Roi of Comedy Le King

COVER STORY EN COUVERTURE DE L’HUMOUR LE KING SUGARROI OF COMEDY SAMMY By Bill Brownstein SUGAR SAMMY IS WELL ON HIS WAY TO BECOMING THE BIGGEST INTERNATIONAL COMEDY STAR FROM CANADA. Sugar Sammy is jet-lagged. He just stepped off a plane, after This development has taken everyone by surprise, including two weeks in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. The winds are howling. Sugar Sammy. “Frankly, I’m stunned, particularly because we Snow is falling. The thermometer has dipped. Winter has come didn’t do any advertising,” says Sugar Sammy, over sushi and to his hometown, Montréal. Regardless, nothing can dampen or green tea at Kaizen, one of Montréal’s funkiest Japanese res- freeze his spirits. tos. “The industry wasn’t sure even one show would work. No one thought a bilingual show would sell here. But in my heart The gigs in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai went well. No surprise of hearts, I believed it would. Maybe for a few shows. But this there. Sugar Sammy is well on his way to becoming the biggest many? Not in my wildest dreams.” international comedy star hailing from Canada. He is not only funny and fearless, but he is also a poster boy for multicultu- A promotional campaign is now up and running. A rather ris- ralism, a multilingual threat in just about any market. He lets qué one at that, with these pledges: “You’re Gonna Rire” and loose—with equal ease—in English, French, Hindi, and Punjabi. that the material will be “50.5% in English, 49.5% in French.” And he has done so in more than 250 shows annually over the The aforementioned percentages have deep social and political past few years, in over 30 countries. Nor does it hurt that he has significance in this province, dating all the way back to 1995. matinee-idol looks to go along with his affable charm. Can you say “referendum”? Sugar Sammy’s focus now is a series of shows coming up in Typically, Sugar Sammy will not be pulling any punches in his February and March at Montréal’s Olympia. He is going where new show. He delights in skewering all sides in matters linguis- few comics on either side of this country’s cultural divide tic, and he gets away with it. would ever dare to go: in Le Show Franglais, he will be meshing French and English shtick together, sometimes even in the “This is an experiment, the project closest to my heart. But it same sentence. is custom-made for Montréal. I want to bring my two solitudes together. We have to see our uniqueness as a strength, not a This is such a radical departure that Sugar Sammy had his weakness. I’ll be jumping from language to language in the doubts that he would be able to sell out even one gig. Hardly. same show, in the same routine. I think audiences are ready for Two days after announcing that one show, buzz was so hot that it. We’ll see. No guts, no glory.” eight more were added. Two weeks later, he was up to 19 dates. Still, the demand has not abated, and now the final tally is ex- The same back-and-forth linguistic technique certainly worked pected to be 23 shows. well in the hit flickBon Cop, Bad Cop, so there’s no reason it couldn’t on stage. © Pascale Therien © Pascale LE KING DE L’HUMOUR Par Bill Brownstein Photo Pascale Therrien SUGARROI OF COMEDY SAMMY SUGAR SAMMY EST EN PASSE DE S’ILLUSTRER COMME L’HUMORISTE CANADIEN LE PLUS CONNU DE LA PLANÈTE. À sa descente d’avion, après deux semaines de succès à Kuala Lumpur et à Dubaï, Sugar Sammy est au bout de son fuseau horaire. Le vent hurle, les flocons s’affolent, le mercure plonge. Montréal frissonne, mais ni la fatigue ni l’hiver de sa ville natale ne refroidiront l’ardeur de Sammy. Les spectacles à Kuala Lumpur et à Dubaï ont fait recette. Rien d’étonnant pour celui qui est en passe de s’illustrer comme l’humoriste canadien le plus connu au monde. Tordant, taquin, il déride la foule avec autant de facilité en français qu’en anglais, en hindi ou en punjabi. Un modèle de multiculturalisme qui dérange. Sa belle gueule de jeune premier, dont il joue avec un charme affable, ne nuit pas non plus à son succès. Et quel succès : plus de 250 représentations dans une trentaine de pays, tout ça en l’espace d’un an! Sammy prépare pour février et mars une série de spectacles à l’Olympia de Montréal. Il s’aventurera alors là où très peu d’humoristes canadiens, toutes langues confondues, ont osé mettre le pied : dans son Show franglais, il mélangera allègrement l’humour des deux langues, parfois dans la même phrase. Le concept est tellement provocant que Sammy se demandait au début s’il serait capable de remplir une seule fois la salle. Et comment! Deux jours après avoir annoncé la première représen- tation, la rumeur a tellement couru qu’il a fallu en ajouter huit autres. Deux semaines plus tard, on en était à 19, et tout semble indiquer qu’il y en aura finalement 23. Ce succès a surpris tout le monde. « Franchement, je suis stupéfait, d’autant plus que nous n’avons fait aucune publicité », confie Sammy, devant les sushis et le thé vert du Kaizen, l’un des restaurants japonais les plus tendance de Montréal. « L’industrie n’était pas certaine qu’on puisse remplir les sièges. Pourtant, j’en étais convaincu, au moins pour quelques représentations. Mais autant que ça? Pas même dans mes rêves les plus fous! » throughout Quebec, excluding Montréal, and all in French. “I may be viewed in parts of the province as an anglo-ethnic federalist, a sort of wild card, but because my French is good, I get away with it, and I do feel the love.” Still, it gives him great delight to know that he was perceived as somewhat of a bad boy when he did a Just For Laughs gala in French in 2009. He took shots at Jacques Parizeau and Yes-voters in that “cute little referendum project of yours.” Potentially dangerous stuff. But not only did he get away with it, he left 2,500 francophones in the audience convulsing and won the Discovery of the Festival Award. He killed again last year when he was paired with Pauline Marois as a presenter at the Olivier comedy awards. He joked with the PQ leader about her English, and she hit back at him— for still living with his parents in his 30s: “Don’t you have a taste for independence?” Marois ribbed him. He fired back with an olive branch: “Let’s make peace, Madame Marois.” Sugar Sammy’s fantasy growing up was not showbiz. But © Pascale Therien © Pascale he has since given up on becoming the biggest—if only— Indo-Québécois hockey star of all time. “That dream ended Sugar Sammy—né Samir Khullar—grew up in the Côte-des- when I saw Eddie Murphy do his standup film Delirious. Then Neiges area of Montréal and speaks flawless French, the result I dreamed of becoming the first Indo-Québécois comedy star.” of an elementary and high school education in the language. He calls himself a “child of Bill 101.” That dream has clearly become a reality. “I live and work equally comfortably in both English and French in Quebec,” says the comedian, who turns 36 on February 29 (since he’s a leap-year baby, strictly speaking he’ll be 9). “I would also say that my support base is equal among anglos and francos. The fact of the matter is that in my generation, La campagne de promotion bat son plein. Une réclame plutôt among both my anglo and franco friends, language issues frondeuse, qui annonce que « You’re Gonna Rire » avec des gags aren’t the same as they were ten years ago.” « à 50,5 % en anglais et à 49,5 % en français ». L’allusion à 1995 He spoke neither English nor French with his parents, who est bien sûr criante. Le mot « référendum » vous rappelle-t-il conversed only in Hindi and Punjabi. “They didn’t want us quelque chose? to ever lose our languages—we had our very own Bill 101 at En effet, Sammy ne ménage personne. Il prend un malin plaisir à home,” he cracks. railler les deux camps linguistiques et il s’en sort indemne. But even Sammy is taken aback by the fact that he is one of the « Ce spectacle expérimental est le projet auquel je tiens le plus. few performers in this province who is embraced by all sides. Il est fait sur mesure pour Montréal. Pour rapprocher mes deux “I never saw that coming as a kid. I felt very ethnic back then.” solitudes, je vais passer d’une langue à l’autre dans le même numéro. Je pense que le public est prêt, du moins c’est ce que nous allons voir. À vaincre sans péril, on triomphe sans gloire. » La même ambivalence linguistique a fait le succès du film “I live and work equally comfortably Bon Cop, Bad Cop, alors rien n’empêche d’utiliser cette formule in both English and French in Quebec” sur scène. Sugar Sammy – né Samir Khullar – a grandi dans le quartier Côte-des-Neiges de Montréal. « Enfant de la loi 101 », il parle un français impeccable. « Je vis et travaille aussi confortable- Though he has shot an HBO comedy special and the Hollywood ment en anglais qu’en français », explique le comédien, qui aura Reporter dubbed him one of the Top 10 rising comedy talents 36 ans le 29 février (comme il est né durant une année bissex- on the planet, Sugar Sammy is still trying to build a solid audi- tile, ce sera à proprement parler son neuvième anniversaire).

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