Proud of the success and international influence of documentary reality How to Become a Guru?available on the Vrai platform, comedian Mathieu Cyr talks to us about this crazy adventure.
• Also read: Mathieu Cyr at the helm of the documentary “How to Become a Guru”.
Consisting of four episodes: How do I become a guru? accompanies Mathieu Cyr on his way to becoming a fake guru on social networks. The docu-reality gives voice to experts who shed light on tragic cases linked to the excesses of these thought leaders who use the Internet to lure thousands of followers into their networks. “We are talking in particular about the case of Chantal Lavigne, who died in 2011 as a result of a sweating ritual. We also discuss Bernard Lachance, who died of AIDS in 2021. Under the influence of a guru, he had stopped his triple therapy treatments. These two cases really shocked me. This is also the accusatory side of “How to Become a Guru?” that convinced me to jump into this adventure with both feet. My knees were shaking at first, but I’m really glad I did this project.
IMPROVISE YOURSELF GURU
Through his experience, Mathieu realized that it is easy to improvise as a guru overnight. “For 16 weeks, my social media posts were borderline esoteric. I told my followers to jog to stay healthy and meditate to feel better. The vaguer my messages were, the more differently they were interpreted by thousands of people who, despite everything, recognized themselves in them. Like many real gurus, I pretended to live the life of a millionaire. I traveled to luxury hotels to write, rode around in limousines and gave lectures. In the end, tens of thousands of people followed the false guru I had become. The hardest thing for me was not being able to tell them why I was doing all this before the docu-reality came out.”
A TRUSTED TEAM
Throughout this process, Mathieu was supported by a trusted team. “I worked with the director Martin Paquette, with whom I shot the documentary series Infiltration. Together we had managed to infiltrate a group of survivalists, Shylocks and steroid dealers. I knew that with Martin we wouldn’t cross the line. The comedian would also like to thank his girlfriend Ashley-Jade Lussier, who supported him in front of and behind the camera during filming. “She was really there to keep me grounded and support me.”
Having benefited from a great presentation at MIPCOM 2023, held in Cannes, France at the end of October, Mathieu hopes: How to become a guru? broadcast elsewhere in the world. “This concept has been well received internationally, but it is still too early to say in which other countries it will land. By then, I already have another TV project of the same nature in development. I can not say more.”
Photo: Patrick Seguin / TVA Publications
AN UNEXPECTED SUCCESS
In addition, Mathieu Cyr will continue the Before the End of the World tour until the end of 2024, which he leads in a duo with his friend Olivier Martineau. “It is a caustic and taboo-free show aimed at an audience aged 16 and over. We did not expect this proposal to be so successful. We sold more than 20,000 tickets!”
On a personal level, the comedian, who has been engaged since last year, still has every intention of marrying the woman of his heart with whom he has shared life for four years. “We want to highlight our love in a unique way. We should get married in the spring or fall.”
The four episodes of the documentary reality How do you become a guru? are available on True.
To find out Mathieu Cyr’s tour dates.