After TikTok – get cannoli.
A family of Brooklynites is supporting social media creators in New York’s Italian-American community who are producing funny and authentic content that is being devoured as devil brother world.
Siblings Sabino and Michela Curcio and their cousin Rocco Loguercio have been running Growing Up Italian on social media since 2016. They’ve amassed 2.1 million followers, delivering viral slices of Italian life from a studio above their grocery store. family breads.
“We were always sending each other silly Italian culture memes, but we felt like we could do better,” Loguercio told The Post.
“We’re not just stereotypes; “Growing Up Italian is all about tradition.”
“GUI” was developed into a weekly show on YouTube in 2018. Notable guests have included “The Usual Suspects” actor Chazz Palminteri, judge Frank Caprio and rapper Bhad Bhabie (Danielle Bregoli).
“We resonate with a lot of people whose family immigrated to America for a better life,” Michela, 29, explained to The Post.
Along with the famous, “GUI” has championed sometimes savvy, almost always eccentric New Yorkers—and often both—whose content is a window into Italian authenticity.
“We were living it,” said Sabino Curcio, 34. “We didn’t need to make a regular film to showcase the culture; we used our iPhones.”
John Viola, son of Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola, is an “Italian professional”. He recently opened Red Sauce Studio at the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets in Little Italy to foster Growing Up Italian and further investment in Italian American media.
“The content is about faith, tradition, family and food, and a lot of people really love that,” Viola, 40, said.
Anthony Sciarratta’s public relations firm primarily represents Italian American businesses that want a strong social strategy—and it’s working.
“Small businesses are seeing returns using social to present an authentic feel of New York’s Italian community,” Sciarratta, 28, told The Post.
now this is love!
Here are just a few of the social media stars celebrating NYC’s Italian-American experience as only they — and “GUI” — can.
Rossella Rago, 37, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
The Italian-American social media queen to her 841,000 Facebook followers, Rago started making her charming and heartwarming “Cooking With Nonna” videos with her grandmother in 2009.
“I’m pretty sure I’m the ‘first nonna maker,’ and now everyone is cooking with their nonna,” Rago told The Post.
She has published three cookbooks and opened an online store, Bottega Della Nonna, racking up 80,000 orders as of 2019.
“You can’t also be the Mother Teresa of free recipes – you have to support content creation.”
Sal ‘The Voice’ Valentinetti, 28, Long Island
A 2016 America’s Got Talent finalist, Sal “The Voice” Valentinetti, 28, hopes to bring the music of Italian singers Louis Prima and Dean Martin to a new generation.
“15-second clips of songs like ‘Che La Luna’ in thousands of social media videos connect a younger crowd with those old Italian songs,” said Valentinetti, who boasts 109,000 Instagram followers.
“Collaborating with ‘GUI’ has brought younger audiences to my shows,” he told The Post.
Danny ‘Meals By Cug’ Mondello, 27, Staten Island
Meals By Cug focuses on food and is known for Mondello’s vulgarity of all kinds of cuisine.
Danny “Cug” Mondello combines vintage Andrew Dice Clay’s spicy delivery with Sebastian Maniscalco’s stand-up comic theme. His 1.4 million Instagram followers can’t stop listening to or watching him Eat.
He also cooks. Commenting on a large eggplant, Cug said, “That thing could anchor the Intrepid.”
Mario Bosco, 51, Midwood, Brooklyn
Mario Bosco, an actor-comedian of nearly 40 years, looks 15 years old. Being born with a rare condition that limited his growth doesn’t stop his Italian-centric laugh from creating laughs.
“Every nationality has good and bad aspects, but there are always funny things to relate to,” said Bosco, who boasts nearly 27,000 followers on Instagram.
In a recent video, Bosco broke out in a board game where players drop a rubber lobster into a long pot of pasta on a turntable.
“You know you’re Italian when you play a game of pots and pans,” Bosco shouted.
Erma Camporese, 59, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Like many in the “GUI” universe, viral content creator New York Nico first suggested that Erma Camporese’s apparent New York behavior would be social media gold.
“I don’t know why these people find me so interesting. I’m just me,” she said.
A retired Western Beef employee, her hilarious “GUI” movies led her to a new podcast, the “Mario Bosco Show,” co-hosted by her namesake.
‘Big Joe’ Gambino, 41, Astoria, Queens
“Big Joe” Gambino posts wisdom and Italian expressions to his more than 300,000 Instagram followers and over 128,000 TikTok fans. Study his site if you’ve forgotten something your nonna used to say, like good natured (“rest their souls”) before pronouncing a dead person’s name.
A fixture at the Fratellanza Italiana Di Astoria social club, Gambino flashes chains and watches styled by Italians of a bygone era – but drives a Kia.
“People break my chops and say a big boy should drive a Cadillac or a Mercedes — I say I don’t need all that,” Gambino said in a TikTok showing off his Kia Sorento.
He is now a spokesman for a Queens Kia dealership.
Not surprisingly, “Big Joe” Gambino likes to eat. In a recent cannoli taste test, he chose the pastry from Fortunato Brothers on Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg over one from Villabate Alba, at 7001 18th Ave. in Bensonhurst.
“It will be difficult for me to go below 18th Avenue this summer,” Gambino joked.
Mario’s Meats & Gourmet Deli, Middle Village, Queens
Embracing new social media tactics helped the old-school butcher shop expand its reach.
“Customers now come from Long Island, Staten Island and Jersey, and now we’re shipping nationwide,” said Mario’s Meats founder and president Joe DiGangi.
DiGangi, 42, speaks English and Italian to create funny content about the special shopping habits of Italian dads, the right way to order a steak and how people from different parts of Italy speak Italian.
“Social media is helping to maintain Italian traditions as well as for people of other backgrounds,” DiGangi said.
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Image Source : nypost.com
