He pioneered a certain kind of comedy in Portugal and is one of its greatest exponents for various generation Portuguese. It is the inimitable, and unforgettable, larger than life, Herman José.
They say you're the father of comedy in Portugal, this epithet weighs on you?
Herman José: No, I think I'm the father of a stage. Each era of comedy had a kind of fatherhood, the first great father of humor was Gil Vicente, the pieces of this author for height were cheeky, then spent a while when you start the Portuguese comedy there is a theatrical and sharp paternity with Bordallo Pinheiro's drawings, Stuart Carvalhais and Eça de Queirós with his chronicles. After we entered with Vasco Santana and a generation of notables, among them Antonio Silva with the films in black and white that still remains alive. A certain modernity is Raúl Solnado, there is Nicholas Breiner and I come in tow and I am the first to import an Anglo-Saxon humor, in that respect I am the father of this phase. Maybe I am the last if you like, because of my experience were all born which are now all good Portuguese comedians and they even agree to say that I am the source of inspiration, which I am very proud.
Yes, those who I have interviewed actually refer your name.
HJ: There is a very important thing is that call me father, I say call father to another, because we are competitors. As long as I breath they are screwed, I'll grab my place with nails and teeth and when I leave it will be marked on the floor my nails trying not to leave because actually I love what I do and I have a competitive spirit. The market is finite and only those who work, have competence and success are there, the others are on their way.
You considered yourself as a comedian or an actor who does comedy?
HJ: Actually I think I'm not an actor, I am a person who needs to make you laugh, then I arrange ways by perfoming to express this need. Basically it's what I do today, be an hour and a half on a microphone saying my nonsense, singing, cast my play and that's me. I would say I'm more of an entertainer than an actor, then I got a lot of work, imagination and some discipline to rip out a kind of actor that is far from great. Sometimes a genius actor is not as multifaceted as I am to be old, young, or a child, the most brilliant actor I met was Mario Viegas only had a character that was being himself, however, is a discussion somewhat strange, I know. Genial I consider myself in what I do and I nickname as entertaiment.
There is a line between Herman José the entertainer's and the personal and non-transferable Herman? Because when you are confronted with people, the fans, they certainly hopes to have lots of fun and you make them laugh?
HJ: I think there has been a very strong line between the two, so strong that the professional would work upset, I hated doing shows in the eighties, was a sacrifice, was really out to make money, this frontier has been disappearing and today does not exist. I'm like in America and those houses that do not have walls, the road begins in the grass and will go right to the villa entrance door, I do not have even a fence to separate from each other.
But why in the 80s you hated doing shows?
HJ: Because there were two people, there was one who wanted to have a life and had the professional needed to make money and suffered a lot from this and this barrier it is blurred and today I am the same person. I work with great pleasure, I have the greatest patience with people, make no sacrifice, now, in the elevator almost no one got out of there, or forward or backward, or sideways, because everyone wanted to take selfies. It is a unique moment, wonderful, people who do not go nowhere, suddenly I'm there and are being well treated, are being received with delight instead of the bad mood that a superstar is supposed to have with the "do not bother me "because I have to rehearse. I sometimes step in ridiculous situations as in Chiado, I heard a group that looked like it was singing a song of mine, the "you are so good," and I thought, well, I'm late, but I will give autograph and took a pen and when they passed thru me, it was a group of Spanish and were singing something similar to mine and that did not even know who I was and one of the ladies even got scared, thinking I was taking a knife or something to assault her ( laughs). Therefore be known in Portugal is good and when we need to rest we caught a plane, going in an instant to Madrid or Ibiza, or we take the car and we go to Badajoz and no one knows who you are and do not tell me about those anxieties artist that do not have life. Look, Cristiano Ronaldo it is at this stage, any island in the South Pacific he goes all start screaming.
There was some time in this stage where you looked at yourself in the mirror and did not recognize you?
HJ: No, but there were many times when I looked at myself in the mirror and felt less of what I want it to be, stages of great discomfort, for feeling stranded and nowadays do not feel it, but I know I have a lot to learn and improve in many ways, but I feel artistically fulfilled and so I do not have this uneasy feeling of stranding, or think what am I doing here? Or did I chose the right profession?
As you said previously on your historical review of humor in Portugal, you were the parent of a stage where you did extraordinary things and when you are approached by the Portuguese do they say something when you do less good skecthes and taht you are able to do better, they charge you that?
HJ: No, my biggest problem is not that, the information is so, so mucn and there are so many channels that what happens is that we often do things that give us a lot of work and have a lot of delivery and are pure and people and not simply see it, because theyt have two sopa operas at the same time, it is a bit sad. Now, I did a series that I loved to do, in the public channel, "Nelo and Idália" always at the same time the major shows of the various channels, even during breaks I could not caught a space, is a product that has no penetration capacity as I had when there were two channels.
Yes, but generations have changed, your program passes the RTP play and then you have a new audience that does not see television in the classic form.
HJ: Yes, but it is not competition, it is still a minority.
So you think you did not reach the new generations?
HJ: No, I got the new generations, only those forms of selling art does not have the huge force that had the television of the 80s when the programs came to every house, because it was required, but this happens also worldwide. Seinfield is making now a program on "youtube", Jay Leno has a car show also on the same platform. There are a lot of things on television that pass perfectly unnoticed made by the same artists who 20 years stopped America. Times have changed, but there is something that has never changed, are the live shows, this is fascinating, from ancient Greece and Shakespeare.
But you feel it?
HJ: I feel, is still craft, like a fine wine, or a good oil painting, nothing replaces and that is why is it so important. A alone musician with a guitar on stage is either good or it is not and cannot mislead anyone. With us is equal, no makeup, no teams, just a microphone on stage, or either you are good and if you are bad people will walk away and that art remains is unchanged, even with more dignity than twenty years and this is good side of it.
You are a witness to decades of change of humor in Portugal, many of the comedians I interviewed told me that we are still evolving and not yet reached the point of being a country that values the comedy. Do you have this view?
HJ: My vision is a little worse, I think we regressed and we will still continue to regress.
Seriously?
HJ: Yes, because we now live in a politically correct society. I remember that in the 90s I did something that if ti was today was at least a public crime, had at least two complaints, some in the Attorney General of the Republic and a long month in court, that when I end up a program with a shotgun in the "wheel of fortune".
I remember that.
HJ: Do you remember? I broke whole scenario with a shotgun. If it was today it will be unfortunate, because I did not carry a weapons permit, because the law does not allow this and perhaps were five public crimes. And today we live in the age of political correctness, you make a post on facebook to say something like, Madeira was beautiful, the sky was blue and I saw wonderful things and everything is fine, so you write, I was in Madeira and saw someone slagging, I do not know what else and it is a disgrace and you get the hate mails.
There is also a greater exposure because of social networks.
HJ: Not only, people have become hypocrites, the judicial system has become hyper nervous because everything is crime and now. Quintino Aires decided on a program to say what he thought about the Roma ethnic group, although I may not agree with it and indeed I don't, he limited him self, with courage, to give his opinion and the next news already indicate that incurs a prison crime. So if all goes well, he may go to jail, for the love god! You understand? We have reached an extreme of political correctness that will worsen as in America where everything today is likely to be a crime, there are lawyers who advertise that they can handle whatever, against anyone. The other day I went to the dentist in New York and needed to sign four terms of responsibility because I would be anaesthetized, because the gum and also I do not know what, all because of the possible law suits, since, out side the dentist's there is someone who would give you a panflet to say to contact this law firm that can draw up to one million dollars to the professional who made a mistake. This exponential stupidity of society makes comedy less and less free today what you have a no-brainer humor, primary without courage and that is not nothing and the courageous pay a very high price, many give up and became themselves a kind of clowns of the every day.
Kind of like Rui Sines de Cordes, which has a kind of very polemical humor?
HJ: How long will he resist? But, I believe that not for long.
But he has a kind of humor that does not appeal to a large audience.
HJ: Yes, it's true. He has so many aggressive things, I think another year or two he gives up and starts to make things lighter, like everyone else.
You also do that?
HJ: I'm different, I gave my body the bullets at the right time, took all possible shots and have no more room, I have said in several interviews that now my specialty is "feel good mood" to put people in a good mood, happy and without any confusion. My phase of attacks has passed now want to put the largest number of people around a healthy thing called laughter.
