La passion for dance (“unrequited”) remained, but now it’s gym time, “and I would already deserve a medal to be here”. The video interview with Michela Giraud, 34, is in a location that cannot be more unusual. Earphones, a bottle of water, a trickle of sweat “no, it’s not an expensive cream”, our stand up comedian played on TV with Colorado and became famous thanks to the first edition of Lol he has just finished training with his trainer Gaia, “otherwise I’m too bored”.
With its size 46 it gets along quite well, sometimes you like it, sometimes you don’t, even if on the tombstone he would like the name of the model Emily Ratajkowski to be written one day, instead of hers, “anyway, at that point, who cares?”. Of body positivity, affections, diversity and inclusion, politically correct, self-acceptance, in short, of her story, in which many can recognize themselves, she speaks on the stage of Michela Giraud: the truth, I swear!, already on Netflix. A special all of her, the first for an Italian comedian available in the 190 countries of the platform. She wrote it with passion and a lot of care, because she is very meticulous, and she is happy with the result. With good reason, because we laugh so much, and we are moved.
That unrequited love with dance
Why does he say his passion for dance hasn’t been rewarded? In the show she does a few pirouettes, and she does well.
I have been dancing for 15 years, and when you do, there is always someone who makes you think: one day you will be Lorella Cuccarini. But no, I was always at the same point. With classical, modern, salsa and musicals I didn’t go on. When I met the theater I said goodbye.
Michela Giraud (Getty Images)
But first there was a degree in Art History. Is that also, like dance, an unrequited passion?
No, on the contrary. I studied at the classical high school, at the very radical Mamiani in Rome, which he had made a father. In my unlucky adolescence the study of Greek, Latin and art paid off, and I carried on my passion for the sixteenth century and Caravaggio up to the University, when an examination on 100 paintings by Caravaggesque painters, to be identified only thanks to the details, I he brought it out of his ears.
How does theater fit between dance, Greek and art?
Thanks to an educational trip to Bilbao, with the ticket paid for by the University. I improvised a story on the bus, not knowing it was my first stand up comedy. I enrolled in an acting school while I was studying to graduate. I started doing comic theater and writing comic texts; in 2015 I passed the audition for Colorado, then I participated in the new edition of the girls’ TV.
Michela Giraud, from Rome to conquer the world
You come from the bourgeois district of Balduina, in Rome. How did your parents react to the idea of having a comedic daughter?
Not so good at first. Dad is an admiral, mom is a hospital biologist at Pertini in Rome. They came from the permanent culture, with a military rigidity in the background, but luckily they didn’t know exactly what I was doing.
What is your relationship with them?
I have some difficulties with female authority in general, as I tell in my show when I talk about the oppression of the teacher Pina. In general, mine are serious people, they seem to come out of a RaiUno fiction, they did what they had to do in life. I have to thank them – and I do little, I admit – because they taught me the meaning of sacrifice and allowed me to take off. When I said I was going to be a comedian, I threw them off; I came from my art history studies, I understand them. As a child I was a kind of crazy scribble, they had to contain me. Gradually I managed to make people understand what I could do, in addition to not obeying.
On her show she often returns to the subject of physical appearance, she says that she doesn’t like being called a curvy actress. Why not?
Why must we always be defined, therefore limited, pigeonholed? Weight doesn’t qualify people, body positivity is a trap. If a girl with size 46 wants to show her navel, she is right.
Was she always a size 46?
No, I was 40, then it all happened together: I stopped dancing, I had to graduate and at the same time graduate in acting, I had food problems like so many girls, I ate junk. It was a cyclone, I put on pounds.
He likes himself?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But who do you always like? Even the beautiful Emily Ratajkowski will have moments of her not.
Success after LOL
She became popular thanks to the first season of Lol last year. How do you experience success?
It is not that easy. As Saint Teresa of Avila said: more tears were shed for answered prayers than for unanswered ones. Lol it changed my life, so many opportunities came to me but I came from the more informal world of stand up comedy, and at the beginning that very strong exposure destabilized me. Now I have found my balance and I am happy with The truth, I swear !, which I have prepared to the best of my ability.
On stage he says his life has gone from “mono” to “stereo”. How did she do it?
Thanks to my sister Cristina who has Asperger’s syndrome. She taught me to read people, to draw the sketch of who I was in front of, to have more attention, sensitivity. I had to fight for her, to get her to accept. I was her filter with the world, with people, because she has no filters, she says what she thinks without mediation. We were together a lot, it was always the two of us, I was her shadow. Now we see each other less, she lives in a community in Abruzzo with fantastic operators, of great sensitivity. I sent them the text of the show in advance, I wanted to be sure about the parts that concerned it.
After all, the show is a moving tribute to her. How challenging is it to be the sister of a person with a disability?
Cristina and I have suffered terrible wickedness, endured injustices. I have rebelled many times to defend her, because she is more fragile, and when I did not succeed I felt terrible. If I do this job it is also out of a sense of revenge, against false and petty attitudes that have hurt her and have hurt me. Especially when we were little, and we didn’t even talk about Asperger’s syndrome. There is now more awareness, steps have been taken in inclusion. But this anger, this complicated situation in the family has served as a driving force in my life.
And after Netflix, the tour
In addition to the show on Netflix, it is starting in late April with the tour The truth, nothing but the truth. I swear!… Reloadedand is also on Real Time, with Once upon a time … there was love where she is the presenter: she welcomes couples in crisis and tries to help them. An unprecedented role for her. Why did she say yes?
It has nothing to do with my path but it was very useful. I had to listen and understand people very far from me, because the real country is not that of those who read important newspapers or the international. You have to get out of your bubble.
He seems to have little to learn about love. Seeing him on Instagram, her boyfriend Riccardo Cotumaccio knows how to play the game. Is he a comedian too?
No, he is a radio speaker, and besides being beautiful he is also a very funny man. These ironic pictures on social media were a novelty, a game that we played during a weekend in Capri. Basically he has great stability and that’s what I need. I am a bit crazy, an onion with many layers. He gives me balance and serenity.
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