After All the Ups and Downs, Joe Piscopo Just Wants to Work

Curtesy of Forefront Books

From his New Jersey roots to his late-night sets at the New York City clubs to his breakout gig on “Saturday Night Live” and his adventures in the film and TV world, comedian Joe Piscopo’s life both in and out of show business is unabashedly unfurled in his new book, “Average Joe: The Memoirs of a Blue-Collar Entertainer,” out Feb. 11.

“I hope people like the book,” said Piscopo in a recent interview with The Epoch Times. “People said, ‘Joe you got to write a book.’ So I wrote a book and we did ‘The Memoirs’ and I didn’t nail anybody. I tried to be as respectful as I could.”

After some big hits and misses in Hollywood, Piscopo eventually sought refuge back in his home state. “When you work and then you become somewhat of a celebrity then the pressure is on by everybody—you got to do this, you got to do that—and all you want to do is work,” he said.

A Survive and Thrive Attitude

Back in Jersey, Piscopo reimagined his professional life—he took a star turn on Broadway as the disc jockey Vince Fontaine in “Grease” and today he not only tours with his own original Big Band tribute to Frank Sinatra, as well as his multimedia comedy show, he’s also a popular radio show host—the “Joe Piscopo Show” airs daily on AM 970 The Answer in New York from 6 to 10 a.m., and “Bulova Sundays with Sinatra” airs Sundays on AM 77 WABC Music Radio from 6 to 8 p.m.

“You tried things and when they worked you celebrated them and when they didn’t you tried other things. That’s a gift. It’s survival,” Piscopo said. “There’s so many people that just either give up or they get frustrated. So it’s resilience and survival in my case.”

As a comedian spending weekends on the road, Piscopo reveled in the gift of being able to spend time with his then-young children. That family focus continues today with four of his five kids (ages 14 to 40-something) living in New Jersey. By word and example, he hopes to instill these traits in his children—“respect, loyalty, graciousness and most important humility. And just to be so grateful for everything. I’m so blessed with the best kids in the world. They get it, thank goodness gracious.”

During his time in Hollywood, Piscopo had highs and lows but admits to struggling playing the game necessary to sustain that path.

“You have to get up and go, all right, who am I gonna beat now? Who am I gonna schmooze now? And I don’t have that, that’s probably why I never became a big star,” he said. “I’ve seen things happen in Hollywood I couldn’t do in a million years. I'd rather do nothing than have to do some of those things. People sold their souls and more.”

Of course, there’s still a dream project or two—biopics of Jerry Lewis and Frank Sinatra burbling around in his head.

“I want to do a real hard character piece. You look in Jerry’s eyes and you could just see there’s love, there’s pain, there’s irreverence, there’s such a complexity to that character, not unlike Frank Sinatra by the way, where there was so much to these brilliant people like that. So that’s what lures me in— the complexity and the layers of the individual.”

A Higher Purpose

Getting a cancer diagnosis at age 31 was the disruptor in his young life.

“It changed everything. It hits you right between the eyes. I thought I’d be dead by 35,” Piscopo said.

While at first he felt the urge “to do the crazy things” he never did, the realization soon sunk in that that was not a winning strategy.

Cancer is “a real lesson of humility,“ he said. ”Oh, we are all going to die, we’re not here forever. And it just softens you up.”

It’s no small wonder then that whether it’s the Boys & Girls Clubs, Italian American organizations (all four of his grandparents emigrated from Italy), police organizations and veterans service organizations like the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, Piscopo always makes room in his schedule to honor a request for his time and presence.

“I never had lofty goals. So what I’ve done, I’m amazed,” he said. “I’m not finished. … But to be honest, I hear the footsteps as I get older—first and foremost, if I die tomorrow, I [want to know that] I did all that I could do. I look at my mom who just passed away last year at 99. God rest her soul. She was on her deathbed and she said, ‘I don’t want to miss anything.’”

Piscopo’s latest ambition—he’s long toyed with running for governor of New Jersey—may just be his loftiest. He wants to work with President Donald Trump to establish an Inner City Presidential Task Force.

Piscopo’s goal is to bring manufacturing back to America, specifically making generic drugs in places like Paterson and Camden, New Jersey,  St. Louis and Milwaukee—in a one-two punch to create jobs and lower prices. He’s determined to do it.

“I'll tell you since [my mom] passed away I’m just more on fire than ever before. People say ‘Joe you’re crazy, look at your schedule, what are you doing, look at your age, you should be playing golf.’ And I’m going I can’t, my mom.  Watching my mom grasp onto every breath like that really inspired me.”