Ignatius Farray: his real name, the disease he suffers from and his confrontation with Pérez-Reverte

There are several comedians in this country who are easily recognizable for their style and quirky humor, and one of them is Ignatius Farray. At 49 years old, he has been the winner of the Ondas award in 2018 and in the same year he was nominated for an International Emmy.

Ignatius Farray is the stage name of Juan Ignacio Delgado Alemany, a humorist, actor and screenwriter from Tenerife born in 1973. He studied Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid and later moved to London to learn the British style and try his luck as a stand-up stand-up.

From the beginning, it was steeped in comedians like Faemino and Tired or other Americans like Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Andy Kaufman or Lenny Bruce.

Why is he called Ignatius Farray?

Ignacio chose this stage name thanks to his Music teacher in high school. He himself has revealed on several occasions that he referred to him as Ignatius, since he thought he looked like Ignatius O’Reilly, the novel’s protagonist. The conjuing of the ceciuos. In an interview with The Spanish, recounted the beautiful relationship they had had: He himself lent me the copy of the novel and it was the first book I read. For this reason, instead of Ignacio I wore Ignatius for the performances”.

In addition, they spent many nights together at school watching movies: “I used to tell my father, I’m going to sleep with the teacher. We took the teacher’s room, he lay on a sofa and I on another, we covered ourselves with her blankets and we dedicated that night to watching movies “.

The reason for using Farray is simpler: is his father’s second last name: “I was a rally driver, Javier Farray was always called in the car and for sentimental reasons I wanted to give myself that last name artistically, which is still my third last name.”

His first monologues

After returning from London in 2001, he had the opportunity to give his first monologue in a contest, although it did not go as well as I had hoped: “I came here eager to try it. At that time, in addition, stand-up comedy was in fashion in Spain. I remember there was a stand-up contest in a bar and I introduced myself. I was last, it was a total failure, but I liked it so much that I couldn’t sleep that night. A hook that I took that I said to myself: ‘I’m going to do this for the rest of my life'”.

In 2003 he appeared for the first time on television in the program New Comedians and a year later they hired him as a collaborator in relentless nightpresented by Dani Mateo.

During these years, he has participated in many programs like this style The funny hour, Muchachada Nui, Coconut Museum, among others.

His triumph in comedy

Since 2014, it is in the program radiophonic Modern lifewhich ended in 2022. Currently, it is in The resistance and Late Motiv.

Beyond this, he has participated in films such as My big night (2015), in which he collaborated as an actor but also a screenwriter. He even had a role in the popular series Paquita Salas.

Ignatius has also written two books: Live like a pauper, dance like a king (2020) and The bug that eats itself (2021). About the first, he revealed for The Spanish that he had had an unexpected success “It has been more successful than I expected. When it came out, which was curiously the same day that Pérez Reverte’s last novel came out, they were the two best-selling books in Spain. Right now in biography I am on the podium next to the King’s Juan Carlos and that of Barack Obama. I joke that I am between good and evil.”

The heart disease he suffers

The comedian has never had a problem talking about his health problems and one of them is that he suffers Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a complicated heart disease. Only 1 in 500 people have it and it especially affects athletes. This causes them to suffer sudden death.

Her main problem is that no symptoms, so it is difficult to detect it if you do not go to the doctor. He himself confessed that his father died of this because at the time there was not as much information as there is now.

During a program The resistanceIgnatius came with a bandage that held a holter and explained: “I come from the hospital, nothing serious is wrong with me, but I have to take it for 24 hours to record cardiac activity.”

His anxiety attacks and withdrawal from the stage

However, his health problems are not only physical, but also psychological. At the end of 2021, he acknowledged that he was in the middle of psychiatric treatment for serious anxiety and drinking problems. This had meant that he had to interrupt his shows and his participation in programs.

When he returned to Modern life At the beginning of 2022, he recounted how this whole process had been. “When people thank me, tell me that they like me a lot or that I’m special, it’s where I sink My anxiety is for not being up to par,” he clarified.

“The best thing for me is to walk without stopping. Wandering is my natural state. As soon as I stop, there Doubts begin and everything goes through me. Going nowhere I cope with myself,” he said with a laugh.

“Just as the volcano went off, so did my anxiety“, he detailed in a metaphor about the La Palma volcano that erupted in 2021.

His confrontation with Pérez-Reverte

His acid and peculiar humor has caused several controversies and confrontations and one of them was with Perez-Reverte. In 2018, he revealed that he had found out that the writer met a man who looked like him on the street and asked him why he called him ‘facha’.

Days later, Pérez-Reverte uploaded a tweet to this social network about Star Wars and the Civil Guard and the comedian wanted to respond. “Last night a guy with a lightsaber stopped me and I asked him:” Does the Jedi give them to you or do you buy them yourselves with the galactic salary? “… And he replied:” You don’t even need to blow. Give me the documentation and get out of the car,” the message said.

Ignatius’s response was: “entertain meclown”. This made the writer very angry, who ended up blocking him on Twitter.

Acid humor, sincerity and a lot of vulnerability. These are some of the traits that define the Canarian comedian and that have led him to be one of the great comedians in the country.