Talking Sopranos Podcast

[Mr Farenheit]

I would love to see a spin-off podcast there they just do Tony Sirico anecdotes.

[frajer]

I would love to see a spin-off podcast there they just do Tony Sirico anecdotes.

Heh heh heh!

[Bazooka]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=umoDfBYPUQM

Hi Jack, bye Jack.

[Fishfinger]

The Ricky Gervais episode is up. I'm caught up with all of these and I can't think of a less insightful guest.

[frajer]

Bloody hell, that's a cultural crossover I wouldn't have guessed. That said, I remember back in their podcast days Gervais did mention being a fan, to the extent that he would wear just his boxers and his robe while smoking a cigar around the house in the style of Tony.

Karl mentioned going round to visit him once and Gervais opened the front door in that ensemble but with his knob popped out the hole in his boxers, the sort of behaviour which would result in a brief but very final visit from Paulie and Sil.

[Fishfinger]

I'm still listening to it, but so far it really is 90% him talking about himself and his career. The podcast has been really good value thus far, it's just weird. He has nothing of import to say.

[Fishfinger]

Yeah, it's pure stunt casting. They're interviewing him.

[frajer]

Yeah, it's pure stunt casting. They're interviewing him.

Have had this on in the background at work. 20 mins in and the last 10 have had fuck all discussion about The Sopranos.

Only interesting nugget was hearing Gervais was a guest on set when they filmed the scene where the crew find out Vito gave a blowjob to the guy on the construction site. "Pretty funny stuff guys, but have you considered making the gay lad a little short fella?" was probably something he did not say.

[Fishfinger]

Yep. "Ahhaha, when there was a blowjob. And it was good. And it was great. And all about family, and things like that. But anyway... "

[frajer]

Thought this might swing back around to Sopranos talk but it's Gervais in press mode explaining just why After Life is so brilliant, which comes across as even more ludicrous than normal on a Sopranos podcast. Turning off now for sake of sanity.

[mr. logic]

Have had this on in the background at work. 20 mins in and the last 10 have had fuck all discussion about The Sopranos.

Only interesting nugget was hearing Gervais was a guest on set when they filmed the scene where the crew find out Vito gave a blowjob to the guy on the construction site. "Pretty funny stuff guys, but have you considered making the gay lad a little short fella?" was probably something he did not say.

Wonder if Gervais ever reflected on what it was about that scene that made it so funny. From each of the crew having a different reaction, some times keeping with what we would expect (Paulie), other times pleasantly surprising us (Patsi's 'I could care less basically'), it was just perfect, character based comedy, with the joke at all times on the homophobes. As you say, nothing to do with mocking Vito's sexuality.

[Stonefish]

I remember back in their podcast days Gervais did mention being a fan, to the extent that he would wear just his boxers and his robe while smoking a cigar around the house in the style of Tony.

Oh God, is that who Gervais is trying to channel in those cringy cigar photos he does?

I've known about this podcast for a while but never checked it out as I thought it was more an unstructured hangout podcast with two cast members. When I seen it was an episode by episode recap I decided to give the first few a go. I'm pleased I did as I love hearing Michael Imperoli's thoughts on the show. I always liked him and was impressed with how he was involved behind the camera too. I liked Bobby too and Steve Schirripa seems like an amiable guy so far. There is a bit of a sensibility clash with Michael being thoughtful/senstive and Steve seeming more like a loud/brash character from the show at times. I agree with some posters who say he's derailed Michael a few times as he was getting in to some interesting areas. Quite frustrating. I hope Steve gets a bit better about the interruptions as the podcast goes on. These things live and die on the chemistry between the hosts.

[jake thunder]

He gets worse. Hates discussing any symbolism or interpretations. Even in the coma episodes of season 6 he's like "sometimes a tree is just a fuckin tree!".

[selectivememory]

I've been listening to these recently too. Still on the early episodes, but I quite like the chemistry between the two of them. A lot of unintentional comedy there. Schirripa does have one of the most irritating voices I've ever heard, but he does seem like a nice and uncomplicated bloke overall, and I like the contrast of his slightly muddled episode recaps with Imperioli's nerdier and more thoughtful contributions.

Good podcast, not sure if I'll see the whole thing through though.

[Custard]

I still can't get past the sense that they genuinely dislike each other. Whenever one of them is talking, the other is staring out into space or looking bored. It's only when there's a guest on that they seem to warm up a bit

I still think this podcast would have been better with Michael and Drea de Matteo hosting, as least they seem to like each other, and there's a chemistry. Plus of course it'd be nice to have more of a female perspective also

[mr. logic]

The obvious thing is with this podcast as with any of this nature...The interviews with the writers (including Chase) are brilliant, full of sparkling wit and insight. But actors tend to be boring and completely bereft of insight. Now, if it's a Falco or a  van zandt they can offer lots of other things to compensate. But why am I listening to forty minutes of the man who was in three episodes as a lawyer or whatever the fuck? It's almost knowingly boring.

Do enjoy the podcast though, Imperioli has a beautifully cheeky sense of humour

[badaids]

I still can't get past the sense that they genuinely dislike each other. Whenever one of them is talking, the other is staring out into space or looking bored. It's only when there's a guest on that they seem to warm up a bit

I still think this podcast would have been better with Michael and Drea de Matteo hosting, as least they seem to like each other, and there's a chemistry. Plus of course it'd be nice to have more of a female perspective also

I enjoy this podcast, but will give the Gervais one a miss I think.  Schirripa comes across as meat headed, thin skinned and boorish while Imperioli is thoughtful and empathic.  To me they are clearly friends and are hamming it up for the entertainment value, but there is also a definite sense of a distance between them today there that wasn't there when they were hellraising back in the day.  I have plenty of mates that I was big friends with 25 years ago that, ones that fit into the Irvine Welsh "He really is a cunt ay the first order. Nae about that. The big problem is, he's a mate na aw. Whit kin ye dae?" category.  I think that's where they are at today.  That tension does give it chemistry.

I'd love to see Drea appear as she's blimmin gorgeous, plus a less sausagey take on things.

And oh yeah, the friggin adverts do my suede in.

[mr. logic]

I think if she was going to have appeared she would have by now. On the Reddit page they speculate there's some bad blood because of her own podcast folding.

[badaids]

I think if she was going to have appeared she would have by now. On the Reddit page they speculate there's some bad blood because of her own podcast folding.

I didn't know she was doing one.

Just looked and there seem to be two.  One called Gangster Goddess which looked like it stopped in Nov 20, and one called Made Women which has picked up and still going.

Are they any good?

[jake thunder]

Yeah thought she'd of done the Long Term Parking episode for sure but the actual last episode she appeared in was Cold Stones so maybe still.

[Magnum Valentino]

I didn't know she was doing one.

Just looked and there seem to be two.  One called Gangster Goddess which looked like it stopped in Nov 20, and one called Made Women which has picked up and still going.

Are they any good?

That's not right. Made Women was rebranded as Gangster Goddess and has since ended.

It WAS good, too, yeah. I much preferred it at first over the Talking Sopranos one, for most of what's been mentioned above (rare female perspective on a famously masculine program and lack of Steven Schirripa), but it was clear from the moment TS started nabbing guests and from the fact that it was presented by blokes that it was going to win the war there.

Plus Drea's co-host was a dose and they couldn't stop complimenting each other. I'd rather have that than Steve talking over Michael, but I'd rather neither in an ideal world.

[Stonefish]

The hypothetical Drea/Michael Sopranos podcast sounds great.

[paruses]

Coincidence - I am doing an on-off rewatch and got to University. Fancied a bit of chat about it and have both Made Women and TS on my subs. As above a female perspective on the ep would have been really good. As was I had to settle for Steve S droning through "so we get to the bing and Paulie says x and the guys are doing y..." without any real insight despite Michael trying to tease out the parallel with Meadow and some of the more subtle signs and signifies only to get shutdown (seemingly).

I think that point about them being mates 20 years ago and now having grown into different people is a really good one because they seem to tolerate being in the same conversation without really being interested in what the other one is saying. I haven't listened to loads of these mainly because I don't really enjoy listening to Steve and the dynamic seems pretty shit.

I think Made Women got a bump because a 2 min trailer has been put on that feed for something or other. I didn't really get on with that because of the opposite problem with the dynamic - too supportive if that's possible - but also I didn't like one of the hosts (not Drea). If they covered University in Gangster Goddesses I'll have a listen.

Just remembered that I really liked No F*ckin Zitti - will revisit their stuff I think. Might have a hate listen to Gervais though.

[colacentral]

Schirripa and Imperioli have great chemistry, and what Schirripa doesn't have time for is the pretension of Imperioli's tangents, eg straining to make every song lyric of every song that plays in the background of a scene have some relevance to the story. Imperioli does play up some of the outlandish analysis sometimes to wind Schirripa up, but it's clear he buys into it alot of the time too. The problem is, Imperioli fancies himself an intellectual but doesn't understand the show as much as he thinks he does, eg not understanding "Mr. Ruggiero's Neighborhood" at all, describing it as "pipe laying."

I like them both but Imperioli needs Schirripa there to bring him back to earth. He'd climb too far up his own arse and it would be painful to watch without someone bursting his  bubble a bit. They clearly started leaning into those roles over time too. Schirripa is definitely more thoughtful than he pretends to be, not helped by the fact that when he has tried to contribute more serious analysis, he often gets smirked at and shut down by Imperioli. It's definitely not a one sided bully dynamic, it goes both ways.

"Made Women" was considerably worse. Rather than "the pseudo intellectual and the blue collar slob," the dynamic was "the one who was on the show and the one who wasn't." I don't think de Matteo had anything original or interesting to say about the show, and didn't have a co-host who contributed anything, making it a chore to listen to.

The hypothetical Drea/Michael Sopranos podcast sounds great.

It would be embarrassing.

[colacentral]

Also, I plug this site every time I talk about the sopranos, but if you want a real good analysis of some of the symbolism and subtext in each episode, just go to sopranosautopsy.com. When I'm watching a podcast with two cast members, it's mostly for the fun of experiencing them watching it "with you," like when a mate or someone watches a film you like and you're keen to hear if they liked it too. All it has to be is entertaining.

[mr. logic]

There's a scene when Adriana's handler answers the phone to Aid in the car just after lecturing her child about her bad attitude. I always thought that was a lovely touch- to have the FBI woman having this whole life away from the show we were watching. But people on the internet desperately read into it symbolism that to my mind didn't exist- it was there for colour and world building.

[paruses]

Agreed symbolism can become navel gazing very quickly. I meant more sub-text.

I haven't listened to enough of TS to understand the dynamic to be honest. Am sure someone looking at a handful of my interactions with my best friend would think we hardly knew each other, at best. It might  just boil down to not really getting on with Steve's drawl. Something to stick on in the background though now I have remembered it and am watching the series again.

Totally agree that a podcast should be entertaining. The Autopsy site is pretty incredible but I found I just got too bogged down in the minutiae if I hammered it too much.

I seem to remember from Made Women that the big problem was Drea didn't really remember many of the episodes. That was a bit of a blocker for me.

Tracee was the guest on the University TS ep. She's now a yoga instructor who specialises in trauma therapy stuff. I felt Imperioli's attempt to tie that direction hard and fast to her appearance in The Sopranos failed but tantalisingly didn't tease out that it seemed fuelled by awful experiences in the industry.

[paruses]

Also - not sure what the answer is to avoiding narrating episodes. I have a feeling that the Zitti lads did this well by not doing it at all and instead discussing the episode as a whole almost like a two handed essay - must be 3 years since I listened though so might be completely wrong.

[mr. logic]

Yeah, the University episode was interesting. Her story about Chase and Gandolfini 'blaming' her for the controversy seemed to hint at some wider discomfort about the whole thing, and, presumably because of established relationships, it went pretty much unexplored by the hosts.

Having said that, I've heard her claim that she got a line removed from the episode itself. Something like Tony being pissed off about the rug they used to cover her body. But I never really bought that because surely that episode spoke to Tony's entire ark, which was presumably shaped in agonising detail by the writing staff.

[jake thunder]

Funny how No Fuckin Ziti got to the penultimate episode of the series and then stopped.

I hope they release the final episode just before TS does as a fuck you to Schrippa for stealing their idea after appearing on NFZ.