Internet famous

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This article was published 26/11/2024 (635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When COVID shut the world down in 2020, Laura Ramoso did what a lot of creative people did: she downloaded TikTok and started making short-form video content.

“That opened up a whole other world for me,” says the Toronto-based sketch comedian. “I had basically no social media before, before COVID.”

A gifted impressionist, Ramoso mined familiar sources for inspiration: her German mom, her Italian dad and that one girl who travels somewhere once and makes it her entire personality. She ended up striking comedy gold.

Now, two million followers across TikTok and Instagram later, Ramoso, 29, has been on the road since February with her Sit Up Straight Tour, which wraps up at Club Regent in Winnipeg on Thursday after runs in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America.

Ramoso was a stage performer before the pandemic, so getting back in front of IRL audiences was something she had been dying to do once theatres opened again. But people coming to see her live because of what they’ve seen online — whether it’s German Mom, Italian Dad or Girl Who Just Got Back From… — is a new thing for her.

“There’s an added pressure, in a sense, because I feel that people have some expectation, but at the same time, I feel like I’m just creating the sketches that I want to make and the show that I want to put up. I just hope that it aligns with how people want to be entertained, and so far so good,” she says.

Ramoso was born in Italy to, yes, a German mom and an Italian dad — “Imagine if I didn’t actually have a German mom or an Italian dad?” she deadpans — but had a global upbringing owing to her mom’s career as a medical officer for the World Health Organization.

“We moved around a lot,” says Ramoso, who came to Canada for university and has been based here ever since.

“We spent a little bit of time in Italy, and then moved to Cameroon in West Africa for six years, and then Azerbaijan for three, China for five, and then Vietnam for three, and then we would go back and forth between wherever my mom was stationed and Italy.”

Ramoso’s German Mom character is a fan favourite. She’s a blunt, no-nonsense woman who staunchly believes in the power of physical activity, black turtlenecks and absolutely devastating one-liners.

“You have so many clothes and none of them are good,” she says of Laura’s closet in one sketch.

“This is not really special,” she says of a glass of wine in another.

“When I first started doing German Mom and people found it relatable, I was really surprised because I was just doing an impression of my specific mom and the things that she said, but I think it’s pretty mom-like across the board, in many ways,” Ramoso says.

Her parents, who live in Italy, can be counted among her fans.

“They laugh, they send the videos to all their friends,” Ramoso says.

But while the characters are “heavily, heavily inspired” by her parents, they are, indeed, characters. There’s a separation between comedy and reality.

“As the characters appear in more and more videos and sketches, they’re two dimensional and they remain that way, whereas, obviously, my parents are three dimensional human beings and there’s parts of them that are definitely not in those gestures. But the root is very much there, for sure, and they love them.”

Ramoso is part of a major shift in the comedy landscape.

It used to be that in order to break out big and be able to sustain large national or international tours such as the one she’s currently on, comedians had to follow a prescribed path to becoming a household name (and, indeed, had to be a household name). For standups, that meant securing that coveted comedy holy-grail: an HBO Special. For sketch/improv comedians, that meant Second City or Saturday Night Live.

Now, comedians of any stripe can build their own massive followings — and their own demand — via social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It’s not an easier path by any means, but it is one with fewer gatekeepers.

“It’s really democratized comedy, or just allowed people to go directly to an audience and find that niche audience that would like that stuff. I think it’s really cool,” Ramoso says.

As someone who has booked shows for 25 years, Kelly Berehulka, the entertainment program manager at Club Regent Event Centre, has seen this shift first hand — and the effect has been seismic.

“Comics have very quickly become the new rock stars of the touring industry,” he says.

When streaming giant Netflix made comedy a priority on its platform, it was a boon to comedians trying to find their audiences.

Not everyone has HBO, Berehulka points out, but most people have Netflix.

“The popularity and access of specials on Netflix — especially during the COVID lockdown era — has launched and elevated touring comics like Tom Segura, Jo Koy, Nikki Glaser, Anthony Jeselnik, Jim Jefferies, Whitney Cummings, Brad Williams, Iliza (Shlesinger) and many others who have all sold out multiple shows at Club Regent Event Centre,” he says, adding that the increased demand for comedy can be seen at venues all over the city, from clubs such as Rumor’s and Yuk Yuk’s right on up to Canada Life Centre.

Koy, in particular, is an interesting case study. In 2017, the day after he released his first Netflix special, Berehulka booked him for one show.

“That turned into four shows in three days, and another three shows 14 months later — all on the strength of one Netflix standup special,” he says.

These days, a comedian doesn’t even need a Netflix special to sell out shows. New York comic Jeff Arcuri sold out two nights at Club Regent earlier this year on the back of Instagram and TikTok videos of his spontaneous comedy-club crowd work.

“We booked Laura Ramoso based on the success of her viral TikTok and YouTube sketch videos, again, without traditional streaming service standup specials,” Berehulka says.

“Success in the concert and touring industry requires venues to be very agile and evolve programming, but I’ve never experienced the quick change in pace in popularity that a comedian can achieve through streaming services and live clips posted on social media.”

But if you’re not a TikTokker, not to worry: being a social media user is not a prerequisite to enjoy Ramoso’s show.

“People can expect to see the characters they know and love from my online platforms, like German Mom and Italian Dad, but the show has also been constructed in such a way that if you don’t know any of my work, or if you don’t follow me, you’ll still have a good time,” she says.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com