Nick Cassano was bored to the core. We all were. Remember? Remember in the middle of a pandemic? With nowhere to go and nothing to do, I just watched endless TV shows and stared out the window.
For many of us it was daunting.
Nick Cassano decided enough was enough.
“For a long time, I was just thinking about the negative,” Cassano says. “I needed to find something to do.”
For years, two of the biggest parts of his life were simple. It’s baseball (the Nyack High School graduate was playing baseball at Montclair State University at the time of the coronavirus outbreak). and make his friends and family laugh.
“In all humility, I’ve always been a bit of a funny guy,” he says.
Nick’s father, Eric, remembers that as a child, Nick was a little quiet, a little short, and one day he suddenly came up with an impression of his uncle.
“He went from not talking for days at a time to talking like a 25-year-old,” Eric says.
So Nick decided to make a short video about Italian and non-Italian fathers when their child wants to go out, something that had stuck in his head and made him laugh. he recorded it. he edited. I posted it.
Then the next morning he woke up and looked at his phone.
“A million people watched it,” Nick says.
So he answered exactly as you would expect.
“He said he deleted the app,” Eric says. “That surprised him a little.”
However, the father knew that his son was up to something. At a time when people were desperate to find the fun in life again, Nick managed to capture just that. He reloaded the app and created a few more videos. Many of them are sports-themed, such as a beer-bellied high school coach who gets furious trying to get his players to listen to him.
Non-sports characters also appear regularly. There’s an endless homage to a pizza guy who twirls his “pizza dough” like a bath towel, a bagel guy, and relatives and friends whose quirks become ridiculously funny.
Some are really interesting. Some things just make you smile. Everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do. It’s about bringing a sliver of laughter into a world that is decidedly not funny.
And he’s a hit. TikTok (@nicky.cass1) has 1.5 million followers 1.4 million on Instagram (@nicky.cass). He works on vignettes from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, produces about five new vignettes a week, and has a catalog large enough to repost 40 to 50 each week.
And people realize how these things work. A year ago, both the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers invited him to spring training to talk to the teams. When Nick showed up at the Dibacks’ camp in Scottsdale, manager Tory Lovullo asked Nick what he was trying to say.
“I’ll make them laugh,” Nick said. And he did. He told his pitchers that he was a mental performance therapist, taught them meditation, and said, “Imagine your best baseball memory, and now you’re covered in pink feathers like a flamingo.” “Imagine that,” he said. Soon, the entire staff of the future National League Champions was flying.
Nick isn’t particular about what he becomes. He talks about his life as an entrepreneur: If I can bring out the best in me, I can bring out the best in the people I care about most. ”
he laughed.
“If I could walk into a store and buy as much organic chicken and steak as I can, that’s all I want,” he says.
He’s a big fan of WFAN’s “Boomer and Geo” and is a big sports fan, but he tends to root for individual players like Christian McCaffrey, Adam Fox and Logan Ohoppe more than the team. Do not throw things at the TV. ”
His father interjected. “Well, as long as the Giants don’t play.”
Eric is a big fan of New York sports and an avid Mets fan, and when it was pointed out to him that the Rangers and Diamondbacks both made it to the World Series last year, maybe the Mets were trying to grab a good spot. He was laughing. Good luck charm.
“Hey,” Nick says, “the Mets could use a couple of laughs.”
Vac’s Blow
This is a great book coming out this week. “Pipeline to the Pros: How the Nobodies from a small D-3 college came to dominate the NBA” by Ben Kaplan and Danny Perkins. trust me.
Five weeks after suffering a severe heart attack, Darryl Strawberry returned to public service this week after being cleared by doctors to travel again. “But I’m going to take it slow,” he says. “We have to prepare for the big day.” The Mets will retire his number 18 on June 1.
I’ve been happy at any point this week, but I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than Patrick Mahomes the moment the Chiefs drafted Xavier Worthy.
Some Philadelphians tried to equate Joel Embiid’s takedown of Mitch Robinson with a similar move by Donte DiVincenzo on Kelly Oubre Jr. in a mini-brawl at the Garden last month. Some people are. It’s the same deep thinkers who posted a video of David Wright sliding hard into Chase Utley the day after Utley nearly killed Ruben Tejada with a dirty takeout.
hit back vac
Joe Gregorio: Is DJ LeMahieu the Yankees’ new Jacoby Ellsbury with an irreparable injury or Aaron Hicks?
back: I hope not, because when he’s right, there are few Yankees I enjoy watching more than him.
Joe Benigno: You know I love you, brother, but I can’t leave Game 5 of the ’70 Finals off my list of best MSG finishes. The Knicks returned to play against Wilt and the Lakers without Willis Reed. Best Knicks game I’ve ever seen.
back: To a gentleman from New Jersey, please.
For a fresh start.
@LGBrandon93:I had to mention the away win, but “Branson Bounce” reminded me of Alan Houston’s 1-over-8 bounce against the Heat in 1999 in Miami. I will always remember how good the bounce was. You forgot the finger rolls!
back: That pretty much sums up the sport in a nutshell.
walter farley: Someone needs to tell the crowd that they can’t chant F-Embid at games involving kids. It’s the new low taste.
back: Gardens are full of wonderful traditions. This isn’t one of them, it started a few years ago with Trae Young. We are better than this.
