July 2, 2025 • 30 mins
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From performing sketch comedy to nearly empty theaters to suddenly writing for Steven Spielberg, Paul Rugg's unexpected journey into animation reveals the magical creative energy behind Warner Brothers' most beloved 90s cartoons. Paul's journey from sketch comedy to Emmy Award winner, Paul's journey is nothing short of inspirational. He reminds us that the best creativity often happens when you throw away the rulebook and embrace your weird.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, my name is Paul Rugg and I'm a voice actor
writer and I'm very happy to be.
I think I'm happy to be on NOLAFilm Scene, but you'll have to
check back later.
Maybe this was a mistake, Idon't know.
And I love New Orleans, Nolans,nolans.
See, I can do that, bob, I'm alady, okay.
A lady, a lady with the thingWith the mic and boo doing baby.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Okay, sorry, welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ Plato
.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
Paul, this is a thrill for meto have you on.
I am a huge fan of Freakazoid.
Good and happy 30th anniversaryto you on that.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Oh, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank
you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you.
Yeah, it's been 30 years andwe're all older, but the
material lives on, so that'sgood.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I think relax-a-vision as we get older
is becoming more and more intune with what we need.
If we could just put it on reallife, and I'll leave it at that
.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, yeah, I won't sing a theme from a summer place
because they would get mad, butif you all want to listen to on
your own time and your own dimetheme from a summer place,
you'll understand Relaxavisionvery, very well, so we like to
jump back and ask where peoplestarted.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
What got you into the biz?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What inspired you.
I joined an improv sketchcomedy group called the Acme
Comedy Players.
It was me, adam Krola, johnMcCann, jim Wickline and a bunch
of the people and we would dohalf improv, half sketch comedy
and we'd do two shows on aFriday, two shows on a Saturday.
It was a lot of fun andsometimes we were literally
performing only for Adam Krola'sgrandparents.
It would be like a 99-seattheater and in the back would be
(01:37):
his very elderly grandparentsand they'd be like I don't like
this.
And then eventually we startedgetting people to come in and
and then eventually we startedgetting people to come in and it
was a lot of fun.
And then when they weredeveloping Animaniacs, sherry
Stoner, whose husband was ourdirector at the Acme Comedy
Players, she came and saw theshow and said you know, we're
developing this show.
That's got really it's got asketch vibe to it.
(01:57):
And so she gave me a script andJohn McCann a script.
It was the first time I'd everwritten animation.
Anyway, that's basically how Igot started.
I didn't get started to be avoice actor or necessarily write
in animation, but the animationand sketch comedy just kind of
were like this really nice fit.
It was really like using allthe things we'd learned at Acme
(02:17):
and then just doing it forcartoons and it was fun and
that's basically how I got mystart.
Working with Warner Brothers inthe 90s was my first real job
and I would say Warner's in the90s was about as fun a job as
you could have.
It was Peter Hastings andSherry Stoner and Deanna Oliver
and John McCann and all thesesketch people just going nuts in
(02:41):
the hallways and we shared thisbuilding called the Imperial
Bank Building in Sherman Oaks,california.
We shared this building calledthe Imperial Bank Building in
Sherman Oaks, california.
We weren't on the WarnerBrothers lot.
I think it's because we weretoo dangerous.
They just said there wasn'troom.
But anyway we would just, youknow, we would just say, hey,
you know, it would be funny ifwe did this and did this and did
this.
And then they'd say, here,here's a check for your thoughts
, and we're like what?
(03:01):
And that's basically WarnerBrothers and the Nines, and then
from there, freakazoid came.
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Both of those shows were from Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yes, well, that was the other thing.
So my wife and I literally hada dime.
We didn't have anything.
When you do like sketch comedyin California or in LA, you pay
in order to rent the theater andstuff.
So not only was I not makingmoney, I was losing $75 a month,
which sometimes was very hardto come by.
And then the next day it's likewould you like to write on the
(03:30):
Steven Spielberg show?
And I'm like, oh, let me thinkabout it.
Yes, as far as working withSteven, he was just fun.
He was involved.
You know, I think he was makingJurassic Park when we first
started, and then Schindler'sList and Saving Private Ryan.
But wherever he was, he wouldsend us emails and notes like,
hey, I really like that.
(03:51):
I didn't like that or whatever,but he was great.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
We're going to pause here.
This has never happened before.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
It's me, it's me, tj, it's me.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
We lost Brian.
I think his Internet might havedropped out All right, brian,
that was very rude, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
One second.
Let me check my connection inanother way.
Can we have one of thoseepisodes TJ.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Nah, we're good, I hear you, I see you, we're
cooking with grease.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
All right, okay, were you able to finish your Steven
Spielberg talk?
Yeah, it was great.
You missed it.
It was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It's where we had lunch together and then he said
you're my favorite writer ever.
Yeah, no, stephen was great andhe was really involved and he
would give us ideas and it was akind of a magical little time
capsule.
Warren Brothers had nothing butmoney, stephen had nothing but
cachet and we were just likeyeah, okay, sure, let's do this.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So yeah, it was awesome, very cool.
Who do you think would win in afight, freakazoid or Mr
Director?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Boy.
I think it would be a tie.
You know, hi me, let me tellyou something, you crazy kid Boy
, I don't know, they're kind ofthe same character.
I don't know why Jerry Lewisbecame a thing for me during
Warners and I think it's becauseTom Ruger, our executive
producer, once showed this videoof wiser.
Older Mr Director, you know thisguy here, the one who uses
(05:11):
avuncular and lugubrious andwords that he's not quite sure
what they are, but they soundvery instrumental in his
edification of thought.
And I would do that around, Iwould sort of do that around the
hallway and be like let me tellyou something, you something,
you crazy kids.
And tom goes, if you write acharacter with that, will you
never do him again in thehallway.
So we put him in, we did onewith, uh, him going against
(05:35):
yakawako dot or yakawako dotdoing against him, called hello,
nice warners, and it was jerry,young jerry like oh hi, nice
lady with the thing.
And then, mr director, jerry,and for some reason, when we
were doing freakazoid since thatYoung Jerry like oh hi, nice
lady with the thing.
And then, mr Director, jerry.
And for some reason, when wewere doing Freakazoid since that
first season the first fewshows were such heavily improv,
I just sort of started doingthat guy.
So Freakazoid is a little bitMr Director and is a little bit
(05:58):
Jerry, a tiny bit A little bit.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You can definitely hear it in the Candlejack
episode when you take the pause.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right, can we pause here?
Yeah, and that was basic.
I think that was the secondthing we ever recorded.
That was after Dance of Doom,and we got to that point where,
you know it was all in thescript.
I wrote that script and it waslike they were tied up.
And then Tom Ruger said hey,why don't you go off here?
And I go well, what do you mean?
He goes, just do somethingweird.
So I just started going.
(06:26):
Let me just pause here and saywhat a crazy or whatever it is.
I said we're going to have fun,fun, fun, fun.
And I just kept talking and TomRuger kept going more, more,
more.
And that's kind of howFreakazoid was, especially those
first few episodes.
It was like whatever came intoour head or the recording booth
and I thought people were goingto go.
This is not a good thing.
(06:47):
I didn't know.
And then when the first footagestarted to come back from
overseas, I looked at it and Iwas like convinced we were going
to be brutally savaged, like noone is going to like this.
And then Stephen saw it and hegoes I think this is weird and
we're like and that's good orbad.
And he's like that's good andwe're like, and that's good or
bad, and he's like that's goodand we're like, all right, then
(07:08):
we're good.
So yeah, but he really lovedfreakazoid.
He would get involved.
And when we won the emmy afterwe were canceled, by the way, we
won the emmy and he came beforehe was going to go shoot saving
private ryan, he came to pickup his emmys and we won that
year for Animaniacs andFreakazoid and he came in and he
goes and we're like hey, hereare the Emmys.
He goes.
(07:28):
Which one is the Freakazoid?
We go, it's this one, he goesthat's the one I want, nice.
I have that on film, so I'm notlying.
He actually liked Freakazoid.
So, that's good we believe amemo.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You got the memo.
We did just get a cease anddesist from Steven, but we'll
talk about that later.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
So you were improv in the beginning days there.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Were y'all in individual booths when you were
recording, or were you in anopen booth where you could see
each other and play off of eachother?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, well, yeah, so back then Andrea Romano, who was
our director, who did Batman,the Animated Series Animanax.
SpongeBob, she is amazing.
She would throw us all in oneroom and we would have those
little sound absorber dividersthat would come up to maybe
shoulder length or a littlehigher, but we would all sit
there and we were always in theroom together and we did.
(08:23):
One thing they don't do todayat all is we would rehearse at
once.
We would all sit there.
Andrea would sort of sit at thecenter and we were all sort of
a curve around her and she'd gookay, you know, fade in angle on
, and she would read the script.
Everyone would do it and whatthat did was like Ed Asner or
Ricardo Montalban, it would beoh, I see how you're going to do
that, okay, and then that wouldinform how he's going to do it.
(08:46):
Not done that way today.
No, no, no.
It's like everyone either Zoomor individual sessions with you
and the director, and which Ijust despise with all of my soul
.
Because, number one, it'shorrifying.
It's very judgmental.
You know everyone's very nice,but it's you alone and the
director is saying, okay, great,could we try that again?
(09:07):
You know you're like, oh, whatam I doing wrong?
But when it's everybody and yousort of understand, it's just
fresh and punchy and stuff and Iknow it's more expensive to do
it, bringing a group in, but Iam a firm believer in just get
everybody in, that you can andrecord your doggone cartoon.
But yeah, that was a verylong-winded answer to your
question.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, not at all.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
We like long-winded answers.
All right, good, good,excellent.
People are tired of hearingfrom me, but I always have to
talk, not that I hate that.
What you're describing is likelive theater.
It's a totally different energy.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And I was thinking about it, because I don't have
much theater experience.
I do have a good amount ofimprov and even today, leading
up to this, I got butterflies.
Because I'm talking to you, Idon't want to blow smoke up, but
I love your work.
I'll leave it at that, thankyou, thank you, thank you.
So it's a little bit, and thenyou kind of kick over.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You're like I got actors and I can't remember his
name might have been FrankSinatra, might have been Mel
Brooks.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
102 degree fever he's struggling he gets to the stage
, bam perfect, walks off thestage.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, it's true, there's a lifeto live.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Performance yeah, I mean, and there is something
about also playing with yourfriends.
You know the way I do it.
I'm trying to get a rise out ofthem which will ruin the take,
but so be it.
I think you're exactly right,brian.
It's a live performance.
And the other thing abouthaving rehearsed everybody is
that we would do maybe two pages, just run it two pages, two
(10:37):
pages, two pages, stop.
And if there were any dramaticlike, well, clearly there was a
problem there, but otherwisewe'd be like, well, all right,
moving on.
So the recording sessions wereincredibly fast.
I remember we had the studiofrom two, two to six, and I
don't remember us ever on asingle episode going past 4 30.
Do you know what I mean?
(10:58):
it was like we had some reallycomplex sometimes in the booth
or in the room.
You know there was tim curry,david warner, jonathan harris,
ed.
As you know, there was TimCurry, david Warner, jonathan
Harris, ed Asner.
You know, sometimes MarisaLaMarche would come in and Tress
McNeil she was cover queen andit was a party.
I mean, everyone was there todo their job, but it was also.
(11:18):
It was.
It's fun.
There's no way I can put itexcept for me, because as one of
the writers I used to love tobe sitting like Andres sits
there in the front and then youknow the producers and writers
sit on the level above and youknow they write down things like
that and sometimes give notes.
But as Freakazoid I couldn'trun back in and go oh, by the
(11:40):
way, I didn't like the ricardodid that and then run back.
So normally we would record meafter everybody else.
I would be there for therehearsal and do it, and then we
would just get me all alonewhich again talking about being
all alone, it's like, but it wasthe best way for me to be a
part of the decision makingabout the show uh, that makes
sense, kind of like an adr trackyeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah so
(12:03):
did it change to the remote, theZoom that you were referring to
earlier?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
individual calls as a result of COVID, or is that
just because of cost saving?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I think COVID certainly made it a standard.
I think it was being done.
You know it's like, yeah, we'llget it via Zoom and stuff and
with SourceConnect.
Yeah, I mean, we'll just sortof do it.
But I think COVID sort of putthe nail in the coffin of live
big, large shoots.
Also, it's much more easy tosay okay, you'll be in from 1 to
1.30.
You've got two lines, so that'sgoing to be a problem, and then
(12:35):
from 2 to 4, we'll get Bonnieand she can come in.
To get everybody scheduled tosort of happen in these days is
harder.
But having said that, back inwhen we recorded these in the
mid-90s I remember David Warnerwas filming Titanic because he
was the villain in Titanic.
In Long Beach there was a dunktake or one of the sequences
(12:57):
they were shooting requiredwater to the Russian and all
that stuff.
But David Warner made sure thathe had written into his
contract that he could go and dohis freakazoid because he liked
to do his freakazoid.
So I can only imagine you knowhim with James Cameron and then
being I have to, I have to go toStudio City.
So he wanted to go.
But everybody showed up RicardoMontalban, ed Asner, tim Curry,
(13:19):
jonathan Harris God bless him.
They all showed up and theywould have pizza with us from
one to two and then be like, allright, let's do this thing.
You know, come on, I got to go.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And David Warner was the lobe, yes, a fantastic
villain who is basically allbrain TJ.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he was.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
They got Ricardo Montalban to say no, you are the
weenie.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, ricardoardo.
So again it was like andreromano would go off and say I
think I can get you ricardomontalban, and we're like, why
would he do our stupid littleshow?
And she goes, probably are youpaying?
And we're like, well, I guess Imean, so then he'll come do it.
This is what working actors do.
You pay them a fee and thenthey come and do your stupid
show.
So so he would come.
And it's funny, you know youalways oh, he won't get.
This Frigazoid is so weird hewon't really understand what
(14:09):
we're going for.
And he would come in, he'd havethe script.
He goes I see I will be doingsome Khan parody, wrath of Khan.
All right, yes, my friend, andhe knew what he was doing.
Same Harris, dr Smith from Lostin Space.
He got it.
Oh, I see you want me to do DrSmith?
All right, yeah, but DavidWarner, he was in the Omen.
(14:33):
He was the villain in Titanic.
He was the villain in TimeBandit.
He was Rajagul in Batman, theanimated series.
He is profound in his speakingmanner, but he would come in and
knock it out of the park doingthe stupidest stuff for us,
because I don't think he hadbeen asked to do comedy.
It turns out he was a reallyfunny guy.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
The different voices, funny voices and accents, and
was that something that you weregood at before you started
doing improv and sketch comedy?
Or is that something that cameout of improv and sketch comedy?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I think I was always mimicking back then late 60s,
early 70s.
When I was a young kid theywould play the Jerry Lewis movie
on Saturdays.
You know, whatever the errandboy or whatever, I would mimic
that.
And then you know, mimicteachers get into trouble,
always got into trouble fordoing teachers.
So, yeah, I think that'ssomething that was always in me,
(15:24):
but I never.
You know, before I worked atWarner Brothers, voiceover was
like number one.
I didn't really ever thinkthat's that something that
people do.
It wasn't really there for meas a oh, that's a job you could
get.
And, to be honest with you,every voiceover I've mostly done
, I've never gotten from anaudition.
It's just been.
You know, my friend DougLangdale, who did Puss in Boots,
(15:44):
saying I wrote this reallyweird character for you.
Or you know, when he was doingDave the Barbarian, I wrote a
weird character for you Becausemy voiceover ability is so
specific in weird stuff.
But if you want the British guy, you're going to hire Maurice
Lamarche or Fred Tattashore.
So it's like I'm such a smallpart of that that when you hire
(16:04):
Rob Paulson, you get a hundredpeople.
When you hire Maurice, you gota hundred people.
So I found that I had to carveout my own little weird niche,
because otherwise, you know well, brian, you guys know when you
get an audition, it's like he'sfrom Belgium and then you do
your French accent and then youjust imagine Fred Tatteshore
doing it and you're like youknow what am I doing?
You just got to find your nicheand stuff.
(16:26):
I guess, oh yeah, and mine wasalways weird.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And you have to put all that aside during the
audition.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, right, Because you get all that am I?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
nope, I'm just going to do my thing.
I just had one recently and,without describing it, it was
multiple characters and my beardwas long and I needed to trim
and I looked at the descriptionsand one guy was kind of
bolsterous.
I was like and he's kind ofunkempt and it was like oh the
perfect, don't shave.
Second one the character wasway too young for me, like in
his twenties, but they stillwanted me to read.
I was like fine, and I wassmarmy and I was like, hey, baby
(17:01):
, you know.
Then I shaved and then it hey,how you doing?
And then it got quiet and Ipulled into myself and I was a
shy guy.
So, finding those moments and Ididn't worry about who would
get it later, right.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, but when?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
you can focus in the moment.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I don't think I've booked from it, but you can't
let that discourage you no youreally can't.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I mean, trust me.
I think auditioning forvoiceover, especially, is back
before COVID.
If you were in an audition foron-camera or whatever.
You go and there's feedback andthere's someone looking at you,
right or wrongly, going, tellyou what, let's do that again or
whatever, or hey, good job.
And then you feel something.
But to do voiceover alone inyour room and record it and then
(17:40):
send it off and not know that'sa tough gig, that's tough, and
so you kind of have to not care,otherwise you'll just wonder so
just doing it for the sake ofdoing it is the reason to do it,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You're going to have the emotional rollercoaster, any
type of acting but you have tolearn to let go and it's easy to
say, yeah, terrible to do, yeah, it's true, right, right, yeah.
Yeah, I did have a voiceoveraudition recently and then they
wanted it on camera because theinstructions.
(18:12):
It was weird, not for, like,warner brothers or anything.
I'm still in independence andyou know actors access.
So it popped up on there andbecause of the instructions, I
thought it was on camera and Igo to do it and I see that it's
voiceover and I'm like why dothey want my face?
And I started getting a littlenervous because of AI.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Maybe they want to use my hand, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
So I just sent the voiceover in.
Maybe I was wrong due to that.
Whatever, I didn't mind missingthat, because I just had that
feeling you got to trust yourinstinct.
Might be the greatest guy inthe world, maybe they're just
starting out.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Right, it was weird.
Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, yeah, we can use AI.
We can fix this in movies.
We can do all this stuff Likeproclaiming they're going to use
it.
It's killing me.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, no, I bet yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think AI is a particularlyworrisome development in our
lives, especially for creativepeople actors, voiceover people
yeah, I'm not a fan.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I'm not a fan.
I hope that it could be used asa tool, but never in the
creative process Because, likeany computer is a differential
engine.
Right, it could be good forediting, it could be good for I
don't know if it'd be good forthe stock market to keep a track
of it, but it's the people whouse it, like the producers
wanting to just knock out amovie without the actors and
just steal their image.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Right, I just don't know this is my take on AI.
If you're using it as a toolfor workflow, I think that
that's one thing.
I mean if you Google somethingthat's using AI to search for
that.
But if it's AI that's going torecreate the personality, the
image, the likeness, the voiceof a working actor or in any
(19:40):
industry, then that's where Ithink a line needs to be drawn.
No, I agree, with rareexceptions, for example, when an
actor dies in the middle of ashoot and they have to use a
little bit of CGI AI to recreatethem to finish the movie.
You know I can forgive that.
You know James Earl Jones.
When he died he gave the rightsfor them to recreate his voice
(20:04):
in future Star Wars things and Ithink for continuity purposes.
That was very generous of himto do, but I think it needs to
be very specific and very welldefined before it can be used.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, agreed, and actors compensate it or their
families if they passed away youknow Right.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And then even the artwork too.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yes, you know Right.
Like if I draw something and Ican animate it passed away, you
know, yes, right.
And then even the artwork too.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yes, you know Right.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Like, if I draw something and I can animate it
with AI, that's one thing, butif I draw something and then I
want to use, like Studio Ghibli,there's a filter out there.
That's different.
So, yeah, now that I brought usway down, how about we go from
Earth to Ned?
Yes, how about we go from Earthto Ned?
Yes, that was an incredibleshow.
I liked it.
For those who don't know, itwas on Disney Plus and you were
(20:48):
a puppet, yep, and a fish out ofwater, but it was a talk show,
yep, and it also had some otherpuppeteers and puppets and a
thru-stream.
And then Disney bailed on you.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, disney bailed.
I had done some work withHenson with the Jim Henson
Company.
I was one of the members of ashow called Puppet Up where we
would go around.
We went to Scotland, we went toAustralia and it was improv
with puppets.
So it's basically there's acamera and it's above and we had
80 puppets and there were likeeight of us and it was an improv
show.
We'd get suggestions from theaudience.
(21:20):
We'd grab a puppet, we'd puppetup, put it up, put our puppets
up into the camera, which is theJim Henson style.
You know it's the frame and youdo that, and we'd just do an
improv show.
It was a lot of fun.
And when they were developingEarth to Ned, brian called and
he goes hey, I want you toaudition for this.
And he looks just like his dad.
Brian Henson is just an amazingguy.
(21:40):
And he says I want you toaudition for this show and I was
like okay, all right, great.
So they were like okay, and theway Henson does it is which is
fascinating.
And as an actor, you know youprobably appreciate that.
But when you audition, likeDrew Massey and all these other
actor puppeteers are sittingthere watching your audition,
(22:01):
right, so it's a littleunnerving, but there's also calm
camaraderie and he's like hey,you know what you should do.
And that was new to me andthat's sort of the Henson
philosophy we're all going tomake this better.
One person is going to get thisrole, but we all sort of
participated in sort of pushingthat person there.
When Brian called me one day,you know, ok, that's it, you're
going to be Ned, don't blow it.
(22:28):
The very next day I got a callfrom his secretary saying you
have to go to the creature shopand they had a sort of a working
model of it and the way he didit was Jim Henson developed
something called the Waldo,which is this glove that you put
on and you're at a station andthe glove has all kinds of
points of access.
So there's this, there's up anddown, there's this, there's
(22:50):
forward and backwards, and thenwithin the glove are things for
your fingers.
So all those put together aregoing to change the shape of the
mouth.
And you know, like M's and P's,o, and I'm a stupid person and
to get that and to sit there andI think for two months I
(23:10):
literally was like A, b, c, d, e, f, d and looking at the mouth
and stuff and they were buildingthe head.
They were divine.
So they would give me differentversions of the head.
This puppet is a seven foot tallpuppet.
So I'm just the head, I'm noteven the eyes.
Alan Troutman, who was in Babehe did a lot of puppets in Babe.
He was going to be the eyes andthere was someone inside to
(23:31):
sort of move from side to side.
Then there was someone at thefront doing the hands like this,
and then there was anotherpuppeteer doing the other set of
hands and the first time we putit all together.
It was like it was and I'm likethis is we're dead.
Oh, this is not going to work.
No-transcript.
(24:22):
Our little station, the puppetson stage with them, we're good.
50 feet away All we have ismonitors.
And Penn comes over and sort oflooks and he's like you know
what puppeteers are?
Like a lower grade mime, andthen he laughed and he sort of
walked away and he goes I'mkidding, but the improv with
them.
And then we got good at it andit was just so much, so much fun
(24:45):
.
And then I guess what happenedwas we weren't Marvel, you know,
we weren't Star Wars, weweren't Marvel.
We were just another show tosort of fill a space so that
they could do more Marvel stuffand get that stuff coming down
the pipe.
But they didn't really everlike the show.
I don't think it did for themwhat they wanted.
I really liked it.
That's meaningless, but Ireally, really, really liked it.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I don't think it's meaningless at all, but I
understand it grew a little bit,but then it didn't have time to
grab its legs, to grow its legs, yeah.
And I think the other problemwas we'd shot from I think it
was September to December of2019.
And then they were going totake about four months to edit
it because it was a lot ofpieces.
And then COVID hit, andpuppetry is a very
proximity-based art form.
We're all in each other's faces.
I don't think at that time thatthey were going to even think
(25:39):
about bringing the puppeteersback together.
You know how would you do that?
You're sometimes right insomeone's armpit and I guess
that scared them all.
It didn't scare me.
I was like, well, whatever,let's just do it.
But I think that didn't help.
But I think something happenedto Disney, where they don't
embrace the new anymore orthey're not patient with the new
.
It has to be all right.
People know what this is, let'sdo it.
(26:00):
I think that that's kind of sad, but you know, it's
understandable, it's a businessdecision.
But what can you do?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Right yeah, and the streamers are losing money.
So I think there'll be anindependent streamers and
independent films will come andgrow again like they did in the
last century.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, oh yeah.
I mean, look, everyone's likeoh, woe is me, how can I get my
product out there?
What can I do?
I was like dude.
When I was a kid there werethree networks, there were
studios and there was no abilityfor anybody to do anything.
And now they spend millions ofdollars on a show or cat videos
(26:35):
and most people are like I'lltake the cat video, to be honest
with you.
So it's like yeah, it'sstreaming platforms, like you're
.
It's like all this stuff, it'sthe great equalizer.
And it's not about money, it'snot about this, it's about
what's entertaining.
So I say good.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
When you first got into doing voiceover work, did
you go through any classes?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Nope, you just Nope.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Nope Trial by fire.
Get in there and do it.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
No, I think my first one was I wrote an Animaniacs
about Yakalaka Dot go againstEinstein.
And I remember Tom Ruger saying, do you want to be Einstein?
And I was like, no, notparticularly.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That sounds really scary.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
He goes why don't you be Einstein?
I was like, okay, so I showedup, I wrote it and it was Tress
McNeil, jess Harnell, robPaulson and me and I was like
what?
the heck am I doing here?
This is ridiculous.
But I, you know, I was doingthe sort of right, you know the
german accent and stuff.
And they were like, yeah, thisis fine, you know.
(27:40):
But I was petrified.
And then bring, jim cummingswould come in, and then frank
welker and that was like whatthe heck?
I don't know what I'm doing.
You know, and I didn't know,that you can't just follow
someone's dialogue.
With more dialogue, you got toleave that little beat so they
can cut it together.
And they had to stop and go.
Paul, you have to wait, youcan't just keep talking.
(28:00):
And I was like, oh okay, thatwas my education Plus my job.
As we were preparing topremiere.
We would do ADR like Animaniacsespecially.
We would look at the bit whenit came back, we would look at
the short and go, man, that linecould have been funnier, that
line could have been funnier,that line could have been
funnier.
So my job was to plus the linesand then I would go and Andrea
(28:23):
Romano would bring all theactors back in and we would sort
of do it.
I was at the studio all the timeand just watching them work,
especially watching Frank Walker, because Frank Walker, you know
, obviously Scooby-Doo is likeyou know, but he's not only is a
nice guy, but Frank would be sofunny because he's such a pro
and he's a pilot and he wouldhave his copy stand there.
You know, they'd all be sittingand he would have like pilot
(28:46):
magazine and he would just be.
You know, the whole thing'sgoing on, everyone's doing their
session and then when it cameto Frank, you'd think he was
reading his magazine and it'd beokay, frank and you, he'd go
and he would just go back toreading about his airplanes.
You know, these guys they'reall just great and it's kind of
awe-inspiring to watch them.
(29:06):
But yeah yep, yep, yep, yep.
So no, I had no training otherthan you better get in there and
not die.
So okay, I'll get in there andnot die.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
It was the old school swimming lessons.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, yeahso.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
I've seen you.
You're on the con circuit, youand Tom, I think, though I think
I have, yeah, with Tom Ruger.
I think we have one more conand then I'm kind of bowing out
for a while to do other things.
But yeah, that's been fun.
Like everyone's so funny, theybring their kids and be like
well, that's Frigazoid, and thekids would be like I have no
clue what you're talking about.
Dad, I don't, you know, he goes, come on, you know, and that's
(29:45):
kind of fun to see parents nowbringing their kids and the kids
are like I've, you know,whatever dad, I go whatever
floats your boat, Okay, but uh,this is weird.
So, yeah, that's been fun.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Kind of like my generation Son that's a
Studebaker.
Okay, I thought about sayingEdsel and I realized that
might've been an insult, so Istopped myself.
Yeah, paul, it's been a lot offun, but get out.
All right fine, very cool.
We hope to see you on the flipside.
Okay, cool, I don't want to letyou go.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
All right.
Well then you have to come mowmy lawn because it needs to be
done.
So there you go, okay, okay,bye, nice people, freak out.
Hi, my name is Paul Rugg and I'm a voice actor
writer and I'm very happy to be.
I think I'm happy to be on NOLAFilm Scene, but you'll have to
check back later.
Maybe this was a mistake, Idon't know.
And I love New Orleans, Nolans,nolans.
See, I can do that, bob, I'm alady, okay.
A lady, a lady with the thingWith the mic and boo doing baby.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Okay, sorry, welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ Plato
.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
Paul, this is a thrill for meto have you on.
I am a huge fan of Freakazoid.
Good and happy 30th anniversaryto you on that.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Oh, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank
you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you.
Yeah, it's been 30 years andwe're all older, but the
material lives on, so that'sgood.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I think relax-a-vision as we get older
is becoming more and more intune with what we need.
If we could just put it on reallife, and I'll leave it at that
.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, yeah, I won't sing a theme from a summer place
because they would get mad, butif you all want to listen to on
your own time and your own dimetheme from a summer place,
you'll understand Relaxavisionvery, very well, so we like to
jump back and ask where peoplestarted.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
What got you into the biz?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What inspired you.
I joined an improv sketchcomedy group called the Acme
Comedy Players.
It was me, adam Krola, johnMcCann, jim Wickline and a bunch
of the people and we would dohalf improv, half sketch comedy
and we'd do two shows on aFriday, two shows on a Saturday.
It was a lot of fun andsometimes we were literally
performing only for Adam Krola'sgrandparents.
It would be like a 99-seattheater and in the back would be
(01:37):
his very elderly grandparentsand they'd be like I don't like
this.
And then eventually we startedgetting people to come in and
and then eventually we startedgetting people to come in and it
was a lot of fun.
And then when they weredeveloping Animaniacs, sherry
Stoner, whose husband was ourdirector at the Acme Comedy
Players, she came and saw theshow and said you know, we're
developing this show.
That's got really it's got asketch vibe to it.
(01:57):
And so she gave me a script andJohn McCann a script.
It was the first time I'd everwritten animation.
Anyway, that's basically how Igot started.
I didn't get started to be avoice actor or necessarily write
in animation, but the animationand sketch comedy just kind of
were like this really nice fit.
It was really like using allthe things we'd learned at Acme
(02:17):
and then just doing it forcartoons and it was fun and
that's basically how I got mystart.
Working with Warner Brothers inthe 90s was my first real job
and I would say Warner's in the90s was about as fun a job as
you could have.
It was Peter Hastings andSherry Stoner and Deanna Oliver
and John McCann and all thesesketch people just going nuts in
(02:41):
the hallways and we shared thisbuilding called the Imperial
Bank Building in Sherman Oaks,california.
We shared this building calledthe Imperial Bank Building in
Sherman Oaks, california.
We weren't on the WarnerBrothers lot.
I think it's because we weretoo dangerous.
They just said there wasn'troom.
But anyway we would just, youknow, we would just say, hey,
you know, it would be funny ifwe did this and did this and did
this.
And then they'd say, here,here's a check for your thoughts
, and we're like what?
(03:01):
And that's basically WarnerBrothers and the Nines, and then
from there, freakazoid came.
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Both of those shows were from Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yes, well, that was the other thing.
So my wife and I literally hada dime.
We didn't have anything.
When you do like sketch comedyin California or in LA, you pay
in order to rent the theater andstuff.
So not only was I not makingmoney, I was losing $75 a month,
which sometimes was very hardto come by.
And then the next day it's likewould you like to write on the
(03:30):
Steven Spielberg show?
And I'm like, oh, let me thinkabout it.
Yes, as far as working withSteven, he was just fun.
He was involved.
You know, I think he was makingJurassic Park when we first
started, and then Schindler'sList and Saving Private Ryan.
But wherever he was, he wouldsend us emails and notes like,
hey, I really like that.
(03:51):
I didn't like that or whatever,but he was great.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
We're going to pause here.
This has never happened before.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
It's me, it's me, tj, it's me.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
We lost Brian.
I think his Internet might havedropped out All right, brian,
that was very rude, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
One second.
Let me check my connection inanother way.
Can we have one of thoseepisodes TJ.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Nah, we're good, I hear you, I see you, we're
cooking with grease.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
All right, okay, were you able to finish your Steven
Spielberg talk?
Yeah, it was great.
You missed it.
It was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It's where we had lunch together and then he said
you're my favorite writer ever.
Yeah, no, stephen was great andhe was really involved and he
would give us ideas and it was akind of a magical little time
capsule.
Warren Brothers had nothing butmoney, stephen had nothing but
cachet and we were just likeyeah, okay, sure, let's do this.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So yeah, it was awesome, very cool.
Who do you think would win in afight, freakazoid or Mr
Director?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Boy.
I think it would be a tie.
You know, hi me, let me tellyou something, you crazy kid Boy
, I don't know, they're kind ofthe same character.
I don't know why Jerry Lewisbecame a thing for me during
Warners and I think it's becauseTom Ruger, our executive
producer, once showed this videoof wiser.
Older Mr Director, you know thisguy here, the one who uses
(05:11):
avuncular and lugubrious andwords that he's not quite sure
what they are, but they soundvery instrumental in his
edification of thought.
And I would do that around, Iwould sort of do that around the
hallway and be like let me tellyou something, you something,
you crazy kids.
And tom goes, if you write acharacter with that, will you
never do him again in thehallway.
So we put him in, we did onewith, uh, him going against
(05:35):
yakawako dot or yakawako dotdoing against him, called hello,
nice warners, and it was jerry,young jerry like oh hi, nice
lady with the thing.
And then, mr director, jerry,and for some reason, when we
were doing freakazoid since thatYoung Jerry like oh hi, nice
lady with the thing.
And then, mr Director, jerry.
And for some reason, when wewere doing Freakazoid since that
first season the first fewshows were such heavily improv,
I just sort of started doingthat guy.
So Freakazoid is a little bitMr Director and is a little bit
(05:58):
Jerry, a tiny bit A little bit.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You can definitely hear it in the Candlejack
episode when you take the pause.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right, can we pause here?
Yeah, and that was basic.
I think that was the secondthing we ever recorded.
That was after Dance of Doom,and we got to that point where,
you know it was all in thescript.
I wrote that script and it waslike they were tied up.
And then Tom Ruger said hey,why don't you go off here?
And I go well, what do you mean?
He goes, just do somethingweird.
So I just started going.
(06:26):
Let me just pause here and saywhat a crazy or whatever it is.
I said we're going to have fun,fun, fun, fun.
And I just kept talking and TomRuger kept going more, more,
more.
And that's kind of howFreakazoid was, especially those
first few episodes.
It was like whatever came intoour head or the recording booth
and I thought people were goingto go.
This is not a good thing.
(06:47):
I didn't know.
And then when the first footagestarted to come back from
overseas, I looked at it and Iwas like convinced we were going
to be brutally savaged, like noone is going to like this.
And then Stephen saw it and hegoes I think this is weird and
we're like and that's good orbad.
And he's like that's good andwe're like, and that's good or
bad, and he's like that's goodand we're like, all right, then
(07:08):
we're good.
So yeah, but he really lovedfreakazoid.
He would get involved.
And when we won the emmy afterwe were canceled, by the way, we
won the emmy and he came beforehe was going to go shoot saving
private ryan, he came to pickup his emmys and we won that
year for Animaniacs andFreakazoid and he came in and he
goes and we're like hey, hereare the Emmys.
He goes.
(07:28):
Which one is the Freakazoid?
We go, it's this one, he goesthat's the one I want, nice.
I have that on film, so I'm notlying.
He actually liked Freakazoid.
So, that's good we believe amemo.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You got the memo.
We did just get a cease anddesist from Steven, but we'll
talk about that later.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
So you were improv in the beginning days there.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Were y'all in individual booths when you were
recording, or were you in anopen booth where you could see
each other and play off of eachother?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, well, yeah, so back then Andrea Romano, who was
our director, who did Batman,the Animated Series Animanax.
SpongeBob, she is amazing.
She would throw us all in oneroom and we would have those
little sound absorber dividersthat would come up to maybe
shoulder length or a littlehigher, but we would all sit
there and we were always in theroom together and we did.
(08:23):
One thing they don't do todayat all is we would rehearse at
once.
We would all sit there.
Andrea would sort of sit at thecenter and we were all sort of
a curve around her and she'd gookay, you know, fade in angle on
, and she would read the script.
Everyone would do it and whatthat did was like Ed Asner or
Ricardo Montalban, it would beoh, I see how you're going to do
that, okay, and then that wouldinform how he's going to do it.
(08:46):
Not done that way today.
No, no, no.
It's like everyone either Zoomor individual sessions with you
and the director, and which Ijust despise with all of my soul
.
Because, number one, it'shorrifying.
It's very judgmental.
You know everyone's very nice,but it's you alone and the
director is saying, okay, great,could we try that again?
(09:07):
You know you're like, oh, whatam I doing wrong?
But when it's everybody and yousort of understand, it's just
fresh and punchy and stuff and Iknow it's more expensive to do
it, bringing a group in, but Iam a firm believer in just get
everybody in, that you can andrecord your doggone cartoon.
But yeah, that was a verylong-winded answer to your
question.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, not at all.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
We like long-winded answers.
All right, good, good,excellent.
People are tired of hearingfrom me, but I always have to
talk, not that I hate that.
What you're describing is likelive theater.
It's a totally different energy.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And I was thinking about it, because I don't have
much theater experience.
I do have a good amount ofimprov and even today, leading
up to this, I got butterflies.
Because I'm talking to you, Idon't want to blow smoke up, but
I love your work.
I'll leave it at that, thankyou, thank you, thank you.
So it's a little bit, and thenyou kind of kick over.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You're like I got actors and I can't remember his
name might have been FrankSinatra, might have been Mel
Brooks.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
102 degree fever he's struggling he gets to the stage
, bam perfect, walks off thestage.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, it's true, there's a lifeto live.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Performance yeah, I mean, and there is something
about also playing with yourfriends.
You know the way I do it.
I'm trying to get a rise out ofthem which will ruin the take,
but so be it.
I think you're exactly right,brian.
It's a live performance.
And the other thing abouthaving rehearsed everybody is
that we would do maybe two pages, just run it two pages, two
(10:37):
pages, two pages, stop.
And if there were any dramaticlike, well, clearly there was a
problem there, but otherwisewe'd be like, well, all right,
moving on.
So the recording sessions wereincredibly fast.
I remember we had the studiofrom two, two to six, and I
don't remember us ever on asingle episode going past 4 30.
Do you know what I mean?
(10:58):
it was like we had some reallycomplex sometimes in the booth
or in the room.
You know there was tim curry,david warner, jonathan harris,
ed.
As you know, there was TimCurry, david Warner, jonathan
Harris, ed Asner.
You know, sometimes MarisaLaMarche would come in and Tress
McNeil she was cover queen andit was a party.
I mean, everyone was there todo their job, but it was also.
(11:18):
It was.
It's fun.
There's no way I can put itexcept for me, because as one of
the writers I used to love tobe sitting like Andres sits
there in the front and then youknow the producers and writers
sit on the level above and youknow they write down things like
that and sometimes give notes.
But as Freakazoid I couldn'trun back in and go oh, by the
(11:40):
way, I didn't like the ricardodid that and then run back.
So normally we would record meafter everybody else.
I would be there for therehearsal and do it, and then we
would just get me all alonewhich again talking about being
all alone, it's like, but it wasthe best way for me to be a
part of the decision makingabout the show uh, that makes
sense, kind of like an adr trackyeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah so
(12:03):
did it change to the remote, theZoom that you were referring to
earlier?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
individual calls as a result of COVID, or is that
just because of cost saving?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I think COVID certainly made it a standard.
I think it was being done.
You know it's like, yeah, we'llget it via Zoom and stuff and
with SourceConnect.
Yeah, I mean, we'll just sortof do it.
But I think COVID sort of putthe nail in the coffin of live
big, large shoots.
Also, it's much more easy tosay okay, you'll be in from 1 to
1.30.
You've got two lines, so that'sgoing to be a problem, and then
(12:35):
from 2 to 4, we'll get Bonnieand she can come in.
To get everybody scheduled tosort of happen in these days is
harder.
But having said that, back inwhen we recorded these in the
mid-90s I remember David Warnerwas filming Titanic because he
was the villain in Titanic.
In Long Beach there was a dunktake or one of the sequences
(12:57):
they were shooting requiredwater to the Russian and all
that stuff.
But David Warner made sure thathe had written into his
contract that he could go and dohis freakazoid because he liked
to do his freakazoid.
So I can only imagine you knowhim with James Cameron and then
being I have to, I have to go toStudio City.
So he wanted to go.
But everybody showed up RicardoMontalban, ed Asner, tim Curry,
(13:19):
jonathan Harris God bless him.
They all showed up and theywould have pizza with us from
one to two and then be like, allright, let's do this thing.
You know, come on, I got to go.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And David Warner was the lobe, yes, a fantastic
villain who is basically allbrain TJ.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he was.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
They got Ricardo Montalban to say no, you are the
weenie.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, ricardoardo.
So again it was like andreromano would go off and say I
think I can get you ricardomontalban, and we're like, why
would he do our stupid littleshow?
And she goes, probably are youpaying?
And we're like, well, I guess Imean, so then he'll come do it.
This is what working actors do.
You pay them a fee and thenthey come and do your stupid
show.
So so he would come.
And it's funny, you know youalways oh, he won't get.
This Frigazoid is so weird hewon't really understand what
(14:09):
we're going for.
And he would come in, he'd havethe script.
He goes I see I will be doingsome Khan parody, wrath of Khan.
All right, yes, my friend, andhe knew what he was doing.
Same Harris, dr Smith from Lostin Space.
He got it.
Oh, I see you want me to do DrSmith?
All right, yeah, but DavidWarner, he was in the Omen.
(14:33):
He was the villain in Titanic.
He was the villain in TimeBandit.
He was Rajagul in Batman, theanimated series.
He is profound in his speakingmanner, but he would come in and
knock it out of the park doingthe stupidest stuff for us,
because I don't think he hadbeen asked to do comedy.
It turns out he was a reallyfunny guy.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
The different voices, funny voices and accents, and
was that something that you weregood at before you started
doing improv and sketch comedy?
Or is that something that cameout of improv and sketch comedy?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I think I was always mimicking back then late 60s,
early 70s.
When I was a young kid theywould play the Jerry Lewis movie
on Saturdays.
You know, whatever the errandboy or whatever, I would mimic
that.
And then you know, mimicteachers get into trouble,
always got into trouble fordoing teachers.
So, yeah, I think that'ssomething that was always in me,
(15:24):
but I never.
You know, before I worked atWarner Brothers, voiceover was
like number one.
I didn't really ever thinkthat's that something that
people do.
It wasn't really there for meas a oh, that's a job you could
get.
And, to be honest with you,every voiceover I've mostly done
, I've never gotten from anaudition.
It's just been.
You know, my friend DougLangdale, who did Puss in Boots,
(15:44):
saying I wrote this reallyweird character for you.
Or you know, when he was doingDave the Barbarian, I wrote a
weird character for you Becausemy voiceover ability is so
specific in weird stuff.
But if you want the British guy, you're going to hire Maurice
Lamarche or Fred Tattashore.
So it's like I'm such a smallpart of that that when you hire
(16:04):
Rob Paulson, you get a hundredpeople.
When you hire Maurice, you gota hundred people.
So I found that I had to carveout my own little weird niche,
because otherwise, you know well, brian, you guys know when you
get an audition, it's like he'sfrom Belgium and then you do
your French accent and then youjust imagine Fred Tatteshore
doing it and you're like youknow what am I doing?
You just got to find your nicheand stuff.
(16:26):
I guess, oh yeah, and mine wasalways weird.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And you have to put all that aside during the
audition.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, right, Because you get all that am I?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
nope, I'm just going to do my thing.
I just had one recently and,without describing it, it was
multiple characters and my beardwas long and I needed to trim
and I looked at the descriptionsand one guy was kind of
bolsterous.
I was like and he's kind ofunkempt and it was like oh the
perfect, don't shave.
Second one the character wasway too young for me, like in
his twenties, but they stillwanted me to read.
I was like fine, and I wassmarmy and I was like, hey, baby
(17:01):
, you know.
Then I shaved and then it hey,how you doing?
And then it got quiet and Ipulled into myself and I was a
shy guy.
So, finding those moments and Ididn't worry about who would
get it later, right.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, but when?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
you can focus in the moment.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I don't think I've booked from it, but you can't
let that discourage you no youreally can't.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I mean, trust me.
I think auditioning forvoiceover, especially, is back
before COVID.
If you were in an audition foron-camera or whatever.
You go and there's feedback andthere's someone looking at you,
right or wrongly, going, tellyou what, let's do that again or
whatever, or hey, good job.
And then you feel something.
But to do voiceover alone inyour room and record it and then
(17:40):
send it off and not know that'sa tough gig, that's tough, and
so you kind of have to not care,otherwise you'll just wonder so
just doing it for the sake ofdoing it is the reason to do it,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You're going to have the emotional rollercoaster, any
type of acting but you have tolearn to let go and it's easy to
say, yeah, terrible to do, yeah, it's true, right, right, yeah.
Yeah, I did have a voiceoveraudition recently and then they
wanted it on camera because theinstructions.
(18:12):
It was weird, not for, like,warner brothers or anything.
I'm still in independence andyou know actors access.
So it popped up on there andbecause of the instructions, I
thought it was on camera and Igo to do it and I see that it's
voiceover and I'm like why dothey want my face?
And I started getting a littlenervous because of AI.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Maybe they want to use my hand, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
So I just sent the voiceover in.
Maybe I was wrong due to that.
Whatever, I didn't mind missingthat, because I just had that
feeling you got to trust yourinstinct.
Might be the greatest guy inthe world, maybe they're just
starting out.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Right, it was weird.
Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, yeah, we can use AI.
We can fix this in movies.
We can do all this stuff Likeproclaiming they're going to use
it.
It's killing me.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, no, I bet yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think AI is a particularlyworrisome development in our
lives, especially for creativepeople actors, voiceover people
yeah, I'm not a fan.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I'm not a fan.
I hope that it could be used asa tool, but never in the
creative process Because, likeany computer is a differential
engine.
Right, it could be good forediting, it could be good for I
don't know if it'd be good forthe stock market to keep a track
of it, but it's the people whouse it, like the producers
wanting to just knock out amovie without the actors and
just steal their image.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Right, I just don't know this is my take on AI.
If you're using it as a toolfor workflow, I think that
that's one thing.
I mean if you Google somethingthat's using AI to search for
that.
But if it's AI that's going torecreate the personality, the
image, the likeness, the voiceof a working actor or in any
(19:40):
industry, then that's where Ithink a line needs to be drawn.
No, I agree, with rareexceptions, for example, when an
actor dies in the middle of ashoot and they have to use a
little bit of CGI AI to recreatethem to finish the movie.
You know I can forgive that.
You know James Earl Jones.
When he died he gave the rightsfor them to recreate his voice
(20:04):
in future Star Wars things and Ithink for continuity purposes.
That was very generous of himto do, but I think it needs to
be very specific and very welldefined before it can be used.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, agreed, and actors compensate it or their
families if they passed away youknow Right.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And then even the artwork too.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yes, you know Right.
Like if I draw something and Ican animate it passed away, you
know, yes, right.
And then even the artwork too.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yes, you know Right.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Like, if I draw something and I can animate it
with AI, that's one thing, butif I draw something and then I
want to use, like Studio Ghibli,there's a filter out there.
That's different.
So, yeah, now that I brought usway down, how about we go from
Earth to Ned?
Yes, how about we go from Earthto Ned?
Yes, that was an incredibleshow.
I liked it.
For those who don't know, itwas on Disney Plus and you were
(20:48):
a puppet, yep, and a fish out ofwater, but it was a talk show,
yep, and it also had some otherpuppeteers and puppets and a
thru-stream.
And then Disney bailed on you.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, disney bailed.
I had done some work withHenson with the Jim Henson
Company.
I was one of the members of ashow called Puppet Up where we
would go around.
We went to Scotland, we went toAustralia and it was improv
with puppets.
So it's basically there's acamera and it's above and we had
80 puppets and there were likeeight of us and it was an improv
show.
We'd get suggestions from theaudience.
(21:20):
We'd grab a puppet, we'd puppetup, put it up, put our puppets
up into the camera, which is theJim Henson style.
You know it's the frame and youdo that, and we'd just do an
improv show.
It was a lot of fun.
And when they were developingEarth to Ned, brian called and
he goes hey, I want you toaudition for this.
And he looks just like his dad.
Brian Henson is just an amazingguy.
(21:40):
And he says I want you toaudition for this show and I was
like okay, all right, great.
So they were like okay, and theway Henson does it is which is
fascinating.
And as an actor, you know youprobably appreciate that.
But when you audition, likeDrew Massey and all these other
actor puppeteers are sittingthere watching your audition,
(22:01):
right, so it's a littleunnerving, but there's also calm
camaraderie and he's like hey,you know what you should do.
And that was new to me andthat's sort of the Henson
philosophy we're all going tomake this better.
One person is going to get thisrole, but we all sort of
participated in sort of pushingthat person there.
When Brian called me one day,you know, ok, that's it, you're
going to be Ned, don't blow it.
(22:28):
The very next day I got a callfrom his secretary saying you
have to go to the creature shopand they had a sort of a working
model of it and the way he didit was Jim Henson developed
something called the Waldo,which is this glove that you put
on and you're at a station andthe glove has all kinds of
points of access.
So there's this, there's up anddown, there's this, there's
(22:50):
forward and backwards, and thenwithin the glove are things for
your fingers.
So all those put together aregoing to change the shape of the
mouth.
And you know, like M's and P's,o, and I'm a stupid person and
to get that and to sit there andI think for two months I
(23:10):
literally was like A, b, c, d, e, f, d and looking at the mouth
and stuff and they were buildingthe head.
They were divine.
So they would give me differentversions of the head.
This puppet is a seven foot tallpuppet.
So I'm just the head, I'm noteven the eyes.
Alan Troutman, who was in Babehe did a lot of puppets in Babe.
He was going to be the eyes andthere was someone inside to
(23:31):
sort of move from side to side.
Then there was someone at thefront doing the hands like this,
and then there was anotherpuppeteer doing the other set of
hands and the first time we putit all together.
It was like it was and I'm likethis is we're dead.
Oh, this is not going to work.
No-transcript.
(24:22):
Our little station, the puppetson stage with them, we're good.
50 feet away All we have ismonitors.
And Penn comes over and sort oflooks and he's like you know
what puppeteers are?
Like a lower grade mime, andthen he laughed and he sort of
walked away and he goes I'mkidding, but the improv with
them.
And then we got good at it andit was just so much, so much fun
(24:45):
.
And then I guess what happenedwas we weren't Marvel, you know,
we weren't Star Wars, weweren't Marvel.
We were just another show tosort of fill a space so that
they could do more Marvel stuffand get that stuff coming down
the pipe.
But they didn't really everlike the show.
I don't think it did for themwhat they wanted.
I really liked it.
That's meaningless, but Ireally, really, really liked it.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I don't think it's meaningless at all, but I
understand it grew a little bit,but then it didn't have time to
grab its legs, to grow its legs, yeah.
And I think the other problemwas we'd shot from I think it
was September to December of2019.
And then they were going totake about four months to edit
it because it was a lot ofpieces.
And then COVID hit, andpuppetry is a very
proximity-based art form.
We're all in each other's faces.
I don't think at that time thatthey were going to even think
(25:39):
about bringing the puppeteersback together.
You know how would you do that?
You're sometimes right insomeone's armpit and I guess
that scared them all.
It didn't scare me.
I was like, well, whatever,let's just do it.
But I think that didn't help.
But I think something happenedto Disney, where they don't
embrace the new anymore orthey're not patient with the new
.
It has to be all right.
People know what this is, let'sdo it.
(26:00):
I think that that's kind of sad, but you know, it's
understandable, it's a businessdecision.
But what can you do?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Right yeah, and the streamers are losing money.
So I think there'll be anindependent streamers and
independent films will come andgrow again like they did in the
last century.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, oh yeah.
I mean, look, everyone's likeoh, woe is me, how can I get my
product out there?
What can I do?
I was like dude.
When I was a kid there werethree networks, there were
studios and there was no abilityfor anybody to do anything.
And now they spend millions ofdollars on a show or cat videos
(26:35):
and most people are like I'lltake the cat video, to be honest
with you.
So it's like yeah, it'sstreaming platforms, like you're
.
It's like all this stuff, it'sthe great equalizer.
And it's not about money, it'snot about this, it's about
what's entertaining.
So I say good.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
When you first got into doing voiceover work, did
you go through any classes?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Nope, you just Nope.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Nope Trial by fire.
Get in there and do it.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
No, I think my first one was I wrote an Animaniacs
about Yakalaka Dot go againstEinstein.
And I remember Tom Ruger saying, do you want to be Einstein?
And I was like, no, notparticularly.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That sounds really scary.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
He goes why don't you be Einstein?
I was like, okay, so I showedup, I wrote it and it was Tress
McNeil, jess Harnell, robPaulson and me and I was like
what?
the heck am I doing here?
This is ridiculous.
But I, you know, I was doingthe sort of right, you know the
german accent and stuff.
And they were like, yeah, thisis fine, you know.
(27:40):
But I was petrified.
And then bring, jim cummingswould come in, and then frank
welker and that was like whatthe heck?
I don't know what I'm doing.
You know, and I didn't know,that you can't just follow
someone's dialogue.
With more dialogue, you got toleave that little beat so they
can cut it together.
And they had to stop and go.
Paul, you have to wait, youcan't just keep talking.
(28:00):
And I was like, oh okay, thatwas my education Plus my job.
As we were preparing topremiere.
We would do ADR like Animaniacsespecially.
We would look at the bit whenit came back, we would look at
the short and go, man, that linecould have been funnier, that
line could have been funnier,that line could have been
funnier.
So my job was to plus the linesand then I would go and Andrea
(28:23):
Romano would bring all theactors back in and we would sort
of do it.
I was at the studio all the timeand just watching them work,
especially watching Frank Walker, because Frank Walker, you know
, obviously Scooby-Doo is likeyou know, but he's not only is a
nice guy, but Frank would be sofunny because he's such a pro
and he's a pilot and he wouldhave his copy stand there.
You know, they'd all be sittingand he would have like pilot
(28:46):
magazine and he would just be.
You know, the whole thing'sgoing on, everyone's doing their
session and then when it cameto Frank, you'd think he was
reading his magazine and it'd beokay, frank and you, he'd go
and he would just go back toreading about his airplanes.
You know, these guys they'reall just great and it's kind of
awe-inspiring to watch them.
(29:06):
But yeah yep, yep, yep, yep.
So no, I had no training otherthan you better get in there and
not die.
So okay, I'll get in there andnot die.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
It was the old school swimming lessons.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, yeahso.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
I've seen you.
You're on the con circuit, youand Tom, I think, though I think
I have, yeah, with Tom Ruger.
I think we have one more conand then I'm kind of bowing out
for a while to do other things.
But yeah, that's been fun.
Like everyone's so funny, theybring their kids and be like
well, that's Frigazoid, and thekids would be like I have no
clue what you're talking about.
Dad, I don't, you know, he goes, come on, you know, and that's
(29:45):
kind of fun to see parents nowbringing their kids and the kids
are like I've, you know,whatever dad, I go whatever
floats your boat, Okay, but uh,this is weird.
So, yeah, that's been fun.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Kind of like my generation Son that's a
Studebaker.
Okay, I thought about sayingEdsel and I realized that
might've been an insult, so Istopped myself.
Yeah, paul, it's been a lot offun, but get out.
All right fine, very cool.
We hope to see you on the flipside.
Okay, cool, I don't want to letyou go.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
All right.
Well then you have to come mowmy lawn because it needs to be
done.
So there you go, okay, okay,bye, nice people, freak out.
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