“I have no reason to be stressed, anyway I’m here to please people! A few minutes away from taking the stage for a new salvo of surprise for a new number of big showJarry rereads his files in his dressing room, at the back of the Théâtre Marigny.
Christmas trees, elves, sequins galore and of course gifts… If it’s only September, but it’s a special Christmas show that is about to be boxed. Enough to ensure a double surprise to the public who came in large numbers to attend the recording of this program launched in June 2022 and of which several numbers have already been broadcast.
Although the decor is seasonal, the recipe for the program remains unchanged and the teams have once again concocted surprises of all kinds to ensure the show in front of and behind the camera. False invitations, B plans and strategic placements… 20 minutes interfered as closely as possible with the people in charge of surprising anonymous guests, “real heroes of the show” according to the production of the show.
“We know that something crazy is going to happen to them”
The production of the show gave an appointment to its audience at 5 p.m. At the corner of the theater located a stone’s throw from the Champs-Elysées, Salim Zaidane, in charge of development and creation, watches for the arrival of the “trapped” with a notebook in hand. “This is the list of people who will be surprised tonight,” he slips to 20 minutes halfway between euphoria and anxiety. In the document are listed the names, first names, faces of the people who will be surprised in this unpublished issue of the France 2 program, but also their placement in the Parisian theater which can accommodate a little over 1,000 people.
“When you see the people arrive who are going to be trapped in the queue, you know that something crazy is going to happen to them, it’s weird… Especially since you know them indirectly. With the people in charge of the castings, Salim has been developing strategies for almost eight months, sometimes eccentric with accomplices, close to the people to surprise.
Thanks to photos, videos but also detailed descriptions, they and they know the personality of the people that the program is about to plunge into the heart of its now traditional surprises. The goal? May they never suspect what will happen to them. “Sometimes we help the accomplices to find excuses. I often create fake invitations to events or activities to make the deception as believable as possible,” says Salim.
Play with the unexpected
“This show is a permanent effervescence”, confirms Anthony Meunier, the producer who says he sleeps about three hours a night since the start of filming for this new burst of big show. His biggest fear? That someone to surprise is late and having to find a plan B a few hours before check-in.
“Every problem that people for whom we prepare a surprise may encounter is a problem for us… For one of the programs, we had chosen to carry out the surprise of a boss to his employee before this one quits”, laughs the producer. Never mind, thanks to the many requests it receives, his team has managed to find a fallback solution.
For his part, it is thanks to meditation that he manages to keep his nerves in place, even a few seconds before the start of filming. Especially since if it can spoil a sequence, the unexpected also makes the salt of the program. “It’s human matter and that’s what’s great because everything is possible! »
A sauce that takes every time
Besides the surprises announced by Jarry to spectators seated in the seats of the Théâtre Marigny, other surprises include people who do not even know that they are on the show. During this Christmas special, it is Jenny, a Franc-Comtoise passionate about music who will find herself facing the show’s cameras when she thought she was visiting a haunted house, built from scratch at the back of the theatre. Mouth in “o” and nervous laughter in front of the host of the program, the shock seems to live up to the expectations of the teams who shaped the surprise when the deception is revealed and the young woman finds herself cheered by the public.
However, Anthony Meunier assures that they are “not necessarily looking for” good customers “” but that the cameras “act as amplifiers of emotions”. And it is this string that makes France Télévisions vibrate. “Often by showing our emotions, we realize the ties that unite us”, philosopher Jarry.
Don’t look, you won’t learn anything new in the big show. But as Christmas approaches, you will take in a dose of positive vibes sufficient to endure several hours at the table with a naughty uncle or aunt.