Comedian Vittorio Angelone speaks with Sínann Fetherston about identity, nationality, and being "built like a Shetland pony".
As an Italian-Irish man, who moved to London at the age of 18 to pursue classical music before falling in love with stand-up comedy, it's not entirely surprising that Vittorio Angelone is fascinated with labels.
Thoughts on identity, nationality, and perception seem to plague the Belfast comic, who recently decided to throw caution to the wind and ask a crowd of comedy fans to write down what they really thought of him.
"It was terrible," he laughs. "The number of people who said 'short' was ridiculous."
"I have this weird thing where I'm built strange, like, I'm built with strange proportions. I'm built like a really short person; I have really short legs and really short arms and a long back. I'm built like a Shetland pony.
"People have seen me, and met me, and still think I'm short," says the six-foot (he swears) comedian.
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Following the success of his debut show, Translations, which delved into the experience of living as a Northern Irish man in London - earning him five-star reviews and an award nomination - his new show, Who Do You Think You Are? I Am!, will deal with self-identity and external perception.
"I am fascinated by how people perceive me; I feel like I don't have a very strong grasp of it, so I think part of this new show is finding out what people think - which feels obvious given that I might have autism," he laughs.
The 27-year-old has been open about his journey to a neurodivergent diagnosis, speaking about it publically on Mike and Vittorio's Guide to Parenting (a podcast he co-hosts with Mike Rice that has nothing to do with parenting), but admits that his fascination with the topic may also come down to a childhood spent in Belfast.
"In England, sometimes, I think people are very worried about talking about what's bubbling under the surface," he explains, "and I often think what's bubbling under the surface in England is race and class and all these things.
"I think, coming from Northern Ireland, I can point to those things and go 'Why is nobody talking about that?'. I think we're very good at bursting those bubbles and those things you're not supposed to talk about.
"Northern Irish people are very upfront and I think that suits comedy very well," he surmises.
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This summer, Angelone will bring his latest show to the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - the world's largest performance arts festival that runs for the entire month of August.
If a comic manages to financially break even and avoid scurvy following their 31 days of performing, it's considered a success, making the comic's five-star debut all the more impressive - but it did come at its own cost.
"I talk a little bit about the difficulties of the Fringe in the new show because there is a lot of playground drama and kind of bullying that happens in and amongst comedians," he explains. "I don't want to be like 'I was a victim of that', but some comedians were very nasty to me last year during the Fringe.
"I kind of talk about that, and I'm somewhat nervous to see how that is received by other comedians, but I tend to think that I'm not making my stuff for other comedians."
"You can kind of paint yourself into a corner and cripple yourself by thinking about what other comedians will think, but they like weird things. Comedians don't like comedy that people like because we're too over-saturated with it."
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Reflecting on the lessons learned from his first show, Angelone says he's looking forward to delving deeper this year and sticking with his newfound "tribe".
"I wrote a show last year that was kind of about having resilience and my own self-identity and the universe was like 'let's give that a little test, shall we?'," he jokes. "So the new show is even more about that and what to do when you're confronted by what people think you are, and it's not nice."
Quickly adding: "It is funny!"
"I will say that a lot of the best stuff that's happened to me is through other comedians helping me out," he continues. "You just find your own little tribe and find the group of people who support you and look after you.
"You're not going to be everybody's cup of tea same as you're not going to be every audience's cup of tea."
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Before the marathon of the Fringe, though, Angelone will appear at The Paddy Power comedy festival in Dublin's Iveagh Gardens - the Belfast man's first-ever comedy festival.
"I'm really really buzzing for it," he smiles. "I've wanted to do it for the last few years so I'm so excited. Everybody says it's such a brilliant, well-run thing and an absolute hub of comedy fans."
On Saturday, July 29, you can catch Vittorio in The Craic Den at 4:30 pm followed by a show on The Bleedin' Massive Stage at 9:30 pm.
Be sure to let him know what you think of the show.
Click here for tickets and more info on The Paddy Power Comedy Festival.
