Name: Steve Schirripa on The Sopranos, Acting & James Gandolfini (from Joe Rogan Experience #791)
Uploaded: 2016-04-30T05:15:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Steve Schirripa on The Sopranos, Acting & James Gandolfini (from Joe Rogan Experience #791)' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-30. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Steve Schirripa on The Sopranos, Acting & James Gandolfini (from Joe Rogan Experience #791)' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-30. Transcript available.

Steve Schirripa on The Sopranos, Acting & James Gandolfini (from Joe Rogan Experience #791)

Hello, freak bitches.
Coaches. He worked with this girl Susan for years that helped.
You get a different perspective.
Oh, you know what? I didn't think of that.
I didn't think that way. Yeah, you're right.
So that kind of shit. Now look, ultimately,
you get on the set, you're gonna do what you're doing.
The director's gonna, "Hey, Steve,
you know, you shouldn't be so angry there."
Whatever, you know, he thinks. And the guy that wrote it.
You know what I mean?
But I worked very hard at it.
And I worked for years now.
Don't forget, I'm making a living for 16 years
as an actor. I left the Riviera
in 2000. Isn't that crazy?
Yeah, 16 years. So, and I've done
a lot of shit. This is you saying that
2000 was 16 years ago
makes me go, "What? Is that right?"
Yeah, I left there. I started on
The Sopranos in '99. I went
back and forth for a year. You know, I didn't quit
the job. I did six episodes. I was still at the Riv.
What is it like? That one must have been
fucking strange. I was still at the Riv, and then I
booked it for 10 years. You know, I booked
guys in the Riv until 2010. Chris Rock
said, "You're still dipping your toe in that shit?"
I said, "Why not?"
They're paying me. What the fuck?
How hard is it? How hard is it to fucking book
three comics a week? I could do it in three days.
Book up six months. That's hilarious.
You know, I booked guys that
you know, that didn't work much, you know?
Well, I think your point is the really
important part of what you're saying is like the getting
a different perspective. Where a guy like Gandolfini
you would imagine. He was so good.
You would imagine that he probably looked
at it from all sorts of different angles.
Yes, he did, and you saw a lot of different colors.
But, you know,
he would work 16 hours.
Okay? 16 hour days
on the Sopranos. He's there.
So, I mean, the guy gets up whatever time
he got up. Then he's got to go home
and learn tomorrow's stuff.
So, sometimes he told me he'd be sitting
in the chair. He'd fall asleep
for two hours. He wakes up,
she's still there. Just waiting for him to wake
up and they're going to work on the stuff
for tomorrow. Whoa. Yeah.
And then, and nine months of that. Don't
forget, you know, the Sopranos, Joe, they were,
when I got on the show, it was like eight
days. I came on the second
season, so it was like eight days for an
episode, then nine, then ten.
At the last season, it was,
we shot nine shows in
nine months. Holy shit.
Yeah. You know, it was like shooting
a movie, there's no commercial, so it's a full
hour, but, you know, that's what
it was, man. It was long. It was like shooting
a movie. Wow. A month and episode.
I, I, the first episode
was 17, 18 working
days. Lorraine Brockle said
to me, you're going to work more in this episode than I will
the whole season, because she only worked one
day an episode. You know, she had the greatest job
in show business. Wow. They shot that
in one day. Oh, that's beautiful for
her. You know. It was a great part, too.
Yeah, it was great. You know, but
I, I think the, the coaching
wise, and I think a lot of it is, you know,
you focus, you concentrate, know your
stuff, know your lines. I mean,
you're an actor, you know. Know your
shit. Don't come in and be like a smart
ass. Yeah, maybe I paraphrase.
Know your stuff. Respect what's
on the page. You know, that's, I'm
a, I'm a big believer in that. Yeah.
On the Sopranos, you didn't ad-lib the word
thuh. And I'm not joking. You, there was a,
there was a time that I had to say, uh,
I gotta go. And the line was, I have to go.
And they kept correcting me, and correcting me,
and correcting me, 'cause I just, you know,
I gotta go. No, I have to go.
I don't know why, what, where, and I
didn't question it. Right. You know, I mean,
you know, but. That's a
crazy amount of work when you're talking about
Gandolfini. That's really, that's still
fucking with my head. Yeah. Now listen, Jim was one
of my closest friends. Couldn't find
a better guy. He
worked. Harley saw his kids.
You know, his kid, you know,
his daughter wasn't born,
you know, uh,
while he was on the Sopranos.
But it was like no life. You could completely
gave up your life. Not the rest
of us, because there was so many
characters. You know, I didn't, I had a
couple episodes where I worked a real
lot, but, you know, otherwise. It just
can't be good for your health. Well, it was,
you know, a lot of guys. I mean, I've
read, I think Jimmy Smith's I read years
ago, NYPD, he said he couldn't take,
it was 18, 18 hour days. Yeah.
And yeah, he was making a fortune. He
said, I couldn't do it anymore. Yeah. No, I've,
I've had friends that have been on dramas before,
and it's the same thing. They would tell me that
they just, they just couldn't do it. They just, they
would do it, and they would just, they would be,
they would go, this has got to be my last season.
I can't do this anymore. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's,
it's the point with the money. Now, you know,
the thing, what I love about Blue Bloods is,
there's a lot of characters, so there's
different stories, so it's not like that. It's not my
signature. Whoa. It's hanging up, it's,
it's, you know, like seven of us,
but it's not my signature. How crazy
is that? Someone's got a fake signature,
hanging up in a nice restaurant. Someone's got a
Bacala with a fat, fake stomach.
That's... It's from the days
when I wore the fat stomach. Oh, they made you put
like a prosthesis on, right? For two years, yeah.
Then I got fat enough on my own.
Did you get fat enough just so you don't have to wear that thing?
No, no, no. One day, Chase, you know,
I, I, you know, when I first got
the role, I was seeing all
these jokes, like your cow's on with legs,
and your fat fuck, and your thing,
and I'm going, I'm not that much fatter
than getting the Feeny. I was starting to think
that maybe they cast the wrong guy.
I'm not joking. I'm saying,
could it be? I mean, these jokes
don't make sense. And then they called, oh, you got to
come in for a fat suit. So,
I wore this ridiculous thing. Oh, wow.
Then the second year, they made it like a
really nice one, like a costume,
like a costume shop. It had like tits
and everything. And, uh,
a costume shop in, uh, like
a Broadway costume thing.
And, uh, and then one year, I was
going back, and I was at a fitting
for the fourth year, you
know, like the next year. And, uh,
he looked at me, and he went,
you don't have to wear that anymore. I said, all right.
So, I'm assuming.
It was pretty embarrassing at first.
At first, I was prancing around.
They had an ass on me, too, like a big ass.
You put a fake ass on me. Yeah, and he was going,
ah, too big. And I was like going, walking
back and forth like parading. Oh, Jesus Christ.
It's fucking humiliating.
Steve Landisberg,
gave it a comment. He said to me, did they ask your
permission to do that?
And I said, no, Steve. He said, I wouldn't have
fucking did that. I wouldn't have got the job, you know.
That was a weird time when The Sopranos
came out, because all of a sudden, there was like
a lot of fake mob guys.
A lot of fake connected guys.
A lot of fake Italian. You know what I mean?
They're still around. I call it gig. Guinea Actors Guild.
Gig.
But you know what I mean? It's like that
acting that way became in fashion.
They started, they used to hang around
wherever we were. They were around.
They were extras. They're still around.
But there was, you know,
we did an appearance in a casino.
We just do a lot of that stuff, you know.
They were everywhere.
They were everywhere. They were hoping to get on the show.
They said, come on, you did the show.
I could do the show.
I remember Michael Imperioli one time.
We were up in Reno.
And there was one of them guys.
And he was playing blackjack.
And he said, come on, put me on the show.
I could do what you do.
Michael just went off on him.
I've been fucking trying for 20 years.
I've been acting.
He hit Michael, and Michael was right.
He got really pissed off.
This is just one of those fucking goombas.
I could do what you do.
They're the worst.
Exactly.
There's wannabes, but there's something about guinea wannabes.
There's a handful out here.
Oh yeah, there's plenty.
And the thing here, they congregate together.
When they try to, like, clang up.
Hey, Joe, you're dying, right?
You're dying, you're dying, you're dying, you're dying.
We're together.
What's the last thing, Rogan? How come you got Rogan?
I kind of try to navigate away from them.
Oh, they're brutal.
Even in New York, I kind of, that's not my thing.
Well, Sopranos was so good that it almost killed the mob genre.
You know, it was so good.
I think you're right about that, because you know what?
Unless, and I get a lot of scripts, Joe, you know, of that crap.
You know, they make these, I call them backyard movies, you know?
Yeah.
You're never going to see them, you know, whenever they're getting paid.
I'm not interested, because it's that same thing.
I'll fuck you, I'll break your fucking head.
You know who I am, you know who my uncle is.
It's like a Dom Herrera sketch.
Absolutely.
But it's true, but they write this.
And I say, how does people give them the money?
How do you get the money to make these movies?
Well, I think for a while, people were making them just because Sopranos was so
popular.
But now, unless you're going to beat Sopranos, Goodfellas, you know, what's the
great mob movies?
Sopranos, Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull had mob elements, right?
Great movie.
What am I missing?
There's got to be a few of them.
You know, some great, you know, great, great mob movies.
But now, after the Sopranos, I mean, you know, The Godfather, Godfather 1, 2,
you know?
There was some, but you're going to have to beat that.
Then they tried.
They tried to do some mob-y stuff.
Ray Donovan's working.
That's a good show.
That's a good show.
And that's from an Irish perspective.
Yeah.
Well, I think what happened with those movies was, or that show rather, is it
was those, you had a movie every week.
Exactly.
So, like, every subject was covered.
Betrayal, gambling, pussy, murder.
It was funny.
It was funny.
It was very smart.
That was something.
You know, I would go, I would be around, and people would go, I don't like that
show you're on.
I'm Italian.
Have you ever seen the show?
Oh, yes.
Have you ever seen the show?
No, I haven't seen it.
It's like, I asked somebody, I don't watch porn.
I hate porn.
Have you ever seen it?
No.
Well, how do you know you don't like it?
Or did you see it?
Or do you watch it?
You know what I mean?
Secretly.
Well, no porn.
Well, that was a big thing, right?
The Italian-American, blah, blah, blah, society was protesting against it.
I'll tell you.
How about this story?
I wrote a kid's book, Nicky Deuce.
Okay?
It took place in Brooklyn, and we turned it into a movie for Nickelodeon.
You know, which we did.
It's one of Gandalfini's last movies.
And I had Michael Imperioli in it, and Sirico, and Nickelodeon made the movie.
But when I wrote the book, I was doing book signings.
And you know, it's about a kid, fish out of water, who goes back to Brooklyn.
He grew up in the suburbs, and he winds up with a kid, entire neighborhood
Bensonhurst in Brooklyn.
And he gets into some mischief.
I don't even call it trouble.
So, this guy kept writing letters and shit, and killing me on the internet, and
writing letters to the bookstores ahead of me getting there.
You know, like saying that he's derogatory against Italians, and now he's
bringing kids into it, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So, finally, I get the guy's number, and I call the guy.
I swear to you.
I say to him, listen, I think his name is Anthony.
I said, listen, Anthony, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
This is the world I know.
Like rappers rap about what they know.
This is what I know.
You know?
And he said to me, I said, you know, what can I do?
Tell me what I can do.
Let's fix this.
I mean, because you know, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
He said, well, you can make a donation to m