Although he didn’t understand anything when the characters spoke English, Mario Jean was very interested in American television productions from a young age. Apparently, comedies from Quebec also managed to catch his attention…
Jinny photo from IMDB
Mario, which shows influenced you when you were young?
I come from the Bobino generation, but it was the American shows that fascinated and captivated me, like Jinny. This is my first kick. [rires] It fit in with space exploration and I was born in 1965, right in the middle of it. When I was 20, I went to Florida for the first time in my life and said to my girlfriend, “I want to go to Cocoa Beach and see all this.” » The other shows included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and In the Land of the Giants, which I didn’t miss. Lost in Space was even crazier…
Did you experience your favorite television memories alone or with your family?
A lot of alone time because, among other things, my parents worked on Saturday mornings and my two sisters, who were older than me, didn’t have my taste. I was alone during the week too. When I came home from school there was Bobino and a show like La Ribouldingue or Le Pirate Maboule. Another fond memory is when my sisters brought a small UHF antenna, I don’t know how, and we connected it. We listened to Three’s Company and Happy Days. It was extraordinary. I didn’t understand anything, but it was great television.
The Tannants stock photo was provided by TVA
And there were other meetings in Quebec?
My mother loved Les Tannants. We listened to that and symphories. The day after the show, we told each other Gilles Latulippe jokes at school, which Éphrem recited unprompted. [rires] It was schoolyard talk.
Would you say you’ve been watching too much TV?
No, I can’t say I watched a lot of TV. There were family gatherings, like watching my dad wrestle on Saturdays when he got home from work. I saw him straining in his chair. He was in the arena! And of course Hockey Night. I vaguely remember the Centenary Series of 1972. For some, Expo 67 was the start of the world; For me it was in 1972 when I saw a completely different people playing our national sport…
Symphoria archive photo provided by TVA
Is there a person or artist who has influenced you?
Yvon Deschamps. Through cassettes and when we had the opportunity to see him at the Beaux Dimanches […] It is clear that he has sown something in me. I imagined I was Yvon Deschamps on stage.
What world would you like to introduce to children?
I don’t understand why we couldn’t bring Sol and Gobelet back. It should be faster, because today’s young people understand quickly, but bringing them back to nothingness, to improvisation, where you have to do the rest in your head, would perhaps be a big challenge for creators who want to reach young people.
Mario Jean is currently holding his seventh solo exhibition. Imperfect happiness… and other tutti quanti of life! (mariojean.com), which will premiere in March. On television we will find him in the fourth and final season of the comedy Lion, on TVA, in January. He is Landry, a colleague of Léo who works at the Dubeau Gâteau factory.