As the hilarious Aussie comedy trio tour the country with their all-new live show Home Made, we catch up with brothers Joe and Carlo Salanitri and best mate Andrew Manfre, to find out what really goes on backstage…
Sooshi Mango has come a long way since first rocketing to online fame in 2015. The comedy trio of brothers Joe and Carlo Salanitri and their friend Andrew Manfre, have parlayed viral success into one of Australia’s most popular touring acts. Like Jerry Lewis and the Marx Brothers before them, Sooshi Mango use props, wigs and moustaches to transform into an array of regular and recurring characters, mostly mined from their own childhoods growing up as Italian-Australians. The trio are also building a business empire which currently includes the Sooshi Mango podcast, an alcohol brand, an Italian restaurant on Melbourne’s Lygon Street and big plans for a feature-length film.
The hidden genius of Sooshi Mango is the often surprising universality of their comedy, earning the group a legion of fans across Australia and around the world. Perhaps not coincidentally, the trio really caught fire at a time when creeping political correctness saw most other comedians veer away from the edgy stuff. On the contrary, “We can laugh about anything,” they told MAXIM. Nine years and a billion or so online views later, Sooshi Mango are in the midst of their largest tour to date, headlining brand new material to arenas across the country until November.
Here, Joe, Carlo and Andrew sit down with MAXIM to talk the end of political correctness, pre-show rituals and why their audiences look like United Nations parties.
Fellas, great to chat again. How are all things with the Australian tour going?
Andrew: We’re currently on our new Australian Home Made tour, and the response has been overwhelming. Performing to the crowds is always such a high and the energy from people is amazing. The lead up saw us in rehearsals for weeks, for eight hours a day, so performing it live and hearing laughter again is just brilliant.
How did you guys all meet to become Sooshi Mango?
Joe: Well, I met my brother at the hospital when he was born. And Andrew – we’ve been family friends for 30 years because we come from one of the same regions of Italy. We all went to school together, but you know how it is when you’re 15 and your brother is 12 – there’s a gap. Carlo what did you always say?
Carlo: I don’t know if you can quote this or not but when I was playing with Ninja Turtles they were having their first wank. It was a huge gap, until you sort of catch up. By the time you turn 16 or 17 and they’re 19 you close the gap.
Joe: So that’s how we met, and we all know each other like that. [Sooshi Mango] happened nine years ago. I did a video in my car one day and I went to my brother’s house and said, “Let’s do some videos” and we put a camera on the dashboard and, as they say, the rest is history. We kept on doing them and we had so much fun and laughed so much it became like a therapy session for us. We’d catch up every week or a couple times a week and just piss ourselves laughing.
Is that what makes Sooshi Mango special – first and foremost it’s you guys catching up and having fun?
Andrew: As it’s grown it’s become more business-like, but we still have fun and love what we do. We wouldn’t invest this much time into doing what we do if we didn’t love it and love entertaining people. First and foremost, that’s the priority.
Joe: I also think what helps is we have so much fun with each other – at the airport or waiting for this or that – we have little jokes and laugh and that cuts through the business stuff and makes it fun.
Andrew: I think what he’s trying to say is we’re 40-year-old men but we’re behaving like we’re 13 years old most of the time.
How much fun is it being on tour together and travelling all over the country, as mates?
Joe: We have a lot of fun but there are times when everyone sits on their phone and has their own space. We constantly muck around and it’s silly shit. We’ll find a word and play with that word for four days. It happens a lot.
Carlo: It’s three mates hanging out and performing. I don’t think you could ask for a better job. It gets tiring of course, with the travel and doing the shows – it’s a rush of energy then a comedown but it’s really the best job we could ever ask for.
Andrew: We’re very lucky because we have all three of us – some of these guys who travel alone doing standup, that would be harder. We take it and have fun.
Joe: We’ve got a fun crew as well. And if we mess up a line who cares – we’re not doing Shakespeare up there.
Do you guys have any rituals backstage?
Joe: They have to eat 16 mandarins each. It’s refreshing, Vitamin C in it, so we make sure the mandarins are in the rider.
Andrew: English breakfast tea and almond milk. Carlo plays music in his dressing room.
Carlo: Something I do is I look in the mirror and do a bit of talking to myself. I don’t wear particular underwear or anything like that. Andrew, you used to have to take a crap?
Andrew: In the early days, one of the first tours we did, I would come out as Angela – the mother character I do. So, I’d have to dress up with stockings on and we had to go on stage in 10 minutes but I’d have to go for a crap. So, I’d hitch the skirt up, get on the toilet and do my business.
You guys have a huge online following. Have you seen your audience change over the years and, at your shows, are you surprised to see the different types of people who like your comedy?
Carlo: Definitely. It’s grown beyond what we imagined it would. Our characters are Italian, Greek, Arab… you’d think you’d look into the audience and see those types of people, but you look into the audience and it’s like a United Nations party. There’s probably more Anglos than, quote, “ethnics”. It just goes to show, what we tried to do is make the comedy just about comedy and not “ethnic” comedy. We try to create a world where anyone can look in and say, “Shit, that’s funny”. One of the biggest challenges for us is to make it our own little world that’s universal.
Joe: I don’t want to sound like a wanker, but you never know who is watching. We got a DM from Jerry Seinfeld saying he thought the videos were hilarious. And we just found out Australia’s favourite son Johnny Farnham and his family are fans. The web has just gone nuts and we’re very humbled by it.
Speaking of Seinfeld. What do you think about comedy at the moment? It feels like we went through a time where there was so much political correctness, but now it’s like we’re swinging back a bit?
Carlo: I’m glad you asked the question that way. It’s come back to some form of normality where people can joke with each other again and not get so sensitive. Or the people who do get sensitive make noise online, but then normal people are saying get back in your box. It’s really a minority making most of the noise, nobody cares anymore and we’re getting on with it. It’s a joke, it’s designed to make people laugh, we stay in our lane. I’m all about, if it’s funny say it. You don’t want to be ultra-offensive but saying Italians have big noses or Greeks have one eyebrow, who cares? It’s true, and it’s funny.
Andrew: It depends on how you tell it. We’re not about delivering anything with ill-intention. It’s sad to see the comedy landscape was narrowed down and now it seems it’s expanding. As long as we can laugh with each other and not at each other.
Joe: It’s also good to mention, we never changed what we did. We stayed the same, still doing racial jokes, still doing “my wife is…” jokes and there are a lot of comedians who didn’t. Hats off to the comedians who weathered the storm – a lot of comedians who changed, their careers suffered.
Carlo: I’ve seen comedians try to become politically correct and then seen them turn back. I saw them tiptoeing through that two- or three-year period then they came out all guns firing as soon as it was OK again. The audience hasn’t taken to it. You have to deliver to your audience and what’s true to your comedy.
Andrew: The King’s jester was there to make the King laugh and he was the only one who could make fun of the King without getting his head chopped off. That’s the comedian’s job to dance and flirt with that line. Let’s just f—king have a laugh and stop being so uptight about everything!
Sooshi Mango are currently touring Australia with their Home Made tour. For more, check out SOOSHIMANGO.COM
By REILLY SULLIVAN
For the full article grab the September 2024 issue of MAXIM Australia from newsagents and convenience locations. Subscribe here.
