At the end of the semester, each of us had to present a project. Jaime, the token girl of the group, re-invented Barbie for the '90's with a Goth Barbie, Raver Chick Barbie, and White Trash Barbie, the latter of which came with her own bi-racial baby. Matt decided to re-invent the history of the Masters of the Universe universe and basically created giant posters of the characters with their history, stats, and anything else about the character he wanted to add.
My project was on Cult Movies. In a nutshell, I watched four movies that, in my opinion anyway, fit the criteria for cult movies and then wrote commentary on them. I also showed a scene from each one to the class. Polish Vampire was one of these movies.
I wanted to do something extra for Polish Vampire, though. I thought it would be neat to have an interview with Mark to give the class some insight into the world of low-budget films. The big question was, would Mark do it?
Much to my delight, Mark seemed willing and even sent me his phone number should I want to do the interview over the phone. I had no clue how I was going to work out the recording logistics, but no way was I going to give up a chance to interview one of my movie making heroes. So, we set up a date and time.
That Saturday, I had my dorm room all to myself. The recording was done in an ultra-low budget way that Mark himself might have been proud of. I set the tape recorder in front of my roommate's phone with the mic at the speaker. Not the best of ways, but it would work.
At eleven o'clock p.m. Central Time, I made my call. The phone rang twice. Then an answering machine picked up. Slightly discouraged, I left a message with my phone number. I decided to give myself another hour and call again. As luck would have it, I didn't have to. At eleven-thirty, the phone rang. I picked up and said, "Hello."
The voice on the other end answered, "Damon? This is Mark Pirro."
I was slightly ecstatic for a second. Yeah, I know that sounds silly, but I'm a huge fan-boy and just thought it was awesome that I was actually talking to Mark Pirro. After calling him back (hey, I wasn't going to make him pay a huge phone bill for my report) and telling him exactly what the interview was about, I hit record and began.
I asked the typical questions like, "Who are your influences?" and "How did you get your start?" I also asked about his problems with movies like Buford's Beach Bunnies, which is his least favorite film. At times, it almost became a conversation and less of an interview. Even after I ran out of tape, we still talked for another hour. Finally, by the time it was one-thirty my time (eleven-thirty his time) we said our good-byes.
What impressed me the most about this interview was how nice Mark was. The fact that he would grant an interview to some college student from a hick town in Tennessee says much about his character and shows the great appreciation he has for his fans. I can't think of very many in the entertainment biz that would do what he did.
After spending hours transcribing the interview (it was very hard to hear, but I got it done) I put my project together. I am happy to announce that I got an A.
To be continued in Part 5: Four Years Later.