WORCESTER—Not all funny people can successfully translate humor into the written word, particularly poetry. And not all poets are particularly funny (quirky and confusing doesn’t necessarily mean funny).
Joe Fusco Jr. combines wit, sarcasm, irony, observations and, well, jokes that sometimes make it to the stage and sometimes to the page. Sometimes both.
Worcester native Fusco Jr. is well-known around these parts as the off-beat poet, a regular-and-sometimes-host of poetry slams, readings and gatherings over the years. He just shut the lid on three seasons of his “Humor 101” seminars that explored the different types of comedy and comedians, from slapstick to observational, from Buster Keaton to George Carlin. Fusco’s columns can regularly be found in Worcester Magazine, and he hosts the Poetry Extravaganza every first Tuesday at Redemption Rock Brewery.
Now, he’s got another new book.
“I consider myself more of a humorist or stand-up poet, if you will,” Fusco Jr. told the Worcester Guardian.
Sure, we will. The new book is called “Random Thoughts from a Curmudgeon,” from which he’ll be reading and signing copies of, on Saturday, Dec. 2, from 2-4 p.m. at Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster. He’ll start with a 30-minute reading and it’ll be followed by an open mic.
“I enjoy observational humor that has a twist, one-liners, and slapstick, Fusco Jr. explained. “Steven Wright, Lucille Ball, Randy Newman, David Sedaris, Nora Ephron are some of my favorites. ‘Random Thoughts from a Curmudgeon’ is mostly about growing old uncomfortably. It is my fifth collection of semi-amusing poems and essays.”
His other published works include: “Pondering the Pandemic during The Rust years” (2021); “Hmm…That’s Different” (2020); “Three Score” (2014); and “The Lost and Found Essays” (2012), all available at local bookstores and Amazon.
Fusco Jr’s musings have appeared in Damfino Press, Ballard Street Poetry, Worcester Review, Asinine Poetry, Soul Lit, and the naughty ezine Clean Sheets. He was a co-winner of the Jacob Knight Poetry Award in 2002 and was named Best Poet by Worcester Magazine readers in 1999 and 2002.
He and his wife Cyndi have lived in Worcester since 1985, when Fusco took a job as director of operations for Goretti’s Supermarkets. But he grew up in New Haven, CT, where he attended an all-boys Catholic high school (Notre Dame) and interned his senior year for a socialist newspaper called Modern Time, for which he penned movie reviews for flicks such as “Clockwork Orange.” During the first half of the ‘70s, Fusco Jr. majored in advertising at Boston University, where he wrote sometimes-funny ads for Beantown agencies until the family grocery business sucked him back in.
Fusco Jr, a “registered independent who sleeps with one eye always open,” has brought his “Humor 101” “course,” which he’s just wrapped up after several seasons, to students at Gateways Academy, the Worcester Senior Center, Eisenberg Assisted Living, Notre Dame Assisted Living, and The Residence of Orchard Grove, among others. He also serves as the vice president of programming for the Worcester County Poetry Association.
“I kept writing poems, essays, etc. on the side to feed whatever creative beast still resides in me,” he said. “I retired right before the Plague of 2022. I’ve always been a half-empty-glass guy. I look at life, anticipate the worst, and sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised. Cyndi is the exact opposite, which maybe explains our 37 years of marital bliss.”
Contact Charlene Arsenault at carsenault@theworcesterguardian.org
