The young guys, Nick and Joe Jr., are what the old guys call “light in the ass.” Not even 40, both men have been working in the family moving business since they were kids riding in the truck cab with their dads.
They’re called “light in the ass” because they’re constantly in their elders’ shadows. Their fathers don’t need GPS to find their way around the city and they use burlap “hump straps” instead of handtrucks to carry furniture. The old guys have been doing it for 50 years and have the hard-built physiques — and back pain — to prove it.
“We’re trying to beef ’em up a little bit,” says George Taliercio, 67, who is Nick’s dad and owns the company — Santini Bros. Moving & Storage — with his brother Joe Taliercio, 63, father of Joe Jr. “We let them know we got something that’s pretty good. You just got to do the doin.’ ”
The “doin’” is moving the finicky residents of New York City and Long Island, and all the aggravation that comes with lugging heavy furniture up to fifth-floor walkups or lowering pianos out of windows — while fighting with cops over parking spaces and arguing with hot-tempered customers over precious belongings.
Their travails as an old-school moving company coping with a changing city, and their own family dynamics, get the reality show treatment this fall, when History Channel’s “The Great Santinis” debuts Sept. 15. The show gives an intimate look at what makes the big, tight family tick, while offering a unique perspective on the lives of New Yorkers often at their most stressed. Tense situations — like when the Santinis are asked to remove their shoes before entering an apartment to move heavy boxes — are the norm.
“Every time you move someone you get involved in their history,” says Joe Taliercio Sr. “It’s very entertaining to find out why they’re moving.”
But the crux of the show is the Santini family dynamics: Joe Sr. and George, who were born in Brooklyn, have made a name for the company, even becoming intimate with some clients (George claims he once accepted sex as a tip).
“We’re old school; our sons call us dinosaurs,” says George. “I don’t need all that computer stuff. I know every street in Brooklyn.”
Santini has been a big name in the moving industry in Brooklyn for 100 years; the company has passed through different family members’ hands. Joe Sr. and George are present owners of the company and they put everyone to work — sons, daughters, sons-in-law, nephews and other family members.
Walking in to their office in Islip, Long Island, is like interrupting a big family meal: They’re breaking each others’ chops, but these dinners end with a hug or a big kiss on the mouth. Every Friday after work, they order pizzas and crack open a few bottles of wine.
“Our sons and nephews and nieces, they’re a bigger pain in the ass than I thought,” Joe Sr. jokes. “That’s what we have learned since doing this.”