Emmy-Nominated Stand-up Comedian, Gianmarco Soresi, on his visit to Miami, his special "Shelf Life" + stand-up comedy in the era of social media

By Daniela Uribe

This week, stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster, Gianmarco Soresi, filled Miami with laughter and enjoyment. His stand-up has been featured in Comedy Central, Netflix’s Bonding, PBS’s Stories from the Stage, Real Housewives of New York, and he was the winner of Amazon’s Comics Watching Comics Season 8. But that’s not all, his special Shelf Life was nominated to three NY Emmy Awards. Gianmarco tells us more about his inspiration behind Shelf Life, the importance of life shows to him in the era of social media and more.

Gianmarco Soresi studied musical theater at the University of Miami. This holiday season, the reason for his visit to Miami was mainly for his sister’s graduation, but luckily for Miami he likes to perform anywhere he goes. His three nights of stand-up comedy in Miami were hosted by the Villain Theater, at the theater and at the trendy Goodtime Hotel in Mami beach.

Soresi left Miami to move to New York after finishing his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater and in New York he faces the challenges of this field, which essentially led him to stand-up comedy. In his own words “its easier to be a great singer in Coral Gables than in New York City” after all it is the city of dreams, but it can get saturated by too many people chasing the same dream.

Soresi decides to turn singing into talking, as he said, “stand-up comedy fit my talents, I like having autonomy over what I wanted to say”.  He explains that for him acting was saying other people’s words whereas in “Stand-up comedy I’m the playwright, I’m the actor, I’m the director and feels very true to the way I want to express myself”.  He runs his own show, and he sure knows how to master all the above roles which have led him to be nominated to 3 Emmy Awards with his special Shelf Life.

What was the inspiration behind Shelf Life? Soresi started during covid, when comedians had to figure out if to fly or not fly to places like Florida where covid restrictions were more lenient. He was doing outdoor shows and he wrote a lot of material about covid during that time because as he mentioned “we were living it so intensely” and he realized that this jokes, they have a “Shelf Life”.  It was a particular moment in time and instead of waiting for a Netflix special Soresi decided it had to be done now. Nobody knew what the world was going to look like, but he wanted to make “funny art regardless” and thankfully he did because there is probably nothing healthier for the mind and soul than finding a reason to laugh during difficult times.

With covid behind us and the world back to having gatherings, Soresi says he appreciates that having gatherings is in our DNA’s and feels grateful that he gets to “ride the wave of human need for connection”. But the pandemic also accelerated the growth and popularity of digital forms of communication, not just through virtual meetings but also through social media. Social media apps like TikTok rapidly grew and have become an important part of our everyday life. Soresi tells us that every morning he posts on YouTube, TikTok, shorts, Instagram reels, snap chat, and more. He explains that TikTok has made everything more accessible which is positive but that it can also have a downside if a comedian becomes too comfortable behind the screen and is not able to perform at the same quality live or vice versa. He explains the importance of being multifaceted but emphasizes that live shows are the thing he focuses on being great at, if his social media is good his live shows are even better.

Finally, we ask him what his advice would be to rising comedians. For Soresi to become a good comedian is to understand that “everything you think is good, can be better” talent is great but “The thing you can control is editing, can you look at yourself, can you be outside yourself, can you make yourself better."

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