José Enrique Pérez, better known as Kike Pérez (38 years old), dreamed since he was a child of making people laugh for a living. He was born in Arrecife in the mid-eighties and it was in Lanzarote where he was given the impulse to dedicate his life to comedy. Now, at the most beautiful moment of his career, he returns to his hometown as the herald of the carnivals of the capital of Conejero.
"I always felt like a prophet in my land, I always boast that when nobody knew me, when I didn't even trust myself, I have the fortune and the joy that in Lanzarote they pushed me up", Kike Pérez explains to La Voz.
Precisely on the island of volcanoes he took his first steps in the world of entertainment and received the first compliments. Pérez, who does not miss the opportunity to crack a joke, recalls his beginnings: "Some crazy people around here told me that suddenly this [humor] is your thing. I don't know the level of unconsciousness of the people", he recalls.
"I dreamed of making many people feel one day what we are achieving now. That momentary collective happiness that we now have in the shows", narrates the Arrecife native about his childhood desires. Thus, he recalls that even then he liked to be "the funny one in the class and the center of attention".
Although his passion for comedy haunted him since he was a child, pushed by the canons of the educational system, the comedian put his love for humor on the back burner for a few years. Kike Pérez, who was born into a humble family in Lanzarote, embarked on a more common profession and became a Physical Education teacher. "Everything is covered up and everyone said that I should look for a normal job", he recalls about his beginnings.
From his work as a teacher, which he left to dedicate himself to the world of entertainment, he has fond memories. "It has also helped me a lot and well, having studied the degree has given me positive things. I even think that in my shows there is also a point of teaching", he reflects.
In this line, he assures that he did not imagine a life like the one he has now, but that he did dream of living from this many times. "If I imagined everything that is happening now, you would surely call me crazy, cocky or arrogant, but it is true that you dream and that over the years, they have been concretized in very, very beautiful things", he testifies.
Humor in a polarized world
Now as a consolidated humorist and reference of comedy in the Canary Islands, Kike Pérez uses his shows as small pills of humor that he gives to the attendees. "This year polarization has been declared as the word of the year and in a world where cancellation, discussion, crisis is so hot, we, or at least I feel that way, continue to be a small redoubt of tranquility", he adds.
The comedian describes the ability to use humor in the face of anger as a weapon in his favor. "So that in the struggle of people who are angry with each other, we have the luck to laugh together for a while", he assures. On the way to bringing momentary happiness to his audience, the Conejero native is clear that "there are limits in humor" and defends that when making jokes about something you have to take into account "what can be told, where and in what way".
"The key is to try to tell things from the point of view from the bottom up and also see the context. Depending on where you are, things can be told or not", says the humorist Kike Pérez.
For the Lanzarote native "being a comedian and humorist does not mean being unconscious. I try to be aware of the context in which I operate and my jokes vary from the blackest jokes to the whitest jokes, depending on the audience I am addressing".
Currently, he combines his shows as a humorist with advertising campaigns, television programs, cameos in the cinema and his first steps in the world of theater. Thus, at the beginning of this year he presented his first musical theater production, Negras. This musical work narrates the situations that affected black people between the 20th and 21st centuries through songs that marked each decade.
"I believed that racism, feminism and all the issues that Negra addresses had not been addressed from the Afro-American point of view. So I tried to fantasize that from here we could also do things that allow us to go further", he says about this work.
The last three years of his life have been the happiest for Kike Pérez. "I have had a lot of happy moments, but I'll stick with the last three years. - Wait a moment, I'm going to sneeze, write this in parentheses [achís]- We are doing a very crazy thing which is to fill a complete pavilion of 3,000 and something people and it is the closest thing to what we were talking about before the dream".
"A thousand beautiful things have happened to me, but I think that reaching that idealization of the dream, which was to be able to have thousands of people going to see you and filling a stadium, was a bit like my dream", he relates.
In addition, the Arrecife City Council, his hometown, has counted on him to give the opening speech to the carnivals of his town. "I feel a tremendous honor with pride in being from Arrecife, because one always likes to be recognized and remembered at home. As a carnival-goer and enjoyer of the Arrecife carnivals, it will be an honor and a joy to be there", says Pérez.
In this line, the humorist sends a message to the children who, like him, want to fulfill an unusual dream. "Don't stay in the dream, try it, test yourselves, train yourselves and see a lot of what you want to do. I think that's key", he advises.
Kike Pérez grew up watching Javier Cansado and Manolo Viera, who were people who had already fulfilled the dream he wanted to fulfill. At this point, he highlights the importance of managing frustration and having patience. "I think that nowadays we live in a society in which everything goes very fast and it seems that things are achieved quickly and no dream is achieved quickly"
About the 'Me too' in Canarian cinema
Earlier this week, actress Koset Quintana accused Canarian filmmaker Armando Ravelo of sexually harassing her and offering her alcohol and drugs when she was a minor. Her story was joined by that of other actresses and actors who have worked with the film director in recent years.
The public complaint led Ravelo to announce his departure from cinema. Kike Pérez acted in Armando Ravelo's latest film, Once upon a time in the Canary Islands (2023). "I receive it with the sadness of having met a person and having worked with her, with whom I had a cordial working relationship, normal and ordinary, and discovering the horrible backstages is always a sadness because [they] are colleagues, they are friends, they are people who have suffered this type of horrible things that should not happen to anyone", he adds.
"It is a terrible disappointment and a sadness that breaks my soul, especially for that, because you know a person in one area and then you discover that in other areas it is much darker and deserves the repudiation of everyone", reveals Kike Pérez.
To conclude, he highlights that "I have no choice but to feel sadness for him and give all the support in the world to all the colleagues who have suffered some type of harassment or some type of abuse of this type and I already tell you that I am here to listen and support that this does not happen again".