He’s one of those guys who always has a joke on hand to pull at the right moment and provoke laughter. He started working in 1994 under the guidance of Marcelo Tinelli and today he continues under his wing, with a career that led him to make films, radio, television and, above all, humor. Unlike what happened to many, Jose Maria Listorti He did not reduce his work due to the quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic. Quite the opposite. She drives Must see by elnueve, from Monday to Friday, and he also does daily radio on Pop, with So late. And on Saturday, August 29, at 10 p.m., he will do a comedy show, for streaming, together with Fredy Villarreal and Sebastián Almada, Laugh. “I didn’t have time to look at old photos, or to check cabinets, or to get bored for a second. In a pandemic I did everything: TV, radio, streaming and even a movie with Alexis Puig, Sighting, which we record with cell phones, each one at home “, Listorti explained to THE NATION.
–Laugh it’s a strange name for a show, what does it mean?
-It means laughter, it is Indonesian and it is the intention of the show. We always get together with Sebastián (Almada) and Fredy (Villarreal) to work and at the time Pedro (Alfonso) was also there. We had a lot of sketches and when the possibility of doing streaming, We dust them off, we modify them a bit, we rehearse them by Zoom and sometimes in person and we already have it armed. The show is very funny, with sketches in different areas, with music. We have a lot of fun rehearsing it and we know people are going to have a good time, in the comfort of their home. And they will always be in the front row! We will be live, in a theater, with protocol, and we will also make humor with that.
-After so many years of working together, all the gestures must be known, does it facilitate the work or complicate it?
-It makes it easy, of course. I’ve known Fredy long before he was in the media. In ’92 we studied voice over at Cosal and we received each other together. Then we started working on radio and then on Videomatch and ShowMatch. We know our families, we are in good times and bad. We know each other by heart, we know which joke is going to be funny and which is not, I already met Sebas a little later, but also a lot of years ago. In Videomatch We took trips, we shared a room with Fredy many times and for several weeks too, we had lunch, dinner and spent 24 hours a day together. We don’t just see each other at work. So when they tell me that this medium is difficult, I take it with a grain of salt because I made many friends. The complicated ones are the four or five that appear on television shows. We are very happy with Laugh and it seems to me that streaming it is a resource that came to stay and that can coexist with cinema and theater. It is one more option.
-In recent years there has been a change in the type of humor that is made. Many times you said, for example, that you could not make the humor of today Videomach and its hidden cameras. Did it cost you to adapt?
-The world changed and I’m not ashamed because I put myself in the context, but sometimes I think: “On Wednesday, look what we were saying!” It happens to me also watching movies naive by Alberto Olmedo and Jorge Porcel or by Juan Carlos Calabró and Minguito and I can’t believe the jokes they made or how they looked at the women’s tails. However, it was normal. At some point I am ashamed to see the humor that we made, but I was embarrassed at the time too. It made me very uncomfortable because that was the objective of the hidden camera: to make people uncomfortable and in that discomfort, you laughed. There are many ways to be uncomfortable and the one that amused me the most was the embarrassment of others, for example, when I was doing a poem or dancing stupidly. That was very funny to me. Then one more discomfort heavy it was being naked in front of others or breaking a car. Although the humor changed and there are no more homophobic jokes or violence or objectification to women, I think that today we could not break a person’s car. It would be an ugly example, no matter how much later we paid for the car at a higher value and gave her a television. The change in mood was very abrupt, from one day to the next, at least that’s how I felt. It was difficult for me to adapt because I love black humor and I always walk on the ledge. I know who I can joke with and who I can’t, who I can screw with sickness issues and who I can’t. Obviously on TV or radio I wouldn’t do it crazy. We have to adapt to this change and we are succeeding. There are generations that demand a change from us and that is fine but we also have to ask them to be patient with us because we come from years of talking one way and you can skid from time to time. And even more so when you are exposed for so long on social networks, TV, radio and you can put a comma wrong or have an unfortunate comment. I can be wrong and confused, but I try to build myself and learn every day how to approach the issues. I try not to make the mistakes I have already made when addressing health issues, gender violence. I go through it and learn.
-A few months ago there was talk of return of ShowMatch, what happened?
-We had meetings with Marcelo [Tinelli] and we even almost had the contract signed, by word of mouth, and the financial issue was also settled. Everything was fine to begin with but it was not possible due to the actor’s protocol, which was never approved to work. That is why the idea of making the Singing 2020, because there is no physical contact.
-You must be one of the few people who does not undergo quarantine and, in addition, you added work, any secret?
-It’s true, I never stopped working. The truth is that I did not suffer it. What’s more, I was even a little envious when I heard my friends say that they had been in bed or watching television all day. I didn’t stop for a second. Add that I opened TikTok and Instagram because I don’t want to stay out of the new trends; part of this job is updating you to stay. And that generates a job because it is like an addiction. On the other hand, a commercial part of Instagram was activated and brands ask you to make a fun video of a product and it is another job. It is a blessing to have so much work and at the same time it is still a risk because by going out, you expose yourself. I live with my wife, Monica, and my children Franco (10) and Bruno (6), and my mother lives six blocks from home. The first weeks of the quarantine I did not see her, but then I began to enter her house with a mask because it is not easy to be alone so many months for a large person. Sometimes she called me crying and that scared me, it worried me, it hurt. At one point you have to start balancing between physical and mental health.
-You say you don’t want to be out of date, is it easy for you to transform yourself to stay current?
-I try. If you asked me years ago if I was going to host a show program, I would have said no, that I do humor. And I started to do This is the show, that first I had a lot of humor, and when I wanted to remember I was doing a debate on abortion, gender violence … It is like that, you are opening doors and reinventing yourself, and I like driving too. This is the show took me to drive Singing for a Dream, Saturday show, Sing if you can.
– Was it Tinelli who suggested this new path?
-The truth is that I don’t remember, 13 years have passed! I remember that, suddenly, I was already driving. I have daily contact with Chato Prada and Federico Hoppe, who were the ones who called me to do This is the show.
– And with Marcelo you talk?
-Yes, but not daily. I don’t bother him at all. I know that if you send him a message, he’ll answer you right away. I call him for very specific things or send him a message such as when he separated from Guillermina (Valdes) to find out how he was or for his birthday. If I look at the history of WhatsApp with Marcelo, the last conversation will have been a month and a half ago. We are not doing radio or television together either and fucking for fucking it, to cholulear, it doesn’t give me. It seems to me that this is one of the secrets why I get along so well with him, after so long. I am everything that people think I am not. They will surely believe that I am a pantyhose and nothing to see, nor do I bother him. I don’t ask him anything to get information either.
-How did you experience the fight between Denise Dumas and Marcela Coronel being friends with both?
–It hurt a lot and that’s why I didn’t want to speak at the time. My head ached from stress, from nerves, from anger because it was a misunderstanding of two good people. It did not enter my head how such a mess took place when neither of them wanted to hurt the other. What happened? If they love each other and we have known each other for years and there was not a stupidity. Nothing was happening! Perhaps it also has to do with the quarantine effect, we are all very susceptible, very sensitive and one was on the floor and another was streaming, with delay. In another context, nothing would have happened. Maybe the tone wasn’t right, but it wasn’t Denise’s intention either. It hurt a lot and I would have liked Marcela to stay, but unfortunately she didn’t want to. I spoke with both of them, everything is fine.
-Who is your preferred panelist from Must see?
-If I had, I would never tell you, but I do have favorite panelists on the subject. If I have to talk about “Dancing …” I know that the one that is going to pilot it the most is such, and if I talk about gender violence such another, and current affairs, another. It is not preference but support. I also know who I can fuck with and who I can’t.
-Do you never have a bad mood?
-Ugh … yes. I have bad mood days. Something very strange happens to me and it is that I can be in a bad mood, but when I am on the air, it passes me. When I work, I forget everything.
– And when the camera is turned off the bad humor returns to you?
-It depends. If it went badly, it comes back and if it went well, it lifts my spirits.
-Are you pending the rating?
-Yes of course. I am not obsessed and I do not follow it as if it were life or death, but it interests me because it is part of my job. It’s like I own a shoe store and I don’t care how many pairs I sold. I have to know because if I sold few, I may have to change the window or buy another type of shoes. It’s the same here, to find out what we screwed up or what interested people.
-At this point, the actors would be thinking what they are going to do in the summer season. Do you have any plans?
-I think the best thing is to do the iron. Hopefully we can continue with Must see one more year. The other day I was talking to the guys from Dabope (producer of Prada, Hoppe and Ezequiel Corbo) and they don’t know what to do because at this time of year they would have to be renting houses for the cast, starting to produce the play, hiring people, writing a script. What if in January there is a regrowth and people return to a strict quarantine and you have already invested in advertising, scenery and houses? You melt. They do not know what to do. That must happen to all producers. When I go out into the street and see the boys with chinstraps, I can’t believe it. My son Bruno missed first grade because I don’t think classes will return. Franco pilots it more because she is in 5th grade and plays play with her friends. It is another reality, but they get along well with each other, have fun, fight and play again.
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