{"id":214582,"date":"2026-04-01T14:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214582\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:44:10","slug":"this-um-grad-didnt-make-it-to-broadway-but-he-made-it-everywhere-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214582\/","title":{"rendered":"This UM grad didn\u2019t make it to Broadway, but he made it everywhere else"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Univertsity of Miami Alumni and Comendian Gianmarco Soresi performs at one of his shows. <\/p>\n

UM alumni and comedian Gianmarco Soresi built a career on crowd work even though he hates talking to strangers. Now, he has more than 1 million strangers following him on Instagram and watching his viral sets.<\/p>\n

The 37\u2011year\u2011old comedian, who graduated from the University of Miami in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater, now tours internationally and performs for audiences from Hong Kong to Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really thought I was going to be on Broadway. That was the whole dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Soresi didn\u2019t arrive at UM planning to become a comedian. He came in convinced he would end up on Broadway, only to realize by senior year that his singing voice wasn\u2019t going to carry him there.<\/p>\n

He shifted toward acting, then toward writing, as he slowly realized the future he imagined might not be the one waiting for him.<\/p>\n

By the time he graduated, he had become a quieter, more self\u2011doubting version of the freshman who once believed he\u2019d be the next Daniel Day\u2011Lewis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t confident. I wasn\u2019t quick. I wasn\u2019t the guy anyone thought would do comedy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The instinct to listen closely, react instantly and squeeze meaning out of every detail eventually became the backbone of his crowd work.<\/p>\n

Soresi credits several UM professors for pushing him in the right direction, especially those who taught him how to write.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of look at my stand\u2011up from a scriptwriting perspective, and that came from a great teacher named Bruce Miller,\u201d Soresi said.<\/p>\n

His playwriting and script analysis classes \u2014 including one taught by Miller, aka Professor Emeritus, a longtime UM professor of theatre arts known for directing, playwriting and teaching acting \u2014 shaped the way he builds jokes today.<\/p>\n

Miller, now retired, said he \u201cof course\u201d remembers Soresi and was surprised that script\u2011analysis classes, not the two years of acting training he taught him, were what stuck with him most.<\/p>\n

The class taught Soresi to break down structure and analyze why something works, a skill he still relies on every time he sits down to create new material.<\/p>\n

His classmates also helped shape him, whether they challenged him, annoyed him or simply tolerated him.<\/p>\n

Even the conservatory\u2019s strangest exercises like lip\u2011sync drills, clowning sessions and the infamous \u201cgun exercise\u201d forced Soresi out of his comfort zone in ways he didn\u2019t appreciate until much later.<\/p>\n

However, Miller clarified that he was not the one who ran this \u201cgun exercise\u201d Soresi mentioned, and that it was another professor in the same program who was also named Bruce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat exercise consisted of holding the class hostage when one person brought out a realistic looking prop gun to intimidate the others,\u201d Miller said, adding that he \u201cdid not approve of [it] and today [it] would have triggered much complaint and protest, and maybe worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soresi also joked that if UM ever wanted to hire him, he\u2019d be \u201cready for that gig,\u201d a line delivered with equal parts affection and disbelief.<\/p>\n

Since graduating, his career has been shaped by constant travel. International tours have taken him to Asia, Europe and Australia, where he has learned how differently jokes land depending on the country.<\/p>\n

Not every crowd\u2011work moment has been pleasant. His worst gig \u2014 a bachelor\u2011party performance for a man entering his second marriage \u2014 still haunts him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those shows where you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, this is going to be bad,\u2019 and then it\u2019s even worse than you imagined,\u201d Soresi said<\/p>\n

The groom didn\u2019t want him there, didn\u2019t want jokes about his weight and didn\u2019t want jokes about his life. Soresi spent 30 minutes performing for someone who clearly wanted him to disappear.<\/p>\n

The experience now serves as his baseline for discomfort. Nothing on tour ever feels that bad by comparison.<\/p>\n

His most wholesome moment came on the opposite end of the spectrum. During a show, he struck up a conversation with a furry in the audience. The interaction was so unexpectedly sweet that it eventually led to him headlining a furry festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a joke at first, but they were dead serious,\u201d Soresi said.<\/p>\n

Soresi still talks about it fondly, mostly because it proved that trust and tone can turn even the strangest situations into something meaningful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you treat people with respect, even the weirdest moments can turn into something great,\u201d Soresi said.<\/p>\n

Through all of this, he remains clear about what he wants audiences to take away from his performances. Laughter comes first, but he also hopes people leave with a sense of skepticism and curiosity.<\/p>\n

His comedy, he says, is rooted in the idea that \u201ceveryone\u2019s full of sh\u2014t,\u201d including himself. Humor becomes a way to examine that truth without slipping into cynicism.<\/p>\n

From a musical theater major who doubted his voice to a comedian who built a career on conversations he never wanted to have, Gianmarco Soresi\u2019s path has been shaped by contradictions, risks and the unexpected benefits of his UM education.<\/p>\n

His journey wasn\u2019t the one he planned, but it became one defined by reinvention and a confidence built slowly, sometimes painfully and always with a sense of humor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Univertsity of Miami Alumni and Comendian Gianmarco Soresi performs at one of his shows. UM alumni and comedian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-214582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}