“It’s a “The Voice” of comedy,” Eric Judor tells us about “Comedy Class”. As in the TF1 telecrochet, the jury of the talent show launched this Friday on Prime Video, takes a seat on an armchair to evaluate the candidates but what counts here is not to sing in tune but to chain together the valves that make fly. Eric Judor and Ramzy Bédia are the hosts and main jurors. Once the first selections have been made in France and Belgium, they are joined for an episode by other comedy stars (Florence Foresti, Jérôme Niel, Marina Foïs, etc.). If the objective for the participants is to pocket the 50,000 euros promised to the winner, the show allows the public to discover young comedy talents with varied styles. Pistachio on the cake: Eric and Ramzy indulge in hilarious improvisations in each episode.
Is judging humor an easy task or not?
Eric: Not.
Ramzy: We didn’t judge. Judging humor would mean giving a clear-cut opinion at the end.
E. : Still, we judged since we eliminated some. It’s a horrible moment and besides, when we had to free someone, we always wanted it to be the other one to do it. Humor is subjective. There are people that we have eliminated and who, if it turns out, will make half of France laugh. And others that we kept that won’t make you laugh. It was our comic sensibility that decided.
Did you have a goal?
E. : We said we were black, Arab, Jewish. That was for sure. And a woman. And a gay man.
A: And a disabled person.
E. : And a big one. That’s all. (laughs)
A: There was no objective. We wanted to find the funniest person possible.
And who could be the largest audience, reach the greatest number?
E. and R: No !
E. : No way. Moreover, in the two finalists, at the very end, there is really a person who is not at all mainstream. We brought him back just because he made us laugh.
A: Of course there is a winner, but all finalists are winners.
The candidates already have some stage experience and have very active Instagram accounts. Are there any that you have already spotted?
E. : Yes, I had seen Eliott Doyle, Adel Fugazi…
A: We saw them on the first show and we knew they would go further. It’s obvious, the humor, you just have to see people bursting out laughing.
E. : It’s true that we had our own judgment, but we were doing it in public, too, so this reaction couldn’t be forced. It was unstoppable.
What is unacceptable about stand-up?
E. : Nothing. One of the artists in the final did something completely crazy, with a costume, stuff, anything… For me, it could have been crippling, but I was dying of laughter.
A: We had a candidate who looked like Nicolas Sarkozy. We took it. He was a somewhat old-fashioned comedian who did very classic imitations. Normally, it’s prohibitive, but we kept it because it was funny.
In each episode, we see you improvise in sequences of varying length. Did it go very far?
E. : Yes and it has been condensed. I think there is four times more material in the rushes.
A: We could do a show of us walking around France.
E. : It was a problem. We looked at the first cut and said to ourselves: “But where are we?” » They had formatted it a bit like “The Voice”, we were shown as judges but they forgot the whipped cream that we had added so they were very nice and they gave it to us.
Would you have made “Comedy Class” if the concept had existed when you started?
A: We would have gone for it!
E. : Obviously, because there weren’t many places we could go: to Treviso…
A: And knock on the doors of the three producers that existed. We sent K7 videos of our sketches to Didier Gustin.
It’s true ? What did he answer you?
E. : For us, he was a mega-star. We met him and he was very cool, very nice.
A: I don’t know what happened, but I have fond memories of that boy.
Performing in front of Eric and Ramzy, did that condition the candidates?
E. : There was a test, which was ultimately cut entirely during editing, where we had to surprise us. I think they said to themselves that, for that, they had to do anything.
A: And they did anything.
E. : So, that was a really bad idea for a theme.
A: With only two hours of writing time left, poor things.
How does the show reflect current French stand-up?
E. : When you see where some people are in just a year or two of their career, it’s crazy. They all have a much better stage culture than ours at the time.
A: When we arrived, we discovered, we groped, we searched. They already have all the codes, they know where to go, how to do it.
E. : None of them really screwed up. Not one of them started to splutter or sweat. We did it for an audition at Carré Blanc at the time. We stopped in the middle of the sketch and asked to start again. There, this didn’t happen to anyone: everyone is a mega professional.
Moreover, those who are not selected do not give the impression of experiencing their elimination as a dramatic decision…
E. : We don’t hope, because if we caused this trauma, it would be horrible. We know how vulnerable an artist is at this point in their career.
A: In our time, when you messed up in an audition, it hit you hard because it was over. There, you miss “Comedy Class” today, the day after tomorrow, you make two videos on Insta and you get by. We tried to put them at ease, to relax them. It must have been impressive to play in front of Eric. I know people are thinking wow…
E. : I did The DaltonsIt’s true.
This generation knows you more through…
(he cuts) E. : Shitty movies?
Or series, or stand-up…
E. : They don’t know us at all in stand-up because the last time we went on stage was in…
A: 2005.
E. : 2005! ? Oh yeah !
A: I have the poster in my toilet.
E. : Oh damn, it’s been almost twenty years!
Aren’t you itching to get back on stage to mark the occasion?
E. : When we participate in previews, I love making people laugh in the movie theaters. It’s starting to itch. Then, going back on stage for the show to get people excited, that made us want to do it. Look at his face the way he wants. [Ramzy affiche une mine impassible].
Isn’t that your priority, Ramzy?
A: [Son visage change d’expression] I’m dropping everything to go back on stage with Eric tomorrow!
Do you think you would have as much freedom as you did twenty or twenty-five years ago?
E. : We wouldn’t ask ourselves the question during the writing, but it was certainly during the first run-in sessions that people would come to us and say: “Hey, the thing about black people, about fat people, about gay people , it would be cool to remove it…”
A: “We would have to remove three quarters of the show.” (They laugh).
In “Comedy Class”, we see that it is possible to laugh at these subjects without being problematic…
E. : This is what we will see when it is broadcast. At the moment, we don’t know. In any case, we kept in editing what made us laugh.
Do you think there may be hostile reactions to certain valves?
E. : Today, controversies come from a sentence, a look…
Have these young talents taught you anything?
E. : Nothing at all ! (laughs) Yes: audacity. They are not afraid.
A: We will never be bold, because we are aware of our weaknesses.
E. : We have too much sense of the ridiculous, sometimes it bothers us, it blocks us and we sweat. They don’t care. If they are not taken in “Comedy Class”, they make a video on Insta, one on TikTok, as Ramzy said and they are world stars. There is something very peaceful about them. Perhaps we took this job too seriously at the beginning. I say that, you see two images from the time, it doesn’t really fit this speech (laughs). But still, I have the impression that we were less daring than the young people. They don’t give a damn. Even when they mess up. We could be destroyed. Our first TV was at Drucker’s. We have a dismal passage: no one laughs. What we’re doing is stupid. We come out of that and Ramzy and I look at each other and say: “Actually, we’re not made for this job.” We came home depressed, telling our girls: we’re stopping, it’s not for us. They continue. There’s something unconscious that I find very cool.