des Arts and show 102 times over that period. His first daughter with now-wife Judi Richards, Annie, was born. For a brief period he attempted to pierce the English-language market with a California tour, and appeared three times on Peter Gzowski's popular CBC programme (one of these appearances is archived in the first volume of his DVD collection), further appearing on the CBC's Let's Save Canada Hour. He soon reconsidered moving his new family to the United States to essentially 'start over' and went home to Montreal. In 1979, he headed back yet again to the Place des Arts, with a difficult show which included his La petite mentale (the retarded girl) and La manipulation monologues. Deschamps himself called the show a "catastrophe" and would later recall that "they ended up writing off my career." He had a second daughter, Karine, and came back in 1982 with (We are the biggest crowd alone). Although the public hesitated at first—only 5000 tickets had sold a week before the show opened—the show was very well received; as Deschamps put it, "I got wise and, ten days later, began selling out a room a day." The following year Deschamps headlined two weeks at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris. It would be the swan song of the most fruitful period of his career: seeing a new generation of Québécois comedians like Ding et Dong growing up around him, and troubled by what he saw as a political correctness movement in the 1980s, Deschamps chose 1983 to bow out as a monologuist with his farewell show, Un voyage dans le temps (A Journey Through Time). Departure and return In 1985, Samedi de rire (Saturday Laughs), a one-hour variety show with comedic skits and a special guest (musical or other) carried on Saturday nights at 7 p.m. on Radio-Canada. Yvon Deschamps was the host, and appeared alongside Normand Chouinard, Normand Brathwaite, Pauline Martin and Michèle Deslauriers. Among the characters he developed there was the famous storyteller persona of Ti-Blanc Lebrun who would swallow his harmonica before the end of every story and be unable to continue. Seventy-eight episodes and two "best of" recaps would air between 1985 and 1989. Judi Richards and Yvon Deschamps welcomed their 3rd and last daughter, Sarah-Émilie in 1986. The experience of weekly television allowed Deschamps, now in his 50s, to keep a hand in the comedy business and stay