Pepe Carroll, the forgotten magician who discovered Chiquito

Pepe Carroll, the artist life ran over

In Spain's collective memory, Pepe Carroll occupies the space fame leaves behind when it fades: none. He died more than twenty years ago, and most people found out decades late. Of a heart attack, they say. Thin as a candle, which makes the picture even stranger.

He was no mere comedian. He was a magician, and a good one. Tamariz himself made a point of explaining it in detail: Carroll had a stage presence few could match. What audiences remembered as a stray joke was sleight-of-hand technique.

His greatest contribution is called Chiquito de la Calzada. It was on "Saque Bola" that Carroll discovered him and launched him. Lines still floating around dinner tables survive: "Sigue, Arturo, que estás triunfando" ("Keep going, Arturo, you're making it big"), "bonita corbata, ¿tuviste que comprar 10 porque no tenían cambio de 1000?" ("nice tie, did you have to buy 10 because they had no change for 1000?") and "buena memoria, Arturo, buena memoria" ("good memory, Arturo, good memory").

Life was not generous to him either. He lost his mother and his partner, two blows some use to explain that whole idea of "life running him over." Others, more skeptical, wonder whether misfortune is measured in accumulated tragedies.

And the unsettling fact: the man who discovered Chiquito, the magician Tamariz respected, died young, thin and largely forgotten. Fame on television is a temporary contract nobody renews. He had to watch it from the other side.