Sami Améziane

Sami Ameziane, known as le comte de Bouderbala, born on 6 January 1979 in Saint-Denis, is a French international basketball player, humorist and actor. Born to Algerian parents originally from Tizi Ouzou in Kabylie, he grew up in Saint-Denis, in Seine-Saint-Denis, where his father was a cabinetmaker and his mother a homemaker. He studied at the lycee Paul-Eluard (Saint-Denis) in the literary section and obtained his baccalaureat in 1997 before earning a bac + 5 in applied foreign languages. He has the particularity of speaking six languages and dialects: French, English, Italian, Spanish, Kabyle and dialectal Arabic.

Having considered a professional career in basketball, he launched successfully into stand-up, notably thanks to the support of his childhood friend Fabien Marsaud, alias Grand Corps Malade. It was on a slam stage that he chose his stage name, the "comte de Bouderbala". As a basketball player he passed through several French clubs, and from 2004 to 2005 he joined the universite du Connecticut as an exchange student, integrating the Huskies, where he was coached by Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun and won the title of the Big East Conference in 2004. In stand-up he evokes his journey as the son of an immigrant and his studies in the United States, and he also translated his show into English to perform it in New York comedy clubs.

From 2006 he went to New York with the idea of touring the city's comedy clubs, and while walking in Manhattan he met by chance Chris Rock, who directed him toward the open mics of certain venues. Over the years he played in English at venues such as the Comedy Strip, the Stand Up New York and the Broadway Comedy Club, until being programmed at the Comedy Cellar in January 2010, becoming the first Frenchman to perform on that stage. Returning to France in 2010, he played at the theatre du Gymnase for six months before taking over the Caveau de la Republique, which he and his associate producer Jean-Philippe Bouchard renovated and renamed "le Republique".