Flop a parte, I don't know whether to review Beppe Grillo as a comedian on TV is really an advert in favor of the 5 Star Movement or is it counterproductive for them. The show aired the other night on Raidue, Grillo is there, it actually arouses very mixed feelings: there are those who resell him and regret his role as a comedian and entertainer, rediscovering his verve as a free curser. There are those who do not see a solution of continuity and believe that the political prophet Grillo is the continuation of the comedian Beppe with other means, but with the same purposes: tell the truth, getting angry. Have fun & Subvert. And there are those, on the contrary, seeing him in the guise of a comedian, confirms that the reins of the country cannot be entrusted to a movement inspired by a cabaret artist. As long as you're joking, it's fine... In short, I think after seeing the Grillo comeback on Rai, everyone strengthens their judgments and prejudices.
However, I find the attempt to attack him petty with the means we have been used to for a long time, perhaps also thanks to the grillini themselves: for example the indignation because through his agent he pockets 30 thousand euros in royalties on the pieces broadcast. Via, someone who on any given evening at the theater takes or used to take more, he certainly doesn't get rich with 30 thousand euros. Grillo doesn't need citizenship income... And then, if you consider the millions that Rai pays to its Three Kings, like Fazio, for example, It doesn't seem like something to be shocked about at all. Imagine that Baglioni gets 700 thousand, for Sanremo, just to have a unit of measurement or dismeasure.
A me invece, Freccero's idea to resurrect Grillo she was liked in the Rai video and knowing that crazy talent of Freccero I really don't think she does it to please whoever nominated her or to bring votes to the mill of the 5 place. He simply wants to carry out his revolution in the Raidue schedule, leave his mark, and has shown unscrupulousness in other choices. For example in broadcasting Poor homeland, who was immediately massacred by snipers from the Newspaper of the Holy Inquisition, The Republic is confined, indeed branded, in the “sovereignist far right” genre. Right, we are in the logic of Techetecheté, pure anthology of the glorious pre-internet times, but these amarcord programs work very well, also because they touch on collective autobiography, at least the elderly, who are the target of Rai and generalist TV. Personally, I am among those who miss Grillo as an entertainer rather than as a political leader. Beppe on TV was the link between the brilliant soliloquies of the era of Walter Chiari and one man shows at Crozza; but with a charge of civil anger, sometimes uncivilized, all his.
I'm light years away from grillini but I recognize in Grillo the great talent of having understood the scene and the change of scene and of having been able to defeat the little theater of politics - in a country of comedians and political entertainers, from Berlusconi to Renzi - demonstrating that those who come from cabaret and go into politics can beat those who come from politics and do cabaret. And he did well to remain ayatollah of the Movement, leaving the task of making politics to the imams of the 5 stars. Many years ago I tried to bring Grillo back to Rai. I remember going to visit him at the Ripetta residence in Rome, to get his approval. He was supposed to perform in the evening at the Sistina theater, where he invited me to go, and I received a cautious green light from him on his first taste of return. I knew that his expulsion had been a wound for Rai and for the public and had contributed to making the political power of the time more odious. But in the meantime there had been a change of republic, the socialists were no longer there and neither were the Christian Democrats. Therefore, the idea of ​​having him back on Rai seemed to me to be without obstacles. Instead, the general manager at the time called me, Agostino Saccà, and he begged me not to do it because in reality the final veto on Grillo had not been put by Craxi or the politicians of the time, that perhaps they would have been happy to kick him out. But it was some big advertisers who Beppe attacked on their products, they had placed the aut: Either you kick him out or we withdraw the advertising, perhaps moving it to Mediaset networks.
They were packed with billions, at the time, and Rai could not afford such a significant economic risk and do such a great favor to the competition... Indeed, bringing Grillo back into that situation would have appeared to be a favor to Berlusconi and his networks. I was enticed to fish out Grillo not only because of his skills as a comedian, but because I didn't mind his new guise of Savonarola from the cabaret that he had accentuated since he disappeared from the video.
In his evenings around Italy he denounced, with apocalyptic tones, the consumer society, speculations in industry and finance, environmental degradation, bank abuse. I liked his references to the monetary sovereignty of the people which he had drawn from his theorist, another lucid madman, my friend from Abruzzo, the monomaniacal professor Giacinto Auriti. And we talked about it with Beppe, that time. The complaints seemed to me pertinent and even worthy, a little less to entrust to him or to whoever takes his place, the government of a nation. Previously, in '98, I had dedicated the cover of the weekly magazine I was managing at the time to Grillo, The State, hailing him as a neo-medieval political leader and prophet. I had never done it... but I was joking, I said it paradoxically. And instead.
Anyway, TV celebrates a lot of octogenarians every day, from Celentano to Baudo, from Costanzo to Arbore and Carrà, up to the poet Piero Angela. Why shouldn't you in this antiquarian passion, in this praiseworthy archeology of the screen, bring back to video a brilliant precursor of stand-up comedians, prime ministers and ministers in office? And then, let's tell the truth, Grillo looks better on video than at Palazzo Chigi.
MV, The Truth 29 January 2019
source – http://www.marcelloveneziani.com/articoli/il-grillo-tornante/