Just to laugh | Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais and his “friends”

Baptism of fire on Wednesday night for Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais, who organized his first Just for Laughs gala, just for the festival’s 40th anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, the humorist had surrounded himself with a skewer of chosen friends, more or less known, with very varied numbers, although somewhat unequal. But no matter: the audience did not hide their joy from him, and everyone was warmly received.

silvia galipeau
Press

For good reason: It was, at 6pm sharp, the first time in two years that Just for Laughs had been entitled to a “conventional” gala here, known as a “trim”. All dressed, to the maximum of its capacity, you will have understood. And the spectators at the Maisonneuve Theater on the Place des Arts seemed downright happy to finally be large enough to applaud loudly, giving each comedian a standing ovation.

Great kick-off, with this opening number, starring the beloved host, crowned Discovery of the Year at the Les Olivier Gala, among others, and he didn’t hesitate to remind us. Dressed in red tuque, to the hip-hop beats of the Ouellette Family brothers, Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais (PY to his friends) spent a day in the country dancing and singing energetically, daring to rhymes so lascivious as they are absurd, which made the audience, of all ages, for that matter, laugh.

Special mention to his surprise guests, Élyse Marquis and Jay Du Temple, not forgetting Matthieu Pepper (at the beginning and then at the end of the show, in a surreal video recorded), the shy scapegoat of the evening.

Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais has energy to spare, we know that. It moves air, and this number did not lie to its reputation.

That said, all the rest of this first gala (of a series of two, one at 6 p.m., attended by Pressthe other at 9 pm), the comedian was much more discreet, contenting himself with presenting (certainly with energy) his guests (sorry, his “friends”), on the right side of the room.

Maybe he was saving energy for the second show? Too bad, we would have taken more.

That said, the numbers that followed did not disappoint. On the contrary, it is worth noting several beautiful discoveries. Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais first handed over the microphone to Charles Pellerin, very moving with his self-mockery number about his illness, alopecia (loss of hair and body hair). Surprising choice to start the night, but why not. “Everyone thinks I have cancer, but no, I just watch. »

Change of register, then, with the tiktokeuse Mégan Brouillard (and the surprise guest: Chantal Machabée!), who rather surfs hockey, more precisely women’s hockey. And let’s say that the sport has perhaps found in her the best spokesperson for her. Both raw and slimy, feminist, a little, a lot, then nothing, the young comedian has a lot to say on the subject.

We fell in love with David Beaucage, who achieved a series of gags with no links, no head or tail, and who above all managed to make Greta rhyme with Karla Homolka. It has to be done.

“They are good, my friends, huh? “The host slipped in here. Affirmative.

Mixed feelings, however, for the number of Alexandre Forest that followed, a self-proclaimed “monocle,” who at least has the merit of deflecting “monocle” jokes. Marylène Gendron first launched into some conventional jokes, before moving on to a more promising vein, siding with her love-hate relationship with food. His McDo play-thru will have us laughing for a long time.

Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais’s French guest Yacine Belhousse only picked up a few smiles here and there, and we understand why: His number about his least favorite billionaires (Batman, really?) was drawn out in length and frankly lacked pacing. .

Fortunately, Adib Alkhalidey arrived, the highlight of the evening, without a doubt the strongest number (and the craziest) of this first gala.

In a few minutes, the comic with the arched beard managed to transport us to his adopted camp, and to his town of “psychopaths”, where he has just moved. And him, how is he? Nothing to report except that he is addicted to cookies and talks to trees. You have to hear him imitate foxes. They sound like “homeless people being killed.” Let’s say we assume that nature has not calmed him down too much. And this is good. In addition, notice to those interested: the humorist will be at all the galas.

Note that the series of galas (with two different galas per night) continues this Thursday night (21 with Phil Roy and Roxane Bruneau as hosts), Friday (22 with Richardson Zéphir and Eddy King) and Saturday (23, with Rosalie Vaillancourt).