Gabi Jugaru

“Tiny” Jugaru was born on the 25.04.1967 in Onesti, Bacau County. His childhood spent in his parents’ house in Bogdanesti, a village situated 8 km far from Onesti on the European road Onesti-Brasov, marked him for the rest of his life…in a good sense!

The inherited humor from his father, Eugen Neculai, but also the acidity of the Moldavian language, inherited from his mother, Maria, who was a primary teacher in his native village, helped him along the way throughout his life.

Aged 10 he confronts life, living at the boarding Highschool Mihail Sadoveanu in Iasi during the V-th grade. Unfortunately, the pulmonary cancer his father was suffering of, determined the parents to continue living in Bogdanesti, so that Gabita comes back in the VI-th grade at the General School Nr. 5 in Onesti, where he has as class teacher the late painter and culture men Prof Gh. Mocanu. The influence of this teacher on artistic sense of the pupil Jugaru remains everlasting.

The gymnasium graduate Jugaru participates at the admission exam for the high school with electronic profile “Tehnoton” in Iasi, where he is accepted as first on the list, and continues living in that boarding high school and brings the city of Iasi again to the attention of the humor fans in Romania. At the beginning of the 80’s, after getting acquainted to the life in the suburb, the “despair” of the parents, especially of his mother, he reached the limit … The transformation of Gabi from “mother’s boy!” into an adolescent anytime capable of taking care of himself was already ended. Exactly that’s why, the parent’s excitement was great when he had to sit for the second degree exam, which “the little one” passed … being again on top of the list!

Again emotions also for the admission exam at the Automatic and Computer Faculty, where he was accepted „at first”, at evening courses, because Jugaru immediately started working after the „school leaving examination”, in order to have his “own money”!

During faculty he flirted with absolutely everything what was connected to the student life, at that time: party’s, disco, shows … but this didn’t last too long!

At the age of 21, he becomes father for the first time: Roxana – Nona was born.

The struggle for survival during the communist period had been pretty tuff, so that during the “revolution”, Gabi Jugaru (starts voluntaries in whole mass-media) started working as a volunteer in the field of mass-media..

The newspaper “The student’s opinion” was the first contact with this craft. In the first weeks he sold newspapers, collected the necessary money for the printing of next day … together with enthusiastic people like him, among them Daniel Condurachi, being the first journalist-model for Jugaru.

From here, the media “octapus” grabs him with its tentacle: radio at Radio Vox’T, first private radio in Romania, on 13 march 1990. 3 years of voluntariate follow…First “job” paied: Radio Europa Nova in Iasi.

From radio to TV there were only 3 months: Tv Europa Nova is the first television hosts the unmistakable face of Jugaru and his first column: “Dume video”, a broadcast in which the candid camera … was at its place, and the hoaxes were unimaginable!

In parallel, he also starts the activity with the humor student group “Syringe” in Iasi, and wins awards at the festivals in the country for 4 years and brings the city of Iasi again to the attention of the humor fans in Romania. The shows held on the alleys of the student campuses in Iasi together with Marius, Luci, George, Nicu si Madalina, the colleagues from the Syringe, used to trigger a huge laughter appetite to everyone who came to see them weekly.

The laughter appetite of the joking Jugaru leaves its mark also on all radio listeners in Iasi, no matter if the preferred radio station was called Radio Nord-Est, Radio Hit, Radio Contact or Radio Iasi, for  the latter and Radio Hit being … editor-reporter at the information department … or better said, a newsmen!

On the 11.11.2001, Jugaru became father for the second time, Dana, Gabi’s second wife, giving birth to Miruna-Elena, the physical resemblance of the two sisters been amazing!

Being a rebel who could not stand censorship at all, but preferred continuously self-censorship, he did not make “roots” too long in one place! Between the necessary breaks taken switching from one radio station to the other, the radio editions Ga-Ga organized by Jugaru in Iasi, which represented a cover for socialization of those having more or less brand-self-pride…, remain unforgettable.

After having tried his luck without too much success in this field of  “little entrepreneurs”, after a break of more than one year, starting with 2003, he returned to mass-media, to the despair of those who thought him “dead”… and not anywhere, but at the “new born” KissFm. And not anyhow, but called “to fight” along the querulous Serban Huidu. The collaboration offered by Serban extends also to TV, where, after a year and a half, on the initiative of Vlad Sterescu, also Taurus as sign of the zodiac as Gabi, Jugaru started the show which was to make him famous: “The farces of Jugaru”.

The farces attract with them another show produced by the same Vlad Sterescu, a person who trusts Jugaru very much, “Cash Taxi” becoming a TV contest according after the model of the querulous “driver-presenter”, very viewed and appreciated by the viewers aged between primary school and those retired!

At the end of 2006, Jugaru accepted the invitation from PRO TV to sit at the negociations table. So, the hand shaken with the station in Pache Protopopescu brought him an even greater popularity, Shukaru being very fast assimilated by all Romanians, so that he was often confused with his real name Jugaru….At ProTv, Gabi found the necessary resources and the freedom needed for “playing” the way it should be played so that his jokes should be of quality, according to the taste of a nation so fooled and farced, at the same time!

Along the time, he flirted also with other publications from written media: Gaudeamus, Iasi Univers, Men’s Health.

On the musical level, he is about to enter the studio with an album of pop-rock music, but he has found his greatest joy in forming a „team” with the help of Ionica Minune, the king of accordion (who also coopted George Udila, Cristinel Turturica, Tudorel Paganini, Tomita Zaharia and Leonard Vasile), to bring the fiddler’s music back to its place.

Jugaru also reserves many surprises for the future.