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Speaker 2: Do it now? How you doing out there?
Speaker 3: It's me Tigger, I am Duc Wayne Duck. It's me
Speaker 3: Bunker's Deep Bobcat.
Speaker 2: All right, y'all?
Speaker 3: Is it rate your favorite firefly you desire? Hold the
Speaker 3: old knock gud. My name is Jim Cummings and welcome
Speaker 3: to tuned In.
Speaker 4: Welcome back, everybody to another episode of Tuned In with
Speaker 4: Jim Cummings. Today we have Roger Craig Smith joining us.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Yes, and that's a lot of people going.
Speaker 3: No, no, it's good to see man. Thanks, thanks for
Speaker 3: being here.
Speaker 2: As you said, nice to be seeing one another without like. Yes,
Speaker 2: the ship's passing in the night of a convention scene.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: We do a lot of conventions, as I'm sure a
Speaker 1: lot of you folks out there know, right.
Speaker 3: Indeed, So that's what's happened. That's that's what he's talking about.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm talking about. But today we're convening in
Speaker 2: a whole new world.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh it's too little song now, a little Disney,
Speaker 1: Little Disneyttle Disney.
Speaker 3: I know those dudes.
Speaker 2: Yes, do you Disney?
Speaker 1: Yes, we are yeah, yeah and uh and so I'm
Speaker 1: just glad you're hair man.
Speaker 2: Thank you, very cool. That's great. I just left Snowy,
Speaker 2: Idaho to come back to uh, to sunny SoCal and
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, why am I wearing jeans?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Snowy and Idaho. Well that's where you live.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, moved twenty twenty so yeah, yeah you're there now,
Speaker 2: but lived here my whole life up until that point.
Speaker 3: Wow, well that sounds like.
Speaker 2: Idaho outdoors, nice guys, Uh, dark skies, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: So my my hobbies are like like photography, wildlie photography,
Speaker 2: but mostly like night skies and astrophotography and that kind
Speaker 2: of thing. And it was like trying to put that
Speaker 2: the investment in time to get that to happen in
Speaker 2: southern California was like all right, well I'll just hop
Speaker 2: in the car and drive four hours to get to
Speaker 2: like some skys.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because I thought you said nice guys,
Speaker 1: and I was to get well, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, okay, I'm sure they are.
Speaker 1: There's got to be a decent couples in La Night Skiest,
Speaker 1: one of which that's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So no, it was that and then the pandemic.
Speaker 2: And at that point I had bought up there in
Speaker 2: twenty eleven and was thinking, oh, someday, retirement, that kind
Speaker 2: of thing. And then the pandemic hit and we started
Speaker 2: doing a lot of work from home, and I was
Speaker 2: already set up and I thought, man, I'll never get
Speaker 2: an opportunity like this again. So yeah, so far, so good.
Speaker 2: But then of course I'm back down here too and
Speaker 2: for this week, and you know, it's like it's but
Speaker 2: it's a much easier place to kind of come and
Speaker 2: go now, you know, people move there, so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: more flights and that kind of thing, so it's good.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that helps. I had
Speaker 1: a place in Missouri and it was like one.
Speaker 3: Airport, yeah, and one flight a day.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That would get cancer, right and then yeah, and don't
Speaker 1: miss it, yeah, because oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for you in small towns. But yeah, so no more,
Speaker 2: you don't have the Missouri place, No, not anymore.
Speaker 1: Okay, I just visited it, yeah recently, which was interesting.
Speaker 3: But be that as it may. But I'm glad you're.
Speaker 2: Here, buddy, Thank you, so thank you, thank you for
Speaker 2: having me.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna end up having to tell everybody before
Speaker 1: all said and done, if you've got anything coming up
Speaker 1: where they should go and see you cool, you know,
Speaker 1: be at convention or now.
Speaker 2: Now. So, I mean, like social media, as we both know,
Speaker 2: is everything. So I've just started Blue Sky just trying
Speaker 2: to figure that out. Just is to be like another thing.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's a political It's mostly just kind of
Speaker 2: like X and Twitter. Getting to the point where I
Speaker 2: was like, for the longest time, I've been finding myself going,
Speaker 2: do I want to be doing this? Do I want
Speaker 2: to be? What?
Speaker 3: Even is?
Speaker 4: What is that? I've never heard of that one?
Speaker 2: It's Blue Sky's like another it's a it's just another alternative.
Speaker 2: I guess it was one of the original founders of
Speaker 2: Twitter went over years ago and started this and then
Speaker 2: so it's it's sort of like retaining what Twitter was
Speaker 2: essentially meant to be like all along kind of like
Speaker 2: short form communications, you being able to sort of curate
Speaker 2: what you're looking for and that kind of thing, as
Speaker 2: opposed to these algorithms kind of shoving it as like
Speaker 2: truth social I have no idea. I mean honestly, I
Speaker 2: have no It's like don't I don't want to know.
Speaker 2: I don't want to know. It's weird to have to
Speaker 2: like think about like what do I need to know
Speaker 2: about Twitter or x or you know, what do I
Speaker 2: need to know about Instagram and threads? And do what
Speaker 2: I need to know? Yeah, and how how quickly we
Speaker 2: went from as an industry you've got to have this
Speaker 2: to yeah, maybe maybe not so much because it can
Speaker 2: represent almost like a liability now, like you know, one
Speaker 2: actor can take down an entire production because of something
Speaker 2: they mouthed off on that kind of thing. But so
Speaker 2: to answer your question, Twitter and and now Blue Sky
Speaker 2: and Instagram is where I'm at, and it's all at
Speaker 2: Roger Craigsmith just all one word and uh. And then
Speaker 2: I have a website but I run it myself and
Speaker 2: it's kind of embarrassingly like bad. There is data there
Speaker 2: I suppose I haven't updated in probably about five years, but.
Speaker 4: I got kicked off or production for social media. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was working on Lost in Space. I was doing
Speaker 4: on Lost in Space.
Speaker 2: Like crops and they kicked you off.
Speaker 4: Netflix reboot and they did they like converted this. I
Speaker 4: never actually watched the show, but they converted this like
Speaker 4: huge tractor trailer into a spaceship. They took the frame
Speaker 4: of the tractor trailer and then they made like this
Speaker 4: big like it looked like a Mars rover, you know.
Speaker 4: And we were on lunch break one day and I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, I got to take a picture of this.
Speaker 4: So I take a picture posing in front of it.
Speaker 4: And that was the last day of shooting production and
Speaker 4: I got up. I had to go to LA that day.
Speaker 4: That was up in Vancouver, and so I post a
Speaker 4: picture and I just said on another planet, you know.
Speaker 2: I didn't tag like yeah. I went production.
Speaker 4: Within like twenty minutes, they were like, what are you
Speaker 4: doing posting that? Take it down right now? You're done?
Speaker 4: Like what?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 4: And then I was like, well, I'm on a plane
Speaker 4: right now, like I'll take it down. But like they
Speaker 4: wanted me to like come into the office and like
Speaker 4: talk to me. And then I was like yeah, like
Speaker 4: I'm going to la right now.
Speaker 2: I was assuming it was something you'd said, as you know,
Speaker 2: and like they were following, like you're saying, I can't
Speaker 2: even believe they found that picture. That's crazy.
Speaker 4: Like I didn't follow anybody on that crew, you know,
Speaker 4: like I didn't. I was like a day Yeah, I wasn't,
Speaker 4: Like I was like a day player pos you know.
Speaker 2: Like that's crazy. Yeah, I wonder about THO where I
Speaker 2: think that's why. It's like now I just find it funny.
Speaker 2: It's like you go, yeah, it can all be.
Speaker 4: You never signed an NDA. I never signed an NDA.
Speaker 2: Oh wow yeah yeah that's right. You're done.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're just like, yeah we're not again, like wow, yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh man, give me a break.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 4: They said, do you ever want to work for Warner
Speaker 4: Brothers over again? I said it only if you cast me.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's a good answer. Yeah, don't cast me as
Speaker 2: a good answer.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, it's a crazy, it's a crazy. It's it's it's
Speaker 2: I hate even having to have these discussions like with
Speaker 2: other grown ups. You know. It's like it's.
Speaker 4: Funny to me. I think people take just life in
Speaker 4: general too seriously.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, that's a hallmark of so many people.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, well I'm offended by what you just said.
Speaker 2: So yeah, thank you. No I cancel this show? Yeah yeah, no,
Speaker 2: it's it's there. So social media that's where I promote
Speaker 2: most of my stuff. And I think, I think I
Speaker 2: have a YouTube, but I don't know that I monitor
Speaker 2: it or doing anything. It's just like I don't know.
Speaker 2: I like it's funny, like like I'm sure if you're
Speaker 2: like me, it's like you just go, look, we're only
Speaker 2: as good as the last thing we did, or as
Speaker 2: good as the audition that we're submitting, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: And I look at it like if I've got to
Speaker 2: have all this like window decoration for you to want
Speaker 2: to consider me, then what am I doing?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You know, I just feel like they don't work for
Speaker 2: that kind of a feel.
Speaker 4: They've kind of moved away from that already though, Like
Speaker 4: it seemed like in the early twenty tens like they
Speaker 4: were really like gung ho on, like what's your following?
Speaker 4: You know, blah blah blah, And then they started castro
Speaker 4: social media influencers and then they realized it didn't really
Speaker 4: make a difference and who was coming to see because
Speaker 4: people want to see. If you're used to seeing somebody
Speaker 4: on your phone, you want to see them on your phone.
Speaker 4: You don't want to go to the theater. And then
Speaker 4: like that's a whole different thing for free, you know,
Speaker 4: like I don't I don't follow you because you act,
Speaker 4: you know, like I follow you for whatever you do
Speaker 4: you do, and now.
Speaker 2: You're boxing videos. I don't want to hear your take
Speaker 2: on like you know, animated character, right, which is just
Speaker 2: your voice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but I'm glad to see that. It's kind
Speaker 4: of like, at least in my opinion, kind of shifted
Speaker 4: away from that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that doesn't really matter, you know, I think, yeah,
Speaker 4: maybe much to this point.
Speaker 1: That's that's the key phrase. It doesn't really matter, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it doesn't.
Speaker 4: And you know, these days, all they're thinking about is profits,
Speaker 4: Like they're just thinking about how can we, you know,
Speaker 4: use this to make more money, how can we get
Speaker 4: more butts inside?
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, profits, we're all capitalists here.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Do you were you a theater kid growing up?
Speaker 2: I was, I mean, I mean sort of, I mean
Speaker 2: I wasn't like I did musical youth artists Repertory theater,
Speaker 2: which is based on in I want to say they're
Speaker 2: Long Beach now, but it was. It was we'll just
Speaker 2: call it southern California. So as a little kid, I
Speaker 2: mean like I mean, I technically my first role was
Speaker 2: in like a Charlotte's Web as school.
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 2: So it's funny, it's like if I if so, I'm
Speaker 2: playing with it here because it was Charlotte's Web, but
Speaker 2: Grand Grand Avenue Elementary think was where this was down
Speaker 2: in Orange County, which is where I grew up, and
Speaker 2: and it was it was one of those preschool plays
Speaker 2: where it's like the kids just walk around and outfits
Speaker 2: but nobody says anything. Oh sure, yeah, the teacher plays piano.
Speaker 1: And the parents are sitting there in this day and age,
Speaker 1: just holding it, holding out there doing selfies for their
Speaker 1: Instagram accounts.
Speaker 2: No, so it was. And then they had one line
Speaker 2: and I think it was like the mayor says, misters,
Speaker 2: is it Zuckerman Zoocker. I can't remember the character from
Speaker 2: Charlotte's Web, the big Farmer. Oh Zuckerman. I feel like that, yeah, this, oh,
Speaker 2: this is terrible. All right. I went right to James
Speaker 2: and the Giant Peach.
Speaker 3: That's the wrong show.
Speaker 2: And I went to Smuckers, like, you know, Smuckers, it's
Speaker 2: too early. Sorry not early, so no, but I think
Speaker 2: it was like some line they wanted one of the
Speaker 2: kids to say this line, and you got to have
Speaker 2: a microphone, and so they for whatever reason, maybe I
Speaker 2: was the goofball or something like that, they handed me.
Speaker 2: I was like four five at the post and it's
Speaker 2: like mister Zuckerman or mister zucker or mister Smucker's you're
Speaker 2: going to the fair. That was the line. And I
Speaker 2: probably yelled it into the mic and got a big
Speaker 2: laugh out of it, you know, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I like this, yeah, And then it was just being
Speaker 2: a ball like like kind of making my friends laugh,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. And then around middle school went
Speaker 2: and took a theater program, and it was it was
Speaker 2: just something that you would do like throughout the summer
Speaker 2: and you put on a production all the all the
Speaker 2: typical like lame is Little Abner, sound of music, you know, uh,
Speaker 2: wishard of Az like all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I did Little I did Little Abner and and uh
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: Mary and Sam. Oh, Mary and Sam.
Speaker 1: I love that Mary insane, yeah yeah, and Annie and Annie.
Speaker 2: That was another one.
Speaker 1: Gosh, yeah, that that that was those were good old times.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was wolf in Sound of Music and uh oh
Speaker 2: yeah I was. I was a little like you. I
Speaker 2: was seen going on you know, yes, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: It was born and sold lphin. That is why they
Speaker 3: called me.
Speaker 1: Well that was another one that was uh no, it
Speaker 1: wasn't blazing Saddles time. Okay, there you go, and Germany
Speaker 1: justonging all over the map period today.
Speaker 2: They didn't They didn't have us kids do that one, no,
Speaker 2: which would have been great actually yeah producers, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: it would have been controversial.
Speaker 4: But yeah.
Speaker 2: So I got involved in my art and and then
Speaker 2: it was fun because that was where I started to realize, Okay,
Speaker 2: now just being a goofball can be channeled into something.
Speaker 2: And it was like, oh, I like I was funny.
Speaker 2: So uh the the I could not dance. I could sing,
Speaker 2: but I couldn't dance. I hated dancing. Yeah, it's I
Speaker 2: don't dance. I'm in the band. Yeah exactly that you
Speaker 2: can't do it. The drummers can keep the timing, they
Speaker 2: just can't dance to it. Yeah, and so yeah, it
Speaker 2: was like one of those things, right, I would ask
Speaker 2: the director, like all the time, like, can I guys
Speaker 2: get out? I feel like this is where Pappy yoakum,
Speaker 2: Like it was one of the characters I did, like
Speaker 2: the grandpa or the dad I should say. I was like, well,
Speaker 2: what if? What if? What if he just kind of
Speaker 2: left the stage during this dance number. It's like I
Speaker 2: feel like he'd go and and till some soil or something.
Speaker 2: You know, it's top a squad exactly. It's like nature
Speaker 2: calls for Pappy dance number.
Speaker 3: He's got a tilt, he has to look out for doubt.
Speaker 3: I would think, yeah, without a doubt, how could he? Yeah,
Speaker 3: man's got.
Speaker 2: Work to do. So it was things like that, and
Speaker 2: it was but it was really helping me kind of
Speaker 2: like like realize, oh, this is a viable thing, I guess.
Speaker 2: And I enjoyed being funny. I enjoyed doing and ad
Speaker 2: libbing and improving and all that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 2: then high school theater arts, doing theater in high school,
Speaker 2: and then post that it was more about like having
Speaker 2: been completely directionless in my early twenties and having no
Speaker 2: clue what I was going to do, join garage bands
Speaker 2: and do stuff like that and uh, and then discovering
Speaker 2: stand up comedy, comedy as a as a sort of
Speaker 2: an attempt at something.
Speaker 3: And see, that's the scariest thing in the world.
Speaker 4: We were just talking about that right before the show.
Speaker 4: We were saying, stand up is like one of the
Speaker 4: scariest things ever.
Speaker 2: Got to be like, and yet you don't bomb bomb
Speaker 2: Oh god, yeah, bomb you have to. I mean, like,
Speaker 2: how do you appreciate it if you don't. If you
Speaker 2: don't have you know, your highs are only as good
Speaker 2: as your lows. Yeah, yeah, it's do you remember any
Speaker 2: of your jokes?
Speaker 4: You're set?
Speaker 2: So everybody hey going out there, Hey, hey, where are
Speaker 2: my drinkers at? You know about that local sports team,
Speaker 2: you know that voices like the thing. So the irony
Speaker 2: of this whole situation, like to be sitting here next
Speaker 2: to you right now. For me like this many years later,
Speaker 2: is me getting into my twenties calling my old high
Speaker 2: school theater arts instructor Jan Laurie, who is this amazing
Speaker 2: human being colin her, I'm going, hey, I'm thinking about
Speaker 2: doing this thing. She's like, oh, you were always my
Speaker 2: little Robin Williams. That was what she would like a
Speaker 2: high praise right like that, That's pretty good. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'll take that. Yeah, yeah, I disagree, but I'll take that.
Speaker 2: And she said, you know yeah, I can't wait to
Speaker 2: see what you've got and what I showed up. So
Speaker 2: I met her after school, went back to my old
Speaker 2: high school, met her.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so she was kind of giving you tips
Speaker 3: and the men watch me.
Speaker 2: She was gonna, Oh, so I just did my stand
Speaker 2: up act in front of my old high school theater
Speaker 2: arts instructor and wow, and she ands, we get done,
Speaker 2: and she's like, the kids at all left the school.
Speaker 2: I was in the you know, at the little theater,
Speaker 2: and we get we do this thing. I just do
Speaker 2: my stand up in front of one human being who
Speaker 2: I trust.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's perfect.
Speaker 2: Immensely she gets done, she goes, you want me to
Speaker 2: be nice, You don't want me to be honest. I
Speaker 2: was like, honest, that's what I'm here for. She said,
Speaker 2: where are your characters? She's like, you always did voices,
Speaker 2: you always became these characters. And that's what she's like,
Speaker 2: you just did observational stand up comedy. Anybody can do that.
Speaker 2: I don't know what you're why you're wasting it, she said,
Speaker 2: So instead of talking about it inhabit the character and
Speaker 2: let us laugh with you. And that was the most
Speaker 2: sage advice because that was what I became more known for.
Speaker 2: I think that's got to be doing characters and voices
Speaker 2: and acts. And I had an act. I wasn't a
Speaker 2: let me eat l a comic, open up the newspaper
Speaker 2: and start riffing, or you know, no pad on the
Speaker 2: t able kind of thing. I was like, I was
Speaker 2: going to entertain, and so I would do voices and
Speaker 2: characters in my act, and more and more the industry
Speaker 2: kept hearing that and going are you in a radio
Speaker 2: or what do you do? Like? Are you a are
Speaker 2: you a voiceover?
Speaker 3: Game?
Speaker 2: Like, I don't know, there's never a viable option for me.
Speaker 4: So is that what led into your voice acting career? Question?
Speaker 4: Understand up got to be right?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Wow, how did that transpire? So about five years
Speaker 2: in we were trying out for the Aspen Comedy Festival
Speaker 2: and it was a showcase show that we were doing
Speaker 2: down a nerve.
Speaker 4: When you say you were referring to just I would come.
Speaker 2: Like the Orange County Brats, Like we were like a
Speaker 2: little Orange County scene that was kind of just we
Speaker 2: all knew each other, we were all doing all the
Speaker 2: bringer rooms doing all the like all the workout rooms,
Speaker 2: all that stuff, you know, like oh god, Chester Drawers bar,
Speaker 2: like like all these different places now like Newport Beach
Speaker 2: and like you know, and we would do corporate gigs
Speaker 2: in Orange County, that kind of thing. We all knew
Speaker 2: one another. But Jeff Jenna, who is still doing stand
Speaker 2: up comedy, and like, I want to see he's in Ohio.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get that wrong in apologies if if Jeff
Speaker 2: happens to see this, but Jeff Jenna was, yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't doubt he's Jeff. What a huge Jeff. Shout out
Speaker 2: to Jeff.
Speaker 3: All Right.
Speaker 2: He was the house MC and the manager of the
Speaker 2: Improvent Irvine at the time, and he was one of
Speaker 2: those rare like folks that would just he felt like
Speaker 2: we got a foster young talent, and so he would
Speaker 2: seek like young comics in Ron County and give us
Speaker 2: the Improvin Irvine, California. At the time he'd give us
Speaker 2: I think it was like Monday nights were dark, and
Speaker 2: so he was like, why don't we do it an
Speaker 2: open We'll call it open mic. But you had to
Speaker 2: audition on a regular night. You got three minutes to audition.
Speaker 3: Is that it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so it was. And then if you were
Speaker 2: annoying to get.
Speaker 3: Out there and get them, oh my god, better welcome.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It was fast and he let he let me
Speaker 2: come in. I did it open up for somebody, don't
Speaker 2: remember what night, and then he was like, you're on.
Speaker 2: And so we would get this ability to do this,
Speaker 2: and then throughout the years he finally set up this
Speaker 2: showcase for all of us. I think her name was
Speaker 2: Judy Brown or Julie Brown. I can't remember. I know, no, Oh,
Speaker 2: there were two of them. Yeah, but I think this
Speaker 2: one was either a disambiguation because we're like she was
Speaker 2: in charge of the Asthma Comedy of Festival. It wasn't Downtown
Speaker 2: Julie Brown, or I'm thinking.
Speaker 3: Of MPa Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't.
Speaker 3: One was white and Onema was black.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't but I don't know that they
Speaker 2: were both even affiliated with this one if I'm getting
Speaker 2: the name wrong. But she came to watch us. I'll
Speaker 2: do our thing. At the end of the night, we
Speaker 2: get back on stage, audience leaves to get back on stage,
Speaker 2: and she goes one by one and critiques all of
Speaker 2: us in front of our peers, you know, like you this, this,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't like your props. Why are you
Speaker 2: doing props? You're not a prop comes to me and
Speaker 2: just goes who represents you for voiceovers? And I went nobody,
Speaker 2: And she goes, oh, you do so many voices and
Speaker 2: characters that seems like that's what you would be, and
Speaker 2: then moved on said nothing about my stand up, and
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, this is the highest industry professional
Speaker 2: I could imagine like talking to Oh, you know, it's
Speaker 2: like it's weird little things that have bet it.
Speaker 3: Was an interesting way to deliver good advice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great, yeah, and that was I can't really And
Speaker 2: so you were like, I got to get an agent
Speaker 2: Google or Alta Vista or whatever it was ask Jeeves
Speaker 2: at the time kind of thing.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Locals to Bob Bergen's animation voiceover class. Oh sure, that
Speaker 2: was the catalyst. That was literally the catalyst. It was
Speaker 2: years of doing it down in Orange County, cutting my teeth,
Speaker 2: making mistakes, getting getting time behind the mic, doing all
Speaker 2: the not for broadcast stuff, doing local gas station assy,
Speaker 2: local cable ass. That's that's what I did.
Speaker 1: I lived in Corona, Okay, and I go to California, Corona, California.
Speaker 1: Cow had del Mar Yeah, yeah, the crappy one by Riverside,
Speaker 1: and I would go down to there were different places
Speaker 1: in Newport Beach two or three. I had an agent
Speaker 1: in San Diego, you know, because that's.
Speaker 2: Logical, the big city.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, anyway, I mean it was ridiculous and that
Speaker 1: you know, drive for an hour and a half and
Speaker 1: do a radio commercial, then drive for an hour and
Speaker 1: a half and all the gas money was eaten up
Speaker 1: by the one hundred and fifty bucks I made on
Speaker 1: the radio commercial. And uh, but you know, I made
Speaker 1: my first demo tape. And that is that? How you?
Speaker 3: That was it?
Speaker 2: That was it? Id it was you didn't care, you
Speaker 2: you just And it's like, how do you impress that
Speaker 2: upon people, like young people that are trying to like
Speaker 2: figure out how to get into this. I just start going, look,
Speaker 2: you're gonna find a way. You're gonna find a way,
Speaker 2: and it's not gonna be bang zoom off to the
Speaker 2: stars kind of thing. It's like, you're probably gonna really
Speaker 2: do a lot of stuff that's just really fun. And
Speaker 2: yet in the name of progression. I mean like I
Speaker 2: worked as a PA. I did all that, like twenty
Speaker 2: hour days and all that, and it was like, yeah
Speaker 2: it was, but it was you know that one Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was a PA for years. Yeah, PA for years. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Me and one of my PA friends we would joke around,
Speaker 4: and there was one year it was just a couple
Speaker 4: of years back and I forget who gets up there.
Speaker 4: It was like, I don't know, some big star like
Speaker 4: George Clooney or something, and it's like, we're just gonna
Speaker 4: have a moment of silence. The south oscars. He's like,
Speaker 4: we're gonna have a moment's silence for a PA who
Speaker 4: was trapped in there, like they didn't get out of
Speaker 4: their car and they like overheated and asphyxiated or whatever.
Speaker 4: Like we're gonna have a moment was silent for the
Speaker 4: PA that passed away. And I turned to my friend,
Speaker 4: I'm like, the only way a PA in this industry
Speaker 4: gets recognized is if they die, like you are invisible
Speaker 4: legob oh no.
Speaker 2: It was legit. It was legit. Yeah, the PA really did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they like, I don't know, why don't you get
Speaker 4: out of your car? Like not trying to?
Speaker 2: Yeah, while it was idling in like a girlage.
Speaker 4: I think they were just like two. Like they said,
Speaker 4: they were doing a lock up in their car, you
Speaker 4: know how they they'll let you do like a lock
Speaker 4: up in your car. For anybody who doesn't know, a
Speaker 4: lock up is like blocking off pedestrians or like the
Speaker 4: public or some even crew where you're not supposed to
Speaker 4: be going you'll be in frame or whatever. And so
Speaker 4: this person's doing a lock up and like I guess
Speaker 4: you know, they forgot to tag her off for her
Speaker 4: lunch break or whatever, and like she just sat in
Speaker 4: there and like.
Speaker 2: Holy cow, just didn't get out.
Speaker 4: Holy yeah, missing some details, but she was in the car,
Speaker 4: So I like, how do you lock yourself inside a car?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah?
Speaker 4: So I don't know, tragic, but the joke was, you know,
Speaker 4: you know, that's the only way to get mentioned as
Speaker 4: a PA, because yeah, I'm sure it's you experience. You know,
Speaker 4: it's a very thankless job. You're almost like out a doubt.
Speaker 4: You're almost like the janitor of the set, you know,
Speaker 4: pretty much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're a fan of everything we do here
Speaker 1: at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the
Speaker 1: show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as
Speaker 1: early in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings,
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Speaker 1: slash Jim Cummings podcast Do It Now.
Speaker 2: It's what I It's what I asked for the fact
Speaker 2: the way I found myself, and of those dogs were
Speaker 2: just telling other people, Like I was working at a
Speaker 2: coffee shop down in an, Orange, California, and I was like,
Speaker 2: good old Orange. Yeah, I lived there for a long time.
Speaker 2: I loved I loved living down there, lived in a
Speaker 2: circle and all that was great. But I was telling
Speaker 2: the kids at the coffee shop, if you guys know
Speaker 2: anybody in LA that does anything in any way, production
Speaker 2: or whatever, just tell them I'll sweep up afterwards, I'll
Speaker 2: make coffee, I'll do whatever. And this one kid, it
Speaker 2: was all the kids that would sit there and smoke cigarettes.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Afterwards, it was like this one kid knew a writer,
Speaker 2: and the writer eventually got he had a connection with
Speaker 2: somebody else and he said, I'll get you over there.
Speaker 2: I worked for that guy for a number of years
Speaker 2: and then he eventually this writer got an executive producer
Speaker 2: position on a on a pilot starring Robert England Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 2: He's great who later today I get to work with again? Man,
Speaker 2: I'm just laughing kind of good day today today, and
Speaker 2: I'm laughing kind of going to like so that's somebody
Speaker 2: told me, like who I'm working with on this particular
Speaker 2: thing that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you want to tell Robert he's a great guy.
Speaker 2: That's so. He lived in Laguna ne Guel I think
Speaker 2: down there. And because I lived down in Orange County,
Speaker 2: I was annoying to the.
Speaker 1: Most beautiful places in the world, Freddy sitting down there
Speaker 1: snarling exactly.
Speaker 2: And because I was the PA working on this thing
Speaker 2: and he would need scripts, I would deliver the scripts.
Speaker 2: He's like, well, you're down in Orange County. It's like
Speaker 2: you know, And I was like, yeah, but I'm in
Speaker 2: like Orange. I live in like like Santa Anna Orange.
Speaker 2: He's in Laguna. It's like it's another hour and a half,
Speaker 2: like to two hours.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but it's got orange.
Speaker 2: And orange in it and there. Yeah, it was like
Speaker 2: Orange County in LA. For the longest time, We're just like,
Speaker 2: what is that? What's down there? Nobody lives in Orange County.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, I would do the same thing. I
Speaker 2: would drive up to La me and you Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: l A only and then drive back and go like, well,
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, three and a half four hours
Speaker 2: of my life right there, just driving and the money's going.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, no, I mean it's like boring stories. It's
Speaker 2: it's all this. It's just I don't know what, grit
Speaker 2: determination and just grinding out and we will keep to
Speaker 2: just do the stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then when what was your first voice acting role.
Speaker 4: I know, the first time I heard your.
Speaker 2: Voice was as c O Oh my gosh, an Assassin's Creed,
Speaker 2: which we just celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of that, which
Speaker 2: just a ton of c Yeah, this stuff's coming in
Speaker 2: technically it was, and you can I'm sure you can
Speaker 2: appreciate this having done what we did back in the day.
Speaker 2: But it was a dialysis nurses training video for how
Speaker 2: to use the dialysis machines. But this guy had us
Speaker 2: doing like driven yeah right, because it's horror boring. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The producer wanted to you too, Yeah, he wanted he
Speaker 2: took like licensed film footage. I'm sure this is a
Speaker 2: violation of everything, but he had licensed film footage that
Speaker 2: he would take and we would overdub, like Yoda going
Speaker 2: like you know the plasma, you know, like like it
Speaker 2: puts this button on it, guys, you know.
Speaker 3: Like yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 2: It was all those things, and so it was they
Speaker 2: wanted people that could do like a bunch of different
Speaker 2: voices throughout this dialysis nurses training video. I made seventy
Speaker 2: five bucks in thirty minutes. I was like, this is
Speaker 2: the best day of my life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, never kidding. How old?
Speaker 2: Oh forty two? No, I see god, that's crazy. I
Speaker 2: would have been probably thirty one thirty ish okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I would have been about thirty one three.
Speaker 1: That's kind of when I started working.
Speaker 2: What did you do up until? Like what were you? Like?
Speaker 2: What was your I did a plead ignorance here.
Speaker 1: Like, oh well that that's okay. I'm I mean, I'm ignorant.
Speaker 1: Uh No, I as a kid, I mean I was
Speaker 1: a deckhead on a riverboat. I worked on a steel mill.
Speaker 1: I sold Colliers encyclopedias. Uh so, yeah, I did a lot.
Speaker 3: Of crazy things. I designed to pay the Martograph floats
Speaker 3: for a few years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a.
Speaker 1: Lot of fun and I couldn't believe people were paying
Speaker 1: me to do that, and I thought, well, this couldn't
Speaker 1: be better unless they were paying me to do silly voices.
Speaker 3: So I figured, well how about that?
Speaker 1: And I worked at a video depot in Anheim Hills
Speaker 1: and my buddy Chris Potter was an engineer, and I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I always thought I was daughter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know Chris. You know Chris, he's one of
Speaker 2: the nicest human beings on earth. You're kidding, I swear
Speaker 2: to you. No, you weren't. Oh got him, that's a
Speaker 2: little bit closer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeahyeah, I haven't seen him in years here.
Speaker 2: I know. His name just popped up with somebody recently,
Speaker 2: and it was it was one of the things where
Speaker 2: somebody's reaching out going. I think Roger had a you know,
Speaker 2: nose Chris Potter and somebody word.
Speaker 1: It's out in the world again continue So you know, no,
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. Actually.
Speaker 1: But in the Ena High Hills video depot, I wrote
Speaker 1: out a script and we just stayed after work one
Speaker 1: day and recorded it all together, and then he kind
Speaker 1: of edited and put some sound effects in door slamming
Speaker 1: and people walking in phones ringing, stuff like that to
Speaker 1: just make it sound real.
Speaker 3: And we put it together and there was a guy who.
Speaker 1: Was a customer at the Anheim Hills store and his
Speaker 1: name was sal sal Romeo sal Romeo, and he had
Speaker 1: just made a really bad horror movie, so I knew
Speaker 1: he was in show business.
Speaker 3: Yea, yeah, So I said, would you take my tape
Speaker 3: and do something with it? Give it?
Speaker 1: And it was kind of like Kermit the Frog, would
Speaker 1: you take the standard rich and famous contract? And you know,
Speaker 1: because I thought that's how it worked, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: how it worked, but he actually did, and he gave
Speaker 1: it to somebody who was casting named Frank Brandt and
Speaker 1: Caroline Hay and it was for this brand new thing
Speaker 1: had just started up.
Speaker 3: It was called cable TV.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've heard of it, and apparently Disney had their
Speaker 1: own channel and they had just done of all things,
Speaker 1: I think like sixty five episodes of it wasn't called
Speaker 1: I think it was called poo Welcome to Pook Corner,
Speaker 1: and it was people in costumes and it was the
Speaker 1: most frightening thing you've ever saw.
Speaker 3: E or was horrible to look at. He looked like
Speaker 3: he had a goiter that was.
Speaker 1: That wouldn't stop and it was terrible, but they were
Speaker 1: getting ready to do Dumbo Circus and Katie Lee. I
Speaker 1: met Katie Lee on that show and Hal Smith, he
Speaker 1: was the Great Otis Campbell from Green Eddie Griffiths Show.
Speaker 3: And I just thought.
Speaker 1: I'd died and went to heaven and I got to
Speaker 1: be I got to be Lion all the Lion because
Speaker 1: it was people in costumes and they couldn't have even
Speaker 1: though it was little people that they couldn't.
Speaker 3: Have, like a four foot mouse. Yeah, so he was
Speaker 3: a lion. So I was Lion with the Lion, and
Speaker 3: that was my end.
Speaker 1: By the time that ended, it was about a year,
Speaker 1: year and a half. And by that time I had
Speaker 1: an agent, and I was doing TV spots and radio
Speaker 1: spots and and then that just you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of years later, they finally brought back Winnie the Pooh
Speaker 1: and that was the first big quote un you know,
Speaker 1: quote unquote big thing, and I auditioned for that, and
Speaker 1: somehow or another, I got that job. And then by then,
Speaker 1: I mean I was just working and and here here
Speaker 1: we are, and now I'm hanging out with you.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so it's pretty good.
Speaker 2: Well, it was a similar path my At her retirement party,
Speaker 2: my high school theater arts instructor, she was just like,
Speaker 2: I'm so proud of you. It's so amazing what you've
Speaker 2: been able to do kind of thing. And it was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we helped throw this party for her because we were
Speaker 2: all just she was had such a huge influence in
Speaker 2: our lives. And I was like, yeah, no, I'm pinching myself.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I can't. I think by that point it
Speaker 2: was like Assassins it had come out, maybe even origins
Speaker 2: or that kind of thing where it was like now
Speaker 2: I'm just kind of going or at least playing and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. It was nuts, you know, having done
Speaker 2: stuff for Disney and that kind of thing, and just
Speaker 2: thinking any one of those things alone and I'm happy.
Speaker 2: I die happy feeling like I didn't.
Speaker 3: I thought that too. I remember thinking that too, and
Speaker 3: the fact that it keeps happening. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The fact I remember saying, well, okay, if I'm selling
Speaker 1: shoes in six months, at least I could say, well
Speaker 1: you know what I'll have.
Speaker 2: You know, yep, exactly.
Speaker 3: I did this for a living.
Speaker 1: And I kind of thought that way about singing too.
Speaker 1: When I was in a band in New Orleans, and
Speaker 1: I said, that's.
Speaker 3: All I did. That's all I did, was that. That's
Speaker 3: all I did was design of Peyton Mardy Groth floats.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that wasn't even year round because.
Speaker 2: No, of course not. It's in preps for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's amazing. But I can't believe we both
Speaker 1: started off down.
Speaker 2: That's so funny. And then you mentioned Chris Potter, whose
Speaker 2: name just popped up literally like last week. I got
Speaker 2: an email and somebody saying Roger worked with Chris Potter
Speaker 2: of the one of the most solid engineers and one
Speaker 2: of the nicest u Yeah. Yeah, that's so crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I did not realize you were, like I honestly, yes,
Speaker 2: well good lord, that yeah you were. I think you
Speaker 2: worked that into just about every one of these, don't you.
Speaker 3: What's that?
Speaker 2: It's a small world. Oh I don't know, so no, okay,
Speaker 2: oh god, I hope not. Well, but it is it
Speaker 2: needs to be a thing, now, Okay, there it is.
Speaker 2: It's the drinking game, right, it's a thing. He said it.
Speaker 2: There we go kind of happened, that's uh.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: It is fascinating too to just think of like PA
Speaker 2: work and things like that, and and and jobs that
Speaker 2: maybe don't even exist anymore, and the way that so
Speaker 2: many people and yet so many people have a different
Speaker 2: way that they got involved in this. I find it
Speaker 2: funny that both you and I it was like not
Speaker 2: even on my radar. I was just a ham. I
Speaker 2: just knew. I just knew I couldn't do the office
Speaker 2: I did three months that I think I've mentioned other things.
Speaker 2: I won't mention it here, but it was a bankruptcy
Speaker 2: management service company where I was a temp buyer's assistant,
Speaker 2: and it was like three months is all it took
Speaker 2: for me to go. I never want to do this
Speaker 2: ever again. I can't do this. It's all you do
Speaker 2: was sit inside all.
Speaker 3: The TV office?
Speaker 4: Was it?
Speaker 2: No, God, it's a different one.
Speaker 3: No, I would have just clearing that up, making sure
Speaker 3: everybody's I'd rather.
Speaker 2: Work at dunder Mifflin. Yeah that's true than where I did.
Speaker 2: Yeah I could, I could. I could. Yeah, I could
Speaker 2: suffer it under Mifflin.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would think.
Speaker 2: But I was directionless. I just say that all the time.
Speaker 2: Like I woke up on my thirtieth birthday still having
Speaker 2: no career under my belt. I had a degree in
Speaker 2: screenwriting at that point, and I was just like, okay,
Speaker 2: what am I doing? It was it was one of
Speaker 2: those things where it was like, all right, I had
Speaker 2: a screenplay in development, had about five meetings, but it
Speaker 2: was always over the map, and they just didn't seem
Speaker 2: to understand what we were doing with this this script.
Speaker 2: And my literary manager was like, you know, we can
Speaker 2: just walk away kind of thing. And at that point,
Speaker 2: my my voiceover care was starting to earn me money,
Speaker 2: and I was looking at it and going like I
Speaker 2: could either keep plugging on away on this script for
Speaker 2: you know, eight hours every night and only to have
Speaker 2: people going to go, yeah, we're thinking though instead of this,
Speaker 2: you know, and then you go back and you do
Speaker 2: another like you know, three nights of origins, and they go, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's good, but actually we're just thinking it should all
Speaker 2: be different. Now. You know, you just start going.
Speaker 3: This is really good, but except for everything.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, Yeah, we love it.
Speaker 1: We just want it different, Yeah, we want something completely
Speaker 1: not this.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and now the voice of Quol is like perfect,
Speaker 2: just do it three more times. Yeah, that's if it
Speaker 2: was perfect.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was all of a sudden, it was
Speaker 2: like voice that were just started, and it was it
Speaker 2: was it was the culmination of everything. It was the
Speaker 2: timing from music. It was the timing, the ability to
Speaker 2: ham it up, the ability to make choices and just
Speaker 2: think on your feet, like with stand up, and and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, I was just like, I love
Speaker 2: all of us. I understand the stories, the character arc,
Speaker 2: the story arc. I understand the timing of things with
Speaker 2: with both stand up and rhythm and all that.
Speaker 3: Well, it's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, is everything.
Speaker 2: Right, isn't it? There we go, Yeah, I agree. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
Speaker 4: So when was the moment in your career that you
Speaker 4: felt like you've arrived, like, all right, this is this
Speaker 4: is what I am, this is what I do for
Speaker 4: a living. I'm not stressed.
Speaker 2: Ooh ooh. Well, probably when I was at my most
Speaker 2: stressed and behaving like an egotistical jerk, where all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, I realized that it's a breakfast right, No, god, no,
Speaker 2: that's just every evening. No, No, it's funny. It's a
Speaker 2: good friend of mine too, and he was directing on
Speaker 2: a project and we both got into it with each other,
Speaker 2: and it was just a funny moment where I think
Speaker 2: all of us were under so much pressure with this
Speaker 2: particular project. I'm being very ambiguous obviously, but it was
Speaker 2: one of those things where I was like, oh, I
Speaker 2: didn't like that feeling. I didn't like that. What am
Speaker 2: I thinking about? That? Is that me trying to stretch like,
Speaker 2: you know, like a little bit of like, you know,
Speaker 2: hey man, I must be good? And yeah, it's like
Speaker 2: I must be good because I'm I'm working so much
Speaker 2: kind of thing. And I walked away from that and
Speaker 2: it was like and years later it was just like, dude,
Speaker 2: what was that? And he's like, ah, you know, and
Speaker 2: apologies and all that kind of stuff, just like I
Speaker 2: can't believe, you know, it's like, hey man, we all
Speaker 2: you know, one of those things. But I think at
Speaker 2: that point it was kind of like, Okay, I can
Speaker 2: go either way on this. I can either like do
Speaker 2: that and probably completely burn out or just burn every
Speaker 2: bridge in the name of what protecting my fragile ego
Speaker 2: of the fact that to this day I still have
Speaker 2: the imposter syndrome kind of like are they gonna figure
Speaker 2: out that I I'm really just kind of throwing vocal
Speaker 2: stuff against the wall and it sticks, you know, it's
Speaker 2: like just doing what I can.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've had that. I've had that.
Speaker 1: It's like, when are they gonna they're gonna be Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is freaking Cummings from Youngstown.
Speaker 3: Get him out of here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for God's sake, he's not fooling anybody, right, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, we'll let him make the Stevy spot or whatever.
Speaker 3: Let'll give him some tags to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's we feel sorry for me. He drove in
Speaker 2: from Corona.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it might be that. It was, it was.
Speaker 2: And then years later one of the neatest things happened.
Speaker 2: I was working on planes for Disney and this little
Speaker 2: film that was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: Oh it's Disney Tune Studios got actual planes. Yeah no, yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, yes, he had fallen far. But guys
Speaker 1: who work on planes, I would imagine they make pretty
Speaker 1: good money.
Speaker 2: Pretty well airplane mechanics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not as good as guys who work on planes
Speaker 1: the cartoons.
Speaker 2: True, maybe, yes, quite possibly, but yes, So it was
Speaker 2: it was planes the movie like cars, but it was
Speaker 2: Disney Tune Studios. It was supposed to be straight to DVT.
Speaker 2: And then it started testing really well and the next thing,
Speaker 2: you know, they were just like, hey, Pixar Marketing is
Speaker 2: gonna get involved and they're going to take this theatrical.
Speaker 2: And it was like I just was like, well, I'm out,
Speaker 2: they're going to replace me. Here we go. I'm waiting
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: It was just like in both Carlos, Alice, Rocky and
Speaker 2: I have been working on it for like three and
Speaker 2: a half years together. We did the initial table read, oh,
Speaker 2: and it was like and and supposedly from that point
Speaker 2: for they were like those are the two characters, and
Speaker 2: we just couldn't believe it. And then in the session
Speaker 2: towards the end of production, they called me in to
Speaker 2: do some pickups for something and it was a moment
Speaker 2: where Clay Hall, the director, was saying, Oh, we need
Speaker 2: to get this scene where your your character comes in
Speaker 2: and clips the Tale of Skipper and and and we
Speaker 2: need you laughing as you fly away. And I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: I'll do that. And then what do you think about
Speaker 2: I mean, we've been calling these props on the He's
Speaker 2: been talking about it throughout the movie that the name
Speaker 2: of his particular props this this bad guy Ripslinger. They're
Speaker 2: called Skyslicers and I was like, well, he just sliced
Speaker 2: through Skipper's tail and as he's flying off, what about
Speaker 2: Like that's what we call him skyslicers And Clay was
Speaker 2: like yes. And the story years later was that they
Speaker 2: went back and actually reanimated that little segment because it
Speaker 2: was just and in my mind, I was like there, yeah,
Speaker 2: Well for me, it was that screenwriting that was this
Speaker 2: was a plant and a payoff, like this was to me,
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's where my education at Chapman University down
Speaker 2: an orange department. It was like that's what I learned.
Speaker 2: And so to me, it was like and I remember
Speaker 2: thinking in that moment, going, Okay, this is neat. This
Speaker 2: is a culmination of for years I had been realizing
Speaker 2: what rhythm and stand up had been doing for me.
Speaker 2: To just keep throwing stuff out. Keep because every audience,
Speaker 2: you know, you go to Indianapolis, you got to slow
Speaker 2: it down and open up different, do this kind of
Speaker 2: thing become to you go to the ice House, it's
Speaker 2: like just t ball, like they're just the best audience.
Speaker 2: You go do the improv in Hollywood and it's like
Speaker 2: everybody's sitting there like this. But my brother does this too,
Speaker 2: and it's like, you know, it's like we've seen you before,
Speaker 2: you know, we know what you do that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Oh that's fun, yeah, but good to see y uh huh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let me get this arrow out of my neck.
Speaker 2: La.
Speaker 4: I hate how they have no heckling now in stand up.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's it's a weird figure it out.
Speaker 4: I got to stand up all the time. Every time
Speaker 4: they say no heckling, you will get thrown out. I've
Speaker 4: been thrown out for heckling, really been thrown out.
Speaker 3: Oh man.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was like, this is to me, that's like
Speaker 4: what stand up is.
Speaker 3: That's yeah, how are they going to know?
Speaker 4: They what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: If they're bombed?
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you're bombing.
Speaker 2: It's like I heard the best advice doing stand up
Speaker 2: once and it was very likely from Jeff Jenna when
Speaker 2: he was saying or maybe honestly it might have been
Speaker 2: Kathleen Madigan. She might have been actually saying this too
Speaker 2: to a group, saying, look, inherently the audience wants for
Speaker 2: you to succeed, oh, I would think. And so what
Speaker 2: ends up happening is the minute somebody's up there and
Speaker 2: it's hey, uh oh uh, oh, what's Oh, what's the
Speaker 2: deal with?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: And it's like now everybody's getting uncomfortable, and that's when
Speaker 2: the heckling begins, because you've inherently made the audience feel
Speaker 2: uncomfortable because they're already uncomfortable for you, so they want
Speaker 2: to know they're in good hands. And I that's I'm
Speaker 2: with you on That's exactly the reason I got kicked
Speaker 2: out of the show. I felt uncomfortable. Like this guy
Speaker 2: was literally just standing up there. I can't even remember
Speaker 2: who it was, some I don't even know, and it
Speaker 2: just sounded like he was in his freaking living room
Speaker 2: like going off on misogygnistic rants and racist rants, and
Speaker 2: none of it was funny, Like I'm not really sensitive,
Speaker 2: it just wasn't funny, like nobody.
Speaker 4: It was like somebody sitting in their living room with
Speaker 4: a bottle of bourbon, just like ranting. Oh, and I'm
Speaker 4: like boo, like this is like you get through something
Speaker 4: like yeah, not at all, Like nobody in the crowd
Speaker 4: is feeling this, like that weird change your tune or
Speaker 4: something like you don't have like an alternate yeah, like
Speaker 4: I don't know, and they're like ye, sir, sir, gonna
Speaker 4: have to stop. I'm like, I'm not stop. I'm not stopping.
Speaker 3: They can't stop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they can be good. It's weird. I mean,
Speaker 2: like there's a fine line, like there's there's there's a
Speaker 2: no no. Yeah, but it can be Look and if
Speaker 2: that individual was good, they would have had something chambered
Speaker 2: for you. Yeah, and then that might have been more
Speaker 2: interesting for the audience, and everybody might have been like,
Speaker 2: all right, shut them down. You might even be like, okay,
Speaker 2: fair game, Sure, you know what I mean. And but now,
Speaker 2: like where got so like annoying for me is when
Speaker 2: you go through all the things to handle hecklers and
Speaker 2: you do all that, but if they've been overserved and
Speaker 2: they're just not showing up and they're not contributing in
Speaker 2: a funny way or even even a good back and forth. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just random belligerent ramblings because.
Speaker 3: They're just so it was like U plus they're screwing up
Speaker 3: everybody else in.
Speaker 2: The room exactly. Yeah, when you have to stop the
Speaker 2: show and go all right, look, guys, come on, look
Speaker 2: you know, like you know, it's and because the audience
Speaker 2: is getting ready to have a fight in the and
Speaker 2: you're just it's at some point you're like, I'm babysitting
Speaker 2: drunks for you know, the Northwest Airlines was late, so
Speaker 2: I missed my first night. They docked me seventy five
Speaker 2: bucks for my pay for the middling act, you know
Speaker 2: that kind of man, and I'm already money and the
Speaker 2: whole kind of it's like, what am I doing?
Speaker 4: I'm the worst city in the world for stand up
Speaker 4: is what Vancouver? Oh interesting, Vancouver doesn't even have a
Speaker 4: comedy They don't even have a freaking comedy place anymore. Really,
Speaker 4: they used to have one and it was called, oh
Speaker 4: like the Loose Moose or something. I don't know. I
Speaker 4: lived up there.
Speaker 3: Comedy club names for one, Alex.
Speaker 4: Yes, they don't have a single comedy club, and they
Speaker 4: have comedy shows, but they'll be like in a restaurant
Speaker 4: and like a converted bar, and it's just nobody has
Speaker 4: a sense of humor up there, because Vancouver doesn't. I'm
Speaker 4: going on a tangent, but.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's what we're doing. It's cold and
Speaker 2: we have, you know, that's what we do.
Speaker 4: So I want to bring it back. We obviously have
Speaker 4: to talk about Sonic the Hedgehog.
Speaker 2: Oh okay.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of everything we do here at
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Speaker 3: Do it now, I've heard of him?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Have you? Are you guys in the same series? That
Speaker 4: was a different, different series? Ye, when you played Robotnik?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah, no, well you were the first one. I
Speaker 2: mean it was I believe you guys were the foray
Speaker 2: into this.
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: What was it? That was it?
Speaker 3: Wait?
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of Shredder?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, because I should know this, Well I should too.
Speaker 2: Read the comments. Read the comments.
Speaker 3: Correct, call us up, folks.
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear you.
Speaker 4: So the do the new movies give you like a
Speaker 4: boost in popularity at the conventions?
Speaker 2: Well, so here's what's interesting. Obviously I'm not in the movies,
Speaker 2: and by I mean, I did the two record Rale
Speaker 2: film the character the character. Yeah, so what I've been
Speaker 2: saying to be as they go, like that must really
Speaker 2: irritate you to go, Yeah, to not get a chance
Speaker 2: to audition, to not get a chance to even meet
Speaker 2: with folks.
Speaker 4: Nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, from day one, it was like, that sounds great,
Speaker 2: We'll let you know.
Speaker 4: It's like, who did they? I don't even know who
Speaker 4: voices who Ben.
Speaker 2: Schwartz brilliant, brilliant, lovely human being, literally comedically brilliant improv skills.
Speaker 2: And I will say this and it's it's testimony to
Speaker 2: what a like, what a professional and what a gracious
Speaker 2: guy he is. Is that he was appearing on like
Speaker 2: the Larry King Show and he was mentioning Jalil White,
Speaker 2: Ryan Drummond, Jason Griffith, myself, and I'm like, that's not
Speaker 2: coming from the top down, because they made it kind
Speaker 2: of clear they didn't want sort of our involvement as
Speaker 2: like the video game voice cast or previous voice actors. Well,
Speaker 2: and he was doing that and I'm like, that's him.
Speaker 2: That to me is and he's and I met him
Speaker 2: once in class at a studio. Yeah, total class act
Speaker 2: and also just brilliant comedically, brilliant does long form improv
Speaker 2: with his friends and it's not his friends colleagues, and
Speaker 2: they're just amazing. But there's never been a better time
Speaker 2: to be Sonic a Hedgehog fan. You have the work
Speaker 2: that we're still doing in both games and on their
Speaker 2: social media platforms and YouTube and all these other things.
Speaker 2: But and other things to come. But you've got Marry
Speaker 2: stole my role. I know, right there you go, you
Speaker 2: know every time?
Speaker 1: Right, She's actually no, not every time. But I told
Speaker 1: this before. I'll be really brief myself. Jim Carrey and
Speaker 1: Matt Frewer were up after five callbacks for the role
Speaker 1: of Bonkers Bunker Steve Bobcat Disney's Little Funny Bobcat and
Speaker 1: I'm him. And after like the third or fourth callback,
Speaker 1: it was me, Jim Carrey and Matt frew who is
Speaker 1: Max Headroom? And so I thought, oh god, yeah, jesus,
Speaker 1: you know, and he was just starting, he was just
Speaker 1: breaking out of a living color.
Speaker 3: He was really starting to percolate.
Speaker 1: And I thought, Wow, I'm screwed, and you know, and
Speaker 1: he comes out, and true to form, he walks over.
Speaker 3: He was all dressed up.
Speaker 1: He leans over, grabs his briefcase and goes, gentlemen, you
Speaker 1: may leave, and then he just walked do do do do?
Speaker 3: Do do do?
Speaker 2: Then he walked away.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I went in there and kicked his y.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and now I'll show him apparently he's snuck in
Speaker 1: ahead of.
Speaker 3: Me on the the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, it sounds all right, sounds all right. What
Speaker 2: the good news is nothing came of his career after that. Exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's true, Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No, it's a it's an
Speaker 2: interesting it's an interesting time because you have Devin mac
Speaker 2: who's doing the voice for the Sonic Prime series which
Speaker 2: is on uh on. They would need more Sonics, I know,
Speaker 2: but it's crazy. And now you got lego stuff that
Speaker 2: we're doing, and it's like so literally you've got a
Speaker 2: cinematic like as a grown nand saying the cinematic universe
Speaker 2: of Sonic the Hedgehog, you know. And then we're still
Speaker 2: doing video games and they've got animation and that kind
Speaker 2: of thing. And it's been it's been a fifteen year
Speaker 2: run for me, which is incredible. Yeah, it's nuts. I
Speaker 2: can't with that. No, I can't. Yeah, And I get it.
Speaker 2: I get it. Like we were talking talking about I
Speaker 2: think before we even started rolling, we were talking about
Speaker 2: butts and seats and things like that, and it's like
Speaker 2: I get it, you know. It's like and and the
Speaker 2: fact that that has launched a new generation of Sonic
Speaker 2: fans and that kind of thing. It's fun. At these
Speaker 2: conventions you get these parents walking up and they're like,
Speaker 2: look who that is, and I'm like, no, no, it.
Speaker 4: Just kind of is a shame. I mean, this theme
Speaker 4: has come up so many this theme, this topic has
Speaker 4: come up so many times because we have so many
Speaker 4: voice actors on this show, you know, and just so
Speaker 4: many times voice actors are just snubbed for you know,
Speaker 4: a name or you know what's really interesting too convention wise.
Speaker 4: Somebody was telling this, telling us this at one of
Speaker 4: the conventions. But a lot of these convention owners, you know,
Speaker 4: you'll go to a convention, you'll see like actors who
Speaker 4: haven't worked in years and like weren't even really that popular,
Speaker 4: and like what's going on here?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, And it's because the owners just want to
Speaker 2: hang out with them, to hang out with them.
Speaker 4: They just want to hang out the same thing with
Speaker 4: the like these like studio producers. You know, we were
Speaker 4: just talking about Vin Diesel as Groot yesterday and it's like,
Speaker 4: you know, probably some producer really likes Vin Diesel and
Speaker 4: they want to hang out. You know, it's not because
Speaker 4: they needed Oh we we really like the way you did.
Speaker 4: I am grouped, you know.
Speaker 3: Like yeah, yeah, three syllables.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just interesting. And Keith David said it really
Speaker 4: well where he's like, you know, this isn't called show show,
Speaker 4: It's called show business.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's still is a huge.
Speaker 4: Business to this. You know, that's one of the biggest
Speaker 4: businesses in the world, right, it's got to be multi billions,
Speaker 4: gotta be.
Speaker 2: And video games, without doubt even more billions. You know. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: at one point video games, I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: still the case. Was was literally earning more and was
Speaker 2: a bigger industry.
Speaker 4: I think it's almost triple yeah, it's almost triple yeah.
Speaker 4: I think that's still yeah.
Speaker 2: And it's just yeah, because mean, you go to a movie,
Speaker 2: you're going to spend what I don't know what it
Speaker 2: is now, twelve bucks, fifteen bucks, you know, eighteen bucks
Speaker 2: a ticket, but you're gonna buy a video game.
Speaker 4: I've spent over one hundred dollars on hundred free game. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 4: free game on Fortnite like just free cosmetics. Yeah, like
Speaker 4: they got it was did weren't charge free game? Free game,
Speaker 4: and then they get everybody they generate money with the
Speaker 4: with the cosmetics, you know, like oh you got to
Speaker 4: have the Spider Man skin, the wool Marene's skin. You know,
Speaker 4: oh you got to be Batman or John Wick. You know.
Speaker 4: And then it's almost like I compare it to like,
Speaker 4: you know when when we were kids playing with like
Speaker 4: action figures. You know, they're like digital action figures. You know,
Speaker 4: you got to play you got to play a game
Speaker 4: dressed as your as thor you know, like, oh, I'm
Speaker 4: playing literally as thor you know, like how cool.
Speaker 2: Free to play. That was Apex Legends when that came out,
Speaker 2: saying you played a Yeah, they we're still going there's
Speaker 2: still there. It's a season based kind of a thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a huge game. I mean that was
Speaker 4: like the h that was almost like the Fortnite Killer.
Speaker 2: You know, that was that I think, Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: wants to be Yeah, the iPhone Killer and the Fortnite Killer.
Speaker 2: It's like everybody's gunning for it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2: An interesting it's an interesting aspect of the business too,
Speaker 2: which is like a we launched it for free. We
Speaker 2: give you all this ability to do this, but if
Speaker 2: you want that skin, if you want something cool, you
Speaker 2: pay for it. Yeah and so yeah, so free to play,
Speaker 2: but if you want to. I'm glad they got Riddle
Speaker 2: loot boxes because that was that was predatory. Funny. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was predatory. It's a crazy business. It's it's so
Speaker 2: like you say, we get it, but it is frustrating.
Speaker 2: It's like when things are licensed to it's kind of
Speaker 2: like it's a shame when you see things get licensed.
Speaker 2: Then the creative control kind of goes away and it's
Speaker 2: and it's one of those things where we covet these jobs.
Speaker 2: We covet being the character. We love it, and it's
Speaker 2: like when you see it being done in a different
Speaker 2: way and maybe not having the same sort of reverence
Speaker 2: for it, that kind of thing or understanding the fan base. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was played Sonic the Hedgehog in the beginning phases
Speaker 2: of the of the Cinematic Universal Animation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, dude, I think that was a plant. I think
Speaker 4: that was a plan.
Speaker 2: The whole all it was. That was that is literally
Speaker 2: some suit like oh yeah, no, we planned it all
Speaker 2: along you're like, don't even, don't even You're not that good.
Speaker 2: Nobody's that good. What if you had done that? And
Speaker 2: there was like yeah, okay, And then there was audience
Speaker 2: Sonic with human teeth.
Speaker 4: The audience that you don't know what we're referring to.
Speaker 4: Originally the Sonic that was animated for the movies just
Speaker 4: look terrible. It was terrible. They released some test footage
Speaker 4: and the fans went nuts. They said, no, make them
Speaker 4: look like actual Will Sonic.
Speaker 2: He had muscular calves and weird. It was weird.
Speaker 3: It was like, yeah, it was I didn't see that.
Speaker 4: It was gross.
Speaker 2: It created a stir and then everybody was like, we
Speaker 2: must get in here and do this, do this differently.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah yeah, people.
Speaker 4: Like me were like that just generated buzz for them.
Speaker 4: That was free advertised, you know, like they.
Speaker 2: Say, you know, any press is good press, I guess,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's an interesting time to be in this place.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like P. T.
Speaker 1: Barnum would do that. Yeah, he would. He would release Uh.
Speaker 1: There was a woman that he I think he actually
Speaker 1: had like a half dead seal, you know, and and
Speaker 1: a woman and he called it some kind of mermaid
Speaker 1: or something, and he took out an ad in the
Speaker 1: newspaper saying.
Speaker 3: This P. T.
Speaker 1: Barnum is the worst charlatan anybody's ever heard. He should
Speaker 1: be strung up, He should be taken out and flogged
Speaker 1: in public. He should anybody who goes to see this
Speaker 1: be prepared to be completely duped. And you know they
Speaker 1: what millions of people went or whatever back in Chicago
Speaker 1: wherever the hell it was, so you know, negative advertised.
Speaker 3: It's advertising. No such thing as bad publicity.
Speaker 2: No, it's like creating that interest of like, oh, if
Speaker 2: it's that horrible for me.
Speaker 4: Maybe I should go better see you remember that movie
Speaker 4: The Room, The Room, and it was like, oh god, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's so bad. I just got invited to a showing
Speaker 4: of it this Friday in Orange County when they show
Speaker 4: it once a month, and people all bring these plastic spoons. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: they bring the plastics.
Speaker 2: You know, this has been going on for years the
Speaker 2: last time you show. Yeah, it's become that everybody knows
Speaker 2: where the lines are where. It's like it's insane. They
Speaker 2: know exactly what's coming up, and they will throw spots
Speaker 2: and then do all this stuff like yeah, it's become
Speaker 2: a cult thing onto itself for what is arguably one
Speaker 2: of the worst films you know, yeah, ever made. I
Speaker 2: kind of want to go to it. You said it's
Speaker 2: in Orange County at ten thirty. It's like, oh god,
Speaker 2: it's like a two hour trip exactly. I used to
Speaker 2: mountain bike County.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's four hour.
Speaker 2: I'd be mountain biking in Orange County and to be
Speaker 2: on a hill and I'd be able to see downtown LA.
Speaker 2: And I was like, why why does that take me
Speaker 2: two and a half hours to get there? I like,
Speaker 2: I can see it.
Speaker 3: Got here.
Speaker 4: Got to get a helicopter.
Speaker 2: You get the Catalina faster, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like this, I can get to the island that is
Speaker 2: off the coast faster than driving in my automobile to
Speaker 2: that place that I can see downtown right now. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's so frustrating.
Speaker 4: All right. We have a we have a game that
Speaker 4: we play here on this we do on this podcast.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you got to the segment. It's
Speaker 4: usually near the end, you know the game. All right,
Speaker 4: you want to do some voice swaps?
Speaker 2: Boy, this is again sitting here with you. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: and thank you again, Like many many years ago, you
Speaker 2: did the nicest thing for me, for a friend who
Speaker 2: had somebody who was very special to them was going
Speaker 2: through a rough patch and needed a little something. I
Speaker 2: just asked you, like backstage at one of those conventions,
Speaker 2: and I didn't even know you really that well at
Speaker 2: that time, and you went on and on and on
Speaker 2: with this little, sweet little voice recording for this person
Speaker 2: and it was one of the nicest things ever. So
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 3: And so that I'll be sitting.
Speaker 2: Here right now. This is pressure. I'd rather be on
Speaker 2: a stand up stage.
Speaker 4: Oh god, Well, well, I have a request. Do you
Speaker 4: want to start it off? Do you want to start off?
Speaker 4: Who should start off?
Speaker 3: I don't know. Your should go right ahead to show well,
Speaker 3: then then you should go.
Speaker 5: Okay, we got to hear batman. Oh gosh, okay, what way?
Speaker 5: I am the reason the criminals breathe easier when the
Speaker 5: sun rises. I don't do it sitting down, but it
Speaker 5: will be theirs.
Speaker 2: Oh. I stand for everything. Yeah, I'm not a sitter.
Speaker 4: Jim does too.
Speaker 3: That's what I stand for.
Speaker 2: I stand that's what you stand for. It you gotta
Speaker 2: stand for something. We should start. If you don't stand
Speaker 2: for something, you'll follows. I'm barrel chest today and it's
Speaker 2: like compressed.
Speaker 4: But can you do the line one more time so
Speaker 4: Jim can hear today?
Speaker 2: Oh gotcha?
Speaker 1: Okay, and then I'll ping pong it back as probably
Speaker 1: since this is Batman, probably.
Speaker 2: I'd love it. Batman and Poo.
Speaker 5: I am the reason the criminals breathe easier when the
Speaker 5: sun rises.
Speaker 1: I am the reason the criminals breathe easier when the
Speaker 1: sun rises.
Speaker 3: Pull my finger.
Speaker 2: I don't have one, pull the pon knuckle. What would
Speaker 2: that be?
Speaker 3: What is wrong with that picture? Besides everything? Okay?
Speaker 4: And then I think I think we should do robotic
Speaker 4: and sonic. We'll do a little do a little switch there.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, let's see. Well you know my favorite
Speaker 1: my favorite quote of Robotic is I hate Dady Jog.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to repeat that. Yes, I hate myself.
Speaker 2: Little something I went off scrapped is that the producers
Speaker 2: are calling now. Yes, but you found it.
Speaker 3: It was found it very good.
Speaker 2: I found some magic. We mind something.
Speaker 4: In fact, you want to work for Warner Brothers ever again?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Exact God, Yes, that's a crazy story that is so
Speaker 2: only only on PA. I think the most nervous I've
Speaker 2: ever been was as a PA. Dude, they ship on you. Yeah, no,
Speaker 2: it's awful. You just know, you're just it's like I'm
Speaker 2: going to irritate somebody today and it's not going to
Speaker 2: be my fault, but you know I'm gonna but you're sure,
Speaker 2: yeah for sure.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah. I finally in their their emergencies, your emergency
Speaker 4: all the time. One day I literally came up with
Speaker 4: the phrase, your lack of planning is not the emergency.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry I didn't come up with the phrase, but
Speaker 4: I used that shit all yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this final like like when I was just done
Speaker 2: with it. I was like, I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 2: I'm so sick of this. There was a producer that
Speaker 2: was just yelling at me to get the talent, and
Speaker 2: every time I'd run up the stairs. We're in a
Speaker 2: big sound stage and I have to run up these
Speaker 2: little stairs up to the makeup room that was upstairs.
Speaker 2: And I'd run up there and I'd say, hey, they're
Speaker 2: requesting that, and this makeup individual was going, well, we're
Speaker 2: not ready. And then I would come back down and
Speaker 2: run back down and say they're saying that not quite ready,
Speaker 2: and this guy's yelling at me, going we'll tell him
Speaker 2: I need him right now, like okay, So I run
Speaker 2: back upstairs and really they need him now, like they
Speaker 2: got I'm not okay, He'll come down when he's ready,
Speaker 2: you know, Like, yeah, you want to be back up
Speaker 2: third time?
Speaker 3: Shoot the messenger?
Speaker 2: Yes, third time. She said, you can tell him, like
Speaker 2: I think, she said, you can tell him that we'll
Speaker 2: we'll we'll get him down there when we're ready. And
Speaker 2: I stood at the top of the stairs and yelled
Speaker 2: that out to the producers so everybody on the set
Speaker 2: could hear it. And she came out immediately with this
Speaker 2: with the talent and rushed by me and called me
Speaker 2: an a hole and all that kind of stuff, and
Speaker 2: I was like, I was so done. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: getting like ten bucks an hour, and.
Speaker 4: You guys, are the hours that you have to first
Speaker 4: and last out? Yeah, Like the only person that's on
Speaker 4: set longer is the Jen Jenny operator. Oh, that's the
Speaker 4: only person. The only person on.
Speaker 2: Set Orange County at five am to be on set
Speaker 2: by seven so that I can open the doors for everybody,
Speaker 2: and then I would leave at seven pm when everybody
Speaker 2: was done and exited the sound stage and get back home.
Speaker 2: At nine pm. Yeah, and it was like and then
Speaker 2: I'd have to eat and not to downplay, but like
Speaker 2: it can be even worse. I worked on Arrow for
Speaker 2: three years and we had fifteen hour camera days. Yeah,
Speaker 2: camera damn day.
Speaker 4: So PA's had seventeen hour days and that's not including
Speaker 4: you know, going to and from you know, home and
Speaker 4: eating and like you lived on set. There was one week,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry I'm talking so much about myself, but there
Speaker 4: was one week where I worked ninety nine hours, ninety
Speaker 4: nine hours in one week. And I remember asking me,
Speaker 4: ninety nine hours, wasn't that a week? And I remember
Speaker 4: asking my boss. I was like it was Friday night
Speaker 4: and I was sweeping out one of the sound stages
Speaker 4: and he was like, all right, like we're done, Like
Speaker 4: we can go home. I was like, can I please
Speaker 4: just stay on the clock for one more hour? Like
Speaker 4: I just want to say that I've worked on hours
Speaker 4: in a week, because this is insane. Like you'd literally
Speaker 4: get home and have five hours until you have to
Speaker 4: be back on set. And you know, you can invoke
Speaker 4: that whatever the turnaround rule, right, but not as a PA,
Speaker 4: you know, like they're gonna freak in. Technically you can
Speaker 4: do it, but you're going to start, you know, causing
Speaker 4: some strife. You know, they're gonna be like, who does
Speaker 4: he think he is? You know, like, even though I
Speaker 4: have every legal reason to do it, you know.
Speaker 2: I will say it was after all those years of suffering,
Speaker 2: I got on to a like a legit big show
Speaker 2: with tons of professionals. And Timsteel, who was a producer
Speaker 2: I think of Cheers at this time, was was doing
Speaker 2: this pilot and called me in and he just said, look,
Speaker 2: I know you got hired because you somehow know one
Speaker 2: of the executive producers that kind of thing. He goes,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to tell you how things run here,
Speaker 2: and he said, if I ask you to get me
Speaker 2: a cup of coffee, I want you to tell me
Speaker 2: to f off. And I was like, what, he goes,
Speaker 2: because your job is to do whatever that production coordinator
Speaker 2: asks you to do. Yeah, her job is to do
Speaker 2: whatever I asked to get done, he said. And as
Speaker 2: long as we all do this, we're gonna have a
Speaker 2: great time. We're gonna make a great product, and we're
Speaker 2: gonna make a ton of money doing it. Was like
Speaker 2: it was true. I was making We're doing twenty hours
Speaker 2: twenty hour days. I was doing Golden Time all has
Speaker 2: with printing scripts at three in the morning. That's you're
Speaker 2: driving around Hollywood delivering scripts at four in the morning
Speaker 2: kind of thing. But I was thrilled. I didn't mind.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm a part of something and he
Speaker 2: made me feel that way, and I was like, that's
Speaker 2: what professionalism is. Like, yeah, it was. It was such
Speaker 2: a different vibe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, that was That was my favorite call
Speaker 4: every year. You know, like at the end of the
Speaker 4: summer when they're picking up, like, hey, want to come
Speaker 4: back and work on Absolutely, I'm there. It's like a
Speaker 4: it's almost like a gambling addiction. It's like, yeah, it's
Speaker 4: like the work is addicting, you know. It's like you
Speaker 4: get so burnt out, but like the work itself. You know,
Speaker 4: like everybody near the end of the show is just like,
Speaker 4: oh fuck this, I hate this fucking stupid show, you know,
Speaker 4: blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then like day one, everybody's like so good
Speaker 2: to see you. Here I go again.
Speaker 3: Oh it's still for you.
Speaker 2: That's refreshing, Jim. Is it still like there's I mean,
Speaker 2: like has the magic modified for you? Like in some way,
Speaker 2: like throughout the years.
Speaker 3: I mean I just still love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I really do. Good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, it's a it's a uh. I
Speaker 1: always said, it's stuff us get me kicked out of class,
Speaker 1: and I'd.
Speaker 3: Do it all day long for free, So as long
Speaker 3: as somebody wants to pay me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it's so true. King ding ding finger pulling
Speaker 2: jokes and noises. Yeah. Yeah, watching like like like when
Speaker 2: you have like because so many of you guys have
Speaker 2: have these like storied careers that are just incredible and
Speaker 2: they're still going on and still doing these legacy characters
Speaker 2: that have just been they are yours and it's so
Speaker 2: neat to see. And and I don't think it's lip service.
Speaker 2: I mean there is still a lot of joy in it,
Speaker 2: and it's you know, oh yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1: Just the other day, we did a big tribute to
Speaker 1: Richard Sherman. And I think I'm allowed to say this
Speaker 1: because it'll be out by the time this goes okay,
Speaker 1: so uh And it was just joyous, joyous, you know,
Speaker 1: the Richard Sherman of the Sherman Brothers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jim Jimmery, Jim Chimmery.
Speaker 2: We do that.
Speaker 3: On and on and on and on and on, you know,
Speaker 3: and I worked from a.
Speaker 1: Hundred times over the years and it was just so
Speaker 1: nice and uh so yeah, I mean the answer is yes,
Speaker 1: it really has still all the magic in the world
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 3: And thank you, j Jesus, thank you a love word.
Speaker 2: That's cool.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of everything we do here at
Speaker 1: tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show
Speaker 1: on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early
Speaker 1: in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings,
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Speaker 1: join the tuned in family today at patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash Jim Cummings Podcast.
Speaker 3: Do it now and thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know what we talked about. Great,
Speaker 2: I don't talked about pa work.
Speaker 3: But I think we got it done.
Speaker 2: Traffic, I know this is driving.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna ask a cliche question. Okay, sure you get
Speaker 4: asked this all the time, but I feel like I
Speaker 4: have to.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite character to voice? Do you
Speaker 2: have a favorite performance that you've given? So my pat
Speaker 2: answer is always the next one because it's a means
Speaker 2: I'm working, which is great. I'm gonna get paid. And
Speaker 2: there's always there's so much creativity in video games, and
Speaker 2: I mean and all this stuff. It's like, I'm always
Speaker 2: amazed that they found a new way to tell a story.
Speaker 2: For me, it's mostly like my my fondness of Assassin's
Speaker 2: Creed two and working on that was working with Patrice Desila,
Speaker 2: who was essentially the creative director and the creator of
Speaker 2: the series, and it was it was a really special time.
Speaker 2: They had taken three years off between AC one and
Speaker 2: a C two to develop this new thing and a
Speaker 2: new character, and it was neat because it was like,
Speaker 2: unlike somebody like Sonic, I wasn't stepping into the shoes
Speaker 2: of a role that somebody else has done Batman, like
Speaker 2: you name it, Cathaine, Like it's neat to be these
Speaker 2: legacy characters. But when you get to create something new,
Speaker 2: and it's not so much the character. It is to
Speaker 2: a degree, but it was the family that was sort
Speaker 2: of created and what it was how special it was
Speaker 2: to work with really great collaborative, creative people. But my gosh,
Speaker 2: lightning has struck so many times in my career it's like,
Speaker 2: how do I how do I answer that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2: It's nut. It's it's it's not.
Speaker 4: So why did they recast for et CEO.
Speaker 2: They didn't.
Speaker 3: They didn't.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, for some reason, I thought they recast. No, no, no,
Speaker 2: it was we did. I did three games in a
Speaker 2: in a short film for them, and we just did
Speaker 2: the nextus VR game and they brought me back for that.
Speaker 4: So, oh that's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's never he's never really been redone. There was
Speaker 2: a weird thing that happened with some training montage and
Speaker 2: a in a particular game where they didn't realize it
Speaker 2: was it was cast overseas, and the fans went nuts
Speaker 2: because they were like, that's not it. Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In fact, the fans reached out to ubi Soft. Ubisoft approved,
Speaker 2: we want to record Roger redoing all those lines and
Speaker 2: we'll make a fan dub of it, and Ubi Soft actually.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's always I would love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, they'll be playing that at all the conventions.
Speaker 2: I wish. Yeah, yeah, it's but it's it's rare. It's
Speaker 2: it's rare. And because we're again, we go back to
Speaker 2: butts and seats. But I don't know, I am still amazed,
Speaker 2: Like there's still new stuff that's coming out that.
Speaker 3: I mean they did that.
Speaker 4: We were talking to David Hayter and they recast him
Speaker 4: as Snake, you know in the most recent metal years Sault,
Speaker 4: and it was like everybody was like, what in the.
Speaker 2: World they played for seven? Yeah?
Speaker 4: We like but thankfully they brought him back. Like it's
Speaker 4: nice to see that when that happens, when the fan
Speaker 4: outrage actually changes something like we wouldn't even have Family Guy.
Speaker 4: It wasn't for that. You know, Family Guy was canceled
Speaker 4: like three or four times. Then you know, it's brought
Speaker 4: back DVD sales, DVD sales. You used to be able
Speaker 4: to bring back shows with d d VVD sales, remember
Speaker 4: DVD's kids.
Speaker 2: I remember chatting up Lori Allen at at the improv
Speaker 2: in Hollywood, Yeah, and just being like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: like you're Lori Allen kind of thing. She's like, what kid,
Speaker 2: And I'm like family Family guys, Like this is amazing,
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, it's very funny. But yeah, and just
Speaker 2: she was doing an improv thing that night. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: was like yeah, cool, it was yeah, it's a no,
Speaker 2: it's a to be a part of anything like that.
Speaker 2: It's just insane. So the idea that like, do I
Speaker 2: have a favorite, It's like no, I mean I'm still here,
Speaker 2: which is crazy to me, just crazy, and it's it's yeah,
Speaker 2: So I would say the next one because I'm always like, man,
Speaker 2: there's just more creativity that keeps coming, more storytelling, which
Speaker 2: I would have thought. Yeah, they're fun a new ways.
Speaker 2: So a lucky guy, he said to all the lucky guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ay man, good, yes, and well, thank you for
Speaker 3: being there.
Speaker 2: Again, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: Let's give it up for the pash. Shout out all
Speaker 2: the out there that are sitting in traffic right now
Speaker 2: and questioning life.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hang in there. It gets better, It gets better.
Speaker 4: Connections. That's one of the biggest things, PA make connections.
Speaker 4: You get to talk to everybody. They might not talk
Speaker 4: to you, but you get to talk to everybody. One
Speaker 4: of our first guests on this show, David how am
Speaker 4: I forgetting his.
Speaker 3: Name right now?
Speaker 4: No, big black guy, Oh my god. David Ramsey. David
Speaker 4: Ramsey worked on Arrow, worked on Arrow with him. I
Speaker 4: was a PA. He was obviously one of the leads. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and he was the second guest on this podcast. Because
Speaker 4: of that connection, he was one of the nicest guys ever.
Speaker 4: Would say hi to everybody every morning. I always saw
Speaker 4: you as a person, always had time to spend and
Speaker 4: talk to you, like, shout out David if you're watching this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there he goes.
Speaker 4: It's a great and literally had a convention walking into
Speaker 4: the elevator, bump into David Ramsey. Oh my god, what
Speaker 4: are you doing here? You know, Jim hired me on
Speaker 4: this podcast. You want to be on it, you know,
Speaker 4: like we're looking for He said, absolutely, let's go do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's the adage being nice the people on your
Speaker 2: way up, You're going to see him on your way back.
Speaker 3: Down, that's right. So yes, yeah, yeah, you gotta gotta
Speaker 3: do it. Yeah. You usually just a jerk to everybody.
Speaker 2: So it's just a way of doing it, that's but
Speaker 2: you're damn good to what you do. It's key that
Speaker 2: wins out and the assholes stick with you for life,
Speaker 2: you know, like those little those little as literally you
Speaker 2: talk about you know, like, yeah, you talk.
Speaker 4: About them like all the way from elementary school, you know,
Speaker 4: push you up against the locker and you know, I
Speaker 4: remember every time somebody did something rude to me on
Speaker 4: set or something like that. I remember this cameraman screaming
Speaker 4: I was acting on the one hundred. I remember this
Speaker 4: cameraman's screaming at me, like really like put me down
Speaker 4: so much. I was like, what in the world. He
Speaker 4: was like, you got to stay in the frame. I'm like,
Speaker 4: you're on a steady cam.
Speaker 2: You freaking me? Yeah? The performance, yeah, yeah, what in
Speaker 2: the world?
Speaker 3: Acting?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Acting?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah right, Act like a nice guy, yeah, act
Speaker 2: like we all want the best product, and you could
Speaker 2: do that a little differently.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 4: Well, hey, that was a great conversation. Thanks again for being.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys, like guys, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: having me, Thank you all for watching.
Speaker 4: Appreciate it. If you guys enjoyed that content, there's plenty
Speaker 4: more on Patreon. There's bonus content. You can get all
Speaker 4: that good stuff patreon dot com, slash Jim Cummings Podcast,
Speaker 4: and don't forget to like and subscribe. We really appreciate
Speaker 4: all you guys. This has been going smooth for the
Speaker 4: last year and it's all because of you guys. Seriously,
Speaker 4: this is subscribers, amen, So we thank you so much.
Speaker 4: And uh, of course, as always, we will see you
Speaker 4: in the next one. Jim Cummings, Roger Craig Smith. I'm
Speaker 4: producer Chris. We'll see you later.
Speaker 2: Well done everyone, Well done. Did we get to it all?
Speaker 3: I think we've done?
Speaker 2: Did okay?
Speaker 4: Cool,