By Donita Naylor Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — They wouldn’t call it Promoter and His Mother’s Birthday, or We Know Celebrities So Let’s Share Them, or The Club Scene isn’t the Only Scene. Instead they made it a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society in honor of a friend who has cancer and booked four comedians, calling it Stand Up for Cancer.
Bruce “Busta” Soscia intentionally collided his worlds as a barber, movie actor and event producer Sunday night at an upscale party at Skyline at WaterPlace. Some of his childhood friends even came. Maybe it was more of a networking event for the event industry, but also for local plumbers, roofers, real estate agents, collision services, and janitorial services, among others. One company custom-tailors men’s suits, and they had a little runway show during the cocktail hour of networking and mingling with Rhode Island comedians and actors.
Get this for a party setup: A drone flies from the direction of the State House catching the venue against the actual skyline of Providence in bright afternoon light. Soscia is the big guy in a nice suit, casual shirt and red shoes, standing near a line of luxury cars from Herb Chambers, one of the event sponsors who negotiated a product placement.
Attendees were encouraged to dress for an ’80s dance party, and as they arrived, they passed an Alpha Romeo Stelvio in Vesuvio gray with a $57,000 sticker price, a Maserati Ghibli in the color Grigio Maratea with a $91,000 tag and a Cadillac in a green called Stinger.
The Cadillac was a concept car so new that it didn’t have a sticker price yet. It came straight from Michigan, and touched ground for the first time when it rolled off the transport truck. Eddie Cicciu, general manager of Herb Chambers, said later that it hadn’t been shown yet at any car shows and is one of three made.
Soscia explained his party concept, which grew from his latest business, GQ VIP Events. “I give people the VIP experience,” he said. He wants people in their 40s and 50s who have lost interest in the club scene to “have an affordable, safe night out in the city.”
The paparazzi, or professional photographers willing to act like paparazzi, were there to give arriving partygoers a taste of fame and then a business card.
Soscia wore a button that said Birthday Boy. He turned 44 on Sunday, the same day his mother turned 63. She was at the party, and had her own very large, very handsome bodyguard to attend to her while her son stirred the room, swirling people into new groupings, making introductions with just enough information to get them talking.
Frank Santorelli, 62, the headliner comedian, didn’t act like he was too famous to mingle with partygoers. He has appeared on the “Sopranos” and “Law & Order.” The other comedians, Stew Replogle, Nicky Petito and Tyler Hitner, weren’t shy about mingling, and an unannounced celebrity introduced himself as Erick Betancourt, who had appeared in "The Prince of Providence" at Trinity last fall.
On opening night, Soscia and Billy V. Vigeant had made a splash by arriving in Vigeant’s 1947 Rolls-Royce, intending to bring Betancourt’s mother to watch him in the play, but she decided at the last minute to take in a matinee instead. On Sunday, Vigeant arrived in a friend’s brand-new custom, soft-top Rolls, as the guest of honor, the reason for the cancer society fundraiser.
Betancourt rented a car and drove in from New York, where he has parts in three series, “For Life” on ABC, “New Amsterdam” on NBC and “Blue Bloods” on CBS.
“I’m truly honored and humbled that they would dedicate this evening to me,” Vigeant said. dnaylor@ providencejournal.com
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