Sebastián Wainraich, the man who takes being a comedian seriously and does his therapy sessions walking down the street

Sebastian Wainraich he shouts with goal enthusiasm. Like those on the field, but without a tribune or harangue around. “Come on! Look how they treat me. They don’t treat me like that on the radio,” says the actor and host, settled in an office in Kuarzo freed up for the story. It is the late lunch that, after a day of promotional recording – days before the debut of The perfect nightthis Monday, June 3 at 11:30 p.m. on eltrece- arrives in the hands of a production company.

“I’m very used to working with friends, but TV is a bigger team,” he warns on the eve of his return to the late night show late at night, with a panel of fellow friends –Leticia Siciliani, Peto Menahem and “Baby” Sanzo– renewed monologues and live band.

But the nerves, he clarifies – now without the host’s suit and now with a diver, casual cap and Atlanta bracelets in sight – barely appear in his return to the format that baptized him a decade ago on cable.

“Before I had a more solemn respect for TV,” says the comedian, again on the channel where, in addition to doing fiction (he shared a set on Only you with Adrián Suar, who will be the first guest of the cycle) hosted emblems of the grid such as TVR.

With “agenda” doubts, dispelled by his attachment to the format and the approval of his partner Dalia Gutmann, the comedian and radio reference already mentally diagrams his calendar: “I come at 4 p.m. and from 5 to 8 p.m. I do radio. “I go back to my house, 15 blocks away, have dinner with the family and return at 11 p.m. with the known program,” he lists as a meticulous scriptwriter of his own routine.

-In the year of streaming, with more and more new channels on the scene, you return to traditional television. Is it an act of rebellion?

-No. First, the radio where I work is also streaming, because you can see it. It’s traditional radio, but you see it everywhere. The return to TV has more to do with what I’m going to do than with the medium. Look how they treat me too… (Your order arrives with a variety of freshly packaged pieces of sushi) They don’t treat me like that on streaming! But I thought I wasn’t going to go back to TV.

-Is the radio less wild or more friendly?

-It’s something else. I have other gymnastics too, from all my life. Very oiled with the team. The other time with Peto (Menahem) we did a sketch for TV, which if it goes to the radio is great and on TV it was horrible.

-Does TV take more of a toll on you?

-You are more exposed. Especially in comedy. Fiction, actually. But comedy more so, because it is close to being a student, a theater exercise…

“When I eat, do you ask? Let’s make that deal,” proposes the historic driver of Turn and a half (Urbana Play, 104.3 FM) enabling the first bite of their afternoon express lunch. And he continues: “Cancellation also went down a little. They kill you one day, but it passes quickly and they take it on another. I’m not telling you it’s easy either. It’s how she catches you standing and how your self-esteem is that day.”

-Does yours usually stay stable?

-Those of us who do this have a semi-cyclothymic self-esteem. On the one hand, you say: I feel very important: I do a radio and TV program, I write scripts. But also: love me. Look at everything I do to get attention.

-It is no coincidence that on this television, your schedule comes to dethrone the latest eltrece fictions, which were repetitions of streaming series.

-Yes, but we don’t have to make so much drama out of it. Fiction is elsewhere. I hope there is work. That’s the issue. For actors, screenwriters, producers, etc.

-Fiction and reality usually blend into your characters. In fact, you return to the channel where you were a fictional psychologist by Adrián Suar (“Solamente Vos”, 2013), being a therapy fundamentalist…

-Today I did therapy in the morning. I like to be patient. Today I thought it came with soft themes and it came out power…Since the pandemic I hardly go in person. I do it by phone, headphones and without seeing each other. Like the couch, because I don’t see it. Sometimes in closed places and today I went on the street. It is not the most comfortable because of the dog barking, the horn… People shouting: “Hey, Wainraich…”. Is rare. But it’s 45 minutes a week, which I need and like. I have been with this psychologist since 2009, a lot! My daughter was 2 years old and my son was not born.

-What a discovery to maintain such a long bond with your therapist.

-I didn’t know, but I realize that I have long ties. I have my friend of 4 years, a partner for 22 years, my radio team with Julieta (Pink), 21 years together, and Pablo (Fábregas), who I have known since ’96. I feel lucky. Because I did something to make this happen, but at the same time I found people who want to be with me.

-It is the most complex link. Because I do 3 hours of airtime and it ends there, enjoy everything. The couple takes good things and the worst from each other. Sometimes I arrive tired and I don’t want to talk. Or her… It’s coexistence. That she has bad press and all the time you have to show others that you are happy, you see?

And, like a formula tested behind closed doors, he shares: “There has to be love, but that alone is not enough. There are rules of coexistence and you have to think the same about some things in life, especially if you are going to have children. In that we are similar and most importantly: we seek each other’s happiness. “As least possessive as possible.”

-Dalia doesn’t listen to you on the radio because she says that there is already “too much of Sebastián” at home. Do you recommend it too?

-I had never thought about it, but I understand it. He lives with me, we have two children and listening to me for three hours every day must be suffocating.

In fact, I spoke with her before accepting TV because they are decisions that we have to approve of. “Look, it’s every night,” I told her and she replied: “Ideal, daddy.” My son sleeps at 11pm and the teenager is already in her world.

Retired “only from the courts”, the man with long ties and the gift of the word, does not skimp on headlines. “Believe it or not, I’m shy. When I go to see Dalia at the theater I stand in the back. Once I was in the middle and everyone was looking at me to see my reaction, the moment is not very natural. Even if he talks about me, I understand it, although some things are true and others are not. It is the advantage of dedicating ourselves to the same thing.”

-In her new Clarín columns, with references from everyday life, Dalia does not leave you anonymous either.

-I thought it was spectacular that she writes her columns, she is great. She is very professional and obsessive. He read the first one to me before.

-You have a future novel on the way, where you definitively let go of your alter ego: the protagonist is no longer bald nor is he from Atlanta.

-The alter ego is always there. There are artists who do the same thing their entire career and I don’t think it’s bad.. Although this time he is not Jewish nor does he go to therapy, deep down we are always talking about the same thing, from a different point of view. This is a very shady guy, who is in politics and is only interested in being president. Although deep down, because he is a denier, he is alone in life and needs to be loved. The character in Almost Happy (a series seen on Netflix) amused me and is part of a world that resembles mine, but then the stories have nothing to do with it.

-Did that Sebastián take a sabbatical year?

-Netflix took the year off haha. With Hernán (Guerschuny, director) we were going to do the three seasons, but for now they don’t want to. We will see.

-There is a concept that now that you turned 50, I heard you defend: “There is no such thing as adulthood.”

-I’m saying nonsense. Being an adult exists, but sometimes it is related to seriousness. Why is it more serious to be a lawyer than a comedian? I take my job seriously, like kids when they play and take it seriously.

And with a year full of parallel commitments, one of them settled with a Gran Rex of Soccer or Death On June 1, a radio sketch transferred to the stage, he adds: “It’s a little corny to think about it, but we went out to play on stage as if we were children.”

-Was the change of decade celebrated in that spirit?

-With everything I celebrated. Like I almost never do. On Thursday, something intimate family; and on Friday friends, colleagues, the program band that played live and we sang. It was in the house of Mex Urtizbereawhich is a cultural center now… I celebrated my 40th there.

The truth is, I worried more at 49… It’s a party and a mourning. The mourning is because you are closer to the end, look how Jewish-tragic I am, haha.

But at this age I have things more organized. I try not to waste time. Before I was obsessed with work and now I think more about having fun. On vacation, on the third day, he told Dalia: “I’m coming back.” A big deal, right? It is also the training, the middle class, the fault… I continue working but I enjoy it, I go to the field.”

-Are you still playing soccer?

-No, because I don’t want to get injured. It’s kind of depressing what I’m going to say, but I’m playing tennis. Also swimming, which is spectacular, and I also go with Peto (Menahem). Now we don’t agree on schedules.

-You said that your fantasy is to make gossip, if you were less guilty. Don’t you know how to be where the potatoes burn?

-Could be. I like to find out things. With Julieta we love gossip, but she makes us feel guilty. I consume it anyway, that’s the contradiction. I don’t think so, because the other person is suffering. I don’t want to be moralistic… But at the same time I like to find out because I’m a gossip, I admit it.

-You cover many formats, but humor is the backbone of everything. Did you have any experience similar to that of the protagonist of “Baby Reindeer” (hit Netflix series) when you aspired to be a comedian and you succeeded?

-The stalker fan thing didn’t happen to me, haha. The comedian thing, yes. In the first performances or in private events, which I used to do more, it happens to you that they don’t laugh and you say: the same joke that broke it in the theater, no one laughs here. But the previous one suffers more than the stage.

-Would you be a good viewer of your new program? Are you the typical serial night owl who falls asleep with the TV on?

-I would see it. I’m not that much of a night owl, but I’m usually awake at 12. I zap, I watch TV, I read. The cell phone is a problem and I am aware that I am addicted like everyone else, let’s not fool ourselves… It’s nice when I turn it off for two hours. Then I come back with a fury… as if to say: give me everything, all the networks, exploit me!

But his return to TV is just the prologue to a year of fulfilled wishes, literary pendings and escapades.

“At the end of September I am going on a theater tour in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Malaga and Mallorca. The first week almost of vacation. Although tranquility-tranquility never comes, luckily. With Peto, once we went to a field, for 4 days. Barbecue, reading, music and when you take the photo, you say: I would live here. But I’m not that one. “I like the city, the field, eating a barbecue or going to a friend’s premiere.”

-“The perfect night” seems to be within your reach…

-There are many, but a good dinner is a perfect night. See a play and eat with friends. My birthday night was perfect. Being with people I love is a perfect night and we have it so close at hand that we get used to it. Did I give you a good title?