Since 2018, the gears of Pantomime Full have not stopped turning to reach Friday, the day chosen for Rober Bodegas and Alberto Casado —with the occasional collaboration of guests of honor— to launch a new video with which to portray some of the ridiculous that we all carry inside In its sixth season, the two comedians continue to turn into comedy those little things that some champion and others are ashamed of. Many hope to be the next to recognize themselves in his satire. And, if you haven't already, you can be next.
How do you get to a Friday being Pantomime?
Rober Bodegas: The process is always faster than we would like. From time to time we manage to go a week or two ahead, but it is not usual. For example, now we have returned from Easter, last Tuesday we wrote a script because we didn't have any that could be produced so quickly due to location, costumes... On Wednesday we recorded and on Thursday we edited it. It comes rushing.
And once published?
Alberto Casado: Beyond publishing it, we do some follow-up shortly after to read any comments and see how it has been received, but not exhaustively either. Unless it's something very striking, when you see it go viral and say "what happened here?"... If not, no; you look at it from time to time, but little else.
R.B.: We get a general impression. Normally, you have an intuition about whether it's going to be normal or whether it's going to have more or less repercussions depending on the topic, the niche it's aimed at. For example, the one with the audios: it's not the most cool video for us, but everyone receives or sends audios. You know that it gives a lot for jokes, for the “look, Luis, it's you”. Yes, there are some who are very attentive to studying the response of the publications to create content based on that, but we always prefer to do it based on an idea that we already have.
Did you expect the video of the conformist couple, for example, to generate such a stir?
AC: No way. It was a video that made us laugh at its cruelty and how low-spirited it was, but it had a lot of repercussions. At no time do you think that a video is going to have so many articles or so many readings.
R.B.: Waiting for that repercussion would have been very pretentious. We thought it would be like those videos in which they tell us “what sons of bitches”. But it was pretty crazy. In addition, all the media took out his column and, after 3 or 4 days, they published very deep, philosophical, sociological things... It's funny that it generates all that, but you never expect it.
All that repercussion, both from haters and critics as well as praise that surrounds the networks, how do you manage it? Do you ignore the noise or use it for new material for other videos?
A.C.: You don't ignore it because it attracts attention. The commotion is fun. But beyond that, no. You continue with your work and do no more reading. We do not seek to repeat those formulas. We keep doing things that make us laugh and that's it.
R.B.: What's cool about this is that you've been doing it for a few years now and you see that you still have beautiful ideas. There are groups that you like and, from their third album onwards, you say “buf, they tire me”. And when you see that we, that this would be our sixth album —sixth season—, we continue to release great songs... It's cool that we're not yet pure and that we still release decent songs.
When looking for the theme, where do you look for inspiration?
A.C.: It's a cliché, but in the environment: close people, social networks, media... Trying to capture common behaviors. The one with the audios is a good example: there is video there, everyone does it. You are also inspired by people in common or who you have met as a result of something. There are profiles that remind you of more people. It is thinking: “There is a type of people that is this”. And, even if it is something very small, it can be used for video.
R.B.: Sometimes, almost unconsciously, you are hearing a certain word or concept more than normal. The word CrossFit; or two years ago, after the summer, you think "why do I open Instagram and only camper vans appear?". They are things that come from being in contact with the world.
There are people who tell us, when they see us run over with the topics: "why don't you take a whole month in September and make the entire season —40 videos— in one go?". That's impossible. We cannot have 40 ideas. They are coming to you day by day. Surely there is a video in May that does not enter in October.
They are day-to-day issues, but not so related to today. Are there concepts that you would not touch, either due to weariness, lack of interest or for other reasons?
R.B.: In general, if we detect that there is a character, it is done.
A.C.: Today, in the end, when it has to do with the social, we like it and it fits us very well. But it is different if you go to the most literal news, to the news of the week, what is being talked about... Ana Obregón, for example. We don't like that nor is it the idea of the channel. We are up to date with what is happening, but we do not talk about current things because the videos would become old very quickly.
R.B.: The idea is that they last a bit. Not two years, but make sense.
Before being Pantomime, was your way of doing comedy based on the same thing or have you changed a lot?
R.B.: Yes, we have changed. For example, in I know what you did (SLQH) we spent four years doing humor with current events. Once you leave it you want to do something else. We also did more surreal or darker things. You go through stages but, after doing it a lot, it stops being funny and you change.
Do you regret anything?
A.C.: If you read old things, yes. There have to be big shits that you say "How embarrassing to see this today!". Something from ten years ago on TV… sure. In fact, you put a video of me on SLQH and it gives me a hard time watching it. And, like that, many more things. But regret... how much you think it's bad, or that you now see the idea as bad.
More change as a comic than not a regret, I understand
R.B.: Yes, you change a lot. Sometimes you see stuff from ten years ago and it's still funny, and other times you see that it's aged very badly, or that it was never even funny at all! Being in programs or in things that have a regular broadcast makes you have ideas that are not very good, but you always thought that the next one would be better.
Now, as Pantomime, you reflect very pathetic clichés and many personal miseries. Is there hope for anyone?
R.B.: I think it's impossible not to be ridiculous in some way. It's not that everything is bad, but we all have something ridiculous. For example: at Easter, you go on a trip and you see yourself as a tourist and you do things that, seen from the outside, would make you feel down. And here I am, making an absurd queue to enter a monument that doesn't interest me much either.
A.C.: We all fall for that ridicule and it's funny to see it. Today, for example: our editor is editing the video and we're going through it to see how we leave it. In the brutes, there was a moment that we were waiting for on the street. While we were recording, Rober fell into another pantomime: a group of ten tourists with rented bikes from BiciMad passed by in the opposite direction in the middle of the street, in the literary neighborhood. He looks at them and says: “fuck, man. The foreigners… They think the city is theirs!”. It was a Pantomime within a Pantomime!
It is a way to reveal our ridicule and reconcile with it. recognize yourself in ridicule
R.B.: The criticism is to be a chapa. That is to say "hey, it's good that you do and think this, but don't go around giving the turra to everyone". Criticism is taking yourself so seriously that you can't laugh that you have a certain attitude or live a certain way.
A.C.: There are those who wait for their video to arrive. The videos go on a profile of people. And, in each profile, there are people you are going to offend who are excited that you offend them. There are people who wait for it to touch them, because you talk about their things.
With an increasingly extreme society and thinner skin and with increasingly toxic social networks, was it easier to do comedy before?
A.C.: Now it is easier because there is more access. Before you depended on the media; Now, with your cell phone and a good joke, you go far. It's received by a lot more people and, therefore, you get a lot more criticism. Before, on TV, your two friends laughed and that's it. You didn't have to face so many haters or waves of anything. If you are starting, it is more complicated.
R.B.: It can overwhelm you. Even if there are only two. Now there is more aggressiveness. It requires taking distance, just like with flattery. When they send you 50 messages saying you're the dick, you're not going to go down the street asking them to open a whole Pachá plant for you either because he looks at what they've written to me on the internet.
It is no longer just the access and dissemination of comedy, but there is an increasing offer of stand up rooms, open mics, courses... Saturation or greater opportunity?
R.B.: What there is is a scene. It wasn't like that before: the one that existed was much smaller. I, who come from stand up with my monologues, remember that when I started 20 years ago I got ahead because it was bad but there were no good ones. We were only about 50 in all of Spain. There were those that appeared in El club de la comedia and Paramount Comedy, but those of us who were in a provincial city, in Coruña… We were four, and it was the closest thing to what I would like to see. A musical example: I am from a small town in Coruña, Carballo, and I like music. Okay, U2 didn't come here, but some kids with guitars trying to rock. That was worth it. Now the scene is much bigger.
A.C.: And every time you have more public! Theaters, bars and theaters are filled with people who don't wear much. It is good for all of us who are in this.
R.B.: On any given Saturday, the number of tickets sold! Throughout Spain, but especially in Barcelona and Madrid. It's nice to see people with new ideas.
By the way, why Full Pantomime?
A.C.: It comes from a show we had. Looking for a name for the show we realized that we used the word pantomime a lot.
R.B.: In fact, they once told us that the composition of Full Pantomime was a bit similar to that of Muchachada Nui. That's not why we did it, but we don't care: if someone had to be honored, they deserve it very much.
