The comedy duo Paire de 2, comprised of actors Richard Zanca and Jart’z Jimmy Gimenez, has just launched its own short program intended for the web and eventually for television. The first episode, “The Meeting… at the Employment Office of Contes,” will begin filming in January 2015.
It’s the (rich) story of two guys, one of whom is an actor, an up-and-coming film star, a product of the new wave from Nice. Richard Zanca plays the role of Maréchal des Logis Lebrun in the upcoming season 9 of the detective series *Section de Recherches*, broadcast on TF1, with around 7.3 million viewers per episode.
An audience that does not prevent the Niçois artist from being on all fronts: photographer in *Collatéral Damage* with Victor Lanoux, journalist in *Maryland*, a Canadian drama releasing in 2015, alongside Diane Kruger.
Permanent member of Théâtre de l’Eau Vive, four years on stage at Bouffscène in Nice, Richard Zanca had, however, another very specific project in mind in addition to his busy schedule, and this for several years. A thought that would germinate and take shape.
“The idea came to me, while shaving a wall, of a crazy, offbeat duo as irrelevant as the beginning of my sentence. I participated in the 2014 Laughter Runarounds, organized by the ‘nissarte’ association Sian d’Aqui last October… And then the light came on. Everything went very quickly.”
The other guy, then, is Jimmy Gimenez, also an actor. Also appeared in *Section de Recherches* and later in *The First Circle* with Jean Réno, the one nicknamed Jart’z is also a man of the theater. He recently performed Chekhov’s *The Seagull* in Nice. With offbeat and corrosive humor, charismatic, creative, the man of Ariège origin fears nothing.
By the way, Ariège was the trigger for the creation of the duo with the sweet name *Paire de 2* and simultaneously their web series titled *Improbable Meeting*.
So, Richard and Jimmy meet at the Laughter Runarounds, each performing sketches separately. They don’t know each other. Jimmy plays a farmer… Big Bang. The connection is made, the inspiration is there, the two stage beasts talk and agree: Richard Zanca alias Mike Adame the New York trader, a conman wanted by the CIA, will have Jaco Boue, the honest farmer from Ariège who comes to start a small business on the Côte d’Azur, as his sidekick. From this improbable encounter, a bond will be born, but also many catastrophes that will put the region on alert.
The web series has everything to succeed, and it will be named *Improbable Meeting*. The pilot episode is scheduled to be filmed in Contes, in the hinterland of Nice, at the beginning of January. A first opus with the evocative title “The Meeting… at the Employment Office of Contes.”
A last word? “Yes and no, this first episode will have surprises, but we won’t say more…”