Portrait
18 December 2019

Valérie Mauriac or 1 meter 80 of humor

by Laëtitia Cadiou


A new One Woman Show in January 2020, the opportunity for us to learn a little more about this Geneva actress with a striking sense of humor.

Last night, she performed at the Théâtre de l’Espérance in front of 300 hilarious people, with 1h15 of her best sketches, and her eyes still shine like a child’s in front of a Christmas tree! A silhouette of a sylph, a sure step, a cerulean blue look and huge arms waving in all directions : Valerie jostles everything in her path.

No doubt about it, she is an actress, she appropriates the space she fills with a particular aura and a huge smile which – we will learn later – sometimes also serves as a shield. This great shy person who hides her acting well won’t tell us her age but tells us that she was born on summer day, June 21, so she is “a child of the sun”, and that today she is especially old enough to be with us for this interview and the age of her brain. The laughter fuses, her flow is fast, she has a thousand anecdotes to tell: an interview that twists and turns, in short.

“Saved by philosophy”

This Vosgian by birth arrived in Zurich at the age of 6, she says she was saved in her last year of school by philosophy. Because she doesn’t like formatting. She becomes aware that one has the right to ask oneself a thousand questions, to disagree and to go back on a subject on which one will finally agree; to leave all that in suspense and see later – an approach that says a lot about Valérie’s constant questioning. Her philosophy professor used to say: “Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis, hogwash”, she’s going to love this concept, and then adopt it.

Passionate about travel and adventure, she then chose to study medieval German literature at the University of Geneva, a drastic choice when you know the sparkling and no less romantic humorist.

At 21, an internship in San Francisco was to be fatal for what remained of his candor. She experiences an earthquake that terrorizes her and makes her understand that all this, life, is fragile and indomitable and that she will have to prefer a less serious angle. Carpe Diem, she says to herself: “I have to live life to the fullest”. She also tells us that she has already almost died 4 times, which will naturally bring her an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

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“Theater, a lifelong dream”

A late arrival at the theater in 2011 with a training at the Conservatoire Populaire in Geneva for 5 years, she loves it, and a lifelong dream that she will finally be able to realize. She goes on stage for the first time in 2011 with an immediate local success, aware however that success is fragile and that one must regularly question oneself. Her favorite quote, that of Winston Churchill: “If you are going through hell keep going”, a metaphor that helps to understand the difficulty of her profession. For example, the first One Woman Show at the Palais Mascotte and a visibly slightly drunk spectator in the 4th row, says: “Naked! She answers: “Let’s see that later in my dressing room?  “I had managed to get over it and life, like the stage, is sometimes a trial that comes and goes, that you just have to go through. »

“Laughter is not a therapy, it’s a profession, a vocation.

Her last event, this serious accident where she will be mowed down by a motorist in March, and after several months spent rebuilding herself, Valérie decides to make a show of it for our greatest happiness. Her many encounters during this long medical journey will bring her a wide range of characters, each one more funny than the other, including this doctor who receives her in his office … plunged into darkness because this specialist in post-traumatic stress disorder suffers from eye exhaustion: “Doctor, I’m giving you a work stoppage, perhaps …? “(laughs) She does not want to deflower her show but tells us that she won’t be naked (neither fully nor partially, by the way), that she won’t sing or dance. An irreverent but not mean show that could also be called: “Everything you always wanted to know about humor without ever daring to ask”!

It’s a funny and caustic show, with always this wonderful talent to imitate accents and transcribe the improbable situations of her daily life, we can’t wait to see Valérie Mauriac on stage! She offers 5×2 seats to the readers of NOW Geneva for the evening of her Premiere, on Wednesday January 15th… The class

www.valeriemauriac.com