Photo Coverage: JOE PISCOPO Plays The Ciccone Theatre

Joe Piscopo took the stage at The Ciccone Theatre recently, and BroadwayWorld was on hand to snap some photos!

As Joe Piscopo tells it, NBC in a moment of insanity replaced the original cast of Saturday Night Live (Dan Aykroyn, John Belushi, Gilda Radner etc) with Joe Piscopo and a new cast which included Eddie Murphy. After seeing Joe's act at a great venue in Paramus New Jersey named The Ciccone Theatre, I witnessed first hand the brilliance of the network's decision to put Joe in SNL in 1980.

With apologies to Sammy Davis Jr. I must say that Joe Piscopo is one of most versatile and skilled actor/entertainers I've ever seen. Piano, Drums, Guitar, Sax , Flute, vocals, he does it all. His impersonations are dead on. Musically he becomes whoever he's doing, and not for just a few bars of a tune. Backed up by the award winning Red Bank Jazz Orchestra led by Joe's music director Joe Muccioli, the sounds of Count Basie and others were accurately recreated as the band played swinging charts accompanying Piscopo.

Frank Sinatra was on the stage of the Ciccone Theatre last night! In fact, Frank, after hearing Joe's "Frank" years ago anointed him "Vice Chairman" of the Board. Joe Piscopo is funny, serious, athletic, musical and above all phenomenally entertaining. The evening was presented by AM970 The Answer, where Joe is the morning radio host monday thru friday from 6am to 9am.

Peter LeDonne the managing director of Community and Cultural affairs at Ciccone, which is on the campus of Bergen Community College introduced the evening. Peter is also the host of Peter LeDonne Backstage on AM970 Sundays from 12-1 pm. The station's General Manager Jerry Crowley and the legendary radio personality John Gambling also took the stage. John Gambling can be heard daily on AM970 from 11am-1 pm.