Born in Tunis on January 3, 1942, John Gilbert Youssef Guez, known as John Guez, passed away in Paris on Wednesday, August 2, at the age of 81. With a handsome face, childlike flexibility and energy, and an uncanny class, John Guez was a street performer, an entertainer, between 1977 and 2006. Guez was a fixture outside the Centre Georges-Pompidou from the moment it opened, regularly posted at the Place Edmond-Michelet located in Paris's 4th arrondissement. The neighborhood, known as Beaubourg, had been home to the heyday of street theater since the 1960s (with the Living Theatre and Dario Fo), but Guez took the art form to one of its greatest peaks. The other artists in the square called him "il Maestro."
Actors (Michel Piccoli, Michael Lonsdale, among others) used to slip incognito into the audience, a circle (sometimes a square) made up of ordinary passers-by, tourists, foreigners, lovers, and lost souls from all over, whom Guez was skilled at gathering around him. His only prop was a bamboo wand, which he would use to summon the police, Sarkozy or the good Lord. Guez could spontaneously gather a crowd, maybe 100 or 200 passers-by, and get them to act. In a light-colored suit or white jacket, with his clothes elegantly rumpled, adding a spotlessly clean Columbo-style raincoat in the winter, Guez would run and jump with grace, summoning someone here and there from the spontaneous circle and directing them as if by magic.
Straddling the line between improv and comedy, the artist knew how to translate his talents as an entertainer into lessons of civic awareness. An actor, author and director, his work was rooted in medieval mysteries, the commedia dell'arte, Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise), and more. A lesson in theater, a bit of group therapy, a rare moment of collective laughter was transformed into civic reflection. At times, it escalated. Guez had indignation on the tip of his tongue, quick to put down social injustice, domination and war, while lifting up nurses, childhood and the school of the Republic – all without being bitter or pompous.
The method was simple: embarking on a spontaneous adaptation of Les Misérables, he would randomly recruit apprentice actors from the audience. No one ever refused the invitation. There were some inspired Cosettes, some British Jean Valjeans who had to play in French, some uncooperative princes, little boys full of promise, a very determined African in the role of Thénardier, and a lady holding her purse in the role of Madame Thénardier.
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