Big Band entertainer Harry Connick, Jr. had a Brown University audience convulsing in laughter with an anecdote about former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci. The music star was the featured performer at the university's 39th Pops Concert on May 24, 2003 at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Between songs, he reminisced about a previous visit to Providence several years ago. While performing on stage during that gig, he noticed an older man and two women standing just off stage in the line of his sight. Worried that this man would distract him from his performance, Connick asked his tour manager to get the man to move elsewhere off-stage so as not to be distracting. Several times, the tour manager asked this man to move, but the man with his arms crossed across his chest refused to move. Finally, after a last request, the man whom Connick later found out was Mayor Cianci told the tour manager, "if you ask me to move again, I can get you whacked." Knowing about Cianci's conviction on corruption charges, Connick laughed that now Cianci had gone on to "the big house." The performer noted that he hoped to have a better relationship with new mayor David Cicilline, who was in attendance at the concert, along with Governor Don Carcieri and Attorney General Patrick Lynch.
