Ennio Marchetto

Ennio Marchetto (born 20 February 1960 in Venice) is an Italian comedic live entertainer whose performances feature quick-change artistry, impersonations and his trademark bi-dimensional paper costumes.

He is also known as The Living Paper Cartoon.

In his one-hour show he goes through more than 50 costume changes, in front of the audience without hiding behind drapes or screens and without any assistance by stage hands.

In the last 30 years Marchetto has performed in over 170 countries and has been seen by more than one million people.

His shows were honoured with numerous awards and highly praised by international critics.

Marchetto was born next to Carlo Goldoni's home.

Inspired by cartoons, especially those by Walt Disney - he used to cut paper figures for his sister and decorations for the Christmas tree based on them -, modern dance performances like those choreographed by Pina Bausch and the mime performer Lindsay Kemp, his career began during the 1980s with various performances during the Venetian Carnival.

Back then Ennio worked in his father's company, a repair shop for espresso machines.

Everyone was convinced that he would carry on the family tradition, but Ennio didn't want to.

While working there, he was lost in daydreams and in one of these he saw Marilyn Monroe before him - all dressed in paper.

On the same day he created his first paper costume, which he showed to friends, family and amused people on the streets during the Carnival.

In 1988 he received the Golden Lion prize from the Venice Entertainment Festival for his creations.

In subsequent years he created more and more paper figures.

With just a few costumes, Marchetto presented his show at the Zanzara d'Oro (the Golden Mosquito), an annual competition for young comedians.

Marchetto was awarded the first prize and soon started appearing on television and in cabaret shows.

He developed more and more characters and began to think about his own theatre show.

His first attempt was a written and staged piece by Daniele Sala, which was about the life of the famous change artist Leopoldo Fregoli at the turn of the century.

Marchetto sang, acted and transformed himself in quick succession using his paper costumes.

However, he soon realized that this kind of show wasn't what he had in mind and called it off after only four performances.

After his last performance he met Dutch costume designer Sosthen Hennekam.

This encounter was the beginning of a long and prolific collaboration.

Sosthen devised numerous improvements.

For example, he introduced the origami technique thanks to which it was possible to change the costumes even faster.

After a few months Sosthen and Marchetto had designed enough costumes for a one-hour show.

At the moment, he has around 350 characters in his repertoire, often celebrities, but that also include other cultural icons and works of art.

Marchetto's first performance of his new show was at the Festa dell'Unità in Bologna and it was an instant success, which led to other television and guest appearances throughout Italy.

In 1989 the London producer Glynis Henderson saw a video recording of the show and offered Marchetto a spot at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Marchetto accepted the invitation.

However, half of his costumes were Italian celebrities, unknown by the international audience of the Festival.

In just two weeks Marchetto created 18 new characters, including crowd-favourites like Queen Elizabeth II, Freddie Mercury, Tina Turner and the Venus de Milo.

The first few days in Edinburgh were very hard; there were only a few spectators, but then the first critic came in, Malcolm Hay from Time Out Magazine.

He wrote an enthusiastic article.

A few days later the show was sold out up to the last date and Marchetto became a cult star of the Festival.

From then on everything moved on very fast.

After several tours of the UK, guest performances in London's West End and at international festivals, Marchetto and Sosthen's show was nominated at the Laurence Olivier Awards in 1993 in London for Best Entertainment.

In the same year Granada Television Celebrations produced Paper Marilyn, a one-hour documentary about Marchetto's life and his artistic career.

At the first MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin the following year Marchetto joined on stage with some of the same stars from his repertoire, including Prince, George Michael and Björk.

Other international engagements followed: a four-month stint at the Théâtre Grevin in Paris, a Germany tour with Erasure and an appearance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City – just to name a few.

In 1995 Marchetto won the Performance d’Acteur prize at the Cannes Festival and in 1996 the FAD Sebastià Gasch Award in Barcelona.

In 1998 Marchetto was invited to perform with the Spice Girls, Bryan Adams and other artists on the Royal Variety Show for Prince Charles, broadcast by the BBC.