A crazy word juggler in the role of the Hatter!
Bruno Coppens has carved out a unique path in the field of Belgian humor, becoming the most French-speaking of Belgian comedians, performing from Montreal to Avignon via Bucharest, Dakar and Verviers. Columnist for the flagship RTS show “Les Dicodeurs” (La Première – Switzerland); for various shows on La Première (RTBF – Belgium) such as “Le jeu des dictionnaires”, “La Semaine infernale”, “Cafés tendus” or “Un Samedi d’Enfer”; for Vivacité (RTBF) “Les Enfants de Choeur”, or for Stéphane Bern’s “Fou du Roi” (France Inter – France), Bruno carries his humor on the airwaves and on stage with the same desire to untangle truth from madness! He has managed to conquer an increasingly large audience, beyond our borders. Called in Quebec the “verbo-motor”, he has written and performed 9 one-man shows: from “Ma Déclaration d’humour” (over 400 dates under his belt!) to “Ma Terre happy!” (nominated “Best One-Man Show” by the French Community of Belgium in 2007), via “Mes singeries vocales”, “Trac!”, “La vie est un destin animé”, “Loverbooké!”, “Andropause” and “Ma 9e Symfolie”. He turns words upside down, sounds disappointed by the senses, merging humor and poetry, to be enjoyed without moderation.
On TV, Bruno played “Monsieur Virgule” for nearly 10 years in the youth show “Ici Bla-bla” (RTBF) for which he drew inspiration from his experience as a father of 3 children. He lived in Tournai until leaving for the University of Louvain-La-Neuve where he obtained his degree in Romance Philology (UCL) while embarking on theatrical experiences and writing his first sketches. These would lead him to the Rochefort Comedy Festival where, winning the Press and Public Prize, he began a tour of café-theaters and various festivals (Montreux in Switzerland, Avignon, Just for Laughs in Montreal, etc.) which would be the first steps in his career.
“Discovering that language was not a strict, closed, dead space, but, on the contrary, a territory of great freedom was a great joy for me. I was perhaps like a child discovering the unlimited possibilities of a toy that he thought he knew inside out. It was a curious joy to let myself go into this universe. New doors seemed to open one after the other. At first it was just a playful pleasure – and it never stopped – but then I got caught up in the game, taking classes in comedy and comedia dell arte.” Bruno Coppens
Bruno has moved from the most intimate stages to the most imposing ones, such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, for example, as a narrator for the Orchestre à la portée des enfants (10 collaborations to date), or the Théâtre royal de Namur as part of the Festival de Wallonie, where he performs texts by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (“Mozart Amor”). He is also the patron of the operation “Langue française en fête” of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation for which he invents language games and creativity exercises (let us mention “Impro justitia”, a show trial played in courthouses in the company of actors and real lawyers). Add to that his many hilarious columns in the Jeu des Dictionnaires and in the Semaine infernale (RTBF) where he deploys his verve, his sagacity, his sense of irony and his sharp analysis of the world’s course. He contributes to various newspapers and magazines (Soir Mag, La libre, La Libre Essentielle, le Soir, Paris-Match, l’Echo, l’Avenir…) thus demonstrating the quality of his pen, capable of flying from style exercises to hilarious columns! His talent has been rewarded many times in various festivals in France and Belgium. In October 2005, he was even awarded the “Knight of the Order of Leopold” medal by the Minister of Culture. All this does not prevent him from remaining a comedian close to his audience, generous on stage and always happy to meet the spectators after the performances.
You could also find him during Luc Petit's Carnival of the Animals in the role of the Lion!
