Beginnings Yvon Deschamps was born in
Montreal's working-class Saint-Henri district. He left school in 1951, after Grade 11, and in 1953 found work in the record library at
Radio-Canada's new television service. It was at Radio-Canada that Deschamps discovered the performing arts; after attending a
boulevard theatre piece starring
Georges Groulx and
Denise Pelletier, he added a taste for the theatre, and enrolled in acting classes with
François Rozet and
Paul Buissonneau. He took the stage for the first time in 1957 at the , playing Pylade in a production of
Jean Racine's
Andromaque. In 1959, Deschamps was part of
La Roulotte, Paul Buissonneau's travelling children's theatre. The following year he married Mireille Lachance (the two would divorce in 1967). In 1961 he became friends with
Claude Léveillée, becoming his drummer, even though the man had actually never played the drums before. In 1963 he formed a company with Léveillée and several other artists at Buissonneau's
Théâtre de Quat'Sous. In 1965 he played his first film role in
Jean-Claude Lord's
Deliver Us from Evil (Délivrez-nous du mal), although the film was not released theatrically until 1969. That same year Deschamps left his short career as a musician behind and opened
Le Fournil, a restaurant in Old Montreal, followed by
Saint-Amable in 1966. Both would end up bankrupt a few years later, but while they were open Deschamps hosted his
Boîte à Clémence, a
boîte à chanson hosted by
Clémence DesRochers, participating in the (People are Funny) and (Be Yourself) shows which opened there in 1967. The latter played a special role in his career, because that is where the Yvon Deschamps "character" and his "good boss" role appeared for the first time:)
L'Ostidshow In the winter of 1968, finding himself broke and occasionally sleeping on friends couches with new girlfriend Judi Richards, Deschamps took a job at the Quat'Sous offered by his friend Buissonneau. Buissonneau had just lost
Michel Tremblay's celebrated play
Les Belles-sœurs to the
Rideau Vert theatre, and was looking for a play to finish the season with. Deschamps proposed a musical review to
Louise Forestier and
Robert Charlebois with Mouffe on board, and very little rehearsal time. The result would be known as ''L'Osstidcho
(L'hostie de show'' or "The freaking show"), a show that would revolutionize Quebec song. Inspired by
Arlo Guthrie's ''Alice's Restaurant,
Deschamps made his first real monologue part of the review when Robert Charlebois did not want to learn his lines for the dialogue (he decided to strum the guitar instead). In Les unions, qu'ossa donne?'' (Unions, What are they Good For?), Deschamps played a naïve worker extolling the great generosity and good-heartedness of his boss, making it clear that reality was not quite so rosy: :One time, my wife falls sick real bad, so the hospital phoned. It was a quarter past two, the boss answers. He comes to see me, and says, "Your wife is in the emergency ward." :He says, "Look, don't make yourself crazy about this! Just make like nothing's happened, keep on working. If anything does happen, I'll let you know." :"Not just any boss that would've done something like that!" Deschamps would write a number of other monologues, including (People are Crazy), (That's Really Something), and
La Saint-Jean (June 24), as well as
Nigger Black and
Pépère (Grandpa), both of which went back to the character's childhood.
Glory Following the success of
Osstidcho, Yvon Deschamps' career skyrocketed. In 1969 he presented ''L'argent'' (Money) as the opening act for singer
Marie Laforêt's tour, then
Le bonheur (Happiness) at the Théâtre du Canada; these two monologues would become his second album. Deschamps put on his first solo show at the Patriot, where he would go on to appear some 310 times. In 1970 Deschamps released his third album, ''Le p'tit Jésus/Le fœtus'' (Baby Jesus/The Foetus) and appeared more than 240 times at the
Place des Arts's
Théâtre Maisonneuve, where he launched monologues like
Dans ma cour (In My Yard) and
Cable TV. The following year another 180 performances were held, including five consecutive weeks sold out. In 1971 he had a film role in Jean Bissonnette's ''
Hold on to Daddy's Ears (Tiens-toi bien après les oreilles à papa)''. Deschamps presented his shows ''On va s'en sortir'' (We'll Manage) at the
Théâtre Saint-Denis in 1972 and (Women's Lib) at the Patriote in 1973 and 1974, giving some 150 performances of the latter show. In 1975, he toured for nine months to put on (History of the Sacred). In 1977, Deschamps returned with a new, untitled show which would headline for 16 weeks at the Place des Arts and show 102 times over that period. His first daughter with now-wife Judi Richards, Annie, was born. For a brief period he attempted to pierce the English-language market with a California tour, and appeared three times on
Peter Gzowski's popular
CBC programme (one of these appearances is archived in the first volume of his DVD collection), further appearing on the CBC's ''Let's Save Canada Hour''. He soon reconsidered moving his new family to the United States to essentially 'start over' and went home to Montreal. In 1979, he headed back yet again to the Place des Arts, with a difficult show which included his
La petite mentale (the retarded girl) and
La manipulation monologues. Deschamps himself called the show a "catastrophe" and would later recall that "they ended up writing off my career." He had a second daughter, Karine, and came back in 1982 with (We are the biggest crowd alone). Although the public hesitated at first—only 5000 tickets had sold a week before the show opened—the show was very well received; as Deschamps put it, "I got wise and, ten days later, began selling out a room a day." The following year Deschamps headlined two weeks at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris. It would be the swan song of the most fruitful period of his career: seeing a new generation of Québécois comedians like
Ding et Dong growing up around him, and troubled by what he saw as a
political correctness movement in the 1980s, Deschamps chose 1983 to bow out as a monologuist with his farewell show,
Un voyage dans le temps (A Journey Through Time).
Departure and return In 1985,
Samedi de rire (Saturday Laughs), a one-hour variety show with comedic skits and a special guest (musical or other) carried on Saturday nights at 7 p.m. on Radio-Canada. Yvon Deschamps was the host, and appeared alongside
Normand Chouinard,
Normand Brathwaite,
Pauline Martin and
Michèle Deslauriers. Among the characters he developed there was the famous storyteller persona of
Ti-Blanc Lebrun who would swallow his harmonica before the end of every story and be unable to continue. Seventy-eight episodes and two "best of" recaps would air between 1985 and 1989.
Judi Richards and Yvon Deschamps welcomed their 3rd and last daughter, Sarah-Émilie in 1986. The experience of weekly television allowed Deschamps, now in his 50s, to keep a hand in the comedy business and stay in touch with Quebec audiences, but with a much lower level of stress than his one-man shows had involved. That said, he has presented occasional monologues in between two skits. Deschamps then launched
CTYVON (ITSYVON) on the heels of
Samedi de rire's success.
CTYVON was a daily program filmed in a television studio, half sitcom and half
parody of other television programs. But the show did not have a chance to find an audience as the at-first-unpopular Samedi de Rire did, with Radio-Canada yanking it off the air after a few months for low ratings(1989–1990). After eight years away from the stage, Deschamps decided to wade back in one last time with a new show, ''U.S. qu'on s'en va?'' (What's Next for U.S.?), performed live 140 times in 1992 and 1993, and broadcast on Radio-Canada television. Following the show's success he moved into semi-retirement, purchasing in 1996 the
Manoir Rouville-Campbell, a historic hotel property, a Tudor Manor, in
Mont-Saint-Hilaire in Quebec's
Montérégie region. He helped keep the hotel running during the off-season by opening a small nightclub there called
Boîte à Yvon (Yvon's Club) in which he would perform some of his classic and more recent material to the 300-capacity crowd. An album,
Yvon Deschamps au Manoir Rouville-Campbell, was issued in 1999. Yvon then built a bigger hall called l'Orangeraie in the Manoir with a scenic view of the manoir grounds and the Richelieu river. The semi-retirement did not last, either, however. Following pressure from contemporaries and friends, such as wife Judi Richards and Normand Brathwaite, who were adamant that his newer material should be shared with larger audiences, Deschamps got back to work. The result,
Comment ça, 2000? (2000 Already?), was performed in front of sold-out houses in the Manoir, at Montreal's Théâtre Corona and
Quebec City's
Palais Montcalm, then hit the road for a cross-Quebec tour in 2001 and 2002, culminating in the
Comment ca, 2000... 2001... 2002? Since 2000, the
Boîte à Yvon has regularly presented emerging Quebec comedians. In 2001 Deschamps was named a Knight of the
National Order of Quebec by Quebec's premier,
Bernard Landry. In 2006, Deschamps toured with his wife of 35 years in the show 'Judi et Yvon font une scène' where they shared the stage equally for the first time. It was a sold-out success. The Manoir was sold in 2006, but in his 70s Deschamps shows no sign of stopping. As one of the most prolific hosts and performers the 'Festival Juste pour rire' has ever had, he presented one new or re-worked monologue for each gala show for the festival's 25th anniversary in the summer of 2007. They paid homage to him with a special gala. He has three daughters, Annie, Karine and Sarah-Émilie. ==Style==