"Politics was like an amalgam for me," said LaVilla, who was the mayor of Guttenberg for two terms in the 1990s. "It was something new and different. I don't regret getting involved in it and I will never forget my time in politics. But it wasn't what I did with my life."
Long before LaVilla decided to enter the political spectrum, he was a playwright and movie maker.
"I've been writing and directing for more than 30 years," LaVilla said. "This is what I do. Everything else was secondary. I always devoted my life to writing and directing."
During his career, LaVilla has scripted more than 30 plays and has produced and directed a handful of full-length motion pictures and documentaries. LaVilla has also been an actor, performing on the stage and screen.
But now, after 30 years in the business, LaVilla has finally hit the big time.
His movie, "Mr. Las Vegas," has been recently released on DVD and is being distributed by Echelon Studios in Los Angeles. The melodramatic comedy can be purchased in most video stores, as well as online at Amazon.com and directly through the distributor's website, www.singabe.com.
Beginning Oct. 1, "Mr. Las Vegas" will be available on the popular mail-order Internet movie website, Netflix.
"It took me 30 years to become an overnight sensation," said LaVilla. "I'm more than excited about this. It's a big break for me."
Began as short skit
The saga of "Mr. Las Vegas" actually began more than 20 years ago, when LaVilla created the lead character, Henry Hank, in a little skit for a performance in Hoboken.
"The idea just popped into my head," LaVilla said.
The lead character is a stand-up comedian who was famous during the Golden Age of Comedy, the "Borscht Belt" comics who played in nightclubs in the Catskills and Poconos.
"I was raised in that environment, with comics like Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Soupy Sales and Pinky Lee," LaVilla said. "The slapstick comics were my favorites. I grew up with that genre."
So apparently was Henry Hank, except for one problem.
"He's been telling the same jokes for 30 years and they're getting stale," LaVilla said. "He just sort of fades into the wind."
Henry then meets a much younger woman in a Laundromat and they fall in love.
"He's a pathetic guy, but he's happy in his own way," LaVilla said. "But he's a non-conformist and won't change. His love tells him that he has to change if he wants to remain in show business."
Then, Henry gets a visit from the ghost of his dead comedy partner.
"He comes back in a ghostly fashion," LaVilla laughed. "The ghost comes back and tells Henry he has to change his act. The idea just stuck with me over the years and I just had to wait to get the movie made."
Used local actors
The script was written for a while, so LaVilla just had to wait for the right time and get the financing to film the movie. It was finally filmed mostly on location in areas throughout Hudson County and used a host of actors who reside in Hudson County, like Roy Del Toro and Richard Serrano of North Bergen, Crystal Brock and Tartisha Bass of Jersey City, Duane Baker and Joseph Russo of Union City, and Nicole Falcon of Guttenberg.
The score for the film was composed by Tom Thomsen, a native of Union City. The film was edited by Majik, a Bayonne resident.
"We shot the movie in 10 days," LaVilla said. "We had just finished with post production, when a friend of mine showed it to the producer and distributor in Los Angeles, who liked it. I never had any luck like that before. It was amazing how it all turned out."
Echelon Studios liked "Mr. Las Vegas" so much that they have decided to distribute LaVilla's next movie, entitled "Oil and Water," that should be ready for full distribution by Christmas.
"I sent them a rough cut of 'Oil and Water' and they wanted to do it as well," LaVilla said. "So I'm doubly excited. I'm feeling pretty good how this has all turned out. When I'm writing and directing, everything else is like a rolling stone. As long as you don't sit on it, the stone keeps rolling."
As will a movie about LaVilla's experiences in politics.
"All I've learned over the years will come to fruition," said LaVilla, who also spent time as a political reporter for both the Jersey Journal and now-defunct Hudson Dispatch and was the publisher of a weekly local senior citizen publication. "It will become one of my many movies."
Lights, camera, action.
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