“ALL my life I've been told, even if I haven't embraced Judaism, ‘you're a Jew, you're a Jew’. It was thrust upon me.
“So when there's a disagreement about the geopolitical actions of the IDF, if someone goes, ‘you criticise this, you're not Jewish’, I call bullshit.”
As a Jewish American performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, Gianmarco Soresi arrives at a time when conversations about Israel, antisemitism, and free speech are polarised to the point of paralysis.
However, Soresi says: “As a comedian, I like to talk about the things that are challenging.”
“I can see how some of us are speaking in a way where they’re, for example, equating criticism of a foreign entity with antisemitism. Hey, hey, hey, what the fuck?
“The conflation of these two things is bullshit – and by the way, it's only going to hurt Jews in the long run.”
The New York comic began turning to stand up seriously around 2016, after years pursuing what he calls a career as a “strict actor”. The transition came, in part, because audiences responded more to his moments of spontaneous interaction than to anything scripted.
It also came at a time, he says, when “people were discussing identity and who has the right to talk about what”.
“One of the things that I took from that era – which we still live in to a certain degree – was to look at the things that I do have the ‘authority’ to speak on, and speak on them with brutal honesty, with brutal clarity.
“So in this space, I can push myself and push others and talk about this because you can't accuse me of that.
“Now, people will certainly say ‘you're a self-hating Jew’ or these days I've seen the conversation shift to ‘you're not Jewish’ – which I have to call bullshit on.
“As an American Jew, comedically, creatively, I feel emboldened to be even more honest, in a way that might feel jarring in a sensitive world.”
However, Soresi says that speaking out on political issues can be “double-edged” – not least as comedians can end up being seen as one-trick ponies.
“People will come to a show and go, ‘Oh, I thought you talked more about Israel and Palestine’,” he says.
“I go, I'm selling tickets to a comedy show. If you want the preachy version of me, follow me on Twitter. You'll see plenty of not jokes, just me being like, this sucks, this person's a fucking war criminal.
“But if you come to the comedy show, I strive to not be preachy. There's moments that I fail in this – but when I have a joke about these things, it usually isn't to advance a cause.”
“You should never look to comedians, especially when they're on stage, for moral clarity,” he adds. “Then you're going to a sushi restaurant and hoping they serve waffles.”
A look through some of Soresi’s social media videos – he has more than one million followers on TikTok – underlines this. One of his most popular clips sees him mock the idea of a “mental health lawyer”, telling an audience member in the profession: “I think you should be sectioned.”
@gianmarcosoresi I object to this man’s job 🧑🏻⚖️🤪🤣 #standupcomedy #laywer #crowdwork #comedy #funny ♬ original sound - Gianmarco Soresi
But that, he says, is just part of the act. “I'm here to give you comedy. If you want to know who I really am – not unless you're a close friend.”
Soresi’s success on stage, like so many other comics nowadays, is intrinsically tied to his success on social media. Views mean ticket sales.
He explains: “Covid hit. It was awful. I got on TikTok soon enough, telling jokes, and as the world reopened, I was starting to be able to tour more seriously – and that became my whole life.”
But even with a run of sold-out shows (and a new 1000-seat gig booked in as a result), affording the Fringe is not easy.
“I believe I'm spending more on lodging than what I'm going to make,” Soresi says. “I think maybe with the added show, we're breaking even … but yeah, it’s going to be hard.”
Why come at all? Soresi jokes that his partner has a British passport, so the Edinburgh run is a chance to scope out a life post-America.
But the Fringe, as so many artists who have sacrificed their Augusts will say, is about more than money.
“I’m going because so many people have come back from this festival and said ‘it was the hardest month of my life, but the most incredible’,” Soresi explains.
“I can't think of another gathering of artists internationally that’s like this. I’ve got to be a part of it.”
He believes the international festival can offer a vital perspective – particularly as an American comic in a “very insulated” ecosystem, the Fringe can help to expand “what we view as the definition of stand-up comedy”.
Soresi points especially to Julia Masli’s ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, an absurdist clown show which he saw in New York, but is also doing a two-week run at the Fringe.
“I was like, oh my God, this is incredible,” Soresi says. “It's good to see just completely different worlds. It's expanding what the limits are in your own mind.
“I don't think I'm going to see a clown and do a full ‘clowning bit’ on stage, but I might, you know, think of a new way to use the stool that would have felt crazy before.”
Gianmarco Soresi: The Drama King has sold out its original run. An extra show has been added at the McEwan Hall on Saturday, August 23 at 5.30pm. You can find tickets on the Edinburgh Fringe website.
