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Episode 75: Bob Bergen
57 Plays1 month ago
On this week's episode we sit down and chat with voice-actor Bob Bergen whose credits include being the official voice of Porky Pig!
DISCLAIMER: We are not an affiliate of the Walt Disney Company nor do we speak for the brand or the company. Any and all Disney-owned audio, characters, and likenesses are their property and theirs alone.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Sharing the Magic'
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Sharing the Magic, the podcast that takes you on a journey through the enchanting worlds of Disney. Each week, we're joined by a special guest, whether they're a magician creating moments of astonishment or a Disney expert sharing the secrets behind the magic of the happiest place on Earth.
Exploring Disney's Stories and Inspirations
00:00:23
Speaker
Together we'll uncover the stories, inspirations, and behind the scenes tales that bring these worlds to life. So, get ready to be spellbound and transported to a place where dreams come true.
Meet Bob Birkin: Veteran Voice Actor
00:00:53
Speaker
Welcome to sharing the magic, everyone. Hey, Bob. um Hey. Want to introduce yourself and and who are you? What ah what have you done? what What do you love to do in your life and what you've been up to?
00:01:04
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. I'm Bob Birkin. I'm a voice actor. I'm a voice coach. I've been doing it for 175 years and I love every second of it. So that's that's my quick introduction. And then you ask me questions and I'll i'll fill in the blanks. But yes, yeah I'm just I'm just your average everyday cartoon voice actor.
00:01:23
Speaker
Well, I don't know where to start because I I love voice acting. I sort of found I didn't find it. It sort of found me. And I know our listeners are probably really sick of hearing me talk about sort of my story. But ah my great, great cousin was Pat Butram.
00:01:41
Speaker
And he was. I know Pat much room was I don't. believe where he sure that fuck not la am Yeah, he was. Yeah, that's about how well how you've got great DNA. What a brilliant character actor. Well, that yeah. Well, and and of all the people in the world, it's like, you know, when you're 10 years old and you're like, hey, you know, that's your cousin, your great cousin. I never met. I and actually never met him. I've met. You never well because you're young. how Yeah, I was young. But when did he pass away?
Inspiration from Pat Butram
00:02:08
Speaker
Oh, good.
00:02:10
Speaker
Well, it was after the Green Acres. No, it was right. It was right after a goofy movie. OK. It was sort of right after that. So it had to be good. I think 90 something. Yeah. The go goofy movie was his last voice. and And so, you know, so for me, I got obsessed with voice acting. Sure. Oh, so if he did this voice, then who did? And so I would always look up voices as a kid.
00:02:35
Speaker
And so, you know, and then I started doing the Pat Buttern voice. And then for me, it's sort of evolving when I got older, I started, you know, I bought a Labrador and ah he loved me singing Disney songs to him. And I used to do, oh well, I ran out of them. So I'm like, okay, what do I do? Well, I started doing voices for him. And then what I found, what I found out, but I'm a big fan of Bill Farmer. I love Goofy, I love Bill Farmer.
00:03:01
Speaker
And, uh, and so, you know, this whole process of voice acting for me was sort of like, okay, it went from, you know, when I found out Bill Farmer loved Pat Buttrum. That was what I call an anchor voice. That first little voice that you start out and you go, hmm.
00:03:17
Speaker
I love this voice and I, and and you start out with one, you know, what I call it your anchor voice. And then that's sort of the root that sort of grows all the other stuff that you do as a voice actor.
The Journey into Voice Acting
00:03:30
Speaker
And so for me, this is just my story. I'm going to shut up in a second, but it was Pat Butcher, you know, it was do it, you know, as a kid, be, it you know, um, my mom would be like,
00:03:41
Speaker
Hey, do you want to record our family? ah You know, for if if somebody calls and they'd like to leave a message, she's like, well, if you'd like to, you know, and I, it and then it evolved into like goofy. So there's, I wish they were going to say your pat butchered sounds a bit like Bill's goofy.
00:03:58
Speaker
I know. well big That's what I'm getting to because like it goes when there's high and low and highs and lows, and But there's ups and downs, ups and downs, and there's ups and downs, ups and downs. But that was my voice. And ever since that, I just fell in love with voice acting. And so anyone like yourself that's on here, just I feel so grateful and honored and just I can geek out all day long talking about the nuances, the the process of voice acting. And, um, maybe my first question, and then I'll turn it over to our wonderful cast is, well, I talked about my, my anchor voice. Did you have an anchor voice or or maybe you just, what was your process like when you discovered, Hey, I'm pretty good at voice acting.
Turning Passion into Profession
00:04:52
Speaker
You know, yeah my my my my anchor was the television. I would I was watching Saturday morning cartoons and I was just enamored by cartoons. And my mom used to tell a story of how, you know, I was a five year old kid watching Saturday morning cartoons.
00:05:12
Speaker
And she'd be in the kitchen doing dishes and she'd hear the cartoons on the TV in the living room. And she'd hear a line on the TV and then she'd hear the line again, which she thought was odd. And she stood behind me watching me mimic Porky Pig and Tweety and Speedy Gonzales back to Porky Pig, Tweety and Speedy Gonzales. So that was my first.
00:05:34
Speaker
I guess, ah inkling that this was a thing. yeah I didn't know there was a career for this at that time. I just knew that I like cartoons and I became ah ah infatuated by Porky Pig. So that was my thing.
00:05:51
Speaker
so do So when you started really taking voice acting, like that that moment where you you started, I don't know, i'm I'm not there, but you know, I still do it sort of as a a hobby of something that's a passion, but then you sort of have to take a leap and get out there and you have to put yourself there and and take it in a professional sort of way.
00:06:15
Speaker
This is a big question for me because I'm sort of here. I'm sort of here at right now. how How did you kind of navigate through, oh boy, this is something I'm passionate about to, oh man, this is something that I need to be successful at to put, you know, food on the table.
00:06:33
Speaker
you know Okay, I never ever ever thought about putting food on the table making a living. Yeah. And to this day, I never it never enters my mind to book a job or make a make a living at this. I'm just doing what I love.
00:06:48
Speaker
And I think if everybody just does what they love, I don't care if that's voiceover. I don't care if that's teaching. I don't care if that's making pepperoni pizzas. If you do what you love, you don't you don't care about getting paid because you're paid in the satisfaction of doing what you love. So I was lucky that my dad moved the family to L.A. when I was 14, and I knew this is where cartoons were done. So, i I mean, literally, right after we moved here, there was a magazine called Drama Log, which today is called Backstage.
First Agent Experience with Casey Kasem
00:07:24
Speaker
Drama Log was one magazine, Backstage was another, and Backstage purchased Drama Log. It's a trade magazine. And I went to our local newsstand, and I bought it.
00:07:34
Speaker
It's where ah teachers acting teachers advertised. It's where auditions for theater advertised. And I just found a voiceover teacher. Yeah.
00:07:46
Speaker
And I started taking voiceover classes. My parents had a rule. I had to keep a C average. And um I was 14. At 14 and a half, I got my work permit because ah in L.A., in California, you could work at 14 and a half. And from that point on, I paid for all of my voiceover classes forever. And I studied voiceover. I studied acting. I studied improv. And when I was 18, a friend of the family knew KCK.
00:08:16
Speaker
And for people who don't know who Casey will Google Casey case in the world of art is he was shaggy. I'm Scooby Doo. And in fact, let's see if this works. I don't know if this is going to work. Do you want me to screen share you? No, no, no, no, no, not at all. um I'm trying to see if there's a reverse the camera. I don't think there is a reverse the camera on on on Zoom.
00:08:40
Speaker
Anyway, across the way, I have ah an autographed picture of Casey Kasem, which was a gift ah as my high school a high school graduation gift from a friend of the family. And I sent Casey Kasem a thank you letter with ah and I included my phone number and I said, I want to do what you do. And he called me up and he asked me all kinds of business questions um like hey like, do you have a demo, which I didn't. And he said, you know, put something together on cassette, just as many voices as you can do.
00:09:09
Speaker
which I did, sent it to him. At the time his agent was in the hospital in an oxygen tent. I don't know what was wrong with him, but it wasn't good. But Casey went to the hospital and with a little handheld recorder played this little cassette of mine through the plastic of the oxygen tent.
00:09:27
Speaker
And the agent evidently liked it recuperated. And a few months later called me up and said, I think you're very talented. I'd like to represent you. And I said, well, mister, I don't know what that means, but I haven't graduated high school yet. So as long as it's after three o'clock.
00:09:43
Speaker
I'm OK. So this guy's this guy's name was Don Pitts. And Don Pitts was like the top voiceover agent in in the entertainment industry. He was he represented Mel Blind, June Faray, Dawes Butler, yeah um Paul Winchell, everybody, everybody. Or Orson Welles. You name it.
00:10:07
Speaker
And that's how I got my first agent. And then I worked odd jobs for five years as I tried to build enough credits and ah and a career. So from first voiceover class to making a living at this took me nine years. But since 1987, I've worked full time as an actor. It's amazing.
00:10:29
Speaker
That's a, that's a great
Evolution of the Voice Acting Industry
00:10:30
Speaker
trajectory as far as, wow. I mean, the time that it took to put in the work, but also, you know, the fact that you, you, you sort of aligned yourself with also like a great agent, which now this is, I'm always curious now how.
00:10:48
Speaker
I always think voice acting now is sort of the wild west. I don't know. yeah How is it changed? So looking back at your story and then looking at sort of how it is now, yeah um what has changed and and in your mind? If you were just, you know, whatever age you were when you started, how would you Maybe because we we do have voice people that listen to this podcast. I voice people. How are you? Yeah. Hey, voice people. And we we're all sort of like, okay, well, what do we do now? Like, do we, do we, do we find a coach? Do we, do we get an agent? Do we just maybe we just develop ah a great.
00:11:28
Speaker
Instagram page with tons of our of our work on there and it sort of becomes sort of like the the sort of like you know the modern day uh uh reel of of what I can do and so so you know yeah since you've been doing this for for the time that you have, how have you seen it change?
Importance of Acting Skills in Voice Acting
00:11:48
Speaker
And then do you have any um advice for the modern day ah voice actor that's sort of just as passionate about doing this stuff? Well, the most important word you said was actor.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, it starts with being an actor, training to be an actor, become the world's greatest actor and then study voiceover. The worst thing that ever happened to the voiceover industry is the Internet, because what the Internet did was it dumbed down the voiceover industry.
00:12:19
Speaker
Before the internet i'm gonna get technical here but people work with me well first of all when you say people getting into voiceover you gotta be more specific it's like saying i wanna get into medicine. Well there's pediatrics there's brain there's heart surgery.
00:12:37
Speaker
There's hematology, there's ophthalmology. What do you want to do? Well, the first thing somebody needs to besides becoming a great actor is what do you want to do as a voice actor? What does that mean?
00:12:52
Speaker
animation, games, commercials, promos, trailers, radio imaging, audio books, e-learning, et cetera. Every genre of voiceover requires its own training and its own demo and its own marketing.
00:13:08
Speaker
ah it Now, when I got into the business, 90 to 95% of voiceover was union, meaning it was SAG or AFTRA. Today, 85% of voiceovers non-union, and that's because of the internet. The internet um took most of the voiceover industry away from the union. What does that mean? It means that when you work, and I'll go backwards, as a union actor, every time I work,
00:13:35
Speaker
um Depending on the job, I will get applicable residuals. What is a residual? A residual means that when it airs, I get paid. if it's what if somebody If I do a movie and somebody purchases on demand, I get paid. If it's on cable, I get paid. If it's on network TV, I get paid. If I get paid, um also ah the producers pay a contribution into my pension and health.
00:14:00
Speaker
I've got representation from the union in case there's a like check or I've got to file a claim, whatever. if It's not a union. As you said earlier, it's the Wild West. yeah Now, why is that good? Why is that bad? Well, um it's bad because I was able to sign with my first agent when I was 18, fresh off the boat. I was a trained actor.
00:14:24
Speaker
But I was brand new. He literally had me come into his office and practice auditioning. That kind of development for a new actor by an agent will never happen again because of the Internet. So what happened with the Internet is it took all this work that was union and through the through the pay to pay slides sites, you know, the ways one, two, three voices dot com. Too many people were willing to do it for less for less. Yes.
00:14:53
Speaker
And therefore, they made it more difficult to get an agent because they took the day to day work away from the agents. I i teach and I've got people. I mean, i'm I've I've I've made six figures in in pay to plays. Why can't I get an agent? Because that six figures was income for the agent at one time. So.
00:15:17
Speaker
people who are participating in this and we're 25 years into it, so it's not going away. But people who participated in it are to blame for their own inability to take their career to the next level. Now, the only voiceover genre that is still over 90 percent union is animation. Do you know why? That's a question for you. Oh, yes.
00:15:43
Speaker
you've You've seen animated cartoons, animated series, animated features. Why would that stay union? That's a good question. i it Well, Brian, day come on, Brian. I don't know. Yeah. um god um I feel I feel embarrassed that I'm stumped, but I sort of am like I should. This is something I should be able to to guess it. But I I'm i'm curious for the answer because I'm celebrities.
00:16:09
Speaker
Oh, shoot that's right. That makes yes. Okay. Yeah. Because every feature, every series wants to use a celebrity. Yeah. that's for teams And if it's for TV, celebrities get scale, which means minimum. Okay. So as long as they're going to want a celebrity to do this cartoon, it has to stay union. Yeah. Okay.
00:16:30
Speaker
Well, that's, that's not great. No, it is. It is. It is great. It is. Okay. But, okay. But, okay. So kind of like self self, but I want your opinion because, okay. So I've, I've heard this, the flip side of that and, and, you know, I'm, I'm all ears.
00:16:49
Speaker
Well, they always say, well, that I've heard voice actors say, well, that that's not great either because, you know, back, let's say the eighties. Oh man. You know, you knew, you knew the voice actors. I
Celebrity Influence in Animation
00:17:01
Speaker
knew, okay. That's Jim Cummings. That's ah like you said, Paul Lynch. Oh, there's, Oh goodness. Uh, you know, you have, yeah you just have tons and tons. And I knew the voice actors were sort of in this other realm, this heavenly realm of, you mean, you mean animation voice actor? Yes.
00:17:18
Speaker
Absolutely. That's who that's who I mean, exactly. But then now it's like, oh, all right. Chris Pratt is voicing somebody else. And and all right. Stop right there. Stop right there. All right. You're talking about like the animated features or they hire celebrities. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. OK. They always hired celebrities since day one. What was the first animated feature? You know the answer. What was the first animated feature? Come on, you guys. What's the podcast? Disney. Come on.
00:17:46
Speaker
You guys have to know this with celebrities. No, the first feature ever ever. Snow White. Snow White. Snow White. It wasn't that hard, guys. Promise. I know. Thank you. Snow White was the first animated feature.
00:18:03
Speaker
Disney always used celebrities. That's true. Now. well Now, here's the deal. Here's the deal. Yeah. Celebrities of the day in the late 30s came from radio. They were as popular as celebrities from TV and film, and they were in everybody's home every single night. Disney didn't always give them screen credit in the movie. So you didn't know who was doing those voices.
00:18:30
Speaker
With the exception of of Snow White herself, everybody was a radio personality. Everybody was a celebrity. But see, Disney only released an animated feature every five to seven years. a Today, every major studio has a thriving animation department. There ain't a week that goes by where there isn't an animated feature in the theaters. yeah And they use celebrities for the leads. Why? Because they have box office appeal.
00:18:57
Speaker
And you're right. I think of Phil Harris. I think of I think of, ah gosh, you know, you're right. Yeah. And when Sterling Holloway, Sterling Holloway. Yeah. no I mean, Disney, Disney always used celebrities. And so today people think it's a recent phenomenon. No, it's not. if They're just going with the flow. Now, here's the difference for those of us who aren't celebrities.
Opportunities in Animation Voiceover
00:19:23
Speaker
There was a cast of maybe at the most eight to 12 in a Disney feature. Today, there are dozens of actors in an animated feature. At the end of the credits, you'll see a lump of credits that says additional voices.
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, those are the collective means those of us who are not celebrities who have the skills to play multiple characters in a scene. We're never going to play Buzz Lightyear, but I've played the Green Army men. You know, I mean, there's there are parts for those of us who aren't celebrities. There's never been. OK, when I got into the business.
00:20:02
Speaker
And I wanted to do voices for cartoons, as I said. I had Saturday morning cartoons. I was at there weren't any animated features today. There are 24 seven ah networks devoted to animation. We have crime time animation. We have streaming. We have games. There have never been more opportunities for anybody to pursue animation voiceover than today.
00:20:28
Speaker
And if I can break in in 1982, when I was told we've got no blank, we've got June for red. We've got dogs about there. We don't need you. Trust me. If you're brilliant, you're going to break in today. Yeah. Okay. I got to turn it over to everyone else, but this is, this is the one thing we're talking about this before you even got here. Because one of the things I hear, I use this, this analogy all the time, because I don't know where I heard it once upon a time, but I did hear it.
00:20:55
Speaker
And it was this. it And this this talks about the difference between, you know, there's voice acting and voice acting, right? and And everyone who's a good voice, who says, oh, the acting part absolutely needs to come first. Now, but but when people expand on that, it's typically about porky pig. And here's what they say. They say, oh, anyone could do porky pig. But can you do Porky Pig singing The Pledge of Allegiance? And it's a great, i've I've heard that from multiple sources and it's sort of the standard to say, all right, there's you know an impression is one thing, but can you take the voice and and and no matter what situation you're in, no matter what, and it still sounds off point.
00:21:45
Speaker
authentic. Yes. And I just love I love that you're Porky Pig. And I'm like, Oh, cool. You know, and and you obviously, you more than anybody else knows that because you are the voice of Porky Pig that could most definitely sing the Pledge of Allegiance. But but how would you expand on that? So you know, when when they made us audition for the first Space Jam movie,
00:22:08
Speaker
And I got it got down to the last five of us. It was a it was a callback. Yeah. And I'm at the studio and they're handing out the audition sites for the final callback. And I'm looking at the at that they I was the last one to get the script. And I'm looking at the other guys as they're looking at their script, like they're looking at roadkill, like they're looking at something tragic. And I'm like, what are they looking at? What they handed out was Shakespeare.
00:22:37
Speaker
Oh, yes, they they figured any good mimic can say that's all folks. What's up, Doc? Yes, I get I get the script and I'm like, I'm going to get this because if you really own a character, if you really know that character backwards and forwards, what I tell my students is, you know, and it by the way, whether it's it's a classic character or an original character,
00:23:05
Speaker
Take the front page of the newspaper.
Owning a Character in Various Contexts
00:23:07
Speaker
If you can read it in character, but the story is more important than the effort it takes to stay in character, then you own that character. So your example was the Pledge of Allegiance, which was a cool one. My example, which I had to really do, was Hamlet's To Be or Not To Be. Oh, yeah. That's so cool. And I loved it. And I knew I was going to get this because I could see the terror in their eyes. All they could do was mimic.
00:23:33
Speaker
And and and imitations are kind of the kiss of death on a demo. That's because because if you're not dead on, everybody has the right to judge an impression. Right. But if it's an original character, nobody can say, ah sorry, that's not quite right, because it's an original character. Right.
00:23:53
Speaker
No, I agree. And that's that's where, you know, I'm i ah going back to a Bill Farmer. I love Bill Farmer. But and I love Goofy's voice. But but, you know, my favorite of of that and how I sort of obsessively watch is a Goofy movie. And the one. Well, it's because they ripped Bill. So during that, that whole process.
00:24:12
Speaker
You know, he's like, you know, he went from Goof Troop, which was like, boy, I'm actually, you know, doing his, everything's just heightened. And, but then they had made him slow it down. It took like years to like film that movie and they, they, they threatened him. They, you know, and he had to slow it down to where even, you know, there's some heartfelt where Bill even says, I was uncomfortable recording this because it felt too much like me. I could hear my voice sort of piercing through and I didn't like that.
00:24:42
Speaker
And, uh, I just think that what a, but what a great snapshot of, of actual, of acting, you know, within the voice, you know, even in in the cartoon world, you know, and and, and what, you know, you, I watch a goofy movie all the time and I'm just, I'm just the range of emotions that are there from, you know, it's, you know, from everywhere, from the hot tub scene where goofy just slows it down. And he's just, you know, he's like, you know, talks to him and Pete, just having an honest, normal conversation in the hot tub. Well, man, that's just, that's amazing. And, and someone, I think this is just, you know, my own world and trajectory where I'm obsessive, I'm obsessive about not just
00:25:26
Speaker
you know like the voice of doing voices but but that part that part of it where you sort of you meld together this this the voice that you've always heard whether is it could be porky pig bugs bunny goofy whatever it is and then it's sort of you you take that voice and you're keeping the familiarity of it but yet you're bringing it to new ground. You're sort of, you're bringing it to honest, real emotions, I think is fascinating. but hand And difficult and it difficult. Yes. Yeah. yeah what What do you, yeah what do you think about that? That's what separates those who can and those who can't.
00:26:06
Speaker
Yeah. And 99 percent cannot because they all all they've done is studied the original, studied what's already been done. Yeah. And let's be honest, the majority out there, I talk to them every day on social media. yeah They're not actors. They don't want to study acting. They're not serious actors. They just want to work in voiceover. And by the way, it's not their fault, because if you look at nine out of 10 ads on how to get in into voiceover, everybody talks about how to make money. I know. Yeah.
00:26:34
Speaker
and And when I was studying voiceover, if a coach mentioned making money at this, it was considered a charlatan and you would go, you would run in the opposite direction today. It's a selling point. So, um, I always tell people.
00:26:49
Speaker
I mean, i I did two years at a Miesner Acting Conservatory. I did um and did three years of of improv training. You want to become a great actor, yeah because that way, when you study voiceover, you're able to marry your acting skills with your your voiceover technique.
Unique Joys of Animation Performance
00:27:08
Speaker
Well said. Do you have a specific, anything you've done in your career? Do you have sort of a ah ah a time or a place or a voice or whatever it is that sort of stood out to where you felt, Oh man, this, maybe it just stood out above like, Oh, I really get to perform. You know, like I really get to, do you have sort of a standout moment of, of that? I don't know if that makes sense.
00:27:35
Speaker
It's a hard one to answer because if you're doing a series, you're doing like, you know, 22 episodes a year. If it goes on for five years, that's a lot of episodes. I've had moments. Yeah. ah Well, yeah, that's what I mean. That's what I'm talking about. You know, I've had moments, but stuff that we you wouldn't even be familiar with. I can tell you it's a silly moment, but um there was a movie called The Basketball Diaries with Leonardo DiCaprio. Yeah, I know the movie. Yeah.
00:28:03
Speaker
And when when they needed to back in the old days before cable and before streaming, they would make the television versions or the air. They call the airplane versions of movies where they would either have the actor come in and dub their lines to get rid of the dirty words. Yeah. Yeah. Or they would hire a sound alike. And I was hired to be the sound alike.
00:28:32
Speaker
for Olivia Nardo DiCaprio when he was stoned. And another actor was hired another actor was hired to be his voice when he was sober. And Leo auditioned for it, but his voice had changed and he couldn't do it anymore.
00:28:49
Speaker
So there is a scene in the movie where his mother's locked him out of the house and he's knocking on the door trying to get in because he needs drug money because he just needs a hit. And, you know, he hadn't slept and he was jonesing out and he was all tense and he was ah just completely wasted.
00:29:12
Speaker
And he's knocking on the door, screaming, knocking on the door, screaming, knocking on the door, starts swearing. So I had to go in and dub his lines. Now, Leo could have spent an hour with his acting coach in his trailer preparing for that scene. I have to be in his moment.
00:29:34
Speaker
immediately on the soundstage, immediately. There's no preparation for a voice actor. My point is, so that was a moment of acting where I was really proud that I was able to get there, but I had to get there immediately. Voice actors have to be, I think voice actors are the best actors on the planet because there is no preparation. And it's not a cold reading. It's a frozen reading. I do, ah I'm on the um the voice of a network called Me TV Tunes, which is like classic animation.
00:30:01
Speaker
And I record every Thursday at nine o'clock in the morning. They send me in my scripts at 859. I start recording at nine. There's no rehearsal, no preparation, nothing. You want to you want it do voiceover work? That has to sound easy.
00:30:17
Speaker
yeah So I mean, there have been jobs I've done. You know, Looney Tunes cartoons on Max was just great writing, great animation years ago. I did a show called Fraggle Rock for NBC and Rock. Yeah, I remember. It was no downplay. Fraggle Rock, please. Well, it was it was an animated version of the Muppet version. And well, you know, it only ran one year, but it was some of the best writing, best actors. That's where I met Rob Paulson in Townsend Coleman.
00:30:53
Speaker
Yeah, and I worked with John Semper and Cynthia Friedlauber, our writer-producers, who to this day i I admire as if they were Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg, because they're they're that good. um You know, the moments of my career where I went, wow, that was special.
00:31:12
Speaker
were special to me, not necessarily special. And by the way, I don't watch my own work or rarely watch my work. So I could. You were talking about Goof trip. I've never seen it. I've never seen it. I mean, I just don't watch stuff. yeah um I like doing it. I don't like viewing it.
00:31:29
Speaker
That's interesting because I'm sort of like, I don't know, I get captured. I, yeah I've never done, I'm an amateur voice guy, but there's been like, I'll do a project for somebody and then it'll just be like a picture. It's like animate the picture. And, but then when I see my voice to that, I go, I start feeling like.
00:31:49
Speaker
I get caught up in in in the fantasy of it and go, oh my gosh. i So I think that's interesting, too. Like maybe that's your way of of keeping it in the fantasy. Like you. Well, I think I did. I think I did that. But you said um my first my first job doing Porky and Tweety was Tinyton Adventures in 1990. And so I think I think the first time I watched, you know, because I was I wanted to be porky since I was a kid. So the first time I heard my voice come out of that character, I was like,
00:32:19
Speaker
Okay, that's good. That's cool. but yeah I could die happy today. um And then and then, you know, they kept hiring me. So that was that was, kind of and and but I also had to keep auditioning. But um, but yeah, I usually what I'll do is I'll watch an episode of something new.
00:32:38
Speaker
You know, um I've got about four or five shows on right now that I've never seen. I've never seen the Bad Batch, which is a Disney plus. Oh, I love that. I love Bad Batch. Oh, Bad Batch is one of my favorites. See, I hear that from all kinds of people. Yeah. um So if you know the show, I play Lama Su.
00:32:54
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. And and Lana Sue is very different from Porky Pig. So I have to get really i have to have to get really close to the microphone. So Lana Sue, he talks about right here and he's very cold and calculated. So it's so so that's so cool. But I've never seen it. um I've never seen Spidey and his amazing friends. I've never seen um I think I've seen a bit of Ridley Jones. But my point is,
00:33:25
Speaker
I'm such a perfectionist and I so i judge my work. yeah And I'm such a control freak. And if I watch something, I'm like, oh God, I hated that take. Well, i did it I did it. I recorded it a year ago. What am I going to do about it now? But it gives me anxiety to watch it. So I just choose not to. Okay. We'll put it in a positive sense. And this is what I was going to say.
00:33:48
Speaker
Maybe, you know, when you're recording, maybe you sort of have a narrative or ah something in your head like as who's the who this character is and the story and whatever. Maybe, maybe by seeing it on TV is sort of a sort of takes that away. You know, well, what takes it what takes it away, what takes it away is I'm not in control of which take they they use. I know I'm not in control of the editing. I'm not in control of.
00:34:15
Speaker
what the other actors did. yeah And they might have cut the punchline of a joke. Yeah. Or they might've cut three minutes of setup where this line no longer makes sense. My point is because I'm such a control freak, it's healthier not to get involved. It is. It is. There's times where I've like, I've sent in something, you know, they say two takes. All right. Just two. And I'm like, I'm not going to send this other take because I really like this one.
00:34:45
Speaker
a pair I'm like, uh-oh, oops, sorry. Uh, here's, oh, I was supposed to send two. Here's the one. And then they call back like, Hey, you're supposed to send two. Okay, fine. And that, but it's the same thing. as It's, it's, you know what? Is that, is that through an agent?
00:35:02
Speaker
No, no, it's just OK, because they're really a really good agent. if If they ask for two, they'll take one if it's really good. And if it doesn't say how many takes to send, and I might send three. Yeah, right. You know, just, you know, it's your audition. You do what you want. So that's a good lesson. You just your little story is a good lesson for anybody interested in voiceover. You own your audition space. Don't don't give them generic. Think outside the box. And if you're like, I've got one great one,
00:35:30
Speaker
So better to submit one great one than a second. I know. I'm like, I'm going to die on this hill and they'll see if they call, let's see if they call me out. Sometimes they do though. but I'm like, okay. All right. I'll send you an alternative. But, but no, no, but you're right. It's like I own the audition space. Well said. And, and, and my goodness. Like I never actually thought of that before.
00:35:52
Speaker
i can loves Can I ask something on that same line? So here's my here's my question. Do you ever get a chance where you have any job, I don't know which one, where you have to utilize two or three or four of the character voices that you have in the same conversation? Like you're actually holding the whole conversation between two or three characters. Do you ever have to do that?
00:36:12
Speaker
ah every day of my life. Because when you have when you when you get up when you get an episodic cartoon, which is television, you're hired for scale, which means the minimum they have to pay you as per SAG-AFTRA, which is like $1,000 and some change, to play at least at least two characters. If they want you for a third character, they have to pay you in an additional 10%. My record was seven characters in a single scene. Get out of here.
00:36:36
Speaker
it but but You have to understand people like we are like, you know, well, how do I know I'm ready to pursue this when that sounds easy, when that's a breeze? And one of the things many of the things I teach my students is if you physically play the character, the voice will follow. So if each character that you're doing as you're performing, it has a different facial expression, different gestures, different body language. When you shift to the next character,
00:37:06
Speaker
And that shift can happen within a second. They're not going to blend. And you have to have make sure that the intent is that is is is different. You might have one character who sound asleep. And the other character you're voicing is running into their house to tell them their house is on fire. And you have to play one of them groggy and the other one frantic.
00:37:27
Speaker
And this is. Yeah, that's but that's a talent. That's a talent. Yeah, of course it is. Of course it is. But here's the deal. I can't sing opera. I can't tap dance. I can't dance. This I do well, but I've been doing for over 40 years. and So, you know, this is the biggest problem I see today again with the Internet. Everybody tells me I've got ah I've got a great voice voice. I can do a great Homer Simpson and they put together this lousy demo. It might even be a great demo.
00:37:53
Speaker
But they go out there and they try to get an agent to try to get work. And the simple thing like having a three way conversation with yourself, they can't comprehend. Well, then why are you putting yourself to out there? It's sort of like I want to be a doctor, but i and I want to be a heart surgeon and I've got a medical degree. Yeah.
00:38:13
Speaker
in pediatrics, I have no idea how to do open art surgery, but give me a scalpel. Yeah, you know, you've you've got to excel at this. And if you can't, don't worry about it. There's people who can.
Patience and Excellence in Careers
00:38:23
Speaker
And if you're a good actor, and you're willing to work, study, put in the work, you'll get there.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah. But don't do it prematurely. And one bad demo closes more doors and a great one opens. Yeah. I've learned like I, so over the years, you know, I used to, I took, you know, when I thought I was a good voice actor and now I'm like, one of my art teachers said, we all you know, we all have Michelangelo ideas with the third creator's ability. Sometimes I feel that's the truth, you know, how we, but I thought that. So I would put every, I'd post everything on online and and then, you know, it only takes a few more months. You go, oh no, that's garbage. And you tear it down because you're, because you're progressing. And so I i play things very close to the chest and my
00:39:09
Speaker
my until i I feel ready, but what I started doing just in my own turn journey in voice acting is putting myself in the most uncomfortable positions I could possibly be in. part you know It started with just going booking time in ah in ah in a ah recording studio and and doing doing stuff in front of people and and doing all that sort of stuff. Well, that that was tough because it was like,
00:39:36
Speaker
Oh, okay, this is this is a new experience and you're you're kind of locked in this place. But you got to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. The other thing I think is like, you know, going to the Porky Pig, back to the Porky Pig and the Pledge of Allegiance or whatever it is. I started, I go i go back to all the old Disney, like comics, you know, with Goofy and all that, or children's books. I have these here. all the It's the most stilted, awkward,
00:40:04
Speaker
sort of goofy dialogue, but if I could do goofy in this thing, then I could, I could, then it's easy. Then it's easy. Actually, actually read Tom Sawyer out loud. as Yeah. That's a good, that's, yes. yeah Read something, read something that isn't goofy. So when I started doing Porky Pig,
00:40:23
Speaker
In 1990, from 1990 on, they started putting Porky Pig. I mean, by basically, Looney Tunes were situation comics, right? And they started putting Porky in situations that Mel Blanc never did. Mel Blanc's Porky never used a cell phone. He never got an Uber. He never watched cable TV.
00:40:43
Speaker
And to have to put these characters into days situations, because, you know, he put Porky Pig in 1953's situations, but they were new in 1953 to us, their reruns. So you've got to be able to take these characters, any character, and believably put them anywhere.
00:41:05
Speaker
Now, going back to what you're saying about, you know, you know, posting things, posting work. When I got into the business, you would send out your you would mail snail mail your demo. And if you snail mail a really bad demo to 50 people, you may never work for those 50 people. Who cares? That's 50 out of 50,000. But today, people are posting stuff every day. And the Internet is written in permanent ink. Yeah. And I'm telling you right now,
00:41:35
Speaker
Everybody remembers what they've heard last. a And you might improve. People send agents demos that are lousy, but in three years, they improve and they've got a better demo. But agents keep lousy demos in a file and they might see the name and the email and they go to their file to see if they ever submitted me before. Oh, they're in the reject. I don't have time. Time is money.
00:42:00
Speaker
But this is the knee jerk, instant gratification world that is social media. there And, you know, how has the business changed? Impatience. People don't want to put in the work. People don't want to be brilliant. They just want to be working. And that's why they're not. Yeah, I'd rather be. I don't know. I think about I love voice acting. I'm like, I.
00:42:27
Speaker
but My, anyone that asked me, okay, what, why do I do this? It's not about money. It's not about fame or fortune. I have a job to me. It's about bringing people joy. It's just, that's what it is. It's just, and, and I always say this, nobody doesn't matter. Like I don't, aid I don't need Disney contract or not, or whatever it is.
00:42:45
Speaker
Nobody, I always say this, nobody can take my voice away from me. Meaning, it's like, Hey, I could, I could, I can only get better. I can only get better and I could post things and wish people happy birthday and a character that they love. And if it even sounds remotely up, I always tell them, Hey, I'm not the official voice, but if you like them, here it is, gosh, happy birthday. And, and it brings joy to people and, and.
00:43:11
Speaker
But what a wonderful thing voice acting is where you get a, you get a ah piece of, of people, the the way that, think about this, like the way that I've talked about earlier, the way that hearing the voices on the television shaped, shaped me and the way that they shaped you and and you, you are now, you but you now you, you are one of those voices that gets to shape others and how, how beautiful that is, you know?
00:43:40
Speaker
Well, it's also so fun. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I wasn't going to Jack angel was a Jack angel but was a voice actor who he was a friend and I admired him. And how i he he did ah a three hour lecture workshop one day and he did a Q and&A and somebody asked him, what is your favorite thing about being a voice actor? And he said, you know, it beats working for a living. but Yeah. So much fun.
00:44:08
Speaker
Who is your favorite character to voice? ah Definitely Porky Pig. Only because he was the character I wanted to play since I was little. Which one's the most challenging, like that involves the most work for you? None of them.
00:44:27
Speaker
They're all not none of them because I so know the care. Now, there are vocally stressful characters that I've done. Yeah. ah When we did New Looney Tunes, there was the character Gabby Goat and I didn't
Challenges and Voice Preservation
00:44:45
Speaker
audition him for them. They just gave them to me.
00:44:47
Speaker
And in this one episode, I was doing Porky, Tweety and Gabby. And because Gabby had the first line of the cartoon, the director said, you know what, let's just record all of Gabby's lines and then we'll go to Tweety and then we'll go to Porky. And Gabby thought like this. He was a really gruff guy. And Porky was giving him a massage. but And and Gabby's like, come on, Porky, put some muscle into it. And I finished all of Gabby.
00:45:16
Speaker
And by the end of the session, I was sounding like this. And I said to the director, I think we have to reschedule Porky and Tweedy because right now I have no voice lesson or the moral the story is if Gabby is in the show, do Gabby last.
00:45:36
Speaker
um So when it comes to difficult, if it's vocally stressful, it's difficult. But I will tell you guys, if I get an ah an audition, especially for a game and it looks vocally stressful, I pass. I don't read for it because I don't want to damage my throat my my my my voice, my throat. And I'd rather it's just no fun. I'd rather I'd rather have a voice.
00:45:58
Speaker
after a four-hour session ah for an audition that comes in rather than go, oh, shoot, I have to pass on this Coke commercial because I don't have a voice. Yeah. Yeah, that's smart. So Warner Brothers is coming to Las Vegas, I'm sure you know, and and they're going to have. him I don't know that. whatever What does that mean? They're happening. Don, you're you're the.
00:46:18
Speaker
What does that mean? heard Okay, so they are going to be building a media campus and students. Okay. And I'm just curious because I know that's not too terribly far from Los Angeles. And I'm wondering if it I would have thought you would have heard of this, but i you know why you know what you're talking about probably for filming.
00:46:37
Speaker
Yeah, and they're going to do. I don't do on camera. No, no, they're going to have studios. I mean, i don't know I know that I know that I don't do on camera. That's so you must understand. I don't work at Warner Brothers. I never have. OK, so where do you work? I work. I work at recording studios.
00:46:53
Speaker
Where where would that be? It's not in a studio. It's anywhere, anywhere now. Yeah, it's all remote. There are dozens. And by the way, since COVID, I worked from home. Yeah. And so that's an interesting thing to bring up because so I'm really fascinated about that because there's no there's no yeah. Nowadays, it's going back to the Wild West thing. Look, you know, back in the day, there was a dedicated lot where you're like, okay, here we all go. And no, there wasn't. No, there wasn't. See, that's the fact that that's that's that's that sounds romantic, right? I know it does. Unless it was unless it was a Disney feature. Yeah. If I was working on a Disney toy or a Disney TV show, I would go to whatever studio they rented around Los Angeles because Disney only has one recording studio.
00:47:41
Speaker
Yeah, gay it's yeah, it's stage B Warner Brothers. I've worked on the lot, probably a half a dozen times in the 36 year, 34 years I've voiced Porky because they don't record us there. See, I know Warner Brothers of all that I would have been like, oh, they have a dedicated law, but you up but you're a butcher. OK, they have a lot. They have a lot. They make movies.
00:48:01
Speaker
Yeah, but they don't. But not but there's not ah a voice acting space. You know, they don't have like a hey, I'm on set like where they're having the voice actors talk in those big round like lied to is what you've said. All these bonus features, you know, when you see all these actors together, the bonus features on DVDs are staged. Oh, that's it. First of all, first of all, if it's an animated feature, we don't even work together. Yeah. Right. but Because we're all too busy. Did you ever see the movie The Emperor's New Groove? Oh, yeah.
00:48:31
Speaker
just talked about that in our last podcast or the one. OK, so so I play the squirrel. I play Bucky the squirrel. All right. but um You do all of all of my scenes are with Crump, Patrick Warburton. Yeah, we have wonderful on so on screen chemistry. The man and I've never been in a studio together in our lives. Yeah. like Yeah. um I love working from home. If I don't have to work outside my house again, I'll be thrilled. But Warner Brothers in particular, we did Space Jam at Warner Brothers, the original. Space Jam 2 we recorded during COVID. I never have done a series and I've done a lot of serious work for Looney Tunes ever at Warner Brothers.
00:49:14
Speaker
That's that crazy. Does that give you like a groove? Like, okay. Speaking of a groove. Well, if if you get to record sort of, if you have autonomy to record and to submit, then does that give you more agency to sound how you want to sound? Do you have a debt? Do you have a director? I have a director. Yeah. That's what I mean. Like, what does that process look like for you? and The director's on zoom instead of in the studio. Yeah. Okay. So it's not, nothing has changed other than I don't have to spend half my day in traffic.
00:49:43
Speaker
Yeah, right. And I can. And from the waist up, I look pretty from the waist down. Who cares? So so eleven I love working from home. I i i mean, I've I've I've read for things where it says and the actor must be willing to come in and I'll say to my agent, I'm submitting this. I'm not coming in. Right.
00:50:04
Speaker
And and you know umve they've never said no. They've never said, hey, you can do it for mom. Because I'm taking myself away from another opportunity by being on on the road for two hours.
00:50:15
Speaker
I think one of my, the question is like agency as far like, do you get to shape your own voice post-production? Do you have somebody who has it for you? You hit record and then I could ask all these geeky questions. What software do you use? What might be? No, no, no, dude, no. These are, for people watching this who are interested in this business, these are great questions, my friends. So when you record, when you work,
00:50:40
Speaker
They're recording you on their end over online software. Really? But I'm also recording a backup on my end. OK. OK. And so um I sometimes now when we did the bad batch, they didn't record anything on their end. I just sent my end in. Oh, but most of the time there are there are programs once called Source Connect where they they connect, they connect to you.
00:51:09
Speaker
and they're recording on their end, you're recording on your end, and you just go to a WeTransfer, send them the WAF file, whether they use it or not, I don't know. I don't know. Is your room and your house similar to- Yeah, you want to see it? Yes, yes, yes I want to see your recording book, yeah. That's my booth. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah oh it's a little box.
00:51:33
Speaker
It's a little box and I spend 12 hours a day in that little box. Wait a minute. and Of course our audience can't see since it's, this is just an audio podcast, but is that a little glass window with a hat? Yeah. It's a recording booth. Yeah. Yeah. It's a three and a half by three and a half but a box.
00:51:51
Speaker
um It's a professional booth. ah Each wall weighs about 2,500 pounds. um If I ever sell this house, it comes with a booth because the last thing I want to do is take it apart. yeah um But it's I will tell you, the first <unk>ve I've had this booth for 20 years because I used to audition in there. But when COVID hit, I had to upgrade everything and start working from there. And I'm a technical idiot.
00:52:15
Speaker
um And for people who are interested in what I do, if I can do this stuff, you can do this stuff because I can barely turn on a light switch. That's how stupid I am with technology. And every time I would work when COVID hit, I was on six shows.
00:52:30
Speaker
And every show wanted it recorded a little differently, different software, different everything. And I had posted all over my desk. Okay, this is the Netflix show. It wants it this way. This is the Disney show. It wants it this way. This is Looney Tunes. This series wants it this way. Looney Tunes, this series wants it this way. yeah And I would have anxiety doing all this because I remember I was working um on one show where I was doing the recording.
00:52:59
Speaker
And I said to my director, I have such anxiety that at the end of a really great session, I come out and realize I forgot to push record. oh and and And my director said, oh, that happens all the time. yeah I said, what do you do? And she said, we do it again. We do it again. but Yeah. I mean, it's not a live broadcast. And I've been in real recording studios where everything crashes or they have a power outage.
00:53:24
Speaker
and when and you lose everything because it well what do you do you do it again do you you know yeah so you got actors have to take the pressure off of themselves because whatever's out of your control is out of your control just be a good actor i love that Hey, you spend and dis I have a question real quick. So Muppets, they're having a moment um with Disney. So they're rebranding or doing a rewrap on the rock and roller coaster Muppets. The whole alley is being redone. um So i I know you did the Muppets babies voiceover. Have you had any interest or any outreach to anything about Muppets recently with Disney just because they're having that moment? No.
00:54:06
Speaker
But they've not reached out to me either. They've got enough talent to do all those voices. but So they've got enough talent to do all those voices. They've got the original and or the current generation of Muppet voices. So ah if unless they're having having an audition, hey, we need a Dr. Teeth or hey, we need a a gonzo, whatever. ah There's no reason to reach out to me. And I would never reach out to them. I would never reach out to take to ask to voice somebody else's character. That's a little unethical. um But if they come to me
00:54:41
Speaker
If I could get an email from my agent and on Monday saying, hey, there's this new a Muppet thing at Disneyland, and they're looking for the voice of Scooter from the Muppet show. My first question to my agent is, what happened to the person doing Scooter now?
00:54:57
Speaker
If they're in a negotiation trying to get more money, I keep out of it. if If the actor retired or just doesn't want to do it, happy to do it. But I will never go in and try for a job of an existing character without finding out what's up with the guy doing it or the gal doing it now.
00:55:18
Speaker
That's so admirable. Well, it's not unusual for my generation. We always did that. I remember when Maurice LaMarche was doing Yosemite Sam for many, many years for Warner Brothers and they they held auditions and Fred Taddishore booked it. But before he said yes, he called Mo and said, what's the deal? What's going on? And Mo said, you know, I'm the voice of Alexis and it's a lot of commercials.
00:55:48
Speaker
And I can't do a Yosemite Sam session and lose my voice and not be available to Lexus. So but see, that kind of courtesy is what it's all about. My generation. Oh, when I when I when I was when I auditioned to be Luke Skywalker for the Star Wars games, this is in the 90s, I think. When I booked it, I had my agent call Mark Hamill's agent to find out what's going down.
00:56:14
Speaker
um if it's if If Mark Hamill wants more money, Mark Hamill is Luke Skywalker and should be paid anything. yeah He just didn't want to do it because he was trying to distance himself from the franchise at that time. But that's what you do. That's the classy thing to do. You reach out and you find out what's going down. Most of the time, it's a negotiation.
00:56:36
Speaker
And if it's a negotiate like the Simpsons and the cast of Simpsons have done that for decades. You know, it's like they all get together. They want more money. And the producers are like, we're not going to pay you more money. We're going to hold on. Yeah. And I would tell my voiceover students, that is not how you want to get in the business, because if you are lucky enough to have a character.
00:56:54
Speaker
Like Bart Simpson, you don't want your your colleagues, your peers to go in and grab it when you're trying to renegotiate your contract. So that's the right thing to do. That's the ethical thing to do. And that's what, say, 99 percent of my people do. And in that nice. yes Yeah, I'll tell you, I'll give you some other examples. Do you mind if I give you some other examples? No, I was very good friends with an actress named June Ferre.
00:57:22
Speaker
June for a was rocky, at the flying squirrel. She was granny with Sylvester and Tweedy. And she was amazing. And she was a dear friend since the age of 14, my age of 14, my age of 14. So at the end of June's life, they wanted to do a Rocky and Bullwinkle um Geico commercial.
00:57:40
Speaker
Out of courtesy, they had June in to record it and she just did not have it. She wasn't sharp. Her voice was weak. So a friend of mine auditioned and got it. But the producers paid June.
00:57:59
Speaker
paid my friend and paid them both residuals as if June was still the voice just to protect June's dignity. And my friend, and I won't mention her net. Yes, I will, because she still does her. My friend Lori Frazier.
00:58:14
Speaker
Never told anybody she was doing that.
Integrity of Iconic Characters
00:58:17
Speaker
My friend Candy Milo, when she started doing granny and witch hazel before June passed away on a new linear tunes, kept your mouth shut. Never promoted it out of respect for June. This is what you do. god So for anybody watching this right now? Yeah, look, classic. I did ah I did a ah ah panel seminar at the TV Academy years ago called But the Characters Live On.
00:58:42
Speaker
I had ah you guys are too young to remember lamb chop the puppet. Oh, no, I went up. I'm not OK. So we had we had we had Sherry Lewis's daughter, Mallory, whose land shop now. Yeah, me. D. Bradley Baker. um Great Delisle.
00:58:59
Speaker
producers, Andrea Romano, who's a voice director, casting director. And we talked about, look, Jim Henson's gone. Sherry Lewis is gone. Mel Blanc is gone. But the characters will always live on. None of us will come close to the genius. I mean, I love Billy Farmer. He's one of these a dear friend and he's a genius, but he ain't Pinto Colvin. And I'm not Mel Blanc.
00:59:23
Speaker
and I never will be. But we try to keep the character the integrity of the characters going. You hold the torch. You betcha. And if somebody is doing something and is known to do something, and even like if they've created it, God forbid, but if they've taken over for somebody for ah ah an extended period of time, yeah the courtesy thing to do is to contact them. yeah What's going down? And actually, I'll give you another example. you come Am I boring you?
00:59:48
Speaker
No, no, no, I'm geeking out. This is amazing. They did. They did. They did a reboot of Tiny Tunes that I think is on Max right now. It is. yeah And they held auditions. And I I can't I popped a note to Charlie Adler. And I said, look, they're auditioning Buster Bunny, your Buster Bunny. And I will not read this if you want this part. Yeah. And um he got back to me and he said, I'm not doing it. They want all new actors. You've got my blessing. Yeah.
01:00:14
Speaker
Yeah, he was only, I think Charlie was only Buster for, wasn't it just the first first part? No, no, no. He did it all except for the last season. The last season. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That Charlie's. is great ah Yeah. um But the bottom line is that's what you do. Yeah. I love that.
01:00:34
Speaker
and there And it makes sense. It's like, that now, by the way, there are characters, I don't think it's necessary. Like for instance, if they're auditioning for a brand new Superman series, there's a lot of people there for Superman, you know, or Spiderman or whatever. Right. Right. That's different. It's different. yeah And, and I, I know in, in, you know, there, there, that is sort of a.
01:00:58
Speaker
Like there's there's an ethos within voice acting, which is which I think is meaningful and good. and It's more my generation than the current generation, but I really hope those who are watching this or listening to this um take heed and ah emulate my generation because the current generation is a little, forgive me guys, but a little bit a little bit selfish, a little bit narcissistic. And I agree. I agree. And that's a no, I'm glad you said it because I was going to say it, but it we've had, there's, there are, I'm not going to, there's no name. I'm not going to name names or nothing, but you know, sometimes there have been voices. Here's, what here's what I know. There's voices, people that have been doing voices for a very long time.
01:01:41
Speaker
yeah who are well-established doing the voices and they're then they um the company, because what kind of going back to what you said earlier, um because they get paid way less and they're like, hey, cool. They get they don't know, but there're then there's other people being hired to do the voice that they've been told they're exclusively doing the voice of.
01:02:05
Speaker
Well, none of us have a contract to be exclusive. No, no, I know. But it but there but the ethos going to the ether right. And that i'll give you I'll give you I'll give you another example. i I had a student. She'd been a student of mine since she was a teenager. I'm sure you guys know who Caitlin Robe Rock is. Oh, yeah, we've had it. We've we've it. Oh, she's a friend. OK, we OK. So Caitlin Caitlin was a student of mine since she was a teenager. Yeah. And this was a kid who, you know, first time at the mic and I'm like, OK, it's just a matter of time because she's that good. Yeah, she is. She's that good. She is. And she had a dream to be Minnie Mouse. I had a dream to be porcupé. She had a dream to be Minnie Mouse. Yeah.
01:02:45
Speaker
And if anybody should have ah made that dream come true, it's her because she put in the work. yes She pursued voiceover. She would go to Comic-Con and meet directors and producers and get in work. I mean, she was so, but she's driven and she still worked at Disneyland while she was doing all this stuff. So I i remember,
01:03:12
Speaker
um When Rusey passed away, Rusey Taylor, who was Minnie Mouse, when she passed away, Caitlin was like, okay. What do I do? What did you do when Mel Blanc died? What's the proper thing to do? yeah And I said the proper thing to do is to wait for the audition because she had a great agent. She did. yeah Just wait for the audition, kiddo. And you're going to send it in like everybody else. yeah But the thing you've got above everybody else is that you're you. You're the only you reading for this. So just take a deep cleansing breath.
01:03:43
Speaker
But it's so it it was harder for people who might have lived in Houston who didn't have an L.A. agent who weren't in the union, who would who could do a fabulous many miles, but have access to the audition.
01:03:55
Speaker
Yeah. but you you bill too She said Bill got sort of helped a little bit there too. But I'm telling you right now, I'm telling you right now, um Bill could get her foot in the door, but her talent kept her in the room. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I always say, and sometimes it's not who you know, it's who knows you. You bet.
01:04:15
Speaker
Who knows you is because of your talent. So for her, yeah you know, the fact that it's not like, Oh, Hey, i it's, you know, I have somebody that I think has done the hard work. Why don't we give her a shot? That's, that's where the good stuff happens. Yeah.
01:04:31
Speaker
yeah I love these stories. and I love, this is so insightful for me because I, part of, I love not only the process of voice acting and acting, but also the, this is the stuff that I think is, is like, you can't just go, you can't Google this stuff. You can't, I can't, I can't go into YouTube and find this kind of information about the process of voice acting and what it looks like. So this has been nothing but wonderful. So thank you so much. But you know what, you know what? And and this is the the upside to social media and the internet.
Learning from Studio Experience
01:05:05
Speaker
I didn't have so podcasts when I was studying voiceover, but you know what I used to do? I used to drive to recording studios and I would make buddy-buddy with a receptionist and I would say, hey, can I hang out in the lobby today? And I would just wait to see who'd walk in and it would walk
01:05:25
Speaker
an advertising executive or Ernie Anderson. Do you know the name Ernie Anderson? I don't. I don't. Ernie Anderson was you're very young, but for like 11 years, Saturday night, there was a show called The Love Boat. Oh, I know The Love Boat. Yeah. OK, so Ernie Anderson, the promo announcer on ABC, Deep Boy Sky, coming up next on The Love Boat. On The Love Boat. And he would come in and he'd sit down and I knew who he was and I'd say, can I watch you work? And I'd go in the booth and watch him work. And I went to talent agencies and I was standing there parking lot waiting for actors to come out.
01:06:00
Speaker
and I would strike up a conversation with voice actors. Today, you go to YouTube and see voice actors in recording sessions. Oh, yeah. I've got I've got a um ah Vanity Fair right before COVID did two videos of me, one creating characters on the spot with pictures and the other one ah critiquing actors. My point is there's so much out there free online. Oh, I know. It didn't exist when I was studying voiceover.
01:06:28
Speaker
I know, I feel guilty sometimes. I'm like, this should be, I would stay, I would, there's so many nights, like three o'clock in the morning, down a YouTube rabbit. Oh, the rabbit hole. Oh my God. I know. Me too. I know. Me too. yeah yeah I get but it. But, but what a blessing. Like what a good thing. I love it. I love that. That's there. It's like. It's such a luxury. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
01:06:56
Speaker
I have a question. um as And many of the questions I had lined out, i you have already covered. But one of the questions was about some of the work on some of your video games. um Do you do a lot of video game work? I think I saw like Kingdom Hearts. What other what characters do you play? It sounds like you don't do any that do like the a blood curling screams because that would harm your voice. However, what what types of characters have you done or do you look for? um I also don't do anything that is excessively gross and violent. um Not that I'm ah at all approved because I've done a lot of adult swim cartoons and a lot of just, you know, adult stuff period. But I don't want to contribute to a child watching
01:07:50
Speaker
the The object of the game is to shoot the police. I just find that to be morally wrong. That's my choice. I'm not telling anybody not to play these games. You can do whatever you want. I don't need to contribute to that. um I pass on most ah most game auditions. um I mean, I i again, i when you record a game, it may come out in three years.
01:08:11
Speaker
And when people say, oh I love you in the so-and-so, I'm like, did I do that? um I mean, i've've i've i've I've played Winter Soldier for the Marvel Universe quite a bit. I've played Luke Skywalker quite a bit. um I did ah did a game. I don't even know the name, but it was like...
01:08:30
Speaker
30, 40, 50 sessions. And it comes out, I think next year. And I don't know the name, but I played the a dozen or so characters. Um, but I don't play video. I've never played a video game. I played Ms. Pac-Man when I was, you know, yeah great game, when and right? yeah so Those are my 16. But, um, yeah, I played Pong. My parents got me Pong when I was 12. That was huge.
01:08:54
Speaker
butddy I'm just not, I'm not a fan of the genre. And, um you know, i there it's a t it's a tedious thing to record a game because You have to record every possible option the player will have. And there might be up to 250 options in any second of a game. And as you record it, you have to record every line as if the players never heard it because they hadn't. So you have to have the same commitment, the same intent. And it gets very boring and very tedious. People, I've got friends who do mocap.
01:09:27
Speaker
I'd rather watch a grapefruit grow than get into a light pursuit, memorize a script, go on a sound stage and act something out. But there are some brilliant actors that love doing that. Now, I won't turn down games if it looks like something I want to do and it's not too throaty, but I don't i don't actively pursue it, but my agent sends me out the auditions all the time.
01:09:47
Speaker
i like that And then and by the way, i love I love your background because this Christmas in Disneyland. yeah okay Yeah, I love I love the Christmas decorations. um And then my other question was about any works. I know we've we've talked a lot about some of your voiceover, but are there any um things in like the Disney parks, any snippets that have been read in the Disney parks that are ah there as of late or any attractions?
01:10:19
Speaker
For example, it could be either of the parks. I saw conflicting information online. I scoured your website. What did it say I did that I didn't? I don't know. It didn't say. What was the conflicting information?
01:10:41
Speaker
Oh, the conflicting information. Well, it could have been a combination of chat, GBT or G. I was just saying, yeah, I could have been. It could have been in just good old Google because, i you know, I asked Google lots of questions.
01:10:58
Speaker
um But no, I was trying to figure out what it had said, but it was ambiguous that you had voiced ah voice done voiceovers for some of the attractions at Disney Parks. And so I would say what's attractions I did. It did not. That's why I was like, hmm. All right. So the really the answer to the answer to that is yes, I have. I don't know what they are, though.
01:11:21
Speaker
so So he wants to know. But i will need to dig the I will tell you that I've had people come to me and say, oh, I heard you at at at at California Adventure on the blah, blah, blah ride. And I'm like, I don't think I did that. And then I would go to California Adventure and I'd listen. to I'm like.
01:11:42
Speaker
That's Neil Patrick Harris. That's not me. oh um but um but i But I know I have done. Okay.
Miscredited Roles in Voice Acting
01:11:51
Speaker
I have it. I have it. I have it. I have it. Okay. This is what it says. Apparently you've done the start the star tours. No, I didn't. That was before I got into voiceover.
01:12:02
Speaker
OK, you never know what you find on the Internet. mu Muppet Vision 3D? No, no, that was actual. month Well, my goodness. OK, I love this. By the way, somebody hire me because I did. Oh, on my IMDB, it says I played this character on this animated series called Sabrina. The Teenage Witch. Yeah, I used to watch it. I never even audition for the damn thing. but I've been hired for that part. I've been hired. Oh, we hired you because we love that character. And I'm like,
01:12:31
Speaker
I don't remember what that character sounds like because I didn't do it. Like you and Nick McKay have probably like the sailor. I will say that on your website, IMDB, the characters that you've been given credit for are numerous, but I'm sure that there are others that you're still uncredited for. Is that true? Oh, I would say i would say a third of my career is missing from IMDB.
01:12:56
Speaker
Yeah. And and, you know, I don't care. You know, I know a lot of people are like, you know, they get their panties in a bunch. Oh, my God. They didn't put my credit about here. Yeah. Yeah. I just like, you know, i've I've been doing this for a really long time. So whatever's there, I think it'll suit me fine. um But and by the way, I've gone through IMDB to just my own page going, I did do that. Oh, my gosh.
Forgotten Roles and Unexpected Residuals
01:13:20
Speaker
I forgot I did that. That was really fun.
01:13:24
Speaker
And or I'll get a residual check for a movie or something. or There was a movie called our TV show. Oh, shoot. Jerry O'Connell was in it and he played like a time traveler. Oh, sliders, sliders. Yeah. I did the pilot. I did the voice of his cat.
01:13:43
Speaker
No, but it was it was it was honestly just a cat. It was just a cat. And I thought and then I went to series and I'm like, oh, my God, I'm going to have a no, the cat didn't go with him. They have a spade. So I was really kind of bummed. But occasionally I will get a little residual check for that one episode. Wow. fun slider. I love sliders. It's just a little reminder of all the things that you've done. I missed them I did a movie. I did a movie called um Army of Darkness.
01:14:14
Speaker
Oh, it was a it was a Evil Dead movie. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I did the voice of a of a of a book that attacks the lead guy, the lead actor, the necker, necker. ah That's him, the necker comic con. No. that never I always called the necrophilia, but that's a whole different problem. No, but that's that's huge. Like it is a completely probably, you know, like that's a whole other subculture. I know. So i know i would I would go to fan conventions and people would bring their like like yeah model of that book and I'm like, what is this? And they were like, you did that. It's boys. I did. And so I've.
01:14:54
Speaker
I've gone. I got pictures of it. So I bring those to to fan convention. It's a sign. And if you live, if you if you go to YouTube and look, look, at listen to a clip of
Voiceover Community and Events
01:15:04
Speaker
that scene. Yeah. It's basically Bucky the squirrel from The Emperor's New Groove, but really pissed off. I love it. and Oh, my. Do you do a lot of the fan cons, you know, the comic cons? Necronog? Yeah.
01:15:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah if it fits um it fits into my schedule, sure. I'm doing Comic Con The Cruise in February of 2025. Yeah, yeah. Tell us about all this. We we got to get, where where can we see you? where What are you doing? And and about especially that. Yeah, we're doing that. Comic Con The Cruise out of Tampa, if you go to, if you just you know surf Comic Con The Cruise, I don't know if it's sold out, but it's the same people that do Comic Con as San Diego, but it's going to be on a boat for four days. So cool.
01:15:46
Speaker
um I'm doing VO Atlanta, which is a big voiceover convention in Atlanta every year in March. i Say it again, because I need to write this one. VO Atlanta. It's like the biggest voiceover convention in the world. Really? Okay. I'll see you there. I was going to say, Jeff will be there now. I'll see you there. It's a lot of fun, and as people from all over the country, you've got I mean, my agent from Atlas is going to do a panel casting directors, agents, voice directors, actors who work, actors who want to work. And it's a love fest because everybody is there for the same reason. And it's really cool because, you know, you'll be at the bar having a glass of wine as somebody comes up to you and says, can I pick your brain for 10 minutes? And you're happy to do it because that's why you're there. It is people who want to get in the voiceover. If it ain't sold out, get tickets because it gets sold out pretty fast. Okay. All right. I'm in.
Coaching and Workshops
01:16:39
Speaker
I'm in. I'll see you there. And your website's a wealth of information too. That's a place to. Well, yeah, it's a little outdated. I think I talk about, I think on my, on my, I got rid of my, my resume because it, it talked about CD ROMs. So I think it now has, does it now have my IMDb page? Yeah. I say it actually, I had it pulled up. Well, I had it earlier today. All right.
01:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's still, I mean, much of it, it's just still relevant. Probably update quite a bit. Oh, I need to update the whole dang thing. It hasn't been updated in over a decade, well over a decade, but I'm, I'm lazy. What can I say? yeah you know Sounds like you're busy. Sounds like you're busy. I don't know that it sounds like lazy. Let's go with that excuse, but the truth is I'm lazy.
01:17:30
Speaker
Well, do you do on your on your web page, like you said, ah something about like workshops or coaching? Do you do as somebody like me? All right. So someone who's who's an amateur voice actor, but who loves it and passionate about it and just, you yeah know, just just wants to grow. Are there yeah things you do for people like like schlubs like me who, you know, ah who are out there that may want to maybe take a class or or maybe. Yeah.
01:17:59
Speaker
I do I do private I do private Zoom coaching and I've got a really, really, really long wait list and I tell people get on the list. yeah Get on. um But yeah, I used to do in person eight week workshops, then COVID hit. Yeah. And I started doing the private Zooms. And I'm like, I like this. Yeah. And what's cool about it is like this morning I had ah I had a session, ah a coaching session with an actress in Dayton, Ohio.
01:18:24
Speaker
And last week, I had a coaching session with an actor in Australia. So these are people I could never reach before because I was teaching in Los Angeles. um I do ah I do my own voice over cruise every two years oh where me and me and Mary Lynn Wissner, who's a commercial ah casting director.
Voiceover Cruises and Workshops
01:18:43
Speaker
ah We if i have i have a page on Facebook called V.O. Cruise, and we will market to that page always first before we go anywhere else. I think we got 200 and something people on that page and we only take 40 students per cruise. We did Mexico this past January and in May of 2026, we're talking about doing Alaska.
01:19:09
Speaker
round trip from San Francisco. How cool. asks But it's going to be five days of workshops, two days animation, two days commercial, and one day on marketing. Cool. ah we but We're going to, we're going to, we're going to book students from that page, which is what we've done the last few, yeah few cruises. I know. I just joined. just swim Rock on. and I will approve you. I promise. um in Please. I'd love to, I'd love to. That'd be great.
01:19:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, wonderful. Bob, just what an honor. Just so great having you here. Thank you for your time and my pleasure. I got to listen back to this and and start. I got it. I got a lot of notes to take. So well, you pushed record because I saw you. So that's a good thing.
01:19:49
Speaker
I know. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes that doesn't happen. Then, then what do we just do it all over
Podcast Reflections
01:19:54
Speaker
again? just And then, and then, and then you do it and you're like, Oh, he told so much better stories the first time. Well, he's sort of like the first take is always the best. You know, it's like always good dude. Like that's why I was like, Oh, they chose the first one. Okay.
01:20:11
Speaker
What's that? I need to start writing more questions for you. If you ever come back again. well Ask me. Ask me out there, guys. yeah Awesome. No, we got to have you back. If if you're so inclined, we would love that. If you and if it fits in the schedule, I'm happy to do it. OK. So before you go, can you say that that and that that's all, folks? Are you allowed to? Well, I don't have to. You just did it. I know. I can't do it like you. I wouldn't want to take you.
01:20:39
Speaker
No, we don't we don't we don't force our guests to do this stuff. I'm so good at it. I don't want to take your shot. Well, that was that was it but yeah but it pretty good. even now work on the the workout is three You gotta work on the is that you the way you talk. What I would say is that's all folks.
Conclusion and Future Hopes
01:21:03
Speaker
no I love it. but thank you for Thank you for sharing that with us. us again Awesome. Sure. Awesome. What a gift. Thank you, Bob. and mike my pleasure Best bo wishes to you and we'll have you, but I'd love to have you back again. It's just what, ah what an honor. You let me know. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Bye everyone. hi right Thank you for joining us for another enchanting episode of Sharing the Magic.
Outro and Social Media Promotion
01:21:30
Speaker
We are the Thinking Fans podcast, an entertainment show where education and entertainment collide each week. We bring you whimsical interviews with Disney guests who share their magical experiences and reveal how they are woven into the Disney fabric. Don't forget to hit that follow button to stay updated on our latest episodes.
01:21:49
Speaker
Spread the word and let your friends know they can tune in wherever they enjoy their favorite podcasts. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and ex, formerly Twitter, at at sharing the magic pod. Until next time, keep sharing the magic.