Before being known as co-founder of Les Inconnus, Didier Bourdon was a brilliant young actor of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art.

Invited Saturday by Isabelle Morizet on Europe 1, he looks back on his surprising start to his career and his love of humor. 

INTERVIEW

"I never thought I'd have the career of such a popular trio." When he decided at the age of 20 to get into the theater, Didier Bourdon did not imagine knowing success thanks to his humorous sketches. It must be said that before founding Les Inconnus with Pascal Légitimus and Bernard Campa, the apprentice actor at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art mainly played classical. "I could have entered the Comédie Française, François Chaumette had suggested it to me", remembers Didier Bourdon at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet on Europe 1.

At the time, it was directed in particular by the great Jean Meyer, legend of the French Comedy.

"The last role he offered me was Nero in

Britannicus

, but I couldn't anymore."

He finished the Conservatory in 1981, crowned with the second prize for classical comedy, but finally went to the boulevard theater, that of Phillipe Bouvard.

Every evening, he makes the spectators laugh to tears.

“To make people laugh, I've always liked it. And when you have this gift, you won't be deprived of it,” he smiles, referring to his long-standing taste for comedy films, like

La grande vadrouille,

and for the humorous sketches of the British Monty Python. 

"The more sincere, the more people laugh"

But the gap between the classic and the boulevard has never seemed so wide to him.

“Playing Néron in

Britannicus

and Véronique in

Stéphanie de Monaco

(the famous sketch of the Unknowns, nldr)

is not that far away. The more sincere, the more people laugh,” says Didier Bourdon.

He remembers his somewhat sketchy beginnings at Philippe Bouvard's theater as if it were yesterday.

"There were no sets, we did some sound effects ourselves!"

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At the time, the troupe had five actors and soon performed in various Parisian theaters. The names of the Unknowns were also inspired by one of their misadventures. "On the posters, the organizers presented us as 'The Five of the Bouvard Theater'. Philippe Bouvard did not like it, who criticized us for using his name. He sued us. We were 24 years old, we were was scared. But it didn't go very far, and we chose that name as a snub. "