Monday, February 20, 2012

Growing Up With The Last Name Carnavil

The other day while on You Tube, I saw an advertisement for Carnival Cruise Lines and was suddenly reminded of what it was like growing up with the last name Carnavil. *please note the spelling of Carnival versus Carnavil, yet they look and sound almost the same. As most of you can attest, children in school could be quite the tormenting little buggers; especially when it came to their fellow classmates’ names. If your name wasn't John, Joseph, or Mary Smith, you were considered UNUSUAL. Yet, growing up you didn’t relish being unusual. Your only wish was to blend in and be as normal and traditional as possible. But growing up with the last name Carnavil, I blended in about as much as a zebra would sitting in my desk. As you know, I’m Italian. But what you may not know is that my last name was originally Carnivale (pronounced, Car-ne-vahli). However, back in the 1940’s my grandfather had it changed to Carnavil because he decided to open a hairstyling salon in Philadelphia, and thought that our original family name would make it sound too much like an Italian pizzeria, rather than an establishment where women could come and have their hair coiffed. Yet, isn’t it funny that nowadays the name Carnivale etched across a glass storefront window in a scripted font, would be considered something very chic and stylish for a hair salon. Growing up with the name Carnavil was NOT easy. Let’s see, in grammar school I got teased with…. “Hey, Carnavil….does your father own a CIRCUS?” Or “Hey, Carnavil…is your family a bunch of CLOWNS?” Or “Hey, Carnavil…can you get me free tickets to the CIRCUS?” Then in high school I got teased with….. “Hey, Carnavil….does your father own a CRUISE LINE?” Additionally with my first name being Ronald, after the fast food chain McDonald’s opened up, I was then referred to as "Ronald McDonald The Carnavil Clown." Which is hysterical, because when I was a teenager I actually got a job at a McDonald’s. I was assigned to the bun toasting machine. And how appropriate, considering that I like looking at a nice set of toasty BUNS. It took me many years to get comfortable with my last name. I don’t think I ever fully embraced it until I got into show business, where many people will often change their names to something more catchy and creative in order to get noticed. And what’s totally ironic is that whenever I would go to an audition and the director would read my last name on my resume, they would inevitably say, “Wow…I like your stage name, it’s very clever!” Which I would retort, “Thank you, but it’s not my stage name, it’s my ACTUAL name.” Replying,“Really? Your last name is CARNAVIL? How cool!” Suddenly my last name became a show business commodity. I truly believe in destiny and fate, therefore there was a reason why my last name was changed to Carnavil. When looking back at all those years in school being tortured for my name, I realize those kids were right. I am a clown. I am a circus. I am a cruise line. And perhaps even unusual. But I've grown to love my name. It suits me....