Interview with VAMPIRE MOB creator Joe Wilson

He’s a hitman and a vampire, and he just found out his
mother-in-law is moving in, for eternity.

Joining me today is Joe Wilson, writer, director, and creator of the witty and addictive series Vampire Mob. Joe was kind enough to chat with me about everything from vampire mothers-in-law from hell to jars of celebrity air.

SUBURBAN VAMPIRE: Welcome, Joe. What originally inspired you to merge the worlds of vampires and mobsters?

JOE WILSON: I was working as a private investigator in the intellectual property field (trademarks, patents, that kinda thing), and I was investigating something that included the term ‘mob.’ It was July of last year and the movie Public Enemies was out with Johnny Depp. I joked that mafia stories never seem to go away for very long and vampire stories don’t seem to be going away any time soon; where was the vampire mob story?

I originally started cooking Vampire Mob as a short film and talked to John Colella and Reamy Hall about it. We had worked together on a short called “The Swear Police,” which won at the Los Angeles Comedy Shorts Film Festival, and I was planning on making another short and wanted to work with both of them because they are kickass actors.

SV: Did the hilarious plotline of gearing up to deal with an immortal mother-in-law come to you early on, or was that one of those ingenious types of moments that hit you as you were writing?

JOE: While I was working on it as a short film, I also wrote a one-act play, which was performed twice at the Ruskin Group Theater in Santa Monica, CA, and was based on Don, but at the point he wasn’t yet a hitman, and his mother-in-law was not part of the story. It was called “Craig’s Other List” and was a scene I never planned on shooting: a meeting between Don and the person who could make him a vampire.

As I kept cooking it, I saw the story was too big for a one-off short. Both the ideas of Don working as a hitman and his mother-in-law moving in came once I knew I had a bigger palette in terms of a way to tell the story as a web series and that I could actually make it, in scale and budget.

SV: You've assembled a highly impressive cast. Tell us a little about who you have on board?

JOE: Thank you! I am amazed I got to work with this cast!

Don the hitman/vampire is played by John Colella, a Goodman School of Drama grad, who is an amazing actor I’ve seen in many plays, and I also worked with him on my award-winning short “The Swear Police” (http://www.swearpolice.com). Reamy Hall is Annie, Don’s wife, and she always blows me away any time I see her work, mainly in dramas, including a guest starring role on Criminal Minds last season - she’s really funny!

Kirsten Vangsness, who you might know as Penelope Garcia on Criminal Minds, plays Annie’s sister, Laura, and she rocks both the drama and the comedy in Vampire Mob! Marcia Wallace is known to some as the voice of Mrs. Krabappel on The Simpsons and others as Carol on The Bob Newhart Show, and she plays the newly minted vampire mother-in-law. I wrote the part with her in mind and can’t believe she said yes! Chris Mulkey you might know from Twin Peaks, 24, and soon on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and he's so funny and bizarre as Marty Five, a blood dealer who works out of a castle (we actually shot in a castle!).

Elizabeth Beckwith plays Don’s chiropractor (yes, a vampire with “back trouble”) and is a stand-up comedian, actress, and published author (Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation); she’s funny on paper, too! Jim Roof was in “The Swear Police” and is hilarious as Rob, Don’s brother-in-law.  He’s also a writer/director (check out “Murderabilia” on YouTube). Andrea Cansler, who plays Miss Martini, a vampire/hooker, is a really funny writer/actress and a member of The Groundlings Sunday Company. And Cris D’Annunzio is Cadillac Frank, a mob boss, and he’s also an actor/writer with a feature called Chasing 3,000, which also stars Ray Liotta.

SV: Tell us about yourself--the man behind Vampire Mob. Who is Joe Wilson, and how did your past experiences in filmmaking and comedy come to play in creating this series?

JOE: I am not married to a former CIA agent and have never heckled the president!

I started out as a photographer and had work published in newspapers and magazines, which definitely comes in handy shooting Vampire Mob. I was a mixed-media installation artist and often used video, including one installation that had thirty televisions in it, where I learned a little about editing. I wrote and performed a one-man show, and that was a crash course in everything: acting, producing, writing, directing, theatre lighting, sound design, video, publicity, and grant writing. Of course, I have paid the bills waiting tables and bartending, where I had a few regulars who were involved in organized crime.

Writing and performing stand up is probably the best school for comedy there is because it doesn’t get any simpler than you, words, and an audience. I’ve written movies, plays, short films, and web series in the past, all of which were extremely helpful in making VMob. The P.I. gig definitely taught me about human beings, character, motivations, and dialogue, and it also was a place where acting and improv came in handy!

Five years ago I auctioned a jar of celebrity air - air captured within proximity to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.  It was done as a joke, but I really did go to a movie premiere with a jar and a camera and did it. That was a great experience in seeing the power of the Internet – it made international news on television, newspapers, and was even on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

SV: You've decided to use the "view-ransom" method of debuting episodes. When an episode reaches a certain number of views, the next episode gets released. It's a fantastic idea for generating buzz (and a creative tie-in for a hit-man series). Do you feel it's made a huge difference in spreading the news about the series?

JOE: Glad you like the idea! I stole it from Stephen King (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,100057,00.html) and Greg Stolze , who had both used it for books in the past, but I hadn’t seen it done with a web series.

I think it’s the only way this show could find an audience without a marketing budget or any company out promoting the show. I also think it’s the best way we all find out about shows and movies, recommendations from friends!

SV: I always ask interviewees for their favorite vampire characters, but I love your mother-in-law angle so much that I'm going to make an exception. Instead, who are some of your favorite mothers-in-law from hell characters? And could Vampire Mob's Virginia easily take them on in a mother-in-law smackdown?

JOE: That’s a good one!

I’d have to go with Doris Robert’s character, Marie Barone, in Everybody Loves Raymond for one and Tony Soprano’s mother, Livia, played by the late, great Nancy Marchand in The Sopranos.

Virginia could easily take on both of them! What will be interesting is to see if she can take on Don the hitman’s mother in season two!

SV: Will there be a second season?

JOE: Yes!

Lots of fun things in season two, including the arrival of Don’s mom, who will be played by an actress I am really psyched to work with, who we haven’t announced yet, but will soon. We will also meet Don’s priest, who has known him since he was a kid. We’re pursuing an actor for that role, and if he says yes, it will be yet another impossible thing about this show that actually happened!

We’re trying to raise the budget to shoot it right now on Kickstarter.com.

We used ten-year-old video cameras that don’t shoot HD and barely made it through season one, so we’re hoping we can tell season two using better gear.

SV: Thanks so much for joining me at Suburban Vampire, Joe. Keep on entertaining us with Vampire Mob's sharp and deliciously dark sense of humor that instructs us on everything from the benefits of not eating garlic to the use of the term MILILF.

JOE: Thank you and thanks for supporting our show and independent TV!
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To watch Vampire Mob, head to VampireMob.com.  And to help the series' second season get underway, head to kickstarter.com. The project will only be funded if at least $10,000 is pledged by Friday, Oct 29.