Nabana: Laughing at Decline (and Why We Don't Like the "Best" Anymore)

Last night I was at the Geox Grand Theatre to see Nabana of Angelo Pintus . And I'll tell you something right away: if you're looking for a caress, stay home. Pintus doesn't caress, he slaps. But it's those slaps that wake you from the torpor of "political correctness" that's suffocating us all.

The show is a cynical, almost insulting, journey into the flaws of a world that no longer knows how to laugh at itself. But the real magic isn't malice, it's humanity. There's something liberating in watching a man on stage dismantling, piece by piece, the myth of eternal youth and social perfection.

The art of aging badly (but laughing)

There's a cruel sweetness in the way Pintus recounts turning 50. The physical pain, the embarrassing doctor visits, the body betraying you just when your mind still thinks it's that of a twenty-year-old. We laughed until we cried, but underneath, in the audience, we could feel that thrill of collective recognition. That "little big sadness" that unites us all: the awareness that we are fragile. And laughing at this fragility is perhaps the only form of immortality we can afford.

The phrase I take home with me

Between a gag about boomers and one about social hypocrisy, Pintus dropped the bombshell. A phrase referring to politicians, but applicable to anyone who sets themselves up as a moralizer on social media, in politics, or in life:

“If you claim to be 'the best,' you have to be unassailable. Otherwise, you're just an embarrassment.‘

Here's the whole point. We live in an age of self-proclaimed "betters," of people who tell you how to live, how to think, how to speak. But as soon as you scratch the surface, you find the same miseries as everyone else. Pintus reminds us that the only honest posture is that of the imperfect.
If you have the chance, go. Not for "fun" in the light-hearted sense of the word, but for a laugh and a reality check. You'll emerge a little older, perhaps, but decidedly less alone.