Only a paper loon.

Italian performer Ennio Marchetto talks about creating celebrities out of whole cloth--or paper, anyway

Like a young boy running hog-wild through his parents' wardrobe, Ennio Marchetto dives through his one-man show, Ennio: Starring Ennio Marchetto, with glee: 50 famous characters burst forth in rapid succession to a stunned audience in the space of little over an hour. No live-action performer, with the possible exception of Jim Carrey, has appeared so starkly animated in real life.

In England, where the Italian performer's popularity has risen for years (and where he counts Boy George and Kate Bush among his fans), critics have crowned Marchetto with glorious rifles like "inventor of a new theater language."

"I just like to call it a living cartoon," the openly gay Marchetto states. "It's a visual stand-up--no story, really." His description is apt: Each celebrity figure Marchetto unveils on stage is instantly recognizable by the bright, bold paper cutouts that he adorns like animated cels against a black backdrop. As he lipsynchs to Elvis, the song suddenly changes, and with a few flips and folds of paper hair and pants and Velcro--voila!--Britney Spears miraculously appears, complete with blond braids and schoolgirl skirt.

Despite acclaims of his ingenuity, Marchetto's show relies chiefly on the old gay standards of lip-synching and personifying famous women. He says in his defense, "Drag queens who just lipsynch and move around are boring. I try doing something completely different."

And different he does. He loosely likens his particular brand of theater to commedia dell'arte, a genre of Italian comedy in the 1500s and 1600s that relied on archetypal characters, but his art of paper persona is unique. During the life of his show, he has been through six versions of Madonna alone. The current one sports a white cowboy suit that is quickly discarded to reveal bare breasts and fuzzy genitalia, which are also then peeled off and casually tossed aside while she bumps and grinds to the audience au naturel. The Material Mom has never looked so naked.

Marchetto's original inspiration for his show came in the form of another iconoclastic woman. "When I was 20, I had a dream about Marilyn Monroe walking through the clouds in a paper dress," he says. "She became my first creation." Over 150 characters later (the list includes the pope, Marge Simpson, Fidel Castro, Marilyn Manson, and Dolly Parton), Marchetto's paper creations are now copyrighted. He customizes his continually evolving show to each given audience--he even studied Japanese pop idols and songs for his tour of Japan.

His repertoire also includes a paper appearance by homophobic rapper Eminem, about whom Marchetto says, "I think he's probably gay. One day he will come out of the closet." Other envelope-pushing highlights include Peggy Lee extracting a thermometer from her backside while crooning "Fever."

Spending most of his life on the road, Marchetto remains single. "For me, it's impossible to have a boyfriend, but I would love to," he says. "When I am home in Venice, I am simply in my garden, cutting my roses." His mischievous eyes dance while a juvenile grin spreads across his face, as if peeking out of his parents' closet. He adds, "I'm still a child at play."

Link is electronic content editor of the travel newsletter "Out & About."