“ I was saved by the sisters of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, repatriated to France by a Jewish woman and adopted by a Muslim couple. Three books, one binding. I owe everything to these three religions. This unique destiny is that of Smaïn, the first “ Arab ” humorist in the history of France.
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Today, after triumphs (Molière 1996 for best one-man-show) and moments of doubts, he returns on stage with ADN ( Algerian From Birth ), a very personal show in which he evokes a destiny that travels from the ancient Constantine in Algeria to Paris, where his comic talent exploded in the early 80s in a cabaret on Place Saint-Michel.
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In an interview with our colleagues from Le Parisien, Smaïn explained what prompted him, for the first time, to tell in DNA a chaotic journey that made him what he dreamed of since his childhood, a mountebank. “ I had a modesty at 20 that I no longer have today and I can finally talk about my story. That of a kid from Constantine, an orphan, who has gone through this entire journey to dream his job, to achieve it, ”he confides to our colleagues.
Smaïn, the Jerry Lewis of Constantine
The desire to be a clown was born very early in Smaïn, who naturally possessed the gift " of making his friends laugh at school ". The click, he remembers it as if it were yesterday: “ When I discovered Jerry Lewis, it was a revelation. I wanted to be like him. "
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Before Jamel Debbouze, Smaïn will have been, perhaps in spite of himself, the standard bearer of the French of North African origin. If politics " does not interest him ", he knows that his success has nevertheless been able to give hope to others: " ... I think that Smaïn writes in red letters on the pediment of the Olympia, it is the best weapon against racism. I have shown that the French identity can be multiple. "
The flattering praise after a great role played under the direction of Gérard Oury ( Le Schpountz in 1999), after the full rooms for A Star is beur and Prize de tête but also the setbacks did not know how to weaken the passion of the comedian for his job. “ You have to have strong backs. In all careers, there is, at one point, a crossing of the desert. Absolute success, flawless, is a lure. Being sidelined is painful, but beneficial, ”he thinks today.
Life, an eternal restart? Constantine's orphan, fascinated by De Funès and Jerry Lewis therefore, still believes in his lucky star and in the emotional force of his humor even, so lucid, he understood that now " the literary laughter of the Bedos and Devos no longer exists ”.
Le Schpountz by Gérard Oury in 1999, after Marcel Pagnol, with Smaïn, Sabine Azéma, Ticky Holgado ...