Étaix made a series of short- and feature-length films, many of them co-written by influential screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière.

[1] As an actor, assistant director and gag writer, Étaix worked with the likes of Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, Nagisa Oshima, Otar Iosseliani and Jerry Lewis, the last of whom cast the comedian in his unreleased film The Day the Clown Cried.

He was trained as a graphic designer and introduced to the art of stained glass by Théodore-Gérard Hanssen.

He settled in Paris where he worked as a magazine illustrator while performing in cabarets and music halls, such as The Golden Horse, The Three Donkeys, ABC, the Alhambra, Bobino and Olympia, and a circus performer with the clown Nino.

His first feature films as director were The Suitor (1962) and Yoyo (1965), where he paid homage to the circus world.