Fabio Canino: «Me, gay but without sequins. They are an antidote to homophobia “

What did they ask you, Fabio Canino?

«It was the year in which I worked as a presenter at the Giro d’Italia and at each stage I went to the streets among the people to collect the interventions of the people: one day two elderly people, he and she, approached. They begin to turn around me, cautious, thoughtful. They talk to each other, they look me up. “Ask him yourself” he says to her. “No, ask him yourself.” At one point he takes courage: sorry, but are you a fag by contract? Textual words ».

“As Karen Blixen says, it takes courage to be happy. So I never hid my homosexuality. Faced with that question I looked at him and immediately realized that there was no evil in her eyes. She didn’t want to offend me. She just didn’t know how to express herself. So I said to him in order not to betray her trust: yes, by contract, in reality I have a wife and children at home. He was happy: you see it dear, you see, you see, he is too smart to be a fag! He didn’t like this, because they respected me and therefore I had to pretend. Marvelous”.

All right, this is an insult so out of the ordinary that it’s funny. But one of the real ones?

“When I switched from Mediaset to Rai in 2007, the Rai executive who received me in his office began by saying“ I hate busons ”. I replied: I hate the Northern League. Because he was. His purpose was not to make me work but only to take me off the market. Maybe I was bothering? It didn’t bother him that I was gay, but that I wasn’t the stereotype of gay in sequins. Maurizio Costanzo always told me: you are scary because you are a gay in jeans and a T-shirt, your non-recognition is frightening ».

Fortunately, the world has evolved a bit …

«In reality I had a very peaceful life even as a kid, with the good fortune of growing up in a very green district of Florence like Gavinana, always out of the house, climbing trees. It’s something I regret. We spent all day inventing worlds and building huts, like in appendix novels. And since I’ve always been creative, the animator of the group, I was the one who chose the games: that’s where my passion for “staging” was born, entertaining other children, even the older ones. Even if in private I was very shy ».

He was not born a “presenter”, therefore.

«It was the Rai 1 shows on Saturday evening, the only day when my parents let me pass the carousel, that kicked me off. Those with Mina and Carrà, Alberto Lupo and Lelio Luttazzi. I didn’t know what the show was, but I liked it. Luckily I had an aunt, Germana, who owned a small circus. Spending a summer with her – that of the sixth grade – I developed all my passions: travel, outdoor life, entertainment. I was helping at the ticket office and selling cotton candy and room programs. It is the summer that has given me the life of my life. From that moment, when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I answered: the circus ».

It wasn’t exactly like that.

“That’s not true: our environment, the TV, is really a circus. Anyway in the family they were all half artists: my father, my brother, my uncle, all musicians. But none as a professional. For this it was difficult to imagine it as a job, it was something that was needed to spend time together. Then I started working as an entertainer in tourist villages to support myself at my studies in Milan and one evening when the official presenter of the village felt ill the director asked who could speak three languages. Only me. I replaced him and I have never stopped ».

Spanning very different fields.

“I never wanted to be top of the class at anything because I wanted to be in all the classes: at Radio Capital every day, writing books, the presenter on TV but only when they offer me programs that I consider suitable for me and for which can be credible “.

“I could never present a quiz, for example. Because if a competitor said crazy nonsense, I’m sure I couldn’t stop myself from calling him illiterate, and a presenter shouldn’t do these things. “

So what is it credible for?

«My highlight was Martian Chronicles on Italy 1, a talk-shock of interviews that only told the truth in the face. It was a program dressed up on me: you joke, you laugh but you also say serious things. On the radio, for example, I can have a relationship with the public as I like it and follow the teachings of the teacher Raffaella Carrà: mixing high and low ».

It’s a nice luxury to choose what looks like us …

«I am a lucky person, I have a job and it is already quite a lot these days. I wake up in the morning happy with what I’m going to do. And if you are curious and you look out of all the windows you always see different views. My life is a continuous looking out of the windows ».

Was there a sliding door in your life?

“Definitely Martian Chronicles. I had already done The Hyenas, Macao and other things but until that moment with whoever I spoke to I always had to explain what I was doing and who I was. After that there was no more need. Even if still today I always have to prove that I know how to do what I do ».

Is the first love always the radio?

“It is the means that makes you grow more, it needs affection, it binds you to people”.

Do you prefer to think of yourself as an actor or presenter?

“I try to combine the two. When I participated in The Little Shop of Horrors I realized that never in my life would I have thought that I would do something as difficult as a musical. Then I discovered that singing on stage is more liberating than any analysis session ».

Over the years it has also lost its allure of “transgressive”.

“They considered me transgressive only because I was gay. I’m actually the most couch potato in the world. He will be someone to tame on TV, they said … Then after Dancing with the Stars they realized that I’m not crazy to keep at bay and I use the media differently from each other “.

The landing in literature?

«I’ve always been afraid to say that I like to write, because I have a great respect for those who can do it. It was a great satisfaction because my “original” way of writing tells me that it turns out to be sincere. Words missing from my heart, a love story between two Serie A players, I was to present him to the European Parliament, which for me, always very pro-European, was an honor. They called it the only example of a story of inclusiveness in sport ».

Here, in fact, anything but transgressive.

«Did I get rid of the“ semi serious ”label? Yet when I make a political comment they reply by telling me to raise the palette of Dancing with the stars, when I raise the palette of Ballando not even that suits them. Prejudice and I now call ourselves you. And as an admirer of true writers, I also understand prejudice. In fact, my greatest satisfaction is when they read the book and the prejudice disappears ».

Let’s talk a little about love too.

“I’m finally living a love story that has made me more confident in mankind. Friends even say it made me better, which maybe hurts my career (laughs) But I’m a fag by contract, so… ».

Did he believe less in love before?

“I’ve always chosen soap opera stories, my fault. I missed the sentimental mess, for insecurity, I never felt suitable or right, or beautiful enough, and I ended up transferring my insecurities to the other. Now, on the other hand, I see in him a sincerity in his feelings that I had not seen for years ».

How was the relationship with the family of origin?

“I’ve always had the freedom to be and do what I wanted. My parents have always been my first fans and pushed me to leave Florence to invest in my work. A relationship of great intellectual honesty has always linked us, even on matters of love and work I have always had them by my side. They were proud to have a son who went to the Costanzo Show to say that she had left him a boyfriend, and Costanzo always said that I did more against the homophobia of a hundred congresses ».

Exposing yourself will have had pros but also against.

«One of these Saturdays at Dancing with the Stars we had a gay couple, both the VIP and the dancer, who did a crazy freestyle on a song by Tiziano Ferro that moved everyone. To me particularly because I say to myself: you see, if I had been more silent in my life I would have achieved more on a professional level but my being gay and the urge to always say what I think has closed me a lot of doors. Then I looked at them and I replied: I did everything I did to be able to witness moments like this ».

The newsletter

If you want to stay updated on the news of Florence, subscribe for free to the Corriere Fiorentino newsletter. It arrives every day straight to your inbox at 12 noon. Just click here