'The energy is unhinged': Marc Rebillet on what you can expect at his one-man improvised meltdown

Q18:01Marc Rebillet on what people can expect at his 'unhinged' live show

Long before the pandemic had us all working, creating and connecting from our homes, Marc Rebillet was recording improvisational songs in his apartment (usually only wearing a robe or his boxer briefs) and live streaming or uploading them on YouTube.

Armed with a keyboard and a loop machine, Rebillet is kind of like a millennial "Weird Al" Yankovic who makes all his tracks on the spot. The audiences at his live shows never know what to expect — and neither does he.

"It's as new to you as it will be for me, but generally, the energy is unhinged," Rebillet tells Q guest host Talia Schlanger in an interview. "I think the logline is 'a one-man meltdown,' where, basically, I will get on stage with no plan and use the energy of the audience to fuel what happens."

Tonight, Rebillet is performing at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, and since no two shows are alike, it's hard to predict what might happen.

"Any manner of things are liable to happen at a show," he says with a laugh. "I kind of like it that way because it keeps it fresh for me."

While Rebillet says that stepping out in front of thousands of people with no idea what he's going to do is terrifying, he's "learned to make friends with the terror."

"There's no way to sidestep that anxiety before getting on stage because it's just like, 'All right, I hope this one's good,'" he tells Schlanger. "It's just sort of a crapshoot. But, you know, generally I've managed to keep it pretty reliable at this point."

As a classically trained pianist, Rebillet's incredible capacity for improvisation is rooted in a foundational knowledge of music theory. "The transition really came when I stopped taking classical lessons and taught myself improvisational blues, you know, just the blues scales," he says.

"Some people who I was friends with, who were much better pianists than I was or am, taught me a little bit about jazz theory. Then I took some private lessons in that category. And so I just slowly built up my knowledge on the other side, on the improvisational side … but that rigid, theoretical basic understanding, I think, has served me quite well."

Rebillet knows his job is unusual, from his schedule, to going on tour to putting himself out there night after night. "It's just a lot of these weird elements that really call into question and test your endurance, and your sense of self-worth and value," he says.

"I've always been a happy dude, for the most part, and know how to get myself there. But this job has tested that a lot more than anything else in my life, for sure. For right now, I'm just trying to find happy moments every day. Remember how good it is to be alive and surround myself with people I love, and people who love me and, you know, have good sex and smoke weed. And just don't take life too seriously. That's kind of what I've been doing."

The full interview with Marc Rebillet is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Marc Rebillet produced by Dionne Codrington.