O'REILLY 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 said it on Inside Edition, and it was some F-bombs, and my staff turned on me. They betrayed me and they forced me to do this show called We'll 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 Schirripa, you know him. Sopranos, you know, Blue Bloods, he's been in a lot of other programs, a fine actor, and we're going to go all over the place, so you're not going to be bored. Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, boy.
SCHIRRIPA Yes, sir.
O'REILLY Okay, so this is what I don't understand. So your mother is Jewish and your father is Italian.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah.
O'REILLY That must have been quite a house.
SCHIRRIPA 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, uh, Aunt Ida and Aunt Sylvia, and we would go and visit and, and my grandmother, my grandmother's maiden name, my grandmother's name is Sally Moskowitz. My mother's maiden name, Lorraine Bernstein. So I knew that whole part of the world.
O'REILLY Cross-cultural.
SCHIRRIPA Absolutely, it was great. And I'm very proud to say I'm half Jewish, very proud.
O'REILLY And working class, right? Bensonhurst?
SCHIRRIPA 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 now, free stuff. You know, he sat on the couch literally for 30 years.
O'REILLY The welfare guy. Now, did your mother know he was a bad guy?
SCHIRRIPA Yeah. But I guess she was kind of trapped in...
O'REILLY Well, she got five kids.
She's got five kids, did the best she can, you know. I'm the middle kid. Everybody turned out okay, and she held it together, you know.
O'REILLY Did you forgive your father in the end?
SCHIRRIPA No.
O'REILLY You held it against him.
SCHIRRIPA I still hold it against him. He's been dead for 20-something years.
O'REILLY That's the Italian.
SCHIRRIPA Absolutely. So yeah, yeah, no. And you know what? This is the thing, Bill. You're a 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've got to take care of these two. This is what I signed up for, even if something happened with me and her mom, which she's the greatest mom on earth and a wonderful wife to me for 37 years, but these kids I've gotta take care of.
O'REILLY 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.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, you know, look, my, my mother, you know, badgered that we're going to college, right? So she had that...
O'REILLY Drilled it into you.
SCHIRRIPA She put that into me, we were 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 J. I mean, I'm stunned that I did it then. 1975, the city was a disaster. I'm taking the train at one o'clock in the morning, you know, from 59th Street, 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, he moved to Vegas. He said, I can get you a job. I went out to Vegas,
O'REILLY As a greeter, as one of the...
SCHIRRIPA At first, I started to deliver a pizza.
O'REILLY Yeah.
SCHIRRIPA I was delivering a pizza and then I became a bouncer at Paul Ica's club.
O'REILLY But did you have in the back of your mind that you wanted to be a performer?
SCHIRRIPA No, never, never, ever.
It never dawned on you?
Not in the least bit. I didn't know. I never knew what I wanted to do. I just knew to look people in the eye, be honest, shake their hand. That is my father, 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 and 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,.
O'REILLY Right.
SCHIRRIPA You know, when you try... This is my opinion, you know, like when you're trying, they go, Yeah, I want you to meet this guy. He could help you that guy, that's 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.
O'REILLY Yeah.
SCHIRRIPA Never. If I liked you, I liked you. If I didn't... There was a guy, he was from Israel. He used to come into the club, I was a bouncer at, 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 vice president.
O'REILLY Of the hotel.
SCHIRRIPA Of the hotel, 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.
O'REILLY So, you managed the comedy club.
SCHIRRIPA Managed the Comedy Club, that's where I started, it was an improv. Then I took over, there was a topless show, and then there was 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 had to get a good seat. And that's when I started acting. Of course, I was working with a lot of comics. Bill Maher, Richard Belzer.
Were you the MC?
No, no, I just was seating people in the back of the room, they would say, Hey, you know what? I'm doing this little short film, you know, why don't you come and do this? Kevin Pollock, he said come on do an 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, I flew myself to LA, I have a ball. Literally a cliché, I got literally high from doing it.
O'REILLY So it was meant to be. 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 Vegas, you write that train, then you start to get little roles in LA, 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.
SCHIRRIPA Oh yeah.
O'REILLY You're going out all over the world. You were just in England, and they couldn't get enough of you over there.
SCHIRRIPA It was crazy, we did 14 cities, 14 shows in 10 cities, started in Belfast, Nottingham, Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, I mean, we went through the whole thing, me and Michael Imperioli, we have a comic with us on stage, sold 27,000 tickets.
O'REILLY Unbelievable.
SCHIRRIPA Telling stories, funny behind-the-scenes stories, all the positive...
O'REILLY We'll get to that in a minute, but Gandolfini and Tom Selleck were the two titans that these shows revolved around, okay? Both very interesting personalities. I know Selleck a little bit. I never met Gandolfine. Now when you went on the set to play a low-level gangster, New Jersey gangster, alright, there's Gandolfini, who already had established himself as one of the great actors in the country, okay? How did he behave on the show?
SCHIRRIPA Complete Pearl, always, always trying to help you. My first scene is with him, Stevie Van Zant, Vinnie Pastore, Big Pussy, Paulie Walness, Tony Sirico. That's my first scene, I didn't know anyone. A lot of these guys knew each other.
O'REILLY Yeah, sure.
SCHIRRIPA I came in the second season, the beginning of the second. I knew no one. Said hello, did the scene, Jim's trying to helped me. I'm supposed to be intimidated, scared. He's helping me. I was green. I had work, don't get me wrong, and I had done a bunch of stuff, but this is a different level. Boom, I did a few movies, and he's trying to help me. He's yelling at me, 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. He's just trying to help. At one point, he said, Come on, me, him, Dominic Keonese, 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.
O'REILLY And they're all very eccentric.
SCHIRRIPA Absolutely, but good guys. Jim was always a pro. That, you know, 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.
O'REILLY Mm-hmm.
SCHIRRIPA Listen, a great guy not without problems. I mean, that's common knowledge, right? But not on the set, never when he was working. You saw none, there was none of that
O'REILLY Was he the leader of the gang?
SCHIRRIPA Absolutely, in a positive way. 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.
O'REILLY All right, so Gandolfini was kind of like the chief of police.
Yeah.
I don't want to use a bad...
SCHIRRIPA I mean, you know, but but but kind of by example, you know, I mean, he was the guy, you know.
O'REILLY But it was such an intense program. Did you guys have any laughs off camera?
SCHIRRIPA No, no, absolutely. We went out constantly. I mean, we enjoyed every moment. I mean, those guys, Michael, Jim were in their late 30s. I was my early 40s. We went out. We were like playing for the Yankees.
O'REILLY Where do you go in Jersey?
SCHIRRIPA No, here.
O'REILLY Oh, in New York?
SCHIRRIPA We all lived here. We all live in Tribeca, back in the battery farm.
O'REILLY So, you're running around.
SCHIRRIPA All over.
O'REILLY But you guys are big stars then, because that show took off fast.
SCHIRRIPA Sometimes you walk into a restaurant, they'd give you a standing ovation.
O'REILLY Yeah, even to this day. People don't know, but I know Shirripa from the Knicks, because we were both sports fans, and you're one of the nicest guys.
SCHIRRIPA Thank you.
O'REILLY 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.
SCHIRRIPA But why, but why?
O'REILLY Because they can't be bothered with the little people.
SCHIRRIPA 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 kid ourselves, there's luck involved, right time, right place, you know that. I mean, with your success, right time, right place. Somebody gives you a break, you take advantage of it, et cetera, et cetera. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of hard work. But why should I... 99% of the fans are nice. Why should I be?
O'REILLY Because you're not screwed up like a lot of these other people are.
SCHIRRIPA I guess so.
O'REILLY You know them.
SCHIRRIPA I know them!
O'REILLY You know how crazy they can be.
SCHIRRIPA Listen, 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.
O'REILLY Right. It's like your father, they're self-absorbed, these people, and then, you know, fans are an annoyance to them. Whereas you appreciate the fans because they...
SCHIRRIPA Absolutely.
O'REILLY Because they made you who you are.
SCHIRRIPA I mean, I walked on the block. I say hello to everybody. I mean, I walk all over...
O'REILLY And everybody in New York knows you.
SCHIRRIPA Sure.
O'REILLY When Shirripa and I are together, it's hysterical in the garden, you've got people who are screaming. They like you, they don't like me, but...
SCHIRRIPA Well, you're the quiet taste.
O'REILLY Yeah I know I am. And it takes a long time.
SCHIRRIPA Half the crowd likes you.
O'REILLY That's true. The show The Sopranos is so intense. The plot lines, what Chase was trying to do, getting across what the mentality of this crew is, this criminal crew, is what the show is all about. Did you gonna show you Carmela and the different people and the skill level of the acting, they're all perfect. Couldn't have been better cast.
SCHIRRIPA It could not have been a better cast.
O'REILLY 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 keep this up? It's so intense.
SCHIRRIPA 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 okay, 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.
O'REILLY He was a plot-line guy, and Gandolfini died a short time later.
SCHIRRIPA Ah, well, no, the show ended in 2007, Jim died in 2013.
O'REILLY Okay, that's not a long period of time for a man that age, and he died in kind of mysterious circumstances.
SCHIRRIPA He went took his son to Italy, and he died of a heart attack. I mean, there was no, there was nothing like that.
O'REILLY Were you surprised?
SCHIRRIPA 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 Modell and Tommy Lasorda, you know, before the game. And I got the call, and he said, You're 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 hoaxes?
O'REILLY Yeah, I was surprised
SCHIRRIPA 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. Michael called me, and Michael Pirioli, 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...
O'REILLY Personality?
SCHIRRIPA Towards the end, started butting heads.
O'REILLY What was the main problem there?
SCHIRRIPA 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.
O'REILLY Yeah.
SCHIRRIPA 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 six in the morning and then you finish up Friday night at three a.m. And you really have no life.
O'REILLY Gandolfini was a guy like you, who didn't chase fame.
SCHIRRIPA No!
O'REILLY He didn't chase it.
SCHIRRIPA I mean, he was like a Birkenstock-wearing guy, you know.
O'REILLY He was just very talented.
SCHIRRIPA Big music guy, Green Day guy, started late acting, also, in his 30s. A family guy, a Jersey guy, he wasn't a mobby; he didn't grow up like in Bensonhurst like I did. He grew up, you know...
O'REILLY But he knew, he knew the rhythm.
SCHIRRIPA He knew, and you know, sometimes he would say, hey, before the season, he would call and say let's go down to Italy. Let's have dinner. I've got to start getting back into that world.
O'REILLY So then you segue into Blue Bloods, which is a whole different thing because it's a network show. A guy named Kevin Wade was the runner, 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. And so now you're in a tighter structure with CBS. It's not like The Sopranos. There's a big difference in production, right?
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, well, because The Sopranos was shot like a movie. Don't forget it was an hour with no commercials. A network TV show.
O'REILLY 44 minutes.
SCHIRRIPA 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.
O'REILLY Great cast.
SCHIRRIPA Really nice people.
O'REILLY But the guy that everything centered around, like Gandolfini, was Tom Selleck.
SCHIRRIPA Listen, iconic TV character. I mean, he's a star, Tom, right? Right, a star, a star, a star as Magnum. Did a lot of good movies, too.
O'REILLY But this is my question. So Gandolfini, when he starts The Sopranos, wasn't mega. Tom Selleck, his private jet guy. Here I am. That's who he is. I know him a little bit. He almost punched 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 there's this huge star comes in, and everybody revolves around him, just like the Sopranos. That is the linkage between the two shows.
SCHIRRIPA 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. He, this is the difference. On The Sopranos, you had no input. What was on that page, you better say. End of story. David Chase wrote it; you'd better be word-perfect. Word perfect. Now, I could ask a question and say, wait a minute, 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'd better say the line, or you're not around for the next thing.
O'REILLY You'd get whacked.
SCHIRRIPA One thousand percent.
O'REILLY Right.
SCHIRRIPA For real.
O'REILLY Right, right.
SCHIRRIPA Okay, so there was none of that. You did not have that input. Tom had a lot of input
O'REILLY You bet he did.
SCHIRRIPA Tom had a lot of input. Tom knows what he's doing. Guy's an actor for 50 years.
O'REILLY But he's a traditional guy. He brought that in, and that's what catapulted his show.
SCHIRRIPA And he's a common-sense guy.
O'REILLY Right. He's not some kind of flaky...
SCHIRRIPA No, and he knows, and he'll come in, and he'll say, why iswas the light there, and why are we shooting that? And he'll question, and he knows what he's talking about.
O'REILLY But if he wants it, he gets it.
SCHIRRIPA Well, of course, he's a star of the show.
O'REILLY Right, he's the guy.
SCHIRRIPA He's the star of 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...
O'REILLY But Selleck had power.
SCHIRRIPA Tom would give his opinion to the writers and...
O'REILLY Writers would do it, what he pretty much wanted to do, and it worked.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, of course it worked. There was a...listen, when the show ended, it was what six million people plus three or whatever?
O'REILLY Number one prime-time CBS show.
SCHIRRIPA For years.
O'REILLY And they whacked it, to use a Sopranos word, because they didn't want to pay you guys.
SCHIRRIPA Well, I guess it was the pay, and I guess it was, I think they were going in a different direction. It's very diverse.
O'REILLY They were too woke. They didn't like the tradition that, you guys were...
SCHIRRIPA I know, I know, there was questions at times about the prayer, you know, a lot of people didn't like them saying the prayer.
O'REILLY I know Wade. I know him, I know what he went through!
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, I know, I know.
O'REILLY The bosses at CBS are all left-wingers, or were, and now Skydance is 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.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, I've never seen it, you know. Listen, I wish Donnie the best because I happen to like Donnie Wahlberg.
O'REILLY It's a hit show.
SCHIRRIPA 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, honestly. I mean, I got to sit next to Tom.
O'REILLY You're one of the cool kids.
SCHIRRIPA Right? Now, they didn't like the prayer. Why didn't they like the pray? 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 their throat.
O'REILLY But they couldn't change because Selleck wouldn't change it.
SCHIRRIPA That's right.
O'REILLY That's what they ran into, but it was money that made the final decision. But I always think...
SCHIRRIPA You know that more than me because I don't know. Because I know it wasn't the quality of the show.
O'REILLY Oh no!
SCHIRRIPA By any means.
O'REILLY Right.
SCHIRRIPA The writing was wonderful. Siobhan...
O'REILLY But can you imagine today if Blue Bloods was still on the air and you got a communist mayor in New York City, Mamdani, slashing up against Selleck.
SCHIRRIPA But then again, I know it's a communist, but we got through De Blasio, who was so far the worst mayor in the history of the city. David Dinkins thinks he's a bad mayor. You know, Mamdani, we're yet to find that out, which I'm sure that's the way that's going. But De Blasio was terrible for the city.
O'REILLY And you wrote it into storylines.
SCHIRRIPA Terrible for the city.
O'REILLY Not Chase, Wade made sure that the writers got that tension in between the liberal mayor and Selleck.
SCHIRRIPA Absolutely.
O'REILLY And those things worked like crazy.
You know, I don't understand the thing with, I don't want to talk politics because I don't know that much about it, 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.
O'REILLY Because they don't see it that way.
SCHIRRIPA But what do they see?
O'REILLY They say they're enlightened, and they're empowering people who are getting screwed. That's the don't enforce the law philosophy.
SCHIRRIPA 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.
O'REILLY Right, and your family.
SCHIRRIPA That's right.
O'REILLY I worry about my daughter.
SCHIRRIPA My two daughters live here in the city.
O'REILLY Yeah.
SCHIRRIPA Okay, but my point is, everything works. If it's safe, people go to restaurants, people go to concerts, people do this, people do that. A lot of people don't wanna go out after a certain time because they're afraid.
O'REILLY Look, traditional New Yorkers...
SCHIRRIPA So, what? They want people to get hit over the head?
O'REILLY 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 Knicks, we know restaurants, we know everything, okay? The traditions that made this city strong are considered racist by the far-left progressives. So De Blasio comes in and goes, No, all of the traditions that we had, holding people accountable, if you get smacked in the face, you go to jail, somebody does. 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.
SCHIRRIPA I don't know. I'm a common-sense guy. You do something wrong, you get in trouble for it.
O'REILLY And Blue Bloods was a common-sense show.
SCHIRRIPA It was a great show. Listen, there's nothing better than shooting on the streets of New York City.
O'REILLY Now you wrote a book about raising girls, so I didn't know that. I'm going to now read the book, of course.
SCHIRRIPA Big Daddy's Rules. Raising daughters is tougher than it looks.
O'REILLY What was the big thing that you learned raising the girls?
SCHIRRIPA Common sense, gotta stay close to them, gotta know what they're doing.
O'REILLY But they're emotional all the time.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, but then you know what? I'm gonna tell you something. Not with mine. Not with my daughters. We never had that big problem, me and 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 have 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've got the whole group, right? But honestly, we stayed close. We knew who their friends were. They played sports, big sports, softball, soccer, and gymnastics, and you know, we had them try, you know, all the things, some things 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.
O'REILLY How did they handle your celebrity?
SCHIRRIPA They couldn't care less. They're very proud of me. They're very proud of me. They could care less, and I'm very happy about that. They're not affected by any of that stuff. I take them to the Knick games. They love going to the games because they like to go to the games. Honestly, not affected by that, they don't... Never bugged me, you know, can I do this, or do that, and none of that.
O'REILLY Did you take them to the sets? Did they?
SCHIRRIPA You know what? I took them to the Secret Life set because they were teenagers at the time.
O'REILLY Right, Shailene, sure.
SCHIRRIPA You know, a couple of times. Soprano sets, a couple times, though, they knew we were close, so we socialized a lot. 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 Bloods maybe once. My wife's not that person to hang around, like some wives, you know, hang around the set and all. My wife, my wife is, she ran 13, she's gonna be 63 in a couple of weeks, my wife Laura, she's just finished her 13th New York Marathon.
O'REILLY And 37 years you've been married, you said?
SCHIRRIPA 37 years.
O'REILLY Geez.
SCHIRRIPA We're together 40 years.
O'REILLY She a Brooklyn girl?
SCHIRRIPA No, Las Vegas I met her.
O'REILLY She's a Vegas girl? Wow!
Las Vegas, UNLV. You know, so no, they're not affected by that. I think, you know, because we didn't allow that either, but they're affected by, you know, as a matter of fact, my daughter is working, she didn't want anyone to know who her father was.
O'REILLY Mine don't have any choice.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, but you know what I mean.
O'REILLY Yeah, oh, I know. And, uh, but I.
SCHIRRIPA Right, so it wasn't that like, you know, like spoiled like that. It wasn't at all. You know, they grew up in Battery Park City. That's where we lived. They went to Poly Prep in Brooklyn, you know.
O'REILLY Normal. Kept it as normal as you could keep it.
SCHIRRIPA Very normal. Now they've both got the jobs on their own. I had nothing to do with anything.
O'REILLY Now, when people yell out your character name when they see you, because everybody recognizes you...
SCHIRRIPA Don't bother me.
O'REILLY Doesn't bother you?
SCHIRRIPA It doesn't bother me, no, because I tell you what, if they say Steve, I question that. Who's that? Do I know that guy? No, listen, they call me Anthony from Blue Bloods.
O'REILLY They can't pronounce the last name of the detective.
SCHIRRIPA No, they say Anthony or Bobby, especially the younger kids. Bobby, it really doesn't bother me.
O'REILLY Right.
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O'REILLY Now, people don't know this, but you're a very generous guy, 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 Laughs charity. And it helps younger people who get into circumstances beyond their control. Is that correct? Do I have it?
SCHIRRIPA 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 Laughs, $8.5 million, Garden of Laughs. 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 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, I'm very proud that they asked me to do it. I come out, I do a few minutes, we have these great comics. We have a lot of celebrities presenting, you know, introducing the comics. Athletes, hockey guys, ranger guys, Knick guys. You know C.C. Sebastian did it one year. All kinds of people. So it's a...
O'REILLY The money goes though, how does the money go?
SCHIRRIPA 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 are having a tough time growing up, like I would have. This would have been great for a kid like me.
O'REILLY And how do the kids connect with the charity?
SCHIRRIPA Two different organizations, feeding organizations, and they decide who gets the money, you know. Garden of Dreams board, and you know.
O'REILLY Right, because it's hard being a kid these days with the electronics and all that, you can lose your way.
SCHIRRIPA It's terrible, but I'll 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 the 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.
O'REILLY Now you've got 5,000 in there.
SCHIRRIPA 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, we... just Garden of Laughs is like an offset of that. Last year, I think we raised two and a half million dollars, 2024 was the last time we did this.
O'REILLY Almost everybody I know, and I know a lot of people in show business, likes you.
SCHIRRIPA Oh, thank you.
O'REILLY I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. They like you. That's not real universal.
SCHIRRIPA No, listen, what you see is what you get.
O'REILLY But is it important to you that other people like you?
SCHIRRIPA 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.
O'REILLY Oh yeah.
SCHIRRIPA 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, why did he get it and I didn't?
O'REILLY Very tough business.
SCHIRRIPA 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, and an agent friend of mine... I said, could you get me to audition for that show, The Sopranos? I had seen an episode or two. I read for the role of an FBI agent. He got me to the audition. I went, it was George Ann Walken, Christopher Walken's wife. She said, I don't see you as an FBI Agent. Read this, we have someone in mind. I read it. She said if I get you in front of David, would you come back? And I'm 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.
O'REILLY Right.
SCHIRRIPA You know, no, I, no thought of, I can make a living, I could get on this show, I could do this, I'm gonna move back to New York. I had a big house on an acre of land, big job.
O'REILLY You're doing well in Vegas.
SCHIRRIPA I'm fine, I know everybody and their mother in Vegas, I get anything I want at any time.
O'REILLY Free buffet.
SCHIRRIPA Anything. Caesar's Palace, Sinatra.
O'REILLY But it was meant to be.
SCHIRRIPA Right, so I come here, and I work hard, I move my family back, it was very hard, I paid my own way the first year. Cost me 24 grand, I made 22 grand. The agent had told me not to take the job. 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 no, you know.
O'REILLY You're not needy.
SCHIRRIPA Listen, I've very confident in myself. I've come this far, I am 68 years old. You know, I only do things now that I like. You know, knock on wood, I've done fine, I'm okay.
O'REILLY The important thing is you've got nice kids and a nice wife.
SCHIRRIPA I got nice kids, they married two nice guys, my wife is wonderful.
O'REILLY You're a 10 percenter in Hollywood. 90 percent don't have that.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah. Well, I just was talking to a friend of mine on the way here, a character actor. You know him if you've seen him.
O'REILLY Well, tell me who he is.
SCHIRRIPA No, no. Good guy. Good guy, and he's been in a million things. He's unhappy, he hasn't been working. The last years have been, you know, he's 75, six. And then he got a job, he was like a recurring character. And I said, you put too much, I said you put too much into your life as happy or not happy by getting a role. I said, you've got money, you're fine. What, you've been depressed for two years because things have slowed down? Which are just natural, not everybody stays here. The tide goes in, the tide goes out. I said everything, your mood, everything revolves around if you're working. I mean, you know, it shouldn't be that way.
O'REILLY Did you convince him or?
SCHIRRIPA No, of course not.
O'REILLY Because he wants to be that way.
SCHIRRIPA Of course.
O'REILLY Wants to be morose.
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O'REILLY Now I'm gonna tell you a story that coincides with you. So you're a bouncer in 1975, okay, in Vegas.
SCHIRRIPA No, 1980.
O'REILLY 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 Havana. 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, yeah, wear a jacket and a tie, they wanted to class it up.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, yeah.
O'REILLY But I was a teacher, a high school teacher, but I wasn't making enough money to have food. And food is important.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, I would say, I would say.
O'REILLY 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 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.
SCHIRRIPA That's funny.
Okay, so my job at the end of the evening, and all the bars closed in Miami back at that time, was to walk the go-go girls to their car. Remember the go-go girls?
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, yeah.
O'REILLY White boots, and they had the cage.
SCHIRRIPA They had them in the cage?
O'REILLY The whole thing.
SCHIRRIPA That's great.
O'REILLY Okay, which I did.
SCHIRRIPA Sounds wonderful to me, Bill.
O'REILLY But I was very polite. Because I felt that most of them had kids and they, 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.
SCHIRRIPA If I see them.
SCHIRRIPA Right, I'd know the face.
O'REILLY But I'm never rude about it.
O'REILLY No, no, you're always respectful.
SCHIRRIPA Yeah, I probably know them.
O'REILLY So I said, Bernie, the name doesn't really conjure up anything. He goes, well, she knows you. And I go, oh. And he said, 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, if you went to Vegas now, they'd all forget about the Sopranos and Blue Bloods, they'd remember you!
SCHIRRIPA Oh yeah, they're still around out there, they're still...Listen, Vegas at the time that was just a wonderful time.
O'REILLY The Rat Pack.
SCHIRRIPA And I got to see Sinatra about 20 some times.
O'REILLY Right, Elvis.
SCHIRRIPA You know, yeah, that was before my time, but I would have loved to see it... Before my time, I would've loved to see Elvis. But Sinatra, I met numerous times.
O'REILLY And he was respectful to you, right?
SCHIRRIPA Oh, he was great, great to me, I got a great picture. That's the one person. I had to have a picture. I have a great picture. My wife took it, and she was young, and she took the pic. We weren't even married yet. She took the picture. We went, we were invited to a party. It's Jerry Vale was there. Right. Jerry Vale, Corbett Monica, some other guys.
O'REILLY Blast from the past.
SCHIRRIPA It was Jilly Rizzo, who was a friend of mine and his son, I lived with his son for a while there, and they invited us. It was 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 members-only jacket, and it says Frank.
O'REILLY Right.
SCHIRRIPA Like, you know, right?
O'REILLY We know.
You know, we know, yeah.
O'REILLY Yeah, we know.
SCHIRRIPA And he's, I gotta tell you, he's yelling, Don Rickles is there, he is yelling at Rickles. Rickles was up there, and he's going, and it's like a little like, wow. At the end, I said, I got to get this picture.
O'REILLY Sure.
SCHIRRIPA The end, take the picture, and 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.
O'REILLY And it's on the wall, I bet, huh?
SCHIRRIPA On the wall.
O'REILLY In the fall of fame. Right with all the Knicks.
SCHIRRIPA Absolutely. Absolutely.
O'REILLY Okay, just hang tough for a minute. So that was a very entertaining chat, and I wanna thank you very much. You're a good guy. I know Schirripa off camera a little bit from the Knicks and the Yankees and all that, and he's a genuine guy. Now, we're gonna have more for you Premium and Concierge Members in the Killing Time segment. All right, so that begins now.
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