14ymedio, Jorge Fernández Era, Havana, 25 January 2025 — If any beginning of a comedy show can be considered a classic of stage humor, it is what happened more than thirty years ago when Otto Ortiz and Omar Franco walked through the audience at the Carlos Marx in what seems to be a violent argument between the two characters.
Both have become legends, in Otto’s case for more than one reason. That the National State-owned Insurance Company (ESEN in Spanish) owes a car is not news, but that the affected person roasting them about it on social media, is. And that Otto Lugar (Otto’s Place) is not the name of one of his shows, but the name of a pizza place, is also news. So, I go in, sit down and ask the waitress to call the manager immediately.
14ymedio/Jorge Fernández Era. In 1987 you were the founder of the group Los Hepáticos. (The Livers). Thirty-eight years later, how’s that bile?
Otto Ortiz. That bile, as you say, is at its best, more critical and elaborated. I started in the group Los Hepáticos doing very basic humor. With time, with knowledge, with the internet and access to humorists from different countries, we humorists have been looking for our own space, our own way of saying and doing things.
In the beginning, we worked together with Nos y Otros (Us and Others). We didn’t understand their humor much, but today we have followed their line
In the beginning, we worked together with Nos y Otros (Us and Others). We didn’t understand their humor, but today, I guess because of our maturity, we have followed their line.
I don’t just use stage humor. Three decades ago we were terrified of cabarets and nightclubs. Not now, and we have even ventured into social media, with a distant but active audience.
Cuban humor has always enjoyed good health. What is lacking, if anything, is humorists, we have been losing them.
14ymedio/Jorge Fernández Era. Let’s say ESEN gives you a tourism cab, broken-down and worn-out like you. Would you leave the pizzeria and become a cab driver?
Otto Ortiz. The National State-owned Insurance Company has been a part of my life for five years. I have five children: four real ones, and ESEN, which should be my mother, my father, but it is like a child to whom I allow everything until one day it does something good. I don’t know if he will give me an old and bad car like me, but as long as it fulfills its social role I will be happy. After that, I don’t know what I will do with the car.
I don’t think I’d leave the pizzeria. People know me for three things. The third one is as a humorist. The second one is for ESEN. The first one is for my pizzas. Those are three things that mark who I am. The public Otto is a mix of a pizzeria, state-owned insurance and humor. When ESEN gives me the car, I’ll put in a good word for them. People will say, “Look at this scoundrel.” But I’ve grown fond of them.
14ymedio/Jorge Fernández Era. It seems that your obsession with ESEN is a way to erase the bad memory of the baseball fuel shortage you had in the nineties to defeat Nos y Otros.
Otto Ortiz. Between 1988 and 1990, with Los Hepáticos, I did several seasons at the Carlos Marx, directed by Virulo. Nos y Otros were there too. We organized a four-team tournament. They say they won, we say the opposite, the dispute is still going on. Six top intellectuals like Nos y Otros can’t beat four or five pure “costumbristas” who were Los Hepáticos. I don’t believe that arts can prevail over people from Marianao, Mantilla, La Palma… Edit it however you want to, the paper can stand it.
14ymedio/Jorge Fernández Era. Tell me about Malas Compañías (Bad Company), the ones on the web and the ones you’ve had in your life.
Otto Ortiz. Malas Compañías is a YouTube series that I have the honor of sharing with the people of Punto y Coma (Semicolon), Visti Cárdenas and Iván Salgado. It has to do with relationships between individuals with different sexual orientations: acceptance, acknowledgement, and respect. El Nene (The Baby) who is me, is an old macho and homophobic man who for some reason lives with a gay man. We are already sixteen episodes in, we have addressed different topics, always from a humorous point of view. Behind an apparently simple script, there are messages, especially stories that you laugh about and enjoy. At this point it is very difficult for things not to have a meaning, to “say something.” We try to make people think, to make them grow.
Personally, bad company is left behind. I don’t have many friends and I don’t bother the ones I have. When I love someone I don’t bother him, neither does he, but we are there for each other. We don’t have to say what we are or draw attention to ourselves. The key is to be there at the right time.
I must also talk about good company. I have very few, but the good ones fill the gap in my chest. You and I, for example, have had a working relationship for years, and I have been there for you too, in a relationship of great respect, of love. The simple fact of supporting you (a comment, a timely visit…) speaks of our friendship.
The bad company I discard, the good company I take care of.
14ymedio/Jorge Fernández Era. It is remarkable your insistence on keeping a deep, analytical and critical humor. Aren’t you afraid that the censorship will try to “fry” you in a different kettle of fish… at Otto’s Place?
Otto Ortiz. My humor is more analytical than critical, more analytical than deep. When you go too deep, you can go too far. The subject of ESEN has helped me to criticize from a joking point of view, but without reaching the point of excessive mockery. It’s a good way to joke, but always rubbing salt in the wound with. As Martí puts it: bells on the end, but with a whip.
I have not had the pressure of censorship. I’m not from the media, which is where there can be more fear
I have not had the pressure of censorship. I am not from the media, which is where there can be more fear, because people are officially working and with many criteria. On social media, I do more critical humor, with a certain dose of sarcasm, and people like it. I’ve been lucky with that, without a Torquemada or censor. That’s good, isn’t it?
I joke a lot with the current situation, I try not to miss anything. We live in a society that changes daily, you can’t wait until tomorrow for a joke, because it’s gone. I try to give it a humorous twist while still criticizing, but at the same time I try not to stop suggesting, sometimes just for fun, but it’s there.
I just made a joke about how they were giving candies instead of coins for change (in the store) on the corner of 3rd and 70th. Those kinds of clips don’t last a minute, people consume them well. I also do a repertoire that goes beyond criticism, with the theme of Cubanism, father-son, husband-wife relationships. But criticism must always be present in humor. If we criticized more, it would be better for us, for the country, for society. That’s why I’ll be there, even if I am “fried” in a different kettle of fish… or “baked” at Otto’s Place.
Translated by LAR
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