The comedian from Gran Canaria, Jorge Bolaños, has become a difficult-to-explain phenomenon that triumphs in countries such as Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, where tickets for his shows sell out in each and every one of his scheduled performances. He is one of the five Made in Canarias artists on the poster for the second edition of the Reíslas Humor Festival, which will tour the islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Graciosa, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and La Palma in September, bringing together more than fifteen renowned Spanish comedians.
Bolaños will present his show entitled Perreando on September 7th, at 8:30 p.m., at the Municipal Theater of San Bartolomé de Lanzarote, and then repeat the performance on the 22nd of the same month at the Adeje Auditorium, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets for the different theaters and auditoriums of the Reíslas Humor Festival are already on sale on the web.
The comedian is part of the Canarian quota proposed by the festival promoted by Etiqueta Negra Producciones, ¿Cómo Está Wally?, Producciones & Management, Ninona Producciones, and Estudios Multitrack, which also includes the names of Omayra Cazorla, Kike Pérez, Pilar Batista, and Darío López.
After the success of his previous show, Ate-risa como puedas, Jorge Bolaños dares in Perreando with a version of his way of understanding comedy that is even more rogue and irreverent, in which he is accompanied by his inseparable dog Risa, with whom he shares fame on social networks and has earned a legion of unconditional fans. "It doesn't happen in every job that you walk down the street and people smile at you when they recognize you because they know what you do."
"The Jorge of 2015, when he moved to London to work as a props man for Chelsea, no less, while studying Acting, never imagined that today he would be fully living from the profession he dreamed of so much, and much less that he would share a poster with such great and popular artists from the humor scene in this country," says Bolaños. On the commutes from work to home and from home to work, he was so bored that he began to refine the imitations with which he entertained himself of celebrities such as Rajoy, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from The Simpsons, or Shakira. When he had thirty polished ones, he wondered what he could do with them and decided to write a monologue. That's where it all started. "What I wanted day after day was to return to the Canary Islands and enter monologue contests to test if I was good at making people laugh," he recalls, "without a doubt, it was one of the most important decisions I have made in my life."
Every 30 seconds
He confesses that he is "a fairly calm person, although it may not seem like it in the videos. Let's say I transform on stage. In short distances, I'm not the one who tells the jokes, I prefer to be the one who listens," admits Bolaños, who is inspired "by everything that is said to me and also by someone very important to me, my dog Risa. In the end, by observing her, I develop gags and many ideas come to me for my videos and shows. It is important that every thirty seconds the script of a show includes a gag for the audience to laugh. Humor is something very subjective. To this day, I don't deal with black humor in my shows and it's not planned, although you never know how everything will evolve."
His activity on social networks is fundamental for this Canarian comedian who admires the style of other artists such as Goyo Jiménez, Dani Rovira, Ignatius Farray and, of course, the great Manolo Vieira. During the time of forced quarantine due to Covid, he realized that the monologues he uploaded to the networks gained prominence and that many more people joined his profiles. "I take care of the creation and editing of content myself, although I gather many ideas and inspiration from the people around me, as well as from what my followers tell me. Although we don't like it, we have to take into account the 'likes' because it offers you information about what your audience wants. Without social networks, no one would know me. I, for example, use them to publicize especially the events that I am going to do, because I like it more that people come to the theater, which is where I show myself 100%. You have to use social networks if you want people to come and see you in theaters."
In any case, he is clear that "what is truly irreplaceable is the warmth of the people and that instantaneous 'feedback' that the networks don't give you. What I enjoy is feeling and seeing people laugh a few meters from me."
In Perreando, his dog Risa, whom he adopted a few years ago, is once again close to Bolaños, who changed the life of this comedian who had never had a pet before. "With Risa, there is a before and after. Now I wouldn't know how to explain what it means to live without her complicity. I have always said it: here Risa is the undisputed star, I am just the human who accompanies her. Risa is the backbone of this show. I hope that people feel that real connection from my experiences. Everyone has felt connected in my show with daily things that happen to one with a pet," he continues.
"In Perreando, for just over an hour, I have no other objective than to make people laugh so that the audience has a pleasant time and forgets about all the daily problems of everyday life. I talk to the audience, but it is not the main purpose. I think it works better for me in small doses." And that connection is what hundreds and hundreds of people have experienced and expressed in the different reviews that circulate on the networks about Jorge Bolaños' show.
The comedian from Gran Canaria believes that we are currently living in a golden age for comedy in the Canary Islands. "A few years ago, there was only Manolo Vieira. Now there is so much to choose from that it is sometimes difficult for the public to select a show," concludes Bolaños.
