Paul Mirabel arouses astonishing enthusiasm. As soon as the box office for your new show, For loveSome 250,000 seats were sold in a few weeks. At 28 years old, this comedian begins a two-hundred-date tour this fall that will take him to all the Zéniths in France, to the Dôme in Paris, and that should end in 2026 at the Accor Arena Bercy. A dazzling success due, in particular, to a video that went viral (more than 25 million views) of its appearance, in 2020, at the Montreux Comedy Festival, in Switzerland.
In a humorous landscape saturated with proposals, Paul Mirabel’s journey and his rapid conquest of the public are exceptional. This tall boy with blonde hair and round glasses, this shy, soft-spoken man who arouses sympathy, attracted a full house of Zebrahis first stand-up, in 2021. The second show is often said to be the most difficult to write, as public expectations are high after such sudden notoriety. For love is no exception to this rule.
When the curtain opens at the Parisian Théâtre des Variétés (where it performs until December 28), the decoration has the merit of being original. The stage is covered with a large plexiglass stage filled with red heart-shaped inflatable balloons. Standing in the middle of this warm floor, in a square delimited by white neon lights, Paul Mirabel, microphone in hand, is true to himself: motionless, reserved, with an apparent vulnerability that is immediately endearing. Unlike the vast majority of monologues, he does not harangue the audience when they arrive and never loses his Olympic calm.
Then he begins a first story about the oddities that come with his new notoriety, which he gently mocks. They honk at him in the street, they ask him for improbable selfies, they address him because “a funny face”. It amuses him (especially when we call him “Pablo Niney”), because he knows it’s for love. And then, thanks to your ” little “ celebrity, this football fan from Montpellier found himself one day at the table in front of Kylian Mbappé. The soccer star will become the common thread of the show, a way for Paul Mirabel to put what is happening to him into perspective.
stories of the heart
This introduction is not terribly original, but it allows the comedian to move on to his stories from the heart. “It is when they hit me the most that I am least interested. I have a girlfriend”the young man announces to his 2 million followers on Instagram, with one knee on the ground, while the Champions League anthem plays. This self-deprecating personal victory elicits warm applause from the audience.
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