It seemed to someone in the audience that someone was asking at the box office for a ticket in the name of a vice president; we won’t say which one so as not to spoil the surprise. Nonsense, someone else responds, what does a vice president do at the Gomaespuma reunion? Well, she paints, promised, and perhaps her mere presence says a lot about the legacy of a duo of comic journalists, or comic journalists, who for two decades invented another way of telling reality.
We will not break the magic of television, let’s hope, considering that the special program Gomaespuma, the reunion that Movistar Plus premieres this Tuesday, was recorded a few weeks ago in a packed theater in Madrid. Hence, we know about the vice president, but also that the review of the career of the two Madrid radio geniuses is like a trip to the past, yes, but it does not lose one iota of relevance. Sometimes, unfortunately.
Gomaespuma traveled through different stations over 22 years, he also made his first steps on television but always leaned towards the airwaves. It has been 17 years since Juan Luis Cano and Guillermo Fesser said goodbye to their daily program, although they have never lost contact and continue working together on their foundation, focused on the education of children with fewer resources, the best legacy left to them by two decades of pursuit of the news to the very front of the battle. Always with a smile on his mouth.
“Everything we have done since we met, when we were teenagers, has been spontaneous, including the comedy show and the foundation,” says Fesser, “when we started taking Gomaespuma around the world we traveled to Calcutta, to the Sahara, to Cuba , to the war in Bosnia, to Kosovo, and there we tried to help as much as we could, until the opportunity arose to have a permanent project. The Gomaespuma Foundation bears his name, but the objective is for it to transcend its creators. Of course, without growing too much: “We want to remain small so we can continue controlling what happens.”
We couldn’t name an heir, we didn’t even have substitutes on summer vacations
De Fesser and Cano are surprised by their seriousness. They are frankly angry with how they see things, in politics and on the street. And how does the street see them, now that they have spent more than three decades away from the front line? “We are anonymous celebrities,” says Cano, “like: it sounds familiar, but I don’t know what.” And how is that handled? “The day after leaving the radio, you disappear,” he responds, “the good thing is that since neither of us have based our lives on fame, nor on parties, nor on being on TV, that disappearance did not influence us too much.” Our day to day”.
The Gomaespuma say that we are all very nervous because we don’t listen to each other, and coming from two portraitists of reality and masters of audio, to make matters worse, we will have to pay attention to them. “We are in the insult for the sake of the insult and that is a very serious social and political error that will be paid for,” says Cano, who points out some very clear culprits: “We have possibly the worst generation of politicians in the democratic history of Spain.”
For him, the financial crisis of 2008 changed the game board and from that dust to this mud. “We live in a time of great anxieties,” agrees Fesser, “I was sold a wonderful future and children are told today that the planet is going to end, that artificial intelligence is going to end jobs… People are nervous about her future and values ??security more than rights. And that’s where the Trumps come in…”
He, who has been living in the United States for 20 years, knows well what the game is about. Also Cano, who tried the honeys of municipal politics in Torrelodones and came away scalded: “I was absolutely disappointed,” he confirms, “but we have to continue doing things, politics does not disappoint, it disappoints those who enter there without seeking more benefit than the his own.” Don’t worry, everyone, Gomaespuma’s present pessimism is hope for the future: “Generation Z is the most compassionate and understanding in history. 99% of them are infinitely better than us.”
Generation Z is the most compassionate and understanding in history. 99% of them are infinitely better than us
But let’s leave the outside world aside and focus on what has brought us here: Gomaespuma’s reunion. Would there be room in the current media landscape for a real return, not just for Christmas? “Of course, what there isn’t is a Foam Rubber,” says Guillermo Fesser, “I would have to have my head in Spain, and from the US my neck would hurt a lot. Besides, a daily program entails a lot of responsibility. I remember that I had a brother-in-law very smart man who said: ‘Damn, how lucky you are that you only work three hours!’ Even while sleeping I was thinking about tomorrow’s contents, what was I going to ask the guest… A million people are going to hear what “I mean, that’s a lot of work. At 63 years old I don’t have the same energy anymore.” And Cano nods to each phrase from the seat next to him.
And do the Foam Rubbers see any worthy heir? “Ah, that’s very personal,” they practically step on one another when speaking, but Cano takes the lead: “In our programs we didn’t even have substitutes in the summer. When we went on vacation the program was over and that’s it,” he remembers, ” our humor is very personal.” And speaking of humor, the last three decades have seen a substantial change in sensibilities and a debate that, on occasions, has ended in cancellation. If you were to go back in time, the comedy duo could perfectly see themselves being cancelled.
“Or I would have already censored myself,” alleges Fesser, “when I went to school the ones that were most funny to us were the racist jokes, and now they make me ashamed of others. We have evolved with society and we have always had a special social sensitivity, but Gomaespuma will always remain irreverent, because humor without irreverence is not humor. What cannot be is that now we go out and tell things about bears, the irony cannot be lost.”
Humor is, for them, like “snacking”, a vehicle that connects people, that puts them on the same wavelength to reach places where seriousness does not even allow them to get close, “but with common sense.” “The problem with mediocre people is that they believe that humor is a frivolous thing,” says Cano, “and used well it is not frivolous at all.” And he says, as if to himself, just before the recorder goes off: “He who is afraid of humor is mediocre.”
