Speaker 1: They always teach us in radio one thought per break.
Why can't I have a podcast it does the same thing,
or maybe several podcasts seventeen different subjects and walks of
life ero net a r r oe dot net. Thank
you so much for supporting me over the years. So now,
when you jump into a conversation like we're having today,
how do you know what voice to go into? Because
you know how we radio people are. It's got to
be about the voice. It's got to be about the pitch, volume, tone,
and delivery.
Speaker 2: Yes. Absolutely, when I'm being myself, being a person who
hates the sound of my own voice, I do. I
do modulate a bit. And I'm also one of those
untrained swine who doesn't know how to speak from their diaphragm.
So I'm a full throated person and I guarantee you
by the time I'm done with doing interviews today, I
will probably just be curled up with a hot tea
and hope for the best. But I will say for
Chuck E Cheese, it ended up being kind of the
perfect vocal quality, just being able to talk straight from
the throat. It comes out just right. Although it is,
you know, a bit of a sacrifice on the physical
body to be able to emote in such a powerful way.
Speaker 1: See, people don't understand that, dude, about how much we
get our body involved and it can mean aching and
hurting two or three days later.
Speaker 2: It's true, dude, I don't you know. Obviously, acting can
put up a sweat. I don't feel like I've gone
through more of a workout than when I get out
of the voiceover booth after doing a few episodes of something,
because you don't have the ability to use your body language,
or your face or anything else about you except for
your voice to emote. So you're putting one hundred percent
of your mental focus and your energy into the tension
that you're holding in your body as you're as you're
trying to express yourself exclusively through your voice. So for
people who are doing broadcasting and radio stuff and doing
it all day, kudos man, be cause don't I don't
think that I would have the fortitude to go for
that long. I just I just go one hundred percent
for an hour and a half and then I'm spent
for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: Well, they always tell us it's in the breathing. If
you're not breathing, right, screw it, You're in trouble.
Speaker 2: That's probably my problem. I just hold my breath for
hours at a time. I'm like, I'm like the Navy
Seal of voiceover.
Speaker 1: Oh god, oh, because I've been in those situations where
they've had run on sentence upon run on sentence and
you just sit there looking at your engineer going, really,
are you who wrote this?
Speaker 2: Please? Mm hmm. Yeah, clearly it written by Ai because
AI doesn't breathe.
Speaker 1: So to take on Chuck E Cheese? First of all,
why did it take so long for a moment like this,
because Chuck E Cheese has been a part of my
entire life?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Yeah, I can't really speak to why
they waited until this moment, but all I know is
that they picked the perfect time because this this project.
I think it was just waiting for the right creatives
to come along who wanted to bring Chuck E Cheese
into this universe and not just have it be some
some character that we know who they just want to
make an animated thing for. It's a it's a project
that has been it's been a piece of art that
has just been bouncing around. I think in in uh
Zach and John's brains for a while. And and it's
a it's a bit of a love letter, you know,
to a to a character like you said, that's been
around since my childhood as well. It's been a daunting
thought to take on, you know, doing doing a character
like this who you know, there's been some animated stuff
in the past, but it hasn't really gone super in depth,
and certainly not to this generation. It's been it's been decades,
you know, since since there's been something like this, and
it's going a whole different angle this time around. And
the way that they hit all the notes of this
project with being something that hits hard at the holidays
and is an awesome way to kick off the Christmas season.
And it's a project with a lot of heart, a
lot of funny stuff and Quippi one liners for the
adults that's going to fly right over the kids' heads.
It hits it hits little stuff all the way through
the through the entire special that it's got something for everybody.
And then it ends with a gigantic, galactic Christmas earworm
song that's just going to get stuck in your head
for the next thirty to thirty five days, so it
just hits every angle and like I said, perfect way
to kick off this season. I was honored to be
a part of it, and just to know that hopefully
beyond this, it's just the beginning of the expanded Chuck E.
Cheese universe where he's tackling all of the holidays. And
what does Chuck E Cheese do for Super Bowl Sunday?
I don't know, but let's find out, because he's the
mouse who knows how to party, and he can bring
a party anywhere to anyone, as we clearly understand, because
who's ever tried to deliver a surprise Christmas party to Santa?
A quasi omniscient character who's notoriously hard to surprise. So
if anybody can do it, it's gonna be Chuck E Cheese.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're absolutely right, And you know what, you know,
you were talking about messages for parents and stuff. I
think one of the clearest one and the one that
really hit me hard in the heart. Santa is still
watching you. I'm going, oh my god, he means, what
do you mean? Right? You know, even as an adult,
I'm going, You've got to be kidding me. I thought
I was away from all that action, know, and.
Speaker 2: Then you start you start going back in your head
of like oh coal, coal, coal, coal, Oh no, it's
all coal. So yeah, I think we as parents and
adults really have to start looking back on our life
choices and asking ourselves, truly, are we even still on
the nice list?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's the question that Chuck E. Cheese
is gonna make you ask about yourself.
Speaker 1: And you know, with him attacking all these different or
were bringing all the different seasons into the storyline here,
I can just totally see man Caves taking on a
Chuck E. Cheese kind of appeal as well.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I mean have you seen anything of like
him and his little super cool loft apartment situation above Pesqually's.
It's my dream place that I would absolutely love to live.
So if we start heading into a generation of young
dads in their twenties and thirties who were watching this
with their kids and going, oh I want that, Yeah,
I want my Pinterest board absolutely chalk full of Chucky Cheese,
core man Cave, and I will be I will be
first in line to hire that interior designer who's like,
give me Chucky Cheese. Core because when I was watching
the footage and seeing where they live, I just want
to live there every day for the rest of my life,
and I don't want anyone to ever bring me away
from that place.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Nathan Kress coming
up next, A Chucky Cheese Christmas. We are back with
voiceover actor Nathan Kress. My wife is the school teacher,
so she sits there and listens to music, going Yep, yep,
this one would work, this one would work. And it's
one of those things where it's like, I hope to
God Radio finds this and gets it on as quickly
as possible to help promote it, because you guys are
in touch with a sound that is missing from the
Christmas mix right.
Speaker 2: Now, absolutely, and I think, what here you want? Do
you want to know the chrit Sauce arrow. We have
a positively legendary songwriter, Jeff Berry, who was involved in
this who if the name doesn't stick out, perhaps Sugar
Sugar by the Archies, can I'm a Believer by the
Monkeys might ring about That man is the father of
John Berry, who was intimately involved in the creation of
this project, who was there recording with me every single
day as Chucky, and they all sat down and when
how are we going to write a classic Christmas banger?
And lo and behold they did. So I think it's
got that classic, like retro kind of sixties vintage Christmas vibe,
which is exactly where I sit. Not to say that
there's nothing wrong with the modern pop songs of Christmas,
they absolutely have their place, but I think by going
back a little bit to an older time, bringing back
that kind of nostalgic, old school Christmas vibe, it just
hits that perfect Christmas spot. And my wife and it's
it's multiple layers, right because obviously we remember as Chuck
E Cheese when we went when we went to Chuck
E Cheese, it was the band, right, and that I
have that visual in my head so so clearly. And
my wife is sitting there. I didn't really tell her
anything about the project. I just said, it's Chuck E Cheese,
It's Christmas, and it was a lot of fun. We
all sat down and we watched it, and I looked
over when that song comes on and the band is playing,
my wife was getting emotional because it hit her right
in the nostalgias. So she you know, she she went
to Chuck E Cheese. She knows what it's all about.
So you're you're getting the visual side of like, there
they are, they're doing They're doing the thing. But it's
also this really lastic sounding old school vibe song that
oh I just can't it hits exactly right, and I've
been singing it for days. So I look forward to
everybody else having that earworm in their ears so that
they can do it with me, so I'm not alone.
Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing that I when I was talking
with with with Diane across the street, who's got a
little five year old and a little four year old,
and and I told her about this project with Chuck
E Cheese. The first thing that she did as a
modern day alpha generation person. She goes, We're going to
be having a Chuck E Cheese party in our house,
making our own pizza, and we're gonna be singing these songs.
I went, oh my God in Heaven, look at the
way that this is really working into the younger generations.
Immediately when it comes to parents.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, And I think that's that's the perfect thing
because obviously Chuck E Cheese is still very much a thing.
My kids went to their first Chuck E Cheese birthday
party not that long ago, and they were obsessed for
weeks after that. We still have the Chucky Cheese cups
from the birthday party, and they asked to use them
dar near daily and they fight over who gets the
remaining surviving Chuck E Cheese straw. It's part of there's
something I don't know what it is, but there's something
about it that just latches on to a kid's imagination
and whatever it is about that childhood spirit, they just
resonate with it. So it's still getting kids now and
then for us as the parents, as the adults, we
remember what it was like in our own childhoods and
how it just grabbed us. And now they're taking that
whole universe, all of those feelings, and they're just absolutely
blowing this air into it to make it this big, expansive,
new universe that is ever green and it appeals to
multiple generations and it becomes a thing that the entire
family can center itself around because it's something that parents
loved from their childhood and that kids love going to
now still. And now you've got this visual thing that
you can bring into your house. That's got just a
ton of heart and it's funny, and there's something for
the adults, there's something for the kids. It's I mean,
forget me, it's Voiceover Royalty. That is all of my
cast mates making this thing. So it's just it hits
all the right notes for kicking off this season and
I was absolutely honored to be a part of it.
And I hope it's just the beginning of this thing,
like you said, where multiple generations are gonna sit down
for this and it's gonna be this sort of nexus
of new and old memories and I can't wait. I
just I'm so excited for everybody to see it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's not just a Christmas movie because once again
going back to Diana and Garrick and Hannah, and the
fact is is that they'll watch this movie all year
long because kids, it doesn't matter. Kid, Christmas is every
day to a child, and this is one of those
Ryan guarantee that in July they're gonna be watching this
this and they're gonna be singing the song. They're gonna
be singing it without the dang video. They're gonna be there,
They're gonna be singing them all the time.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's that's for those subversive rebel types to
just be like, you know what, Christmas movies are not
relegated to November first and beyond. Yep, you can you
can whip out the old Christmas spirit any time. And
you know what, that's a great point because can I
say I think that we as parents especially start to
feel a little bit of that Christmas burnout you know,
over over the years it can start to happen, and
it starts as Christmas gears up. It's like I'm excited
for it, but also I'm pre exhausted at the thought.
And this this movie was like such a soft launch
on ramp to the season where it just it made
me feel so ready for for what's coming in. It's
funny because that's also like kind of what the storyline
originally centers on is like Santa experiencing a little bit
of burnout, and you don't really see that story very often,
and so it's a it's a tough problem, right like
how do you I mean, he's father Christmas, what happens?
How how does how does a person fix Santa Claus's burnout?
So you know, no, no natural human person is going
to be able to pull that off. It's going to
have to be the literal original party animal. It's got
to be Chucky. He's the only one. Yeah. So so
it's a it's a really it. There's there's some there's
some fun kind of parallels to it in a way
that I it it hit me emotionally in a way
that ultimately, by the time I was done, I felt very,
very ready and excited for the season. And I think
you can feel that in Jaly Man. So, uh, there's
there's nothing there's nothing wrong with a little holiday touch
up in the middle of the summer. And this is
that movie.
Speaker 1: I got to tell you, I love movies like this because,
in all honesty, it connects the generations in the way
that sure, Santa Claus is having a rough time, but
in a child's eyes, you know, their grandparents to them,
you know, that's like almost Santa Claus's pretty close to it.
But when grandma and Grandpa are not having a good day,
what they're learning from this story, they can go up
to them and say, hey, and it's something they learned
from Chuck E Cheese because they because there's a tool
here inside this storyline that helps all generations have a
great day, not just a moment, but a great day.
Speaker 2: Wow. Era, what a point. That's a that's a whole
other layer to this thing where you know that that
is sort of the idea is Chuck E. Cheese has
this indomitable spirit yes where even when everybody else is down,
he's the one to say, Okay, there.
Speaker 3: Is always always hope, yep, and there's always going to
be a way to turn this day around and insert
some energy and insert a good party into the situation.
Speaker 2: There's nothing a good party can't fix. And that's something
that everybody has the power to inject into their day,
into the people around them. And I think that that's
something like you know, you see it, you see in
your workplace, like there's always just that person who has
that infectious energy and spirit and they're the ones who
keep the day alive and and that's that's sort of
chucky for everybody, you know. And and I think that
that's something that that people remember from their childhoods is like,
oh my gosh, it may have been a hard week,
but we have a Chuck E. Cheese birthday to go
to this weekend. And that's that's that's something that you
cling to baby so uh so and and and I
think you're so right. That is an inspirational thing that
anybody can take from. That is, you know, for those
who refuse to give up and to see the bright
side and to be that optimistic person and bolster themselves
and be back up to their to their friends and
family and loved ones. Anybody can do that, and especially kids.
My kids have brought me out of a funk yep,
you know, when when they bring their their life and
vitality and energy to a situation where I'm absolutely burned out.
So that's so true. That's an absolutely great point, and
that is exactly what he does. And I'm probably gonna
steal that erro just so you know.
Speaker 1: I hope you're documenting this in some sort of journal
because you've got a collection of artists that are coming
together here to make this even possible as it continues
to grow forward. Because we talked about the music, and
we're in this age where AI technology is taking over
the music. Because I'm not over this this breaking RUSS
band at all yet, and yet you're talking about music
and working with the legends of the sounds that that
I had as a kid with with a belief with
with the Monkey Song, and it's and it's like, God,
this is what it's all about. It's about passing the
past forward into the modern age, and you're doing it
with Chuck E Cheese here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And that's why it was. It was a
kind of daunting undertaking when I saw that come across
my desk. You know, I got the I got the
email saying hey, here's a voiceover audition for Chuck E
Cheese Love, And you better believe that caught my eye
because you know, that's a little bit daunting that hasn't
really been been done and to be if you would
have told five year old me at my Chuck E.
Cheese birthday, which was you know, in my family, the
big birthdays were the five It was five, ten, and fifteen,
and the right of passage as a five year old
going into big kid territory was the pilgrimage to Chuck E. Cheese.
If you had told me at five that this character
in front of you is going, you're gonna You're gonna
be him one day, I would have peeped my pants
even faster than I did on that day coming home
from Chuck E Cheese because I forgot to go potty
before I went into the car because I was too
busy having a good time. I think I would have
I would have went potty from nerves at that point
because it's it's big man. But the the the cool
part of that is the people who are making this,
Zack and Zack and John, who, like I said, they
they love this property so much, they love this this
character set and this world. They're they're treating it with
the utmost respect. This isn't just some thing that we're
trying to make. This is this is something big and
they want to absolutely do it justice and being able
to be a part of that and try to bring
as much real true character work, not just wi whiz
whiz bang ooh lah animation stimul uh. Make it, make
it as big and zany and cartoony as possible, but
actually look at it from an acting standpoint, What what
can we do to pull up people's heartstrings a little
bit and not just make some cartoon, Make make something
that people are going to resonate with and feel. It
was an honor and I just can't wait to have
people have people see that.
Speaker 1: Please come back to this show anytime in the future, Nathan.
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2: Sir Era, I appreciate you having me. Thank you. I'm
looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay, Sir.
Speaker 2: I will do my darnedst and you as well. Thank
you for having me.