Sooshi Mango

Sooshi Mango is an Australian comedy troupe founded in 2015. The group consists of two brothers, Joe and Carlo Salanitri, and their best friend, Andrew Manfre. Sooshi Mango is best known for their comedy skits, acts, videos, series and live shows, paying homage to their experiences growing up in an Italian family, and around Italians, Greeks, Croats, Macedonians, Serbs, Albanians, Bulgarians and other ethnic cultures living in Australia.

The comedic influences of the group include Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Benny Hill and many more. Being most strongly inspired by their European ancestry, their content is commonly rooted in humorously depicting the Italian and Greek ethnic and cultural diaspora and their role in Australian society, and its racial prejudice and social mechanisms of the modern-day world.

Sooshi Mango features many characters in their skits, with characters Johnny, Vince and Sam being seen in the majority of their videos. With over 800 million views and counting, Sooshi Mango has been featured in four theatrical shows in multiple countries. Sooshi Mango are the only comedy group in history to sell out three shows in a row at Rod Laver Arena, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Sooshi Mango have also been at the centre of advertisements for numerous companies.

In 2021, they launched their podcast, titled 'Saucy Meatballs', which has gone on to become one of the biggest and most listened to podcasts in Australia, continuing this success well into the second season of the series.

Sooshi Mango won at the 2021 AACTA Comedy Awards for Favourite Digital Comedy Creator. Sooshi Mango began writing a script for their first own feature-length film in 2022.

History The troupe's name originated in 2015 from Joe Salanitri's son, who, when Joe and Carlo were trying to think of a name for their comedy group, shouted the two words whilst running through the house. Joe and Carlo decided to adopt the name due to its silliness. The trio has been able to transform their comedy to the stage and has had success touring internationally and several times in Australia. Their first show on stage was ‘Star Wogs’ in 2018, which also featured Nick Giannopoulos, along with Mary Coustas. The Sooshi Mango crew have stated that they believe Star Wogs was the show that lifted their skills in acting. This show marked their biggest performance to date at the time, taking place in arenas. September 2021 saw Sooshi Mango announce a new podcast titled Saucy Meatballs: A Podcast Not About Meatballs, Off The Boat finally concluded in September 2022 and the addition of extra and encore shows raised their total show count to 44. The show marked the troupe's biggest event.

Sooshi Mango made their debut in cinemas in October 2022, with a feature role for the trio in Giannopoulos' Wog Boy 3: Wog Boys Forever. Manfre told the Greek Herald, "It's an absolute honour and a privilege to be a part of the movie. We've all grown up watching it so to be a part of the trilogy is unbelievable."

Johnny, Vince & Sam's Sooshi Mango created a brand based on three of their most popular characters: the 'Ethnic Dads'. The character's names are: Johnny, Vince, and Sam. From this, the Johnny, Vince & Sam's Vino wine brand was born, with the first releases launched in 2022: the Sangiovese ’21, and the Moscato ’22. Later that year, the Johnny, Vince, and Sam's Sangiovese became the number one selling Sangiovese in all of Dan Murphy’s liquor merchant stores, Australia-wide.

In 2023, Sooshi Mango partnered with Johnny Di Francesco (Restauranteur and Director of Gradi Group), Dani Zeini (Royal Stacks burger restaurant founder), and Steven Ballerini (CEO of Australian freight and logistics management company Cora Group) to create and launch Johnny, Vince & Sam's Ristorante, in Lygon Street, Carlton, in Victoria, Australia, to much acclaim.

In 2023, the Johnny, Vince & Sam's Vino brand launched: Rosé ’23, Prosecco ’22, and Tiramisu (limited edition), again proving to be very well received.

Podcast Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2022)

Characters Throughout the history of their comedy troupe, Sooshi Mango has featured numerous ethnic characters in their skits, videos, advertisements and theatre shows, all of which can be seen below. The Sooshi Mango cast revealed the characters' backstories in their 2022 show, Off The Boat.

Main characters Johnny (played by Joe Salanitri) – Johnny is one of Sooshi Mango's main characters and is portrayed by Joe Salanitri. He is made fun of by Vince and Sam for having a large nose. He has a wife and at least one son and daughter. He migrated to Australia with Vince and Sam in 1967. Vince (played by Carlo Salanitri) – Vince is the second main character, played by Carlo Salanitri. He often jokes about his wife, Carmela, and has a love–hate relationship with both his adjacent neighbours, Nunzio and Jeff. Sam (played by Andrew Manfre) – Andrew Manfre is the actor for the final main character that makes up Sooshi Mango's ethnic dads. In 1967, Gino died in 2020. Giuseppina and Johnny have a son and a daughter. Angela (played by Andrew Manfre) – The wife of Sam, whose son used to be in a relationship with Giuseppina's daughter. including a daughter, His nephew teases him for not being able to pronounce the word "chips". When migrating to Australia, he and Costa had the idea of starting a fish and chips business together. Stavro (played by Andrew Manfre) – A man, who comes to eat at Kalamata Fish & Chips. Giacomo (played by Carlo Salanitri) – Carlo Salanitri also portrays old married man Giacomo, who gives marital advice to Joe, with the help of Pino. This character is based on real life Uncle to the trio, Chick Salanitri, while the location was swapped to Australia from the original location of Long Island, NY. Pino (played by Andrew Manfre) – An ethnic grandparent, who also gives advice to Joe. She and Stavro have five daughters. Off The Boat broke the record of selling out three comedy shows at Rod Laver Arena and the entire tour sold over 100,000 tickets and 44 shows. Sooshi Mango have also done advertisements for a number of businesses, including Red Rooster and Azzurri Concrete. They have also branded their own line of Pino Silvestre. Sky News thought that Morrison had "put himself at the mercy of comedians" during their podcast skit with him.