We live in the North End (where do you live?), and over the past few months, occasionally the Prado (aka the Paul Revere Mall/Park) or some section of Hanover that's part of our daily walking route was aflutter with film crews setting up for or shooting a movie. We got a chance to talk with Frankie Imbergamo, The Meatball Guy, about his experiences working as an extra on the set of the upcoming movie Stiffs, starring Danny Aiello.

Puritan City: Are you from Boston; if so, how long and where from?
Frankie Imbergamo: yes, I grew up there on the lower end of hanover st. near battery st.
and lived there until I got married in 1991 and now I live in Medford–my mother
still lives in the north end and I still come down the north end a lot and see my friends as well.

PC: What scenes and/or locations did you shoot in and when? How long were you on the set?
FI: I was in a few funeral scenes. I am walking with another women outside the funeral parlor and danny aiello appoaches me and shakes my hand and says im sorry and then I am also inside the wake with the women and we are kneeling at the coffin and then I get approached by joe sicari and and he said im sorry for your lost and shakes my hand–it was a lot of fun had worked about 13 hours that day–it was very interesting as well.

PC: Who was the most friendly person there?
FI: I think the mostly friendly person on the set was veteran actor joe sicari–he is also a former boston guy and has done a lot of acting in tv and films.

PC: Everybody says Danny Aiello is a nice guy. What do you think?
FI: danny aiello and jon polito are nice guys as well.
I think danny aiello's best movie was called 29th st with anthony lapaglia.
I think it was a great story and it was funny!! check it out on dvd.

PC: The Ciota brothers seem to be some of the best when it comes to North End-based movies. What was your working experience with them like, if you had any? Have you seen any of their other films? What do you think?
FI: joe ciota also directed the film called the North end–I went to see it and I thought it was good!! I think that was in 1997–frank Vincent was in it.
I wasn't in the film the north end–I would have liked too.

PC: How successful do you think the movie will be?
FI: I think the movie stiffs is going to be awsome!!
I liked everything about the movie–nothing bad to say.
I have met a lot of nice people and some nice actors and actresses.

PC: Any idea what the schedule for production/release is?
FI: I was told it will be out in 2007 january or febuary.

Working on Stiffs wasn't Frankie's first brush with Italian-American notoriety. There is, after all, a reason they call him The Meatball Guy:

I was recently on the emeril live show–my recipe frankies gravy and meatballs was the top winner in the emril's Italian recipe contest out of 1500 contestants
on the foodnetwork–the showed aired on august 7th 13th 2005 and the again on feb 15th and 16th 2006 on emeril live!! I was in all the newspapers and a few magazines as recent as last issue of the improper bostonian.

Also, be on the lookout for Frankie's cookbook The Good Life! Favorite Italian Recipes by Frank J. Imbergamo, which you can pick up at the Friendly Framer on Hanover Street.

Technorati Tags: boston, stiffs, meatball, emeril, cooking, italianfood, northend, dannyaiello, jonpolito, joeciota

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