June 10 – June 16 (2013) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

You don’t have to be a pet psychic to know what Roxy’s thinking!!

I FOUND IT! Just as I was pulling into the Denny’s parking lot in Palm Springs a few weeks ago at 11:30 at night, I heard a great song on KTNN-AM. That’s the Navajo Nation station that blows into the east part of Southern California at night at 660 on the AM dial. I love driving through the desert late at night listening to classic country (and an occasional Native American piece) on the AM band. Every time I listen to KTNN on the way to Palm Springs I make at least one great musical discovery. When I heard this song I scrambled to find my little digital voice recorder so I could make a recording it off the radio. I figured if I could get just a snippet I’d be able to use that app that identifies songs and find out the name. But the quality of the recording wasn’t great, because of the poor AM signal and the fact that it was being recorded off of the speakers in my car. But it gave me enough to go on lyrically, that I could put a few lines of the song into Google and see what came up. All I could make out was “the beauty of your smile” and “brings sunshine into my soul.” It took awhile, but I found out it was a song from 1972 called “Nihaa Shil Hozho (I Am Happy About You)” by an artist named Xit. The album is called “Plight of the Redman,” and it’s the only song from that album you can get on i-Tunes. So I bought it. The album version is about 7 minutes long, but I made a custom edit to trim the piece down to just under four minutes. Hope you like it!

Monday the 10th – WORKMEN EVERYWHERE! – I got to sleep in a bit, but my dog Roxy chose to sleep with me and she kept jumping on and off the bed. So I didn’t get much quality sleep. I got up to do a quick “Tonight Show” bit, and a quickie audition for one of my agents. I took Roxy out for a walk and got back just in time to meet up with my pal Terry, who was going to start working on creating an underground storage compartment in the crawlspace under my house. Since I have a huge collection of video and audio tapes it’s important that I store them in a cool, dry place to preserve them. While Terry worked I had a locksmith come over to fix and clean the lock on the door leading to my garage. Then I sped off to “TTS” to open the show. I got a salad at the world-famous NBC Commissary and worked on Wally’s Week during the taping. After we wrapped I hurried home so Terry could go to the hardware store and pick up some items he needed. I finished up Wally’s Week , and Terry finished up his work for the day. I had been having some weird issues with my computer and the back-up program that had been installed. So my computer guy Sean looked at it on-line through a program called Team Viewer. Sean said he needed to come over and deal with it in person, so I took a dip in the jacuzzi and talked to my neighbor about his upcoming two-week trip to Europe with his daughter. Sean came over and worked for two hours on my computer while I grabbed a quick nap on the couch. There were all kinds of issues with how my computer was backing up my data and downloading security updates. Hopefully this will fix the problem once and for all. When Sean left I did an audition, then fed and walked Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood. Then just before bed I watched “The Bible” episode 7 on Blu Ray.

Tuesday the 11th – LIKE RIDING A BIKE! – I got up at noon to welcome my pal Sergio over. I first met him while working at Universal Studios Hollywood doing the Beetlejuice show. Sergio created all of the Beetlejuice wigs for the actors. Since I had recently purchased a life-size Beetlejuice figure there was only one choice for the person to do his hair. And since Sergio has done the hair on all my other figures, it was only natural. He got to work on the figure’s hair, using pieces of my old Beetlejuice wig. My pal Terry arrived to continue work on the storage space, and I got a call to come in early to “TTS” to record a comedy bit. When I finished the bit I drove over to Wendy’s drive-thru to get a sandwich. I had some more time to kill before the show, so I went over to Gun World to see if they had a Sig Sauer model 226 in .40 caliber. I found a good one and was waiting for the salesman to open the case for me so I could see it, and my phone rang. It was “TTS” asking me to come back asap to record another bit. So I sped back to NBC and recorded it. Then I waited around until the taping. My neighbor Matt and his friends were in the audience, so after the show wrapped I found them in the audience and brought them backstage for a quickie tour. Then I got back home and checked in with Terry’s progress. Sergio had finished Beetlejuice’s hair and had left for a few hours to meet a friend. I got on the computer and then did some work around the house. I took another dip in the jacuzzi and came back inside to do some more computer diagnosis stuff with Sean on-line. Sergio came back and he did some necessary trimming on the Beetlejuice hair. It looked so fabulous I was inspired. So the rest of the night I spent time putting on the moss. It has to be put on a specific way, so it doesn’t look overdone. But you also don’t want it to look underdone. I remembered the way I used to do my moss when I was Beetlejuice for four years, so I decided to do it in a similar fashion. It was like riding a bike. It all came back to me. What fun! I used a few different colors of greens to get the desired effect. I even mixed some green and brown together to get a deeper green for some areas. I’m very happy with the results. He’s going to talk eventually, as we extricated a digital voice chip from a talking Beetlejuice figure. We just need to decide where the chip and the compartment will live on the figure, and where the speaker will be placed for maximum volume. I had forgotten how much that moss gets EVERYWHERE when you work with it! It’s basically ground up green foam rubber used by train enthusiasts for doing landscaping on their model train set-ups. I cleaned up as best as I could, cleaned my brushes and put all the make-up away. With glue and green still on my fingers and hands, I did my auditions for the night, fed and walked Roxy, then retired to watch “The Bible” episode 8.

Wednesday the 12th – CHRISTMAS IN JUNE! – I got a hotline call at 11 to record a bit in my home studio for “TTS.” Terry arrived just before noon, so I moved my car out of the garage so he could have an open space to work in. I did some work around the house, walked Roxy, did a few auditions, another bit for “TTS,” and then eventually headed to NBC to tape the show. While we taped the show, I got a salad from the world-famous NBC Commissary. On the way home I stopped at my box and checked my mail. SURPRISE! My replacement Riddler trophy arrived! I couldn’t wait to get it home and get it set up. The first one they sent me arrived broken. I could tell as soon as I held the box that things were different. This one felt more solid. The other one had a “loosey goosey” feeling to it, which leads me to believe that it was broken at the factory or in transit. The trophy is amazing! I hooked it up and it worked great! The port for the electric plug in is hidden by a magnetic switch cover. That way when it’s not plugged in, the trophy looks complete. The company who sold me the trophy, Secret Compass out of Colorado, had also sent along 5 switch covers for me to sign and send back. They’re fairly small, but I managed. But that’s not all…I stepped out on to my porch and the mailman had left another package for me. It was my DVD set of “The Saint: The Monochrome Series!” I had been loving watching the color episodes of “The Saint” starring Roger Moore on Saturday nights just before bed, but I finished up the 48 episodes. Although I’m not really a fan of black and white TV shows, I just HAD to have the first four seasons of “The Saint!” Unfortunately they were Region 2, which meant they would only play in the UK, unless you had a Region Free DVD player. Mark Ackerman, my A/V guy, is coming to hook up my new Region Free player this Friday! So by Saturday I’ll be all set for more “Saturday Night Saint!” My pal Edi and her daughter Ems stopped by so we went out to grab dinner. Then I came home to nap on the couch. But at 2am, like clockwork, my cat Spook started rousting me because it is normally Roxy’s dinner time. Why should he care about Roxy’s dinner time? Because as I’m preparing it, with fresh roasted chicken, etc. – he usually gets a few stray pieces too. I didn’t know I had a cat that could tell time! Amazing! I spent the rest of the night working on stuff around the house. I was much too tired for TV time, so I just had some cereal and went to bed at 6am!

Thursday the 13th – THRILLING THURSDAY! I got up at noon to let Terry in to start working on the storage compartment again. I did a bit for “TTS,” then did several auditions. Just as I was finishing up another “TS” bit arrived in my inbox. My assistant Sara came by to pick up a box of receipts to take to my accountant. My agent called to tell me I had a phone-patch session for a movie trailer to do after I got home from “TTS.” I headed over to Weinerschnitzel by NBC to meet up with my pal Phil Proctor. Phil was in Firesign Theatre, and was also in one of the funniest movies ever made….”Tunnel Vision.” I love running into the actors from that film and having them sign my movie poster and VHS tape cover. I used to watch that movie every weekend with my pal Scott in Sioux Falls. In fact, when we talk on the phone, we still quote it to this day! Phil’s been a pal for a long time, but I recently got two vintage “Tunnel Vision” movie posters that I hadn’t gotten him to sign for me yet. He is doing a play in North Hollywood and had a rehearsal set for that afternoon. So we agreed to meet at a middle-ground location so he could sign them. Phil was running late, so I ate two chili cheese dogs in my car while I waited. He arrived in the nick of time, signed the posters, we had a few laughs, and then he was on his way to his rehearsal, and I was on my way to “TTS.” Perfect timing! I opened the show and sat back to watch the taping. But while the show was going on, I got a call from my agent cancelling the session for 5:45. Apparently that time was too late for them, as they needed it sooner. Luckily a studio called Mai Tai is down the road a bit from NBC, so I called Kevin the proprietor and set up some time. I had to get special permission to leave “TTS” a hair earlier than usual (they usually wrap up around 5:15pm) but it all worked out. I sped over to Mai Tai, did the session (which was super quick) and was finished. Neat! The line is spoken as a news reporter in the trailer for the new film about Steve Jobs. I drove past NBC to see if I should go back in, but the audience was already being let out. I hadn’t heard from my pal Audio Mixer Patrick Smith (who said he’d call me if I was needed further) so I figured all was well. I went over to the bank to make a deposit. While driving over to get some groceries, I got a call from my agent telling me that a session for this Saturday had been postponed. The script wasn’t quite ready yet so it would have to be done later. This was unfortunate because I had cleared my Saturday just for this project. The production company is in El Segundo, which is quite a ways from where I normally operate, and they demanded that I record the voice-over for this TV pilot down there. Of course since getting to El Segundo, working for four hours and then getting back to Burbank during a weekday in time to tape “TTS” is not possible, I agreed to do it on a Saturday. I had a wedding in Long Beach Friday night, so I secured a hotel room in the area so I could hit the studio first thing Saturday and not have to drive all over creation. I immediately called the hotel and canceled my room. But since I hadn’t given them 24 hours notice they were still going to hold me responsible. Luckily, I’m a Gold Passport holder with that particular hotel chain, so after much pleading they let me slide. The production company also asked if I could drive down there after “TTS” some night. I didn’t think that would be possible, since I’m usually called in early most every day, then we tape the show, then I would have to get in the car and drive about an hour and a half, then work four hours, and then drive an hour back home. That didn’t sound too appealing to me. And I’m starting to think that I don’t want to schedule another Saturday session because it’s just too much. My agent said that this pilot could go to a series and could be big. But I told him if it did, I still wouldn’t be able to travel down to El Segundo each week anyway, given my schedule with “TTS.” So it looks like they may have to find somebody else, since the production company isn’t willing to record me from Studio City or Burbank. I guess schedules just don’t coincide sometimes. I hate to pass up work, but I literally can’t be in two places at once. I got some groceries and headed home to unload them. I fed Spook and walked Roxy. Whew! What a day! I did my auditions and got them out of the way, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them later in the evening. Later that night my pal Jason the electrician stopped over to do some testing on my Shakespeare bust. The replica bust from the 1966 Batman TV series used to control the lighting in my main showcase. But the switch broke and the company who made it are no longer making them. So Jason was trying a couple of other options. The first switch was too big, but the second one will work nicely. He hooked it up and it worked great! Soon he’s going to come over and clean up all of the electric wiring sitting around in my Batman display. It’ll be good to have it all redesigned. As I kept adding electronic features to the display, my electrician was constantly having to jerry-rig things to work in conjunction. So all of the wiring now is designed almost as an afterthought. But we’re going to start fresh with the utilities we have and design a system accordingly. After Jason left I took a nap until 1, then my pal Brittney Powell stopped by to say hi after an event she was at. I watched “The Bible” episode 9 just before bed.

Friday the 14th – NEED MORE HOURS IN THE DAY! – I didn’t get to bed until 7, figuring I’d be up at noon and would get a nice 5 hours of sleep. But my hotline rang at 10 with a call to tell me to be into NBC at noon for a comedy bit. So with 3 hours of sleep, I dragged myself into the shower to get ready to get over to NBC. My A/V guy Mark was coming at noon to hook up my new Region Free player, so my assistant Sara had to come over to hang out with him while I was away at work. I did the first bit, and was ready to do the second one, but it got changed last-minute, so they no longer needed me on it. So I went to a studio in the back of the stage to sing an Elvis-y song for an upcoming bit. My pal Jim Wise, who now is a writer on “TTS,” used to work with me at Cutler Comedy Network and Premiere Radio Networks doing comedy bits. He remembered that I did Elvis so he asked me to sing this song for his sketch. We did two takes of the song, but then I was pulled out of the session to come voice another bit in a different area of the studio. Busy busy busy! I finished the third bit and I drove over to Taco Bell to get some quick lunch. Armie Hammer was a guest on the show, so in the intro I got to say “The Lone Ranger!” Too cool! Almost as cool as getting to say “SUPERMAN!” a few weeks prior when Henry Cavill was on the show. While we were taping Mark called and said I may have gotten the wrong Region Free DVD unit from Amazon. WHAT?! So I signed on my e-mail and sent him a copy of the player I ordered. After doing some research he discovered it was the correct unit after all. Whew! My plan was to head home immediately after “TTS” wrapped at 4:15 (we tape an hour earlier on Fridays), walk Roxy and head down to Long Beach for my pal Terry’s wedding. But when I got home Mark was still working on my system. He had some computer difficulties so the process was going a little slower than he hoped. The wedding was at 6, and Long Beach is about 2 hours from me in Friday afternoon traffic. Even if I left at 4:30, I still would have only seen the last half of the wedding. But Mark kept working until 6:30. I grabbed Sara and we started the long, arduous drive to Long Beach, knowing full well that we will have missed the wedding. But we were still going to make the wedding dinner afterwards. After a one hour and 45 minute drive to Long Beach, we met up with the wedding party at El Torito. We got there at 8:15, just in time for dinner to start. Terry’s bride Michelle’s two teenage sons love videogames, so they sat across the table from me asking questions about “Arkham Asylum” and “Arkham City.” They asked me about some other games that are coming out soon, but I had to explain to them what an NDA was, and that I wasn’t able to say anything about them at all. It was a fun time, but then there was the long drive home. I was exhausted by the time I got home. Then it occurred to me that if I had consented to doing that job in El Segundo after a taping of “TTS” I would have felt much the same way. Which told me I made the right decision by passing on the project. I napped on the couch from midnight to 3am, then I got up to feed and walk Roxy. Then I watched the final episode of “The Bible.” Earlier, my A/V guy Mark and I had discussed this 10 part mini-series, and his feelings about it were much the same as mine. The producers took all of the wars, battles and massacres from the Bible and filmed those, but paid very little attention to some of the other stories to offset all the brutality and savagery. Mark said he stopped watching it after a few episodes. I told him the New Testament episodes were better and he should give those a try. But Mark’s hard work had made possible my return to “Saturday Night Saint” episodes. YAY!

Saturday the 15th – WONDERFUL WEEKENDS! – I didn’t get to bed until 9am, and when I woke up at 3 I was hungry. I decided to throw Roxy in the Mustang, put the top down, and drive to Paty’s for lunch. We met Sara there as well and had a great time relaxing over salads. When we finished Sara went to pick up some grocery items for movie night, while I took Roxy back home for a walk. Then I went into the Chaney Room and took out the voicebox that had been installed in Beetlejuice’s chest by my effects guy Jim Ojala. It was too cumbersome in the chest. It was hard to press the button to activate it, because it was behind the shirt, the tie and the fat pad. Plus the speaker was buried underneath all that cloth. So until we can extend the speaker wire and attach a different kind of switch, I’ll just remove it for now. I’m thinking of having a hidden switch just inside his coat sleeve. So I can reach in, hit the button and he’ll talk. I’m not sure where the speaker will go quite yet, but Jim and I will work that out later. I got ready for movie night and began to welcome my guests. We watched the newly remastered and restored “Rockshow” concert featuring Paul McCartney and Wings on Blu Ray. It looked amazing, and several songs that were cut for the original release on VHS back in 1980 were put back in! When everyone left I did some work around the house, and set up for “Saturday Night Saint!”‘ I’d be watching the very first episode ever. This called for a special occasion, so I made a Chef Boy Ar Dee pizza-in-a-box to munch on while I enjoyed the show. PERFECT!

Sunday the 16th – SUNDAY FUN DAY! – I slept all day but got up in time for evening church. On the walk over I heard a beautiful bird singing high up in the trees. I stopped to see if I could spot him. He wasn’t in a tree, but was on top of a power pole singing his little birdy heart out. And occasionally he would leap up into the air, flap his wings a few times, briefly float on the air, and land back on the top of the pole. All the while he never missed a note! I’m not sure what kind of bird he was, but he was black with brilliant white stripes. And his singing was amazing. Thousands of sounds came out of this bird’s mouth in a very short time. WHAT I LEARNED IN CHURCH TODAY…”God is within.” (Or maybe even on a power pole!) When I returned home from church, Amanda, Sara, Edi and her kids Ems and Josh came by so we could all go to dinner at Panera. We had to go someplace that had outdoor dining, since Edi’s daughter Ems loves hanging out with Roxy. After dinner I came home and grabbed a nap, then got up to feed and walk Roxy and do some auditions. Then I started the 11th season of “Hawaii Five-O” for my pre-bedtime “TV Time!” Mahalo!

And how was YOUR week??!!!

VIDEO and PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here’s a higher quality video of the Batman and Robin figures in the Batcave set in Planet Wallywood. The lighting is a little better so it will allow you to see more of the display.