Class of '81 profile: Peter Vouras: Acting out

By Nina M. Riccio

Actor and stand up comedian Peter Vouras '81 has spent a lot of time pondering the Catholic education he received at Fairfield. It's most evident in his routine about Fr. Ricky, the wise-guy priest who swears Jesus was a union man ("Carpenter's 1411!") and who promises that next Sunday he'll reveal the true story of why He "had to get il bacio della morte."

The truth is, Vouras' acting career did not begin on a stage or in front of a camera, but in the hallowed halls of Donnarumma with Dr. John Orman, professor of politics (CAS). "We were learning about the legislature and trying to get a bill passed. I played the part of Reagan and the rest of the class was Congress," Vouras remembers.

In those days, he was pre-med, which proved not to be a good fit, and he ultimately graduated with a practically focused degree in economics. Not the kind of interests you'd expect of a budding actor. It was his beloved grandmother's death during his sophomore year that prompted Vouras to take a second look at his career direction. "My grandmother was, like, five foot nothing," he says with a laugh. "But she was warm and wonderful, and she would have wanted me to be happy. It dawned on me that I was listening to too many voices and probably not doing what I was meant to do. I suddenly became less afraid."

Music was his other passion - he's a concert-level violinist and was a member of the Glee Club and chamber orchestra during college. After graduation, he and his friend Bill Arciprete launched a publication, VoxPop, in a Fairfield basement. "We promoted concerts and interviewed just about any band that came through Connecticut, even some like Tears for Fears before they hit it big," he says. The publication eventually morphed into a cable television show, and that's when Vouras really got to ham it up.

"Bill was the straight man. I would come on dressed as some rock star or other character just to liven things up," he laughs. The program developed a cult following: in fact, Martin Scorsese saw the show when casting Goodfellas and asked Vouras to audition. "I didn't get the part, but I did learn subsequently about preparing and looking right for the part you're auditioning for," he says.

While the cable show was running, so was Vouras. He did improvisation at a club in New Haven and found he loved it. So he began taking lessons from Pat Grove, an original member of Chicago's famous Second City comedy troupe. A few years later, he headed to New York to act in a couple of plays. When a friend in an acting class dared him to do stand-up, Vouras realized that his talent for making people laugh was real.

He makes it all sound so easy. "But I raked leaves and painted houses and waited on tables, just like any artist does," he says matter-of-factly. "There were plenty of lean periods when I'd just make enough to take more classes or to get another set of headshots." What an actor needs, he says: thick skin and a positive attitude.

Because he felt he "just had to be there," Vouras spent a few years in Los Angeles, years in which he landed parts in Spiderman 2 (he played the stage manager) and Sons of Thunder (about World War ll), and met his wife, Salem, when they were cast in the same play. Ask him his impressions of L.A. and his answer is that of a typical New Yorker. "Everyone there is in 'the business,'" he says. "There's no individuality. If Ashton Kutcher wears a trucker's hat backwards, everyone wears a trucker's hat backwards." Transplants from New York always long to go back home, he claims. "Manhattan has a vibrancy that's addictive."

No surprise, then, that the couple is back in New York, where Vouras has appeared in Law and Order: Criminal Intent and spent last winter writing a screenplay and appearing as an orthodox priest in the Barrow Group's Drama Desk-nominated play, Pentecost. Clearly, he's an artist with talents that branch out in many different directions, and that he credits in part to Fairfield's core curriculum. "It gave me a nice taste of knowledge in all things, like philosophy, history, and religion. I've gotten a solid background in a lot of areas, and that's essential in both acting and comedy."