It’s hard to end a duo after ten years of complicity marked by numerous awards at major festivals, including the world-renowned “Just for Laughs” in Montreal. Without any animosity, Fabrice and Fabrice experienced this like other “couples” have, each deciding to create their own solo show. Even if the duo occasionally reunites, it is inevitably nearing its end.
For Fabrice (Donnio), who performs in Antibes, he needed a new “carrot”; he uses his mime experience, astounding vitality, and innate sense of humor to lead us into an interactive show that makes you forget all your worries.
This desire to be on stage, his sense of humor, and the joy of making people laugh and playing with the audience, all date back to when he was 10 years old. So much so that he unashamedly said, “I want to be an actor.” His first “one-man” show was at 16, and two years later, after meeting another Fabrice at the Avignon Conservatoire (this wasn’t by chance…), scripts emerged, eventually becoming sketches performed on the street, leading to the creation of the duo “Fabrice and Fabrice” in Paris.
This first solo show, he simply called “I’m Coming,” intending to add a bit of humor to tell us, “don’t move and wait for me, you won’t regret it,” while doing it “on tiptoe,” as his poster suggests.
The audience definitely does not regret coming to a completely interactive show where the comedian delights in playing with them, taking advantage of any reaction to feed his text. He knows perfectly how to “catch the ball on the bounce”; he’s a hunter and he always hits the mark.
His entrance might suggest yet another parody of a risqué or vulgar sketch, but that is absolutely not the case, and it immediately creates a certain complicity with the audience. It’s done with tact and humor!
And then it doesn’t stop, he runs a number of everyday life scenes through the sieve of his humor and his science of accurate gestures.
It’s not Jules, a spectator chosen by the artist to play with him on stage, who would say otherwise…
The karaoke session with the Japanese man singing Brel is irresistible, strikingly authentic. What about the dictionary of “Rare and Precious Words”? Or his girlfriend Sophie? One thing to say, book quickly to find out…
If we tell you he is the son of an artist-painter and a chemist father, there’s indeed that dose of maternal whimsy and paternal rigor in this comedian who has just started a new career with this first solo show. Presented in December 2008 in Carpentras, it has already evolved after the second performance in Marseille. The tour is growing, it has stopped in Antibes, but only until Saturday night. Don’t miss it!
“J’arrive,” the show by Fabrice at 20:30 until Saturday, April 11
Theater of the Sea Scene
National Square in Antibes
(1st floor of La Cascade restaurant)
Information and reservations
15 rue Fourmillière 06600 Antibes
Tel. 04 93 34 11 21
(Open from 10h to 18h
or at www.theatredelamarguerite.com
