Claudia Callisto Returns With Her New Fringe Show ‘The Good Italian Girl Presents – Celebrating The Italian Sisterhood’

This is Claudia Callisto’s third year at the Adelaide Fringe and this time she has a brand new show. There’s all new stories about Giussa life and the camaraderie between women of the 80s and 90s. The last two seasons the shows have SOLD OUT so best to Grab Ya Tix! early to avoid missing out. Claudia answered a few questions for Hi Fi Way about the new show and wheres she gets her inspiration to spread the word of the Guissa!

Your show The Good Italian Girl Presents – Celebrating the Italian Sisterhood is debuting at this year’s Adelaide Fringe. What can Adelaide audiences expect when you bring the show here?
I am back this year with three shows at two locations – Eliza Hall located within the Prospect Town Hall and at the Fogolar Furlan Italian Club in Felixstow. My new show Celebrating the Italian Sisterhood is again a show based on my experiences growing up as the daughter of Italian immigrant parents, and in particular as a proud “Giussa”, that is as a young ethnic adult in the 80s.

The show is about celebrating the amazing women we are and how we can dance to the rhythm of life with our Italian sisterhood and Giussas by our side, supporting each other through the good times and the bad times of our lives, through the births and deaths of people in our lives, through all the successes and failures. We believe that as long as we have each other, we have enough to create love and happiness in life.

My show takes us back to reminiscing about the more innocent era of the 80s and 90s we grew up in. Through my storytelling, I hope to bring back some laugher and great memories of our community of women. Sometimes you just need your soul sisters, music and laughter to help get your rhythm of life back.

What is the storytelling based on?
The storytelling within the show is again based on my own life experiences and the influence that music has played in my life and the lives of all Giussas. My shows are unique in that I combine my cultural storytelling with selected 80s music. Don’t worry I wont be singing! I will be storytelling and waving my doily in the air to the rhythm of the music. Music helps triggers the voice of my soul and allows me to express my cultural emotions, experiences and creativity.

The music of the 80s are the soundtrack to my youth and they help me to remember adventures of my life; the times I did stupid things, the times when I laughed so hard with my Giussa besties, living my best life and creating fun filled memories.

Can you tell us a bit about the background to The Good Italian Girl Presents – Celebrating the Italian Sisterhood?
My aim is to represent my community of women and share our stories that are never really shared within the world. We are in fact a special breed of women who have endured adversity and who grew up required to comply because that was the way it was then, in that era, with our immigrant parents. Our generation are quiet achievers, humble, hardworking, and loyal women. There is no generation like us and never will be again. I believe we are unique in our experiences as well as our outlook and approach to life. We think differently, we feel differently and we see life obligations differently compared to the subsequent and current generation of Italian – Australian women. My main purpose in sharing my story is to build community and be a representative of the women within our generation and share my story as well as theirs to the world. I want to remind all the women of my generation that our journey is just as historically and culturally important as our parents’ immigration story and that we are all unique awesome women who should be celebrated within our community as role models for the next generations.

Growing up we all loved our 80s music and we knew all the words to the songs while we danced in big groups on the dance floor at the various clubs. If I really pinpoint the positive influences that shaped us, I strongly believe it stemmed from the music of our era and generation. We felt free and alive with the music, and it helped us forget those unwritten cultural rules and pre-defined boxes we were expected to fit into and allowed us to dream and feel alive. This unbreakable bond is still here today for many of us within our community of Italian -Australian daughters. The time we spent together growing up listening to music, laughing and dancing together created a bond that many still have today and a support network that has carried us thought our lives together.

I am a version of every other ethnic woman in my audience, because together we are a strong community of women who are connected by our cultural heritage and similar journey in life. Together we have a light that no darkness can dim and we are meant to bring that light and laughter to other people and especially the next generation of children.

This is your third year at Adelaide fringe. Are you excited to be a part of the Adelaide Fringe again?
I am excited to be back with a new show and to have been awarded a grant from Arts Unlimited, the Adelaide Fringe Foundation and the Adelaide Fringe Donors Circle. I am overjoyed to be back for my 3rd season with a now my third new show with new content based on similar themes to delight my audience. To be honest I had to pinch myself when I located on page sixty eight my photo and the write up of my new show in the Adelaide Fringe guide this year. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I look back at the amazing journey firstly as an author of my book The Good Italian Girl and then Fringe artist as a cultural story teller which has not only filled my life with joy but given me a sense that this was what I was meant to do with my life and a destined path for me.

Who would have thought this local Adelaide girl and Giussa from the western suburbs would be in the annual Fringe guide for the past three years and part of an internationally recognised festival. I am proud of my own determination to keep storytelling about my Italian culture, creating new content, organising venues and marketing the show as it is not an easy task to pull everything together on your own.

However I am most grateful that my audience loves and connects to my stories and I am connecting with new people all the time through the power of storytelling and building a beautiful community of supportive women around me.

How do you keep your content new and fresh?
I have a passion for cultural storytelling and inspiring others but most importantly I also love representing the women of my generation that I grew up with. So many people approach me now and tell me their own version of stories similar to mine either personally or on my podcast series The Good Italian Girl and Friends.

I get to hear their views and their unique journey which always inspires me to create new ideas and discussion areas on my podcast. I also regularly journal my thoughts and theses ideas form concepts for future shows, podcasts episodes and maybe another book one day. I think I am really only getting started with ideas and content despite having started this journey now over five years ago.

What is it that keeps you coming back?
On the night of the shows the laughter from the audience and watching them enjoy themselves fill my heart with joy and I know that this is my purpose in life. I get so excited when some of my one liners and music get a great reaction and I smile to myself then give myself a silent high five.

The amazing one to one feedback I received from people that listen to my interviews on my podcast and those that have attended my fringe shows and who keep coming back to see me perform always inspires me. This positive effect I have on so many people helps me keep performing and storytelling. Last year I was also invited to talk about my cultural storytelling journey at a women’s conference which was a special recognition. When I interview, perform or speak to an audience I also feel like I am connecting with them on some level which then inspires me to keep going.

Lastly, what are three words to describe your show The Good Italian Girl Presents – Celebrating the Italian Sisterhood?
Celebration, Sisterhood, Giussa stories and 80s music – oops that more than three words sorry!

Fringe Interview by Anastasia Lambis

Tickets and show information for The Good Italian Girl Presents – Celebrating the Italian Sisterhood at FringeTix. Grab Ya Tix!