Standup comedian Gianmarco Soresi often refers to himself as a failed actor.
Though he’s not even 30 years old, he’s already rubbed elbows with some huge names in the business thanks to acting gigs including Billy Crystal’s 2021 film “Here Today,” Jennifer Lozpez’s 2019 blockbuster “Hustlers” and Tracy Morgan’s television series “The Last OG.”
When pressed about what makes him a “failure” in the brutally competitive industry, especially given his young age, he asks, “Well, how many times do you see Meryl Streep headline Hilarities around her boyfriend’s friend’s wedding?”
He’s got a point.
In a phone interview ahead of his Hilarities shows on May 26 and 27, the on-the-rise comic explains his serendipitous pivot to stand-up and optimism about the future of live entertainment.
First things first, yes, he did absolutely schedule his Cleveland performances around his girlfriend’s friend’s wedding.
It’s a thing he does kind of a lot, squeezing in as many stand-up gigs as possible around life events.
“She’s always begging to go on a trip where I won’t do shows, where there’s not even a chance to do shows,” Soresi says about girlfriend Tovah Silbermann.
“I think whenever there’s a chance to perform, I will take it,” he adds. “For me, Friday and Saturday nights, those are the big ones that are tough to give away. So when she said she had a friend’s wedding on a Sunday (in Cleveland), I was like, ‘Bingo, perfect.’”
You may have seen Soresi tell jokes on Comedy Central, “The Late Late Show With James Corden,” Netflix’s “Bonding” or even on “The Real Housewives of New York.”Landing on a late-night show used to mark a breakthrough moment in a comic’s career, but Soresi says that’s just not the case anymore.
“I think it sold me one ticket in (Washington, D.C.) four months from that date,” he says about his TV appearance.
“No one’s watching anything — it’s all fractured. You end up becoming subservient to social media — the whims of short form.”Fans of comedy are most likely to find Soresi’s polished one-liners and impressive crowd work in quick clips via Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, which is also where his half-hour special “Shelf Life” lives.
Soresi says he eventually reached a point where he was getting enough views that he became hesitant to post any more material.
“People are seeing it, and I see in the audience 10 people are whispering to their friends the punch line.
“We’re all figuring out the new balance,” he continues. “There was a time if you told (a bit) on ‘The Tonight Show’ that meant it was burnt — you can no longer do that show on the road because everyone saw it. Now its so fractured that’s not really true, but do you want to be putting everything out there? How much? You have to figure out this balance.”The fractured landscape is tricky, but so is the entire realm of standup comedy in 2023.
“I am trying to make you have a specific physical reaction and hold your attention in a world where no one’s paying attention, and I love it.”
One way Soresi keeps his crowd’s attention is through his theatrical stage presence, something he honed while earning his bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater. He says he grew up in a world where you did sports or you did theater.
“I never really considered standup comedy,” he says.
It wasn’t until, when living in New York, he wrote a play about himself, starred in it and received feedback that people loved the parts where he talked to the audience.
“No one had anything to say about the complex scene work that I was trying to establish,” he laughs. “I think part of the skill of making it in show business is always listening to that feedback and being like, ‘OK, this part is exciting people, and I do like doing it.’”
The move to full-time stand-up is paying off and is a better fit for Soresi overall.
“Doing the same thing every night drove me insane,” he says about his Off-Broadway run, performing eight shows a week.
“I would not have had fun. I would not have been content saying other people’s words,” he says. “I think this is a really beautiful — ugh, I hate the word beautiful — but (comedy is) a really pure art form. It really is my direct thoughts; its the direct way I’m feeling.”
A lot of these direct thoughts are about Soresi’s family.
“I’m lucky because I know a lot of people whose family says, ‘Do not talk about this,’ so I try not to take that for granted,” he says.
Soresi’s parents make up a good bulk of his material, and they’re pretty good sports about it.
“Maybe if he’s like me,” Soresi says about his father,” and I imagine I’m like him, a little bit of a narcissist, there is a pleasure in just being spoken about, whatever the context,
“Kind of like, ‘All press is good press’ but with attention — all attention is good attention,” he laughs.
When asked about the future of comedy and entertainment in general, Soresi says that although he tends to be a cynic, he’s confident live entertainment will thrive even through breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
“OK, so what’s more fun? Watching a perfected special that’s created by nothing — that’s just created by numbers — or to see flesh and blood on stage, possibly bombing? That’s cooler. It’s just cooler.”
Soresi recalls when rapper Tupac Shakur’s hologram performed concerts long after his passing.
“And guess what? Beyoncé is still selling way more tickets than hologram Tupac, and I think there’s a reason.”
“Why do people buy (Beyoncé) tickets when they’re so far away from the stage?” Soresi asks.
“It’s because that’s Beyoncé there. That’s the person there; she’s existing right there in front of your eyes. That’s still meaningful and will always be meaningful until robots kill us all.”
He adds it’s also exciting to see performers work something out in front of you.
“I always bring some notes on stage, and I want people who want to see me to enjoy seeing me fail a little bit too. I think that’s part of the excitement.”
Though he may dip his toes back into theater or acting again one day, Soresi says he’s fully committed to stand-up right now.
“That’s where my focus is, and I think that’s where it needs to be if you want to be great at this form. Everyone tries to do multiple things, and maybe they get away with it, but I’d rather be great at something than good at several things.”
While he plans on doing some of his trademark crowd work at his Hilarities shows, Soresi adds that he looks forward to telling longer stories that don’t fit into a TikTok.
Gianmarco Soresi
When: May 26 and 27.
Where: Hilarities 4th Street Theatre, 2035 E. Fourth St., Cleveland.
Tickets: $20 to $25.
Info: pickwickandfrolic.com or 216-241-7425.
