Fophyto: "the children of today are very spontaneous" _

The Great Circus Holiday includes in its functions a great humorist in Spain and in many other countries of the world, who with his show continues to conquer nostalgic people but also the new generations. Fofito is a benchmark in our country and was, along with his uncles and his father, a child idol. Many of these children, now adults, have raised and continue to raise their children with their songs, known above all in Europe and the American continent, from Argentina to Canada.

With a serious but friendly gesture and always with an easy joke, Alfonso Aragón Sac, alias Fofito, born in Cuba in 1949, receives elbierzonoticias for a pleasant and relaxed chat.

The how are you? It was the rallying cry of 'the clowns on TV', is it still yours?

We don't like the war on clowns,' he says between laughs. Gaby invented it forty-odd years ago, they did a gala in Cuba and he didn't know how to say hello, how are you?, but he was very Spanish. In Cuba they would say how are you, but the problem is that everyone there calls each other names, you talk to the President of the Government about you but when you go to scold a child you treat him like you. It came out there, then they went on TV and kept saying it and until now. It is our ID. I arrive at a place, a bar or do some paperwork and there is a queue and I say how are you? And they all turn and acknowledge me.

That was well studied. Gaby was the teacher, the one who taught us, the one who educated us when we said the wrong word; Fofó was talkative, everything that was fashionable, the fashionable songs in Cuba, all that was on Fofó's lips; Miliki, since he didn't speak at first, played the mute role, making the girls fall in love by playing the accordion very romantically. And when we started doing the adventures, I had to receive the bucket of water, slip on the banana peel, receive all the blows but everything was rehearsed. If I had to fall from somewhere, it wasn't real wood and that's how I stayed, with all the blows. If by chance Gaby said you have to go that way, I was there and received a cake. In Argentina we had to remove the cakes because the children took a mania for Gaby because she hit the others.

You're learning, with the same make-up, when my parents and my uncles arrived they had big red mouths, colors on their faces and they realized that when the child approached he would get scared and we left our noses and wigs.

Fofito in a performance with the Gran Circo Holiday

When I started more than 50 years ago, the boy played with a ball, the girl with a doll, if you gave her a train that was great. Nowadays, a child's letter to Santa Claus or the Three Kings wants a phone, he wants a drone, he wants things that are now at the moment, also games of these consoles that many love, I recommend it because they learn, but others They are very violent and the child does not have to see so much violence.

Before, the child was less participatory, he entered a television studio or a theater and they barely sang, we had to encourage them, they were quieter, not more respectful, but now it turns out that the child is the first to want to participate. The magician asks for a volunteer and they are all there with their hands up, or games in which I need five boys and five girls and they all want to be. They change from the moment they enter and are totally spontaneous. He says to me, Fofito, why do you have such big shoes? Because instead of giving my foot number, I gave my phone number and they laugh and you have to be prepared for those answers.

Of course. Just the other day she was singing Don Pepito and the lady who was in the box nudged her husband and said: she's older now, huh? -he answers between laughs-.

The songs you sang are still authentic children's hymns because they are passed down from generation to generation...

I'm going to tell you an anecdote. My granddaughter at school plays songs by Teresa Rabal, Parchis, Torrebruno, ours, and every time they put on us, grandpa would say, and they would play another and grandpa would say again. The teacher took my daughter and asked her to see why every time she played a clown song the girl said my grandfather. Of course, my daughter who told her that Fofito was her grandfather.

Not really. What if I wanted to is to make a record and it's there almost as a project on the table of a record label that is to sing with the children of the different countries we've been to. That I say Hello Don Pepito! and the Argentines answer me, you passed by your house and the Puerto Ricans answer me by your house I passed. I think that it's very nice that from Argentina to Canada all of our repertoire is known, you don't have to rehearse or anything. I would get there and start doing comedy and they would yell at me that no comedy, that they wanted songs. In Argentina it happened to my brother and me that we had finished singing and they asked us for another one, but there was no more, the suitcase with the music had been lost on the trip and it was all written and all the playback was there. We explained it to the public, that if they wanted we could sing one that we had already sung and in the end they asked for Don Pepito again and people liked it.

Always wanted to be a clown? Did you all want to dedicate yourself to the show? Did it affect your studies a lot?

I always wanted to be a clown. What happens is that, we traveled a lot and did a course in each country we went to. So I spent the same five years in Chicago, then I was in Miami, then I jumped to Puerto Rico, then to Mexico and then to Venezuela and that's how we were marrying the studies.

But not all of us in the family dedicate ourselves to the show, I have brothers and sisters who dedicate themselves to other things, we are four brothers, two born in Spain and two in Cuba and it is funny that the two born in Cuba are here and the who were born here are there, between Puerto Rico and Miami.

In addition to TV and the circus, you have also made the leap to the big screen. 'Torrente 3' or 'Sad ballad of trumpet' have been some of the titles in which you have participated

My father and my uncles made The Fox's Grandson in Mexico, I was very little, and another in Cuba called Three Barbarians in a Jeep. Then they offered us to do one in Argentina, it was very successful, which was Había una vez un circo. I liked it, it was one more experience and, in fact, a great friendship has emerged with Santiago Segura from a working relationship.

Both are beautiful, in one you have the audience live, the more they applaud you, the more you get excited, but in the cinema you have to wait until the movie is released to see if they laugh or not.

We were born on television and one day it occurred to my father that there was no circus in Cuba, so we took a break from television and went on tour. They bought a very nice circus, which stayed there, and that's where I learned to step on a dance floor, my father taught me, he told me that this is like in the bullring, you have to look everywhere, you have to look everyone and always turn around so as not to turn your back on the public. You learn a lot of details and what also polishes you, for example I go out with my daughter, we have a parody rehearsed and prepared but sometimes we improvise because we get bored ourselves and things come out that we didn't expect and then we just leave it because people laugh .

Fofito and his daughter Monica. /Fofito's Facebook

Fofito will be in the capital of Bercian from this Thursday until Sunday and after each function he stays with his audience, who wants to have a memory with this children's icon who, in addition, with the sale of records, helps to raise funds for a childhood cancer association.

All circus lovers and those who want to remember the good times of their childhood cannot miss this show (Thursday and Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 5 and 7 and Sunday at 5) that , in addition to Fofito, includes magic acts, tightrope walkers or jugglers.

In addition, with Oferplan all those who wish can purchase tickets with a significant discount.