2016 La Scam Radio Night La Scam Radio Night
An experience of collective listening
Friday, 26 August at 9:00 pm in Saint-Laurent-sous-Coiron
Free shuttle bus from the Lussas Church : 7:15 pm, 7:45 pm, 8:00 pm, 8:30 pm
Please make sure to bring some identification, which will be required to borrow headphones.
La Scam and the INA invite you to discover the audio programme proposed by Claire Hauter.
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A Farewell to Tears
For the sixteenth edition of our Radio Night, I have chosen to dig out the laughter hidden amid INA’s sound archives. As an all-powerful antidote to our eternally troubled times, to the sorrow fuelled by low spirits and to crass stupidity, humour cannot be separated from the history of radio.
From the series and serials broadcast after the war to programmes like Des papous dans la tête, L’Oreille en coin to the ever lasting Le Masque et la Plume via Le Tribunal des flagrants délires, comedy is present in all its forms...
The opportunity to pay a resolutely subjective homage to some of these programmes’ creators was too tempting: Pierre Dac, the boss, Francis Blanche, king of the hoax, Jean Yanne, the intransigent, but also the unclassifiable Claude Dominique and several others.
Nothing is more demanding than the mechanics of laughter, which raise a breeze of liberty over the airwaves; unless it breaks out where least expected, from the passage of time which improves past voices. Whether impromptu or premeditated, jovial or desperate, cruel or tender, here it is, ready to roll out in zygomatic waves beneath the stars of the night.
With the collaboration of Sophie Gillery (INA archivist) and Frédéric Fiard (editing and mix).
1h28 of sound excerpts to be listened to with headphones.
Hand Made Titles
Adorned with sound effects recorded on June 23, 1950 for the programme CQFD by Pierre Dac and Francis Blanche.
1950, RTF, 0’56’’
Additional voice : Abel Muntz de Preval.
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1. Laughter Party
1959, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Pierre Dac and Francis Blanche strike up for the first time the “Laughter Party”. Its slogan: “In favour of anything which is against and against anything which is in favour”. Here it is, sung to the air of Ravel’s Bolero by Les Quatre Barbus, a highly popular vocal quartet in the sixties.
2013, France Inter, 2’55’’ © Ina
La prochaine fois je vous le chanterai
Producer : Philippe Meyer
Director : Périne Menguy
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2. Pierre Dac, the boss
An actor, singer, humorist, composer of aphorisms (“The movements of the tides and the movements of capital are the lifeblood of perpetual motion”), Pierre Dac became known during the Resistance as one of the voices of Radio Londres. His fertile mind gave birth to numerous series and serials (Faites chauffer la colle, Malheur aux barbus, Bons Baisers de partout, etc.). Here is an example which has well resisted the test of time. Buffoonery and nonsense guaranteed.
1964, France Inter, 7’08’’ © Ina
3 14 116
Producer : Pierre Dac
Director : Pierre Arnaud de Chassy Poulay
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3. Franche Info
Warning: this is a UFO! Here is a piece of radio utopia conceived by the Lefdup brothers. These two multimedia creators (Jérôme, director, and Denis, sound recordist and musician) joyously mimic the bulletins of Radio France’s all-news station. Traditional markers no longer hold, on the Lefdup&Lefdup planet, everything is upside down – or rather right side up – global wealth is equally distributed, disease is eradicated and happiness universal. In short, a farewell to tears.
2010, France Culture, 4’28’’ © Ina
Atelier de création radiophonique – Franche Info
Producers : Denis et Jérôme Lefdup
Directors : Lionel Quantin et Rémy Fessart
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4. Centenary of the Shoe Brush
Bertrand Jérôme, whose real name was Bertrand de Larosière, created numerous radio programmes combining humour and literature. In this archive from the programme Mi-fugue mi raisin, the guest is Jean-Pierre Marielle. The actor tries in vain to keep a straight face as he reads Le Centenaire de la brosse à reluire by Pierre Dac.
1978, France Culture, 4’23’’ © Ina
Mi-fugue mi-raisin
Producer : Bertrand Jérôme
Director : Claude Chebel
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5. Francis Blanche, the Swiss knife of comedy
Sly, satirical, incisive, mischievous: adjectives do not lack to describe Francis Blanche. An actor, singer, comic, lyricist (he wrote the words of more than six hundred songs), creator with Pierre Dac of Signé Furax, here he is in one of his famous telephone pranks. “L’ouvre-boîte recalcitrant” (“The recalcitrant can-opener”) was broadcast for the first time in 1956 on Europe n°1 in the programme Bonjour chez vous.
2013, France Inter, 6’05’’ © Ina
La prochaine fois je vous le chanterai
Producer : Philippe Meyer
Director : Périne Menguy
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6. The Class of the curved backbone
Recently discharged from RTL, Jean Yanne, a born provocateur (who would often say: “I breathe in the stupidity in the air around me and make of it my butter”) made a lightning appearance on France Inter. TV cameras slipped into the studio where he was presenting the programme Eh bien mon cher et vieux pays, nous voici à nouveau face à face (And so, my dear and aged country, here we are once again face to face, an ironical reference to a speech given by Charles de Gaulle in 1960). Submerged with anonymous letters and accused by a critic of Le Canard Enchaîné of being a “government lackey” because he was working for the State radio, Jean Yanne responded with his accomplice Daniel Prévost by improvising a sketch which has marked radio history.
1969, France Inter, 4’38’’ © Ina
Face à face
Producer : Jean Yanne
Director : Maurice Wamby
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7. Franche Info
Weather bulletin: The ozone layer has reformed
1’07’’ © Ina
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8. The multiplication table
“The man of Chaval is like everybody in the world, which is not flattering for the world”, wrote Mathieu Lindon. A cartoonist, writer and occasional filmmaker, Chaval also liked to improvise with his friend Doctor Rouzier. Luckily, the latter recorded these attempts on a tape recorder whose tapes have miraculously survived.
1978, France Culture, 5’35’’ © Ina
Mi-fugue mi-raisin
Producer : Bertrand Jérôme
Director : Claude Chebel
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9. I am a Radio
Frédéric Deschamps, labelled a “mentally deficient person”, recorded himself day after day in his room, capturing the sounds of daily life and projecting us with subtlety and humour into his singular existence, defying normative reason. This Belgian documentary won a prize at the Longueur d’ondes festival and was selected for the 2011 Europa prize.
2010, Radio Panik, 2’33’’ © Ina
ACSR – Je suis Frédéric
Director : Damien Magnette
Mix : Christophe Rault
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10. Recipe for Codfish
A typical sixties interlude based on a piece by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Unsquare Dance.
1964, France Inter, 1’21’’ © Ina
Inter Actualités
Journalist : Jean-Armand Ladidi
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11. Muller’s Misfortunes
The spiritual son of Pierre Dac and Francis Blanche, we present Jacques Muller. The actor, armed with a microphone hidden in an umbrella, has the mission of accosting Parisian passers-by while sticking to a script concocted by Pierre Codou and Jean Garretto, the producers of L’Oreille en coin. In this sequence entitled “The hormone treatment”, he sets his sights on a lingerie boutique.
Beneath the umbrella, laughter.
1969, France Inter, 4’18’’ © Ina
Les Malheurs de Muller
Producer and actor : Jacques Muller
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12. August Husbands
August 1966. How do husbands left behind in Paris to work manage to feed, clothe and entertain themselves while their wives and children have gone off for the holidays? To answer this crucial question, Christiane Paul-Fort ventures forth into the deserted streets of the capital.
1966, France Inter, 2’58’’ © Ina
Inter Actualités
Journalist : Christiane Paul-Fort
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13. Very Liberal Profession
Sylvie and her colleague Nathalie, prostitutes who cannot imagine themselves as cashiers, have set up their camping van along a national highway. Speaking into Sonia Kronlund’s microphone, they express their reflections on the masculine sex and manage their little business with no regret or doubt. “We’re the ones in charge here!” Atmosphere.
2002, France Culture, 4’28’’ © Ina
Les Pieds sur terre
Producer : Sonia Kronlund
Director : Manoushak Fashahi
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14. Seventy-six times I love you
The first incursion into the work of Claude Dominique, who managed to combine a taste for pop culture, solid erudition and corrosive humour. From 1953 to 1988, this radio woman progressively imposed her style on the airwaves of Radio France. Here she is lampooning one of Johnny Halliday’s biggest hits.
1985, France Inter, 6’49’’ © Ina
Tiroir cœur
Producer : Claude Dominique
Director : Hélène Kouyoumdjian
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15. Shall we love each other?
In 2004 Charles Pennequin, a policeman turned poet and sound performer, launched into improvisation by recording himself in his bedroom on a Dictaphone. Reworking language like putty, he unmasked words “as empty as holes”. A snorkling dive into language.
2011, France Culture, 3’33’’ © Ina
L’Atelier du son
Producer: Thomas Baumgartner
Director : Véronique Lamendour
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16. Franche Info
1.30 pm bulletin: The End of Football
3’02’’ © Ina
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17. Memoirs of an old asshole
Claude Dominique hosts Roland T. on the occasion of the publication of his Mémoires d’un vieux con. A prolific creator, famous for his resounding laugh and ferocious humour, Topor is at his best here. Mimicking the pretentious writers whose books encumber the shelves of the country’s bookshops, he undertakes an exercise in implosive laughter with his hostess.
1985, France Inter, 7’21’’ © Ina
Les Pages rousses du Petit Larose
Producer : Claude Dominique
Director : Marie-Hélène Lacoste
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18. The Canine Writer
A sketch by Chaval interpreted here by Roger Carel and Henri Virlogeux. Chaval, a self-confessed misanthropist, lived with a dog he called “Cacka”. For him, the human element of the animal, which he nevertheless sincerely loved, was so strong that it became inexcusable. It is now condemned to be mocked as much as men...
1978, France Culture, 1’21’’ © Ina
Mi-fugue mi-raisin
Producer : Bertrand Jérôme
Director : Claude Chebel
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19. Franche Info
5.15 pm bulletin: General Breakdown
2’09’’ © Ina
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20. Royalist and a little boring
During the summer of 1995, a so-called beginner journalist – the Deschiens’ Monsieur François – made his début in the delicate exercise of conducting an interview on France Inter. Between candour and absurdity, the questions of François Morel disconcert and destabilise. The day’s guest: Marcel Jullian.
1995, France Inter, 4’29’’ © Ina
C’est mieux que rien
Producer : François Morel
Director : Marie-Annick Rimbault
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21. The Passion according to J.C.
A musical collage illustrating all the art of Claude Dominique. The producer hated asking questions: “You throw a question like you throw a stone. The stones are thrown but who are they aimed at? A Persian proverb says that stones should only be thrown at fruit trees. OK, but not all fruit trees are the same, so can you always use the same stones?...” The answer can be found in this astonishing mix bringing together Jacques Chancel and Johann Sebastian Bach.
1985, France Inter, 2’40’’ © Ina
Tiroir Cœur
Producer : Claude Dominique
Director : Hélène Kouyoumdjian
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22. Franche Info
Final Bulletin: Time’s up. We’re all immortal.
3’56’’ © Ina