ELMALEH IN ENGLISH
JFL’s big-ticket spectacle
Gad Elmaleh isn’t quite clear on the concept of “shtick.” Which is somewhat ironic considering that Elmaleh has no shortage of shtick and hails from the cultural tradition from which shtick was born.
“So I no longer should say that my hands are feeling very shticky?” jokes the Casablancaborn comic, while holding court in the downtown Sofitel. Correct. Rest assured that there will be no shortage of shtick when Elmaleh takes to the Bell Centre stage on July 26, where he will co-headline with another masterful shtick-artist, his buddy Jerry Seinfeld, for this year’s bigticket Just for Laughs spectacle.
Curiously, Elmaleh has frequently been referred to as France’s Seinfeld. But Elmaleh, considered to be the most popular franco standup on the planet, has bolted his longtime Paris base to take up residence in Seinfeld’s New York and to pursue a standup career en anglais.
No small task, considering that English and French comedy are different animals altogether. The former tends to be more fastpaced, punchline-driven, while the latter often focuses on longer, more anecdotal material.
But Elmaleh is a quick study and has spent the last few years making the transition in honing his anglo standup act at clubs around the continent. He won plenty of converts at last year’s JFL when he killed with his solo anglo show, Oh My Gad, which ran five sold-out nights at Le Gesù.
“But nobody died,” cracks Elmaleh, who notes that “killed” and “bombing” have far different connotations from where he hails.
Elmaleh is also most fortunate to have a friend like Seinfeld. The two have worked together on numerous occasions, with Elmaleh opening for Seinfeld and even Seinfeld opening for Elmaleh. And in one of the more hilarious episodes of Seinfeld’s web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the two tooled around New York in a vintage Citroen Deux Chevaux, which was forever stalling but did allow them to get coffee as well as frites and baguettes.
“I love living in New York. Even though no one knows me, I feel so at home there,” he says. “It’s incredible. Why? Maybe it’s the fast rhythm of the place. It’s the perfect place to pick up comedy.
“I used to do five per cent of my comedy in English, 95 in French. Now it’s the opposite. I love going into clubs in the States where nobody knows me. They have no idea who I am, so I really have to earn those laughs.
“I show up and the first thing they do is butcher my name: ‘Let’s hear it for … Gad Allalime.’ That’s OK. But I get a few minutes to try to prove myself while the others comics on the bill snicker — because they don’t want me to succeed, because I’m not from there. So I try to offer them some cheesecake to make them like me, but that doesn’t really work. I come in peace. I’m just a French colonialist comic trying to make my mark in English.”
To that end, Elmaleh hopes to conquer new anglo territory when he heads to Australia for the first time in September.
Elmaleh, 46, is also at home in Montreal, and not just for having performed in French at Juste pour rire on several occasions. He came here nearly 30 years ago to study political science for five years at CEGEP St-Laurent and l’Univérsité de Montréal before moving to Paris in the mid-1990s to pursue acting. He also became a Canadian citizen while living here, which explains why he was
recently presented with Quebec’s highest honour as Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec.
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts Elmaleh has, as a consequence of being a citizen, is a Canadian passport. Which, Elmaleh is quick to point out, beats a Moroccan passport when arriving at customs in the U.S.
Of course, this doesn’t stop Elmaleh from taking potshots. Last month, he was part of a 375th concert bash at the Bell Centre, which he found rather amusing. The anniversary number, that is.
“Now I feel ready to have a grand party for my 47th birthday, maybe even for 47 and a half,” he says.
“But the biggest thrill for me at the 375th party was finally meeting Robert Charlebois. What a head of hair this man has! A great singer, but that hair … I’m not jealous about the money others have, but I do suffer from hairenvy.”
On the subject of Charlebois, Elmaleh is suddenly obsessed with his hair, or lack of. He fears a receding hairline will hamper his career. He is even considering a transplant, and consulted Seinfeld — who now favours a chrome-domed look because of diminishing locks.
“But Seinfeld told me if I did that my career as a comedian would be over. I asked him why, and he said because I would be focusing on the wrong thing. He’s right, but I really want to have hair.”
Elmaleh will be playing in front of his largest crowd ever — in English — at the Bell Centre. But he finds the concept of co-headlining somewhat befuddling.
“Do we both start telling jokes at the same time from opposite sides of the stage? That would be funny. Maybe he should start first, because he is older. It’s all about respect. But if I start, it will be like I’m opening and not co-headlining. It’s so confusing. I’m not an angry comic,” quips the beaming Elmaleh, a big fan of the angry Bill Burr and Sebastian Maniscalco and less angry Seinfeld. “But maybe I will become an angry comic now.”
Doubtful. Like his mentor Seinfeld, Elmaleh doesn’t have to fall back on political or blue material. He is neurotic, perhaps, but ever genial and mellow, almost like a member of the family — though far funnier.