Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014 interview: Parisian comic Yacine Belhousse

• Jay Richardson
• 22 July 2014

This article is from 2014

'My major inspiration comes from Monty Python. And of course, Eddie Izzard as far as stand-up is concerned’

Lately supporting Eddie Izzard on tour, Parisian comic Yacine Belhousse specialises in ‘surreal stand-up based on everyday life. I start with a simple idea and digress. I’ll always tell a story and sometimes play with dialogue or characters, like say, a chicken, or weirder things like a living purple puddle from outer space.’

After learning English from movies and music, he absorbed the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle and Futurama: ‘but my major inspiration comes from Monty Python. And of course, Eddie Izzard as far as stand-up is concerned’. Sharing his ‘English speaking adventure’, Belhousse will also be challenging a few myths about his home city ‘without all the romantic clichés. And about my school, cheeseburgers, butterflies and dragons.’

Rather brilliantly, this self-confessed geek also has his own computer game, where players must move from writing a show to performing it. In between, they must attract a crowd in Pigalle, Paris’ notorious red light district. ‘You have to find them while avoiding the sex-shop owner who steals your audience, and the junkies who make them run away,’ he relates with Gallic insouciance.

Yacine Belhousse: Made in France, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 2–25 Aug (not 17), 9.30pm, £8–£10.50 (£7–£9.50). Previews 30 Jul–1 Aug, £6.