L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano SAN FRANCISCO ITALIAN COMMUNITY I magine a theatrical play and the art of liv- ing origami. Imagine them coming togeth- er through a perfor- mance able to bring multiple characters to life through extravagant costumes and paper masks. Ennio Mar- chetto: the Living Paper Cartoon is this and much m o r e . C o m i n g t o C l u b F u g a z i in San Francisco from January 10th to Febru- ary 5th, Ennio Marchetto will entertain the local audience with 70-minute daily shows in both the afternoon and the evening. Ennio Marchetto is an I t a l i a n a c t o r a s w e l l a s a comedian and cabaret artist, who started working with his collaborative partner Sos- then Hennekam, a Dutch fashion and costume design- e r , b a c k i n t h e ' 9 0 s . H e became an instant cult hit, booking multiple sell-out tours throughout the UK, a run in London's West End, and at some of the greatest festivals around the world. His appearance at the 1990 Edinburgh Fringe Festi- val was a big success and o p e n e d m a n y d o o r s . T h e c o m i c c a b a r e t p e r f o r m e r traveled around the five con- tinents; got nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment with G r a n a d a T e l e v i s i o n ; appeared at the first Euro- pean MTV Music Awards in Berlin; and ultimately per- formed with The Spice Girls, B r i a n A d a m s , a n d o t h e r a r t i s t s f o r H R H P r i n c e Charles at the Royal Variety Show, broadcast for the BBC. Marchetto morphs into parodies of popular charac- t e r s f r o m m u s i c , m o v i e s , works of art, and world lead- ers. The Mona Lisa, Marilyn Monroe, Adele, Freddie Mer- cury, Beyoncé, Lizzo, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, Diana Ross, Maria Callas, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Justin B i e b e r , D o l l y P a r t o n , Eminem, Bono, James Bond are just some of the people Marchetto brings on stage. His production came to San Francisco's Theatre on the Square in 2000, pro- duced by Jonathan Reinis, for a four-month engage- ment. Then, he returned to play the Napa Valley Opera House in 2003 and was pre- s e n t e d o n t h r e e s e p a r a t e occasions at Berkeley Reper- tory Theatre, most recently in 2008. We talked to Ennio a few days before his trip to Cali- fornia, learning all about the San Francisco tour in his own words. First of all, how would you describe Ennio Mar- chetto? I am a simple person. I w a s r a i s e d b y a f a m i l y expecting I'd follow in my dad's footsteps. He was an e s p r e s s o m a c h i n e r e p a i r engineer, however, I loved performing and I decided that would become my job. I was only twenty-eight when I first realized that. Thirty- four years in, I can say I was r i g h t . I t a k e m y s h o w s around the world and I am very happy with what I have done so far. T e l l u s a b i t m o r e about the beginning of your career. What was y o u r s t r a t e g y a t t h a t time? I worked by creating my o w n m a s k s . I a m f r o m Venice, where the Carnevale is a big deal for everyone. I used to perform outdoors with costumes I had made myself, not necessarily relat- e d t o t h e C o m m e d i a d e l - l'Arte, actually using charac- t e r s I h a d i n v e n t e d . T h e audience's reaction took me t o a t u r n i n g p o i n t i n m y career. People liked my per- formances and, by keeping on working, I improved and learned a lot. I never attend- ed a workshop, I am a self- learner who was able to cre- ate more than 500 characters in a 30-year career and man- aged to evolve over time. How did this journey a s a s e l f - m a d e a r t i s t i n f l u e n c e y o u a s a n actor? When you learn through self-study things are a bit dif- ferent. I brought my charac- ters straight to the street to interact with the audience. This allowed me to better understand what it takes to be successful and why the a u d i e n c e l i k e d m e . I d i d some auditions for Italian TV shows, the Maurizio Costan- zo Show just to name one. T h r o u g h o u t t h e ' 8 0 s , I worked on lavish costumes and masks, I performed in my first professional cabaret and won the Golden Lion and Mosquito Awards for comedy. W h o m o s t l y i n f l u - e n c e d y o u o v e r t h e years? Pina Bausch, the German dancer, had a big influence on my work because I love contemporary dance. I kept watching what she did and it gave me the right energy to get out there and perform. I a l s o l o v e B r i t i s h m i m e s , especially the ones from the '70s and the '80s. T e l l u s a b i t m o r e about your characters during the performance. I b r i n g s i x t y d i f f e r e n t characters in one hour's per- formance, almost a different character each minute. I'd define my show as exhilarat- ing and sparkling. Each char- acter comes on stage through a c o s t u m e : i t c a n b e a woman, a man, an animal; some of them are two-dimen- sional, some others three- dimensional. Behind each transition that brings a new character in front of the audi- ence, there's lots of prepara- tion. You need to think of a joke and understand how it might fit within the perfor- mance. Each gag must be coherent with the following one, to keep that momentum for both the performance and the audience. It may be easy to transition from a queen to another queen, less so when you want a skirt to become a motorbike. You have been to San Francisco before. What should we expect from this new tour? It's gonna be a one-month tour with twelve new charac- ters. It is going to be a bit dif- ferent from the last time. I love the people in San Fran- cisco and I got many friends here. I haven't been back in t e n y e a r s , t h a t ' s w h y w e t h o u g h t o f a n e w p e r f o r - m a n c e , w h i c h c a n b r i n g something more contempo- rary, including music and characters. This will be a s h o w f o r t h o s e w h o l o v e opera as well as pop music. W h a t u s u a l l y h a p p e n s i s that, in the first five, or ten minutes, people aren't sure what they got into. As time goes by, they warm up, they like surprises and to see how each costume and each mask are different from one anoth- er. After leaving the theater, many tell me that, thanks to my show, they temporarily forget life problems, embrace t h e p o w e r o f m u s i c , a n d enjoy the costumes, which are beautiful in shape and colors, just like the wigs I wear to create each charac- ter. E n n i o : t h e L i v i n g Paper Cartoon will be pre- sented January 10 – Febru- ary 5, 2023 at Club Fugazi, 678 Green St, San Francisco. For more information or to p u r c h a s e t i c k e t s , g o t o clubfugazisf.com or call (415) 273-0600. SERENA PERFETTO Marchetto as the Pope (Photo: Ennio Marchetto) "Ennio: the Living Paper Cartoon" is back in San Francisco

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