Working as a clown was serious business for Vince Tortorici. But his work at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, as Dr. Giacomo Pucci with the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit, was designed to elicit squeals of delight and raucous laughter from the hospital’s pint-sized patients.
“He intuitively knew what each child needed,” said Chris Jones, the director of volunteer services for Children’s Healthcare. “That is a true gift.”
But truth be told, Mr. Tortorici could connect with people of all ages. It was something he’d been able to do since he was a young boy, his mother said.
“He was always very in tune to people’s feelings,” Antoinette “Toni” Tortorici said of her son. “They called him an old soul, even when he was 2 years old.”
Vincent J. Tortorici, of Decatur, died suddenly Tuesday at home of a suspected heart attack. He was 44. A funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, with burial immediately following at the Decatur Cemetery.
Mr. Tortorici was such a well-known performer across metro Atlanta, and beyond, news of his sudden death spread quickly across social media, said friend and college classmate Peter Salomon. Not only did Mr. Tortorici work in clowning, but he was also a puppeteer, juggler, teacher, director, writer and mask maker.
His parents said, in hindsight, they couldn’t be surprised their son found a career in entertainment. The Ohio-born, Atlanta-raised Mr. Tortorici had always been involved in the theater, said his father Anthony “Tony” Tortorici. A graduate of Marist School, Vince Tortorici was a regular contributor to the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, from his undergrad days at Emory University, through the present. The funny thing is, up until he started college classes, he’d planned to be a psychologist.
“Then, just before I reported for freshman orientation, I finally realized the reason I wanted to be a psychologist was because I loved the Bob Newhart Show,” Mr. Tortorici told Mr. Salomon, in an interview for his self-titled blog, last year. “Also, I grew up watching Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers, and such so, I always loved that old-style comedy, and vaudeville. So, acting, it is!”
Mr. Salomon said his friend fit the bill of a performer because “he was willing to do anything necessary to entertain.”
The Facebook profile for one clown persona of Mr. Tortorici, however, is very clear, there were limits. “EnzoClown is, technically, not ‘silly,’ and does not make balloon animals,” it reads. “He is, however, comfortable performing for a wide variety of audiences, from pre-K schoolkids to families, to corporate hipsters and festival passersby.”
“It wasn’t that he wanted people to laugh at him, but to laugh with him,” Mr. Salomon said. “He just wanted people to be happy, and that is a rare thing, I think.”
In addition to his parents, Mr. Tortorici is survived by his son, Giovanni Tortorici of Decatur; brother, Anthony Tortorici Jr. of Canton; and sister, Angela Mantero of Shelton, Conn.
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