Perth Fringe Festival Focus: Ivan Aristeguieta

Having recently immigrated to Australia from Venezuela, comedian Ivan Aristeguieta is set to take on Fringe World with his fresh perspective on the Aussie way of life.

“Every time I do comedy I’m very focused on jokes about food," he says, "so I decided this year to do a one-hour show exclusively about food. And of course, as an immigrant I focus a lot on cultural differences. That's why the name of the show is Chorizo Sizzle – it’s a bit of the mix between Australian culture and Spanish Latin American culture, through food.”

The traditional sausage sizzle, naturally, gets a look-in. Aristeguieta seems bemused by the fact Australian’s are so blasé about replacing a hotdog bun with sandwich bread, pointing out that for Australians, the convenient, efficient, and creative option will do. “You don’t care about the bread, because it’s all about the sausage.”

He says he’s very happy with the show because he’s dedicated a lot of his life to food in his other careers. “I’m a food technologist, and in Venezuela I studied cooking and culinary arts, and I also studied brewing, so everything before I became a comedian was all about food and the food industry, and travelling around the world. So I’m very happy to be dedicated to the things I love the most - cooking and food and comedy. I’m very excited about this.”

His love of comedy began at an early age: “Since I was a little kid I loved learning jokes and making people laugh. I think it’s, how you call it in English – little sibling syndrome? The small brother syndrome?” Now his schedule for 2016 is packed full of comedy appearances, and the year is only kicking off: Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne Comedy Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival are already on the calendar. “It’s pretty much festivals and road shows, and let’s see what’s next.”

Aristeguieta says the talk around the comedians in Australia, regarding Perth Fringe World Festival, is that every comedian wants to be there because it’s a relatively new and exciting festival; word is people in WA are very keen to go and will buy a ticket even if they’re not familiar with the act – they’re just excited to enjoy the surprise. “That’s great for us, most of us don't have a profile in the media but we have great shows.” He points out it’s cheaper than going to the movies. “And I think it’s a lot better – action in the actual 3D!”

Ivan Aristeguieta's Chorizo Sizzle will be on at The Shambles from February 6-10 as part of Fringe World Festival 2016.

Originally published in X-Press Magazine