Vince Sorrenti is one of Australia’s most successful comedians. The king of the corporate circuit, he has made a career out of forgoing traditional public gigs. Fortunately for Sydney, Sorrenti will be temporarily leaving the function room for The Star, where he will be unleashing a new and self-proclaimed hilarious show on the public.
“You will laugh your clothes off,” the comedian says jovially. “There will be naked, sweaty people everywhere in fits of hilarity.” He sighs, “I’m just too funny. People often say to me after shows that they just cannot believe how funny I am.”
Jokes and faux self-congratulation aside, the praise that Sorrenti has described in jest isn’t that far from the truth. “I’m a victim of my own success in a way,” he confesses. “Because I work so much on the corporate circuit and it’s so profitable and expansive, I hardly do any public gigs anymore. I’m rarely in clubs, theatres or casinos. I get feedback on the website all the time with people asking, ‘When can we see you?’I toured for years on end but I’ve found my niche now and I love working within it, but it is a shame.”
One advantage of public gigs is that Sorrenti is afforded a kind of freedom that he isn’t usually at liberty to exercise. “There won’t be any specific theme like when you’re entertaining a corporate crowd,” he says. “For example, I’m hosting a finance conference tonight so I’ll need to be talking about sport, burgers or whatever is happening in society. But when I do a public gig, people will be hearing what I want to talk about, which could be anything.”
Despite being free to explore a range of different material in his upcoming show, Sorrenti does admit there are a great deal of positive aspects to his usual corporate shows. “Sometimes having too much freedom kills you. What I do is more like applied comedy. I’m given some parameters and I have to be funny within them.”
He also explains why the corporate arena is often a more attractive option for comedians such as himself. “Sometimes when you do your own shtick year after year, you kind of disappear up your own arse,” he says. “It’s incredibly self-indulgent, and people have to come along and cop you for whatever reason. They have to go along on your ride and either love it or leave it.”
Sorrenti reveals that his love of structure and restrictions in the creative process quite possibly comes from his educational background. “I’m a graduate of architecture, which has actually been a real breeding ground for performers and people in the arts. In a way, it’s one of the only creative practical things you can do at uni.”
After chatting more about architecture, the conversation returns to the idea of structured comedy. Being a literature nerd, I comment on how Sorrenti’s work ethic reminds me of Oulipo, the French practice of using constrained writing techniques to foster inspiration.
“That’s where real creativity comes from – you have to be given some constraints. The hardest thing in the world of design would be a chair, because there are just so many ways of sitting on your backside,” he laughs.
See him at Rock With Laughter alongsideMikey Robins, Dave Bloustein, Mick Meredith atRock Lily, The Star onThursday October 30.
