In rehearsal with Simone Gouache | Everything is in the corner

Dominic Late
Journalism

In a studio at Studio Bizz on Mont-Royal Avenue, text editor Pascal Mayo, director Marie-Christine Lachance and Simone Gouache try to perfect a segment from his third show in which the comedian, who grew up in Montreal, recently installed in the suburbs, wonders that there are so-called firefighters. …volunteers!

“Is this your hobby, firefighter?” Do you want me to give you another one? Pascal was fired first. “Yoga, the ultimate Frisbee! Marie Kristen adds, but we’re not there yet. “If you want to socialize, you can do it somewhere less stifling!” Simon exclaimed, emphasizing the adjective “choking” with precision. Everyone burst out laughing.

If he does not write any number on paper (“this is not normal”, according to Marie Christine), then Simon Gouache is an incurable perfectionist, who constantly writes in his head and tirelessly moves parts of sentences, even commas, until optimal effect is achieved. These encounters, during which the trio dissects the artist’s recent performances, often turn into similarly comical tennis-pong sessions.

But after a few minutes, I encountered the journalist’s enthusiasm, as excited the joke of the volunteer firefighters as if Yvonne Deschamps had just laid Unions, what does the OSA give? Under his eyes, the director goes there with a warning: “There are several lines that made us laugh here that did not work on stage. His wisdom is confirmed the following evening, in the Golden Lion, where Simon Gouache tests the muzzle in question, swinging it swiftly. Result: A confused reaction from the audience.

“It’s sad that you didn’t come the next day, I think it was one of the best shows I’ve had in four years,” he stated in an interview a few days later. In addition to one or two lines, evidently new, which encountered silence in the library, nevertheless presented during the performance which Journalism I attended a solid performance, which allowed us to hope for the best for the first media show of He livesscheduled for February 2023.

Gouache explains about one of his greatest strengths: “When it’s been a few days since I put on a show, I do everything faster and I don’t always take the time to play all my gags.” As far as text is concerned like pantomime. “The next day, Mary said to me: There, this evening, take the time to play all your gags. I listened to it and we got what.”

endless ideas

Simon Gouache, the son of a doctor, ended up at the National School of Humor, almost a defiance, after a short and grueling college career. He graduated in 2007, and did not meet his audience until about ten years later. Few in attendance on TV or radio, the 36-year-old belongs to the elite of Quebec’s humor—noting his perseverance in the practice room allows us to partly understand why—though on paper some elements make him unique.

There is no crazy theatrical character or a noticeable presence on social networks: like Jack White, who rocks like everyone else, but better than anyone else, Simon Gouache collects notes, reflections and anecdotes like dozens of other comedians, but with the precision and flexibility of a goldsmith, allowing His almost miraculously extract material from seemingly outdated topics (his life as a young father, dating apps, baldness).

Wondering, in one of the best sectors He lives, the worn-out sentence “we can’t say anything more”. “But it’s a number that has changed a lot during the hack,” he says. When I started, I was doing it on a very moral tone, I said “we can’t say anything more” in the settler voice, and it took me a few months to realize I was turning away everyone who had already said it.

“And when I stopped, he changed everything, because I was no longer in judgment. Again, it was all about the corner.”

He lives

On a tour everywhere in Quebec