Adib Alkhalidey began work on his fourth solo show in March at Gesù in Montreal. Sa Quebecers Tabarnakthe comedian tries to remove the empty identity that has inhabited him since childhood to present himself as he sees himself today, after much contemplation, meaning a 100% Quebec artist.
After a first musical album under the name Abelaïd, a move to the countryside with his wife and two years of pandemic, Adib Alkhalidey prefers to return to the stage to find his audience. He needed a break from humor, but he didn’t expect it to take this long.
I can almost see myself playing on the Berri-UQAM meter, in front of eight people, anywhere. I just want to make people laugh. Stand-up never came to me like that, like the simple need to be with peoplehe explained Thursday in an interview on the show Penelope.
Want to belong to something
Beyond his jokes on spices, the French language, genetic tests, the Italian community, plumbing or his family history, his fourth one-man show is also a reflection on society, especially in the absence of identity that many immigrants feel upon arrival. in Quebec.
I think I am inhabited by a violent identity that is void and I have not yet had the words to describe this situation.said the comedian.
This show was born part of the inner struggle of the desire to be included. My hypothesis is that I found a lot of inner peace when I understood that I was a Quebec artist.
The fact of assuming and claiming without compromise that it belongs to Quebec is also for Adib Alkhalidey a way of interpreting the displacement of his family, who fled the dictatorship in Iraq.
I know my parents sacrificed their lives to come and live here […] My father really put everything aside for me to study, learn languages, discover a new world. The only way to honor this sacrifice is to be 100% Quebecois. but Quebecers Tabarnak.
Make people laugh, but not only
After several years of postponing the issue, the comedian has also included in his new show a touching number on his father, who died a few years ago. He said he sees no contradiction in being moved during a show designed to make people laugh.
It took courage to accept that I was going to have a moment on the show where maybe we would be emotional, because I was obsessed with making the show funny. It’s been my obsession since I started, it’s what keeps my head above water my entire careerdid he declare.
But at some point, I realized that was no longer what I wanted to prove to myself. I know who I am as a comedian. There, I thought more about how to join the line of artists and works that changed my life.
Quebec tabarnak will be presented in Gesù, in Montreal, until June 25. It will then be screened at Zénith, in Saint-Eustache, on July 2 and 12, at the Grand Théâtre de Québec on July 9, and at the Place des arts in Montreal on July 16. Some dates are also on sale for winter 2023 on the comedian’s website (New window).
Source: Radio-Canada
