Christian Bégin bluntly admits this. The negative reviews his solo show received last fall stunned him. “It was disastrous. I found it terrible”, says the one who rolled up his sleeves to come back with an improved show that he delivers with much more pleasure today. Interview with the 59-year-old artist who returns in a few days to the animation of the concept evening The night of depression.
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This will be your third time hosting The night of depression. Why are you coming back to do this event?
“Each time, it’s one of my most beautiful evenings of the year. It’s a unique and extraordinary show, with a cast you can’t find anywhere else. There are regarding twenty guests. It goes from Ariane Moffatt to Luc De Larochellière, Laurence Jalbert and Catherine Éthier. This is one of the most impressive and diverse casts to be seen on stage in Montreal right now. […] It’s a liberating and feel-good show. The world comes out of there galvanized. They experience a whole range of emotions. Plus, it’s for a good cause. All proceeds from the evening go to the Ronald-Denis Foundation. It is therefore both to do good and to do good to others.
What is this evening regarding?
“There are sad songs and numbers that all revolve around depression. But the accumulation of sad numbers makes it one of the funniest nights. We are so second degree, which is a lot of good. There is something absolutely magical regarding this evening. […] We have every reason right now to blubber. The fact that we put depression at the heart of the evening, it creates a kind of catharsis. We embrace depression with a lot of derision.”
How’s your solo show tour going, The 8 deadly sins?
“Things are going really well today. But it’s a show that started “on the sly”. The critical reception last fall was very hard on me. It took a lot of humility and hard work. After a really rough start, I found my show, I polished it. I fell in love with the show. […] I’m happy because I really suffered. I wanted to let go. I didn’t want to do it anymore. I was in a love-hate relationship with my show. There, everything fell into place. The show works, people laugh. I think it’s a show that has found its audience.”
Why was getting started so difficult?
“I think I was not ready. I hadn’t run it enough. I come from the theater where you don’t run the shows. We return to the theater and a week later, it’s the first. My first two solo shows, I hadn’t tried them at all. I had returned directly to Montreal. But there, following 25 years of absence, at my age and with the expectations surrounding this show, I was not sufficiently prepared. I had not taken care to give all the keys the public needed to understand how second-degree I am.
What was your reaction to seeing the negative reviews the day following the premiere?
“It was disastrous. I found it very hard. It is a terrible ego wound. Because when you’re alone on stage, the only person responsible for what happens is you. It was the first time that I had been confronted with such unanimously harsh, confrontational and bad reviews. There are even some that I found violent. I found it extremely difficult, but you have no choice. It’s a job, it’s a job. I cried out all the tears in my body. But you roll up your sleeves, you work and you go do your job.
What TV projects are you working on?
“I will soon be finishing the filming of the new Isabelle Langlois series [Rumeurs, Mauvais karma], The candidate. I have a super nice role, a kind of Big Lebowski, a grouchy always angry, but also endearing and very funny. It is a magnificent dramatic comedy regarding politics. I am also resuming the filming of There are people at mass et Curious Begin. […] My professional life mightn’t be more generous to me right now. I am one of the privileged few in this profession.”
- The show The night of depression will take place on Monday at the Théâtre St-Denis. theatrestdenis.com. Christian Bégin continues the tour of his one-man show The 8 deadly sins. For dates: christianbegin.ca
