Early life and education Born in
Rome, he is the son of journalist and Senator
Paolo Guzzanti, great-nephew of former Minister of Health
Elio Guzzanti, and brother of
Sabina and
Caterina, both also satirical actresses and occasional collaborators. He is an atheist.
Beginnings He started in the theatre as a writer of texts for his sister
Sabina. In 1988 he began a collaboration with Antonio Ricci, director for
Mediaset. In 1989 he was an actor in the satirical theatre company of Serena Dandini, Valentina Amurri and Linda Brunetta for the
Italian public broadcasting network in the programme
La TV delle ragazze (''Girls' TV
). With the same troupe he participated in the creation of the television programme Avanzi
(Leftovers
) (1991-1993). This cult programme is ranked among the most innovative of that time. Corrado Guzzanti made a name for himself with his impersonation of Vittorio Sgarbi, a controversial art historian, of Gianni Minoli, a journalist close to the then prime minister, the socialist Bettino Craxi, and above all with Rokko Smithersons
, a fictional horror film director. In every sketch, Smithersons'' used to deliver the script of "one of his recent films", which was in fact a parodic summary of Italian political events.
Partnership with Serena Dandini The collaboration with
Serena Dandini lasted several years. In all their programmes, Dandini plays the "
stooge" to Guzzanti, who stages a vast series of characters. From 1993 onwards, the sketches of the two Guzzanti siblings are focused on political news: at that time, the Italian justice system is involved in the investigation
Mani pulite (clean hands), which ends with the fall of the First Republic, while
Silvio Berlusconi announces his "descent into the playing field". While
Sabina specialised in imitating Silvio Berlusconi himself, Corrado imitates second-tier figures in the Italian Socialist Party, such as
Ugo Intini, who is seen running after terrified citizens, promising that "politics is ready to change".
Emilio Fede. Another impersonation who makes Guzzanti's fortune is
Emilio Fede, a presenter on TG4, a Berlusconi loyalist. In Guzzanti's impersonation, Fede kidnaps the eight-year-old son of another television executive, in order to extort exclusive rights to football matches from him. In 1997, in the programme "Pippo Chennedy Show", Guzzanti created another fictional character,
Pippo Chennedy, who represents the "worst of the worst" of TV presenters. In fact,
Chennedy does not hesitate to ruin the reputation of shy and awkward guests, by putting them in very uncomfortable situations, in order to increase his audience. {{poemquote|text=
Today, women do the jobs that Italians no longer want to do. One of his most successful crafted characters is the poet
Brunello Robertetti, the satire of a pseudo-profound intellectual, whose recited poems are nothing but repeats of proverbs, clichés and famous poems, rewritten in
abruzzese dialect. {{poemquote|text=
The answer is within you. Yet, it is false! Another emblematic character is
Quelo (
That One), a pseudo-priest who carried the word of a new god, from which he took his name, represented by a wooden tablet with nails in place of limbs and facial features drawn to replicate an emoticon-like smile. Scene after scene,
Quelo is revealed as a simple family man from
Apulia, trying to escape the problems of real life ranging from his wife's marital infidelity to the physical frailty of his daughter, who in every episode vomited profusely on someone or something. {{poemquote|text=
The Left must not govern, because the Left is play, entertainment, fantasy. In the following programmes, still hosted by Serena Dandini, Guzzanti focused on imitating centre-left and far-left politicians, who were in government at the time but were experiencing strong internal tensions. In his imitation, the center-left leader
Francesco Rutelli was a wannabe American-like politician, whereas the far-left leader
Fausto Bertinotti was portrayed as a
dandy obsessed with fashion, who liked to wake up his colleagues in the middle of the night to go and throw water balloons on Prime Minister
Romano Prodi. The latter was presented, on the other hand, as the ghost of himself: he was said to have died in 1974, but continued his activities as a "true Christian democrat, floating between life and death, without offending either". (second from left) imitates
Silvio Berlusconi, Serena Dandini (centre), author and partner, Corrado Guzzanti (right) dressed as
Romano Prodi (2007). In 2000, when Berlusconi's movement took the name
Casa della libertà (House of Freedom), Guzzanti produced a series of parody advertisements in which the protagonists violated the most basic rules of decorum and civic sense. The episode in which he urinates on a couch is particularly remembered.
Scafroglia Case In 2002, Guzzanti directed his first personal television project,
Il caso Scafroglia (The Scafroglia Case), He also continued his experience as a film actor, in the film
La passione by Carlo Mazzacurati, for which he received two nominations respectively for the Ciak d'Oro and the Kineo award. In 2010 he received the Prize for Political Satire of
Forte dei Marmi. In his very few appearances on
Italian public television, Guzzanti will continue to alternate lighter, frivolous characters with more politically based interventions. {{poemquote|text=
The truth is that I called because I feel very lonely. Can I call you tomorrow? In 2011, as the director general of
Italian public television Mauro Masi called the journalist
Michele Santoro live to "reprimand" him about his report on
Silvio Berlusconi, the next day Corrado Guzzanti called Serena Dandini live during her show
Parla con me, parodying the general manager's intervention.
Return with Aniene In 2011, he returned to television, still on Sky Italia, with
Aniene, where he proposes new characters such as
Aniene (who gives the name to the program), a superhero sent to Earth by his Father, to restore order among humans. He also reintroduces already known characters, such as the impersonation of the singer
Antonello Venditti, the
Mason, the
Mafioso (who celebrates 150 years of the Mafia instead of the unification of Italy), and
Father Florestano Pizzarro, a powerful priest who is in fact, a
nihilist and candidly admits to having worn the
cassock for mere convenience. {{poemquote|text= ''This great, resounding indifference of Nature and the Universe – I call it 'God'. That's a shorter name, isn't it?'' In January 2013, Guzzanti was denounced by the Aiart (Association of Catholic viewers) for "having offended the religious feeling of Italians with barrack jokes", following the broadcast on public channel
La7 of the play
Recital, in which he played the role of Father Pizzarro. In Guzzanti's defence, the director of the newspaper
Articolo21 Stefano Corradino launched a petition on Change.org, which gathered about 54,000 signatures in a few weeks. At the end of the case, Corrado Guzzanti wrote a letter of thanks in which, among other things, he analysed the interference of religion on Italian cultural life, "which offended his secular feeling". Also in 2013 he received the Special Prize of the Wind Music Awards for his show "Aniene". In 2014, he acted in the comedy
Ogni maledetto Natale, In 2023, Guzzanti portrayed a fictionalized version of himself in season 1, episode 1 of the
Sky Atlantic TV series
Call My Agent - Italia. ==References==