Audrey Lamy "Dernières avant Vegas" - French comedy that works

It might be more than stating the obvious, but humour is a personal thing, isn't it?

You either find something funny or you don't.

That said though, when you live abroad and regardless of your language skills or knowledge of cultural references, it can be especially hard to grasp what those around you might find amusing.

For example, if you've ever flipped on the television remote control and watched one of the country's many, many stand-up acts, or have been invited along to the theatre to "enjoy a live show" you might well have found yourself wondering what the heck everyone in the audience was laughing about.

Sure there are some acts out there who raise more than a smile or two as soon as they leap on to the stage, but it's rare to find one as appealing and immediately engaging as actress and comedienne Audrey Lamy.

Audrey Lamy (screenshot from "Dernières avant Vegas" video)

She might not be at the top of her profession yet, but on recent evidence...Lamy's getting there.

Her face might be familiar to some of you. The 32-year-old is one of the stars of M6's runaway early evening comedy show "Scènes de ménages", which features short sketches from the daily lives of four couples.

Lamy appears as "Marion", a 30-something who lives with her other half Cédric (played by Loup-Denis Elion) in a studio apartment.

The short sketch format on TV seems to work well in France and of course helped launch the career of Lamy's older sister Alexandra when she appeared alongside her now-husband Jean Dujardin in France 2's "Un gars, une fille".

A talented family, obviously.

Back to Lamy - Audrey that is - though, who has just come to the end of a one-woman show she has taken around the country over the past three years with not just one, but three dates at the much-revered venue of Olympia in Paris.

As soon as she bounces on to the stage, it's difficult not to be won over.

Lamy engages immediately with the audience, has extraordinary energy which doesn't slow down over the course of one-and-a-half hours and the most infectious of laughs.

There are some magical moments, especially her love affair with a Brad Pitt bottomed frying pan - the sort of sketch that's short, silly and universal enough to appeal.

And there are clear signs that the woman is most definitely multi-talented as alongside the comedy, she also manages to belt out a tune and dance.

If there are any criticisms to be made it would be the need to tighten up some of the material and increase the range of characters she portrays.

Some of the sketches seem overlong with the punch line sometimes being repeated a little too often.

And while Lamy comes across as self deprecating, slightly cranky and a little too loud, it occasionally seems a little to familiar to "Marion" - the role she plays on television.

Lamy has depth and acting ability - evidence of that was on show in her roles in the hit movies "Tout ce qui brille" and "Polisse", films - it just doesn't always come across in her one-woman show.

OK so you've missed her tour in France, but hopefully Lamy will be back with some new material shortly.

And for those who fancy it, there's one date still left to play - in Barcelona on May 25.

In the meantime though, take a look at the accompanying videos for an idea of Lamy's humour.

In the first, she parodies Brad Pitt's dreadful Chanel No. 5 commercial.

The second is a supposed casting (in Franglais) in front of US director Quentin Tarantino - whose name she never quite manages to pronounce correctly - for the role eventually given to fellow French actress Mélanie Laurent in his film "Inglourious Basterds".

Finally there's the blue rabbit...well see for yourselves.

"Tourette's Superstar" - French parody - funny or lame?

In March the BBC announced plans to launch a new kind of reality TV show - one which "will follow three Tourette's sufferers as they prepare to sing live in front of friends and family."

It was apparently no April Fool and it didn't take long for French "comedians" to latch on to the idea of parodying the idea.

Nicole Ferroni and Jérémy Ferrari (screenshot "On n'demande qu'à en rire")

The lampooning came in a recent edition of "On n'demande qu'à en rire", an early evening comedy show broadcast on France 2 public television to provide a showcase for new talent.

The whole premise of the programme, devised and presented by Laurent Ruquier, is that established comedians can help give up-and-coming ones a helping hand by telling them what they think of their sketches and voting accordingly.

The studio audience also gets its say as does the viewing public - once a week.

Contestants are given a topical story as the theme of their stand-up routine and if they secure enough points they can come back again...and again...and again.

The whole thing is a sort of wannabe factory production line for would-be comedians with professionals giving their thoughts on those that might follow in their footsteps.

So in principal, the idea has something going for it.

Except for one thing.

It's extremely unfunny most of the time.

On the whole it's not clever or entertaining but rather daft and mindless.

Take the case of that recent sketch lampooning the BBC's plans for a Tourette's TV reality show by Jérémy Ferrari.

It earned the perfect score - 100/100 - from the judges, Ruquier and the studio audience.

Ferrari is one of the darlings of the show having appeared more than 70 times and together with several other regulars, put on a performance of Tourette Academy.

He was the MC - a sort of cross between Benjamin Castaldi (Loft story and Secret Story) and Nikos Aliagas (Star Academy) - his "partners in comic crime" were the contestants.

The audience howled, the judges were full of praise and Ruquier was beside himself.

Really? Was it that funny?

Or do you think it's all...well rather lame?

It doesn't matter if you don't speak French as the sketch really is a case of one where actions speak more clearly than words.

One woman's French Foly - regretfully revisited

We've all been there - trying to recapture a moment that brought so much enjoyment first time around and left us with a wonderful memory.

Such was the case with Liane Foly's "La Folle Part en Cure", which has just wrapped up a month-long run at the Théâtre Le Palace in Paris.


It was, to say the least, disappointing, and at times quite frankly - dull.

The problem was no so much Foly's talents as a comedienne and impressionist - they are indisputable.

Instead it was the material, and certainly the venue didn't help, which meant the show fell short of the magic from Foly's 2008 "La Folle Parenthèse" when the blues and jazz singer first revealed her talents as an impersonator to the general public and regaled audiences with spot-on impressions and biting humour.

So what went wrong this time around?

Well first up the script. The running gag was the world coming to an end in 2012 and a very special spa opening its doors to a range of celebrities enabling them and the audience to laugh away the blues.

Giving Foly a hand on stage and allowing her to slip from one voice to another was Serge Perathoner as "Docteur Loco" the psych in charge of spa.

He accompanied her on the piano, fed her lines to poke fun at celebrities and provided continuity necessary to avoid the show becoming a string of disconnected characters and disjointed impersonations.

But it simply didn't work.

Some of the jokes were lame, the vignettes a little too long and the running gag, tedious.

The sketches that opened and closed the show were cases in point.

Lady Gaga at the beginning and Geneviève de Fontenay (the woman who until recently had been the doyenne of the Miss France competition) at the end were not so much impressions as they were caricatures.

Nothing wrong with that as they both brought about an initial smile and allowed Foly to launch into some astounding impersonations of singers - male and female. The younger generation of the French music scene at the beginning in the shape of Grégoire, Zaz and M (Matthieu Chedid) were astonishingly spot-on.

And so were the late greats Joe Dessin, Mike Brandt and Daniel Balavoine at the end - allowing audience participation as everyone sang alone.

But as Lady Gaga, Foly amused only for the initial 30 seconds - and that only really in terms of her costume - and as Geneviève de Fontenay there was a joke involving an interminable and incomprehensible meeting with the Pope. Both went on for far too long.

Missing from the show was the political bite and satire of her 2008 show. Sure Ségolène Royal made an appearance - a rather long one - but the humour was as absent as the former Socialist party's presidential candidate seems to have been from the political scene in recent months. And as convincing as Foly was as Roselyne Bacholet, once again the jokes just fell flat.

French president, Nicolas Sarkozy made a brief entrance along with his wife Carla, but there wasn't really much happening apart from some shoulder shrugging .

Of course some impersonations were always going to work because Foly masters the voices and the mannerisms so well. That was the case with a couple of her favourites - Line Renaud and Muriel Robin - where it's hard to tell where Foly finishes and the character takes over.

And a duet of Jeanne Moreau singing with Vanessa Paradis was remarkable.

But there were also those that missed the mark by a mile, such as Susan Boyle and Edith Piaf. In both cases it just sounded like Foly singing. And that's perhaps how she should have left it because she has a magnificent voice and a wonderful timbre.

While the material was a bit iffy, the venue didn't help much either.

Dating from the 1920s, Le Palace is a former music hall and cinema which reopened in 2008 after having being closed for more than a decade.

But it's shabby, badly air-conditioned (in other words not at all) and the seating is uncomfortable; a far cry in terms of comfort from the Théâtre Marigny at which Foly performed back during her Paris run in 2008.

Hopefully the show will tighten up as it goes on the road around France until November, taking in dates at Arras, Rennes and Rouen and popping over the border in September to the Swiss city of Geneva.