Speaker 1: How you doing out there? It's me Tigger.
Speaker 2: I am Duc Wayne Duck.
Speaker 1: It's me Bunkers keep bobcat All right, y'all?
Speaker 2: Did it great?
Speaker 1: Your favorite firefly you desire? Hold no old knock guy.
Speaker 1: My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In.
Speaker 3: Welcome back everybody to another episode of Tuned In with
Speaker 3: Jim Commings. Today we have Brandon Rogers joining us. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: My pleasure to be Thank you for having me inside
Speaker 2: of your building.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, of course, of course, how are you
Speaker 3: doing today?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great well. I came here for the air
Speaker 2: conditioning because he is oh stee. I was just telling
Speaker 2: you off Off Mike that my family is totally head
Speaker 2: over heels that I'm even here with you today.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great.
Speaker 2: The fact that our voice is that there's nothing between
Speaker 2: our voices, that my the things that I've come out
Speaker 2: of my mouth and the beloved items that've come out
Speaker 2: of your there's no glass between these.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well we'll we'll be a tripping the light
Speaker 1: fantastic here or whatever that expression is. Well, thanks for being.
Speaker 2: Here, Thank yous for having me.
Speaker 1: It is my honor to hey, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: because we've been aware of each other from being on
Speaker 1: the road. So yeah, and I think that's it's like
Speaker 1: being in rock and roll these days. You know, Will
Speaker 1: I'm playing Cleveland, Yeah next week, you know. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're kind of like my carnival family. I like
Speaker 2: to call it because I only ever there's a large
Speaker 2: group of people with cons that you.
Speaker 1: I'll give you some background music.
Speaker 2: I was like, that is a weird berd, but yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's it's crazy because I only there's a large
Speaker 2: group of people that I only associate with seeing only
Speaker 2: out of town, so you see only out of town
Speaker 2: face here at home. Yeah, it is kind of it's comforting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what the heck. Oh I'm glad. I'm glad. Comforting
Speaker 1: is the word you used. It's like I want to
Speaker 1: hold up a crucifixion.
Speaker 2: Very cool. My skin isn't so. I think we're I
Speaker 2: think we're good.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's good. Well, speaking of your skin burning, Yes,
Speaker 1: you've got a couple of interesting animated projects out there,
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Where's the segueing?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well yeah, where could that possibly be added? Well?
Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, I play quite a devilish little guy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a hell based show, a hell of a boss.
Speaker 2: And then it's sister show has been Hotel, and I'm
Speaker 2: lucky enough to be in both of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tearing it up in both of them. Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank eating the world up in both of them. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm good for you.
Speaker 2: That is a massive compliment coming from you, because I
Speaker 2: don't have I'm a very new voice actor and so,
Speaker 2: and it took me a long time to get over.
Speaker 2: I'm still sort of getting over if I if I
Speaker 2: had any imposter syndrome walking through the door, it's gone
Speaker 2: now after you said that.
Speaker 1: Oh well good, No, I think you're I think you're there.
Speaker 1: You're going to be part of the furniture.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I would love to. I hope I'm
Speaker 2: a stool right up.
Speaker 1: I left my sticks in the car, damn it.
Speaker 2: I uh yeah, I was going down your roster. I
Speaker 2: did not realize last night. I was just watching clips
Speaker 2: from your movies, and I did not realize how you
Speaker 2: joke like, oh, I'm the voice you grew up with,
Speaker 2: But I didn't realize just how much of my childhood
Speaker 2: you were.
Speaker 1: How sick of me you were. How'm tired of hearing them?
Speaker 1: But you were, Oh my god.
Speaker 2: You made the cheshure cat so soothing to watch.
Speaker 1: That's you, well only recently. The one from the forties
Speaker 1: was somebody else.
Speaker 2: No, but I but but your voice is and I
Speaker 2: know the one. I know. I know the difference because
Speaker 2: if he was here now I'm pretty sure he's dead.
Speaker 2: Is yeah, yeah, rest yeah, that would that would be
Speaker 2: you know, yeah. But but it's it's I can hear
Speaker 2: like I can hear notes of that cheshure cat, but
Speaker 2: I can also hear just talking to you, notes of who,
Speaker 2: and I could hear notes of who's the big one
Speaker 2: with the big genre where.
Speaker 1: There you go, buddy, you must be a friend of
Speaker 1: the goofy. That's Pete, Pete, Pete.
Speaker 2: It's like, I can, that's good, subtly hear all. And
Speaker 2: maybe it's just because we're in person, you've you've got
Speaker 2: a really good ear, but well, it's it's, it's there.
Speaker 2: It's like a little sp if I really listen. It's
Speaker 2: the same with like Richard Horbitz, if you can kind
Speaker 2: of hear little fractions of them just in a speaking
Speaker 2: with all the characters, and it is cool because I
Speaker 2: know so many of your characters and to kind of
Speaker 2: hear them all summed up in a normal voice. Oh,
Speaker 2: it is a trip right next to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well thanks. I you know, I've always said I've
Speaker 1: had kind of a mid range voice, so it's not
Speaker 1: too big a journey to go higher or lower because
Speaker 1: I'm kind of right in the middle. That's what I've
Speaker 1: always thought about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it's it's I guess it is right in
Speaker 2: the Yeah, just mid range. It's but I mean that
Speaker 2: that's why you would probably have such a wide cavalcade
Speaker 2: of rolls.
Speaker 1: Something like that, plus a lot of inner turmoil.
Speaker 2: In turnoil really adds to the spice. It does. It does.
Speaker 1: And speaking of Richard Horbit's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1: When I've uh first met him. One of the craziest things.
Speaker 1: You said, well, I know you've heard me, but you
Speaker 1: always thought I was a woman, and I, well, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Oh, come on, yes you did. And I said,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, you do sound like my aunt Grace.
Speaker 1: All right, are you happy? Grace?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosho ga Grace with the Richard Horowitz voice.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh da Well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he you know, it really did help getting and
Speaker 2: you know, going into this because Blitz is a main character,
Speaker 2: he's the lead of a show, and he's my first
Speaker 2: ever voice kid. It was very The creator of the
Speaker 2: show specifically wanted, I guess my tone for this particular protagonist.
Speaker 2: So she was very familiar with who I was on
Speaker 2: the internet, and she said, okay, that so sure, and
Speaker 2: we I don't know if any of us really knew
Speaker 2: the show was going to take off. She just wanted
Speaker 2: me to be the center voice of this pilot that
Speaker 2: I guess she was going to pitch or was just
Speaker 2: supposed to be a proof of concept of a different show,
Speaker 2: and it took off in all of a sudden, I
Speaker 2: found myself in like a union production with co stars
Speaker 2: like Richard Horwitz and Erica Linbeck and people that are
Speaker 2: very successful in this industry, and so to be among
Speaker 2: them as the as the lead character. There were many,
Speaker 2: many months, if not years, where I had a very tense,
Speaker 2: like like imposters around my neck.
Speaker 3: Whole it was.
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't let it affect the performance, but no,
Speaker 2: I mean it affected just how I saw myself and
Speaker 2: how I saw my like how I existed in this
Speaker 2: world around me. That I was very you know, you
Speaker 2: better be you know, it's it's it's like almost like
Speaker 2: it's a lot of pressure to be grateful and to
Speaker 2: make sure you're doing the right thing with this role,
Speaker 2: that you're not squandering this role that other.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: So after a while, you know, when I saw the show,
Speaker 2: once I saw it cut and animated, I really understood
Speaker 2: the character. I go, Okay, she's going for this, especially
Speaker 2: with how she animates him. I was getting more of
Speaker 2: the of the physicality of him and why she chose
Speaker 2: my voice. But then having Richard, who directs the vocal
Speaker 2: directs the show. He's just so selfless in the way
Speaker 2: that he works with people. He makes you, he like
Speaker 2: builds you up. It's a it's all positive reinforcement. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And and to have someone like him, who I also
Speaker 2: you know, grew up watching on TV and show films,
Speaker 2: kind of be this reassuring voice behind the glass of
Speaker 2: like telling me what he liked about it. And also
Speaker 2: if he would let me improvise, if I improvised something,
Speaker 2: he would go, oh yeah, and then he would feed
Speaker 2: me back a version of my variant, like polishing that version.
Speaker 2: And so then I once I knew he trusted me
Speaker 2: with just inherently with the material, the performance, he trusted
Speaker 2: me with my improvit. It really made me kind of
Speaker 2: loosen up and kind of go, Okay, this is a
Speaker 2: safe space in here for me to explore this character.
Speaker 1: Oh well, you're just killing it.
Speaker 3: You're you're doing You did a fantastic job. I'm surprised
Speaker 3: that that was your first voice act.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I put a lot of I really study
Speaker 2: those lines and rehearse them in the in the car.
Speaker 2: I remember saying, you know, even like my first song
Speaker 2: on the series, I would sing that for days. I
Speaker 2: was singing those lyrics over and over. It's because you
Speaker 2: don't want to, you know. It's of course it's your
Speaker 2: first the song, the first song, the first song, it's
Speaker 2: a duet that I have with Bryce Pinkham, who is
Speaker 2: a Broadway singer. So the pressures at all, I still
Speaker 2: can I can like get myself to that nervousness just
Speaker 2: thinking about it, like I get work. I remember my
Speaker 2: heart pounding in the car and I'm cranking up the
Speaker 2: volume because they sent me the demo track that which
Speaker 2: Sam Half. Sam Half who composes a lot of these songs.
Speaker 2: He's also a brilliant singer. So I'm hearing his demo
Speaker 2: track and singing along to it and trying to really
Speaker 2: get my my notes to match. And and also he
Speaker 2: writes very fast lyrics for me. He writes, it's almost
Speaker 2: like like eminem fast and so I I.
Speaker 1: Which, I think, no pressure that no.
Speaker 2: Pressure, it was it was. I remember it being a
Speaker 2: very rough first half of that session, just getting myself
Speaker 2: because I wasn't used to singing. I wasn't even used
Speaker 2: to voice acting still at the time. And so now
Speaker 2: I'm having a voice saying, you know, which is different
Speaker 2: and I have. I had a really bad habit, by
Speaker 2: the way, my whole the whole first season of the show,
Speaker 2: I would always go like this with oh wow in
Speaker 2: different directions, right, it's like sound of music, yeah, with
Speaker 2: the thing in her in her brazier or whatever. And
Speaker 2: so I was in the bush.
Speaker 1: I forget where it was.
Speaker 2: I forget where they put the mic. They stuffed it somewhere, okay,
Speaker 2: uh anyway, but yeah, so so it this. I've only
Speaker 2: had two roles at least that I could talk about
Speaker 2: voice acting, uh, that are out there and it so
Speaker 2: I can't wait to get to a point one day
Speaker 2: where I'm able to be you know, I see people
Speaker 2: like you and Tara and Gray at these conventions with
Speaker 2: like this whole roster of characters, and that is it
Speaker 2: is cool now seeing, Oh, I can work toward that,
Speaker 2: like I can I can have, you know, And that
Speaker 2: was never on the table for me before this role
Speaker 2: because I never considered myself of I never thought I
Speaker 2: would ever be a voice actor. And so now I
Speaker 2: get to see what that's like through the eyes of
Speaker 2: you know, Richard and everyone he's worked with for so long.
Speaker 2: I get to see what that road looks like, and
Speaker 2: it's it is much more lucrative and fun than the
Speaker 2: route of YouTube.
Speaker 1: Oh, I would think, Yeah.
Speaker 3: But you've been doing YouTube for a while, for a.
Speaker 2: Long time, since I was in high school. I remember
Speaker 2: I made my the YouTube account that I still upload
Speaker 2: videos on today. I made that in my high school library.
Speaker 3: Wow, and that was kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm thirty six at school year it was two
Speaker 2: thousand and six, so I was right when you started. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was about a year old. Technically they started in
Speaker 2: two thousand and five. But yeah, I remember thinking, because
Speaker 2: at the time I would make YouTube, I would make
Speaker 2: videos on like vhs you know, cam quarders, and we
Speaker 2: would put once a week we would screen them in
Speaker 2: a classroom with a teacher would let us gather in
Speaker 2: a classroom at lunch and we would just spend the hour,
Speaker 2: you know, watching whatever it was we made. And there
Speaker 2: was a real satisfaction to like, whatever you put on
Speaker 2: camera can go in front of people, like it goes
Speaker 2: on the screen. Whatever we capture in this little tiny device.
Speaker 2: And we were making movies in like a field somewhere,
Speaker 2: like we were on another planet. It was just like
Speaker 2: a way to be a like a to hang out
Speaker 2: with your friends. It was a really satisfying way to
Speaker 2: hang with people, and b it was really cathartic to
Speaker 2: sort of express yourself and play different characters and then
Speaker 2: put them in front knowing that every Friday at lunch
Speaker 2: we were all going to watch this.
Speaker 1: You can do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we had to edit in the camera at
Speaker 2: the time, so if you messed up to take, you'd
Speaker 2: rewind film that again. So you were editing it as
Speaker 2: we shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I did that with my home movies, so I
Speaker 1: understand completely.
Speaker 2: It's it's uh And there was kind of a fun
Speaker 2: like satisfaction to that because you knew you were working
Speaker 2: with the final cut whatever was in there, was like
Speaker 2: that's what they're going to see. Yeah, So I liked that.
Speaker 2: And then so anyway, so YouTube, yeah, comes out two
Speaker 2: thousand and five, and I'm like, there's a way to
Speaker 2: share this with anyone in the world, like everyone in
Speaker 2: the world, everyone in the world. I mean it, I
Speaker 2: felt like it was blowing my mind more than other people.
Speaker 2: And I remember looking around going like, why is no
Speaker 2: one really everyone was still excited about my Space more
Speaker 2: than YouTube, And I was like, why is no one
Speaker 2: getting the fact that we can upload videos? And I
Speaker 2: mean granted very low resolution, and I think you weren't
Speaker 2: allowed to upload anything more than ten minutes, which I
Speaker 2: mean that's still a good chunk of time, but it
Speaker 2: was very restricted still like we would we would, you know.
Speaker 1: It was yeah, you get out there and do something
Speaker 1: in ten minutes, that's for sure. Yeah, And that's we
Speaker 1: were That was a comedy acts don't go that long.
Speaker 2: Right, right, right exactly, So it was still you know,
Speaker 2: it was still a lot of possibilities with a ten minute,
Speaker 2: low resolution video, and and so yeah, that's how it
Speaker 2: was a no brainer. As soon as YouTube came out.
Speaker 2: I just immediately, like I started making videos for that
Speaker 2: made it for you. Yeah, I took in high school,
Speaker 2: they offered an elective that year, is my senior year
Speaker 2: in video editing was an elective and they taught us
Speaker 2: on like the newest technology. So at the time, it
Speaker 2: was like iMovie was like the cutting edge, like it
Speaker 2: was a very new software, and so they taught us
Speaker 2: on that, and I remember were falling in love with
Speaker 2: editing because I'd never learned to edit before, and I
Speaker 2: remember thinking, this is so easy. And then you just
Speaker 2: you just plug the camera into the computer. The footage
Speaker 2: is on the computer. You could just cut and splice,
Speaker 2: and granted, back then you had import in real time,
Speaker 2: so whatever you shot, if it was an hour, it
Speaker 2: would take an hour to import. Oh wow, so that
Speaker 2: was kind of a pain in the ass, but like
Speaker 2: there were but at least you didn't have to edit
Speaker 2: it in the camera. And so anyway, this is a
Speaker 2: very roundabout way of saying that, like that's that's ultimately
Speaker 2: how I started doing YouTube was I just took that
Speaker 2: editing class, made that YouTube account senior year, and then
Speaker 2: and then everything else in my life became a planet
Speaker 2: orbiting around that that was sort of the pinnacle of
Speaker 2: even like my job, my school, everything was second priority
Speaker 2: to just me expressing myself in the Internet and I
Speaker 2: and at the time that was not a safe bet
Speaker 2: because there was no future in video streaming, you know,
Speaker 2: it was it was seen as like a hobby site. Still,
Speaker 2: that's true, and so it was the term YouTuber only
Speaker 2: recently and with younger generations as a form of respect
Speaker 2: that it didn't have for such a long time. Sure,
Speaker 2: but yeah, so it wasn't like I felt like I
Speaker 2: was investing my time wisely. And it's one of those
Speaker 2: examples of like that there's an image of like a
Speaker 2: guy picking an axe, you know, through a tunnel in
Speaker 2: the ground and there's like a gym five feet away
Speaker 2: and he gives up and goes back, and it's sort
Speaker 2: of an example of like I'm glad I didn't put
Speaker 2: down the pick axe, you know. Yeah, And and so yeah,
Speaker 2: it wasn't until you know, I moved to LA and
Speaker 2: had many jobs of just customer service or just very
Speaker 2: entry level positions that I could and I was constantly
Speaker 2: getting fired because I was always focusing on my on
Speaker 2: my films in my series.
Speaker 1: Oh that's really familiar. Do you have something similarly now? No, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: in New Orleans when I moved there, when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I say, a kid, I was just turned nineteen.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to be a band, being a band,
Speaker 1: being a singer. But yeah, blah blah blah, and I
Speaker 1: would I would have, you know, I changed what was it? Firestone?
Speaker 1: I think I might have Firestone. I fixed flat tires
Speaker 1: for a while. Oh but we have a gig where
Speaker 1: oh and oh so I have to we can't go.
Speaker 1: I can't commend Friday.
Speaker 2: Okay, so.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden Monday I had to get a
Speaker 1: new job, and so because and then finally the band
Speaker 1: was working enough that I didn't have have a didn't
Speaker 1: have a need for the job, so that worked out,
Speaker 1: you know, so I understand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's not a lot of people, do you know,
Speaker 2: especially back then, it was no one under you know, yea.
Speaker 2: Even my own friends were like, all right, have fun editing.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go study. Like it did feel like
Speaker 2: I would.
Speaker 1: Do something that I can actually use in the world.
Speaker 2: And YouTube wasn't really tangible. It wasn't saying it wasn't
Speaker 2: it wasn't something that you could like that. Yeah, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: I know it's it's the whole world's changed, and I
Speaker 2: if only I knew it was going to change in
Speaker 2: my favor, I probably would have done it even more aggressively.
Speaker 2: But no, I'm happy the way that it panned out.
Speaker 2: You know, and a lot of people get famous for
Speaker 2: doing you know, once the internet became, you know, sort
Speaker 2: of this shouting contest anyone could you know? It was
Speaker 2: just I want to do anything to get famous, and
Speaker 2: sometimes people you know, haven't forbid you get popular for
Speaker 2: something you don't enjoy doing. For again, Mack, that you did.
Speaker 2: So I was always there was a long time where
Speaker 2: I was kind of trying. I was trying to do
Speaker 2: vlogging where you just you know, map out your whole
Speaker 2: life for the whole world to see, or trying to
Speaker 2: do like prank videos. I was trying to do oh googging. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I'm just so glad that ultimately what really stuck,
Speaker 2: what the fans really responded to the most, was what
Speaker 2: I love doing the most, and that's you know, storytelling.
Speaker 2: That's creating these characters and telling stories through these these
Speaker 2: characters that I, you know, wrote for myself to play
Speaker 2: and it's yeah, it's anyway, it's a very satisfying line
Speaker 2: of work. But I did not think it was going
Speaker 2: to be possible.
Speaker 1: Well, I think, you know, I've got my kids, my nieces, nephews, whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, and I I always tell them, you know, well,
Speaker 1: if you want to be an attorney, you want to
Speaker 1: be a doctor, that's great, but you know, make sure
Speaker 1: you do something that you would do all day long
Speaker 1: for free and do it so damn well that somebody
Speaker 1: will pay you. And that to me is the ultimate
Speaker 1: not revenge, but that's the ultimate career, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you if you would do it all day long
Speaker 1: for free and you do it so well, somebody pays you,
Speaker 1: right right, ding ding ding. That's that's the brass ring.
Speaker 2: It's and I agree, I and it if I you know,
Speaker 2: twenty years ago, I would have said that's impossible, or like,
Speaker 2: oh that sounds nice, but it really is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and also, anology has been your friend.
Speaker 2: Chet technology has been right there on my side. But
Speaker 2: I've also I've been around now long enough since that
Speaker 2: point of view that I had to see how everyone
Speaker 2: else my age has done. And it really if there's
Speaker 2: one thing I've learned. It's just you're if you're persistent,
Speaker 2: you're good at something, Eventually someone's going to pay you
Speaker 2: for it. I have all of my friends who just
Speaker 2: stuck with it because they liked it are now doing
Speaker 2: it very successfully now, you know. And I'm very proud
Speaker 2: that a lot of people I went to college with
Speaker 2: that I grew up with, you know, moved to la
Speaker 2: eventually and just stuck with their dreams. And I think
Speaker 2: what united us in high school and college was that
Speaker 2: we were so obsessed with what we love and those
Speaker 2: same people are here in l A doing it for
Speaker 2: like Netflix and Amazon, and yeah, it's like so so anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do believe that if you are, like you said,
Speaker 2: if you are good at something you know, and you
Speaker 2: just do it long enough, eventually you know someone's going
Speaker 2: to pay you for it. And I just think that persistence,
Speaker 2: like I said, that pickaxe thing, it's just you never
Speaker 2: know when it's going to happen, but eventually it does.
Speaker 1: Yes, it does.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I never thought I'd be sitting here next
Speaker 2: to you on you know, on the show say, I mean,
Speaker 2: I think about that, like with any of my cast
Speaker 2: with the hell of you know, Richard Horowitz. It's just
Speaker 2: so surreal, Yeah, that I'm even meeting you people, because
Speaker 2: for so long, y'all were mythical creatures in my mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was like, oh they existed a different Yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand that because you know, I worked with Don Messick,
Speaker 1: who was the king of Hannibar Era, and just any
Speaker 1: number of people, you know, June for A, Rocky and
Speaker 1: Bullwinkle and all these people, and they were still around
Speaker 1: when I first started my career, and I just thought
Speaker 1: it was like, wait a minute, this is this is crazy,
Speaker 1: you know because a year or two before I was
Speaker 1: working in a steel mill. So you know, this is okay,
Speaker 1: this is better. I'm gonna do this now. So I'm
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that is that.
Speaker 1: I'm with you.
Speaker 2: That's that's and I like that we I just have
Speaker 2: to say that this is us getting to know each
Speaker 2: other for real. I've I see you all the time
Speaker 2: at conventions, but it's nothing more than just like the
Speaker 2: person I'm like getting coffee next to it, oh you know,
Speaker 2: like or at the table that I watched, and so
Speaker 2: it is it is kind of cool to get to
Speaker 2: know you just right here. Actually on the podcast, I've
Speaker 2: I I have to ask, do you I always wondered
Speaker 2: about Disney voice actors, especially the really prompt, like like
Speaker 2: very well known Disney voice actors. Is it what is
Speaker 2: it a day at Disneyland like for you?
Speaker 1: And how often do you go Disneyland Disney or I
Speaker 1: guess it quite nice, it's very nice. Yeah, well, Chris
Speaker 1: will tell you. You know, we've been any number of
Speaker 1: times together with family events. And it's interesting because some
Speaker 1: people you can tell that. I think I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: there is a rule at Disney if you work at Disney,
Speaker 1: uh and you recognize I mean, just pick somebody like uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, George Clooney, somebody not not me, but
Speaker 1: you know, and you're not allowed to acknowledge them. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure. Yeah, it's like hi, uh, step right this way,
Speaker 1: you know, and you can because you can see I
Speaker 1: have I have been able to see that people when
Speaker 1: you're literally when you're getting on a ride, and of
Speaker 1: course they'll give me a guide to to bring me.
Speaker 1: They're very gracious in that regard that so you don't
Speaker 1: have to wait mobile lines right right right and we'll
Speaker 1: be walking by the feet but working at the radag on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I imagine, you know, and and I just.
Speaker 1: Give him a little poo or a little tigger. Yeah,
Speaker 1: stay sweetest, honey, keep one bounting, you know something. And they.
Speaker 2: Step this way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's cool. They have to be cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have all but but you can't I notice
Speaker 2: they can't hide that in the face. That's that's it's
Speaker 2: just so crazy. I'm sure you get this all the time,
Speaker 2: but just hearing that voice, such a voice I've heard
Speaker 2: so many times in person, it's.
Speaker 1: That is you were sick of me and you didn't
Speaker 1: even know it. Sorry, keep hitting your TV.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's that's so So is that so in
Speaker 2: the right? Is that that's your voice?
Speaker 1: And oh yeah, so.
Speaker 2: What I mean your first time going on that right?
Speaker 2: You know? Was that actually was that your first time
Speaker 2: having your voice in a Disney ride?
Speaker 1: Uh no, No, there was one prior to that. In fact,
Speaker 1: we were talking about it earlier. There was what was
Speaker 1: it they were taking one away. There was I think
Speaker 1: it was Pooh's log ride or Poo's something, and they
Speaker 1: took it away, but they replaced it with a store
Speaker 1: and then part of it and then they cut out anyway.
Speaker 1: It was raised berets. What the hell? Uh yeah, Ray
Speaker 1: from the Fireflying Princess and the Frog what he has
Speaker 1: to do with hats? It just rhymes, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's And then the Princess and the Frog Ride was
Speaker 1: right next door, so I was like, okay, well they
Speaker 1: the Lord take it away and Lord giveth and then
Speaker 1: then next thing you're on the Princess and the Frog Ride.
Speaker 1: Uh So that was fun.
Speaker 2: Poo's log I did not if there's any way to
Speaker 2: make Pooh's name sound dirty or it's calling it Poo's
Speaker 2: log ride.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's oh.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's it was.
Speaker 1: I could be wrong about the.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have an answer to that question as well. Yeah,
Speaker 3: going to Disneyland with Jim Ruins Disneyland, wow, because because
Speaker 3: you tell they give you the tour guide, they give
Speaker 3: you the tour guide. They treat you, you know, like
Speaker 3: like royalty, like you are, and then when you go
Speaker 3: by yourself, you know, it's like I'm standing in line.
Speaker 3: Oh it ruins it that way. You know, It's like
Speaker 3: it's such a phenomenal treatment that like just going there
Speaker 3: ordinarily is just not even the same, you know, and
Speaker 3: like oh yeah, they take us up into you know,
Speaker 3: like Club thirty three, you know, like all the you
Speaker 3: know for.
Speaker 2: Those in Actually we had uh one of them gave us.
Speaker 2: We had something for Hell of a Boss. That was
Speaker 2: the tour. It was the it was the guy thing.
Speaker 2: But I was only able to stay for a few hours.
Speaker 2: But I needed to see what this was. And I
Speaker 2: think for anyone who doesn't know, it's basically someone and
Speaker 2: correct me if I'm wrong. They just they take you
Speaker 2: to the front of the line of each.
Speaker 3: Day, right, and you can right as many times you
Speaker 3: can literally sit there on Space Mountain and be like
Speaker 3: wave at the people in line and just keep riding,
Speaker 3: just keep riding, keep riding.
Speaker 2: So I didn't know that all. I was just there
Speaker 2: for a couple hours, so I just got a We
Speaker 2: saw Club thirty three, which was that was really cool
Speaker 2: that they're only gifts and I and I asked if
Speaker 2: we could take the elevator, just because I knew I
Speaker 2: would never take this elevator again. Probably, Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty cool elevator.
Speaker 2: Oh it's beautiful. And I thought it would take me
Speaker 2: out of the ceiling like in Willy Wonka. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: grant me a wish, But no, it was Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I wish you know, it sucks. I don't even remember
Speaker 2: where I had to go. I don't even remember where
Speaker 2: I had to be that day, and so I'm just like,
Speaker 2: I cut my day in half for something I can't remember.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was quite an experience and I didn't know that existed.
Speaker 2: I don't go to Disneyland very often, but I am
Speaker 2: at Yeah, if I my next time, I think that
Speaker 2: was my last time there actually, So now if I
Speaker 2: go back, I'm probably it'll probably be ruined for me.
Speaker 1: Well that's what we're here for.
Speaker 2: Wow. So so okay, So going on, I have to ask
Speaker 2: the Pooh Ride whatever. I know it's on the Hunting
Speaker 2: whatever it is, Now, what was it? What was that like?
Speaker 2: Because your voice is all over that thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's interesting because you know, you're kind of
Speaker 1: you're trying to remember, Oh yeah, I remember doing that,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I remember, oh yeah, And it's very very
Speaker 1: well done. You know, all their animatronics are and it's
Speaker 1: little vignettes. You know, you go around and you're slurping
Speaker 1: around and you're hoping that it doesn't stop, you know,
Speaker 1: for repairs in the middle, and it's just a kick.
Speaker 1: I've gotten used to it. Yeah, I've had a few.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's I think the first thing that I
Speaker 1: voiced for Disney was a Dark Wing Duck stage show,
Speaker 1: Dark Wing Duck and launch Pad, and I was dark
Speaker 1: Wing Duck and there was oh no, it was Disney Afternoon.
Speaker 1: That's what it was, back when Disney Afternoon was a big,
Speaker 1: big thing a long time ago, late eighties maybe something.
Speaker 1: And uh and I was in all of the skits.
Speaker 1: At one it was fat Cat, one was Monterey Jack,
Speaker 1: one was Pooh and Tigger, and one was dark Wing.
Speaker 1: And I think that was it. But I just remember thinking,
Speaker 1: this is this is exactly what I wanted to do
Speaker 1: when I was five, and it was so cool. I just,
Speaker 1: you know, sounds like I'm bragging. I'm really not. I
Speaker 1: was kind of flabbergasted.
Speaker 2: That was you know, was it was it hearing your
Speaker 2: voice specifically in that medium that well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And and then you look around and everybody's going yeah, oh.
Speaker 2: When you see the react, you know.
Speaker 1: And that that's that's very gratifying.
Speaker 2: It's different when you see people react to it. The
Speaker 2: one downside of the Internet, of being on the Internet
Speaker 2: is that you don't get a see, because I love
Speaker 2: doing stand up as well, only only for the energy
Speaker 2: that's right there. For in fact, I prefer doing stand
Speaker 2: up in a smaller room because the people's energy reverbates
Speaker 2: back to you somehow. Yeah, sure, intimate thing and so yeah,
Speaker 2: I can. I can relate to seeing people's reactions. And
Speaker 2: then suddenly you're something about being in front of a
Speaker 2: room of thirty people feels more meaningful than three hundred
Speaker 2: comments on something. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, and so.
Speaker 1: Well, it's immediate and it's genuine.
Speaker 2: It's genuine. Yeah, it's knee jerk, knee jerk reactions. But
Speaker 2: I also have to say, outside of Disney, you I believe,
Speaker 2: and Craig me if I'm wrong. You voiced my favorite
Speaker 2: version of Robotic, which was the more sinister one.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, be a friend of Sniveley's Snibley. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I mean there was. I had the comics that went
Speaker 2: with that specific series. I was the massive I was
Speaker 2: drawing pictures of Robotic and like all of his when
Speaker 2: I was bored in school, like that was such a
Speaker 2: like escape from my brain. And so to see that
Speaker 2: you also had that on your Rothstars. Yeah, I was well,
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: They did one batch of the in Canada, like I
Speaker 1: don't know, sixty episodes, and I think we only did
Speaker 1: like two dozen down here when I did it. But
Speaker 1: I've had people tell me that mine was scary and
Speaker 1: the other one was cartoony. The other car, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: one I guess they did it, and I think it
Speaker 1: was Jalil White in Canada. I think it was Jilliel
Speaker 1: White and he because he was my he was my
Speaker 1: sonic Jilil White. He was, you know, and I remember,
Speaker 1: and there was and I and I did now that
Speaker 1: i'm thinking of it. One thing that used to get
Speaker 1: everybody every time cats to see, especially a great young
Speaker 1: actress lady voice, lady. I would always do, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: you have a jug in the dungeon. That's good, And
Speaker 1: it was. And it was that because you could see
Speaker 1: that you just I just wanted to make it seem
Speaker 1: like he was what could I could do a lot
Speaker 1: with the dungeon. The possibilities are coming over, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: And then I went back to Winnie the Poo and
Speaker 1: I even doubt.
Speaker 2: And it is such a departure from from a lot
Speaker 2: of the versions of Robotic because there are a lot of
Speaker 2: them are mostly goofy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so this is one that was genuinely scary.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I thought it would be fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that was good. Was that your was that?
Speaker 2: Did you come up with that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I don't think. I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: there was one before. I don't think there was a
Speaker 1: cartoon or oh so he didn't have before that. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think so. I could be wrong.
Speaker 3: It was a game, right, it was a game. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure which one came first though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure anyway, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: Comments. Please come on, come on outside here, we're floundering. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Thanks, So, I uh, I have to I have to add.
Speaker 2: What is one of the most common things people have
Speaker 2: you say as winning the when they when they request
Speaker 2: your Winnie the Pooh Boys.
Speaker 1: Well, for some reason, it's oh bother And that's not much,
Speaker 1: you know, oh bother? Oh that's perfect. You sound just
Speaker 1: like him, just like him. That that's my favorite. You
Speaker 1: sound just like him, like it's a separate little bear
Speaker 1: on your TV or wherever. But yeah, that that's definitely it.
Speaker 2: What oh bother? Is that supposed to be his equivalent
Speaker 2: of oh, some four letter word.
Speaker 1: I probably yeah, because literature does he use it like.
Speaker 2: It's like a dang it.
Speaker 3: It's like a British thing though people like really say that,
Speaker 3: like well, at least they used to bananas British and
Speaker 3: she used to. She used to always be like, oh, bother,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 2: Weird American.
Speaker 3: Yeah, bother bugger you know like oh bugger, yeah, say
Speaker 3: that as.
Speaker 1: Well, something like that. It means things aren't going perfectly.
Speaker 2: Okay, we don't a lot if Americans have such a
Speaker 2: middle tary. It's either like oh, yeah, you know, we
Speaker 2: need to know bother.
Speaker 3: Maybe we have less violence. Yeah, what will people ask
Speaker 3: you to say? Mostly as blitz, sorry I fucked your husband?
Speaker 2: That one is that is a that'll probably the most
Speaker 2: common one. And I like writing when I said, it's
Speaker 2: the most common thing for me to sign too. And
Speaker 2: when I sign it, if there is a husband and
Speaker 2: I'm writing it for the wife, I look at the
Speaker 2: husband many cringes and cringes I know, I I yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know people.
Speaker 1: People.
Speaker 2: I get a lot of people in my line who
Speaker 2: I think get a kick out of how adult the
Speaker 2: show is and they're not even they're not like younger
Speaker 2: people either, the people who clearly like live a life
Speaker 2: where they don't they aren't exactly permitted to exude that
Speaker 2: kind of language or that, and so they they when
Speaker 2: they get to see me, it's almost like a little
Speaker 2: escape where if they're teaching fifth grade, you're right, And
Speaker 2: a lot of them aren't teachers that teach kids, and
Speaker 2: they go like, so many of my students know who
Speaker 2: you are. They shouldn't anyway, please say sorry, but anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's all walks of life come up, and I
Speaker 2: mean it's all very alternative, you know, it's it's yes,
Speaker 2: it is. My line looks like you can't tell if
Speaker 2: they're lending up for me or the grand opening of
Speaker 2: a hot.
Speaker 1: Topic, and it's very hot.
Speaker 2: It's a very alternative crowd, which I like because I
Speaker 2: know when I was before I did YouTube, I fit
Speaker 2: right in with that crowd. I still do like I
Speaker 2: definitely it's nice to feel like the people I make
Speaker 2: stuff for are me. It's not that I'm making stuff
Speaker 2: for like some other Oh, it's for I would never
Speaker 2: watch my No, It's like I make what I like,
Speaker 2: and I think that people have very similar sensibilities and
Speaker 2: so it's it's nice to see, like you said, in person,
Speaker 2: when they're there. It's so gratifying. And I have a
Speaker 2: hard time moving my line along because I very much
Speaker 2: connect with with a lot of the people and it's
Speaker 2: hard to Okay, thank you know, it's it's really you.
Speaker 2: You do want to take your time with a lot
Speaker 2: of these people that understand you.
Speaker 3: And you write for the show as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah for both? Yeah for uh well I write for
Speaker 2: no just for for Heleva but uh but uh a lot.
Speaker 2: So sorry, I'm like moving you around. The guy who
Speaker 2: helps me write my videos also writes for has been
Speaker 2: in Helva Okay, so has been has very similar flavors
Speaker 2: to my my videos because the person who helps me
Speaker 2: write them right, so so kind of there is a
Speaker 2: similarity there with tone. But yeah, it has been in
Speaker 2: hell Ofva. Are both? I mean, I don't know Viv
Speaker 2: has such a specific career or history because I don't
Speaker 2: know anyone else who just their first big thing was
Speaker 2: two big things, you know, and like just created both
Speaker 2: shows and with such a specific flavor to it, you know.
Speaker 2: I I'm very proud of her. I don't even know
Speaker 2: how I got on this tangible was the oh yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I I love And the reason why I feel like
Speaker 2: I connect with the fans is because, you know, the
Speaker 2: writing is I am very picky with the writing and
Speaker 2: my stuff, and I think that when people relate to that,
Speaker 2: they're relating to a very genuine part of my soul.
Speaker 2: You know, the conflicts that the characters go through, and
Speaker 2: the different morals that the that the you know, the
Speaker 2: out you know, what the lessons learned from each film
Speaker 2: I do or series I make. It's all from here
Speaker 2: and it's stuff that that's close to my life. And
Speaker 2: so when people relate to that and they under you know,
Speaker 2: it's very genuine, it's genuine, and I feel like they
Speaker 2: get a large part of who I am, and even
Speaker 2: more so than a lot of my own family. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of my family loves my work, but you know,
Speaker 2: they I am the only entertainer in my family. No
Speaker 2: one else works in entertainment. And so you say familiar, Yeah.
Speaker 1: We're good with truck drivers. Had a few de mill
Speaker 1: people in there, and yeah, yeah, one of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, So yeah, it's it's my family and I'm
Speaker 2: assuming probably sounds like yours too, are very passionate about practicality.
Speaker 2: They're very practical people, and and you know, yeah, we
Speaker 2: just I mean we would go to the movies occasionally,
Speaker 2: we would watch TV like Basic cable, but we were
Speaker 2: never like a we never nerded out a lot over stuff.
Speaker 2: And and uh and I I really, you know, getting older,
Speaker 2: I started to really appreciate the whole nerd aspect of
Speaker 2: because really what nerd means is just someone who loves
Speaker 2: something so passionately they need to label it as nerd.
Speaker 2: You know, It's like you're just so in love with something,
Speaker 2: and I just I'm really drawn to people who are
Speaker 2: so in love.
Speaker 1: With something, so am I I understand that completely.
Speaker 2: And so I so being in now I'm full fledged
Speaker 2: in con culture. I'm like like neck deep in nerds,
Speaker 2: and I'm and it's just there's there's a part of
Speaker 2: me that's like, damn, it took me thirty five years
Speaker 2: to get here, Like I finally feel like I'm at home.
Speaker 2: And it took me thirty five years to feel like
Speaker 2: I'm home. Yeah, but I do. I've never felt more
Speaker 2: at home in my entire life than the last year
Speaker 2: and a half. That's great, and largely because of the conventions.
Speaker 2: You know, to go to a city that you don't
Speaker 2: know anybody and to feel like you're loved by everyone.
Speaker 1: That's such a thousand people show up and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you know people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all of a sudden, you have friends, you feel
Speaker 2: loved any any like. It's almost like a like a
Speaker 2: cure all because people are loving something that you love.
Speaker 2: It's like people gathering to love your kid. It feels
Speaker 2: it's yeah, we're.
Speaker 1: All gathered around the same campfire.
Speaker 2: Right and and coming from the YouTube world, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm I go to I used to go to conventions
Speaker 2: like VIDCN and Playlist like conventions that were about clout
Speaker 2: more so than the work. So it's the people that
Speaker 2: line up to me there are more concerned with who
Speaker 2: you are as opposed to what you make. Oh I
Speaker 2: met this this YouTube, I met this creator, and that's
Speaker 2: that's great. I got the selfie. But at these conventions,
Speaker 2: people are asking me questions about my work, what I
Speaker 2: have coming up. They're picking prints of characters that that
Speaker 2: connect that they connected to.
Speaker 1: So it's not.
Speaker 2: About me, It's about what this thing that I helped
Speaker 2: make that we both connected with, and I just I
Speaker 2: didn't realize that there was such a difference in energy
Speaker 2: with conventions, Like I did not like going to the
Speaker 2: VidCon as.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask you, did you go
Speaker 1: before you were signing? I mean, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And now now I choose to exclusively be around this
Speaker 2: type of crowd because I love I love so much,
Speaker 2: I mean, both the fans and then behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: I get to meet other voice actors and hear about
Speaker 2: you know, parallel journeys that other people have had doing
Speaker 2: what I what I'm now doing and so and also
Speaker 2: because I'm so new, this is just such a welcoming profession.
Speaker 2: Everyone here, you know, it's been doing it longer than me,
Speaker 2: and they're just welcoming me with open arms, giving me
Speaker 2: tips and advice. And there's no sense of like hierarchy,
Speaker 2: you know, connecting with all kinds of voice actors at
Speaker 2: these conventions, and they're just all such lovely people to
Speaker 2: be around. You. You're with the fans all day, and
Speaker 2: then it's nice to just go behind the curtain and
Speaker 2: just decompress with someone who's also been around the fans
Speaker 2: all day, and you kind of connect in a different
Speaker 2: way for you know, for lunch, and then you go
Speaker 2: back out there and connect in a different way with
Speaker 2: with those people. So yeah, it's it's it's given me
Speaker 2: like a different, like a new sense of purpose with
Speaker 2: what I do.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I already felt like I had a lot
Speaker 2: of purpose with what I did before this, but now
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, here's I get to see up close
Speaker 2: the effect that the work has on people.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well that's what I always say. We make
Speaker 1: our living in rooms with a few other people, right,
Speaker 1: no audiences per se unless you look in there and
Speaker 1: people are giggling after you do your line, and then
Speaker 1: you know, you just kind of do it. You hope it,
Speaker 1: hope it. Well, I'll just knock this down, you know,
Speaker 1: you hope it resonates with people. And then eventually when
Speaker 1: you get to a convention and then at that one
Speaker 1: time where you you know, and you said pull my
Speaker 1: finger and and you know, and it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: so that I got you. So you were you were
Speaker 1: paying attention, thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And if it's any like sometimes I like to
Speaker 2: go to watch parties at people's houses because it's a
Speaker 2: good reminder of like, oh yeah, when people watch my stuff,
Speaker 2: this room full of laughing people, that's the energy it
Speaker 2: could bring to certain households. And I think that you're right.
Speaker 2: We do it quiet in a studio, and it's very
Speaker 2: almost deflating in a studio because there's a you can't
Speaker 2: they don't let you hear them laughing because you know
Speaker 2: that would ruin the mess up the track. But so
Speaker 2: so you're used to when you just say a joke,
Speaker 2: whether there's one person in the room or a whole
Speaker 2: group of people, you're used to hearing some form of
Speaker 2: responsive laughter. Yes, no, I'm doing doing the same thing.
Speaker 2: So when you don't hear that immediate laughter, it almost
Speaker 2: feels like, oh, I've bombed and uh. And I think
Speaker 2: even now that I know it doesn't mean that there's
Speaker 2: still this like inherent knee jerk reaction of like, oh
Speaker 2: they oh that's right, I can't hear.
Speaker 1: Them, especially if you're used to doing something in front
Speaker 1: of people. Yeah, it's an immediate response. That's that's one
Speaker 1: of the greatest things about theater or live live anything, Yeah,
Speaker 1: is you get an immediate response.
Speaker 2: And you know, so many of our casts there in life,
Speaker 2: they're Broadway people, and so this is a way different.
Speaker 2: You know, if it's different for me, I'm I'm on
Speaker 2: camera but like to be, you know, going from Broadway
Speaker 2: to that. So I think it is a bit of
Speaker 2: a culture shock, at least initially. You know, being in
Speaker 2: that quiet, quiet room, you have to really be looking
Speaker 2: through the glass to make sure they're they're enjoying. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but uh yeah, it's it's it's crazy because you don't
Speaker 2: think about you know, when I'm in that studio, I
Speaker 2: try to think about the rooms of people watching it,
Speaker 2: you know, the people at home, you know that are
Speaker 2: like I try and pretend they're right in front of
Speaker 2: me and I'm just doing it for them, and it
Speaker 2: is it is different. And also just I like to stand.
Speaker 2: I think standing ads you know, as long as I
Speaker 2: could stay on the mic, standing for me helps me
Speaker 2: do more things with my my diaph no, I agree.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's it has been a very very
Speaker 2: rewarding new variant of the work I was already doing,
Speaker 2: you know. I I, for instance, I'm now very cognizant
Speaker 2: of clothes that make noise.
Speaker 1: And oh yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 2: And I'm very cognizant of also just like my posture
Speaker 2: just where I'm at with you know, mics and equipment.
Speaker 1: Well plus it affects you if you're standing or sitting.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, what's his name, Paul standing and
Speaker 1: kiss I think I remember he used to lay on
Speaker 1: the floor and they would drop a mic down at him.
Speaker 1: And I tried that to sing and and I tried
Speaker 1: doing that, and it's awful. He's out of his mind,
Speaker 1: you know, your diaphragms folding up, shot at all, loud
Speaker 1: or whatever, something about shouting, you know, And it was no,
Speaker 1: get up, it's get up off of there, mister.
Speaker 2: It's gook funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, walking laying on the floor, yeah, in
Speaker 1: his mouth.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So that's so I have convention because I've only been
Speaker 2: in on the scene for a couple of years, not
Speaker 2: even have conventions changed significantly since COVID or well.
Speaker 1: I think so, because the people are dying to get
Speaker 1: out of the house. Yeah, you know, because you know
Speaker 1: it was you know, COVID was you know, I had
Speaker 1: it and I didn't even know I had it same
Speaker 1: So that's how that's how badly it affected me. So
Speaker 1: I thought it was much ado about nothing, and I
Speaker 1: was a little vocal about that, for better or worse.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think everybody was just oh, man,
Speaker 1: I can't go to a convention. I can't, you know,
Speaker 1: got to sit home, can't go to Disneyland? Kick? Can
Speaker 1: I go to the show?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: As long as you keep you know, you're in a
Speaker 1: scuba diving outfit. And uh, you know, it just got old.
Speaker 1: And I think when everybody said, okay, can we just
Speaker 1: quit pretending? Can we go back to work? Can we
Speaker 1: go to a convention? Can we go to Disneyland? Can
Speaker 1: we go to the park and swing on the swings? Yes? Okay, good?
Speaker 1: Boom the floodgates opened. Wow?
Speaker 2: And so when did you notice the cons release start
Speaker 2: picking back up? Because I joined after it was full fledged.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know about a year. What would you
Speaker 1: say about a year ago, year and a half?
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably like twenty twenty two, I'd say, okay, so
Speaker 3: I must have joined right when it was yeah opening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're good. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, okay, I yeah, I just uh And is
Speaker 2: it similar to what it was like before COVID or
Speaker 2: has has it been changed?
Speaker 1: Well? I think there's more people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's been become more popular since COVID.
Speaker 2: I also feel like, just generally, I feel like pop
Speaker 2: culture is inherently more of a part because like the
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know at least a lot of
Speaker 2: the people I know. You know, the younger you get,
Speaker 2: I mean the older you get. You know, someone in
Speaker 2: their thirties today having action figures is a lot more
Speaker 2: acceptable than you know, thirty years ago someone having action
Speaker 2: figures at this stage. I just if you look at Target,
Speaker 2: they now have a pop culture section. Oh yeah, so
Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, I think that, yes, everyone wants to
Speaker 2: get out of the house, but I feel like we're
Speaker 2: at a point now where like anyone who's itching and
Speaker 2: get out got out. I feel like a pop culture
Speaker 2: is really kind of on an upswing.
Speaker 3: Well, they figured out how to make it part of
Speaker 3: the capitalist machine, you know. I think that has a
Speaker 3: lot to do with it too, that they're figuring out
Speaker 3: how to monetize each and everything.
Speaker 2: You know, the money's there, people are spending lots of money.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I was just at the last convention we were at.
Speaker 3: I was talking to Miley Flanagan and they didn't even
Speaker 3: used to. They used to the promoters would just pay
Speaker 3: actors or voice actors or whoever to appear and then
Speaker 3: just sign like it wasn't charged per autograph.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was like the the first one I did
Speaker 1: was that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so even recently, you know, that is another
Speaker 3: mode of commodification, you know, and it's you know, you
Speaker 3: see the people standing in line and no pictures unless
Speaker 3: you pay for it, you know, like, oh can I
Speaker 3: have a selfie? Well? Did you pay for it? You know,
Speaker 3: it's like right, so commodified.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's insane. You know what blew my mind
Speaker 2: was when I first started signing a lot of the
Speaker 2: people online go to every convention they can go to,
Speaker 2: and they're so in tuned with like, oh they know
Speaker 2: the CULD, they know the routine, and.
Speaker 1: I call it the con culture, the conic culture. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so I'll have people just sort of line up
Speaker 2: and they'll some of them, some of them it's their
Speaker 2: first time, like, oh, I don't know, how do I
Speaker 2: do this? Do I pick? Some of them are like yes, this,
Speaker 2: make it out to this, make it out to this,
Speaker 2: I want too selfies on one video and they just
Speaker 2: and then they once they got their stuff.
Speaker 1: Boom, they're gone.
Speaker 2: And there's kind of something I respect about them.
Speaker 1: They they do what they want for sure.
Speaker 3: Okay, I do the people who come up, they'll they'll
Speaker 3: talk to Jim and be like do I pay you?
Speaker 3: Is like so precious. It's like, oh, it's like you're
Speaker 3: first time, right, you know. It's it's so precious because
Speaker 3: they're so shy and likes excited all at the same time.
Speaker 1: Very sweet.
Speaker 2: Usually, I at least from what I've seen, it's the
Speaker 2: smaller towns that usually have people like that, Like Vegas,
Speaker 2: I rarely meet people like that. But then like I
Speaker 2: was just in West Virginia and almost every person I
Speaker 2: met I was their first. Oh that's great person I
Speaker 2: met or the first. So it is a different energy
Speaker 2: and it is kind of I like them both, honestly.
Speaker 2: I like the people who know what they want and
Speaker 2: to get out. And there's some people that are just
Speaker 2: possibly you're the only celebrity there to meet and when
Speaker 2: I was, you know, and it's very sweet. It's very sweet. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it comes from a very innocent place. It's it's weird.
Speaker 2: It's interesting seeing so many people in their most nervous
Speaker 2: state of mind. It's like you're just seeing people I
Speaker 2: don't know. You just get you start to get used
Speaker 2: to meeting nervous people.
Speaker 3: You get cariers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, criers, and that could be an interesting Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: way to talk. By the way, this is the first
Speaker 2: ever podcast as WRE I get to talk about this
Speaker 2: stuff with something who knows what I'm talking about. Oh yeah, like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: I love I love unloading. I'm like, am I never
Speaker 2: unloaded about this?
Speaker 1: One's no one's ever asked. Yeah, well, believe me, you're
Speaker 1: in good company.
Speaker 2: Okay, So criers, Yes, this is a cork.
Speaker 1: Yes, I can't. I mean, I'm sure you get criers,
Speaker 1: but like with me, I'll have criers and they all
Speaker 1: cry over Winning the Pooh. I love the fact that
Speaker 1: you get criers over Satan. I know, you know, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, Satan. Oh, I'm pretty sure my uncle he
Speaker 1: passed away last year. Pretty sure you know him, real
Speaker 1: ass wife. He's uh, you know, he's quite a turd socket.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you Lenny Lenny. He's from New York.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: I know turd Socket from Winnie the Pooh.
Speaker 1: Well that was only Jim coming, so don't be alarmed.
Speaker 2: I I yeah, it's it's so so. I The way
Speaker 2: people connect with my characters is a little different. These
Speaker 2: are most of them are alternative or queer or people
Speaker 2: who don't feel like they fit in with a lot
Speaker 2: of their the people around them. And I think the
Speaker 2: work that I do, especially you know, as Blitz, I
Speaker 2: think there's something that they see in him, because Blitz
Speaker 2: is sort of I mean a lot of the characters
Speaker 2: on that show are are relatable to, you know, people
Speaker 2: in the queer community. And in a way that right,
Speaker 2: I know, I was really hoping for the Martha Stewart fans.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but which, by the way, we have the
Speaker 2: same birthday.
Speaker 1: Oh get out, well, I have good news. You failed
Speaker 1: miserably in Martha's Stewart category. The other one you're doing great.
Speaker 2: Right, right right? But anyway, yeah, so the people come
Speaker 2: up to me. I mean people cry for different reasons.
Speaker 2: Sometimes people cry as just a physical reaction. They're not
Speaker 2: even that adamant about anything. They just can't help, but
Speaker 2: their nerves work them up into textrue. So there's a
Speaker 2: million of reasons why someone can cry, and some of them,
Speaker 2: you know, I will I have a hard time, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, cutting off my time with I have a
Speaker 2: really hard time with someone. But some of them, okay,
Speaker 2: so you have to understand. I think what people don't
Speaker 2: realize is that you're meeting human beings humans constantly. You're
Speaker 2: one person after the other the other, and they're all
Speaker 2: coming at you with ten out of ten energy. Whatever
Speaker 2: the energy is, if it's good, if it's bad, if
Speaker 2: it's silly, if it's whatever, it's a full force that energy. Right,
Speaker 2: So when when someone's crying, they're crying hard. When someone's laughing,
Speaker 2: they're laughing. Everything's so intense. Even the people who just
Speaker 2: shut down like that's sort of an intenseness to that
Speaker 2: where they just don't say anything. So for us to
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's as human beings, we inherently have
Speaker 2: to mirror the energy. Whether you're having dinner with one
Speaker 2: person or if you're in a room full of people,
Speaker 2: we kind of match energy as as just as yeah,
Speaker 2: that's species. So when they're at the table, we have
Speaker 2: to It is difficult to have to toggle your energy
Speaker 2: between all these different types.
Speaker 1: Of tens, a lot of frequency, a lot.
Speaker 2: Of different frequencies that you're tuning to. So so someone
Speaker 2: could just be crying and you've brought yourself to this
Speaker 2: very personal place with them, and the next person is screaming,
Speaker 2: and just so and you have and they're elated. You
Speaker 2: have to get yourself to be as elated as they are.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying that one energy is better than
Speaker 2: the other. They're just all different and they're all a lot,
Speaker 2: and so it can be tiring as a just as
Speaker 2: a human being to do that for hours, and.
Speaker 1: It's an odd discipline. It's odd drain, but it's a
Speaker 1: bit of a drain because you don't want to. You
Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, ruin not be there for everyone.
Speaker 2: Right And so I'm never out there unless I can
Speaker 2: be a silly version of my normal self. I'm never
Speaker 2: my normal, normal self. I'm always like a little bit
Speaker 2: of a heightened version of myself just so they can,
Speaker 2: you know, just to make their day a little better.
Speaker 2: But if I can't put on that mask, if I
Speaker 2: have to, if I'm like to it, because sometimes I
Speaker 2: will get to a point where I'm just like I
Speaker 2: can't even muster like a smile right now, yes, Like
Speaker 2: I just your brain is just like throbbing, and you
Speaker 2: just need a second to just sit down and drink
Speaker 2: some water and just take a few deep breaths. Because
Speaker 2: it's just a lot of people and I do my
Speaker 2: best to match everyone, but it is tough. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: so and again you don't want the because the one
Speaker 2: person you do let yourself down with a little bit,
Speaker 2: they're gonna go, oh, like, what's he's in a bad mood.
Speaker 2: It's like no, no, no, no, I've just been doing
Speaker 2: this for hours. One time, I had food poisoning and
Speaker 2: I was like trying to I was going to the
Speaker 2: bathroom to like throw up and then come back, and
Speaker 2: I was just not feeling great. And there were people
Speaker 2: who I remember, people who were not knowing to move along,
Speaker 2: people who were staying for like like well past their
Speaker 2: time and they're crying and I can't tell them to
Speaker 2: move along. But I'm also dealing with like not wanting
Speaker 2: to throw up. So it was it was. There are
Speaker 2: times where I'm yeah, it does push me and I
Speaker 2: have to go take a break and yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: People say like, well, you're just signing, why didn't you
Speaker 2: take it? It's like no, it is like it's like
Speaker 2: mental yeah.
Speaker 1: Socially yeah, it's not like your hands tired.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not my hands tired. And my back's fine.
Speaker 2: Physically I'm fine. It's just all it's like my heart
Speaker 2: and my head are like both yobby.
Speaker 1: Right, but and and plus you know, you get well,
Speaker 1: you know, I get the stories about things that I
Speaker 1: was home and I just lost my grandma, and and
Speaker 1: then Pooh came on, and then I remembered that we
Speaker 1: used to sit no, I used to sit on our
Speaker 1: lab and we want and that where run came on,
Speaker 1: and it was reminded me of my grandma. So thank you.
Speaker 1: And I went, oh, oh, you're welcome. You know, I
Speaker 1: didn't even I didn't okay, yep, could not be more welcome.
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful that you told me that. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: so you get those and it makes it all and.
Speaker 2: The most better. I'm learning that, like the more, the
Speaker 2: most that I can do in those moments is be
Speaker 2: as present with them as possible. Yeah, and if I
Speaker 2: can at least just do that. Some people it's a
Speaker 2: little harder to be more present with than others. Some
Speaker 2: some people are so elated to where their logic I can't.
Speaker 2: I'm having trouble keeping up with their story because it's
Speaker 2: going here. But I yes, I'm like I if I
Speaker 2: you know, and I'll ask Them'm like I'm your mom said,
Speaker 2: you know, but yeah, but yeah, yeah, I just try
Speaker 2: and be present with them. I don't I don't want
Speaker 2: anyone to ever feel like I was looking through them,
Speaker 2: and you know, and and yeah, it's it's I do
Speaker 2: feel bad when people come up and they say, oh,
Speaker 2: remember me from from Tampa or from this other convention. Oh,
Speaker 2: I don't remember you.
Speaker 1: You were the guy on the T shirt? Was that you?
Speaker 1: I do you have a baseball hat?
Speaker 3: On?
Speaker 2: Richard taught me, And I'm he's probably gonna hate me
Speaker 2: for spilling the secret, but let's take that.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 2: He said, it's he always says, it's nice to see you.
Speaker 2: That's what it is, nice to see you, because it
Speaker 2: could be whither it could be nice to meet you,
Speaker 2: or it could be if I see you again, it's
Speaker 2: it sounds familiar. So I've always leaned on nice to
Speaker 2: see you. Oh it's great to see you, because it
Speaker 2: could I could be meeting you for.
Speaker 1: The first time. And it's right. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: It's it. That's it. I have very vanilla, very vanilla,
Speaker 2: and it lets them do what they want with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have interpretation exactly.
Speaker 2: I've said in the past, nice to meet you to
Speaker 2: many people, and they go, we met before.
Speaker 1: Actually I'm like, oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I'm like like, yep, yep, I was. I was
Speaker 2: testing you. Yeah, I'm glad you remember.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that reminds me of a story. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 3: a story really quick because I love this story. I
Speaker 3: was at a friend's father's memorial service a couple of
Speaker 3: years ago, and there was a bunch of uh, like,
Speaker 3: you know, my peers from high school. We all went
Speaker 3: to high school together. We all knew. This guy's name
Speaker 3: was Papa Joe, and he like had the house that
Speaker 3: everybody partied at, you know, oh boy. And we're standing
Speaker 3: around in a circle and it was like I went
Speaker 3: to like a pretty small high school, Like there was
Speaker 3: only one hundred kids in my graduating class. Oh wow,
Speaker 3: you know, so like everybody knew everybody. And we're sitting there,
Speaker 3: we're standing there sharing some stories and stuff, and this
Speaker 3: girl comes up and she had had a lot of
Speaker 3: work done since high school, a lot of work on
Speaker 3: her feet, which, yeah.
Speaker 1: Your high school wasn't that long ago. Yeah, she was
Speaker 1: an overachiever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And she comes up and one of my friends goes, oh, hi,
Speaker 3: I'm Greg, nice to meet you, and she looks at
Speaker 3: him she's like Greg, it's Amy, like, oh, like we
Speaker 3: definitely know each other. And he was like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: I am so sorry, Like I didn't recognize you student class.
Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, that's well.
Speaker 3: I probably should have changed the names.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that name and he's real name, I mean, gladys Is.
Speaker 1: And then he said, good to see your face cleared up,
Speaker 1: you know, because that's nice, and give him a compliment.
Speaker 1: Your face cleared up, you know, that's yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't recognize you.
Speaker 3: All right, we have we have this game that we
Speaker 3: played on this show. So I'm going to explain it
Speaker 3: right this time.
Speaker 1: Oh, here we go.
Speaker 3: Jim will do one of his iconic voices whole say
Speaker 3: a line like say oh bother or you know, one
Speaker 3: of his character voices, and then you'll imitate that same
Speaker 3: line with one of your characters. Okay, and then we'll
Speaker 3: go back and forth. All right, are you game?
Speaker 1: I like that?
Speaker 3: Alright?
Speaker 2: I was hoping for something like this.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see, how about I haven't done Hondo
Speaker 1: in a while. Yeah, Honduo Naka. He's my guy from
Speaker 1: Star Wars Clone Wars Rebels and oh okay and uh okay,
Speaker 1: so he's a he's a space pirate space from from
Speaker 1: a galaxy far far away to get that. Yeah, throwing
Speaker 1: it out there and let's see. Okay he is he's
Speaker 1: a bit of a comment. Oh, so here we go.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Oh the stories I could tell, so many of them true?
Speaker 2: Okay, just blitz. Yeah, Oh the stories I could tell
Speaker 2: and so many of them true.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good.
Speaker 3: I love that. I'm a big fan of that.
Speaker 1: That was good. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Show Okay, it's my turn.
Speaker 1: You sound just like him? Okay, go ahead, there you go.
Speaker 2: See you sound just like him?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, that was me being a fan.
Speaker 2: Oh say, oh, I just say any line.
Speaker 1: No you say no, you're You're on your own now.
Speaker 3: Okay, and any line.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go lick some ass. I really had
Speaker 2: to think of that one.
Speaker 1: Okay, can can it be tazz?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Ass okay, I mean no questions.
Speaker 3: Who would you say is your most vulgar character? If any,
Speaker 3: it's got to be that guy from Grand Theft Auto? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well who are you and Grand Theft? I
Speaker 1: sell arm? I sell arms?
Speaker 3: He was like the arms dealer. What's the name of
Speaker 3: that store?
Speaker 1: This is this the five? Yeah, it's where you go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's where you go to buy ammunition to ammunation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ammunation ammunition.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I've killed you so many times, really
Speaker 2: thinking that I could get the yea. But you're hard
Speaker 2: to kill because you can't bring a gun in the store.
Speaker 2: So you know what I do is I p I
Speaker 2: prop the door open. You can prop the door open
Speaker 2: with an objective park a car, park a bike or something.
Speaker 2: You prop the door open and then you just stand
Speaker 2: outside and then you run in and steal all the Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's hard. It's hard because your your gun. You
Speaker 2: have to be fully outside the door and find a
Speaker 2: way to keep the door open. You can kind of
Speaker 2: prop it open yourself, but it's hard to do anyway.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take your word on that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, wow, wow. That is They should have made
Speaker 2: him look like you.
Speaker 1: Kids, don't try this at home.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have I wouldn't have killed him if he
Speaker 2: looked like you.
Speaker 1: You would have just thrown a grenade.
Speaker 2: I would have just the grenade.
Speaker 1: We don't feel those That's right.
Speaker 3: Let's do let's do one more.
Speaker 2: Let's do uh and I misunderstood the assignment, by the way. Okay,
Speaker 2: So so it's fine, okay, okay, cool, Yeah, we got it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think who should have?
Speaker 3: Who's another character? You got to do? Classic Pooh? I
Speaker 3: know we keep doing Pooh. Leave in the comments. By
Speaker 3: the way, who think of some voices for these voice
Speaker 3: swap games for Jim to do? Because we were kind
Speaker 3: of in a in a pattern. Now, yes, so drop
Speaker 3: a comment of what voices you want to hear? But
Speaker 3: how about we do Pooh and Katie killed Joy?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Pooh and Katie kill Joy. Okay, let's see.
Speaker 1: Would you please pass loney, I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna need you to pass that. Honey, I'm gonna need you.
Speaker 3: And then let's just do vice versa.
Speaker 2: Breaking the news and breaking those bus sizes.
Speaker 1: Okay, geez, I don't know who should respond to breaking
Speaker 1: the news and breaking those bus passes see see Disney
Speaker 1: see not bad? Right? How am I doing?
Speaker 2: That's pretty sure they're applauding your improv skills.
Speaker 1: Yeah they are, And I'm applauding the fact that you
Speaker 1: didn't make me cuss too badly. Hey, I'm surprised, yeah,
Speaker 1: restraint is.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised that the universe allowed us to be like
Speaker 2: in this proximity for.
Speaker 1: This all life is good, ladies and gentlemen, can we
Speaker 1: hear it?
Speaker 3: Yes? Yes, Do you have anything coming up that you
Speaker 3: want to plug, anything like that?
Speaker 1: Anything?
Speaker 2: I don't think so, I just uh, oh, I'm doing
Speaker 2: a show by now. I think all of the episodes
Speaker 2: are streaming. It's a show called Class Acts. It's kind
Speaker 2: of like, uh, the Office meets a hell of a Boss.
Speaker 2: It's written by the same people and so it'll be
Speaker 2: properly demented, properly demented. It's a show about an acting
Speaker 2: class in l A and I play an acting teacher.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's it's a lot of fun. It's that's
Speaker 2: a great idea. Yeah yeah, I mean it's a very
Speaker 2: flexible show. You can have a lot of different shenanigans.
Speaker 2: And I've taken a Bajillian acting classes, so I felt
Speaker 2: like I knew that the source material.
Speaker 1: Well, oh that's great. That's a great idea.
Speaker 3: That's a great past.
Speaker 2: Class Acts and it's eight episodes.
Speaker 3: A right, break a lip, just YouTube YouTube.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, break a lip, brother, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: All right, let's hear it, ladies and gentlemen, ran and writer.
Speaker 1: Let the crowd went mild right, that's what I always say,
Speaker 1: but that was for me, not you.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, well, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 3: Thank you, and thank you guys all for watching. That
Speaker 3: was another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings. Don't
Speaker 3: forget to like and subscribe. We are closing in so
Speaker 3: close to one hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube, which is
Speaker 3: just awesome. Thank you for all the support. We really
Speaker 3: appreciate it. Don't forget. You can find bonus content, that's right,
Speaker 3: bonus content on Patreon. Thank you for all our patrons.
Speaker 3: We really appreciate you guys there. And of course Brandon
Speaker 3: Rogers joined us today. Thank you so much, and we'll
Speaker 3: see you in the next one. And of course almost forgot.
Speaker 3: You can find this podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts
Speaker 3: and especially YouTube. We love you guys. We'll see you
Speaker 3: in the next one. Come boom.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 3: That was a lot of fun. You're gonna have to
Speaker 3: come on again. You got a lot to say.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was fun, fun,