A Famous Young Lad

Cutchogue Resident Hits The Mainstream On Nickelodeon

By T.J.Clemente

Sometimes life as a third grader isn’t what it is supposed to be. Tom Batuello of Cutchogue, son of Cliff and Regan Batuello, is a third grader and a regular on a Nickelodeon television show. In Tom’s preschool days, Tom played a member of a famous kids band in a film entitled, The Naked Brothers Band that was featured at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The film won the audience award for a family feature film at the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival and it created a buzz, especially because Julianne Moore and Uma Thurman were also in the film along with eighteen other celebrity cameo appearances.

During that screening, a Nickelodeon executive saw the movie and decided to make it into a TV series and before he knew it, Tom was subject to a ten hour, five day a week schedule at the Nickelodeon studio in New York City. The studio is reported to be like a, “Pee-Wee Fun House,” with video games, basketball court and even a trampoline. Tom’s mother reportedly said it was, “Like a summer camp where only your best friends were invited.”

Tom is a musician (he plays the cello in the TV show band) and enjoyed the TV show experience more then making the movie, mainly because he is older and is a better musician then two years ago.

The show is on Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. on Cablevision channel 33. Tom also can play classical cello, but for the television show he plays the cello upright like a string bass. He has participated in the Long Island String Festival Association’s Suffolk Elementary Festival.

When not shooting, Tom is just an ordinary third grader at Cutchogue East Elementary School. He does get a touch more attention from the girls but he handles it well. His friends kind of tease him and tell him that they are going to take things out of his desk and sell them on E-bay. But it is all in good fun.

The show is not all fun and games however. His least favorite part of the shooting the series was a time when he had to eat Taco Bell hot sauce that took more than one take. Needless to say, he is not a fan of the hot sauce.

All of this work is getting him paid, and he and his family have taken what he has earned very seriously. Fifteen per cent is in a trust fund, and the rest has been put away for college, which is only eight years away.

So tune in on Saturday nights at 8:30 p.m. on Cablevision 33, and see what it is to be a musician in a band as a third grader. Life as a third grader may not be quite the same for Tom Batuello but who knows, maybe someday he will be the next Billy Joel. But right now it’s cool being in a band on a TV series and being in the third grade!