'She was so old she struck me as being antique'
My mother tells a story that when I was four or five I'd sing and dance on the beach in Italy in front of the jukebox. To be honest, I'm quite a shy person and I don't remember much about those early days.
I grew up in Venice in the 1960s, which was a great place for kids. You could play in the street without dangers such as horrendous traffic. We would make things such as paper masks at primary school and I'd stand in front of the mirror looking at what I'd made. Even today I still choreograph in front of the mirror with the props I use in my show - and there are many of them because there are dozens of characters.
From the age of 10 to about 15 I became introverted and, although I'm more outgoing now, I'm still reserved. Going on stage I plaster on the make-up and it's as if I undergo a change and become someone different, actually more like 15 different people in a typical evening.
At school I used to hate being called up to give an answer in front of the class. It made me utterly miserable. As a result, I didn't like school. I wasn't naughty though, unlike some of my schoolmates, who would put water or worms on the teacher's chair. With hindsight it would have been better for me to have been taught one on one by my own teacher or have gone to a school which was private and had smaller classes.
The teacher I remember most taught me Italian. I liked her because she was a lot of fun but she was old, in fact so old she struck me as being antique. Compared with her, the other teachers were so dull and serious.
I left school at the age of 15 or 16 and went to art school. I liked sketching fruit and flowers or the architectural details of Venice in pencil - the city is inspirational - but it didn't work out for me so I left early and went to work for my father, who had a coffee machine shop in Venice. I'd clean the parts of the coffee maker and he'd put them back together again. I knew from the first day there that it wasn't the job for me and I'd be bored.
Eventually I found this shop selling and making masks, a traditional artform in Venice which you see showcased in the Venice Carnival. I ended up making some costumes for the carnival out of rubbish and bits of plastic that I found at the beach. It was about the same time that I started to develop an interest in theatre and saw a show by an English mime artist and choreographer called Lindsay Kemp. I was amazed by what I saw. It inspired me to start doing my own shows. I staged a few for friends and it was suggested to me to enter a competition in Bologna where I took first place despite there being 200 performers. It was 1988 and I was 28.
I love what I do and being on the stage. The adrenalin pumps through me and there's a sense of euphoria and feeling of power despite my shyness. It took time, hope and a lot of waiting to get to be where I am today. Like most people, I had to find what excited me and there were years of frustration before that happened. And, of course, if you want to be a performer it helps if you have some natural talent.
Ennio Marchetto is performing at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts until October 23. He was talking to David Phair
