Monday the 8th – MANIC MONDAY!! – The day started out early enough, with it being necessary to record several auditions in my home studio and e-mail them to my agents. Then I hit the road for Voice Trax West. I’m doing the voice of a little animated character for the TV spots for HH Gregg furniture in the Florida area. It’s a lot of fun, and so far the animations I’ve seen look terrific. I’m sure it’s going to be a very long, successful campaign. When I was done with that, I headed over to Marc Graue studios to work on that super secret videogame project again. I didn’t finish up all my lines the first time, so they had me return again to finish up. Again, I got to be directed by the great Carl Weathers! We finished fairly early, so Carl and I got to talking about 70’s music. Singing old Gino Vannelli songs with Apollo Creed will be a memory I’ll always carry with me. Awesome! I finished up there, and then headed over to Studiopolis Burbank to record my lines for “Gormiti” that I missed out on doing since I was out of town the previous weekend. It’s fun to do the cast records (where the entire cast is present) but it’s downright exhausting to do these solo records. If you remember me telling you about doing the pick-up session for Ant Man and “The Avengers,” I mentioned that when all you’re doing are your lines back to back, it’s very exhaustive. At least during cast records, you do your thing, then rest while the other actors take their turn. But our illustrious director, the wonderful Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, got me through it. I’ve known Mary since the old days of the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue at Universal Studios, when I was Beetlejuice, she was a Bride of Frankenstein, and her husband Daran was a Beetlejuice as well. It’s fun to chat about the old days every once in awhile. I noted to her that I’ve known her and Daran for 15 years! Where has the time gone? Anyway, when I finished, I was really wiped. But I went home to do stuff around the house, and more auditions to e-mail to my agent! WHEW!
Tuesday the 9th – AHHHHHHHH! – After a weekend of travel and family fun, and a Monday filled with action, it was nice to sleep late, do some errands and take a walk. I walked over to the post office to mail off some autographed photos and some DVDs. Then I went to my tailor’s to have some new leather pants tailored to fit. I stopped by to see my friend Fred Westbrook at his agency KSR, and then I went over to the craft store to buy a two-part molding putty to start working on my Andy Kaufman “Heartbeeps” mannequin. Later that day Jim Ojala, a make-up artist I hired for the project, came by to take the Andy Kaufman “Heartbeeps” head with him to strip it down and recondition it. I was hoping that underneath the robot make-up, was Andy’s original headcast done by the Stan Winston Studios. I’ve always wanted one, since I have Andy’s original costume. So it only stands to reason that Andy’s likeness should be on the mannequin. Take a gander at my ‘Andy Kaufman Restoration Project” page here on my website. It’s great and will keep you up to date on the progress, if you’re a fan of that kind of stuff.Click here for the restoration page. I had paid a lot of money for the “Heartbeeps” head, so watching Jim walk out the door with it made me a little nervous, but he’s an absolute professional who’s worked with my old pal Robert Hall at Almost Human Special Effects, so Andy’s in good hands. That night I took a nap, then got up to do some auditions in my home studio to e-mail to my agents.
Wednesday the 10th – TOP O’ THE MORNIN’! – My friend Kassandra, who hails originally from Ireland, was introduced to me by a good friend at church. She’s keenly interested in all things in the entertainment industry, so I figured we’d have a day of auditions and sessions. It turned into a 14 hour day of non-stop fun! First, we went to an audition at Voicecasters in Burbank. Juan, the director, let Kassandra sit in the director’s booth and listen in. When that was done, we went to Best Buy to look for new DVD releases. Then we had a terrific lunch at The Olive Garden. After we were full of pasta and minestrone, we headed over to the Firing Line in Burbank to get in a little target practice. Kassandra had never fired a gun before, but she was excited to do so. I let her fire the Walther PPK, which seemed to suit her pretty well. She wasn’t a bad shot! I shot my .45 automatic 1911. But her long fingernails made it difficult for her to load the clip, and she didn’t have the hand strength to pull back the slide to load the bullet into the chamber. So we rented a .357 magnum revolver snubnose for her. And though it was easier for her to load, it had a very large kick. I, myself, actually didn’t like it much. I’m going to get a revolver someday, but probably not that caliber. But we had a blast. When we were done we went to Studiopolis Burbank and Kassandra watched me do a couple of hours worth of voicework for ‘Blue Dragon,’ an anime series. After that, we went to It’s a Wrap to shop for clothes. I didn’t find anything for me, but Kassandra got quite a few new outfits which she loved! But Sass had been inside the house a long time and needed a walk, and it was Spook’s dinner time. On the way to my house, we picked up her doggie Akara, a Maltese whose name means “my friend” in Gaelic. We got to my house and introduced Akara to Sass and Spook. Sass was OK, but Spook took one look at the new little doggie and took off. I guess Akara’s “puppy energy” was too much for my Spook. We walked our dogs down to the Studio Cafe and met up with Chuck McCann who also had two of his dogs. We spent a few hours there chatting and feeding the dogs grilled chicken breast. When we got to my house, we sat around chatting till the wee hours. By the time I took Kassandra home, it was almost 2am! Wow! Where did the time go??!!
Thursday the 11th – BLUE DRAGON & BLEACH! – It was back to Studiopolis Burbank for more ‘Blue Dragon’ and an hour of ‘Bleach’ voice work. When I got home I met up with Jim Ojala, who brought in the “Heartbeeps” head. My suspicions were correct! Andy Kaufman’s headcast WAS underneath all that robot make-up! This was exceptional, and a dream come true! Not only was Andy’s face in tact, but his entire head! Including his ears, and facial moles! I discussed with Jim the possibility of molding this masterpiece, and he agreed to do it. The goal is to have a fiberglass copy made, complete with glass eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, hair and sideburns, and have it placed on the mannequin that is currently modeling Andy’s original performance costume. Stay tuned!! That evening I took a nap, and when I got up I went for a 3 mile jog. Recently I had been having knee and ankle problems, but I wrapped my knee and ankle with wraps specifically designed for such problems, and I made all 3 miles very easily! It felt good to be back to carefree running!
Friday the 12th – WHERE DID THE WEEK GO?! – My buddy Mark Ackerman came over to look at some problems with my upstairs theatre system. He has a company called Awetronics and he set up my surround sound, TV and receiver originally. He remedied one situation, but wasn’t sure how to fix the other. It involves a DVD recorder I purchased from him that’s malfunctioning from time to time. I think we’ll need to exchange it for another one. Then my maids showed up to clean, and then I had to take off for North Hollywood Sound. I was working on a videogame, but when I walked in I was pleasantly surprised to see my old pal Michael Hack directing! We worked together on “Astro Boy” and “Blood+” and it’s always nice to work with Michael. What a great time. That night I just relaxed and stayed around the house.
Saturday the 13th – SATURDAY MARATHON OF FUN! – My friend Sara came over in the morning so we could go to the Warner Brothers lot sale. They were tied in with a charity and were selling off old props, costumes, wardrobe, furniture, etc. to raise funds. On the way we picked up Kassandra and once we got on the lot in Burbank, we met up with Scott and Vickie Sebring, and Bob Mitsch and his girlfriend Terri. I bought some stuff and it was all for a good cause. When we finished, we all met up at Paty’s in Toluca Lake for lunch with James, our buddy from Warner who got us on the lot for the sale. Afterwards we went to my friend Fred’s house to hang out. My friend Tony brought over some cigars from Cuba that I was giving Fred as a gift. He enjoyed it very much, as he loves sitting by the pool on weekends smoking cigars. Hey, we all have to have our hobbies, right? The day was perfect…in that it was cool and overcast. Perfect for me, but not perfect for Fred the sun worshipper. But we had a blast. And my friend Ginny came by to have her new headshots taken. Kassandra and I got to my house and ordered pizza, and the rest of the gang eventually came back over for Blu Ray Trek. On Saturday nights we meet at Planet Wallywood to watch episodes from the original series of “Star Trek” on Blu Ray. It was a blast. We watched “Errand of Mercy,” which was the first episode featuring the Klingons. Then, just as James had to go, he drew the next episode. He said he was going to draw “The Naked Time” (one of my favorites) and sure enough HE DID! Now, this is the THIRD time this has happened for him. It’s getting rather creepy! After that episode, my friend Jon Reep stopped by to watch “Man Trap.” Jon is a stand-up comic, and if he’s ever playing in your town make sure to see him!
Sunday the 14th – CHURCH AND CHOW! – I eldered the Spanish service at church, then went over to the contemporary service we have every Sunday night at 5:30. The Lakers were playing apparently, so the attendance was fairly light. But it was still great. After church, my old pal Chris Malmin stopped by and we went to dinner. We were going to go to Jerry’s Famous Deli, but I remembered that they have TVs set on sports there, so we decided to go somewhere else. I not only hate sports, I ABHOR sports. And the last thing I want to do is sit at a nice dinner with an old friend, and listen to knuckleheads shout and cheer at the TV screen. Hey boneheads, guess what. THEY CAN’T HEAR YOU YELLING! TV only goes ONE WAY! Ugh. Anyway, we got some good food at Barone’s and had a good chat. That evening I did some more auditions to e-mail to my agents, and did some stuff around the house. Then it was an episode of “Mission Impossible” on DVD before bed, and a pleasant night!
And how was YOUR week??!!
