Type: Clowning, Love Comedy
If you like: Italy, Love, Clowns
Jeromaia Detto’s Giuseppe’s Love Quest at the Melbourne Comedy Festival feels loose, playful, and occasionally chaotic — but that’s largely by design. It’s a show that leans hard into audience participation and, for the most part, makes it pay off.
Detto plays Italian beach boy Giuseppe Alfresco whose one lament is that he has never found love, or rather even known what love should feel like. His act follows him on a series of social experiments, a ‘quest’ for romance if you will, as he implores the audience to dig deep into their own feelings, in the hope that he can then reverse-engineer romance itself.
Giuseppe does not have answers, but he comes packed with plenty of charm, a disarming grin, a bunch of roses to hand out, and a kind of rapport that makes audience willing participants to his antics. As he goes about assembling this crowd-sourced love kit, it leads to rollicking interactions as people share their own experiences which Giuseppe tries to recreate with the same person via an escalated absurdity of roleplay.
A person gets pulled up to do an impromptu sketch of Giuseppe, several others demonstrate the “right” way to hug or kiss, and a gentleman is also recruited to be his little bambino on stage, complete with a nappy and pacifier and little tricycle – an image that is as hilarious as is memorable. There’s accompanying music to several of these bits along the way and the sound technician does a commendable job keeping up with Detto, a challenge with a show that’s centered so heavily on impromptu crowd engagement.
Detto’s Giuseppe listens with intent, probes with childlike curiosity, and turns confusion into hilarity with ease. A particularly lovely touch in the final sections was the callback of every tip and advice he has collected all evening, and returning a satisfied thumbs-up to the tip-giver. It’s a neat payoff, one that rewards attention.
Not every moment lands cleanly, and the pacing can wobble when interactions run long. But that looseness is also part of the appeal. This is a show that prioritises connection over polish, curiosity over precision. The show also contains no grand thesis on love, and it makes no attempts to pretend otherwise. It simply gives space for silliness, awkwardness, and curiosity to coexist, and at a time when the world could do with some silliness, Jeromaia Detto’s one-man show feels endearing.
See our other reviews from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in the link below
Tickets and Practical Info for Giuseppe’s Love Quest at Sydney Comedy Festival 🎟️
Tickets: https://www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au/event/jeromaia-detto-giuseppes-love-quest/
FACTORY THEATRE
Wednesday, 29 April 2026 08:15 PM
General Admission Seated: $33.00
Concession: $28.00
Thursday, 30 April 2026 08:15 PM
General Admission Seated: $33.00
Concession: $28.00
Friday, 01 May 2026 08:15 PM
General Admission Seated: $33.00
Concession: $28.00
Duration: 60 minutes
Suitable for audiences 15+: Audience Participation
