The musical theater character most similar to Gregory Charles? The Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978), the noir version of The Wizard of Oz. But unlike this fictional creature, Gregory actually has a brain.
Published at 12:57 am. Updated at 05:00.
“At 55, I’m still that amazed, curious child,” admits the man who will host Show 7, a homage to the musical comedy repertoire, at Place des Arts from November 15 to 19. “The straw man character wants to have a brain, but most of all he wants to understand. And I want to know everything, I want to understand. » He will prove it to us in the next three hours.
Gregory Charles had barely arrived at the studio when he sat down at the piano and improvised a few jazz chords. Then, after two hours of interview, with the microphones turned off, the musician, presenter and producer still stood in front of me and told me about his last trip last March on the way to Compostela.
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Gregory Charles, in full interview with our journalist
Translation: Gregory Charles’ life is so rich and full that it is possible for him to speak for two hours without mentioning a recent accomplishment that anyone else would constantly brag about.
As in his unforgettable show Des airs de toi, broadcast from 2001 to 2009 on the then Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada, Gregory Charles is inexhaustible, inserting parentheses into each of his anecdotes about Stevie Wonder, the author of his hit I’m thinking about you or his parents’ sex life. His reflections on music, education or faith are often accompanied by references to the universe of Marvel, Star Trek or the Caveman.
When I came home and my mother asked me what I had learned during the day, it always took me 20 minutes [pour le lui raconter].
Gregory Charles
Don’t be quiet
In recent years, this astonished Gregory, whom we know from Les régréards, has been joined by an indignant Gregory. It is this Gregory who advocated for a profound reform of our education system in an interview with his colleague Alexandre Pratt in April 2022. An excursion that brought the artist a lot of criticism, but which at least had the merit of putting education at the center of the media agenda for a good week.
Is he satisfied with the effect of this article? “Our collective thinking has made no progress at all on this issue, so am I satisfied? No,” replies the man who is not only more worried than ever about boys dropping out of school, but also about the far-reaching social consequences of this failure. “I’ve often been told, ‘We love you, Gregory, but when it comes to serious topics you should close your eyes.’ »
A suggestion that he doesn’t want to comply with.
“Today’s Quebec, which fears the foreigner, would have hurt him deeply,” he wrote of his late father Lennox in “A Man Like Him” (Éditions La Presse), a long letter to his daughter about his grandfather’s life. who, before arriving in Quebec and advocating for sovereignty there, marched alongside Martin Luther King and demonstrated with Harry Belafonte.
Despite this paternal legacy, it took him a few years to measure the impact of his own presence on Quebec television on his community, even if he himself sometimes felt the consequences of racism: in the early 1990s, the young twenty-year-old lost his first child When the show went on the air, I had to sign a contract because the sponsor refused to put its imprimatur on a Black-led project.
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Gregory Charles
This son, born to a father from Trinidad and a mother from Quebec, remembers it without bitterness, almost as if there was something benign in this racism, less harmful than what is expressed today. Does he sense an increase in intolerance?
As an observer, I sense an increase in intolerance, but also as a citizen. Sure, social media has something to do with it, but I still spent the first 45 years of my life feeling completely at home, and for the last ten years I’ve been told to return to my country every day.
Gregory Charles
Quebec may well be “a paradise in terms of relations with foreigners,” but it is our responsibility to tame what Gregory sees as instinct.
“It is in our nature as humans to differentiate, that is our first reflex,” he believes. When we argue with someone, we pay attention to the difference between him and him in order to spank him. It takes an educational effort, an intellectual effort, an emotional effort and compassion to get over it. The greatest danger is not recognizing that this is who we are. »
Never alone
Gregory Charles often expresses himself in parables – his parents were very religious, after all – and after our interview he told me this about Compostela, an adventure he embarked on in the hope of meeting people, not knowing that in March the The paths there are deserted.
One day, as he was preparing to pack his suitcase and return to the country without having reached his destination, Gregory encountered pilgrims walking in the opposite direction from him and told them that they were the first people which he has visited since the beginning of his journey.
After having a bite to eat in his company, these strangers who have become his friends tell him that they will walk with him again the kilometers he has already covered, just so as not to leave him alone.
What does Gregory Charles believe in? “In full moments,” he says, in those few fleeting seconds of happiness when ugliness, violence and suffering no longer seem to exist. Gregory believes that there is always someone, somewhere, who will accompany you.
Three quotes from our interview
About his admiration for other artists
“It’s true that when I’m with artists, there’s often a chance that I know their repertoire better than they do.” But I would trade the thousands of songs I have in my head to hear two songs by Michel Rivard or Pierre Lapointe wrote. I would trade all my musical knowledge for the genius of Vincent Vallières, Ariane Moffatt, Paul Piché or Richard Séguin. »
On the importance of fighting injustice
“My father always told me that a small injustice is a great injustice and that we will never succeed unless we try to right them all at the same time. »
About Karkwa
“I don’t even know if they know what kind of fan I am and how many times I’ve seen them. Karkwa is a group like Yes or Emerson, Lake & Palmer, it’s a group of that strength. […] I wish everyone, especially those who say we must protect our culture, take an evening to listen to Karkwa from A to Z. It is great. »