NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
A podcast about acting, filmmaking, and the improv scene in New Orleans.
NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
Larry Kenney: The Voices Behind Our Childhood Icons
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What if the voice behind some of your childhood heroes could take you on a nostalgic journey through the golden era of animated series and classic commercials? Join us as legendary voice actor Larry Kenney, the voice of Lion-O from "Thundercats," Count Chocula, and Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird, shares fascinating anecdotes from his illustrious career. From his early days in Illinois to his rise in various radio markets, Larry recounts how his natural voice became the iconic roar of Lion-O. Get ready for an intimate and entertaining look behind the scenes of some of your favorite animated characters and commercials.
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U
Hey, hi there, my name is Larry Kenney. Let me check my driver's license. Yep, I'm Larry Kenney and I'm a voice actor, and you may know me from cartoon series like Thundercats, sword of Omens Come to my Hand, I, lyro, command it. That was me. And a lot of commercials you know, like Count Chocula, cocoa Puffs, things like that. But right now my total focus is here on NOLA Film Scene with you. Hello, welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ and Plato. I'm TJ.
Speaker 3:And, as always, I'm.
Speaker 2:Plato. We are back with another episode of NOLA Film Scene. We are here with Larry Kinney. He's a very well-known voice actor.
Speaker 3:How are you guys? We're doing great.
Speaker 2:Doing great. We'll let him tell us some of the stuff he's been in. He's known as the voice of Lion-O. He's done a lot of commercials and I guarantee you will recognize his voice when you hear it. Thank you so much for joining us, Larry.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're very welcome. I mean it's lovely to be here. I've got nothing else to do.
Speaker 3:That's more like a thunder kitten than a thunder cat, but we can start working on that show later.
Speaker 1:Sounds more like Sonny and the Cocoa Puffs in Bird, doesn't it? Yeah, I was a voice up for 40 years. You know the guy. Yeah, go, cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Yahoo, cuckoo for Cocoa.
Speaker 2:Puffs. That's pretty good, wasn't it? Excellent, excellent, yeah, that was good, and we're done, thanks for.
Speaker 1:I'm a semi-professional, you know, I'm just being silly, you will fit in with this crowd.
Speaker 3:Tj's a little more reserved. I'm a little bit crazy, but together we almost make a whole human.
Speaker 1:That more reserved. I'm a little bit crazy, but together we almost make a whole human. That's what I do. I do commercials. I was also the voice of count chocula for 40 years. You know, count chocula with the chocolate covered marshmallows sweet, don't eat them, they'll kill you. And cartoon series, or animated series, as we say. I was on thundercats, played lionel jackal man, many other voices then. We did silver hawksks, tiger Sharks and a lot of Rankin-Bass holiday specials, commercials in the 70s, 80s, 90s. I did so many Milton Bradley, you know, rock'em, suck'em Robots and GI Joe and all those kinds of things. That's what I do. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Interesting. So my understanding is you got your start in radio and then moved into voice acting. Is that accurate?
Speaker 1:Yes, it is, I consider them all the same thing, really. Sure, If you're on the radio, you're a voice actor, Maybe not an actor, but that's your profession using your voice. I like to say I talk for food. In fact I used to carry a business card that said Larry Kenney, I talk for food. I thought it was cute.
Speaker 1:I started out when I was 15 years old in Illinois small town in Illinois, Pekin, and I got such an early start, I think mostly because this was in 1963. It sounds like a long time ago, doesn't it? I better hurry before I die. 1963. I started off at a local radio station as a disc, you know, playing Beatles songs and commercials and things like that. I had always loved doing voices, cartoon voices. My mom used to tell me that from the time I could talk, I was mimicking what was on television, you know, cartoons and famous people, impersonations and things like that. So when I had the chance to go on radio I kept using that. I used that on my disc jockey show. I played a record, a James Brown record or something, and then, before I went into a commercial, I'd do a funny bit as some character. And I did that throughout my radio career, which took me from Peoria to Fort Wayne, Indiana, then Cleveland and then Chicago and then New York. Baby, I was doing Wolfman Jack. You know, Wolfman Jack, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do. I was born in 1970, so I'm not that much further behind you.
Speaker 1:He's an old friend of mine.
Speaker 1:Can you hit us with your just regular radio guy voice hey there, Larry Kenney, here playing those dusty stacks of wax for you, 915 on the show. Let's get some weather. I didn't really talk like that. That's my impression of the stereotypic Right. Hi there, how you doing. Actually, this is my regular voice. People ask me where did I get the idea for Lion-O's voice on Thundercats? Well, that's just my voice, you know. They told us when we auditioned for the Thundercats and if you're not familiar with Thundercats, well, hell with you.
Speaker 3:No, I'm a big fan. I didn't have the Lion-O until I had a Panthro. I'm sorry, ah good choice.
Speaker 1:Panthro was a good man. Panthro was a good man, but you asked me and I forgot the question now.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry I threw it out there. You were going to describe how you chose the voice. Quote. Unquote. Chose the voice for Lionel.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, good, good, well, I got the job first of all by auditioning. That's the way you get jobs in the voice place at a particular time that your agent tells you to go to, and they'll hand you a script and all that, and they tell you what the show is going to be about and what each character is like you know. And then they say would you go into the booth? And they wanted us to do? When I say they, I mean rankin bass, who produced the shows.
Speaker 1:Now, first of all, when I got that call, I was really excited because, as a kid, rankin bass did some of my favorite cartoons you know, mine too, yeah, mostly a holiday animation frosty, the snowman with burl lives, rud, mine too of the drawings of the characters and illustrations of scenes like Cat's Lair and things like that. But they said so, pick one Thundercat and one mutant bad guy that you audition for. So after reading the synopsis of the different characters, I said, well, I'll take a shot at Lionel, because he's the Lord of the Thundercats, why not try that? And I'll do Jackalman, because I love the illustration of it that they had. So for Lion, though, of course, I went in there, and Lion, though, is just my voice.
Speaker 1:Well, they told us for the Thundercats characters we don't want cartoon voices because they are actually half human and half cat, so but we want them not to be that put on cartoon voice, just something that sounds more like a real person talking. Right, that's Lion, though. Sounded like me. The only difference is when I sit here and talk with you guys, I'll say something like hey, sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight, I Lion-O command. It Comes out on TV as Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight, I Lion-O command. It Sounds like the guy on TV, right.
Speaker 3:Yep, I'm fanboying out all over here.
Speaker 1:I'll just and then for Jackal man. Well, first of all I had to think to myself what the hell is a jackal? And I don't think I looked it up, but I remember that a jackal is like a wily sneaky, like a hyena, you know, or a wolf or something. And the first thing that came to my mind was one of my favorite cartoon shows as a kid, rocky and Bullwinkle, and you guys may not be able to remember Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Speaker 3:I remember. No, I do. We ain't no youngsters, my friend.
Speaker 1:All right. So you'll remember a character named Snidely Whiplash. Remember him. He was the penultimate villain, the stereotypical villain. He wore a big black stovepipe hat, he had a black mustache with, curled up at the end, a cape, and he was always trying to capture Nell, the heroine, and he would say things like I'm going to get you, nell and tie you to the railroad track. So for some reason in my mind I put that together with Jackal thing and it came out as Jackal man who talked like we must get the Thundercats.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So that's how I came over to those awards.
Speaker 3:I love hearing those stories.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 3:You've already kind of told us. We asked people what inspired them From a young age. You were playing with the voices, you were having fun and that led you into your career, I believe.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I was what inspired me. People like Mel Blanc, Dawes Butler yes, guys, you may know, Yogi, yogi, yogi, bear Along with 500 other voices. True See, back in those days there were very, very few people doing the voices. Well, even when we were doing Thundercats and stuff, not a lot of people in the business. Now everybody's a voice actor, but I admired those guys. Dawes Butler was deputy dog. I think those are the guys that I really admired and I guess in a way, without thinking about it, patterned myself after somehow.
Speaker 3:Right, and now you're on the convention circuit. A lot, is that true?
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm Okay.
Speaker 3:I was like I'm going to ask the question. I'm like I don't know that for sure. I'm assuming he is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I do seven. Guys in the business do one a month or more than that, right, I usually end up doing seven or eight a year. I love, I love the conventions. I'm getting tired of travel. That's the only thing that I understand, because I'm 112 years old now.
Speaker 3:You don't look a day over 111, sir.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. I take care of myself.
Speaker 3:Could you pull your favorite convention story, fan interaction something?
Speaker 1:something. Give us an exclusive, something fun. Speaking of exclusive, already you guys are asking me questions I haven't been asked before and that's very unusual. I do lots of interviews oh wow, like six this week and it's usually this pretty much the same questions, you know as john hurt said to harry potter, you ask deep questions, mr potter.
Speaker 3:It's not trying to marry it up, so anything in a convention, a fan interaction, a bad fan interaction if you'd like to share.
Speaker 1:But I've never had a bad fan action. I couldn't imagine you were nice. Whatever your definition of bad, you know there are some that are test your limits and stuff. You know, because there are some people who are very, very fanatic, you know, fanatic. And there are many people there who are on a spectrum, you know, and that's one of the things I like the most about the conventions and the people who come to Comic-Cons. Some of them dress up as their favorite characters called cosplay, and when I first started doing the shows I was a little put off by that and what's that all about? And, as I said, some of the people would come up and they had difficulty speaking or they were very shy. But I began to realize that the reason that those people are there many of them, and they're not everybody's like that. But how shall I put this? Well, I'll tell you how I put it.
Speaker 1:I once was at a con with one of the two blonde twins from harry potter. I mean, they were, oh yeah, at the table next to me and I forget his name, but one of them. We were talking at lunch and he said you know, mate, oh, maybe I mean. You know what I mean. And he said, I began to realize that they come here to gather because here at a Comic-Con it's nerdville and we're all like this and they're the oddcasts. The people out in the streets who don't get it are the oddcasts and I love that. I love the fact that you see the smiles on the faces of some of these people who are there, who don't fit into a lot of situations. You know, and that's one of the reasons I love it so much is bringing joy to these people.
Speaker 1:Ever since we did the Thundercats, we were talking 40 years ago I think, when I would meet people or I'd get letters sometimes from people looking back. I have no idea how they discovered my address. Now it's on the Internet, you know. But to this day people will write me and say I didn't have that great a childhood, and some of them went into a lot of detail. Most of them didn't, but I know what they mean. They'll say I didn't have that great a childhood, but when I went into my room and watched Thundercats or Silverhawks or Tiger Sharks for that half hour, I felt great. That's right and that I'm almost crying now because that means so much to me. Yeah, you know, that's why I'm so strict in my loyalty to the legacy of those shows? I think yeah, because they brought, and still bring happiness to a lot of people. Some of them really need it.
Speaker 3:Totally agree. I am a Comic-Con nerd. In New Orleans it's been Wizard World since about 2010. Ah, and then Fan Expo bought it and what I love to do I love taking photo ops or getting buying photo op but I'll come up with costumes. Now I'm not like the 501st storm troopers where they have a picture perfect costume. I make something that relates to the star.
Speaker 3:I met william shatner and I took a pvc pipe behind my head and came over and had curtains, so I was like the star trek version of the gremlin from Twilight Zone. You know what I mean. I plus the picture and then for the past couple of years, since I started acting and studying voice acting, I'll play voices. So we just released one a few weeks ago. I met Rob Paulson oh great, yeah, yeah, yakko Pinky, and we played back and forth. I feel like they with my little guy. I always start with that. Then I'm going to go back under the floor, you know what I mean. And so then he'll throw. So that's the fan interaction that people like you do for us, for that is phenomenal. And I'll say this before I let TJ ask another question, because I'm so tired of hip-hop.
Speaker 3:I get a little bored with him too Is. I love the New Orleans cons because I love my wife. She's not a nerd, so she gets half my jokes and puts up with even less. And then you talk to people who just do nerd stuff. They don't understand a Saints joke or a New Orleans joke. But when I go to that con, almost any stupid thing I say will get one laugh or another, and I don't have to try. It's home, it's my people and that's why I love it.
Speaker 1:There you go, and God wife for putting up with it and going along with it, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a few checks came in from commercials. She's gotten happier and happier. Oh, you do voiceover too. Not voiceover, that was a in-person. Oh, I see I've studied voice acting with Michael Bell Nobody better. With Charlie Adler, charlie Adler, the force of nature yeah, and we've both studied with Debbie Derryberry yeah, getting there, but we're still in the student film, independent film. We just did a 48 hour film contest, but we're coming for your job just to share it with you in the booth, not going to take it from you.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I'm always glad to hear you know younger people are coming up, and you're a younger person to me. You know you're a kid. August 5th I'll be 77. And I've been in this business on that same date August 5th 1963. I started in the business, so it'll be 60 years. That's incredible, absolutely incredible. Work out right. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:I was just going to say if the math doesn't work out, we'll let somebody else do that. Go ahead, tj.
Speaker 1:I was told there would be no math and I brought it up myself. Yeah, well, 63, actually so last year. 63 to 2023, that was 60 years last year, right, yeah? So what's? Why did I say it was this year?
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter, they come and go so fast these past few years have felt like a few years combined into one, so we understand that. Okay, thanks the time dilution.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a. That's a fact. Yeah, time has been weird the last few years. Of the different mediums that you've worked in between radio commercials and voiceover for cartoons, do you have one of those not necessarily a particular show, but do you have one of those mediums that is your favorite? If they told you from here on you can only do one of these, do you have one that you like the most?
Speaker 1:Wow, that is a tough question because I love doing animated stuff, I love doing video games, but I started out in commercials. You know, before I ever did Thundercats, a cartoon show Well, I mentioned, I was the voice of Count Chocula. For 40 years I was the voice of Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird. Remember him? I did that earlier. Sometimes I forget that I've already done it. I spent so many years doing commercials.
Speaker 1:I still do commercials Not nearly as many as I used to by my own choice because, like I said, I'll be 77 years old. I don't feel like an old man, but I get tired of traveling into the city and back and picking shoes Now, like I still do the Skittles commercials. I've been doing those 25 years. You know the guy at the end who says feel the rainbow, taste the rainbow? Wow, that's me, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that was you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't either. Well, and cartoons you can tell who did the voices, except after they've been on the air for quite a while. The credits go like this you know you try to read them.
Speaker 3:They need a commercial IMDb.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's a good idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was actually thinking about that the other day. Yeah, for those who don't know, the International Movie Database is anything you want to know about an actor or a movie. There's also an IBMD International Broadway Database. You're in the theater.
Speaker 1:I've always loved doing commercials, but animated stuff is really fun because very rarely on a commercial we get to play a villain. They don't want nasty people saying buy some of this, and any actor will tell you that they love playing villains, whether it's in a movie or a TV show or an animated show. Because you get to really what we call in the business, chew the scenery. This phrase comes from way back when there's only theater. Chewing the scenery became the thing for really overacting. When you play a villain you get to do that.
Speaker 1:For example, mumra in Thundercats or El Hamid was, you know, ancient spirit of evil transformed, and I used to love to stand there and watch him. And you know, the funny thing was when we were recording we were always all in the studio together, always Total opposite from today. You record today whether it's a commercial or a cartoon show. For some reason and it's never been explained to me why they like to record one person at a time. The other actors aren't even there, they're at home. You come in and do yours, and then the other person comes in and does theirs, and it's just taken away a lot of the fun, yeah.
Speaker 3:Takes the energy out of the performance.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Thank you, that's what I was, exactly how I wanted to put it. Yeah, because what is acting? Acting is really reacting. That's right, john Wayne, I'm not an actor, I'm a reactor. I react to what the other person says. And when there's no other person in the studio and you're standing there, a little microphone in a little box, which it's not the same, I think people do better work when there's somebody else around to bounce off of. You know, yeah, and then you can bounce off of them, and everybody's trying to be funnier than the other one. You know, everybody's trying to do a better job, but now nowadays again, I don't know why, but for some reason it's one person in the booth at one time it's definitely a different feeling.
Speaker 2:I had a follow-up question. I was going to ask you if you have your own booth. Brian and I, we have our own sound booths and I've been fortunate enough to have quite a few voiceover auditions and to me it's a different feel than a self tape for an on camera audition. You have another actor, just like you said, that you can react to and play off of, and you get that connection. I studied Meisner so you get that connection with react to and play off of. Yeah, and you get that connection. I studied Meisner so you get that connection with your scene partner. Yeah, to react better. Yeah, voiceover auditions. A lot of them will say just read your lines, skip over the opposing lines. It's weird, it feels weird, it is weird To just do that. Yeah, I've gotten used to it, but I like the energy of the on-camera. Oh me too.
Speaker 1:If you think about it, you're supposed to be portraying. Whatever part you're playing in this, whatever it is a movie or whatever. You're playing a human being in real life. Well, in real life, you're not always alone and spouting, line. I think we should do this. There's nobody else around you but people that put you away for that. You line, I think we should do this. There's nobody else around you but people that put you away for that. But then now they expect you to do that in the booth. Well, you're an actor. You can pretend there are other people around here. One guy actually said that to me one time. I remember saying to him all right, I'll do that and I'll try to pretend that you're a producer, a director, I'm sorry. I'll pretend that I'm an actor and a person and you can pretend that you're a director. And there was a lot of silence for a moment. That's funny.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Do you have a booth at home or do you have to go to a studio?
Speaker 1:I do not have a studio in my booth in my home. A lot of the people in the business do. I'm sitting here at a computer. Right now I'm using my phone, but I've got my computer and I have a really good microphone here so that for years now I've been able to send auditions to my agents. Because it's not air quality To put things on air, especially on the network or on a produced show. There's a certain quality that they have to have. It can't have any ambience and stuff like that like we have now and that probably sounds right now good right now to people listening to us but this could never be on television because it's not that quality.
Speaker 1:For years now I've been able to do, especially since covid I could send an. They would send me a copy to my house and I would sit right here at this desk and record it on a garage band and then email it to them. But the only people that allow me to do that for on-air things are the Skittles people. I do the Skittles commercials right here from this desk. I never discussed this with them, but I think well, for one reason every time I do a Skittles commercial there's only one new word Feel the rainbow, taste the rainbow, imagine the rainbow. Forget about the rainbow, Taste the rainbow.
Speaker 1:In fact, I once said to them why don't you book me for a couple of days straight and I'll come in and we'll record every verb in the English language, then you'll have it? They didn't think that was going to be, but I think mostly the reason they allow me to do it from home. Now, for one thing, I think they know that if I had to come in the city every day, I'd just say it's time to get somebody else, you know, or whatever. But mostly, I think, because that particular voice is so distorted. Anyway, you know what I mean. It doesn't have to sound like this, it's feel a rainbow. So anyway, that's my theory and I'm sticking with it.
Speaker 3:They want that raw energy from it. Yeah, yeah. Also, you're established. You're established so much more than pretty much any other voice actor that they know what they're going to get. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got the resume of Sonny of Count Chocula and the Skittles guy. They were like, hmm, what can he do? Just listen, come on. Yeah, well, we need as much help as we can get. Just starting out. Oh man, he's got that bad sound in there. Too bad. Play-doh, play-doh is my last name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you know you've been around as long as I have. You know all the people in the agencies and recording places. You know they. Oh yeah, larry kenney, I'm sure you can do that, you know, but you still have to audition most of the time. I still have to audition. Right, everybody is Well. I think the one reason our union is after NSAG Should we start over?
Speaker 3:We haven't started yet. I cut out all the air and if there's double words like ums and ums, I take that out. So that's no problem. But I totally understand, because I don't suffer from foot and mouth disease, but I do have the taste of soul always in my mouth.
Speaker 1:And you don't mean James Brown, do you? Ow, I feel good. Hardest working man in show business. James Brown, he was a great guy. I knew him for a long time. Oh wow, he was just definitely the nicest guy and you'd never believe it. He was the same guy you saw jumping around on stage, you know, and screaming take it to the bridge when you're talking to me. Talk like this. You know, larry, I love that. That was that commercial. You do that Google post Close enough.
Speaker 3:I didn't correct. You don't correct James bro Totally, since you're name dropping. Is there any other names you want to drop on the podcast and help us grow? Oh, my goodness, tj, you want to drop on?
Speaker 1:the podcast and help us grow. Oh my goodness, tj, you want to pull that knife out of my back. You just stuck it. Oh, link, you don't have to.
Speaker 1:I was name dropping. You know one of the great things about this business. One of you mentioned earlier that voiceover is one aspect of my career. I've done something in almost every area of show business. I was in a couple of movies nothing you'd ever know. I had a couple of record albums comedy albums. I was a disc radio, I was a game show host in New York for three years and the commercials. So you know, I've been around the business and I have no idea where I was going with that, but it sounds pretty fascinating.
Speaker 3:I was asking if you had any other celebrity meet and greets. I tell everybody I was Death's photo double in the third Bill and Ted movie. They're sick of me saying it Really. Yeah, I had the makeup and everything. I didn't have the beard. I recognize you.
Speaker 1:Right, no, I did a couple of independent films, which means your mother might see them, and that's about it. But I had a good time doing it. But you know the soap operas. I did a couple of soap operas back in the 70s. Nice Edge of Night was one that's not even around anymore. Wow, but I did that. I played a waiter. You know, it was not a big role or anything. I played a waiter in an Italian restaurant.
Speaker 1:But the thing about that is now, when you do voiceovers commercials, you get to the studio and it's a 30 second commercial and it might take 40 minutes. Sometimes it takes 12 minutes. The Skittles commercial is taking me five minutes, thank you. But when you do television or film, you get there at 630 in the morning and you do a read-through. Everybody sits around a table with a script and you read your part. You don't necessarily put the drama into anything, but you just read it so everybody gets an idea of what they're going to sound like and stuff like that. So you do that and then you take a little break while the ladies are getting their hair done and their makeup on and things like that, and then they do your hair and your makeup, your wardrobe, the fitting for the wardrobe.
Speaker 1:Now around noon this is four or five hours later it's time for a rehearsal. So you do a rehearsal and then it's lunch. Come back from lunch, it's a rehearsal with cameras rolling and so the cameras can know where you're going and what you're going to do. You may finish at seven o'clock at night. That's 12 hour a day and for a little rule, like I was doing, which is it's called an over five, if you have under five lines you'd make 200 bucks. You know, if you do over five that's whatever.
Speaker 1:But anyway, the point is, at that point when I started doing those this was 1979 I had been doing commercials things for six, seven years in new york and I was used to going somewhere and doing a commercial and making that money and then taking lunch and then going and audition for a commercial and then do another commercial, but in that it's all day. You're there all day long and make a couple hundred bucks. So while it was interesting for me, I'm glad I did it for the experience. But I told my agent after a couple of those soap operas I said no more on camera for me, it's just I can make more money than I have, it's easier. I said no more on camera for me. It's just I can make more money than I have. It's easier, and I'm never going to become an on-camera star anyway, look at this. So I'll stick with the voiceover stuff.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we each have our own track. Yeah, like I dream of being an action figure. One day I want to be a Thundercat, but I may never get that chance. I may always be the bartender, might be a sheriff, you know, but I have asthma, so maybe my voiceover thing won't happen. I'm not going to stop trying.
Speaker 1:No, don't stop, never, never give up, as Jim Valvano said. Remember Jim Valvano, the head coach of North Carolina State University.
Speaker 3:Do not, but tell me what he said.
Speaker 1:Well, he played a clip on TV a lot of times during the March Madness. He was the coach of North Carolina State University, which for 40 years lost to North Carolina University and Duke. Duke University neighbors and Jim Volvano made this team of nobodies and took them all the way and they won the NCAA tournament. And they asked him what's the secret to you? And he says never give up, never, ever give up. And that's what he told his guy. It doesn't sound like much, but if you think about it you know don't ever give up.
Speaker 1:In a business like ours, you know you get a lot of rejection. I mean, you go to auditions. They say no, thank you. Another audition, now you're not right for the part. You begin to start thinking, if you let yourself, I shouldn't be in this business, I'm going to make it. But if you believe in you have a situation where you have a wife and child, at a certain point You're a young, single guy and you can go to these auditions and you don't get very many of them. Okay, fine, you don't need a lot of money. Then you start to have a family you got to take care of, you have to eat, and at some point you say I got to get a tough decision for people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's for me because I work six, seven days a week cleaning bars early, early morning. Yeah, it would be work at the bar and get up and go as background, go to set, like you said, 12 hour days, maybe catch a little nap, get back to the bar and clean and then the next morning another show. But if I wanted this life, I'm going to have to push myself. Hopefully I won't have days like that every week. Every day like I can space it out and it's much better when you have a line, they give you a trailer and a place to sit, air conditioning, oh yeah. But you have to make the decision. You want to do this and you have to love it because it's going to, yeah, and not even a super bad way. It's not that it's going to hurt you. It doesn't care about you. This business doesn't care about you.
Speaker 1:That's a good way to put it.
Speaker 3:See, that's the attitude you have to have Never ever they don't hire me, I'm going to make my own stuff.
Speaker 1:That's another thing that's right Now these days. You know, back in the old days, with movies and stuff, the studio told you what movie to be in, told you how much you would make and told you what part you were going to play and everything. And now actors don't have to go through that.
Speaker 3:They say, yeah, they suck. It's a fact that we get asked, even at our level. We're kind of newbies, we're getting, have a few years under our belts, but people are like, how do you do it? There's always going to be problems every day in this. I mean you have problems in everyday life. Sure, this is not ditch dig. You have to overcome the obstacles to get this once, because this is a privilege to be able to do this. This isn't a right to be a podcaster, to be an actor, to be a voice actor, and you have to love it and love entertaining and, like you said, with the cons, when those fans light up for you. An example TJ and I just did a 48 hour film and the awards are coming up soon. Even if we don't win, our friends and people have seen it. Not only did we get applause, there was laughter. People are like, oh, you did such a great job and we touched people that way. Yeah, sure, and that's all I need, and some cash, but that's all I need, yeah that's good, I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah to know it impacted and people enjoyed it. I'm not doing it for fame or wealth, I'm doing it art of entertaining and to be able to even have one person say they enjoyed something that you did it lights me up, it makes me very happy.
Speaker 1:I like that. Plus, you never know, the right person might see it. That's right. Say yeah, I want that guy in my next movie. That's right, you know, you never. You never know. Spielberg said that to me and I said I had a cartoon show. I'm sorry you caught me flat-footed. I thought you it's a true story, but it was Carl Spielberg. Yeah, yeah, he works. No thanks, carl.
Speaker 2:Can we take us out with something from Thundercats?
Speaker 1:Sure A very short thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's light up the night with a certain symbol. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, the most obvious of all, of course, and if you want I'll do it, and that's where you can figure it out. It'll be tremendous. Okay, ready, thunder, thunder, Thunder, thunder. Cats. Ho, sounds just like the guy on TV, right?
Speaker 2:It sounds just like it. I thought the cartoon was on.
Speaker 3:This has been fun. Was it live or was it Memorex?
Speaker 1:Good luck to both of you and have a great time here with you again sometime.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I'm glad we can entertain you for once.
