July 18 – July 24 (2011) – Wally On The Web

My folks used to play this song when I was a kid, and they virtually wore out the grooves on the record! (Don’t know what a record is? Or grooves for that matter? Ask your parents) It just popped into my mind the other day and was a welcome addition to my gray matter. No voice like Mama Cass Elliot! “Dream a Little Dream of Me!”

Monday the 18th – COMIC CON PREP! – I headed over to Buzzy’s Recording in Hollywood to do a few more Garfield episodes. Julie Payne was there to play Jon’s girlfriend Liz, and the amazing Laraine Newman was there to portray several cool characters. We finished a little bit early, so on my way home I contacted Greg Mariao who made the Catwoman costume for my friend Alex. I gave him my Fed Ex number so I could have the costume in my possession in time for the San Diego Comic Con that weekend. I hit my mailbox afterward and then headed home. My assistant Sara drove down to Tustin where I took Sassie to get her MRI, and picked up her ashes. I headed to “The Tonight Show” for the taping, finished that and then went home and ate something. I took a brief nap and then got up later in the evening to record my auditions in my home studio to send to my agent via e-mail. Sara came over with a little wooden box which was locked tight with a little gold padlock. The box was fairly heavy. It was Sassie’s ashes. We didn’t unlock the box, as I wanted to wait until a necklace arrived that I was expecting. My friend Chris Ameruso (who had to put his beloved dog Stella down two days before Sassie) told me about a little silver paw necklace that holds some of the ashes of your pet. But after Sara left I couldn’t resist. I opened the box and looked inside. It was a tightly wrapped plastic ziplock bag containing what looked like granules of white sand. It was all that was left of my Sassie. I tried to look at it from a purely scientific viewpoint, but the emotions bubbled up. I wept a bit, placed the bag back in the box, locked the box back up and went to bed.

Tuesday the 19th – GARFIELD TUNES! – Today we did songs for an upcoming epic episode of Garfield. Frank Welker, who voices Garfield, was first. Then it was everybody’s turn to do the group song, which was terrific! Then Julie Payne sang her song as Liz, and then it was my turn. Mark Evanier, who directs and writes “The Garfield Show” is also a great lyricist! He put some really cool lyrics to the tunes. More on the musical Garfield episode coming soon! As I drove home I realized that Andy, our studio engineer, had worked with some of the most amazing musical acts in rock history, including The Runaways! And he engineered our session! How cool is that?! I stopped off to get a tuna sandwich, then I went to “TTS” to do a comedy bit. In fact, three comedy bits. One mimics a famous narrator from films, which was a hoot to work on. It will air next week and is a VERY funny bit! I got home and Sara had brought over Alex’s Catwoman costume which arrived via Fed Ex! I also got a box of Titan bobbleheads that I bought on eBay to hand out as gifts. I knew that the Titan Insurance bobblehead, whom I voice in the TV commercials, had been reproduced in mini bobblehead form for consumers. They look pretty cool, though I’d someday like to get a big one like the one used in the commercials. I got another nap, then got up to record some auditions, and cleaned the garage a bit. I figured it was about time to put some of Sassie’s things away, and disassemble her house area. I pulled up the carpet and threw it away. I also gathered up all the potty pads that had been laid on the floor when she was unable to stand or go outside to do her business. Life is cruel sometimes. Everyone tells us about how wonderful love is, and then you start to love something so much it changes your life. But eventually that thing you love gets taken away and then you’re sad. It’s very illogical to me and I’ve been struggling lately with trying to wrap my mind around a concept that seems so pointless. Why love at all when it can’t possibly end well? I know that sounds weird, but it’s been tossing about in my mind for the past few weeks. I know I’ll reconcile it eventually, but right now I have a lot of questions. I took an evening nap, then got up to record some more auditions. I started watching the old “Mannix” show fifth season on DVD. I LOVE that show! Ooops, that was another thing I loved that eventually went away. I just can’t win can I?

Wednesday the 20th – WILD WEDNESDAY! – My pal Bobby Belenchia stopped by so we could grab some screenshots from the “Scream” DVD for Henry Winkler. Bobby reps Henry for personal appearances and needed some new shots to sell at his table. When we got the shots, I uploaded them to a server that could be accessed by the printer. Pretty slick, this new technology. I prepped some checks for deposit in my bank, then I hurried to the IVR session for US Airways at Voice Trax West. Apparently the production company and US Airways are very pleased with the final result. Which is good because we all worked very hard to make it sound a good as it can possibly be. One of the things we had to do was to re-record all of the references to Wilkes-Barre, as there was some question about how Barre is pronounced. So we covered our bases and recorded it a bunch of different ways. After the session I stopped by the vitamin store and bought some more supplements, grabbed lunch, headed to Fast Frame to pick up a new framed autographed photo of the entire “Happy Days” cast, then I went to NBC to record a lip-synced bit for “TTS.” I hit my chiropractor to get my bi-weekly adjustment, then back to “TTS” to tape the show. When the show was wrapped, I hit the bank to drop off my deposit. Then I went to It’s a Wrap and got the coolest new shoes. They’re Pumas and they’re metallic blue. Luckily they had my size! I went to a new gun store in Burbank called Guns Direct. One of the guys I used to see at the target range all the time now works there. So we talked for a bit and I spied a beautiful stainless steel .357 magnum revolver. So I bought it. I’ll pick it up on July 30th. It’s nice! I went to Staples to buy some supplies, Michael’s Crafts to get some supplies for Comic Con, grabbed a chicken sandwich at Wendy’s, then I went home. I had a last-minute bit to record for US Airways, which I recorded in my studio and put up on a server. I went to Jerry’s Famous Deli for dinner with Sara and my pal Edi. I headed home after dinner and did laundry and started some pre-packing for Comic Con!

Thursday the 21st – HOTLINE! HOTLINE! – I woke up in the morning with my agent hotline buzzing away. At first they said “TTS” needed me to record a bit from home a little later. So I dozed off to sleep again. A half hour later the hotline buzzed again and it was my agent saying “TTS” did NOT need me to record a bit. I figured I’d just get up as I had to be at my hair stylist’s office soon anyway. I went to the pharmacy to get some more nose spray for my sinuses, but they told me if I waited another day my insurance would pay for it. So I told them I’d come back Friday. I went back to the vitamin place to get some more supplements, then grabbed lunch. I headed over to Guns Direct with four of my handguns that needed cleaning badly! My two .45 automatic model 1911s, my Beretta Cheetah and my .38 special. They said they’d be clean by the time “TTS” was finished taping. After the show, I stopped by the Car Wash, then got my guns, and stopped by It’s a Wrap again. The son of the gal who runs my mailbox place loved the shoes and I asked what size he was. He said 9 and a half, and I had remembered seeing a pair of those metallic blue shoes in the store. So I stopped by to grab them for him as a gift. I gassed up the car to be ready for Friday’s trip to San Diego. I got home and relaxed for a bit, then Sara and I took the Gran Torino over to my friend Chris Ameruso’s place. Since he had already filled the silver paw pendant with his dog’s ashes, I figured he was an old hand at it. I needed his help filling my pendant with some of Sassie’s ashes. It was nice sitting around, talking about our late pets and commiserating with a fellow “mourner.” He and his wife checked out the Gran Torino and then Sara and I sped off for dinner at Paty’s. We caught them just before they closed, luckily. I parked the Torino on the curb outside the restaurant and we got a table next to a window so I can keep an eye on the car. It does attract quite a bit of attention! I went home to finish packing for Comic Con, which took me almost all night! I didn’t want to forget anything!

Friday the 22nd – OFF TO COMIC CON!! – I started the day by doing a bit for “TTS” at my home. Then I went back to the pharmacy and picked up my nose spray. I dropped a pair of jeans off at my tailor’s to have the zipper replaced. I took the blue metallic shoes to the son of the owner of my mailbox place (he LOVED them!), I took my business receipts into my accountant’s office, grabbed some quick KFC at the drive through and went back to Guns Direct. I had been trying to clean my Walther PPK, which is pretty easy to clean, but the slide wouldn’t come off in the usual way. I just thought I wasn’t strong enough to get it off. But the guys at the store couldn’t do it either, which led us to believe that something was broken inside. I took it over to my pals at Gun World and they couldn’t remove the slide either. They suggested sending it back to Smith & Wesson (they give lifetime warranties on their guns) to see if they could figure out what was wrong. I got to “TTS” and gave one of my old “Wobblin” Wally” bobbleheads to Scott Atwell, head of talent. I had given him a Titan bobblehead, but he asked if there was a Wally bobblehead. Luckily I still have about 8 left, so I brought him one. Today Dolly Parton was on the show. I’ve always loved her and she’s still fantastic! Just as the show was finishing, Alex’s cab pulled up. Perfect timing! We sped off to my house to load up the car for our trip to San Diego. Alex tried on the Catwoman suit and was beside herself. Greg Mariao did a fantastic job! But the bodysuit needed stirrups, so I dug out my needle and threat, some elastic and set about putting on some stirrups. I’m not a fast sewer so it took a little while. To wait for the traffic to wind down, Sara, Alex and I went to Panera to grab a bite. Around 8:00 we hit the road. Our timing was perfect. We hit the area of the freeway by Disneyland just as they were starting the fireworks display. We tooled down the freeway with popping and banging overhead, and bright colors all over the place. It was amazing! This was Alex’s first comic con and she was digging the experience so far! We made it to the Dairy Queen on Oso Parkway for my traditional pre-con banana split. We got to the hotel in San Diego just after 11 (traffic was jammed in certain areas of the freeway) but the room wasn’t ready yet! They said it would be 20-30 minutes and because of the delay they offered a $50 discount. I said it would be fine. We hung out in the lobby for awhile, but 20 minutes went by. 30 minutes went by, soon an hour went by and still no call about our room being ready. But at least we had a room. The people behind us in line were told at the desk that the hotel was full, and even though they had a confirmed reservation, they wouldn’t get a room. But instead the hotel would find them another room somewhere else. They were understandably pissed! I would be tool Did this hotel not realize it was Comic Con weekend? We didn’t get into our room until after midnight and to make matters worse. The A/C wasn’t working. It was not a good night. And we had to be up EARLY!

Saturday the 23rd – COMIC CON DAY 1! – We got up super early so we could get to the con right away and get our badges. I wasn’t sure what the wait was going to be like. Our breakfast order hadn’t been taken off our door handle, which meant no breakfast. This hotel was really working without a clue. Luckily I called and they got our order to us quickly. At 8:45 we met up with Rikki Simmons and his wife Tavisha. Rikki did the voice of Gir in the “Invader Zim” series and we always had a blast working together. We caught a cab over to the convention together. Then we met up with Scott and Vickie Sebring. They had a hotel room closer to the convention center, so Alex would need to drop her Catwoman costume there, change into her fancy blue dress, and head over to the con. We hadn’t gotten our badges yet and I wasn’t sure how long that would take. Luckily it only took a minute! We were on our way to the convention! We had a great time walking the floor and looking for items to buy. It was also fun to see the “Batman: Arkham City” Riddler trailer run on the big screen in the DC booth! But equally as cool was the 20 story high Arkham City banner hanging on one of the towers of the Marriott!! Wow! Alex put on her blue dress for the Quick Draw panel. My pal Mark Evanier is one of the big cheeses at Comic Con and he asked if Alex would like to help out at the Quick Draw panel. It’s where they have three cartoonists on a panel who draw their impressions of the scenarios (as bizarre as they sometimes are) suggested by Mark and the audience. Alex’s job was to stand on the dais and hand the artists more paper, as well as certain sealed words used in a word game. She was a bit nervous about it, but she did fine once she hit the stage. She did a great job and Mark was very impressed! Immediately afterward it was time for the Voice Actor Panel 1. Laraine Newman was in the audience, as was Laura Summer from “The Garfield Show,” and my pal Collette Sunderman who directed the voice talent in the Arkham Asylum games. The panel had the talents of Saratoga Ballantine, Rob Paulsen, Robin Atkins Down, Townsend Coleman, Tara Strong and myself. What a great group of folks to be with! It’s always fun doing silly voices and entertaining the capacity crowd of about 4,000. Mark gave us a Snow White radio play to perform live. It might be up on You Tube by now. I talked to some folks after the panel, signed some autographs and headed to Scott and Vickie’s room so Alex could get into her Catwoman costume. On the walk back I took another look at the huge Arkham City banner and had a thought. A few years ago at Comic Con I would have looked at a poster like that enviously and thought how cool it was going to be. But now, I ACTUALLY GET TO BE A PART OF IT! That was an awesome thought, and it gave me a sense of accomplishment. Plus just coming off the panel, and getting to share the stage with all of those legendary people, I was really flying high! While Alex did her hair and make-up and got dressed up, Ben Bentley (my U.K. pal) and I had lunch at the hotel restaurant. She was having a few troubles with her costume. The neck of the bodysuit wanted to keep popping out from underneath the latex cowl. We tried to fasten it with a bobby pin into her wig cap, but it only held for a short while. Some of the thimble claw attachments were coming off, but she managed. Catwoman got to the floor around 4pm and literally stopped traffic! She was the hit of the con! She was being stopped every three feet to pose for photos! The scout from Entertainment Weekly asked her if she would be interested in attending the private photo shoot for EW magazine’s Comic Con issue. It would be at 8pm at the Hard Rock Hotel, by private invite only! Too cool! Her first con, her first time at playing Catwoman, and already flirting with potential international exposure! As we walked around I got a little more shopping done (but not much!) and then cabbed it back to my hotel because we had forgotten her whip. She really needed the whip for the EW photo shoot! The cab driver who drove me was named Erick Estrada! Too funny! We had a good laugh about that. He had actually met the actor Erik Estrada who made Erick Estrada prove that was his name by showing his driver’s license! When I got to the hotel my friend Christine Johnson and her sister Sabrina were there. I had some stuff to give Christine and it was a good time to do it, since she lives close by. I got a shower, changed clothes, and had Christine and Sabrina drive me back tot he convention center area. I walked over to the Hard Rock carrying this whip. But no one hardly even noticed. I mean, it’s Comic Con! I met up with Alex, Ben and my pal Bob’s girlfriend Teri who had also been tapped for a photo shoot for EW. The shoot went really well, though it was quick. Alex’s experience as a model really paid off, as she gave the photographer lots of poses to choose from. We walked back to the hotel and met up with Scott, Vickie and Bob. Alex was happy to get the costume off for the evening, and we all walked over to Seaport Village to grab some late dinner around 10pm. I got spaghetti and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I love Seaport Village because it’s my tradition to visit the little popcorn wagon they have there, get a bunch of popcorn, and go feed the ducks who swim in the little pond. But the popcorn wagon was no more! It was gone and something else was going to be built there. Rats! I saw plenty of ducks, but since I had nothing to feed them they didn’t come around much. I figured Alex had had enough of dressing up and wouldn’t want to do it on Sunday. But she was all for it! Even though we were both exhausted! We got to the room and while we were out the maintenance people were there and installed a brand new A/C. It would be cool sleeping tonight!

Sunday the 24th – COMIC CON DAY 2! – We decided to sleep a little late. But when we got up we packed our stuff, Alex did her Catwoman make-up and hair, and I loaded the luggage into my car. When she was ready to go we checked out of the room, but kept the loaded car in valet until we could make it back later. We got another cab to Scott and Vickie’s room and Alex got back into costume. As we walked to Comic Con she got tons of compliments. I had a feeling that it was going to be another crazy day of photo ops! I had some shopping I wanted to do, and I was worried that the constant stopping to take pictures would eat up too much shopping time. But it was her first convention so what the heck, right? Many told her it was the best costume they had seen all week at the con! That made her day. We went to Chuck McCann’s panel (he was on the Voice Actor 2 panel) and surprised him. Alex and I had worked out ahead of time, that we wouldn’t let Chuck know who she was. If he saw her with me, he’d figure it out. Since it was he who introduce me to Alex. So when the panel was through, she confronted him and gave him a big hug, put the whip around him and pinched his butt. He was beside himself. A few minutes later he spotted me in a different area and brought Catwoman over to me to introduce her. He was telling her how I was the voice of a lot of cartoon characters, and the announcer for ‘The Tonight Show” and we couldn’t hold it in any longer. We started laughing and I said, “Should we tell him who you are?” When we revealed the truth he burst out laughing! Fooled ya! While we were standing there I ran into some other con friends whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. Then it was back to shopping on the convention floor before the next panel I was doing at 3pm called The Business of Voice Acting. Chuck would be on that panel with me. Once on the floor, Alex was again being stopped every few feet. I tried to do some more shopping before the panel but we didn’t get much accomplished. Oh well. She was having a blast. But as we were walking upstairs to the meeting room for the panel, Alex confessed that she was over the picture taking. I wondered what took so long. But really her feet needed a rest. It was nice that she could sit in a chair during the panel and relax a bit. Along with Chuck and myself and moderator Mark Evanier, the panelists were two Los Angeles agents who explained to the up-and-coming voice actors in the audience what it took to be the next Maurice LaMarche, or Rob Paulsen. I thought the panel was only going to be an hour, figuring that I’d have some more shopping time afterwards. But it was actually 90+ minutes. In fact, we got out just as the convention floor was closing at 5pm. Oh well. There’s always next year. It was a good time talking to the audience and answering their questions. We headed back to Scott and Vickie’s room to change, collected our stuff, bid everyone farewell, and cabbed it back to our hotel. I knew there would be a mass exodus heading back to L.A. from San Diego, so I wanted to get as early of a start as possible. We checked out of valet, got in my car and hit the freeway. It was good for awhile, but then it was bumper to bumper for a long time. Red tail lights for as far as the eye could see. Chuck McCann and his driver Ottis, who were up ahead a ways, called to see if we wanted to meet them for dinner. They were at a Carrow’s restaurant on Avenue Pico, just 6 miles ahead of us. We wanted to get off the clogged freeway so we agreed. While we ate the traffic subsided a bit, but not much. We hit the road again and just barely made it back to Dairy Queen on Oso Parkway for dessert. They were about to close, but we made it! It took awhile to get home, but it was good company and good conversation all the way. But when I drove in the garage it hit me. This was the first time I had come home from a trip since Sassie died. I missed hearing her barking greetings upstairs. Especially after I had been gone a couple of days, she was REALLY glad to see me! I walked upstairs in a bit of a funk, but there was my crazy cat Spook at the top of the stairs to greet me. What a good boy! He enjoyed some pets and some scratches, and even a few cat treats. I downloaded the pics from my camera, though the best shots were taken by Scott and Ben. I can’t wait to see the shots they got! I unpacked my luggage, and I got to bed late. But it was nice because it was my own house, and my own bed! Aaaaaahhhh, another Comic Con come and gone!

And how was YOUR week??!!

Pics from the Week

Dashing as ever! Adam West signs in the Fox booth to promote ‘Family Guy!’