Walk like an Italian with Stefania Licari
I Can Make You Italian in 55 Minutes by award winning comedian and rising star, Stefania Licari
Billed as an authentic Italian drama with comedy, pizza and endless love, the show promised to make the audience a little bit more Italian, 10% sexier and 100% happier. It did what it said on the pizza box with both pizzas and pizzazz.
One of Stefania’s great advantages is that she is an excellent physical comedian. In the manner of a modern, Italian, dramatic, Lucille Ball, Stefania is so much more than stand-up comedy. She uses her body fully to deliver her original jokes; her facial expressions and bodily movements as much a language as her Italiano-expressive English.
In this show that she has termed a “work in progress”, first the audience learn how to walk like an Italian – we see much hip action, flicking of hair and sexy facial expressions. Then we are treated on how to greet like an Italian: think overwhelming love affair more akin to an Argentinian tango compared to a brief brittle British fumble of a greeting. Then Date like an Italian (ditto); Eat like an Italian (it’s all about pleasure and taking your time) and Think like an Italian – drama is key!
For Italians this show is an absolute joy as there are cultural references upon references that perhaps only Italians could appreciate fully:
The coffee
The superstitions
The inculcation to be beautiful always (la Bella figura)
The love and loving criticisms of Italian mothers, Stefania’s mama opens the show as we hear her proud voice introducing her daughter and we hear her through Stefania saying “I would do differently” of her doctor turned comedian daughter’s choices.
But this show is so packed with Stefania’s quick fire delivery and hilarious movements that there are enough laughs for all cultures / everyone to enjoy.
Along the way Stefania mines her whole life experience: her childhood; working as a medic and studying medicine and drama, and sleeping with Italian and British men.
We really get a sense of who Stefania Licari is and it feels rare for comedians to be this honest. It did not feel that we were watching a persona, but a living, breathing, hot red-blooded Italian doctor/comedian/actress who is smart, messy, sassy and beautiful.
The show was most affecting when Stefania talked about how her mother nearly died of lung cancer and finally expressed how proud she is of her performing daughter. It felt like it was just her and a close friend in the room.
As mentioned above, Stefania Licari is so much more than a stand up comedian.
I laughed, I was shocked, I cried and I learnt things along the way. We learnt about the notorious female criminal mafia boss, Maria Licciardi, both elegant and utterly ruthless. I would have liked to have learnt about more little-known (to British people) Italians enacted in comic style by Stefania.
To paraphrase Latest Bill, this Italian performer knows how to make people laugh, how to make them cry but mainly she has the star quality and dramatic skills to make people pay for the privilege and joy of her comedy shows.
Stefania deserves to be on many stages spreading her funny/serious/emotional message that the world would be a better place if we all learnt to be a bit more Italian.
If there was one tiny criticism of this work in progress it is that it finished too soon. The audience would have been happy to have been entertained for another hour as there are so many ways to learn being Italian.
Viva Stefania Licari! Don’t do things differently!
5 stars *****
