Giancinto Palmieri: Pagliaccio

Shuffling on to the stage in a monochrome clown outfit, Giacinto Palmieri cuts an eccentric figure. He is softly spoken, thoughtful and delicate, to the extent I fear this boozy Scottish crowd will eat him alive. His material is also atypical, I can’t imagine there are too many comics out there who are operatic experts and even fewer who would choose to build a Fringe show round the intricacies of a such a highbrow pastime.

Pagliaccio was a tragic clown, who had no choice but to make others laugh on stage every night while his heart was in tatters because of his disloyal wife and Palmieri attempts to draw parallels with his own life. The material covers the all too familiar ground of loneliness, rejection and online dating and while our Italian jester has a certain endearing charm he fails to connect with the crowd in any meaningful way.

His intelligence and enthusiasm do lend a certain charisma to his performance and he is without doubt a hugely amiable persona but too many of the jokes amble along without any sort of purpose and the end result is more of confusion than mirth. If only his show was as likeable as he is.