Tangalanga hits 91 as if it were 19 and is about to call you

There are now few people in Buenos Aires who don’t know Mr. de Rizio, that is, Dr. Tanglanga, and you might even have received a call recently from some guy messing up your Sunday afternoon nap with a serious sounding hoax and a very generous and well delivered handful of earthy insults. You’d think he’d give up on his youthful pranks, because on November 22 he’ll celebrate his 92nd birthday--but not in the least--he do it with yet another show! The doctor has won fame (we can leave the glory aspect of that expression out for the moment) throughout Latin America for this phoney phone calls, during which he pummels dry verbal insults against inept or unscrupulous service providers, for example, quak healers, tarot card charlatans, butchers with lazy thumbs, builders who don’t think the sky is the limit.

Dr. Tangalanga hasn’t had the kind of love ups-and-downs that most people nowadays have, as 66 years ago he married his neighborhood girlfriend, a woman who has stayed quietly in the background. Way back in the 1960’s he was yet another executive at Colgate-Palmolive company. A few years later, bedridden with hepatitis, he discovered how fun and healthy it could be calling anyone in the telephone book and posing as somebody he wasn’t, insulting them, then calling back to sort of make up...His deadpan approach and gravitas as he spouted pure nonsense caught on rapidly. Before long record companies were hard after him--he has a trio of books published and some 41 cassettes or CDs.

of tango records looking for a bogus recording called, "How Deep Can the Ravine Be if the Frog Climbs it at a Trot?" Nobody could locate that, so the collector and his wife agreed to take it up with other tango buffs. Dr. Tangalanga’s punch line: "Yes, all  of them will have to come together and asphyxiate themselves." The collector’s wife: "Of course, of course."

There is a social aspect of the prankster’s activities. For many years he spent tow or three days a week as a volunteer visiting people in hospitals. He says his telephone calls has helped keep him healthy--he has suffered numerous sicknesses.

Besides working from time to time at weddings or anniversaries, he has one big yearly show...although he has let it be known that the last has arrived, he certainly will organize something for his upcomming birthday. If you want to check out his activities, you might write Matt Moffett at [e-mail] or página oficial de Dr. Tangalanga at http://www.tangalanga.com