Seven years after leaving Quebec for France, Sugar Sammy is back with his new one-man show You’re Gonna Laugh 2, a second bilingual show for the comedian who’s ambition is to “combine the two solitudes.” “ to reconcile with each other. But if that’s his intention, why would he make fun of just one of them at a time?
Sugar Sammy, who nonetheless boasts that he laughs at everyone on the show, actually spares the English-speaking viewers, who represented about half of the audience who descended on Friday night’s Montreal premiere at the Salle Pierre-Mercure, entirely. You have a chance to avoid the worst stereotypes about them. The Côte-des-Neiges comedian prefers to target French-speaking Quebecers, to whom almost all of the jokes are directed in the first few minutes of the show. On stage, he shamelessly pokes fun at their bad French, their so-called reclusiveness, their lack of knowledge of geography… In short, it always boils down to saying that Quebecers are the ultimate ignoramuses.
Of course, if you’re not ridiculous, you’re not worth much either. Of course, Quebecers have their flaws, and comedians rightly point them out in broad daylight to poke fun at them. Sugar Sammy just has another goal in mind when he pokes fun at the fake kindness and flashy side of Quebec show business, which he seems to have distanced himself from given the sometimes scathing jokes about Martin Matte, Mike Ward and Jérémy Demay , Maripier Morin or Marie-Mai.
However, the redundancy still becomes boring. Mainly because it has a touch of déjà vu. After a long exile, Sugar Sammy would rather serve his audience warmed up than put himself in danger. Truc’s minds are the same as they were when the Quebec general public knew it ten years ago: the PQ MPs he compares to the disabled, the defenders of French fact, the chroniclers of the Quebec empire. If we remove racism from the Journal de Montréal, all that’s left is, ironically, swimming pool ads to the acclaim of a public visibly committed to its cause.
However, even the most ardent nationalist can only recognize Sugar Sammy as an iron quick-witted, raw talent for stand-up. As a real stage animal, he also likes to interact with the audience in this new show, which at least sometimes allows him to think outside the box.
By denouncing the French in France, he’s scratching their stifled accent, which makes them look homosexual, he jokes. The 47-year-old comedian strays into a register a mid-’90s Peter MacLeod wouldn’t have denied, even daring to crack a few jokes about trans women, which he admits he has no desire for. or even lesbians and vegans, the only ones who don’t harbor self-mockery, he judges.
No, Sugar Sammy will not win any Fondation Émergence or Fédération des Femmes du Québec awards with You’re Gonna Laugh 2. Guy Nantel would probably have been kicked out for less.
Sugar Sammy is performing in Montreal throughout the summer, in addition to a few dates elsewhere in Quebec with You’re gonnalach 2.