“I expected 2,000 people, on one side those who tell him I love you, on the other the haters. By inviting Magali Berdah, famous agent of reality TV influencers, for a meeting this Sunday morning at the Marseille book festival that he organizes, François David did not expect such a… shift in reality. At the appointed time, the room in Parc Chanot to host the meeting remains desperately empty. “I had planned a big security service, I wanted to do it at 11 a.m. so that things would go well,” he continues, a little sheepish, but full of resources: the meeting is postponed to after- noon: the time is finally deemed more compatible with Magali Berdah’s community.
Houndstooth suit, the popess of influencers displays a tired smile. The night before, she celebrated her birthday in Marseille. “I am much better, I am in the reconstruction phase”, she confides, while her company Shauna Events is in the spotlight of justice and herself regularly targeted on social networks. “It’s my first show, it changes signatures that I usually did at Cultura for my first book, she continues. It takes me out of my comfort zone, it’s not my audience. I did not come to make movies. It would have been enough for me to bring people back. That’s not the goal, I want something calm, quiet, to chat with people who don’t know me, it’s a challenge for me. »
“I know your name but I don’t know why”
In fact, the paths of Parc Chanot are rather enamelled with white hair. And the hypnotist who officiates next to her attracts more looks and attention. Claude, 84, however approaches the table where Magali Berdah is standing, behind the piles of her book “Osez! You will succeed” published by Flammarion. “I know your name but I don’t know why,” she says, before taking a copy to autograph for her daughter Claire, and handing her a pen… Magali Berdah came without. “My daughter is burnt out, she tells me that she talks about it in it, so I’m interested. »
“At a book fair, the main thing is for the authors to be behind their stand and to sign, that’s what she does”, notes Thomas Rabino, the journalist who hosted the meeting, which was held finally in the afternoon in front of about fifty people. He approached the period she is going through without taboos: “People do not come to hear a trickle of warm water”, he breathes. Not enough to scare Magali Berdah in any case: “I’m used to it, I’m no longer close to it, and I’m better when I don’t prepare the answers,” she says. Next week, she must record a program with Laurent Ruquier to talk about her book. “It’s a pride, and a challenge,” she says, while admitting that promotion is, “at the moment, not my priority.”