September 25, 2023 • 36 mins
Join host Jim Serpico as he welcomes an infamous Mafioso introduced only as “Tony.” Tony is a successful entrepreneur and restaurateur who credits his own success due to his unique “management” style.. Jim expresses his surprise to be talking to Tony, stating that he had no idea the guest was still around. They have a casual conversation about Tony's whereabouts and what he's been up to in recent years. Tony reveals that he's been "hiding out on the down low." They also discuss bread preferences and Tony denies the notion that he only cares about the business model and not the quality of the bread in his investments. In the second half of this episode, Jim talks with actor, writer, and comedian Nicky Petito about what it’s like to be a working comedian, penetrating the movie business, and how Nick uses his gift and ability to mimic voices to prank people.
Follow Jim Serpico on Instagram: @sidehustlebread and @jimserpico
Follow Nicky Petito on Instagram: @nickypetito
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jim-serpico-bread-for-the-people-sourdough-pizza-life--5704379/support.
Follow Jim Serpico on Instagram: @sidehustlebread and @jimserpico
Follow Nicky Petito on Instagram: @nickypetito
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jim-serpico-bread-for-the-people-sourdough-pizza-life--5704379/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
How are you doing? This isgood? This is working. There we
go. That's why I like tohear. You're ready. Yeah. My
name's Jim Serpico. And this shouldI start with my name? What should
I start with? This is breadfor the people? Do you like it
like this? Welcome to bread?What do you like it like this?
Welcome ready? Welcome to bread forthe people? Mine? Is there a
(00:26):
script? Welcome to Bread for thepeople. I'm Jim Serpico. Wow,
what a show we have for youtoday. I'd like to say I have
(00:49):
an old friend, but I don'tknow if we're really friends. Were acquaintances,
And quite honestly, I didn't evenknow he was around. And what
I mean by around is a life. I thought he might have passed.
But I'm glad to find out thathe connected through a friend of a friend
and asked to be on the podcast. You all know him, You might
(01:11):
have thought the same as I.He's an entrepreneur, he's a restaurant tour
He's really known for his management skills. He's a partner in many of the
biggest restaurants in the New Jersey area, certainly many bakeries and countless other businesses.
(01:33):
Please welcome my friend and acquaintance,Tony. Tony asked, how are
you very good? How are youdoing tonight? Jim, Uh, it's
good good. I'm kind of shockedto be talking to you, To be
honest with you, you're breathing.Where the fuck have you been, man,
I've been await for some time.I had to take care of some
things. Really, I mean,I'm so interested in hearing what you've been
(01:57):
doing with yourself and where are youeven living. Yeah, I've been hiding
out on the down low. I'vegot a lifetime supply of bobble Boul and
postil Zoul, and I've been goodto go for the pist two years or
whatever. I don't know if likeme, with the pandemic, you started
getting into baking bread or anything.How did you survive the pandemic? Yeah,
I got a guy who delivers itto my door. Only he knows
(02:19):
where I've been staying. You know, I don't know about Jill, Jim,
but the best bread is in Jerseyat Collandra's. Do you ever have
a local Collandrew's bread? I neverhad Collandra's bread, to be honest,
I mostly have had my bread fromthe burrows. You know this kind of
a thing. But New York andNew Jersey. A lot of people from
Jersey think things are better there,a lot of people in New York things
(02:39):
are better here. I don't knowyou think it's better than New York.
I mean, I've had some breadout there. I know Collandra's only used
a score ingredients. So it's simple. And do you like that? Now?
When you invest in these or apartner I don't know if it's called
an investment or a partnership, butI've been told by some people you don't
even care if the bread's good,You're just really interested in the business model.
(03:00):
That's not true at all. Idon't get involved with anybody would still
res that's for the fucking pigeons,gotcha? Okay? So it is important
to you, yeah, especially ifpeople try feeding it to my ducks.
It sounds that dogs could chuck anddie. Next thing I know, I
go on my path yard. Isit dead stuff in my swimming pool because
he was choking on somebody's still breathfrom act with duck raceway or some shit.
(03:24):
Nobody would want that. I mean, Jesus, nobody would want that.
Are you still investing in partnering withpeople if I like the product,
why not? Okay, do youknow if they got a good thing going.
You know, they're good people,but they're Italians. That's a plush.
(03:46):
Is it strictly Italians or no?I mean, you know, we
got a lot of Jews in thisbusiness too. You know, they handled
the money and they're really good withit. So I got a lot of
Jewish partners. This guy hesh helikes to buy horses. He likes the
horses. Do you like the horses? Yeah, I go. I had
a horse pile. Mind fucking buntingpoints. I've been very fucking depressed about
(04:10):
it. Jim. I could onlyonly imagine now I didn't take my pojack
today. Okay, I'm sorry tohear you out. You must be out
of your supply. Now I'm wondering. You've been out of touch with most
of the people I know. Haveyou been in touch with any of your
old pals? Yes? Uh,poorly I've met up with recently. It's
(04:33):
Shatril. He started again with theh with the conspiracy theories. I said,
add enough of this ship, andI said, you know what you'll
get out of here. I'm gonnago to holestings. I'm gonna sit down
with my family one way time.Yeah, I get it. Now,
what about do you already booko?He was the restaurant guy, the major
d Yeah, he always friends.He's a good friend because he kind of
(04:56):
like he was a whiny guy andhe talked a lot. Yeah, that's
lady for you. Were you gonnado what we gonna do? Now?
I wanted to talk to you aboutyour management style. I don't know that
you even went to college for business, but you Yeah. I have a
semester and a half of college undermy belt. Pal, Oh you do
what college? Yeah? I do. I went to the University of Rutger's
(05:18):
North and Nork. Okay, anddid you is that where do you making
fun of me in the way?I say North? Now? No,
that's how we say it here inLong Island. Yeah, and n O
r K is the correct pronunciation.We don't say nor. That's for the
tourist. I understand. Did you? Did you uh frequent the grease trucks
(05:38):
at Rutgers and Nork? Oh you'refucking funny, Jim, this fucking guy.
I don't want to be talking allsexual on your podcast, you know.
I don't know if Carmelo is listening. Okay, I got you.
Does it even matter what she thinksanymore? You got a point there,
But you know, we gotta worryabout the kids. I got you.
(05:59):
So tell me about your management style. Did you have any influences? Yeah,
growing up, Vito gene Vise,Carlo Gambino, all those guys that
you see on the History Channel.What did you take from someone like Vito
or you know, like share withus. A lot of the people who
listen to this podcast run pizzerias,They run bakeries or their home bakers,
(06:21):
and they work the farmer's markets,and believe it or not, even at
the farmers markets, there's a lotof drama, and I think people might
be able to take a cue fromyou about how to deal with people that
are encroaching on their booth or Yeah, let me just say this, Yeah,
if you have anybody coming to yourlemonade stand and you're five years old,
(06:42):
give me a call and I'll takecare of it. Just give me
a lemonade on the house. That'shi. Is that all it takes at this
point? It depended on the situation. You know, if we're dealing with
one of these big pharmers shooter forcompanies. You know, I want a
lifetime supply a prozact. Okay,got you do you do you get out
(07:03):
to the farmer's markets much? Yeah? I mean I try not to be
seen in public these days. Showup. I got a guy who goes
there for me and delivers the package. Now, if I'm a lemonade or
a bread guy, and let's sayI sell my bread at a farm stand,
it's like just to stand in themiddle of the country that sells produce
(07:28):
and he says he wants to sellmy bread. And then another bread guy
comes in and says he wants hisbread sold there too, And the farm
stands says, okay, now thatis two of us, and I'm making
like a lot less money. Howdo you suggest I handle the situation?
Yeah, that's a very difficult situation. That's a problem. We got somebody
stepping on your toes when you're tryingto put bread on your table, literally
(07:53):
and literally. So uh oh.We would do is we would have a
twelve with this guy and have torelocate him to another destination. I got
you, do you go to him? Have the greases umble up a little
bit, but hey, it's uspart of this business. You know that
sometimes you gotta pay some bread toget rid of some bread. I completely
(08:13):
understand. Now, do you havea favorite type of bread? Absolutely,
a nice brunal brunel. Yeah.What do you think of the semolina?
Semolina is good. I love theseeds, you know, the seeds are
the taste is that's what makes thebread. And I prefer a nice,
stark wolf of bread. I don'tlike it extremely shure, I like it
(08:35):
well, dot, Okay, youlike a little crunch absolutely, The crunch
is what it's all about. Ifit doesn't crunch, it's no good.
I understand. I have a lotof customers that share share that sentiment.
So what do you think. It'sa very important sentiment. It is right
people, So people don't understand it'salso good for your teeth. When you
have that crunch and you have yourteeth work, it's strength. Its question,
(09:00):
Jimmy. Yeah, when you havea shine which you get cold touch
and the thing is fucking overloaded,But the bread shucks, doesn't even the
whole sandwich has done at that point. It's got to be about the bread.
I mean, it's the most importantthat. I don't know if your
guy because because when you went away, I wasn't bacon bread. I started
(09:22):
at the pandemic. So I don'tknow if you had your guy pick up
any of our bread. Have youtasted it? No? What can I
get it? Uh? You couldget it? Uh listen, I just
I just give it to you guy. I mean, you really don't have
to do anything. I get itto you. But we do a bunch
of farmers markets in Long Island,and yeah, but you don't contact my
guy. I tell my guy whereto go, So you got to tell
(09:43):
me where to tell him where togo. Okay, So Myer's farm stand
in Woodberry, it's available every day, so we could start there, you
know, and then we do theEast Meadow farmers Market every Saturday. H
East Meadow was the town Barelli's Pizzeria. I don't know if you know,
that's a famous old pizzeria from thePizza belt, that historic. It's it's
(10:07):
not that good, but it's beenaround the longest. Okay, I won't
try that. Try that. Andwhat are your thoughts on the pizza scene
right now? New Jerseys is there'sa big rivalry between New Jersey, New
York and Connecticut in terms of pizzareit is. No. I'm going to
say something because I'm tired of allthese people saying, oh, you know,
(10:28):
New York's are better than Jersey.That's bullshit. What do you eat
in fucking dollars slices? Let metell you something, Sometimes the dollars slices
in New York are better than thefucking six dollars slices. What's that all
about? But one thing I'm gonnasay, Yeah, there's the best I'll
beach in Jersey over on Carlstaff thesky. He's out of his fucking mind.
(10:52):
Johnny Specialal, he was the meadbalking in New Jersey two years in
a row, when he's gonna goon three. This year it was just
the ESPN, but all those upseaguys they were eating his meat balls,
and uh, there's sucking our beachesto die for. Nice and crispy.
Then and then let me tell youabout his Hoboken slice. Jesus Christ,
if you're a tomato sauce guy,nice and juicy? Really? Now,
(11:16):
our beat is the is the NewHaven John if you're listening, beat is
the New Haven style. So he'sdoing the New Haven in New Jersey.
No, I mean our beat isjust as I understand, they use the
terminology more Connecticut, but such anItalian American slang overall obvious. See uh,
(11:37):
twenty ninth Street with that guy whoscreams all the time. He's no
longer with us Stanny Iolo. That'sit. Yeah, sure, yeah.
He calls it our feature there andhe's from Queens. Interesting. I didn't
know that that was a thing otherthan Connecticut, to be honest with you,
absolutely not like a good slice ofour beach. I mean, like
(12:01):
not too many people are familiar withCanada pizza un once they've seen that Julia
Robbitts movie Mystic Peacher, Right,I got you, Uh Canada or Connecticut?
Oh Jesus Christ. I've never beento Canada, but that's what my
ducks are, so I'm gonna haveto go with Canada. Okay. Now,
I got some questions for you,because I'm trying to expand all these
(12:22):
other things. We're asking me fuckinganswers. What what do you mean?
Jesus, I'm just kidding, justkidding, all right. I want to
expand my bread business. Do youhave any advice for me on how to
get into a restaurant. Let's say, like any restaurant whether Yeah, we've
got to find a restaurant with breadthat fucking sucks. That is, find
(12:43):
in a good looking for a newtype of bread, and the places with
the good bread, we're gonna say, well, that's too bad. If
you like your bread, you gota better one, and we're gonna beat
your price. I'm gonna deliver itto you. So you only got to
do one as all hard listed.So who's gonna do that? Me?
Do? I gotta go around andlook? Or could you get me in
some places? Yeah, I'll takecare of it. I got a guy,
(13:05):
Okay, I appreciate that. Idon't deliver bread to New Jersey?
Is that okay? What the fuckdo you deliver it though New York?
On Long Island? I'm looking forplaces in Long Island. All right.
We're gonna meet too underneath the ArizonaldBridge. Okay, wait, no,
that's that's the fucking bridge that connectsto stan Island. I mean the fucking
battles that's tunnel. Yeah, theLincoln Tunnel's good? All right? Uh
(13:28):
listen, what about pasta? Iknow you like different kinds of pastas fresh
pasta versus dry pasta. Is therea difference, Yeah, there is.
It's very rare that I get toget the first pasta could appreciate. My
friend Doughtie Bulko Come only uses adry pasta. She prefers zoni. I
(13:48):
prefer barola. It's always a fuckingargument. It's just like the orange juice.
Why do you like it with thepulp? You know, I like
the one that says some pulp.She gets the one that says, watch
of pulp. Fucking get stuck inmy throat. I'm closed. Probably the
reason for my fucking panic attacks.Fucking close in my artories with pulp.
(14:09):
Fucking bitch speaking of pictation, saidthat she's probably listening. Are used to
are you? Have you been goingwith therapy? Yeah? I have been
a shocking bullshit. It's all aboutmotherfucking cop shocking fucking money. It's not
helping. I guess that's what thatmeans. It's true. You hit a
nerve, Jim. Let's get backto the break. Yeah, so,
(14:31):
uh, sour dough is really takenoff. Yeah. If you're fucking Boston
rooting for the fucking Red Sox,do you ever have a showered dough fucking
pretzel from Schneider's. Yes, Idid disgusting this. Yeah, it was
fucking the hydrated for six days.You have to eating fucking three pieces.
That's just for the fucking squirrels.That's uh. Some people say that about
(14:52):
biscotti. I don't know if youshare that. Oh, take it easy
now, I mean I can useI can use a group of squilting right
now. Yeah, it's hard tofuck a couple of detest spresso because if
I have real espresso, let's justgot a trigger a panic at that.
I hear that. So okay,So you're not into soura though. I
do a lot of salad though baking. I even make semolina with soura though.
(15:16):
That actually sounds pretty good as semolinasawa though. That doesn't sound like
a boys this thing. Let's bringthat to New Jersey. I would like
to do that. What about Haveyou been to a place called Raza in
New Jersey? That's all Verbo,Jersey City, That is in Jersey City.
Yeah, he's a good friend ofyours over there years ago, years
ago, so that was a goodplace. Get back over there. Yeah,
(15:39):
he's got a lot of good stuffgoing. I hear good things.
I hear good things. He doesa tomato test and he's got a tomato
chart. He tests every jar andcanned tomato that is made, and he
creates a chart. Really, I'mgonna have to get to pop over there
sooner than I thought. Yeah,he's good, this guy, Dan Richard.
(16:03):
I I work here in Long Island, closely with a pizza place called
Phil's Pizza. He sells my Pursutobread and I don't know if you've that's
my specialty is Purjuto bread and laudbread. I put a lot of larding.
How you talk to my style?I loved I got the aged provolone,
watadella pepperoni salami, and of coursepursut the dipoma. You know,
(16:27):
not for nutting, Jim. I'vebeen trying to go on a diet because
I've been get him back to thegym. But it sounds easy gonna make
me crack. I would like totry to make you crack. I'm gonna,
you know, I don't want tolook like Johnny Sacks White Ginny.
After all this, I understand nobodywould want to look like that. Jesus
listen, I really appreciate you reachingout. Why did you want to do
(16:49):
this? Of course I thought youwere Alfaccino's brother from Curproco Jim, Curproco,
Frank, whatever the fun and uh, you know I could always use
a nice boke of bread anytime it'savailable. Expect a nice care package.
Oh you'll get a care package.I don't know when I could expect your
(17:11):
guy. Just let me know absolutely, I'll have my neighbor Kuzamano pick it
up. I appreciate it, allright, Tony, Yes, I appreciate
you being here. I would loveto see in person. We'll make it
happen one of these days. Jim. All right, buddy, thanks again.
Absolutely, take it easy, takeit easy, all right? Now
we do the real one. That'sfunny, all right. Yeah. I
(17:34):
can't believe Tony Soprano was on yourpodcast and I get to be on with
him. It's amazing. This isamazing. Do you go, Bud?
Do you like Nicko Nikki? Yeah? You know I do a really good
Tony Soprano impersonation. Jim, Idon't know. If I don't know,
if Tony stall online you could hear? Yeah, I am here. Are
you going to do it for me, Yeah, sure, why not.
(17:56):
It's a very tyfficult situation. That'sreally not a good impersonation. You're overdoing
it. Try again, Okay,I'm gonna let it go, Tony,
I'm gonna let it go. I'mnot gonna do it anymore. We're here
with Nicki Potito. You like Nikkior nick I like Nikki? Nikki,
my man, I appreciate you doingbread for the people. I discovered you
(18:19):
on Instagram and I saw that weseriously had some mutual friends of comedians,
and you perform at some of theclubs that I frequent and I loved your
stuff and I certainly loved your impersonations, and I reached out and asked you
to do this, and I appreciateyou doing it, man. Thank you,
brother. I'm sorry that we couldn'tget on the video I have.
(18:41):
I don't have my internet hooked uphere. I just moved, so everything's
still getting situated here. I understand. So. So Nikki is a i'll
say, a young comedian. Idon't know how how far into your years
of doing stand up you are,how long you've been doing in it,
Nikki, I've been doing it sinceI'm eight. Seen I'm twenty eight now,
(19:03):
so about ten years. Holy crap, And you've done TV. You're
you're obviously a great actor. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that you
could see that on the reels youmake and in your impersonations, which are
essentially scenes that you're doing. Ifyou give us your your Instagram account,
yes, you can follow me overand Nikki Patito on Instagram, also on
Facebook. And I know you've doneparts and television series. Yeah, I've
(19:30):
been on NBC's New Amsterdam season four, episode twelve. I was the parogi
guy and it's funny the very lastdelivery job I ever did before I booked
that, I actually got hired todeliver parogs the first time and only time
ever. So it's definitely put mewell. Now, when you were growing
(19:52):
up, were you naturally like aperformer and did you have an ear for
impersonations? I definitely I had ayear for impersonating people when I was a
kid, Family Members, cartoons,some of the people I would watch growing
up, and then once I hitprobably like sixth grade middle school is when
(20:15):
I really started doing them a lot. I was always doing them around people,
and I always wanted to do standup and then I saw an opportunity
when I was a team to finallytry it, and I've been doing it
ever since. So a few questionsalong the way, in like junior high,
in high school or whenever we're college, did you do you have any
(20:37):
funny stories about using the voices andthe impersonations. Absolutely. The best one
was we had a baseball coach thatI used to impersonally growing up. So
my friend dorn Steens class used tomake me call up players, held them.
Practice was cancelled, and the realand then the real coach and called
(20:59):
them, yelling at them, andthey would they were calling these dam Practice
was canceled. I never allow samepractice was canceled. You can hear that
from you. Oh my god,that's crazy. Yeah, I got a
lot of people in trouble. That'sthe funniest. I love pranks, man,
I still do them. I'm fiftyfive and I still make prank phone
calls. There are a lot offun, a lot of fun like the
(21:22):
Jerky Boys. I love the JerkyBoys. Man, It's nothing like it
right now. Yeah, no,nothing. And I think I've done a
few pranks to Tony and other celebritieson the phone. To people in recent
years. Yeah, that's uh.I did a couple on the podcast,
and I do think Instagram is ripefor it and there's a way to do
(21:45):
it that people aren't doing. ButI'm really into that stuff. I have
to do one as a video orreal eventually. That's that would be pretty
funny. Yeah, absolutely all right. So at eighteen, you did stand
up? Where was the first placeyou did it? The first place I
did it was in Winhurst, NewJersey at the Whiskey Cafe. It was
open mic night. I took abrief comedy class before with this guy,
(22:07):
Bob Gonzo the day before. Iconnected with him on Facebook after a makeup
artist from a movie I produced intwenty twelve called Halloween Obsession she connected me
with him because he was producing anindependent horror movie. By the time I
contacted him, he already filled therole. But he said, I teach
comedy classes if you're ever around,and they're only it was like five or
(22:32):
ten dollars ridiculous, and I waslike, I don't know how great this
class he's gonna be, but I'llgamble five or ten bucks and secret class.
Bob Gonzo was very, very greatguy. To start a comedy with
and he put me on stage thenext night kept on putting me on stage.
I had a paid show my secondsecond night on stage, right after
(22:57):
the open mic. U, I'vejust h I've always I've always enjoyed it,
always had a talent for it.And the thing I liked about doing
stand up is I'm able to incorporatemy acting into it and and my my
writing. I tend to do alot of bits that are kind of like
(23:17):
one man plays, with me playingmultiple characters that I impersonate. Is that
different than some other people who doimpersonations or is that so? Yeah?
I do? I do it alot different I do. I mean,
I do some impersonations where I presenta bit and everything, but I like
to do more complex stuff with multiplecharacters in the bit. One of the
(23:42):
things I do on in my showis there's a bus that breaks down and
there's a bunch of celebrities on theway to my show on the bus and
they get a flat tire and theyhave to figure out how they're gonna change
the tire and get to my show. That's so it's like a one man
play When I do that. Thatsounds it's a lot of fun. I
(24:03):
hope you get to say it sometimes. Have you ever tried out for SNL?
No, I haven't tried. Iwould love to do SNL. I
don't know how I've tried. I'veI've looked up the process before. Really
don't understand it. Figure out toknow somebody to get in there. But
I'm not giving up. Interesting.We could help you with that, that
(24:23):
would be great. Yeah, Uh, we get the info, we get
the packets. There's a packet thatyou have to submit. I would love
to audition for us. And alsobecause I write so much and I love
writing sketch comedy. You like sketch, I know you. You also like
horror. We were talking on thephone and you mentioned, uh, you're
trying to put together a horror andthe horror movie. Absolutely, it's that's
(24:48):
what I wanted. That's my numberone goal more than anything right now.
I love comedy and I love actingand filmmaking, and it's very tough to
pick one over the other. ButI started writing something about the personal experience
I had in New Jersey years ago, about ten years ago, when I
worked security, and I did onedraft I remember, and it was absolutely
(25:12):
horrible. Did table reading, itjust got roasted by everybody. And I
kept on doing more drafts, moretable readings, and they were still bad,
over and over and over again.And I kept on working on them
over the years, sporadically sometimes themajor spurts. And as I, you
(25:33):
know, matured and learned more aboutwriting, I finally understood the process and
everything. Then I hired a professorfrom David Lynch's film school to help me
critiquing and doing us some suggestions forcredits. And now it's a very tight,
(25:53):
beautiful script, dow I'm very proudof, and it's the first of
a horror franchise, is hopefully I'vehad. I've had some offers. I'm
still exploring my options because of thestrikes going on and everything, so I
don't want to do anything until afterto the strike obviously in respect to not
(26:15):
only the writers but the actors.Of course. It's it's insane what's going
on right now. It's it's reallya shame that, you know, the
right writers really don't get get enoughcredit. They have to spend so much
time writing and writing and editing andcriticism and being creative and getting in that
(26:37):
right space and uh, you know, writers just do not get the credit
for it. It's it's really ashame they don't get the credit. And
it's also very hard to to breakin and make a living at writing,
as sure is as sure as Iknow that first. And yeah, I
mean there's there's probably in terms ofscreenwriters, it probably less a thousand people
(27:00):
in the country that make a fulltime living screenwriting. I believe it.
But at this point I see anend to this thing. I hopefully it'll
be over by by the new year. I hope. So it's driving me
in saying I've just been itching todo shit. Yeah, man, Now
you're also involved in writing music andsongs? I do? I do?
(27:22):
I do? Right? You eversee my shows? I do a couple
of raps as Tony Soprano rap parodies. I do a parody CARDI B's Whap
about Whacking Big Pussy Okay, Yeah, And then I do a parody to
Astap Fergs playing Jane called hop Stopa Boul. And then I have a
(27:48):
couple of songs that I do asAdam Sandler. I love Adam Sandler.
Yeah, do you mind doing alittle Adam Sandler for us? Why not?
How are you missed this up?Do you have any culture bread today?
So I have an Adam Sandler's story. Okay, When I was twenty
(28:08):
two, I was an assistant ata music booking agency who sent me to
these college conventions to book their bands, which was like the Village People and
some oldies groups. And I becamefriends with a live appearance agent for Adam
Sandler, who was like twenty six. And when I say he was his
(28:29):
agent, he only did his collegesbecause he was junior to the people who
did the real shit, and theyweren't going to the other conventions, and
they asked me to sell Adam Sandler, and I ended up booking a whole
East Coast college tour in about ninetytwo, and they were twenty five grand
a gig for Adam Sandler, andI would drive him to the gigs.
(28:51):
That's how I kind of broke intocomedy. And when I had the one
on one with Adam, I realizedit was much different than dealing with a
band and management and all the ship, and I just wanted to represent comedians
full time, and ultimately that's whatI did. But he was a fucking
nice guy. I'm sure he was. He seems like it. He's been
growing up my mom, and hewas always our favorite. I've seen probably
(29:14):
every movie of his I got.I finally got to I didn't get to
meet him. I saw him inperson last year. I went to a
Q and a a Pustle. Hewas fantastic in that. Yeah, man,
Yeah, he's a good dab.What's your favorite Adam Sailor movie?
Oh, the one where you knowhe went to the Diamond District and did
all that uncut gems cut gems movie. You know, I like him.
(29:36):
I like him in the serious stuffI do through you know, uh,
Punch Drunk, Love, Rain overMe. Those are He's fantastic and both
of those love those. The goofyover the top stuff wasn't particularly my thing,
but I appreciate it, and he'slike the best as that's good.
That's a good answer. Yeah,I love that stuff. I love the
(29:57):
happy Gilmore my kid, it's loveit. And even like dumb and Dumber
is not my taste. Uh that'snot Yeah, that's too much for me,
But my kids love all that soand and all those guys are brilliant.
Now, is there a certain uhhow I'm trying to figure out how
to articulate this, like you gota tenor out though? Uh in terms
(30:18):
of voice, like how do youwhich voices do you know you could do?
How do you identify? So Itell I got that question a lot.
It's all about people that I likeand people that I listen to,
and people that that have certain quirks. Like there's a lot of people that
just they're just too boring or they'retoo like similar thought, like they're just
(30:41):
too generic to be impersonated, youknow what I mean. Yeah, we
don't have a lot of characters okay, like young today, Like I don't
do really well with impersonating younger peoplebecause there their voices aren't too to develop,
some of them are. You know. I just I don't watch a
lot of like newer stuff and alot of you I'm very old school,
(31:04):
you know. I don't have cable. I watched DVDs still, I watched
the DVDs. I watched blue rays. I have a huge DVD Blue Rays
collection. I listened to vinyl.I have a huge vinyl collection. Yeah,
I just, uh, I don'twatch too much new stuff. Like
I went to the movies the otherday and I went to the fortieth anniversary
(31:26):
of Christine. It's the Stephen Kingmovie. Do you ever see that?
I never saw. I love StephenKing about a wanted like a car that
kills people basically really movie. Yeah, it's it's a fun movie. I
mean it's it's a little cheesy,but it's nineteen eighty three. That's how
it was for movies like the Factthat is and h are you? Are
(31:48):
you going out on a regular basisto perform your your stand up? I'm
out every night. If I'm notdoing a real show, I'm trying out
new material. And I love Ilove comedians. In New Jersey, the
comedy scene is very uh supportive anduh, you know, we're like a
(32:09):
family out here. But where wherein New Jersey? North North Jersey?
But what what are those clubs?Dojo comedy club over in Morris Planes.
I worked down at Uncle Vinny's alot. There's not too too many comedy
clubs exactly in North Jersey. There'sBananas, there's a stress Factory is more
(32:31):
central a lot of the places inNorth Jersey. It's uh. When I
do shows, if it's not atthe Dojo or Scotty's Comedy Club in Springfield.
It's it's. It tends to beat different venues and like restaurants that
aren't labeled as comedy clubs. Okay, I'm Italian, so I get booked
(32:52):
at a lot of you know,Italian venues. Yeah, they probably wanted
to do Tony soprano. Yeah,of course, of course. Now I'm
gonna put you on the spot.Okay, we're talking about prank phone calls.
Would you would you be willing todo a prank with me? Now?
Yeah, let's do it. Sohere, here's some context. We're
gonna call a place called Phil's Pizza. Okay, there is no film,
(33:16):
no Phil, No the guy Phil. Right, But here's the problem.
The guy who owns its name isAnthony, and everyone else who works there's
Anthony. So depending on who answersthe and one, Anthony doesn't quite get
humor, but the guy who ownsit does. He's Anthony. He's Anthony
(33:37):
number one. But Anthony number twomay answer the phone. But they're gonna
answer and say Phil's Pizza. Okay, so you want so when they answer
the phone, you want me tosay, hello, pizza Phil, Anthony
Phil. Start with Phil, andif he gives you a hard time or
whatever. Then ask for Anthony andtell him you didn't look it whatever.
All right, you got it?All right, let's see if we could
(33:57):
actually do this. How are youdoing? What's up? I'd like to
speak to Phil? So it's notthere right now? Can I speak to
Anthony? Anthony? It's not here? Left, Anthony's not there? So
who's there another Anthony? Yeah?Put the other Anthony on the phone.
(34:19):
That's what I'm talking about. Ithink that's Miguel. No, I want
to talk to Anthony. I don'twant to talk to Miguel. Hold on,
Jesus Christ, I guess I'm fuckingcustomer. Show everything here? Watch?
Hold on, man, I justto profer to speak to Anthony.
Wow, Miguel's giving you a littleWhat you gonna do? Hey, it's
just Anthony. No, well thisis Anthony, but not the owner of
(34:40):
Anthony. Yeah, yeah, youknow. But yeah, where's the filt
s? Yeah there's no show.What do you mean? There's no Phil,
there's no shill. Then who's fuckingpictures this that I'm eating? Oh
my god, thank you, thankyou, thank you very much. Yeah,
(35:00):
who's it? Prisually? I thoughthe was dead? Give me there
yeah, so who's the name thepolice fills? There was a fill like
thirty years ago that owned seven pizzaplaces and he sold all sevens a different
everybody, followed Nick on Instagram.I appreciate you doing this. This is
a little different than something we've done, but I love connected with you.
(35:24):
Thank you for thinking to be Jim. Yeah, yeah man, And we'll
be talking about comedy and all kindsof stuff. Buddy, absolutely, brother,
I'll talk to you soon. Thankyou, good, Thank you very
much. Bye bye. This episodeof Bread for the People was brought to
you by Side Hustle Bread, LongIsland's handcrafted, artisanal bread company. Side
Hustle Bread is a family run businessthat's bringing the neighborhood field back to Long
(35:45):
Island, one loaf at a time. If you like what you're hearing,
don't forget to head on over tieiTunes and rate and review this episode.
Reviewing and rating is the most effectiveway to help us grow our audience.
This episode was produced by Milestone TVand Film. I'm your host, Jim
Serpico. Less it be the bread. Everyone
How are you doing? This isgood? This is working. There we
go. That's why I like tohear. You're ready. Yeah. My
name's Jim Serpico. And this shouldI start with my name? What should
I start with? This is breadfor the people? Do you like it
like this? Welcome to bread?What do you like it like this?
Welcome ready? Welcome to bread forthe people? Mine? Is there a
(00:26):
script? Welcome to Bread for thepeople. I'm Jim Serpico. Wow,
what a show we have for youtoday. I'd like to say I have
(00:49):
an old friend, but I don'tknow if we're really friends. Were acquaintances,
And quite honestly, I didn't evenknow he was around. And what
I mean by around is a life. I thought he might have passed.
But I'm glad to find out thathe connected through a friend of a friend
and asked to be on the podcast. You all know him, You might
(01:11):
have thought the same as I.He's an entrepreneur, he's a restaurant tour
He's really known for his management skills. He's a partner in many of the
biggest restaurants in the New Jersey area, certainly many bakeries and countless other businesses.
(01:33):
Please welcome my friend and acquaintance,Tony. Tony asked, how are
you very good? How are youdoing tonight? Jim, Uh, it's
good good. I'm kind of shockedto be talking to you, To be
honest with you, you're breathing.Where the fuck have you been, man,
I've been await for some time.I had to take care of some
things. Really, I mean,I'm so interested in hearing what you've been
(01:57):
doing with yourself and where are youeven living. Yeah, I've been hiding
out on the down low. I'vegot a lifetime supply of bobble Boul and
postil Zoul, and I've been goodto go for the pist two years or
whatever. I don't know if likeme, with the pandemic, you started
getting into baking bread or anything.How did you survive the pandemic? Yeah,
I got a guy who delivers itto my door. Only he knows
(02:19):
where I've been staying. You know, I don't know about Jill, Jim,
but the best bread is in Jerseyat Collandra's. Do you ever have
a local Collandrew's bread? I neverhad Collandra's bread, to be honest,
I mostly have had my bread fromthe burrows. You know this kind of
a thing. But New York andNew Jersey. A lot of people from
Jersey think things are better there,a lot of people in New York things
(02:39):
are better here. I don't knowyou think it's better than New York.
I mean, I've had some breadout there. I know Collandra's only used
a score ingredients. So it's simple. And do you like that? Now?
When you invest in these or apartner I don't know if it's called
an investment or a partnership, butI've been told by some people you don't
even care if the bread's good,You're just really interested in the business model.
(03:00):
That's not true at all. Idon't get involved with anybody would still
res that's for the fucking pigeons,gotcha? Okay? So it is important
to you, yeah, especially ifpeople try feeding it to my ducks.
It sounds that dogs could chuck anddie. Next thing I know, I
go on my path yard. Isit dead stuff in my swimming pool because
he was choking on somebody's still breathfrom act with duck raceway or some shit.
(03:24):
Nobody would want that. I mean, Jesus, nobody would want that.
Are you still investing in partnering withpeople if I like the product,
why not? Okay, do youknow if they got a good thing going.
You know, they're good people,but they're Italians. That's a plush.
(03:46):
Is it strictly Italians or no?I mean, you know, we
got a lot of Jews in thisbusiness too. You know, they handled
the money and they're really good withit. So I got a lot of
Jewish partners. This guy hesh helikes to buy horses. He likes the
horses. Do you like the horses? Yeah, I go. I had
a horse pile. Mind fucking buntingpoints. I've been very fucking depressed about
(04:10):
it. Jim. I could onlyonly imagine now I didn't take my pojack
today. Okay, I'm sorry tohear you out. You must be out
of your supply. Now I'm wondering. You've been out of touch with most
of the people I know. Haveyou been in touch with any of your
old pals? Yes? Uh,poorly I've met up with recently. It's
(04:33):
Shatril. He started again with theh with the conspiracy theories. I said,
add enough of this ship, andI said, you know what you'll
get out of here. I'm gonnago to holestings. I'm gonna sit down
with my family one way time.Yeah, I get it. Now,
what about do you already booko?He was the restaurant guy, the major
d Yeah, he always friends.He's a good friend because he kind of
(04:56):
like he was a whiny guy andhe talked a lot. Yeah, that's
lady for you. Were you gonnado what we gonna do? Now?
I wanted to talk to you aboutyour management style. I don't know that
you even went to college for business, but you Yeah. I have a
semester and a half of college undermy belt. Pal, Oh you do
what college? Yeah? I do. I went to the University of Rutger's
(05:18):
North and Nork. Okay, anddid you is that where do you making
fun of me in the way?I say North? Now? No,
that's how we say it here inLong Island. Yeah, and n O
r K is the correct pronunciation.We don't say nor. That's for the
tourist. I understand. Did you? Did you uh frequent the grease trucks
(05:38):
at Rutgers and Nork? Oh you'refucking funny, Jim, this fucking guy.
I don't want to be talking allsexual on your podcast, you know.
I don't know if Carmelo is listening. Okay, I got you.
Does it even matter what she thinksanymore? You got a point there,
But you know, we gotta worryabout the kids. I got you.
(05:59):
So tell me about your management style. Did you have any influences? Yeah,
growing up, Vito gene Vise,Carlo Gambino, all those guys that
you see on the History Channel.What did you take from someone like Vito
or you know, like share withus. A lot of the people who
listen to this podcast run pizzerias,They run bakeries or their home bakers,
(06:21):
and they work the farmer's markets,and believe it or not, even at
the farmers markets, there's a lotof drama, and I think people might
be able to take a cue fromyou about how to deal with people that
are encroaching on their booth or Yeah, let me just say this, Yeah,
if you have anybody coming to yourlemonade stand and you're five years old,
(06:42):
give me a call and I'll takecare of it. Just give me
a lemonade on the house. That'shi. Is that all it takes at this
point? It depended on the situation. You know, if we're dealing with
one of these big pharmers shooter forcompanies. You know, I want a
lifetime supply a prozact. Okay,got you do you do you get out
(07:03):
to the farmer's markets much? Yeah? I mean I try not to be
seen in public these days. Showup. I got a guy who goes
there for me and delivers the package. Now, if I'm a lemonade or
a bread guy, and let's sayI sell my bread at a farm stand,
it's like just to stand in themiddle of the country that sells produce
(07:28):
and he says he wants to sellmy bread. And then another bread guy
comes in and says he wants hisbread sold there too, And the farm
stands says, okay, now thatis two of us, and I'm making
like a lot less money. Howdo you suggest I handle the situation?
Yeah, that's a very difficult situation. That's a problem. We got somebody
stepping on your toes when you're tryingto put bread on your table, literally
(07:53):
and literally. So uh oh.We would do is we would have a
twelve with this guy and have torelocate him to another destination. I got
you, do you go to him? Have the greases umble up a little
bit, but hey, it's uspart of this business. You know that
sometimes you gotta pay some bread toget rid of some bread. I completely
(08:13):
understand. Now, do you havea favorite type of bread? Absolutely,
a nice brunal brunel. Yeah.What do you think of the semolina?
Semolina is good. I love theseeds, you know, the seeds are
the taste is that's what makes thebread. And I prefer a nice,
stark wolf of bread. I don'tlike it extremely shure, I like it
(08:35):
well, dot, Okay, youlike a little crunch absolutely, The crunch
is what it's all about. Ifit doesn't crunch, it's no good.
I understand. I have a lotof customers that share share that sentiment.
So what do you think. It'sa very important sentiment. It is right
people, So people don't understand it'salso good for your teeth. When you
have that crunch and you have yourteeth work, it's strength. Its question,
(09:00):
Jimmy. Yeah, when you havea shine which you get cold touch
and the thing is fucking overloaded,But the bread shucks, doesn't even the
whole sandwich has done at that point. It's got to be about the bread.
I mean, it's the most importantthat. I don't know if your
guy because because when you went away, I wasn't bacon bread. I started
(09:22):
at the pandemic. So I don'tknow if you had your guy pick up
any of our bread. Have youtasted it? No? What can I
get it? Uh? You couldget it? Uh listen, I just
I just give it to you guy. I mean, you really don't have
to do anything. I get itto you. But we do a bunch
of farmers markets in Long Island,and yeah, but you don't contact my
guy. I tell my guy whereto go, So you got to tell
(09:43):
me where to tell him where togo. Okay, So Myer's farm stand
in Woodberry, it's available every day, so we could start there, you
know, and then we do theEast Meadow farmers Market every Saturday. H
East Meadow was the town Barelli's Pizzeria. I don't know if you know,
that's a famous old pizzeria from thePizza belt, that historic. It's it's
(10:07):
not that good, but it's beenaround the longest. Okay, I won't
try that. Try that. Andwhat are your thoughts on the pizza scene
right now? New Jerseys is there'sa big rivalry between New Jersey, New
York and Connecticut in terms of pizzareit is. No. I'm going to
say something because I'm tired of allthese people saying, oh, you know,
(10:28):
New York's are better than Jersey.That's bullshit. What do you eat
in fucking dollars slices? Let metell you something, Sometimes the dollars slices
in New York are better than thefucking six dollars slices. What's that all
about? But one thing I'm gonnasay, Yeah, there's the best I'll
beach in Jersey over on Carlstaff thesky. He's out of his fucking mind.
(10:52):
Johnny Specialal, he was the meadbalking in New Jersey two years in
a row, when he's gonna goon three. This year it was just
the ESPN, but all those upseaguys they were eating his meat balls,
and uh, there's sucking our beachesto die for. Nice and crispy.
Then and then let me tell youabout his Hoboken slice. Jesus Christ,
if you're a tomato sauce guy,nice and juicy? Really? Now,
(11:16):
our beat is the is the NewHaven John if you're listening, beat is
the New Haven style. So he'sdoing the New Haven in New Jersey.
No, I mean our beat isjust as I understand, they use the
terminology more Connecticut, but such anItalian American slang overall obvious. See uh,
(11:37):
twenty ninth Street with that guy whoscreams all the time. He's no
longer with us Stanny Iolo. That'sit. Yeah, sure, yeah.
He calls it our feature there andhe's from Queens. Interesting. I didn't
know that that was a thing otherthan Connecticut, to be honest with you,
absolutely not like a good slice ofour beach. I mean, like
(12:01):
not too many people are familiar withCanada pizza un once they've seen that Julia
Robbitts movie Mystic Peacher, Right,I got you, Uh Canada or Connecticut?
Oh Jesus Christ. I've never beento Canada, but that's what my
ducks are, so I'm gonna haveto go with Canada. Okay. Now,
I got some questions for you,because I'm trying to expand all these
(12:22):
other things. We're asking me fuckinganswers. What what do you mean?
Jesus, I'm just kidding, justkidding, all right. I want to
expand my bread business. Do youhave any advice for me on how to
get into a restaurant. Let's say, like any restaurant whether Yeah, we've
got to find a restaurant with breadthat fucking sucks. That is, find
(12:43):
in a good looking for a newtype of bread, and the places with
the good bread, we're gonna say, well, that's too bad. If
you like your bread, you gota better one, and we're gonna beat
your price. I'm gonna deliver itto you. So you only got to
do one as all hard listed.So who's gonna do that? Me?
Do? I gotta go around andlook? Or could you get me in
some places? Yeah, I'll takecare of it. I got a guy,
(13:05):
Okay, I appreciate that. Idon't deliver bread to New Jersey?
Is that okay? What the fuckdo you deliver it though New York?
On Long Island? I'm looking forplaces in Long Island. All right.
We're gonna meet too underneath the ArizonaldBridge. Okay, wait, no,
that's that's the fucking bridge that connectsto stan Island. I mean the fucking
battles that's tunnel. Yeah, theLincoln Tunnel's good? All right? Uh
(13:28):
listen, what about pasta? Iknow you like different kinds of pastas fresh
pasta versus dry pasta. Is therea difference, Yeah, there is.
It's very rare that I get toget the first pasta could appreciate. My
friend Doughtie Bulko Come only uses adry pasta. She prefers zoni. I
(13:48):
prefer barola. It's always a fuckingargument. It's just like the orange juice.
Why do you like it with thepulp? You know, I like
the one that says some pulp.She gets the one that says, watch
of pulp. Fucking get stuck inmy throat. I'm closed. Probably the
reason for my fucking panic attacks.Fucking close in my artories with pulp.
(14:09):
Fucking bitch speaking of pictation, saidthat she's probably listening. Are used to
are you? Have you been goingwith therapy? Yeah? I have been
a shocking bullshit. It's all aboutmotherfucking cop shocking fucking money. It's not
helping. I guess that's what thatmeans. It's true. You hit a
nerve, Jim. Let's get backto the break. Yeah, so,
(14:31):
uh, sour dough is really takenoff. Yeah. If you're fucking Boston
rooting for the fucking Red Sox,do you ever have a showered dough fucking
pretzel from Schneider's. Yes, Idid disgusting this. Yeah, it was
fucking the hydrated for six days.You have to eating fucking three pieces.
That's just for the fucking squirrels.That's uh. Some people say that about
(14:52):
biscotti. I don't know if youshare that. Oh, take it easy
now, I mean I can useI can use a group of squilting right
now. Yeah, it's hard tofuck a couple of detest spresso because if
I have real espresso, let's justgot a trigger a panic at that.
I hear that. So okay,So you're not into soura though. I
do a lot of salad though baking. I even make semolina with soura though.
(15:16):
That actually sounds pretty good as semolinasawa though. That doesn't sound like
a boys this thing. Let's bringthat to New Jersey. I would like
to do that. What about Haveyou been to a place called Raza in
New Jersey? That's all Verbo,Jersey City, That is in Jersey City.
Yeah, he's a good friend ofyours over there years ago, years
ago, so that was a goodplace. Get back over there. Yeah,
(15:39):
he's got a lot of good stuffgoing. I hear good things.
I hear good things. He doesa tomato test and he's got a tomato
chart. He tests every jar andcanned tomato that is made, and he
creates a chart. Really, I'mgonna have to get to pop over there
sooner than I thought. Yeah,he's good, this guy, Dan Richard.
(16:03):
I I work here in Long Island, closely with a pizza place called
Phil's Pizza. He sells my Pursutobread and I don't know if you've that's
my specialty is Purjuto bread and laudbread. I put a lot of larding.
How you talk to my style?I loved I got the aged provolone,
watadella pepperoni salami, and of coursepursut the dipoma. You know,
(16:27):
not for nutting, Jim. I'vebeen trying to go on a diet because
I've been get him back to thegym. But it sounds easy gonna make
me crack. I would like totry to make you crack. I'm gonna,
you know, I don't want tolook like Johnny Sacks White Ginny.
After all this, I understand nobodywould want to look like that. Jesus
listen, I really appreciate you reachingout. Why did you want to do
(16:49):
this? Of course I thought youwere Alfaccino's brother from Curproco Jim, Curproco,
Frank, whatever the fun and uh, you know I could always use
a nice boke of bread anytime it'savailable. Expect a nice care package.
Oh you'll get a care package.I don't know when I could expect your
(17:11):
guy. Just let me know absolutely, I'll have my neighbor Kuzamano pick it
up. I appreciate it, allright, Tony, Yes, I appreciate
you being here. I would loveto see in person. We'll make it
happen one of these days. Jim. All right, buddy, thanks again.
Absolutely, take it easy, takeit easy, all right? Now
we do the real one. That'sfunny, all right. Yeah. I
(17:34):
can't believe Tony Soprano was on yourpodcast and I get to be on with
him. It's amazing. This isamazing. Do you go, Bud?
Do you like Nicko Nikki? Yeah? You know I do a really good
Tony Soprano impersonation. Jim, Idon't know. If I don't know,
if Tony stall online you could hear? Yeah, I am here. Are
you going to do it for me, Yeah, sure, why not.
(17:56):
It's a very tyfficult situation. That'sreally not a good impersonation. You're overdoing
it. Try again, Okay,I'm gonna let it go, Tony,
I'm gonna let it go. I'mnot gonna do it anymore. We're here
with Nicki Potito. You like Nikkior nick I like Nikki? Nikki,
my man, I appreciate you doingbread for the people. I discovered you
(18:19):
on Instagram and I saw that weseriously had some mutual friends of comedians,
and you perform at some of theclubs that I frequent and I loved your
stuff and I certainly loved your impersonations, and I reached out and asked you
to do this, and I appreciateyou doing it, man. Thank you,
brother. I'm sorry that we couldn'tget on the video I have.
(18:41):
I don't have my internet hooked uphere. I just moved, so everything's
still getting situated here. I understand. So. So Nikki is a i'll
say, a young comedian. Idon't know how how far into your years
of doing stand up you are,how long you've been doing in it,
Nikki, I've been doing it sinceI'm eight. Seen I'm twenty eight now,
(19:03):
so about ten years. Holy crap, And you've done TV. You're
you're obviously a great actor. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that you
could see that on the reels youmake and in your impersonations, which are
essentially scenes that you're doing. Ifyou give us your your Instagram account,
yes, you can follow me overand Nikki Patito on Instagram, also on
Facebook. And I know you've doneparts and television series. Yeah, I've
(19:30):
been on NBC's New Amsterdam season four, episode twelve. I was the parogi
guy and it's funny the very lastdelivery job I ever did before I booked
that, I actually got hired todeliver parogs the first time and only time
ever. So it's definitely put mewell. Now, when you were growing
(19:52):
up, were you naturally like aperformer and did you have an ear for
impersonations? I definitely I had ayear for impersonating people when I was a
kid, Family Members, cartoons,some of the people I would watch growing
up, and then once I hitprobably like sixth grade middle school is when
(20:15):
I really started doing them a lot. I was always doing them around people,
and I always wanted to do standup and then I saw an opportunity
when I was a team to finallytry it, and I've been doing it
ever since. So a few questionsalong the way, in like junior high,
in high school or whenever we're college, did you do you have any
(20:37):
funny stories about using the voices andthe impersonations. Absolutely. The best one
was we had a baseball coach thatI used to impersonally growing up. So
my friend dorn Steens class used tomake me call up players, held them.
Practice was cancelled, and the realand then the real coach and called
(20:59):
them, yelling at them, andthey would they were calling these dam Practice
was canceled. I never allow samepractice was canceled. You can hear that
from you. Oh my god,that's crazy. Yeah, I got a
lot of people in trouble. That'sthe funniest. I love pranks, man,
I still do them. I'm fiftyfive and I still make prank phone
calls. There are a lot offun, a lot of fun like the
(21:22):
Jerky Boys. I love the JerkyBoys. Man, It's nothing like it
right now. Yeah, no,nothing. And I think I've done a
few pranks to Tony and other celebritieson the phone. To people in recent
years. Yeah, that's uh.I did a couple on the podcast,
and I do think Instagram is ripefor it and there's a way to do
(21:45):
it that people aren't doing. ButI'm really into that stuff. I have
to do one as a video orreal eventually. That's that would be pretty
funny. Yeah, absolutely all right. So at eighteen, you did stand
up? Where was the first placeyou did it? The first place I
did it was in Winhurst, NewJersey at the Whiskey Cafe. It was
open mic night. I took abrief comedy class before with this guy,
(22:07):
Bob Gonzo the day before. Iconnected with him on Facebook after a makeup
artist from a movie I produced intwenty twelve called Halloween Obsession she connected me
with him because he was producing anindependent horror movie. By the time I
contacted him, he already filled therole. But he said, I teach
comedy classes if you're ever around,and they're only it was like five or
(22:32):
ten dollars ridiculous, and I waslike, I don't know how great this
class he's gonna be, but I'llgamble five or ten bucks and secret class.
Bob Gonzo was very, very greatguy. To start a comedy with
and he put me on stage thenext night kept on putting me on stage.
I had a paid show my secondsecond night on stage, right after
(22:57):
the open mic. U, I'vejust h I've always I've always enjoyed it,
always had a talent for it.And the thing I liked about doing
stand up is I'm able to incorporatemy acting into it and and my my
writing. I tend to do alot of bits that are kind of like
(23:17):
one man plays, with me playingmultiple characters that I impersonate. Is that
different than some other people who doimpersonations or is that so? Yeah?
I do? I do it alot different I do. I mean,
I do some impersonations where I presenta bit and everything, but I like
to do more complex stuff with multiplecharacters in the bit. One of the
(23:42):
things I do on in my showis there's a bus that breaks down and
there's a bunch of celebrities on theway to my show on the bus and
they get a flat tire and theyhave to figure out how they're gonna change
the tire and get to my show. That's so it's like a one man
play When I do that. Thatsounds it's a lot of fun. I
(24:03):
hope you get to say it sometimes. Have you ever tried out for SNL?
No, I haven't tried. Iwould love to do SNL. I
don't know how I've tried. I'veI've looked up the process before. Really
don't understand it. Figure out toknow somebody to get in there. But
I'm not giving up. Interesting.We could help you with that, that
(24:23):
would be great. Yeah, Uh, we get the info, we get
the packets. There's a packet thatyou have to submit. I would love
to audition for us. And alsobecause I write so much and I love
writing sketch comedy. You like sketch, I know you. You also like
horror. We were talking on thephone and you mentioned, uh, you're
trying to put together a horror andthe horror movie. Absolutely, it's that's
(24:48):
what I wanted. That's my numberone goal more than anything right now.
I love comedy and I love actingand filmmaking, and it's very tough to
pick one over the other. ButI started writing something about the personal experience
I had in New Jersey years ago, about ten years ago, when I
worked security, and I did onedraft I remember, and it was absolutely
(25:12):
horrible. Did table reading, itjust got roasted by everybody. And I
kept on doing more drafts, moretable readings, and they were still bad,
over and over and over again.And I kept on working on them
over the years, sporadically sometimes themajor spurts. And as I, you
(25:33):
know, matured and learned more aboutwriting, I finally understood the process and
everything. Then I hired a professorfrom David Lynch's film school to help me
critiquing and doing us some suggestions forcredits. And now it's a very tight,
(25:53):
beautiful script, dow I'm very proudof, and it's the first of
a horror franchise, is hopefully I'vehad. I've had some offers. I'm
still exploring my options because of thestrikes going on and everything, so I
don't want to do anything until afterto the strike obviously in respect to not
(26:15):
only the writers but the actors.Of course. It's it's insane what's going
on right now. It's it's reallya shame that, you know, the
right writers really don't get get enoughcredit. They have to spend so much
time writing and writing and editing andcriticism and being creative and getting in that
(26:37):
right space and uh, you know, writers just do not get the credit
for it. It's it's really ashame they don't get the credit. And
it's also very hard to to breakin and make a living at writing,
as sure is as sure as Iknow that first. And yeah, I
mean there's there's probably in terms ofscreenwriters, it probably less a thousand people
(27:00):
in the country that make a fulltime living screenwriting. I believe it.
But at this point I see anend to this thing. I hopefully it'll
be over by by the new year. I hope. So it's driving me
in saying I've just been itching todo shit. Yeah, man, Now
you're also involved in writing music andsongs? I do? I do?
(27:22):
I do? Right? You eversee my shows? I do a couple
of raps as Tony Soprano rap parodies. I do a parody CARDI B's Whap
about Whacking Big Pussy Okay, Yeah, And then I do a parody to
Astap Fergs playing Jane called hop Stopa Boul. And then I have a
(27:48):
couple of songs that I do asAdam Sandler. I love Adam Sandler.
Yeah, do you mind doing alittle Adam Sandler for us? Why not?
How are you missed this up?Do you have any culture bread today?
So I have an Adam Sandler's story. Okay, When I was twenty
(28:08):
two, I was an assistant ata music booking agency who sent me to
these college conventions to book their bands, which was like the Village People and
some oldies groups. And I becamefriends with a live appearance agent for Adam
Sandler, who was like twenty six. And when I say he was his
(28:29):
agent, he only did his collegesbecause he was junior to the people who
did the real shit, and theyweren't going to the other conventions, and
they asked me to sell Adam Sandler, and I ended up booking a whole
East Coast college tour in about ninetytwo, and they were twenty five grand
a gig for Adam Sandler, andI would drive him to the gigs.
(28:51):
That's how I kind of broke intocomedy. And when I had the one
on one with Adam, I realizedit was much different than dealing with a
band and management and all the ship, and I just wanted to represent comedians
full time, and ultimately that's whatI did. But he was a fucking
nice guy. I'm sure he was. He seems like it. He's been
growing up my mom, and hewas always our favorite. I've seen probably
(29:14):
every movie of his I got.I finally got to I didn't get to
meet him. I saw him inperson last year. I went to a
Q and a a Pustle. Hewas fantastic in that. Yeah, man,
Yeah, he's a good dab.What's your favorite Adam Sailor movie?
Oh, the one where you knowhe went to the Diamond District and did
all that uncut gems cut gems movie. You know, I like him.
(29:36):
I like him in the serious stuffI do through you know, uh,
Punch Drunk, Love, Rain overMe. Those are He's fantastic and both
of those love those. The goofyover the top stuff wasn't particularly my thing,
but I appreciate it, and he'slike the best as that's good.
That's a good answer. Yeah,I love that stuff. I love the
(29:57):
happy Gilmore my kid, it's loveit. And even like dumb and Dumber
is not my taste. Uh that'snot Yeah, that's too much for me,
But my kids love all that soand and all those guys are brilliant.
Now, is there a certain uhhow I'm trying to figure out how
to articulate this, like you gota tenor out though? Uh in terms
(30:18):
of voice, like how do youwhich voices do you know you could do?
How do you identify? So Itell I got that question a lot.
It's all about people that I likeand people that I listen to,
and people that that have certain quirks. Like there's a lot of people that
just they're just too boring or they'retoo like similar thought, like they're just
(30:41):
too generic to be impersonated, youknow what I mean. Yeah, we
don't have a lot of characters okay, like young today, Like I don't
do really well with impersonating younger peoplebecause there their voices aren't too to develop,
some of them are. You know. I just I don't watch a
lot of like newer stuff and alot of you I'm very old school,
(31:04):
you know. I don't have cable. I watched DVDs still, I watched
the DVDs. I watched blue rays. I have a huge DVD Blue Rays
collection. I listened to vinyl.I have a huge vinyl collection. Yeah,
I just, uh, I don'twatch too much new stuff. Like
I went to the movies the otherday and I went to the fortieth anniversary
(31:26):
of Christine. It's the Stephen Kingmovie. Do you ever see that?
I never saw. I love StephenKing about a wanted like a car that
kills people basically really movie. Yeah, it's it's a fun movie. I
mean it's it's a little cheesy,but it's nineteen eighty three. That's how
it was for movies like the Factthat is and h are you? Are
(31:48):
you going out on a regular basisto perform your your stand up? I'm
out every night. If I'm notdoing a real show, I'm trying out
new material. And I love Ilove comedians. In New Jersey, the
comedy scene is very uh supportive anduh, you know, we're like a
(32:09):
family out here. But where wherein New Jersey? North North Jersey?
But what what are those clubs?Dojo comedy club over in Morris Planes.
I worked down at Uncle Vinny's alot. There's not too too many comedy
clubs exactly in North Jersey. There'sBananas, there's a stress Factory is more
(32:31):
central a lot of the places inNorth Jersey. It's uh. When I
do shows, if it's not atthe Dojo or Scotty's Comedy Club in Springfield.
It's it's. It tends to beat different venues and like restaurants that
aren't labeled as comedy clubs. Okay, I'm Italian, so I get booked
(32:52):
at a lot of you know,Italian venues. Yeah, they probably wanted
to do Tony soprano. Yeah,of course, of course. Now I'm
gonna put you on the spot.Okay, we're talking about prank phone calls.
Would you would you be willing todo a prank with me? Now?
Yeah, let's do it. Sohere, here's some context. We're
gonna call a place called Phil's Pizza. Okay, there is no film,
(33:16):
no Phil, No the guy Phil. Right, But here's the problem.
The guy who owns its name isAnthony, and everyone else who works there's
Anthony. So depending on who answersthe and one, Anthony doesn't quite get
humor, but the guy who ownsit does. He's Anthony. He's Anthony
(33:37):
number one. But Anthony number twomay answer the phone. But they're gonna
answer and say Phil's Pizza. Okay, so you want so when they answer
the phone, you want me tosay, hello, pizza Phil, Anthony
Phil. Start with Phil, andif he gives you a hard time or
whatever. Then ask for Anthony andtell him you didn't look it whatever.
All right, you got it?All right, let's see if we could
(33:57):
actually do this. How are youdoing? What's up? I'd like to
speak to Phil? So it's notthere right now? Can I speak to
Anthony? Anthony? It's not here? Left, Anthony's not there? So
who's there another Anthony? Yeah?Put the other Anthony on the phone.
(34:19):
That's what I'm talking about. Ithink that's Miguel. No, I want
to talk to Anthony. I don'twant to talk to Miguel. Hold on,
Jesus Christ, I guess I'm fuckingcustomer. Show everything here? Watch?
Hold on, man, I justto profer to speak to Anthony.
Wow, Miguel's giving you a littleWhat you gonna do? Hey, it's
just Anthony. No, well thisis Anthony, but not the owner of
(34:40):
Anthony. Yeah, yeah, youknow. But yeah, where's the filt
s? Yeah there's no show.What do you mean? There's no Phil,
there's no shill. Then who's fuckingpictures this that I'm eating? Oh
my god, thank you, thankyou, thank you very much. Yeah,
(35:00):
who's it? Prisually? I thoughthe was dead? Give me there
yeah, so who's the name thepolice fills? There was a fill like
thirty years ago that owned seven pizzaplaces and he sold all sevens a different
everybody, followed Nick on Instagram.I appreciate you doing this. This is
a little different than something we've done, but I love connected with you.
(35:24):
Thank you for thinking to be Jim. Yeah, yeah man, And we'll
be talking about comedy and all kindsof stuff. Buddy, absolutely, brother,
I'll talk to you soon. Thankyou, good, Thank you very
much. Bye bye. This episodeof Bread for the People was brought to
you by Side Hustle Bread, LongIsland's handcrafted, artisanal bread company. Side
Hustle Bread is a family run businessthat's bringing the neighborhood field back to Long
(35:45):
Island, one loaf at a time. If you like what you're hearing,
don't forget to head on over tieiTunes and rate and review this episode.
Reviewing and rating is the most effectiveway to help us grow our audience.
This episode was produced by Milestone TVand Film. I'm your host, Jim
Serpico. Less it be the bread. Everyone
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