The Voice of Rob Paulsen

this is the coolest thing. So for everybody here at I Hear Voices. The first thing we need to say is that this show would absolutely not exist without our guest today, because one of the greatest shows in history for anybody who loved animation was Talking Tunes. Oh God, bless you well man by the way you lowered your standards enough to get on to come on my show. That's not you're kidding. You know how honored I was to be able to sit there with you. And without

Talking Tunes, I Hear Voices would not exist. So credit where credit is due. We were trying to to pick up the torch, which is absolutely impossible to do after having such a brilliant show, So thank you for joining us. Hello, Christie, nice to see it loves to have a lot of foudu in the water tower. Look at that beautiful smile. Wow, I am really excited to me because I'm a huge fan of yours. You look pretty normal size to me.

But thank you very much. All of this is uh is just well, you know, well, anytime anytime anyone takes a moment to express their appreciation for something that you were paid to do for free, um you would have done for free, is a is a profound compliment. And I I love it when people say, well, I know you hear this all the time, but it's the first time I heard it from you, and it's always incredibly flattering and humbling. So thank you, Christie. It's very strange.

One of the things that's so strange and and wonderful. Uh. And and you know, anytime there's anything terrible like the pandemic, you try to look for positives wherever you can And one of the things that came out that was so positive was a whole new group of people found animation. Hey man, it has blown up off rightfully so the most talented actors you will ever meet in history, from any genre of acting. You want to pick our bar non voice over actors. I will say that till the

day I beg if they are the best ever. And people they're starting to get there due just a little bit. And when you're at a convention and you're seeing on camera actors with a decent line of people, and then the voice over actors with people down the street, you realize you are finally getting their due. Isn't that something? Uh? It is. I started my career in in Hollywood forty four years ago, uh, ostensibly to do what I had

done at theater, guide music and all that. So I came out and was doing TV and movies and a lot of commercials on camera. H But as you know, well, um, you know, average looking Caucasian kids from Michigan or a diamond doesn't Uh. Some are talented, some art and sometimes it doesn't matter, especially when commercials are small parts on television. If you fit the suit, you got a shot. Um.

But I'll tell you what. Everybody loves cartoons virtually, and when I got here, cartoons were pretty much relegated to Saturday morning. The Three networks. Um, and so they were literally a handful of actors who were fortunate up to do them all and rightfully so June Foray and now blank and you know does Butler and just legends over and over and over and over again. Um. So in the mid eighties, I think my agent, uh called. By the way, I'm still represented by them. They still haven't

figured it out that they should. Don't be a long time ago, but um they said, have you ever thought about auditioning for animation as well? Sure, but it's that gig is closed. Well, you know, things are starting to change. Of course, this was before uh the Internet, before HBO, certainly before Cartoon Network anything. So the first show I went to audition forward shows were g I Joe and Transformers, and I got a gig, and I remember just minor characters.

I called my agent literally when I found a phone booth, um, and I said, do whatever it takes, send me out for more of this. The first thing I noticed when I walked into this room of wonderful actors, several of whom where people I recognized from episodic television. You know, Bob Rigiley or Bill Daily or Marsha Wallace, whomever. And the second thing I noticed is that they were not only obviously gifted, but they were utterly unencumbered by how

they looked. They were monsters and you know, bad guys, good guys singing, not singing exactly why kids begin acting in the first place. It's literally like high tech sandbox. And I thought, man on, man, now you're talking. Nobody gives up Pardner. You know what what I'm looking like? Um, I was only limited by my chops, my willingness to be fearless, small enough, you know what I mean, but not not worry about how I looked, at how I came across, and by getting the right angle or or

my teeth, none of that. It was literally like being a kid saying, all right, you be the monster, and I'm gonna be the guy to kill the monster. That's what it was. And oh my god, it really was like like somebody had shown a light on this is the reason you came to Hollywood. Uh. And honestly, now, when I'm old enough to be pretty much everybody's grandfather, people don't know. People don't know that I was the

entertainment at the last time. Pretty old I was checky of arimathea, you know, but sit down, Judas, that's exactly and you know what it was, Jesus, what a party, and you know it was. It was great. But nonetheless, Uh, now that I'm older, I'm young enough to travel around the world doing what I'm doing now getting a chance to meet people, as you had alluded to earlier. Well, these fantastic conventions, which are so ubiquitous, they're springing up like it's on a twelve year old. I couldn't be

more excited. The stories we hear over and over again, you guys, is the extent to which these characters connect with people. It got me through this my father died. We used to watch it together, you name it. And it is so much bigger than my paycheck. It is so much bigger than an action figure or rating point. And as long as I can do this physically and

travel around, I can't get enough of it. It is after the pandemic and increcredible reminder of not only how fortunate we all are to do this gig, but our work really is important. It really is, and oh my god, you guys can't enough of it. Well, it's also the thing that's amazing is it's generational, which is something that I love so and every generation really believes that they

have their own, their best, their best cartoons. And with the funny thing is mine does um so everything, So everything you've done when we're talking about we can get and we're going to get into Pinky and the Brain and all this stuff obviously, but when you say the first thing you did was G I Joe's, I had to run home to watch G I Joe. I would cry when I missed G I Joe. I mean it was one of those things where this was back in the day where there was one VCR and somebody had

it on the streets. So it wasn't you couldn't. You didn't record anything. There was no no YouTube, no DVDs. If you caught the show, you caught the show. If you didn't, you didn't. But the idea that you got to do G I Joe and Transformers, and that was during the ThunderCats and he Man and silver Hawks. I mean again that those that's my jam, that's my that's it got me into those cartoons. So I've got to know a little bit about what it was like to

record G I Joe. Oh well, I walked in and Charlie Avert, the lovely Charlie Adder, who just had a birthday I think the day before yesterday. Uh Charlie and I meant on G I Joe five six um and Uh Charlie came from a heavy duty Broadway background and my background was live theater music and then commercials in l a um. But we were both really really excited. And as a kid, when I was a kid, G I Joe was an action figure for boys. It was like about that talk. Of course you always said, oh

it's like a Kendall. No, it's not a doll. It's an acid figure and one of which I had. So as soon as my agent said G I Joe, I said, oh, I am so in yeah, try and stop me. So I got hired to do a character called snow Job, who was, uh, like I, a Nordic winter soldier, you know. So he was. He was the Polar. He was a polar Polar ranger. Came with the sled with the snowmobile and he did check this out, Christie. He came with

the sled. He was all dressed in white, a white a white weapon, okay, and he's got a white hood. So everything is gonna meld in a mission with the snow sea. You can't see, but what they also don't tell you. He's got a bright red beer and so he's like a real Santa Clause. Well said, thank you,

Well said a little more spelled from Boston. And so I really thinking to myself, Yeah, as much as I as much as I want to do this gig and Ruski with half a half a link of being able to fire his weapon could not be off in three hundred yards, you know. But every single time you guys walked in, I could not wait to get to the the studio. And every time I saw the people whom I you know, um, Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, over and over and over again and natily, did I know I

was going to have a really great experience. I was going to have just a fun experience because you know these folks and they're so talented, but they're also uh just the nicest, most accepting, zero pretense, no arrogance. Uh. I really truly felt like I'd won the lottery. And I was so thrilled to get g I Joe because it was a big deal for me. And then they called me had this, we're doing this other thing called Transformers,

and so I go and become an aerial bot. And to this day when I go to UH conventions, people come up to me with I didn't even know that there was a snow Job action figure? Are you kidding? My god? How about that? Yeah? I do, my god. They're they're incredibly uh they become incredibly um. If you can find a brand new with the bubble thing still on it focks and has the card to the back and he tells you the whole back story of everybody was to save the cards. You could, you could cut

them out and save the cards. And I had all the cards and all the guys, and it was I was that kid. I mean that g I Joe, especially G I Joe, Transformers, mask um, those were all like you said, that's it was just commercials for the toys. But that's all that's all I cared about. It was the greatest thing in the world. So that's that was my You you change my life in that way. You

That's what it was. That's what it was when you were What I find interesting about the rooms that we all work in as voice actors and the community of people just obviously who were so talented and supportive. We hear this time and time again. But do you feel like, I know, some movies it's almost like life imitates art. But with g I, Joe, did you feel like it was a more math skilling kind of recording process or five? Well, yeah,

I mean totally. I was trying to be you know, uh in terms of the context of the character, trying to be, you know, a badass. Now that I had my little had a sort of a down east, the sort of accent there from up and on the northeast, you know, and and knowing is half the battle, yo, Joe. Um, it was the coolest thing in the world. But that's the thing. I'm five nine and a half of buck fifty. Nobody is going to be intimidated by me, Christie, at

least with respect to my you know, bad ashes. Um. But man, I I can well, like well all of you questioned, not just well you too, Christie, all of us can play characters, uh, for whom we would never be considered on camera ever. And UM. To to have that experience still and now to be able to see generational I was this weekend I was with Maurice la Marshall, we're doing a thing in Ohio. Oh my god, with

Pinky in the brain and g I Joe. We have three generations grandparents who are sixty five, who were thirty when the shows came out, wash them in college or whatever, had a couple of beers or drank the bong water and watched cartoons, you know, And now they have their children and grandchildren and they're all yeah, yeah, And people say, well, you know, I got to tell you now thinking they drink. Dude.

Steven Spielberg is seventy six. He's my boss, you think, but he gives him a problem for being the biggest richest nerd in Hollywood. Of course not. But these are utterly uh, not at all. I'm what I'm trying to say. It's not at all inappropriate for anybody to watch cartoons. My god. If I if I watch Bamby now, I still fall apart when he starts, when Babby starts screaming for his mom, I always do course, does that happen

like the Babby's mom is dead by? Like the credits, by the way, exactly what a way to start a film that's like, my popcorn is not even done? What are you doing. I love that that as well, stated so perfectly at the beginning the incredible platinum lining for people in our business Visa v COVID is exactly that that it drove people to kind of go, well, you know what, I haven't watched G I Joe in a million years. Let me see if I could paint it on YouTube. Oh my god, what this dude, I've got? All?

G I jo was on YouTube's and it absolutely has blown my mind how how marvelous these characters hold up forever and the extent to which they inspired brand new creators to go to all these lengths because there's so much technology now that they can use that never was available all those years ago. You know what's funny is I I constantly remind myself and my my wife joke. My wife and I joke about this the whole time, because it's kind of like a motto I live by.

There is a very big difference between childish and childlike, and cartoons and animation are the perfect way to remain childlike for as long as you want. In defense though of the nerd Dum, I also think like something that's brought me to animation time and time again, is is the art of it, right? I mean every everything that we see that you've done, it's like different, you know, everything is just a little Yeah, Ninja Turtles is not

pinky in the brain. We're not even getting into Ninja Turtles yet we got that much, so much I can't even it's so much to talk about, um, but no, but it is. It's it sounds ridiculous, but coming from on camera and Rob you did this as well, and Christie you did this as well, you can get burnt out very quickly. And the industry becomes the industry and

it's this machine. And it's like you forget about the love of acting in the love and you and then all of a sudden you're in a booth yeah, and then next thing you know, you're like, wow, this is what I wanted the whole time, is just acting well. And how many times do you guys, both of you here as on camera's talent, how many times you meet people who are primarily doing on camera gigs and they just said, oh my god, who who duration I so bad? They want to do Simpsons? Are you know family Guy

or whatever? And big actors too, big actors time? How do you get that gig. How do you do that? How do I get that? And it's like, oh, give you my agents name, sir, who's won two Academy Awards. Absolutely, I mean we did up. I was Donna Tello in a two thousand and twelve version of Nickelodeon of Turtles at Nickelodeon and the last season, a thirteen episode arc and I get to work one day and David Tennant

is they're doing this particular bad guy. And of course I'm a huge fan of broad Church and let alone the doctor or who would all be? So I said, Dave, what a pleasure? Oh man, thank you? And I said, I said, I we are real. Did you'd be here? And he said it was absolutely a little bit sort of non plus not in a really horrible but he said, this is Ninja Turtles. And it wasn't. It wasn't like, well, it's turtles. He was, no, this is Ninja turtles. Man um anybody John Cena was on it, um um. It

just yeah, And it lasts for utterly forever. That silly little song. I shouldn't say silly that song. I sang an animaniaction with all the countries of the world that that that song has now as a stand alone several piece of modern animation art period. End of story. It's about to three minutes it and of course it was very glad to sing it. But the hard part. We live in Hollywood, you guys. You can throw a dark and get a good singer. What you can't do is

throw a darkness somebody to write that stuff. And that is such a testament to great writing, great animation. Uh. And you don't have to know animaniacs exactly, Christie. You ain't got to know nothing about Warner Brothers animation, animaniac nothing. You could watch that and just go, oh my god. And that that's what I love about about this particular gig is it's uh, it's sort of not even contextual.

You can watch it for its own reason. Many pieces and and are many different shows and they are exciting, inspiring, mind blowing, and they're like you just want to watch them again and again and again. Well, my one of my favorite stories Jason Marsden. Um so, my my best friend Jason, when we were doing Boy Meets World. Um, the audience, you know, there's a warm up guy for the audience while they're there, and in between scenes, people would get up and do Yeah, they get up and

do different um uh talents for the audience. And Jason would always grab the microphone and do that song every single week. He just do it in the voice as much as he could to try to try to emulate you. And I heard that song over and over and over from Mr Mark. I just I just love that boy so much. We did me too. He um. We did uh you know show together called goof Troop and then we did the Goofy movie. That was another one of

those things. I don't know. Five six years ago, I gotta call and Disney said, you guys know all about d twenty three and the big Disney. We are just there. We were just there in a couple of weekends. OK. Right, So they called and said, hey, we're doing a Goofy movie. Um, you know, retrospective twenty anniversaries. Great. I'd love to come down you guys. I had no idea how big that movie is. Two millions of people huge, And it's not only a charming little movie. But I know I'm preaching

of the choir. But for all your folks out there, if you've not seen it, watch it again or watch it. But but also so um my son is now thirty eight, but anyone, any young boy with his father, can utterly relate to the difficulties that both were having. Both Max and Goofy were having to communicate with It's timeless. It is about, you know, Max hinding his way and Goofy went to let go and trying to communicate. Very difficult. But those performances Bill Farmer as Goofy and Jason Marsden

as Max, we're nothing short of incredible. They were heartrending, oh beautiful and almost like human human elements. Absolutely, Christie and uh, you know you can see Goofy just gosh. I just don't know. I don't know, honey, I don't know what to say to woman. I don't love him so much. But it's perfect. And yeah, talk about acting is acting those characters. They're just fine actors. Jason and

Billy are just world class actors. It's not a wonder that they they do so well because they're really talented. I remember asking Andrea Romano about that, where I said, because you know, working with Andrea, you never know it was like that, like the teenage meeting Ninja Turtles thing where you walk in the room and you never knew the actors that were going to be there, and you were like, oh my god, I get to work with John Ritter, I get to where it was just one

but Robert Patrick, one person after the next. And I always asked her, I said, what now when you're casting? You know, with Andrea, I try to get as many little tidbits from her as that possibly could. And I was like, how how do you do your casting? And she said, I don't ever cast voice over actors. I cast actors. That's it. She's like, some of them can do a bunch of voices, some of them can't. But I always cast actors, and that's that's the difference. Is

it interesting? If you go down her IMDb of the shows on which she was a director, most, I would say, most of, not all, All are are iconic shows that show and the reason they are is because, for example, Mark Hamill is a tripic actor. Of course, he's a tripic actor. Kevin Conroy is a mind blowing actor, right, So Tress McNeil over and over and over and over and over again. And so it makes perfect sense that not only is she a tripic director, but she knows that it is not just about to do in the

funny voice. And I think more and more people, thanks to shows like yours, are starting to understand it. Wow. Uh And I know you guys get this at all the time from young people. Christie, I'm a big fan. How do I if you get into this? What do you suggest I do? I do a really great Bart Simpson good for you and and have a blast. But I'm not trying to burst your bubble. I would never

tell you not to come out here. But it's about acting, and it's about improv acting maybe music, stretching yourself, being utterly self aware. That is to say, not that you're a beautiful young woman that goes out the window, a beautiful young woman when you walk out the door. But the idea is to inhabit the character. And that's why people love bugs. That's why people love Barts, why they love Goofy, why they love you know, all these characters.

They're wonderfully well. You mentioned before the term high tech sandbox to play in, and I think that's something that we haven't heard before. Will and it's really love that shirt. I play in a high tech sandbox. And you know, Robert, you had that Vanity Fair YouTube. You know video that we saw and I mean, well you saw it, right, I'm sure you've seen it. You've I think you've quoted it before Vanity Fairview. Robin. He does all the voices

and it's it's amazing. If you haven't seen it, not will But you guys listening, if you haven't seen it, you should definitely go and check out Rob's amazing ability to just inhabit all of those characters. But I mean, could we talk about that, I mean, your approach, whatever you want. He takes all the different characters. Oh, he takes all the characters and he just goes and he plays and it's amazing to watch. Well, you guys know this also, And I think Billy another guy. I gotta

stop dropping names, but we love it. But Billy, you guys know Billy West and not again on our show. What a sweet man first and foremost a delightful, sweet kind on giving man giving and but he opens his mouth, it's just hm. But Billy coined the phrase, and I think he's right. He said, you know what, Robbie, what I love about voice actors is we're fearless. And he's right, especially I mean while they're working, um, when the producers say,

you know, well, we're looking to a guy. Do you do a very good dot n I said, well, I don't really do a good dot Knox, but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you my take on it, and I'm gonna jump right in. And the worst that can happen is the director of a reduce the last little bit and says, well, you're right, it is not terribly good, but you know what what you did there was pretty interesting, and you know, let me take out a second. Yeah, we don't need donats go go ahead

and do that some more. Well, and that stuff happens all the time. I've also seen people who say, hey, Rob, can you do good Donna? Jesus, you know Jeff Benness the guy I don't. I don't want to embarrass myself. Oh okay, get Jeff Benni and yep, boom. You just lost a chance to show that you are fearless if you're willing to play, and that you are not And you said it earlier, Christie. It's a it's a big

team experience, and uh it. It really is important not to have that adult junk about oh my god, I'm getting old and all that stuff when you know and it's not about leave your ego outside the door and if somebody says do not say I'll do the best I can, but meant to it and you never know when the producer is going to Christie was unterly fearless. She jumped right in. It was not exactly what we thought we wanted, but Christie's talent and her willingness to

jump in the pool was so great. She came up with something we never would have thought of it. We're going to write that character to the show. Happens all

the time. I think it has an energy to it too, right where if you're really going for it and you're really trying something and you're free in that moment with your voice, well, it's it's it's also it's one of those things where I think what you just said is very very important because we so we're One of the things we love to do here on I Hear Voices is we have, you know, an amateur come in and they get to work with some of these legends, which obviously we're going to do a little bit later um,

but we try to give nuggets of or have our guests give nuggets of of of advice on how to navigate not only the world of animation, but just acting in general. And something you just said there is is

hugely important in something that we haven't really covered. And it doesn't matter whether it's animation, it's on camera, it's radio, it's jokes, whatever it is, you have to commit a hundred persist if you get the worst case scenario is you're going to run into the wall, but you're gonna run into the If you walk into the wall, nobody cares. If you run into the wall for full steam, there's a chance you're gonna break through. UM. So that you

have to commit to everything that you do UM. And you know, for instance, in sitcom, you commit to the joke and you are relying on your writers to know that, Hey, if I commit to the joke percent, you're going to be able to see that the joke doesn't work. But I gave it. If I give you, you're not gonna know whether the joke's gonna work or not. I give You're going to know the joke didn't work. It's the

same in animation. And that is one of the things with the actors and actresses in the booth that you get to work with is I don't ever think I've ever ever seen anybody who works consistently half asid never And you know, uh um, I've started directing a little bit and I really enjoyed and that it is so much easier to pull an actor back than to say, come on, come on, just I don't want to tell you how to do it, but god, you're you're not getting it and uh. And so you don't want to

put an actor on their heels. You don't want to embarrass them. But if somebody says, uh, and how many times have you been in a a session with somebody who's kind of just given, especially on camera talent, and they say, we need you to really when this happens, you're you're screaming because your girlfriend has been stolen in the monster Journey. But they're they're used to having the camera right here, and so Andrea will say, okay, let's

dud again. It's just really screaming. So what happens They finally get there, and when the person screams at the level that the producers and the directors are happy with, they kind of that's like the way out of my comfort zone exactly. So but but if you see John Demago, or you see you know, or you see uh Welker or any of those other guys, it is astonishing. And I've worked with Frank I don't know three hundred times.

I've known him forever. Every time I work with that guy, he does something that just said, Frank, where did that come from? And he The point is, folks and young actors out there, Frank never stops learning, he never stops coming up with new stuff. Guy's got all the money he'll ever need. Same thing with Tress, same thing with Nancy Cartwright, same thing with all of it there. They love the process. They are bona fide actors and it's

something that is utterly part of their soul. I mean, and whether they're getting paid for it or not, if I'm hanging out with with you guys and Billy and Uhde, Bradley Baker, Um, April Winchell or whatever, in five or ten minutes, will have all these wonderful actors being lit up by one another and it's going like this, and we're laughing our guts out. The people around us think we were utterly insane, but it's and there's no money involved. It's just about the joy right of the process. And

when you see that happen in the studio. I tell people all the time, you guys, that's the show. That is the freaking show. And you're a room with people like that playing that game at high level, and it's just it talked about a high tide raising all boats. I'm way better around those people they do. Christine, at the beginning, you learned pretty quickly, which is precisely what

Will was suggesting about the commitment. You learned pretty quickly that it's okay to be a little bit afraid of that, but if you don't make the choice to jump in, then you're gonna get run over because people are so good and the bar is so hot, and you know, if I die tomorrow, be a little bit of a drag. My wife had had plenty of money, and they'd say, well,

I reckon, we better start recasting. So there are plenty of really fabulous actors out there, and when the best of the best don't rest on their laurels, they just don't. And that's why it's well it is. But it's also the only thing I can liken it too. When you're in a room with with these amazing men and women that are pushing each other but also at times trying to one up each other. The only feeling I've ever had like that in my life is trying to make

my brother's laugh. Like there's like you're trying to get your get respect, but you also want to earn. It's the strangest thing. But again, you're right when it comes to the commitment. You're never gonna hear anybody say, John DiMaggio, can you bring it up to It's always bring it back yet, and that's what you want. That's exactly as you are listening to each other too, all performing and raising the bar. Oh yeah, you have to listen to me. Sure.

The only technical thing is that sometimes you have to be very careful about overlapping one another because of the technical aspects of the animation. But no, I'm always better. Obviously with respect to COVID, you know, we've all been lucky enough to keep working, whether recording from home or solo in a studio. But I'm an old dog. I much prefer to be with the other actors. They absolutely make me better. And when you go home exhausted from four hours of doing what you would do for free,

and what a great way to go through life. You're exhausted from lapping and hanging out with people that you would choose to be your friends. Holy smoke. Okay, So before we we bring in our special guests, which we're gonna to play with us again because ladies and gentlemen, we have brought back a fan favorite which were so excited to have back us, the Garden. We're very excited. We could not have Rob Paulson here and not do a little bit of work with But I need to

know some of your basic backgrounds. So for instance, Rob, what was your animation jam growing up? What were the shows that you wanted to watch when you were a kid? Looney Tunes, uh, flint Stone's Johnny Quest. Um, I love Johnny Quest and I got to be my first uh steady gig animation was was with the God Blessing the late Great Gordon Hunt. And there was a a reboot of Johnny Quest in the mid eighties and I got to be Hog and I really thought I was going

to lose my mind. But yeah, those shows, there were a couple of people don't remember, especially there's no reasoning with their younger folks don't know that flint Stones was a prime time animated show on ABC. Uh. There was another animated show with William Wyndham as the star called um Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. It was a prime time animated show. Really, I believe, Yeah, I believe even Johnny Quest uh was was the Jetsons was Jetsons also prized one? Yeah, and I love the Jetson's uh

in fact two quick stories. Um, this is the coolest thing. I remember when we did the first episode of the Johnny Quest reboot and Don Messi, who was the voice of Dr Quest also was a Boo Boo bear and uh um uh Bubba Louie Bubba Louie on Quick Drama Crazy Talent, okay uh. He was the voice of Scooby Doo until he passed away and Frank now was doing it.

But the first episode of the Johnny Quest I was in in which I was I was sitting next to Mr Uh you know, Don to Mr Messi, and all of a sudden he says, careful, Johnny, there's an It was like I thought, for lunch, I'll have to have a seizure salad. Uh. It was. It was Dr freaking Quest right next to uh. And I kind of had to gather myself. Then a couple of years later there was a Jetson's movie in which I played uh, a rock and roll star, and I was in love with

Judy Jetson, so I got to go to work. I went to work one day and Gordon Hut says, hey, Robbie, mel Blank is here? Ay? Good? You want to sit next to him? And I said, of course. So Mr Blank was probably I don't know, late seventies, and he passed away as uh I sat next to them, and of course it took me a while to must have the courage, but I said, Mr Blank look like anyone with a pulse. I'm a I'm a fan and uh, I just not only need to tell you that, but

if it's not too much trouble. And of course he knew exactly what he wanted, took off his glasses and looks at me, said yeah, what's up, doc? And it was mind melted. Yeah, And immediately immediately, you guys, I was transported back to sitting in Livonia, Michigan. You know what's the television? Um? And just killed the web, killed the web's things and fire. I've seen all those a hundred times, and it was sudden, I'm sitting next to this guy was like, you know, kind of small and

old and and that one none of that matter. It was just astonishing, almost chemical experience of what's up, Doc? That was real. It's the voice. Yeah, No, I've had

I've told this before, I've told the story before. But I had exactly the same, exactly the same moment when I was doing Transformers and so I was I was Bumblebee and Peter Colin comes in and he's sitting there, and I'm next to kry Peyton and there's you know, a couple of us were all in our warties and we're sitting there and the first line, Peter just goes Bumblebee and we almost cried in the room, like literally, and it took me thirty seconds to realize I had

to answer him. It was like he was talking to me and I was eight years old. I had my Transformers in front of me, and instantly there's almost nothing that that brings you back to that place that fast as when you were a fan of cartoons growing up, and you hear that voice and you I could smell the carpet was on again, and I was it was amazing.

So you have those moments, they are magical. I remember a few years ago when the first Transformers movie came out, the first Michael Baby movie came out, and Maurice Uh texted me from the Chinese theater. They said, you know, we're all kind of excited, but you know, Robbie, I don't know. They hadn't really talked much about the voice cast, and of course to the COGNISENTI the the real ill

have you getting Transformers fans? They were like, I hope they don't put you know, Kevin Nelon as the voice in here, and so he said, I'll let you know how it goes. So Mo calls me afterwards. She says, Robbie, we're sitting here and the audience is full, I mean jam And as soon as Optimists comes on on the screen, everybody's screaming and yelling. And then Peter says on the bus rollout and they everybody jumped up hot corn one in the air. They started clapping because it was utterly

authentic and their fears were completely blown out. They're just like, oh my god, it's really optimised and it matters. It matters. It's not about whether or not Brad Pitt as a talking dragon. I love Brad Pitt, but unless Brad Pitt creates the voice that becomes iconic, it doesn't really matter. And boy, I just I love the those characters have that much power. Yes, yes, And also I know that we're going to bring our guest on pretty soon. Right well,

it feels like we'll probably, I think. But I have a couple I there, we got right when we talk about the voice being an instrument, right, this is my final thing. And I'll let well with his questions because we love you when when we talk about the voice. By the way, I have my I have my dush proof clothes on. Okay, good because it's there. Yeah, we're we're it's it's gonna be essentially the first row of

a Gallagher concert for for a little while here. So welcome to see worl No for me to um and uh you know you It says you know in our notes that you are a survivor of throat cancer. M Um. That's about that amazing amazing, well it really got my attention. Um, not toe cancer, not hair cancer. But but I have to tell you, honestly, and I'm so glad you brought that, Um,

I'm fine. I'm gonna die someday, but not from throat cancer. However, Um, all of us who are halfway decent humans move through our lives in a certain hopefully uh well rounded sense of kindness and empathy and sympathy. I mean we all live in we live in l l A. I mean they are homeless encampments on every corner. How many times a day do you go there? But for the grace of God? Um? And so when I was diagnosed, the first thing it was kind of go, wow, that's a

little bit of a surprise. UM. And it wasn't about why me, Oh my God and the boys that why why the not me? Do you think anybody wants this? Of course not um, but now and of course it was a little bit frightening. Um. It was. The treatment was very difficult for obvious reasons that the radiation you know, kind of tears up your throat, your your mouth. But now that I'm through it, I have an important story.

Not because I'm an actor with throat cancer, but because I I'm U a guy whose instrument, as you suggested, was in uh pretty you know, it was pretty dire danger there for a while uh, but not only did I survive it, and I'm different, Rob two point oh is different. I lost fifty pounds that I didn't have to lose. I couldn't taste frud for I don't know about three years. Um. I my salim glands were pretty much shot. But it saved my life and it saved

my voice. So now when I have the great good fortune of being on with people like you who asked me about it, we'd never know, you, guys, when somebody's gonna be watching this terrific show and say, hey, man, I was watching Christy and Will the other day and there was this by Ron Pullman. I don't know if that was his name was, But it turns out the guy, uh, you know as cartoons and this person watching may have a loved one who's going through the same thing. You

just never know. Ah. And if they said, oh my god, uncle Bill, I'm gonna send you something. You gotta watch this this guy who was on the show, these two lovely people. Remember how much you turned me on too pinky in the brain a million years ago, and how much we still love watching saying hey, what do you do tonight? Uncle Bill? And you know or you think that what I'm all that stuff. This guy is your age and he survived throat cancer. You got this man.

That's why it's important. So now not only have I been beyond fortunately to make a living doing essentially what got me in trouble in seventh grade, um, I now have a story with which I can help people. And it is not about whether or not they buy an autograph or buy an action figure. It's a It's a pure human exchange of information. Uh. And when I say to somebody either I do have the opportunity to talk to a lot of people about it, do a lot

of engagements. Um. And so whether I'm holding somebody's hand literally or figuredily and speaking about our mutual experiences, and I say, man, I get it, I get it. And that is a big deal when you're able to say to somebody with utter authenticity, I really know what you're going through. Because I don't know what a homeless family is going through. I never will. I can give them all the money I've got. But when I say, God,

I know what you're saying, No, you don't. And it doesn't mean that it's you don't want to stop being empathic and sympathetic, but if you're able to say you know with utter certainty, you're just another human. You're not a doctor, but you know what the struggle is like. That's a really important part of my life now. And it turns out that that cancer experience for me had a platinum lining. So I'm really grateful that you asked you about that's the platinum lining. What is the platinum

lining up? The fact that I'm able to talk about it and that I not only can do my job, and I'll tell you very quickly, Um, it was pretty difficult because of it was eight weeks of radiation or a bunch of chemo and all that. Um. But we are enjoying a renaissance of Animaniacs. We got to do a reboot of Animaniacs, and so there's a lot of music in those shows. And I'm a singer before anything. The reason I got the gig on Animaniacs was I'm

a singer. And and so I remember on the new New Bunch that we've done for hul we started, they dropped in two thousand and we're recording in two thousand nineteen. And my cancer it was in two thousand sixty. Um, and I remember the first song I got to sing for animaniacs. Um, it was a little bit uh, it was a little bit off putting. I jumped into it.

I was prepared, but still I haven't done anything. I got done with my treatment and when I got to the song, it was a remarkable experience that I won't forget. It was like, it was like, Okay, this is my trial by fire. This is these people love me. Ah, they will do anything to help me, but it's a business. And I told them right from the beginning. I said, look, man, I'm not a hero, but I am. I am logical

and I'm rational. I know you love me. I know you're gonna do everything you can to wait till I get better. Great, But if you can't, or if I come back and you listen to stuff and you go back and put it together, and you said, Jesus Christ, how do we tell him that we love him? But you might have to get somebody to sink for him, or or maybe you know, recast and we'll do it. It's not the end of the world. I'm alive it. You guys have nothing to prove to me. You this

is a business. You didn't ask me to get the cancer. I didn't ask for it, nobody wants it, so please. I appreciate that you are concerned about how this lands on me. But I'm a big boy, and you guys gotta do what you gotta do. So when I got through it and they used it, and they used all the music, I did, all this thing, I've done it, it was a remarkable time to just take a break

and say, wow, thank God for cutting edge medicine. But also over and above that um my podcast on which was so kind to be a part, I ended every episode. I say, laugh is the best medicine. The cool thing is you can't ode and the refills are free. And I'm telling you what it's that God's honest truth. The the ability to laugh at myself. Um two, uh, find ways to laugh at the parts that were kind of dark, make fun of myself when I looked, you know, just like like a skeleton with a little bit of skin

all written. I mean, does not everybody works that way? That worked for me. And the joy that all these characters that I've been so lucky to perform over the years, all right, it's right in here. And so I call up Pinky and call up Jacko and all the other knuckleheads, Carl Wheezer and all that, and it just it just helped me get through that madness. So that's why it's the platinum lining. And that's why Christie, I'm so grateful that you guys let me ramble on about it. It's

a big deal for me. It's amazing. And now you're helping other people who are who are dealing with the same thing. That is pretty incredible. Yeah, there's uh one of my my favorite uh anecdotes very quickly about something like that is exactly what we're talking about. Where a man falls into a hole and he's down there and and people are walking over him, and he sees a police officer and he says, officer, you gotta help me, I've fallen in the hole. And the officer throws him

a pair of cuffs and says, don't worry. If somebody somebody comes at you can arrest him. And then the doctor walks by and and he says, doc, you gotta help me. I've fallen into a hole. Please help me. And the doctor writes some prescription and throws it down the hole and walks by, and he sees his best friend walk by, and he says, it's you. You gotta help me, And the guy jumps in the hole with him and he says, what are you What are you

doing now? We're both down here, and he says, yeah, but I've been here before and I know the way out. So there's that. That is one of my favorite anecdotes ever. And it's that same kind of kind of thing. So I had a bunch of questions for you. I don't even want to ask him anymore because that I want

to end right there. It was no, it's perfect. There is one question that we ask everybody, and there's only one question that I want to know, and that's and I don't think you're even gonna be able to answer this because you've been everybody. One character you haven't played that you want to, any character you want, who would you pick? I really like every after. I really would

love to get a crack at the joker. I just I think, And you know why, I think because uh Mark has set the bar so high that I love a challenge and I would love to come up with something that was different but interesting. Um and my like I mentioned, my son is thirty eight is in the video game business. And I remember Mark and Kevin are both dear friends. I know you know those guys, and um uh, my son loves the Batman franchise. And he said, I'm telling you what. I love the Chris Nolan movies.

I love Christian Bale, Michael Keaton, all that stuff. I love watching it. I love the whole mythos of Batman. But I'm telling you what this is after you met Kevin Conroy and he said, there is no doubt that if I had to watch one version the rest of my life, I easily watch the animated series forever and never looked back. His Batman is Kevin and his joker is Mark. And I love that character because it's so rich. But I don't know that I have said that had

I never heard Mark doing it. Mark just killed it so much that I kind of want to go, well, I don't expect it to be better. That's a very subjective thing, but I would love the challenge of coming up my own version because I've just been so transfixed by Marx. You know it's pretty cool. I think, Okay, that's great. Well, yeah that we we get that a lot, and I think that is the character that everybody seems to want to tackle is the joker, So we love that we have our voice over actor with us. He's

coming in today. His name is Brandon and Brandon is going to be joining us for Across the Garden, which is coming back. He asked me have brought it back because people requested it, and we, frankly just absolutely love to do it. So we can't wait in there is Brandon. Hey, Brandon, are you've got snow job here? Yeah? I can't with the g I Joe anymore. I'm gonna start crying, um brand So Brandon, we we've obviously won before and we've met you at conventions yep. And actually I won the

fan xbo one one. You won the Live I Hear Voices Fan Expo episode, which is great. So where are you from? Denver, Colorado? That's okay, You're from from the from the Windy Apple, the mile high Windy Apple of Denver, which we love. And did you get your your script? Oh? Yes I did, and you are going to be playing Sue No Sue as in Spread it O. You excited about our contest coming up? Oh yeah, yet you're like our number one exactly and we will talk about it

more fuller, but just a quick plug for Christie. What was the contest called again califragilistic? So nope, not even close. You're not even trying. She's given up trying. Every episode I try and I fail. We are going to try again. No, we are, of course once again announcing the Super Awesome Contest to become the Next Big Voice Actor contest close close, that was actually closer than Christie. The Super Awesome Contest to Become the Next Big Voice Actor. We will be

announcing all of the great prizes and everything. I think we're gonna be. It's gonna be right around Halloween, if not on Halloween, that we are going to be able to really jump into the contest. One person out there is going to win the opportunity to get an amazing voice actor career. We can open the door a little bit for you, we can crack it, but then you got to kick it open with your talent, is the plan. But as we're waiting for the contest to launch, we're

getting back into Across the Garden. And for those of you who are our old fan like Brandon, Yes I said that right fan. Um, we have two characters that we invented in the fly called Ricky and Mocha, who are two little mice that are trying to get across the garden to get to the other side so that

Mocha can see her boyfriend at the mall. And we have had some wonderful amateur voice over actors, some amazing uh pros that come on and we are hopefully the goal is then amateurre um animators are going to take these little segments and they're going to animate together a cartoon, and all of these amateur voiceover actors are going to get a chance to be on the very right. It

is a ton of fun. We really can't wait. So yes, Ricky and Mocha are still on their journey and we are going to pick it up once again Exterior Woods Continuous. Is everybody ready? All right? Here we go Brandon you ready? Yes, got my script? We're good. I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. Do we go, folks, Let's do it. Ricky and Moca

are still on their journey in the woods. Uh Moca, do you ever get the feeling that we're not actually really like, we're just fictional characters being written by someone else to fulfill some kind of empty hole. They have in their life. Yeah, you know, like we're never going to actually get to them all to see your boyfriend if you even exist. Like every time we feel like we're getting close to some other crazy character is just gonna pop up and distract us. No got me neither.

Do you hear that? Do you hear that? Come on, Ricky Moco, come over a small hill to find a tiny little kitchen set up in the middle of the clearing. A chipmunk in a chef's hat and coat is berating another chipmunk in a black chef's coat, So you'll think you are to we now you dounky? Are you a donkey? These are to me? Seriously? Can you answer me? Because my eyes don't work too good anymore. No chef saying why would you do this to my south? Tell me why you do this to my house? I don't know ship.

I just thought he needed something. He did something, dude, that something. This ric p as been eating my family for general. What is possibly um flavor? Bab Jeff hit Sue in the head with a ladle Oh damn, that finest prea teach in the world. I drive myself and I'm giving it. Glowing radio RAI one you can pulls out a piece of paper and shoves it at Sue.

Chef monks Boarder Lisauce should be renamed board all days to us with this limited depth and indescribable texture, says would be better surf speckling up a hole in the wall then on a plate. See quote in describe texture close court. You cannot buy pub like that. You're dumb. I don't think you are the words. Ricky and Mocha walk up. Excuse us? Can I help you? Pap hit with the ladle again? You're just this? Can you you know? I feel like I have asked this? How do we

get to the ball? Hit with the ladle? You're thinking? How about? I'm sorry? Sue's face goes bright red. That it. He walks over the pot, grabs two spoons and dips in, and he turns and shoved the spoons into Ricky and Mocha's mouths. How does this taste? Do you? Their eyes light up? This is the best thing, so good. The background chef grabs two spoons and dips him into his own pot and walks over. Okay, now did you try this one? Before they can answer, he shoves the spoons

in Rickey and Mocha's mouth. A beat passes. They turned. No, I don't for me. Oh, I think you see you'll see you'll see you see you see him. He might teach you now gold kill dogs potatoes. Chef's about to answer when Sue slowly raises the ladle again many check. He smiles and turns to Ricky and Mocha is just around the bed. Thank you for your service. Thank you getting weirder right, Yeah, so, good job, great job, Brandon. Honestly,

he's getting better and better with it. From the time I feel like we first met him and heard him, he's always been also, Brandon. You might not because you're in the waiting room, certainly didn't hear the conversation that we were just having with Rob. But you did something that exactly what we were talking about. You committed to what we were doing, and that is the first most important thing you got to do, Brandon. You came in and you nailed it. So congratulation. How to give my

best hundred tem per cent all of that times. Look at him going, look at him going, He'll win that. Oh, Brandon, thank you so much. Congratulations. Is there any place where people can find you. Do you have any social media presence? I do well. I have personal Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is h g A Brandon easy fine, so you guys can find me there. Perfect and other than that, I'm just about around in the world. There's nothing wrong with that.

Thank you so much, Brandon. That is the best. Thank you, and I hope to see you guys soon against pleasure. We'll see you agoon, good luck. Thank you. One more thing, this was my first voice acting Joe. Hey, there's no first, like first my friend. I know. It was an honor. Thank Thank you, Brandon. Bye bye. How lovely that you guys do that. I just think that's great that you're finding a way to include folks. Good for you, Thank you.

It is so much fun. And yeah, when we so the first we've actually announced this before, but the first thing you actually win is a one year contract with a voice over agency. Wow. And there's another couple of prizes that we are still working on that are still going to be absolutely outstanding. So once again, that is the man. Christie. What's the names? Just okay, you know, hold on, what's it called? CHRISTI? It is the super awesome contest to become the next big voice actor. So

awesome contest to become the next big voice actor. There, I do it, you did so, thank you come back. He had the time one of the and I was going to talk to you about this later. This might be cut. We'll see if we're going to cut this or not. But one of the things we're gonna do is when we get down to the final two contestants, um actually might be the final four, they're going to get for you know, a day or so just over zoom.

They're going to get a voice over mentor that's going to help them and uh, and then we go to pick the big final winner. So um yeah, we'd love to have you involved somewhere down the law. It would be absolutely a pleasure. Anything you guys want. I just love to look. You guys were in a happy business. Isn't this the coolest thing in the world? And look we are. That's sweet Brandon. He will never forget that, irrespectable what happens down the road, he will never forget that.

And it's thanks to you guys. That's a very big deal. It's cool as if we were having fun. So you can join us obviously on anywhere you listen to podcasts or on the I Heart radio app and uh yeah, please join us and again, um I can't. I can wish I could remember the name of the contest contest to become the next big voice over actor. I guess you almost had a great voice over. Sorry voice over actor. There you voice actor? Okay, got it, I'll get it

next time. All right, next time, next episode, now, Rob. I always end by saying, if you think you can do what we do, step up and put your voices where your mouth is. I think we should end with his you could do us a favor. If you could do us a favor and you could take us out with the talking tunes. I was so appreciate the happiness, laughing. Yeah, I'll tell you what. Let me do something very crauickly because if you guys will get a kicked out of this.

Um Will was doing a bit of the United States count well that song, a little bit of Inside Baseball. Check out how much talent. This is a great example of you guys watching. Is that you when you're in Hollywood, uh or New York? You never know. I always tell young people, surround yourself with people of a like mind. Go to class go out to eat with actors. Just uh I remember when Animanias was coming along and I got the job, there was obviously music that was a

big part of it. Um So I had never met Randy Rogal, who wrote most of the songs that you guys know from Animanias, including Yako's World. But what people don't know is that Jacko's World was the song that Randy Rogal dave two Warner Brothers as his audition piece. He wrote that song when they said all right, well what have you got? Can you write something on spect? He said, I sure, Ken He wrote that song just

because he could and played it for them. And that's one of those things when you hear it, you stick your head out the door on Mr Spielberg, I think you should hear this, and not only that. So it was the first song he wrote for Animaniacs, and it was the first song I recorded. Talked about setting the bar high, unbelievable and he didn't disappoint. However, a few years later, uh I told Randy, I said, you know, I've been doing a convention. People every now and then

say are they going to update the Apples World? Because you know there are a lot of different countries that they have come to be and some of them gone away since that song was written, he said, you know what, you're right, So an extra eleven minutes on a Tuesday, and he wrote the follow This is just a quick update of the song. Okay, it goes like this. Montenegro and Bodnia, Herze Obania, the Soviet Union is gone. It's

that bag Georgia, Moldovia, Latvia, Batjan who's bekas on? Hey k hey, I mean talk about left Serbian Cross about you Sama, about Balbin Bruni, McCowen, Primia, than Eritrea, Ukraini outther Stony, here's not Sooni and New Caledonia. He just Lobonia. I've read Coasting Cape Berti and Door the Solomon out of Dubai something wow. So he just came up with it. And as you can tell by the beautiful Christie Romano and the impossibly handsome Will the we can all absolutely agree,

folks that laughter is so the best medicine. You don't know why Becauld you can't owe d and the refills are free. Thanks a lot, you, guys. It was an absolute privilege hanging Thank you. Thanks guys, I hear Voices as hosted by Wilfred l and Christy Carlson Romano. Executive produced by Wilfred Ill, Brendan Rooney, Amy Sugarman and Vicky Ernst Chang. Our executive in charge of production is Danielle Romo. Our producer is Lorraine very Was, and our editor slash

engineer is Brian Burton. And that was my announcer voice. Some side effects of listening to I Hear Voices are sore abs from hilarity falling down the coco melon rabbit hole, sneezing due to mass nostalgia, and hugs. Follow I Hear Voices wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss any of the amazing voices. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at I Hear Voices podcast. To see the video stream, subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can also check us out on my space, omegal Vine,

Lime Wire. Hey I'm a napster. Okay, well, let's teach you about the Internet. The who