RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

My friend Alex Capriola sent me this pic which she snapped on her i-Phone from last week’s interview with the legendary Bill Cosby at the Playboy Mansion. The other guy in the shot is my good pal and production partner Reed Kaplan. What a GREAT experience!

I was utterly blown away by a musical artist we had on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” this past week. I caught one of the other staff members singing this song immediately after Jessie Baylin had performed it on the show, so I knew I wasn’t the only one who was stricken with this catchy tune. It’s a song that really brings back the sound of songs from the early 70’s. I like it a lot! It’s called“Hurry Hurry!”

Tuesday the 21st – TUESDAY TOURS! – I slept in today, then got up and got ready to go to my usual Tuesday afternoon US Airways session at Voice Trax West. I drove the Gran Torino because it was such a nice day. When the session was over I headed home to pick up a few things, then went to my mailbox to get my mail. I got to NBC and met up with my pal Ruben Procopio, former Disney animator and sculptor, and his dad. Like Ruben, his dad Adolfo was an artist at Disney for many years, particularly in Imagineering. They were there to see Bill O’Reilly who was a guest that day on “The Tonight Show.” The musical guest Rumer was terrific also! Her performance and voice brought back memories of the legendary Mama Cass! When the show was over Ruben drew a few original sketches for some of the “TS” staff. In fact, when he arrived he had done a caricature of Bill O’Reilly. I gave the sketch to the segment producer to give to Bill and he reportedly LOVED it! Then we went over to Bob’s Big Boy for dinner to meet up with my pal Christopher Jones (another great artist) and his girlfriend Hal who were in town from Minneapolis. My friend Alex Capriola joined us, as did my assistant Sara. During dinner I got a call from Jim Ojala my effects guy asking if we were still meeting at 7 to see Robo-Elvis. I didn’t have the meeting written down on my schedule! But since he was there I took my food to go and excused myself from the table. I sped home to meet up with Jim and my seamstress Kathy Pillsbury. The alterations she did for Robo-Elvis were amazing! The jumpsuit now fit perfectly! After they left, my pal David and his son Max (whom I had met two weeks prior at the Starsky & Hutch autograph show) arrived to take a tour of Planet Wallywood. Max is 12 and is a man after my own heart. He likes to dress up like Starsky. I wasn’t much older than him when I donned my Starsky duds back in the 70’s. I had a blue Levis chambray shirt in my collection that was a size medium that I thought he would like. It’s exactly like the shirt Starsky wore in the first season of the show and the pilot episode. He loved it. So we had him put it on along with his sweater and Adidas Starsky shoes and we got some shots of him by my Gran Torino. What a fun evening! Then Chris and Hal came over along with Sara and they took the tour of Planet Wallywood. It was a VERY busy night around the house, but a lot of fun! We chatted for a LONG time, then they had to go back to their hotel because they had an early plane to catch. Later that evening I did work around the house, made some food and watched another episode of “Hawaii Five-O” in bed.

Wednesday the 22nd – ARCHIVAPALOOZA! – I got a hotline call from “TTS” just after noon to record a comedy bit in my home studio and e-mail it in. When I finished with that I tried to get a hotel room for the upcoming Wonder Con in Anaheim. But was proving to be very difficult. Both the Hilton and the Marriott were sold out, so I had to keep looking in the area around the Anaheim Convention Center. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to be stuck with driving back and forth from the convention center each day. I looked outside and my duck friends were in our pool, swimming around like they owned the place. I got showered and headed into NBC. Tim Allen was on the show and he’s always hilarious. But the Rocket City Rednecks were also on, and they did this amazing stunt with propulsion. What fun! Then I headed home to do some work and prepare for my computer guy Sean to come do some work. He added a program that would allow me to encode my DVD home movies into my computer for storage. Now that I’m dubbing all my old VHS tapes to DVD, it’s good to have them double-backed up on an external hard-drive. Then we went over to DuPar’s to grab dinner. I did my auditions later that evening and then watched another “Hawaii Five-O” episode before bed.

Thursday the 23rd – HOPPIN’ HOTLINE! – I got an early call on my hotline to record a bit at home. I finished it, had a bowl of cereal then went back to bed. Soon though, my hotline rang again. There were some revisions on the copy so I did those and sent them in to “TTS.” But I was running out of time to get to NBC in time for the taping, so I had to hurry. I hopped in the Torino and headed over to the studio. It was another fabulous day! Meredith Viera was on the show and she seems to always have a great time. My pal Mike Schrimmer and his family were in town from Chicago and they came to the taping. I took them over to Ernie’s Taco House for a good Mexican dinner. My pal Edi joined us too. When we finished I headed home to do some work and grab a nap. Then I got up to record some auditions and watch another “Hawaii Five-O” episode.

Friday the 24th – HOT HOT HOTLINE! – Just like the day before I got a hotline call to record a bit at home for “TTS.” The comedy factory never stops! Just like Thursday, I had a bowl of cereal then headed back to bed. I got another hotline call for a redo of the bit, then I went back to bed to get a few more hours of rest before work. When I finally awoke it was a beaut of a day! This has been some week weather-wise! I love this L.A. weather! I hopped in the Torino and drove over to check my mail, then drove on to NBC. Jennifer Aniston and Adam Levine were on the show, so it was a VERY busy day with a VERY enthusiastic audience. I personally love when Jay comes out during the intro, shakes hands with the audience, and the intro music ends, but the audience keeps applauding so much that Jay can’t start taking until they quiet down. I know it must drive our producers nuts because it eats up time, but there’s no sound in the world like a very happy audience! Friday at last, I lazily drove home through the Bob’s Big Boy parking lot to see all of the cars that were parked there for hot rod night. The guys there loved seeing my Torino and I would talk to them through my driver’s side window about the car. I stopped by my friend Kristy’s place to see how her cats Evie and Osky were doing, and then I got home to meet with Luis Oliart, an extraordinary musician, about doing the demo for my country song. It looks like it’s going to work out well, as Luis plays all of the instruments I’m going to need for the demo. We just need to find a girl singer who can rock it out like Miranda Lambert, as the song was written with her (or her style and attitude) in mind. My pals Edi and Brittney came over so we could head over to The Counter to grab dinner. Then I got home and grabbed a much-needed nap. Then it was up all night doing work and enjoying “Hawaii Five-O” on DVD from the Season 9 set!

Saturday the 25th – SLEEPY SATURDAY! – Since I was up so late the night before, I obviously slept very late. I had intended to drop by the vet’s office to pick up more cans of catfood for my cat Spooky, but by the time I got there they were closed. RATS! So I headed over to Rusty’s Pets to pick up one can of OTC catfood. My cat will get crystals in his urine if he doesn’t eat a special type of catfood, but two days probably won’t hurt him. I got over to the vitamin store and picked up a few more bottles of my vitamins. Then Sara and I went to the grocery store to get supplies for that evening’s movie night. We grabbed a late lunch at Panera, and then headed home to set up for movie night. We watched “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” on Blu Ray. I have been an “apes” fan since the 70’s and this film was a great prequel. I loved all the inside jokes and story points that filled in some gaps in my understanding of how the whole “apes” canon got started in the first place. Then we watched a TV movie from 1980 on Blu Ray called “Dark Night of the Scarecrow.” I’ve always liked scarecrows since I was a kid and I vaguely remembered this film as being very good. It was a great time and had us guessing until the very end. When everyone left for the evening I continued work encoding my home movies on to my hard drive, and then got ready for another episode of “Hawaii Five-O” Season 9.

Sunday the 26th – GUN FUN! –I slept late (again), that is until my cat Spook woke me up by walking all over me. I gave him a mid-afternoon snack and then did some more work on my home movie archive. It was time to get ready for evening church, so I threw three guns in my range bag and got into my car. I figured I’d hit the gun range after church to do some target shooting. While at church I saw my friend Sarah who had always wanted to go shooting but never was able to pull herself free to do it. Tonight was the perfect opportunity. So, along with my friend Chris and his dad David (who was in town from Detroit visiting Chris) we hit the range. Chris had shot with me before, but neither his dad nor Sarah had shot. So it was fun helping them get acquainted with shooting etiquette. Chris’ dad David had a blast and was shooting very well. In fact, he said I had gotten him addicted and he was going to join a range as soon as he returned to Detroit. The Walther PPK-S I had bought used a few months back still wasn’t shooting very well, even though I had a gunsmith pull the rear sight into line. So it looks like I’m taking it back in for more work. But my .357 Taurus and my .45 Smith & Wesson were shooting VERY well. Sarah had to go get ready for an early morning, but Chris, his dad and I went to Coral Cafe to eat dinner. I called my assistant Sara to come meet us. When we finished I headed home and got a nap, then I got up to do my auditions in my home studio and e-mail them to my agents. What a crazy, amazing week!

And how was YOUR week??!!