Efren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite, Crank, Casa de mi Padre)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
Do it now? How you doing out there?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
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Speaker 2 (00:31):
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Speaker 3 (00:34):
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Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hold old Knock Gud.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Welcome back, everybody to another episode of Tuned In with
Jim Cummings. I am producer Chris, joined as always by
the legend himself, mister Jim Cummings. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
We're back to live action.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
We are live and kicking. Gotta go one for you today.
Pull that dials. Don't change to whatever you do nowadays.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
But don't you get the idea.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
That's right. We have a very special guest for you today,
none other than Evrin Ramirez who you know, as Pedro
sound chets from Napoleon Dynamite. How are you doing today, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Good morning. Wherever we are at on the planet today.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
I fell into that same hole. Yeah, thanks for being here.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
No, no, my pleasure, all right, it makes a lot.
I don't do many podcasts, you know. Yeah, so that's
my choice. I tend to be very shy on speaking
about speaking about the magic.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, right right, and.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Uh, I try to. Maybe it's because I protect my
private life, or maybe it's I'm always in the little warehouse,
which is like my my workroom in my house, either
developing a character or breaking down a story, breaking down
a script, creating new worlds for the future, which to me,

(02:02):
I feel like sometimes i'm geppetto you know, and I'm
really you know, trying to figure something new that hasn't
been that has yet to be invented.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
M that's and you apply that thought toward character development obviously.
I mean, how do you see I've never heard I
just I just fly by the seat of my pants.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Of course I don't. I don't do on camera.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, that's and it's hard to look at, but but
that's that's fascinating. So you have a process that you
go through and how do you do that? Do you
think of like the classic actors, Well, where was he born,
where was he raised? How many kids were in the family?
You know, I mean, how does that work?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
I go method?

Speaker 3 (02:47):
So, yeah, golly all right. When you first start out
as acting as an actor, you you really think about
as an actor, can I play this role? Can I
really live this character's life? How do I do it?
Can I memorize all these pages?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:11):
That's true, right, That's that's just the beginning. But the
the more years you add on into the process of
setting the work, it becomes more about world building. And
when I say world building is how to understand what
world you are in in the first place, to understand
what kind of characters are needed to be in that world,

(03:34):
what's the predicament, and what's the problem? You ask what
the problem is, and who are the characters that are
facing this problem and how do they and how do
they achieve what they're trying to accomplish. So it's kind
of like billiards, right, you need specific balls to put

(03:54):
on the poll table in order to play the game.
Obviously you have an eight ball. You can't you can't
replace it with the with the bowling ball, although they're
both black balls, right, So it makes sense and you
have to follow the bulls of the game the same
exact thing when you're working on When I'm working on
a movie or a play or a TV show, I
have to understand the medium. That's when they say the tone,

(04:15):
the style of the theme of the project. You have
to have understanding is this comedy, is this drama? Is
it horror? At adventure? Fantasy? And by asking these questions,
you really start to zoom in on the life of
Then once you have an understanding of who your character is,
you go, all right, how true does the ring to me?

(04:39):
What would really occur or what would make me do
these things in order to get from point A to
point B? And then it becomes something else. So in
a period of six weeks, as people say, oh, you're
going method, no, you're just truly living what that life is.
And sometimes I look at characters and say I would
make those choices, And sometimes I would say, well, oh,

(05:00):
I would never in a million years make that choice.
But that's what I go, That's what happens in the story.
That's why that story is so important, is.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
That always is that ever difficult for you to go, well,
I would never done that in a thousand years, and
now I'm stuck that No, I gotta do it, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
That's a really good question. I When characters are very clear,
because they're either either purposely driven on their achievements, it's
it's easy to understand. But sometimes every once in a
while you'll find a character who's lost, which means that

(05:43):
you have to find a place that's unfamiliar, an emotional
area that makes you very uncomfortable, and do that and
live that process. And it's when you have a really
good director that's okay because then you could trust that
that he'sn help guide you. Really bad director, it sounds

(06:05):
like you've had both, and it's hard because you you're
trying to grip something that that that's unattainable and you
feel like you're flailing with knives. So so once you
know I've done characters like that, once you're there, you go, okay,

(06:26):
it's going to be all you have to tell you
your heart and your mind, it's going to be okay,
it says that little voice, and so it allows you
to to tread carefully.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
You know, with.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Love and hope in the in the cloud of fear.
So wow, Well you're a poetic.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
No, it really is, and it sounds like you're tapping
into similar ground like Heath Ledger, God Rest his soul.
He was really invested in being the Joker and he
and I guess the popular thought is that he kind
of overdid it, got too far into character, and you know,

(07:08):
and he really was a little unhinged there for a
little bit. Then he had come back and you know,
I mean, God Rest his soul, you know. But I
hope whenever Pedro never did drove you to the edge.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Of them.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Adro was in Narcos maybe.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, Okay, that's true.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Huh. Some of my teachers are from Australia, you know.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
One of them means Lisa Robertson, She's amazing. And we
talk about that. We talk about something called the dream
of life or the false dream of life.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
An example for you watchers out there, an example if
you if you want to be an actor, right, if
that's your dream of life, and if you go to
acting schools, if you if you join a theater program
and you're practicing your work, that is the dream of life.
And at some point people say, well, when do you
become a working actor? And that's what working actors do.

(08:06):
You're constantly working on a play. You're constantly working on
a screenplay. You're developing your your craft, right, You're doing
the practice a false dream of life is going through
the Hollywood parties. You're going to meet so many famous
and it you know that I don't memorize lines. The

(08:26):
lines memorize me and oh I'll learn it the day
of like that. If that works for you, I guess
that's scary. Yeah, I mean, there are naturals if the
character is exactly like you're okay. Nevertheless, you really the
study of the technique helps you become stronger to make

(08:47):
impulsive choices that are so honest and so deep that
only a camera can capture that, because the camera can
capture the absolute truth. If you're lying, if you're acting,
the camera will capture that. You know, that's not that's
not what we do. That's whur job is to live
honestly in the moment, as deep and as truthful as possible.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, yeah, that's well said, but not easily done, correct,
you know that's that's I mean, I think that's what
separates the well, you know, the brandos from the.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
The first thing Gloria told me, the first thing you
need is is love. You have to ask where's love?

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Right?

Speaker 3 (09:31):
And they once then met you and met you. You
guys are love. You guys are funny, you guys are hoping.
That's that's a good as they say the future, this
generation says it's the vibe, right, and you guys are
you guys because are good vibes?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, so yeah, Bob Marley was right.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
It's really interesting for me hearing you talking, like doing
research on you, you know, because I guess I don't know.
I guess I kind of fell victim to like judging
a book by its cover, and like, you know, I
hadn't seen Napoleon Dynamite in years and years. Obviously you know,
it's a favorite, but it's easy to remember, like at
Pagro as like a one dimensional character, which of course
he isn't. But you know what I'm kind of getting

(10:14):
at there, and then listening to you in interviews and
how you view the craft and how studied you are,
I was just like, what really excited? You know? I
went to theater school myself and you know, study to
be an actor, and it's really cool to me. I
always give like the analogy like what you were alluding
to earlier, you know, especially in this city in La
you know, there's I feel like there's a big subset

(10:36):
of people who want to be actors to be famous
rather than like the craft and learning to hone the skills.
It's like, I want to be an actor because I
want to be like you said, you know, at these
Hollywood parties and you know, Robin elbows with whoever, whoever.
And it's always refreshing to me whenever we have somebody
on the show who's like actually like a dedicated like craft.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Actor Denzel Washington talks about that all. Yes, yes, how
people there's a there's a lack of the practice, and
I mean the absolute truth, this is always going to
be a lack of practice. In the end. It's it's
it's those who really spend time doing the homework, and
sometimes it it's it's you're doing it alone. It's lonely.

(11:20):
It's miserable because you're digging into people's problems, Like why
am I attaching these problems onto me?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah? Okay, you have to carry a lot of luggage.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, these are my suitcases. Yeah, but that's part of
the deal. And you too in the in the end,
even in comedy, you know, you know, the the an example,
doing Napoleon Dynamite, Pedro had this fear of what if
I didn't win the campaign? You know, what if I

(11:54):
don't know what I'm doing? You know, you know it's
Napoleon a true friend because I don't know if you
have noticed or not, but there's moments when Napoleon is
lying to me or you know, lying to Pedro, you know,
this is my girlfriend from Omaha or Ohio, Like really,
you know, do you really have skill? Do you really

(12:15):
have skills?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Really?

Speaker 3 (12:18):
But friends kind of support each other and go all right,
let's explore what we what we know about ourselves, you know,
and how how do we help each other out? And
the great thing about Napoleon is that you have this
guy who's always complaining, who is trying to figure life out,
who's who, who, who fights with his brother, doesn't get

(12:39):
along with his uncle, hates you know, the Lama. But
through all of that, goes beyond himself and does something
for his friend, and it becomes so altruistic of him
that that not only do do I get affected by it,
you know, and and win and become president, but something

(13:00):
great happens to everyone. I mean, the Kip ends up
getting to Lafonda, Grandma gets a lama, Napoleon gets the girl,
Uncle Rico gets that grow on the bike.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
So like something great happens to every single character, which
is wonderful things the story, because that's that would really
fall if people do good things for other people, you know,
you do that, then then I think we're gonna be okay. Yeah,
that's the point of the story.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
I could tell that we are going to be friends.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
That that was the sound that that put it all together.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, that's good stuff.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
I heard you say on a on another interview that
which never really occurred to me before. But like each
character is trying to find themselves, like they're trying to
find their way and place in this world. And I
thought that was a really interesting and immediately, you know,
such memorable characters start going in my head one by
one and I was like, oh my god, that's so
true about every single one of them. Like you, it's

(13:55):
just I don't know, I'm just fan blowing.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, but that's true, you know, some directions. Some directions
go straight up right through the darkness, and sometimes some
characters go into the darkness with their own darkness and
get lost and that's their only way to find the light.
It's kind of like when we talked about playing the Joker, right,

(14:18):
if you're commissioned to play the Joker, you have to
find that darkness and open a sense of darkness in you,
telling yourself that you're going to be okay, and you
need to surround yourself with light so that when you

(14:40):
enter that darkness, something else happens and you trust that
and you go when you're done, you are done.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, And so that you can also get back out
of the darkness.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, yeah, you know, give yourself over to the dark side.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
You want to do that.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
So I'm curious about like the I'm assuming it was
like a regular audition audition process, you audition for this movie.
But what I want to ask specifically is I know
that Napoleon Dynamite was originally a short film, a black
and white short film under a different name with another actor.
As far as my research could tell, he wasn't really
an actor. Maybe it was like they had a tight

(15:20):
budget and it was like oh, this guy can play
Pedro Sanchez, but then they recast him obviously for you
for the film.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Well, I mean, I can't remember the name of the
guy the young guys who were in the short film,
but I mean I know John Heater as a character
by the name of Seth Yes. And so when Jared has,
mind you, most of the crew and cast members, half
of them actually went to BYU together and they were
going to film school, all right, study theater, study the films.

(15:49):
So and what happened was he decided to do this
short film for seven hundred bucks. And when he shot
the short story called Peluca which means in Spanish, not
only did he have the Napoleon character, but then he
had two characters named Pedro and Gail, and Pedro only

(16:10):
spoke Spanish and Gail was his cousin, you know. And
so they befriended Napoleon and they were off into their
own adventures. So when I when I booked the job.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
I remember a different gig back then.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, when I put the job, Jared has sat me
down and he said, I want you to watch this
short film and I said okay, and he said, I
want you to make those two characters into one, and
I thought like, sure, there you go, no problem, Yeah,
all right, because you have to find their identities and

(16:46):
and kind of put that in the in the the
the pot that you're creating of the character recipe. Huh yeah. Yeah.
Then you started mixing, you know, and you try something
new and see what works and see what doesn't work.
In an example, when I was working with with with
The The Infinite The Ultimate Jonathan Grice or Dietrich batter uh,

(17:11):
who are wonderful character actors, seeing them in their character outfits,
and then watching John Heater, who's so creative in living
as Napoleon. I'm looking at it like like, this is
going to be such a weird movie. How did I
did I say yes to this? I hope I know

(17:33):
what I'm doing, Like, yeah, it is. It is to
such extremity, and I thought, well, here goes nothing.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, well I got to ask. I think I know
the answer.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
But when when you're aside from the fact you're going, okay,
well this isn't the typical you know, made for TV
movie or whatever. You know, this is something different. What
what was your first reaction? Oh, ship or this is
going to be it?

Speaker 3 (18:03):
My reaction was, I hope I can convince people that
I look like I know what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Okay, right, well congratulations, yeah, thank you succeeded.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yeah. At the time, I was working on a I
was working on a TV show called Even Stevens, and
I was working on a play called Tracers. Tracers that
that take place in Vietnam, and it was written by
four actors actually, you know, and it's funny, you know.

(18:35):
And the character was playing was was he he He
had a drug addiction, heroin, And I thought, well, I'm
not going to do that. So but but I took
the Christian Bale approach, which was red bull crackers, apples,
and and cigarettes. I'm not a smoker, so you can imagine.

(18:55):
So it was it took you to another place, you know.
I spent time interviewing some soldiers and they told me
about some wonderful experiences and some not so wonderful experiences.
So you you take that into consideration, then you know
you're as an actor, you're just constantly exploring different worlds.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
So when I.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Entered the world of Napoleon Dynamite, living in a rural
town where nothing seems to happen, you know, where somebody's
waiting for something to happen.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
The first thing I felt was or we have to embrace,
embrace each other. We have to accept our differences and
our similarities, you know. And as Pedro explores that world,
he recognizes a similarity of feeling ostracized with, you know,
along with Napoleon Dynamite and Napoleon's a little different, you know.

(19:54):
And because of that friendship, they end up getting Deb
as a friend, and Deb becomes a really good friend,
and there's a friendship between them.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
Three.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Oh, something great happens to them. And I started with
that and I thought like, if I continue on with hope,
then maybe something great will come out of this. And
then and it reminded me as an actor, like this
is a student film and the director is about twenty two,
twenty three years old, and he's creating this project with

(20:23):
his friends, hoping that something great will come out of that.
And I thought, Oh, that's the that is a through
line of not only this film, but of our purpose
as artist.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah that's right. Wow, good for you.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
That's really interesting.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
A hell of an observation. Yeah, do you teach sometimes?
Do you? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Because I could see that there was a little professor
coming out there that.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
It was a very cool thing.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
No, you're very good at conveying thoughts and emotions. Yeah,
I mean you're an actor, so.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
That's kind of god.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
But not everybody who acts, you know, is able to
pass that on. You know, it's like something It's like,
I don't really know how to explain it. It's just
like what I do? You know what I mean. You've
obviously ran into people like that as well.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, well, when you watch enough Bryce Dallas Howard's interviews,
you kind of get it. I mean, she speaks so
eloquently and it's just remarkable to watch.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, she's pretty amazing.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Great actors who know how to express themselves with such
detail of not only the craft but it's importance. And
I thought, like, I want to do that.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah. Yeah, did you always know that what you were
going to do when you were.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
I'm still trying to figure it out.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
So that's a yes or no. I can't tell.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
No, I mean, in all honesty, I was. I mean
I grew up in household with five brothers, including a
twin as John for those of you who are watching,
John Heater also has a twin. You know, as John
and Dan in my case and Carlos, which which is
a trip.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
I know, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
We figured that if we all got together in one room,
you know, the world would explode.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
So I think, so I'll let the book you guys
on our next podcast, Well, we'll check that out.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Stay tuned.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
We definitely beat Looney Tunes. But but I've always uh,
this is being this means true ever since uh scholastics
came out for second graders and third graders when you're
in school. To me, that was my go to you know,

(22:38):
whether I'm reading reading a Goosebump book or choose your
own adventure or anything that that will take me away,
my imagination into another world. So so since I was little,
I've been driven by that. And my father would see me,
You're always still different because I'd make faces with whoever,

(22:58):
because I like to break the norm.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
That's just.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
A habit of mine, right, I tend to ask the
other question that most people don't ask. That's good, so
you know, and I and I thought it was a
detriment to to to my upbringing. But I thought, even
as a as I get older, that it's sort of
like a secret weapon for myself. To be able to
ask these questions, to make to have a better understand

(23:25):
to make better choices. And I thought, Okay, let me
use this into my artistry, into the into my crap
and see where it can take me on another level
rather than just playing the general because I never want
to you never want to do that?

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Well yeah, yeah, yeah yeah?

Speaker 4 (23:42):
Does your how does your approach to voice acting differ
or does it?

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Oh uh? Some people say that voice acting is it's easy.
You just going to you because you have a mic,
and you just going with pajamas and just do your thing.
I mean, I mean kind of sounds true, but not really.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
I've always in my pajamas.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
I'm in my pajamas now, Yeah, that's right. But voice
over acting, if I have such an extreme a measure
for film acting or stage work, voiceover is that times ten,
because not only do you have to be strong with

(24:24):
the kind of choices, whether they're mental or emotional, you
have to understand and be clear with your inflection, your intonation,
and your vocal range and be free to be able
to while in the moment, change under the instincts and

(24:44):
the auspice of what the director has given you. At
that you know at that moment when you're recording, so
so it requires such focus that once you have the
understanding of what you've done that work in that problem
when you're recording, it becomes so much fun because then
you're living freely through that voice whatever you create. You know,

(25:08):
in film acting, I'm I'm a little highed like this,
and then I start talking like fetter the censers or something,
you know, and then you really play that. But even
when I did Pixars light Year, he's I told the studios,
I go Leon Kirk. I believe I told him. Eron Diaz,

(25:29):
who's a science engineer who really builds the rocket, creates
the cat, finds the crystals on that new planet. He
is so smart and intrinsic. But the fact that he's
working with Cat and light Year, who is his ultimate hero,
is the reason why he speaks the way he does.

Speaker 5 (25:46):
Oh light Year and here the excess one h golly,
oh my gosh, he's working with the captain.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
Like, yeah, so you really voice yeah, correct, it just
it's something happens. You just trust that creative uh path,
and and it will lead you into some direction.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yes, wow, yeah, So what do you prefer on camera?
Or off. Oh, like I said, if I didn't.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Whoever hires me.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Okay, that's a really good answer because it's true.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, it's you know, I love storytelling. I love acting.
You know. You know, people a lot of actors talk
about Shakespeare how he is like the center of the crimes,
the crime of storytelling, and he sort of is because
you you you you he really finds the theme of

(26:46):
what he wants to tell and you know, do you
see the difference between between Romeo and Juliet and and
and Hamlet per se. So so as an actor you
still have to sort of enter the mind of the
director how he sees it, and then the mind of

(27:06):
the writer and find the writer's intention and and and
run with that, and then as an actor, live in
that so that once you are in that world, immersed
but in it, then you can make more discoveries. Because
even a writer is writing it from an objective point
of view, the actor is the one you're living in it.

(27:29):
So with voiceovers, you're really discovering new sounds as you're
either in the rehearsal process or or when you're working
on on on the set, in the in the in
the recording booth, and to me, that's that's the fun
because now now like this microphone, there's there's there's ways
on how you could stand in a specific position that

(27:53):
will alter your inflections and allow you to play and
then and then your your vocal arrange. When you really
are really right, it really shapes and shape shifts the
characters you play. So for me, it's if it's a
challenge like that, I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
There's a story about Mike Myers and when he did
the movie Shrek. He did Shrek's lines all did all
first first, worst thing, right out of the gate, and
on the last day when he was recording the last
two or three pages, he had heard a play back
and he said, nope, nope, nope, can't do it. Got

(28:32):
to do it all, got to do it all over,
And he scrapped the whole thing and went back and
re recorded Shrek's lines all over again because something popped
in his head on the last day and he said, nope,
it's not ringing true.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's no.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
It's kind of like what you were saying, you know,
are you are you the character? Are you playing a character?
Are you or are you the character talking?

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Are you playing the are you playing the character and
a death scene or are you dying?

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Right?

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Wow, And so it reflects basically love of what you
were just saying. You know, you go back to that
and boom, then then it's real.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
I had done a a Nickelodeon cartoon and I played
the struggling kid. He was heavy set and he was
just tried to get fit, you know. And I mean
the point of the of that episode was was your
heart and your ambition and your courage to fight to overcome,
you know, your struggles. So and he had a hard

(29:36):
tame because he wanted to become a cross country runner.
So so I thought, like, how do I play that?
How do you do that? Especially on a microphone? So
and and and uh, what I did was I put
four marshmallows, giant marshmallows in my mouth and my cheek, right,

(29:56):
and so it made me talk like and then I
ran around my house and then I was like, hey man,
so I'm just trying to draw the cross country trainrek
with you guys, and and and I got the job.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
You sound a little out of wind, so like you're
kind of trying to breathe.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, yeah, And it's funny it worked, and I thought like, wait,
maybe maybe that's the idea, and you forget the voiceovers again.
It's still the creative process in which you understanding that
that the work must start from scratch. Whether you're on
camera or you or you're not right you you allow

(30:36):
it and trust the technique and trust the the the
development of of of really statting up this fabric so
that it can become something, and you become open to
whatever comes your way in that world and that story,
for that for that specific character in mind that they created.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, if you're a fan of everything we do here,
you're at tuned In with Jim Cummings. You could support
the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts as well
as early in ad free access to the show itself,
prize drawings, and more. You'll feel the difference, So go
ahead and join the tuned In family today at Patreon

(31:18):
dot com slash Jim Cummings podcast.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Do It Now, Boy? You know that's that's funny. You're
talking about creating things. You know.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
It just popped into my head. I'm coming to get
this out of my system. I developed a trick years
ago called the slow motion voice, and.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
It chungs like chuborn is very large.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
And what what you do is you take your tongue
and stick it on the top of your right behind
your top teeth and.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Don't move it, hold it rug there.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
And and it's got that weird it's what you just
something you just said triggered that.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
And I hadn't thought of that in years, because I
haven't had to do it in years.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
But there was this thing and I just it occurred
to me and it was I can't remember the name
of the show, but I had to turn in.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
I was a man.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Turning into a werewolf? What soa I was a guy
and I was talking and I just.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Had to you know, the next you know, and and
and but you stick.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Your so great So anyway, yeah, don't try it at home,
just kidding.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Go ahead, try it at home, but don't do it
while you're.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Playing a harmonica. No, how was that for a segue?
A very sad little segue there. But that that's that's
as fascinating you obviously, you know, you give it a
very intellectual approach.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
You know, you think it through and you and I.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Think that that powerful thought process combined with the instincts
acting instincts, you know, I jokingly saying instincts are the
best things, you know, and and uh, and that's a
pretty potent, potent combo you got there.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Well, it makes me think about, like I don't know,
just the way you describe things. It makes me think
about like the any actor who describes you know, they're
craft in great detail, and you can tell that they've
put in the work and the research and the learning
and blah blah blah. It's like, you know then that
really reflects to me as like, yes, this is really art.
You know, this is an art form because think about

(33:18):
a painting. You know, so many of the times a
painting not only sure you get a story from the
impression that it gives you and the emotions that it
feels you, but how many times do you see an
artwork and it just has so much more meaning when
the artist describes the process of creating it and what
he or she had to do, you know, to make
this work of art. You know, it's like, oh, the story,

(33:39):
like you said, storytelling, you know, that's like essentially what's
all at the core of all these little fingers of
all the people on the podcast that we talk to.
You know, stage actors, theater actors, voice over you know,
even just artists or read moon, you know, a researcher.
Everything all centers around storytelling. That's what all it boils
back down to.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
I had worked on a film. Uh can't you remember
the name of the movie anymore. It was with the
late James Coburn, right, you know Flynn?

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Right? Yeah? Cool?

Speaker 5 (34:09):
Ye.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
We shot in Santa Barbara. It was the year where
he won an Oscar for affliction m you know. And
I was like, uh, mister Colburn, can you tell me
about acting? Okay, what do you want to know? But
considering the fact that you're nominated for an Oscar, what
does that really mean.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
All of that?

Speaker 3 (34:37):
I remember him telling me. He says, go to museums
and go find these great artists and watch their work
in display. They go uh huh, And he said, and
then forget about all that and what people say about it.
You got to look for the genius and find out
why they call it and consider it to be a genius.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
Right.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
And I thought, oh, so what do they call this
artist a genius? And what makes this piece of work
so great? You know, what, where's the genius in it?
So whether you're watching Picasso or watching Dolly. Right, the
explanation on their study of the style and genre of

(35:20):
what they're developing creating becomes so much more that when
you watch a Dolly painting, you're like, how did this
come about? How did he understand paints and what they
do with each other?

Speaker 1 (35:36):
How did he get President Lincoln out of that picture
there that has the naked woman or what all of that?

Speaker 3 (35:43):
The insanity that you know, what's going through his mind?

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (35:48):
I thought, okay, all right, So.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, with Dolly, I think there was a lot going
through his mind. It was a little scary in there.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
A little too much, Yeah, a little too much. There
was some of my lsd in there, perhaps, who knows.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, now we're entering like the Beatles world.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
Yeah, yeah, Well, speaking on the speaking of the Beatles,
why do we transition over to like your musical background? Yes,
because I saw you over the weekend Grade Delisle was
performing and before she went up on stage, so you
get up there and give a nice little harmonica riff,
and I was like, old, that is so impressive, incredible.
How good do you play other instruments? How long have

(36:29):
you been musical.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
For the guitar, guit hard Gosh and I DJ as well.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
Yes, yes, I wanted to get into that as well.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
You're like, we have eight hours of just Efnemer is
just covering talking about My mom got me harmonica when
I was in high school. You know, maybe she wanted
me to shut up, but but my neighbor was from
the South and he knew how to play harmonica. She

(37:01):
taught me how to play, and then he recommended me
a few musicians like Sunby Williams, Muddy Waters, Howland Wolf,
Fablus Cadillacs, and I started to really learn not only
how to play straight harp, but straight harp and cross harp,
and Southern blues as well, Chicago blues and what blues

(37:23):
meant in the thirties as opposed to like like the
you know, the closing of the Western civilization, right, yeah,
it became something more and so I thought, okay, And
then later on I started to learn about Lee Oscar
and War and you know how he really mastered the harmonica, right,

(37:46):
and I wanted and John Mayo and the Blues Breakers.
I just wanted to try out and do what they did.
So I remember there was a moment, you know, for
three years. I took something called the Meisner technique.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
Yeah, of course, I was.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Doing that like every single day, and we would have
Sunday as a break. So in Santa Monica off of
Lincoln and ten, and there's a place called har Valves
off of Fourth right by the ten Freeway. It's a
di bar, right, very bluesy. So I was twenty one

(38:26):
at the time, and I would go in and I
would play my harmonica and make twenty bucks nice. Some
bands like they're like, hey, you play harp, right, Like, yeah,
you're the kid. Yeah yeah. So they go, you have
sea harp? Yeah, And I only had at the time.
I had my sea harp and my g harp. I

(38:47):
didn't realize that there were other harmonies like cords and
harmonic chords. Like yeah, oh that blew my mind.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
I just learned that yesterday. I learned that yesterday.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Yeah, like oh okay. So I would play with the
bands and they're like, do you have a de harp?
I go that exists? Oh, you idiot, get off the stage,
you know.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Right backing the city. I'll be yeah, right, guitar center right,
and I'm.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Like, wait, I can't memorize my lines. And then I
would go to my acting class and do activities and
you know, do the work, and so it just got bigger.
From that. I would take my harmonicas to my auditions
I would see. I would see like Dante Bosco, and
we were talking about harmonicas and play with each other
so cool. And then casts would come out like who's
making on that?

Speaker 1 (39:33):
No?

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Oh, it was you too? All right, all right, all right,
we love you, but now shut up showing each other
tricks with the harmonica. And then as I would travel,
I would meet people who would play blues and learn more.
Uh So, so from major chords, I started to pay

(39:54):
attention to diatonic chords and harmonic minors, you know, uh,
minor minor chords, and it gave a totally different sound.
And there are different styles of harmonics, not only leoskar
Ye Special twenty, the Marine band, the blues, uh, the
one I have right now, it's called the the it's
called the the Blue mid Night, Blue mid Night, you know.

(40:17):
So you know, every every harmonica uh I played well
presents a kind of sound that will compliment the band
and the song itself so that it's not annoying, but
it really is music to your years.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
Yeah, well, I mean look at all the beautiful times
that Stevie Wonder has used the harmonica.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Yeah, coatic harp. That guy, geez.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Gee, I know he's amazing.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Yeah, you know you can see him getting up there
and he's working that thing. And do you have one
of those?

Speaker 3 (40:54):
I somebody gave me a chromatic harp? Yeah, and then
have I made the attempt? Yes, several times, yes, and
failed and failed and failed, you know, many times over.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
What is that for us that don't know?

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Okay? Chromatic harp is a harmonica where it's it's a
bigger size harmonica where it has a push button and
when you push the button, it really alters the keys itself,
and it can go from a major to a minor
right away. And you need to be able to have
a better understanding in order to play that.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, you got to have that music in your head
in order to get it out.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
And it gives it a very a jazzy feeling.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Yeah, So unlike unlike when you're working on a on
a harmonica, per se, you you can alter the sound
and give it either the feeling of straight harp or
cross harp. Now, when you're playing straight harp. That means
you're not bending the notes. When I say by bending
the notes, you're you're pulling your tongue back and pushing
it forward, and that really alters the note itself because

(42:01):
they're little bars in between. And when you're breathing, you're
when you're drawing in air, when you're breathing in you
when you're breathing in air. What you're doing is you're
bending the notes like this, and when your tongue, when
you put your tongue back, it does this even further,
which alters the sound. You'll hear I'll play in this
in a second, but you'll hear it cross hard. You're

(42:22):
really jumping from sound to sound, you know, and and
and it's it. It allows you to wail, which which
also you know, with your hand tricks, it becomes something else,
you know, And it's just it's and for all those
of you who want to learn how to play, you
all have to start off with the very first song,
which is oh Susannah, Yeah right, you get that. I mean,

(42:46):
that's just that's just the rule of thumb.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Then you jump into amazing grace, but you're playing guitar, bilin,
piano right or harmonica? Right, that's just a role.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah, oh, Susannah, I feel like I've seen Cowboy movies
with that well war.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Right exactly.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah. Oh wow, that's fun to know. So there's your assignment.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
Do you think we could hear a little something?

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Did you buy any chance bring any harmonicas today?

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Oh well, I'm so glad that you asked.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Why what?

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Okay? I will play?

Speaker 2 (43:21):
Oh please please, okay. This is a first this somebody brings.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
This is a major diatonic by Lee Oscar, right, and
I think when it started to purchase these, they were
they were they had a wooden comb, and a wooden
comb was great because when it so you got metal,
then you got the the the reads in between, right,
and then you have the metal com I mean the

(43:49):
plastic homb here. This comb used to be out of wood,
and when the wood would get wet, it would create
a different sound as well.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, so and and it's gonna get wet and yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Because you're like you're kind of making out with this,
so but the wood would chip and then you wouldn't
want to play in a harmonica like that. So the
first harmonica with the plastic comb and people, oh, you
don't do that, because like wow, he goes, well, I
just did, and and when he played it, when when

(44:25):
I played instantaneously, you could hear a difference. Now the
general is right to blow and to draw, which is
called to suck air. Right, you're doing right basics, and
if I'm holding it right in such a way, right,

(44:52):
it's like a right exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Baby, Yes, that's all right.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
You got a concert in your pocket.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
Somebody joked on that right now. Yeah, But I also
brought something called the melody maker. Yes, melody maker is
something that the Aulstar started to do after major and
major and minor chords. He said, well, what if I
alter the size of the reds and what would it do?

(45:54):
Because some are our harmonicas really complement classic rock on
southern blues playing straight harp, some on on uh give
you like an uh Eastern European feel. In this case
is called the mallet maker, saying can you hear already?

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Nice? That's beautiful, beautiful, that's a really really it's a
beautiful Uh. It gives it gives it a mood.

Speaker 4 (46:52):
Right, Yeah, I was gonna say, it's so like evocative
of like emotion. It's it's like, I don't know. I
feel like it's such a familiar instrument to all of
our ears, but at least for me, it's like such
a mystery instrument. I don't know, I don't really know
how to express it.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
No, And you're right, and you know what, Like when
I'm playing different keys, you have to kind of like acting.
You really have to know the tone and the theme
of whatever you're playing. Oh, you're playing jazz. You cannot think.
If you're playing jazz, you cannot be thinking blues, right,
you can't. You It's just you have that like you

(47:28):
really have to have an understanding of music and music
theory and music composition. When you do that, not only
do you do you serve the band you're playing with,
but you you go into this flow. M h, I
gotta tell you that music that sure. I did a
comic con with with Tom Kenny. Yeah, yeah, in in Mississippi.

(47:54):
I can't remember where, but we went to a place
called he as He goes even do you want to
come down with me? You know when you go check
out this blues place and I'm like, okay, it's called.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
He always finds up those little places.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, and the little bars, and it
was called the Blues Cafe, right, and it's owned by
John duck Holmes, which is like, who is the originator
of of of blues? And I never thought I'd be
meeting the guy. And I'm like, okay, and this guy
every year they have a blues festival. Oh wait, Donald,

(48:25):
what was his name, John duck Holmes? Okay, right, I
think that's the first thon so and and I brought
my harmonica and he was there with a few of
his friends and he was like, so I heard you play, boy,
And I was like, uh, yes, yes, there, yes I do.

(48:46):
He goes all right, you know, let's let's let's hear
this boy play. I play my harmonica. He goes all right,
and Don goes bring a guitar. So the guy grabs
his guitar. I'm gonna play a little lick and you know,
LI just jump along, boy. I was like, okay, sir.
He started to play the guitar some southern blues and

(49:13):
it felt like some kind of possession. I went into
a trance blues trends with him and I played my
harmonica and it was just something else, something else, happened,
and that had never felt in my in my thirty

(49:36):
years of playing, and it was I just followed, followed
along to his singing, to his playing, and his his
his heart felt expressions, you know, and then we were done.
Tom was like, boy, that was something else. Yeah, Tom, Yeah,

(49:58):
And there's a bar right next to us called the
Rice is right owned by the guy who his name
is Bryce. It's funny enough.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
There.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
We all spent time with each other and just like
just learned and enjoyed each other's company. And it was
to this day I never thought I could match that
until until this last comic con. Were after our performance
at the Nostalgic Comic Con in Texas, we went to

(50:26):
this church to play with the Zydacal band and they're
playing bluegrass. And when they recognized Tom and from some
of the other actors and recognized me, I said, hey,
I have a harmonica. They invited me to join first
and said, well, you need an audition. So I played
for the crowd.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
No pressure, Yeah, no problem, I'll get that done for you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
So I played with the crowd. They loved it. And
then I play with the band and there I am
playing my harmonica to bluegrass. It was another experience. And
and and these these things happen just by the the
the the desire that the Tom Kenny has exploring the life,
you know, and and and inviting me, you know, just

(51:12):
to be hanging out with m and him and his
band and inviting me to play with his band and
his you know, Tom Kenny in high season. So yeah,
it's like, what a fortunate of mind to be able
to experience that so and to keep that, you know,
deer in my heart as a as a like a surprising,

(51:33):
embracing memory.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
That's those little places.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
I mean, you find them throughout the South, and they're
all over New Orleans and in Dallas and Houston, and
it's they're just little gold mines people, don't you know.
I think, you know, in different areas of the country,
live music is just fading fading away. It's not you know,
you have to find like where we are, there's the

(51:58):
Canyon Club and there's a case only this one joint
has a guitar player and maybe a keyboard player. But
nowadays it's just a whereas like like I say, in
the South, like in Dallas and New Orleans, my gosh,
you know, the music seeps up from the cracks and
the sidewalk just depends on where you are as to
you know, what kind of community supports local music, live music.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
There's a you speak of this and I had done
a movie in New Orleans and New Orleans and there's
a there's a place called Maple Leaf. They have a
brass band plays every Tuesday called Rebirth.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
You know, Rebirth brass band.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Yeah, and they're just like, yeah, just infinitely amazing.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Oh yeah, yeah a million times. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
In La I don't know if it exists anymore, but
there used to be a club called the Mint. It
was unpeople you see, yeah, and all these bands would
come in, actors, musicians get together and just jam. And
I'm like, yeah, god so and I was little and
I was like, hey, can I play with the guye?
You know?

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, yeah that's good. Wow, good for you. How long
have you been playing out?

Speaker 4 (53:12):
Like?

Speaker 2 (53:12):
As a musician, it varies.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
I mean I jumped from band to band. There's a
band I used to play called.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
The I mean when did you start though? What age
were you?

Speaker 3 (53:21):
Oh? I I would assume maybe about twenty one.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
You know.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
It's funny because my older brothers were DJs, right, And
so they would go to these parties and they would
mix Vinyl records and so they'd be on the mic.
You're like, yo, man, I'm on the ones and twos right, So,
and I thought, well, it's when when when, like in
late eighties, when it was disco and techno was coming in,

(53:54):
some new wave and dance hip hop coming in, and
my older brothers, the rule was never mixed genres. And
you know how I told you guys, how I did
things different. Oh yeah, not only did I mix ll
Cool J with depeche Mode or jump depeche Mode into
the Beatles right, because you can do that? You like it?

(54:15):
Just I don't know it just it just makes sense
to me. Yeah, I thought, let's go even further. What
if I mix techno with my harmonica? And so I
grabbed the harmonica, put it on a reverb right or echo,
and I will play my harmonica with techno. And everybody
went bananas like that, Wow, is there anywhere online we
can hear that if somebody's recording me. Yeah, But it

(54:40):
was great with dubstep, It works great with with hip hop,
you know, trap music, even with techno. Even to this
day when I'm mixing techno. I'll mixed techno with opera
and sometimes grab my harmonica and play that and and
it becomes something different.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Yeah, yeah, boy, you're not kidding.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
H I was like, wait what Yeah, I have a
headache now from trying to put that together.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
In my house.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Puts you in the trans Yeah, a dump step and uh,
come on, get with it.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
What was that line from Deadpool? Is dubstep still a
thing you know in the future or whatever it was?

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Is that still going on?

Speaker 3 (55:22):
Yeah? It's you just gotta know the important no matter
what you play and what style you play, you really
have to favor and cater to the audience and kind
of surprise them just a little, not too much, right,
There was a moment, you know, an example I was
there was a Halloween party in Los Angeles and the

(55:43):
totally hip hop crowd. Yeah, and dubstep matches hip hop
because dubstep, in case you don't know, dubstep is techno
melodies with hip hop beats, and that's how that happened.
So and trap is literally dubstep budgets with rappers. That's it.
So and so, when I played dupset for the first

(56:04):
time for the crowd. The crowd stop dancing. The landing
guys stared at me. The manager of the fellow said, Hey, Pedro,
we love you. Well, what the hell is this? Yeah,
it's dressed up as a gorilla for a hollowing party.
She's nothing. We don't care. Put on fifty cents or

(56:26):
like like Drake or whatever. Right, yeah, this is not cool,
Like I'm sorry boss, Oh god, that's funny.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
If you're a fan of everything we do here at
tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show
on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early
in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings,
and more. You'll feel the difference, So go ahead and
join the tuned In family today at Patreon dot com

(56:56):
slash Jim Cummings Podcast.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Do it Now.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
You just made me think of a question that I
wanted to bring up today, and that question is how
it feels to be an actor, Like you just said,
you know, people reference to you as Pedro, you know,
like as a character. And I heard Rain Wilson talking
about this before, you know, plays places Dwight on the office,
and you know he was talking about you know, he
it kind of like bothered him, you know, like people

(57:22):
would come up to him and call him Dwight, you know,
like I'm not Dwight, Like I'm Rain, you know, like
that conventions or whatever, you know, And he kind of
was like, you know, feeling like this isn't why I
became an actor, you know, like I want to be
known for like my breadth of work, and like, you know,
this was a role that I just really nailed and like,
you know, my other stuff, in my opinion, is equally

(57:42):
as good, So like how come, you know, And he
kind of struggled with that frustration of almost being like
put in like a singular box. I wanted to know,
like what your experience is with that phenomenon.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
You're saying that strikes me even at this very moment.
This is the reason why I became an actor. If
I can convince you that I could play this character
so much that that's what you see. And then you
meet me and you're like you're him, but you're not right, right,
I've done my job and.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
You look just like him, but you don't sound like
yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
And so so if I'm in the public eye, I'm
going to get that and that's and I'm very fortunate
that I play the character that people can embrace you.
They want to play the villain because people kind of
snicker at you and like, right so, but for the studios, right,
for directors, if they ask me, well, can you audition

(58:38):
for this role? I go, of course, I'm an actor,
That's what I do. The audition is us not only
testing out each other's creativity, but a better understanding of
what this character is. You know who he is, what
he's like in this imaginary world, right right, So by

(58:58):
doing so where I'm doing, we didn't even when he
didn't eploy the month, that character was different because I
thought he was much more of a slacker who got high,
and I thought, why don't we do somebody something different.
The comedy is him trying to give away his identity
to Dak Shepherd so that you know, like he looks

(59:21):
to him, up to him like a god and god
like you know, a person. And once they stop being friends,
he finds his own He finds his own identity, and
that's where Jorge becomes who he is. And then when
he when Dak Shepherd apologizes, he reverts back to being
the yes possible and that's where the comedy lies. It's

(59:43):
like that that girl who who's with a jerk boyfriend,
who says, yeah, he's mean, but there are days where
he's great. You're like, because they only see the good
and not the bad, and you're like, dude, the whole
thing is bad. So and that's where the comedy lies sometimes,
you know, you see that in a lot of uh

(01:00:03):
John Patrick Shanny's plays the Comedy of Errors Shakespeare right,
we embraced our faults in the search of a higher
self there and being philosophy right, doing philosophy again. So
so so when I did Crank, for instance, and I
was playing a character who admires Jason Stathem, people recognize

(01:00:25):
me in that. When I did a comic con in
in in England, they knew me of Napoleon Dynamite, but
they were all big fans of Jason stateum Ran too
or Mexico. When I did that move with will Farrow House,
to my father, you know, everywhere I go, it's gonna
be a different feel and to me, if I could

(01:00:48):
find the source of the character and find what his
greatest challenge is and his his his search with what
kind of relationship he's looking for whether he's looking for
one or not. Right, you find something that will alter
his life in a complete way, that the the that

(01:01:08):
makes the audience compelled to watch. If you do that,
then then you're doing what what what the greats have
done doing the job?

Speaker 6 (01:01:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
Done so for me? When I see little kids and
they're like like hey, like like even the Dodger game
where I was announcing the start of the game, right,
families of all generations, whether the parents, the college kids,
the teenagers, the rebels, right, the the grandparents, the little kids,
they all seem and they're like, oh my gosh, you're

(01:01:38):
Pago little kids, Hey, Pagro, Hey what of course?

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Yeah, yeah, of course I.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Gave a little bit the baseball to a little kid.
I go, here you go. That's for you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Really, that's great, that's great.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
You know, I think that movie too, has a different
kind of legs. It's kind of like when I was
a little kid, the Wizard of Oz was on every
year for some reason, you know, we and we'd always
watch it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:59):
Yeah, and I think that it's timeless.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
It's timeless.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Yeah, yeah, it's timeless. It could take place today. Yeah,
it doesn't really, you know, you would still think. I mean,
at least, you know, in your stereotype of like a
small town, you wouldn't even be thinking about like the
fact that they don't have smartphones or anything.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
At least that's true.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
It's like almost this is kind of like that's true
fantastical idealization, not idealization, but romanticism. I don't know of
like a rural town. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
We have gone back last year for the twentieth Anniversity
of Napoleon Dynamite and John Heater and I made it
made the decision to go to Preston, Idaho, and it
was still exactly the same yep, except this time people
had cell phones.

Speaker 4 (01:02:45):
Yeah, that was the one thing I was wrong about.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
We went to. It's funny. We went into the high
school and the students who are like, hey, you guys
look like Napoleon and Pedro was like, hn goes yeah,
because we are like they were bananas.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
They were, Yeah, they must have lost their minds.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Oh yeah, yeah that was that was that was cool
to see.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Oh that that has to be fun. Yeah, that's got
to be very rewarding. And and the fact that it's
generations long now, you know, that's that's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
And you have the blessing of not aging. You just don't.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
Yeah, yeah, to say, good for you water I drink.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
That's good. Well, I have to try some of that water.
You say, Huh, I've heard.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
Of it, you know. I I again, you know, there's
my life, you know, my private life. But then every
character I play, I try to fill that box with
everything that character knows in that world. And I get
to and and somewhere in the crevices of my mind,

(01:03:50):
I say, and they pay me money for this. Yeah,
Because you're constantly creating, whether you're doing you know, cartoons
or or or on stage and you're doing the next
uh David Mammont play, or you're doing Williams right right,
You're you're challenging yourself in a way where where you're

(01:04:13):
trying to find love and hope and some kind of
explosions of not only yourself, but a better understanding of
how we are as people.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
M hm.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
So that's awesome. That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
You make it sound really cool.

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
Yeah. I'm not going to book every part, and that
doesn't matter if I, like I said, look, when people
go I can't get an agent, right, or I can't
get a manager. Oh, he need is one. If you
submit to like three hundred, someone's bound to call he
need one. If you book a job, you don't have
to book ten jobs a year. You don't do one
job a year. But do be amazing at it, right,

(01:04:51):
do a play a year, do your best at it.
That's that's a good start.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
What when it comes to acting, what would.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
You say is the way to go first? What do
you do? Like with me?

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
I was in community theater, you know, in Youngstown, Ohio
for cran out where Youngstown, Ohio.

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
I've been there, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
It was a lot of fun. I had a great
time there.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
But uh, you know, it's not a breeding ground for
talent or you know, except we have we had our moments.
Eddie O'Neil's pretty good. Uh he's I actually was in
a couple of plays with him as a kid and
he yeah, modern family. Yeah, and but yeah there's a
few of us and Boom boom Mancini a boxer and me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
That's it, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
And now I get to now all these years of
getting into trouble and getting kicked out of class, I
get to hang out with you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
So it worked out. Uh, well, we're.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Living in modern times now. I mean, this is this
is the future, the future where we have iPhones and
the Google phones and you could record yourself. You know,
you could go on YouTube and learn people's experiences, apply them,
and create your own stories.

Speaker 4 (01:06:15):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
Spielsberg said that, Kubrick said that David Fincher says that
all the time, where you just develop your own stories
and explore how you want to tell it. Scarsic says
that a lot, you know, what's what's your story going
to be like?

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
Right? Right?

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Because all the old ways are gone? And that's true.
We're into we're into the new era, the new evolution
of storytelling. But the work and the craft is still
the same. Right, whether you're in Youngstown, right, Youngsville, anywhere
you're at. It starts with you picking up a play

(01:06:54):
and reading it and then reading it again, and reading
it again and reading it from a different point of view. Right,
What does a play do to you? What does a
screenplay do to you? When you're watching a movie that's
the director's medium, the director's vision. You know, it's through
a narrative that you have an understanding through the process

(01:07:15):
of that main character. Right, figure, what they've done and
know the fact that they're no different than you. Somebody
who wrote that play that you're reading. Somebody wrote that,
and that person was influenced by another person before him.
So the year twenty thirty has not happened yet. The
thirties and the forties are coming. You know, we'll still

(01:07:38):
be around, right, what youre not gonna let so the
way the next generation will tell the story right, will
be interesting, will be like, we're just passing on being storytellers,
being like the shaman to express how we communicate and
how we connect and how we don't connect. And that's

(01:07:59):
okay because that's all the part of that's part of
what we're telling is Yeah, that's right. Do your homework.
You know, you become really good at whatever you practice. Then,
so Washington said that again, you know he said that,
and you're like, and he's right. You know, you become
really good at whatever you practice. If you're practice doing nothing,
guess what you're really good at doing nothing?

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
Right, So get a step in, you know, get to work, right,
I have to get to work, you know, I start
with the blank slate. Robert Pattison says, I have no
idea what I'm doing. You know, I'm like, yeah, that's
a good way to start, right, because I don't know
if you go, I know what I'm doing. I'm an expert.
Forget it, it's over.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
You gotta keep learning, and you have to stay hungry,
like Arnold Schwarzenegger said, yeah, and be curious.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
I think be hungry.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
Yeah, how any curiosity is our friend too. Yeah, don't
you know, it's just what would this guy do? What
would he think? What would she think?

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
In this situation? Now?

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
You know? Being curious and keep you in the moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's essential.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
I worked on a film with an actor from Twilight,
really wonderful, you know. And I when I told the
director I was playing this homicide detective, I said, this
story reminds me of Dante's Infernal and we're entering the
Nine Circles of Hell.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
I never thought of it that wow, wow.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
And it my demons. It's like, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
You know, man, you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
Know, I did an episode of FBI Most Wanted and
my director, you know, I love her the pieces and
she's English and I'm playing Clembing Cartel. Yeah, mind you.
I'm very Iffy on characters like that, because I was like,
I don't know if I want to do that, but
I thought, let me, let me see what I can
do with his role. And I said, oh, I got it.
I'm gonna play him like Richard the Third and she's like,

(01:09:52):
come again. I was like, I want to do this,
and he's it's like a three headed dragon. He's he's
trauma and it was just unlike like something wow, you know,
and they they allowed me and they, you know, Dick Wolf,
the creator of the show, really gave me the freedom
to develop this character with writers and and and my

(01:10:17):
relationship with with some of the series regulars.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
And it was so hard and deep to immerse myself
into that. And I thought, when I'm done, because you
attract that darkness, and I go, I, you know, I
need to be very careful and I need to be
I looked at my director and we got along really well,

(01:10:42):
and she was she was just amazing at my and
the actors who I was working with were just wonderful
and giving and it allowed me to feel safe in
my environment to be able to create. And there was
a moment we're shooting on on I think it was
a forty second in park in New York, right in
this right in the city, right, But those of you

(01:11:03):
don't know, you're like really in the heart of everything, right,
And I just somehow I got out of it because
there was people looking around like, oh my god, it's
Patron and the cops. And then you have the crew,
the flags, the lights, the camera, the director, the producers,
executive producers, writers, and I was like what and I

(01:11:24):
just I got out of it and I went, what
am I doing here? What the heck? And I go, yeah,
we said acting a long time ago. Oh, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry. I got I got out of it. Yeah,
you know, I got out of the box and I
didn't know what to do. And I'm like, oh, I

(01:11:44):
go okay, I had to check that out. And I
had to just go back into it and went back
into it like and then and then and then you
comment into this and then becomes something something else. I'm like,
even my voice and I'm like, okay, wow, you know,
and and and you become this I don't know if

(01:12:05):
something happens.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
So that's method acting. That is it's called.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
Madness, right Lewis I forget there's a book called method
or Madness, or or I became I became the music
like what eleanor deuce. There's a she's she's another actress
right about one hundred years ago. She really it took
her for forever to find the characters, and she did.

(01:12:31):
People would watch her performance because she was so immersed
into the roles and the depth of the play. Have
a dude like like anything by Anton Chekhov is like amazing.
So for me, you know, if I could at least
have an ounce of whatever they do, then then that
that's that's good. Wow, I think. I hope, Yeah, you hope.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Yeah, come back, come back.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
A place like home. There's no place like home.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
Yeah, that's right, we have Oh no, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
I was just I talk a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
I'm sorry, No, I was the voice swap.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
But if you ever thought before that, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Was trying to think of I'm gonna screw it up.
I had a quote in mind, but I'm not gonna.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Oh. Well. It was basically a story with the.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Dustin Hoffman and Sir Lawrence Olivier and I guess Marathon
Man that's the movie it was. And he showed up
and they were on set and uh, you know, so
Lawrence is there and he's being cool, and Dustin Hopa
shows up and he he can barely walk.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
He looks terrible and he goes, my boy, what is
the matter. He goes, well, I.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Drank fourteen cups of coffee last night. I wanted to
make sure I did not want to sleep, and.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
I've been pinching myself.

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
I've been poking myself with pins and every time i'd
get get sleeping, I want to really look but draggled.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
I really want to, you know. And it was when
when he was.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
Getting his teeth drilled without novacane that scene in Marathon Man,
and he said, because I just wanted to be looked,
so be draggled and have it be believable. And he goes,
oh my dear, dear boy, you really should try acting
because it'll save you save your health.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
So, yeah, I tell everyone, whether it's life or acting
or whatever you choose as a profession, go to the
very edge, but don't jump. Don't go to the very edge.
And you don't. You never want to make your your
fellow actors uncomfortable. You want to make sure that they're okay.
And you go and you you have a conversation. You know,
you're like, it's think when you when you're little kids

(01:14:44):
and you're playing freeze hag Right, if if I get
that warning haype I touch you, you're really going to
freeze to death? Okay, then not gonna play that game.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
Yeah yeah, well that's true. Yeah, so that's good advice.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Yeah yeah, respect those boundaries, right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Yeah, and don't freeze to death. Just don't do it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:02):
Let your mister freeze. Yeah about al Schwarzenegger. And the
name of the book is called The Mystic in the Theater.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Oh right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:09):
And then there's Peter Brooks book The Empty Space Nerd,
Big Nerd.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
And you you co wrote a book, correct, co author?

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
I was like, how do you know?

Speaker 7 (01:15:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
I did? Wait was that me? Yeah? I choose in
between working in films and and everything else I do.
I I I go to high schools and and and
colleges and elementary schools in junior high and I talked

(01:15:41):
to students. I think there was a moment when I
was in school in elementary school and we would have
these actors show up and do a performance, and I
remember asking this actor, Hey, how do you do what
you do. He was you could do acting too, really, ye,
like yeah, the minute it was having to search for

(01:16:03):
the allowance of the possibilities that I can do it too.
So even in high school, I mean I did gosh,
you know West Side Story, Oklahoma, You're you're a good
man Charlie Brown, where I played Lana. Yeah, you know
my blank me it's foolish, I know it. I'll try

(01:16:23):
not to, I'll grow it. But meanwhile it's my blanket
and me. So it's pretty good. So and so so
so being able to reach out to students and let
them know in every community all over the world, being
able to say, hey, you can do it too. Whatever

(01:16:46):
you want to dream, dream about, whatever you want to be,
it's possible. Even when I'm DJing and like and doing
a whole tour in Australia, right, They're like, how do
you do it? Mate? They're like, oh, well, what do
you want to do?

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
Do that?

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
Really? Can I DJM?

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
You can? Got practice, but yeah you can, yeah, yeah
you know. So. So I was approached by the people
who who create the S A. T Books right for
college and for college systems, and they said, would you
like to write a book, and I said, wow, about
what I think about you? Why?

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
Oh, oh that at least you know the subject mattern.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
Yeah, I was like, oh gosh, like because you might
have an interesting story to tell. And at that time
I had a production company, and one of my producing
partners wrote wrote part of the book where you talked
about his his adventures in rising in the business, and
and as I wrote my my chapters. And so the

(01:17:46):
book really intertwines East coast and West coast direction into
becoming something more, you know, and on how to direct
your own life, because it really is you really have
to have a sense of direction, even even when you're afraid,
even when you're scared of entering the unknown. And that's
that's the hardest case because most times you really not

(01:18:08):
only face yourself, but push yourself into into things that
make you uncomfortable, into looking at your history, into looking
at your presence, into looking at the possible failures. So
you know, but that's that's life, right, yeah, as we get.

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
No kidding, Yeah, that's exactly right.

Speaker 4 (01:18:28):
All right, Well, I think it's the time of the show.
We play a little game, Oh yeah, a little voice
swap game.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
If you're up for it, sure, sure, sure, microphones? Right? Sure?
What kind of microphone is this? Sure? Yeah, yeah, that's right,
voice of reactors.

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
Yes, but it's a beautiful thing. It's a very easily
done thing. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:18:50):
So how it works is Jim will say one of
his one of his character lines, oh my god, stay
sweetest honey, you know, Winnie the Pooh or Tiger or
dark Wing or whoever whoever we decide on the fly,
and then you'll repeat that line as say a Diaz
or Pedro, and then we'll do one of your lines
vice versa, and we'll go okay, yeah, yeah, how does

(01:19:12):
that sound? Okay, okay, So do you want to start
off Jim?

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
Okay, sure, all right, let's do uh how about dark
Wing duck?

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
Okay, Oh my god, I am the terror that flaps
in the night. Isn't that? Isn't that?

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:19:29):
The villain? Oh I am the terror that flaps in
the night? Is that? Is that?

Speaker 2 (01:19:36):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
What I'm doing?

Speaker 4 (01:19:37):
Yes, it is just say your character beforehand, say whatever
character you.

Speaker 3 (01:19:41):
Want, oh, say my character?

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
Yeah yeah. Yeah, So like you'll do that same line
as like Pedro or as yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:48):
Okay, want me feed you again?

Speaker 4 (01:19:51):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
Please?

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
God, I have to keep my bad. That was terrible.
I am the terror that flaps in the night.

Speaker 3 (01:20:06):
Oh my god, so silly. Okay, I'm the there theft
in the night or something.

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
That was killer. That was very good.

Speaker 1 (01:20:25):
Okay, okay, now you gotta give me one of your
lines and one of your.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Characters, and now.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
Armundo case doesn't.

Speaker 4 (01:20:40):
Good luck with that one.

Speaker 6 (01:20:43):
Armundo passed me the case ideas and the solsa on
the burrito.

Speaker 3 (01:20:51):
Very very good.

Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
I think I said that I was perbaded.

Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
Which character was that was?

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
That was?

Speaker 3 (01:21:00):
That was estevan right where I did a movie with
Will Farrow called Padre. Will Ferrol does the entire movie
all in Spanish, Yes, and I play his best friend
kidding Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
I was like, yeah, what is it?

Speaker 4 (01:21:16):
What was it like working with him?

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
That bad?

Speaker 3 (01:21:20):
No? He was a kidding No, he was great. But
it was funny because because he's we were doing a
very intense scene where we discovered the cartel and all that,
and uh I looked at him and I go, hey, Will,
He goes, yeah, buddy, I go, what are we doing? Like,

(01:21:40):
what's going on?

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
Goes?

Speaker 3 (01:21:43):
And he just stares at me. Ah, I don't know.
I honestly don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:50):
So good.

Speaker 3 (01:21:51):
And then I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
If he was kidding or not, but like you hoped
he was.

Speaker 1 (01:21:56):
Okay, we're going in with that right now, because like Jesus,
that's flying by the seat of your pants.

Speaker 3 (01:22:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
Did you get out of out of that scene alive?

Speaker 1 (01:22:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:22:08):
I think so.

Speaker 2 (01:22:09):
You think.

Speaker 3 (01:22:11):
It's like we're working with Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Brunal
and Pedro Almodo, who who's like the the the Molon
Brando of Mexico, you know, and and and and we
like we're doing all of our stuff in Spanish. I'm like, okay,
all right, and you're playing this role. I don't want to.
I want to be tough, you know, but we're just

(01:22:34):
like humble farmers, you know, just trying to make.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
Oh there you go. Yeah, like in Three Amigos only not.

Speaker 3 (01:22:40):
Yeah, that's right, so kind of Yeah, Adrian Martinez, myself
and and Will Ferrell or or Armando.

Speaker 4 (01:22:49):
Yeah, I just I just thought of a voice swap here.
What about Bonkers Bonkers and Airmandias because they kind of
have like the jittering similarity.

Speaker 1 (01:22:59):
Yeah, okay, let's see Bunker Steve bobcat here.

Speaker 6 (01:23:04):
The first two detective in all of Hollyweird.

Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
What thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
Bunker's steep up here the twin detective of all of
hollow Weird.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:23:28):
Yes, I like to I love I love watching actors
do this segment because it's so We've talked about this
on so many podcasts, but just how crucial body language
is to voice acting. Like you get into it, like
you can see it your form. Yeah, like it's it
turns into a performance, you know, even though we're only
looking for the voice. You know, it's almost like, yeah,

(01:23:50):
your body has to morph into that to do the voice.
And that's been true like the time across the board,
you know, I mean watching like Jeff Jeff do his
impressions or anybody do their impressions, and it's like you
see their face like morph into that impression as well.

Speaker 3 (01:24:05):
Like it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
Yeah, and you don't really notice it until somebody points
it out or you see yourself on camera doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:15):
You were, oh, wow, that must be.

Speaker 1 (01:24:16):
Tigger, because I noticed it because when I do Tigger,
I stand like this and I.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
Have and I'm Tigger, damn it. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
Oh sorry, just gives me an idea. Okay, okay, how
are we gonna give you the voice, right, okay, JeOS.
So we're gonna get those guys, the guys who kill
my brother.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
M wow, and who should I be?

Speaker 1 (01:24:46):
Oh, Tiger, We're gonna get those guys, good guys, get
bounced to my brother.

Speaker 3 (01:24:56):
And I literally thought that you're doing that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:58):
That makes me think of like Tigger playing Liam Neeson
and taken, like.

Speaker 3 (01:25:06):
That'd be an actually actual combinations. So so I did
a film called Crank where my character was totally cross dresser,
totally and it was like a very light speaker and
like it's like insecure and and totally in love with
Jason staateeum and the first film, I die. In the
second one, I played the twin funny enough, and my

(01:25:29):
twin is an assassin who not only uh uh has
full body touretts, but it's going after the killers of
his brother.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
So wow, okay, yeah that have fun with that?

Speaker 3 (01:25:48):
Yeah? Do you guys want me to what? Okay? And
there's so many curse words. I'm like, what am I
I'm like, I'm worse than Samuel Jackson. It's like, oh god,
all right, I'll play this character. But I'm like, you know,
like you're you're you know. Actually, yeah, can.

Speaker 4 (01:26:15):
We do one more?

Speaker 2 (01:26:16):
Can we wonder that off?

Speaker 4 (01:26:17):
Can you just do one of Pedro's lines from the
movie and then we can hear that as we'll figure
it out.

Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
Oh, I know I have an idea. Okay, okay, Well
I don't have much to say, but if you vote
for me, all of your wild dreams will come true.
Can I hear that as Winnie the pooh?

Speaker 4 (01:26:38):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
Boy?

Speaker 6 (01:26:41):
Well, I don't have much to say, but if you'll
vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come
true in the Hunderdecker?

Speaker 2 (01:26:50):
Would there we go?

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
Winnie, I will always vote for you. Wow, it's not
make any crime, man.

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
Oh god, it's because you're you get a free trip
back to being five years old when poo comes out.

Speaker 4 (01:27:09):
That was great.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
Wow, that was fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:27:11):
Yes, I have one more crazy request for you before
we go.

Speaker 3 (01:27:16):
Yes, yeah, we are.

Speaker 4 (01:27:17):
Looking for a theme song for this podcast. Do you
think there's any way you could like improv something that
maybe we could use.

Speaker 2 (01:27:25):
Yeah, we don't have a theme song.

Speaker 4 (01:27:27):
Maybe you feel free saying now feel free?

Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
You know if something moves you.

Speaker 3 (01:27:34):
Oh, that's right, Okay, so you got to.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
Blow in the right end now, okay, blues Midnight, Right.

Speaker 3 (01:27:43):
This is a blue cone, right, but the plastic is
lighter and it's not as dense as the lee oscars.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:27:52):
I've learned so much about harmonicas.

Speaker 3 (01:27:53):
Today, so it may not sound much different depending on
the kind of microphone. Some of the most cases, I'm
using a bullet microphone, right, And and with the sound engineering,
it truly is gives a very smoky feeling in the room,
which which again I didn't know about these things with harmonica. Yeah,

(01:28:16):
oh no, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:28:21):
Yeah. The secrets I always say, like almost everything in life,
you know that you can take it from such a
broad knowledge, and you know, you can have broad knowledge
about all this stuff. And then the more you know,
you focus your attention on something, then you realize it
reaches this like choke point, and then it branches out
into all these other details. Again, you know, it's just
like wow.

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
Beautifully said yeah, absolutely, that's that's that's absolutely that's the
correct to put it. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna steal that.

Speaker 7 (01:28:52):
Yeah, yeah, I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:29:35):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:36):
That was beautiful. I was I was watching credits roll
in my head. That was so beautiful.

Speaker 4 (01:29:45):
It's very need to do like a slow mo like
fades of black with at the end of each episode
with that plan, you know, like the end of like
eighties movies like good Times, And they put a description
like producer Chris went on to you know, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
I remember working on a Muppet show in New York
called Helping Hands or something like that. And so there's
a moment when they had they had me singing with
the with the Muppets, the tamp Puppets, right, and I thought,

(01:30:21):
and then there's a harmonica, and I go, wait, I
can hear it. That's a that's a that's a that's
a d flat. There you go, mister, are you sure?

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
Goes?

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
Yeah, he knows music. Yeah, can I play my harmonica
with the guys?

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
Because ideally I'm supposed to be camping, right, and it
turns out that it's raining, so I can't go camping.
So the Muppets say, don't worry, We'll just make it camping.
It's at this place, and it's like, oh cool, right,
So we decided to do that and create marshmallows and
talking about the stars like so wonderful. And at the end,
I'm singing with them, I'm dancing with them and I'm

(01:30:57):
playing my harmonica with it.

Speaker 4 (01:30:59):
That's awesome. That's awesome, that's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
I will say there was a moment when I did say.
I looked at one and I said, of all of them,
you're my favorite man who we all can hear?

Speaker 2 (01:31:11):
Oh god, that sounds like something I would do.

Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
The hopping hands. It was on Apple and it was
just one of the again, my highlight to be able
to work with puppets and and and actors who do
all that, because that's it requires so much work to
be and the handwork.

Speaker 1 (01:31:34):
Yeah, I would think, so, yeah, yeah, and you almost
have to be the guy doing the voice puppet, you know,
because you're not going to get the face right, you
know that when Kermit does that thing with his mouth.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
And you know you got to be doing Kermit too.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
Yeah, unless you rave, you Mono, unless you Raven.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
That's true, all right.

Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
So unfortunately we are out of time our next you
just arrived.

Speaker 3 (01:31:56):
We've done like three hours, right, what time is it
like twelve?

Speaker 4 (01:32:00):
That was a great time. And if you ever want
to do it again, I mean we we absolutely can't.
For sure. We've done it with a few people twice
and really, yeah, absolutely. I mean everything's always evolving. People
are working on new projects. You know, there's new topics,
so we can only cover so much and what and
a little over an hour, you know. Wow, yeah, yeah,

(01:32:21):
but yeah, thank you so much for being really appreciate it,
and thank you guys all once again for watching. Really
appreciate you, guys. And if you like content like this,
you know what to do. Like and subscribe it. I'll
recommend more content like this and if you really like
it so much that you want to see more of it,
you can check us out on Patreon, where the whole
bunch of bonus content. I have done this a million times,
so you know where to go. Once again, I'm producer

(01:32:42):
Chris the Lengend, mister Jim Cummings Hey, and Efron Ramirez.
Thank you so much for being here today. We really
appreciate it and we will see you all in the
next one.

Speaker 3 (01:32:50):
Bye, guys,

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