After bringing Monsieur Latreille to life with his voice on stage and on the radio, Réal Béland embodies his inimitable character for the first time. After a telephone conversation, Mr. Latreille visits the people he plays his pranks on.
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Monsieur Latreille, the well-known character of Réal Béland and the favorite of some of his fans, has been following the comedian for several years. On the radio and on stage, Réal Béland called dozens of people pretending to be Henri Latreille, an old man they knew. The friendly, laughing man actually existed: he is a caricature of Réal Béland's first boss, his neighbor across the street for whom he mowed the lawn when he was young. In fact, in this special, the comedian admits that all of his characters really exist. Monsieur Latreille is very colorful and the audience never tires of listening to him talk to people who don't know him but get caught up in the game and believe this man who always seems to know a lot about them simply forgotten.
improvisation
During his shows, Réal Béland asks people in the room if they know anyone he could call who would pretend to be Monsieur Latreille. Since he never knows what to expect, he has neither a text nor a plot. “Mr Latreille never engages in conversation; He leaves that to the others and lets himself be influenced by what they say,” emphasizes the comedian. Before Réal Béland dials the number of the person he wants to capture, he makes sure he has some information about her. She is married? What is his job? Where does she live? What are his favorite hobbies and hobbies? With this information alone, he is usually able to gain the trust of the men and women he calls, allowing him to stay on the phone with them for many minutes. Sometimes when the person on the other end of the phone has doubts and wonders who they are talking to, Mr. Latreille is cheerful and cheerful enough to get through with laughter and questions or to restart the conversation somewhere else. At the end of the call, the comedian leaves the matter unanswered and promises to call back or reveals his identity and admits that the call was just a joke.
Hours of preparation
Monsieur Latreille has always been thanks solely to the voice of Réal Béland. On stage or on the radio, conversations elicit laughter from the audience, but when the conversation ends, the joke ends. In this special show, the comedian pushes the concept even further: after one or two phone calls, a meeting is organized between Mr. Latreille and the trapped person. Réal Béland always had an idea of what Monsieur Latreille might look like. For this much older man to come to life requires an extreme transformation. Appropriate prosthetics, elaborate make-up, a false nose, glasses, brown trousers and a diamond jacket are necessary to transform Réal Béland into Monsieur Latreille in three hours. And the transformation is surprising: it is impossible to recognize the comedian under his disguise! This is exactly what the trick player needs to capture his targets.
Francine, Josaphat, Tony and the others
Between being on stage and calling from home, Réal Béland comes into contact with several people during the show. While certain conversations surprise and slightly destabilize him, others are promising and seem perfect to him, so that after an initial contact, Mr. Latreille can visit the people concerned himself. This is the case with the spouses Josaphat and Francine, who take the time to talk about their lives with every call, and with Tony, who has problems with the sewer system in his basement. A young woman also suggests that Mr. Latreille call his grandmother, who is impatiently waiting for a piece of furniture to be delivered. Réal Béland and his accomplices have quite a surprise in store for him!