Valerio Lundini, the success of the impostor

This article is published in issue 51 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until December 21, 2022

The mansplaining it is the patronizing attitude of some men who tend to explain something obvious to a woman, or something she is an expert on. So if one headlines his show The mansplaining explained to my daughter, or is it a madman or is it Valerio Lundini. Thirty-five years old, Roman, ranks with Lillo and Greg and Nino Frassica, you never know if he is making fun of you or is serious. Among the many difficulties of the pandemic – the last a precautionary quarantine that kept him locked up at home for the last 10 days – he resumed the dates of the tour (sold out this summer), all sold out again. It is the revelation of the year: after the success, in the late evening on Raidue, of A piece of Lundini, the appearance in Sanremo with Fulminacci, the collection of short stories The book was better (Rizzoli Lizard) and live shows, now comes the jump: Roberto Bolle’s start of the year show on Raiuno, Dance with me. “I don’t have the desire to be everywhere and at all costs,” Lundini keeps a low profile. “I experience it as one of the things I do, which I found amusing and liked.”

I ask you a question to Lundini: how did you react to the success of your graphic novel on Netflix, despite the Roman style?
“Eh! I didn’t do it. I saw the Zerocalcare series and he deserves success, because he is a true cartoonist. I haven’t drawn professionally in a long time. I have no more time ».

She is now a star: this was her year, between the triumph on TV, the book, the appearance in Sanremo … Some define her “thechild prodigy of Italian comedy ». Do you like this definition?
«“ Prodige ”seems to me a positive thing. “Italian comedy”, since I work in that area, I take it. But “enfant” is a bit late by at least fifteen years. I’m 35, which is the age when people have grown-up children. “

Don’t you think about doing it?
“No, not for now. Maybe next week ».

Are you engaged, living with someone, single…?
“With a woman, for about a year. Before, I was with mum, dad and brother ».

Is he related to his family?
“Very. And I’ve always loved Christmas: I prefer cold to heat, people’s general clothing is better now than in August, I like the films they make at Christmas … ».

And the end of the year? In one of his stories he writes: «I have never loved New Year’s parties».
“The problem is that I associate it with staying too late in the evening, going to strangers’ homes, with the need to mate on the part of some – and always with very little results – with being stuck in the car with people firing barrels, all things that they get on my nerves. I’m scared like dogs. ‘

Do you already know where it will be this year?
«Maybe there is a date in Puglia with my band, VazzaNikki. A toast in Brindisi ».

And instead what will it do to Dance with me, with Bolle?
“I don’t know, I shot things, but verified.”

In what sense?
«Now I say ‘we did this and that’, but then maybe there isn’t because a sewer came, obviously not because of Bolle, but mine …».

Let’s clarify: she does not dance.
“I don’t dance. But he is, he is good ».

Why, then, this insecurity?
“When they called me, honestly, I didn’t know what I could do from Bolle, because if I go somewhere I have to write something. I have the impostor syndrome, I always think I have run out of ideas and above all I don’t think that if I go there, only with my sympathy, I will take the loaf home. But then I wrote a semi swing song and it will perhaps be the end of the program ».

Apart from this?
“There are moments of backstage between me and Bolle while he is rehearsing, moments when I am behind the scenes to see the show”.

What did Bolle look like to you?
“From what little I’ve seen, he seems to me to be a decent person. I always have great esteem for those who lead that kind of life, closer to the military one than to that of the artist or rock star. Bolle is not someone who does his job at La Scala and then goes to get drunk, so to speak. Eat with strict regimes. He has muscles that I have only seen on some superheroes drawn by quite extreme American cartoonists, the ones who always want to put on some extra muscle. Bolle has muscles on his feet. So I am happy that a person with such a physique has dedicated his life to dance and not to crime ».