspire to.
And if she has already taken an unhealthy pride in being one of the rare women in humor – she was the only one among her cohort at the National School of Humor in 2013 – Katherine Levac now knows that a victory does not is never really one if it is not collective.
What is the job of a comedian? “We’re here to tell the truth,” she replies. A precept to which she seems to have held throughout this interview.
“The click war is very violent right now, it’s super intense and me, it’s pushing me to close myself off because of that, I’m going to open up less on TV shows. There, you see, we talk a long time, we have a conversation, but after that, in an interview on a talk show, someone is going to say, “We heard you say on a podcast…” But come on! We had three hours. Now, in 45 seconds, do you want me to tell you about my love-hate relationship with my body? Are you crazy? »
“When I think of the women who have toughened up on humor, [I see] that it’s really difficult as a mother to do everything, to have a knife between your teeth. Before, I had so many ticket ambitions, but now I realize that the more show tickets you sell, the more you have to do the shows for which you sold tickets. »
“It was my 10 year career and I was like, ‘I’m going to talk about where I’m at here. “But me, what stressed me the most in the Oliviers was more the business of dresses and beaten breasts, that was my real stress, much more than talking to Paul Arcand about the place of comedians in 2023. I thought to myself, “I’m going to talk about the real things inside me.” It sounds mundane, it sounds silly, it sounds like jock jokes, but it wasn’t all that. »
