While the viewers of “incredible talent” will be able to find Eric Antoine in the 20th season, expected on M6 on October 14, the magician and judge of the show made us confidences in interview.
And off we go for a tour! As of October 14, M6 will launch the 20th season of his flagship program France has an incredible talent. During the press conference, the Women’s Journal Has collected the secrets of Eric Antoine, who once again resumes his role as judge. The opportunity for him to tell us about this season but also … about his life as a married man.
After so many seasons, do you still happen to be surprised?
Ah yes, every year! And that’s really the work of our Roman casting director, producer Ashley Bensimon, of the programs director at Fremantle France, Deborah Huet, is to find a cast that will surprise us. And in addition, as we know each other rather well, for some for more than 20 years, they know very well on which button to press at home to trigger my emotions.
So me, I must surprise them in my reactions, and they must surprise me by the proposals they give me. And there, this year, there are for example humorous scriptures that I had not seen coming … There are still two or three very high level dance groups, and each time, I am still surprised.
How do you get your vote?
I like everything. In fact, I like virtuosity, because virtuosity requires rigor and selflessness. When I have a circus artist who dedicated his whole life to movements and who suddenly touches grace, it moves me deeply. I like when there is an alignment of the planets, when someone in his life is exactly where he has to be questioned something, of transformation, moments of life change, moments when something is essential for them, of the order of almost intellectual survival.
And then I like the bizarre. I like people who are different from everyone. I like people who accept their madness, their bullshit, their childhood. Afterwards, it is true that in these three families there, there are often darlings.
By seeing all these artists, do you not feel a call to go back on stage?
I continue to live it in a more private way, since I do many private shows. It remains private, but in large dimensions. A few weeks ago, I was at the Zenith in Paris. So I continue to be on stage, to make people laugh and vibrate. Next year, I have a show, a piece that I co-written and in which I will play.
At the end of the year, I will celebrate my 20 years of career on stage. I think I replay my very first show and make it dialogue with what I have become after 20 years, to see how it all changed. The magic is part of one of my professions, but I live as humorist as a magician, as a director and author. I have all these trades at the same time.
And now you are also a host for M6 …
And now host! I was not sure that it was a real job at first, when I was offered to do it. Now I realize that it’s a fucking job! (Laughter))
With all these caps, you did not have too much trouble organizing your wedding with Gennifer Demey?
If ! It’s not easy for a wedding! It is funny marriage because there is something completely dogmatic in which I do not believe at all. You have to show that we are happy to everyone. And then, it is delusional in prices, in what it costs, in the images that must be created … I find that happiness is not there, that it is elsewhere, that it is in the relationship, in dialogue. And at the same time, having to organize a complex event in two is like a writing collaboration. Besides, the wedding looks a little like a show, because it is really “giving oneself a show”.
And finally, this writing that is done in two is also a way of meeting, discovering yourself and loving yourself. And that’s what I find beautiful, that’s the whole course. Me, I dreamed of one thing: it was to bring together our families and loved ones. And therefore, to create a new family.
So I wanted marriage to allow us to spend a lot of time together. We spent an entire week all together, all the time, the five couples invited by my wife and the five couples that I invited, in a place that we had rented. And then, over two days, we celebrated the marriage. Over two days, with other people who joined us and it was magnificent. It was not easy, because indeed, it takes time, and time is not expandable, even if I do not sleep much.
And have you had the opportunity to go on a honeymoon or not yet?
Not yet. We took a date for next year. Besides, we will remarry because we made a wedding at the town hall, and a secular marriage. And there, we would like to make a religious marriage, in April of next year. Then I think we will go on a honeymoon in summer. But when I will not have a program because while waiting … the agenda is full!
At the start of your magician career, you encountered difficulties related to your contracts. What advice would you give to young artists who are launching today?
It is something that happens to many artists, that of accepting the first production contract that we sign then that it is often catastrophic … especially because we only dream of one thing: it is to play.
So the first contract is always a disaster. Besides, many artists, who have made an incredible talent and who won, sign their first contract and I say to them: “Please take a lawyer! Do not listen to the producer. Take just a lawyer who represents only you. And not a lawyer given by your producer. You have to take your lawyer who has only one interest: it’s your interest”.
