Interview a Paco Tous, Pepe Díaz Quero and Antonio Balderas
We know him for the comically clumsy protagonist of the famous television series Los Hombres de Paco, but the truth is that Paco Tous has been doing theater for 30 years with his company, Los Ulen, along with his partner Pepe Díaz Quero. Last weekend, this skull duo stopped in Saragossa to present their latest creation, Dos Idiotas, at the Teatro del Mercado; a compilation of the best comedy acts from these three decades of bowling combined with some new ones. El Sauce was the hotel they chose to stay, giving us the opportunity to chat with them about their 30 years of professional marriage over a Gin and Tonic from Mi HABITACIÓN favorita.
The only thing we idiots are good for is to make people laugh
Thirty years doing theater, but everyone remembers you for Los Hombres de Paco.
PACO: Paco’s Men was the first national series I did and it was a good school to start doing television and film. It was almost a training session, since we recorded from Monday to Friday. And I have to clarify that the character’s name has nothing to do with my name. I went to a casting and the name of the protagonist was already assigned.
Explain to us the title of your new work: Two Idiots.
PACO: Well you just have to look at this one and me in the face and the title is clear. We looked at ourselves one day in the mirror and said, “Look! “Two idiots!” That’s where the inspiration came from.
PEPE: We recover clown numbers, old clown numbers, in a new work that also includes some new numbers. The story is about two men who are looking for work but can’t find it because the only thing they are good for is being idiots. And that doesn’t make money.
Have you thought that perhaps you undermine the morale of some unemployed spectators, with that title?
PACO: The problem with our characters is that they look for work where they shouldn’t, and when they give us tests we always screw up. They give him a job as a cook and he puts shit all over the table. Then they give us a job as chess teachers and we transform the pieces into wine. If this happens to someone in the audience, they will have to be made to look at it.
PEPE: The conclusion is a metaphor: the only thing the clown knows how to do is be an idiot, with poetry and dignity and with a moderate coherence. The only thing we are good for is to make people laugh and to poke a little bit into the sore spot; so that people leave the show thinking: “And these two idiots, why do they make me laugh and if I am stopped, indignant, fed up with my life, and yet, they admit their failure, recognizing that they only serve to be on the stage? Ultimately it is a self-tribute to the desperate people who have never taken us into account, but always look for us when they seek relief.
And how have the Two Idiots survived until now if they can’t find work?
PACO: Good question… Let this one answer you.
PEPE: Paco is a kind of confessor of stupid souls, and I am a perverter of souls. And we live from it.
However, in reality it has gone well for you. You celebrate 30 years of company!
PACO: How am I going to do well for 30 years putting up with this one!
PEPE: How little he loves me…
You will have endured it because you wanted to!
PACO: What’s up! He has me obliged!
You perform the play at the Teatro del Mercado, a small but cozy theater…
PEPE: Little one? Today I fell off the stage and it didn’t seem so small to me. There was a girl who told me that she was waiting for me at the exit, and I fell down with excitement.
(To Antonio Balderas, the technician accompanying them) And how did you end up with these two?
ANTONIO: Well I don’t even remember anymore.
PACO: Because we called you.
ANTONIO: I left them my CV and six years later they called me!
PACO: So that they can then say that sending a CV is useless! Now that’s a long-term CV!
ANTONIO: I’m very happy. Working in theater, sometimes the company came and I loved them, that’s why I left them my resume.
Why stay at Hotel Sauce?
PEPE: It had been recommended to us by our entertainment friends, especially those of Paco’s men, Pepón Nieto and company. I love this hotel and we will repeat.
ANTONIO: Everything is very cute: the cafeteria, the rooms… In addition, it has a bar open 24 hours a day for customers. That’s perfect!
Are Gin Tonics good?
PEPE: Well yes! What are these little black balls floating in the cup?
Juniper. Here we make Gin Tonics with love and detail.
ANTONIO: Ahhh, of course: the berries with which the gin is produced… How careful everything is!
What is the strangest thing that has happened to you in a hotel?
PACO: Strange things have happened to me, but it wasn’t the hotel’s fault… Besides, it can’t be told.
PEPE: I once went with a suitcase in the elevator. When I get to the top and the door opens, a naked girl appears. Soon I realized that she was sleepwalking. I opened the suitcase, took a T-shirt and some boxers and put them on her, and took her down to reception so they could see what room she had and take her.
ANTONIO: You see: she left it in lost and found.
PEPE: No! I felt very sorry for the girl. Imagine, walking around the hotel naked. The other thing that happened to me is that in Venezuela I had to change floors (not rooms: floors) because Paco snored so much that he wouldn’t let me sleep.
Are you going to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Los Ulen company in some way?
PACO: There are 30 years of projects… It has been a dream, and it continues to be a dream. The company has been a work philosophy more than anything else.
PEPE: We have to celebrate it every day, and if it is with functions, the better.
