Comedians strike a chord in Cuba

Humor highlights daily problems faced by people on Caribbean island

Panfilo, the elderly protagonist in a weekly show on Cuban television, has a broken water pipe in his house. When the city repair worker says it'll take six months to fix, Panfilo bribes her with a bottle of shampoo and the repair is made the following day.

The audience bursts into laughter when the worker shows up in the next scene with her hair fried by Panfilo's shampoo, stolen from parts unknown and adulterated with mystery chemicals.

A new wave of Cuban comedians is drawing big broadcast audiences and huge live crowds, using biting humor to take on corruption, shortages, government inefficiency and other everyday problems.

Comedian Luis Silva plays Panfilo, a senior citizen at the center of a circle of friends and family on the Monday night show Vivir del Cuento, which roughly translates as "Surviving By Your Wits".

Cuba doesn't release ratings information, but Vivir del Cuento is the closest Cuban TV comes to water-cooler popularity.

On Tuesday mornings, Cubans discuss the jokes from the previous evening's show. Fans pack clubs and theaters in Havana and other cities for live shows by Silva and comedians with similarly acerbic styles, often waiting for hours to buy 20-peso (75-cent) tickets.

Silva "speaks to the social reality of our country with humor", teacher Yahima Morales said as she left a live show in Havana late last month. "He doesn't cover things up. He makes us think, and I hope he makes the people in power in this country think, too."

The jokes resonate deeply with Cubans frustrated by petty corruption, scarcity of many goods and the poor quality of even the most basic staples.

In a recent live show, Panfilo joked about US customs agents confiscating state-baked rolls he was bringing to his sister in Miami, testing them for traces of drugs and explosives. They found nothing suspicious, but couldn't believe the products were really bread.

"How am I supposed to tell this guy that we actually eat this stuff?" Panfilo asked, as the audience broke into laughter.

Still, the jokes of Silva and his fellow comedians don't even approach the truly harsh, and often deeply dirty, jokes that Cubans direct at each other in daily life.

The comedians, like many Cuban artists, work under the formal oversight of the state, in their case for the Ministry of Culture's 20-year-old Humor Promotion Center, which supervises their contracts with performance venues. The comedians were declared tax-exempt last year, meaning they can keep all of their earnings, but that benefit may not be permanent, said Enrique Quinones, director of the Humor Promotion Center.