Rennes (AFP)

A "nice", "funny", "real" man: the comedian Jean-Yves Lafesse, known for his telephone hoaxes, died Thursday at the age of 64 in Vannes, his region of origin where he is was installed two years ago.

Born in Pontivy (Morbihan) in 1957, this precursor of hidden camera gags suffered from Charcot's disease, diagnosed a year ago, his family said when announcing his death to AFP.

Despite this illness, his death surprised those who frequented him regularly.

"I am devastated ... I had him on the phone ten days ago. (...) He was serene," comedian Raphaël Mezrahi told AFP, who said he was "in mourning".

"His condition had suddenly deteriorated in the last 24 hours," said a relative of the comedian.

The artist had made his debut in radio in the 1980s, at the time of the emergence of free radio.

"Lafesse, a former traveling companion of Radio Nova, is the author in 1984 of those telephone deceptions which you inevitably remember", wrote one of those first free radio stations where he had made his first ranges.

Spotted by public and private televisions, his career was launched a few years later.

Along with television and his videos, he lends his acting talents to several directors, such as Pascal Chaumeil, in Arnacoeur (2010), or Mélanie Auffret in Roxane, released in 2019.

A few years ago, he created the character of Germaine Ledoux.

"I am inhabited by a little old woman," he said of his creation.

The containment appeared to have further boosted its popularity.

Asked in May 2020 by France 3 Bretagne, he declared: "I have played my role (since the start of the confinement). That of professional joker. I regularly posted small humorous videos on my Facebook page. increased from 180,000 to 300,000 subscribers during confinement. Proof that laughter remains essential in all circumstances ".

- millions of views on TikTok -

Social networks had also led the younger generations to discover it.

His old hoaxes met with some success on TikTok where some of his videos went viral, sometimes accumulating millions of views, although the average age of network users is very low.

"As soon as you went out somewhere with him, it was incredible the number of people of all generations who knew him, even the youngest", testified to AFP Gurvan Musset, director of France Bleu Breizh Izel in Quimper , radio on which Jean-Yves Lafesse had held a daily morning column in 2020 entitled "Lafesse awakens Gaul".

Jean-Yves Lafesse, whose real name is Jean-Yves Lambert, had returned to live in Brittany, in Vannes, two years ago.

"I spent 43 years in Paris but I missed Brittany. My relationship with the region is natural and very strong," he said.

From the announcement of his disappearance, tributes followed one another, describing a sensitive, human man, far from the somewhat "heavy" image that he could send back in some of his sketches.

For television man Pierre Lescure, "Jean-Yves was as much a poet as he was hilarious, as amiable as he was mocking, surrealist and (very) honest man, free and against all social injustices".

"Great sadness. Jean-Yves Lafesse will no longer call on the phone. Multiple memories of his singular humor, in particular at the beginning of Canal +, in Zenith," tweeted Michel Denisot.

The actor and humorist Tanguy Pastureau greeted the artist in his own way: "Logic for a man of humor to die in Vannes. Bravo Lafesse. He made me cry with laughter".

The actor Antoine de Caunes saw in his disappearance "the bad joke of summer".

“Hi buddy, RIP,” he tweeted.

"Bad hoax Jean-Yves. Camera broken. You are leaving us in Vannes… That is really you," commented television host Jean-Luc Reichmann on Twitter.

"A great fan of Breton football, he had come to (the stadium of) Moustoir on several occasions", greeted the FC Lorient football club.

sf-bur-mcl-aag / mpm

© 2021 AFP