Episode #37 MAN ON THE LEDGE

Released October 26, 2010 • Poster by Gary Pullin

for more TALES physical media, info and Swag, visit
www.talesfrombeyondtheplae.com

A SXSW 2017 Award Winner. Directed by Ana Asensio.

Starring Ana Asensio, Brett Azar, Caprice Benedetti,
Larry Fessenden and the Late Nick Tucci.

“A short, stressful, and utterly spellbinding debut that transforms the immigrant
experience into the stuff of an early Polanski psychodrama.”
– Indiewire

“Uses restless tracking shots, hectic cityscapes, ambient noise and
sequences of prolonged stillness to conjure unease and dread.”
– The New York Times

“Ana Asensio’s directorial debut reveals a surprising,
strong-willed side to her undocumented
New York immigrant character.”
– Variety

Now streaming on Tubi

The Pale Men, McQuaid and Fessenden, discuss “The Vampire Party” now available on TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast…

Glenn Mcquaid: Can you talk a little bit about the true life inspiration behind The Vampire Party?

Larry Fessenden: In 1997, my old Glass Eye Pix comrade Mike Ellenbogen and I travelled to L.A. to open my film HABIT at the Laemmle  Music Hall theater in Los Angeles. Mike and I were self distributing the movie, booking it across the country, designing the ads, raising awareness. Mike had contacted a group called The Vampire Society in LA and sent them the flick. They loved the movie and offered to hold a taste making cocktail party before our fist screening. They even said David Skal might attend. Skal had written the excellent history of horror called The Monster Show (a must-read). When we arrived it became clear this fantastic group all loved horror and had a long association with the Hollywood horror business and all the gossip; they had amazing artifacts and collectibles in that modest Hollywood home (including the Creature From The Black Lagoon one sheet mentioned in the piece). It was a wonderful glimpse at a Hollywood subset and a horror subset too. And many of them were a bit light in the loafers. I was quite non-plussed and tickled by their flamboyance and catty raport but I think Mike was put a bit on edge when he found dozens of postcards of my bare ass on the bathroom wall (well it was the poster after all). Much of “The Vampire Party” recalls the conversation we all had that evening, and the anticipation of whether Skal would arrive was genuine (he didn’t). The most remarkable turn of events was when we performed the radio play based on that evening some two decades later on the night of October 29 2009, none other than our host from the night was in attendance: Mr. David Del Valle! Imagine his utter surprise attending an evening of radio plays and hearing (a somewhat hammier version of) himself depicted in the story unfolding on stage all those years later. It was a real hoot seeing him after the show.

G McQ: I’ve always found location and environment really influential on our work and it’s fun that we tap into our surroundings when on the road..

LF: Yes, when we got the gig in Los Angeles, we decided all the stories should reflect some aspect of the town, so you, me and Clay McLeod Chapman all penned L.A. based stories, and we had the host flipping through the local paper as if to discover some sordid tale before we delved in. One of my favorite things in “The Vampire Party” is the opening, where the two New Yorkers are walking in that neighborhood of LA. I of course can picture it so well.

GMcQ: There’s some wonderful sound design and music going on in The Vampire Party, I have fun memories of Graham Reznick introducing that minimal house beat that really adds tension and helps us spatially as we move throughout the house.

LF: Yes, Graham’s track is key to establishing the slowly mounting dread as Mike, who is stoned, slowly realizes things are not as they seem in the second half of the tale. Our post mixer Eric Romary and I labored to evoke the geometry of the house through various reverbs so you could feel yourself traveling up the stairs and down the hall and from room to room. Another Beyond the Pale ambition you and I share is to see how much visual and spacial information can be conveyed through sound. There is also the falling out of the window in this Tale. When we design and mix those moments I always speak of where the camera is.

GMcQ: Is it fair to say that the Vampire Party taps into straight guys’ discomfort around gay men?

LF: Certainly. The concept of the piece is that the big reveal is not that the fellas are gay, but that they are vampires. I am having fun playing with that notion of closeted identities, and also, I hope, celebrating the gay culture in horror fandom. It’s not just musicals, they’re eeeeevvverrrywhere!  I think it is valuable to remind people that monsters and monster movies are an expression of outsiderness that has long had resonance in the gay community. And of course, Mike in the story is intimidated by these revelations.

GMcQ: It’s such a great cast and I think (If I’m remembering correctly) I was doing the foley footsteps up there next to Josh Leonard. I was really impressed with him and everyone on that stage, Josh was so warm and gracious as I stomped around next to him. It’s such a nice surprise to hear Roxanne Benjamin at the end too! What a cast, what a night.

LF: Everyone was fantastic. This was the third play we did that night, it was quite gruelling. Lance as we’ve said elsewhere transforms beautifully from the arch conservative (in your piece “Conviction“) to this silk-voiced wry predator in this one. Josh Leonard is very droll in his role and it lead in some way to my casting him in DEPRAVED some years later. Pat and AJ are so fun and then, we just pulled the always awesome Roxanne Benjamin out of the audience to voice the character Anna from the film SKIN FLICK, my reference to the vampire in HABIT.

Left: Fessenden with the real Mike Ellenbogen stuck in a New York jail cell after we were arrested for postering for HABIT. Self-distribution is no picnic.

Episode #36 THE VAMPIRE PARTY

Performed live October 29, 2014 • Poster by Trevor Denham

for more TALES physical media, info and Swag, visit
www.talesfrombeyondtheplae.com

Directed by Aram Garriga

American Jesus is an exploration of Christianity in every faction of American Life,
from the bread line to the yoga studio. Christian cowboys, bikers and musicians,
comedians, surfers and cage-fighters, they are all doing it for Christ.

“American Jesus is an important documentary
that will redefine how the world looks at America
and how we Americans look at ourselves.”
– The Huffington Post

“AN AMAZING FILM
one of the best and most interesting documentaries on religion.”
– Twitch

“Fascinating and informative…
one of the best, if not, the best documentary on Christianity
in the United States today, lift your arms in prayer
and say “Hallelujah” for AMERICAN JESUS.”
– Movie Shark Deblore

Now streaming on Tubi.

As TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE the podcast presents Glenn McQuaid’s “CONVICTION,” The Pale Men sat down for a chat about the audio play’s origins, the casting, and Jesus on a dinosaur.

Larry Fessenden: Glenn, this story has political overtones not usually found in your stories. In fact many thought this one was penned by myself. What inspired this story?

 Glenn McQuaid: In the past I have shied away from politics in horror because the work I like to tap into aims to be an escape from the troubling realities of current affairs. Growing up, Hammer Horror and Universal Horror offered a reprieve from all the real life terror I was seeing happening locally and globally, and so that’s a place I like to go, to offer that same break from troubles. 

 Of course the great thing about Tales  is that it allows us to try new things and this story came out of me quite quickly. I was religious as a kid, I was also a very frigtened gay kid and I found great comfort in prayer, that I might pray away my homosexuality seemed possible to me back then, and that I might pray for the Cold War to end or pray that I might gain super powers or to befriend ET all seemed reasonable and it offered me a magical escape from my worries. The praying itself was an OCD type ritual that involved blessing myself countless times and repeating prayers ad nauseum, sometimes backwards, until I felt an overwhelming sense of hope and joy and optimism. So I think the story came from reflecting on what was going on with me back then, and the idea that one can create one’s own belief system regardless of reality and it can offer short-term comfort. After these sessions I was no longer going to turn out to be a homosexual, the world was a safer place, I would learn to fly and I’d get to make friends with ET, all these wonderful things were possible so long as I didn’t question anything past that belief system.

The idea that dead soldiers might return home to haunt those that sent them to their deaths was also on my mind, to that end Bob Clark’s DEATHDREAM and WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME (Hellblazer #5) by John Ridgway and Jamie Delano were inspirations. The working title of Conviction was Spirits Never Forgive.

LF: Talk about the casting. The main character seems like a Dick Cheney type but you cast Lance Reddick which gives a more interesting texture to the piece.

GMcQ: As we prepped the show Daniel Noah and Specrtrevision were helping us with casting and I think that’s where the connection to Lance came from. What can I say, I’m a huge fan of Lance and his voice is absolutely incredible so I jumped at the chance to work with him. Colin Powell was an inspiration for the character too. Walker will do whatever it takes to protect conservative America regardless of the amount of corpses he has to walk over to do it. After we performed Conviction we went straight into The Vampire Party and I was so impressed at how easily Lance discarded the staunch republican character of Walker and dived head first into playing a really fabulous gay vampire, it was a wild transtomation to the other side. Lance is very talented and a really lovely man too. 

LF: The boy was also very good, not an easy feat.

 GMcQ: I had seen Cooper Roth in Cooties and was delighted when Daniel mentioned we might get him for the role of Holland. As you know, we don’t get to rehearse a lot with actors before curtain call but when he came in he rolled up his sleeves and joined our motley crew. Lance and Cooper had great chemistry on the night. 

LF: There’s a bit of surreal whimsey portraying Christ on a dinosaur.

GMcQ: Yeah, the creationist aspect of the story was very important to me as it tapped into how powerful and dangerous certain belief systems can be. Walker is basically an atheist who has used religion for political strategy and leverage, and here we see all of that come home to bite him in the ass. His daughter and now grandchild have drunk the kool aid he was shilling and that’s the tragedy of the piece and the justice of it too. 

I didn’t want to portray Jesus for laughs and putting him up on the dinosaur really was to honor Cooper’s beliefs but when he showed up riding that thing the audience had a good chuckle as I don’t think anyone had seen or heard something like that in a while. It was wonderful to perform live and see the reaction.

LF: Did you have alternative endings to this story?

GMcQ: I think there was a slightly more convoluted ending where Holland tries to kill his grandfather but instead gets shot and, as he dies, sees Jesus arriving on a pterodactyl for them to fly off on.

LF: How was the live performance of this one?

GMcQ: This was a tough show to pull off (three half hour audio-dramas live!) and we had a few technical hiccups but my memory of it is warm and I’m really proud that we got to LA and showed them what Tales from Beyond the Pale is about. 

Photos: Conviction poster by Trevor Denham; Glenn procrastinates in an LA hotel; Glenn procrastinates outside the venue, October 29 2014