Time.news “It’s back”
Organizers, DJs, establishment managers, night owls, observers… Every Wednesday, “Libé” gives voice to those who live for and through the night. Today, the general manager of the Alcazar, bar-restaurant of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, behind the Madame Klaude evenings.
At night, you’ll still see him wearing a jacket – a blazer, tuxedo, or tailcoat – and maybe sporting some sequins. Let’s say that Fabrice Gilberdy, 46, adheres to a vision “casual chic but classy nonetheless” of the party that he deploys both in his evenings (La Madame Klaude since 2015, among others) and at the Alcazar (6th arrondissement of Paris), which he directs. This famous transformist cabaret on the left bank where Marie-France performed, which in the 2000s became a popular bar-restaurant for its mezzanine, is above all concerned with “bring everyone together” : generations, genders, sexual orientations or skin colors confused. “I like that the night looks like the parties I do at home, that people meet”, abounds the trained sommelier, from Blaye (Gironde). One way to implement the “live together” that this late-night partygoer – from his thirties onwards – has sought in all types of nights, from bars to clubs, after parties to ass clubs.
Previously on “It’s back”
Your definition of night
“It shouldn’t look like the day, it’s a parenthesis that you allow yourself, that of deciding to have dark circles the next day or a big hangover, but you know why, because you’ve had an experience, artistic or human. It is also conducive to fantasies, it may be a theater, but it is only interesting if you meet someone else and if it allows you to meet yourself too.
Your first ride
“I was a kid, I must have been 18 and it was in Bordeaux, at the Chat Bleu, one of the first electronic music clubs located on the Bacalan quays, not far from the nautical base. In the 90s, it was a prostitution area, very poorly frequented and therefore very hot. I had made the wall of the hotel school of Talence where I studied and I went there with a future lover. I remember the music was very loud and it was the first time I kissed a boy. I was very hot and all of a sudden it smelled of sweat, cigarettes, the forbidden, but not yet sex. If there isn’t an element of mystery, if we already know the scenario, the party doesn’t work. It takes the improbable, whether it tickles you one way or another.
Ta BO
“She’s the one I chose for Madame Klaude [en référence à la célèbre proxénète, ndlr] : disco. For what ? Because it’s joyful music that has brought people together and still allows us to unite, federate or exchange. It can be listened to by all generations, it’s a modern waltz, with a very beautiful orchestration, often very beautiful voices: it slaps, it makes you want to go to the stars and it makes people’s eyes shine. There is also soul: you just have to see when Proud Mary of Tina Turner passes, it is hysteria.
your fuel
“According to the accounts of the Alcazar, the champagne. I seem to drink 120 bottles a year (laughs). But at the moment, I have a soft spot for cognac. Drinking a large cognac while dancing is guaranteed intoxication, even if I haven’t had time to see the angels yet. And then, when I see that it sparkles in people’s eyes, I’m happy. If I read disappointment on the other hand, then it destroys me.
your next weekend
“I will be the Alcazar for Love Night, like every Saturday, from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. It’s a big chic party for adults: after dinner and artistic performances, we dance thanks to Patrick Vidal, the godfather of the turntables. The day before, there is also the Tata at the upstairs bar, around the bar manager Gladys Gaval. The music ; it’s her own soundtrack set to music by DJs she has selected: Afro-Caribbean music, Afro-beat, etc. It’s a very different meeting and we drink a lot of rum there.