The Skinny with Joey Merlino
If you’re on YouTube and you love mob movies, The Sopranos, and all things LCN, then you’re probably watching the various mob-related podcasts. And there are many. Some do live formats, others are pre-recorded, and quite a few offer two or more guests on recurring roles. I’ve seen some that resemble a roundtable of wise guys. Some shows feature upper level management (e.g. underbosses, street bosses, powerful captains), others might have made guys (or soldiers), and quite a few have associates.
The term associate really runs the gamut. It could be anyone from a guy that held a door open for important people at a social club all the way to guys like Joe Watts. Some associates, like Watts, could have been legitimate bosses but-for the fact they didn’t meet the ancestral qualifications for getting their button. Although they could never be formally made, I’d argue they had stronger claims to being men of honor than a lion’s share of the guys with Italian heritage that they answered to.
Speaking of men of honor, what a great segue to my next point. While there’s any number of mob-themed podcasts on YouTube, most feature canaries. Practically every mobster with a podcast has sang – except The Skinny with Joey Merlino.
Christian Duque
The demand for mob-based content is through the roof!
If you love the life – or what we think it is, then there’s no shortage of killer podcasts to check out. I emphasize what we think it is because that’s a life that’s highly secretive. What we know is what we see in movies, read in books, and/or take at face-value from true crime experts like Dave Ratweiser or from mobsters-turned-YouTubers. There’s guys who glamorize the life, others who tell tall tales of who they used to be, and the born-again types that you wonder if they’re really born again.
The fact of the matter is that it’s called our thing for a reason. It’s their thing and we’re pretty much just avid observers. In any event, the Godfather turned America on to the mob and we’ve been hooked ever since. And while every culture has its version of it, there’s only one variety of organized crime we’re all into. It’s not the yakuza, the tongs, the Westies or the urban street gangs. While there’s pretty substantial interest in 1%’er outlaw biker clubs, it pales in comparison to mainstream interest for the Italian mob. And by Italian, I’m talking about the southern boot and Sicily. No one cares about the Sardinian mob. And who even knows if there’s a mob in northern Italy? I bet they’ve got the Grappa market cornered. Lol
The Skinny with Joey Merlino is a very unique type podcast. Joey is done with crime, but he’s the only guy who never sang. He actually did his time which is unheard of by today’s standards. It seems everyone proffers. And what did he do his last bit for? He placed a bet. Ironically, you can bet everywhere now. There’s billboards on buses, over highways, and pop-up banners all over the net. As Joey says, “gambling brings the family closer together…” (Lol).
Joey and Lil Snuff talk about sports, sports bets, food, that life and life at present. It’s not a “mob podcast.” It’s just a fun show that’s HIGHLY ADDICTIVE and one that I couldn’t recommend any more passionately than I have. Sometimes I listen at work, other times I’ll listen on the treadmill, and sometimes I’ll just make myself a drink after a shitty day and watch it then. Even if you’re not into podcasts, check out The Skinny with Joey Merlino! Be good to yourself and SUBSCRIBE!
