It had been 17 years since they had stood in front of the microphones together as Gomaespuma. Juan Luis Cano (Madrid, 63 years old) and Guillermo Fesser (Madrid, 63 years old), the duo who for several decades combined humor and information on radio with forays – from puppets to – into television, met for a recording in a Theater in aid of the Gomaespuma Foundation, which promotes culture and children's education in the most disadvantaged social groups. In particular, they try to promote an emotional education program for the little ones. “So the Spaniards of the future will sulk less than we do,” says Fesser. This special is now available on Movistar Plus+ and in it they reflect on their history and comment on current events with guests such as José Andrés, Rozalén, José Mercé, Vicente del Bosque, Eva Navarro, Brianeitor and the first vice president of the government, Nadia Calviño. Cándida Villar, the current 92-year-old film critic, comments on As Bestas in the presence of the actor Luis Zahera. Even Queen Letizia confesses in the afterword to another Gomaespuma suckling pig, as seen in the video that accompanies the message.
Guillermo Fesser, Queen Letizia and Juan Luis Cano in the Gomaespuma special from Movistar Plus+.
Questions. Haven't you thought about returning with a program instead of a special?
Juan Luis Cano. Personally and professionally it is very difficult. First someone would have to love us. And it would be absurd to create a daily program because we are not in it yet and because it is physically impossible due to the distance and the different schedules. [Guillermo Fesser vive en Estados Unidos]different social sensibilities… To do a program like Gomaespuma you have to be here day after day.
Guillermo Fesser. And then we are 63 years old. I no longer have the energy it requires and that we put into Gomaespuma. And the responsibility that I had to make Gomaespuma and get a million people to listen to you, I don't want that anymore.
JLC Well, I do [risas]. No, we never cared about how many people heard us. Our maxim was to do what we liked or what we would like to hear, and if someone likes it, all the better.
GF In fact, it took a long time for them to give us a program. They gave us a comedy show or hired us as journalists, but they didn't put it together. I felt like Jekyll and Hyde, being the fool at night and the serious one during the day. The day Javier Pons, the director of M-80, gave us the opportunity to bring the two worlds together, there was an explosion of light and color.
Guillermo Fesser and Juan Luis Cano, in a moment of “Gomaespuma, the reunion”.Elena González Torres
Q Why was it so complicated to combine information and humor?
JLC There is a tradition of thought in this country that assumes that humor frivolizes the message. And it's not true, what makes the message frivolous is nonsense and lack of judgment. But if you use humor with common sense and a certain intelligence, you don't frivolize, but rather it allows you to go places you couldn't go otherwise.
Q Has radio changed much since then?
JLC Radio has become a medium in which only people talk. It lost the sense of spectacle, and radio became a medium in which spectacle was fundamental, and people started doing it in theaters. And you lose the game with your imagination. Gomaespuma felt like we could make a false connection from the studio underwater and people would think you were underwater and talking to a diver. [Juan Carlos] Ortega is the only one who says that.
Q And why does this happen? Are we more boring?
GF Well, Alsina does radio montages
JLC Yes, but it's not common. The normal thing is that people talk and express their opinions and there are interviews. It's the same thing as 99% of podcasts, everyone is doing podcasts now… It's all interviews because that's the easy part. But interviews suck too. Having flour, water, and salt doesn't make you a baker.
GF Maybe also because radio professionals have lost trust in the medium. When we were on radio, a lot of people asked us when we were going to move to television. But we didn't want television, we wanted to make better and better radio. Now everyone wants to have a camera to watch live on the Internet or appear on Tik Tok. I'm not saying whether this is right or wrong, but when you lose trust in the radio, it diminishes. The day when people who make radio believe that radio is the most important thing, it will be better. And I assure you that everything that is good always has an audience, because there are not that many good things in the world.
Q The special says that you are now “anonymous celebrities.” You ask university students and it's clear they don't know who they are. For those who don't know them or aren't sure who they are: who's going to tell them Gomaespuma?
JLC The people who started making radio were very lazy and unintentionally made a type of radio that didn't exist. And they insisted that people learn more about things and be a little happier.
GF Who use humor as a vehicle and not as a goal. Until then, the goal was to make her laugh. The goal here is to make them aware of what is happening in Gaza, but we don't have to sulk about it.
Juan Luis Cano and Guillermo Fesser, Gomaespuma, the day after the recording of the special in which they meet again and which can be seen on Movistar Plus+. JUAN BARBOSA
Q Foam rubber is almost a vital setting…
JLC It's about having a certain sensitivity to everything that happens, not only what happens in the world but also what happens in everyday life. It's a way of going through life. We went into life with our eyes and ears open. And we never stopped being normal kids from the neighborhood or college, we're still the same.
Q There are those who miss the jokes about homosexuals and midgets. Do you miss other moments of humor?
JLC Not at all, we have evolved with society as much as possible and in our minds, and now I wouldn't make derogatory jokes about a black man or woman like you could do before.
GF It wouldn't be a sense of humor, humor is made up of funny things and if it's not funny you're not a comedian, you're a pouty guy.
JLC Society has evolved and we have evolved with society. From time to time we are asked what the limits of humor are. The limits of humor lie in the common sense of the person performing it.
GF Or with intent. If you want people to have a good time, that's humor. If it hurts someone or makes fun of them…
JLC I don't think anyone who makes a joke about a black person is trying to hurt the black person, they're just being stupid. Is it humor? Yes, but it's fool's humor.
Nadia Calviño, Cándida Villar, Guillermo Fesser and Juan Luis Cano, on stage at the Gran Teatro CaixaBank Príncipe Pío in Madrid.Elena González Torres
Q What is the state of comedy in Spain?
GF Bad, because to make humor you have to listen, and since no one is listening here…
JLC No, there are people who do great humor. I miss the variety. In Spain we are horse start and donkey stop. Professional humor now seems to be just stand-up comedians, there are 100 million stand-up comedians, and before there were other types of humor, people doing skits, impersonations…
Q Are comedians having it easier given current events, or is their job becoming more complicated as reality overtakes them?
JLC It depends on the type of humor. Times of repression offered a very good breeding ground. When ingenuity has to strain to find a way out, great things happen. It is more difficult to create in freedom than in oppression.
GF But I prefer freedom to good comedians. Trump's four years were a boom in humor in the USA, shows like Colbert's would not have reached this audience at all. In fact, viewership has declined since he left because it's easier to joke about an orange man than a normal man. But it makes up for the fact that it's harder to generate humor and that the people at the top are more relaxed.
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