Nawell Madani Opens Up About Career Doubts at Marrakech Comedy Festival

"At the Marrakech du rire, at one point you crack!" To this exclamatory question asked by Mouloud Achour during the passage of Nawell Madani and her husband Djebril Didier Zonga in the program "Clique" that he hosts, the Belgian comedian of Algerian origin answers in the affirmative. "Yes, I cracked because I didn’t know where I was in my career anymore. I was telling myself: ’but what else do I want to do? I missed it but was the public still there waiting for me?’ "They told me: ’Nawell, it’s over. There are little ones who have arrived’."

The host is surprised. "They told you that?" "Yes. I said to myself: ’is that what they’re saying about me?’" For me, I had just started my career. So, I said OK, I’m going to come to the Marrakech du rire. I prepared in three weeks," she says. Her husband interrupts her: ’I told her she was crazy’. "He told me ’don’t do it!’" Nawel confirms. "It’s a bit like our Olympics, you have to perform, in fact they tell you: ’you’re one of the three best, the two best...’ really, you have to perform, then the public tears you apart, there’s like a podium. And I’m there thinking: ’it’s been five years since I’ve done big rooms like this one’. It’s 3000 people! Literally, you pee yourself!"

"It was a comeback so if you do it, you do it well," the comedian’s husband will say. "The guys, they prepare for one or two years, they have their show. They select their hits. I said: ’I’ll do it if I feel it’s working’. So, I do all the stand-up clubs, I play nine times a night. I ask Emilie to come see me and she tells me: ’But what are you afraid of?’... I get on stage and when the audience stands up, I cry," Nawel confesses.