Enrico Vaime, father of the television variety, died

On Sunday evening, at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, he died Enrico Vaime, putative father of variety, radio and television. 85 years old, he would have been ill for about two years, as he explained Maurizio Costanzo, his longtime friend, atAnsa. “We were a good group, me, Enrico, Marcello Marchesi, Italo Terzoli. Those were the years of great variety shows, of RaiUno’s Saturday evenings. Enrico was extraordinary, his figure was elegant irony. He was the most ironic person I have ever met, he guessed the disarming joke even in the face of a sensational fact.

Marcello Marchesi he said that when Enrico ran a finger down the collar of his shirt, he was about to come up with a joke. What to say? I feel more alone, it seems like a trench. On Wednesday I will start the new episode of Costanzo Show dedicating it to him “promised Maurizio Costanzo, recalling the artistic strength of a man who joined Rai in 1960 after winning a competition.

Then, one of the most prolific careers that the Italian show remembers began. Vaime, who most recently worked with Costanzo on TV, a It’s getting dark, would have signed a total of two hundred television shows, numerous radio programs (Black Out on Radio2), theatrical performances. He would write books, participate as a regular guest on several talk shows and define what would become one of the genres most loved by the general public: variety.

[I cretini non sono più quelli di una volta…] Poor us, without you. Thanks Enrico. I will miss everything. Everyone will miss you. #EnricoVaime

– Paola Cortellesi (@PaolaCortellesi) March 29, 2021

Over the years Vaime has written programs such as Those of Sunday, Canzonissima ’68 e ’69, Fantastic ’88, redefining the canons of television entertainment with an elegance and irony that would become his stylistic figures. Vaime’s humor, a life dedicated (also) to the artistic partnership with Italo Terzoli, became famous and, on the day of his death, made his way onto Twitter, where famous and did not try to remember his most famous jokes .