Gene Barretta: Hi, my name is Gene Barretta. My full name is Eugene Paul Phillip Barretta Junior. I know it's long, but I have the exact same name as my father, which makes me a junior. When I was growing up there was a TV show called Baretta, it was about an undercover cop named, Tony Baretta, who had a pet cockatoo named Fred. So, every time I met someone new, they always made the same old jokes, "Hey, is your dad a cop?" "Hey, do you have a pet cockatoo?" Or sometimes they would sing the theme song, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, don't do it."

So, my last name was really quite a nuisance. But on top of that, my name Eugene was always used on TV for characters who were always kind of very weak and nerdy, so I insisted on being called Gene. But over time, I learned not to take it so seriously and I embraced my name. Now even, when one of my close friends chooses to call me Eugene, I find it very endearing.