Gad Elmaleh Returns to New York: Comedian Praises City as ’Mecca of Stand-Up’

Gad Elmaleh is returning to New York on April 11 for a performance. He is very attached to this American city, where he has lived before. "In my opinion, it’s the Mecca of stand-up. It’s the place where stand-up comedy was created. It’s the city where my idols like Woody Allen and Jerry Seinfeld live," he said in an interview with the site Le Petit journal. There, the comedian also realized his dream of performing in English, being in the comedy clubs, doing the talk shows and rehearsing my sketches every day. "I lived there for three years. This city really speaks to me, I have real ties there. I’m so fascinated by Broadway and all its culture. It’s really incredibly inspiring for me," he added.

The comedian recently went to New York to prepare his show. "A few weeks ago, I went to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Beacon Theater in New York. I had a kind of nostalgia for this theater that I had already done in French, a very long time ago," he confided. "In the meantime, there had been the show in English - at Carnegie Hall in particular -, the clubs and the talk show. I wanted to do this room again because it’s very large, but very warm. The English show project was something different from what I’m doing now." This time, Elmaleh will perform in French in front of French-speaking expatriates.

"I say French-speaking, because in New York, when we say French-speaking, there are the French in the majority, but there are still the Maghreb, Africa, the Lebanese, the Swiss, etc. The Francophonie is in the spotlight in this kind of evening, and I love this idea. Unlike the tension there was when I was playing in English, where I was putting myself more at risk, I have the impression that there is a form of comfort in playing in my language in front of an audience with whom I really enjoy myself in New York," he explained.