Chazz Palminteri Wants You to Help Somebody
Chazz Palminteri is best known for his incredible performances in the film “A Bronx Tale” which is based on his own experiences growing up. Other great roles include “Bullets Over Broadway”, “The Usual Suspects” and “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” to name a few. He sat down with Ron Bennington at the SiriusXM studios recently to talk about his one man show “Bronx Tale” (which inspired the movie) and “Unorganized Crime” . Excerpts from the interview appear below.
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Ron Bennington: So much is happening with you. You have the one man show “Bronx Tale” back out on the road. You’re going to Count Basie.
Chazz Palminteri: Yeah, I’m going to be at the Count Basie theater July 26th, one night only. So I’m really excited by that.
Ron Bennington: Still fun to do that one man show?
Chazz Palminteri: It’s still fun to do the one man show. Ron, it’s been – I did it, it made me famous. I did it on Broadway, and I’ve done it in Vegas. It was the best show on the strip. So people just want to keep seeing it. So I just did it at the Capitol Theater, now I’m doing it at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey July 26th.
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Chazz Palminteri Talks About Kickstarter and “Unorganized Crime”
Ron Bennington: And all these stories from your youth, you still feel just as connected to them after all these years?
Chazz Palminteri: Oh yeah, absolutely, without a doubt. The play is so close to me and means so much. People just love it. I’ve done it 25 years ago, and then I brought it back to Broadway in 07, and then I brought it on the national tour and went to Vegas. And like I said, won show of the year and I still do it. I do it between movies, and television, and things like that. It’s been great. I mean, I’m really excited to always do it. And “Bronx Tale” is the thing that started me. So that’s why, when I read this play by Kenny D’Aquila, “Unorganized Crime”. I just read it and said, “You know what? Robert DeNiro helped me 25 years ago and I have to help this guy.” Because I just thought the play was so – it’s just a great play. I haven’t read a play or a story like that in so long. And I called him up and said, “Hey” – because he wanted me to play the older brother Sal, and I said, “Look I’ll do it.” And then he told me about how he was putting some money together and he was doing it with Kickstarter. And he said, “Will you help me out with that?” and I said, “Of course I would,” I said, “I believe in the project. I believe in you. And I’ll give you a hand.” So it’s called “Unorganized Crime.” The people, they type in Kickstarter.com and the keyword is Unorganized Crime. And you’ll see what people do as you pledge money, and it could be a dollar, it could be $5, $10, someone just pledged $5,000 I think. And he became executive producer of the show.
Ron Bennington: Wow.
Chazz Palminteri: And yeah, so you get rewards, tickets to the show, limousine service to the show, opening night tickets, opening premier tickets, you can come to a rehearsal. It’s a wonderful way that a lot of people are doing this now to raise money. We have only 2 weeks left, we’ve raised, I think, $20,000 already. We have to raise $65,000 for the portion of the budget. I mean, myself, and Kenny, and a lot of guys – we have skin in the game. We put many hours and many thousands of dollars into readings, and rehearsals. So Kenny has to raise $65,000 more. And we’re looking for the public and the people to come and pledge.
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Chazz Palminteri Talks About Live Theater
Ron Bennington: It’s a tough thing to put on a play these days.
Chazz Palminteri: You know what? You’re absolutely right, a very tough thing. You know, you have the Iron Man and the Spider Man, it’s all about big budget movies, and nobody wants to write plays anymore. But, when I read this play, I just thought it was a fantastic play. Alfred Hitchcock once said that there’s only three things you can do to an audience. You can make them laugh, you can make them cry, or you can scare them. And if you do two out of three, you’re doing pretty good. And “Unorganized Crime” does three out of three. It does everything. So I just said, “You know what? I owe it to myself and to someone else and Kenny D’Aquila, who wrote this piece – and is starring in it too, with me. I said, I’ve got to give this guy, this young actor, a shot. And that’s what I’m doing.
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Chazz Palminteri Talks About Why People Connect With “A Bronx Tale”
Ron Bennington: And I think that’s why we have trouble with people talking during films, or texting, it’s because they don’t realize that you’re supposed to go to that place. Here, to me, is the real magic of any kind of storytelling, that you can do Bronx Tale. And then somebody in Iowa could look at that and say, “That’s like my life.” You know what I mean? It doesn’t matter where you’re from.
Chazz Palminteri: It doesn’t matter Ron, you’re absolutely right. I have done it in 32 cities all over the United States. I have done “A Bronx Tale”, my one man show, in Texas, in Austin, I’ve done Austin. All around Texas. Houston. I’ve done it in Milwaukee, I’ve done it in Wisconsin. I’ve done it everywhere, and people don’t know anything about the Bronx, they don’t’ know. And they relate to it because the characters are archetypes. And that’s the reason why. Everyone has a son, a father, a child, a wife, a marriage. Question the morality of yes what’s right and what’s wrong. Is it better to be loved or feared? All these questions. People just relate to it.
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Chazz Palminteri Talks About Getting Interested in Acting
Ron Bennington: What made you want to act as a young person, when you were a kid?
Chazz Palminteri: You know what? it’s something that’s just inside of you. I was ten years old, and I used to imitate the wise guys on the corner. And people used to laugh and I used to find that funny. I don’t know, it’s something that – my mother used to take me to the movies and I used to look at that and I would watch. I remember seeing “Around the World in 80 Days” and “Streetcar Named Desire”, I saw that on television. I just said, “I could do that. I want to try that.” I don’t know.
Ron Bennington: And you were so ready. The thing about you is in “Bronx Tale”, you’re going toe to toe with De Niro and there’s no – there’s no nerves that you see, there’s no fear. You’re working with the best guy, at his peak. And you were ready. You were prepared for it.
Chazz Palminteri: I was ready, yes, I just worked very, very hard. I studied, I went to class. People just go “I want to be an actor.” Well, okay, you gotta study. You gotta go to class. You’ve got to be good at what you do, so when the break does come, you’re there. You just can’t all of a sudden, “Well I want to work with De Niro, I better go take some acting lessons.” That doesn’t work. You’ve got to have your chops together. It’s like people look at what you do. They go, “Oh I can do that” Oh really? Get behind a microphone for 3 or 4 hours and see if you could do it. Then you see how hard it is. You’ve got to practice, you’ve got to come up through the ranks, like everybody else did. It’s hard. It’s hard, it takes work.
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What Chazz Palminteri Learned From “A Bronx Tale”
Ron Bennington: What age before you started to understand the lessons that you were being taught as a kid? How long does it take you before your dad taught you those lessons that end up in A Bronx Tale, before you can think, “I’m going to step back and take a look at this and then teach people.”
Chazz Palminteri: That’s a wonderful question. I started to really, when I was 18 – 17, 18 – I started to say, “Well, you know, maybe my dad is right about this stuff.” When I started to see these guys get killed. But I didn’t, still didn’t get it – and I have to be honest with myself. I didn’t get it, get it until I was in my later 20s. That I go, “Wow, yeah, this is not a good thing to do.”
Ron Bennington: And it is true, those seeds that you do with kids. It might take a long time. Particularly the, “Hey, this is right and this is wrong.” You know the difference between right and wrong. My father gave me that one of, you already know. And by the time it takes for that to sink into you, I would agree, you’re really looking into your late 20s before…
Chazz Palminteri: Yeah, before it really sinks in. And you’ve got to be honest with yourself. Because I know, and sometimes you’ll listen to other people more than you’ll listen to your parents. Because you’re just so used to hearing it, you tune it out after a while. And my father said, “You’ll say these things to your son.” I go “Hey dad.” and you know what? And I do. My son Dante is 17 years old, great kid, talented. And my daughter Gabriella. And I tell them both, I mean I’m blessed to have a great wife who really has worked so hard with them and been there with them when I was traveling. But I’m trying to be there as much as I can, and you know what, they finally – they’re getting it. But still, every day is a battle.
Ron Bennington: Sure. And you are raised by your parents and your neighborhood. And I think that was the great thing that you put out there. Those lessons that you learn from your friends on the street, that sticks with you. It’s a tough thing to shake, it’s all part of it.
Chazz Palminteri: It’s a tough thing to shake, it’s all part of it. But some of it is good, because it gives you street sense and you’re not so naïve when you get out there. I think the lessons that I learned from the wise guys and from the street helped me to be a business man as I got older.
Ron Bennington: And to read people. You can sit down – when you’ve had the kind of childhood that you had. That you can look at people and know, good guy, bad guy.
Chazz Palminteri: You know when they’re bullshitting you. You can just feel when they’re scamming you. You can just say, something is not right. Go with your gut, if that’s all you’ve got, your gut is usually right.
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Chazz Palminteri On Helping Artists
Ron Bennington: And how amazing, now full circle, that you’re helping this kid out with his dream with “Unorganized Crime”? It all comes around.
Chazz Palminteri: Well I’ve helped other people out over the years and I just feel like – and they always ask me, “I’m sorry I can’t pay you the money that you would get for this, I wish there was something I could do.” And I say, “Well there is something you can do. And I only want one favor from you.” And they say, “what is that?” and I always say, “When you get very successful, you have to promise me you’ll help somebody.” And they always say, “I promise I will.” And I say, “Okay, that’s all I want. Just do that.”
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Ron Bennington: That’s amazing stuff. Chazz, thank you so much. It’s great to see you again man.
Chazz Palminteri: Thanks a lot, I appreciate it and “Unorganized Crime”, kickstarter.com, then just type in the keyword Unorganized Crime and there’s the video.
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Visit the kickstarter campaign for “Unorganized Crime” and follow Chazz on ChazzPalminteri.net.
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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio. Not yet a subscriber? Click here for a free trial subscription.
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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.
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