Transporting the audience to a fantasy world where inanimate objects are injected with vitality, and the normal world becomes a lot less normal; Vitamin is a comedy show with a unique twist.
laughter, Vitamin, Transporting, Vitamin, comedy show, Carlo Jacucci
Who amongst us can do without a laugh? If shows on Comedy Central are your staple, you might want to witness a new form. Performed by Italian comedian Carlo Jacucci, Vitamin brings to the audiences a different presentation of comedy, which the performer prefers to call a physical comedy show. The show is a creative amalgamation of miming, puppetry, live accordion and story telling by Jacucci.
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(above and below) Various avatars of Carlo Jacucci in Vitamin
Vitamin became a theatre show in 2012. It originated from a series of acts that Jacucci was performing at music nights, cabarets, variety shows and circuses. Each of these original acts were about 12 minutes long. “I’m not the first to do this; many have made theatre pieces from their variety work. The challenge is to make the show work when there isn’t a plot to hold it together. The show then relies upon a rhythm given by the actor,” he tells us, over the telephone.
Jacucci gathers all the material of his show from either observing or copying people, or from dreams. Apart from doing physical exercise and playing music every day, he tries to regularly improvise in front of either friends or a random audience. The act has run successfully across the globe. When we ask if he is worried that the Indian audience might be different, he responds quickly, “In my case, it is not conventional comedy in the sense that I don’t know exactly why people laugh, and perhaps it’s not clear to them too. My main challenge, especially while traveling is that there is no guarantee of an outcome. I try to establish a connection every time and I don’t know in advance what works, I have no punch lines, no story, nor any visual gags. The Indian audience has performance codes and is a very mature theatre audience. But speaking and joking with people here is fun, I feel at home.” We can’t wait.