Joe Piscopo says his iconic Frank Sinatra impression on Saturday Night Live was inspired by his parents’ admiration for the singer
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Piscopo initially resisted doing the impression out of respect and even wrote to Sinatra’s lawyer for approval
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Sinatra later embraced the impression and introduced Piscopo during a 1986 Solid Gold appearance
Joe Piscopo, best known for his run onSaturday Night Livein the early 1980s, recently revisited his career while attending the American Film Institute Presents 51st AFI Lifetime Achievement Award honoringEddie Murphy.
During hisSNLyears, Piscopo emerged as one of the key breakout performers of a new cast era alongside Murphy, earning attention for his high-energy sketches, celebrity impressions and original characters like “The Sports Guy.” While his range was wide, one impression would eventually come to define him more than anything else:Frank Sinatra.
Even so, Piscopo says that the connection didn’t begin as a comedy idea — it came from something much more personal, shaped long beforeSNLever called.
“My respect and my love for Frank Sinatra came from my mother and my father,” Piscopo tells PEOPLE.
That admiration is exactly what made the Sinatra impression complicated for Piscopo at first.
The 74-year-old comedian tells PEOPLE it wasn’t something he rushed to do at the time, even thoughSNLstarted pushing for it.
“It was out of necessity. I did [the impression] at The Improvisation on 44th and 9th and thenSNLsaid, ‘You got to do the Sinatra impression,’” he reveals. “And I said, ‘I'm not doing it.’ I fought it."
Piscopo recalls resisting at first out of respect for Sinatra, even going as far as putting his concerns in writing.
“I fought it…out of respect and I wrote a letter to Mr. Sinatra: ‘They want me to do it. I'm not doing it, but if I do, it's with respect. And if you want me to cease and desist, I will,’" he says, recalling what he wrote to Sinatra’s lawyer at the time.
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Eventually, however, the show's demands won out.
“They needed a character and I'm a good soldier. And when NBC asked, I did it,” Piscopo admits.
Once it aired, the impression caught on quickly and became one of Piscopo’s definingSNLcontributions. Even Sinatra himself was “great with it” and eventually acknowledged it in his own way.
One of Piscopo’s most memorable experiences tied to Sinatra came years later, when he was invited to appear onSolid GoldwithDionne Warwickin 1986.
“[Sinatra] asked me to dress like him, to do the makeup like him and he introduced me,” he reveals — an experience that remains a career highlight to this day.
“‘He's a kid, he's Italian, he's a star and here's Joe Piscopo,’” he recalls Sinatra saying. “And when I heard…my hero pronounce my name, I knew kind of that I made it.”
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Despite that milestone, Piscopo admits he never truly hung out with Sinatra, although he recalls the singer treating him "like a son."
“Mr. Sinatra was so iconic to the Italian-American community. I never got to hang out,” he tells PEOPLE. “But if he called, I would have been there in a heartbeat. Are you kidding me?”
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