RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
The cleverness of some meme writers never ceases to amaze me. This. Is. Funny!
When I got on the flight from Dallas to LAX, heading home, “Ice Cream Man” by Van Halen came on my iPod. While other passengers around me read magazines, worked on their laptops, slept, or sent vulgar messages to women on dating sites, I sat back and enjoyed some early Van Halen. Say what you will, but I feel David Lee Roth was one of the greatest frontmen to ever perform in a rock band. Such fun!
Monday the 16th – MOUNTING MUNSTERS! – It was a very warm day out, and it’s probably the last “summery” day we’ll have for a while. I met my pal Sara for lunch on the patio at Paty’s. Then I went to my box to pick up a package and mail off a Halloween gift to my buddy Maguire in South Dakota. I stopped at Baskin-Robbins on the way home to get a two scoop sundae (very berry strawberry and chocolate chip cookie dough with caramel topping), and then I headed to Michaels to pick up some poster board and foam core. I got home and laid out some junk cardboard on the garage floor. Then I sprayed some Super 77 glue on the foam core, and mounted the cool black light Munsters poster I picked up the previous weekend at Son of Monsterpalooza from my buddy Dan Roebuck. He played The Count in the latest “Munsters” movie. This poster will look VERY good in my black light section of the Tranquility Zone! I went inside and recorded my nightly auditions, did some work around the house, and later I typed out Wally’s Week. I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) through the complex, spent some relaxing time in the anti-grav chair looking at a starry sky, and then came inside to make a salad and start in on the “Boris Karloff’s Thriller” series on DVD!
Tuesday the 17th – ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! – Since it was a very busy weekend, I didn’t do much today. I just rested and relaxed as much as possible, considering next weekend I’ll be on the go heading out to Chattanooga for the Comic Con. I did a little work around the house, and recorded a few auditions. Later I took my WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. Other than that, it was a very relaxing day!
Wednesday the 18th – CHECKS, NEGS AND FLAIR! – To start the day I scanned some checks for a deposit. Then I drove to the bank and dropped the deposits off, and drove over to CVS to pick up some supplies. I stopped into Harry’s Camera to give him another five sets of negatives to have scanned and printed. The last set he did for me turned out so nice, I’m going to have him do another set. These are the negatives I shot when I first moved out to L.A. in 1987, and it’s great seeing these pictures again, as I’ve long since lost many of my original prints. But now I’m having them immortalized for posterity once and for all! I headed over to the local Toyota dealer to order a left rear fender flair (it’s what they call it). It’s the plastic trim that goes on the left rear fender, and it’s the piece that I scratched when I was at Alex In Wonderland’s shop last week. Figuring it would be hundreds of dollars, I was pleasantly surprised when it only ended up being about a hundred bucks! I drove to the Toyota body shop to talk to one of the guys about having it installed, once the part showed up. The part will be in tomorrow, and I’ll have it installed next Tuesday after I get back from Chattanooga. I drove over to Paty’s for lunch to enjoy the gorgeous warm day on the patio. I hit Baskin-Robbins on the way home for ice cream once again, and when I got home I recorded a few auditions. I drove to my seamstress Shelley’s house later to pick up the pattern for my custom bowling shirts. She struck a copy for her own files so I wouldn’t have to go searching for mine every time I wanted to have a new shirt made. I got back home and started doing some packing for this weekend’s trip to the Chattanooga Comic Con! I’m excited to see some old friends there! I took my nightly WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. I went inside to do more packing, I made a salad and watched another episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.”
Thursday the 19th – THAT’S A WRAP! – Toward the end of the day I walked to Studiopolis to finish up my voice tracks as Renji for the final episode in season two of “Bleach; The Thousand Year Blood War.” Poor ol’ Renji hasn’t had a lot to do in the first two seasons, but maybe he’ll have more to do in the coming seasons. I walked back home and packed a few final things. My assistant Emily came over around 6 to pick me up to take me to the westside of L.A.; we were going to have dinner and then she would drop me off at the Hyatt Regency near the LAX airport. I didn’t want to have to get up at the crack of dawn on Friday, and drive in two hours of Friday morning L.A. traffic to make my 10am flight. So I cashed in some Hyatt points and got a room right next to the airport the night before my flight. When I used to live on the west side, I loved eating at a steak place called Petrelli’s Famous Steaks. I told Emily if she drove me down I’d buy her dinner. My old pal Omar the waiter is still there after 25 years, and he still remembers my order! It was amazing food and a nice, relaxing evening. Then Emily drove me to the Hyatt, dropped me off, and I checked in. Since she lives in the area, my pal Angi drove over to hang out for a while. Then I hit the hay fairly early so I could be up in the morning to catch my flight!
Friday the 20th – “PARDON ME BOY…” – Well, it’s not the famed Chattanooga Choo Choo, but American Airlines will get me to Tennessee for the Chattanooga Comic Con. It’s the second year they’ve held the con, so it’s a fairly young convention. I didn’t really sleep that well (I never do when I have to take a flight the next day for fear I’ll oversleep), but I got packed up and got lined up for the airport shuttle at 8:30am. I was the last one in line and I almost thought for a minute that I’d have to wait to take the next one. But the driver figured out a way to squeeze me on! Whew! When I got to the airport I checked in, got my boarding passes and headed to TSA for screening. It was a HUGE crowd, but we moved through pretty quickly. I got seated on the plane and noticed a familiar face sitting directly across the aisle from me. Emily Swallow from “The Mandalorian” and “Supernatural” had taken her seat, and I said hi. The last time I saw her was at the Voices Against Cancer event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in July. Emily is an ambassador for our charity organization and she loves being involved with it. A little further behind her was Lauren Tom, best known for her work on “Futurama.” We had a great time chatting on the flight, and we really had a blast mocking the dopey guy making the announcements on our American Airlines flight! That guy was me, as I’ve been the voice of American Airlines for over 10 years! We had a lot of fun with that. Everything was perfectly on time and we hit the Dallas airport right on schedule. I took the amazing Skytrain that circles the airport to get to a different terminal. The Dallas airport is HUGE and if your next gate is in a terminal that’s different from the one where you landed, the Skytrain is your best bet. I hit McDonald’s for lunch, and then found my gate for Chattanooga. The plane to Chattanooga was much smaller than the one from LA to Dallas, and when we got to the Chattanooga airport it had an air of familiarity to it. The town seemed very much like my hometown of Sioux Falls. Come to find out, the population of Chattanooga is the same as that of Sioux Falls! The airport was a breeze, and once I got my luggage, Lauren, Emily and I were picked up by Todd the driver. On the way to the hotel I got to see a beautiful Tennessee sunset. We got to the hotel, I checked in, dropped my luggage, and met up with Charlie and Aaron, the guys from AEU who booked me on this appearance. Charlie brought his wonderful family along and we all walked through the downtown area and found a nice Italian place in the Westin hotel to have dinner. We walked back to the hotel and I headed to my room to unpack and prep for the weekend!
Saturday the 21st – CHATTANOOGA COMIC CON: DAY 1 – CHATTING IN CHATTANOOGA! – The convention started at 10 and my assistant Zach and I headed to my table to get set up. As I was walking around the con, checking it out before it got busy, I saw a woman with a huge, beautiful white dog. I asked if I could take a picture of it. She said that the dog wasn’t actually a dog, but was a wolf! A wolf rescue called Wildefell Wolves was there doing photo ops, but she said she wouldn’t charge me for a photo since I was a guest. But I insisted on paying full price for the photo, as I felt their rescue was a really great cause! The wolf was gorgeous and very nice, and I also met a beautiful owl with bright, orange eyes. The feathers were simply magnificent, and the owl was easily two feet tall. Later, the handler brought her by my table so I could pet her. I noticed she was doing something that looked like panting. The handler said owls ventilate much like dogs when they’re warm. He told me to feel under her wing, and although I was hesitant at first, I did. She was very warm. I asked about her wingspan and her handler stood back, held her above his head and she spread out her wings. Her wingspan was at least 6 feet! Amazing! Although the day was fun meeting all the great people, I couldn’t wait to get back to the Wildefell booth and see one of the other wolves. They brought out a wolf “puppy” (he was 5 ½ months old) for photos. But his behavior was quite different than that of the white wolf, as his youth was clearly showing. He was easily distracted and had difficulty focusing on the handler as we were trying to get a picture. Just as he stopped to focus on the handler I would put my hand on his back for the photo, but he got distracted by my hand and turned around to look at me. Then he started playfully chewing the faux fur rug that was on the bench where I was sitting. Yup, he was definitely a rambunctious youngster. We finally got a great photo and I headed to lunch. The convention had lunch for us at 1, and I had a panel to do at 2. But the lunch consisted of food that wasn’t really my style. I’m sure it was VERY yummy, it just wasn’t my thing. So I decided to go to the concession stand and get a pulled pork barbecue sandwich. But just as I got up to the counter the lady announced that they were out of barbecued meat. Bummer! With only about 15 minutes until my panel, I didn’t know what I was going to eat. My pal Alex Zsolt (who lives in Nashville) had driven over to see me with his pal Phil. I asked them if they would call the local Domino’s and order me a pizza. I’d gladly pay, but I thought it would be funny to have the Domino’s delivery person burst into the middle of our panel and bring a pizza up on stage. Phil agreed to be the one to meet the driver while I was on stage and usher them in. Sure enough, halfway in the middle of the panel, Phil entered with the Domino’s driver; complete with the famous Domino’s shirt! The other actors couldn’t believe what they were seeing, but I figured this bit would be very “Andy Kaufman-ish.” Everyone laughed and I sat there on the panel enjoying my pizza. I offered some to my fellow panelists, but Mela Lee and Tara Sands politely declined. Only Xander Mobus took me up on the offer. Then I walked out into the audience and offered pieces to the fans. Before you knew it, the pizza was gone! I suspect people will be remembering the “pizza panel” for years to come. Hopefully I’ve started a tradition in this new, burgeoning convention! Even people who weren’t at the panel were talking about the “pizza panel!” People were mentioning it when they came up to my table later. I signed for the rest of the afternoon at my table, and then when the convention closed I headed back to my room to freshen up. My friend Natalie and her husband Sam and their family have lived in Knoxville for a while, and they drove over to join us for dinner. Natalie was an editor at Pax TV 20 years ago when I was the voice of the network. It was good to see them again! We were joined at dinner by about 10 other people from the convention, including Lauren Tom, Billy West, Marty Grabstein and others. What a fun evening. The weather was perfect out, so I’m glad we got a large table on the patio and enjoyed the gorgeous Tennessee evening. We got to talking about Alex’s career as a concert pianist, and some of the people at the table got very curious about his talents. I asked our server if the restaurant had a piano. She said they didn’t, but the Westin across the street did! My goal was to get a group of people across the street after dinner to have Alex play a little something. But when we got there a musician was performing with her guitar, and we didn’t want to wait around until she took a break. It was getting late, and not only did Alex have a long drive home, Natalie and her family had a considerable drive as well. Oh well. I got back to my room and packed some stuff up and prepped for the final day of the convention.
Sunday the 22nd – CHATTANOOGA COMIC CON: DAY 2 – TOODALOO TENNESSEE! – The con started at 11 and I was there on time and ready to sign. I met some more great people, and went over to the Wildefell booth to check on my wolfies. They were sleeping soundly. When I went to their booth the handler apologized that he didn’t know who I was when we chatted on Saturday. I told him it wasn’t any big deal, because Voice Actors are seldom recognized by their looks alone. Come to find out his daughter is a HUGE Bleach fan, and loves Renji in particular. I did a few lines with Renji’s voice for her and she said, “I’m shaking!” Then she sprung up from her chair and gave me a great big hug. I love knowing that the work has the kind of effect on people. It makes me feel wonderful. I signed a Renji photo for the wolf rescue and headed back to my table. Later on a young man named Diesel came to my table with his dad and was marveling at my photo of Jon Arbuckle. But as it was late Sunday, his dad said the kid had already spent his allotment of money. Call me a softie, but if I meet a kid who’s really a fan of any of the shows I’ve worked on, I don’t feel right about holding out for payment. I signed a Jon Arbuckle photo for him and it made his day! Come to find out, Diesel was a Jon fan, but his mom was an Invader Zim fan! Robert Pope is an artist who has been working with the Charles Schulz family for years as their approved “Peanuts” artist. He was at his table sketching, so I ran over and had him whip up an original sketch of Charlie holding the famous Christmas tree. My request was that the only color in the sketch would be the red ball on the tree. Robert told me one of the shows he used to animate was “Harvey Birdman,” and I told him he probably animated some of the scenes I voiced! What a small world. The show closed and I headed back to the hotel to pick up the luggage that I had checked with the front desk earlier. I changed my shirt and got on the bus so Todd the driver could take us back to the airport. John DiMaggio, Billy West, Emily Swallow and others were all on the bus. It told Todd to drive very carefully, because if (God forbid!) we crashed, the world of cartoons would stop! But he got us there safely and on time. Nobody was in line at TSA so we breezed right through! It seemed like all of the actors were taking flights to different places, so none of us would be on the same flight together. We said our goodbyes and found our gates. I had plenty of time before my flight, so I grabbed a spot at the little eatery and had some dinner. By the time I was done eating a crowd had gathered at the gate as take-off time was getting close. I slept all the way from Chattanooga to Dallas. I took the Skytrain again to get to a different terminal. As I was waiting to board the flight to Dallas I spotted my pal and fellow Voice Actor Todd Haberkorn who was also waiting to board. He was at a show over the weekend in Florida and was heading back to L.A. as well. Todd was also at Voices Against Cancer in Sioux Falls back in July. There were lots of “celeb-types” on our flight, as they were heading back to L.A. from a horror convention in Kentucky. I also saw fellow Voice Actor Zeno Robinson on the flight. It was fun hearing my voice on the American Airlines speaker system again. I don’t think I’ll ever quite get over the thrill of that! I was amused at the dork sitting in the seat in front of me, as I could clearly see what he was texting on his phone. He was on all sorts of dating sites, sending women slightly vulgar messages and looking at photos. He would come across a photo of a woman, and then zoom in on various parts of their bodies. The guy was obviously clueless to the fact that anyone could see what he was doing, but perhaps he didn’t care. I thought he was pretty idiotic for doing that on something as public as a flight. But oh well. I actually felt kind of embarrassed for him, as he was clearly completely devoid of class. All four of my flights over the weekend were perfectly on time with no hiccups or delays. Hooray for American Airlines! It was fantastic. We got back to L.A. right on time, and I texted Emily to let her know I was waiting. With all of the crowd, the traffic, and the construction going on at LAX, it took her a while to get to me. But I got in her car and we headed back to my house. It was good to be home, and it was a wonderful weekend! I’m definitely a Tennessee fan!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Strolling the aisles of the Chattanooga Comic Con.
A fan brought an Ecto-1 to the festivities.
I marveled at this gorgeous owl, who was part of the Wildefell Wolves rescue organization.
Getting pictures with these beautiful creatures made my weekend!
And getting this original sketch by Robert Pope was a huge plus as well!
Check out the detail!
A fan dressed as Jim Henson interacts with my pal Bryson and his puppet Zachary.
Didn’t get lunch before your panel? Domino’s delivers!
I hope you brought enough for everyone!
Lucas blew me away with his amazing Sonic the Hedgehog costume!
And a quick flashback to the weekend before last…On Instagram I spied this shot of me leaving Son of Monsterpalooza with The Count over my arm. So the next time you spot the…ahem…”legendary” Wally Wingert, please make sure to come up and say hi! I don’t bite. But The Count…well…he might! Seriously though, I’m very flattered.
