Episode 8: Bill Ervolino

Subscribe to our channel and tap the bell for notifications Find The Comedy Centric Podcast on the following Platforms: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comedycentricpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/CentricComedy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/comedycentricpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@comedycentricpodcast --- You can now find Comedy Centric Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Amazon, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts! ______________________________________________________________________ Bill Ervolino has been the humor columnist for The Record in Bergen County from 1990 to the present. He also writes entertainment and lifestyle features and his stories have appeared in newspapers across the country as part of the USA Today network. Bill is author of the book "Some Kind of Wiseguy: Stories About Parents, Weddings, Modern Living and Growing Up Italian" and a co-author of "The Backstage Performing Artists Handbook” (Billboard Books); and "Italian American Authors on New Jersey" (Rutgers University Press), which includes essays on the Italian-American experience by Gay Talese, Tom Perrotta, "The Daily Show's" Frank DeCaro, and others. Before joining the Record in 1990, Bill was the editor of two weekly newspapers on Long Island, the Editor-In-Chief of Nightlife magazine, and an entertainment writer, critic, and columnist for the New York Post and Backstage. (He reviewed and interviewed many established and up-and-coming comedians during this time.) Bill is a four-time recipient of the Society of Silurians medal for his Record column. (The Silurians is the oldest active journalism organization in the country.) He has received numerous awards from the New Jersey Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. And, since being at The Record he was twice named a finalist in the prestigious nationwide Penney-Missouri feature writing competition. In 2001, 2002, 2008, 2011 and 2022 his column was recognized by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists for best humorous writing in the U.S. Bill's play "The Lights on Walden Court" won the first Jane Chambers playwriting award in 1987. It ran for 12 weeks at the Arena Players Theater on Long Island and was the first show mounted at The Producer’s Club in 1988. His most recent play will be produced at the Studio Theater on Long Island in Spring 2023. Bill has also written for the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, the New York Daily News, and was a regular contributor to Parents Choice. Beginning in 1999, Bill was chairman of the annual Laugh-Off events at Gilda's Club, Northern New Jersey, where he regularly hosted comedy shows for cancer patients and their families. As a comic, Bill has performed in New Jersey at Bananas and Bergen PAC (opening for Pat Cooper); in Manhattan at Don't Tell Mama and the Boston Comedy Club (as part of the Toyota Comedy Festival), and at colleges and nightclubs throughout the metropolitan area. He is a frequent speaker at high schools and colleges on the subject of writing as a career, and is actively involved in New Jersey's Minority Journalism Project, and the nationwide Newspapers in Education program. He has done dozens of personal appearances both as author, promoting his own books and as a journalist doing live "Actor's Studio" -type interviews with Olympia Dukakis, Alan Alda, Jackie Collins, Christopher Lee and "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson. Among his hundreds of interview subjects: Al Pacino, Liza Minnelli, Whoopi Goldberg, Kate Winslet, Ellen Burstyn, Nancy Sinatra, Patrick Swazye, George Carlin and Jerry Seinfeld. He has shared an elevator with Keith Hernandez, peed next to Mark Hamill and fell on Sean Connery while trying on a pair of boots.