Paulo Barros says he thought of retiring from Carnival, but turned back: ‘I rescued the joy’

With two weeks left for the parades of the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro, Paulo Barros, 62, says he is happy. After a period of discouragement, the carnival found the joy of creating grandiose and impactful parades.

“Maybe that’s why I said that this plot is my life, because I rescued my own life,” he says about “the more I pray, the more haunt it appears,” which he developed for Vila Isabel. Only in the car opens class, than a ghost train, the F5 It has learned that 200 members of the school will come.

Completing 32 years of career, the former flight attendant, born in the municipality of Nilópolis (but who never worked at Beija-Flor), says that the idea for the parade came from a suggestion, as happened with the cultivated “is secret “Unidos da Tijuca in 2010 (the first of four titles he won), and that the process of creation always involves research and intuition.

Its differential, he believes, is to print his own brand so as not to be “one more”. “If I didn’t bring something that was mine, it would be alive. What holds the chair is what you do, what you create, what you cause,” he explains.

To the F5Barros says he has thought to stop, but today has ambitious plans besides the avenue. He wants to create a show on Brazilian popular culture, but regrets the lack of resources. “Everything is mounted on my head, but these things cost a lot of money,” he comments.

Check out the main excerpts of the interview below.

How did the idea of “The more I pray, the more haunting it appears”, Your third consecutive plot in Vila Isabel?

It was developed from a suggestion. I was suggested to talk about haunts, and when people suggest me themes, I stop, I think and run after. In 2010, exactly that happened. A boy arrived and said, “You could talk about secrets.” Oops! There is something there! So I started researching and set up the plot.

So the plot came from a suggestion …

Yes. But it is a plot, obviously, created and developed within my ideas. I set up an imaginary trip that we are doing through a ghost train.

You started as a carnival in 1993, in the neighboring Faladeira, and are completing 32 years of career. How do you keep excitement?

I always had a lot of affection, dedication and horny for carnival, but from 2018, 2019 here, until last year, this joy had ceased. I was very sad with myself and didn’t understand this sadness. We always seek to attribute responsibility and blame to things that are not ours. You are creating a black cloud on your head and I even said you were tired and you didn’t want it anymore.

What happened?

One person gave me a reality shock. He said, “The problem is nobody. The problem is you, who is putting this sadness over your spirit.” That was at the beginning of last year. The mistake was with me, the sadness was mine, not from school or someone else. You have to look in the mirror and make a reflection: “React!”.

Didn’t you seek help from a psychologist or therapy?

No no. Thank God, I didn’t need to. The shock I took made me wake up, and soon after, this plot of haunts appeared. I rescued joy again and I’m happy in life. Maybe that’s why I said that this was the plot of my life, because I rescued my own life, got it?

When it started in 1993, Did you expect where you arrived? Did you think it would become one of the most important carnivals of Rio Carnival?

Look, I don’t put myself in a prominent place or I think, “Wow, I’m a watershed, I made myself.” Did you see that picture there? [Ele aponta para uma reportagem emoldurada.] Boni wrote: “The man who revolutionized the carioca carnival.” I have never seen myself in a situation, “I’ll get there because I want to revolutionize Carnival.”

How did you see yourself?

When I started, I did carnival based on the following: I like it, I love it and I think that’s what I want to make my life. But from 2003 to 2004, when I went to Unidos da Tijuca, I sat down and thought I needed a strategy. I would compete with another 14, 15 or 16 carnivals. I learned from them all, but I knew I needed to print something that was mine. If not, I would be discarded, just one more.

The strategy was to be different?

Exactly. I didn’t want to be compared or seen as one more, got it? So it was a strategy to keep me, to score and secure my space. I saw and still see many carnivals who can’t hold the position. And for me, what keeps my place is what I do, I create and causa. My feeling when doing carnival is creating diverse emotions in people. Anyone who pays admission wants to laugh, cry, jump, scream, have fun and get emotional. I try to capture all these sensations and put them in my parade.

Your plots are more futuristic, Hollywood … you don’t make indigenous, religious themes …

(interrupting) I don’t like it. I think it’s a bag because it’s a ready recipe. Nothing against, I have all the respect. I find beautiful cultural plots and, in this now, 98% of the characters are Brazilian, such as Boitatá, Curupira, Saci-Pererê and Werewolf. But people always think I’m making a plot looking for something Hollywood. There is none of that.

What plot does you consider unforgettable?

If you ask me what my favorite float, I tell you about 20 or 30. If you ask what my favorite plot, I have several. There is no “that” because each one caused me a kind of joy and feeling. “It’s a secret!” [que lhe rendeu o primeiro campeonato, em 2010, pela Unidos da Tijuca] It gave me the feeling of conquest. The plot of Portela [em homenagem a Paulinho da Viola] brought the championship to school after 30 years and here comes the sense of accomplishment. Others have not squeezed at the trial or to the public, but it fucks me, for me, became icons of my career.

Which one?

What I did here at Vila Isabel in 2018 [“Corra que o Futuro Vem Aí”]. It was a plot about the future and inventions and, for me, was one of the best in terms of fantasies. They were super detonated by this cafajeste media of the bubble carnival, understand? But fuck, I still think that parade fed my soul. From time to time, I watch him.

Do you still sleep in the shed?

I slept a lot and turned the night. Today, I don’t do this anymore because we have to be aware that we need a quieter life. Four years ago, I stressed and thought, “Calm down, Paulo. Hold the wave and every thing in his place, in his time.”

At least relax on the day of the parade?

It is the worst day of my life (laughs). I am someone else. It’s not close to me … I don’t see anything, I don’t know who’s on my side.

But we see you jumping and sambad at the end of the parade ...
Oh, yes … after the last car comes in, my stress is over. I get there in that damn curve to enter Sapucaí watching the school to enter and attentive to prevent someone from making any shit. And there is always someone wanting to get in there that is not to get in. So I am there from bodyguard bodyguards. Tense.

And do you still have a lot of firewood to burn? Or do you think about retiring?

If you asked me this two years ago, I would say I had already burned everything. I really wanted to throw a bucket of water in the wood and go home. Today, I tell you that I’m already buying a new wood truck.