On a low-lit stage in Gatineau, Julien Lacroix steps into a hush that will be broken by laughter and silence in turn. This performance is one of a series of rodage shows that the comedian is touring across Quebec, and it comes as juste pour rire has announced it will produce his next solo spectacle.
What is the deal with Juste Pour Rire and Julien Lacroix?
The partnership names Juste pour rire as the producer of Julien Lacroix’s forthcoming solo show. Sylvain Parent-Bédard, president and chief executive officer of Juste pour rire, framed the decision around the company’s goal to strengthen its presence as a producer of solo shows and to work closely with leading artists on their projects. He said, “We recognize the path he has taken and the evolution that accompanies this process, ” and signaled that other collaborations will be announced soon.
How did Julien Lacroix come back to the stage?
Julien Lacroix was removed from the public sphere in 2020 after an investigation by Le Devoir led to allegations of sexual assault or sexual misconduct by nine women. Since then, the comedian has returned with solo work. He mounted Le temps au temps, presented in 2024, which ran for about 150 performances and reached nearly 40, 000 spectators. Before those events, his first one-man show had attracted more than 100, 000 people. Currently he is carrying out a roughly twenty-performance rodage tour that moves through towns and larger centres across the province, with stops listed from Gatineau to the Saguenay and stops that include Saint-Lazare, Magog and Longueuil.
Why did juste pour rire choose to work with him, and how are people responding?
Sylvain Parent-Bédard described several factors that convinced the organization to enter this partnership: the quality of Lacroix’s writing, the solidity of his material and the public response to his recent shows. “We are aware that this decision can provoke reactions, ” Parent-Bédard said, noting that the choice followed a rigorous analysis carried out over several months and that the organization assumes the decision. He also linked the move to organizational values such as individual responsibility and the capacity for evolution, even evoking the possibility of redemption in a public statement.
Juste pour rire also said the show under development will give space to important themes: mental health, personal challenges that some artists face and difficulties tied to consumption. The company framed its involvement as part of a broader strategy to accompany artists closely in the deployment of their projects on stage.
This announcement sits beside the hard facts of Lacroix’s recent history: the 2020 removal from the public spotlight after allegations, and the subsequent return to live performance culminating in a lengthy run of Le temps au temps in 2024. Those elements explain why the partnership draws attention wherever the rodage tour stops.
Voices in the story are centered on the two principals: Julien Lacroix, whose work is on the road, and Sylvain Parent-Bédard, who has explained the company’s reasoning and expectations. Parent-Bédard’s statements serve both as a justification for the production partnership and as an institutional perspective on how to handle an artist’s re-emergence.
What is being done now is concrete: Lacroix is testing and refining his new material on a provincial tour of roughly twenty performances through November, and Juste pour rire will serve as producer for the next solo show. The organization has signaled that more artist signings and collaborations will be revealed in the future, positioning this move as the start of a broader production push.
Back in Gatineau, as stage lights warm and the comedian reads the room he has been rebuilding, the partnership with juste pour rire adds a new dimension to the scene — institutional backing after a fraught public hiatus. The evening closes as it opened: with an audience’s mixed response, the artist continuing his work in public, and a cultural organization publicly betting it has chosen the right moment to step in.
