GlensideLocal interviews The Sopranos’ Steve Schirripa on his upcoming Keswick appearance

GlensideLocal had the opportunity to catch up with Steve Schirripa, aka ‘Bobby Baccalieri’ from the HBO series The Sopranos, to discuss his upcoming ‘In Conversation’ appearance at the Keswick this Saturday.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time. For any Soprano fan, it really is a fun show. We have a comic who opens for us, we have clips, we have prepared questions, we tell never-before-heard stories, we show slides. It’s a combination.” Schirripa said. “We give you a peek behind the curtain.”

Shirripa will be joined by Vincent Pastore and Michael Imperioli, who played Salvatore Bonpensiero and Christopher Moltisanti, respectively. After their initial presentation, full of reminiscing about long days on the mob-psych drama set, ‘In Conversation’ will take questions from the audience.

“We’ve been doing this longer than I can remember, and we’ve done it all over the U.S., Europe, and Australia. People really enjoy it,” Schirripa said. “We’re very loose on stage because we’re such good friends.”

Schirripa and Michael Imperioli in NYC

The Sopranos ended on a high note in 2007, and the series has since seen a resurgence of interest, particularly among a more youthful audience.

“Younger people are getting into it who were too young to see it the first time around,” Schirippa said. “It was the #2 show during the pandemic. We did the podcast Talking Sopranos for that reason. 91 episodes with that. Things are streaming now, so there’s more people watching than when it started. 11 million had HBO in the 2000s, now there’s untold millions.”

Vincent and Michael have been regulars on ‘In Conversation’ appearances, though other cast members from Rolling Stone Magazine’s ‘#1 Best TV Show of All-Time’ have made their fair share of tributes as well.

“Tony used to do it with us, so did Lorraine, but the last four or five years have been with Vinnie. He was a popular character,” Schirippa said.

Schirippa hails from New York City, a place well suited for the series’ filming. Since his days with The Sopranos, the actor has appeared as a regular cast member of Blue Bloods, as well as The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

“Most of the show’s cast are from New York and New Jersey to bring out the true sense of the typical Italian-American experience,” Schirippa said. “It’s a great show, great show. Terrific shooting here in New York. I’ve been very lucky.”

Come Saturday at 7:00pm, local fans of The Sopranos can expect to feel plenty lucky, too.

“I’ve been to the Philly area numerous times. The Keswick is a beautiful theater,” Schirripa said. “We’ll have a good time. We always do.”

Tickets for the event can be found here. For a sneak peak of Schirripa, Pastore, and Imperioli, you can check out this clip from their 2019 interview with Studio 10:

Photos courtesy of NME News and the Detroit Free Press.