Two weeks ago, Frank Scafuri shuffled behind a walker into the waiting room of Dr. Perry Herson, a Williston Park endocrinologist, dressed in a tuxedo with a red bow tie and red carnation.
Herson told his office assistant to schedule an appointment with Scafuri for sometime around Christmas to which Scafuri responded in a Jewish accent, “Christmas, Christmas. Why doesn’t he say Hannukah? But you know, I really do like Christmas.”
Scafuri went on to say he particularly liked a certain Christmas song he couldn’t quite recall, before astounding the patients in the waiting room by suddenly breaking into “Sleigh Ride” while raising his walker to sound bells attached to the bottom of it.
As Herson’s surprised patients would soon learn, the scene was a set-up for a “Sleigh Ride” Web video Juliard alum Scafuri will release after Thanksgiving.
Scafuri’s first video in early September, “Frank’s Waiting – Who’s Got Rhythm,” went viral, drawing more than 12,000 hits as of this week and drawing the attention of Web sites such as the Huffington Post and AOL’s “Eye Opener” show.
“I was taken aback. I’m extremely surprised,” he said.
Scafuri, a 63-year-old Rockville Centre resident who studied voice and piano, said he hoped his videos will help create some opportunities for him to perform while also brightening a few people’s days.
“If I can bring a lot of happiness and a lot of joy on people faces, I think it’s a good thing,” Scafuri said. “In this world with all the terrible things going on, I hope I can bring a little joy into people’s lives.”
Herson said liked the effect Scarfuri’s performance had on his patients, who uniformly reacted positively to the gag. Herson he’s open to Scafuri, who really is a patient of his, performing other, similar routines in the future.
Herson said seeing Scafuri’s first video convinced him to permit the lanky white-haired singer to shoot the “Merry Hannukah” video in his waiting room.
“I think that the overall thing is to break the ice a little bit in the waiting room. I’m open to anything that helps patients. Laughter is the best medicine,” Herson said.
In his first video, Scafuri shuffled into the waiting room in a raincoat, sat down and kibbitzed with another patient, saying he’d discovered another grey hair that morning. “But you know what else I got?” he said, rising up to reveal his tux and breaking into “I Got Rhythm.”
Scafuri said he was bored sitting in a waiting room before undergoing an MRI exam two months ago when he thought about killing the tedium by breaking out in a song.
So he set up his first stunt in another Williston Park doctor’s office to see what would happen.
After that success, he released a second video last Monday, “Frank’s Waiting – Goldy’s Woes,” shot in Dr. Jay Eneman’s office at Bridge Therapy in Long Beach.
In his latest video, which has more than 500 YouTube hits to date, he shuffles into the doctor’s office in character as an old man again, carrying a goldfish in a bowl, explaining his fish has a urinary tract infection.
He hands the bowl over the to the office receptionist and shrugging off his raincoat to reveal his tux, breaks into “If I Could Talk with the Animals,” using his walking cane as a prop as he dances around the office.
The two-minute video, like all of Scafuri’s videos, is shot on cell phones by people planted in the waiting rooms.
Patients who opt out of participating afterward have their faces blurred out. But most patients opt in to be a part of the fun.
Apart from spreading a little humor, Scafuri said he is hoping the videos give his entertainment career a boost.
“I was hoping that it would get me attention that would get me more achievement with the talent that I have,” said Scafuri, who said he’s been entertaining others since he was 17 years old. “I’ve had this seed inside of me all these years.”
Recently he passed his business card with the videos listed to a waiting room nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn before he was to have a minor surgical procedure there. The nurses enjoyed his videos so much, they told him they planned to play them for their waiting room patients.
“That tells me that people are looking for a little joy,” he said.
Scafuri said he’s also been performing in churches around Nassau County over the past decade. He’s said he’s performed as a substitute vocalist and organist at Notre Dame Church in New Hyde Park for the past six years and has sung recently in Our Lady of Victory and St. John’s Lutheran in Floral Park.
In past years, he said he’s also filled in as a vocalist at St. Mary’s Church in Roslyn, St. Aidan Church in Williston Park, St. Alloysius in Great Neck, Our Lady of the Snows in Bellerose, St. Mary’s Church in Manhasset and St. Peter of Alcantara in Port Washington.
Scafuri passes on the skills he’s mastered over the years by giving private voice and piano lessons in his Rockville Centre home.
He said he has performed in community theater at Hofstra University and other venues. And, he said, he performed as a vocalist with a group called The Sizzling Syncopators in his 20s and recorded album for Columbia in the 1980s.
Now, he said, he continuing to hatch ideas for new doctor’s office waiting room Web videos, including one with a Hawaiian theme he plans to produce soon.
“I’ve gotten more publicity about my singing and as a producer. It’s gotten me a lot more attention,” Scafuri said. “And who knows what’s out there? Every day is ‘Anything Can Happen Day’.”
