September 28 – October 04 (2026)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Normally I don’t like ai, but occasionally it’s used for something that I really appreciate. Like this “what if” moment.

As I prepare to sing “The Monster Mash” with the Burbank Community Band on October 24th, I’ve been listening to it obsessively over and over. It’s still a really great song!

Monday the 28th – MELLOW MONDAY! – Since the previous week was such a whirlwind I decided to start the week by taking it easy. I caught up on my rest (I needed it!) and did some work around the house. I have lots to do to prepare for my eldest daughter Lacey’s visit in a week! Later I took a WOG (walk/jog) around the neighborhood, and I spent some time outside in the anti-gravity chair afterwards. But it was chilly so I didn’t stay out long. I hear there’s a heatwave coming to L.A. at the end of the week, so we’re going to have our “summer encore” after all. That’s the way it usually goes in L.A. – and after 40 years it’s always been the same. Toward the end of summer we get 7 to 10 days of REALLY hot weather, and then magically it cools off for a while. But just when you think fall has settled in, summer comes back for a short encore of triple digit temps. Being a fan of the hot, dry conditions – I have no problem with it. It’s the cold I don’t like. I spent the rest of the evening typing out Wally’s Week.

Tuesday the 29th – BAND-TASTIC! – My pal Kelly Delcambre was on his way over to tweak my new “Chuck McCannequin” (a mannequin which is adorned with Chuck’s original costume from “Far Out Space Nuts” – see last week’s Wally’s Week) so I figured I’d get some work done before he arrived. Once he got to Planet Wallywood, we headed over to Paty’s to meet up with Julie, the Operations Manager of the Burbank Community Band. It all started with a phone conversation when a guy who’s involved with the band asked if I could imitate Vincent Price. For this year’s Halloween concert, the BCB will be closing the show with “Thriller.” They thought it might be fun to have a Voice Actor perform the ending rap live. I told him I didn’t have Vincent in my repertoire of voices, but I could do some sort of scary voice that would be just as effective. I thought they wanted me to record it. But a follow-up call from Julie the O.M. inferred that I was going to emcee the entire show. Not sure how it went from doing one voice to emceeing the entire show, but I thought it sounded fun. While Kelly and I were at lunch in “The Office” on the patio at Paty’s in Toluca Lake, I invited Julie to come by and join us so we could chat about it more. She laid out the whole show and I enthusiastically agreed to join the show. As a radio DJ in the Midwest we would go out all the time to area schools and emcee band concerts, etc. to promote the radio station. So this will be just like the old days! But in addition to emceeing, and doing the voice at the end of “Thriller,” I’ll also be singing “Monster Mash” LIVE! A dream come true! I wore the grooves out of that record when I was a kid! The concert will be on October 24th at a school auditorium in Burbank. The Burbank Community Band is made up of volunteer musicians who love giving back to the community through a series of free concerts throughout the year. I’m totally down with that! When Kelly and I got back to Planet Wallywood, he put some final tweaks on the Chuck McCannequin, and we moved him into his final display space in my kitchen – right next to Andy Kaufman as Elvis, and Andy Kaufman as Tony Clifton. It looks great. I just need to get a photo and info sign printed to display along with it, then it’s finished up. I relaxed for a bit, and then took my WOG later in the evening. I spent some time in the anti-grav chair, and then recorded my nightly auditions. I made a “Paladin Saladin” and watched a few episodes of “Have Gun – Will Travel,” as well as the airing of “The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz” that I recorded from ME-TV. This special originally aired back in 1989 (the 50th anniversary of “The Wizard Of Oz”) and ME-TV just reran it recently. This was in anticipation of running the actual movie this coming weekend. It will be the first time “WOO” has been aired on broadcast television in about 30 years. It used to be an annual tradition in my childhood when it used to run on CBS! The special is amazing, and now I can’t wait to see the film again! It’s always been my #1 favorite film!

Wednesday the 30th – CODEC CRAZINESS! – Stuck at home all day because we have no access in and out of our garages, I worked around the house. We recently had new asphalt laid in our driveways, and now they had to put a sealant on it. The sealant needed to cure for 24 hours before you could drive on it. I recorded all my auditions, took my nightly WOG, spent some time in the anti-grav chair, and came back inside to edit some videos. But come to find out, Windows 11 (which came with my new, recently-installed computer) doesn’t recognize the MTS video format. The video format my Sony camcorder uses is MTS, but I couldn’t get my system to play any of them. On the old computer they worked fine. So now I have to download something called a “codec” in order to get everything working again. My computer guy Thor sent me the link for that packet. Ugh.

Thursday the 1st – LOOOOOOONG DAY! – After hitting the post office to mail off a few things, I met my pal Scott Sebring at “The Office” at Paty’s for lunch. It was a long, but fun meeting. I picked up a few packages at my box, which included a few really great items. First, I bought one of those new D3 “50th Anniversary Muppet Show” jackets on eBay. Playing it safe I bought an XXL, but it’s much too large for me. So I need to order an XL now, which will probably fit better. I also got a double-figure set of Frank Gorshin’s Riddler character from the ’66 “Batman” TV series. I had pre-ordered this set back in 2018, and it took forever to get completed. The supply chain issues in 2020 didn’t help, and by 2025 I was convinced it was never coming. So I contacted the seller and got my money back. Apparently the figures WERE released in early 2026, and the seller only had one set left. I snapped it up! The set is GORGEOUS! Since I knew Frank Gorshin, and I even got to do his voice in two animated “Batman” films, I needed these figures. I had no idea they’d be quite so deluxe. And the likenesses are spot-on! I got a few grocery items, and then chatted on the phone with the marketing guy for the Burbank Community Band concert. I got home and got ready to do my auditions, but my audio program wasn’t working! What changed!? Oh yeah, that damn codec package I had to download. THAT was probably the culprit. Sure enough it was interfering with my audio recording program. I called my computer guy Thor, but no answer. I called Scott Sebring, who initially helped me install the audio program, and he walked me through how to uninstall the codec program, and reinstall the audio recording program. Luckily, that did the trick! I recorded my auditions and sent them to my agent. Whew! My gal Angi came over, and since she was craving pizza, we headed over to Little Toni’s to grab a bite. While we were there got to be seated in the booth that was used in the movie “Obsession.” FUN! I got back home to relax, but my tummy was too full of yummy pizza to go do my WOG. And it had been such a long day anyway, so I took a night off from my exercise. I tried to spend a little time outside enjoying the night in the anti-gravity chair, but I kept falling asleep. I came back inside and hit the hay.

Friday the 2nd – THE HEAT IS ON! – Our final heatwave of the summer of 2026 is underway! Triple digits were expected. But unlike the heatwave of a few weeks ago (which were hot AND humid thanks to an offshore hurricane) these would be hot, DRY days. My kinda weather! The maids came over to clean, and when they finished I got on the computer to fill out some paperwork for a new Voice Over job I just got cast for. It’s a video game of some sort, but I don’t know much more about it. That evening ME-TV featured a special airing of “The Wizard Of Oz” – hosted by Lisa Whelchel. I cooked some hot dogs on the grill and got ready to enjoy my evening. While I was outside checking on the dogs, I smelled the wieners cooking, I felt the warm, dry weather, and I got a whiff of the chlorine of the pool outside. All those sensations converged and filled me with a wonderful sense of “all things summer.” It made me smile. But then I got a bit melancholy, knowing that this would most likely be the last bash for the summer of 2026. I’m not a winter guy at all. I watched the presentation on ME-TV and it was amazing. I loved that heading in and out of commercial breaks, Lisa offered up a lot of trivia and commentary about the making of the film. We certainly never got THAT on CBS back in the old days! That movie takes me to all sorts of emotional places, for a variety of reasons. One minute I’ll be laughing hysterically, the next minute I’ll be wiping tears out of my eyes, and the next minute I’ll be mentally acknowledging what a monumental achievement of filmmaking greatness that movie really is. I always love watching it. I rested a bit, and then took my nightly WOG. It was still really warm out, so when I spent my time in the anti-grav chair I took the opportunity to enjoy a nice cigar. Apparently we have a few more nights of this weather, so I’m glad I’m stocked up on cigars!

Saturday the 3rd – A “WOO” ENCORE! – After visiting with my stylist Andie for a touch-up on my color, I headed to my box to pick up a package. My current pair of track pants had worn out. I had no idea until I looked at them closely the night before, and saw that I had worn a hole in them! All the friction during walking, no doubt. So I got on Amazon and ordered two new pair, and they came right away! ME-TV was airing “Wizard Of Oz” again, but this time the host would be Svengoolie – their regular Saturday night horror host. I wanted to see his presentation of the film too. I made a salad and sat down to enjoy the film. What fun! I rested for a bit, and then took my nightly WOG. Once again I spent a warm evening in the anti-grav chair enjoying a nice cigar. On the area of the driveway where I sit in my anti-grav chair, the pavement had gotten a bit wet. The automatic sprinklers had gone off earlier and the residual water was running to the central drain. During the time of night when I’m out doing my exercise, there’s a fair amount of moths flying about. My chair is also next to a hedge, and the moths like to congregate there. But I noticed a little moth sitting on the ground where it was wet. I named him David Lee Moth. He wasn’t moving, and I was hoping he was OK. I know that if a moth’s wings get wet, they can’t fly. When I shined my light on him I saw (what looked like) something coming out of his head – like a tongue. He was drinking the cool water that was on the pavement. Moths have a proboscis that acts like a tongue so they can drink. That’s what he was doing! But then he just sat there for a while. Then I realized…he’s cooling off! The water on the pavement probably felt good! But after a short time, he walked around and flew away. Amazing. It was clear and quiet outside (except for the noise on the nearby freeway). It was REALLY pleasant! I came back inside to do some work around the house, and do my monthly prep for “Laurel & Hardy Theatre” night. I’m working my way through all their feature films, and the third one is called “The Devil’s Brother” or “Fra Diavolo.” This is one of my least favorites of their features. Early on in their career as feature film stars, Hal Roach wanted to do these elaborate operettas. I understand why. Sound in films was still a fairly new thing, and he wanted to make them as much of a spectacle as possible. But Laurel & Hardy didn’t really work well in that format. They cast an opera singer as the main character, with the Boys as comedy relief. It’s almost as if Laurel & Hardy were special guests in their own film. Plus, the version I have on DVD wasn’t restored, so it looked old and tattered. Most all of their other films have been restored to beautiful, high definition quality, and they look fantastic. I made my usual Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box, had my popcorn, Diet Pepsi in my Stan Laurel mug, and a banana Twinkie (one of the few times I eat treats with sugar in them, nowadays). It was an enjoyable evening, but “The Devil’s Brother” is still very low on my list of L&H favorites (through no fault of their own). It’s just not the right format for them. Next month though, is “Sons Of The Desert” – a film I NEVER get tired of seeing!

Sunday the 4th – CALM BEFORE THE STORM! – The hot weather outside made it really easy to spend all day inside the air conditioned comfort sleeping the day away! I worked around the house a little, did some auditions and sent them to my agents, and then prepped for the forthcoming week. My eldest daughter Lacey gets in on Thursday, and we have Son of Monsterpalooza all weekend! I took my nightly WOG, and spent some time in the anti-grav chair with another nice cigar. I figure I only have a few more nights of warm, dry weather, so I’m getting as much enjoyment out of them as I can. Cigars and cold weather don’t really mix, in my world. So when winter comes I’m pretty much done with cigars until next summer. I came back inside and did some work, and didn’t get to bed until noon on Monday! WOW!

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK