The Praise of Impurity

Brussels, my beautiful… and my beautiful contradictions. It is here that I live, that I love, and that I am still trying to understand this strange animal called identity. For fifty-seven years, I have been trying to answer it. And above all, to laugh about it. Because by dint of looking at ourselves in the mirror, we end up no longer seeing what we have become. On August 25 and 27, I will set down my suitcases at the Théâtre Le Public, with a lecture-show where I play with our certainties like one juggles with matches: between laughter and burns. I explore our multiple identities, our absurd loyalties, and our national sport: denial. Because by dint of not wanting to see anything, we end up understanding nothing. I was born the son of a Moroccan skirmisher and became a torn Belgian. At my place, family meals resembled NATO summits: a lot of noise, little listening, and plates as arguments. I grew up in this identity broth, this laboratory of humanity where hatreds are manufactured, but also reconciliations. Today, everyone brandishes their identity like a loyalty card. Some accumulate points, others dogmas. But loyalty to oneself? Extremely rare. Almost subversive. I preach nothing. I explore, I doubt, I amuse myself with our extremes, because they cannot stand it when we laugh. I talk about antisemitism, racism, religion, politics, my love for the French language, and everything that burns, without ever turning off the light. “In Praise of Impurity” is my way of dismantling clichés like one defuses a bomb: with bare hands and with words. And then, we must admit it: nothing is ever completely pure, except perhaps stupidity, it never dilutes. But faced with this concentrate of pure stupidity, we still have a few weapons of mass construction: speech, laughter, and this fragile bond that makes us human. So, come and laugh before it is too late. For if “laughter disarms, indignation rekindles the fire,” I try to do both at the same time. Sam Touzani, actor and author _______ By: Sam Touzani / With: Sam Touzani