Charo López, Quintín Palma, Rada: the new generation that makes us laugh

Since the beginning of the new millennium, in Buenos Aires, a new litter of comedians has appeared with force, and with them the stand up has been consolidating little by little. Literally, the genre refers to the standing artist and has its own rules. To begin with, they are, in general, comic monologues directed directly at the present audience, so the actor usually maintains a kind of interaction with the public. Without too much scenery, even generally null, the texts of the stand up are written from reflections and concerns of the comedian himself that are based on his story. They are direct and do not play a character. The first considered "standapero" in history was Lenny Bruce, who had his heyday in the 50's.

In Buenos Aires, pioneering names such as Dalia Gutmann, Diego Reinhold, Peto Menahem, Sebastián Wainraich, Malena Pichot, Sebastián Presta, Pablo Fábregas, Martín Pugliese, Ezequiel Campa, Fernando Sanjiao, to name just a few, ended up giving strength to a genre which is in one of its best moments.

However, the genre diversified, expanded and, without realizing it, gradually merged with social networks, which were growing by leaps and bounds as the first years of the new millennium passed. One that, without a doubt, would be signed by the internet. Was there life before her? Then the comedians could dare to show what was theirs first for the few who followed them and then add up through a novel word of mouth, an immeasurable network capable of crossing borders with a click. Democratic, at least in appearance, because yes, everyone could show themselves here.

If the first standaperos in Buenos Aires were marked by those basements, with late hours, very alternative, and they grew strongly to consolidate themselves in large theaters, this new generation found its place in social networks. First with some tweeting interventions, funny, with auction. Later, they made their own videos, which were uploaded to YouTube, and finally Instagram arrived, which measures followers with the precision of the old rating, which became obsolete with this viral outbreak. It is that yes, many of the new comedians "rose to fame" after some video made by themselves, which went viral, which was sent from one device to another with a speed that could not be foreseen. Santiago Korovsky, with his testimonial video of the burning of drugs, launched the phrase “isn't it going to be possible to prove any of this to know if it is a real drug?”, which became instantly popular. Or the video of Guille Aquino with his "future self" that comes to tell him how everything will be. Awful. Sure. But forceful, effective and, in just two minutes, exposes the harsh reality to come.

Virtually everyone who makes up this new comic wave confesses to being devoted to the North American sitcoms that were a boom in the 90s. A milestone that marked a generation with the Sony channel at the helm. But also Capusotto and Todo por dos pesos, Cha Cha Cha and those new and disruptive comedy shows opened a door that seemed closed.

Now they have also expanded to podcasts. The topics addressed by all of them are varied, but there is a constant self-confidence and an abandonment of any type of solemnity. Perhaps marked by the cynicism of CQC, many of them rebuke, question and touch on disturbing issues such as the installed and abusive patriarchy, new forms of love, family, mandates, women in the workplace, motherhood, politics. . With an often absurd and sharp look they make us uncomfortable. But they're funny.

Here, a tour of some representatives of this new generation that is going strong.

1. Santiago Korovsky

Although humor accompanies Santiago Korovsky in his creations, it is not exclusive. The actor born in Buenos Aires studied Communication Sciences, was a payamédico, is a screenwriter, has his own YouTube channel and accumulates almost 100,000 followers on Instagram. On those platforms he uploads videos starring, written and produced by himself, which became his hallmark. In them, he works with different audiovisual genres and the absurd prevails, which allows him to laugh first at himself and then at all of reality. In 2018 he accompanied Patricia Bullrich to the drug burning in Ezeiza and the video went viral. But he also played fictional characters. This year, he made a remarkable tandem with Nancy Dupláa in the Netflix series El Reino; before, he was Sebastián Wainraich's alter ego in Casi feliz. He participated in films such as My Masterpiece and All Inclusive, in addition to several commercials.

2. Adrian Lakerman

“My references in humor are very varied and different. Much has to do with Dolina, Seinfeld and Larry David, and all the American sitcoms that I saw in my adolescence on the screen of Sony Entertainment Television. Added to my consumption of films by Olmedo and Porcel, which I saw all of them, and those by Francella and Emilio Disi as well. And everyone Gasalla, which I consumed a lot as a child. It would be a mix of all that plus a bit of Woody Allen. And Pedro Saborido in its entirety, from his work in Todo por dos pesos, Peter Capusotto and his videos, to his literature. Pedro is who I want to be,” says Adrián Lakerman, who still has a hard time feeling like a comedian. But because of his work as a writer, he does fit the definition of a comedian. Indispensable podcaster, he hosts Comedy, where he conducts in-depth interviews with humor references. "It's the way I discovered to continue researching humor because I couldn't find specific Argentine bibliography on the subject," he explains. He is also part of the staff of A wonderful world, along with Martín Garabal, Charo López and Alexis Moyano.

3. Charo Lopez

María Carolina López Schmalenberger, known as Charo López, is also part of the staff of A Wonderful World and participated in Cualca and For Now together with Malena Pichot, Julián Kartun, Julián Lucero and Julián Doregger. “I try to make disruptive humor, it is what interests me the most and what makes me laugh. Assemble climates and let there be doubt. Go through the body and the word what annoys me, what I don't understand. I make humor to decipher the environment”, explains Charo about his particular way of making people laugh. Feminist, tireless fighter for women's rights – "the whole world seems like a masculine space to me, we can't be distracted even for a day", she maintains –, she is also an improvisation teacher, and on her Instagram account she defines herself as an Argentine comedian, In addition to uploading videos full of humor, absurd advice and all its productions and activities, varied, but always with humor as the guiding line to question or distort all social behavior.

4. Tomas Quintin Palma

"The other day I posted a bio on Instagram that I am a waste of other people's ideas," assures this artist who is restless about his ideas, about his curiosities and about going back and forth between his native Rosario and Buenos Aires. “I live surrounded by people who excite me, feed me, and I am constantly receiving data, writing things down. Then I pass them through me as if it were a blender of references and I end up spitting out a glass with a liquid that is sometimes funny, other times not, and can be both tender and bewildering”, he continues to define himself, although he adds that stuttering, coming from a family of clowns and his Rosario origin distinguish him in an infinite city.

Todo por dos pesos was the program that made him understand that there was a language similar to that of his family out there and he went to look for it. He is part of the program De mil humores (Channel 9, Sundays at 11 p.m.), hosted by Claudio Villarruel, and is one of the stars of Checho y Batista, el taller (Public TV, from Tuesday to Friday at 12:40 a.m.), together with Miss Bimbo and a great cast. In addition, this year he interviewed Alberto Fernández in the fifth presidential election.

5. Agustin “Rada” Aristarán

When Rada was 6 years old he asked for a Duravit truck for Christmas. did not arrive In his place appeared a box of magic that would change his life forever. From that moment, Augustine became the magician Radagast. Then the road continued and he discovered that he also liked music, stand-up, humor and exposing himself on social networks together with his daughter Bianca in everyday situations. And so the artist he is today was forged.

In 2018, with the special Agustín Aristarán: soy Rada, broadcast on Netflix, it achieved worldwide popularity, as the material was seen in 190 countries. In 2021, his second material, Soy Rada: Serendipia, was released on the same platform, a show that could be enjoyed at the Metropolitan for years.

“I define my comedy as absurd; it is a white humour, closely linked to the anecdote and not to observation. It's also quite eclectic because I mix body comedy, physical comedy, word comedy, mixing magic, music and other arts within comedy”.

A native of Bahía Blanca, Rada still remembers when he and his brother watched television and fantasized about one day being part of that world. "I don't have a clear reference, but rather inspirations, but if there is something that changed me a lot it was Cha Cha Cha, in the 90's".

6. Natalia Carulias

Natalia Carulias has the title of being the first female standapera from Argentina. And, despite the fact that her name is an indispensable reference in this genre, she is still synonymous with new comedy because, together with Malena Guinzburg, Fernanda Metilli and Connie Ballarini, she shaped Las Chicas de la Culpa, a humorous show that fills the room of the Metropolitan Sura at the same time that it broadcasts via streaming (both tickets are taken out by Plateanet), and that abandons personalism to concentrate on the group and collective.

“The first time I got up on stage was in 1998 at the Bululú theater making humor with my scripts, and I never got off again,” says Carulias, who two years later was summoned by the first stand-up group in Argentina with Alejandro Angelini, Hugo Fili, Diego Wainstein and Martin Rocco. “They were looking for a woman and Rocco recommended me saying that there was a girl who was doing it without realizing it. It was a bit like that."

Right now, she's enjoying success because what's happening with The Guilt Girls is unbelievable. "One of the keys has to do with showing a whole feminine world: we talk about many things about us that, in another era, perhaps we didn't even dare to talk to our friends."

7. Malena Guinzburg

Few surnames in Argentina launch as directly into humor when heard as Guinzburg. And, almost like a legacy, Malena is one of the most important comedians today. Las Chicas de la Culpa allows her to develop what she is most interested in: improvisation, throwing herself into the void of the scene without a specific script because every week is a different show. “We all play as a team, we are a block and we know that if the other one shines, we all shine”.

Although his first appearance on television was at the age of 12 in Peor es nada, the program that his father hosted with Horacio Fontova, when he finished high school he dedicated himself to studying theater production and, only in 2010, did he begin acting in theater. From then on she devotes herself entirely to comedy.

“Humor is part of my life since I was born. Obviously my old man gave me that. The humor was there, it's like a language. And it served me as a defense weapon in many situations. In a note I once said that “humor saves” and I am more and more convinced of that”.

8. Connie Ballarini

Comedian, actress, podcaster, youtuber, instagrammer, pleasure ambassador, tinderwoman. And some more things describe the profile of this artist on her own website. And yes, in addition to teaming up with the work that she makes up with her colleagues, she has her own solo show, her podcast with Malena Guinzburg, Spam, which can be heard on Spotify. She made her own way through social media. She first began posting material to her Twitter account in 2010; in 2013 she followed her on Instagram and from then on, she started participating in comedy central shows and going on tour with her stand up texts.

“My comedy is clearly a sample of what I am: it's honest, organic, I like to expose myself, ridicule myself, touch on those topics that people tend to avoid; it amuses me to go deep. I like to be on the edge and stay there watching what happens to me and what happens to people”, explains Ballarini.

9. Fernanda Metilli

“I could play “look at myself from the outside” and say that what differentiates me from the rest is using the body and gestures in favor of the joke”, says Fernanda Metilli, a comedian on television, on the radio, on social networks, but, above all, , in theater, with this year's successful show, with his three castmates, of tour and life.

“One of the reasons why our show is a success is precisely because we are all very different from each other. Each one has its style, which was born doing stand up, among other disciplines of humor that each one did. And on stage we build humor together. Like a soccer game. Equal. We passed the ball and scored goals”.

She came to humor by chance because when she was 14 years old at a party, she and her friends were uncomfortable because of a cute boy older than them, she made a joke, made them laugh and, since then, she couldn't stop. Then she came across a Natalia Carulias show that “blew my mind with deep admiration. And it still happens to me when we share the stage”.

10. William Aquinas

Not resisting an archive is, in a way, not resisting the implacable eye of Guille Aquino. It is that this comedian began many years ago. He always studied theater; From a very young age he spent his time drawing comics and even a teacher predicted a future for him as a great comedy writer. At the time he had no idea what it was. But at the age of 16 he wrote a sitcom and took it to Sebastián Presta – “he was the only producer I knew who worked on TV”, he confessed a few years ago. Presta read his scripts, he liked them, but everything was there. Waiting for the perfect moment. Ten years later, it was 2009 and Presta called him to work on television. In between, he worked everything: in a call center, he was a flyer, he did alternative radio, and a lot of off-air theater. Sebastián Presta summoned him to work as a screenwriter for Duro de tame and he didn't stop anymore.

TVR, Tough to tame, Imperial ant, TV overdose. Videos of him appeared in them, which they began to like. Until in 2018 came his boom, his hit, The call of the future. That viral video, in which Aquino himself from the dystopian future came to tell him with great pessimism about the horror that would come, led him to have almost a million followers. And so Guille Aquino became known and his work Antisocial began to fill all the functions.