Before landing his signature role as Bobby Bacala on The Sopranos, Steve Schirripa got his first taste of showbiz as the entertainment director of The Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. That’s where he started rubbing elbows with comics like Drew Carey and Kevin Pollack, as well as other famous comedians who passed through his venue.
On a recent episode of the We Might Be Drunk podcast, Schirripa told Sam Morril and Mark Normand about some of his brushes with comedy greats. He ran through a list of his favorite comics from the Vegas days, names like Damon Wayans, Nick Di Paolo and Dave Attell. But one comedian in particular rubbed Schirripa the wrong way. “I don’t like Ellen DeGeneres,” he explained. “She was an asshole then. She got proven to be an asshole, but she was an asshole way back when.”
Once known as “the Queen of Nice,” DeGeneres and her public persona took a tumble in the 2020s after several reports surfaced about her being a miserable boss. Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons, one of the comedian’s original writers on her eponymous talk show, told Cracked that DeGeneres deserved everything she got. “It became very unpleasant,” he said. “There was a lot of fear going around.”
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Morril asked if DeGeneres’ playful dancing was simply a cover-up for a meaner personality. “The whole show was an act,” Schirripa said. “I mean, she wasn’t a nice person.”
But she wasn’t always like that, according to Schirripa. “She worked for me in Vegas,” he said. “She wasn’t mean then. It was before she had hit it big. She was very nice.”
A decade later, it was a different story. “I’m at the Emmys with The Sopranos,” he said. “I never say hello to anyone first because I’m always afraid you’re going to get dissed. Like some guys are assholes, right?”
Despite his social anxieties, Schirripa decided to approach his old colleague. “I go up to her and I say, ‘Hey Ellen, I don’t know if you remember me. Steve? I ran the Riviera Comedy Club?’ How hard am I to fucking remember? And she just dismissed me,” he said. “Like, I don’t even think she said anything. She was with two other people, and I had a tuxedo on. I just slinked away.”
Schirripa also told Normand and Morril about his experiences with other comics during his Vegas days, including…
- Don Rickles: “Rickles played the Sahara. He was his own guy, nicest guy. He fucks around, but he’s (a) really nice guy. I love Don Rickles personally, but he didn’t make me laugh that much. The hockey puck shit and all that.”
- Robin Williams: “A great guy, and I got to know him. I liked him better as an actor than as a comic. I didn’t care for him (as a comedian).”
- Rodney Dangerfield: “We go see his show. I’m with my wife, we weren’t married then. We go backstage. He’s wearing the robe with the fucking cards. His balls are fucking hanging down like a grandfather clock, and he drinks a giant vodka. A lot of fun. We hung for quite a while.”
“So did his balls,” joked Normand.
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