Mike Beaudoin took the stage at Club Soda on Wednesday night with the energy of a fighter and thunderous applause.
He presented the premiere of his first solo show Vrai, a decidedly personal show in which the comedian, whose joy and recognition we felt on stage, talked about his family, his humorous setbacks and his vasectomy, his shortest doctor’s appointment in life and the most absurd.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/AGENCE QMI
“They made me pull down my pants and underwear to my knees, put on my shoes and told me to tie a knot in my sweater, which fell down a little at that point. They sprayed me with an antiseptic liquid…my stockings were wet,” he said.
Mike Beaudoin has been in the comedy business for 18 years and hasn’t had the easiest path. To survive, he sold shoes to sports experts, house sweepers and lawn care workers. He hosted evenings at local restaurant-dance bars, became a photographer for DuProprio and worked as a general contractor in construction during the pandemic.
“My last customer was so unpleasant that I said to myself, ‘Never again in my life,'” he told the crowd, who laughed and applauded loudly throughout the evening, of his trip.
Today, at the age of 38, he is celebrating his first successes, but he is still a long way from the life of a “rock star”. “I like falling asleep with a man who whispers in my ear, ‘Your breath enters your body,'” he imitated, admitting to a weakness for guided meditation.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/AGENCE QMI
The comedian, father of a 13-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, was afraid he would “die all alone behind a rock eating his soft bar” on an autumn Monday morning at Mont Saint-Hilaire. As he set out on an active hike, he began to feel bad, but he was too proud to stop. Dizzy, with limp legs, heart palpitations and on the verge of fainting, he finally dragged himself laboriously and miserably with branches to his car to call for help.
Eventually he was diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia. “My heart is out of rhythm. I feel dizzy, I see blackheads everywhere, my knees buckle when I exercise and when I make love,” he said, then reproduced what his antics look like when he’s on the verge of a seizure.
Mike Beaudoin, who is usually very adept at “crowd work”, decided not to do this on the evening of his premiere, preferring to stick to his program of around 1 hour and 10 minutes, which was also well rehearsed, simple and effective and gave a feeling of Honesty emerged.
Before he was joined on stage by his wife and children for his final salute, the comedian ended his talk with a number about the death of his father, a soldier who died of cancer just hours before his son was born. “I confirm to you that my father was reincarnated as my son to scream in my ear,” he said with a laugh.
Mike Beaudoin is on tour throughout Quebec. For all dates click here.