Feeling like you have a talent for comedy and seizing the chance to play the stage card: this is the chance that Oversympathy will offer, the new show, open to all, in Frank Matano's clubs, based on the open mic, that is, giving ordinary people the opportunity to perform.
"It's a show with a large percentage of risk, but the risk is inherent in this job - explains Matano to ANSA, who we will also find on Prime Video from April 1st in Lol: Who laughs is out -. The open mic is a way to recruit new comedians in American clubs and we bring it to Italian stages. Anyone who thinks they're funny can sign up, as long as they have 90 seconds of material."
The show will be at the Largo Venue in Rome from 6 to 8 May;
at Santeria Toscana 31 in Milan on 17, 19 and 26 May and at Hiroshima Mon Amour in Turin from 28 to 30 May.
Each show will have seven performers on stage, randomly selected from those previously recorded, who in a few minutes will have to try to make people laugh, with maximum freedom of topics and methods.
"The only thing participants must not do is overdo it. There will be a mechanism to punish those who are 'oversympathetic', to make them understand where they exaggerate."
What is the typical mistake of those who 'are too nice'?
"Insecurity, you don't feel in enough control of your potential and so you overdo it."
Frank Matano (also creator of the format, produced by Vivo Concerti and Newco Management) will be accompanied on stage by two guests, different for each evening ("for now we won't reveal them yet but they will be interesting characters"), who together with him will make up the jury .
The three selected comedians will have to challenge the competing champion who will try to defend his title and not get eliminated.
"I'm very excited, I really believe in this show. I'm convinced that comedy must start from the bottom, I think it's the most constructive way to find more real and honest people and talents who don't give you the idea of something you've already seen. I like the their dose of unpredictability, which is fundamental in comedy".
The various shows (aspiring competitors but also those who want to be part of the public can register on the show's website, ed.) will then also be visible on Matano's YouTube channel: "Not going on television is a deliberate choice of mine. On TV you need rhythm, rhythm pace, on YouTube you can slow down a little."
In Oversympathy, on the themes of the various comic pieces "there will be total freedom. The goal is to get people out of their comfort zone".
How was his debut in front of an audience?
"I was so scared. A gentleman had seen my videos on YouTube and offered me to perform in the beauty contest in Teano that he was organising... it was hard.
I stood in the middle of a restaurant reading a poem in a child's voice... the audience was mainly made up of relatives of the contestants, they didn't even listen to me, I couldn't wait to finish". Matano is also among the protagonists, as cohost with Fedez Lillo Petrolo (as coach), of Lol: Chi Ride è Fuori 4. In the cast, among others, Diego Abatantuono, Edoardo Ferrario, Angela Finocchiaro, Maurizio Lastrico, Aurora Leone, Lucia Ocone, Giorgio Panariello: "It's a special edition, it makes you laugh a lot - he underlines -.
I'm passionate about comedy and if you lock me in a house with 10 comedians I'm happy, because they are my favorite people in the world." Is it more difficult to do comedy today with political correctness? "It's a complex issue, in some contexts sometimes there it limits itself, but there are also those who complain about the fact that nothing can be said anymore, so that they still feel entitled to offend or use certain terms.
Words to me are like fruit.
I come from a rural area and fruit changes in price during the year.
There are words that cost a little more to say and others less, you have to walk this fine line."
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA