The Canarian artist was the father of characters like Alexis and Carmelito
Alexis, that dog-killing boy but with a good heart, and Carmelito, combing his gray hair with sarcasm, weep inconsolably over the death of the one who, with his ingenuity, made them part of the collective memory. And it is that the laughter has given way to widespread crying after the death, at the age of 73, of the humorist of Gran Canaria Manuel Domingo Vieira Montesdeoca, Manolo Viera for all.
The artist from La Isleta, a neighborhood he always carried in his heart and which largely inspired many of the stories and characters that elevated him to the category of humor myth, has become a benchmark for the new generations for decades of comedians.
Manolo Vieira was a forward thinking player who knocked down complexes. With the insular accent and vocabulary as his flag, he conquered audiences from all over Spain, who surrendered at his feet in the various tours he played on throughout his career. Without going further, the artist managed to spend 18 months of season in such an emblematic place of Madrid as Florida Park in 1986.
Manolo Vieira is currently saying goodbye to the stage in full regalia with the show ‘La última y nos vamos’. The tour started in late 2022 at its old venue in Las Palmas, El Chistera, which reopened after the pandemic, and planned to tour much of the archipelago until next spring.
Last Friday he had to interrupt a scheduled appearance at the wrestling ground in the Lanzarote town of Tías because he felt unwell at Gran Canaria airport before flying. He was admitted and, although shortly after being released from hospital, his health deteriorated again in recent hours until his death on Wednesday evening.
On stage, Manolo Vieira easily put the audience in his pocket. His stories up close, from the street, with a white and ironic humor and sometimes with anecdotes from a near past that managed to explain the present of many generations, he managed to build a unique career on the islands. In recent years, he has also become a luxury guest in a large number of Canarian homes during the Christmas period.
Every New Year’s Eve, Televisión Canaria broadcast a special program featuring one of its performances from that same year that called thousands of islanders to the small screen as an endearing prelude to eating the grapes with accompanying chimes.
He previously starred in the humorous and family series ‘La Revoltosa’, the two seasons of which were broadcast in 2010 and 2012 respectively, also on Televisión Canaria and he gave life to the program ‘Esta noche pago yo’ with great success.
One of his last screen appearances is awaiting release. This is the second feature film by Armando Ravelo from Gran Canaria, entitled ‘Once upon a time in the Canary Islands’. In this fiction, the protagonist, a young African woman named Nola, learned to speak Spanish in her hometown while watching performances by Manolo Vieira on YouTube. Several scenes of the movie were even filmed at the Top Hat, with the intervention of the comedian from La Isleta, father of three daughters.
Music was also one of his passions, which was reflected in his bolero album ‘Autores y amores’, which he released in 2004. The records and old cassettes of popular comedy shows like ‘The last one to go out, turn off the light’, ‘Get out of there’, ‘Laughter’, ‘Today is not Monday’ and ‘Manolo Vieira is written with b girl’ include a classic that delighted its fans for many years. The same ones who have been orphaned since last night because of the departure of this genius of humor, Gold Medal of the Canary Islands in 2002, the same day that the Cabildo de Gran Canaria announced the award of the title of Favorite Son of Gran Canaria .
Source: La Verdad
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