Monday the 24th – SUMMER SLOWDOWN! – The traditional summer slowdown is in full swing. The previous busy week has made me thankful for some rest and relaxation this week. Today I slept really late, did some auditions in my home studio to e-mail to my agent and then my friend Sara came over to hang out in Planet Wallywood and watch “Viva Las Vegas” on Blu Ray. We were running late the night before and only watched the first half. But watching Ann-Margret and old Vegas in hi def is definitely worth the price of the machine and the disc! WOW!
Tuesday the 25th – SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND! – Today was the day my 10 day waiting period was up and I could go pick up the latest member of my firearm family. I bought a .38 special revolver at Gun World 10 days ago, and I couldn’t wait to go get it. It’s a lovely piece of craftsmanship. But the weirdest thing happened when I got to Gun World. A silver haired gentleman was seated at the counter as I went in to pay my balance. I was showing him the new gun and we were talking about target ranges and target shooting. The guy from Gun World who waited on me said he saw my name on “Family Guy” the previous night. The silver-haired guy asked how long I had been working on the show and I told him since the beginning. He asked if I knew Ken Dennis. I laughed and said, “Know him?! He’s my production partner!” He laughed and said, ‘Well he’s my BROTHER!” Of all the wild things to happen! So we got Ken on the phone and had a good laugh about it. It really is a VERY small world! Then I stopped at my mailbox and picked up a box of DVDs…my “Midnight Special” DVDs arrived! I couldn’t wait. With great performances from all those great musical acts of the 70’s. Then I stopped by UPS to ship off a big thank you gift for Jim Davis, creator of Garfield. But the heatwave in L.A. had started so I went home to enjoy the cool indoors. That night I did some auditions in my home studio and relaxed.
Wednesday the 26th – JAAAAAY LENO! – Shortly after noon, I was on Stage 11 on the NBC lot in Burbank. I recognized it right away as the stage they used to use for “Saved By the Belll; The New Class.” I remembered it from when I was there back in 1997 doing the episode I did. I was there to audition for the announcer for the new Jay Leno Show. It was exciting, but I knew it was a long shot. :Particularly when they told me what they wanted, and I knew that I hadn’t done that style on my original audition. But, I was there to make it a learning experience and meet the crew. I got a chance to talk with Kevin Eubanks, leader of Jay’s band. I used to play Kevin’s jazz CDs on my radio show at the Wave when I was working in radio, so we had a good laugh or two about that. I was auditioning with the great Kevin Michael Richardson, who’s got to be one of the greatest guys in the entire business. I was wondering how Kevin would fit a gig like that into his busy schedule, since he’s literally working all the time. I did my audition, thanked the producer, director and crew and went out into the 100 degree day. I got to L.A. Studios shortly after 2 to do my gig for Ameren, a power company in the Midwest. It went very well, and then I went to run some errands. I had to have some alterations made on my Lon Chaney “Man In the Beaver Hat” cloak and cape, so I went by my tailor’s to do that. Then I spoke with a printer about a project I’m considering, and then I took some old Super 8 films into a camera store to get them dubbed to DVD. But it was hot and I was headed home. The heat really zaps my energy! Later that night my friend Sara came by to watch the movie “Fanboys” on DVD at my house. It’s hilarious!
Thursday the 27th – HOT ENOUGH FOR YA?! – Another scorcher in L.A. – temps aren’t expected to go down until Monday! EEK! So I stayed in most of the day and thanked God for air conditioning. I did some more auditions in my home studio to e-mail to my agents, and that night Sara and I went to dinner at Little Toni’s for spaghetti. We were joined by Chuck McCann later at DuPar’s for a slice of pie. What fun! Nice, cool peach pie with vanilla ice cream on a hot summer night.
Friday the 28th – OH SHOOT! – My friend Ginny came over shortly after noon and we drove to the Firing Line in Burbank to try out “Stubby,” my new .38 special revolver. My friend Emily Danyel met us there as well and I helped them target shoot. Em had experience with handguns before, but Ginny had never fired one before. The shock of firing a gun was so intense for her, that at first, each time she would fire a shot, she would pull her left hand away from the gun and flap it in the air in excitement. It was very cute! By the end of the hour both Emily and Ginny were shooting very well. Then we went to lunch at Olive Garden and tried to escape the heat. I got home and started in on a new project for Planet Wallywood. I’m keeping it a relative secret for now, but you’ll see pics soon. I got a call from my agent that I didn’t book the Jay Leno Show gig, which is fine. I mainly wanted to get into the studio and audition in front of the producer, director and crew so they may keep me in mind for incidental skits on the show. Like I mentioned before, the steady gig of a show like that is good, but it’s very time consuming, and I wouldn’t have the freedom to do other things that I love. All in the plan. But I sure enjoyed meeting the gang and I wish them the best of luck with the new show! That evening Scott and Vickie Sebring came over for awhile to chill. Then I went to Jerry’s Famous Deli to meet up with a gal I had met on-line. Her name is Michelle and our e-mail correspondence was going very well. She was into the 80’s, make-up, etc. so already we had a lot in common. I pulled into the lot and saw her there. We got seated and ended up eating and talking for about two hours. Then, a buff young guy walked past the table, looked at me and put out his hand for me to shake it. I grabbed it heartily (always up for meeting new people) and said, “Hi, I’m Wally.” He said, “My name is Chad and I just got back from Iraq.” By the tattoos on his arms I could tell he was U.S. Military, so I said, “Sit down! I’m buyin’ you a drink!” Well, one drink turned into several as he told Michelle and I stories about his four tours of duty in Iraq and his one in Afghanistan. I asked lots of questions and he told lots of stories. Soon we were joined by his girlfriend Martha and her brother Gerardo (who was a medic in the Army Reserves) and we all had a great time together laughing and talking. Come to find out Gerardo works at the Playboy Mansion when he’s not called up for duty and he knew Chuck McCann very well. Knowing that Chuck likes to meet America’s fighting forces as much as I do, I got him on the phone and told him to come right over. Chuck recognized Gerardo, and talked to Chad some more about his stories from the battlefield. Chad said that he was involved in the bombing in Doha, but escaped unscathed. He said he just was in the right place at the right time, because guys in front of him and behind him died in the suicide bombing. Lucky huh! Chuck had told Michelle about my place so I came back to Planet Wallywood to give her the tour. What a fascinating, strange and wonderful night!
Saturday the 29th – HOT AS HELL! – Ginny came by the house around 1 so we could drive over to Studiopolis and work on her Anime video demo. We’re going to have her learn how to dub anime, something she’s always wanted to do. So engineer Eric and I coached her through several scenes. She learned fast! So fast in fact, that even engineer Eric was impressed. We spent a couple of hours dubbing scenes, then we wrapped for the day. It’s a lot of info to soak in, in one day. And I didn’t want to overwhelm Ginny. It’s best that she learn a foundation of stuff, then let her mind process the info for awhile before we try again. But she did very well. That evening I cleaned up the place and got ready for Blu Saturday…where we run a Blu Ray movie each Saturday night. Tonight we ran “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.” It’s a great film, and looked wonderful on Blu Ray. But the group was most impressed by my 9 DVDs of ‘The Midnight Special,” the old rock and roll show on NBC from the 70’s. So when the film was done we ran clips from that and had a great time watching some of the old classic acts. In fact, we didn’t finish until 2am! What fun!
Sunday the 30th – HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN! – It’s my godson Sean’s birthday today. I had sent him an early birthday gift shortly after Comic Con. I got him a cool Naruto backpack and had it signed by Maile Flanagan, the voice of Naruto. I couldn’t bear to hold on to it for a month, I was excited for Sean to have it. So he got it early. I called Sean when I got up in the afternoon but all I got was voicemail. Then my pal Jim Ojala came over to brief me on a few things I needed to know about the new secret display I’m doing in Planet Wallywood. I was on elder duty for the 4pm Spanish service, so I got dressed and headed over. Then I stayed for the evening service as well. After church, Sara and I went over to a new restaurant called The Counter. It serves custom-made burgers in all sorts of ways. As we were waiting to be seated, actress Mena Suvari was just finishing up eating on the patio with a friend. Then I heard somebody say, “Wally Wingert.” I turned around and saw Ron Rappaport, co-creator of the new show on Disney XD called “I’m In the Band.” I had just worked on the show a few weeks back and Ron thanked me again for working on the show. We had some laughs, and he told me that something I said in character was now being said by a lot of the staff people. I guess it was a certain way I said “uh huh” in the character’s voice that caught everyone’s ear. So now the whole “I’m In the Band” office is saying it like that. I was flattered! I offered to buy Ron and his friend dinner, but they were just heading out to go back to the production office to write another script for the show. He said launching a new show is a LOT of work. I’ll bet. Sara and I had a great dinner, bought some groceries, then headed back. I loaded in the groceries and put them away, and then started in on my auditions that my agent would be expecting via e-mail the next morning.
And how was YOUR week??!!!
