Love Paris, but find Parisians rude? You’re right, says Olivier Giraud: they are. But if you can’t beat them, join them. His stand-up show, How to Become Parisian in One Hour? currently running at the Théâtre de la Main d’Or, promises a crash course in Parisian behavior—all in English. I went along and met the comedian behind one of the most popular shows in the city.
The lights went up to the tune of “La Marseillaise,” revealing a grinning, dark-haired figure clad in braces, a checked shirt and a beret. Giraud is 100 percent French and proud of it, as he declared while handing out rounds of Camembert cheese to members of the audience. A native of Bordeaux, Giraud spent several years working as a waiter and restaurant manager in Paris and Palm Beach, Florida, before creating his own theatre company, French Arrogance Productions, in 2009. He draws on his experiences of both France and the United States to poke fun at the stereotypes of the rude, arrogant Parisian and the overeffusive, clueless American tourist at the same time, punctuating his act with hilarious demonstrations of pronunciation and body language, like these.
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