This week’s “WWH” feature is more like “What’s Wally Obsessed With?” Earlier in the week a group appeared on the Tonight Show that I have become enamored with. Particularly the lead singer…Nikki! What a woman! She’s got it all…voice, moves…and looks! I remember liking the song and her during the taping, but as the week went on I kept humming that song! It’s got a real 60’s vibe which I love. The reviews of this group have been terrific and I hope they become HUGE! Instead of just an MP3, this week I’m linking to the clip from the Leno show so you can see Nikki in action performing “Cat and Mouse”. I LOVE YOU NIKKI!

Monday the 12th – SUMMER IS HERE! Traditionally there’s always a summer slow-down in the industry, and this week was evidence of that. Aside from my job as the Tonight Show announcer, I didn’t have any other employment responsibilities this week. It happens every year. And when it does I take great delight in it because that means I get to rest, relax and recharge. I biked to NBC in the afternoon, and though it was warming up, was still quite palatable for a bike ride. That night I grabbed a nap and then got up and did auditions to e-mail to my agent.

Tueday the 13th – HEATING UP! – The first big heatwave of the summer was heading in, but wasn’t here yet. Though it was too hot to ride my bike to NBC. On the show that day was a group named Nikki and Rich. I immediately was struck by their groovy 60’s look, and the song they did called ‘Cat and Mouse’ was really a hummer! In fact I couldn’t get it out of my head the entire week! Add to this that the lead singer Nikki was pretty much my ideal woman…and I was becoming a fan! Look for Nikki and Rich on i-Tunes and you won’t be sorry! WOW! She was something! That evening I had dinner with my pal, actress Brittney Powell. That night, I stayed up late and watched old episodes of “Hawaii Five-O” in bed. FUN!

Wednesday the 14th – HOT HOT HOT! The heatwave was here and I was crossing my fingers that my A/C would hold out. It had just been serviced and was doing a pretty good job! I met my old pal Gil Christner for lunch at Hugo’s in Sherman Oaks, then went to an early call at “TTS.” Since it’s so hot, the powers-that-be decided to move the 4pm tapings up to 3:45 so we could get the audience into the cool studio sooner, and they wouldn’t have to stand outside quite as long waiting to get in for the show. Good idea! My mom just had her birthday, and she’s always been a fan of cowboy star Roy Rogers since she was a little girl. The big Roy Rogers museum auction was going on today, and I was determined to bid on a few items for her. A pair of his sunglasses was on her list of things, but the bids went out of control! The estimated price was between $500 and $700, but quickly ended at $2700! I think if I had paid that my mom would have kicked my ass. Crazy! I didn’t know that many people knew who Roy Rogers was any more. But apparently a rich media mogul from the Midwest was driving up all the bids so he could acquire as much of the collection as possible. That evening I went to the meditational service at church and had a nice time.

Thursday the 15th – EVEN HOTTER! – Wow, it was really a scorcher! Glad I didn’t have much running around to do, so I could just stay inside and relax. I had the auction house call me for another item that my mom was interested in, but like the other stuff…it went WAY beyond the estimated price. It got to $3500 and I bowed out. Again, had I paid that much for the item, my mom would have kicked my butt. She said the greatest gift was actually getting to meet Roy Rogers in the early 90’s at the museum when I drove her, my sister and my daughter Lacey and son Zak out to see it. I went to “TTS” and did the taping, That evening my friend Mark Fisher and I met at Voice Trax West to work on a special project for his wedding. Because there’s a chance that somebody he knows may actually read this, I can’t tell you more about the project until after the wedding, but it was an amazing thing that I’m sure will go over BIG at the wedding reception. After the project was completed, I met my friend Edi and her son Josh for dinner at Chin Chin.

Friday the 16th – ARE YOU SURE THIS ISN’T FRIDAY THE 13TH???!!! – This day was turning into bad luck all over the place! The Vista Theater in Hollywood was screening a new print of “House of Dark Shadows” at 12:30 It was hot out to boot! I set out from the valley to Hollywood on the main (ONLY!) sidestreet to Hollywood called Cahuenga Blvd. West. I got to the Barham intersection and found that Cahuenga was COMPLETELY CLOSED! There were police and firetrucks, etc. I could turn around on Barham, then try to get back on the freeway, but the line of cars attempting to do just that was enormous! Strange that there’s only one side street to get to Hollywood from Universal City, but that’s crazy L.A. for you. Realizing that the detour was going to cost me another 20 minutes of travel time, I opted to just go home and go back to bed. Then I got a call from a soda distributor telling me that my favorite soda DIET RITE TANGERINE had been DISCONTINUED! ACK! I loved that stuff! So I instantly went on eBay and bought all I could find! I should be in the test marketing business, because if I like something chances are it’s going to be discontinued! Here’s a short list of things I’ve loved that has been discontinued…
1) The Taco Bell Bellbeefer (a taco burger)
2) Snapple Summer Peach
3) Hostess Little Angels snack cakes
4) Post Fortified Oat Flakes
5) Pillsbury Space Food Sticks
6) Diet Rite Tangerine
7) Doritos Ranchero chips

This sucks! Majorly disappointed. I’m e-mailing Diet Rite to see if it’s true. After “TTS” wrapped I met up with my friend Sara for dinner. When we got home I started getting phone calls from South Dakota. Apparently the interview I did with my old station in Sioux Falls KELO ran that evening on the news. I saw the report on their website and I thought they did a very nice job. Thanks to Kevin and Katie and all the crew there for a really nice piece!

Saturday the 17th – DARK SHADOWS ON A SUNNY DAY! – Since it was about 105 out and sunny, it was a little difficult to get into the spirit of the old “Dark Shadows” gothic soap opera which I loved as a kid. But there was a convention going on at the Burbank Airport Marriott. I was mostly going to meet up with friends, including Don Frid. He’s the nephew of “Dark Shadows” star Jonathan Frid who flew his family in from Canada for the show. They’re also coming to “TTS” next Wednesday. We hung out for awhile, chatted and had a really nice lunch. I went to the dealer’s room and bought a ton of stuff. It was great fun! Then I headed home and it was so hot Sara and I went into the pool for a dip. It felt refreshing. As soon as the heatwave subsides I’m looking forward to getting back on my bike though. I cleaned up and got ready for people to come over for our usual Saturday night movie night. We did an “O’Toole-athon” with two great Peter O’Toole films…”My Favorite Year,” and “The Stunt Man.” What great fun, and what terrific films!

Sunday the 18th – SLEEPY SUMMER SUNDAY! – I slept in quite late but got up in time for evening church. Afterwards I met my friends Fred, Sara and Edi for dinner at Little Toni’s restaurant. Then we went to Chill to get some fro-yo. When I got home, my friends Alex and Monica Zsolt arrived to stay a few days just before they left for The San Diego Comic Con. I did a bunch of auditions I had to do, typed out Wally’s Week, fed Sassie, then went to bed to watch some more “Hawaii Five-O”! The forthcoming week was promising to be majorly busy again, so I’m glad I had this week to kick back and relax somewhat. Though many of my friends will be going, I will be missing the Comic Con for the first time in about 15 years. Because of the scheduled “Tonight Show” tapings, I’m unable to go Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The earliest I could get there would be Saturday, but there’s usually so many people there that it isn’t very fun anyway. AND NOW A FEW WORDS ABOUT MY FEELINGS ON THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON…I feel that the Comic Con isn’t the same as it used to be. Instead of being a mecca for comic fans, it seems that they’ve lost their focus of what Comic Con should be. It now seems like it’s all about “what major stars can we get this year to get us international press coverage?” And that’s just plain wrong. In fact, some of their panel discussions aren’t even comic book related at all. They have panels scheduled for the TV shows “Bones” and “Dexter” HUH? What do those have to do with comic books? If they want to rename the convention The San Diego Media Con, then so be it. Or the San Diego Media Tradeshow. But they’re getting into areas that aren’t serving the average comic fans very well at all. Sure they’re getting record breaking attendance, but the hardcore fans of the convention like myself are becoming just as happy to stay home now, instead of having to fight the throngs of people that are fighting for space and oxygen. And they’ll end up losing their core audience. Many fans I know couldn’t even get decent hotel rooms, because the major corporations who are exhibiting at the convention have them all locked up. Is this right? Is this the proper direction to go? Are they willing to turn Comic Con into a tradeshow focusing on corporations and companies, and leave the fans to fend for themselves for lodging? It would seem that this is now their priority. Well, that’s fine. But as a fan, I don’t feel as welcome at Comic Con as I used to be. Like I said…I think they’ve lost their focus. I fear that the Comic Con will go the way of E3, which got so big and so unfocused that it eventually imploded upon itself. Only recently has E3 returned with a more focused, moderate presentation. I sure hope they change Comic Con back to how it was in the late 90’s…a manageable but fun excursion where everyone was welcome and the emphasis wasn’t on getting international stars, but rather on the fans who have spent their hard-earned money to come enjoy the artform they love…COMIC BOOKS!

And how was YOUR week??!!!