“What is love? Oh, baby don’t hurt me… Don’t hurt me… no more.” A powerful question with a powerfully illusive answer. Everyone is looking for it, some people have it, and some people don’t know it when they do.
Italian immigrant Giuseppe Alfresco is just a simple Italian beach boy from the beaches of Italy. He’s a happy man but he’s never been in love, or has he? Who knows in this mixed-up world! But now he has travelled from his simple land to the melting pot of culture, art and cuisine MELBOURNE’S CBD to find the answer to his conundrum. He wants another soul to call his own, he wants a tiny bambino to call out for him, and he wants your help to find these things. Can you help him? Can anybody!?
From the loins of the award-winning comedian, Jeromaia Detto comes his latest engaging hour of entertainment. Multi-talented and multilingual Detto has become a mainstay of the national comedy festival scene. Training across the globe from Oslo to Chicago to London, not to mention studying under renowned clown master Philippe Gaulier in Paris (France, not Texas), Detto has performed to sell out shows nationally, touring for the last decade with his unique brand of silliness.
Jeromaia Detto incorporates a particular brand of light-hearted and collaborative improv between himself and the audience at any of his shows. Personally, I have seen him perform several times over the last few years from his solo show ‘When I Grow Up‘ to his kids shows with fellow comedian Jon Walpole, ‘Jon & Jero: Stuff‘. Their sort of “choose your own adventure” style shows are based on input from the audience and Detto takes in the spontaneity of the audience, wraps it up in a hilarious bow, and regifts it back to us like an improvisational Christmas fruitcake!
Friendly chap ‘Giuseppe Alfresco‘, strolls around the bar of The Motley Wherehaus, introducing himself and greeting patrons before the show has even begun. Such is the one-on-one nature of Jeromaia Detto‘s comedy shows. This isn’t the first time the Aussie funny man has blended the “outside world” with the ridiculous universe you’re about to be drawn into.
Giuseppe needs our help! He needs to know how to be charming, find what love means to us, as well our ideas for a fulfilling date. Throughout the show, Giuseppe finds himself potentially falling for several members of the audience and calling on us to come up and act out these complex interactions. The perfect hug? Solo kissing practice? There’s no telling what Giuseppe will ask for next and who knows what the lady in the third row is going to say?!?
Jeromaia Detto has a talent for making the audience feel completely at ease, considering that we are all potentially going to look like total fools at some point. I myself went up on the stage, and hand-in-hand, head on his shoulder, went on a romantic stroll with Giuseppe. Another audience member dressed in baby clothes and rode around stage on a child’s bicycle! It really was that kind of a show. But it’s all in good fun and we go along with Detto because we left our inhibitions at the door!
However, it’s hard to say exactly what type of show you’re going to have on any particular night, as it really is a luck of the draw kind of thing. Sometimes it could be a sold-out room absolutely full of people, all throwing out ideas and with plenty of suggestions and people chomping at the bit to jump up on stage. Other times, it could be a much quieter affair with only a few audience members some of whom are more game than others. But even in this case, Detto can keep his crowd comfortable, and still draw out reactions and collaborations that one might be too chickenshit to ever have the balls to do otherwise!
Jeromaia Detto: Giuseppe’s Love Quest is a relaxing and silly way to spend a night. It may not seem like it, but this is 100% a clown show, one which doesn’t fail to put a smile on the faces of every single person in the audience. I had a lot of fun with Giuseppe; I jumped up on stage and did things in front of the Melbourne audience that I never thought I’d have been composed enough to do. All of it was hilarious, all of it was thanks to Jeromaia Detto, and I’d 100% recommend checking him out!
Jeromaia Detto: Giuseppe’s Love Quest is currently playing in Melbourne as part of the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival at The Motley Wherehaus – The Salon until April 19th.
For more information and ticketing, visit:
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/jeromaia-detto-giuseppe-s-love-quest
https://jeromaiadetto.com
https://www.instagram.com/jeromaia.detto
Photography supplied.