Jean-Marie Lapointe was in Florida with friends when we spoke to him.
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“My friend André and his wife rented a house in Jensen Beach for two and a half months and invited me over. André and I will practice speed kayaking. I drove her there as I have a kayak rack on my car. I leave it to them during their stay and they lend me theirs so I can return to Quebec. I’ll be here for a week.”
The presenter has a new show that will do useful work on Canal M, an inclusive radio that can be heard on the web. Every week, starting this Friday, January 20, at 5 p.m., he will be at the gate speaker’s microphone. “The station manager, whom I know well, Philippe Lapointe, contacted me and gave me carte blanche. I spoke to my agent, Marie-Philippe Lemarbre, and she said to me, “Since you’re a committed guy, we could do a show that we’d call Narrator.” That’s how this News series of interviews came about.
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In each episode, Jean-Marie receives a committed personality who first explains the reasons for his commitment. “We go into the intimacy of the person who tells us why they got involved.” In the second part, the guest artist pulls questions out of a hat and has to answer them. The host will notably welcome Marina Orsini, who is the spokesperson for LigneParents, Pénélope McQuade, who represents the Sacré Coeur Hospital in Montreal, and Vincent Graton, who has championed several causes throughout his career.
The music for the end credits and the musical break between the two parts of the interview come from Jean-Marie Lapointe. “I am a classically trained pianist. I studied in elementary and high school. And after attending the Collège André-Grasset, I attended the Vincent d’Indy School of Music to get into music at the University of Montreal. I was, except I had my first contract on television with Épopée Rock, where I played piano. My TV career was then chained and the musician was put on hold.
Of course, he would have liked to know what his recently deceased father would have thought of this new show he is hosting. “It’s inevitable. Since dad was one of the pioneers in the fight against alcoholism in Quebec, he was one of the first to speak out about his demons and he made it his mission. I’m sure my dad would be proud of this show .”