The Groggy Squirrel

Interview with Gabriel Rossi

According to your festival blurb, this year’s show “The Tarantella Feller” will be bilingual and knowledge of Italian is useful. How much knowledge does one really need to enjoy the show? If all I know is to say “Sei bella!” or “Ho una ragazza. Siciliana. Molto geloso” would that do?

It might help. In fact, some parts of the show the Italian is explained. That said, there’ll be a lot of “in-jokes” for Italians which will make it a little harder to follow if you don’t speak any Italian. A knowledge of Italian swear words might help….

From the tone of that blurb, besides Italian language, it would help if one has Italian appreciation and knowledge. So what’s in it for a cultural ignoramus? Are there are universal themes that everyone else may relate to?

After seeing my show you may actually know when you’re being insulted by an Italian even though with the romantic nature of the language, it may actually sound nice when they’re doing it. And, being an Aussie from Italian parentage, the perspective of the whole show is still very Australian really so even a neanderthal bogan will get the odd joke too.

What inspired this year’s show theme and would you give teasers on any special new topics this year? (Italian disorganised crime? Stay Home With Parents Blues?)

I’ve been working for years on and off with Joe Avati who does the whole bi-lingual thing and during that time I was building up a repertoire of my own Italian material, so I thought this year I would collate that material and put it into a show of my own. That, and the fact that I have an Italian/English song called The Tarantella Feller which is fairly popular among the Italian community. I’ve heard it as a ringtone if you can believe that. I wasn’t sure those people knew it was me so I thought I would include it in a show to raise awareness.

Australia’s more diverse than it was 10 years ago; so there’s more room and appreciation for ethnic comedy. How do you stay fresh doing “wog material” but not going into “wog hack” territory?

I guess I do it by possibly being edgier than your average wog comic. A lot of ethnic comics try hard not to offend. That’s when I reckon they go down the same paths as always. I believe I push the envelope a little further and I get a buzz out of getting away with it. That said it has blown up in my face on the odd occasion (did I say “blown-up”? Bad choice of words in this day and age…)

Your routines isn’t all musical; yet you’re obviously a talented musician as with memorable songs and punchlines. Did you start out doing things musically into comedy or you added music into comedy; and how has that improved your routine compared to when you started?

I didn’t even know to play the guitar when I started comedy. Some say I still don’t!!! I added it in to the routine about a year after I started and I feel it opened me up as a writer. I found the ideas came out a bit easier when the music came along and it gave me a bit of confidence. And, quite simply, I really like playing guitar and singing so it’s more fun to do that with comedy.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about your show?

Ninety per cent of the show will be in English. Problem is, that the other 10% will be the punchlines…..... Look, seriously, if you’re not Italian but know a lot about the culture and a little about the language, you will get a lot out of it. I guess I had to be up front with people and make sure that they didn’t come along to see the show and were put off by the non-English content. Aussies are often paranoid when people speak a foreign language in their presence. They usually believe they are being spoken about. Well, in this case, they’d be right…...

For booking details go to Tarantella Feller