“Humor protected me from the violence of the world! »» | EUROtoday

From classic to one-man-show

In turn bailiff, Croque-Mort then seller of fleece in a wholesaler (a position that will inspire his character as a trade representative specializing in underwear that continues today to make four generations of spectators laugh), Popeck begins on the scene of the Théâtre de l’Alliance Française The Barber of Seville from Beaumarchais.

For the occasion and because he plays in the middle of the Troupe de la Comédie-Française, as part of the classic Thursdays, he adopted the pseudonym of Jean Herbert. Perfect diction of Parisian Titi, the young actor continues the roles of the repertoire, for a few years, continuing to amuse the gallery of his improvisations around Yiddishkeit … behind the scenes.

It was Charles Denner who encourages him to perform alone on stage and takes him, forcibly, to the Cabaret l’Écluse in 1966. The actor met his first success. The posters of several cafes-theaters on the left bank will therefore announce on the program: Jean Herbert in the role of Popeck.

Read too Michel Wieviorka: “The space of Jewish jokes closes” His first sketches resemble news from Kafka, reviewed and corrected by the Monty Python. He actually embodies, on stage, an immigrant of Romanian origin, summoned to the court as part of a divorce procedure. Understanding nothing to do the hearing, he tries to circumvent the president of the court with his talents as a hoster. His character embarks on disheveled monologues who make the public stuck.

From “Rabbi Jacob” to the Bouvard theater

Popeck is launched. His participation in several consumer films, starting with The adventures of Rabbi Jacobin 1973, will establish its notoriety. When, three years later, Philippe Bouvard asked him to trap passers -by in the street, in a hidden camera, his face becomes so famous that he has to shave his mustache to pass incognito.

At the rate of 200 Gala evenings per year, the big years, Popeck will take up more and more space in his life in the 1980s. To the point that the comic will gradually abandon any other role in the theater. “Anyway, I always wait for classic Thursdays to pay me my cachets,” he creaks into this grumpy tone that we know.

“More seriously, what touches me is now to see, in my audience, the grandchildren, even the great-grandchildren of people who applauded me in my first shows,” he emit, abandoning for a moment this typical accent which has become its trademark. “Be careful, you still lose your accent,” warns his wife.

Read too Georges Bensoussan: “The Jews, prohibited from humor? »» For a young audience who discovers it, Popeck has been giving himself unexpectedly during several months during his One-Man-Show. “I tell myself a little. I deliver some memories there that I had hitherto reserved for my relatives alone, ”he sighs. Most relate to conflict. “I used to be watching, till then, to not be poured into sentimentalism, I discover myself sharing very intimate issues. »»

Modesty nonetheless prevents him from telling essentially the most painful moments. Popeck however began to speak concerning the day when he was imposed on the port of the yellow star in 1942. “I recited for the first time, in early May, a poem that I had written on the subject a long time ago. With the advanced age, this past comes back to me in the face, ”he says.

This return of the repressed owe not solely to the passing time but additionally to the information of the second. “Since October 7, 2023 and terrorist attacks in Hamas in Israel, we can see the return of anti -Semitism. It’s frightening. Until then, I had always kept my Judeity at a distance. But we may be a secular Jew like me, this story is there. She does not leave you ”.

Read too Etgar Keret: “Jewish humor is necessarily a minority” At evening, when he’s taken from insomnia, Popeck watches documentaries on the Holocaust, Compulse Serge Klarsfeld’s e book which lists the 76,000 deportees from France and is broken for hours in contemplation of the uncommon images of his dad and mom who’ve been transmitted to him. Above all, a portrait of his father within the high, immortalized within the studio of a portrait painter within the Grands Boulevards shortly after his arrival in France in 1910.

“It looks like a prince. He was always very elegant. No one could have imagined that he was a worker in a printing house, ”smiles Popeck. On another snapshot in black and white appears the face of one of his three sisters who successively called Fanny then Jacqueline and whose actor discovered at his death that she actually was called Chana.

“She too was arrested and interned in a camp, in Rivesaltes, before being deported. She never talked about it, keeping for her what she had endured. She just told me, when I got pregnant, that she could never have a baby because the Germans had watched over what she could not give birth. I did not dare to ask questions, ”says Popeck’s wife.

These memories that haunt him

The actor evacuates the memories that invade him, at that moment, waving his arms as we would chase mosquitoes. Updates a small female dog with the false tunes of long -haired Yorkshire. “It’s time to eat to Chanel. This animal will bury us all. The veterinarian told me that she had only for a few days to live when I brought her, passed out, after a stroke at the start of the year, “he rumbles over a falsely grumpy air.

While his spouse offers the animal a large number of care, the actor takes us to his workplace to point out us different objects which he retains like relics. One of them surprises. It is a assessment stuffed with anti -Semitic drawings from the Thirties.

To uncover



The kangaroo of the day

“I don’t know why I kept this cloth. One day, I torn it and thrown it into the basket, ”he says. Just a few days later, he tried once more on his desk. It was his little daughter who had reconstituted her like a puzzle and picked up with tape. “When Ji tells you that this MI story continues,” he concludes, wanting up at heaven.

*Until May 18 on the Passy Theater.