Art Twain Chats About The Lincoln Zoo Rebellion-A Humorous Tale of Animal Rights

Maria chats with writer, producer, Clio & Emmy Award winner Art Twain about his latest book The Lincoln Zoo Rebellion, written with his long-time friend Larry Belling (who sadly passed away before the book was completed)
Art talks about his love of animals since he was young; his amazing career in advertising and marketing, and of course the book, which deals with animal rights and preservation!
Although the book is aimed at kids 8-14, adults have been enjoying it as well. 
Give a listen and learn all about Art Twain and The Lincoln Zoo Rebellion.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. Whata great idea on iHeartRadio. So welcome
to Maria's Mutts and Stuff. Andwith me today is writer producer Cleo and
Emmy Award winner are Twain so Art. Thank you for being here today,

(00:24):
well, thank you, thank you. So you are a man who has
done so many different things. I'mlike, I'm fascinated by you, first
of all, and I know wewant to talk about your book, but
you've done just so many things.And of course today we're going to talk
about your book, The Lincoln ZooRebellion that you wrote with your longtime friend

(00:45):
Larry Belling. And again my condolenceis because I didn't realize that he passed
away before the book was finished.So my condolence is to you on that.
Thank you very much. It wasa heartbreak, but his spirit is
sure still with us absolutely and now. And his wife has actually helped along
with the book, is that correct? Well? Oh yeah, yeah,

(01:08):
well she was as he wrote thefirst draft of the book. She was
with an every step of the waythat I was working with him on rewriting
and doing things to make it quitepublishable, which went quite well, right
And then he had the audacity topass away. Yeah, yeah, I

(01:34):
know. That's horrible. It's reallyhorrible and sad, and I'm sorry it
is. But he's thrilled that thebook came out as well as it has.
We're just very thrilled with the reactionwe've received. It's been wonderful.
Absolutely. And I was going tosay, and that's him watching over you,
and he knows and he's looking out, so you have a guardian angel
on your shoulder for that one,absolutely understand. So I meant, when

(02:00):
I was probably about ten years old, oh wow, okay, we've been
friends for a very long time,And was this is this book your first
project together? For he and I? Yes, yes, I've written other
books right right? Yeah. Forfor you, yes, I know you
have, But for him, Sowhat made you guys decide, well,

(02:22):
let's write a book together? Well, he wanted. He had written an
original manuscript, and I introduced himto my agent, and the manuscript wasn't
ready for publishing really, but itwas a great idea, marvelous idea and

(02:42):
wonderful stuff in it, and sowe decided to work together and get it
done. We'd got chapter one doneand he went away. But you knew
obviously you knew. Well, canI say the goal and the direction you
wanted the book for the two ofyou to go? Oh? Absolutely,

(03:07):
And my city is not to changeit to become my book, but right,
but improve it. So it's ourbook and it's and it's we're both
of us very much where we're prettyadept with humor because we've done that.

(03:28):
Not only we were that way naturally, but we did that in our business.
Sure right, you did that fora living. So and obviously you
both you both are animal advocates.Oh are we ever? Yeah, we
are animal lovers on abassadly. No, that's good, animal lovers. Yes,

(03:50):
that's good. We are. Weall stick together. So on that
note, I read in your biothat you had twenty six different animals in
your garage as a teenager. Pleaseexplain that to me. Well, I
first of all have to tell youI picked the right parents and they were
so incredibly supportive and to show youhow dedicated they were to my goals,

(04:16):
when my big buck rabbit got outof this cage, my mother caught him
and with this giant rabbit kicking herand shredding her jacket, she brought him
back home and put him in thecage because she knew how upset that would
be that he got out of thecage, of course, But yeah,
So I started collecting animals and asa young teen, and I just I

(04:41):
just loved the animals. I hadvarious species of mice, rats, turbos,
tortoises, lizards, snakes. Ihad two alligators two and a half
foot and they an eight inch alligatorthat I had the hand feed once a
week. Wow. And then Ihad a One day I found a little

(05:08):
pink thing in my driveway and Irealized it was moving and it was a
premature possum that had fallen out ofthe pouch of the mother. And I
thought, God, I wonder ifI could you know, I'll do my
best to keep it alive. Andsure enough he became an adult. Wow,

(05:29):
good for you. And then didyou just release him back into the
wild and he carried on in hispossum way? No, he died mysteriously
one night. I think it wasfall of play. I think somebody got
into my garage. Oh no,yeah, yeah, I was. It
had to be that he was insuch great help, right, I'm sorry.

(05:49):
People are just awful. This iswhy we like animals more. People
are just awful. Well, animals, you know, animals are very honest,
exactly and give you a run away. No, you're absolutely right.
I was just going to say thatthey're very honest. You know what an
animal is because they're very honest.That's exactly right. But people are.

(06:12):
Yeah, you have different brands ofunrequited love coming out and you from your
animals, which is great. Youknow, once all animals have in common
is they established that you're not Theyfigure out that you're not a predator.
Right, you're not a threat tothem, right, you know, for
you're non threat to them. Evenwild cats will come to you. And

(06:34):
that's why I was. I hadbabysat with a a young fully grown mountain
lion huh named Sisky, and Iused to take Sisk around. I wasn't
driving yet, but I had afriend of mine who had an old Ford
Coup of thirty six Ford Coup andSisky would either sit in a little alcove

(06:58):
behind his head in my lap.That's so cute. Oh, I loved
it. Of course, Then inthe beginning, when I sat with Sisky
the first time, she was lickingmy hand. And you know, I
had read don't show fear, soI'm telling myself, don't be afraid,

(07:21):
don't be afraid. And I started. I was getting nervous about her licking
my hand. I thought maybe shewas cleaning her fleating her food and so
and so. As I brought myhand away, her claws came out on
my hand, pulled it back toher gently, and she kept licking it.

(07:42):
And she was running the show rightright. Well, we had amazing
experiences. I mean that would belongin a comedy routine. Wow, she
was wonderful. And and you hadall of those different animals when you were
growing up, you had names forall of them? Yes, you know,

(08:07):
I think I did. I can'tremember. I can't remember most of
the names. Probably right, youprobably I didn't expect you to, but
you probably did have names. Iwould think as a kid, right,
I would think, Oh yeah,and I talked. Of course, they
were captive audience. We had toOh absolutely. I had turtles and I
used to talk to them all thetime because they were captive audience. Oh

(08:28):
absolutely. And you've got the whiphand with most of them because you're the
one bringing them food. Sure,so they'll listen, and not so surprisingly
the dumb I would put closer aroundthe word dumbest. The dumbest of the
animals was the possum. Possum justnever saw me as a non danger,

(08:54):
right, And so I'd picked himup and hold him up my tail and
he was okay, and then you'dbite me. Yeah. Yeah, So
I think I've been bitten by moreanimals than most people have had his pets
in their lives. But but you'restill here to talk about it, so

(09:15):
that's good. Yes, absolutely,and we still shared great moments together.
I just loved the menagerie because thatwas not the only menagerie. I joined
a senior science club at the OaklandMuseum and they had some animals already in
stock and the little minor zoo ina couple of rooms that they had.

(09:39):
And of those animals there were threeskunks, Minuet, Sweet William and Rosebud.
Their mother had been run over bya car and found the nest of
babies waiting for mom to come homeand brought them to the uh in the

(10:01):
museum. Wow, we had those. We had a tarantula the size of
my hand wo wow, oh ohhe was he was so sweetheart though he
was really a sweetheart. And uh, and we had snakes and the sixty
five year old parrot. Woeah,that's so cool. Oh, it really

(10:26):
was. That was heaven for me. I'm sure so. Did all of
these experiences that you had, youknow, growing up? Do the do
these experiences did they make the book? Like in the In the Lincoln Zoo
Rebellion. The different things that happenedin the book, which we should talk
about obviously because we want to promotethe book, But were some of the

(10:48):
were some of the stories and partof the story of In the Lincoln Zoo
Rebellion based on your experiences with animalsgrowing up? No, No, The
Lincoln Zoo Rebellion as its own story, and it doesn't involve the previous experiences.
Other than my knowledge of animals asa kid. I couldn't read enough

(11:13):
about them, I couldn't study enoughabout them. My mom said I was
studying to be an animal, andin fact I started out to become a
veterinarian. Two years of pre veterinarymedicine. Then I changed my major to
communications and double policy. And whatmade you decide to change? Well,

(11:39):
for one thing, the courses werereally tough. Yeah, I was part
part of the decision, and Ithought, I love animals, But that
doesn't mean I should be a veterinarianbecause I got my real joying life from
being creative. I was a reallycreative kid, and I continued that creative
arc right through my life, rightright. It's my joy to be creative.

(12:05):
Yes, I mean, which youmade a career. I mean,
I know I mentioned Cleo and Emmyfor those who aren't really even sure what
those are. You've created over threethousand radio and TV commercials with you,
advertising marketing like you are the creativeguy. You are that guy so and
lots lots of jingles and lots ofjingles. Yes, and some of the

(12:28):
jingles were One of them was thebest known jingle of its era during the
seventies. Everybody in the everybody inthe country knew it. And tell me,
let us tell us what that was. Well, I probably outlived most
people who would remember any of mywork. But that's not true. It's

(12:50):
it's fall into the gap, fallinto the game. Yeah, see,
I'm people know that. People definitelyknow that. I wanted you to tell
everybody, but yes, we allknow fall into the gap. Oh my
goodness. And if you're listening tothis right now and you're too young and
you go, that's not familiar tome. Uh, go to YouTube and
you'll be able to hear it.Google it, you'll hear it, and

(13:11):
you'll know it because yes, wellthey even have some of the commercials that
I was involved with, like laughingLevi's he he huh. And it sounded
like a mule skinner Blues, whichwas an old popular song mm hmmm.
And they used stop action motion inthe commercial land. Was quite creative.

(13:35):
We have a great time with that, I'm sure. Well, we have
to thank you for all that,all those wonderful jingles that's stuck in our
heads for so many years. Thankyou, Thank you out here as an
audience. No, absolutely, areyou kidding. I think it's it's one
of those I know we've gone acomplete tangent here, But I always think

(13:56):
about jingle people, jingle writers.You know, creators probably don't realize how
much they become part of somebody's likepsyche, because you get because sometimes you
hear a commercial and the jingle sticksin your head and you might never buy
the product, but you know thatsong so, which is pretty cool,

(14:20):
right, Oh? Absolutely, Andin fact, I can tell you a
quick little story if you're interested inYeah. I was working in the studio
one day and somebody came in.Another producer came into my studio and said,
can I look into your percussion bag. I had a bag full of
percussion instrument and he took out alittle calm song flute and he said what

(14:46):
is this? I said, it'sa corn song flute. He said,
God borrow and I said sure,said you know, have a player.
He said no. I said whatdo you need? He said seven notes?
I said, oh, just takea break out playing the notes for
you. Don't worry about it.So we went into the next studio.
I played the seven notes. Saidmake out a contract. I said no,
no, you can have these yeah, nod a contract. Said no,

(15:07):
no, we are a union shop. We have to have a contract.
Said okay, Well, thanks tothose seven notes, I made five
thousand dollars a year for the nextfive years. Wow. Nice in residuals.
At the time, the Chevron hadalong the Chevron wayes Wow, the

(15:30):
Little tonett or the Little song Troup, and the client fell in love with
these songs. Frew version and thatbecame that went out in the end,
the very commercial that they did rightright after that. That's so very cool.
I love these stories. Oh mygoodness, Oh it is such a

(15:50):
good time. I have to tellyou it is a joy. That kind
of work of the truth. It'spressure me. I recall one Monday morning
I went into the office. Iwas asked by a creative director to come
in. He said, I needa new Chevrolet Dealers commercial. And he
said I needed wednesday at the radiostation that was going to do. So

(16:14):
here I am on a Monday morning. He has to be written, we
have to get talent, we haveto record it. Sure, And I
gave him my stock answer. Sure. Inside of me, little people were
racing around saying no, no,no, you're crazy, right, And
sure enough there was there. Youdid it, We got it done and

(16:36):
it worked on great. I'm sure. I'm sure. That's awesome. You've
had, you know, have anincredible career and now you have the Lincoln
Zoo Rebellion. So let's talk aboutthe book a little bit. So tell
me what the premise is given withoutgiving them away to correct. Well,

(16:57):
a excuse me a second. EarAn elderly zoo keeper who can converse with
animals, and a young UH veterinarianjust fresh out of veterinary school, and

(17:18):
the Fugitive African team and zoo animalsand kids from the American town of Lincoln
joined forces in an arousing rebellion todeven defends zoo animals' rights when a corrupt
mayor and his cronies reedily attempt toturn the zoo into an amusement park.
So we're really dealing with some stronga lot of strong issues here. Sure

(17:44):
I was going to say that,and this is aimed at a younger audience
basically, so they have the empathyand compassion that you know that that we
have that they will grow up tohave that when it concerns animals. You
have that male right on the head, because this is a great age to
get get a greater concern and understandwhat goes on and why. Yes,

(18:07):
animals populations are shrinking and becoming becomingextinct. In fact, some sad news
that just happened recently. There areonly three northern white rhinos left in the
world and the one male and twofemales, and the male just died.

(18:29):
So that's the end of that species. Wow. And if it wasn't for
rescue services, yeah, and zoomssome animals. Yeah, yeah, and
I think that is that is justthe saddest, saddest thing. Oh,
it's true, because if it's not, it didn't necessarily have to be.

(18:53):
No, no, it did nothave to be. But I mean,
I'm sorry to say that man isthe new cockroach and we need more space.
We can cut down habitats, wemake them smaller, animals have less
places to go. And then wehave problems with poetry cultures. Yeah,

(19:17):
very big problem. Yeah, that'sa very big problem. They and and
then we also have villages because manand animals are living so close together.
Some animals are destroyed because they're dangerousto crops or they're dangerous to the population
because they've been forced to have tolive close to the man. Right,

(19:37):
it's not their fault. No,no, no, not the animal fault
at all. Right, right,yeah, and so they're on the good
side. There have been so manyfacilities that have opened up that take care
of orphan orphaned animals that they werethe parents have been yes, for one

(19:59):
reason or another, injured and uhand uh. One other thing about animals,
well injured animals, and where arethey going to go? And a
lot of these end up in zoos, and zoos now are not the zoos
of yesteryear. There were a lotof small cages. They're they're now wonderful

(20:22):
open habitats where they can move.Even though it's a more limited space.
They're not going to roam for severalmiles of kilometers they're going to do,
but they're going to have the roomto be able to move around and places
to hide and places and they geta great diet uh of food in the

(20:44):
zoo all the time. It's marvelous, no it is. And also to
keep there to keep the species goingtoo, Oh my god, yeah,
yeah yeah. In fact, infact, I think I have to tell
you, I am hooked on televisionwatching the gorillas. M I watch them

(21:07):
and I and I want to becauseI can do death sign language. I
see that they have a bit ofa sign language, and they have ways
of communicating that we may not beaware of, but it's very clear to
them what the communication means. Theymay only be posturing. A gorilla may

(21:29):
only posture and stand there, andit means a number of things. I
love that there's so much exactly becausethey're very intelligent. And I feel like
it's finally come to the point wherehumans realize how intelligent animals are. Oh
absolutely. And now you may recallnot that many years ago that they thought

(21:52):
only man used tools, right,Well, it turns out all the animals
use tools right right. My favoritefilm was one of they they set up
a camera and an ice fishing spotpulls in the ice. When the fishermen
put their poles in the ice,they put the bait on the hook,
drop the hook in the down intothe icy water, and they go away.

(22:15):
And they come back in the evening, and they don't catch so many
fish as they'd like to. Whynot, because this big crow or raven,
I don't remember which it was,comes down and he lifts the street
putting. He pulls it up withhis beak, puts his foot on it,
pulls up more, puts his otherfoot on it, and so on

(22:36):
until he brings it all the wayto the surface, takes the fish off
the hook, and comes the hookback in the water, right so that
the fisherman will keep fishing there andthey'll keep having a supply of fish.
I mean, how brilliant is brilliant? Of course it is. Of course
people don't realize. Yeah, ohit's debsolutely brilliant. And you see how

(23:00):
they use sticks to and the preciselengths to put into a rather log that's
full of termites. So the termitescrawl onto the stick and they pull the
stick out and eat the termites.Right, right, Fascinations being done with
mammals and birds. Yes, Ilove it. Yeah, me too,
me too, because I feel likethey're they're finally getting their due. The

(23:23):
people are realizing. I mean peoplehave realized like Jane Goodall obviously from years
ago, right obviously with her andgorillas and yes, and people did listen
to her. But now I feellike the audience has grown and more people
are listening. I think, ismore time goes on? I mean is
that right? Am I accurate?Or am I just being hopeful? I

(23:44):
think more people are You're right,there's but there's more of a pushback,
yes, letting it happen. Correct. There are reflaming facilities for animals that
help them recover from whatever's taking place, whether they've been orphaned or are sick.
Yes, and and they've grown allthey're all across Africa, they're all

(24:07):
across the world. Great it takeswith greater awareness. It doesn't have to
be as as tough of a pushbackwhen you establish it as a thing that
must be done and there's a realwill behind it to get it done.
And that's why. And and thething that struck us, that's made us

(24:30):
thrilled with the book is that adultslove the book. And I'm knocked out
by the fact that that a anadult and a child could read the book
and then discuss it, actually havehave a really a fruitful discussion on things

(24:52):
between them, whereas a lot ofthere's too much separation between the books.
Adults read the books. Correct,Yeah, this is not a book written
to be a run Jane run rightJane. That's sophisticated humor, and why
not. Kids are subjected to manymore things than they were in my world.

(25:18):
Of course, no mine too,it's very different now. Absolutely well,
I think you did a very goodthing with this book. And I
also want my listeners to know thata portion of the proceeds from the sales
are donated to organizations dedicated to improvingthe lives of animals. So thank you
for doing that. Too. Absolutely. I think that's wonderful. Do you

(25:41):
have a face without giving anything away? Because I know what, we want
my listeners to get the book andread it themselves or with their kids or
both. Do you have a favoritepart of the book without giving like a
favorite chapter or a favorite thing thattakes place in the book without giving everything

(26:02):
away? Is that possible to shareor no? Well, I can do
it only in a broad manner becauseI hate to give away. But there
is a rebellion because it's called theRebellion, so I'm not fooling anybody,
whether that's in the title, okay, in the title, and the rebellion

(26:25):
is just amazing. It is justit's just so much fun. What takes
place is so much fun. Andyou know they talk in movies or plays
about having an art having a peakof things happening or what am I trying

(26:45):
to say? Well, they thingsbuild up in the book, and I'll
say I'll give one thing away thatthey build a bowling alley in the end
the zoo, and uh, whichthere shouldn't be one in a zoo.

(27:07):
It should be all about animals,and the penguins are trying to save the
bowling balls because they the bowling pins, because they feel like like stiff necked
relatives. I love that some ofthem, some of them are almost crying,

(27:30):
Oh my god, everything's going tobe okay, right, that's really
funny, very clever. I lovethat. Oh yeah, well, the
book is full of full of cleverness. And of course it doesn't begin,
you know, right out of thebox. It doesn't get crazy, but
but it shows you that the otherthe zoo keeper, Ali, is able

(27:53):
to communicate with the animals, andit's not just a Doctor Doolittle type thing,
the nuances of what animals do,whether it's posturing or gestures. And
so sure, well I can't Ican't wait to read it. It's The
Lincoln Zoo Rebellion, and you canget it on through Amazon of course,

(28:15):
Amazon Books, and it's also availablethrough Barnes and Noble, Ingram and other
fine online bookstores too. So Art, I know your book just came out
recently. Is it okay to askyou? Because I don't think what I
do know about you, I don'tthink you are one to sit back and
just do nothing. So what's what'swhat's your plan next? Is that if

(28:40):
that's okay to ask you. Yeah, it's okay to ask me. My
plan is to be creative as longas I could be creative, because that
is life for me. I believethe child inside each of us should remain
alive and should be pampered. Yes, and the child I'm either happy or
are apologetic to say, it's verymuch alive. Well, well, we

(29:03):
look forward to all the things becauseyou've done so much to this point in
your life, and we look forwardto all the other things that are ahead
for you. Thank you. Well, I'm going to be I probably will
not get rich writing books because Ilike to be eclectic. And if someone
writes in one genre, like StephenKing and so on, then they can

(29:25):
really make a lot of bugs.But I like to skip around. Man,
So I have a few more booksto write, several more books to
write, and I'll just I'll justkeep on going. Good. Well,
we want you to do that,and it's good that you. I feel
like it's good for you to keepdoing what you're doing, and in the
way that you're doing it, that'sgood. So keep doing that. And

(29:45):
you've got to keep the brain attachedabsolutely challenge otherwise it goes to sleep at
some point. Well, that's true. I'm going to keep it awake.
Excellent. Well. R. Twain, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for the Lincoln Zoo rebellionand all the things things that you've
done and that you will be doing. And you know what, I think
we're going to definitely be talking again. I know that I can see that

(30:06):
happening. So I look forward tome. There's a kindred soul here,
yes, I really. I mean, you have the love of animals,
it's obvious. I love your interviews. It's just fun. Well, thank
you, sweet, thank you.I appreciate that. So I definitely want
to talk to you again. Artfor sure. I look forward to it
definitely. Well, thank you,thank you so much. Let me say

(30:29):
this, I think there is nobetter gift to give a child than this
book. I really believe that.Okay, because I believe what somebody is
the child will find amazing entertainment fromthe book. Everybody loves how entertained the
book is, and they love childrenlike not being talked down to. It
doesn't talk down to them. Wellthat's very important. Yeah, it uses

(30:53):
kind of growing up and I don'twill say grown up languages, but it
uses language at the end of standand appreciate, right, right, And
I think that's that's important, veryimportant. Yes, it's very important.
Well that's excellent. Why not.It's a good time. Yeah, and
that's true. And who doesn't wantto have a good time? Oh my
god, yeah, right, mygod. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's

(31:15):
have a good time with it.And then you learn about we talked about
some new things and animals. Alot of people don't have never heard of.
A few animals they've never heard ofin the book, and a few
factoids about animals that are fascinating.So you, when you're like it or
not, you learn while you whileyou're being entertained. How good is that?

(31:38):
That's excellent.