Conversations with Louis Spirito

Today we’d like to introduce you to Louis Spirito.

Louis, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was living in New York City, studying acting. To pay the bills, I was driving a cab at the same garage featured in the show “Taxi”, when my girlfriend (now my wife) kept bugging me to try my hand at writing, insisting that I was a natural storyteller. I grew tired of stalling her, so I wrote a spec article about a martial arts school where I was training that boasted a slew of working actors and artists. Ignorant of the submission protocol, I sent the story to 3 different martial arts publications, and they all offered to run it. After that, I published stories in the New York Times and several national magazines. On a lark, I took a screenwriting seminar with John Truby. I loved it and decided that if I was going to live the writer’s life, I would chase bigger game. We said goodbye to NYC and moved to Malibu, where I met my dear friend and writing partner Gary Horn.

As a team, we optioned a half-dozen projects. Working solo, I did book adaptations for several producers and optioned another handful of scripts. While none of my projects ever made it to the screen, I earned enough to stay in the game and pay the mortgage. My writing took a detour when my wife and I adopted an abused pit bull from the Agoura Hills animal shelter. Working from a diary, I wrote “Gimme Shelter”, a nonfiction account of our first year with Tanner and how the timid former street dog helped me finally overcome the anger issues that had plagued me since my childhood growing up in a volatile ‘Goodfellas’ family.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the big hurdles was how to pay the bills between writing jobs. Driving a cab, working as a script reader, teaching at a juvenile prison, tutoring high school students, teaching private martial arts and fitness – I’ve done them all to keep the lights on. It was also difficult adjusting to the vagaries of the business side of writing. As a straight-A student and longtime martial artist, I believe in effort and discipline. Outline the task, do the work, earn the grade or belt or paycheck. Unfortunately, the marketplace doesn’t work that way. Projects get made (pr passed on) for all sorts of reasons. A great script can suffer from bad timing. In one instance, I wrote a well-received boxing drama that happened to run up against Cinderella Man. Another time, several producers praised our Mafia revenge script but they were thrown by the semi-comic tone. A year later, The Sopranos debuted and changed all that but then we were labeled ‘derivative’. I remember my agent telling me to wait at home while she fielded offers for a period action script that she insisted was ‘can’t miss’. I waited, but the offers never came, and the project died. I learned not to get too high or too low, to stay steady, and to just do the work regardless of the outcome.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have a story file chock full of terrific book and script ideas, but I specialize in real-life underdog tales – a street urchin becoming a women’s judo champion, a boxer fighting to save his family from ruin, a young woman defying her controlling father to get her pilots wings and the man she loves, a former drug dealer caught up in a landmark paternity case. Their struggles offer hope and encouragement for anyone whose facing a dilemma or a challenging situation. I’m most proud of “Gimme Shelter”, the story of how our rescue pit bull, Tanner helped me come to terms with my lifelong anger issues. The book was self-published, yet we sold thousands of copies, raising money for animal charities while advocating for pit bulls and shelter adoptions. After the book launched, Tanner and I did bookstore readings (I read, he slept) and charity events. Afterward, people would often take me aside to tell me how someone they knew – a husband, a brother, a son – was dealing with the same anger problem. Several juvenile justice facilities purchased the book, hoping my story would resonate with incarcerated teens.

How do you think about happiness?
Being in the company of dogs, especially pit bulls, because they live and love fully in the present. Spending time with my wife visiting friends or just lounging at home or traveling to Italy, where we were married and have dual citizenship. Reading a great book (Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina) or watching a great new film (American Fiction) or a classic (Tombstone, The Verdict, My Cousin Vinny), or scarfing down a great pizza (Ghisallo in Santa Monica). Practicing karate and tai chi and working out at the gym (my wife and I met at the gym in NYC).

Contact Info:

• Website: louisspirito.com
• Instagram: @louisspirito
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/malibulou/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisspirito/
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/Gimme-Shelter-Louis-Spirito/dp/0989057828/ref=sr_1_1?crid=E8UMZEU7JXD5&keywords=GIMME+SHELTER+Louis+Spirito&qid=1706038728&s=books&sprefix=gimme+shelter+louis+spirito%2Cstripbooks%2C135&sr=1-1

Image Credits
Photos by Eugenie Spirito and Roxanne McCann