HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Joe Avati (born 1974) is an Italian-Australian
comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...
who is popular among Italian and descendant of Italians from his native Australia, as well as in Canada, United Kingdom and the United States, where he has performed on several occasions.


Early life

Born in 1974, Avati is the son of a banquet hall owner and was considered a "quiet" child. He grew up in
Five Dock Five Dock is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Five Dock is located 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Location Fi ...
, Sydney, Australia. His parents are from
Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
, Italy and some of his shows are performed in the Calabrese dialect, in English with or without a Calabrese accent. Avati studied food science at university in Sydney, graduating second in his year. He entered the restaurant business following university, developing ice cream flavours while working on his stand-up material on the side.


Comedic style

Avati's observational brand of comedy have earned him comparisons to
Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version ...
, and in promotions he is referred to as "the Italian Seinfeld". His observations are drawn from the life around his Italian family, particularly his experiences growing up. The characters and traits that Avati mentions seem to be universal in Italian families, which is why audiences familiar with this cultures are able to identify with him. He is not known for use of profanity, however he has touched on controversial subjects such denying climate change,
cancel culture Cancel culture is a cultural phenomenon in which an individual thought to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned or fired, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professio ...
, and "the woke brigade".


Career

Avati began performing as a stand-up comedian in 1995. Avati kicked off his career by releasing a tape entitled " Livin' la Dole-Cheque Vita" in late 1999. He also released '' Live and Unpluggato'' in late 2000 which was placed on the internet as a downloadable
MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...
. This album went on to become the number one selling comedy album in Canada for 18 months. Avati attributes his initial success to
Napster Napster was an American proprietary peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared ...
after he uploaded one of his routines to the download service. The stage show – IL DAGO – a "boy band" parody act was produced by Avati and toured to major cities and regional centers around Australia from April 2007 until December 2009. IL Dago starred Avati,
George Kapiniaris George Kapiniaris () is an Australian stage, television and film actor and comedian. He is of Greek descent and is best known for his role in popular sitcom ''Acropolis Now'' and composed the series' theme song. Career Stage Kapiniaris appea ...
, Simon Palomares and
Nish Selvadurai Nishan "Nish" Selvadurai (born 10 September 1978) is an Australian comedian of Sri Lankan descent, living in Brisbane. Career Nish first performed stand-up in 2004. In 2005, he won the Queensland State Final of the FHM Cougar Rum Search for A ...
. The show won the "Most Outstanding Club Performers of the Year" and "Best Comedy Act of 2007" at the 10th Annual Australian Club Entertainment Awards. Avati began a national Canadian Tour in April 2008 followed by an extended tour of the award-winning IL DAGO show throughout that same year. In 2009, Avati joined presenter Dr. Renee Lim on the
Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels (SBS (Australian TV chann ...
(SBS) TV series ''Food Investigators''. As of 2012, Avati was one of Australia's largest comic exports and the number one selling bilingual comedian in the world. By that year, he had joined a touring comic group called "Comicus Erectus". As of 2018, Avati held the record for fastest-selling comedy show in Canada.


Discography

* ''Live and Unpluggato'' (1999) * ''Livin' la Dole-Cheque Vita'' (2000) * ''Best of Joe Avati Live'' * ''An Evening in Montreal'' * ''Laughing at Myself''


DVDs

* ''Vivo!'' * ''Live in Canada'' * ''Joe Avati Live'' * ''Back Home and Live'' (2006) * ''The Best of Joe Avati Live 2000–2007'' * ''Comicus Erectus'' * ''il Dago Live at the Metro'' * ''Live in London'' * ''20th Anniversary Special'' * ''The Greatest Hits''


References


External links

*
MySpace website

YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avati, Joe Australian people of Italian descent Australian people of Calabrian descent Living people 1974 births Australian male comedians Comedians from Sydney