April 13 – April 20 (2015) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

As I was preparing my Fed Ex shipment to Sioux Falls, Spook jumped in and demanded to be shipped to Sioux Falls too!

While I was driving around Sioux Falls, South Dakota…I heard this song on KISD-FM and it sure sounded good. When I got back to my hotel I found it on my i-Pod and played it again. What a good sounding record…“We Gotta Get You a Woman” by Todd Rundgren!

Monday the 13th – DISAPPEARING DIXON!! – The day started with an ADR (additional dialogue recording) session for “Sonic Boom” at Studiopolis in Burbank at 10am. It was a quick one that just required me to record a bunch of layers of cheering for a character. Then I went to the post office to send back a pair of midnight purple suede boots I bought from a store in the U.K. for the upcoming South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this weekend. The boots were one size too small, and I think the confusion came from the sizing for UK shoes and US shoes being different. I was told a US 11 was a UK 10, so that’s what I bought. But I should have bought a UK 10.5 or even 11. But to send them back would cost me $65, and the boots were only $100…so is it really worth it? I may just keep them and sell them on eBay. I stopped by Goodwill to drop off a bunch of donated clothes and stuff, and then stopped by Burger King to grab lunch. Since they got rid of their buffalo chicken strips and their Italian chicken sandwich, there’s not much I like there. The chicken fries are awful, horrible, gross and inedible. So I guess I’ll be avoiding BK for a while. Next stop was Kalmenson and Kalmenson casting for an audition. It involved lightning fast talking. I stopped by the vitamin store to get some supplements, and then headed over to Fast Signs to see how they were doing on my project. Unfortunately they hadn’t done much. They needed more info from me in regards to the sizing of the new signage I’m having them print for Planet Wallywood. I dropped into the comic book store next door to see what was new, and then headed home. My pal Scott Zillner picked up the Riddler cane so he can start painting on it. The mail arrived and the alternate pair of purple suede Beatle boots I bought from the UK fit perfectly! So those are the ones I’ll use at the Hall of Fame ceremony this Saturday. Everything was going fine until I checked my e-mail. Norman Reedus from “The Walking Dead” was scheduled to appear at the Wizard World convention in Las Vegas next weekend. He plays Daryl Dixon on the show and my sister Bonnie is a huge fan, so I told her to meet me there and we’d meet him. We had our airline tickets and convention tickets all purchased, but I got an e-mail that said he was canceling the appearance. RATS! I knew my sister would be really sad so I had to make the phone call. She WAS indeed sad, but she said her and her husband Roger had honeymooned in Vegas 20 years ago so this will be their anniversary trip. So it worked out ok for them (though she WAS looking forward to meeting him) but for me it was a total bust. I canceled the entire trip, since I really don’t like Las Vegas that much. Luckily I got a refund on my hotel room reservation, I got credit for future travel on Southwest Airlines, and luckily Wizard World refunded all my tickets purchases. Unfortunately Machine Gun Vegas, where we were going to shoot machine guns, doesn’t offer refunds…only store credit. So beware if you’re considering reserving time at Machine Gun Vegas! My pal Brittney Powell came by to visit since she was in the area doing an audition, and I had to give her the bad news about canceling Vegas. When she left I took a dip in the Jacuzzi and then tried to take a nap on the couch. But the animals kept bugging me. Spook was agitated by something he saw outside (or THOUGHT he saw outside), and Roxy wanted my attention. Did they sense a coyote in the complex? I had heard from my neighbors that a few had been spotted. So I didn’t get much rest. I did my auditions, and then practiced my speech TWICE! I wanted to make sure it was fully committed to memory and I didn’t have to refer to any notes. I even recorded the speech on my audio system so I could time it and listen to it back. I made a salad and watched an episode of “Magnum, p.i.” on DVD before bed.

Tuesday the 14th – SHE PACKED MY BAGS LAST NIGHT, PRE-FLIGHT! – Right around noon I was heading down the freeway to Culver City to grab lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant called Campo’s. Then I headed over to Marina Del Rey to go to Global Eagle for a Voice-Over session for American Airlines. We wrapped up in an hour and a half and I was on my way back home. I did some work around the house to get ready for my upcoming trip to Sioux Falls this weekend. I had to get over to Floyd’s to see my stylist Andie to get my roots done. Then my assistant Sara and I grabbed dinner at DuPar’s. Then I packed some stuff for my trip, organized files for my trip, and dubbed some DVDs to give to my folks. I did wash and printed documents I’ll need for the trip. I laid down some auditions, scanned some scripts from the American Airlines session, and I fed and walked Roxy. I got to bed early (2am is early for me!) so I could be up for a morning session. Whew! What a day!

Wednesday the 15th – THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! – 8am is awfully early for me, but it was necessary today. My session at 9 at Voice Trax West was for some new commercials for Winsport in Canada. I had done several spots for them last year, and we’re doing several new ones for this year. We worked until noon, and then I came back home to do some auditions. I had a session in my home studio at 1:30 so I waited for their call. Exhausted, I collapsed on the couch for 3 hours. The schedule over the next several days is going to be weird and I’ll be surprised if I get much sleep at all. I fed Spook and Roxy and then did some work via remote with my computer guy Brian. My friend Jasmine came over with her friend Asia and we chatted for a bit. Then Sara and I took Roxy over to Panera to grab some dinner. I got home and finished up some things, and then hit the hay around 12:30am with the intent of getting up at 4:30am to make my flight.

Thursday the 16th – SLEEP AND SLEET! – During the night I woke up every hour and checked the clock. It’s common for me on the night before a flight to do that. I just can’t help it. I finally woke up for good at 3:30am and couldn’t sleep any longer. When I woke up, I had the idea of putting the MP3 I made of my speech on my i-Pad so I could listen to it to refresh. I did some last minute packing, put the speech on my i-Pad, and got showered up. Sara came over at 5am to start her housesitting duties and I took off for the Burbank airport around 5:15. After a quick stop at McDonald’s for some breakfast, I got to the valet parking at the airport and dropped off my car. I wanted to get in a little early because I had to fill out a handgun declaration form. You can carry a handgun in your checked luggage but you have to sign a declaration form. It takes a little extra time to get the lock unlocked, show the attendant the unloaded gun, and then lock everything back up and put it back in the suitcase and lock that up. I got through security and waited until the flight at 7am. I slept on the 2 hour flight to Denver. When we arrived it was all gray, cloudy and snowy. It was just one degree over freezing, so it was more like sleet. When we got off the plane to go into the terminal I could see my breath it was so cold! I hadn’t seen snow, or my breath, in decades! It was weird! I had a 3 hour layover so I found a great Bar-B-Q place that was on the second floor of the airport. I got a table by the window and watched the guys work on the cold, snowy day while munching on some delicious Bar-B-Q tri-tip. Once we got on the plane to Sioux Falls we had a half hour delay so the plane could be de-iced. De-iced? In mid-April!? On the plane I sat next to a guy who lives in L.A. and does music, who is also originally from South Dakota. And he knows my assistant Sara! What a small world. If you ever get to catch Richard Banker live, be sure to do it! We got to Sioux Falls a little later than scheduled because of the de-ice de-lay. The weather in Sioux Falls was pretty nice, considering we just came out of the frozen tundra of Denver. I went to get my rental car which was supposed to be a Nissan. But the gal told me they had a red Camaro for only $5 more a day. I didn’t think twice about it. SURE! Much more my style! It was a great color red, but it needed a white stripe! I went to my room to dump my luggage and check in to my room. I went to the mall to pick up a dress at Macy’s for my “date” to the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. I stopped by B&G Milky Way to get some sloppy joes (my favorite!) and a strawberry shake. Then I went to a local park where my niece Julia was playing soccer. After the game we all went to Fry’n Pan (a local eatery) for dinner. But I started to get very tired. My buddy Dave Baumeister stopped by and after dinner I followed him to see his new apartment. When I got back to the hotel I met up with the actress I hired to be my “date” to the ceremony. I wanted to make my speech fun and wacky, and a little Kaufman-esque. So I created a hoax that only one friend in Sioux Falls, and the actress were in on. THE HOAX: I would announce on stage my engagement to a special gal. So special, in fact, that she also happened to be Miss South Dakota! The age difference between us was about 35 years, and since most of the stuff I’d be referring to in my speech happened about 20 years before she was even alive, I thought it would be funny to watch our relationship dissolve before the audience’s eyes: when I finally realize that she’s too young for me, we have nothing in common and she has no idea what I’m talking about. I even went so far as to have a fake Miss South Dakota sash made up by my seamstress Karyn. I also bought a phony engagement ring on eBay for 6 bucks. The actress’ name was Darac Harry, whom I found through a local Sioux Falls talent agency. She had been involved in some pageants before and already had the tiara. Perfect! She came to the hotel and we met in the lobby to plan everything out. I gave her the fake ring and the sash which she would keep in a bag that would be with her at all times. Then at an appropriate moment she would slip on the sash and the tiara and wave at the audience as Miss South Dakota. It would be great! She also tried the dress on to make sure it was the right one. Darac’s friend Shawna came along for the ride, and she has an interest in getting into the make-up field. Wouldn’t it be funny if she ended up out in L.A. to study at MUD (Make-Up Designory) or another school?! I went off to my room to shower up and crash for the night!

Friday the 17th – A HUMBLING HONOR! – At 9:45 I sprang awake and cleaned up to head to Augustana college. The drama professor Dan Workman asked if I would come speak to his class about show-biz. I had become acquainted with Dan over e-mail when I was on the search for a local actress to play the phony Miss South Dakota. My folks came to hear me speak as well, along with 15 kids from the class. It was a good talk and they asked really great questions. They have a real nice theatre there where we relaxed and chatted for about an hour. When we finished up, I took my folks to my dad’s favorite burger place Bob’s Café. When we finished up, I drove by B&G Milky Way to get a banana shake. My new suede boots from the UK had really slick bottoms, and since I didn’t want to fall on my ass when I walked up to get my plaque, I stopped at a shoe repair store to get some Sure-Grip stickers for the soles. I also picked up my sister’s “Waking Dead” vest. In the show, Norman Reedus’ character wears a black leather motorcycle vest with dirty angel wings stitched on the back. She made up her own “cosplay” vest to wear while meeting him, but since he canceled she doesn’t really need it any more. But she DOES ride on a motorcycle with her husband Roger, so she’ll get a charge out of wearing it for rides around town. Since it’s difficult to sew in to leather, she had to take it to a shoe repair place that had sharp enough needles to get through leather. I knew she was excited to get the vest, so I dropped it off at her work. Then I went to a store called Lewis Drug to get some supplies. My family used to shop there all the time when I was a kid. I went to the aisle that used to be the toy aisle in 1966. I can still remember it being right by the west door, because as soon as we’d walk in we’d see aisles and aisles of toys…Captain Action and all his outfits, games and other toys of the era. By the door were several gumball machines, and I always delighted in getting a grape gumball after shopping. No such luck this time around. I went back to my room to grab a nap before the big Friday night reception. My folks met up with me so they could go along. I ran into my old buddy Dave Rowe, the guy who was the DJ at my wedding dance back in 1982. It was fun hanging out with him. When I worked in Sioux Falls as a DJ, he was a cop. He loved oldies so he would always stop by the studio and visit me. Since he was a local, I bounced ideas off him for my speech. I was quite worried that nobody would know me, after having not lived in the area for about 30 years. Somebody had mentioned that they were going to “bring back the 50s and 60s tomorrow night” at the ceremony. That had me worried because my DJ days was late 70’s and early to mid 80’s. As the reception drew to a close, the producer of the event had all the band members who were being inducted stand up and introduce themselves to the crowd. One by one they said their names, what they played and the group they were with. I waited for my turn to introduce myself (since not many people had a clue) but it never came. The producer never called on me to introduce myself, which I thought was odd. Oh well. After the reception they had a band play called Massive Brass Attack. They were superb. But I noticed the absence of a follow spot (spot light) that the producers said would be there. The idea for my speech was that I would introduce Miss South Dakota who would be sitting at my table, and the spotlight would hit her there. But without a follow spot, nobody would see “Tiffany Campbell” – Darac’s phony Miss South Dakota character. What to do? This required some thought. After talking with Dave I decided to cut some things from my speech for time, and throw in a few other small jokes, which I was constructing on the fly. Dave and I left the concert and headed to the hotel lobby to chat. We got a tray of popcorn from the hotel bar and sat in the lobby talking about the old days. Then I got back to my room and ordered a pizza from Boss’ pizza. The gal at the front desk of the hotel suggested it over Pizza Hut or Domino’s, and boy was I glad I took her advice. YUM! I’m officially addicted! I’m just glad there’s not one in my hometown! I made cuts to my speech and reworked small parts of it, and then timed it. I was ready to go! I had been working on it for three months and the time was almost here!

Saturday the 18th – THE FOLKS, SOME JOKES & A HOAX – Though I didn’t need to be up until 1pm, my eyes shot wide open at 8am and wouldn’t close again. Rats! I had the answer to the follow-spot conundrum. While I slept, my sub-conscious worked on the problem. I remember in Andy Kaufman’s Carnegie Hall show, he brought his Grandma up on stage to enjoy his show from the best seat in the house. He put a chair downstage right and she sat there through the entire show. At the end he revealed that his Grandma was really Robin Williams in disguise! So that’s it! WWAKD?! (What would Andy Kaufman Do?) I’d bring Darac…um I mean…Tiffany on stage with me and seat her to my right. That way her responses wouldn’t have to be yelled from the audience, but I could get her on the microphone. Perfect! I was anxious and excited. Not even my folks were privy to the whole “engagement” thing. I would love to see their faces when I announced my pending marriage on stage! I went to the auditorium and checked out the stage and sound check. They were setting up 5 cameras from South Dakota Public TV so they could film the entire event. Some of it will be shown on TV after it’s edited, but I think a DVD of the entire event will be made available later this year. I went to eat lunch in the hotel restaurant and then cleaned up for the 2:30 autograph session. I saw an old pal of mine named Austin Harris, a DJ who still works in Sioux Falls. Of course people knew him, because he’s still on the air all the time. But as expected, nobody but NOBODY had any idea who I was or what I was doing there. I perked up when a lady and her husband approached me with a camera in her hand. She said, “Would you take a picture with us?” I beamed and said, “SURE!” Then she handed me the camera and struck a pose with her husband. What she actually said was, “Would you take a picture OF us?!” I snapped off a few photos and gave the camera back to her. She thanked me and I said I was happy to help. I was starting to think that maybe my induction into this Hall of Fame might have been 10 years too early. Perhaps they should have waited until more of my generation had come up into the ranks of their membership. Luckily I found a few folks I knew from the old Community Playhouse days. It was fun chatting with them. My folks arrived and I got them seated while I ran to my hotel to change clothes. Darac was running late, and maybe it was just as well. It cut down on all the questions she would be asked before the event. “Where did you meet Wally? How long have you known each other? Have you ever been to L.A.?” We had a backstory for our relationship created just in case, but it was probably best to just have her come in late and avoid questions. The rest of my family and friends arrived and we all got seated. Then Darac arrived, with the big fake ring on her hand. We just casually sat there chatting during the beginning of the ceremony and concert, while my family started drawing all sorts of their own conclusions about our relationship. It was awesome! I know they couldn’t miss the huge ring! The audience was MUCH older than I had thought. The majority was at least 65+…some older. I knew that nobody was going to get me at all, so again I said “WWAKD?” Andy would totally ignore the audience, have fun entertaining himself, and play to the cameras. Since it was being filmed, I didn’t want to appear on camera to be thrown by a less-than-enthusiastic audience. So I would just plow on through no matter what and do my performance. The audience of about 2000 was a mix of people who were just there to drink and talk, and others who were keenly interested in what was going on. Luckily there were several people in the front of the house who were engaged in what I was saying, so I just played to them. I was given 15 minutes to perform while the next band was getting set up. I cut a few things on the fly and it all worked out pretty well. The hoax went well and at first several people took pictures of “Tiffany” believing her to be the real Miss South Dakota. I was very happy with how it went, but I know my family was a bit thrown by the partial attentiveness of the audience. And it wasn’t just me. Every speaker that approached the podium was partially ignored. When I returned to the table my pal Scott said, “Wow, tough crowd.” But I was all smiles because it went just as I had envisioned. My mom said she was shocked about the onstage announcement about the engagement. Since they had all sat in silence eyeballing the huge engagement ring for a few hours before the speech…well…it was just all too funny. As I walked around to get some water several people asked to get photos with me. They also said they enjoyed my speech and they thought I was funny. One lady said she really enjoyed my Wolfman Jack impression. If I ever do a thing like this again, with an older less-than-fully-attentive audience, I’m just going to do nothing but impressions. They seem to really like those. Another guy said he couldn’t figure out how I could become all those people. (I did several voices and characters in the speech). All in all it was pretty fun. But the food left my family cold, so after I got my plaque we all headed to a local Italian restaurant to have a huge family dinner. About 20 people in all sat at 6 tables. It was great fun, conversation and food. 2 of my aunts were there, an uncle, 2 old friends and their wives, my pal Dave and his daughter, my folks, sisters, their husbands and 2 nieces. By the time I got back to my hotel room I was EXHAUSTED! But I wanted to venture down to the bar to get some popcorn before bed. But it was BROKEN! AAARRGH! I did talk to a gal in the bar who said her kid was a fan of “The Garfield Show.” So I called her cell phone and left a voice message for her son in character. Jon was looking for Garfield and Odie and he wanted to know if the kid had seen them. What fun! Then I hit the hay for the night!

Sunday the 19th – BLUSTERY DAY! – For some reason I woke up at 9:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I had a bad dream about Roxy and I really didn’t want to get back to sleep anyway. When I woke up I was singing “Who Put the Bomp” by Barry Mann for some reason. I met a bunch of friends for brunch at 11, and then headed back to my room to pack some stuff to ship home via Fed Ex. I grabbed a quick nap as it was easy to sleep. It was cold, ugly, windy and nasty out. When I woke up my buddy Dave and his daughter Molly came over so I could sign some photos for Molly’s friend. His son (and my Godson) Sean came over too with a buddy of his. Then I headed to my dad’s belated 80th birthday. Though his birthday was in January, we delayed it to now for several reasons. The entire weekend I’ve been enjoying listening to a station called KISD. The station formerly was known as KLOH, the Mighty Nine Eight Seven. I loved listening to it in 1984, 85 and 86. They played all sorts of music I wouldn’t have normally been exposed to; music that I still listen to today. Well, now that they’re KISD, they play oldies from the 50’s to the 80’s. They were one of the prime stations who were promoting the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony on the air. Well, as I drove to my dad’s party, they played “Who Put the Bomp” by Barry Mann….the song I woke up singing in my head that very morning. WEIRD! We wrapped things up at my sister Bonnie’s, and I headed back to my room to get all packed up to head out late Monday afternoon.

Monday the 20th – WINDS-DAY? – Not sure what was eating me, but again I woke up at 6:30 in the morning and could NOT get back to sleep. I didn’t need to be up until 10:30 for the 11am checkout, so it was really frustrating. At 8:30, just as I was starting to drift back to sleep, there was loud knocking at my door and a woman yelling, “Housekeeping! Housekeeping!” I put the pillow over my head and ignored her. I had the Do Not Disturb sign on my door handle and check out wasn’t until 11am, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. A half hour later there was more knocking. I got out of bed and answered the door. I must’ve had a stern look on my face because the guy at the door said, “Oh! Checking out at 11, huh?” I said, “Yup!” and closed the door. Sheesh! By then I was so mad I just decided to get ready and leave. But first I phoned the front desk to lodge a complaint. I normally stay at the Hilton Garden Inn, which I really like. But because the event was at this hotel it was more convenient to stay there, given the tight schedule of events going on. I got packed up and when I went outside it was like walking in a hurricane. The winds were whipping around like mad. It was almost difficult to load the car. I took some boxes to my folks’ apartment to store until my next visit. Then we went to Fry’n Pan to eat lunch with some of the old radio folks I used to work with in the old days. It was fun chatting with them and catching up. I drove by my old house on Glendale Avenue, and then stopped off to see my high school girlfriend Sondee at the store she owns. We chatted for quite a while. I drove to Fed Ex to ship my boxes home, and took a drive over to Falls Park to look at the gorgeous Sioux Falls. Before my flight I wanted to get a Dairy Queen banana split. After tossing that back, I stopped to get the rental car gassed up. But the wind was so strong it almost wouldn’t let me out of the car door! I couldn’t wait to get home. I returned the car, checked in for my flight, and boarded the aircraft. I chose seat 1a because my connection time in Denver was so short…only about an hour. If I have to run across the airport to get to the other gate I would need every second of time. And sitting in the very first seat of the very first row would buy me about 15 minutes of time to get to my Burbank flight. I had my shoulder bag with me as a carry-on, but when I got to the overhead bin over my row it was already full. A big suitcase and a backpack were taking up the space. I scooted the backpack over a little and created just enough room to fit my shoulder bag in. Since there was no seat in front of me under which I could store my bag, that was my only choice. Normally I avoid the overhead bins but I had no choice. Later the Flight Attendant came by and tried to squish everything in to close the door, but she was having difficulty getting the backpack squished in to close it. A guy sitting behind me said, “That’s mine. It fit in there earlier but somebody must’ve moved it.” Then I saw him shoot me a look out of the corner of my eye and continue staring at me. I told the Flight Attendant, “I don’t have a seat in front of me so I had nowhere else to put it.” The jackhole behind me said, “Give me the backpack I’ll put it by my feet.” WHAT? The jerk was taking up space in the overhead bin that people in the first row needed, so he didn’t have to have it by his feet? What a jackhole! The Flight Attendant looked at me and said, “You did the right thing.” Some people! Sheesh! I slept off and on during the flight to Denver, but the window seat in this small plane was very cramped for a 6 foot 1 inch guy like me. Plus the lady next to me was very large and spent the flight playing Candy Crush. I don’t know if her name was Candy, but I was definitely being crushed! Luckily it was only an hour flight. I heard that the Denver airport had been shut down for a while last Friday because of snow. Had I come into Sioux Falls a day later than I did, I would have gotten stranded. But the weather was pretty good now. I got off the flight and found my next gate. I even had time to eat a quick hot dog. On the plane to Burbank was fellow Voice Actor Townsend Coleman. I didn’t recognize him at first because it’s so out of context seeing people you know in another city. Plus he was wearing glasses, and every time I normally see him he’s not. So maybe there really IS something to that whole Clark-Kent-wears- glasses-as-a-disguise-so-nobody-knows-he’s-Superman thing! It may actually work! We got into Burbank at 8pm and it couldn’t have been a moment sooner. It was good to be back home! I got back to the house and unpacked, recorded some auditions, did some work around the house and did busy work. But I didn’t get to bed until around 5:30 Tuesday morning, after having dinner and watching “Magnum, p.i.” in bed. So if I got up at 6:30am Central time (which is 4:30am Pacific time) and I got to bed the next day at 5:30am Pacific time, that meant that I had been going for about 25 straight hours (with the exception of a few small catnaps on the plane rides home). Wow! What a trip! I’m going to need a few days to recuperate from this one I’m afraid!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

I try on the fake Miss South Dakota sash at my seamstress Karyn’s studio. It’s perfect! It looks like the real one!