Well, dear readers, our fourth day of shooting was a lot of fun and completely exhausting, but we wrapped on time (to the minute) and got everything we needed to make what is a three-minute (at most) sequence hopefully work in the way I intended it. One of my goals with this web series was to have a lot of physical comedy in it and this sequence, which occurs in episode two, presuming we air these in the order I wrote them, is something I’ve wanted to do for maybe forty years. This kind of thing has sort of gone the way of the dodo bird these days and I’m all about resurrecting stuff I loved as a kid to work now. I’ve kept this close to the vest for obvious reasons, but I guess I’ll talk about it because it was such a fun and crazy day.
Growing up, I began seeing The Three Stooges shorts at one of my local movie theaters when my grandpa Sam on my father’s side would take me to the Saturday matinees. I believe this was circa around 1954, when we’d get a double feature, cartoons, a chapter from a serial and a Stooges short, usually new and with Shemp. Later, when Channel 11 began airing them with host Don Lamond, the Stooges were pretty much through. But TV brought them back and they achieved huge fame once again, resulting in a few movies over the next six or seven years. That’s when I first saw all the original Curly shorts and oh did I love them. And what was my favorite thing whenever it would happen? The pie fight. It occurred every now and then and seeing people get hit in the kisser with a pie just made me laugh uncontrollably.
And then came Soupy Sales on TV and I loved his show hugely. And they frequently threw pies at people. Somewhere around 1959 or 1960 my best friend and I took part in a talent contest at the Pan Pacific Theater matinee day. We did what I can only imagine was a terrible attempt at playing Ralph and Norton of The Honeymooners – I do remember that I was Norton and I did a pretty damn good imitation of Art Carney. I wrote whatever we did and, of course, included three pies at the end. I went to a bakery and got three cream pies and they actually worked quite well. We won the contest. And then there was pretty much nothing until 1965 when Blake Edwards decided to do the pie fight to end all pie fights. It was certainly big and impressive in its way but I found it completely unfunny at the time, mostly because it was hammering the audience over the head that it was the pie fight to end all pie fights. And it did end it. I’m sure there have been pie fights since then, but I’m not sure I’ve seen a single one.
So, when I began thinking about what would happen in each episode, I’d already devised that the lead character, an aspiring actress/singer would have a series of temp jobs. And the first temp job I thought of was for episode two, working for a catering company working a show business party, where there is a large dessert table filled with pies and pastries. Things happen and I suppose you can see where it goes. I wrote it in a specific way because I knew we’d have to shoot it quickly and that it would be complicated to do because we could never go back and clean someone up after they were hit with a pie. So, I broke the sequence down and after thinking about how best to do it, I realized we had to shoot the set up to what happens, then do all the pie hits in their close shots. That meant we’d have to change set-ups constantly, but I couldn’t think of a better way to make it work.
The first thing I did when I arrived was rehearse the duet Sami’s doing with the delightful and talented Allie Trimm – I staged it simply and they’re going to be wonderful doing it. Then I began discussing how we’d shoot this with the cameraman. I think it was confusing to him, so I gathered the actors together who are the main part of the sequence and blocked it – I’d already drawn how I wanted to shoot it. The cameraman watched it and then totally understood what we had to do. We had seventeen extras and six main people. And fifty pies. I’d already had our wonderful props person do a test of the pie hit and when I saw it I knew that part of it would work great. And it made me giddy with joy to see it. So, we got the set up done fairly quickly. A short scene with Sami and actress Angel Reda playing her fellow server. Angel did an early Kritzerland show and also was in the Chinatown episode of Outside the Box.
Then came the main part of the sequence, with Sami working the dessert table. I won’t go into plot detail but we got all that set up stuff shot right up to the point where one of the characters picks up a pie and raises it to toss. And that’s all I’m saying about THAT.
There were two versions of the pies – all had vanilla pudding on the piecrust. The initial couple of pies had shaving cream as the whipped cream. But the majority of the pies had Cool Whip and I liked that better because it was creamier-looking. And that, dear readers, was pie day.
I was never off my feet for seven hours and we never had a food break. Afterwards, Sami’s mom and I went across the street to a little Thai jernt and I had some Pad Thai, my only food of the day. Then I came home, fell on the bed, and slept for two hours, got up, began writing these here notes. Below is Sal Viviano, who took a pie like a pro. Also, our wonderful costumer and make-up lady and Sami. Sami and Karim, who plays BFF Sammy. And Sami at the Mexican jernt.
Today, I’ll be up at eight-fifteen, I’ll shave and shower, and then we have our one and only short day. We’re at a green screen studio and while the call is 9:30, I’ll arrive at ten, for our ten-thirty first shot of the day. We first do a little faux commercial with Sami – that really shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes. Then Allie Trimm arrives and we begin shooting the duet. We’ve allowed two hours for that but I don’t know if it will take all of the two hours, but we’ll see. I’m keeping it very simple, since it’s supposed to take place on a stage. Once that’s done, we end the day with Charles Busch and that won’t take more than an hour. Since we’ll be close to Times Square, I think we’ll go have a nice meal around there. Then I’ll come back here and relax and get ready for our other somewhat complicated day.
Tomorrow is our other somewhat complicated day. We’re in a club, but are making an office set somewhere near the actual office. Then I’ll block that scene, which involves Sami and Brad Oscar. There is some physical comedy in it, so we’ll get it blocked out. Once the cameraman and I decide the most expeditious way to shoot it, we’ll get to it. I think we’ve allowed two or three hours for it and hopefully that’s enough. Then we move into the club itself and shoot the second of our duets, this one with Sami and Karen Ziemba. There’s no staging and it’s pretty straightforward so hopefully it will go quickly. Just prior to doing it, I’ll do the audience reactions, a little tiny scene with Brad and Sami in the audience and one short phone call Sami makes from the audience. Before we let the extras go, I’ll do one establishing wide shot of the start of the duet, just to tie in the audience and the stage. Then we do the duet and that’s really only three set ups. We have to be out of the club at four. Saturday, we’re in a rehearsal studio for most of the day, and then we move to a recording studio from six-thirty to eight-thirty to shoot two songs. That’s a big singing day for Sami, but the rehearsal studio stuff is short and easy. Sunday, we’re back in the rehearsal hall, and Monday we’re in another club for the last day of shooting. And Tuesday I shall be on my way home.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up at eight-fifteen, be on my way to the green screen studio, do our three things there, have a meal, and then I can relax for the rest of the day and evening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and load of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a wonderful pie day.