April 4 – April 10 (2016) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

My pal (and fellow “Halloween” fan) Scott Maguire from South Dakota, pointed me to a specific scene in an episode of the original “Star Trek.” Knowing that the mask used in the original “Halloween” movie from 1978 was a retooled rubber William Shatner ‘Captain Kirk’ Halloween mask, he thought this scene was worthy of note. And that it was. In the scene Kirk stands in a doorway motionless, arms at his side, quietly observing the girl in the foreground. This looked very “Halloween-ish” to him. Captain Kirk DOES look like Michael Myers in this shot! Doncha think? Aside from the Starfleet uniforms, it could have been a scene right out of the “Halloween” movie!

Even though it’s been a few weeks since we screened “Xanadu” on Blu Ray at movie night, I STILL can’t get those songs out of my head! So you can share my misery, here is Olivia Newton-John with the Electric Light Orchestra singing the title song (which is actually a pretty great song!)

Monday the 4th – 2 MARVELOUS MOONS! – As I was going to bed early Monday morning there was a gorgeous sunrise occurring in the east. The crescent moon had just risen as well and it hung above the illuminated clouds; which were changing colors by the minute as the sun continued to rise. I snapped a few pictures of it, but it’s difficult to photograph such amazing things. I slept until 3 in the afternoon. My assistant Sara came over to do some work and pick up a check. Then we went to Little Toni’s, a favorite Italian restaurant of ours, and grabbed dinner. There were great 1970’s tunes playing on the overhead music system. I was jamming out to “Alive Again” by Chicago, as it reminds me of the girlfriend I had in my senior year of high school. When I got home I got a text from my pal Marcus Moon in Palm Springs telling me that he had seen the Dell commercial earlier in the day. I got on the computer and tried to find it, with no luck. I texted Sara and wouldn’t you know it, she found it on-line in a matter of minutes. I don’t know how she does that! I sent out a bunch of e-mails about it, a Tweet, and posted the commercial on the Facebook page of my “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toy” webseries. I grabbed a quick nap and then got up to do a bunch of auditions. I also did a narration for a new show at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Since I had taken my 3 foot tall Pinocchio marionette there for repair a few years ago (Pinocchio will be the subject of the second episode of “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys,” coming soon!) the theater has been sending me little voice-over things here and there to record for them. And I’m elated to do it for them. They’re such a legendary organization I’m happy to be tied in with them. And they deal with puppets! What’s not to like? I fed and walked Roxy, sat down and typed out Wally’s Week, and then made some soup and a sandwich and hit the hay to watch more episodes from the “Batman” Season 3 Blu Ray set.

Tuesday the 5th – TERRIFIC TUESDAY! – Roxy decided at 1:30 that I had slept enough, so she woke me up. I took her out to sunbathe for a while, which she enjoys immensely. Hard to believe she’s going to be 7 in another month. (Hard to believe I’m going to be 55 in another month!!) I came back inside to return a bunch of calls and several e-mails. My friend Jasmine came over to discuss a bit I’m having her do in an upcoming “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys” episode, and then I hopped on my bicycle and drove over to Prints Charm’n to pick up the redone versions of my business cards. I changed the artwork and text a little bit from my previous cards, so I really wanted to get these in-hand for distribution. When I got back home I had 2 last-minute auditions to record. I biked over to my church to have a meeting with the head of security. He’s going to “deputize” me so I can help him with security needs when they arise. He gave me all the codes and showed me where everything is located. I made a few suggestions that hopefully will be implemented once he runs them by the powers-that-be. When I came back home I did my auditions, some other work, and then hit the hay so I could be up early for an early morning animation session.

Wednesday the 6th – I LIKE TO RIDE MY BICYCLE…! – At 8 my alarm went off and I was up and at ‘em! I biked to Studiopolis for an animation session at 9. But I had my semi-annual dental check-up at 11:30, so I had it pre-arranged that I would need to leave at 11. But during the session my pal Troy from the “Ellen” show texted and asked if I could record a quick voice-over bit for them. I had intended to ride my bike to the dentist, but if I needed to stop home between the animation session and the dentist appointment, I would most likely have to hop in my car if I was going to make the appointment on time. But by the time I was wrapped at 11, they had canceled the bit (whew!) and I was on my way to the dentist on my bike. The dentist’s office is about halfway between my house and where we used to shoot “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” I knew I used to be able to make that ride in about 15 minutes, so I figured I was doing good on time. I locked up my bike, got my exam (no cavities, yay!) and then biked over to Paty’s to grab a quick lunch on the patio and enjoy the day. I had a rigorous ride home and even though the exercise felt good, when I got home I was beat. In addition to getting up early, the extra-hard bike ride made me a bit tired. So I laid down on the couch for a bit until my friend Secunda Wood came over to say hi. She was in the area doing an audition and I hadn’t seen her in a while. It was nice catching up. I picked up my “adopted grandma” Shirley, and she, Secunda and I went to eat a scrumptious dinner at DuPar’s. When I got home I had gotten a script for “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys” from the producer Kevin Castro. I looked it over, made some notes and e-mail it back over. I grabbed another quick “catnap” and then got up to do my nightly auditions. I got a message from one of my agents that I had another on-camera commercial audition on Thursday. Wow! This was becoming a trend! I made a pizza and watched more third season “Batman” on Blu Ray. Adam West was always funny, but in the third season he unleashes his comedy chops and is literally cracking me up. He’s a genius!

Thursday the 7th – A STREAK!? – Around 10am I was on the road to yet another on-camera commercial audition. Normally I only get one of these a year because of my rather…ahem…specific “look.” But this is the third one in as many months! The first of the three was the Dell ad (which is currently airing on TV), the second one was a commercial that was filming in Capetown, South Africa (when I found that out I took myself out of the running…not able to travel to far places ya know), and this is the third one. Hopefully this one will be filming in the immediate area. The character in the spot was a Voice-Over Artist doing a movie trailer…but you actually saw him doing it while one of the other on-camera characters mouthed the words. Pretty funny. I got to the casting office, did two takes of the audition, and then headed to Arby’s for lunch. I got back home and worked on a bunch of stuff around the house, and by late afternoon I was needing a nap. I sleep 8 hours a day like most people, but my brain won’t let me enjoy the 8 hours in a row. After about 3 or 4 hours I snap awake and have to start moving, because my brain starts buzzing with ideas, thoughts, plans, etc. So I get my 8 hours a day, but in shifts; 3 here, 5 here, 4 here, 2 here…etc. The “nappy” feeling I was getting was exacerbated by the rainy weather that was starting to form outside. It’ll do it every time! I got up later in the evening and did some more work around the house, recorded my auditions, sent out my movie night invites, fed and walked Roxy, and enjoyed the overcast, misty evening. I made some hot beef stew and watched more “Batman” third season episodes in bed. I’m not hating the third season episodes as much as I thought I would, strangely.

Friday the 8th – ROUNDTABLE, RAIN, & DENNYS; AN ALMOST PERFECT DAY! – My maids arrived around 2, got everything cleaned up around the house while I worked on the computer, and all was right with the world. When they left I headed over to my friend Ruben Procopio’s house to pick up a maquette of Jiminy Cricket that we needed to get shots of for our next episode of “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys.” As Kevin was editing the second episode he realized we had missed getting a good shot of it during the initial taping, so he’ll shoot it as a pick-up shot next week and insert it into the episode. Since I was in the area I stopped by Roundtable Pizza to get a pizza to go. I love Roundtable but I never get over that way often enough. As I munched my pizza in my car in their parking lot it started to rain pretty hard. It was cozy in my car, listening to the radio, enjoying my pizza and watching the world go by. Nice! Jasmine came by to further discuss the bit she’ll be doing for an upcoming episode of “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys” and when she left I grabbed a short nap. I got up later and did some work around the house, fed and walked Roxy, and headed over to Denny’s to get some food to go. I did a little more writing on some scripts for “Wacky Wally’s Vintage Toys” and then headed to bed to enjoy my Denny’s meal and watch more third season “Batman” on Blu Ray!

Saturday the 9th – A WHOLE NEW SENSATION! – My pal Brittney Powell came over at 2 to help me do some work. Just as she was leaving Kevin Castro came over to discuss some ideas for the upcoming episodes of “WWVT” we’re going to shoot. Then Boz, the other producer of “WWVT” dropped over, as did my pal Scott Sebring. Scott was going to do camera duties this coming Wednesday for a special celebrity interview that we need to pre-tape for an upcoming episode. The celebrity wasn’t going to be in town when we shot the full episode, so we’re pre-taping her segment only. It should be a great time and very simple! When we finished up I picked up Shirley, and took her, Scott and his wife Vickie over to the Coral Café for dinner. We were all seated in a booth by the front door, so as we sat there eating all the customers walked past us to pay their checks at the front and leave. In several instances I caught people looking at me. Because of my…ahem…”specific” look it’s not unusual for people to stare from time to time, but it was happening so often that I thought my fly was down. But the pants I was wearing didn’t have a fly. One woman walked by, stopped and looked directly at me and smiled. I didn’t know what to say except to smile back and say, “How ya doin’?” Then it hit me. I had a national TV commercial running. And my face is in close-up several times in that commercial. I was being recognized!!! As a Voice Actor that hardly EVER happens! In fact, I can count on one hand how often it’s happened in a non-comic book convention setting in the past year. But I bet that was it. Short of my fly being open, it had to be the Dell commercial. It was something I definitely wasn’t used to, but it wasn’t unpleasant by any stretch of the imagination. I’m waiting for the day when somebody approaches me in public and says, “Hey, are you THAT guy…?” We got home and started movie night. We watched “The Good Dinosaur” on Blu Ray and it was very sweet. Certainly it was gorgeous to look at, and computer generated animation has really come a long way! Leave it to Pixar to make the scenery look so real that you almost think they shot it live-action! I took Shirley home and then went out to get some groceries. I took a quick nap on the couch and then got up to feed and walk Roxy. It was a nice leisurely walk at that. The rain had stopped so everything was wet and smelled good. I casually strolled through the complex as Roxy sniffed around in the grass and plants, and I enjoyed a cigar I had purchased in Palm Springs last month (my “once-a-year” cigar). Then I went inside and made my traditional Saturday night GINORMOUS salad, and watched another episode of the old BBC “Avengers” series.

Sunday the 10th – OK, FUN’S OVER! – Roxy and I got around at 4 and got prepped for evening church. It was a cool, cloudy evening and very pleasant. It was a really great service, and the main song the band performed was nothing short of amazing! (I think it was a tune from “Brother Where Art Thou!”) I walked Shirley home and made sure she got in her apartment alright, and then I went home to do some work. I got a quick nap and then set about doing my auditions in my home studio. Then the work I absolutely dread…reconciling my checkbooks! I had a ton of receipts that needed categorized, logged and filed. And I needed to reconcile both my personal and corporate checkbooks. I remember as a kid seeing my dad sitting at his desk pouring over the family checkbook and paying bills. He almost seemed to enjoy the “zen” of it. But unfortunately I didn’t inherit any of that ability from him. It usually ends up driving me nuts. I made some frozen lasagna (YUM!) and watched more Blu Ray “Batman” before bed. I’m ready to take on a new week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK