Described in the words of its own creator Chazz Palminteri, A Bronx Tale is a show you “have to see to believe”. The show tells the story of Calogero Anello, a working class boy who gets involved in organized crime and must then decide if he wants to adhere to his father’s values or pursue a life in crime. A moving coming of age story inspired by Palminteri’s own experiences, the show made its debut in 1990 in Los Angeles where it gained critical acclaim and then transitioned Off-Broadway, to New York City where it caught the attention of Robert De Niro who turned it into an acclaimed film released in 1993. Years later the show was revived on Broadway where it ran for more than one hundred performances, which is a unique occurrence for a one man show on the Great White Way. Palminteri explained how it was the only show he’d ever been a part of where people would leave the theater and go buy another ticket right away.

On the eve of a one-night-only performance at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts on November 23, we talked to the Academy Award nominated actor about his life’s project, which he humbly called “the only thing I’ve bragged about”.

You’ve been doing this show for more than two decades now, can you tell me about the ways in which the show has changed from the time you started doing it, until now?

It’s very close to the way I first did it in 1989. I would say the biggest difference is that when I first did it I wasn’t married, I had no children and I played 18 characters, but I felt more like the young boy relating to the father. Now that I have children I’m both, but also now feel like the father relating to the young boy. I think that makes it richer, deeper and better overall. And I always tell people who saw the movie - because some don’t know that the movie is based on a play - that if they love the movie, they’ll love the show even more, because I am the guy, I am Calogero. The amazing thing about the show is that I’ve done it all over the United States, it’s running in France right now and it’s just a hit all over the world. It was huge in Japan! People who don’t know what to expect will have a night they will never forget.

I saw the movie when I was a kid and while many people think of it as a gangster film, I always felt it was more in tune with something like The Bicycle Thief. Did you use that as an inspiration?

Thank you for the incredible compliment because that’s a great movie, but when you’re writing, you write the story from the heart and it was just a story about my life and that event. I’ve heard people compare it to neorealist films before but I was just trying to be real and honest.

How does the show change according to the venue?

It’s funny, I’ve done the show at 3,600-seats theaters and then I’ve done it in theaters as small as 500 seats, so it doesn’t matter.

How do you adjust the tone of the show to how the audience is reacting?

I hate sounding like this, but I have done the show 857 times and I have gotten 857 standing ovations. Immediate ovations, not polite ones. The show is like a rocket ship, it flies off and takes you with it. Look, Alfred Hitchcock used to say there’s only three things you can do to an audience: you can make them laugh, you can make them cry or you can scare them and if you do two out of three you’re doing great, and in the show I do all three so it works great.

I think the idea of fate comes across as something of a key element in the show, and I read somewhere that you wrote the play only after you were fired from a job you had at a club. Was the concept of fate on your mind a lot when you wrote this?

You know back then I just wrote it, but looking back in my life, and after I went to therapy and thought about that, it made sense. I was working at the hottest club in Beverly Hills and I was working the door, and I wouldn’t let in a guy who was being nasty to me and it happened to be his party and I didn’t know that. The guy happened to be Swifty Lazar, who was the biggest casting agent in the world at the time, and I got fired, went home and thought about what my father had always told me about how the worst thing in life is wasting talent, so I decided to start writing.

I think it was quite ballsy of you to tell Robert De Niro that you would only let him turn your show into a film if you wrote the screenplay.

I had been doing that for a few months already, because studios were offering to buy the play and I refused to do it. They went from 250 thousand, to half a million, to a million dollars and I just wouldn't do it. Then when Robert De Niro came, I told him I’d let him do it if he did it my way and he said OK.

Was this because you were worried that studios would want to make a Disney version out of it?

Exactly! I don’t know but probably they would have tried to make it a little more tolerable for them. I wanted it to be real and honest and I wanted the story to be correct. Robert De Niro did a masterful job and really kept to the script.

Did you follow the career of Lillo Brancato, Jr. who played Calogero in the film?

Yeah, he was a very talented young actor, very gifted and he had an incredible career in front of him. He could’ve been one of the great young actors today, but drugs got involved and that was it. He’s out of prison now and I hope he learned his lesson. I hear he’s doing talks about drugs and the perils of addiction so I think that’s a good thing.

One of your best performances is Cheech in Bullets Over Broadway. Did you have a chance to see the Broadway show?

Yes I did, I really liked it! I thought Nick Cordero was just terrific! He was great, even got a Tony nomination. I enjoyed the show, it’s sad it didn’t do so well.

It made me realize we haven’t really seen you in many musicals though…

I’ve done Off-Broadway musicals, but I do sing. I would like to do a musical someday though.

You’ve done plenty of voice over work for animated films, including an upcoming project where you voice Babe Ruth. Is this something you’re doing so your kids will have the chance to see your films as well?

My daughter’s still young, but I also like doing the animation movies because they’re just fun, and a lot of my nieces and relatives get to see them, which means they can see some of my movies (laughs). My daughter is 12 so she’s been able to see what daddy does.

What ever happened to that John Gotti biopic you were doing?

Nah, that’s supposed to have happened a couple times but I don’t know if it’s ever gonna happen to be honest.

So what’s next in your career?

I do my show maybe twenty dates a year, at the big arenas, performance centers. I’m also writing another show, I just did a movie in London with Tom Hardy called Legends that’s coming out next year, so you know, I have a bunch of things in the works and life is good.

To buy tickets to A Bronx Tale click here.