EDGE Interview: Gianmarco Soresi - Earning Your Success One Show At A Time

Standup comedy is hotter than ever. Comedy clubs across the nation are once again booming and aspiring comics are honing their craft at open mics at any venue that will have them. While the aim of comics remains filling every seat in the room, the game has changed a great deal thanks largely to social media. In the current climate, television appearances do very little to get a following. TikTok and Instagram, on the other hand, can make you famous. But you still need talent, perseverance, and a great set to capitalize on your notoriety.

If you’ve not heard of Gianmarco Soresi, check him out. Over the past ten years he has honed his craft, built a following, and marketed wisely. Most importantly, he’s funny as hell. He’s currently touring across the United States in addition to several shows in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Ontario. He makes it look effortless, but the truth is making it in the world of comedy is no joke. 

Recently EDGE had the chance to chat with the comic who is earning his success one show at a time, fearlessly finding the funny in any and all demographics.

EDGE: You’re a straight comic being featured in a gay publication...

Gianmarco Soresi: I’m honored to be in it. Since I was a kid I wanted to be an actor, on Broadway, in musicals. I took ballet lessons, majored in musical theater. I make big gestures (laughs). I did the podcast “We’re Having Gay Sex.” (The episode is called Gianmarco Soresi is Only Gay at Theater Camp.) A lot of people assume I’m gay. I’m not, but I’ve had my queer community for a long time. 

EDGE: How did you become a standup?

GS: For me it really feels like I failed into it. I was a theater kid who wanted to be on Broadway doing musical theater, then plays, TV, films. I tried to write my own stuff, this two-part autobiographical show. I was the narrator and I started talking to the audience to pepper the scenes. I fell in love with that live audience. It was something I was suited for. I like crafting something to see if I’m moving in the right direction, and if not what to do next. I found something that suited my skills. 

EDGE: You’ve been at this for about ten years now. How did you know you were making it?

GS: In New York there’s all kinds of benchmarks along the way, but the penultimate goal is the Comedy Cellar. I got on the Tik Tok train pretty early, I wasn’t on the forefront, but I started early enough that I could build up a following. When the world came back from COVID I started touring a bit. It’s different now than it used to be. You can be on The Tonight Show and it doesn’t mean as much as it used to. I did (The Late Late Show with) James Corden and maybe one person came up to me to say they recognized me from there. Just for Laughs and Comedy Central can help. 

You really feel it in the ticket sales. That is the very thing that make you feel like you’re moving up, you’re stalling or you’re failing. I want to get more people now to come fill seats. That’s how it works. There are clubs all over the country in all the major cities. Some clubs, some theaters, all I need is a small stage, sometimes no stage at all, and something to amplify my voice, though I’ve done without that. That’s when my theater training really helped. You’ve just got to be able to fill the place with enough people for them to be able to justify putting on the lights that night. 

EDGE: Does social media now make a career? Break a career?

GS: I think to a certain extent it does. It’s really hard to do it without social media because it’s where we all get recommendations from. There was a time when people would trust the institution to show them a good show. But the idea of people going to a comedy club without any idea of who the headliner is has become increasingly rare. They want to know who they’re seeing. They want to see the person they’ve gotten to know on their phone. Building a following means you want to get people who want to come out and see you live. It requires a lot more output, a lot more content generation. You have to spend way more of your life posting, capturing things and censoring for different platforms. It can be exhausting. Sometimes, someone will do something so cool that it sticks and they leave social media behind. It’s constantly evolving. But for me, I certainly could not be traveling around the world without social media. 

EDGE: How do you get to the level of being a touring comic?

GS: In the beginning someone reaches out to you and says I’ve got a bar in Poughkeepsie, pays $300 and I’ll Venmo it after. Maybe you open up for a more famous comedian. I don’t know how to drive (laughs) so I had to get to the place where I could be driven pretty fast. Most often the headliners are set up by agents, they’re not going to setup openers to get 10% of $50. Eventually you get an agent. There was a time when an agent could get you in a comedy club and people would go to that club on its own accord. But it’s really all based on how many people you can bring in. I have agents, they take in offers and we put together a calendar that makes sense. And when I’m in the City, I’ll put my availability out to all the clubs. 

EDGE: What are your thoughts on the popularity of crowd work?

GS: It’s really just talking to an audience, interacting with them in a live setting. I saw a clowning show recently that was interactive. A regular person came to the theater and interacted with the performer. It’s not new. It’s just been labeled and packaged recently as such. It’s really popular mainstream wise, but there are people who are tired of it, annoyed. It’s kind of sensitive, especially to those warriors of truth who want to see people telling jokes. Crowd work is just what spreads on social media right now. It’ll come and go. Audiences demand a lot of exposure before they’re willing to come and see them. Real standup takes years and years to create something good. If you have good crowd work, you may be able to get people in seats, but there are people who will only want to see someone telling jokes. 

I am a standup through and through, but if I have my room, I’ll do a little bit of both. Its every artist’s prerogative to do what they want to do. I was an opener for a country club gig where I did my set and it went fine. The headliner did one joke and 45 minutes of crowd work. He was killing way better than I had. I went to get as much free food as I could and I heard someone saying, “enough talking with the crowd.” I do a club sometimes where this comic comes up and turns it to karaoke. Now the audience is in a karaoke mood. If I want to do my own stuff, I can have my own show. If you want full control, then you’ve got to bring the full audience. 

EDGE: Podcasts are wildly popular, though people like Howard Stern said they’d never catch on. Is (Joe) Rogan the new guy?

GS: When I was in the acting business, I would see actors who’d say they would never do a commercial, then 5 years later I’d see them doing a commercial because they gotta pay the rent. Podcasts are really radio scheduled by the individual instead of the network. There are plenty of good podcasts out there, though I sometimes think you can find more truth on Tik Tok. You can’t blame the medium if you don’t like the message. You don’t have to have anything, but you have to get people to these venues. Maybe through a podcast you can share more with people than just your jokes or your crowd work. I have a podcast with a good friend of mine who I really wanted to spend time with. The podcast is a way that we saw each other every week. And it lets people know who I am, hopefully get them to want to see me live. 

EDGE: Are we still living in cancel culture?

GS: No, I don’t think we ever were but in the earlier days of Twitter there was definitely a period when if you said or did something really gross there was a hyperinflated spreading of your deed. People would kind of robotically put you in a place where you don’t talk to them or don’t listen to them. It will always happen where someone gets famous too fast, makes money too fast. That’s the internet. It’s more about that mechanism and in that way it can be scary. In real life things have become so fractured, but there’s plenty of people who will embrace you. I think we’ve entered a place where there’s a subgroup who just don’t like things and you know that. Ultimately I’m not going to tell my pro-vaccine jokes on Rogan (podcast). I’ve said plenty of things people might get offended by. I hope people understand my intentions. There’s this comic, Anthony Jeselnik, who says, “oh my god you can’t say that.” Then he says it. He quotes Andy Warhol, “art is what you can get away with.” It becomes boring talking on stage about people who get offended by your joke. I don’t want to tell a joke that feels bad and makes you feel shitty. We’ve had so many public apologies in the past years that I think people have become wiser, more cynical. You’re going to have to establish your character in some other ways. The world isn’t perfect. Sometimes you get in trouble and you try to survive. And sometimes you make real mistakes. That’s just what it is. 

EDGE: What would the golden egg be for you at this point?

GS: It’s hard. Sometimes going on something like “The Tonight Show” can be a goal, but right now what’s next is the fact that you’ve added ten tickets to your gig in Columbus. Filming an hour special for me feels different than that to me. That’s something that ultimately feels right. Then you put it together, perform it, edit it, it feels good, it feels bad.

I make it through the day by building the next performance. You just try to feel okay with the ups and downs of the business. I’d love to think about doing an hour special; I’d love to act in a film, but the reality is I have a show tonight and I’m working on some new material. I can’t wait to get in front of the crowd. That’s the goal for today. 

Tickets and tour information can be found at www.gianmarcosoresi.com