Milanese Cabaret

History

Cabarets became popular in Italy in the early 1950s, taking the historic Chat Noir in Paris as a model.

Milan immediately established itself as the capital of Italian cabaret. In the history of Milan, cabaret also finds its space, bringing not only the Milanese but also the international scene, comedians and singers. The word “cabaret” derives from the French cabarè, which means tray, then popularized in cabaret where it also acquires the meaning of osteria, tavern, until it became a nightclub with variety shows.

The history of cabaret finds its offshoots, albeit in a different way, in the Venetian coffee shops or in the old laughing taverns of our peninsula. However, the real beginning can be attributed to the legendary French Chat Noir, the progenitor of all cabarets.

In Italy, thanks to the genius and Italian imagination, cabaret has taken on different characteristics according to the region, thus offering a variety of great spectacle. In Milan, memories take us to the end of the fifties when Giovanni, a Bolognese artist with his wife Angela Bongiovanni, in Via Monte Rosa, opened a restaurant with the name of GI-GO, also offering good Jazz music. In the early sixties it changed its name to Intra's Derby Club, thus starting to become the temple of Milanese cabaret.

In 1985 the historic club definitively closed its doors, but the Milanese cabaret did not end. In fact, the Zelig opened, today's reference of Milanese cabaret art.

The Zelig opened its doors in May 1986 in Viale Monza, and the name is taken from a Woody Allen film. This adventure also proved fruitful to many artists who found their luck thanks to Zelig. Among them: Claudio Bisio, Lella Costa, Antonio Albanese, Aldo Giovanni and Giacomo and others.

On its tenth anniversary, Zelig entered into a collaboration with the TV channel Italia 1, to broadcast a show directly from the venue's stage, a collaboration that continues today.

Derby Club

Origins

In 1959 Gianni and Angela Bongiovanni (maternal uncles of the actor Diego Abatantuono) opened a restaurant and called it Gi-Go. The rooms were located in the basement of a liberty building in via Monte Rosa 84, a suburb of Milan near the San Siro horse race track, in the premises currently occupied by the Don Durito bookshop.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the two decided to transform it into a place "to meet and listen to music", thus trying to raise the modest turnover of the previous year.

Renamed in 1962 Intra's Derby Club (name inspired by the fusion between the name of the jazz player Enrico Intra and the geographical proximity to the race track) and then, definitively, Derby Club, the club soon became the meeting point for personalities, professionals and sportsmen of the Milan foremost avant-garde, including many architects who contributed to furnishing it in an original and, for the time, unconventional way, while the debut artists (all characterized by unparalleled talent, confirmed by subsequent solo careers) performed on a platform with room for just a piano and drums.

Breakthrough

The best known artists who performed at Derby Club in the sixties/early seventies were: Enzo Jannacci, Cochi and Renato, I Gufi, Walter Waldi, Teo Teocoli, Ernst Thole, Diego Abatantuono, Mauro Di Francesco, Giorgio Porcaro, Massimo Boldi and Giorgio Faletti.

The place is frequented almost immediately by numerous international personalities who come to the Derby to perform (Charles Aznavour, John Coltrane, Quincy Jones), or simply as loyal visitors; among the latter, many politicians of the time (Bettino Craxi above all), sports champions (such as Gianni Rivera and Pietro Mennea), celebrities (Mina, Alberto Lupo, Renato Rascel, Walter Chiari, Dario Fo, Enzo Tortora, Johnny Dorelli , Marcello Mastroianni, Giorgio Strehler, Mike Bongiorno, Ricky Gianco, Diego Peano) and industry (such as Charlie Krupp or Rocky Agusta).

Among those customers there were famous criminals such as Francis Turatello and the soloist of the machine gun Luciano Lutring, who on more than once had to flee from the place through a window, due to the sudden arrival of the police, shortly after drinking a glass of champagne.

Decline

The crisis came in the mid-1980s, after the death (in 1981) of Gianni Bongiovanni and the overwhelming success of television comedy (especially in the new private broadcasters), and started its slow decline. The restaurant closed in 1985, ideally passing the baton of the Italian cabaret to Zelig, who opened its doors on 12 May 1986.

Since 12 May 2001, the building has been occupied by the "Il Cantiere" social center.

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