Joe Piscopo should be standing,
his feet firmly planted, his arms
crossed Cochise-style, his chin
pointing up with pride. Behind
him, in a steady breeze, the
stars and stripes should flap
and wave. There should be
music: the “Star Spangled Ban
ner" would do nicely. In fact,
just put Joe where George Reeves used to be,
towering there as Clark Kent/Superman in the
opening credits of the Fifties TV series.
Joe Piscopo, American.
"You know what I believe?” he says, sitting
in his back yard, squinting a little in the hot
summer sun. “My father came over here
when he was nineteen, from Avellino, Italy.
Me settled in Newark and worked in New
York in a hat factory. All the other
nationalities, they called him a Wop bastard.
My grandfather would literally have to fight
his way to work, he had a lead handle on his
umbrella and if they bothered him at the fac
tory he'd beat the s-t out of them with this
umbrella. So he worked there until he had
saved enough to buy some buildings. Then he
developed the buildings. He gave my parents
a nice life and my father took that and blos
somed that and he became an attorney, and
he gave our family a great life. That's why I
want to be even better. My father's a hero to
me. 1 respect my grandfather Those people
are heroes to me. That’s a lot of s~t to go
through. Yeah, I’m an American.
“You know what I mean? They came to
America and they made it work. Sinatra did
that.” Piscopo stops, smiles.
"Isn't that hokey? The way I think like that?
I am medieval in my thinking — if that’s
medieval.”
Medieval, schmedieval. Joe Piscopo, 32,
New Jersey born-and-bred, star of Saturday
Night Live, is just a satisfied dreamer of the
American Dream. He has a wife, Nancy, and a
little ham of a kid, Joey — a skinny, grinning
4-year-old. There’s a black half-Lab, half-mutt
canine called All-Star, who wags his tail and
(yes, really) smiles.
The Piscopos live on a couple of acres of
prime Jersey real estate, tree-shrouded
upper-crust suburbia, a half-hour’s drive from
Manhattan. The house is a modest two-floor
affair, red cedar shingles with white trim. In
Joey & Joe Piscopo decide to he serious
people. Deep. Always thinking about
life's important matters. Foolishness
bits! It's irresistible, a sudden Silly
Attack. Joey & Joe lose concentration.
Joey & Joe agree never to concentrate
again. “You got a deal. Pop," stays Joey.
Sept./Oct. 83, page 12
Saturday Night Lire's
JOE PISCOPO
Father of the Year vs. the Sleaze Kings
by Steven X. Rea
the family r<x>m there's a wall of photographs
of Piscopo’s relatives — his grandfather, his
father and mother, uncles, brothers, cousins.
On the counter by the kitchen there’s this
modern, slabby-looking statuette: the Father
of the Year Award. “I got the Father of the
Year award, man, I’m so proud of that," Pis
copo says. “I’m not bragging. I'm showing
you more out of astonishment than anything
else. I'm the Television Father of the Year;
Benny Gtxxlman was the Music Father. I fell
so out of place, but it was a real honor. I said,
Mow did you pick me for the Father of the
Year? I’m on Saturday Night /.ire. I’m the an
tithesis of what any kind of parental guidance
should be.’ But they gave it to me.”
Piscopo is serious about this. “Drugs are
out, families are in. No kidding.”
He's a big amiable fellow. He has curly hair
and a kindly, cartoonish face with eyes that
[top out, twinkle. Sometimes when he talks —
about Joey, or about his good friend Eddie
Murphy, who has just bought a house a few
minutes away — he almost lisps: it’s a sweet,
tender, sincere voice. Piscopo cares about his
friends, his family, more than he cares about
his career.
Still, his career is moving along quite
nicely, thank you. The former DJ, dinner thea
ter and TV commercial actor, comedy club
emcee and standup comic has come into his
own these last couple of years. His uncanny,
manic caricatures of Frank Sinatra, Jerry
Iarwis, Andy Rooney, David 1-etterman and a
gaggle of other celebs have made him —
along with Murphy — Saturday Nigh! /.ire's
star attraction. His recorded version of Sinatra
doing a medley of Joan Jett and Foreigner
tunes was one of the best comedy discs in
years. Dick Ebersol, SNL’s executive prixlucer,
had to up Piscopo’s salary from the cast’s
weekly pay of $13,500 to $20,000 and offer
him door-to-door limo service to lure him
back on the show for the new season. Piscopo
1
has committed to do all 20 programs, unless a
movie comes up, and then he'll do 15.
Even with all that, Piscopo’s still not sure he
made the right decision. Yeah, it was tough,”
he says. "First of all, Eddie’s only coming hack
half the time and it's no fun when he's not
there. He’s a great guy. He’s just like a good
friend to be around. So he’s only going to lie
there half the time, and I don’t think that my
talent, what I do is — I don’t have a real
chance to showcase it on Saturday Night Live
1 do characters, I do impressions and things
like that, and that’s great, 1 haw a lot of fun,
and it’s amazing that I’ve gone as far as I have
— not that I've gone far at all, honestly — just
doing that. But what 1 really want to do, what
I really look forward to is one day doing my
own television show. I want to do my own
half-hour weekly variety show That’s my goal.
So I can address the camera, talk to the cam
era and he myself like I’m talking to you now.
On Saturday Night Life I can’t address the
camera. I’ve got to do makeup, like if I have
to do Sinatra or something, it takes me an
hour to get into it and then I’m doing a
couple of sketches and then I’ll have to
change into another character ... half the
time I'm in makeup, so it’s kind of crazy.”
Though television is Piscopo’s passion
(“I’m a television baby,” he says), like SNl.
stars Aykroyd, Belushi, Chase, Murray and
Murphy hefor him, Piscopo is making the leap
from the small screen to the big. His first ven
ture: a co-starring role in Johnny Danger
ously, a Thirties gangster sendup starring
Michael Keaton ( with whom he's worked on
SNL) and Maureen Stapleton, directed by Amy
(hast Times at Ridgemont High) Heckerling.
We re going to give movies a shot," Pis
copo declares, tugging at the front of his dark
blue NBC sports shin. ”1 think I could be a
great movie actor. I really have confidence in
my acting, more than anything. But I can’t be
lieve it,” he laughs, shaking hts head, ”1 want
r
i
to stay in television. I really enjoy television.
There’s nothing I like more than to go Hey,
hey, we have a really great show this week,'
Tbejoe Piscopo Variety Half Hour, with guest
Eddie Murphy, it'd he like a dream. Rut
movies, yeah, 1 haven’t really been bitten by
the movie bug.
"But I’m looking forward to Johnny
Dangerously I'm Michael’s arch enemy,
Danny Vermin. I'll put on my Italian voice and
model myself after some of my relatives.
We re shooting on the Fox lot, with all these
great fake sets. Hpsed-down streets, gorgeous
cars.
" And then,” he says, sighing, "I've got to
come right back for Saturday Night. That’ll be
a grind. I'm trying to think what I can do on
the first show.'
Piscopo doesn't foresee any problems aris
ing among the rest of the SNL ensemble and
him and Murphy whan they all gather again
for the season premiere, even though Piscopo
and Murphy are clearly the show’s stars.
"Nall. 1 don't think there'll be any tension
or anything, he muses. “I was going to say
it s an ensemble show, but I don’t know if it
ever was. An ensemble show starring Chevy
Chase, an ensemble show starring Bill Mur
ray. I guess it never was. Naah.
"But right now I’m concerned because
Barry Blaustein and Dave Sheffield — they
were supervising producers and two of the
premier writers up there, along with Pam
Norris and Bob Tischler — Barry and Dave
said they're not coming back and I don’t
know if Pam is coming back."’
He laughs: "Eddie just left a message on my
machine, he goes (adopting a haughty, ef
feminate accent): Hello Joe, this is Edward. I
just talked to Barry Blaustein and he told me
he wasn t coming back. Well, I guess we’re all
f-—d. Goodbye.’ ”
No matter what happens with Saturday
Night Lire, it’s clear that Eddie Murphy and
Joe Piscopo are still the best of friends, de
spite what was said in Rolling Stone’s June
cover story on Murphy. The magazine re
ported that during one show, when sched
uled guest host Nick Nolte bowed out at the
last minute and Murphy hosted, Piscopo was
upset that he didn’t get to bask in the
limelight. The story said that Piscopo wanted
to host the show as Frank Sinatra.
To say that thing about me host
ing as Sinatra, I thought that was
hysterical,” Piscopo says. " Can you
imagine hosting the show as
Frank Sinatra? Hey, there’s some
thing that will hold up over an hour and a
half. (In Sinatra voice:) ‘And now, the mu
sical guest, please welcome Lionel Richie,
a wonderful groovy cat.’” Piscopo laughs.
“What was j supposed to do?
That was an outright lie. It really bothered
me. To the point, where you can’t believe — I
was so hurt. More than anger, I was just hurt
by it. And I couldn’t figure out where it came
from. As far as me and Eddie, it just rolls off
our back, because there are editors who are
assholes. And I have a. feeling the writer was
continued