Hollywood and Horsepower Show, September 3, 2026

Hollywood And Horsepower Show with Mark Otto Frank Santorelli: From Boston Comedy Clubs to The Sopranos and Beyond Summary From Class Clown to the Comedy Stage Frank Santorelli describes an early instinct for making people laugh, beginning with childhood impressions and class-clown behavior before his first organized performance as a guard in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. He says his professional stand-up path began around 1981 after he was living in New York City and studying acting with ambitions of becoming a dramatic actor. A friend encouraged him to try an open mic in Cleveland, where he won repeatedly and was soon placed into regular comedy shows. Santorelli recalls narrowly missing Drew Carey at the Cleveland club and then expanding into venues in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and other cities. He moved to Boston in 1985 as the city's comedy scene was booming with clubs, colleges, and one-night engagements. The discussion emphasizes how many nights a week young comics worked and how little money they often made while trying to establish themselves. The Competitive Craft of Stand-Up Comedy Santorelli and Marc Otto discuss the difficult progression from opener to middle act to headliner and the amount of material required to close a show successfully. Santorelli explains that he needed roughly forty-five minutes of strong material before he could become a reliable headliner and that comics at every level were trying to outperform the act ahead of them. They describe Boston as a working comedy market rather than merely a showcase city, which meant comedians had to deliver for paying audiences night after night. Otto brings up the importance of clean, durable material and the amount of writing that goes into apparently effortless stand-up. Santorelli says he still develops material by noticing what strikes him as funny and writing it down so it can be shaped later. Both men also reflect on how the collaborative camaraderie of earlier comedy scenes has become less common as performers increasingly work as independent operators. Breaking Into Acting and Building a Screen Career Santorelli explains that professional acting opportunities began to arrive after managers and agents saw him performing stand-up in New York. Early work included a commercial for the Omni Biltmore in Providence, a television role on Providence, and an early film he remembers as Crooked Lines. He says he continued doing stand-up while acting because television and film jobs paid more but were unpredictable and separated by long gaps. The scheduling could also be difficult because actors might be called to a set before dawn and then wait many hours before their scenes were shot. Santorelli describes balancing the financial reliability of live comedy with the opportunity and higher pay of screen work. The conversation later touches on Meet the Parents, where he says he worked in a scene with Ben Stiller and met Robert De Niro on set. He characterizes De Niro as highly professional and businesslike while emphasizing that he avoided asking working stars for photographs or selfies. Becoming Georgie on The Sopranos Santorelli recounts auditioning for what was then an unknown project called The Sopranos after being told the production needed a bouncer-type character. He describes reading for casting director Georgianne Walken and performing the repeated "hello" phone bit that became associated with his character, Georgie. Although he was hired as a one-day player, Santorelli says David Chase ordered elaborate tattoos for him and encouraged the physical business and background activity he improvised around the club set. Santorelli built Georgie by constantly cleaning, moving, kibitzing, and adding silent reactions, and he realized the production might bring him back when Chase insisted that the makeup department photograph the tattoos for continuity. He says the one-day job eventually became thirteen episodes without a long-term contract, with the production simply calling him back as needed. He also describes the large cast read-throughs, the hierarchy around the table, the early Radio City Music Hall screening, and the excitement of realizing the new series might become something extraordinary. James Gandolfini, Ensemble Chemistry, and Celebrity Encounters Santorelli remembers James Gandolfini as serious, hardworking, pressured, and personally very different from Tony Soprano. He emphasizes the enormous emotional and dialogue burden Gandolfini carried because so much of the series revolved around his character. Otto and Santorelli discuss how The Sopranos blended crime drama, family conflict, humor, and multiple overlapping story lines in a way that helped make the series compelling. Santorelli says most of the cast did not even know he was also a stand-up comedian, and he recalls Michael Imperioli reacting with surprise when the subject came up. The conversation expands into stories about Robert De Niro, Don Rickles, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Foster Brooks, Joe Piscopo, Tom Selleck, and other performers whose professional habits or comic instincts made an impression. Santorelli and Otto repeatedly return to the idea that performers such as Rickles could improvise fearlessly because they had an unusual command of timing, character, and the room. Still Working, Still Auditioning, and Still Writing Santorelli says he remains active in stand-up comedy and continues to work multiple dates in a week. He explains that his method for developing material is simple but disciplined: recognize what is genuinely funny to him, write it down, remember it, and test or refine it. He and Otto discuss advice from comedians such as Jay Leno and the unforgiving instant feedback of a live audience, where a joke either produces a laugh or it does not. Santorelli also says he continues auditioning for television, mentioning Dexter: Resurrection and Tulsa King as recent opportunities for which he came close to being cast. He does not believe his Sopranos identity prevents him from being considered for new roles because casting is often driven by whether an actor visually and dramatically fits the part in front of them. The episode closes with Santorelli directing listeners to Facebook for updates, followed by Otto's acknowledgments of Old Friends Equine and No Fallen Heroes and his appeal for listeners to support the organizations if they can.