Each new project entrusted to him by TF1 is given a standing ovation by the public. In Mask Singer, whose finale aired Tuesday, October 11, he managed to steal the limelight from costumed celebrities thanks to his caustic style and family humor. Barely the season of Mask Singer finished, Camille Combal returns this Tuesday, October 18 with the second edition of The big inlay. Another almost guaranteed success…
But it is above all “dad’s TV” which now owes him a lot. His arrival in programs such as Dance with the stars, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ? or A gold family, made it possible to reboost audiences and revive formats that we thought were buried. Now dubbed by Jean-Pierre Foucault or Nikos Aliagas, nothing predestined the forty-year-old, from Orres in the Hautes-Alpes, to make his place on the first channel. “I am the Christophe Rocancourt of the media, I am really a scam”, he repeats.
Black velvet shirt over a white t-shirt and suit pants over sneakers. Camille Combal has swapped the usual suit and tie, almost compulsory in prime time on TF1, for a casual outfit in the hotel in the 16th arrondissement of Paris where we meet him. The luxury of the decor, imposed in spite of himself by his status as a young prodigy of TF1, contrasts however with the “normal” side that he repeats to have preserved. “If on Friday evening, people can go to a restaurant with friends instead of watching TV, I prefer. But we’re here just in case for those who aren’t so lucky, to offer them the lightest, coolest show and take their mind off it. »
A youth “either in the service or in the dishwashing”
It is in his native Alps that the young Camille dreams for the first time of appearing on the small screen. Far from idolizing the animators of the time, he rather imagines himself alongside Kad and Olivier in The big show, broadcast on Canal+. “I would run after college to be on time to see them do their shit. But frankly being in their place, I didn’t even dare to believe it, ”he rewinds.
The rhythm of the restaurant run by his parents quickly put an end to his ambitions. “With my brother, as soon as there was a heat stroke in the restaurant, we went upstairs and helped either with the service or with the dishes. In the summer, he swaps his cotton candy stand on the establishment’s terrace for the ice cream service. “The 98 World Cup final, I never saw it because my father had put me to the desserts in the basement of the kitchen. »
To his father, he owes a little of his humor, now known to viewers. Every day, customers flock “to laugh for five minutes with Riquet”. “He was really the Coluche of the resort,” recalls Camille Combal, plunging back into his child’s shoes for a few moments. “In the morning, the restaurant was half coffee, half stand-up. The image inspires him, he in turn becomes the one who always has the right formula, the right word to amuse his group of friends. The desire to earn a living to make people laugh is essential in his mind but not necessarily in his life. “I’ve never taken a theater class because at home you say: ‘I want to do theater or radio’, they answer you: ‘Yeah, do raclettes and leave me alone.’ »
Behind a microphone “by chance”
Down to earth, he passed a license in business management in Aix-en-Provence. Diploma in hand, his parents give him a year to try his luck in Paris. He moved into a maid’s room in Boulogne-Billancourt “right next to my current offices, you can imagine the coincidence”, he laughs with nearly 20 years of hindsight. He first scoured the stand up scenes, “a catastrophy”, he admits today. At the same time, he landed an internship on Fun Radio, where he joined the gift service. “I stamped envelopes all day, it was horrible, but I had restaurant tickets and 200 bucks a month, that was already something. »
Cloistered on the first floor of the radio building of the RTL group, he dreams of moving to the second, where the programs are recorded. “My dream would have been to be told: ‘By the way, we’re looking for someone on the microphone, you look super funny, come and make jokes.’ But in reality it doesn’t happen like that at all. »
When he learns that the floor above is looking for a journalist trainee to strengthen the team, he applies. “I told them that I was a journalist and I made a fake CV so that they would take me. “Winning bet since he joins the team. “They quickly realized that I was a scam and that I had cheated but they kept me anyway. Aware of his luck, he works hard to “make himself indispensable” but above all becomes the “guignol on duty”, not stingy with jokes in the corridors.
After his year of crash test in Paris, he will continue with two years of internship at Fun Radio where he will be especially noticed for his clumsiness. “One day my skateboard escaped me and I broke the window of the office of the director of the antenna, Gaël Sanquer. “It is he who sees in Camille Combal an ideal candidate when it is necessary to replace at short notice the co-host tipped for the evening show, blocked on another radio station by an exclusivity clause. “After two years of struggling, I found myself on the air by chance because the guy who had been chosen could not come”, is still surprised today the host. Never mind, he accepts directly. “But in reality, I was very stressed. »
An evolution “without great ambition”
He was poached by NRJ a few months later to replace Manu Payet in the morning. “When he joined us, he didn’t care. He really saw it as a challenge, if it worked so much the better, if not too bad, ”recalls Bruno Guillon who then sees him landing in his team. He recognizes directly in Camille Combal an unconventional “hard worker”. “I immediately sensed that he had that touch of madness that he still cultivates today. »
“I didn’t have so much ambition, like today in fact, because I don’t have a great TV ambition”, specifies Camille Combal. On the rubble of his dreams as a failed comedian, he builds the beginnings of the animator whom he considers to have become: “an anomaly”. “In my mind, I’m still the little guy from the mountains who didn’t know anything or anyone in Paris…”
It was on NRJ that he was offered to appear for the first time on the small screen when the entertainment director of Canal+, Ara Aprikian, who would later become director of programs for TF1, offered him to join The special, aired every lunchtime. He will then become a columnist in Do not touch My TV on C8 and hosted Virgin Radio’s morning show for six years.
“Clan” work
Over the course of his various experiences, he meets the people who still make up his professional entourage today. “When he hosted NRJ’s Morning, I was a trainee,” recalls Abdoul Ngongo, author for TF1 and Camille Combal’s closest collaborator since 2008. “We immediately became friends. It’s as if tomorrow, an intern became friends with Jean-Pierre Foucault, Camille has no barrier. They then follow each other on C8 and spend sleepless nights writing the chronicles that make Camille Combal an emblematic face of Cyril Hanouna’s show.
Taken by the hand during his first internships on the radio, the host now takes pleasure in accompanying those who take their first steps at his side. “He always gets huge satisfaction when he sees someone start with him. He does everything possible to support young colleagues, to help them grow,” adds Abdoul Ngongo.
“I’m a bit clannish, I think it comes a lot from the mountains,” admits Camille Combal. “He knows all the teams, confirms Anthony Meunier, producer of Mask Singer. He’s never afraid to spend time meeting the people who work with him and spending time getting to really know them. With his former colleagues, he also keeps very good relations. “When I need him on the radio, I know I can count on him,” says Bruno Guillon.
Resist the pressure TF1
It was on September 29, 2018 that the public of TF1 discovered his face for the first time. Perched on a hoop, he appears from the top of the mythical parquet floor. “I was not stressed, I especially wanted to make sure not to have an animation that was too shy just because I was arriving on TF1”, recalls the one who is now in his third season of the dance show. Featured.
The production of the show recognizes a good pick in the choice of the channel. “It was effective from the first year. He put his paw in the show and allowed it to get a makeover, ”rejoices Deborah Nahon, entertainment director at TF1 Production. She believes that Camille Combal is now part of the DNA of Dance with the stars and helped reposition the show as a “very entertaining” program.
But what animates the quarantine remains to put on wigs or play characters. Maybe because he hates the image he sends back to the screen… “There are two things I can’t watch on TV or on my phone, wasps and my head. I do everything to make it good at the time but I don’t want to look at myself afterwards, ”he explains. “He saw each recording as a moment of life. It’s a real asset because it allows it to keep a real freshness”, underlines Anthony Meunier.
“Memories for 30 years”
Since this great premiere, Camille Combal has accumulated projects of all kinds. From the return ofA gold family at The big inlay, an entertainment where it burst into the flagship programs of French television. “I’m too lucky, it’s a bit crazy that I’m here doing this on TF1”, he realizes.
Very prominent, he has preserved a form of innocence since his arrival on the chain of the Bouygues group. “When he sees Nikos he is like a phew, super impressed when in the end there is no reason, they are both presenters at TF1”, laughs Abdoul Ndongo. He says that the host is constantly trying to stay as close as possible to the person he was when he arrived in Paris. “He especially wants no one to think he’s got a big head because he thinks people like the real Camille and he’s really afraid of getting lost. »
What if it should stop? “I would go back to my little province, I would have memories to tell for thirty years. I could say: “Guys, I met Dominique Farrugia, I met Alain Chabat, Jean-Pierre Foucault, I shot with Jimmy Fallon…” he replies. After all, between the small restaurant where he was born and the television sets where he now makes his mark, there is only one step… “I think that between running a restaurant and being a TV presenter, the difference n is not huge. You have to welcome people, that they have a good time, that they are comfortable, that they have good memories and if possible that they come back. »