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Mark interviews actor William DeMeo. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Mark Simone, live from the WOR LifeVac studios.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's this great series called Graves End.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: It's on Amazon Prime. Season 3, just released. Graves End,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: if you love gangster films and mob stuff, and it's
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: a wonderful series. A lot of you already know it,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: but many of you might not. Graves End, it's on
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Amazon Prime. It's produced, directed, written, stars... the great writer, director, actor,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: William DeMeo. Of course, you remember him from The Sopranos
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: and Bronx Tale and a million other things. William DeMeo,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: how you doing?
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: I'm great, Mark. It's always a pleasure to come back
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: to you.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: You're a legend yourself and, you know, New York radio, buddy.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: You know, I just was on with Sid and he
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: told me to tell you, he says hello to you,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Sid Rosenberg's fan of you as well. And I know
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you're a fan of him, but, you know, Appreciate being
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: on with you again, my pal.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Boy, you're like Henry Kissinger, a shuttle diplomacy going from
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: one side to the other, from Sid to here. I
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: like that. That's pretty impressive. So, hey, Sid's in the series.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Too, right? Yeah, Sid's in the series.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: But I told him I was going to be speaking
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: with you today, and he's a fan of you, and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I know you listen to him as well.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: You guys, you know, it's great. It's great. New York.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: It's just, you know, New York radio, buddy.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't be in the series, though, right? I
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: don't look like a gangster, do I?
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Hey, we can find a place for you, buddy.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: No, but I don't.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Come on, buddy.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I don't look like Pauly Walnuts or anything like that.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Pauly Walnuts, a Brooklyn guy. Tony Sirico.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Graves End, it's a great series. And this is season three,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: but part one, right? There's more coming?
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: So season three, part one is available now for purchase
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: on Amazon Prime and We're proud to say that we
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: were in the number one spot since it came out.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: It's been really the fans have came out and were
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: waiting for it. And they all stepped up. And I'm
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: so proud of our fan base and the people.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Did we lose them?
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: A lot on Amazon Prime. So we have a great
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: fan base.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: All right. The new season is out. A lot of
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: big names like to appear on Gravesend. Who do you
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: got this season?
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, no, we got a lot of new people, Mark,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: we have, you know, we got Shaquille O'Neal, you know, Shaq,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and his group, which includes Maino, great rapper, and Peter Gunz,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: another great rapper, and James Harrison, you know, the linebacker
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: from the Steelers, I'm a big Steeler fan, so we
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: have him in the show, we have the legendary Talia
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Shia from The Godfather, and of course Rocky, yeah, she's
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: added Vince Cortola, you know, Johnny Sack from the Sopranos,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: and then Dominic Chinisi, uncle junior from the Sopranos and, you.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Know, Johnny, all of the Godfather.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: We had, we had, uh, we added a nice new
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: group of people to, to this, to the third season,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Anthony Rodia, the great comedian. We were very happy with, um,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the new additions to season three.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Graves end. It's on Amazon prime and go ahead.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And I forgot Tony Danza. I can't forget him. Tony
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Danza's in part two.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Tony Danza's in part two. Part two is coming out
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: around Christmas time, seven episodes. But right now, you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: we want to keep the trending going and everybody get
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: out there and watch Grey's End season three, part one
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: on Amazon Prime.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Hey, so we've all watched Goodfellas a billion times and
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: The Godfather a billion times. Today's gangster, 2026 gangster. They're
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: a lot different, right? They don't wear the velour sweatsuits
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: anymore and they don't have the flip phones anymore. What's
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: today's gangster like?
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Well, they're not as stereotypical as in the past.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I would say that today's, you know, they're just obviously
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: more low key, but it's hard to be low key
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: when there's a camera on every corner and you got
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: people on podcasts and stuff like that, bringing their names
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: up every five minutes. But, but they try to, they
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: try to, you know, it's definitely a more low key.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I don't think you'd see as many guys like in
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: front of a social club as You would in Gravesend 1987,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: our show.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the show takes place in the 80s. That's
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: the reason I ask. It's a great time period. You know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the worst thing is when they try to do it
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: in Boston, like this Whitey Bulger. Remember the movie Departed?
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Boston gangsters. It doesn't work. You know, gangsters have to
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: be at the Copa or hanging out with Frankie Valli.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: They can't be in Boston, right?
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Speaking of Frankie Valli, Frankie Valli is... we have a
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: lot of his music in, in season two. And we, we,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: you know, he's a great guy, Frankie.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: But getting back to what you were saying, I mean,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you know, the culprit is, you know, good fellas, uh,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: you know, just, just something special about shooting. Like we
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: shoot a lot of people do these movies and these
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: TV shows about New York and they shoot it in Atlanta.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: They shoot it in, you know, different parts of the,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: of this, of this, of America, instead of shooting it
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: in New York, we, we shoot everything right in Brooklyn
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: on the streets, uh, you know, all in the, in
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the boroughs, you know, and, and, and restaurants and very
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: well-known places. We shoot all over, you know, the places
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. So it's as, it's, it's as authentic as
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: it can be.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. William DeMeo is the star. He's also the writer
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: and the director. It's a great series. Gravesend season three
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: just released. Hey, I don't know if you can explain this,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: but what is it about gangsters? You could watch the
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Godfather a zillion times. You could watch Goodfellas a trillion times.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: What is it about gangsters that so fascinates us?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Well, a perfect example of that is like The Sopranos, right?
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Because The Sopranos was, no one thought it was going
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: to be like the number one show probably in history.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: It came out, and when it came out, I mean,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: it just took the world by storm. And we're kind
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of seeing that with Gravesend, you know, following The Sopranos, which,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: you know, years later.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: I just think that, you know, it's an escape for people.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And I think they kind of like root for the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: bad guys who actually kind of have the good things
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: with them as well.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: You know, you could.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Identify with characters like a Tony Soprano who one minute
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: will choke you and knock you out.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: And then the next minute he's in his backyard with
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: the ducks.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: So, you know, if you kind of look at the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: way these guys are, they joke around with each other,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: they hang out with their friends, they crack jokes.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: And stuff like that.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: And I think people kind of, it's an escape for
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: people in a way where, you know, these movies look,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: if you look at, you know, some of the greatest actors,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Robert De Niro and, and, uh, Al Pacino. And these
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: guys will Joe Pesci or been in so many movies,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: but what are they known for?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: For Goodfellas.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: They're known for Scarface. They're known for Kalito's way. They're
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: known for Donnie Brasco. It just seems like those movies, uh,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: really resonate with people, like you said.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the most popular genre of anything in the film.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: But the latest, greatest is Grave's End. It's season three.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: It just dropped, season three. It's on Amazon Prime. And
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: William DeMeo, you want to give us a little hint
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: as to what's coming up towards the end of the season?
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, everyone that was watching season one and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: two know that Charlie came out of prison. you know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: welcome home cause played by a wonderful actor, Chris Tardio.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: And he, you know, that's Benny's cousin and he's out now. And,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and Chaz Palminteri is, is Cesar Tramaldo. And it's the
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: power struggle between the two sides of the Calezzo family.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And then you got Shaquille O'Neal who steps in playing
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a character named Mustafa, who kind of like runs the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. And they, you know, him and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Benny become friends and he gets in the middle of
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: this whole thing. And it's a, it's a fun ride
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and it's, uh, we got all the same, you know,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: great music and great Cadillacs and Lincolns and Dracar Cologne. And, and, uh,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you know, the woman with the hairdos and, you know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the great, the, the, the Velour sweatsuits from the Brooklyn brand.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: And, uh, yeah, that you, you would want to see
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: in there.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Um, and, uh, it's, it's the struggle that happens between
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the two parts of the family that, I think people
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: are really identifying with right now and coming out to watch.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: So we appreciate our fans and we appreciate them spreading
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the word because coming on with shows like you, like
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: last season and Sid and all these different, you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: shows and Rosanna Scotto and all of these great interviews
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I do, you know, has built up our fan base.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: So I always appreciate going on with you, Mark. You're
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: a legend yourself. You know, you've been on the radio
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: for so many years. I always love listening to you,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and you're a great guy. Thank you for having me.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Anytime. I love the show. It's Gravesend. Everybody go watch it.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: If you haven't seen it from the beginning, start with
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: season one, but if you're a big fan of Gravesend,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: a lot of people are. Season three just released. It's
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon Prime. It's called Gravesend. William DeMeo, congratulations.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Great show, and we'll talk again soon.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to come back to you, Mark. Have
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: a great day. God bless you, and You know, always
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: keep up the great work yourself.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: All right. Take care. Talk to you soon. Take care.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: It's a wonderful show. Graves End. You'll love it. Amazon Prime. Hey,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: don't forget, coming up at noon today, you got Buck
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: and Clay. Excellent show every day, noon to three. Then
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: three o'clock, you got the most listened to radio show
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: in America, Sean Hannity. He'll be back today. Turned out
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: he couldn't get there yesterday. His plane got diverted. or something.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: So I ended up having to do it. But he'll
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: be there today with lots to talk about. Then at
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: 6 o'clock, you got Jesse Kelly. 9 o'clock, Jimmy Fallon.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Very funny show every night at 9. Now, don't forget,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: I'm three hours now. I start at 9 o'clock. It's
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: three hours, 9 to noon every day. And, of course,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: before that, from 6 to 9, it's Curtis Sliwa and
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Larry Menti on 710WOR.