‘The living cartoon’ Ennio Marchetto is bringing his wild celebrity costume show to Manchester Pride.
Marchetto, a performance artist from Venice, uses paper costumes to transform himself into stars such as Lady Gaga, the Mona Lisa, Boy George and many others.
MM caught up with him to find out more about his act.
Why have you chosen to perform at Manchester Pride rather than at the Edinburgh Fringe?
I was asked to perform at the Pride and I thought it would be a great occasion for me. I have been in Edinburgh many times, it’s a fabulous city, and I miss it!
Have you performed in Manchester before? What about the city do you particularly like?
Yes, I think a couple of times. Don’t ask me when and where, it was quite a long time ago. This year I am celebrating my 24th anniversary performing in the UK, the audiences are always very warm.
Your costumes are an integral part of your act. They’re also fantastic. Where do you get your inspiration from?
Sosthen (my designer) and myself work as a team. Even though he doesn’t live in Venice anymore, he still comes to discuss new ideas together and create the costumes. Inspiration comes from many sources: photos, the contemporaneity of some characters, the text of a song…
The show doesn’t have a storyline, but every character has their little story. The costume is a little detail, but it is very important to make fun of all of them. It’s not always easy. We decided to take out Amy (Winehouse) unfortunately – such a wonderful voice, we miss her – but the fact that she died deserves total respect.
You have performed for Elton John and The Dutch Royal Family? Can you tell us a bit more about that?
As a fan of Elton I was very honoured to take part to the evening, even if I did it for free as it was for an important cause. All the money he made that evening was given to people in need and I saw a lot of nice and famous singers – Jagger was there, too – and the set was prepared like a Venetian party with a gondola and Italian food. I was probably the only Italian on stage that night, so I was really proud of myself. I don’t remember much of the show I performed for the Dutch family; it was nothing in comparison to Elton’s presence!
You’re finishing off your tour this year in Berlin. Is there a particular reason for that?
I’ve been performing in Berlin once or twice a year since 2004 in an extraordinary atmosphere at the Tipi. It’s a magnificent tent with an open minded crowd and very happy people every evening. I go to work with lot of enthusiasm.
I know you performed at the Pride Village in Padova, Italy in 2011. How do you feel about Pride generally, and Manchester Pride more specifically?
I am going to Padova again this year and I was at Vicenza’s pride in May. This is the year of pride! I think it is important of course, even more in Italy where the Church is still very influential and there are a lot of people against it.
Is there a particular part of your act at Manchester Pride that we should look out for?
The full hour, of course! Or some strong characters or the new ones, if you know already some of the classical ones, like Monalisa – she is still in the show and dancing more than ever.
Marchetto will be entertaining audiences from August 8-9 from 19:30 at Z-Arts, Stretford Road, Hulme.
Tickets are £15 and can be purchased from the Manchester Pride website.
Picture courtesy of Manuel Bergamin, with thanks.
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