Who What Where Why and When With Mike Recine
Mike Recine is a New York based comedian that you need to know about. Within the last year, he’s performed stand up on Conan, he was named a finalist in the New York’s funniest competition, and SiriusXM host Ron Bennington described him as one of the most original stand ups he’s seen in a long time. He also has written for the MTV Video Music Awards, performed as a New Face in the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, and been nominated for Time Out New York’s Joke of the Year. Mike hosts a monthly show at The Stand in New York City called Mike Recine’s Sunday Sauce which takes place on the second Sunday of every month. The next Sunday Sauce happens this Sunday, March 15th at The Stand in New York city with a great line up that includes Gary Gulman, Dan St. Germaine, Adrienne Iapalucci, Mike Vecchione and Chris DeStefano. Go to TheStandNYC.com for tickets and more information.
Mike’s comedy is so original, that it kind of defies description, and Mike thinks talking about stand up is pretty boring anyway, so when we got the chance to talk with Mike, we asked him five questions, about his cooking, his comedy, and his Italian grandma.
WHEN did you start making your own sauce?
Well my family had a restaurant in Jersey for like 50 years, so my grandmother always made tomato sauce and then canned it and then I was working at this store in Brooklyn, we were buying a lot of local stuff, but we were just buying stuff that people kind of made themselves, I thought that I could just do it.
WHO taught you how to make your recipe? Was it your grandma?
It’s my recipe. She taught me how to can it and everything. But the recipe is mine. I didn’t really confer with her or anything. I just made it a bunch of times and I have what I like in there, so…
WHY the Sunday Sauce Show?
As a little side project I started making tomato sauce and selling it out of my backpack just to see if I could do it. So people were buying it, and people liked it and then somebody from The Stand approached me and they were like ‘oh you should do a monthly show here and everybody gets a free jar of sauce, and we’ll do a little door deal with you’ so that’s pretty cool.
I make the sauce like once a month. I don’t really have as much time to make tomato sauce but this show has been good and people buy it and they hear about it and everybody gets a free jar with admission. I call it Recine Brothers. It’s just me, my brother and I had the idea to make it ourselves but just one guy, buy himself making sauce just seems a little weird to me. Even though that’s what it is. So I like that family image, you know? I do have two brothers. Isn’t that weird. Just one guy? Especially if its a dude, alone in his basement. I think if its a female name, you can get away with it, cause what’s she going to do to it. There’s still a stigma.I guess its like what you’re cooking and who you’re cooking for.
Patrick — he’s the owner of The Stand— he books it but he always gets really good people. Everyone that we’ve had on, are like club comics, that are all great. We have some Italian comics on but the last thing I want is like a real ‘guinea’ heavy show. Cause I’m not crazy about Ethnic themed shows. I think that limits you. So the next one we have Gary Gulman, we have Dan St. Germaine, and then we have Adrienne Iapallucci and Chris DeStefano so its a nice mix.
WHAT are some things people might not know about making sauce or Italian food.
On using canned tomatoes vs fresh: 90% of sauce is made from canned tomatoes. I use canned tomatoes. It’s easier. There’s something with fresh tomatoes. It’s hard to actually make a sauce with fresh tomatoes cause you can’t…I read this..I’m paraphrasing but if you cook them too long, it will lose the fresh taste and you might as well have just used canned tomatoes.
On making meatballs: You gotta use a meat with a high fat content. You can’t use sirloin, you gotta use chuck or ground pork. You gotta put some pork in there or it will come out dry if you use too lean a beef. I bake mine. My brother when he does his, he fries them in vegetable oil, and it gets that crust on the outside, but I don’t think that’s…to each their own. I think they come out good in the oven. I’ve seen a lot of good chefs make em that way and then you get the fat, you can dip your bread in the fat, that’s nice.
On Italian Grandmas: You know what’s funny? Italians, we kind of like, give our grandmothers too much credit. All it really is, is just flour and water. You roll it and cut it up. You know what I mean? And everyone’s like “oh yeah, my grandmotha makes the best….” its like, i dunno. I mean I love my grandmother but, she’s probably got like a fifth grade reading level, you know? She’s not the smartest person. So it’s not hard. But that’s kind of what I like about Italian cuisine, is that its so simple but people are like impressed by it. Any monkey can do it. It’s simple food for poor people. But people have complicated it way too much
WHERE else have you been performing?
Mostly in New York, but I get out a little bit. I’m going to LA next month in April. I’ve been going to DC a lot, Boston. I’ll be in San Diego the end of next month. I’m trying to get out of the city more and do longer sets.
Get Tickets for Sunday Sauce | Visit Mike’s Website | Follow Mike on Twitter
Go see Mike Recine’s Sunday Sauce show THIS SUNDAY, March 15th at The Stand. The show starts at 8pm, doors open at 7:30, admission is $10 and includes a free jar of Mike’s sauce which we hear is amazing. Or the sauce is $10 and you get free admission with the purchase of sauce. Get tickets on TheStandNYC.com.
interview mike recine
