Brother, sister are show business naturals

Shelby and Sy Adamowski

EDISON - The next time you run into Edison residents Sy and Shelby Adamowski, be sure to ask for their autographs.

Sy, 12, has long established himself as a performer, and Shelby, 8, will soon begin her career as an entertainer. She recently won a starring role in Adam Sandler's upcoming comedy feature, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry."

"I knew Adam Sandler was famous, but I didn't know who he really was," Shelby said, as she recounted the first time she met him after she was hired.

Shelby was told she won the part on Aug. 22 shortly after she auditioned for the role.

"They flew us to Hollywood without telling us she had the part," said her mother, Jennifer Adamowski. "We just got on the plane with a backpack and were taken right to Sandler's office, and that was the end of it right there. There was no other kid."

While the experience is a new one for Shelby, she has been watching her older brother Sy work as a professional actor-singer for years. He has performed in Broadway productions and sung at professional sporting events, including Knicks and Mets games.

"When I was younger, when I would watch TV and see commercials and stuff, I used to sing along to the TV jingles," Sy said. "Then one day one of my mom's friends said I should get into the business. Soon after, I started going on auditions, got a manager, and ended up on 'Gypsy.' It was just community theater, but pretty big for a 4-year-old."

Sy prefers performing to other activities like sports. "When I played Little League baseball, my favorite position was the dugout," he said. "I am not big on sports. One time my dad wanted me to be into sports and put out some bats and stuff. I took a bat, turned it upside down and sang into it."

"Ultimately, I told him he did not have to play baseball, and he said, 'Thank you,' " said Sy's father, Lawrence, a physical education teacher in New Brunswick. "You never know what a child is going to love, though you have your own thoughts as to what they would like."

But the children were exposed to the performing arts from early on.

"I was in theater my whole life, and so it wasn't just this thing that came up ... . Sy has been around theater his whole life," said Jennifer, who now runs her own Web site development company, sylar.com.

But Shelby is a newcomer to the entertainment business.

"I had been encouraging her to try it for a long time, but she had absolutely no interest in it," Jennifer said.

But she had been quietly watching Sy over the years, Lawrence said.

"She was quiet but absorbing it all. Then one day she said, 'Daddy, I'm ready ... I'm ready to do what Sy does,' " her father recalled.

Within weeks she had landed the starring role in Adam Sandler's new movie, after her very first audition.

"Adam Sandler picked her, with no previous acting experience, out of 3,000 girls," Lawrence said.

The parents say that they never forced their children to be performers, but rather the kids chose to do so on their own because they enjoyed it so much. However, being a performer is not all fun.

The busy schedule of auditioning and rehearsing means that it has been several years since they took a planned, formal family vacation.

"Recently my brother got married, and we almost didn't make that," said Jennifer. "The whole family went down for a week, but Sy had rehearsals and Shelby was getting ready for the film ... we finally went down the day of the wedding."

"The most you can take off is a weekend," Sy said. "But I really do enjoy it.

Shelby is home now, but she will be back on the set on the West Coast for most of the rest of the year.

But no matter how successful they may become, the kids can't escape homework.

"Shelby's school is being really good," Lawrence said. "Her teacher will let me pick up a packet every week with work from her class, and I will mail it to her in California, where she is filming the movie."

The little girl will do her school assignments with a tutor. Her father will hand in her work.

Jennifer often put her work aside over the years to take Sy into New York to audition when an agent called.

"But you can go for months or even years without really falling into something, and then something hits and everything gets crazy all of a sudden," Jennifer said.

Auditions and practices also mean missing the soccer game or the birthday party, Lawrence said. "So they may have to choose between that and doing the show," he said. "It is a second job, and the kid has to give up a lot of being a kid. But we never forced them to do it. It's got to be because the kid wants it more than the parents want it. They are still being kids. It's just that they choose to be a kid in an adult world."