“Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.”
(Sid Caesar)
“Ridi si sapis, said Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis.) “Mirth is necessary to wisdom.”
(H.L. Mencken)
“There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth.”
( Victor Borge)
“Satire: The truth grinning in a solemn canting world.”
(Gore Vidal)
“My best memories of Cuba make me sad. Cuba is a country that no longer exists, even if I was born there.”
“I have no nostalgia [for Cuba]. I lived in Cuba during its most splendid moments. When we first arrived in exile, we recalled Cuba too often and every Nochebuena we dreamed of returning with that “next year in Cuba.” Too many Nochebuenas have passed to continue waiting for that. Today, after seeing the situation in Cuba and meeting the people from there now coming here, honestly, I have no interest whatsoever in returning.“
(Guillermo Alvarez Guedes)
Guillermo Alvarez Guedes is widely hailed as the best humorist of the historic Cuban exile, because he always hit the spot. Like all successful humorists he always seemed to exactly plumb his audience’s thoughts…
Alvarez Guedes on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/alvarez-guedes-vol.-1/id117980404
Sadly, Alvarez Guedes was right: what now passes for Cuba is a very different animal. The Cuba supplanted by it is extinct, at least on the island. If it ever returns, it won’t be in our lifetime. It will take the disappearance of all those infected by the Castro poison to bring it back, assuming that’s even possible.