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“I expect controversy, I will talk about hot topics. By now I have understood that if you do something to please everyone it will never work”: this is how Luca Medici, known as Checco Zalone, opened the interview the artist from Bari gave to Tuttoitalia.ch at the only national press conference, held in November in Florence, to present his stage show titled “Amore + Iva”. “I am waiting for you in Switzerland, in Lugano, Geneva and Zurich, three shows, all properly invoiced.”
See all the photos of Checco Zalone in Zurich
Checco has proved to be one of the big names of Italian comedy. Divide (opinions) and rule: that is, stripped to the bone, the Checco Zalone way of thinking. Back in the theatre eleven years after the Resto Umile World Tour, and two years after the box office triumph of his fifth film, Tolo Tolo, Luca Medici, alias Checco Zalone, 45 years old, will make his debut tonight at the PalaWanny in Florence with Amore + Iva: a show event with which the comedian from Puglia is crossing 72 dates in Italy and three dates in Switzerland, backed by 100,000 tickets sold and an entourage of thirty people.
After his cinema successes, Zalone is devoting himself to the theatre, bringing his irony both to the major Italian cities and to Switzerland, followed by a sizeable group of collaborators. During the press conference all the Italian media present showed extreme interest in a figure who rarely gives himself over to the curiosity of the public. Even the famous producer and manager of numerous celebrities Lucio Presta was astonished by an interest that, in his words, was equivalent to the popular national press conference that only the Sanremo festival is able to attract. At the centre of all the attention, instead, is Checco Zalone, who takes the opportunity to explain the importance of giving a boost to the theatre and to the stage crews, among those hit hardest economically by the pandemic, specifying: “We have more than 30 people with us, but do not worry, we pay them very little and all of it under the table.” The laughter of the journalists at his ironic lines will not be lacking for the entire duration of the press conference. In his show he presents stories, music, parodies and impressions seasoned with his irreverent and hardly “politically correct” satire. Among the new impressions there will be new characters such as the conductor Riccardo Muti, of whom an amusing clip can already be seen online: while Zalone plays the character, Maestro Muti himself stands up in the hall to applaud, and Zalone hurries to prostrate himself at his feet. A small controversy arises among some journalists the moment the artist declares that he does a parody of a more human version of Putin. From the audience a few murmurs of dissent rise, but Zalone quickly makes it clear that it is obviously only a mockery of such a debated figure and not a political stance. It will be a long tour lasting a whole year, and I ask him whether, given the current world situation constantly changing between war and the end of the pandemic, he has an alternative plan to diversify his characters according, precisely, to the changes that might occur within a year. His answer is clear: “No, I do not have a plan B, on the contrary, I wish a long life to everyone I make fun of!”
The title of the show “Amore + Iva” aroused a lot of curiosity, and for this reason, during the individual interviews with the various media, I asked these questions, taking advantage of the sarcastic atmosphere and of Zalone's willingness not to take himself too seriously:
Checco, your show is called “Amore + Iva”: but do you know that VAT in Switzerland is 7.7%? Can this difference with Italy change your whole show? Really? But how is it possible, only 7.7%? No, it does not change my show, this news is going to change my residence!
And so what will you do? Well, nothing, I will limit myself to giving you a short piece of nonsense because VAT is too low!
All right, let us stop laughing and I will ask you a serious question: you will have in front of you an audience of Italians who live abroad, so will you change anything to adapt your show to an audience of expatriates? Yes, I tend to adapt my shows according to the audience I have in front of me and I will try to make sure that the Italians who have become Swiss understand all my jokes perfectly.
In the film “Quo vado?” you were an expatriate too, in Norway, and you liked wearing the football shirt with your surname on the back written with the slashed “o” typical of Nordic writing? (laughing) Ah, that is true, so mutatis mutandis, what do I have to do to adapt to German writing?
Thank you Luca, both for the interview and for the show, unique of its kind, that you brought to the stage in Zurich!
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