The Voice of…Will & Christy

Will and Christy interview each other for the first time!  They share  stories from their own careers that these co-stars turned co-hosts never heard before...including one that ended in what could only be considered utter humiliation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Christy, Oh hi Will, how are you? I feel
like a hot pile of garbage. Oh that's great, Well,
if it makes you feel any better. You look like
a hot pile of garbage. I mean kidding you. Look,
I've never seen you not look amazing. You look awesome
even now you're sick, aren't you? I am? I am

(00:20):
so basically I had you know, I stayed behind, which
we should definitely talk about because we haven't touched base
on how San Francisco went um, and we're such a
tag team that I don't know how do you survive
without me? I barely did? Everyone used you so much? No, really,
you have no idea how. The fans were really bummed
you weren't there, and we're so looking forward to it

(00:42):
and really wanted to see you. So, not to make
you feel guilty, but you ruined lots of people's lives
more garbage on top of garbage, just throwing garbage on
a dumpster fire. Everybody understood. Everybody, of course understood. That's
what you do when you have, you know, little kids
and family and everything going on around you. I totally
understand that. But there were people were bummed. You couldn't
be there. Yeah, people were bumping, but tell so, tell me.

(01:02):
Let's review. So you went to San Francisco. I went
to fan Expo San Francisco, which was the first year convention.
And sometimes first year conventions are hit or miss. You know,
they're trying to find their audience. Sometimes it was great.
The people were so I mean, like every convention we've
been to, the people were incredibly friendly, um so accepting
and loving. I've always said I wish the entire world

(01:23):
could be like a convention. I recorded an episode with
Steeve Blue. It was so much fun. We had the live,
a giant live podcast room. It was, i would say,
by the end full once again, the audience stepped up,
Joe Wos drawing for us live, everybody doing the voices.

(01:43):
It was We had I'm not gonna say who, but
a very special voice over guest who popped in in
the audience who then jumped in line. Uh, we had.
It was a ridiculous amount of fun. Not to make
pile even more hot garbage on top of your hot garbage,
but I'm just happy for the It was great, No,
it was great. It went and we we we gave
you several shoutouts in that we were mean to you

(02:05):
saying we were glad you weren't there. I'm sure I
can't expect that that's what happens if you don't know,
we missed you a ton, but it was, it was
don't we'll figure we'll figure out. We always do your
you know, it's it's it's not a problem, but we
um it was. It was really a lot of fun.
It really, that's really but that's seriously, that's so good.
It's it's really like we're in this place right now

(02:26):
with our podcast here that we're trying to get the
word out. And so you know, I don't know if
you've been an avid listener. If you have, you are, yes,
you're ting. And if they're avid listeners out there that
do want to like you know, promoted and throw up
a hashtag and at and get the word out. I mean,
we really appreciate that. I appreciate a good review right

(02:49):
like on Apple or wherever. But it was no, I mean,
the whole thing was nuts. For instance, and you'll hear
this in the interview, but Steve Bloom holds four Guinness
Book of World Records when it comes to sober what. Yeah,
and he didn't know three of them really. Oh yeah,
because his man, no, I did my work. But then
his manager also came up was like, you know he

(03:09):
holds it was like most times ever playing Wolverine in
in video games and blah blah blah. Most prolific voice actor.
He's done something like six voiceover roles. I mean it's
it's insane. Yeah, So he held all these kinds he
was And of course I've also known him for fifteen
twenty years and he's my D and D buddy. So um.
And his real life wife is my D and D wife.

(03:31):
But our characters on Critical Role are married and have kids.
Um so uh. But he married her in real life
as a as a woman, a beautiful woman. I married
her on D n D as a tie fling um,
which is a lf for something Christine. Okay, I don't know.

(03:59):
You have to do when you see that, look, you
know what? I am in love with Critical Role and
what they're doing. I actually, um, I've known Sam Recal
like my whole life, and his sister Eden that we
she was my Spanish tutor and Sam was like always
this like really cool older brother type. And Sam Recal
doesn't have that. He totally does. I mean, he went

(04:22):
to Harvard and he was such a smart guy and
just such a good person, always always, always, always, and
it's so great to see him. Like literally we're talking
about a guy who was like I went to Harvard,
like I said, really wonderful son, really wonderful brother. And
then on top of that, he was like in the
Acapella cup like group at Harvard and they were like

(04:43):
really they were like almost famous, they were so good.
So it's so weird to me that Sam's got this
whole new life as not that, but he's not just
the role, but he's an incredible voiceover director. That's I
was saying, like it's that was what was really strange
to me that I just bumped into him and I'm like,
this is really weird. He's a director. I saw him
at the studios, not l A studios, but those other

(05:05):
studios that they're using now Magnolia. Which ones are the
that is it called Magnolia. There's some that are Magnolia Studios,
there's some that are Bang Zoom, there's some that Outlook.
But there's there's you know, there's probably seven or eight
that you go to mostly ye know, it's usually you'll
get it's like you're going to Out Loud or you're
going to Magnolia, or you're going to Bang Zoom or

(05:27):
you're going and it's like, um, yeah, after a while,
you're kind of like at the same five or six.
But there's hundreds, you know, there's it's always and then
you'll always hear you'll do some project that you don't
know about it, and it's like you end up in
somebody's kind of garage and you're like, this is certainly interesting.
Um but no, it's yeah, the whole thing they're doing

(05:47):
over there, critical role and and everything that's going on.
Um but no, we're it was fun. It was fun.
We miss We certainly missed you. The fans certainly missed you. Um,
but we had a blast. But so here's the thing
we wanted to talk about a little bit on this
very special episode of I Hear Voices, not like a
very special episode of Different Strokes, but a very special
episode of I Hear Voices, um where for the first

(06:10):
time we realized Christine and I have never really talked
to each other about our voiceover gigs. If you don't mind,
I'd like to start Christie with the spotlight pointed at you.
Oh man, Okay, sure, that's cool. We'll do we'll we'll
be we know each other well, enough will be brief
for both of us. This will be well, those are plants.

(06:30):
Your plants are going well, he made he makes fun
of me because we do zooms as well here and
so I I usually I've moved into a new house,
and I didn't have any pictures on the wall, and
then I put pictures on the wall one week and
then I literally put this tree behind me. It's this
fake ficus tree and um hashtag fake ficus and now
I'm getting my head caught in it as an attempt

(06:52):
to make it home. It's good because when you first
the first time you recorded in there, it looked like
you're being held against your will. So this is and
I don't even have the light on anymore. Got anyway,
we're good. I think we're good. So Christy Carlson Romano,
I'm very curious what was the first voiceover gig you
ever did, and how did you get into the world
a voice over? Interestingly enough, I started doing voice acting

(07:15):
when I was very young. Um, I have still to
this day, I have a recording of me doing my
first audio book when I was about twelve. Wow, do
you remember the book? What was the book? M I
think it was Junie B. Jones Um And I think
it's like, I think it's like a children's like it

(07:37):
was some sort of a children's history anthology. And I
remember a lot about that experience because I had done
a lot of theater, and I had done a lot
of even some independent films and stuff like that, twelve thirteen,
but being caught in sort of this little room, this
padded room, where it's so quiet and it's so calm. Yeah,

(07:59):
isn't it wonderful? It was a really interesting experience and introduction.
And then like you you're very you know, when you're
a little performer, like you've got a lot of energy,
you've got a lot of thoughts, and then, like you said,
you're put into a room and your task with reading
an entire book. Now, mind you. I guess I was
a pretty good reader to be like twelve and doing

(08:19):
like you know, sure, but it was I don't think
it was advanced enough. And I had been reading scripts
my whole life since you know, I was like seven
or so. So I think that I think about my
kids and she's just about to turn six, and I'm like,
we're not there yet. She couldn't possibly she's not reading really, Um,
so yeah, I think, um, you know, twelve is a
really good age. I think as a as an early

(08:41):
introduction to even something as simple as, you know, some
sort of small book reading experience or I here's the thing.
So when people ask me about like, okay on camera,
are you gonna put your kids in the business and
all that stuff, obviously it's a complex issue. But at
the same time, I think when it comes to voice acting,
and we've talked about this in the past, the voiceover

(09:03):
community is so positive and it's very very sweet. Like
I remember Tim Ditlow, I'm going to say a specific name.
He was the head of Random House Books on tape
and they had just started to emerge as a sort
of force for audio books. Audiobooks started to become something real.

(09:28):
And so you know, we're going back how many years,
I'm thirty eight, you know, Um, And so this was new,
you know, this was kind of a new technology. The
voice recording was not, but for the purposes and the
protocols of sitting down and reading a book that was
sort of becoming a booming business at that point. So anyway,
I just remember sitting there and drinking tea because I

(09:50):
drank a lot of tea even from a young age,
from being like a singer and doing theater, and I
just remember, I think somebody got me a croissant. So
here's the interesting thing, right, Like I think there's this
saying of like I think a therapist on me this
once up at a time, when you go into a
room and you sit in a certain chair, you're more

(10:13):
than likely when you re enter that room, even if
it's a different day, to sit back in that chair,
that same chair, you tend to like repeat. I've noticed
that that that you know, people are creatures have have it.
So for me, the tea and like a croissant, if
it's like a long record, there's certain things that actually

(10:34):
help that may not help say your voice, um, but
they help sort of activate my abilities to like focus
on the work. So it's almost Pavlovian for you, where
it's like you sit down, you're in the chair, you've
got the tea, you've got the questal as they say it,
and with the perfect lamination because the butter has been

(10:54):
folded in just right or right or something hells to pay,
you know exactly, and so that brings you right into
like like like voice over mind. I think so. I
think that like when I'm in the booth, which we
really have never talked about, UM, I feel very safe.
I feel very almost like um, I'm in in Uteroe. No,

(11:16):
that makes sense, it kind of. It kind of makes
sense because it is in a way, it's almost like
a working sensory deprivation tank because it's it's you know,
usually not really bright. Sometimes it is, but usually not
really bright, especially now after the pandemic, when I'm one
of those people were even during the pandemic, I went

(11:37):
to the studio. I observe all the protocols, but I
do not like recording from my house. I like recording
podcasts from my house because there's a homey, comfy feeling
about being in my room in my booth here and recording.
But when I'm working, I want to feel like I'm working,
and I don't feel like I'm working when I'm working
from home. That's what I like about the podcast because
I don't want a podcast to feel like work. I
wanted to feel like a conversation when I'm getting I

(12:01):
want to work, and so I want to put on pants,
I want to put on shoes, I want to get
in my car, I want to drive to a place.
I want to get out. I want to put on
my headphones. I want to work. I think that do
you think that Kevin um conroy, who has since passed,
do you think that that sort of protocol and sort

(12:21):
of do you think that that influenced you in terms
of very much? I think not only that, but it's
also it was before I even met Kevin, who was
obviously my my my voiceover guru. Um. I've been working
with William Daniels, Mr Feeney on on Boyd's World, and
and he he taught us professionalism, Like you are a professional.

(12:44):
You are there early, you are prepared to go. You
do not keep other actors waiting. It does not matter
if you are twelve. This this is what you do.
This is you are a professional. So I took that
to every aspect of the industry. So voiceover, I mean
voiceover so of the greatest actors in the world, but
you do meet some that can show up a little late.
I haven't read the script um that kind of stuff,

(13:07):
and it's like, okay, that's one way to look at it.
It's just not how I look at it. Um so
I But I get what you're saying exactly about that feeling,
especially now, as I was saying with the pandemic. I'm
still going to the studio, but you're no longer in
the giant studios that they're used to house fifteen actors.
Now you're in a much smaller studio and they shut

(13:27):
that door behind you, and there's like it's like part
of the air gets sucked into the room and you're
like and you're like, oh, I'm here to work now,
I'm here in the door shuts and all the sound
goes away. You're focused on the screen in front of you,
or the pages in front of you, the microphones in
front of you. The only voice you hear comes through
your headphones. It's like a distant kind of echo. And

(13:50):
I get exactly what you're saying. If you are in utero,
it's the doctor. You hear the doctor through you know,
as you're being born, going like all right, get ready
to push, Like that's the voice and your head um.
But the joy is when it's all done. You don't
have a stupid kid. You've got a great car um.
So that's the that's the awesomeness. So yeah, I was

(14:11):
very young when when we think back to it, and
it's like I just have a very visceral memory of
what that felt like because and and then and and
honoring my love of that experience, I was, I felt
even more and more blessed to be in rooms in
l A. Because where I was doing this was all
in New York. I was doing a lot of my

(14:32):
recording and yeah, where I was living, well, where we
were Connecticut kids. So that's that's where you went. That's
where you went to work. You went to New York. Well,
and I also went to performing arts school, so I
was already in New York. So it would be like, Okay,
I'm going to cut school or I leave early and
I go to my recording session, um, you know, down
on ninth or tenth or wherever the because like the
recording area is in the valley in Los Angeles, but

(14:56):
it's very different where they'll record in New York City. Yeah,
Like soho had a lot of voice kitchen did too,
write like around like that whole kind of area. Yeah, yeah,
that unitel video around there, all that kind of stuff.
You did a lot of stuff around there too. Yeah
it got a bit more scattered, but yeah, absolutely, yeah,

(15:17):
you know, and and also to in New York, it's
more like ad mad Men kind of add stuff. I
remember going on voice acting auditions which were mostly not jingles,
but they were mostly commercials and stuff like that for
a long time. I think that's what my introduction to
voice acting was. But we've talked about it a lot
on the podcast, and I think that my initial way

(15:40):
in two turning a phrase or trying to get a job,
which I started to get pretty good at UM, even
in my younger years before going to l a UM.
I think it it's just a matter of being a
singer and knowing that intonation is helpful. It's like a

(16:02):
one for one. It's a song and it's and there's
another thing that when I started acting, they say, well,
reach your script as many times as possible, right like
at least ten times before you even start trying to
memorize the lines or perform it. And I'm sure that's
some method, but I don't know which one it is,

(16:22):
And so I didn't necessarily read a ton of times,
but I think I had a natural inclination to sort
of honor the sing song nous of a script. So
I think even if you don't have a ton of training,
you can in your singer. I think you can probably approach,
you know, points acting easier. Yeah, that's yeah, I didn't

(16:43):
that whole read your script ten times that I read
my script obviously every time. But I don't want to overread.
I don't want to over rehearse. I don't want to
read a script ten times. I want to read it
once and then I want to keep it fresh. I
was gonna say, do you stop? Do you stop at
a certain point, and you're saying, I'm doing this too much.
Oh yeah. There's times where some of the worst auditions
I've ever had in my life were things that I

(17:03):
over rehearsed. It's just, oh my god, I want this
so bad, so I'm gonna I'm gonna rehearse fifteen times.
And then you get in there and your mind is like, wait,
I didn't do that in the rehearsal I wanted to do.
Why did I Why is that beat different? Why? And
then you start second guessing yourself. For is if it's
still fresh, you're still finding the beats and you know,
that's like one of the the first um pieces of

(17:25):
advice I was given as an on camera actor as
a kid. I was, you know, eleven, whatever it was was.
I don't care how many times your audition for something.
Always hold your script because in the mind of the
people watching your audition, it means you are not yet
off book. So there's more places to go with the
performance than just what you see in the room, as
opposed to you walk in your off book. Hey, this

(17:46):
is what I got there. In their minds, they're like,
this is all we're ever going to get because this
is as rehearsed as we're gonna get with this kid. Um.
So that kind of always hold your script always resonated
with me because it is it's that psychological like, oh,
there's still more to come from this actor because they
have yet to reach the potential of this character. You
can tell they're still on book. Wait, so but are
you actually off book holding the paper? It would depend

(18:09):
on the role. It would get anxiety when I hold
the paper. Oh really, I love holding something. I love
not having to think about my hands. So having something
to occupy my I'm a I'm a big fan of
that too. You know what, I'm actually interested. What is

(18:32):
one of your worst auditions? I know my exact worst
audition ever. It wasn't it was for on camera though,
it wasn't for mine was for theater, and okay, I
have I have to one that was funny, one that
was horrifying, so funny, okay, good. So the funny one was.
I was a huge Family Ties fan, like I love

(18:53):
my Michael J. Foxon Family Ties was all I ever
wanted to be. Michael J. Foxon Family Ties and and
Alan Alda and mac in Mash were like the reasons
I became an actor. So Gary David Goldberg, who created
um uh Family Ties, was creating a new show called
Brooklyn Bridge, and I was going to New York to

(19:13):
audition for Gary David Goldberg himself. And I was mortified, excited,
every superlative you could think of. And in my audition piece,
I had to walk downstairs and the character playing my
mom said, Hey, what do you want for dinner? And
I was supposed to say, come on, it's eight o'clock
in the morning. It's a little hard to get excited
about dinner. So I'm rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing, and

(19:38):
I get walked out, you know, get into the room
and they say action and the woman reading from my
mom says, hey, what do you want for dinner? And
I say, it's eight o'clock in the morning. I can't
get hard about dinner. And the room was dead, silent,
and it was thank you very much, and I walked out.
That was it. And I was like, that was my

(19:58):
one shot in front of Gary David Goldberg, and that's
the line that came out of my mouth. I can't
get hard about dinner. Oh no. And it was because
of that that they did it well, no, I don't know,
it was just but it was just it was so
out of left field, and so like, what the hell
was that rehearsed? No. I went through the rest of

(20:19):
the scene, but by that point it was the room
was dead. Um, there was no air left in the room. Um.
So that was my worst funny one worst as a kid,
but my worst audition ever. And it was strictly and
it didn't even want this role all that badly, if
I'm honest. Um, it was strictly from over rehearsing. It
was I rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed because I wanted

(20:40):
to walk in and nail it. I didn't care about
the role. It was more about me wanting to nail it.
And it was for a role in that really turned
out to be not great. UM disaster movie The Core
o the where the Earth, the core of the Earth
stopped spinning so they have to go to like the
center of the Earth. Stanley Tucci was brilliant, but you know,
it wasn't the best movie in the world. Um. And

(21:02):
I read for the part of a rat who was
the computer hacker guy. And the guy they ended up
casting has always played the computer hacker and is brilliant,
so they would have cast him anyway even if I
went in and nailed this thing. This was obviously the
guy that was supposed to play the role. UM. But
I just I couldn't get through it. I kept stopping
and starting myself to the point where the woman, the

(21:23):
casting director, stopped the recording and walked up to me
and was like, are you okay, Like you need to relax,
and I and this, but I had already done Boy
Meets World, Like I've been an actor for years by this,
But I had so overrehearsed it that I just I
couldn't get through that, and I remember going kind of
like thank you, and like, I'm not sure I ever
even finished the audition. UM, it was just harsh. So

(21:46):
those are my two. What do you got? Cool? So yeah,
I mean I'm trying to think of if I've ever
had a bad voice over audition, and I can't say
that I have because I really feel like when you
go in UM, especially if you go into a studio
and they have a director there and they really are

(22:08):
rooting for you to do a good audition, Whereas I
feel like when you go into a theater audition or
a in person camera whatever audition, I feel like you're
wasting their time, you know. And it's like I can
see that that's kind of an interesting way to look
at it. Yeah, you do get that vibe sometimes totally.
I mean it's like they've got a problem. And then

(22:29):
I say, in an acting class, they're always like cool,
just act as if you're there to solve their problem.
It's like I can't do the mental gymnastics. It's hard.
So that's why voice acting is so freeing even in
the it's it's also so validating even in the process,
the audition process, it's it's like, you know what, I
did my best work, And I think when you take
out the stress of all that for me in particular,

(22:52):
I can give my best performance or a better performance
more consistently, or at least that's what I think. Um, oh,
you know what I think. Okay, trying to think. There
was only one time I did a voice acting audition
with the lady who is a big she casts for
all like the McFarland shows. Anyway, she she was very um,

(23:14):
she was very specific about me coming in and auditioning
for something, and she was really trying to help me,
but it almost seemed like she was almost trying to
reinvent my voice talent, and she was trying to kind
of really quote unquote dig deep into me becoming a
sort of a different voice or finding a voice inside
me bringing out. Now that being said, I appreciate that

(23:36):
she took the time to do that on a casting level,
But when you think about somebody who's trying to cast
versus somebody like Andrea Romano who's literally able to pull
something out of you, Because I don't know if it's
her philosophy about life. It's a different style. It's just
a different You get that with on camera actors too.
I mean you get some on camera directors, you know,

(23:58):
they just have different styles. And know George Lucas, who
does all the Star Wars movies and everything else, famously
does not like actors, has said if I could replace
all actors with robots, I would. So there's some people
that just they don't have the It's not even a talent,
it's just the the capacity to pull that out of

(24:19):
an actor. I mean there's certain I always use it is,
but it's also how you have to work with him.
I I use Arnold Schwartzenegger as an example. Like Arnold Schwartzenegger,
people are like, God, he's really not that great an actor.
But if you watch Arnold Schwartzenegger in a James Cameron movie,
he's awesome. So it's like, for some reason, James Cameron
can pull a performance out of Arnold Schwarzenegger. So there's

(24:41):
certain directors and certain actors that when they work together,
you're like, that's that's great chemistry, that works really well.
And Andrea has that, you know, Lisa Lisa Shaefer has that.
So I would argue Sam Regal has that Collette Sunderman
has that there are some people that you just when
you when you work with them, they are supportive and

(25:02):
they know you as an actor well enough to maybe
say what you need to hear, maybe say what you
don't need to hear, but need to hear, if that
makes any sense. Um, and they can they can get
what they need from you. Yeah, I'm still I'm still
dying to know, though, what you're bad. Show audition was
to have one, and actually both of them were theater. Okay,

(25:23):
so that's interesting. The first one was Westport Playhouse, right,
They in Connecticut where we're from. They have Shakespeare there
and they have they had Romeo and Juliet, and I
was so excited and I really tried to understand. I've
never done Shakespeare. I wasn't trained in this whole different beast, dude,

(25:44):
so hard to remember those lines. Oh yeah, Shakespeare. Yeah,
and I've been doing and I had done you know,
Broadway productions and theaters and stuff like I've done a
different thing. Yeah, I go, and I try so hard,
and just like you said about that one audition, I
stumbled through the entire Juliet. You know a balcony scene
and I literally light through window breaks. No, I can

(26:06):
see that's not English, that's not the East. And Juliet
has the sun arise fair Son, and you can do Shakespeare.
I can do that scene. I mean that's it. I
can't do Shakespeare at all. No, I can't. I cannot
do Shakespeare at all. And it is it is a
different language. I mean it's quite it's a different language. Yeah.
That I basically walked into another country and tried to

(26:27):
speak the language like I've been speaking it osionally. That's
a perfect way to that's a perfect analogy for Shakespeare.
It was devastating and also humbling. I think it was
really humbling, and it gave me so much more respect
for people because I think that I had thought as
a young performer, I must have been like sixteen seventeen.
It was before Disney, though, so maybe what's it before Disney?

(26:49):
I think it was about sixteen, and I was just
cocky and I was like, you know, I've done theater,
and then you go and you try and do the
Shakespeare thing and they're like, oh no, this is not
this is not the same. Totally different, totally different things.
And then I also was super humbled on my birthday
of all days, I know, happy birthday. There was this
play called Vanityes that was really popular and ended up

(27:11):
going I think, like the Broadway something like years ago.
I think I was turning like twenty four and it
was my birthday, and I hadn't really gone out for
a lot of musical theater auditions. Like just being in
l A, you don't get a ton of them, and
so I was like, Okay, this is a big deal.
They're out here in l A. I'm gonna go ahead
and I'm gonna I'm gonna go to the juice bar

(27:33):
and I'm gonna get like a special drink or whatever
and make sure my voice is all good while I
get this special drink. And it's my birthday, right, So
I'm like, okay, I'll get this drink. It'll just put
me in the mood to really like have energy and
I'll feel like clean. Well, it has cayenne pepper in it,
oh no, and some people, I think in terms of
their vocal like working, some people do really well with

(27:58):
kyenne pepper. But it has to be I think a
certain amount, and I think it has to be counterbalanced
in terms of the acidity or the you know, like
you have to have slippery elm mixed in with you know,
a throat coat or whatever with a little kayenne pepper.
Maybe because I think I had remembered there was a
really amazing singer on a show I did called Parade
on Broadway, and he had this throat coat that he

(28:20):
would mix with some kay and pepper, and I was like, oh,
kay and pepper will help. And it turns out that
it took my voice like completely away from me. I
tried to do my best and I just botched that
whole audition. I botched the music. I botched music I prepared,
I forgot the words. It was like just such a
cluster f and um. And I think, I don't know.

(28:43):
I think maybe in retrospect it humbles you and in
terms of being an artist, and I think there's something
to be said for you know, being an artist is
a very like um, it's not the best. You are
tortured in one way or another. Yeah, again, it depends.

(29:07):
There's obviously certain things in my career that I look
back at and would do differently and everything, But to me,
being an artist is the best. I love it. Um,
even the horrible parts of it I love, but I
have to imagine that's life, you know, it's it's there's
there's good and bad and everything you do. Um. I
always joked about never wanting children. I'm guessing since so
many people are doing it, there's good parts in that

(29:29):
as well. UM. I don't know what they are, but
they're they're they're probably there. Uh So, I mean I
think you know, it's one of those things where I
was never see It's so funny because I never considered
myself an actor, if that sounds strange, but I didn't.
I always consider myself an entertainer because I like to

(29:49):
entertain people. The idea that I'm going to go off
and my goal is to go star in some movie
to try to win an Academy Award. That ain't never
gonna happen, nor was it ever gonna happen, nor was
that every my goal. I don't have those skills to
go in Wow, like you say Shakespeare, I don't have
I can do Shakespeare. That's not your calling. It's a
whole different interesting um. And I can't wait for you

(30:13):
to hear the Steve Steve Bloom interview about how he
got started and his first job he literally worked went
from a mail room and he worked did this voiceover
job for a friend of his, making sounds for pizza.
That's what he got paid. He got paid pizza to
go to go to do his first job ever. Yeah,

(30:34):
so it's uh, you know, it's in some good pizza.
You don't know where where people can start or what
they can do. But but then it's interesting, like when
you say, like, in terms of what your goal was,
your calling, so to speak, like you knew you had
a relationship to your art form in a very intimate way.

(30:55):
My art form consisted of until I really learned how
to how to make people laugh the right way. My
art form as a kid consisted of walking to a
room and essentially yelling everyone look at me. That was
that was my art form. I wanted to be the
center of attention. I wanted to make people laugh. I
wanted to use the comedy I saw on TV and

(31:15):
the Michael J. Fox's timing and al and all this timing.
That was until I until I really got on the
set of Boy Means World and had an opportunity to
work at the craft every week, and to find out
that it was a you know, it was comedy as
a song, and and so the second I started to
hear it and not only could play on beat, but
play off beat, that's when I was like, oh, I

(31:37):
get this now, But that took me years. I was
twenty by the time I figured that out. Um so,
uh yeah, it's and then and then there's a whole
different song with voiceover to bring it back to video,
there's a whole different song with vo And you see
people you stand next to, men and women that hear
the song louder than you do, can interpret it better
than you do, can play it better than you I mean,

(32:00):
it's just if you're in any talent business, talent related business,
there will always come a time where you're standing between
two people who are better at whatever you're doing the
way it is. But I guess that's what you do
with that humility, Like it seems like you had the
stick tutiveness, especially having been contracted to continue to show
up and be on that show that you had to

(32:21):
fill upwards. Oh yeah, well, I'm I just loved it.
And it's to me, I never saw it as failing,
even though it was. I mean, you know, you you
every we always talk about how in this industry you're
you're you say no with everyone says no a thousand
times before you hear yes. Um it was you know,
there was a I've talked about this kid. His name
was Mike Moran. He was like my my commercial nemesis

(32:44):
when I was growing up, because he booked every single
commercial in New York named it, and this kid booked it.
And I'd walk in and I'd see Mike Moran and
I'd be like, well, there's no point in me staying
here anymore. He's gonna be I have not. Oh my god,
I love doing that sometimes where I'm like, where are
they now? Where are the people that I grew up now?
I want to look at Mike Moran? What what what
state was he in? Well? This was in New York

(33:06):
at the time. I don't know where he was from,
but he booked Were you guys like friendly? Did you
just have ye? It was always kind of like the hey,
how you doing thing? But he was always booking like
he got the big Michael Jordan's coke commercials, Like Mike
signed in on the chart. Yes, You'd see the signing
sheet and be like, oh, Mike Moran, I'm twelve years old.

(33:27):
How do I have a nemesis already? But it was
so funny. A sheet or not a signing sheet is
what you do when you walk in and I was
just a sheet that you have to sign in your
name agent, and you look at you do you look
at everybody else, and you have to keep in mind
for a lot of the stuff I was auditioning for
back in the late eighties early nineties in New York.

(33:49):
The names on the list were Leonardo DiCaprio, maybe McGuire.
It was that whole crew really, so you saw them
in the I didn't know that. Of course, these were
all you know, we were all auditioning for all the
same thing, the same age. Yeah, I don't know. I
don't know Leo at all. I'm not sure I've ever
other than hey, what's up. I don't never shook the

(34:11):
man's hand or set, you know, been in the same
room with you know, oh, sure of that same kind
of crew. So weird, wacky world. So we would be
remiss though, Christie if we because unfortunately we've got this.
This episode is not gonna be very long, um, but
we need to talk about some very important things. Oh yeah,

(34:33):
we have someday we'll have to talk about, like how
we got Kim and Ron and all we'll get. We're
gonna do an entire episode about Kim and Ron. That's
another one we're gonna do. But but when you know
we're you know when we're gonna do that. We're gonna
do that. We're gonna do an episode. We're gonna bring
on as many people from Kim Possible as possible, and
we're gonna all talk about Kim Possible, so everyone will
be here. Yeah, we'd like to talk about the super

(35:03):
awesome contest to become the next big voice over actor
because we're still, as you must imagine, figuring out all
the legal stuff because um, there's so many moving parts.
You say, why is it so legal, Well, it's legal
because there's so many things you're gonna win. We've talked about.
You get flown out to Los Angeles, you're having lunch
with us, you win a thousand dollars, you're recording stuff

(35:23):
for I hear voices, you win And this is just
the most insane thing in the world. A one year contract.
And any time I talked to another voice over actor
and I tell them that that's one of the prizes.
They freak out, are you kidding me? You are giving
away uh one year contract with a voiceover agency. Getting

(35:44):
an agent in Hollywood is the most difficult thing to
do in any part of the business. Look, I want
to call it a big break, but Will doesn't want
to call it a big break. It's because it's it's
a possibility of your big break, because you've got to
still make your break. We can, that's sure, but he
can't give you your big break. You've got to earn
your big break. There's no such thing as a big break.

(36:05):
But if there were, we are you. You're gonna earn
your your stripes. But we're going to open the door.
That's how I look, and I think I'm doing. The
contest is part part of the earning. Absolutely absolutely, it's
going to be so much fun. But until then, as
Christie was saying, first of all, I think I can
speak for everybody in the audience Christie when I say

(36:27):
feel better. Um, you are a super mom and super
wife and you had everything going on and so you
still you did it all while being sick. But now
you need to take care of yourself a little bit
because we've got big things happening, you know, so you
gotta you gotta take care of your health. I'm bouncing
back and we're gonna. We're gonna. We're gonna find a star.
We're gonna find we are, we are. We're going to

(36:48):
find the next big voice actor. We really are. We were.
We are not looking for a contest winner. We are
looking for a colleague. So that is what we are
out there trying to find and we will So until then,
if you think you have what it takes to step
up to the microphone, then put your voices where your
mouth is. It's coming people, get ready. I Hear Voices

(37:09):
as hosted by Wilfred l and Christy Carlson Romano. Executive
produced by Wilfredel, Brendan Rooney, Amy Sugarman and Vicky Ernst Chang.
Our executive in charge of production is Danielle Romo. Our
producer is Lorraine Vera Weez and our editor slash engineer
is Brian Burton. And that was my announcer voice. Some
side effects of listening to I Hear Voices are sore
abs from hilarity falling down the Coco melon rabbit hole,

(37:29):
sneezing due to mass nostalgia and hugs. Follow I Hear
Voices wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss
any of the amazing voices. Be sure to follow us
on Instagram and TikTok at I Hear Voices podcast. You
can also check us out on my space omeigal Vine,
lime Wire. Hey I'm a napster. Okay, well let's teach
you about the Internet, the who