Italian comic bringing the laughs

ITALIAN-AUSTRALIAN comedian Joe Avati will be bringing his jokes on life and the ethnic experience to Ballarat for the first time early next month.

Organised by the Ballarat Italian Association, Avati will perform at the Ballaarat Mechanic’s Institute on Friday, 8 April in what will be a career-first among global tours and regional gigs.

“It’s exciting to perform in a place I’ve never played before,” he said. “Ballarat’s got an old charm about it which is just really cool, and I can’t wait to take the show there.

“But when I got the call saying they’d love to have me over there, the first thing I thought was are there even any Italians in Ballarat?”

The show will comprise all-new material that Avati wrote throughout the pandemic, touching on topics from everything to parenthood, nostalgia and personal relationships.

While the new material has been “debuted in bits and pieces”, Avati said the Ballarat gig will be one of his first opportunities to perform the new set in its entirety.

“The good thing is if anyone from Ballarat has ever seen my show, they wouldn’t know anything about this one,” he said.

“It’s exciting to see where it’ll go as things get tweaked and added. For the first couple of years, the set is just a forever-changing landscape so I’m excited to see how it’ll adapt.

“But around about April, I’ll grab all those routines and arrange them so they fit exactly where they need to be throughout the show.

“In fact, this might end up being one of my best shows I’ve ever done. I’ve been really spending a lot of time working on the craft of my set and I feel like I’m at the top of my game.”

Avati’s show is set for 7pm at the Mechanic Institute’s Minerva Space with tickets at $49.50.