"It was better afterwards": Bill François, the physicist who deconstructs bullshit thanks to eloquence

“A part of our brain related to intelligence, the cortex, has evolved, but the ancestral part of the brain, the striatum, has remained as it was when we were apes. We have in our head a brilliant part, and a stupid part, one designs the Airbuses and the other designs the meal trays that we are served in the Airbuses. Juggling between the bullshit of the world and human intelligence, that's pretty much the goal of Bill François, in "It was better after".

To tell the truth, forget the not very funny valves heard a hundred times about sandwiches and blondes, and plug your brain: the show that plays at the Studio des Champs-Élysées until Christmas on Tuesday and Wednesday is a UFO . Halfway between a pure and hard stand-up and a physicist's conference on the meaning of life, like Alexandre Astier's exoconference. It must be said that Bill François is, in fact, a physicist. And does not really have the typical profile of the average comedian. Passed by the benches of the ENS, author of a thesis on the physics of schools of fish, he chained the victories in eloquence contests before being contacted for the program "Le Grand oral" on France 2. Which he also won. And then, passionate about fish and fishing, the gifted man who looks like top of the class in maths wrote The Eloquence of Sardines, a book translated into 17 languages ​​to spread scientific knowledge about the marine world.

Bill François is the big, shy head who has found in eloquence and humor the way to exteriorize the heaps of crossed-out tricks that swarm in his imagination. And makes others travel through maxims on the meaning of life, alexandrines, absurd anecdotes and improvisation according to current events. The shy, moreover, he speaks of it all the better for it: “People are not tender with us, the shy. Still... the phrase we say most often to shy people is "don't be shy, I'm not going to bite you!" What do you want us shy people to say to that? ".

Failures and inventors, who serves society the most?

And then there are the failures. Bill François pays homage to them in alexandrines: “And, of all the failures, big, medium, or small / Those who miss their meal, their subway, or their life / Let us pay tribute above all to the grandiose ambitious / Those whose beautiful shipwreck is due to the fact that they dare. »

Democracy, technology, religion… Bill François quickly comes to ask the question that everyone asks: “Since when did it screw up? ". Why the invasion of electric scooters, the diversion of artificial intelligence to design Snapchat filters with unicorn heads, or humanity condemned to spend 9 hours a day on Excel spreadsheets...? Why will archaeologists of the future find "plastic stirrers, packaging, kebab boxes, things with circles to put beers in..."?

Remember: the problem is that we are less apes. And then it's also our ability to invent things, explains Bill François, with a particularly well-felt sketch on all these inventions that are useless, except to create new markets: "We invent, we invent... but do we only once did these inventors ask us if we were interested in their inventions? Was there a referendum before releasing Tik Tok, the connected Thermomix, or the wireless headphones that do not fit in the ears? ". In short, we have the impression of coming out of the Bill François show a little less stupid after we were reminded of a few basic elements about the meaning of life. But we feel a little more stupid after seeing the eloquence of the physicist spouting Cyrano 2021-style verses. It's up to you to see if the balance suits you.

"It was better after" by Bill François, directed by Alain Sachs. At the Studio des Champs-Élysées on Tuesdays and Wednesdays until the end of December.

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