“Storytelling, extremely personal, occasionally edgy with a sprinkling of ethnic flavouring.”
This is the comedy style of Anthony Locascio, a young comedian with Greek and Italian roots, who is finding great success in the stand-up scene, with his specials taking him across the entire country.
Mr Locascio is currently in Melbourne for the city’s Comedy Festival, which runs until 22 April, where he’s performing his new show “Heart of Darkness” at the Belgian Beer Café.
The show, which he will also be performing at the Comedy Festivals in Sydney (3-7 May at Factory Theatre), Perth, Newcastle, and Wollongong, draws inspiration from the novella of the same name wherein he explores the depths of human depravity based on his own experiences.
“In my new show I tell a collection of stories about some of the most morally questionable things I’ve done in my life, and juxtapose that with material about my current, loving relationship, to raise the question of whether our sins and transgressions preclude us from deserving love,” Mr Locascio told Neos Kosmos.
The comic believes this is his best work yet in his five years in the business, and the spectacle of being able to travel the nation presenting his specials has not been lost on him.
“The idea that jokes and stories I wrote in my boxer shorts at my kitchen counter in Rosebery get to be heard in multiple cities by hundreds of relative strangers is something that will never not be cool,” the 31-year-old comedian told Neos Kosmos.
With any profession comes its challenges and Mr Locascio seems to still be trying to sort out packing for all weather conditions.
“I am currently so cold in Melbourne I want to vomit, and I’m going to have to go shopping to rectify it or I won’t survive till May.”
His interest in comedy all began when he watched Eddie Murphy Raw at 11 years old, he soon came to consider stand-up comedy like “an adult magic trick” which he hoped to perform himself one day.
Mr Locascio’s journey proved difficult, however, as he did not want to disappoint his parents who wished for something more secure for his future.
“They worked extremely hard to send me to a private selective school in Sydney. You can’t really repay that by pursuing a career in the arts, at least off the bat,” Mr Locascio said.
“So, I studied law at university, I worked in the insolvency industry for four odd years, and as my soul spent years slowly leaking out of my eyeballs at a cubicle, I finally ran out of excuses for not following my dream. I worked simultaneously in insolvency while doing comedy at night-time for two years, before packing it all in and chasing this full time.”
Mr Locascio has a plethora of comedy inspirations, from American performers like Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Louis C.K. to Australians like Joe Avati and Carl Barron, but it was George Carlin that made him want to try the craft himself.
“The way he was able to infuse social and political commentary into his jokes, or vice versa depending on your perspective, was simply revolutionary,” Mr Locascio said.
Mr Locascio stressed that, perhaps with the exception of “blind narcissism”, there are no skills required to succeed in comedy with the right level of perseverance.
Last year, the comic performed a show titled “Don’t Call Me A Wog” wherein he expressed the issues he’s had with stereotyping in his personal and comedic life.
“There seems to be this school of thought around art generally that when it comes to infusing ethnicity, it’s an all or nothing approach. You can’t mention your ethnicity without being pigeonholed as such. I resent this,” said Mr Locascio.
“Last year’s show title (and themes) was a beacon to my people across the country; ‘dear Wogs, I am one of you…but I am not JUST one of you’.”
Comedy is often a cathartic experience for people and this is no different for Mr Locascio who calls it his “driving force”.
“This is like therapy, except the therapists pay me to sit silently for an hour. I have done shows about breakups, about leaving a corporate job, and, in every case, I always feel much better about the themes in question after,” the comedian said.
The shows themselves take months of trial and error at open mics and/or semi-pro gigs, testing his material in 2-5 minute ‘bits’ and adjusting it before he then compiles it into a finished product ready to present at festival season.
“The show evolves with every performance. Last year I did ‘Don’t Call Me a Wog’ something like 25 times, and it was almost unrecognizable from the first to last shows,” Mr Locascio said.
The comedian feels a rich cultural connection to Greece, Italy and Australia, he also learned to speak the languages spoken in these countries.
For Greek, he excelled by living closely with some of his Greece-born relatives.
“We lived with my Yiayia and Pappou when I was young and so I had a good baseline of Greek. When my parent’s divorced my mum’s cousin from Greece came to live with us, as a sort of father figure to me. He spoke no English and so my Greek skyrocketed through him,” he said.
“Not wanting there to be an imbalance, I studied extension Italian at school and got to a very good level too.”
