Raúl Solnado

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Raul Solnado, GCIH (Raúl is wrong spelling) (born October 19, 1929 in Lisbon, Portugal) is one of the most cherished Portuguese actors, and one of the top comedians in the country. He was born in the neighbourhood known as Madragoa, where he also first ‘tasted’ a stage. Throughout the years he developed a wide set of comic pieces, which today are undeniable classics.

His humour was, at the time (and regarding the fact that Portugal was still under Salazar’s dictatorial regime), both unexpected and fresh. It included a lot of nonsense, and such as nowadays famous comedians, like Jerry Seinfeld, he mostly used stories based in (or making fun of) anybody’s daily life.

He basically played the part of some ingenuous, poor man, whose life wasn’t that good...but didn’t seem very bad, either, partially because he spoke of his character’s dwellings with incredible conviction and humour, as if he was the character himself. In front of live audiences, he kept interacting with people, asking for them to be quiet, or to simply shut up. His best statements include pieces written by him (such as "Ida ao médico", translated as something like "At the doctor") and others based on Spanish comedian Miguel Gila’s material (“A guerra de 1908” / “The war of 1908” and “História da minha vida” / “The story of my life”). Here are some excerpts:

As a first-time patient in hospital, addressing to a nurse (from “At the doctor”):

“[...] all I want you to do for me is getting me a nice private room. Well, there she went on her way to speak to the owner of the hospital, and they were terribly nice; they got me a huge private room, lots of space, very nice...and just to keep me company, they put eighty five more patients inside the room! [...]”

He once described himself as a “laughter factory”, and he was recently awarded with the golden medal of the city of Lisbon, as a career achievement award due to his artistic life’s 50th birthday. He’s indeed worthy of all compliments that can possibly be given to someone with so much talent and ability to amuse people.