At the end of a dark hallway, Titoff savors his last moments of solitude. His small dressing room is cluttered. It contains a mix of makeup, personal photos, and his stage clothes, all in a cleverly orchestrated mess. After eating a good plate of pasta, the man reflects on his career and encounters. In a good mood, he indulges in sharing some personal anecdotes, with a knowing look.
To relax or out of habit, he joked around and harassed the interviewers and their equipment. It’s not nice, Mr. Titoff, to mock the microphone of Nice-Premium! And who authorized you to take pictures with our camera? He prefers to be behind the camera rather than in front of it… We don’t hold it against him. It was good-natured Southern camaraderie. The main thing is there: Titoff answered all the questions with the traditional Marseilles banter.
Nice-Premium: How was your show “Metrosexual” born?
Titoff: It was born out of a lot of reflection. I was at home in Marseille with friends, and I wrote more than double the current length of the performance. In fact, during my first show, I was often talked about the adolescent phenomenon. For example, the 30-year-old who continues to play PlayStation and eat chips, who watches “Natural Histories” on TV at 4 a.m. coming home from a nightclub. Personally, I hadn’t realized that. In my head, I was just recounting my life. And it’s true that in this one, there’s a bit more hindsight. I really worked on it hard and wrote it over a year and a half, with periods more or less intense.
NP: What then is hidden behind this term?
Titoff: It was actually a pretext to talk about the evolution of guys in my generation. There are millions of men in France, quite egocentric or individualistic, who tended to take care of themselves for their girlfriends. The singles doing the same thing exactly to find a girl. Thus, I list throughout the show specific examples of metrosexuality. Like when one signs up at a gym, takes the 6-month package, and goes only twice. Or waxing—many women prefer men without hair. Some of my friends have also tried diets to keep up with fashion. Especially the low-rise trousers where it depends a bit on where your waist is! It’s like a dictatorship. If you want to dress in fashion or just be able to buy clothes in big stores, you’re somewhat obliged to watch your line. I also talk a lot about the mandatory “well-being,” happiness, and also interior decoration. The kind where if you place an item in the wrong place, it makes you feel bad! I address the ecological side, where they explain to us what we should or should not do, and in the end, we understand nothing. Finally, I try to analyze the male/female relationships, both as singles and in couples, and precisely sex. Sex has really moved from a taboo subject to a status of mundane topic in just a few years. We just talk about sex. Personally, I’m always surprised that a report on sex toys is broadcast at 8 PM on TF1, for example.
NP: Is it important to work with family, especially your brother, on the texts?
Titoff: Yes, very. Except in cinema, where I had experiences with great directors, my career has only been made with him. I hope it lasts as long as possible. We have already written three shows together. At the end of the performance, it’s so much 50/50, so much shared work that it’s hard to know who wrote what. The show is designed to be very efficient, and writing with four hands certainly helps.
NP: You play a lot on the interactivity with the audience; how do they generally react?
Titoff: Frankly, I don’t seek it at all. But it’s true that if a girl gets up to go to the toilet or if someone reacts differently, those are possibilities. The improvisation mostly happens the first times in small rooms when the writing work isn’t completely finished. There, voluntarily, I let go. But the audience is more or less aware that the show isn’t finished. Once this trial period is over, we must be as professional as possible. Improvisation remains a double-edged sword. There are times when, with what I’ve written and what I’ve improvised, it makes the sketch very effective. Other times, not so much.
NP: What memories do you have of the restaurant set up by your brother and his best friend in Saint Tropez?
Titoff: I did everything in that restaurant! I did the dishes but in a thong with a scarf on my head. I also took care of the bar, but since I was getting bored after a while, I ended up drinking more than the clients! As quite a few people knew I was starting in the business, I often ended up performing in the restaurant, even almost in the street. It always pleases me when people mention it to me. There are people who saw the evolution afterward. It’s as good memories for them as for me. There was also a piano-bar, which has since closed, right next to the restaurant. I would go there around three in the morning. The owner, Jean-Pierre, is a fan of stand-up and he pushed me on stage without asking my opinion. As it was in the summer in Saint Tropez, there were still twenty to thirty people in the room at that hour. But all foreigners, they didn’t know what was happening! It saved me a lot of time, I wrote in the afternoon with my brother and I could immediately test it. My career took off very quickly afterward.
NP: Can you tell us about your meeting with Dominique Farrugia?
Titoff: He had heard about the show when I was playing at 10 PM in a small theater in Pigalle. Dominique was very curious and he came. I wasn’t aware that he was there but I had a doubt throughout the performance because of hearing his distinctive laugh! At the end, he entered my dressing room and we hit it off right away. He really liked the first version of the show and talked to me about stand-up. A genre very trendy today. But 7 years ago, I didn’t know it at all. I was doing it without knowing! I offered him to direct, and Dominique accepted. For me, he’s like a godfather who accompanies me in my career.
NP: Titoff, it seems that the first time you made love, you kept your cap on your head?
Titoff: I was sixteen and in the mountains for the Christmas holidays. At that time, I wasn’t allowed to ski because I was in a football training center, but I disobeyed. My brother was with me on a deserted track, and we arrived at a fork. Each went the wrong way and we collided! I fell headfirst onto icy snow that scraped half my face. The same evening was New Year’s Eve. During the party, I met a girl a bit older than me, and it went well (laughs). Basically, I hid my scraped face all evening with a cap because I had seen it in a porn movie fifteen days before. The guy kept it on while making love! I thought to myself, “well, that’s done!” The girl didn’t seem too disturbed by it (laughs).
NP: Are there any topics you forbid yourself from addressing in your shows?
Titoff: I don’t forbid myself, but it’s out of taste. Provocation is no longer provocation once it’s been done and redone. I rather believe in the message of happiness, energy. It’s not my style to give lectures, it makes me uncomfortable. In today’s world, it can be a bit pretentious to say, “I have the solution.” We live in a society where you can no longer laugh at everything, which means it’s better to handle serious topics intellectually rather than humorously. That’s just the way it is; you have to deal with it.
NP: Right now you are on stage, but do you have any film projects?
Titoff: There’s a sequel to “Gomez and Tavares” coming out in early June, before the film festival. I’m also working on three comedy projects currently in writing, about which I cannot say more. The tour has just started and it’s going really well so for now I’m very busy. I’m receiving a great welcome wherever I go. It’s sold out everywhere. For me, this is the best show of the three. The priority is above all the stage with “Metrosexual”.
NP: Two weeks ago, you were in Cannes for the NRJ Music Awards, and today you are in Nice. Should we conclude that you feel at home here?
Titoff: Always! I have a cousin in Cannes, friends in Nice. In my early days, I often performed in Antibes where I was very well received. Like all guys from the south, I know the region well and I’m really happy to come back here.
NP: We know you are a football fan. What do you think about the current situation of OGC Nice?
Titoff: Honestly, I haven’t really followed their news. I saw that they recently won against Bordeaux, which is good. As for OM, it comes and goes. What’s strange is that there was a period when football was almost exclusively played by clubs from the south (Montpellier, Cannes, Marseille, Nice, Toulon, etc.). Now, the clubs that are doing not too badly are located in the north of France. It’s a shame because here it vibrates. I have already seen matches at Ray and the atmosphere there is incredible.
