Without knowing it at the time, Alain Choquette invented the recipe that would make him an internationally renowned magician when he humorously presented his tricks on the show. At willduring the 1980s and 1990s.
It was one of the most popular segments on this late-night talk show. Once a week, the young Alain Choquette surprises the presenter Jean-Pierre Coallier with his ingenious tricks and makes him laugh with his… pocket jokes.
“What I learned was that fun came to the living room. When I build a number, I want to recover this type of emotion,” says the spokesperson for Quebec, a MAGICAL city! (formerly Quebec Magic Festival), remembering those laughs on television.
“Jean-Pierre was an ace. He was so charismatic. He was actually laughing. I wrote my texts with Pierre Légaré and Christian Tétreault based on Jean-Pierre. Sometimes the gag could be so flat, but that was to be expected. The more flattered he was, the more he laughed. He said, “I can’t believe you made that joke.” »
Photo Cédric Bélanger/Le Journal de Québec
Limited Wizards
This desire to properly stage his magic tricks never left him. It’s fundamental. Nothing distresses him more than a magician with impeccable technique, but he has no sense of spectacle.
“I see a lot,” says Alain Choquette. Unfortunately, these people will be limited to little. If you play big venues, you have to play big. That doesn’t mean having big companies, it means being able to capture everyone’s attention and interest. »
He himself knows something about it, since he obtained a one-year contract in Atlantic City thanks to an act where he made 12 people from the public chosen at random disappear.
More than a children’s show
In the same sense, Alain Choquette regrets that the art of magic is often associated with a show for children. “If you come and see what we are going to present as part of the festival, it is of great caliber,” he corrects. In the world there are magic championships in different categories and there is a champion of champions. We have three here. »
Once again, it returns to the field of staging, the crux of the matter to hook the audience.
“I had worked on a television show called The greatest magic in the world, on NBC, and there’s a girl who levitates a metal ball. It’s an old thing that lasts 30 seconds, but it lasted five, six minutes, she was dancing with the ball, it was so sensual, it was so beautiful. »
To see in Quebec, MAGIC city !
- Great international magic showSeptember 21, 22, 23 and 24, at the Le Diamant theater
- fredo presents An elephant in the roomSeptember 20, at 6 p.m., at the Collège Saint-Charles-Garnier
- Place de la famille Desjardins, activities for everyone, from September 21 to 24, place D’Youville
