Sooshi Mango’s Joe Salanitri: the comedian bringing ‘wog’ back
Celebrated comedian Joe Salanitri isn’t afraid to talk woggy houses, woggy stereotypes and not paying tax.
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Joe Salanitri has made a comedic career playing old ethnic men, as one third of Sooshi Mango, so it’s fitting he chose his family home to do this photo shoot.
“I said, ‘Ma, we’re going to take some photos of me in a woggy setting, I’m coming over’. She’s like: ‘why would you call my house woggy?’ That made me laugh.”
Joe, together with his brother Carlo and friend Andrew Manfre, will soon embark on a national Off The Boat Tour, which he says is a celebration of new Australians and their quirks.
“We’re just re-creating what these people did. Let’s not forget they came through 50 years ago and there’s a stereotype of them that is comical, because it’s true. My dad used to say, ‘why do you say I no pay tax, I always pay tax’. OK, papa, let’s just agree to disagree,” says Joe.
“Seriously though, they did it tough, so we didn’t have to. Dad was too sick at the end to see our first solo show before he passed, but he was so proud of us.”
Much like his childhood home, Joe says he has little input in the decor of his marital home with wife Georgina, though “it’s less woggy”.
“Don’t tell anyone, but I use pod coffee. And back in the day, if dad was having steak we were all having steak. Imagine trying to suck on an artichoke as a six-year-old. My kids mostly eat a different dinner to us and I don’t chase them with a wooden spoon. Times have changed.”
Who: Sooshi Mango comedian Joe Salanitri.
Where: Melbourne with wife Georgina, son Luca, 9, and Alessia, five.
Favourite thing: This was my dad’s old recliner. He has passed now, but he introduced us to comedy at a young age by watching the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy. We do this for him.
Inspiration: We chop and change things now, back then, if it wasn’t broken, you didn’t change it.
Home is: Family and somewhere you go when you’re in trouble.
SOOSHI MANGO’S JOE SALANITRI’S FAVOURITE THINGS AT HOME
Maternal grandmother’s recipes
Restaurants now charge $45 for an entree of polenta chips.
That drives me insane! Back then it was peasant food, chickpeas, lentils, broad beans. I hated it as a kid, but love it now.
Framed fruit artwork
Someone saw this in koumbara Josie’s house, thought it was beautiful, and said, ‘we all got to buy the same one’. Every wog had this in their home. It sums up wog life: food and wine.
Wooden spoon
Mum had a subscription to the wooden spoon place. She used to break them on me and my brother. It was the pinnacle of every wog household. So much fear for one little object.
Ethnic treasure chest, the christalliera
At any given time there’d be 45 bonbonnière on it, a picture of the Pope and all those crystal glasses my parents had since they got married, but no one was allowed to use.
Garage workspace
There are containers of screws in here my dad would never use, nothing was thrown away. You would always find a Mr Muscle bottle in here too, which had spray for the tomatoes.
Dad’s cafetiere
The small one was for my dad’s coffee, but the big one reminds me of my parents’ friends coming over, which was boring as s**t because you weren’t allowed to be naughty.
Liquor cabinet
This takes me back 30 years to when my dad and uncles, with their open neck shirts and gold chains, would smoke in the house. All the top liquor was in this cabinet.
Encyclopaedia
If you had these you were rich and they were always in the ‘saloni’. I’d say to my dad, ‘why isn’t this in the cupboard?’
And he’d say, ‘Do you know how much I paid for them?’
Originally published as Sooshi Mango’s Joe Salanitri: the comedian bringing ‘wog’ back
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