“The question of authenticity is important to me”

2023-06-13 08:58:03

Every day, a personality invites herself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Today, the journalist and comedian, David Castello-Lopes. He is currently on stage with his show “Authentique” and will pass through Bordeaux, Grenoble or the Olympia in Paris.

David Castello-Lopes is a journalist and comedian. This fine observer of the small things of everyday life, propelled to the front of the stage, has recently been on stage to meet the demand of an ever-growing audience. Ex-investigator for the show Butterfly Effect of Canal+, former boss of the video service of the Mondeformer collaborator for The Graph. His videos, his journalistic-humorous pellets have made him famous with in particular the essential song: “I own money“, taken up on TikTok at the end of 2020 and whose extract has been listened to more than 100 million times by following, which is quite extraordinary.

He is currently on stage with his show Authentic in which he dissects our little nothings that hit home every time because we are, ultimately, all concerned.

franceinfo: With your show Authenticwe laugh, but I have the impression that this title says a lot about who you are.

David Castello-Lopes: In any case, what I think is that this question of authenticity has been important to me. I think I’m a little lucid about when I’m not being authentic and I’ve learned to, when I say something, to ask myself: wait, are you really saying that thing because you want to to transmit information to the person in front of you, or does it give a good image of yourself when you say it?

We’re not going to lie to each other, this show is your story. It tells the story of your Franco-Portuguese family. Was it important to pay tribute to them?

Yes. There is this part of me which is the part of Portugal which is not trivial. That is to say, it’s not far, I’m half-Portuguese. Of course, I’m a bit more French because I was born in France, but I speak the language, I have both nationalities and of course that’s very important. And then it’s my father in particular, who died more than ten years ago, who was central to my life, but who didn’t see me become a fulfilled adult. And here we are, we always want to think that we are doing this a little for him, to show him, even if he is no longer really there.

Your father had you late and I have the impression that he is first and foremost the link to the outlook you have on the world. He was a very important humanist photographer in Portugal.

My father, Gérard, who did humanist photography in Portugal, never considered that the attention of the person in front of him was due to him. So he struggled to be interesting, to be funny, to deserve this person’s attention.

David Castello-Lopes

at franceinfo

He had me at 56. My father was very empathetic and I think that’s something that marked me enormously and that makes me so attentive on stage. So even the way I have of expressing myself with perhaps this attention comes from him.

So your name is Castello-Lopes. At school, you were called:Castello the obese“Precisely the fact of using humor, does it help to overcome the wounds of the past, the childhood wounds?

Completely. The simple fact of formulating it and a fortiori of saying it to lots of people at the same time on stage, it’s tidy. It shows that we’ve made a little peace with it, even if it’s not completely true, but it feels a lot of good. Really, we are better afterwards. That’s not necessarily why I did it, but while doing it, I said to myself: here you go, and bunch of bastards who called me “David Castello the obese”, what is it now?

There were history studies with a master’s degree and finally journalism. And then there was a video that revolutionized everything, which will propel you to the front of the stage. A song, I own money, taken up on TikTok by the new generation. There is a before and an after. How did you experience it?

To put it in context, I own money is a song that is 15 seconds long and is integrated into another video where I explain an economic principle called the principle of positional goods. And it was 15 seconds out of a five minute video so really a detail, maybe an important detail, but a detail nonetheless. And suddenly this video is taken, taken out of context, put on TikTok. Not by me and it explodes. And in fact, for a whole section of people who know me, the only thing I am is the weird little man who made jokes by saying ‘I have money’ and dancing a little bit like a jerk… But hey, it’s all very positive, it’s only good, but it’s a little strange to live in any case.

Finally, you approach death through that of your father. It’s a very hard moment. We have the impression that it is also an outstretched hand to say to him: “You’re gone, but to me you still are“. What is your view of the passage of time?

Ever since I was a child… We’ve all been terrified by the passage of time, but it seemed to me that, perhaps, I was a little more so than the others. Since I was six years old. When I turned six, I remember the moment when I realized that, in fact, I would never be four again and that time would only go one way. And I had a panic attack, but I still remember it perfectly at that age. And since then, I have been terrified, but daily.

The mourning of people who are important and a fortiori that of my father, it is something which… There, it is hard. These are things that have remained very strong to me and that I think about every day of my life, so obviously talking about it on stage was important to me.

David Castello-Lopes

at franceinfo

You will be performing on September 21 in Pacé, on September 22 in Nantes, on September 23 in Tours, on September 28 in Nancy then Bordeaux, Le Vésinet, Grenoble etc. And on June 6, 2024 at the Olympia. The Olympia is special all the same, there will be your name written in red on the facade.

I would like to say like: yeah, but that’s not the important thing! Well if in fact, it’s really very, very pleasing, it’s pleasing to vanity here.