The whole thing sounds weirdly Jean Paul Sartre-esque. Alex Goude, the host of France’s Got Talent and a staple of French media, seeks out newer creative ground in a foreign country only to find that he has to reintroduce himself to people who have no idea, initially, of who he is. His fame is meaningless. It carries no currency. Yet he thrives.
And that, fans of existentialism will tell you, is where that angle ends. With the happy ending. But other happy endings would follow for this showman, casting his fable not in the broody crevices of existentialism but in the vast sunshine of something more akin to fairy tale.
Alex Goude, who now lives in Las Vegas with his husband and son and who recently headlined Westgate Hotel’s Twisted Vegas, was born Aug. 13, 1975 but it wasn’t until 2000, at 25, that the entertainer admits he was born into his gay self. “I wasn’t gay when I was born. I wasn’t gay when I was young. I became gay when I was 25 and I decided to do my coming out, which was later on, with my husband.”
His husband, Romain Taillandier, a looker nearly a decade his junior, he, and baby Elliott, once graced the cover of Gala, a well-circulated French magazine dedicated to celebrity life and largely catering to women. It stands out not only because it marks a victory of sorts – France bans surrogacy for both gay and straight couples – but because it represents another of Goude’s dreams. I asked him about that, specifically what he was feeling during the shoot. “Because we had Elliott, because we were in the U.S. and because I wanted to show everybody it was possible to have a happy life, to have a baby, a dog, a new house, even if you’re gay.” At least in Las Vegas where his show Twisted Vegas, a spoof of all that is Sin City, played February through to May of this year.
But in France, it’s une autre boule de cire, where, during the country’s 2013 same-sex marriage contretemps (OK, this time borrowing from the French really does work), things did not go well. “It seemed like everything was OK then suddenly this thing happened with the gay wedding and you were back in the time of homophobia and all of France went completely crazy. Kinda crazy. But it was only a minority but they were speaking so loud that you heard them more than it should be.” Americans, like the French, share a passionate belief in their way of life, some more polarized about what that way of life should be than others.
But that was the tail end of much longer answer about what might stand out to gay Americans traveling in Le Marais, France’s gay mecca (the 4-th arrondissement between tourist hot spots Le Louvre and Place de la Bastille). For Goude, when asked to reverse the tables, it’s our prudishness. “What I would say about gay people in France? They are a lot less shy than gay people in the U.S.”
Once you speak with Alexander Goude, the popular host, nine years running, of France’s Got Talent, you’ll realize that it’s true, there really is nothing different between the entertainer and the man. “That’s probably the secret of my whole life. There really is no difference between them. I’m exactly the same as I am on TV or I am on stage – unless I’m doing the role of the bad guy – or in the case of Twisted Vegas and it’s just me.”
France’s Got Talent is uniquely French in all but translation. It’s a talent show that puts as much of a premium on humor as it does talent, the humor here and across the pond in England of a vastly crueler and more capitalistic variety. (“You’ve been voted off the island.”)
“When I’m onstage, I try to entertain people which is the goal of my life, making people laugh.” And that formula, that Alex Goude feeling, works. From the period when La France a un incroyable talent debuted Nov. 2, 2006 until now – Goude took over as ‘presenter’ in 2009 – the show has been phenomenally successfully. The average audience size is around three million which, in a country the size of France, would be equal to some of the highest weekly-rated shows here from 2015; Empire, The Big Bang Theory, Dancing with The Stars and The Walking Dead, to name but a few.
But while his well-earned popularity is the result of talent, time and work, mounting a Las Vegas show and then asking a famously critical U.S. audience to take a chance on him? “It took a lot passion, a lot of time, a lot of work. My husband and my baby didn’t see me as much as they used to,” he recognized. But just the same, “You need to have a great cast. That’s the most important thing whenever you do a show, especially in Las Vegas. [H]aving done nine years of France’s Got Talent, I know probably all the best talent in the whole world. So I used all this talent I saw in my show. Some are coming from the USA, some are coming from Russian, from Canada, from France. And I try to [have] the best team I can.”
According to the Las Vegas Sun, however, that didn’t appear to be the case. “French dude, already borderline with his accent, drunkenly chatting up vapid Valley Girls?” Ground ball, right? “This show is crazy!” we are told at one point. “If only it were.” Ouch. Though to be fair to Alex, nothing sucks off a reviewer’s credibility faster than bitchy ad hominem attacks. Besides, Trip Advisor gave the show five stars.
However, Twisted Vegas did close. Alex stated that some of their investors fell out and his health was beginning to suffer. He did mention, though, that he is returning to France to mount Timeo, the most expensive musical ever produced in the capital.
Toward the end of our conversation, I asked him what advice he would give to someone struggling with their sexual orientation and/or sexual identity. “The problem is, you cannot change yourself. And you’re not going to change yourself. So, that’s you. And if your parents don’t like you like this, well, unfortunately, it’s like loving race[car] driving. If they don’t love race[car] driving, who cares? That’s what you are. That’s who you are. So, just be who you are. You cannot change because of society. Because of your friends. Because of your family. And if your friends don’t accept you for who you are than they are not your friends. And if your family doesn’t accept you as you are? OK. That’s their choice. Maybe they will come back to better feelings.”
So what’s his advice? “[W]ait until you’re really happy. Say you find someone and you’re really happy, use that as an excuse to tell them that: I’m really happy. And I’m with someone. Unfortunately, it’s a girl if you are lesbian or a guy if you’re gay. And if it causes them to hurt say: “Well maybe for you it’s unfortunate, for me it’s really fortunate because I’m really happy like this. And I love this situation. And I would love to present to you…” And, you know, that’s it.” Voilà.
Like in fairy tales.
Finally, Goude says he promises to return to Las Vegas and he even hopes to bring Twisted Vegas back in some way. And if we know anything about Alex it’s that he completes what he sets out to do.
