Lazzi

Lazzi (/ˈlɑːtsi/; from the Italian lazzo, a joke or witticism) are stock comedic routines that are traditionally associated with Commedia dell'arte. Performers, especially those playing the masked Arlecchino, had many of these "bits" in their repertoire, and would use improvisatory skills to weave them into the plot of dozens of different commedia scenarios. These largely physical sequences could be improvised or preplanned within the performance and were often used to enliven the audience when a scene was dragging, to cover a dropped line or cue, or to delight an expectant audience with the troupe's specialized lazzi.

Lazzi could be completed by a single player (i.e. the Lazzo of the School of Humanity wherein a Zanni character would announce that his sister was running a “school of humanity” from their home because she was a prostitute) a few individuals (i.e. the Lazzo of the Straw wherein a of higher status would pour wine as his servant emptied it through a straw) or the entire troupe (i.e. the Lazzo of Nightfall wherein the entire troupe would stumble onto stage to enact hapless physical sequences as though the room was pitch black). While its placement in the plot was usually fixed during rehearsals, it was acceptable for an actor to unexpectedly utter a predetermined line of dialogue that instructed fellow performers to enact lazzi at any time during the performance. Sometimes lazzi could take place in dances or songs accompanied by onstage stringed musical instruments.

While no comprehensive compilation of 16th and 17th century lazzi exists from that era, what is known about it has been derived from the fragmented writings and personal manuscripts of prominent dramatists and actors, visual iconography, and paintings. Some of the earliest evidence of lazzi's conventionalization was found in the writings of Italian actor and writer Flaminio Scala, though he did not yet use the term “lazzi.”

Nearly a century later, Andrea Perrucci's The Art of The Rehearsed Performance and Improvisation depicted various sequences of lazzi, and referred to them as fixtures within the structure of commedia. His writings also contain one of the few extant lists of lazzi from that era. Another document written by Adriana di Lucca recounts a single troupe’s repertoire of lazzi, and is held at the Library in Perugia. Most recently, Mel Gordon compiled a comprehensive collection of lazzi from 1550 to 1750 that categorizes lazzi by the recurring subject matters of the bits.

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