François Pérusse: Difference between revisions

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François Pérusse (born October 8, 1960, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada) is a Québécois comedian and musician famous for his radio sketches featuring puns and absurd humour. His best-known sketches are from the series Les 2 minutes du peuple (The Peoples' 2 Minutes).
Pérusse is also known for spawning a new genre of comedy that had not been fully explored before.

Pérusse was born to Charlotte and Roméo Pérusse. At 12 he made his debut in local radio, and by age 17 he was playing as a bassist in bands with his older brother Marc.^[1]

"Les 2 minutes du peuple" first aired in August 1990 on CKOI-FM as part of the program "Y'é trop d'bonne heure" (It's Too Early): his sketches and songs became instantly well known throughout Quebec. After a little over a year, a compilation of his best sketches and songs was released: L'Album du peuple – Tome 1 (The Album of the People – Volume 1), which has sold more than 80,000 copies.

Pérusse has released 7 more "Albums du peuple" in the main series, plus 2 albums in France and a spinoff called L'Album pirate (The Pirated Album). His fourth album, which he expected to be his last and which he called L'Album du peuple final – Tome 4 (The Final Album of the People – Volume 4), sold well, prompting him to continue making albums.

Les 2 minutes du peuple made its debut in France in autumn 1995 on Europe 2 radio, with Pérusse changing his accent accordingly. Pérusse moved into television on February 8, 1999 with Le JourNul de François Pérusse (The LameNews by François Pérusse) a satirical news program. There have also been animated versions of his sketches Le Spécial du peuple (The Special of the People) and La Série du peuple (The Series of the People) aired on the TVA network. He has released a DVD, Le DVD du peuple (The DVD of the People), containing highlights of La Série du peuple and Le JourNul de François Pérusse.

Pérusse's work has been broadcast in Belgium since 1998 and in Switzerland since 2002.

New sketches of Les 2 minutes du peuple are now on the FM network Radio-Énergie as part of the program C't'encore drôle (It's still funny) broadcast all across Quebec. In 2006, his JourNul characters returned in a talkshow style segment called On s'écoute parler (Listening to ourselves talking).

He received the last 3 annual Ruban d'or from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in the humour category, which are amongst the most prestigious of the awards for radio broadcasting in Canada.

A great Beatles fan, he was hired by the Cirque du Soleil to work on the show The Beatles: LOVE for Las Vegas.

• 1991 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 1 (Quebec)
• 1992 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 2 (Quebec)
• 1994 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 3 (Quebec)
• 1995 : L'Album du peuple final – Tome 4 (Quebec)
• 1996 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 5 – La poursuite (Quebec)
• 1997 : L'Album du peuple – Volume 1 (Made for France) (France and Quebec)
• 2002 : L'Album du peuple – Volume 2 (Made for France) (France and Quebec)
• 2002 : L'Album pirate (Quebec) – (Platinum)^[2]
• 2003 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 6 (Quebec)
• 2004 : Le DVD du peuple (Quebec and France)
• 2007 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 7 (Quebec)
• 2011 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 8 (Quebec)
• 2013 : L'Album du peuple – Tome 9 (Quebec)

• Culture of Quebec
• List of Quebec comedians

• François Pérusse's official website (in French)

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