Mate in hand, in a muscle shirt and sports shorts,
Facundo Morales (38)
starts the morning of a hot day in
Córdoba
that appears loaded.
Those moments, before noon, are generally the only ones he can take advantage of to enjoy the nature of the mountains.
What's next on his itinerary are shows everywhere.
And even more so in summer, high season for any artist.
That life immersed by family mandate in the collective seems distant, a place where he discovered magic from a young age.
"If they yell at me Facundo in the street, I won't even turn around."
This explains how his nickname,
Magician Coco
, became part of his identity and his letter of introduction to today dazzling with his tricks throughout the transatlantic province.
His stage name came out unexpectedly, during a meeting with friends and because of an innocent question.
"I was already studying magic. I asked a stupid question and he told me 'you're a dry coconut, how are you going to ask that, now we're going to call you Magician Coco.'"
Under that nickname, the tourist city of
Mina Clavero
adopted it 10 years ago, when he decided to take a radical turn in his life with the help of
that hobby that ended up becoming his job.
It all started when he was just 11 years old and
accompanied his father on
bus line 71, which ran between Villa Adelina and Plaza Once.
But there was something that amazed Facundo more than the simple fact of accompanying him for a few laps on some route.
That charismatic boy always waited for a particular stop, the one where
a magician would get on
and entertain the passengers for a few minutes.
When he grew up, his father passed on his passion for
bondi
to him and he became an inspector.
However, he never stopped remembering that magician who intrigued him and awakened all his senses.
So it was that at the age of 20 he began studying with
Adrián Guerra
, world champion of magic.
Some time later, one morning he was walking through the streets of the center of the Buenos Aires town of
San Fernando
- where he grew up - and a sign shook his drowsiness.
She stopped and looked at him carefully.
"Coming soon: magic school," she prayed.
He knocked on the door and, paradoxically, Javier Bernigaud, a professor at the same War School who had become independent, answered him.
He took advantage and continued learning about the practices of occult science there, until he received an invitation that marked his career.
It was when another colleague who did
children's shows
asked him: "Can you cover me?"
At first, he hesitated.
"He convinced me when he showed me his show. He had pigeons, rabbits... and for me it was incredible. From there I dedicated myself to children's magic," Magician Coco tells
Clarín
.
Until he was 25, his life was divided between groups and magic.
Until a proposal ended up being the signal to dedicate himself fully to his passion since he was little.
"The sister of a friend of mine opened a party hall in Boulogne and offered me a permanent job there."
The help of Furia's brother, from Big Brother
Big Brother Fury.
Magician Coco says that
Ezequiel Scaglione
, Furia's brother - the controversial participant in the current edition of "Big Brother" - made him take off in a fortuitous way.
"I still had stage fright, like fear. And
Queque
, a lifelong neighbor and friend, allowed me to take the first step to break that ice. He was a DJ and entertained parties. One day he told me 'come on, Coco, get your act together.' things and come work with me.' That's where I started and I didn't stop," he says.
That "I didn't stop anymore" included everything from street shows to being hired for private events and even participating in plays at the popular Carlos Paz.
Last year, even, the play in which he participated ("Argentinísimos") won the revelation award.
The summer season in 2015 will forever be marked in Coco's memory.
After a year working in her friend's salon and doing shows in public areas, such as plazas, and many others at private events, the young man from San Fernando was going on vacation to Mina Clavero.
That city of Córdoba had become his refuge years ago to go to rest and disconnect a little from the daily routine.
In December 2014 she left for Traslasierra and had an idea:
extend her stay and try her luck
.
So she asked the owner of the house where she rented if she would extend the contract until March.
His idea was to spend the entire season to see if practicing magic there would be profitable.
And what if it was.
"All my life I wanted to come here, but I didn't know what was going to happen to me," admits Facundo, who settled in in a handful of days because on January 5 he obtained municipal permission to start working as a magician.
The adaptation was quick and even led him to go on tour on behalf of the province to, among other things, promote the rally, one of the attractions that brings together tourists from different parts of the planet.
"At some point I think about what I would be doing, where I would be. My last time working in Buenos Aires was in Plaza Once. And I went from that madness to this. Sometimes I think why I didn't come sooner," reflects Facundo, who also had a step as a footballer in two promotion clubs: Central Ballester and Excursionistas.
From the other side of the pitch, football gave him another funny anecdote.
It was when - already living in Córdoba - he traveled to Buenos Aires to see his friend
Martín Garay
, born in Mina Clavero and current Tigre player, who was wearing the Estudiantes shirt at the time.
"In the middle of the audience one yelled at me 'Mago Coco, what are you doing here'. Everyone laughed. It was the friend of a friend of mine who had known me since I was a child," he recalled, while separating his clothes for the upcoming shows.