Pinky Yako and More With Rob Paulsen

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everybody, Welcome back. It's time again for Word Balloon,
the comic book and animation conversation show John Senttriss here.
I mentioned animation because this year marks the thirtieth anniversary
of Pinky and the Brain, the Animaniac spinoff that gave
the world two of animation's most unlikely lab partners. At
the height of the series. Enduring charm is the voice
of Rob Paulson, Pinky himself, the first of all actor

(00:22):
who brought the dimwitted character to life with this unforgettable nerve.
But that's just one facet of Paulson's career. You're going
to hear about his time as Raphael and Donna Tello
and Teenage Me Ninja Turtles, to of course Jacko and ANIMANIAX.
We recorded this back when Hulu brought Animanias back and
gave us some full new season of Animaniac stuff, but

(00:45):
I'm happy to represent it to you now, a fantastic
conversation from a really, really great guy, Rob Paulson, on
today's Word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought to you by
Alex Ross Art dot Com, the official showcase for the
legendary comic book artist Alex ros us from timeless Marvel
and DC heroes to stunning original creations. Alex's artwork captures

(01:06):
the power and humanity of the world's greatest icons. At
Alex Ross dot com, you'll find beautifully crafted prints, posters,
and exclusive one of a kind pieces you won't see
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(01:27):
a masterpiece home. Word Balloon is also brought to you
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(01:49):
Michael Bendison myself sit down every month with our listeners
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It's a fun way to support the show and get
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Word Balloon Listeners. Check it out today at patreon dot
com slash word Balloon. Hi everybody, welcome back.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
My god, you for the highest production value podcast ever John.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Hi, praise. I appreciate that, man. I saw you left
when we're interrupting Ironside so that.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
It was genius and Alex Ross I could look at
Alex Ross's stuff every day. My god, I remember meeting
Alex years ago at a Warner Brothers store and I
guess probably during Batman, but oh my god, what are
world class talent? So I am a remarkably wonderful company.

(02:46):
Thanks so much, man.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
He's a sponsor. Man, I appreciate it. Great to see you.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Rob.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Welcome back to word below.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
My great pleasure. And I for your legion of fans,
which has a pretty cool ring to it, esecially under
the circumstances. Thank you again, and your your fans need
to know that yours truly being the old Ninja turtle
that I am utterly spaced the last time that John
was kind enough to ask me on and you as

(03:14):
if you did, as if you need to be reminded
what a terrific guy John is. It would be very
easy for me to say, Okay, mister Hollywood, mister hot shot,
big shot, you've forgotten and never darken my door again.
But John did not do that. John continued the lower
the standards for yours truly and welcomed me back with

(03:35):
open cartoon arms. So you guys are spending your time
with the right man. John is the real deal. So
thank you, John.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
I praise Robin. You know, I think the world of
view and stuff happens. It's okay, man, it's totally fun.
So we're here together. And god, man, you know less.
I saw you a terrific on yes years ago in
twenty nineteen, the last time we taught Animaniacs was still
in production. I believe maybe or I certainly hadn't been

(04:07):
released yet on Hulu.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, probably, Yeah, man, what.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
A great season, and I certainly hope that things will continue.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well so far, knock Wood. Look anytime, as you know, John,
anytime you get to get to work on a project
and the checks are signed by mister Spielberg, it's a
great experience from every aspect. The finest writer is the
finest animators. Music for days, forty piece orchestra for every

(04:39):
half hour. Things that just don't happen unless you happen
to have been Carl Stalling and Milt Franklin a million
years ago. Absolutely yeah, And we had been picked up
initially with the Hulu run for two seasons, the first
of which dropped in November of last year. I don't
think it's arguable that it is an unqualified success. The

(05:05):
second season will be coming out probably this summer. I
don't great. Yes, And we're now in the middle of
doing the third season, which will be for twenty twenty two.
And I don't know, man, we did one hundred or
close to one hundred episodes of Animaniacs and Pinky and
the brand of the first go round, and if the

(05:28):
current success both you know, the ratings metrics are different
for streaming services, but for lack of a better term,
if the ratings and the anecdotal fan reactions are any indicator,
I reckon we'll be doing this for a while. My god,
what an opportunity John to get a chance to do
this again with Stephen again. I can't even tell you

(05:53):
what a gas it.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Is, man. Really, congrats to the whole cast and crew,
because you guys have not lost a beat and I
really my I think my personal favorite of the Picky
of the Brains is the one where you guys take
the mouse and turn her into basically kind of a
female you know, version of the brain, and then you
don't put around office and everything. Ever.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, that is oh god, I have to remember the
the it's a wonderful I'll figure i'll remember her name.
But yeah, it's just a great just an incredible job.
And and I'll tell you one of the one of
the most wonderful things that happened. As you can imagine,

(06:38):
the crew of writers virtually all grew up watching the
original Wow, and in many cases it is what inspired
them to become writers. Wow. I have to tell you, guys,
what was so precious was the first day that we
went to do the new episodes of Thinking the Brain.

(07:00):
I don't know, almost two years ago now, Mo and I,
Maurice and I were there and and we started recording,
and it was glorious. We looked for the glass and
there are i think three young writers who just wanted
to be there, and I'm telling you they, to a

(07:23):
man and woman had tears because they heard I think
so Brian with their words coming out of Pinky's mouth.
And it was a profoundly remarkable experience for them and
to be able to watch that. I was able to
grasp really how important these characters are to a lot

(07:46):
of people. Not fans obviously, but all of us who
do this work are fans of the medium, are fans
of the genre, comic books, animation. So we inspire each
and to be able to watch that with these kids
who are as old as my child, we're just going,
oh my god, this is Pinky and the brain are

(08:08):
saying my words, it was crazy cool, really cool.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Absolutely, man, No, that's fantastic And I can appreciate that.
And yeah, it's amazing to step back and suddenly realize
you know that, you know, it's several generations now that
have really enjoyed what you guys have done. And and
I mean really that puts you guys with the you
know you mentioned the musical people like Carl Starling stuff.
This puts you with the Looney Tunes guys and the
MGM cartoons and the like. Exactly do you have me

(08:36):
TV in your market? Me?

Speaker 2 (08:39):
T I think so. I've never really watched it. But okay,
why why do you ask? Because I'll find it.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Well. The reason why it is, honestly, they've brought back
Saturday Morning cartoons. I know, I had the same reaction.
And they do an hour of Popeye first, then they
do an hour of Tom and Jerry and all the
MGM stuff.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Oh my god, the money.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Tunes for the final hour, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, then I will have to check that out because
when I've done my own podcast a couple of times
that I've done it for fundraising events and things live
at places here in Hollywood, and often we would do
like at the Improv. We did an evening during Christmas
to raise you Toys for Tots stuff and we had
everybody show up, which is a Hollywood night club. You

(09:28):
serve booths there. But I said, Maurice, and I said, okay,
we're going to watch We're going to screen a Pinky
in the Brain Christmas.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
It's a lovely episode, and we would ask that when
all of you come to the show, obviously bring a toy,
but if you want to show up in your pajamas
and we'll have cereal stuff, now you can.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Pour boods on it.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
But it was great, and we're watching cartoons at the
Improv on Melrose in pajamas and everybody had an absolute riot.
It's just cool. So that whole experience of Saturday Morning
cartoons is something that that I certainly relish as a

(10:15):
as a certainly serious he's talking to me, I said,
Saturday Morning Curtains. Okay, this is what I found. Okay,
Siria for now. So anyway, I feel bad for kids
not to have that network, ABC, CBS, NBC Saturday morning vibe.

(10:38):
So once again, the new media, the new technology says, well,
screw it, we'll do our own Saturday Morning. So thank
you for telling me.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
I'll check that out absolutely, man, and they do. They
showed really the vintage stuff and you know, black and
white and color Fleischer stuff in the first hour.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
And then yeah, and I mean that's the amazing because
not only Popeye, but they're showing Betty Boop. I'm really
hoping they'll show some cocoas uh yeah, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, that's all that termite terrast stuff. And and I
just I, oh, I love that. And it's really interesting
how with with Facebook and on the social media, I'll
ad people who are relatives of tex Avery and Friz Freeling. Wow, me, Hi,
I'm Friz Freeling's daughter. I'm now eighty seven. But I

(11:30):
want to tell you how much. I enjoy anime. Are
you kidding me? John? I get to hear from Friz
Freeling's kid, And that was a name that I saw
from the time I can remember learning to read credits.
You know, you'd see Mel Blank, Friz Freeling, Bob McKimson,
Bob Clampett, Yes, Franklin, Yeah, every time voice organizations, Mel Blank,

(11:57):
June Forae Dodge Butler. I see those names over and
over and over and over it again. So to get
a chance to have some connection with the type of
animation that inspired Steven Spielberg is pretty cool, you know,
one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Man, I'm gonna let some people chime in. It was
one of the questions I wanted to ask you. Jenny's
hoping you'll still maybecome the Comic Con Liverpool in November.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Jenny, Oh my gosh. I love Jenny. She's sweet. She
she always jumps on our little podcast things at three
o'clock in the morning UK time.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
That's awesome. And I noticed, Am I wrong? I thought
I saw something for Indie Popcorn in Indianapolis that you're
gonna be Are you going to be there?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes? I am planning to be there. That's the deal.
I've been vaccinated. I understand that, and I'm sure the
folks do in Indy. I have been. They've been very
kind in asking me to be there a couple of times.
The first time I had to take a pass because
because I had a little sidetrack with cancer.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
But I'm fine now, Oh good, okay, great.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
And the second time was COVID that had to be
shut down. So everybody is planning to do events and
there's a big asterisk COVID protocols notwithstanding. And so I
can't even tell you how much I want to get
back to being out there because when I had the

(13:25):
pleasure of meeting you. As much as I appreciate opportunities
that you're giving me that we're able to reach, we're
literally all in this together, as is evidenced by this
terrific technology. But there is nothing like being able to
shake someone's hand or see their reaction when Yappo says hello, John,

(13:49):
you know it, Look what happens to your beautiful face.
That that is something that that I can't quantify in
terms of what it does to me. So from a
purely selfish perspective, I love I'm a live performer. That's
how we all got started to be able to be
in front of fans and friends one and the same

(14:12):
really and see how the reactions affect people in the
most profoundly joyful way. John Is I just can't get
enough of this. I mean, I cannot wait to get
back out there.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
See that's awesome, man, because again you remember these original stars,
and I know you've worked with many of the other
as well, and so as much. You know, like they
grew up with silent cartoons. Yes, I mean, that's the thing.
It's it's just like the comic creators that I talked
to that are contemporary, they grew up as fans and

(14:46):
then got to work in the business. That's the thing, man. No,
it's so evident that you're you know, you really do
appreciate the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
It's a for sure. I revere that. I remember the
the first regular cartoon gig I got was an eighties
reboot of Johnny Quest, and I love Johnny Quest. When
I was a kid, Tim Matheson was the voice of
Johnny Quest at like age twelve. Yes, he's I think
ten years older than I. So used to be an

(15:16):
ABC I believe Friday Night Prime Time, Prime Time yes, sir,
and I used to just you know, yes jazz opening
title and Don Messick was the voice of Doctor Quest.
And so I get this gig. I got to play

(15:37):
Hodgi as in the in the Hannah Barbera reboot and
it was about nineteen eighty five eighty four, and dude,
I show up at Hannah Barbera and there's Don Messick,
very sweet, elderly gentleman, probably about the age I am. Now.

(15:58):
I don't know that I'm sweet, although I am ellerly.
And he was very very kind, very accepting. But man,
the first time he said careful, Johnny, we've got oh Jesus,
it was just like, holy shit, that's Doctor Quest. And
I had to gather my thoughts, you know ah, because

(16:20):
it was jarring in the most glorious sense. So now,
and I remember I worked on a Jetson's project with
mel Blanc and he was probably eighty, close to the
end of his life. And Gordon Hunt, the late great
Gordon Hunt, who really gave me my shot, who is

(16:40):
directed all the cartoons that had a Barbara. It was
also Helen Hunt's father, and certainly he was a world
class acting coach in Hollywood, and very cool yeah, And
so Gordon said to me, Hey, Robbie, Mel's here today
for this Jetson's project. You want to sit next to him.

(17:01):
So I sat next to mister Blank and I did
with any what any young actor would fan would do.
I mustard my courage and I said, mister Blank, I
hope I'm not overstepping, but like anyone with a pulse,
I'm a huge fan. If it's not too much trouble.
And before I got it out of my mouth, he

(17:22):
knew what I wanted. So he looked at me, took
off his glass, said man, what's up, Doc? And jus
it was like a mini seizure. It was just and
I don't mean to count seizures, but it was just
just the coolest mind blowing experience. What's up, Doc, That's

(17:43):
all it took, and and it was I mean, it
was magical. Is not hyperbole, It really was. So that
is all to say that I would never compare myself
to Mail or Does or any of those people. That's
for other folks to do when I'm down the road.
But and let's make it clear. The fans know this,

(18:05):
but I always like to say it myself. I don't
draw them I don't like them. I'm incredibly flattered and
humbled that my friends like you and others make a
fuss over me. And I get it that the actors
are often the point person. I get that, and I
accept that responsibility. I'm very grateful for it. But I

(18:25):
now have the experience where some of the characters that
I've had a part in creating have become arguably iconic.
So when someone meets me and they find out who
I am, and they want to hear I think, so bang,
But me and pebe Longstock and what would the children
look like? Or eternal power? Or are you going to.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Finish that cross?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Or hello nurse. I see the reactions, and I'm telling
you what, John. Often it is just like my reaction
to mister blank and and mister Messick and also and
people get tearful. They all of a sudden have the
they're compelled to tell me, Rob, you got to you

(19:10):
gotta know what Ninja Turtles got me through as a
young child. You got to know how. You know, I'm
not going to go too deep, but my parents had
a very acrimonious divorce, and I have a twin brother,
and I'm telling you going back and forth hearing all
this misery. The only thing that got us through it

(19:33):
was this connection with Ninja Turtles. John. I hear stuff
like that all the time, and I am so grateful
to be able to be healthy and alive to hear
the extent to which these characters connect with people on
a deep level, way bigger than a paycheck, way bigger

(19:55):
than a rating point. It's it's a big freaking deal.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Man. That's great, man, Absolutely, that's very very cool. People
want to know, and they're saying their their towns or
where they were thinking of going as far as comic cuts,
So do you mind saying, like, you know, just start
rattling off the cities that you're going to be in
this year?

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Well that I know of, Okay, I can back up
a little bit. In addition to comic Con, many of
your folks may not know that my dear friend, slash
partner Randy Rogual, who wrote half a dozen he got
half a doesn't Emmys for writing on Batman and thinking
the Brain and freak a Zoid and all that, But

(20:38):
he's primarily a composer, and he's the guy who came
up with United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Hey do your makeup? Everyone?
All these other most of the songs people know from Animaniacs.
Warner Brothers has given Randy and me a lovely licensing
deal by which we're able to take the music of
Animaniacs and performing around the world with orchestras or just

(21:00):
to me and a piano. So we have Animniactions concert
dates booked, and by the way, folks can go to
animaniactionconcert dot com right and check those out. We have
the earliest one will be August in Phoenix, and then
we have October at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and

(21:26):
then I think we're done at least right now until
January and February and March of next year. But I
believe right now, I'm sorry. In January we're going to
be up and down the East Coast. In February we're
going to have a Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and I think Manitowac, Wisconsin.

(21:48):
But we're booking a lot of live gigs in the
meantime my live con appearances. Folks can follow me at
Twitter on at yacko Pinky all on yack O Pinky lowercase,
and I will always tell people where I'm going. The

(22:10):
first one will be Indie Popcorn. I think that's July.
I think they've got me down for dragon Con in Atlanta,
so you can check that out out at dragon Con.
Forgive me if I don't have them at off the
top of my head. The reason is that it often

(22:30):
takes a while for the convention to reach out, find
out if the actors are vaccinated, ready to go, then
get back to us and say, okay, our protocols have
dictated that we're ready now to do the show. So
from the time that I'm contacted to the time that
I'm booked is often like a month or two. We

(22:54):
have our friend Jenny in the UK is watching. Last year,
Maurice and I was schedule to go to Dublin Comic
Con and we had to put the kaibosh on it
literally three days before we went because of COVID. They
booked it for a March of this year. Still couldn't
do it.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Now it looks like it's March of next year. So
the best thing to do, folks is follow me on
Twitter or Instagram at I'm Sorry, Rob Underscore, Paulson, p
A U L s E. And on Instagram and that
will allow you to find out what I'm doing with
plenty of notice. But check out your local comic cons

(23:36):
The fact is that if I'm going to the folks
in the UK Ireland. In fact, I'm doing another An
Ireland IRISHEM talk show this week. But generally speaking, if
it's a convention overseas, it will be a bigger show
because they're the only ones that can afford to bring

(23:57):
people from the US. If it's a smaller show, that
is not meant as any disrespect, but you have to
understand that the people who put on those shows spend
a lot of money and it's very expensive to fly
somebody I don't require for its class or a limo.
I don't care about that shit. Sure, still it's expensive.

(24:17):
So it generally speaking, if you look at the MCM
shows in London, Liverpool, the other big cities in the UK.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, Ireland and Scotland are chiming in too.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Right So Scotland, Edinburgh. I think there are big conventions.
Check those out because those are the ones that we
would likely be brought to. And whether it's this year
or next year, the truth is that I'm going to
do this till I die. So as far as I know,
I still got fifteen or twenty years, I'll get.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
There, amen, man, And absolutely that's up as many as
you're able to do. Yeah, question, Oh not right, Lucy
keeps all right. Excuse me several ask Wait a minute,
we know Lucy.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Lucy's a very sweet girl. Hi, sweetie, nice to see hello, Lucy.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Well, actually Eric here Drew first says hello, Robber, I
have an important question about brain and Pinky. Does Pinky
watch Scott the Wahs?

Speaker 2 (25:18):
I'm not. Let me tell you something. If Pinky watched
Scott the wa was, I would say, let's see Scott
is if ever it was?

Speaker 1 (25:27):
It was?

Speaker 2 (25:27):
There was the Scotty the ws is. Well, because because
because because because, because because of the norfy things he does.
So that's what I have to say to that.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
And then Lucy wants to know if the ship breaking.
I'd love to know. There's a lot of fans here.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Lucy, bless your heart. Lucy is a very young sweet Sorry,
I don't mean that this was a listen, honey, compared
to me, anything as young except dirt. That's the only
thing older than I. So as much as I uh
am thrilled that our friend Lucy is asking, what does
that mean? Ship? Brinky?

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Do you know that a relationship thing? If you're shipping
and I don't know, you know that's that's right.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
I know brinky is like a bromance like Branjelina used
to do.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Exactly, there you go.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
So yes, I adore my brain, both the one that's
in my head, which is a little screwy sometimes, and
my real life brain. Maurice LaMarsh is a he could
not be the only way he could be more of
a brother to me is if he actually shared my DNA.
Uh and who knows, maybe by this time he does
so uh in the friendship bromance sense, I love Maurice

(26:44):
with all my heart and soul. So yes, we we
we ship each other.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yes, that's beautiful, very nice. Oh Diadley Dudley wants to
hear Pinky Suavo voice.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Please, I'm pinky s I'm too sexy far my point,
too sexy for my nerve. I think it's cooking. I
love to ride around in a big limousine. Yeah, I've
got that.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
That's awesome. Man. Again, us as people are shutting out
if rob is going to be in their cons as
he said, you know, there's that's the thing, man, we're
really just coming out of the COVID situation. I know
from my friend Mitch at Terrificat in Connecticut. You know,
it's there's limitations on attendants that affects how many guests

(27:34):
he can have, and so yeah, I mean, it really is.
It's like mathematical calculation are still figuring out.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, and just a quick primer because folks often don't
know how this works. If John and I put on
a convention, we get a halt, we get you know,
depending upon what our feeling is. And you know, you
you have to decide whether there's a competing convention in
town were already established, and if you say no, there

(28:03):
isn't okay, But how much money can we be backwards
for you know, and and not screw ourselves financially for
the next five years, because you guys, the people who
put on these conventions, especially at the beginning, are people
just like you and me who love fandom. They love
the experience. They're not always people with a shitload of money,

(28:29):
so they try their calculus and by the time it takes,
you know, to get a con established costs a lot
of money. You don't just bring in Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill,
people who are going to be huge draws because it's
expensive to bring them. I am it's not false modesty.

(28:49):
I'm really good at my job and I love going
to conventions, but I'm not a movie star. My What
it costs to bring somebody like me or Jim Cummings
or Maurice or Tress McNeil to an event is not
terribly onerous. But if you bring enough people to make
it worth someone's while, it's going to cost you thousands

(29:11):
of dollars before you sell one ticket. So people have
to be very careful in how they mount these wonderful productions.
Now when you throw COVID into the mix, Honest to god, John,
I don't I have such respect for people to put
these on because it changes the calculus immensely, so ramatically. Yes,

(29:33):
and so if the CDC protocol suggests that, Okay, if
you're going to do terrific on last year you sold
fifty thousand tickets, If you're at the same venue to
make it safe, you only can sell you can only sell,
say twenty five thousand tickets, Well, so what do you
do raise the ticket price to one hundred and fifty
or two hundred bucks, so you can break even. So

(29:54):
it's very difficult, and the people who put on these
can mentions should be really celebrated and supported because it's
so hard to make a dime and often the people
just want to break even, but a lot of times
they don't. So I really appreciate your understanding, and uh,

(30:17):
and support your local con and you can lobby them,
say I really want you to bring Nancy Cartwright. I'm
a Simpsons fan. Nancy loves doing conventions. Bring her out here,
and and they'll try, because they want to bring comic
book artists, they want to bring cost players, they want
to bring actors, they want to bring movie people, they

(30:37):
want to bring makeup artists. You know, it's it's a
very it's a really monumental task. So I appreciate your understanding.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Absolutely, man. And yeah, it's it's a weird situation. And
so many, so many cons. God, I saw a couple
of cons say that's it. I'm out because not having
the revenue this year. I mean, they really are of
working year to year and every thing, and I mean, yeah,
good lord, I hear the amounts of money. Oh, major

(31:06):
movie stars ask and get to make these shows and stuff.
It's insane.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah. The only reason that we that is that the
rank and file actor is like myself. I consider myself
a blue collar worker and the dream factory. I'm not
a movie star, but I don't live under the freeway.
I have a nice job getting paid to do it
used to get me in trouble in seventh grade, and
I'm profoundly grateful. But the reason we have to charge

(31:32):
for things like autographs and stuff is because it offsets
the cost of the of the promoter to bring us.
If a promoter says, okay, Rob, I'd love for you
to come, I'll pay for your plane ticket, your hotel
and give you a couple of bucks for food for
the three or four days you're here. So would you
please charge a rate for your autographs? And by the way,

(31:56):
I have Nope. I'm not one of those guys who
says you got to buy something. This is not how
I make my living. I go to conventions because I
love the experience. I don't care if you spend a
dime buying something for me. Please come and say hi.
The reason we have to charge is because the money
that we can earn to offset the cost of the promoter.

(32:20):
Bringing twenty five actors is what helps the promoter stay
in business. So if we just came and said I
don't want to charge anything, and the promoter's still got
to pay for us to be there, he's going to
go broke. So what's the point. So I and people
who are you know, Maurice myself, we try to keep
our prices at a very reasonable price point. I'm not

(32:42):
going to charge one hundred bucks for my autograph. I
get that some people do, and it's up to the
consumer the conngoer to decide if it's worth it. I
am all about the fan experience. If you're willing to
wait in line and you want to come up and
spend two or three minutes chatting, I'm all about that,
and I would submit that virtually all the other people

(33:04):
are too. So it's important for you to understand that
we're not doing this to try to make a pile
of money, because we don't. It's it's for the experience
of being with the fans, and it's important to know
that understood.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Man. Absolutely, you know some people were asking about your
audio setup because I do know talking to other voice
actors obviously. You know everyone's been working from home. Yeah
and yeah, so you know.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Right now, Yeah, this is I'm in business full disclosure
with Mackie Audio. I love MACKI stuff. The truth is
the God's truth is that I had used Macki m
A c KI m A c k I E audio
gear for years, both in in ear monitors doing live performances.

(33:53):
Uh years ago, when I was in rock and roll
bands traveling around, we had Macki PA systems, their bulletproof.
They just were great. Now Mackie has a series of
I know it sounds like a commercial, but there are
other places too. Uh oh gosh, what are they called?
Uh yeah, sure, audio box, I'm sorry, audio technica. MACKI

(34:21):
has I think three different USB mix I'm just plugged
into my MacBook Air right now. I record with this
at home. I just recorded, uh well, about a month ago,
I did a session from home. Uh before I bought
a little whisper like a portable booth at home. I've

(34:42):
been recording from home all year for the last year. Everybody, Disney,
Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon. I did a recording on a Ninja
Turtle's animated feature that's coming out all got done. When
I got done, I said, how that my friend Devin,
the audio engineer in Burbank, I was up at a
vacation place two hut of miles away, and I said,

(35:04):
did you get He goes, Yeah, sounds great. I said,
I'm using a Macy microphone at USB MIC, which I
think is I don't know, one hundred bucks right, USB
mic plugged into my laptop using twisted Wave as a
backup program, and I was literally had the mic on

(35:25):
a cardboard box surro out of my pillows and a
and a and a blanket like pillow Ford Studios. And
you know, this is a guy, Devin, who's won half
a dozen Emmys, a pile of Golden Reel Audio Awards
for recording talent. And he said, Jesus, sounds like you're

(35:46):
here in the studio. And that is the kind of
technology that we have, folks. So my setup, I'm really
good at my job, but I am not at all
a techno geek. So I would absolutely encourage you guys
to just do a little research. In my case, I'm

(36:06):
all about MACKI I bought the stuff before they started
giving it to me. But even if they didn't give
it to me. You could get a killer setup for
way less than five hundred bucks. That same setup to
result in the same audio quality ten years ago would
have been five grand. I mean, the technology that's affordable,

(36:31):
that is broad cast quality is mind blowing. So I'm
not trying to dodge the question, but just do a
little research. And half the time you go to best
Buy and buy something, if you don't like it, take
it back and buy something else. It's not going to
break the bank. So I'm using Macki Audio gear. I

(36:52):
use Macki inner monitors when I'm live on stage with
animaniacs and concert I use Macki reference monitors at home
when I'm mixing an audition, so I can tell whether
I'm happy with the way it sounds. And I know
the retail price of this gear for my full setup

(37:14):
is well under one thousand bucks, probably under seven hundred dollars.
And it's not the best quality that Mackie has. It's
great for what I need, but it's They would give
me anything, and I said, oh, well, let me try
this and this and this, and they said, you shure
you don't want the top of the line. I said no,
because I don't need it. So you really can spend

(37:36):
as much or as little as you want. If you
want to have a you know, uber quiet room, you
can do that. But it doesn't have to be hiring
an audio company to come in and give you a
giant mixing board and all of that. That is entirely
up to you, folks. So it's a great time to
be a creator. It's amazing, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Robbi used to say the same thing when I in
the late eighties, when I graduated from college, I was like,
you know, if I can get like five grand, I
could probably build a nice home studio. And then thank god,
you know, the digital revolution came about at me. Yeah,
it's amazing, and it's so funny you say that you've got, like,
you know, your little portable studio and stuff. A friend

(38:18):
of mine suggested, and we did this a laundry, a
washing machine.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Oh box, what a good idea.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yeah, and then and then put comforters in pillows like
you said, and it works great. No, I understand. And
you know, I'm sure a lot of people that use
Tasha Valenze is a good friend of my.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Take Tasha, Yeah, I talked to was on the clubhouse
she's really active.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Well that's great. Oh god, Rob, I got to ask
you about clubhouse. But anyway, yeah, you know it part
of me. It's Tasi, it's not, but yeah, she's TJ.
I know broadcast from her shoe closet, which is hilarious.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I have broadcast from my rather recorded in my closet.
I've done it in an open, you know, vacant bedroom
with a bunch of as I say, I say, you know,
pillow forts studios. When I was a kid, I used
to love building pillow forts And now I just shove
a microphone in it and it really is amazing. And

(39:14):
I know there are going to be There are pieces
of Animemiacs for there that will be out this year
which I recorded during COVID from home on this very
mic there and their broadcast quality. So personally check out
Macky Audio, but there are so many other ones to

(39:36):
check out. Find what's right for you. I also like
the way it looks. It's badass looking stuff. So there
you go.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
That's awesome. Oh you know, here Mavis appreciates what we're
talking about because she minors in voice acting at school.
It's nice to hear all these budget studios'e we hear you.
We've all been there.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Well, hello, mayvs. Don't spend all your money in one place,
because I want you to come in business in the
water Tower.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
And and then I got to find it here it
is Christina. She runs to start for you and has
the same indeed for you to come to Ireland soon
to get along, you know, get it along with your
engraved Oscar and Hollywood start okay, and that adorable John
that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
It is man. Obviously I was aptly cast as Jacko
because I haven't shut up since you've been kind enough
to punch start. But this is when I start to
get really reflective and tongue tied. Sweet Christina is not
unlike many others out there who are so generous in

(40:43):
their stories about how these characters that I perform affect
them in the most profoundly positive way. That sweet girl
Christina has been so supportive. And last week Christina, she

(41:08):
registered a star in my mother's name and my late
mother's name, and so she said, Rob, he see this
right here. I want you to know that there's a
star with Lee Paulson's name on it. Because I talk
about my mother and my dad very often, and at
the very same time that they were concerned that my

(41:30):
decision to go and showbiz was maybe not the right one,
they were incredibly supportive to me and my siblings, and
I talk about how I missed my mother every single day.
So that is the type of thing that happens to
me as a result of these wonderful characters. And Christina,
God bless you, sweetie. I don't even know how to

(41:51):
thank you. It is a I'm really looking forward to
meeting you one day in person and giving you the
biggest hug because both I and my mom really appreciate that.
You're incredibly kind gesture. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Amazing man. Here I'm going to find Here we go.
Mallory wants to know at what age did you decide
you wanted to be a voice actor. How did you
realize you had the talent to be a voice actor?
You mentioned cracking wise in seventh grade.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
I think, yeah, yeah, and well you had me as
your ring town am, I saying pick up the.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Blanny found Mallory exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Thank you. You know, honestly, Mallory, there was no age
at which I decided to be a voice acer. There's
a wonderful phrase that I have lived, that I have
actually lived in person. It's called luck is when opportunity
meets preparation. John knows exactly what I'm talking about. You

(42:58):
probably do as well. I began creating character, voices and
things just because it made my soul happy when I
was just a wee lad, for no other reason than
the noblest of reasons. It just made me happy. Then
you find out that it makes other people happy, your grandparents,
your friends at school, maybe kids who want to take

(43:21):
a swing at you, and you find out that you
can make them laugh, and they, oh, it's not for bad.
So that's how the hook happens. Now. I didn't realize
until I moved to Hollywood at age twenty two that,
and by the way, I moved to Hollywood primarily to
do live action you know, TV movies, music commercials out

(43:42):
of dinner first. But little did I know that all
this preparation, by creating voices and trying to mimic actors
and movie actors and dialects. And I love to sing,
and I would sing as these characters for no other
reason than just the joy of doing it. I still

(44:02):
do it every single day because it's creative. It allows
me to come up with new things, to get new jobs,
things that you've never heard before, that I've never heard before.
So turns out that years later I had already been
doing TV and movies in LA and I got an
audition to work on Gijo and Transformers when they were unknown,

(44:28):
And that is when the preparation of doing all that
work just to do it. Then the opportunity presented itself
at twenty eight years old or twenty nine years old
resulted in me being lucky. I had driven from Michigan

(44:48):
to California with all the tools in my head and
the desire to learn and get better. So I put
myself in a position to get lucky when the opportunity
presented itself. That's when I had the chance to work
on this stuff. And about three or four or five
years later is when I just said, you know what,
if the opportunity comes back to do on camera stuff,

(45:10):
I'll take it. But I'm going to concentrate on this
because I get to be creative to an extent that
is not limited by the fact that I'm an average
looking Caucasian kid from Michigan. I'm not limited by anything
but my creativity. And now that I'm an old Caucasian
guy from Michigan, I'm still not limited by anything but

(45:33):
my creativity. So that's how it happened. And I submit
that there are a lot of young actors, writers, creators watching.
That is often how these things present themselves. Often you'll
see people who say, I moved to California to New
York to be an actor. I was getting stuff, but
it didn't really work out. But you know, I would

(45:55):
write in my spare time and I was inspired by
Patty Chayevsky or or wow, yeah, you know, uh, Frank Mankowitz,
what the Mankowitz? Or or you know the best of
the best.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Sure, yeah, yeah, all the class writers. Man, I'm with
you exactly.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
And then you say, you know, I'm pretty good at this.
I'm going to submit an episode of Good Girls. I've
got a writer's agent. Now I'm going to cement an episode.
Oh my god, they bought me, they hired me to write,
They're gonna hire me to write another one.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
All of a sudden, I'm a writer, my dear friend,
A great example of that. I'm so glad you asked
these questions, My dear friend David Hayter, who you guys
know as the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear
Solid video game series. What you may not know is
that Dave Hayter wrote the X Men movie, the first

(46:54):
x Men movie. He wrote it. You know, he got
the gig because Brian Singer, who is directing the movie,
is a dear friend of David's from before he became
Brian Simmons.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
So Dave broke.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Dave was flat ass broke here and I and asked, Brian,
can you get me a gig? I mean, I'm not
in any union. Hell I'll be I'll be a gopher.
I just got to work, and I want to be
around because you know, you want a network, you want
to surround him out right, you don't know who you're
gonna meet.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Absolutely mut this.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Out one day, Dave. And I know this because Dave's
told me half a dozen times. He literally told it
again three nights ago on a podcast I did with him.
He was driving Brian around and Brian was having a
problem with a couple of lines on X Men. So
Dave says, well, how about this now? It was just

(47:52):
literally like driving in a car. Brian said, only write
that down. Or would you record that in my whenever?
Sure kept coming back to the well and saying, you
got any other ideas? So the production company finally said,
you know what, you're gonna have to make a deal
with this guy if you're going to hire him to write,
because he's not in the writers guild. This is a
union production. So he got the gig and ultimately, without

(48:16):
you know, forget me, they shit canned the first script.
Dave wrote the X Men movie, so now he's written Watchmen,
He's written He's a millionaire writer in Hollywood. He's fixing
to go to Spain next week to be the executive
producer for the season two of Warrior None on Netflix.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
That is a guy who was an actor and it
was working out for him, but not that great, but
he was. He put himself in a position to get lucky.
And that's how it happens, folks. Not everybody comes out here,
gets off the truck from Kansas or Michigan or Toronto

(49:01):
or Venezuela and says, Okay, I'm going to be a
movie star. It may it may not, it may lead
to something else. And that's why the idea is to
surround yourself with so many creative people because you don't
know who is going to inspire you to be the
best John, the best Rob you know, the best Mallory.

(49:24):
You can be because you find people I guarant freaking
tee you who are way better than you at what
you're doing. And you come here with a lot of confidence,
which is great, but then you see somebody else perform
on stage or open their mouth or write something, and
you go, oh my god, I'm way out of my depth.

(49:48):
And then you take a breath and you say, well,
maybe I can learn. And the person who did that
for me was Phil Hartman the Lake, Yeah, was the one.
I to his face, you are terrifyingly inspirational, because at
the same moment I'd be going, I can't keep up
with Phil Hartman, who is about eight years older than

(50:10):
I think. He would say, Robbie, you're not supposed to
keep up with me. You're supposed to learn, steal whatever,
and then incorporating your own thing. I'm flattered that you
find me that. But you think I just popped out
like this, dude, I've been working at this forever just
like I had been, only I just didn't know it.
I was doing it for fun. So that's how that happens.

(50:33):
And I encourage people even if you can't go to
La whatever. Man, the phrase we're all in this together
has never been more true. You can find other folks
friends online are but like mine, you sit through them.
And this guy's a little creepy. I don't want him
in my whatever. But then you find people who are
just like you and driven, and you share stuff and

(50:56):
you share impressions, you share jokes, whatever, fanfic, and that's
how you cultivate your talent.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
It's pretty neat understood, man. And you know, I don't
know if I've mentioned this to you before, but I
come from sports radio and did my share of imitations
and parody songs and stuff. And I'm sure you feel
the same way. Isn't it great when you hear someone
else do a celebrity and suddenly your mind kicks in
and they've they've cracked the code. And I love the

(51:29):
the the movies, the Trip with Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan,
and that's how I wanted to do Bloody Michael, Kay,
you know I mean, And it's like, you know, I
mean that it was so wonderful to like it's like
oh my god, and like you say, all right, or
maybe I'm assuming that you feel this way. It's like
singing and it's like is it in my jocal range?

(51:49):
And that's how you know.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
No, there is to be sure, John, there is a
musicality too well to acting in general, but voice work,
especially if you're trying to capture somewhat like you. It
was a great Michael Kane, and I am you know,
I'm surrounded by world class impressionist Maurice.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
Yes, Brad, oh, Brad Garrett.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Sure West. You know all these guys are Johnson West,
guys are Jim Cummings. They're my dearest friends in the world.
Frank Welker, but yes.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
The great Frank Welker.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Absolutely, I'm a really good actor and singer and I
got a good ear. But Jesus, I ought to be
I'm sixty five years old. I'm doing for forty plus years. Okay,
it should be good. But but yeah, when you I
love and for me, I practice on when I'm trying
to to emulate other voices or characters for me, because

(52:46):
I'm not an impressionist. I'm not a world class mimic.
I'm a really good actor with a good ear. So
what I do is find opportunities to do my bad
impression of someone else's good impression, or my bad impression
of Christopher Walking or Jack Nicholson should buy uh or

(53:07):
Katherine or Katherine Hepburn an actor who has a very
obvious hook, you know, like when Dana Carvey Uh, that
is Katherine Bun. We all know that if you watch
on goldn Pond, you know she has. It's a it's

(53:28):
an easy hook to latch onto. Michael Payne is a
much more uh uh. It's a it's a more technical
shading type of thing. It's not like everybody does Jack,
because even your face goes like this, So ear's Johnny

(53:48):
and and Jack has an affectation that is all Jack's.
It's the same when you do Chris Walking because he
has those weird pauses, and those are easier ones for
a guy like me to hook up with. And then
I can create a new character with a bad impression

(54:14):
of a well known voice, not a spot on impression.
I don't care if it doesn't sound, if it doesn't
sound exactly like Bonnie Vive, I don't care. All I
care is that it inspires me to think a down
a road I didn't necessarily think of because I'm not

(54:36):
an impressionist. I live in Hollywood. They are a pile
of them who make a lot of money doing it.
I'm not interested in that. So the point is, you
don't have to be a great impressionist. You don't have
to be a world class singer. I'm a good singer
and I read music, but when I do, Carl Weezer

(54:56):
from Jimmy Neutron, Carl is an awful singer, and it
works beautifully with the fact that I am singing.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
You know, you don't you give me dude?

Speaker 2 (55:16):
You know he's nowhere near the melody. And look what
it's for, John. It makes him laugh. And so that's
what I think you've learned this, John, because you're a pro.
But a lot of people, younger folks, get very caught
up in mister Paulson, I'm not as good a singer
as you. Well, that's really subjective. We don't know that,

(55:37):
and it doesn't matter. The idea is that don't limit yourself,
don't be self conscious, get over yourself. And I don't
mean that as a negative admonigement. Just so, what if
you're not a good singer, it's not about that, It's
about being creative. So I've gotten more jobs than I

(55:58):
can tell you by having A producer asked me at
a session at which I was hired for something totally
unrelated to his question, which would be, hey, Rob, we've
got this ancillary character that's shown up. We've got four lines.
We're thinking of doing it, kind of as a you know,
Barney Fife, do you do don knots? And I say, well,

(56:21):
I do it my version, and I'm happy to jump
at it. In other words, I was unafraid to try it.
I didn't care if I embarrassed myself or a us
or even laughed and said yeah, I think we'll take
a pass.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
So what absolutely, but because.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
I jumped in, and I even said, if you really
want a guy who can channel Barney Fife, called Jeff Bennett.
You guys know him as the voice of Johnny Bravo
and many other characters, but he's a real class impressionous
And they said, well, you know, Jeff's great, we use
them all the time, but he's not here. Would you
do that? Sure? So I got the job and it

(56:59):
was it work so well that they would write it
into ten or twelve other episodes.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
That's the point, and it happens all the time. Rule
one is, don't limit yourself just because if you know
with you know all my arrogance aside, if you find
me in s brab Paulson's work. But I can't sing
like Rob, You're not supposed to sing like me. No,

(57:26):
my singing got me those jobs. My fearlessness in terms
of not being afraid to embarrass myself has gotten me
equally as many jobs. Just like it hazard Billy West,
just like Maurice LaMarsh, Kevin Michael Richardson, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castelnetta, Hankazaria.

(57:46):
We are all unfettered by being embarrassed. You can't be
so swing for it, man.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
I hear you, man, No, you know I have a
mess around show that I do with a couple of
car tunics, and we've since gotten a cosplayer who's a
local actor here in Chicago. Great and he's and he
really does great voices, and I keep trying to like
get him to improv with me. He does a great
Paul McCartney and I'll do my lenen and we you know, like,
let's do it. Man. I'm like, come on you know

(58:17):
what that's and sious, Rob, that's that's the thing. You
get it, and that's why I appreciate it a couple.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
It just lights me up to know that you do that.
You don't do it if you can make money at it, great,
But you guys, I riff every day because I often
find as a as a Hollywood vet. Now, I often
find that if I can make myself laugh or cry

(58:46):
or say wow, I really struck a nerve, I'm going
to try that on producers, on other people I know,
and almost always it works in a larger context. But
what drives me. Look, I've been rich and I've been poor.
Rich is way better. But what drives me is not
whether or not I'm going to make a dime at it.

(59:06):
So you know, all of us who want, who love
to create and perform and all of that, I can
guarantee you all the people I know who are my
dearest of friends, and all of them I've been very successful.
You would know every one of them, to a man
and woman. They started out doing it because they just

(59:28):
couldn't not do it.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Yes, correct.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Money never came into it until twenties or thirties, never,
So just have fun and don't be limited by yourself.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Understood. Man, No, that's great. I think I think this
is tremendous advice. And also again, thankfully because of the
digital revolution. You know, the gigs are in Hollywood, but
you could certainly start wherever with your friends. Zach and
actually several people here in the check I've been talking
about what they're doing on Facebook and YouTube, and that's great.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
It's wonderful. I tell people all the time. I can't
even tell you I understand because I still am that
kid who wants to go to Hollywood. I'm here. I
wear long sleeves even in the summer because my arms
are black and blue from pinching my style. Like truly, truly,
I cannot believe how how lucky I am to do this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Get But.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
When I see folks who ask me questions about I
live in Watertown, New York, or you know, I live
in in uh uh, North Carolina, or Fargo, North carol
or I live in scuokam Shuck, British Columbia, or whatever,
I don't. I don't have the money to go to Well, okay,
I didn't either. You figure it out. But you guys,

(01:00:53):
if I had had the opportunity to put create things
with my friends back in Grand Blank, Michigan on YouTube,
where possibly millions of people could see what a couple
of high school kids could do, and I could do
it for free. Shut the front door. Are you kidding me?
You guys have And I'm not saying this as an

(01:01:15):
old crotchety guy. I'm just saying you guys have access
with your iPhones to an HD camera, a pretty good microphone,
and if you want to even invest or share the
cost with a couple of friends, you can put some
pretty cool stuff out there and practice, have a good time,
see what kind of responds to you get. Maybe even

(01:01:35):
hook something up with your friends that you might get
two or three million followers and you might make a
couple of grand a month on advertisements. Are you kidding me?
And you can still live at your parents' house That
happens all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Yes it does.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yes, at least you can practice and you can do
stuff when you came out here in a way that
people my age and even twenty years younger could never
have envisioned when we were young. Never. And now I'm
doing virtual I've done I think four Wizard World conventions,

(01:02:15):
you know, the Big Wizard World. I've done four virtual
cons from LA from I.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Was gonna ask, sure, I've.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Done I think three other virtual cons that were independent conventions.
So I've done six or seven big conventions from home, YEP,
with hundreds of in one case thousands, Just like if
I were at New York Comic Con, I'd be doing
a panel with the original Ninja Turtles, all from different locations,

(01:02:45):
and we'd look at the the you know, audience on
stream yard or whatever or whatever. Yeah, and it's like
fifteen hundred people, just like if we were at New
York Comic Cons San Diego. The same vibe. Now it's
not as exciting because I don't get to hear and
I won't get to hear us, you know, But take

(01:03:08):
advantage of this incredible technology, just like John said, and
I promise you when you get your first follower and
you go past your first benchmark, oh my god, John,
we got one hundred people following us, and they're asking
in the comments, when are we going to have our
next word balloon? Dude, We're resonating with an audience and

(01:03:32):
these are people whom we've never met. That's how it starts.
And I'm telling you, I don't care whether it's winning
an Emmy or getting your first person online to say,
oh my god, Rob, I've never heard of you, but
I'm a real big fan. It is. It's you're hooked. Yeah,

(01:03:55):
and it's like a drug, totally glorious way.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
And I'm telling you I really encourage it. And whether
you make a dime at it is not. The issue
is you found something that makes your soul happy and
then it does the same for others. And that's why
it's important. Guys.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
I am so with you. And again I've on a
smaller scale. I've had that same experience doing work you
have for for sixteen years. It'll be sixteen years, May tenth,
sixteen years, two thousand and five, all about that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
That's a career for all.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
That's you know, it's funny, Rob, I got unfortunately, I
got downsized by CBS Radio last April because it's okay,
it's all business and you know, but I suddenly realized,
I'm like, you know, I did Chicago radio for thirty years.
That's a career, like okay, and thankfully word bull it

(01:04:49):
is working, so I'm doing okay.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
You know, Listen if somebody had said to me two
years ago. Okay, here's the deal. You're rock and rolling,
and animated acts is going to come back, pinky and
the everybody's gonna love it. Steven's gonna make sure that
you guys are in. He wants the authenticity. It's a
dream come true again. But in the middle of it,

(01:05:16):
you're gonna get throat cancer and COVID. Once you've gotten
through throat cancer, then there's gonna be a global pandemic.
So you're not only you're gonna be thinking, Oh, I've
made it through my throat cancer. I'm gonna be okay.
Nobody can tell the difference. Mister Spielberg says, you're in.

(01:05:36):
You're living a dream. You can be you can work
on behalf of the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance. You
can help people, and then another body blow is going
to come to the world, so you're gonna be living
a dream again. Only everything's gonna be shut down and
we don't know if you're gonna be able to record
new episodes. So with your own personal selfish reasons, you're

(01:06:00):
gonna be going seriously. And then another bigger, better but
comes along. But the technology is now in place, so
that not only is there technology that saved your life
and your voice that was not available had this happened

(01:06:21):
fifteen twenty years ago, but the technology to save your
life and your voice is adjuncted or is an adjunct
to the technology which will allow you and Warner Brothers
to work from home, so you're not gonna miss a

(01:06:41):
freakin beat. I would have said it's a long long way,
but I would have said, you're full of shit. Sure,
and here I am. That's why I love the position
in which I find myself. I have worked really hard
for this privilege, John, But what you and I are
able as old entertainment dogs, what we're able to offer

(01:07:05):
to young, vital, brilliant young women and men, is experience
that they can't have yet.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Sure, but we have.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
Gone through such a unique period in our collective history
that we can give folks watching John every week or
however often you do your show, and when he's kind
enough to have people like me on, you can get
real time info from people who know what they're talking about.
John's been a big deal in Chicago radio with CBS Multimedia.

(01:07:39):
That's that's uh, what am I trying to say? Paramount,
Who's the big the company that owns Buyacompany. Okay, Hyacom
is huge. John has experienced with the company that owns CBS, Paramount, Nickelodeon.

(01:07:59):
You know, MTV is all owned by Viacom. John's had
a thirty year ride in Chicago. In Chicago and has
found out what it's like to say, Okay, dude, you're out,
but this new technology, John Might. I had to work
at freaking Starbucks, and I love Starbucks, but you see

(01:08:20):
my point.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
I did work at Starbucks in between radio jobs that
it did happen, So yes, there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
I had little straight jobs than I coursed. But you
are able to learn from people like us how it's
not nearly what it used to be to say, yeah,
your gig is gone. It's not. It's the coolest time
in the world to be a creator and we are

(01:08:46):
living that action. That necessity is the mother of invention.
It was necessary for people to figure out how to
get their stuff on these streaming platforms so the audience
could watch it and so they could make a living.
And they had to figure it out and we did. Yeah,
it's it's incredible what we've gone through and people like

(01:09:07):
us have been around long enough to know a time
when this wouldn't have happened. So God, what a cool
time to be alive.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
I hear you, man, No, I agree again. Thank God
for the technology to allow us to do what we do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Do it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
Absolutely, it's it's amazing. So you got you got Animated
X coming back this summer for season two of the
New of the New Run, and what else have you got?
And you said you just made the Ninja Turtle movie.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
Yeah, there, well there's a Ninja and forgive me, it
might already be out, but we did Nickelodeon owned by Viacom.
As many of the folks know, I was Raphael long
before John was born. I was the original Raphael, right,
I've been around. I was the entertainment at the Last Supper.
People don't know that I was checking there, checking Aaron Matha.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Yeah, the twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Red Mazzle. Yeah, I was just saying people, we were
doing karaoke back at the Last Supper, and you know,
Judas decided to do Backstabbers, which I thought was very bad.
I only paid fifteen pieces of silver and he was
pissed off. So yeah, I was rope on the original show.
And then I got to be down at Tello on

(01:10:24):
a twenty twelve iteration of the show for Nickelodeon. Okay,
and then I directed the last cartoon version of Turtles,
which was called Rise of the TMNT. And I believe
there was a recent release of a Rise of the
TMNT animated movie on Nickelodeon. If it hasn't come out yet,

(01:10:48):
it will soon.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:10:50):
I did a turn as a Maurice LaMarsh and I
did a turn as a couple of bad guys in
the Nickelodeon Turtles movie.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
I am.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
I had a marginally successful podcast I did on and
off for years called h called Talking Tunes. Yes, sir,
I am in negotiations right now to bring that back.

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
Hey, fantastic, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
So please keep an eye on the social media uh
stuff that I earlier in the in the broadcast.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
We've got your your ways to find you and everything.
Certainly it's.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
Pinky and Rob underscore Paulson on Instagram. I I don't
I don't post as often as I like because I'm
fortunately very busy. But on TikTok, I am Rob Paulson
all one word, lowercase three eleven. Okay, that's my birthday

(01:11:54):
because somebody else had Rob Paulson go figure and as
Christy said, uh, for those of you who want to
watch Slash, listen to the various iterations of my podcast
Talking to As they're available on Spotify. But the brand
new ones are going to be coming out hopefully in May,

(01:12:15):
probably June. I'm doing all of that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
I am you've banked. You've banked shows already with I.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
Banked them, and I didn't know I was banking them
because first I did it just because I wanted to,
and my friend Chris Pope put it up on iTunes,
and I started doing it at the John Levetz Comedy
Club as a live show. Then I started doing it
at the Improv and Hollywood is a live show. Then

(01:12:45):
we shut that down, and Nerdous came back to me
two years ago, yeah, no four years ago and said,
you want to do it as an on camera, four
camera shoot, and we did. We did I think ninety
of those, and then we stopped those two years ago

(01:13:06):
in March. So I was approached a month ago by
the fella I worked with at the John Lovetts who
is now involved with Mega Sponsorship and says, oh my god,
we really want to do your Talking Tunes podcast again,
beautiful and I you know what, you guys, this is

(01:13:28):
an important bit of information just like and by the way,
it's really cool that you got a guy like John
every week because you're going to get real time, authentic
information from somebody who really knows what they're talking about
and who is by trade, a broadcaster. I am not.
I am an actor. My podcast, my Talking Tunes podcast

(01:13:52):
was literally a labor of love because I had a
time in my career where I was really it got
I'm slow and oh my god. So instead of panicking,
which I did, I stopped the panicking, reminded myself of
how I got here and what it was that inspired me.
I thought, well, you know what, I'm a guest on
these things called podcasts, and I'm not a broadcaster. But

(01:14:16):
I don't think you have to be an MIT grad
to plug in a microphone and do that. Okay, John
knows technical stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
I don't care to. So I just started calling all
my friends because I know actors who have millions of
fans of their respective characters.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
And I was right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
I made a good choice. I didn't have a dime
on that podcast for seven years. But it didn't matter
when we didn't prop Yeah, they would sell tickets, but
I would give whatever proceeds. I would split it with
the weight staff because I might make four hundred bucks
for the night. Now four hundred bucks is a lot
of money these days. It's two tanks of gas practically,

(01:15:00):
you know. I did it because it was a good time.
I and my guests, whether it was Mark Hamill, Brad
Garrett or Steve Bloom didn't take any money, and so
we would take this three hundred, four hundred bucks and
split it amongst the white staff. Sure, but then I
got to make some serious though, because people who really

(01:15:22):
were broadcasters, like Nerdist would say, yeah, we can pay
you for this. We want to own this. And that
is a great but it teed it up for me
to do it down the road more so it started.
I had no idea if anybody would listen to that podcast. None.
I did it because I had the time and I
wanted to find new ways to express myself. Here we

(01:15:45):
are now, this is what two thousand total? Here we are, Yeah,
eleven years later. I did it in twenty ten is
when I started it. Eleven years later, and I have
a company with major sponsors, who knows about my podcast,

(01:16:05):
knows that it's been you know, inoperative for two years,
and says, hey, we got to do this again. Look
at that. I got lucky again by not being afraid
to try something. So again, I love these opportunities because

(01:16:26):
as much as I ramble, we never know when one
of your fans is going to look, is going to
watch this again, listen again and say, oh, you know,
I'm really kind of down on the dumb. So I
got to kick out of that guy Ron Pullman or
whatever his name was on John's podcast, you know what.
Toward the end of the podcast, he mentioned something that's
really going to dig me out of my out of

(01:16:46):
my hole. And I can listen to John all the
time and get that that inspiration. So that's why these
opportunities are important for guys like us.

Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
You know, absolutely, man, No, I agree. And again that
was my intent was to hopefully get a better radio job.
And that's when I started my podcast in five and
it became its own thing, and that's great, you know.
And again I get to you're you're a natural interviewer,
and I and I and I've seen that and heard
that watching and listening to your podcasts and everything, and god,

(01:17:17):
you know, I was. I was already friends with Susan Eisenberg,
wonder woman for the Justice League. She's the best, and truthfully,
as you said about doing table reads virtually and stuff.
Back in August for a virtual con, we got the
whole Justice League back together, everybody, including also Clancy Brown,
to do so yeah, I mean it was, oh my god.

(01:17:40):
And I you know, we had ten people on camera
and I include myself and Andrea Romano leading the table read. Yeah,
it was, dude, I swear it was like, really one
of the highlights of last year in the midst of
all this terrible stuff, and I'm like, I don't believe
I get to see this.

Speaker 2 (01:17:54):
It was something I remember one of the I don't know.
I think in the second season I did two years
at Nerdict and we did an episode with the cast
of The Justice League and it was the only guy
who wasn't there I think was Carl Lumley. He was
out of town. But everybody was there, George Newbern, Susan,

(01:18:17):
Kevin Conroy.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
Phil Lamar, Yeah, David, Oh god was it David. I
don't remember anyway, it was, Oh god, it was. It
was just the coolest thing in the world. But you
know it was really cool was all the all.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
The production assistants and people. He had twenty five thirty
kids who work in nerdous they had two live studios.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (01:18:49):
When the word got around if the Justice League was
going to be there, they lost their ship. Yeah, the
most wonderful way it was. And from a person like me,
I get to sit back as a friend of these
people and see how they're happy. Juice affects dozens of

(01:19:12):
sweet kids. They they're they're a gog. When when Kevin
says I am Darkness, or I am I am the
I am the Night, I am that mad, I am vengeance?
Are you kidding me? Tears, excitement, this everywhere. And I

(01:19:36):
get to sit back and just go, oh my god,
isn't this great? And and so I totally get it.
Uh again, this is where I start to get a
little speechless because I get to do it all the time.
And just so you guys know out there, all of us,
and I mean it, you guys, we are not movie stars.

(01:19:57):
We don't claim to be.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
We are you.

Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
We are fans. We're fans of one another. We get
how incredibly fortunate we are. We take none of it
for granted. I know many famous people who are recognizable,
and they're all really lovely people buy and large. But
it's a different kind of fame, and it comes with

(01:20:26):
sometimes if you're not comfortable with it, things that can
be difficult for both sides, both the fan and the actor.
In this circumstance, to a person, all the people I've mentioned,
Billy Kevin, Mark Hamill, everybody knows Mark Hamill, but I
would wager there are millions who dig Mark as the Joker,
sometimes even more than Luke Skywalker. So we all really

(01:20:51):
relish your kind, humbling attention. We get how lucky we are,
and don't for a moment think we don't just because
we're not as recognizable. Trust me, when people at a
Starbucks know who I am, or if I'm walking around

(01:21:13):
a Walmart picking up something, it's the most glorious experience.
More for me, it happens a lot now because I've
been around for so long. I'm telling you, man, John,
it's unbelievable people that they start to get so happy,
so happy, can I take a photo? Would you mind

(01:21:35):
recording Hello Nurse for my wife? I can't even tell you,
and it's just pure unbridled joy. So thank you on
behalf of all of us.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
You guys, we.

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
Really appreciate your incredible kindness.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
Thank you absolutely. Man. I'll wrap up with you've been
very kind with your time. I do want to point out,
because someone said it in the chat, you've got a
book about voice acting.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
I do thank you for asking, and thank you for
the sweet person who mentioned that. The reason I'm associated
with the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance. Please go for
further information go to h and I'm sorry Head and
neck dot org all lowercase one word head and neck
dot org. You'll see yours truly and my experience with

(01:22:24):
respect to stage three metastatic scuaima cel throat cancer. About
five years ago, no, exactly five years ago, I was
in the middle of Thank you. I was in the
middle of radiation and chemotherapy for of all things, throat cancer.
What's that old saying we make plans and God laughs surprise. Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
The reason that the book is called Voice Lessons, how
a couple of Ninja turtles, Pinky and an animaniac saved
my life and it is a really good book. Now
I can say that because it I don't think would
have been nearly so had I not had cancer. I now,

(01:23:09):
as I mentioned earlier, Oh thank you kids show fanatic.
Oh my god, you have a Yorkie. We had two Yorkies,
horrible they're both at the rangebow Bridge, but we miss
them every day. Once I had cancer, specifically throat cancer,

(01:23:32):
I had a much more important story to tell. There
are lots of actors who made their living with their
voice or their face or whatever. There are not a
lot of voice actors who have had throat cancer. There
are not a lot of voice actors who have survived
it and come back to work on a show at
a level like Animaniacs and Pinking in the Brain where

(01:23:52):
the audience and more importantly, the people who are pooning
up the dough didn't say I'm really sorry, but this
guy them and I'm so glad he's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
But he's not there anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:24:07):
It's not there, And like you said earlier, it's business.
I would fully expected had they said I get it,
I'm not special. I'm really not. And that's not false modesty.
All of us know people who have had cancer, all
of us, many of us have had it pretty much
all of us know somebody whom we love, whom and
lost to it. So the fact that I was able

(01:24:33):
to and my my wife, and my son and my
daughter in law and all the people who loved me
were able to say, all right, all right, let's put
our head down and we can do this. I was
told by the doctors, we're virtually sure we can cure you.
Before we do, we almost have to kill you. And
I laughed at that, really loud, because now you're talking.

(01:24:53):
That's the kind of sense of humor I had. But
I embraced it because I know, like the title of
the book suggests, how powerful these characters are. I had
had countless experience john with children, often who didn't make it,

(01:25:13):
and their parents would say, Hey, can Rafael talk to
my little boy? Or can Pinky call my little girl?
Or can Carl Weezer call my wife? She loves Carl Weezer.
She's dealing with stage three ovarian cancer. But I gotta
tell you, she just loves Carl Weezer. And often these
people didn't make it, but the folks would keep in

(01:25:33):
touch with me who reached out to me. And it's
not just me, we all do it. So I knew
how powerful these characters were to look hot shot. If
you can't handle this, then you better suck it up
even more because look what these other people have been through.
They've lost their children, or their wife, or their husband,
or their cousin or their neighbors. And you're not going

(01:25:55):
to die. You're gonna get the shit be die yet,
but you're going to be okay. Now, will you be
able to do your work? I don't know, neither did
the doctors, but it turns out I can. And that's
why the book is important. It's not about it's not
going to be a New York Times bestseller, but it
is for sure something that will in some ways be

(01:26:18):
a reference book for people down the road. Because again
your kindness in allowing me to speak my piece, we
never know when someone down the road is going to say, God,
I just love word balloon. John is the best. But
he had an episode. But this guy, I don't even
know his name. I'll figure it out, but the guy

(01:26:38):
had throw cancer. Hey, uncle Bill, I know you're freaked out.
I know this is really hard, but you got to
watch this this guy. You know how we used to
love watching animaniacs and pinking the brain. Remember how you
you called me and said, oh my god, they're on
Hulu again. That guy, the guy who's Jacko and Pinky

(01:27:01):
and doctor Scratch and Snuff is doing those characters again
after he had throat cancer, after he was cured, after
he was treated with a pretty tough regimen. You got this,
Uncle Bill. You gotta see this guy's story. That's why
my upside is not a silver lining, it's platinum. I'm

(01:27:24):
glad that if I had to get cancer, I got
through cancer. I didn't at the time, I thought, oh Jesus.
But now, like a lot of other things, things set down.
Don't freak out, just get through it. You never know.
My story is way bigger than my characters now, precisely

(01:27:46):
because of the type of cancer I had and the
kindness of you letting me talk about it. It is
not hyperbole to suggest, John that we might save someone's
life just by talking. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
I hear you, man, No, and I and I uh again,
when when I've had my tough time, certainly nothing to compare.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
But but you know, no, but you're right. You got
to pick yourself up and move forward. And it's it's
so true. And in fact, when Phil Hartman told you,
essentially in sports, we always especially in Chicago because he
was from Chicago, Jesse Owens always used to say the runner,
He's like, run your own race, don't worry about the
guy in the next time.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
Right, And I am beautiful. What a beautiful way to
say it, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:28:27):
Yeah? And I have great friends that my friend Mike
Greenberg at ESPN, Yes, kicking ass. And uh my my
buddy Jude Serad, who's the radio voice of the Boston Ruins.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
A hockey fanatic.

Speaker 1 (01:28:40):
Yeah, you know, someone who's asking what you thought of
how the Red Wings going to do? Uh, I don't know.
You don't forget me. I'm not paying attention to the standings.
Are they?

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
Are they Red Wings are? Yeah? But but okay, Steve
is he did a remarkable job down at Tampa Bay,
and Stevie came back home and is now the GM
of the Red Wings and is making some killer deals.
And look, I'm I'm an old you know, my helmet

(01:29:09):
A component of my email addresses red Wing because I
I to this day, when I cut myself, I still
bleed red, just like the Red Wings. How about that?

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
And I got so there's nothing wrong with that with
us original six six original.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
There we go. I can talk hockey with you all day.
I got to play in I think four different charity
games fun with Stan Makita, Bobby Hall, Dennis Hall, and
Tony and God rest his soul, Keith Magnuson I got.
I got to play hockey with Keith Magnuson. So yeah,

(01:29:50):
I the Red Wings. You know, they're totally rebuilding and
it takes time. But I've been around the Red Wings
and I was a fan from the time. I can
remember listening to Bud Lynch and Bruce Martin on w
j R Detroit and I'm going to see hockey games
at the Olympia. It's like going to Chicago Stadium. So

(01:30:14):
in those days they were called the dead Things because
they sell with one fabulous third round pick in the
guys of Steven Eiserman from I think Cranbrook, British Columbia.
Things changed and that's what Stevie Why knows how to do.

(01:30:37):
And he loves the Red Wings as much as he
loves his own life. So there's a T shirt that
my cousin sent me from Detroit that says, simply trust
the why And that's what I do why. I love
the game. I love the game. It was the only
thing I wanted to do instead of being an actor

(01:30:58):
was be a hockey player. As far as college hockey, Wow,
I couldn't make it anymore. But I still go out
and bang around with my buddies and I love to play.
So for me, I love to see the Cup in Florida.
I love to see the Cup in la I love
to see that Austin Matthews is from Phoenix. You know,

(01:31:19):
I I'm about the game, and so if the rid
Wings sus for a while, they're still my favorite team.
I don't. I'm not a fairweather fan. I love the
Lions too, I know, I got I. I just I
love sports and and so uh like everything else it

(01:31:41):
ebbs and clothes and you know, he gets out of
here with a couple of things. If you live long enough,
you're gonna get something. You're gonna get your teeth knocked out,
your nose broken, divorced, broke, bankruptcy, pantser, diabete. It's gonna happen.
You might as well deal with it and and and
try to tweet it. So it's a positive.

Speaker 1 (01:32:01):
Absolutely, that's great. Man, very cool, I will say, as
I'm a boxing guy, so I appreciate Jim of course,
and all the greatness of Emmanuel Store, Tommy Hearns and
all the crock guys.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
I just about a year ago, I was in Detroit
at a convention. It was two years ago. I was
at a Motor City comic con Sure. I met a
young man there whose father was in business with Tommy Hearns.
And we're out to dinner and I was talking about
I understand you're Oh my god, the hit man. I
love what Tommy's about, you know, blah blah blah. I said,

(01:32:35):
Hang on a second, Oh no, fantastic, He says, Tommy,
remember I told you about the guy I know that's
one of the Ninja Turtles. Turns out Tommy Hearns loves
the freaking who is He want to talk to him?
And I hear on the phone, are you kidding me? Yeah? Man, hello,

(01:32:56):
mister Hearns. He goes, please, it's Tommy. Are you really raphaels?

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
Uh huh? Who knew? That's amazing?

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
A real warrior, a real one of the greats, one
of the greats, uh, I mean, a guy who gave
sugar mane all the time. Yes, I'm on me. They
hit man. Hearns and he he's excited because he's talking
to Rafael. He doesn't know my name, but he hears

(01:33:26):
the voice and he's like, hey, man, I want to
go have a pizza. I want you to come have
a pizza. Raphael. I lost my mind. You know, my
parents are gone, So I'm calling my brother. Dude, I
just talked to Tommy Hurns calling my cousins. I just
talked about so Yeah, I love that stuff. I don't

(01:33:51):
ever want to lose that. I don't never want to
lose the ability to be blown away by meeting someone.
You know, I I am sixty five years until the
day I die. I still want to have that that
facility to go, Wow, watch what you know, Watch what
Conor McDavid just did.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
How did he do that?

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
I've never seen Gordy do that. You know, I've never
seen Stan mckina do that. I've never seen Jonathan Taye.
Holy smoke, he told him to be my grandson. Look
what he just did. I don't ever want to lose that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:29):
Man. That's awesome, man, that's fantastic, rob great conversation. I
love everywhere it went, and and truly your your story
is inspirational, your talent is inspirational. And I know folks
in the chatter certainly and watching and listening appreciate it
as well. Yeah you know, well as always man, you're

(01:34:49):
you're welcome to come back when it's when it's convenient
and also, uh you know when it when it helps you.
So so thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
Next time I get cancer, I'll call you. I thought
to myself, that's so bad I got I got, you know,
nose cancer. I can call John now they found like this.
Thank you John. And as I said, it is not uh,
it is not faith praise. You are the real deal.

Speaker 1 (01:35:16):
And I am so.

Speaker 2 (01:35:18):
Grateful that you've had the kindness of lowering entertainment standards
more than once for me. But uh, your your fan
base is very lucky to follow you, and they're smart.
You know what you're talking about. So thanks, buddy, and
thank you all out there for for your incredible support
and thanks for watching and think you says Loft is
the best medicine. The cool thing is to come and

(01:35:40):
the so you got help me and we'll see you
down the road at the calm.

Speaker 1 (01:35:46):
Buddy, can I can? I ask you to hang out
one second as we as we all right, hang out
one second. Everybody, thanks a lot for watching tomorrow on
Word Balloon. Well, I'm gonna be pre recording a conversation
with that Brew Baker and we'll be presenting that, if
not this week, then certainly next week and also our
live show to the Outer Limits. We've been rewatching the

(01:36:06):
original series myself. Oh yeah, we watch it every We
were normally on Thursday nights, but I'm gonna have my
second COVID shot on Thursday, so I'm gonna be So
we're doing it tomorrow night, and we're talking about episode
three of the second season.

Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
And who do you know who the announcer was?

Speaker 1 (01:36:26):
Not was no shame on me, but yeah, the control
voice week controlled the Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:36:32):
Wonder Bill Woodson or somebody like that. It was one
of those old Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (01:36:37):
It is a voice guy, It is a voice guy. Yeah,
well it'll be online. But oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:36:43):
That in twilight Zone, but our Limits, that was to
me a little more terrifying, Like that show scared me.
And the truth way, I love that show and.

Speaker 1 (01:36:53):
It's I mean, it doesn't get the love that twilight
Zone does, but got Conrad Hall, the wonderful photographer, and
Josefano obviously the wonderful playwright. I mean it really had
a lot of and all the great actors of that moment,
and now with Sally Kellerman and all these other great
you know, actors did the show, Shatner and Nimoy everybody,

(01:37:15):
And so yeah, that's what Gabe Hartman and my friend
who's a storyboard artist in LA, He's like, how come
there is in a good Down the Limits podcast? I'm
let's do one.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
There is now talk about a small world. My wife
is in the other room, to whom I've been married
to thirty five years, and her best friend and my
son's godmother is none of her than Nya Hall, Conrad's daughter.

Speaker 1 (01:37:42):
Wow cool, how about that? Holy shit, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
I knew Conrad and his son, Conrad Junior, who's also
a DP. Now, okay, but for those of you who
don't know, look up Conrad Hall. This guy won Oscars
for butchcasting the Sundance Kid. His last Oscar was for
I think for either American Beauty or.

Speaker 1 (01:38:09):
Condition. That's what I was thinking, was either of those two.
And he did Gone, Baby Gone, even he did.

Speaker 2 (01:38:17):
Da The Locusts with Donald Sutherland, who did uh Mutiny
on the Bounty, the one with Mel Gibson and uh
Anthony Hopkins. I mean he's uh uh uh electric Guide,
electric Glide in Blue. He did in Cold Blood with
Robert He I think won three or four Oscars for

(01:38:42):
cinematography and genius. My wife met him because she was
a production assistant at Wexler Hall. He did a he
had a a commercial production company with Haskell Wexler.

Speaker 1 (01:38:56):
The documentarian.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
Yes, yes, and the two of them had a production company.
My wife got hired. Wow, Conrad's daughter Nya thirty plus
years ago. They became fast friends and I bet she
was just here two weeks ago. Nya kidding? So Nya's
Nya is my son's godmother. So Conrad Hall, you're talking,

(01:39:17):
you're preaching to the choir man.

Speaker 1 (01:39:19):
Well, Rob, I'm gonna be asking you off the air
how we can create that Nya because she would be
We had Dominic Stefano. Oh yeah, so talking about his
dad and everything, and Gabe. Gabe is a storyboard guy
and also a director and he just really worships Conrad
at Hall. So it would be great to connect us.

Speaker 2 (01:39:39):
Yeah, and the last. I think the last film he
shot was that directed by Sam Mendy's because he was
either one or was nominated for American Beauty, which Sam directed,
was A Road to Tradition Sam directed, and I think
it was the last movie from Paul Newman. Of course,
there's a great story.

Speaker 1 (01:39:55):
I'll just tell you a very brief no problem that
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
When when Conrad passed away, there was a an appreciation
ceremony for Conrad at the David Geffen Theater the way
it used to be called the Westwood Playhouse. It's the
David Geffen Theater in West Westwood. So my wife is
a photographer, and NYA called and said, would you mind shooting,

(01:40:21):
you know, stills of the event, And of course my
wife flipped out, going sure, and then, oh my god,
well me to is your pictures for Conrad's family? Come on.
So we get to the theater and my wife says, honey,
I'm so sorry, I forgot a piece of equipment. I

(01:40:41):
don't know anything about photography. Could you run home again?
It was about half an hour west. Of course I
ran home, got it, I got back, and of course
the ceremony was was about halfway through it. So I
opened up, you know, the little door to go sit
down and sit There is Warren Batty and he looks

(01:41:03):
up to me. He says, uh, you have to sit here.
There's no place to sit. Well, if there's no place
for Warren Batty, there's no place for movie. Conrad had
been the director of photograph on Love Affair, which was
the remake of an Affair to remember.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
Yes, uh Bennett, but of course carry Grant and uh.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
Yeah, so he loved he was there like a lot
of movie stars paying their respects to this world class cinematographer.
And so I sat there with mister Batty watching the event.
And Sam Andy's was at the day of speaking about
his love for Conrad, and he this anecdote was beautiful.

(01:41:49):
He said, my strongest memory of Conrad is when we
were doing Road to Pradition. And by the way, for
those of you who are film fans, you've probably already
seen it, but if not, watch it again. Every frame
of that movie looks like a freaking painting. No shit,
tall about a genius with light. Yeah, Comrad, unbelievable. Okay,

(01:42:11):
So Sam was talking about Paul Newman. I think it
was his last movie and he said, I came upon
Conrad one day and he was sitting behind the camera
and he was just looking through the lens and he
was back up and he had he was doing this
kind of I didn't know if he had was allergic

(01:42:33):
or I said, Connie, you're okay, because Conrad was not
very healthy toward the end of his life. So he said, Connie,
are you okay. He goes, oh, yeah, I'm just looking
through the lens, aid Paul, because they were setting up
a scene. And of course Connie had shot Paul and
Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and he won an Oscar

(01:42:55):
for a cinematography in Butch Cassidy nineteen sixty eight sixty nine.
So Conrad, Yeah, Conrad is looking at him and he's
getting tearful, because Paul was mid seventies, late seventies at
this term edition and Conrad said, I got I just
he said, yeah, I'm looking at Paul through the viewfinder

(01:43:16):
and thinking about this incredible lives that we've had and stuff.
And he said he was so beautiful, And I knew
what he meant, not that he's ugly, but that there
are certain people, Paul Newman being one, of them who
are movie stars, because what they have transcends the way

(01:43:39):
a normal a person like me or you is viewed
by the camera.

Speaker 1 (01:43:44):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:43:45):
You can't you can't manufacture that, right, And so Conrad
was reflecting clearly on his own, on his own, his
own yeah, and saying, God, he was so beautiful, y
what he was, and hearing an Oscar winning director talking

(01:44:07):
about what it meant to an Oscar winning cinematographer come
full circle and his own mortality, and it was really
an encapsulation of why we are in the storytelling business,
that we are never not struck by the beauty of

(01:44:28):
what we are literally called to do.

Speaker 1 (01:44:31):
And I.

Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
Don't often go down these existential arms, but it's that simple,
whether you're an Oscar winner or some knucklehead from Grand Blank, Michigan,
we can't not do it. And it's the same story
for a millionaire directors as it is for blue collar
workers in the dream factory. And I would not have

(01:44:55):
it any other way man.

Speaker 1 (01:44:56):
That's beautiful, man, absolutely, And yeah, Well I'm like I said,
hang out for a second or off the air and
we can put Gabe and Nil it together. That would
be terrific. Cool.

Speaker 2 (01:45:07):
Thanks A lot folks,

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