The 'Late Night With Johnny P' show Episode Blogs

"If You Can Get Up There And Do Your Thing, Go For It."

10/25/2017

Johnny Potenza enters the studio to his Elvis theme, and hears the girls in the audience hollering for him as he enters the studio. He likes that, and lets us know. Today is September 13, 2017, and Potenza declares that summer is over. The kids are back in school and the lifeguards are off-duty. It's time to get back on the diet, and that can mean only one thing: the change of seasons is bringing us a new Fall TV Line-Up.

"I see there's not a lot of people here who watch TV. What do you guys do, meditate?"

After asking the seemingly-timid audience to name some shows they're looking forward to watching, Potenza changes the subject and speaks about the passing of acting legend Frank Vincent.

He had passed away that morning; you know him from the scene in Goodfellas where he taunts Joe Pesce with 'Go home and get your fucking shinebox'and the Sopranos. Potenza did not have time to put together a tribute for him today, but there is one scheduled. Stay tuned for that.

Potenza also sends prayers out to his buddy Arte Pasquale, another Soprano, who had some heart surgery that day. He rolled out some footage for us, and we all pray for Pasquale recovery.

His guests tonight are actor and comedian Jod Soraci, the King of Freestyle George Lamond, and featured guest entertainer and motivational speaker Soave Martinez.

Potenza also pays a special tribute to Jerry Lewis, talking about his career and his Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day Telethon. Over the years, Lewis raised $2.5 billion dollars for his 'kids' and was worth $50 million when he died.

"I thought he would have been worth more than that, but who knows, maybe he liked to party, the guy."

Potenza's conversation with us returns to the fall lineup. One of the shows he mentions is a show currently in it's first season on HBO called "The Deuce". The show features past late night guest Lou Martini Jr., as well as friend of Potenza's and guest of the show Garry Pastore as "Matty the Horse". It's really a great show; I've been following it every week. It's about gritty, nasty, dirty Times Square in the 70s and all the corruption involved. This show is going to be really big, I can feel it. Catch up now before you have to binge-watch!

'You'll forget who you are and be who you're not!' Sounds like a PSA!

The first guest tonight is Jod Soraci, who starts off discussing the curious origins of his name. He makes observations on people saying hello to other people passing by on the water in boats, the confusing-to-some (including myself) Skype, gangster nicknames, and also jokes about his struggles with dyslexia. He also reminisces about the old days of cocaine use, expounds upon relationships, being single, and why hookers are the perfect date.

Soraci sits down with Potenza, and we learn he is a freelance film colorist specialist. Soraci explains that filmmakers go to a colorist to create the look of a movie with color editing so that it feels like it was shot on film, and it reflects the feel that the filmmakers were looking for. As you know, Kodak went out of business, and they no longer make film. It's very expensive, and only people like Spielberg can afford it now, so they get Soraci to create the look of the movie, making it look as if it were shot on film.

Not a lot of people have the experience he has as a colorist; he worked on Straight Out Of Compton, MC Hammer videos, NWA, Easy-E, Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Bruno Mars just to name a few musical artists. He did a movie that is currently on Netflix called Maximum Ride, and a TV show called Nicky, Ricky Dicky and Dawn Go To Hollywood.

'My first guest got a plane ticket to come here, must be desperate."

hashtag blessed

You can find Soraci's colorist work listed on IMDB (where I found the Bruno Mars song above; love the look of the video. No joke!), YouTube, and at JodSoraciComedian.com; he's also part of Mike Marino's "Make America Italian Again" tour, so be sure to check him out there!

Staten Island is da BOMB!

Next tonight we have the King of freestyle, George Lamond. Potenza pronounces it "Lamont" with his Staten Italy accent, but Lamond is used to it. He is originally from the Bronx, but has lived on Staten Island for 11 years or so. He loves it here. We'll keep it...

Lamond talks about the current demand for freestyle, and about how they didn't have social media back then to promote the music. Sal Abbatiello, another Late Night guest, got the word out onto the streets. Now that social media is prevalent, people are finding him that didn't know he was still around. He has a big following and still hangs out with both East and West Coast people, and now it's come full circle because he says he can reply instantly to people, where in the past he used to answer all of his fan mail at the office.

Potenza and Lamond talk about how music experience is way different than it was in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and how we thought records and cassettes were all obsolete now, but the demand is growing again; Potenza says the kids don't know what it was like to get an album, pull out the sleeve, read the liner notes, read about who was on every track, read about the album cover art and really appreciate the work that went into that giant piece of cardboard. Everything is digital now, but we have seen the trend of vinyl coming back for some time now. Everything old is always new again.

Lamond has a following on Spotify; he has reproduced and remastered a lot of his work, and will be coming out with some new tunes soon. You can find him @therealgeorgelamond on Instagram, and @georgelamond on Twitter.

Tonight's musical guest is Soave Martinez, who has had a long and successful career in freestyle. He performed the classic George Michael song Everything She Wants, which I thought was a very impressive take on the classic George Michael song.

Potenza and Soave banter about music, his career, freestyle, family, but Soave said he always wanted to be a motivational speaker. As a result, he now does a video blog every week related to a specific subject - something that we all may be currently going through, or some current event, while keeping his talk unbiased and respectful of the opinions of others. He calls his video blog "Soave Sundays"; he puts out a message that is one of something positive. He has a genuine concern for making sure what he does is special.

You can find Soave Martinez at www.gosoave.com, or @gosoave on Instagram Twitter, Facebook, etc.

"What if it were your last day? How would you say goodbye?"

That's it for tonight, guys and gals! Next month we'll be filming the Christmas show, so watch for that in December! Better yet, go to JohnnyPTV.com, fill out the audience member form, and come see us on November 8 when Potenza's special guest will be none other than legendary DJ Goumba Johnny! Don't forget your jingle bells!

Thanks for the food, get home safe, and goodnight!