Oasis

I had always felt a curious empathy for this artistic genre that had almost completely disappeared in its genuine form and that was the Revue theatre The direct communication of the comedians with the spectators, the erotic content of the vedettes, the glories of the Paralelo that I had the privilege and pleasure of seeing live, Johnson and Escamillo in that famous Molino managed by Mrs Fernanda. I was a regular customer and greatly enjoyed entering that place where what happened in the stalls and in the stalls was as alive as the show.

I heard that in Saragossa there was a similar place, the Oasis. I went there knowing that it was useless to return to the mountains to feel the caresses of the first rays of sunlight, because my mind was still and for a while imprisoned in nostalgia. I introduced myself to Mr Celestino, the businessman of the Oasis. I did not present him with any credit for my incipient itinerary in the performing arts, but rather the opposite, that since I was young and had no work, I would not mind joining the company as an apprentice comedian and that if I served, with time, he would see. I remember the night in Don Celestino’s office when he told me “kneel down, I’m going to baptize you”, he placed his hand on my forehead and told me “from now on you will be called Cachito”.

I spent several months working at the Oasis as the “back” of Carbonilla, a comedian who, according to what he said, was born in a carriage of traveling carnies. I learned a lot in that theater. In my dressing room I put a huge poster that Escamillo had given me as a gift, as well as one of his famous capes, the great Escamillo, comedian of the Molino.

That was the perfect moment, to be working in a lumpen theater in a neighborhood of prostitutes and whose programming of course did not deserve any attention from the privileged cultural establishments. What a fresh sap, when I saw a bottle of soft drinks bouncing on the stage accompanied by jocular obscene phrases! How good it was that in Spain there were still some licentious and worldly Bacchic temples with the pagan joy and vitality typical of people who were basically quite good and innocent.

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PRESS

Pipirijaina. Albert Vidal “Cachito” por unos meses. Francisco Ortega. No.21.3/82

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