Name: Joe Mantegna Talks 13 Years on “Criminal Minds,” Godfather III,” & Voicing the Simpson’s Fat Tony
Uploaded: 2021-04-05T17:00:12.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Mantegna Talks 13 Years on “Criminal Minds,” Godfather III,” & Voicing the Simpson’s Fat Tony' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-04-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Mantegna Talks 13 Years on “Criminal Minds,” Godfather III,” & Voicing the Simpson’s Fat Tony' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-04-05. Transcript available.

Joe Mantegna Talks 13 Years on “Criminal Minds,” Godfather III,” & Voicing the Simpson’s Fat Tony

Hey, everybody. Hope things are good. This is a pleasure doing this podcast.
And today's an
extra pleasure on the show that's called Bob Saget's Here for You. I don't know
how we came
up with the title. At the time, when I started at the beginning of 2020, the
idea was to give
people some solace because I was already feeling people feeling hurt and torn
and going through so
much inner turmoil through 2018, 2019, as I toured the country and as I
interacted with people.
And then here we come with COVID. And I started doing the podcast in concept
before we were
quarantined, before COVID hit the United States. So this is a fully intentioned
thing and organic,
and I love doing it. And I especially love today's episode with an old friend
who is
incredibly talented. And I don't know anyone that doesn't love this man, Joe
Mantegna,
such a great actor and a great human being. And also just to do a little
business, do what you do,
you rate, review, you subscribe, or you follow, watch it on the YouTube. If you
haven't seen that,
you want to, I don't know who's on there. And leave a nice comment, you know,
or constructive
criticism, not just evil, vile comments with pictures of your butthole. And
that's at, you know,
youtube.com slash Bob Saget. And I'll be on tour, hopefully, in the months
ahead. That's the plan as
we come out of this difficult time, and people are able to go out again, into
the maybe end of summer,
into the fall. And that's at Bob Saget.com. So without any further ado, I'm
going to bring out a
person who I met years ago on a Richard Pryor movie called Critical Condition.
And we've stayed friends
ever since, even though we don't get to see each other much when we do, it's
nothing but love,
because he's, he's amazing. So many great films, you know, searching for Bobby
Fisher,
Godfather three, Joey Zaza in Godfather three. I don't know, Fat Tony on the
Simpsons, it's really
hard to keep up with how much content this man has put out that you all love.
Of course, 13 years of
criminal minds. And he's also going to tell us what's up and coming from him in
the future,
because he's one of the more talented actors that exists. So without any
further ado, here is Joe
Montaigne.
Bob Saget, how are you? Joe, Joey. Yeah. Joseph was, were you Joseph at birth?
Well, my birth certificate says that, but no, my father was Joseph. But no, he
was Joe. We were
both Joe, but on the birth certificate says Joseph. But my mom never went by
Joseph.
Bob Saget, my mother's name was Bob. Oh, really?
Well, that surprised me. Why doesn't that surprise me? I don't know, because I'm,
I'm strange. So I haven't seen you and I don't like that. I haven't seen you in
a long time. It's my fault.
No, no, it's neither of our fault. It's just the way the world, especially
right now.
Yeah. Now, now we know that. But I, and then, you know, I went by your place in
the valley, taste of Chicago. And then it was, it was, that was that probably
six months before you closed it. Something like that.
Yeah, that could be. Yeah. It's been over a year now. But it was great. We had
a good run. We had 16 years with it. And then, you know, the restaurant
business, you either got to go big or go home. So we went home, you know, what
we were about to become, try to be Burger King or anything like that.
So it was great, great, good time. We had a good time.
Well, you're not alone now because so many people, you know, are in that boat.
Yeah, our timing was actually good. You know, we, my work closed it like
probably six months before the COVID thing happened.
Otherwise you'd be trying to do parking lot seating and take out and you're not,
that ain't you.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Forget that.
No.
So this is like, just so people know, you and I met on a Richard Pryor movie in
1987, six, we shot it in 86, right?
86. That's right.
Critical condition.
Right.
And it was so amazing to meet you and you were, we, we hit it off immediately.
Yeah.
Amidst the most bizarre cast ever assembled of human beings, I think, you know,
I mean, and in the high point, South North Carolina, high point, North Carolina,
it's like, there's the furniture show, the big chair and us, you know.
You made this thing up and the cast, just so they know, Marjorie Simpkin was
the casting director in this movie.
And I've stayed friends with Marjorie over the years.
And, and I was on an open audition in front of Michael Aptid.
It was my, my first decent thing.
And it was a Richard Pryor movie.
And it's you and Rachel Ticketon and Ruben Blades and Randall Tex Cobb and
Sarah Miles and Joe Delisandro.
And then the, the emergency, uh, um, oh, I know what you mean.
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, yeah, uh, we, they needed somebody to play a, uh, an
emergency vehicle driver at, and, and it was Wesley Snipes.
Cause he had just had a, I just had a baby.
So the, she gave him the job, right?
It just had a lot of people in it.
It was strange and, and fun.
It was, and diverse people.
I mean, so yes, it's just, you know, Sylvia Miles and Randall Tex Cobb were
like opposite ends of the same stick.
And then we were, everything else still in between us.
And you had been, it was an amazing time.
And you'd been coming off of, well, at that time you'd already won the Tony for
Glen Gary, Glen Ross, right?
Yeah, it really was one of my first films afterwards.
In fact, I just finished the national tour of Glen Gary at that point, uh, with
Peter Falk.
We've done six months on the road and it literally was the first thing I did
after that.
So I, I think, yeah, the only, I think the only other movie I'd done prior to
Critical Condition was, um, was, uh, compromising positions.
Which was, uh, really kind of like my first kind of legit movie kind of role.
And then I was still doing Glen Gary at that time.
Uh, I remember at the time the whole cast were, they used all kinds of people
who were currently working on Broadway.
That was kind of like the gimmick, you know, but there was Susan Sarandon,
myself, there was, uh, Raul Julia, whatever.
But that's, I think Critical Condition was right, right.
Just the next film I did.
And that was, uh, 1984 is when you won the Tony award.
1984.
Yeah.
And how many years did you do that on Broadway?
Well, you know, I got lucky with that, but because I won the Tony award in 84
and the show had only been running at that point, maybe about three months.
And so, and then the show won the Pulitzer prize.
So from that point on the show ran for about a year.
So I was able to do, the way it was fortunate is I'm able to kind of do with
the, you know, the Tony award winning role in the Pulitzer prize winning show.
So literally every director and casting director in the planet saw the play,
which kind of gave me a nice jumpstart after 15 years of like, you know,
banging around, you know, so, uh, I couldn't have written a better script for
myself because you want to, winning the award is it's nice.
It's fun.
Yeah.
You want a Tony award.
It's great.
It's an honor, but what you really want to be able to do is kind of show the
work that they gave you that thing for, you know, and that doesn't often happen
in the play, you know, a movie's there forever.
But the play is, you know, you don't go see it, you know, but it's gone, you
know?
So I was able to do that show for about a year on Broadway and then six months
on the tour.
Did you end up in Chicago?
Cause I watched you on a talk show and your mom didn't want to come to New York
and said she would see it with, what was the person's name?
She was going to see it with in Chicago.
My aunt Lolly, my aunt Lolly, her sister.
Well, that was, that was so great.
My mother, my God bless her.
She lived to be 101.
And I, and I think to the day she died, she didn't really know what I did for a
living, you know?
And it didn't matter, you know?
So it was like when I, when I wanted, so of course she watched the Tonys.
I told her to watch and she did.
And, and I thanked her.
I mean, the last, my last three, three words on the, on the show where I thank
my wife, Harleen, my mother, Marianne.
And I think I, I think the girl court has heard who let us sleep on the floor
of her apartment in New York while we were in New York.
Cause you don't know, you're going to New York on a show, you don't know if it
can be a hit.
So anyway, no, I won the Tony shows, won the Pulitzer.
And I'm thinking, well, no, I guess it's time, maybe I call my mother and have
her bring her out.
And I said, call my mother, mom, you know, I'm going to fly you out, come see
the play, you know, on Broadway.
She says, well, you're going to do it in Chicago.
I go, well, yeah.
I mean, eventually we're going to tour the country probably with it.
Well, I'll see you with your aunt Lolly.
We'll see it when you come to Chicago.
That'd be nice.
And I'm thinking, well, she got a point.
She'll be nice.
I guess she could sit with Lolly, you know, I was going to fly Lolly in too,
but I thought I don't want to see too much confusion.
So, but that was my mom.
She's never, she's never quite understood what I did.
But in fact, the best, the best line she had was when I got the series Criminal
Minds, which wound up lasting 13 years.
She calls my brother because now up to this point, she'd always heard like, hey,
watch Joey on this or watch Joey on that.
You can see him in this movie or blah, blah, blah.
So I get the series and my, and my mother calls my brother and was eight years
older than me.
And she goes, what is it?
And she goes, I'm worried about Joey.
And my brother Ryan goes, why?
She goes, he's only working an hour a week.
She really had no, she had no idea that you have to edit it.
No, no, no, no.
She had no clue.
She just figured, you know, before I was kind of going around the country,
traveling the world and doing this, I'd be away.
I'd be in Russia.
I'd be in Canada.
I'd be in Europe.
You know, I'd be, I'd be, mom, I'm on this movie for three months.
I'll, you know, see when I get back, stuff like that.
But now she sees, I'm on this TV show once a week.
And it's like, oh my God.
She looks at her clock.
It's on from nine to 10.
What is he doing the rest of the time?
You know, well, you know, what, you know, is he like, you know, got another job
for those other six days?
So my brother had to tell her, no, no, it's fine.
Don't worry about it.
You know, the hour a week is.
Hey, ma, don't worry about it.
Yeah, it's fine.
You're doing good.
Was she born in America or was she?
She was.
All my grandparents were born in Italy.
But my father died when I was, you know, I was like 1971 when I was, I was
doing my first job to play hair in 1969.
I remember all this.
We talked about this too, and I've also seen it on shows and your mother came
and saw you naked and what was her response of seeing you naked in hair?
Well, first of all, the whole cast was kind of beige that I even had my mother
show up because a lot of them were like, you know, they don't tell their
parents they're even doing the play.
You know, of course, my mother, not only my mother, she came with her father,
my grandfather, you know, wearing his hat.
And, you know, he, you know, they, fantastic.
She comes, you know, after the play, you know, she stops backstage and she goes,
so how'd you like the play?
She goes, oh, nice.
And you look nice.
You got a good body.
Some of these kids are out of shape, you know, because we had that one momentary
nude scene, you know, I thought, well, that's my mom.
And the other cast members couldn't believe that my mother was like, you know,
she wanted to get up close.
In fact, probably to see how, you know, that also sit in the front row, sit in
the front row with binoculars.
Yeah.
What's great is that, that your mom was a solid mom.
There wasn't anything creepy about it to see your son like that, but that, you
know, you know, how cool that is?
Cause there's other people.
Oh yeah.
My mother would have never been able to see that.
It would have been, oh, and I think other people couldn't have wante