A few years ago, Wali Iturriaga would not have imagined he would be filling theaters all over the country. The comedian who conquered social networks with the character of “La Jenny” is on tour and this Wednesday it is Salta’s turn. The event will be at the Juan Carlos Saravia Provincial Theater and, according to what the artist announced, there are very few tickets left.
“Something spectacular happens with Salta”
The Tribune spoke exclusively with the comedian Before his arrival in the province and consulted about his visits to Salta, Wali recalled the post-pandemic times: “I have the memory of 2021 when we were in the middle of the pandemic and they enabled and disabled mass activities. We passed through Salta and from there we visited the province every year,” he said.
The comedian complimented the Salta audience: “The Salta audience is spectacular, there is always enormous affection and a lot of respect. I love it because the show lasts almost two hours and I stay that same time at the end of the show to be with the people and share that moment,” he added.
The beginning
The comedian’s day-to-day life was different before the boom on social networks. Wali had a gym and became a great fitness reference in Corrientes, but he always had an artistic streak that led him to form rock bands and that was when he began to play various characters. He fondly remembers “Cachilo”, a character from Corrientes and a “villero”, who was a sensation in his province and in the coastal region.
Until 2018 arrived and with it the explosion of Jenny and her videos: “I put on a party favor wig that I found at home and a neon t-shirt that I wore when I taught Zumba classes. I improvised with the school moms’ WhatsApp and It exploded. At first I didn’t accept it, I uploaded a video every so often until I saw that La Jenny worked very well,” he explained.
The character became known internationally. Wali received messages from all over the world. It was so explosive that his first show was not even in Argentina, but in Uruguay.
“People identify with Jenny”
When asked what he thinks people saw in Jenny to make them love her so much, Wali said that there are aspects in which people can identify with her: “they are life stories that if they don’t live it, they lived it.” his parents and grandparents or else he may know someone like that. Furthermore, people understood perfectly that these are characters and that they have nothing to do with me and my personal life,” he said.
“We brought in more than a hundred thousand people in the summer”
It is a great job to sustain a character for more than five years, taking into account the constant change that generations face. For Wali it was also a challenge to sustain La Jenny over time, but luckily for her, her fans are becoming more and more. “All the time I want to do other things but the demand was growing. When we started doing fixed seasons in the summer, I wondered how we were going to get so many people in every day with a character that is already so many years old and we started the season and we brought in more than a hundred thousand people,” he said.
The furor over Jenny made other characters appear and they also went viral, such as husband Juan Carlos, Jenny’s mother, among many others and always seeking to modernize the content.
How to handle hate
One of the many concepts that have emerged in recent times is “hate”, which means hatred in English and is used to define the negative comments that people receive on their social networks. In his case, Wali says that luckily he doesn’t receive that much hate, but that he constantly reads the messages and comments that are written to him: “I read the criticisms and in 99% of the cases I take them in favor, I feel that the On the other hand, there is someone who may be hurt by something and that makes me improve, those comments make me grow and if there is criticism I communicate with that person and I end up improving,” he explained.
“There is a type of humor that is no longer done”
Humor is no stranger to the evolution of society and in recent years it has undergone endless modifications and questions. Asked about how he goes through changes in certain types of mood, the artist expressed that, at least he, seeks to adapt and considers it to be something favorable. “I have a relatively healthy mood but I had many things to change, I watch videos of myself from 4 or 5 years ago and I don’t like them,” he said.
A one-man show of almost 2 hours
Wali Iturriaga took on the challenge of displaying a show where only he moves around the stage, playing a large number of characters and making the most of his physical abilities. “It is very demanding, I make fake voices, I run, jump, shout, and I interact a lot with people, there is a lot of preparation and much more with these cold weather,” he explained.
The comedian considers that people do not experience the play only as a show, but also as a rock concert: “people come with signs and are even dressed in costumes and that gives me that extra energy to give it twice as much enthusiasm. Sometimes I feel that in the second performance I have more energy than in the first”.
