Anthony DeVito may not be Danny DeVito’s son but he has a pretty interesting life story of his own.

Born into an organised crime family American comic DeVito made the brave decision to talk about his history and his heritage on stage.

While gangster movies and the Sopranos may make mob life look like fun Anthony DeVito knows the messy truth about a life of organised crime. And he builds his first Edinburgh Fringe show about discovering the truth and finding a way to live with it.

He’s new to Edinburgh but in the States DeVito has already made his debut on Stephen Colbert and been featured on the Comedy Central show This Week at the Comedy Cellar. As a staff writer for Michelle Wolf he contributed to her headline-making speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

As well as making his audience laugh his debut Edinburgh hour includes some heartwarming insight into how to make peace with the most difficult parts of life.

Anthony DeVito: My Dad Isn't Danny DeVito: Just The Tonic Mash House, Aug 4 - 28. Tickets here.

What is the last thing you do before you go onstage (apart from check your flies and/or check your knickers aren't sticking out of your skirt and check for spinach between your teeth) 

I try to remind myself that I have a silly job to calm my nerves. I can’t picture the audience in their underwear, I’ll get a boner. So I repeat a loose mantra that’s something like “this job shouldn’t exist, you’re about to tell jokes to a bunch of drunks and get a check for doing that.” Then I slap a 12 year old boy in the face, eat a handful of cottage cheese in one gulp and throw up on my opener. Ugh, I always forget to tell that little tidbit of my pre-performance ritual. 

What irritates you? 

Lately I’ve been irritated by how susceptible I’ve been to social media manipulating my emotions. Over the pandemic, I unfollowed real friends because of their position on Covid. Without being able to see them, their identity became their avatar. After a few shitty tweets, I was like “I’m done with Dave!” Then the world opened up a little bit, I saw him and was like “I’m so happy to see Dave!” So it’s not just midwestern Moms, we’re all pliable to the almighty algorithm. 

What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done? 

A toss up between skydiving in Florida or ordering fish at a diner. 

What is the most stupid thing you have ever done? 

Probably my architectural design project during my freshman year of college. I knew I wanted to be a comedian but was in school for architecture. Our project was worth our entire grade to design a building with retail on the ground floor and residential above. My idea was a store where you could rent old people for parties. At the end of the semester, I went to hand in my drawings and my professor said “don’t hand them in, hang them up, you’re going to do a project presentation in front of the whole class, a visiting architect and the dean.” When they called my name to present, I’d done zero public speaking and you know when you’re pulled over by a cop so you tell them everything you’ve ever done in your life; that’s what I did with this project. I was sweaty, nervous, and poorly improvising lines like “this is where we weigh the old people for pricing, they’re vegetables and that’s how we treat them.” That’s an exact quote. Then the apartment was unfinished, I pointed to an undone area and said “THAT will be a wrestling ring.” I stopped talking. Silence. The visiting architect approached my drawings, turned to me and said “Anthony, it's not a good idea to put the bedroom so close to the wrestling ring because that will bother the old people when they try to sleep.” And I was like “shit, he’s funnier than me.” 

What has surprised you the most during your career in comedy? 

Watching my friends become famous and witnessing the world have a wholly different view of these degenerates. Fans see super heroes. But I see a nervous 25 year old who once stunk up my Mom’s car on a road gig with his unbearable string cheese farts (Sam Morril). It’s truly a wild thing when you witness a friend–who you’ve seen bomb so badly you’ve suggested they change their name and dental records–sign an autograph for a starstruck fan. 

Interview continues here.

Picture by Mindy Tucker