Saturday, October 07, 2006

Comedian Joe Avati Celebrates Being Italian

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Comedian Joe Avati, born in Australia, living in London, is now touring the US, Celebrates being Italian.

 

During performances, he always wears a suit. His act is clean; he uses no profanity. Your parents, your grandparents,

your kids can all sit in the front row and enjoy.

 

 

COMIC UNITES ITALIANS THROUGH HIS STAND-UP ACT

 

News Live Times

Danbury Connecticut

By Robin DeMerell
October 6, 2006

 

 

Comedian Joe Avati says his performance -- where hundreds, sometimes thousands of people laugh at the antics of his Italian family -- unites the Italian community by celebrating being Italian.

But the 32-year-old Australian-born Avati said you don't have to be Italian to enjoy his act -- it's for anyone who's lived next door to an Italian family or gone to school with an Italian -- and it's especially for IBMer's -- Italian By Marriage.

"They really get the show," he said, of those marrying into Italian families.

Now living in London, Avati is on his second national tour of the United States. The tour started Oct. 6 in New Jersey and ends in November in San Diego.

Avati said he grew up in a very serious Italian household where there was little laughter.

"My father wanted us to be grown men -- no joking," he said. "It was very, very serious. I was extremely shy as a child. But in my mind, I was talking to myself."

And it didn't stop the little comedian from gathering up all his material to be used years later.

"I would be brutally honest about every observation I made," he said. "I trained myself to do that."

As he got older, he remembered certain things as being typically Italian, he said. "That now forms part of my shows."

He talks about his "Nonna" (grandmother) trying to get a discount after sneaking into the "eight items or less" aisle with a cart full of groceries. And his mother storing olives in the butter tub.

"My observations are very accurate. I use facial and hand gestures," he said. "People say 'You must have grown up in the same house I did' and 'How did you know what my family is like?'"

When Avati went to college on an honors scholarship, he made his friends laugh during lunchtime while he made fun of all the lecturers -- from the way they walked to how they wrote on the blackboard.

Then he knew he was ready to take his act to the big stage, so he went to The Comedy Store in Sydney and stood up on open mike night.

"I went to try it out and got laughs," he said. "Within six months they offered me a spot for pay."

While it takes many comedians four years of practice to actually get a real gig, Avati said within four years he was pulling in 1,000 people a show.

During performances, he always wears a suit. His act is clean; he uses no profanity.

"I don't need to. Your parents, your grandparents, your kids can all sit in the front row and get something out of it," he said.

His style, Avati said, like comedian Jerry Seinfeld, is putting an emphasis on words.

"It's the way you speak," he said, and it comes very naturally to him.

Perhaps his early success at a young age prepared him for the uproarious road ahead, because Avati is not at all overwhelmed by performing in front of thousands of people.

"I have a better time now than I ever did. I'm very comfortable, very relaxed," he said. "It brings people together, makes them proud of their heritage -- they want to be more Italian now. I've been credited around the world for doing that and that's nice. It's those things that make it worthwhile."

Joe Avati will be at The Bushnell in Hartford on Sat., Oct. 14. For tickets call (860) 987-5900 or visit www.tickets.com.

 

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