CATCH THE FUNNY TIMES THREE AT SEVEN ANGELS

TONY  POWELL (TOP)  JOHNNY SIALIANO (MIDDLE) AND TOM FOSS (BELOW)

With a glass of green beer in one hand and a shamrock stuck in your jaunty hat, you’ll be all set to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style.  Seven Angels Theatre is happy to set your comedy funny bones vibrating this Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. when a trio of unlikely leprechauns invade Waterbury’s temporary Emerald Isle, for one night only.

First up is writer and stand up comic Tony Powell, who hails from Brooklyn and was something of a child prodigy, winning a scholarship to a Cheshire Connecticut boarding school, and starting college at age 16 at the University of Virginia, excelling on the debate team and planning a career as a speech writer.  Powell was teaching at-risk teens on Coney Island when he was tapped by the irreverent Don Imus to join his Imus in the Morning Radio Show, post the Rutgers controversy.  Initially a sports commentator, he has since graviatated to general commentator and celebrity impersonations.  He is known for doing Little Richard, Jesse Jackson, Eddie Murphy and Charles Rangel.  Powell thinks “comedy is a powerful aphrodisiac.”  He discovered he was funny in the fifth grade when he did a running commentary on a dissection of a frog in science class and made everybody in class laugh, except perhaps the teacher.

Finding his powers early in life, Powell thinks “comics are born and see the world in a certain way, observing the funny in it.”’ To Powell, comics “speak the truth and take on the establishment.”  You may have seen him in commercials for Ritz Crackers, the U.S. Army, Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, or Miller’s Beer as Mr. Chill or Heineken.

Next up at the microphone is “Goumba Johnny” Sialiano, born in the Bronx, who started out as a professional football player for the NY Jets and NY Giants until he was sidelined by a neck injury.  Creating Broadway Bodyguards, he went on to escort celebrities like Smokey Robinson, Malcolm Forbes and Sam Kinison.  Today he is a radio host, comedian, actor and author and a famous “roaster” on the circuit for “victims” like Matt Lauer.

Noted for his “slice of Italian comedy,” he talks about how his mom worked in a church and punished him by sending him to his room to read the Bible, where he discovered Jesus was Italian, how he was forced to go to his 3rd, 4th and 5th degree cousins’ weddings and how his father was the font of italian wisdom. He’s frequently seen at comedy clubs like Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, on soap operas like Guiding Light and As the World Turns, made commercials for the NFL on the Super Bowl, written for Cosmopolitan and US Weekly and penned a book in 2008 “So You Wanna Be a Mobster: Get Made! Get Paid! Get Babes! Start Your Own Mafia Family!” and helped raise dollars for numerous charities.

Move over, Bob Hope, there’s another amazing traveling comic in town, one who has taken his antics and routines around the world nine times.  Tom Foss has entertained troops from Iraq to Afghanistan as well as the Middle East to Europe.  Dubbed a “cross between Robin Williams and George Carlin,” Tom Foss can also be found on aircraft carriers, support ships and army bases all over the U. S. in addition to being a member of the crew on a number of Carnival cruise ships.  A regular visitor to comedy clubs, Foss can also be heard on XM Satellite Sirius Radio.

Tom Foss is likely to make fun of everything from flip flops to knee problems, aging to Cialis, ice cream to soccer, cell phones to squirrels, drinking to relationships, senior moments to snacks.

For a fun night of comic geniuses, call Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Road, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org for tickets ($38.75).

Irish beer will be flowing and maybe some of it will even be green for the celebratory occasion..