Behind The Scenes Story: Mrs. Claus Accidentally Got Drunk

Somewhere late June 2019 I got a random call from a casting guy who found “Mrs. Claus” on the internet. He was casting for a pilot for a Christmas Special TV Show for a cable network and thought it would be fun to include her. I ‘think’ he said Disney + not sure. Boy was I excited! To think my Christmas song might finally be a hit after all these years! “Be my guest! Use the song!”, I said.  What happens next ?…

Nope not that simple.

First the guy wanted a Skype call. I wasn’t using Skype at the time so I had to figure that out. Turns out the casting guy was a really adorable fun guy who probably just wanted to make sure I was me in real life, and thought I was fun too. So I made it through ’round one’.

Second, I guess the casting guy wanted to be sure I could still actually sing the song. (Good thinking on his part) I wrote the darn song in 1994! Seriously. Only one copy of the original exists on a cassette. Here it is. (Imagine?)

So for ’round two’ the casting guy tells me he’s going to need a new video. A NEW VIDEO? He’d like to see a ‘current’ video version of “The Mrs. Claus Song” video that he came across on YouTube. That one (above) I performed that one above in my radio studio one day when I was on the air back in 2017. I only did it then because my son- in -law Carmine convinced me to. He had just heard the song for the first time and he said, “Deb make it into video. It’ll go viral!”(It didn’t.) But it did make some people laugh.  But now I thought wow, maybe THIS would be the big moment. So I said, what I always say, when something unknown and exciting presents itself. No Problem.

But truthfully this was a giant fokker problem. First of all I ‘thought’ I remembered all the words. My luck I wrote a song with 1000 words. I’d obviously have to start practicing again.

Slide into July 2019, and I’m driving around in my car with the AC on singing practicing the words to Mrs. Claus. I mostly know them by heart except for one or two slips. I have no separate music track for this new video, so I’m thinking I’ll just have to sing over the existing lyrics. That’s ridiculous I thought, but I’ll worry about getting a full piece back up band later.

Again it’s Summer, and it’s really really hot like almost 100 degrees hot, and now I had to go find a Mrs. Claus suit and get somebody to film me doing this insane Mrs Claus Song, in like a day.

The Mrs. Claus suit was easy. There’s an awesome costume store called ‘Sophia’s’ in Greenwich, CT. That’s where I got the Mrs. Claus outfit for the original video. I called Sophia. She’s great. I knew she would help me figure it out. She did. She got me the same Mrs. Claus outfit again. Ok one problem down!

Next problem. I forgot I got fat. Well at least fatter since the original Mrs. Claus video. Tough break. Now I’m hot and fat and trying to squeeze into a Mrs Claus outfit in the middle of July. Didn’t see that coming.

Next problem was how the hell was I going to do this? And who was I going to get to video this? There was only one girl for the job! Mo! My best pal Mo who lives on a houseboat across the way from me.

So I called Mo and told her she needs to shoot a video for me asap. Mo’s a trooper but she had a Dr. appointment that same day at 3, so she said she couldn’t. I told her that was the wrong answer, and we had to do it fast. Told her I’d be right over and not to worry this was gonna be a fast turnaround because the outfit was really really hot. So off I went, carrying the Mrs. Claus ‘get up’ and went traipsing down a boat dock ramp to a houseboat in July in 100 degrees to shoot a Mrs. Claus video in the true spirit of  “Risk It or Regret It!

After the initial howling laughter subsides of how we were going to pull this off, I got dressed up as Mrs. Claus and we tried a few takes. Wasn’t going so good. Mo’s job was to hit the music and film me on her iPhone. My job was to walk entering down her steps singing. (it’s a kickass 5 story houseboat with cool steps btw). I needed to stay in sync with the recorded version of the song. I messed it up like 10 times when I finally I started to lose it. She’s got the Dr. appt and I’ve got to wrap this video and get back to work.

We both decided I needed to calm down. Maybe a glass of wine would do it. So Mo breaks out the red wine and we drink. I forgot I hadn’t eaten anything with all the commotion going on so unfortunately Mrs. Claus got ‘accidentally drunk’ which really held things up.

I’m silly when I’m straight, but when I’m tipsy I’m sillier. Mo turned on her camera and caught this moment where I’m obviously NOT the Mrs. Claus Disney+ or any network would appreciate in their Christmas Special.

Mo has been ‘begging’ me to post this ‘behind the scenes’ video below for years because every time she watches it she laughs till she cries.

Today’s the day because what the hell. I just posted The Mrs. Claus Video for Christmas all over social media that makes a lot of people laugh. So why not share this other story. People love backstories.

One last thing before you hit the link to the ‘behind the scenes’ video below. 

The Christmas TV Special never happened. I did finally manage to submit a decent version of me singing “The Mrs. Claus Song” but the cute casting guy called to say the network decided not to do the special after all. (Seriously? After all that?)

Meanwhile before I knew that, I was working on how the hell I was going to get the music piece solved so I contacted a musical genius pal I’d made friends with In Las Vegas whose brilliant musical act “The Bronx Wanderers” was headlining there. Vinny Adinolfi was in the record business back when, and as I suspected he would, told me when I got in touch, ‘whatever I needed’. Whatta guy! He even thought the song might win the Annual Songwriters Contest in Vegas and told me I should enter.

But I couldn’t have done that anyway, as right then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was August of 2019. Those boobs of mine that were overstuffed tightly in that Mrs. Claus outfit that were trying to kill me, have since been swapped out.

Extremely grateful to be a cancer survivor, and extremely aware that life is short, I’ve decided nothing is off limits when it comes to having some laughs as long as they’re not at anyones else’s expense. I’m just fine with making fun of myself. As far as my ‘business hat’ goes, I probably didn’t post this sooner for fear someone in business wouldn’t take me seriously. I don’t care about that anymore because I’m great at what I do in business to help people, and I only want to work with people who are fun and ‘real’ anyway.

So say hello to ‘accidentally drunken’ Mrs. Claus.

Here you go Mo! It is done. Laugh on.