Meet Luca Nicora

Today we’d like to introduce you to Luca Nicora.

Luca, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in a small lake town on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Being the middle child, my way to stand out was to be funny or entertain the family. My parents always loved to laugh, so I became the little clown of the family. I even took classes at a circus school where I learn to ride a unicycle, juggle, and acrobatics.

At age twelve I saw the bonus features on a DVD. When I saw the actors on set joking around, I thought “that looks like a cool job”. I started acting classes that same year. I have been on stage for as long as I can remember really. From Smurf to Knight of the Round Table, passing by Henry the VIII to an intense headless character in an obscure play, I wore many masks. My hero’s as a kid were Jim Carrey, Eddy Murphy and Robin Williams, so the transition from clown to actor was just a natural development.

I left my comfortable Swiss village to one of the biggest city in the world. I studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and graduated with a merit scholarship. I learned a lot there. Like, the Village isn’t really a village, and there is nothing much Italian in Little Italy. I honed my craft and realized upon moving there, that I actually had an accent. The first couple of months were really humbling. I must have said three words total. However, my will was on fire, and since I was paying for my school, I did not joke around. Even though I probably should have relaxed a bit and enjoy the college life a tad more. I got tired of people making fun of my accent so I dived into speech classes like there were no tomorrow. So much so that most people think I’m from the Midwest now.

After graduating, I got a part in an awesome marital art musical play called Deadly Shewolf Assassin at Armageddon. We got a cool review in the New York Times and got featured two weeks in a row in the “must see” section. I got some cool gigs thanks to my knowledge of languages. In Switzerland, we have four national languages. My father is from the Italian part, my mother from the German one and I grew up in the French one. So I played at German party sensation in Orange is the New Black, a stuck up French waiter in a Stella Artois Commercial and a suave Italian in a Martini ad.

After four years of humid, cold weather in a crowded concrete jungle, I decided to check out Los Angeles to see if I could get a change of air and develop my acting career in the sun. From the get go, I loved all the things the city of angels had to offer. The palm trees, the sun, the ocean, the hills echoing with crow’s mystical songs, and most of all, Universal Studios. I moved to California three months later.

When I moved to LA, I thought that I would be getting great parts right away. I saw myself the protege of Wes Anderson, have late night conversions with Tarentino and create odd short films with Michel Gondry. It did not happen. I know. So as I started auditioning I got some odd side jobs: I’ve been a bus boy in a fancy restaurant, a cashier in a rock and roll clothing store, a food prep in a poke joint, a wizard in Hogs’ Mead (a life long dream for this Harry Potter Fan), a building manager and a speech/acting coach. Thankfully I also got some cool parts such as a funny knight in Geico and Carmax commercials, a roady in a Lynyrd Skynyrd biopic or a hilarious French hairdresser in a Borderland 3 ad.

Since New York, I realized that I wasn’t getting all the amazing parts I wanted to explore (such as futuristic Hamlet stranded on a deserted asteroid) but I’d get the “German Hipster jumping of joy in a hotel commercial”. Okay, I have fun playing these parts but I was missing something. I started writing comedy videos for my youtube page to explore some topics that I was interested in. I discovered writing, editing and directing that way. I have learned so much since I started making videos with my cellphone. Like if you look too far right or left during a close up, you look like a crazy person. My videos led me to create content on Instagram for some brands such as Nutella, Pranamat, Blackwood for Men, and more. Following those ads, a couple of companies in Switzerland asked us , my creative partner and myself, to create content and comedic corporate videos. After a couple of months of creating wacky videos, I pitched a concept to the Swiss national channel. They loved it and commissioned me to write, act, direct, and edit a series of comedy videos for their online platform (aka Swiss Netflix). And it was a blast. Since then, I have been writing more and more, shot some shorts, proof of concepts, and spreading the word for some of our amazing ideas.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
OOOhhhh, it has not been smooth at all. There are lots of up and downs.

Being Swiss, I had to face perfectionistic limiting thoughts. Especially when it comes to writing. Is my script ever good enough to be produced? It took me a while to get my ideas out there. Thankfully, I met a wonderful standup comedian, actress and writer with whom I started collaborating. She also agreed to be my girlfriend so: double score! She’d have an idea and would want to start shooting right away. It got me out of my comfort zone and helped me create instead of sitting on an idea forever.

When you go to auditions and never hear back from casting directors it can be tough too. Or if you bomb an audition and keep thinking about the hundred and seven other ways you could have done it. But, I usually focus on other things such as my own projects, videos or if I can’t, I buy myself a donut.

The worst is when I get an audition for an amazing show I love and then they tell me it’s canceled because I don’t have a Greencard… You spend time and money to get your work permit, but for some studios, it’s not enough. That’s why I’m working on the Greencard right now. Fingers crossed.

And it’s sometimes not easy to deal with the absence of work, the precarious financial situations, the hopes, dreams and expectations that are not fulfilled. However, every “low point” is teaching some wonderful lessons. I have become an expert at meditation, discovered so many great tools to deal with the curveballs, and can now help my friends to deal with tough situations.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
As an actor I act. What sets me apart is not only my bright red beard and my long blond hair but my knowledge of multiple languages and my ability to morph into all sorts of character. I can be a goofy knight, an intense warrior, a dumb cowboy, a fancy barber, a vulnerable homeless, or a pale Jesus. You name it.

As a creator, I love to make comedy content with an edge. I love to lead my audience to question the norm, explore new perspectives and get it to laugh about our human flaws. I produced and co-directed a short film called “stereotyped” about a Spanish actress that upon moving to the US realized that she is now a Latina. I wrote and directed a short about a self-centered underachiever who becomes clairvoyant after meditating for too long. My series “A Swiss in the US” talks about all the cultural differences between Switzerland and the US with lots of comedy. And I am currently developing a series of self-growth videos targeted to men (yep, we are still behind on a lot of emotional and mental issues) that talks about serious difficulties but with a touch of absurd humour. I try to talk about the “good stuff”, with honesty and of course comedy.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
That’s a great question. I think there are multiple ways of seeing it.

The traditional: house, car, wife, money, and kids. Of course, my intellect is constantly seeking new goals, which makes success impossible. Because even if I get the big house with the infinity pool, the hot tub on the roof and the seven teslas for each day of the week, the ego will always be looking for something else, new and better. Okay, that’s not the way.

The other school of thought is: find inner success and the outer will follow. I am learning to accept that life isn’t a journey because a journey involves a goal. Even if we focus on the journey, a part of ourselves will still be thinking about that ever changing goal. Pretending that it’s not there but checking every minute from the corner of the eye if it’s looking at me. I am finding that all that matters is the present moment. How relaxed can I be NOW? Not tomorrow or in a year. That’s all that really matters because the past is gone and tomorrow will become the “now “ anyways. That means I am successful every time I let go of my inner monologue, projections, memories and that I find pleasure in my own skin. And how do you get there? By having a certain lifestyle that helps get you in that mindset. Eating healthy food, working out, meditating, journaling, reading, taking a break and working on the stuff that excites me. That’s stuff I can control and have been getting more and more constant in those areas. So, I can say that I am successful a couple of times a day and every day of the week.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lucanicora.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucanicora/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lucanicora88/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lucanicora
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-nicora-a5107743/

Image Credit:
Andrea Vicunia, Mason Photography

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.