Yianni: Thinking Big

“I’m not mad,” says Yianni, “I’m just ambitious.”

It’s not the first time that Yianni has been asked if he’s lost his mind, given the scale of his undertaking for the 2013 Fringe. Last year, he played the Free Fringe with a great show about maths and autism, and enjoyed the kind of success that might justify taking on a paid show at a larger venue.

But Yianni has overshot that somewhat, and is instead planning a one-off extravaganza at the Fringe’s largest venue, the 1200-seater EICC. It’s an audacious leap forward and a crazy risk, so why is he doing it?

“I wanted to do something really personal and look at my weaknesses, and my big weakness is that sometimes I don’t follow through on my ideas. So I wrote a show about what we can achieve if we really believe in ourselves. And then I thought, well why don’t I do something to demonstrate that?

“I asked around at some of the other venues, like trying to get the Pleasance One for an evening but it was really hard to book it out for just one evening. The EICC hadn’t even occurred to me until a friend suggested it when we were in a pub. I said, 'Could you put me in touch with the venue manager?' and he said, ‘No problem, he’s coming down here in five minutes.’"

And now Yianni face the biggest challenge of his career. It could be a huge breakthrough if he pulls it off, but is it actually part of a masterplan to succeed in comedy? 

“God no, I have no big plan. This could just be another event in a long line of failures. But, whatever happens, even if it’s just me in front of twenty people in a huge room, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”