I was traveling to California in April and couldn't really work much this month until I got back to NY. So the only show I worked was Royal Pains. Luckily it was a very colorful (when is RP not colorful?) presentation: a Indian baby-naming party at Oheca Castle on the North Shore (yet another scene at Oheca!) of Long Island.
The gig lasted for 2 glorious days... although I've been told by my Indian friends that these parties can last much, much longer. Lots of people dressed in beautiful saris and sherwanis with a couple of turbans here and there -not me, I wish I did but I was told to wear a light suit during the affair. Which reminds me... one of the "guests" was played by a former Seinfeld character, "Babu Bhatt" -aka Brian George (really!).
Everyone in the crowd recognized him as the "You are very bad man!" Pakistani character. Even here, he put on a bit of a show as he argued a minor point with the director regarding where he should be looking as the camera rolled. It was quite comical. Especially since he spoke perfect English...in fact a perfect British Queen's English.
On the second day, we continued "the party" at the Sands Point Castle location. A large estate, The Hempstead House was utilized for the "Rock 'N Roll" scene of the ongoing baby-naming party. One of the band members started to look awfully familiar as the "takes" kept repeating on and on, until it was pretty clear that it was Kevin Eubanks. His faking of the base-guitar playing over the dubbed-in music was done just too well!!!
The following day, I drove back to the Hempstead House to show my son where the show was staged. Unfortunately, all the colorful props, curtains, and festive regalia were... gone. Only the hammering of the film's construction crew was heard throughout the house. Regretfully, there wasn't much to show, other than the beautiful view over the sound toward the Connecticut shore. But he enjoyed that nonetheless. I took him out for breakfast at a nearby health-food eatery. Even though I couldn't get the satisfaction of showing him "my workplace", we had a great time catching up on father-and-son quality time. Even SAG-pay couldn't equal that thrill.
