A nightclub (also known as a discothèque, or simply a club or disco) is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night. A nightclub is generally distinguished from bars, pubs or taverns by the inclusion of a dance floor and a DJ booth, where a DJ plays recorded electronic dance music, hip hop, rock music, reggae, and pop music.

The music in nightclubs is either live bands or, more commonly, a mix of songs played by a DJ through a powerful PA system. Most clubs or club nights cater to certain music genres, such as techno, house music, trance, heavy metal, garage, hip hop, salsa, dancehall, drum and bass, Dubstep or soca music. Many clubs also promote playing the Top 40 which has most of the night playing the most broadcast songs of the previous week.

Many nightclubs choose who can enter, on bases other than just age, e.g. dress code and guest list. This is used to make their status as a nightclub more "exclusive". Quite often, there are no clear policies governing entry to a nightclub, thereby allowing the doormen to deny entry to anybody at their discretion.

Gad Elmaleh (born April 19, 1971) is a French-Moroccan stand-up comedian and actor. His latest show is called Papa est en haut (Dad is upstairs). He has starred in several feature films, including Coco, Hors de prix, La Doublure and Midnight in Paris.

Elmaleh was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He is Jewish and was brought up in a mixed cultural background, speaking Moroccan Arabic and French. He earned his Baccalaureate in Morocco at Lycee Lyautey in Casablanca before he studied political science in Montreal for four years, then moved to Paris to study drama.

His first one-man show Décalages, performed at the "Palais des glaces" in 1997, was autobiographical.^{[citation needed]}

Elmaleh's first contact with cinema was the full-length film, Salut cousin ! by Merzak Allouache. He later appeared in L'homme est une femme comme les autres and Train de Vie.

His fame further increased with the success of his second one-man show, La Vie Normale, and the film La Vérité si je mens ! 2 (2000) in which he played the role of "Dov", the seducer. The character of "Chouchou" in La Vie Normale was reproduced in the comedy Chouchou (2002), directed by Merzak Allouache and also starring Alain Chabat; the film drew large audiences.^{[citation needed]}. He then did his debut as a singer in "it's kiz my life", a popular song in a non-existing language. The music video was directed by J.G Biggs and shot in the famous Parisian Hôtel Costes.