Q&A: Berkshires' Rick D'Elia Talks About His Vampire Comedy
Rick D'Elia grew up in the Berkshires before launching his comedy career.
Images Cinema on Sunday night is hosting a special screening of the film "Don't Suck," written by the Cheshire native.
The event, organized by Berkshire Mountain Comedy Arts Festival, starts at 7 followed by a discussion with D'Elia.
The film follows a veteran comedian mentoring a new young comic with blood-sucking tendencies. It stars some well-known comic names including television and film actor Jamie Kennedy, Russell Peters, Jimmie "J.J." Walker, Carrot Top and Tiktok sensation Matt Rife. D'Elia, also a producer on the film, makes appearance as well.
D'Elia jokes he's a dual citizen of Pittsfield and Cheshire, born in one and raised in the other. He's journey to comedy was a bit of an unexpected turn — he "grew up ski racing" and attended Stratton Mountain School, and later attended the University of Massachusetts and went to work in finance in Boston before doing standup. He's been in the comedy business nearly 30 years.
So how did he happen to write a movie about a funny vampire?
"It is a very bizarre concept. And I didn't come up with it on my own, I was approached by some people that said, 'we want to make a movie, and we want you to write it,'" D'Elia said. "Then the hard part was like, how do you make something like that work? Because it's not an easy concept."
He did some research of vampire films, going all the way back to "Nosferatu," and figured how to make screenplay modern and not fall into the more slapstick, campy context like "Dracula: Dead and Loving It."
"I just wrote a real story and took the vampire out of the equation," he said. "Literally I just said if the story works with the main two characters, then I can insert vampire stuff later."
D'Elia thinks that the sudden popularity of Rife (16.4 million followers on Tiktok) will help boost the film, which will open in select theaters and that streaming may help it reach more fans.
Though he's more worried about his local fans at the moment.
"I'm so nervous. Everyone's gonna hate it," he laughed. "And I'm gonna be embarrassed. I'm never gonna be able to go into the 413 again."
We spoke with D'Elia last week while he was working on cruise ship in Mexico. He said he is not a member of the Writers Guild of America, is a producer and, because the film was completed and everyone paid nearly two years ago, was able to talk about it.
His answers to our questions are edited for space.
Question: You're the only credited writer on the film. Is this your first film?
Answer: It's the first film I got made. I've written several screenplays, I've had two of them that were optioned, and one of them was really close to being made. Literally, we were like, two months away from shooting. And then the director had a problem with the executive producer, and then the executive producer quit. And as the writer, I'm just sitting back going, you know, there's nothing I can do.
I wrote this screenplay by myself but there were plenty of people that were like, 'hey try this." And then when were on set shooting the movie, Jamie Kennedy and Matt Rife both riffed ... and it wound up working and we kept in the movie.
Q: How did you end up with a screening at Images?
A: It was Kevin Bartini ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"), a good friend of mine, there's not a whole ton of standup comedians that have come out of the Berkshires, so we all kind of know each other. When I was making this movie a few years ago, he's like, hey, when it's ready, let me know. He has the Berkshire Mountain Comedy Arts Festiva. It's all his credit, he's the one who got in touch with Dan at Images and made it happen.
They're doing a big favor because they have the hottest movie in the country there right now. And they're allowing us to slip in there.
Q: So the film's name ...?
A: In theater, when somebody wants to go on stage, they go 'break a leg.' In comedy, people say, 'Hey, don't suck.' Not a lot of people know that unless you are a comedian. Also having the vampire element, we knew going into it that this title just lends itself for easy low-hanging fruit. We had several different titles and I wasn't a big fan of 'Don't Suck.' It was in my top 10 but not in my top five. But everyone's like, 'we're sticking to it if people want to make fun of it, that's fine. But it works.'
Q: What was it like making the movie? How do you think it will do?
A: We did get lucky, we called it a lot of favors. But our our entire budget was much less than the 'Barbie' catering budget. Literally. So we knew going into that it would be very niche market. We'll make our money back, it'll be a small little thing, but other comedians will really dig it. And some inside Hollywood people will really dig it. And then Matt Rife, just blows up in between and is the biggest thing in the world right now.
So I think a lot more eyeballs will get on this movie than would have otherwise.
The questions that I get asked the most — they're all about Matt Rife. I get it, he's right now. Matt Rife within a couple of months went from a couple of thousand followers to over 20 million followers on social media. It's kind of amazing, isn't it?
Q: What is like to hear what are mostly your words being spoken on screen?
A: It's pretty surreal. I actually enjoyed it as a fan. I remember having a lot of battles during the editing process, because as a writer you want to be up with the times and there were certain things that could have been taken as not politically correct enough. But as a comedian, you're like, no, no, no, but that's funnier. A lot of times they would go with the third, fourth or fifth choice [in lines]. So yeah, I was not thrilled with the editing, but then like I said, watching the movie I said, 'OK, this works.'
Q: How did you get into standup?
A: I was in a band when I was in college, and I play drums. We had like a Fleetwood Mac lineup, there was there was two girls and three guys. And the bass player was dating the rhythm guitar player, and the lead singer guitarist was dating the keyboard player. And then I was Mick Fleetwood, I was just in the back playing. They would fight in the middle of shows — this is true. We'd be playing at a bar or a frat house down in Amherst and we would take breaks more than we were supposed to.
I would go up to the microphone and just tell people, what was going on in the band. And occasionally, people would laugh and I was like, 'Oh, that that's kind of fun.' So then I would start doing jokes, not my jokes, just street jokes that you heard and I kind of got the bug a little bit. I was like, 'boy, that's fun. And you don't have to bring drums and cymbals.' [After moving to Boston] I was working at Shawmut mortgage company and I'd go to comedy clubs ... I signed up for open mic night and I brought everyone from my office down. I brought like, you know, 20-25 people, and I did really well.
[The next time] I was doing inside jokes that only they would get at the office. So all of a sudden they're not there. I'm doing those same jokes. Everyone in the audience is like what no, this is horrible. Don't quit your day job.
Q: What's your next project?
A: I'm working working on the sequel for this but always have two or three other scripts ready to go. I'm always trying to move forward. It's a very different climate now than it was seven even 10 years ago. It's so much harder to get things independently produced, or at least in a place where you can have a wide audience unless you're part of the studio system.
Q: Are you looking forward to Sunday night?
A: I'm very excited to see everybody, but I'll be more nervous. It's hard to explain, but my stomach is in knots when I think about that. Like, my mom is gonna be there. There's some language in it. My dad is gonna be there, my sister, my nephew, all kinds of friends of mine that I grew up with.
I don't think I'll be in the room for the movie. I'll be at the Purple Pub next door having a couple of shots.
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