This time the time has come: comedian Julien Lacroix returns to the public.
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When he announced his comeback this time, nobody in the comedy business laughed.
Neither has his family received death threats, as happened last July when he tried to organize a similar evening.
Five weeks ago, the release of a lengthy article by Isabelle Hachey in La Presse and a podcast by Marie-Ève Tremblay on 98.5 FM revealed some secrets of the Devoir file that stigmatized the comedian in the summer of 2020.
His ex-girlfriend, who was initially his main accuser, the writer Geneviève Morin, then nuanced and clarified some of his statements.
She lamented that her former lover was languishing in purgatory with no way out, and she expressed the wish that he could live his life again.
In short, for the past five weeks, Julien Lacroix has therefore ceased to be persona non grata… at least for some.
No journalist
“In July nobody wanted to rent me a room and I planned to do this in a camp. Now I’ve been able to find a cafe that’s willing to give me my chance to rent out their scene,” he told me this afternoon as he sat in that eatery.
For security reasons, I will keep the name of this venue a secret until the end of his show on Wednesday night.
It’s a small room.
Tickets, which sell for $15, will more or less cover the room rental and the fees of the professional security guard hired for the event.
The audience of about thirty people will be made up of people he doesn’t know.
“I want to see if I can still do my job and if I enjoy it, even on an empty stomach. That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for two and a half years,” says the man, who has given up alcohol since his setbacks.
“Several friends sent me your column about Josiane Stratis, who talks about abandonment culture, so I agreed to talk to you and invite you,” says the man who turned down all interview requests, including popular TV shows, for five weeks.
Why have you been silent since the article was published in La Presse and the 98.5 FM podcast?
“From the beginning, my word meant little or nothing. I prefer to express myself discreetly through the medium I know best, humor.
“Will I speak publicly in 2023 to give myself the right to start my work again? Perhaps!”
reunion with the public
His performance tonight will be taped and perhaps, he’s not sure, used in the production of a podcast.
“Honestly I don’t know what it will be, I hope it will go well.”
“What was said about me two and a half years ago will color my eyes for a lifetime, whatever I do, but if I could make a living from my art like this, underground, in small places, I’m very fine.”
“That’s what makes me happy: going on stage.”
“I wanted a space with people I don’t know, to see if I could connect with them and how I could deal with them while being more myself, answering their questions and not hiding behind my character.”
Of course I’ll be there to see it.
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