Stand up for Gqeberha comic Gino
What do you get when a “soutie” with an Italian surname pulls off a boertjie speed cop impression, speaks Afrikaans and isiXhosa, and still somehow gets away with it?
Gino Fabbri.
Born with the gift of the gab, comedy was never an accident for the Gqeberha-born impressionist and funnyman.
And nor was it luck that saw him turn a childhood knack for mimicry into a stage-ready talent adored by many.
Fabbri has been entertaining audiences for as long as he can remember, drawing on everyday local Mzansi life, accents and familiar characters for his material.
Speaking to IOL, Fabbri, who effortlessly switches between languages and personalities that most South Africans instantly recognise, said he has been the class clown since his school days.
“I was the proper class clown, though never naughty, and I must say my humour came from a desire to entertain and please others.
“I am a people pleaser,” he said, adding he now notices it in his two adult sons as well.
“I admit, it is an unusual trait for a comedian.”
He grew up in Villiers Road, nestled in the Walmer suburb of the Friendly City, and attended Clarendon Park Primary School, which he remembers fondly.
After primary school, he attended Victoria Park High School, where he matriculated in 1988.
“My father was Italian, which is where my name comes from, but I was born and raised in Gqeberha and very much grew up local,” the 55-year-old said.
“My mother is a Van Staden from Komani, which makes me a proper Eastern Cape local — English and Afrikaans, with a bit of Italian mixed in.
“Growing up in Gqeberha meant learning Afrikaans naturally, and my Afrikaans improved even more once I began developing comedy characters.”
Fabbri said from a young age, he was fascinated by accents, starting with Italian.
“Italians who learn Afrikaans first often develop a very flat, distinctive accent, which I find endlessly amusing and similar to accents heard among Portuguese and Greek communities.”
Much of his musical grounding began at school, through concerts, shows and plays.
“Music came first,” he said.
“I started playing the drums at the age of nine and they remain my first love.
“Comedy only revealed itself later, when I realised during school productions that I could easily connect with audiences and make people laugh.”
After school, he studied at Nelson Mandela University, then known as the University of Port Elizabeth, from 1989 to 1993, completing a degree in industrial psychology with the intention of going into human resources.
Learning to speak Xhosa, he said, opened up an entirely new world.
“While not fluent, I found it invaluable for connecting with people and starting conversations.”
He does not believe there was a single big break in his comedy career, describing it instead as a slow, steady process.
For many years, he flew under the radar, focusing primarily on drumming and performing with various bands.
His move into comedy began through music.
“I started out just talking a bit of crap in between the songs, you know, and slowly but surely it developed into this comedy thing that I do,” he said.
“I took on characters and my aim has always been just to entertain.
“I don’t care what I have to do. It’s entertainment — make the people enjoy themselves, and I’m happy.
“If you could call that a break, I suppose, as somebody interested in doing a show, then slowly I had to build up this career.
“It’s just built over a period of 20, 25 years now, really, pretty much since I started my first one in 2000, 2001. Crazy how time flies.”
He has also built a strong social media following.
“Recently, my drumming skills — putting the drumming thing into my show — was a good move,” he said.
“I did a rock one where I played all the famous rock licks on the drums for 20 or 30 songs in 10 minutes.
“I recently did the same for house music.
“It’s called the Evolution of Afro House, and I’ve just literally spent the last three or four months doing it.
“The first time I really did it in public was for a race — I am often the MC of many events, including a race for women and so on.”
The house music clip went viral.
“I recorded it and posted it on Facebook and TikTok, and because I was dressed as this speed cop, it really looks like this boertjie playing house music.
“The response has been amazing — on TikTok it got about 1.8m views, 1.6m on Facebook, and another 1.6m on another site.
“That’s roughly five million views in total, which is crazy for a Gen X guy like me.
“It’s also part of my new show now, and it’s just taken off.”
He described the reaction as a “full-on rainbow nation moment”.
“The comments are literally thousands, 5,000 plus, and 99.99% of them have been positive,” Fabbri said.
“It has given me so much hope, not only for the country but also for my own comedy and what I’m doing.
“It confirmed what I’m doing was relevant. It was so helpful and warm — good Lord, I’m actually doing something worthwhile.”
The show has also expanded his audience.
“Comedy is easy to fall into a comfort zone, playing to one type of audience all the time. This opened up my audience, which has been fantastic. I just actually love it.”
Aside from live performances, Fabbri has been running an online show for the past five years.
“I started my online show during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it became something to hold onto during that time,” Fabbri said.
“Not only did it give me purpose, but it connected me with people from all over, especially local entrepreneurs and small-business owners.
“I’ve had everybody on — from local celebs to locksmiths, transport guys, and other Gqeberha-based businesses.
“It’s been amazing, getting to know people who are working hard and doing interesting things in town.”
He credits his wife, Dr Philippa, of more than three decades for helping keep things going during lockdown.
“My wife has been absolutely amazing,” Fabbri said, adding that she has a PhD and started a school for children with special needs, Elsen Academy.
“She managed everything at home while I focused on the show.
“It was a tough time, but having the show to do gave me structure and a sense of relevance.”
The show has also allowed Fabbri to develop new characters.
“I’ve got a new character called Dolores, and she’s just taken off,” he said.
“Then there’s the ‘sexy and I know it’ segment of the ‘speed cop’ character, and I’m also exploring a new production.
“It’s all growing really fast, and it’s given me a new energy for my comedy.”
Family remains central to him.
“I’ve got two boys and an unofficially adopted boy who stays with us,” he said.
Celso, 24, is now a successful DJ in Cape Town while Enzo, 22, has just graduated and is starting his own computer business. Elijah, 24, whom Fabbri had taken in as his own, is a recently graduated engineer.
“Enzo has got the funny bone too, though I don’t know if he’ll ever be on stage,” he said. “Philippa and I have been married for 32 years, soon to be 33 in April, and I couldn’t have done any of this without her.”
Fabbri admits life hasn’t always been easy.
“Covid-19 hit the entertainment industry hard, and it felt like everything I’d been building for 20 years disappeared overnight,” he said.
“It was desperate, but I’ve been fortunate — my personality is even-keeled. My wife kept us going, and the show gave me focus and purpose.”
Looking ahead, Fabbri is excited.
“With the explosion on social media, and the response to the evolution of Afro House, it’s opened up a new audience.
“I’m looking at how to grow that over the next year.
“I also have a new show called Artificial Un-Intelligence, which I’ll be running for a while longer. It’s about keeping comedy fresh and relevant, exploring new characters and connecting with people in new ways.”
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