The International Exhibition of Humor

Word of a Humorist

Answers Guido Clericetti

2- What did you like the most about Salone

I have always liked the atmosphere of cheerfulness and friendship at the Salone and above all the great familiarity that arose with the other comedians, even the most famous and illustrious, and then resulted in long evenings at the tables of Chez Louis, full of jokes, anecdotes, jokes, funny personal stories and lots and lots of laughter (sometimes watered down by the bucket of water of those who, upstairs, wanted to sleep).It was there that I met my two great friends Umberto Domina and Gianmaria Starace, who would later be my brilliant workmates for years.They were so different that they were perfectly at home together: Umberto, a senior manager in a multinational and an established writer, with his ironic wit made in Sicily enhanced by a permanent Nordic education, an ironic observer of everyday life and a relentless collector of involuntary humor; Gianmaria, the funniest storyteller of comic autobiographical disasters I have ever known, an original cartoonist for the most popular humorous weeklies when they still existed, always provocatively critical of customs but also so openly available to be surprised by the unpredictability of every day that he candidly admitted that, as he once told me, shaking his head, “I don’t understand certain mornings!”