Sometimes you meet someone for a short time but then fate brings you back together and you get to be friends. For me, that person is Joe Salanitri.
Joe and I both went to Salesian College in Melbourne. We had the kind of relationship where we'd say 'hey' in the hallways, but we weren't close and we lost touch for many years. Then when I saw him on Instagram I thought, 'I went to school with that guy' and decided to reach out. (We brushed past each other even earlier, actually.
Joe says he used to work at the dealership (where I bought my first Subaru.)
Joe, his brother Carlo and his friend Andrew, started the comedy trio Sooshi Mango in 2015 after one of Joe's rants - about a driver who didn't gesture 'thank you' after he pulled over to let the car pass - went viral. They did a bunch of videos making fun of ethnic parenting, even taking on Italians vs Greeks, the kind of wog humour that Nick Giannopoulos (now a good friend) became famous for, but updated for Australians today.
So you can expect to find clips of ethnic mums using smartphones and even one referencing the pandemic, 'Ethnic Isolation Hypocrites'.
One of the characters wears big red tracksuit pants, a tight top, a massive gold chain and watch. "I almost wished society let me be that character, like that full-on wog. Just proud, who gives a fuck," says Joe. "One of the biggest laughs in my show is when I dress as this character."