Chacrinha

José Abelardo Barbosa de Medeiros (September 30, 1917 – June 30, 1988), better known as Chacrinha , was a Brazilian comedian, radio and TV personality. His career was at its peak from 1950 to 1980. He was author of a famous Brazilian phrase that states: "Na televisão, nada se cria, tudo se copia" ("In television, nothing is created, everything is copied"). Famous Brazilian celebrities made their debut on his show, such as Roberto Carlos and Raul Seixas.

He began as a radio presenter, and then enjoyed great success and inspired controversy with his anarchic sense of humor while hosting many TV shows on Globo and other networks in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He would interrupt the musical numbers of major stars, blow a horn like Harpo Marx while poking fun at guests and throw codfish to the audience.

Biography

Childhood Chacrinha was born in Surubim, Pernambuco. At the age of 10, he moved with his family to Campina Grande, Paraiba. At the age of 17, he went to the capital of Pernambuco, Recife to study. He was admitted to medical school in 1936 and in 1937 he had his first contact with radio at radio Clube Pernambuco, when he gave a speech about alcoholism. Chacrinha, besides several financial crisis in his family throughout his life, had a peaceful childhood.

Beginning of career In Recife, the starting point of his career, he finished his studies and everything seemed to point medical school for his future. Because he did not want to spend a year in the military, he falsified his date of birth on his identification document and ended up at Tiro de Guerra, a Brazilian military institution. After this experience, he started playing drums. Two years after beginning his medical studies, in 1938, he was saved by graduate colleagues from severe appendicitis. While still recovering from the surgery, he, as a percussionist at the group Bando Academico, decided to travel as a musician in a ship called Bage, heading to Germany. However, on that day in 1939, the Second World War forced him to cancel his plans and land at Brazil's then capital, Rio de Janeiro. There, he became a speaker at Rádio Tupi. In 1943, he started a Carnival music show called Rei Momo na Chacrinha ("King Momo at the Farm") at Radio Fluminense, which became very successful. He was from then on known as Abelardo "Chacrinha" Barbosa. In the 1950s he would command several successful shows, in which he released various successes in the genre of Brazilian music. In one of his shows, Cassino do Chacrinha ("Chacrinha's Casino"), he pretended, with sounds and noises, to be throwing big parties and would make people expect big releases. the Brazilian MPB singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil included an homage to Chacrinha, writing "Chacrinha keeps on swinging his belly and honking his horn at the girls...Hello, hello, Mr. Chacrinha, old warrior."

In film On October 30, 2009, a documentary film about Chacrinha was released in Brazil. The film, directed by Brazilian filmmaker Nélson Hoineff, was titled Alô Alô Terezinha (a nonsense expression constantly cited by Chacrinha in his TV shows).

"Chacrinha, o Velho Guerreiro" a biopic directed by Andrucha Waddington, was released in 2018, with Stepan Nercessian in the title role.