"Can you say everything today? Yes, in fact, the bigger you say it, the better. Politicians especially can say everything. Comedians sometimes suffer some reprimands."
Word of Luca Bizzarri, actor, comedian, presenter, writer, in the midst of the theater tour of his They Don't Have a Friend, a show born from the podcast of the same name published by Chora Media, which he has hosted for more than 380 episodes. An idea born for the 2022 electoral campaign, when the reflection, listening or reading some statements, could only be: "They don't have a friend or they would have suggested not to say certain things". A success with fifty thousand daily media listeners and one million streaming per month, which also landed in the theater a year ago and will be on tour until December. Next stops, the Bellini in Naples on 28 March and the Sociale in Mantua on 7 April and then Alessandria, Oleggio (NO), Brescia, Venaria Reale (TO), Trento, Vigevano (PV), Sanremo (IM) and Pontedera (PI ).
"At the beginning I thought of staging a mix of some episodes of the podcast", Bizzarri tells ANSA, who with Paolo Kessisoglu on La7 also continues to sign the cover of DiMartedì for Giovanni Floris. "Instead - he says - in the end I found myself with a completely new text (written together with Ugo Ripamonti), which starts from the themes of the podcast such as our fears, our being alone, our mythomania, our victimism, to get to the 'actuality". With all the sagacity of his satire, in an hour's story Bizzarri makes us laugh at ourselves, as if in front of a mirror which at first seems distorting, but which in reality, when looked at carefully, restores that image of we who refuse to see.
"The stories inevitably get updated. A year ago - he explains - there were no Vannacci or Giambruno or those who shot themselves on New Year's Eve. But in general it is politics that has changed a lot. I
look back: ten years ago, for example, there was still 'he' and 'he' occupied almost all the spaces. Today is a bit like recess, the moment in elementary school when everyone makes noise, fights. There is a very adolescent, not very mature and serious. But it is society that is like this, politics is only the mirror of it. We were teenagers and we wanted to resemble adults. Now that we are adults we would like to resemble teenagers: there is the braggart, the one who speaks loudly, the one who tries to get noticed. Meloni who does veneers. Everyone justifying their existence, sometimes in a slightly ridiculous way."
And the photos of the prime minister hiding her head in her jacket that went around the world? "One day or another we will have to deal with the fact that we think we have an importance that we don't have - responds Bizzarri - We are a nice place where people go on holiday, where they eat well, but from a geopolitical point of view we count for nothing. Not the fault of this government, but ours. On the other hand, today there is a total lack of authority in all politics in the world. Trump is not authoritative, but neither is Biden nor Putin."
And among our politicians, who is the greatest inspiration for the comedian Bizzarri today? "A bit of everyone - he smiles - I don't mention Salvini in the show: it's a 'de-Salvinised' show, because it seemed too easy to me. For the rest, they compete a bit from right to left. And this is worrying". Has anyone ever been offended? "Every now and then someone calls, either to make some clarifications or to tell you that they laughed. But in the meantime they call.
I - he concludes - prefer those who don't call and those who don't take part in the fun. Politics and satire must run on two parallel paths that do not never meet. Every time it happens, even good-naturedly, there is always damage to both of them."
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