“I’ll tell you, I won’t change, I’ll always be a comedian. I will never be a spectator of the drama, no sir, comedy is more beautiful, comedy is funnier, and it is also what I like,” Sergio Corona sings, smiling, while remembering some passages from his life.
Comfortably seated in an office, and always attentive during the talk, the artist, whose path began in August 1947, when he joined the National Association of Actors, goes back to his childhood.
According to what he says, he did not always feel the acting vocation, but his approach to art began in his childhood, when he played together with his brothers (who, like him, were born with good rhythm) in a kiosk in Cuernavaca.
“We had a band in Morelos, my brother Baltasar played the trumpet, and my brother Rubén the snare drum,” he details. “Once we did an activity in the garden, and it occurred to me to go to where they were rehearsing and I started practicing the saxophone.
“I made my debut when I was eight years old, but it turns out that I made a mistake in ‘La Virgen de la Macarena’, they were playing and I whistled out of tune, so the director came and gave me the baton. I got down crying, my dad was in the garden and he came to defend me, obviously he got angry. And I never played with them again.”
However, far from allowing that to discourage him, he continued to explore his artistic side, and even learned to tap dance at an early age, a skill that would serve him well years later when he worked in the theater, where he teamed up with Alfonso Arau in the duet known as Corona and Arau, the latter later becoming a filmmaker.
A PERSEVERING ARTIST
His career, during which he has made more than 20 films and television series, in addition to dozens of plays, began precisely on stage when he was only 17 years old, a few months after having formally started his dance classes.
“I debuted at the Teatro Río, which was on Niño Perdido Street, it was a popular revue theater, and they asked for a dancer because they were going to debut in a season,” said the performer, whose work in theater includes titles like “Sugar.” , “Los niños de la banda”, “La nona”, “Como México no hay tres” and “La fiaca”, of which he offered around five thousand performances.
After his first performance, he had an uncomfortable meeting with journalist Francisco Quezada, who criticized his work and suggested he dedicate himself to something else, arguing that “it was very bad.”
Although he felt sadness after that comment, he ignored it and continued with his preparation, later entering professional theater, film and television. Years later, he saw that reporter again at the end of a performance, when one of the theater employees came to the dressing room, where he and Beto the Apothecary were, to ask for 50 pesos.
When Corona looked out and saw who the person requesting the loan was, he personally went out to give them the money. “I said, ‘Hey, do you remember me?’, and he said no. Then I reminded her who I was, and how at my debut she told me that he was no good at acting. I told him that because he had not listened to him, I could lend him those fifty pesos.”
LOVER OF INGENUITY
Of his projects, among which are films such as “El negoción”, “Cinco nacos assault Las Vegas”, “Los pistolocos”, “La mesa que más applapa”, “Pum!”; and television productions such as “Home Sweet Home”, “Humor is the Comedians”, De Few, Few Fleas” and “Como dice el saying”, which is currently airing its 14th season, comedy has always predominated.
And since its beginnings it has felt a great love for this genre, which it has defended throughout its career through content that makes the public laugh out of respect.
Although he recognizes that there are audiences that applaud jokes with high-sounding words, he has always been in favor of making people laugh through intelligent word games, being, in his opinion, the song “La Tienda de mi Pueblo” by Chava Flores one of the best examples. a good comedy exercise.
“It makes me laugh, the wit, the double meaning without vulgarity, those are the jokes,” he says. “I have already heard and was surprised by comedians who are talking, and lie mothers and say vulgarities, and the audience celebrates it, which made me sad. But things are changing, and there will be those who don’t like that.”
When asked what the keys are to creating a good comedy from scratch, he pointed out: “First the script, second, who interprets it and third, you have to work for the silences and the noises, so that they do not harm the texts, that is the laughter and the applause, you should not speak when you hear it, but you must follow your character so that you do not harm the work or your colleagues.”
I INVITE YOU TO MY DRESSING ROOM
In order to compile his professional experiences, and the satisfaction that his years of career have left him, the artist has just published the book “I invite you to my dressing room.” When talking about the writing process, he assures that this journey through his life even helped him remember experiences that he had already forgotten.
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“You drag history, and the moment comes that you want to remember, and I achieved it, although I already forgot it again,” he says with a laugh.
Among the pages of his book is a recount of the monologues he did throughout his career, both alone and those he shared with characters such as Manuel “El Loco” Valdés, his great friend and Nora Velázquez, “Chabelita”, as well as experiences in plays, and the best-known projects of his career.
When questioned about the title of the book, he smilingly comments that it is based on an intention to simulate a space for conversation with his readers. “The dressing room is the place where, working in the theater, one invites friends, visitors and all people. So I want to talk to you, I invite you to my dressing room,” concluded the actor.