Comedians of the Comedy’s Best Kept Secret Tour
Dan Frigolette is a stand up comedian and actor who has been seen on Bob and Tom Show, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Show Me A Hero, Younger, Sexy Beasts, ElimiDate, The Following, Wendy Williams Show and the Artie Lange Show.
He is the executive producer of The Apartmentship with Andrew Schulz, Stonehenge Oh Yeah with James Manzello, The Hoboken Comedy Festival, NJFunnyfest, Make Me Laugh Comedy Contest, Comedy’s Best Kept Secret Tour and Porn Stars Are People Podcast.
Gianmarco Soresi is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He recently headlined Carolines on Broadway as part of their Breakout Artist Comedy Series, was featured on SeeSo’s New York’s Funniest, and his hour special Infinite Bris is due for release later this year. He can be seen on Tracy Morgan’s new TBS show The Last O.G., CBS’ Blue Bloods, ABC’s Deception, TruTV’s Hack My Life, Comedy Central and more.
His sketch series Matza Pizza got one of his sketches produced by Funny or Die, his play, Less Than 50%, will receive an Off-Broadway run this summer at 59E59 and he writes for Spoiled NYC.
The Comedy’s Best Kept Secret Tour also welcomes comedian Zach Petrovich, who recently won the Hoboken Comedy Festival, and Albany-born comedian Meghan Patenaude, who’s been featured in the Turnpike Comedy Festival.
Eventgoers can see this team of comedy masterminds at the Albany Funnybone on the Comedy’s Best Kept Secret Tour at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday Nov. 27 at Albany Funny Bone at Crossgates Mall. Tickets are $10 each.
1. You’re from Schenectady. How does being from this area impact your comedy?
Dan: “What’s weird is, the more I travel the world, the more I realize there is a Schenectady everywhere. Everywhere you go people pretend their town is the coolest and then come up with weird fake stereotypes for the next town over. I was raised in Baldwinsville, outside of Syracuse, and we used to make fun of Solvay NY, pretending that people from Solvay “eat cats.”
“My favorite part of Upstate New York is that you can just blame Utica for any problems you have, i.e. ‘I just got divorced, but it’s okay ... she was from Utica!’ Works every time.”
2. Thanksgiving is about family, how does your heritage play into day to day?
Meghan: “People rarely think I’m American, because of my eyebrows, truthfully I’m half Italian and half French, but I just tell people I’m Italian because the French are such snobs, that even the French side of me hates me for not being completely French.”
3. What memories do you have of the holidays from childhood?
Zach: “I’m from Philadelphia, so stereotypes are huge, especially for gay people, like people would say, ‘He’s gay, oh he must watch The View,’ or ‘He’s gay, I bet he’s a tap dancer. He definitely likes musicals,’ but my father is gay, so my stereotypes for gay people were always very specific, like I always thought, ‘Gay people are really good at trimming the turkey, or gay dudes are amazing at tying my shoes.’”
4. Being Italian must be a big part of your life, especially with such a beautiful name, do people often ask about your background?
Gianmarco: “Yeah, funny enough I recently had to introduce my parents to a woman I was dating, and Italians do a lot of hugging and we kiss each other goodbye and stuff, and my girlfriend, who’s not Italian, she saw my dad and I kiss and was like ‘Ew, do you kiss your dad in public?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, you know what would be weird? If I only kissed him in private.’”
5. You’re an actor (We’ve seen you in the GE commercials) and a comedian, how do you balance and prepare for both skills?
Gianmarco: “Well actually, I’m what they refer to in “the biz” as a triple threat: I can act, I can sing, and, I’m annoying. I recently had my network acting debut on CSI, I played Ice T’s waiter, so to prepare for the role, I actually became a waiter, for 12 years.”