Zanni

Zanni (the name is where we get our word "zany") is a servant character who serves either Pantalone, Dottore, or Capitano. He never does well at his job, since all he thinks about is food or sleep. Often, he is distracted while on a mission, after hearing the name of a fruit--or after falling asleep. Zanni is stupid, poor, and slow, and therefore is the lowest character on the social scale. For a modern equivalent, think of Homer Simpson and his preoccupation with food.

Zanni's costume usually consists of a baggy white jumpsuit or shirt-and-pants outfit, since he is too poor to afford anything else.

His mask (as you can see from the picture above) has a wrinkled forehead with low eyebrows, giving him a stupid appearance. He also has a very big, wide nose with nose hair. The larger the nose, the stupider the Zanni.

Zanni's movements are very big, broad, and exaggerated. He leads his body with his head and nose (his nose sticks out way in front of the rest of his body, and wherever his head goes, his body follows). Because Zanni is used to carrying heavy sacks and such on his back, his back is arched, and he stands with one leg in front of himself for balance. When listening to his master or other characters, his feet and legs are constantly moving, even though the rest of his body is still. When he does go somewhere, he is very quick, always changing directions. When Zanni sleeps (which he does very often, and onstage), he does so standing on one leg, with his other leg crossed over his knee. He props his elbow on his knee, and holds his chin in the supported hand. While sleeping, Zanni makes lots of noise snoring, belching, snorting, and farting.