Joey Sorice’s sudden death forced the last-minute cancellation of Los Angeles’ popular Italian festival just hours before its eighth edition was set to open.
Sorice, the comedian who founded and led the annual event, suffered a heart attack at his home Saturday morning, organizers announced. The festival had been scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 4, at the iconic intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.
A member of the organizing team took to Instagram to spread word of the cancellation and ask for help. “I was able to contact the food vendors to cancel them but I was unable to find where Joey kept the information on merchandise vendors,” the team member wrote. The same post requested that people who still showed up at the venue help share cancellation information with confused attendees.
The Little Italy Podcast, which had been preparing coverage of the festival, shared its shock in an Instagram post. “We were just preparing a piece about tomorrow’s festival when we heard this sad news. May his family find peace, and may his legacy live on in further years at the festival he so loved,” the podcast posted.
Not all would-be attendees agreed with the decision to call off the event. “Wouldn’t it make sense to hold the event in his honor?,” Caitlin Haurie commented on Instagram, reflecting disappointment from some who had planned to attend.
Sorice was widely recognized as half of the comedy team Jimmy and Joey, a duo whose impact on the Los Angeles comedy scene earned them a permanent spot on the walls of The Comedy Store. The pair had also auditioned for season 10 of America’s Got Talent.
Fellow comedian Ron Swallow was among those in the local entertainment community who mourned Sorice’s passing. “Interesting guy,” Swallow called him on social media, adding that “the world will be a little less jolly and hopeful without him.”
Swallow continued, reflecting on their shared history in the comedy circuit. “We have done some of the craziest gigs and I watched his duo act crush in rooms that made no sense for it to crush in. I’m sad that I’ll never get a call asking me to do some wild ass project with him,” he posted.
The eighth edition of the festival Sorice built will not be rescheduled, leaving the future of the annual Hollywood Boulevard gathering uncertain following the loss of its driving force.