“Finally in Bari”. With this sentence, Checco Zalone introduced himself to the audience Stadio della Vittoria for his homecoming. Originally from Capurso, just a few kilometers from the Apulian capital, the comedian opened on Friday evening the first of three dates (the others are scheduled for tonight, Friday 9th and Monday 11th), with 38,000 tickets sold ), who after more appointments marked ten years old, his “home”. After the praise (“I love this country”), he immediately joked: “I have decided that next year I will use the proceeds from tonight to give the advance payment for an umbrella to Chapter so that I can finally go there too,” said he alluded to the high prices of the well-known seaside resort of Monopoli.
It is precisely his region that forms the common thread of the entire title show “Amore + Iva”, the tour reached its 105th date and sold out everywhere. Any excuse was good for a reference to Puglia.
The gag with the former footballer Cassano
And then two icing on the cake: the “Zalonian” version of the anthem of the red and white team and the welcome of the former Bari footballer Antonio Cassano. “Do you still believe in love? ‘Chapeau,'” the footballer asked the comedian, echoing his exclamation that went viral.
Exactly this feeling is the focus of the show “Amore + Iva”. In all its forms, from rainbow love to self love, music love, or “home” love. And Checco tackles this issue in a two-hour show (which began 46 minutes after the advertised time and caused some discontent among those in attendance), taking on different roles from time to time: Rapper Ragadi (also landed on the stage of Sanremo 2022 with «Pocorich»), Riccardo Muti in the pop version and Vasco Rossi, a must for the imitations of the Apulian comedian.
The venue of his debut
In fact, since the Hangar days, an unknown Luca Medici took the microphone and began singing Vasco’s songs. Now this place in Casamassima (Bari) – Launchpad for Zalone, which landed the comedian in the Zelig Off selection and getting to know his future wife “Angela” – no longer exists. But here and there Checco remembers it: “I’ve been doing this skit since I performed in a club in the province of Bari,” he said, taking a song from his repertoire that he had written many years before, when he An acquaintance of his thought of a physical defect, “a mixture of politically incorrect, where there is everything, from whistling to body shaming”, as he himself defines it. Zalone represents all of this: he sidesteps political correctness with studied irony and tackles current topics, from the landings (the inevitable “Immigrant,” soundtracked by “Tolo Tolo”) to rainbow families, the theme with which he opens the show .
Between one “lesson” about love and the next, the Apulian comedian took the stage in “his” Bari. With a lot of self-irony: “How nice to be here in the south, even if I can smell the income of the citizens.” “In the audience we have the “good” Bari, which is definitely one or the other Milan,” he said looked at the hundreds of people at his feet. And in the stands? “Hello Enziteto,” Checco joked, referring to a suburban area of the city.
«I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but tonight I gave you all the love I have in my heart. I ask you: of all the love you have taken, keep the VAT, 22 percent, and give it to whomever you choose. I know it sounds rhetorical on my part, but I couldn’t have imagined a better ending to this incredible, extraordinary evening in Bari.” With these words, Checco Zalone ended the show and said goodbye to the city where it all began.