The story of how a one of a kind actor inadvertently solidified one of the most important relationships of my life.

Story created & performed by:

Aaron Calafato

Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce

Audio Production: Ken Wendt

Original Art: Pete Whitehead

TRANSCRIPT

Epsiode 97 Sonny Corinthos - powered by Happy Scribe

You're listening to seven minute stories with Aaron Calafato. Make sure to subscribe rate and write a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you find your podcasts. And don't forget to tell a friend. Visit our merch page at 7minutestoriespod.com. That's the number 7minutestoriespod.com. This episode: Sonny Corinthos.. MEOW!

Do you know who Sonny Corinthos is? Sonny Corinthos? Does that ring a bell? If you do, you're going to love this. If you don't, i got to tell you a story. So, Sonny Corinthos is a fictional character. He's a mob boss an entrepreneur type, played beautifully by this actor named Maurice Benard on a soap opera called General Hospital. And how do I know all this? Well, because I love General Hospital and I'm not afraid to admit that. I love the drama and the love affairs and the romance and the deceit and the action, and the cliffhangers... Just really good television, great stories.

So one day, you know, I was in junior high. I don't remember exactly what year, but I remember getting off the bus and I'm walking to my house and I'm in conflict. See, in junior high, like most of us, I was having a hard time just getting through. It was difficult. I was a really tiny dude. I mean, I was like five.. Five-foot, 80 pounds. I wrestled 80 pounds in eighth grade. So, I was like, like a really short guy and, you know, wasn't having luck with the ladies, the whole teenage thing. Right? I mean, really from junior high all the way through high school, I had this and. and also I was sort of trying to find a reflection. I knew who I was. I loved myself. But I want, you're always looking for different sort of archetypes to to match yourself after. Right? And growing up, you know, I'm half Italian and we have a lot of Sicilian heritage on that side. So, I grew up watching gangster movies. I mean, my grandfather, I remember he went, we went through the ringer. The whole, like, initiation. You know, I was like Godfather, all The Godfathers, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale. The list goes on.

And I love that, as far as the the story and the portrayal of the Italian American family particularly. And that essence. And the guys were cool, too, but they were pretty one dimensional i always felt compared to me. Like when I looked at myself in them, they were very intense and masculine, but they weren't really in touch with their feelings. They weren't sensitive, they weren't brooding. They didn't have dimension in that sense.

Well, I'm walking up my driveway and I remember I forgot my key and I had to break into my own house with a tool outside. So, and remember, I'm a tiny dude, so I like, I cracked open the window and I slithered in my house. I found a snack in the fridge and I go into the TV room and I'm about to turn on our color TV. Now, I say this like from the nineteen forties, but you have to understand, my mom was pretty frugal. She was like a hippie. So, upstairs we had a black and white TV with bunny ears, couldn't get any channels, no reception. It was like decor. But downstairs in the TV room we had, a, it was like a nineteen eighties Hitachi color TV and you'd have to pull the little lever out and we got four channels. Never had cable my whole life growing up. We had three, five, eight and nineteen. That's NBC, ABC, Fox and CBS.

It was right around three o'clock and I happened to turn on ABC and the introduction for General Hospital comes on, you know, (hums the music) great song. Everybody's looking at the screen. They all look up very dramatically. And the first scene is with this character, Sonny Corinthos. And the first thing I noticed was he looked a lot like the men on the Calafato side of my family, like regardless of his ethnicity, the truth of that, his look, dark eyes, slicked back hair, the way he was dressed. And I recognized, like, he kind of had that, you know, he had that swag. But the more and more I started watching the episode, I started noticing he was portrayed in a very complex way, sans the whole mobster thing. Right?

But like a person who is distinctly masculine, but at the same time had dimensions of passion and he was protective of all the the women he had relationships with. And he, he loved fiercely. And he was he was, um, he had a moral compass he was going back and forth with. He was just a dynamic person. And so I kept watching this show religiously every day at three o'clock. And I'm watching Sonny Corinthos. And I thought to myself, after years and years and years, up to like a senior in high school, through all his relationships and the, and the love stories and adventures that he had, I had this moment where I was like, you know what? I, that's besides, again, minus the whole mobster thing. That's the kind of guy, that reminds me of me, meaning I'm not just one dimensional. I'm not just a jock. I'm not just like "I have tools or I'm super sensitive." I felt that there was nuance and complexity and I saw that same complexity in this character that Maurice Bernard played beautifully. And I resonated with that. Now, it gets better. Flash forward to my relationship just, you know, three years ago with my now fiancee, Cori, who coordinates the podcast and does the introductions. At the beginning of a relationship. Cori was like," you always look at me with such intense eye contact, you know, is that just is it because you're part Italian, where does that come from, you always had that? I was like, "you know, yeah that's just part of who I am, blah, blah, blah".

Well, I started thinking about it and I realized I was like, well, maybe, maybe I kind of lifted and stole some of Sonny Corinthos' moves from General Hospital. And I'm applying it to my relationship! And, we laughed about it. And she's like, "I had such a crush on Sunny Corinthos. So I said, "really?" I said, "I love that character, he's such a cool guy! "She's like, yeah. She goes, "let's watch a rerun of General Hospital to celebrate."

And we do we watch this rerun of General Hospital.

And then Cori says, "look, even the way he touches that girl's face, that's kind of how you touch my face." And I thought, oh, my God, I have almost like a crisis of conscience. I was like, "is Aaron, am I Aaron, am I Sonny? who am I? And we laughed about it so hard. And we actually came up with this inside joke where she would say, when I looked at her intensely and tried to flirt with her, she would always say, Are you trying to Corinthos me?

And look, Cori's birthday was just this past August and a buddy of mine sent me this text and it was from Cameo, this app where celebrities and actors can give birthday shoutouts and an anniversary and all that kind of stuff. And I'm just scrolling through and scrolling through. And all the sudden I find Maurice Bernard / Sonny Corinthos on... on the cameo thing on the app. And I'm like, oh my God, this weird connection. I'm like, I remember you, Sonny. This is crazy.

And I was like for Cori's birthday, I'm going to have, I'm going to request, you know, as a fair price point. I'm going to request that he does a birthday shoutout. So I send the request. I was really nice about it. I was like, he's never going to do it. Next thing I know, Maurice responds back and says, you know, has this beautiful video that he does for Cori wishing her happy birthday. He sings her happy birthday. And he says, "Listen, Aaron loves ya, Aaron loves ya, and he wants to wish you a happy birthday and he can't wait to marry you!"

And it was the most surreal thing in my life watching this. And I have to tell you, that was a beautiful moment where I got this video from Cameo with Maurice Bernard, a.k.a. Sonny Corinthos. And I sent the text to Cori, and I couldn't wait for her to open that video. But in the text I wrote: Hey, baby, you just got Corinthosed!

7 minute stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato, audio production by Ken Wendt , you can connect with Ken at media216.com . Original artwork done by Pete Whitehead. See Pete's work at petewhitehead.com and Lastly, I'm Cori Birce and I coordinate the podcast. Make sure and tune in next week for another story.

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