How come English stand-up comedy is doing so well in Milan The great Anglo-Saxon comedians don't have time to announce a city date and it immediately sells out

Stand-up comedy in English – meaning comedians from Anglo-Saxon countries performing their entire monologues in English – is increasingly popular in Italy. This wasn’t always a given: for many years, stand-up comedy had a niche audience in the country, and those familiar with Anglo-Saxon comedians were even fewer – often insiders in the field. The reasons were several: the format was still little known and the language barrier was a significant obstacle. Stand-up comedy, in fact, is not designed to be subtitled (with few exceptions): cultural references, linguistic nuances, and punchlines are often difficult to translate into another language without losing impact. It’s no coincidence, then, that for a long time Italy was excluded from the European tours of the most acclaimed stand-up comedians. Things have changed, however. Proof of this is the recent sold-out show by British comedian Ricky Gervais at the Unipol Forum in Assago, which with more than 15,000 seats is one of the largest and most important arenas in Italy.

But Gervais’s case is not an isolated one. Last May, American stand-up comedian Jeff Arcuri sold out a theater in Milan – the Carcano, located in the Porta Romana district – which seats nearly one thousand people. The same happened with Matt Rife at Teatro Dal Verme, one of the city’s most beloved venues, with around 1,400 seats. Bill Burr also performed in Milan in July, at the Arcimboldi, which with more than 2,300 seats is also among the city’s main theaters. Next February, another highly popular stand-up comedian will take the stage there for two nights: Louis C.K. – and as expected, tickets sold out almost immediately. Still, English-language stand-up comedy in Italy today is found almost exclusively in Milan – perhaps also due to its geographical proximity to central European countries. Louis C.K., however, in his winter tour in Italy will also stop in Rome (that show too is already sold out), but this is more of an exception: in the capital, despite a very influential comedy scene, it’s rare to see Anglo-Saxon stand-up comedians. «And in smaller cities – notes Il Post in an article on the subject – even less so».

Italian audiences’ growing interest in Anglo-Saxon stand-up comedy is not a passing fad or a sudden shift in fans’ habits: rather, it is linked to the effect of a series of trends and transformations that have influenced the comedy industry internationally, both online and offline. Digital platforms, for example, have made performances in foreign languages more accessible, allowing people to become familiar with a genre that, until not long ago, felt alien in both structure and expression – especially in Latin countries. Anglo-Saxon stand-up comedy is built on well-defined characteristics: a direct relationship between performer and audience, heavy use of subjectivity, often autobiographical storytelling, and a highly minimal stage setup – if you look closely, no matter how big the stage, it is occupied by just one person holding a microphone. These features differ significantly from those typical of Italian comedy, for instance, which has historically favored more theatrical and collective forms – often tied to cabaret traditions, commedia dell’arte, or mainstream television.

The openness of platforms like Netflix to Anglo-Saxon stand-up comedy has allowed many viewers to experience another way of understanding comedy – drier, more personal, and sometimes more explicit in content. And it worked. This is also evident in the spread on social media of clips taken from stand-up shows – which in turn have triggered a sort of virtuous circle, helping more and more people, especially young audiences, to discover the format. It is no surprise, then, that today the catalogs of Netflix and other similar services offer a wide range of stand-up comedy content – from emerging authors to well-established personalities, with a variety of themes, styles, and narrative approaches. In short, the massive presence of these shows in the global offer of streaming platforms has contributed to normalizing stand-up even in contexts where the genre had no established tradition. And in Italy, this phenomenon has even positively influenced local production.