Monday the 4th – TCB! – It was another “takin’ care of business” kind of Monday. Lots of phone calls to make, and errands to run. I had to go to the local tailor’s to have a zipper repaired in a dress. I had bought one of the dresses from “Deal or No Deal” for my friend Andrea for our upcoming Vegas trip, and some friends the past weekend noticed that the zipper was stuck. So I needed to have a quickie zipper installation done since our trip was coming up this Friday! That night I joined my good friend Nancy Wolfson at Ruth’s Criss Steakhouse for our traditional birthday dinner get-together. We talked for over 3 hours, since it has been about a half year since we had caught up! It’s always a pleasure hanging with Nancy! One of the servers there named Amy, is on my Wally’s Dollies page. She told me the most amazing story. When she was very young she had a baby and gave her up for adoption in Alaska. Recently the baby (now an adult) wanted to find her birth mother and obtained her name through the local adoption agency. But when she went on Google to find her, all that came up was her page on Wally’s Dollies! I remember passing along the information to her, and they got together and had an amazing time! It really made my night to hear that story!
Tuesday the 5th – TCB PART 2 – More phone calls and more errands. One of the things I needed to do was to go to Best Buy and pick up “Grease” on Blu Ray, as it was released today. That night I got together with my friend Ginny after her class and had some dinner. She watched me do my voice-over auditions in my house, then I sent them to my agent. Since it was my birthday eve, I decided to start my birthday with the traditional exercise regimen. Luckily Ginny had her workout clothes with her, so we got dressed and walked/jogged about 3 miles! All at 2am! What fun!
Wednesday the 6th – BIRTHDAY BUSINESS – I met with my buddy Greg Glass from BCII TV for lunch. He had a project he needed some voice-over for, so we talked it over at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Studio City. Afterwards my buddy Dan Roebuck came by Planet Wallywood. I took great pleasure in showing him Blu Ray. We watched the uncut version of “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” and he went nuts! The detail is amazing, plus he was seeing stuff he had never seen in the theatrical release. Then we watched a little of his film “The Night Shift” where he played Jay Leno. It was fun watching Dan watch himself as Jay Leno. But I was running behind. So I headed over to Studiopolis Burbank to do a few hours as Renji for another “Bleach” episode. My friend Ginny joined me there eventually and brought a birthday cake. So we took a break from recording and enjoyed some delicious cake!
After the session Ginny and I went to the Hometown Buffet for dinner. When I went back for seconds, I grabbed a new plate. Apparently they had just come out of the dishwasher because “CRASH!” it slipped right out of my hand and onto the floor in a million pieces. I felt embarrassed but what could you do? That night I got prepared for the next day which would be really busy!
Thursday the 7th – BUSY BUSY BUSY! – I got up early and headed down to El Segundo to do some more voicework on a hand-held game that’s coming out later this year. I’ll be doing most all the voices in it, asking various trivia questions. More info as it develops. But it’s a lot of fun and the game should be amazing! On the way home, I stopped at Laser Blazer to check on DVDs, I also went to It’s a Wrap and found a few new dresses from ‘Deal or No Deal’ that Andrea may want to wear in Vegas that weekend. I also bought a cool pair of jeans and a suede leather shirt…black with brown stitching. Then I finally got home and met up with Scott Sebring, my pal and webmaster. We’re completely re-doing the “Planet Wallywood” page on my website with new, updated photos. So he spent the day shooting pics of the collection, while I mended my leather pants for my upcoming Vegas trip. Later that night I was joined by my friend Sara, and Scott picked up his wife Vickie from the train station. We all had dinner at a local Italian place, and then met up with my friend Kristy, Andy and Chuck McCann at DuPar’s for pie. But I had LOTS of packing to do, so it was going to be a very long night! I got home and set about packing, but I still had a bunch of auditions to do too! Including a piece for Greg at BCII TV! Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep that night!
Friday the 8th – MY SISTER BONNIE’S BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BONNIE! – I got up early and got my things together as I was flying to Vegas at 11:30 for my birthday weekend celebration. I had 6 other friends joining me and we were going to see Tom Jones perform at the MGM Grand. When I woke up, I clicked the button on my i-Pod alarm to shut off the alarm and the button fell right through the unit! So, I disconnected it and threw it away. It was now no good. I looked at my phone and Greg was calling about the voice tracks. He hadn’t gotten them from the previous night. So I did a quick resend from a different account that could handle the sizeable files. But that’s not all. Apparently there were some copy changes that I needed to do before I hit the airport! As the time ticked by, I laid down the new tracks and sent them to him. I was cutting it close. But it all got delivered alright, and I was on my way to the airport. In line, I saw Famke Jannssen, who played Jean Grey in the X-Men films. She had her cute little doggie with her. As I was waiting for my flight, the music that was playing overhead in the terminal was Hurricane Smith’s “Oh Babe, What Would You Say”, one of my favorite songs of all-time. I knew then it was going to be a magical trip! The flight was COMPLETELY full, and again I said to myself, “Some recession we’re having!” There wasn’t room to move anywhere! Because it was Southwest, you have to take first-come-first-serve seating, and the only thing left for me was a window seat. I don’t ever take window seats because for a guy my size it’s a bit cramped. But I had no choice. But it would be a short tip, and I marveled at the scenery as we flew over the desert. All the while I was cranking Tom Jones tunes on my i-Pod. It was great. I got to Vegas, got my bag, and waited for Andrea’s flight to come in. Her’s was supposed to be in about 15 minutes after mine arrived but it was running late. We finally found each other and hopped the shuttle to the hotel. As we walked into the hotel, the music on the speakers was playing “Livin’ On a Prayer” by Bon Jovi! Again, it was an omen that this would be an amazing trip! We checked in, got our room early and met up with Joe and Zandra for lunch. We went over to Hooters for burgers, wings and cheese sticks. Then we walked around the MGM Grand and saw the Lion Habitat, which mesmerized me. These cats are amazing creatures and I couldn’t get enough. But it was time to grab a quick nap before dinner. When we woke up, we went for a walk on the Vegas strip and visited the M&M store and the wonderful Coke store. That evening we tried to have dinner at the Grand buffet, but it closes early! I thought nothing ever closed in Vegas! UGH! Oh well, tomorrow we’ll get our Vegas buffet. So, we had dinner in the Studio Cafe and met up with Gil and Sira Christner, and my pal Jason Marsden. It was a great time. But the smoke in the casinos had already started to affect me, and since Zandra had been there a full day ahead, it was already affecting her quite badly! That’s the bad thing about Vegas, is all the damn cigarette smoke. UGH!
Saturday the 9th – SIR TOM JONES! – Well, the smoke had put Zandra down for the count. Joe, Zandra and Andrea had planned on going to the Liberace museum, but Zandra decided to take a nap so she’s be fresh for the Tom Jones show. She wasn’t feeling very well. So Andrea and I walked down by the pool area. MGM has three pools, and every one of them was packed with people spending tons of money! Some recession we’re havin’, eh? Apparently there was a Dave Matthews Band concert that same night, so a lot of college kids were there for that. But the sun was intense and I wanted to go back inside. I was supposed to meet up with my cousins Jean and Carla, relatives I hadn’t seen in about 33 years. But I knew they lived in Vegas, and we had been in touch on e-mail, so I wanted to say hi. We were supposed to meet by the buffet in the MGM Grand for lunch, but by the time we got there, it had CLOSED! Again it was closed? We were having horrible buffet luck. The buffet gods were not smiling upon us! But there were some people standing in front the buffet area looking like they were waiting for someone. A middle aged gal along with an older lady, a young guy and an older guy. I figured that must be my group, so I went up and said, “Carla?” The middle-aged gal said yeah! I said, “It’s Wally!” They looked at me strangely and said “Oh hi!” I introduced Joe and Andrea to them and we started talking but something seemed odd. We talked for a little bit how it had been years since I saw them, and the older guy asked how we arranged this meeting. I thought that was odd, since Carla would have obviously told her group that we had been talking on the e-mail. Then I suggested going to the Rainforest Cafe since the buffet was closed. The older lady said, ‘Yeah, we’ve been there before.” Again, an odd comment. Finally, the admitted that they weren’t my relatives and were just going along with it to see how it would play out. I had been PUNK’D! It was hilarious! We shook hands, laughed, they told me their real names and went along their way. We were still laughing when they left. Soon after, the real relatives showed up and we had a nice lunch, catching up on the 33 years since I had seen them. My family visited California back in 1976, and we visited them here in Simi Valley. But they moved to Vegas in the 80’s. After lunch, it was more Lion Habitat for me, and then back to the room to rest up for the Tom Jones concert! While I slept, Andrea and Joe gambled a little on the quarter slots. We got freshened up and ready for the concert. We all met outside the theatre and then went in. Joe, Zandra, Andrea and I were at one table, and Gil and his wife were at the table next to us. Jason got one ticket further up front than us, and we were in the third row. We had GREAT seats! The concert started right on time and was really amazing. (One thing about shows in Vegas, they start on time and end on time, so they can get the audience back out on the floor gambling. No long delays!) Tom is a fantastic performer and I’m glad I was there. He sang all the great hits, along with some new stuff, as well as some blues. He sang two of my favorites… “She’s a Lady”, as well as “(It Looks Like) I’m Never Gonna Fall In Love Again”, a song I consider particularly relevant to my life, one of my “themes”. His hair is now all silver, and he has a silver goatee, and he looks and sounds amazing. We all had the best time. When he started singing “What’s New Pussycat” Zandra took 4 pair of panties she had just bought and started hurling them on the stage. Then the floodgates were open. Many more women started hurling panties on stage. One of Zandra’s throws fell short, and hit the table of one of the women in the first row. The lady looked down, saw they were panties and started laughing hysterically! She daintily picked them up and put them on the stage. Even a guy threw a real pair of guy’s briefs on stage. When Tom saw that he was right in the middle of “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and he started laughing so hard it was difficult for him to continue singing. What a great time! The show was fantastic, and I could definitely see going back to catch another concert of his soon. He’s an amazing technician, and some of his new songs are really stellar! After the show we saw Jason talking to one of the girls who was sitting by him. We weren’t close enough to hear what they were talking about, but the look on the girl’s face told us that she had recognized Jason from his many roles on TV. We were laughing and giving him a hard time. Then, we got dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s and continued talking about the show. But Andrea had to catch her shuttle to the airport at 3am, so we got back to the room and got her packed up and ready to go.
Sunday the 10th – BYE VEGAS! – I got up to walk Andrea down to the shuttle waiting area at 3am, and the hotel was still swarming with partiers, with their drinks and smokes. It was still really warm outside. She got on the shuttle and I headed back to bed. But the folks in the next room were still hard at it in their room, partying it up. So getting back to sleep wasn’t very easy at first. Soon though, they settled down. I got up at 10 to check out, and tried to check out on the TV system, but the screen was frozen. I called the front desk and checked out that way. The bellman was on his way to get my bags when I decided that I didn’t want to wait around the stupid shuttle. Instead I would take a cab. The bellman told me that he could cut me to the head of the cab waiting line so it wouldn’t take much time at all. My cab driver Tim said he had just driven one of the members of the Dave Matthews Band to the airport that morning. Apparently, after the concert at the MGM, they went to the Palms and played some more into the wee hours! WOW! I checked my bag with the Skycap, got my pass and headed through security. Luckily, it was a lull between rushes. The morning exodus had just ended, and the afternoon exodus hadn’t started yet. So I breezed through security with no problems. However, I was now two hours early for my flight! I check into see if I could squeeze in on an earlier flight, but the earlier flight was completely PACKED! Some recession we’re havin’, eh? So I sat with my i-Pod, ate my Wendy’s sandwich and just people watched. As we got near to boarding, my old pal Dee Bradley Baker and his wife came up. Dee and I started at Universal Studios together back in the mid 90’s as Beetlejuices in the Graveyard Revue. Then we both ended up in voice-over. So we had a great time chatting the time away. He had just seen “Jersey Boys” and raved about it. I looked at my boarding card and I was in the B group, position 26! If you remember from past trips, it’s always a recurring number for me. 13 is my lucky number, and 26 is twice as lucky! (Maybe I should have played those numbers at roulette!) So I knew it was a great end to a wonderful trip. Heck, I even got to sit in row 13 on the plane! The trip back was pleasant and quick, and it was good to be home. But the scratchiness in my throat from all the smoke had me concerned. Then I started feeling a familiar feeling in my nose. It almost started to feel like I was coming down with something. So after kissing Sass and Spook hello, I took some medicine and laid down to nap. That night I got up, unpacked and did some auditions. It was a great trip, but it was good to be home!
See my Vegas pictures here on my Viva Las Vegas page!
And how was YOUR week??!!
