"This show has something cathartic", confides Panayotis Pascot

• After more than two years of touring and 300 dates, Panayotis Pascot ends the tour of his autobiographical show,

  Almost

  , on Sunday January 15, at the Opéra Garnier.

• The 24-year-old will give three exceptional performances there on the same day, during which he promises a few surprise guests.

• “Talking about certain things every night allows you to understand them.

  This show solved some things.

  It has something cathartic, ”recognizes the comedian.

At only 24 years old, he will be the first comedian to take the stage at the Opéra Garnier.

Sunday January 15, after two years of touring and more than 300 dates, Panayotis Pascot will play the last of his autobiographical show

in the mythical Parisian theater.

The 24-year-old will give three exceptional performances during which he promises a few surprise guests.

A few days before the fateful date, between nostalgia, pride and introspection, the former Daily prodigy confided in

.

How did the idea of ​​playing at the Opéra Garnier come about?

We did a first tour all over France, to which we added dates.

We said to ourselves that we had to end up in Paris.

But for the last performances, it was necessary to plan the rooms well in advance.

I thought about it, I said to myself that it was a show about the emancipation of a child towards adulthood, of a journey of someone who finds himself.

I took stock, I started in Parisian cellars to be paid by the hat, where could I end it in style?

I thought of the Opéra Garnier.

I went there for a show and fell in love with the venue.

I said to myself that we had to try and ask if we could play there.

And the Opéra Garnier teams accepted right away?

No, it took a long time.

We first sent a first request.

I was immediately told that it was impossible.

We reiterated, we were told no a second time, then a third time.

They were then invited to come and see the show several times.

After a while they came.

At the end of the performance, they shook my hand and said to me “let's go, let's get started”.

We were really incredibly lucky that they liked the show and that the dates stuck.

There are only four to six breaks per year at the Opéra Garnier.

That leaves very few possible dates.

Normally, I was planning to finish my tour at the end of 2022, so January 15 was ideal, it only shifted a few weeks.

You are the first comedian to play on this stage, is that a source of pride?

It is an immense pride.

Only Gad Elmaleh played there, but it was a private performance.

This theater is one of the places that best represents culture in France and the beauty of French craftsmanship.

It is one of the three most beautiful theaters in the world.

He has something very special.

That's crazy.

It's a very intimate show, written almost four years ago.

You have obviously evolved since then.

How do we keep playing it?

At the beginning, I often made modifications telling myself that it was no longer exactly what I wanted to say, that I had to back up certain remarks.

The confinement was very beneficial to this show.

It was a very introspective moment.

I was alone at home thinking about the show.

There are a lot of things where I said to myself: "ah, that's not exactly how I wanted to say it".

And then, it's a show linked to a very specific period of my life, to something personal.

He is also very focused on my family, especially my parents.

It was great to be able to take the time to really realize what I had wanted to say, how I wanted to phrase it.

In the end, this show did me good, I see what it brought me personally.

I am no longer the same person I was between the creation of the show and today.

First, I understood that I was an artist, and that's already huge.

Talking about certain things every night allows you to take time to put them into practice, to better understand them.

I think that solved some things.

There is something cathartic.

Exactly, did your parents see the show?

How did they react?

My mom wanted to see it pretty soon, right from the start, because there were articles coming out on certain parts of the show.

From the first time she came, she was dying of laughter.

My father didn't understand right away.

I think he cashed in a bit.

It's normal, you listen to your child talk about his childhood with you in front of people.

But over time, he understood that it was a real declaration of love.

Now he liked it so much that he comes very often.

This Sunday will be the last time you will play this show, is there a form of nostalgia or baby-blues?

I felt like I was giving up the baby already when the show was released on Netflix.

Suddenly I wasn't responsible for anything anymore, I couldn't make up for something if it went wrong.

People watched it at home, they could pause it, stop it.

I no longer had control.

I didn't expect to feel this.

It was both super pleasant, people who hadn't been able to come and see it during the tour were able to watch it anyway, and at the same time super weird to think that the show no longer needed me.

It was a first small blow.

There, it's really over.

I let go of four years of work.

But we end in style at the Opéra Garnier in front of 6,000 people in a place steeped in history, three times in the same day.

I think I'm going to end up exhausted, feeling like I gave birth to something.

What is your assessment of the whole tour?

I understood that no matter the size of the room, whether it was 200 or 2,000 seats, what changes is just the way of addressing.

It's like when you tell an anecdote in the evening, you don't tell it the same way in front of a friend or in front of ten friends.

It's a matter of skill, but the show always remains the same.

The tour also allowed me to meet another audience, different from the young people who follow me on social networks.

That's what's great.

At first when I saw sixty-somethings in the audience, I was scared, I told myself that this show was not going to speak to them.

But when you have a story and you're happy to tell it, in the end, everything goes well.

And for the future, are you considering a new show or do you want to get into the cinema?

I shot two series,

, by Jean-Pascal Zadi, which will be broadcast on January 20 on Netflix, and

, a series on Arte, directed by Vincent Maël Cardona.

But I would like to go back on stage.

A show is very special.

At the same time, we are all together in the same energy.

And at the same time, it's very difficult, no one can come to save you.

If you screwed up, too bad for you, you continue.

Cinema is something else, you spend a day shooting for a minute, you do the same take fifteen times.

It's really different.

And coming back to television, is that an option?

I'm not closing the door, but coming back to television isn't something that appeals to me at the moment.

It's different from the stage.

Between the time a column is written and the time it is broadcast, there are twenty-four hours.

We don't have time to mature an idea, we have to put it down and do it directly.

Then we move on.

No one will think about this chronicle, it will be forgotten.

I loved working for Quotidien, honing my skills there, with a team that gives free rein to everything.

But television, everything goes too fast.

At one point, I wanted to take the time to create something, but I didn't have it.

To write and work on a show, you have to be on stage every night, in cafés or comedy clubs.

It was not possible.

We wrote the chronicle, we shot the next morning, we edited and then we went on set.

I hadn't even had time to assimilate the subject of the column.

At some point, I made a choice.

Do I stay at Quotidien or do I try the adventure of the stage?

I could never have predicted that I would finish at the Opéra Garnier.

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