Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - We'll Do It Live! — Steve Schirripa

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Actor Steve Schirripa joins Bill O'Reilly to discuss his career, including his time on two extremely popular shows, The Sopranos and Blue Bloods. The duo also discuss Hollywood and growing up in New York. 0:00 — Intro and becoming Steve Schirripa 5:47 — Bouncing and managing a comedy club in Las Vegas 6:42 — Acting, Bill Maher and Richard Belzer 7:39 — The Sopranos 11:29 — Nice guy, dealing with celebs 13:47 — The end of The Sopranos 14:27 — James Gandolfini 17:15 — Blue Bloods 18:07 — Tom Selleck 21:08 — The end of Blue Bloods, WOKE 23:51 — Bill de Blasio 25:51 — Raising girls 30:15 — Charity, April event 34:08 — Getting on The Sopranos 40:35 — Bill and Steve as bouncers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, O'Reilly here with another edition of We'll Do It Live, which I hate because when I was 12 years old, I set it on Inside Edition and it with some F-bombs, and my staff turned on me. They betrayed me. And they forced me to do this show called Will Do It Live. So people could mock me. This is my own staff that I'm paying. Anyway, we've got one of the best guests who I've known for years tonight, Steve Sharippa. You know him. Sopranos, you know, Blue Bloods. He's been in a lot of other programs and fine actor. And we're going to go all over the place, so you're not going to be bored. Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, boy. Yes, sir. Okay, so this is what I don't understand.

So your mother is Jewish and your father's Italian. Yeah. That must have been quite a house. Well, you know, the thing is my mother was raised kind of like by Italians. So she was, she fit right in. You know what I mean? She was cursed in Italian, cooked Italian. So she was like kind of more Italian than she was Jewish, you know.

But I had a whole Jewish side of the family. I had Aunt Ida and Aunt Sylvia and we would go and visit. And my grandmother, my grandmother's made a name, my grandmother's name is Sally Moskowitz. My mother's made a name Lorraine Bernstein. So I knew that whole part of the world. Cross-cultural. Absolutely. It was great.

And I'm very proud to say I'm half-Jewish. Very proud. And working class, right? Men's and Nurse. My father was below working class. He was a small-time wannabe gangster. And did not... He was a bad father.

And we had five kids who grew up on welfare. My mother held us together. And he was a bad guy. He didn't want to work. He was one of these guys. He would love what's going on. on free stuff. You know, he sat on the couch

literally for 30 years. The welfare guy. Well, did your mother know he was a bad guy? Yeah, but I guess she was kind of trapped in. Well, she got five kids. She got five kids. Did the best you can.

You know, I'm the middle kid. Everybody turned out okay, and she held it together, you know. Did you forgive your father in the end? No. You held it against him. I still hold it against him. He's been dead for 20-something years.

That's the Italian. Absolutely. So yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know what? This is the thing, Bill, your dad, right? I'm a dad. The more that I got into being a father, I'm saying, how could you allow this to happen? How could you get the lights shut off? What could the power bill have been in 1965, $17? I mean, how can you allow that? I had two daughters. I have a responsibility. I got to take care of these two. This is what I signed up for. even if something happened with me and a mom, which she's the greatest mom on earth and a wonderful wife to me for 37 years. But these kids, I've got to take care of. But the leap that you make from unstable home, lower working class, lights coming out,

into stardom, celebrity status, that's a pretty big leap. Yeah, you know, look, my mother, you know, badgered that we're going to college, right? So she had that. Drilled it into you. She put that into me, we're going to college. So my one sister went to college and I went to college. I went to John Jay.

I played basketball. Went to John Jay College, my freshman year, 1975. Played there and then transferred to Brooklyn. Took the train from Bensonhurst, all hours of the night to John Jay. I mean, I'm stunned that I did it then. 1975, the city was a disaster. I'm taking the train 1 o'clock in the morning from 59th Street, you know, where it was, you know. Went to Brooklyn, graduated, actually tried out for a team in Israel.

They wanted me to work on a kibbutz. I didn't want to do that. A friend of mine that I grew up with. moved to Vegas, he said, I could get your job. I went out to Vegas. As a greeter, as one as... At first, I started delivering pizza. Yeah? I was delivering pizza, and then I became a bouncer at Paul Iike's Club. But did you have in the back of your mind that you wanted to be a performer?

No, never. Never, never, never dawned on you. Not in the least, but I didn't know, I never knew what I wanted to do. I just knew to look people in the eye, be a lot. honest, shake their hand. That is my father. Well, you have a good person now. But my father didn't instill it in me. I always knew a lot of people like playing basketball. I played in the guard in my senior year. I always was around a lot of people. I had a lot of friends always, you know, played basketball all over the city, the worst neighborhoods, the best neighborhoods. That was my thing. That's what I was passionate about. Right. You know, when you try, this is my opinion.

You know, like when you try, like they go, yeah, I want you to meet this guy. He can help you. That guy, that's not my bag ever. I've never met someone for that reason or went to lunch with them or maybe this guy could advance me. Never. If I liked you, I liked you if I didn't. There's a guy. He was from Israel.

He used to come into the club. I was a bouncer. And he was lonely. He moved there. He was working at the Riviera Hotel. And I'd buy him a drink. His family was there. He was there by himself.

He worked the front desk in the hotel. Long story short, six months later, the guy becomes the vice president. Of the hotel. Of the hotel. And he calls me up. He said, we're opening up this comedy club. He said, I want you to have the job.

So I go in, I interview for everybody. I get the job. So you manage the comedy club? Imagine the comedy club. That's where I started. It was an improv. Right. Then I took over, there was a topless show,

and then there was a female impersonator show, so I was running it, making a lot of money, a lot of tips. Those are the days you could still, you know, I wore a tuxedo, you still had to pay, you're only on to get a good seat. And that's where I started acting. Of course, I was working with a lot of comics.

Bill Maher. Were you the MC? No, no. I just was seeing people in the back of the room, but they would say, hey, you know what, I'm doing this little short film. You know, why don't you come and do this? this. Kevin Pollock, he said, come on, do HBO special. I played a bouncer in his thing,

and it was just fun to me. It was fun. I had no, I never read a script, never did anything, flew myself to L.A. I had a ball. Literally a cliche, I got literally high from doing it. So it was meant to be. You didn't, you didn't seek it. It wasn't on your mind. You're a basketball player from Brooklyn. You ride that train. Then you go to VALTH. You go to VAL. Vegas, you write that train, then you start to get little rolls in L.A. And you wind up in two of the biggest monster hits in modern television. So let's zero in on the Sopranos, which you are still making money from. Oh, yeah.

You're going out all over the world. You were just in England, and it couldn't get enough for you over there. It was crazy. We did 14 cities. 14 shows in 10 cities, started in Belfast, Noddingham. Birmingham, London, Edinburgh. I mean, we went through the whole thing. Me and Michael O'Reilly. We have a comic with us on stage. Christopher.

27,000 tickets. Unbelievable. Telling stories, funny behind-the-scenes stories, all positive. We'll get to that in a minute. But Gandalfini and Tom Selleck were the two titans that these shows revolved around, okay? Both very interesting personalities. I know Selik a little bit. I never met Gandalfini. Now, when you went on the set to play a low-level gangster, New Jersey gangster, all right, there's Gandalfini, who already had established himself as one of the great actors in the country.

Okay. How did he behave on the show? Complete Pearl. Always trying to help you. My first scene is with him. Stevie Van Zand Fini Pestore, Big Pussy Paulie Walness, Tony Sirico.

That's my first scene. I didn't know anyone. A lot of these guys knew each other. I came in the second season at the beginning of the second season. I knew no one. Said hello? Did the scene? Jim is trying to help me.

I'm supposed to be intimidated, scared. He's helping me. I was green. I had work. Don't get me wrong. I had done, you know, bunch of stuff, but, you know, this is a different level. Boom, you know, I did a few movies, and he's trying to help me.

He's yelling at me, he's screaming at me. He's trying to get me where I need to be. Once I do that, the scene's over. I'm one of the guys, you know, he's just trying to help. At one point he said, come on, me, him, Dominic Key, and Azee, Uncle Junior, come to my trailer, let's go over the lines, let's run lines. It's almost an out-of-body experience. I'm going myself, how the hell did I?

get here. I'm watching these guys on TV a week ago. Now I'm here with the three of them. And they're all very eccentric characters. Absolutely, but good guys. Jim was always a pro. People say, did you guys have fun on the set? Yeah, we had fun. It was all business. He was working 16 hours a day, five days a week. Listen, a great guy, not without problems. I mean, that's common knowledge, but not on the set, never when he was working. You saw none. There was none of that. Was he the leader of the gang? Absolutely. Okay. So you can't come in and, you know, it was a good vibe. It really was like a family. We were close, very respectful. Nobody could come in and be disrespectful to one another. That wasn't flying either. All right. So Gandafini was kind of like the chief of police.

Yeah, if you want to use a bad. I mean, you know, but but kind of by example, you know, I mean, he was the guy. But it was such an intense program. Do you guys have any laughs off cover? No, no, absolutely. We went out constantly. I mean, we enjoyed every moment. I mean, those guys with Michael, Jim, were in their late 30s. I was my early 40s.

We went out. We were like playing for the Yankees. Where do you go in Jersey? No, here. Oh, in New York. Yeah, we all lived in Tribeca. Ah, so you're running around. All over.

But you guys were big stars then because that show took off fast. Hey, sometimes you're walking to a restaurant. They give you a standing ovation. Yeah. Even to this day, people don't know, but I know Sharipa from the Knicks, because we were both sports fans. And you're one of the nicest guys. Thank you.

All the fans, always treat them respectfully, you know, smile on your face, eye contact. And some of those celebrities, they're not, you know what I'm talking about here. Yeah, but why? Because they can't be bothered with the little people. But this is the thing. My good fortune, right? I mean, why should I, I'm a nicer guy now than I was probably when I was younger. I mean, I've been very lucky.

I mean, don't, let's not get ourselves. There's luck involved, right time, right place. You know that. Yep. I mean, your success, right time, right place. Somebody gives you a break. You take advantage of it, et cetera, et cetera. Don't get, don't get me wrong.

There's a lot of hard work. But why should I, if 99% of the fans are nice, Why should I be... Because you're not screwed up like a lot of these other people are. I guess so. You know them. You know how crazy they can be.

I hang out with very few... I know a lot of actors, a lot of celebrities, a lot of sports guys. I don't... I hang out with my wife, my kids, people I grew up with. Those are my friends. Right.

It's like your father. They self-absorbed these people. And then, you know, fans are an annoyance to them. Whereas you appreciate the fans because they made you who you are. I mean, I walked down the block. I say a lot of everybody.

I mean, I walk all over. And everybody in New York knows you. Sure. You know, when Sharip and I are together, it's hysterical in the garden. People are screaming or they like you. They don't like me, but... Well, you're in a quiet taste. Yeah, I know, I am.

It takes a long... Half the crowd likes you. That's true. So the show the Zopranos are so intense. The plot lines... what Chase was trying to do, getting across what the mentality of this crew is, this criminal crew, that's what the show is all about. It's going to show you Carmela and the different people.

And the skill level of the acting, they were all perfect. Couldn't have been better cash. Could not have been better cash. Okay. So at the end of the show, the run of the show, did it wear you guys down? were you going, oh my God, you know, how long can we peep this up? It's so intense. I don't think so. I think every single person would have continued to do that show. Jim was getting burnt out and David. And when David Chase came to us and said, this is going to be the last season, nobody, everyone said,

everyone said, okay, that's fine. I mean, whatever you want, you took us here, you're the boss. I mean, Jim did most of the heavy lifting. Sure. He was a plotline guy. And Gandal Finney died a short time later. Well, no. The show ended in 2007. Jim died in 2013.

Okay. That's not a long period of time for men that age. And he died in kind of mysterious circumstances. No? No. He took his son to Italy, and he died of a heart attack. I mean, there was no... Were you surprised?

Was I surprised? Well, I tell you what, I got a call from our attorney. We all had the same business manager, attorney. And I was at Yankee Stadium with Mitch Moldell and Tommy LaSauder, you know, before the game. And I got a call. And he said, by yourself. And I said, I'm at the game. And he said, Jim passed away.

And I was stunned. My legs came out from under me. I said, are you sure? It's not one of these hopes. Yeah. I was surprised. And he said, no. And then I said I had to leave.

I mean, I was shaken, seriously. And I was going down to the West Side Highway. My phone was blowing up. CBS, NBC, blah, blah, blah, blah. I wasn't talking to anyone. You know, Michael called me and Michael Piroli, some of the producers of the show. But it wasn't mysterious.

I mean, he was there with his son. It was, you know, when Jim, when the show ended in 2007, him and David Chase did not speak for two or three years. They respected each other, but... Personality? Towards the end, started buttonheads. Yeah. Okay? What was the main problem there? I think Jim a little bit thought they were taking some of the storylines from his personal life a little bit. And I think he was just burnt out as far as 16 hours a day. Yes, he made a lot of money, but you really have no life. Because, you know, you're going to work on a Monday at 6 in the morning,

and then you finish up Friday night at 3 a.m. And you really have no life. Gandalfi was a guy like you who didn't chase fame. No, no. He didn't chase it. I mean, he was like a Birkenstock wearing guy. Yeah. He was just very talented.

Big music guy, Green Day guy, started late acting also in his 30s, a family guy, a Jersey guy, you know. He wasn't a mobby. He didn't grow up like in Benson, I was like I did. Right. He grew up, you know. But he knew. He knew the rhythms. He knew.

And, you know, sometimes he would say, hey, before the season, he would call and say, let's go down a little Italy. Let's have dinner. I've got to start getting back into that world. So then you segue. into Blue Bloods, which is all different thing because it's a network show. A guy named Kevin Wade was the runner. He picks you up, contrasts you to Bridget Moynihan, Beauty and the Beast, or whatever you want to call it.

But it was a brilliant move. Yeah. Okay. And so now you're in a tighter structure with CBS, right? It's not like the Sopranos. There's a big difference in production, right? Yeah, well, because the Sopranos was shot like a movie. Don't forget, it was an hour with no commercials.

A network TV show. 44 minutes. 42 maybe. Yeah. You know? So it's a whole different thing. But the writing was great. What I enjoyed a lot about Blue Bloods, everyone got along wonderfully.

Great cast. Really nice people. But the guy that everything centered around, like Gandalfini, was Tom Selleck. Well, listen, iconic TV character. I mean, there's a star, Tom, right? Right. A star, a star, a star is Magnum. Did a lot of good movies, too.

But this is my question. So Gandalfini, when he starts, the Sopranos, wasn't mega. Tom Selleck, his private jet guy, here I am. Yeah. That's who he is. I know him a little bit. He must punch me one time. Yeah, I was giving him jazz about guns.

You didn't want to talk about it. But, you know, me. So anyway, so now this huge star comes in and everybody revolves around him just like the Sopranos. That is the linkage between the two shows. This is the difference somewhat. Now, I came on in season six, so they already had shot, right? I did 146 episodes.

I came in for one, maybe two, and then I stuck around, right? Tom, at the beginning, I don't know if there was private planes and all that at the beginning. But he, this is the difference. On the Sopranos, you had no input. What was on that page, you better say. End of story. Right. David Chase wrote it.

You better be word perfect. Word perfect. Now, I could ask a question and say, wait a minute. Well, when Bobby does this. sure, but if I say, well, you know what, I don't want to say this line and I don't want to see that line, you better say the line, but you're not around for the next thing. You get whacked. Thousand percent. Right. For real. Right. Right. Okay. So there was none of that. You did not have that input. It's like a play. Tom had a lot of input. You bet he did. Tom had a lot of input.

Tom and knows what he's doing. Guys, an actor for 15. years. But he's a traditional guy. He brought that in. Absolutely. And that's what catapulted the show. And he's a common sense guy. Right. He's not some kind of flaky. No. And he knows and he'll come in and they'll say, well, the light there and why are we sure. And he'll question. And he knows what he's talking about. But if he wants it, he gets it. Well, of course. He's a star in the job. He's a star in the show. Now, that was a big difference. Jim read the script. and he did it like the rest of us. I said he read the script.

It's so like had power. Tom would give his opinion to the writers, and the writers would do it we pretty much wanted to do. You know, and it worked. Yeah, of course it worked. Listen, when the show ended, it was, what, 6 million people plus three or whatever? Number one, prime time CBS show. For years.

And they whacked it, to use a soprano's word, because they don't want to pay you guys. Well, I guess it was to pay, and I guess it was, I think they were going in a different direction. It's very diverse. They were too woke. They didn't like the tradition that you guys were.

I know there was questions at times about the prayer. You know, a lot of people didn't like them saying you prayer. I know Wade. Yeah, I know him. I know what he went through. Yeah, I know. The bosses at CBS are all left-wingers or were, and now skydances in there.

And then what they turned it into, Boston Blue is as woke as you can get. You couldn't get more woke than that. Yeah, I've never seen it. Listen, I wish Donnie the best because I happen to like Donnie Wahlberg. But it's a hit show. People loved the dinner scene.

That was a big deal. I remember I went once to the dinner scene. I was invited. I was very proud of that moment, mostly. Right. I mean, I got to sit next to Tom. You were one of the cool kids. Right?

Now, they didn't like the prayer. Why didn't like the prayer? That's what people liked about it. They liked the prayer. They liked the family coming over at dinner. They liked them arguing. They liked them sticking up for each other. They liked all that.

So why are you trying to change all that? This is what people liked. So you're shoving something down there through. But they couldn't change it because Selik wouldn't change it. That's right. That's what they ran into. But it was money that. that made the final decision.

But I always think. You know that more than me. Yeah, I don't know. Because I know it wasn't the quality of the show. Oh, no. By any means. Right. The writing was wonderful.

Chavon. But can you imagine today if Blue Bloods are still on the air and you got a communist mayor in New York City, Mamdani. Yeah. Slash it up against Selik. But then again, I know it's a communist, but we got through the Blasio. Who was so far the worst mayor in the history of the city? David Dinkins thinks he's a bad man.

You know, Mondani were yet to find that out, which I'm sure that's the way that's going. But de Blasio was terrible for the city. And you wrote it into storylines. Terrible for the city. Not Chase. Wade made sure that the writers got that tension in between the liberal mayor and Seleck. Absolutely. And those things work like crazy.

You know, I don't understand the thing with, I don't want to talk, Paul's because I don't know that much about it. No, go ahead. But I just, the thing with de Blasio, he did it almost immediately. He destroyed the city. It was like him and his wife were just waiting in the wings. He wins. Bloomberg's out and things go to shit right almost immediately. Because they don't see it that way.

But what do they see? They see. They're enlightened and they're empowering people who are getting screwed. That's the don't enforce the law philosophy. Yeah, but that's what I'm trying to say. I mean, do they want it dangerous out there? For me, the biggest thing, Bill, anywhere is the safety of the citizens, that you can go out because it all trickles down. Right.

And your family. That's right. I worry about my daughter. My two daughters live here in the city. Yeah. Okay? But my point is, everything works. If it's safe, people go to restaurants, people go to concerts, people do this, people that.

A lot of people don't want to go out after a certain time because they're afraid. Look, traditional New Yorkers. So what they want people to get hit over the head? Traditional New Yorkers like you and me, born, raised, know the rhythms of the city. Because we know it. We know Yankees. We know Mets. We know Nicks.

We know restaurants. We know everything. Okay, the traditions that made this city strong are considered racist by the far left progressives. So the Blasio comes in and goes, no, all of the traditions that we had, holding people accountable, if you get smacked in a face, you go to jail, somebody. No, that's racist, okay? That's the way they think. And then if they get power, then you have anarchy. And that's what we're looking at it.

I don't know. I'm a common sense guy. You do something wrong, you get in trouble for it. And Blue Bloods was a common sense show. It was a great show. Listen, there's nothing better than shooting on the streets in New York City. Now, you wrote a book about raising girls. Yeah.

So I didn't know that. I'm going to now read the book, of course. Big Daddy's Rules. Raising daughters is tougher than I look. Okay. What was the big thing that you learned raising the girls? common sense, got to stay close to them, got to know what they're doing. But they're emotional all the time.

Yeah, but then you know what? I'm going to tell you something. Not with mine. My daughters, we never had that big problem being my wife. You know, we never had that problem where the daughter disappears and they go, you know, people say, oh, they'll be back when they're 18 and all that. We never had that. My daughters, to this day, want to go on vacation with us.

And they're both married now. So now I got, you know. We got the whole group, right? Right. But honestly, we stayed close. We knew who their friends were. They played sports, big sports, softball and soccer and gymnastics. And, you know, we had them try, you know, all the things, something stick.

No pressure on them if they were good. We just wanted them to be good people. Good people and happy. Just be a good person. And I felt everything, and my wife felt. everything will fall into place. How did they handle your celebrity? They could care less.

They're very proud of me. To this day? They're very proud of me. They could care less. Really? And I'm very happy about that. Did you all? They're not affected by any of that stuff.

I take them to the Nick games. They love going to the game because they like to go to the game. Honestly, not affected by that. They never bugged me. You know, could I, this or do that? None of that stuff. Did you take them? To the sets, did they?

You know what? I took them to the Secret Life set because they were teenagers. Right, Shailene, sure. You know, a couple times. Sopranos sets a couple times, though they knew, you know, we were close, so we... Socialized. Socialized a lot. Right.

You know, look, you're together 10 years. Divorces, married, kids, you know, stuff like that. So they knew Jim and everybody. They came to, I think Blue Blas maybe once. My wife's not that person to hang around, like some wives, you know, hangs around the sad. My wife's, my wife's, she ran 13, she's going to be 63 in a couple of weeks. My wife, Laura, she just finished her 13th New York Marathon.

And 37 years, you remember her, you said? 37 years. We're together 40 years. She a Brooklyn girl? No, Las Vegas, I met her. She's a Vegas girl. Wow. Wow. Las Vegas, UNLV.

You know, so, no, they're not affected by that. You know, because we didn't allow that either, but they're not affected by, you know, as a matter of fact, my daughter's working, she didn't want anyone to know who, yeah, who her father is. My last name, who her father was, you know. Mine don't have any choice. Yeah, but you know what I mean.

Yeah, oh, I know. And I, so it wasn't that like, you know, like spoiled like that. It wasn't that at all. You know, they grew up in Battery Park City. That's where we live. They went to Poly Prep in Brooklyn. You know. Normal.

Normal. Keep it as normal as you can keep it. Very normal. Now, they both got the jobs on their own. I had none to do with anything. Now, when people yell out your character name when they see you, because everybody recognizes you. Don't bother me.

Doesn't bother me? Don't bother me. Don't bother me. Don't bother me. Don't bother me. No? No. Because what, I tell you what, if they say Steve,

That's, I question that. Who's that? Do I know that guy? No, listen, they call me Anthony from Blue Bruns. They can't pronounce the last name of the detective. No, they say Anthony or Bobby, especially the younger kids. Bobby, Bacola, it really doesn't bother me. Right.

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Use code Bill 10 in order to get 10% off your order. Now, people don't know as you're a very generous guy. I do a lot of charity work and you've got something coming up that I want to mention at Radio City, April 13th. Garden of Laf's charity and it helps younger people who get into circumstances beyond their control. Is that correct?

No, some of it, no. Some are just you know, some of them are disabled, some are just learning disabled, some are just come from poor families. And it's the Garden of Dreams Foundation, Madison Square Garden. Let me tell you about Jim Dolan, who I'm sure you know, Jim. Jim does a lot of good stuff

and a lot of people give him heat, and it's wrong. He spends so much money, puts up so much money. We've raised over the years, just as Gardner Left's $8.5 million, Gardner Lefts. We've done it. This is our fifth time, I believe. I've hosted it every time.

It's the first time at Radio City. We did it in the theater before. Comics, no one gets paid a dime. It's all volunteer. Jim puts up a lot of money, and obviously donates the radio city and the venue and does a lot of great stuff. It's a wonderful night.

We've got six or seven great comics on the bill, and every dime goes where it's supposed to go. I'm very proud of this. You know, it's a very proud that they asked me to do it. I come out, I do a few minutes. You have these great comics. We have a lot of celebrities presenting, you know, introducing the comics, athletes, hockey guys,

Ranger guys, Nick guys, you know, C.C. Sabathia did it one year and all kinds of people. So it's a... The money goes, though. How does the money goes in the tri-state area, right? And so it goes to kids that kind of like a, not make a wish, but on that order. Some of the kids' dreams come true. They also do a talent show. It's, you know, it's not troubled kids. It's kids that having a tough time growing up, like I would have. this would have been great for a kid like me. And how do the kids connect with the charity?

To different organizations, feeding organizations, and they decide who gets the money, you know, the garden of dreams, bored, and, you know. Right, right. Because it's hard being a kid these days with the electronics and all that. You can lose your way. It's terrible.

But I tell you what, they have a prom for these kids. You know, some of these kids can't afford prom dresses and can't afford to go to the prom, they have a whole thing. They pick their dress out. It really is wonderful. The Radio City, we started out. I remember I went to the first few years, Bill.

200 people, 100 people. They fill up Radio City now. They've got 5,000. It's incredible. And so many celebrities have, you know, donated their time, you know, time and time again, you know. And I've been involved for years. And then this guard in the left is like an offset of that.

Last year, I think we raised $2.5 million in 2024 was the last time we did this. Almost everybody I know, and I know a lot of people in show business, likes you. Oh, thank you. I wouldn't say it wasn't true. They like you, all right? And, you know, that's not real universal. No, well, listen, I am. Listen, what you see is what you get.

But is it important to you that other people like you? It just depends. I don't care if some people don't like me. I mean, I am who I am. I mean, if you don't like what I do, and there's a lot of jealousy, you know that. Oh, yeah. Every day I come on TV and they say,

oh, that guy sucks. I could do better than him. I've been an actor for 50 years, and I got three roles, or blah, blah, blah. Why did he get it? And I didn't. Very tough business. You know that. You know that, right?

And I understand that. Like I said, I am a believer. I've worked extremely hard. But I came to New York for a wedding. I was working as the entertainment director. I was an executive. I worked my way up at the Riviera. I was an executive.

I came here for a wedding. I had been dabbling in the acting, an agent friend of mine. I said, could you get me to audition for that show to Sopranos? I had seen an episode or two. I read for the role of an FBI agent. He got me to audition. I went, it was George Ann Walker, Christopher Walken's wife. She said, I don't see you as an FBI agent.

Read this, we have someone in mine. I read it. She said, if I get you in front of David, would you come back? saying to myself, who the hell is David? I have no idea what you're even talking about. I just figured I'd grab a couple lines. It would be fun. Right. You know, no thought of, I'll make a living. I can get on this show. I can do this. I'm going to move back to New York. I had a big house on an acre of land, big job. You're doing well in Vegas. I'm fine. I know everybody in their mother in Vegas. I get anything

I want at any time. Free buffet. Anything. Right. She's palace, Sinatra. But it was meant to be. Right? So I come here and work hard. I move my family back. It was very hard to pay my own way the first year. Costs me $24,000. I made $22,000.

The agent had told me not to take the job. I had to get rid of that guy. Right? So that's my point is, if you don't like what I do, I'm not a purist, I'm not, you know. You're not needy. Listen, I'm very confident of myself. So I've come this far.

I'm 68 years old. You know, I only do things now that I like. And I'm knock on wood. I've done fine. I'm okay. The most important thing is you've got nice kids. I've got nice kids. They married two nice guys.

My wife is wonderful. You're a 10% are in Hollywood. 90% don't have that. Yeah. I just was talking a friend of mine on the way here, a character actor. You know him if you've seen him. Well, tell me who he is.

No, no. Good guy. guy. And he's been in a million things. And he's unhappy. He hasn't been working. The last years have been, you know, he's 75, 6. And then he got a job. He's like a recovery character. And I said, you know, you put too much, I said, you know, you put too much into your life is happy or not happy by getting a role. I said, you got money. You're fine. What, what did you, you, You've been depressed for two years because things are slowed down, which are just natural. Not everybody stays here.

The tie goes in, the tie goes out. I said everything, your mood, everything revolves around if you're working, I mean, you know, it shouldn't be that way. You're more than just to have. Did you convince him? No, of course. Because he wants to be that way. Of course. He wants to be more rows.

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888-300-8035. Don't wait for the IRS to make the first move. When they do, it's already too late. Americataxgroup.com, Americataxgroup.com. Now I'm going to tell you a story that coincides with you. So you're a bouncer in 1975, okay, in Vegas. No, no, no, no, 1980.

1980, okay. So in 1972, I'm a bouncer at the rec bar in Miami. The Castaways Hotel, mobbed up place, okay? Hottest place to steal a line from Barry Manilow north of Nevada, okay? This is crazy. Now, the reason they wanted me, I know why they wanted you to be a bouncer. But I don't look like a bouncer, even though I was a college football player. I was about 15 pounds heavier than.

They wanted guys to stand on the floor who look, you had to wear a jacket and a tie. They wanted to class it up. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I was a teacher. a high school teacher. But I wasn't making enough money to have food. And food is important.

Yeah, I would say. Right. So I had to work on Saturday and Friday nights at this rec bar as a bouncer. But I told the guy, Bernie, I said, look, if somebody gets out of control in here, don't expect me to mess up this face. I'm not doing it. Okay. So you have to have other guys that I can, like,

like the bullpen, send in the right hand guy with the Glock to take care of this guy. You'll see me because I'm tall. That's funny. Okay. So my job at the end of the evening and all the bars close at when I am in Miami back at that time was to walk the go-go girls to their car. Remember the go-go-girl? White boots and they had the cage. They had them in the cage?

Okay. Which I did. Sounds wonderful to me, Bill. But I was very polite because I felt most of them had kids and they had, you know, they had rough lives. So about four years ago, a colleague of mine, Bernie Goldberg, you may know him, TV guy. He calls me up and he says, do you know Penelope somebody? Now, this happens to me all the time. Sure it happens to you.

And we don't know. Yeah, no. I say, well, if I see him. Right, I know the face. But I've never rude about it. No, no. You're always respected. Yeah, I probably know.

So I said, Bernie, the name doesn't really conjure up anything. He goes, well, she knows you. And I go, oh. And she was a go-go dancer at the rec bar. And she said, you were the nicest bouncer they have ever had there. People remember. I bet you went to Vegas now.

They'd all forget about the Sopranos and Blue Blitz. They remember. Oh, sure. They're still around out there. Right. You know, there's still, listen, Vegas at the time, that was just a wonderful time. The Rat Pack? And I got to see Sinatra about 20-something times.

Right, Elvis. Yeah, that was before my time. Elvis was before my time. I would have loved to see it before my time. All right. I would have loved to see Elvis. But Sinatra, I met numerous times. And he was respectful to you, all right?

Oh, he was great. Yeah. It was great to me. I got a great picture. That's the one person I had to have a picture. I have a great picture. wife took it and she was young and she took the picture we weren't even married yet she took the picture we went we invited to a party it's uh jerry veil was there right a Jerry Vale

Corbett monica uh some other guys who asked for in the past it was jilly rizzo who was a friend of mine and his son uh i lived with his son for a while there and they invited us about 25 people started at 2 in the morning. I called my wife Laura. She was in bed. I said, Sinatra's coming. Come on, get dressed. Got out of bed.

Comes down. We're there until 4.30 in the morning. He's drunk. And he's wearing a member's only jacket. And it says Frank. Frank. Like, you know, like, right? We know.

We know. Yeah, we know. We know. He's yelling. Don Rickles is there. He's yelling at Rickles. Rickles is up there and he's going, you know.

And it's like a little like, wow, at the end, I said, I got to get this picture. Sure. The end, take the picture. They were like, oh, how dare you ask. And it's Jilly, his son, Willie, Frank, and me. And then my wife, who was 21 at the time, she said, hold on, Frank. I want to get one, just like that. And he went, come here, sweetheart.

We got the greatest picture. And it's on the wall, I bet. On the wall, absolutely. Right, with all the Knicks. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, just hang tough for a minute. So that was a very entertaining chat, and I want to thank you very much.

You're a good guy. I know Sharipa, off camera a little bit from the Knicks and the Yankees and all that, and he's a genuine guy. Now, we're going to have more for you premium and concierge members in the killing time segment. All right. So that begins now.