Wease Family Circus

Elvio Fernandes: From Real Estate to Daughtry's Stage | Wease Family Circus | EP 18

This episode is brought to you by the Contractor Store. https://thecontractorstore.com/ [https://thecontractorstore.com/] Elvio Fernandes walks into the Circus. 14 years in Daughtry. One of Rochester's most famous musicians, even if he won't say it himself. Wease has known him since the very beginning, when Elvio was a 28-year-old real estate agent with two kids, a mortgage, and a phone that randomly buzzed mid-showing. Chris Daughtry, fresh off American Idol, asking him to audition for the band. Elvio said no. His wife Jess said try again. The rest is history. This is the full origin story. How Elvio extracted audio from YouTube clips of Daughtry doing radio acoustic sets, layered piano and harmonies over them, and sent them back so the band could hear what he'd sound like before he ever stepped in a room with them. That tape is what got him the gig. The band didn't want a new guy. Howard Benson heard the harmonies and changed their minds. The song he wrote with Chris before he was even in the band. "Crazy." Third Daughtry album. Gold record on the wall. Came home from tour to find Jess had a hot tub, a new deck, and John Krueger doing renovations. The Steven Tyler story. Two weeks into the band, Elvio's in a trailer at American Idol with naked mannequins everywhere while Tyler plays him the unreleased Aerosmith record and sings harmonies in his ear. JLo in the makeup chair asking what nationality he is. Portugal. First time he's ever played his family's country. 16 cousins in the audience. Speech in Portuguese after the fourth song. Wearing a Ronaldo jersey. The whole crowd doing the "SIU" goal celebration. Chris thinking the crowd was booing him. The Brad Arnold tribute. Three Doors Down tours. The country song they wrote together that never came out. Rockstar Academy. Travel sports for kids who play music instead of sports. BB Dang origin story. Why college is mostly a scam. Why "I want to be famous" is the worst possible reason to chase music. Why you have to love the grind, the shitty songs, the smoky bars, all of it. Elvio's Portuguese coffee shop in Rochester. His brother's witchcraft in the kitchen. The pasteis de nata that Doreen brought back from Lisbon. Why Wease thinks Elvio's spot would kill it anywhere in the world. Cancel culture is dead. Kanye sold out SoFi for two nights. Ronnie Radke shitting on Buffalo to a sold-out Darien Lake. The mumble rap debate. Sperm racing in California (don't ask). Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart town. Mountain biking capital. Why Wease almost died on an electric mountain bike. Plus, the book is out. "Addie's with Wease" by Marshall Fine and Brother Wease. Amazon and weasefamilycircus.com. UPCOMING: Canna Corner 1-Year Block Party. June 20. 2pm to 8pm. Free food, free cocktails, live DJ, glass-blowing demos, local vendors. Where Wease gets his herb. Rochester Comedy Festival. July 16-19. Multiple venues. All proceeds to the Rochester Cancer Alliance. Wease Show Reunion. Friday July 17. Comedy at the Carlson. Kevin Meaney Showroom. It's nice to be important. But it's more important to be nice.

Rochester's First Comedy Festival and a Wease Reunion Show | Wease Family Circus | Ep 17

Mark Ippolito walks into the Circus. The man behind every major comedy show in Rochester. The guy who turned a dinky pool hall into a 190-seat club in Webster, then convinced Shresh Gowell to break into an abandoned warehouse and build Comedy at the Carlson, one of the best clubs in America. This is the origin story of Rochester comedy Mark started at Comics Cafe in the box office. Then security. Then clearing tables before bottles became weapons. Then bartending. Then management. Then JJ bought the place and Mark became the guy. 11 years in Webster. 190 seats. Drew Carey. Dice. Super Troopers. Impractical Jokers. All on a tiny stage that got too small when Buffalo opened Helium and Syracuse got an Improv. Rochester was the tent pole. Goldilocks porridge. Right in the middle. They just needed a bigger room. Shresh and Sheryl sat in a booth every Friday saying "we gotta do something." Morgan Stern was opening Radio Social. Wease made the intro. Mark and Shresh literally broke into the building next door. Drew the whole thing on a napkin at Salvatore's. Then they built it. Comedy at the Carlson. 325 seats. Private parking inside the building. Private hallway to the green room. Speakers everywhere. A monitor and clock for every comedian. The kind of setup that makes pros say this is one of the best clubs in the country. Nikki Glaser played the Carlson before she became Nikki Glaser. Tiffany Haddish was in Wease's studio the same week her movie played across the street, six months removed from living in her car. Theo Vaughn. Jamie Foxx. Jim Norton. The Jim Norton story. Montreal festival. JJ owned Comics Cafe but didn't know comedy. Norton mentioned he'd do NYC sets for 50 bucks. JJ thought that's what comedians cost. Offered Norton 200 to come to Rochester. JJ also wanted to book "that Seinfeld guy." Had no idea who Seinfeld was. The Rickles Room. 100 seats. Intimate. For comics who can't fill 325 yet but can pack a small room and kill. Earl David Reed this weekend. Mark expanded again. Took over the Irish dance studio next door. Built The Carlson event venue. Weddings. Fundraisers. A church rents it Sundays at 6 a.m. Van Halen plays while they set up. Maximizing square footage. The first annual Rochester Comedy Festival. July 16-19. Multiple venues. Carlson. Radio Social. The Vault. Photo City. Artisan Works. The Wease Show Reunion Friday night, multiple mics, surprise guests flying in. Proceeds go to the Rochester Cancer Alliance. Funniest Person in Rochester finale kicks it off Thursday. 124 entries this year. CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Welcome and Sponsor Introduction: The Contractor Store * 00:00:41 Introducing Mark Ippolito: Rochester's Comedy Kingmaker * 00:03:14 From Comics Cafe to Comedy at the Carlson: The Journey * 00:05:51 The Comedy Club at Webster and Finding the Perfect Location * 00:07:11 Breaking into the Carlson: Drawing Dreams on a Bar Napkin * 00:10:58 Building a Headliner's Room: Green Rooms and Low Ceilings * 00:13:41 Nikki Glaser and Tiffany Haddish: Before They Were Stars * 00:25:48 The Rickles Room: Intimate Comedy for 100 * 00:28:14 Earl David Reed and the Art of Crowd Work * 00:30:45 Sports Talk: Giants, Knicks, and Philly Sucks * 00:23:09 The Carlson Event Venue: Maximizing Every Square Foot * 00:45:51 Rochester Comedy Festival Announcement: Four Days of Laughs * 00:47:39 The Wease Show Reunion: Friday Night Anchor Event * 00:50:12 Comedy for a Cause: Supporting the Rochester Cancer Alliance * 00:56:00 Funniest Person in Rochester Contest: 124 Hopefuls Compete Then sports. Mark talks Giants, Knicks, Bills. Micah Hyde befriended his nephew before he passed. Played video games with him every night. Brought him to the suite. Mark owns every Hyde jersey he could find. Hyde just launched a THC drink called Hyde's Hail Mary. Mark's bringing it to the club. Philly tried to block Knicks fans from playoff tix. Buffalo's doing it to Montreal fans. Mark says let them come. Best games are sitting next to a rival fan, breaking stones all night, high fives by the end. Mark's a Giants fan because his father was. Western NY was Giants territory before the Bills existed. His dad was a bookie. Hated the Yankees. Mark inherited that too. John Sterling died. 85. Yankees broadcaster 30+ years. John DiTullio hated him. Wease used to torture DiTullio with Sterling clips on the air. Vinnie Marcus walks in. Lost 65 pounds. Treadmill 3.1 miles a day. Looks like a different person. Jim Florentine in Endicott this weekend. Rob's Comedy Playhouse in Buffalo Saturday. Rochester Comedy Festival. July 16-19. Tickets on sale this week. Proceeds to the Rochester Cancer Alliance. It's nice to be important. But it's more important to be nice.

Soccer Sam: From High School Project to 32 Salvatore's Locations | Wease Family Circus

Salvatore Fantauzzo walks into the Circus. Soccer Sam. Started with one pizza shop on Main Street in 1978. Turned it into 32 locations across New York. Financed his employees. Turned box makers into franchise owners. Built an empire on loyalty, hard work, and a high school home ec project. This episode is the origin story. A senior year assignment turned into a 48 year legacy. Fred's meat market almost became a pizzeria. A shoe store across the street became the first Salvatore's. Captain Tony's, Pontillo's, and Bunny Goodman were the only competition back then. Sam talks about the 1983 pizza convention in Florida that changed everything. Mozzarella sticks. Chicken fingers. Buffalo wings from a girl who worked at the Anchor Bar. The moment Salvatore's became more than just pizza and subs. He talks about buying Aziz Pizza's leftover boxes when they went out of business because he was broke. The Pac Man machine in the lobby that kept him afloat. His brother pushing him to that convention. Necessity forcing him to expand because pizza alone wasn't cutting it. The franchise model that built Salvatore's. His brother and John Corgi were his first employees at 13. The second location opened inside a bar called Chadwicks. Nick from Donuts Delite started making boxes at eight, went to college for graphic design, came back, and now owns the store. 30 of 32 locations are owned by former employees. That's the Salvatore's way. You start making boxes. You work your way up. Sam finances your store. You build your life. Sam's biggest mistake? Not recognizing talent early enough. Mike DeBull left to start the Wegmans pizza department and built the entire food court concept. Chelsea from Branca started as a 17 year old server and runs one of the biggest restaurant operations in Monroe County. Tim Archeco owns Otto Tomato in Pittsford. All former Salvatore's. The soccer obsession. First Lancers game at 10. Every Inter Miami home game for five years straight. Last night he watched Messi blow a 3-0 lead and lose 4-3 to Orlando. 26,000 fans. Half from Uruguay, Costa Rica, Argentina. Young boys wearing pink and proud because of Messi. The women's soccer revolution. Trinity Rodman just signed a million dollar contract. Joe Sahlen gave away the Western New York Flash years ago. Now teams sell for 220 million. Wease had women's players on the show in the 90s when nobody cared. Those same women are millionaires today. Sam's 98 year old father in law lives alone, cooks alone, and mowed his own lawn until Sam intentionally broke the mower three months ago. Refuses senior living. Sharp as ever. Three kids. Ten grandkids. Santino owns Bushnell's Basin at 21. Started making boxes at 12. Tried college for six months and said I can't do this. Roxy helps run Santino's spot and owns her own nail salon. The youngest works for Salvatore's. Sal is an acupuncturist. The third generation is coming up. The Rochester versus Florida debate. Wease goes off on the guy who called Rochester a shit hole. Festivals everywhere. Music everywhere. Great hospitals. Great restaurants. Rochester is not a shit hole. Sam's body is broken down from working so hard his whole life. Florida heat helps. Rochester hurts. Pickleball with Linda. Soccer with his boys when he's in town. Wease on his Parkinson's. Walked three and a half miles this morning. Gym at 6 a.m. He doesn't want to get out of bed but he has to keep moving. Spirit Airlines collapses the day Doreen is supposed to fly to Tampa to take care of her mom. JetBlue acquires Spirit. Wease bought the tickets with points. Now the points are gone. I need this broad. I'm no good alone. This episode is the Salvatore's story. The soccer. The franchise. The mistakes. The loyalty. The legacy. It's nice to be important. But it's more important to be nice. CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Welcome and Sponsor Introduction: The Contractor Store * 00:00:56 Introducing Soccer Sam: Salvador Fantuzo and the Koji Connection * 00:02:54 The First Salvador's and Brother Wease's Early Support * 00:03:54 From High School Project to Pizza Empire: 32 Locations and Counting * 00:05:58 The Home Economics Class That Started It All * 00:10:13 Pizza Philosophy: Rochester Style vs New York Style * 00:15:20 Soccer Sam's Passion: From Lancers to Lionel Messi * 00:16:28 Hope Solo, Women's Soccer, and Making Millions * 00:18:12 Inter Miami VIP Experience: 26,000 Fans in Pink * 00:31:08 Building an Empire: Turning Employees into Owners * 00:44:22 Business Mistakes and Lost Talent: The Wegmans Story * 00:51:06 The Importance of Family Support and Hard Work * 00:56:28 Rochester Pride and Spirit Airlines Drama

Jake Proved the Jinx Was Real With 33 Seconds Left in the Game

There's a study. Parents who let their older kids swear in front of them end up with more honest relationships with their kids. Strict parents? Their kids hide everything, sneak out, lie. Lucy brings it up. That sets the tone for the whole episode. This week: The peewee football game that almost made Lucy cry. The kid she babysits is about to turn 8. Simeon stayed with the family this week. He brought tulips. Tulips are toxic to cats. They live on top of the fridge now. Adam and Simeon walked into Blue Wolf Bistro to take down a 40-minute food challenge. Four 8-ounce patties, fries, mac and cheese, a milkshake. The pro record is 13 minutes. They didn't even finish in 40. Then they threw up. The Fairport fight everyone's losing their mind about. And the eternal Rochester debate about whether Fairport is actually worse than the city now. Doreen's Portugal trip we somehow forgot to talk about until now. Lucy hit 13,000 steps babysitting Ronin because the kid decided they were running today. Sunburn included. Cameras are everywhere now. Your Uber has one. Just assume. Wease with the gloves off. No FCC. No corporate clock. SPONSORS The Contractor Store. If you're a contractor, they'll get you set up, get you gigs, hook you up. Dude, just go to contractorstore.com. It's nice to be important. It's more important to be nice. 0:00 Cold Open 0:29 Family And Sports Talk 1:42 Planning Game Day 2:49 Game Predictions 6:22 Sponsor: The Contractor Store 6:46 Sports And Personal Stories 9:35 Dreams And Unresolved Stuff 12:01 Betting Stories 15:37 Newspaper Clippings And More Dreams 16:15 The Kids Swearing Conversation 25:34 Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids 26:33 Reading To Kids 31:24 When Reading Actually Hits You 32:11 Sports And Family Memories 33:40 Family Gift Pranks 37:31 The Ice Cream Misunderstanding 40:44 Sports Scandals 45:01 The Cruise Incident: Whose Fault Was It 47:04 Bagel Talk 47:28 The Bagel Shop That Restored Our Faith 51:01 Poker Stories And Bad Luck 57:06 Adam And Simeon vs The Blue Wolf Food Challenge 1:02:41 Where Adam Wants His Next Eating Contest 1:03:30 The Fairport Bar Fight 1:04:35 Cameras Are Everywhere Now 1:06:07 13,000 Steps Babysitting Ronan 1:07:24 Social Media In Books 1:09:30 Dash Cams Are Watching You 1:15:00 Dunkin's Portuguese Connection 1:15:23 Sign Off

Wheels Maxwell | Wease Family Circus | EP 14

Clark Peshkin is the presenting sponsor of Wease Family Circus. Clark hosts free estate planning workshops that break down what actually works for New York families, especially if you own a home and want to keep things private and simple for the people you love. Register at https://clarkpeshkin.com/wease [https://clarkpeshkin.com/wease] Wheels Maxwell from Wednesdays with Wheels rolls into the Circus and the whole thing goes sideways in the best way. Sabres playoff fever, Facebook jail, a $300K cruise ship lawsuit, and a story about loaning money to a degenerate poker player that ends with Doreen playing collections agent. Buffalo is back in the playoffs for the first time in forever and Wheels is fully locked in. The family gets into the absurd ticket resale prices, why season ticket holders aren't the villains, and how the Sabres are throwing a massive free viewing party at Canalside that might be more fun than sitting in the arena. Jake remembers being at the Stanley Cup Finals as a kid. Doreen admits she's on the bandwagon. Wease drops the real take: if you don't want to pay inflated prices, don't pay them. Go to the free party. Then it gets heavy in a good way. Wheels opens up about Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month. Getting kicked out of the Special Olympics because he wasn't mentally disabled. Playing Paralympic sled hockey in Buffalo. The dating life where people Google his life expectancy before they'll meet him for a drink. Real stories, no filter, no pity party. We also hit Wease's last day at iHeart. Jake captured the whole thing on camera. Doreen is the negotiator, Wease is the softie who feels bad for everyone, and somewhere in there is the story of a poker player who stiffed Wease for $150 until Doreen hunted him down so hard Wease finally caved and handed her $200 just to make her stop. Doreen and Lucy recap Tortuga Music Festival. Beach vibes, country crowds, Toby Keith between sets. Jake admits it's not his scene. Doreen defends the country fans and says they're the nicest people at any festival. Then Kalshi comes up. The app where you can bet on politics and weather. Wease bets $50 that Trump would name-drop the space launch and cashes out $100 in two seconds. Wheels explains how people were betting on war with Iran right before it happened. Congress is already trying to regulate it. Then the craziest story of the episode. Wheels gets thrown in Facebook jail for child exploitation. Someone hacked his account and sent illegal content through Messenger. Month-long lockout. He panics, appeals, loses his mind, then admits it was the best digital detox of his life. Second he got his account back he was right back on it because the podcast runs on social. The family goes to war over parents suing Facebook, age verification, or whether parents just need to parent. Wease says blaming the platform is like blaming heroin dealers. Doreen pushes back: not every kid has great parents. We close with a $300,000 cruise ship lawsuit. A 45 year old woman drinks 14 shots of tequila in nine hours, falls down a staircase, and sues Carnival for over-serving her. Wease calls BS. She could have been at six different bars. The family gets into bartender responsibility and whether cruise ships should be on the hook when someone tequilas themselves into the ER. Plus stories about Brother Larry the bookmaker who'd settle debts for pennies on the dollar, the Wi-Fi crash that killed the recording mid-sentence, and why Wheels never got hooked up like Bull did back in the day. Sabres hype. Facebook nightmares. Tequila lawsuits. Classic Circus. It's nice to be important. But it's more important to be nice. CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Welcome and Sponsor Introduction: Clark Peskin * 00:01:25 Introducing Wheels Maxwell: Sabers Playoffs Excitement * 00:02:18 Sabres Memories: Jake at the Stanley Cup Finals * 00:04:06 Rasmus Dahlin's Journey and His Wife's Heart Transplant * 00:05:57 Playoff Ticket Prices: The Resale Debate * 00:10:37 The Masters and Taylor Swift: Ticket Control Done Right * 00:14:51 Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month with Wheels * 00:16:51 Kicked Out of Special Olympics: The Swimming Story * 00:18:28 Paralympic Sled Hockey and Ray Maluda Connection * 00:20:26 Wease's Final Day at iHeart: Behind the Scenes * 00:23:29 Doreen the Negotiator vs Wease the Softie * 00:25:11 The $150 Poker Loan That Won't Get Paid Back * 00:31:09 Tortuga Music Festival: Country Crowds and Beach Vibes * 00:37:10 Kalshi App: Betting on Politics and Weather * 00:42:00 Facebook Jail: Wheels' Child Exploitation Nightmare * 00:45:27 Phone Addiction and Digital Detox Reality * 00:49:15 Suing Facebook: Parents vs Social Media Giants * 00:54:25 The $300K Cruise Ship Lawsuit: 14 Shots of Tequila * 00:57:41 Bartender Responsibility and Over-Serving * 01:07:07 Brother Larry the Bookmaker: Settling Debts for Less * 01:08:24 Wi-Fi Crash and Final Thoughts with Wheels