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ICE CUBES: Red Heart Variety Show @ Vie, 4/13
Friday the 13th was hardly unlucky when it came to the Variety Club, the Saturday Night Live legacy and New Jersey's own Joe Piscopo.
ICE CUBES: Red Heart Variety Show @ Vie, 4/13
Friday the 13th was hardly unlucky when it came to the Variety Club, the Saturday Night Live legacy and New Jersey’s own Joe Piscopo. Piscopo (who spoke to me about the event in Icepack Illustrated last week) hosted and performed during the 2012 Red Heart Variety Show to benefit the Variety Club of Philadelphia. Cordial to all his guests, Piscopo hung around pre-show chatting with any and all who asked to be posed with him. “I love being in Philly anytime and every time, and I’m always here for the Variety Club” Piscopo told me right before the show. “I even brought my dog, Otis. I love that dog. We travel everywhere together.”
Two of Piscopo’s one-time companions also joined him and comedian/actor Jeff Norris (Boardwalk Empire) for the Variety Club benefit. Victoria Jackson, one of his many SNL cast mates, was the night’s long-announced entertainment for the event. When Piscopo introduced Jackson to me as a journalist, she asked if I was an “objective reporter,” probably due to the hell she’s received for her political leanings. I told her “objectionable, perhaps” and we called it even. The biggest surprise of the night, though, was that at the last minute, their SNL team mate Cheri Oteri — from Upper Darby — joined them as a special guest, performing as her “Barbara Walters” character, hard hair sprayed wig and all. While a sorta-kinda-seemingly nervous Oteri (at least in the green room) opened the show by doing a faux-talk show thing with Fran Naselli (President, Variety-The Children's Charity) Piscopo followed up, singing heartily in front of Philly’s City Rhythm Orchestra (“I love this band”) a slew of Sinatra faves. He mentioned his love of the Phillies and the Flyers but said his heart was with the New York City teams, which got him a few mock “boos” from the audience. He gave shout-outs to guests such as Mia Tinari, the Philadelphia lawyer with whom he’s working on a film project, Sound of Philly engineer and studio owner Joe Tarsia, myself and Square Pegs/Cuba Libre owner Barry Gutin (first time that Gutin and I ever got mentioned in the same speech and for the good yet). Jackson did her comedy routine with its conclusion being Piscopo joining her in swinging song during “All of Me” and the event, at last tally, raised $50,000.
Afterward, Gutin brought Norris, Tinari and Piscopo to Square Pegs where the fully crowded bar got a real kick out of seeing the comic pair. “We closed the joint,” says Gutin who entertained them while Norris entertained their table with some risqué material not in his show. They all shared appetizers — mahi mahi quesadillas, white-chocolate habanero wings, mac & cheese “grilled cheese” with drunken tomato soup — while Joe had banana foster French toast pegs and Jeff had a Square Peg Burger with a shot of organic, gluten-free domestic vodka. Piscopo who had his Burmese mountain dog, Otis, in the car got some of Square Peg’s custom ground burger. (“Square Pegs is now doggie approved” says Gutin) and Otis and Piscopo’s night ended with a dog walk around Jefferson. With Tinari currently at work on a film project with Piscopo perhaps to be filmed in the area and Piscopo’s upcoming May 1 charity with Bernie Parent, it looks like he wasn’t kidding when he told me in Icepack Illustrated that he “should get a summer house here.”
Photos by Scott Wiener
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