Giacinto Palmieri: Trying to Be Italian

Comedy routines that have been translated into English are rare enough at the Fringe. Giacinto Palmier goes one step further, opting to use his native language itself as the subject matter for his act, Trying to be Italian.

Jokes on national stereotypes have long been a staple of comedy routines, for better or worse. The thing is, well-worn subject material like this means the show needs that extra something to set it apart from those that assume the topic is funny by default.

A case in point here are the jokes based on spelling mistakes, like the one about how ‘penne’ misspelt with one ‘n’ actually means "penis". It’s neither engaging nor particularly imaginative, and when it's accompanied by a lukewarm set on idioms and other grammar points, it feels more like a linguistics lecture than a comedy show.

There is an honest attempt to enrich the act with some degree of complexity by posing a couple of philosophical questions regarding national identity and language. But Palmieri never comes close to answering any these, and they appear to be little but loose ends adorning an otherwise bare set.

Ultimately, Palmieri is let down by the quality of his jokes. They just aren’t strong enough, or even remotely sophisticated. This is a shame, as there is so much comic potential in national stereotypes when they're dealt with intelligently.