September 15 – September 21 (2025)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

One of the saddest parts of the movie “Jaws” is when you see a dog owner calling for his dog Pippet on the beach, but not getting any response. It’s implied that the shark, in addition to eating a fair amount of swimmers, has also eaten poor Pippet. But several keen-eyed fans have discovered that Pippet actually survived, and shows up on the dock in a later scene. This internet fan-theory would prove that Pippet WASN’T eaten by the shark at all! In fact, Steven Spielberg has said in interviews that Pippet survived. Here’s the screenshot I found on-line that proves that Pippet (or a dog looking very much like Pippet) avoided Bruce’s voracious appetite.

I’ve often considered Van Halen to be one of the greatest rock bands ever. Their first four albums are must-haves in the collections of any rock enthusiast. “Push Comes To Shove” from the album “Fair Warning” was on my mind this week. Such attitude!

Monday the 15th – $URPRI$E! – When I awoke and checked my emails, I was shocked that I had one from my agent that included a ton of paperwork to fill out. Apparently I was on the Emmys over the weekend! I cut an audition on Thursday afternoon and submitted it to my agent. It was for an intro voice for a comedy bit that would air on the Emmys. I had no idea that the show would be that weekend, but when I got on-line Sunday evening I started seeing all sorts of Emmy-related posts. I figured somebody else had gotten the gig and I didn’t think much else about it. But as it turned out, the Emmys folks didn’t need to do a session. They just used the audition that I sent them! WOW! This business never ceases to amaze me. I guess because of the hectic schedule involved in putting together a live TV show, they didn’t really have time to do a session. They used the first of the 3 takes I gave them. It’s odd, because when I got the script it seemed a lot like the stuff I used to do for “The Tonight Show” all the time. But it sure was a nice surprise to wake up to on a Monday afternoon. I recorded a few auditions and then met my gal Angi for lunch at Chin Chin. Then I got back home to continue my ongoing voice rest. I’ve been having off-and-on voice problems ever since I got back from the convention in Houston about three weeks ago. My problem is I just can’t “shut up.” I’m always talking, or singing, or something – never giving my pipes a chance to fully recover. I had a fun session coming on Wednesday morning, so I was praying I’d be fully recovered by then. Later I typed out Wally’s Week, and then took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) through the complex. These regular, nightly WOGs end up being about a mile and a half, 30 minute jaunts. And they’ve done wonders for my blood pressure. I started doing them almost 2 years ago, and I try to go out every night. After I’m done exercising (always in the middle of the night – my favorite time of day) I grab an ice cold iced tea and sit in my anti-gravity chair behind my house and enjoy the quiet night, and the gorgeous night-time sky. But it’s still pretty humid out, uncommon for Los Angeles weather. I hear it’s supposed to rain soon.

Tuesday the 16th – DARTH DAY! – The day started with a few last-minute auditions, and information for my session that I’ll have for Target on Wednesday morning. My pal Kelly Delcambre came over to help me put together my life-size Darth Vader figure. I moved my car out of the garage temporarily so we could work in there with spray glue and batting. Kelly uses it to pad up the mannequin so the suit will look perfect when it’s added. We put everything together and it looked great. For years I’ve had a talking Darth Vader bust on top of my video cabinet. I cannibalized a voice chip from a toy that contained several of Vader’s lines from the first two movies. I had buttons installed in my wall that activated the voice clips, as well as his signature breathing. A speaker was mounted just behind the grill inside his mask, so the sound would come out of his mouth area. I purchased the fiberglass helmet and chest plate from eBay many years ago and it’s always looked amazing. I built the tunic and the cloak for the bust myself out of various, appropriate fabrics, and the short cape was made by my seamstress at the time. But since I got the full Darth Vader costume from Jazwares earlier this year, I planned on expanding the bust into a full, talking, life-size figure. Once I sold the Monsters, Inc. figures, I had plenty of space available in my living room for both Darth Vader, and my life-size James Bond figure that I had fabricated for last May’s Monsterpalooza. We put the figure together piece by piece and it generally looked amazing. We still have some work and tweaks to do on it; padding the chest and shoulders some more, altering the costume a bit to change it from my measurements to the mannequin’s specs, and having a new cloak and cape made. The mannequin is a few inches taller than me, and the cape and cloak had been altered to my height so I could wear it at Monsterpalooza last May. But the new cape and cloak will be sized to the mannequin’s height so both are floor-length. I also need to have a new base made, which will contain the proper wiring for the voice chip and a kick switch that I can activate to make him talk. This set-up will be pretty deluxe when it’s all done. I drove to my box to pick up a package, and then met my pal Chris Malmin for lunch at Paty’s. I got back home to relax, prep the studio for Wednesday morning’s session for Target, and then recorded some auditions. I relaxed for a bit, and then got up to do my nightly WOG, with subsequent time in the anti-grav chair. But since I had an early morning the next day, I hit the hay.

Wednesday the 17th – RIGHT ON TARGET! – There are going to be some cool new Target TV ads coming soon, and I can’t wait for you to see them. I provided the Voice Over for them and it was a very fun session. It’s so nice to be at the point in my career where the people who hire you for gigs start the session by saying they’re a fan of my work. It’s so wonderful to hear. The producers mentioned that they loved my work as Renji and The Riddler, so I made it a point to record a Riddler voicemail message for one of the producers at the end of the session! When the session was finished I packed up my small Mahna Mahna puppet to ship off to a guy in the UK. A few years ago I spied a beautiful Mahna Mahna Muppet replica on eBay, fabricated by a talented builder in Chile, but when he arrived I realized that he was much too small to be a performance puppet. And he was also too small to be in scale with the rest of my Muppet replicas. But the puppet was absolutely beautiful. I contacted the builder and asked if he could build another one using specific size specs, which would require him to enlarge his patterns somewhat. He agreed, and I sent off some specific fabrics I wanted him to use in the creation of the new Mahna. When the new one arrived I was amazed. I felt he captured the look of the vintage 70’s Mahna Mahna much more closely than the one built a few years ago. So now that I had the new one, I really didn’t need “mini Mahna” any longer. Though he was gorgeous, I felt he needed a new home. I was contacted by an up-and-coming puppeteer in the UK and we agreed on a price. So off across the pond mini Mahna goes! I also boxed up some stuff to send to the grandkids in South Dakota, including souvenirs from my recent jaunt to the legendary Magic Castle in Hollywood, as well the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre. I headed over to the post office and was lucky enough to be first in line! I hit them just at the right time; post-noon rush, and pre-closing rush. But when I went back to my car I was blocked in by somebody, so I had to wait about 20 minutes until they came back to move their car. When I got back home I did some work, cleaned up my desk, did some organizing, and vacuumed my floor. My old friend Brittney Powell was coming to town for the weekend and she would be crashing in the Puppet Room for a few days. I picked her up around 9 in the evening and we sat at Denny’s for a while having dinner. We chatted and got caught up on all the news. I hadn’t seen her since last January, and so much has happened since then. We got back to Planet Wallywood and got her settled. I have to be up very early the next morning for a video game session, so I didn’t WOG. Besides, it’s supposed to rain overnight, so I may have gotten rained out regardless.

Thursday the 18th – I’M REALLY GONNA MISS SUMMER! – Waking up before my alarm goes off is pretty great sometimes. I’ve always had a pretty reliable body clock, so my eyes popped open about 10 minutes before my alarm would have buzzed. I got up and got ready for a 3 hour video game session at Studiopolis. On the way there I stopped at McDonalds and got some breakfast, which was shockingly expensive, considering what I got. The session went very well and I was in good voice. But now I’m thinking that I may need to self-impose some voice rest again for a few days, as it’s still not back 100%. I got back home and picked Brittney up so we could head to Panera for lunch. I picked up a few grocery items and then headed back home to put everything away. Later our friend Amanda was in town, and she wanted to see Brittney, so we met her at Bob’s Big Boy for dinner on the patio. It was a gorgeous summer evening, and we had a lot of fun dining and catching up. I’m really gonna miss summer, as I know our great weather probably won’t last much longer. Despite the recent spell of humidity, L.A. summers really are the best. I went back home to do some work around the house, record some auditions, and relax. I took my WOG and spent some time looking at the mostly-overcast sky in my anti-grav chair. Somebody somewhere must’ve been testing their searchlight array. I got to sit there in my chair and watch searchlights dancing on the cloud cover overhead. It was quite entertaining. The clouds, the dark sky, and the movement of the searchlights were really quite hypnotic. What a restful, peaceful evening. I came back inside to do some work and noticed that I was having voice problems again. The 3 hour video game session probably didn’t help. But this meant I’d be on self-imposed voice rest for the foreseeable future.

Friday the 19th – DUSTING MONSTERS! – Even though my voice didn’t have its usual capabilities, physically I felt fine. I just needed to shut up for the next few days. But it’s difficult to do, seeing as how I’m always mumbling to myself or singing some random song. My computer guy Brian checked in so we could ascertain why my weekly back-up didn’t occur last Sunday. The rest of the day I just laid around and didn’t talk. I kept hydrated with lots of fluids, but it’s just so frustrating to have these issues. Later I took my WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. But while sitting there I got some sort of irritant in my throat (maybe some pollen or something) and I couldn’t stop coughing. It’s definitely allergy season again, and perhaps my allergies may have something to do with my voice problems. So I didn’t stay outside long. I went back inside to finish up my living room project that I had started a week ago. I brought my tall ladder up from the garage to clean some of the displays that are up high, but I got busy and couldn’t complete it right away. But tonight I put the ladder in front of my “monster shelf” and got busy. I have a shelf above my TV that has a façade of an exterior castle wall, complete with arched windows, and bulbs behind those windows that make it look like a fire is burning in the fireplace. In the foreground of the display I have several of the “premium format” monster figures made by Sideshow from several years back. These 18” figures are gorgeous, complete with amazing likenesses of the original monsters, and cloth clothing. On the far left I have Lon Chaney’s vampire character from “London After Midnight. Then it’s Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster, Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman, and at the far right is Lon Chaney Sr. as The Phantom Of The Opera. I had tried to incorporate the Freddy Krueger figure with them, but it looked out of place. It was best to have the “classic monsters” all together. It especially thrilled me to have father and son together, with the Wolfman and Phantom figures next to each other. I have also adorned the “set” with craft-type shrubberies that make it look like all the monsters are outside the castle looking to cause mischief. It’s a wonderful display, that also includes some effects lighting as well, but over the years it had gotten quite dusty. Cleaning figures such as these is always tricky, and I only ever use water and paper towels to clean them; NEVER any chemicals! The heads and hands are easy to wipe clean, as are the bases upon which they’re mounted. But the costumes can be tricky. It’s best to just take the damp paper towels and dab the costumes to pick up any dust or residue. If I do happen to accidentally “wipe” the costumes, the paper towels can leave little bits of residue on the fabrics, especially if the costume is wool. So once the figure has been wiped clean I take some wadded up painter’s tape and remove any leftover bits of paper towel from the costumes. It works pretty well. When I finished them I climbed down from the ladder and took a look. WOW! It’s amazing how the cleaning process brightens them up so much! They look brand new! They were dirtier than I thought! I did some more work around the house, took the ladder back down to the garage, and hit the hay.

Saturday the 20th – PAPERWORK! UGH! – When I’m undergoing a period of voice rest I’ve found that it’s best to sleep as much as possible. That way I’m not unconsciously using my voice. Out of habit I’ll just say things out loud, or sing some random song that pops into my head, and it’s not a good idea to do that. I must let my vocal cords completely rest so they can “uninflame.” I texted a lot and relaxed. I did a little more work on the Darth Vader life-size figure, and then rested some more. Later I took my WOG, and spent some subsequent time in the anti-grav chair. But it had gotten chilly and I could see my breath! When I got back inside I began the arduous task of reconciling my bank statements for my personal and corporate account. I never look forward to this time of the month with much pleasure. But, it’s gotta be done. I had made an accounting error somewhere along the way, and it was frustrating. But I got it figured out. I only slept a few hours before I had to be up again to take Brittney to the airport.

Sunday the 21st – SHUT UP! – Brittney’s flight was leaving shortly after noon, so I got up, cleaned up, and loaded up her luggage. Once I dropped her off at the airport I drove to KFC to get some lunch. Then I went over to my box and picked up a package. I’m not usually up, out and about on Sundays, so this was an unusual treat. I got back home to do some work, but because I had been sleeping so much over the past few days during my voice rest, I really wasn’t that tired. I did manage to get in a small nap before my pal Mark Fullerton dropped by so we could go get dinner at Paty’s and talk about an upcoming trip to Kansas City for Planet Anime in November. He wanted to try out some of his new lenses for his camera, so he spent some time in my living room snapping various shots of my Roger M00re James Bond figure, and my Darth Vader figure. I told him that Vader would be changing a little bit soon, but he didn’t seem to mind. After Mark took off I relaxed for a while, then got up to do my WOG and then spend some time relaxing in the anti-grav chair. What a great week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK