Three Friends, One Booth

We Opened a Cheesesteak Spot With Skinny Joey — Here's How It Happened

Joe, Johnny, and Gene are back at the booth for episode 5, and they cover a lot of ground. Johnny breaks down how a cheesesteak spot in Wildwood came together through a chance connection with Skinny Joey Merlino's crew, and the guys debate whether it could eventually franchise all the way to Seattle. From there, they get into the old neighborhood geography of South Philly and South Jersey, talking about which blocks, parishes, and high schools defined where you stood socially growing up. The conversation drifts into classic 80s nostalgia, from designer jeans (Sassoon, Cavarici's, Z-Cavs) and knockoff leather jackets to who was allowed to like Michael Jackson in South Philly versus Cherry Hill, and the strict cultural rules around what you could and couldn't wear if you grew up Italian downtown. Gene drops a confession about being a die-hard MJ fan, and Joe admits he borrowed a Thriller jacket from a classmate named Young Kim for one period of class. They also get into Philly sports, the Don Mattingly era Phillies, the old blackout rules when teams didn't sell out, and the legendary club scene on Route 70 in Cherry Hill. The episode wraps up with listener voicemails, a full-on moon landing conspiracy debate, and a very sincere plug for Johnny's Louis Vuitton cologne, Imagination, which runs $380 a bottle.

Life, Loyalty, and Cheesesteaks with guest Joe Perri AKA Lil’ Snuff

Episode 4 of Three Friends, One Booth brings in a very special guest: Joe Perry, aka Lil’ Snuff, co-host of the hugely popular The Skinny podcast and co-founder of Skinny Joey’s Cheesesteaks in Wildwood, NJ. Joe and the guys dig into Snuff’s wild life story, from growing up in South Philly to bartending, stage work, and a hard battle with addiction, to how a random card game over cheesesteaks turned into a full-blown business. They get into The Skinny’s origin story, the social media grind, fan voicemails, where the “bed bug” catchphrase actually came from, and why being a South Philly guy is something you carry with you no matter where life takes you. CHAPTER MARKERS 0:00 - Introductions and Meet Lil’ Snuff 3:00 - Snuff’s Life Story: Bartending, the Union, and Getting Clean 6:00 - How the Skinny Podcast Was Born and Led to a Cheesesteak Shop 13:00 - Vacation Talk, Moving Back to Philly, and Married Life 17:00 - The Social Media Grind: Posting Raw, Going Viral, and Getting Cancelled 29:00 - Fan Voicemails, Where “Bed Bug” Comes From, and South Philly Nicknames 35:00 - Money, Gambling, and the South Philly Way of Spending 44:00 - Golf, Kids, and Growing Up in the Area 46:00 - Cancel Culture, Social Media, and Saying the Wrong Thing 56:00 - Growing Up South Philly: Street Racing, Underage Bars, Italian Culture, and Old School Manners

Cheesesteaks, Scrambled Cable TV, and Jimmy Rollins Shows Up | Three Friends, One Booth Ep. 3

Episode 3 is a special one. Joe and Gene are joined by Sal Burgese of Backyard Cravings — the South Philly pop-up cheesesteak operation that blew up on social media and caught the attention of Phillies legends, current managers, and anyone in the area who takes their food seriously. Sal is opening his first brick-and-mortar shop in South Philly and this is one of his first podcast appearances. Before Sal joins, Joe and Gene go deep on what it was like when cable TV first came to the neighborhood, the movies they watched on repeat and still quote today, and why Gene's dad was always watching Cinemax a little too enthusiastically. 0:00 — What's your favorite curse word when you're really pissed off?0:44 — When cable first came to the neighborhood2:47 — Joe's uncle climbed the telephone pole to get all the channels for free4:42 — Gene's dad, Cinemax, and the fights it caused7:47 — Introducing Sal Burgese of Backyard Cravings11:08 — The movies they still quote every day11:36 — My Cousin Vinny word for word14:54 — Shawshank Redemption and what it means to finally not give a damn17:41 — The Pope of Greenwich Village18:51 — Mickey Rourke: what happened to his face?26:10 — How Sal started making cheesesteaks during COVID29:08 — The gas station story54:46 — The day Jimmy Rollins showed up at Sal's house and stayed for two hours59:03 — How Joe got snuck into the 2008 World Series by Mitch Williams1:10:18 — Why every Italian family needs a finished basement1:14:24 — Joe's dad hits his head on the same beam three times in a row Sal Burgese — @backyard_cravings on Instagram Three Friends, One Booth is recorded live at Vito's Pizza, Cherry Hill, NJ.🍕 Vito's Pizza — @vitospizzacherryhill🎙 DFX Sound & Vision — @dfx_soundvision🎤 Joe Matarese — JoeMatarese.com

Don't Call My Father (And Joe Needs to Apologize)

Joe has some explaining to do. His wife forgave him for the stand-up jokes he did about her at the Collingswood show — eventually. In the meantime, the guys have a lot of thoughts. None of them are helpful. This week: someone gets hammered at a seventh grade bus stop and takes the whole crew down with him. Johnny gets locked up on a Friday night in South Philly, makes one phone call, and gives one very specific instruction that his mother immediately ignores. Gene follows bad directions up a down ramp and somehow ends up in handcuffs next to a guy who just stabbed somebody. Joe has never been arrested. He'd like that on the record. Three Friends, One Booth is recorded live at Vito's Pizza in Cherry Hill, NJ — new episodes every week wherever you listen to podcasts.

Pilot Episode Three Friends, One Booth

I've been talking like this my whole life. In parking lots, diners, somebody's kitchen at 2am. The only difference now is there's a microphone.Welcome to Three Friends, One Booth. Me, Gene "Gennaro" Esposito, and Johnny Flea -- crammed into a booth at Vito's Pizza in Cherry Hill, NJ, eating chicken parm and saying everything we'd normally say anyway.This is Episode 1. The pilot. And I'll be honest -- we didn't ease into it.We open with my son at University of Tampa. There's a pool. There's a Jumbotron. There are bikinis. He won't go and we think we know why. I FaceTime him and he tells me -- and I'm quoting directly -- "Why would I go to the pool? It's just a bunch of girls getting tan." I nearly blacked out.From there we get into how Gene hit puberty at 18 and the guys have never let him live it down, Johnny driving a 30-foot Winnebago to University of West Virginia to visit his son at college, our old mafia nicknames, Italian grandmothers cooking Sunday gravy at 4am, Johnny's son hitting a deer on the way home from school, and the story of how I got into a parking lot fight when I was 19, got one lucky punch in, lost my shoes running, cut my feet on broken glass, paid a bouncer ten bucks to walk me to my car -- and then hid in the weeds for four hours when it didn't work out.This is us. Twice a month. Subscribe and come hang.Timestamps:0:00 -- My son is at Tampa and won't go to the pool. It's the girlfriend.2:08 -- Welcome to Three Friends One Booth -- we're live at Vito's Pizza in Cherry Hill NJ3:03 -- Gene goes by Janaro now. We discuss.7:18 -- How our old crew got their nicknames -- Johnny Flea, Frankie Head, Anthony Ice9:07 -- Gene hit puberty at 18. The guys find out. It goes how you'd expect.14:00 -- Johnny's son hits a deer coming home from college. Johnny briefly considers lying to insurance.17:52 -- The insurance adjuster's actual advice about deer. Genuinely useful.20:04 -- Gene's company DFX has approximately 30 Instagram pages. He doesn't have the passwords to most of them.22:26 -- Our kids can't afford to move out and honestly the housing market is terrifying25:00 -- Johnny's going to Rome, Florence, and Sorrento this summer. One rule: no chicken parm.27:00 -- Sauce vs. gravy. My Italian grandmother. Johnny's grandmother up at 4am. We go deep.31:14 -- I got in a parking lot fight at 19, landed one punch, lost my shoes, bled on broken glass, and hid in the weeds for four hours. Full story.38:07 -- Dukes Till Dawn, the Shay, staying out till the sun came up with nowhere to be the next day. I miss that.52:10 -- Wrapping up Episode 1. See you next week from the booth.I've been seen or heard on The Howard Stern Show, WTF with Marc Maron, The Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents Joe Matarese (His Own 1/2 Hour Special), The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn and Craig Ferguson, Americas Got Talent, and his three Specials on Youtube The Poster's Wrong, Medicated, and Mullets and Mixtapes. Click here to watch my newest special Mullets and Mixtapes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiWVYa9ps48 Follow me on Instagram: https://Instagram.com/TheJoematareseFollow Me On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thejoematareseFollow Me On Facebook: https://Facebook.com/TheJoematareseTo Book Me For An Event Go To: https://Joematarese.com/contact To See Where I'm Performing: https://Joematarese.com