April 25 – May 01 (2022) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

My pal Joey asked me this past week about how they did Big Bird on “Sesame Street.” I showed him this original sketch by Jim Henson to explain it.

For a week or so I’ve had the song “Disco Inferno” on my mind. Oddly enough, when my friend Amanda and I were at the Smoke House last Saturday night the band played it! That made me want to hit YouTube and find the long version of the song by the Trammps! Amazing!

Monday the 25th – I SEE, NO BLINDS! – A few weeks ago I ordered new dark wooden blinds for my studio area and my kitchen. These will help to deaden the sound in my recording area, and they look amazing. I was expecting them to come in on Tuesday, but I got a call from the blinds company saying they aren’t in yet, and they’ll be installed on Friday. The timing is unfortunate, because on Tuesday night I need to put everything back in the kitchen for a tour for out-of-town guests on Wednesday. I guess I’ll have to put everything back and then remove it again when the blinds guys come on Friday. I drove to Culver City to begin day #1 of a four hour session for a video game. I left a little early so I could grab lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Culver City called Campo’s. But when I arrived there it was all papered over and the words “LOCATION PERMANENTLY CLOSED” were painted on the windows. RATS! The only location that now exists is in Santa Monica, but I didn’t have time to drive over there. So I hit Burger King and went to Station 22 for my session. In 2019 a group of Voice Actors got together to record the voice tracks for an animated feature film. These tracks would be sent overseas so that Motion Capture actors could mime to our lines and the animators could begin the animation process. When the animation was completed, they would send the movie back to us, and our group of actors would reconvene to re-record the script to the animation. This is a HUGE franchise, and after the movie was going to be released, a video game based on that movie (and continued the storyline) was going to be released. But 2020 happened and everything got put on hold. The movie project is now in limbo, but they want to make the video game anyway. But some of the story elements in the video game won’t make sense, because the movie wasn’t released first. But we’ll see. It’s such an enormous franchise it probably won’t matter much. But I’d still like to do that feature film! I’ll be playing the main villain in the story, but the accent has changed from the original 2019 specs. Instead of an Eastern European accent, they wanted to go with British. I pitched them on what I call “Evil Roger Moore.” It worked out perfectly, and there are even story elements similar to how Roger Moore used to speak to the camera at the beginning of every episode of “The Saint.” Plus, each character in the game has their own code number for easy reference for line location. Guess what my character’s code number was? Right! 007! Amazing! Nice to know I can officially rationalize my purchase of “The Saint” DVD boxed set for job research! I did the four hour session and then drove home. I’ll return on Tuesday to complete the game. I’ll return in a few months for additional material. Fun! This character is great and hardly ever raises his voice. VERY understated! I did some work around the house, took a short nap, paid some bills, did some auditions, and finished writing Wally’s Week. I made some hot dogs and hit the hay.

Tuesday the 26th – YUMMMMM! – Since I was going to be on L.A.’s Westside I figured I’d leave a little bit early and hit Campo’s in Santa Monica for lunch. It was amazing as always! I talked to the owner’s son who was there and he said they had to close the Culver City location because it was being overrun with undesirables. I sat in my car, listened to the radio and enjoyed the rare, yummy treat! I drove to Station 22 in Culver City and did a 3 hour session to finish this round of voice sessions. I drove back to my area, hit the post office, and went home to feed the kids. I drove over to have dinner at Bob’s Big Boy with a friend, and then came home to do my nightly auditions. I cleaned up Planet Wallywood for my out-of-town guests who would be arriving the next day.

Wednesday the 27th – TERRIFIC TOUR GUIDE! – My effects guy Jim Ojala came over at noon to pick up an old mold I’ve had around of a prosthetic piece I may be using for a gig soon. He’s going to work with it a bit and run a piece in foam latex to see how it will work after 20+ years. Then my ol’ pal Janet came over with her daughter Jaden and Jaden’s friend Terra. They were in town from Massachusetts to visit Jaden’s father. We drove to Icons of Darkness in Hollywood and my buddy Pat Evans gave us an amazing tour. They ladies LOVED it! Then we ate lunch at Johnny Rockets and we were approached by a photographer at the restaurant named Sophia for a photo. I bought all the photos she printed for us, and we found out she was Ukrainian. In fact, she left the Ukraine to come to the U.S. literally three days before fighting broke out! Lucky! I took them to the Funko store and we got custom Funko Pops of ourselves, and bought a few more items. What a store! What a great time! Then we went back to Planet Wallywood for a tour and we had a lot of fun goofing around with the Muppets and shooting videos. I even had them all punch out glow stars and add them to my sky scene in the kitchen. Lots of friends of mine have punched out stars from glow paper and added them to the skyscape. It’s a community effort! I grabbed a short nap, then got up to do my nightly auditions, worked around the house, prepped a script for a session on Thursday, made a Tombstone pizza and watched another episode of “Ghost Story” before bed.

Thursday the 28th – A CRUNCH OF CRUNCH PUPPETS! – Even though I was super tired, I joined my pal Tuesday Knight for lunch at Ernie’s Taco House. I got home to pick a few things up, and then went to a local bank to get change for the signing I’d be doing on Saturday. I stopped by Pro 8 in Burbank to drop off a flash drive so they could copy over the scan of my old Super 8 movies I dropped off. And then I went to Formosa studios to do a one hour session for a video game. After the session I picked up my packages at my box. The rare Muppet poster I bought on eBay as an early birthday gift to myself arrived and it’s gorgeous. I also got in the 6 Cap’n Crunch puppets from the 60’s I also bought on eBay. I dropped off some stuff at the cleaners, picked up some groceries, and then went home and napped a bit. Later I opened up the puppets and the poster and they’re gorgeous! Three of the puppets were slightly damaged, but the same character puppets were available from another seller on eBay and they were in mint condition! So I bought those as replacements to have a perfect set!

Friday the 29th – THE BLINDS I SEE! – The new blinds I ordered a few weeks ago arrived and the guys installed them perfectly. I had to move some stuff around because their dimensions were a bit bigger than the old blinds, but it all worked out. I moved some figures, some masks and framed pictures around. I replaced the mannequins and signage in the kitchen and everything looks amazing! I LOVE these new blinds! They’re dark and they really help control the lighting in the house. Roxy’s groomer arrived and I took her out to the truck to get bathed. My maids arrived and cleaned Planet Wallywood. It all worked out perfectly! When everyone left I drove to Michael’s with my Muppet poster to get it framed with UV-resistant glass. I don’t want it to fade! I got a bunch of paint pens for the Renji Funko Pop signing in Alhambra on Saturday. I went to CVS to get some photos printed. I got home and did some work around the house, and my friend Amanda came by so we could grab dinner at Coral Café. What a day!

Saturday the 30th – TOYZILLA! – My pal Michelle dropped by to pick me up for the signing, as she was going to be assisting that afternoon. We got to Toyzilla in Alhambra and got set up. It was a gorgeous day! I met a ton of fun people and it was good to be out greeting fans again. I signed Renji Funko Pops almost exclusively, but I also signed some photos, and covers for games and DVD covers. I got back home and napped a bit. The past 8 weeks have been super busy with almost non-stop work, but the signing would be my last professional commitment for a while, so I could relax. My friend Amanda and I enjoyed an amazing dinner at the Smoke House that night. With my birthday coming up I was looking forward to getting out of town for a while and relaxing!

Sunday the 1st – SMOOTH SAILING SUNDAY! – As is usual for me on a Sunday, I relaxed all day. I took care of some stuff that I had neglected over the past several weeks. Roxy’s in pretty good health and I’m very happy. Spook has been a bit under the weather for the past day, but he’s eating again. Later at night I went to Denny’s to get my usual order and I came home to do tons of work around the house and then watch another episode of “Ghost Story” before bed.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

The Cap’n Crunch puppets arrived and they’re amazing! These really take me back. Though back in the day I ate a lot of Cap’n Crunch but I never was able to collect the complete set.

My pal Janet and I at Johnny Rockets for lunch…

…and the whole gang, including her daughter Jaden (in the back) and Jaden’s friend Terra.

My pal Amanda and I at The Smoke House. Isn’t it great that these cool restaurants have photographers on staff to snap photos?

I couldn’t resist stopping by a movie theatre and enjoying some official movie-theatre popcorn!

Sad news this past week, as we found out my favorite DC Comics Neal Adams passed away. It was an honor meeting him and getting him to do a sketch for me!