Corrado Guzzanti | |
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Born | May 17, 1965 Rome |
Nationality | Italian |
Occupation | Actor, director, writer and satirist |
Corrado Guzzanti (born May 17, 1965) is an Italian actor, director, writer and satirist. He has been described as "the most interesting satirical author and actor today" and "among the comedians best loved by the Italian public."
Born in Rome, he is the son of journalist and Senator Paolo Guzzanti, great-nephew of former Minister of Health Elio Guzzanti, and brother of Sabina and Caterina, both also Italian television personalities and satirical actresses.
After beginning his career as writer for his sister Sabina, he debuted with roles for himself in Avanzi, hosted by Serena Dandini, with whom he collaborated in almost all his subsequent TV shows. These include Tunnel, Maddecheaò, Pippo Chennedy Show and L'ottavo nano. In 2002 he realized as co-director, author and actor "Il Caso Scafroglia", a TV show representing a post-modern idea of psychodrama in the reality era.
He is famous for his corrosive imitations of Italian politicians and personalities: an incomplete list include Emilio Fede, Antonello Venditti, Francesco Rutelli, Romano Prodi, Fausto Bertinotti, Gianfranco Funari, Gianni Baget Bozzo, Giulio Tremonti and many others. He has also notoriously sent up Berlusconi's lauding of "freedom," which he and other critics of the Prime Minister view cynically, in a sketch in which he urinated on a couch.
Guzzanti has also created characters of his own, including avantgarde cinema director Rokko Smithersons (who appeared more like a leather-clad biker); Quelo, a comedic version of a new age guru with a number of catchphrases; Vulvia, the linkwoman of the Discovery Channel-like Re-Educational Channel; Lorenzo, a spoof of the "typical" late 1980s teenager, obsessed with MTV, heavy metal, playing football and getting stoned; and the poet Brunello Robertetti, a satire of a typical Italian selfish and pseudo-profound intellectual. His latest character is Don Florestano Pizzarro, a powerful priest, in 2008.