Tuesday the 10th – BACK TO BIZ! – After the bout of dental pain I had been dealing with was now apparently over, the only thing I was dealing with was this crack on my lip that was having difficulty healing. After all, when your mouth is pried open for an hour and a half, your lips tend to stress. So the first session of the week was for a videogame. I can’t tell you who or what…I’m sworn to secrecy since it hasn’t been announced yet. But a character I did in a previous videogame is coming back in a new game. It was good revisiting the old boy, as well as doing three new characters for the game as well. I’ll give you more details as its announced, but it may not be for a few months yet. After leaving Margarita Mix in Hollywood, I grabbed some lunch at Burger King (LOVE those Italian chicken sandwiches!) and went to Voice Trax West to cut a new spot for “American Stars In Concert.” It’s a DVD featuring some of the former “American Idol” contestants. Then I sped over to Technicolor to do some tracks for the next “Ratchet and Clank” game. I’m not sure of the title, but it’ll be the next chapter in the popular “R&C” franchise. I got to do two voices…one of an alien life form with a vocal tick, and the other is a gurgly robot. I do this voice that sounds like I’m talking underwater, and the producers liked the gurgle aspect of that voice, and allowed me to use it for the robot. Should be fun! And it’s always a fun time working with T.J. and the “R&C” crew. After that I got to my vet’s to buy Sassie some more food and I headed home to relax. That night I enjoyed dinner at Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake with Chuck McCann and the rest of the Tuesday night crew.
Wednesday the 11th – NEW COSTUMES! – My seamstress Kathy came by to deliver my two new “Star Trek” shirts I was having her make. They’re made from the original fabric of the third season shirts, and dyed to match the original fabric swatches. These shirts are about as “screen accurate” as you can get. And they look amazing. I already have a Captain Kirk shirt (which you see in the animation on my homepage) but now I also have a replica Spock and Scotty that fit me to a tee. I plan on wearing them at the upcoming Wonder Con in San Francisco at the end of the month. After receiving the delivery, I went to Voicecasters in Burbank to read for a commercial, and then went to Studiopolis Burbank to do another promo for the “Naruto” DVD. Then it was off to the bank to deposit some money, off to get some gas in the car, and over to the shooting range called “Firing Line” in Burbank to get a yearly membership. I’m also a member at “Target Range” in Van Nuys, but since I spend so much time in Burbank doing auditions and sessions, it makes far more sense for me to belong to the one in Burbank. I went over to Best Buy in Burbank and picked up some new DVDs, then got some lunch. I stopped by It’s a Wrap and picked up a pair of black leather pants previously from the Warner Brothers wardrobe department and headed home. I got a quick nap, and then went to evening church.
Thursday the 12th – DREAM DAY! – First I went to Carroll Casting to audition for a Kellogg’s commercial, then I stopped by Fed Ex to mail off a package. I got home and walked Sassie, then got back in the car and went to Voicecasters to audition for a Volkswagen commercial. As I walked in, my old pal Billy West was there waiting to audition as well. He’s a great guy and we enjoyed catching up. But just walking out of the booth was Deidrich Bader. I told him how much I enjoyed his work as the new voice of Batman and he said it was a dream job. He said his kid especially enjoyed it. He’s also a terrific guy. When he came out of the booth he smiled big and shook my hand, and though I reminded him I did the voice of the parrot on “The Drew Carey Show” it was almost like he remembered me before I mentioned it. I forgot to mention to him that I just picked up the Blu Ray version of “Napoleon Dynamite”, a film in which he did a wonderful job as the karate instructor. After that I went to Round Table to enjoy a delicious buffet lunch, and then over to Studiopolis Burbank to do another episode of “The Avengers.” Lance Henricksen was in again doing the voice of Grim Reaper! It was great being with the entire cast again. The past few weeks I was off, because Ant Man wasn’t in the script. But he was back this week, and he had a LOT to say! Between turning into Giant Man from Ant Man, I was also busy doing the voice of Modok. He’s a horrible floating head-in-a-jar type of monstrosity with little baby arms and legs. It was fun crafting the voice with director Jamie Simone and Josh from Marvel. But when I left I was totally exhausted.
Friday the 13th – OOOOO! FRIDAY THE 13th! – This Friday the 13th was a great one (they usually are since my lucky number has always been 13). It started with another “Gormiti” session at Studiopolis Burbank, and then I drove over to Firing Line in Burbank to do some shooting. I checked in, got my “eyes and ears” (protective eye glasses and headphones for your ears to muffle the gunshots), bought my ammo, and hit lane 7. I loaded up my two Walther PPK clips and mounted my target. I ended up shooting about 100 rounds through each gun. I like to go from right hand to left, try different targeting protocols, and aim at different areas of the target. I seem to be more accurate when shooting at the head of the silhouette on the target, rather than the chest. I have to work on getting better at shooting lower on the target. I’m thinking that because I’m tall, I’m more eye-to-eye with the head on the silhouette. When I aim lower on the target, I’m not as accurate. So I have to work on that. But that’s what target shooting is all about. After I finished I stopped by Denny’s to get some lunch to go (my standard fried chicken strip salad and buffalo chicken strips with ranch dressing). It was raining, so I wanted to get home, put on my pajamas, and enjoy my lunch in bed while watching “Mannix” on DVD. But first I met up with Electric Bob, my electrician. A transformer that feeds one of my track lighting systems had gone out. He came by to look it over and saw that some leads needed to be resoldered inside the transformer. That would explain why, when I would jump up and down on a certain area of the floor, the track lighting would flicker on and off. Apparently the vibration on the floor caused the shorting wires in the transformer to wiggle. It all made sense now. So Bob took the transformer and off he went. And off I went with my delicious lunch to bed to watch “Mannix” and catch a few Z’s. Later that evening I got up and met my pal Carmine Appice, world famous rock drummer, at the Hollywood Collector’s Show in Burbank and helped him set up his table and price his merchandise. Then I got home, made some food and relaxed.
Saturday the 14th – HAPPY V.D. EVERYONE! – It was Valentine’s Day! I picked up my friend Sara and went to the Hollywood Collector’s Show. She was excited because it was the first time she would be meeting Carrie Fisher, who was signing there. Sara’s a big “Star Wars” fan, so I bought her a couple of Princess Leia figures for last Christmas, with the promise that we’d have Carrie sign them at the show. When we first got there I headed straight for Yaphet Kotto, from “Alien” and “Live and Let Die.” “LALD” was the first James Bond film I had ever seen in a theatre, so it made an impact on me. I have a one sheet signed by two of the other cast members, and I needed Yaphet to sign it. He’s a lot bigger in person than I thought he’d be! A very nice guy. I spent quite a bit of money with him as I had him sign a lot of my “LALD” stuff. Then we got Sara in line for Carrie, while I ran around and did some other things. Lisa Marie signed my Ed Wood DVD. She waved at me when I came in, and I thought that was strange, since I had never met her before. But come to find out she recognized me from a film called “Super Fan” made by our mutual friend Deverill Weekes. She was very nice and I enjoyed chatting with her. My pal Seka was there, so I caught up with her. Chuck McCann showed up as well, as did my buddy Alan O’Day, singer/songwriter. Alan’s hits include “Undercover Angel” and he also co-wrote “Rock and Roll Heaven.” It was great seeing him again. I also saw my friends Matt and Carrie, Shawn and Gina, and Perry Zombolas, the former “Family Guy” animator who did that fantastic caricature of me in “Family Guy” style standing at the microphone. I also met Robert Carradine from “Revenge of the Nerds,” as well as adult star Ginger Lynn. For the photo we took together, she actually grabbed my nether-region! It turned out to be a very funny photo, since I was so surprised and shocked. But she’s a great gal and she said her son is a huge “Family Guy” fan. So I gave her my card and promised that I’d send him a signed pic. My friends Christine, Sabrina and Diana came up from Escondido. My pal Robbie Rist was signing there, and Sabrina is a huge Ninja Turtles fan. So I introduced her to Robbie. I also got signatures from Gloria Hendry, the Bond Girl from “LALD.” She never changes and still looks amazingly beautiful. She said she’s only 5 pounds heavier than when she filmed “LALD”! That’s terrific! What a great gal. But the coolest thing of the day was when I met Bruce Dern. My dad has always enjoyed Bruce’s work, and he particularly enjoyed seeing Bruce on the old Johnny Carson show when he explained how he did a love scene in “Middle Age Crazy” with Ann-Margret. I brought it up with Bruce and he went into detail about the story. It was fantastic! I called my dad immediately and told him I had just met Bruce Dern. My dad laughed when he heard the story, so I decided to go back to the table and get a signed photo for him as well. In fact, I even put my dad on the phone with Bruce! He was very nice and asked dad where he was. When he heard South Dakota, Bruce mentioned that his dad used to be a lawyer for the Sioux Nation, and his wife’s family are all from North Dakota. What a small world! They had a great conversation and it really made my (and my dad’s) day! A bunch of us met for late-lunch at Daily Grill next door and talked about the day. On the way out I saw my pal Seka and wished her a safe trip back home. As we were leaving Tony Curtis was just being wheeled in to get a bite at the restaurant. I dropped Sara off at her house and she was still flying high! But she had been under the weather the past few days so I told her to go to bed and rest! I got home and downloaded my pictures, and then got a call from Chuck McCann. We met for pie at DuPar’s and chatted for a bit. I got home later and took a hot shower, and got ready for bed. What a tremendous day!
Sunday the 15th – WHEW! – After the week I had I was ready for a relaxing three-day weekend! So I slept late, then got up to walk Sassie, feed Spook and look at some stuff on eBay I wanted to buy. I got ready for evening church and headed over. Afterwards my friend Sara and I had dinner at Ernie’s Taco House. Then we met up with Chuck McCann at DuPar’s for pie. After that I came home, did my duties around the house, and enjoyed a nice quiet evening waiting for a huge rainstorm! I LOVE IT!
And how was YOUR week??!!
