How you doing out there? It's me Tigger.
I am Duc Wayne Duck.
It's me Bunkers keep bobcat All right, y'all?
Did it great?
Your favorite firefly you desire? Hold no old knock guy. My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In.
Welcome back everybody to another episode of Tuned In with Jim Commings. Today we have Brandon Rogers joining us. Thank you so much for joining us.
My pleasure to be Thank you for having me inside of your building.
Oh my gosh, of course, of course, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great well. I came here for the air conditioning because he is oh stee. I was just telling you off Off Mike that my family is totally head over heels that I'm even here with you today.
Oh that's great.
The fact that our voice is that there's nothing between our voices, that my the things that I've come out of my mouth and the beloved items that've come out of your there's no glass between these.
Yeah, yeah, well we'll we'll be a tripping the light fantastic here or whatever that expression is. Well, thanks for being.
Here, Thank yous for having me.
It is my honor to hey, thank you, thank you, because we've been aware of each other from being on the road. So yeah, and I think that's it's like being in rock and roll these days. You know, Will I'm playing Cleveland, Yeah next week, you know. And it's kind of cool.
Yeah, you're kind of like my carnival family. I like to call it because I only ever there's a large group of people with cons that you.
I'll give you some background music.
I was like, that is a weird berd, but yeah, it's it's it's crazy because I only there's a large group of people that I only associate with seeing only out of town, so you see only out of town face here at home. Yeah, it is kind of it's comforting.
Yeah, what the heck. Oh I'm glad. I'm glad. Comforting is the word you used. It's like I want to hold up a crucifixion.
Very cool. My skin isn't so. I think we're I think we're good.
Yeah that's good. Well, speaking of your skin burning, Yes, you've got a couple of interesting animated projects out there, Ladies and gentlemen.
Where's the segueing?
Oh yeah, well yeah, where could that possibly be added? Well?
Uh, yeah, I play quite a devilish little guy. Yeah, it's a hell based show, a hell of a boss. And then it's sister show has been Hotel, and I'm lucky enough to be in both of them.
Yeah, it's tearing it up in both of them. Oh, thank you, thank eating the world up in both of them. Well, I'm good for you.
That is a massive compliment coming from you, because I don't have I'm a very new voice actor and so, and it took me a long time to get over. I'm still sort of getting over if I if I had any imposter syndrome walking through the door, it's gone now after you said that.
Oh well good, No, I think you're I think you're there. You're going to be part of the furniture.
Oh my god, I would love to. I hope I'm a stool right up.
I left my sticks in the car, damn it.
I uh yeah, I was going down your roster. I did not realize last night. I was just watching clips from your movies, and I did not realize how you joke like, oh, I'm the voice you grew up with, But I didn't realize just how much of my childhood you were.
How sick of me you were. How'm tired of hearing them? But you were, Oh my god.
You made the cheshure cat so soothing to watch.
That's you, well only recently. The one from the forties was somebody else.
No, but I but but your voice is and I know the one. I know. I know the difference because if he was here now I'm pretty sure he's dead. Is yeah, yeah, rest yeah, that would that would be you know, yeah. But but it's it's I can hear like I can hear notes of that cheshure cat, but I can also hear just talking to you, notes of who, and I could hear notes of who's the big one with the big genre where.
There you go, buddy, you must be a friend of the goofy. That's Pete, Pete, Pete.
It's like, I can, that's good, subtly hear all. And maybe it's just because we're in person, you've you've got a really good ear, but well, it's it's, it's there. It's like a little sp if I really listen. It's the same with like Richard Horbitz, if you can kind of hear little fractions of them just in a speaking with all the characters, and it is cool because I know so many of your characters and to kind of hear them all summed up in a normal voice. Oh, it is a trip right next to me.
Yeah, well thanks. I you know, I've always said I've had kind of a mid range voice, so it's not too big a journey to go higher or lower because I'm kind of right in the middle. That's what I've always thought about it.
Yeah, well it's it's I guess it is right in the Yeah, just mid range. It's but I mean that that's why you would probably have such a wide cavalcade of rolls.
Something like that, plus a lot of inner turmoil.
In turnoil really adds to the spice. It does. It does.
And speaking of Richard Horbit's one of my favorite things. When I've uh first met him. One of the craziest things. You said, well, I know you've heard me, but you always thought I was a woman, and I, well, I don't know. Oh, come on, yes you did. And I said, all right, all right, you do sound like my aunt Grace. All right, are you happy? Grace?
Oh my gosho ga Grace with the Richard Horowitz voice.
Oh gosh da Well.
Yeah, he you know, it really did help getting and you know, going into this because Blitz is a main character, he's the lead of a show, and he's my first ever voice kid. It was very The creator of the show specifically wanted, I guess my tone for this particular protagonist. So she was very familiar with who I was on the internet, and she said, okay, that so sure, and we I don't know if any of us really knew
the show was going to take off. She just wanted me to be the center voice of this pilot that I guess she was going to pitch or was just supposed to be a proof of concept of a different show, and it took off in all of a sudden, I found myself in like a union production with co stars like Richard Horwitz and Erica Linbeck and people that are very successful in this industry, and so to be among
them as the as the lead character. There were many, many months, if not years, where I had a very tense, like like imposters around my neck.
Whole it was.
I mean, I didn't let it affect the performance, but no, I mean it affected just how I saw myself and how I saw my like how I existed in this world around me. That I was very you know, you better be you know, it's it's it's like almost like it's a lot of pressure to be grateful and to make sure you're doing the right thing with this role, that you're not squandering this role that other.
You know.
So after a while, you know, when I saw the show, once I saw it cut and animated, I really understood the character. I go, Okay, she's going for this, especially with how she animates him. I was getting more of the of the physicality of him and why she chose my voice. But then having Richard, who directs the vocal directs the show. He's just so selfless in the way that he works with people. He makes you, he like builds you up. It's a it's all positive reinforcement. Yeah.
And and to have someone like him, who I also you know, grew up watching on TV and show films, kind of be this reassuring voice behind the glass of like telling me what he liked about it. And also if he would let me improvise, if I improvised something, he would go, oh yeah, and then he would feed me back a version of my variant, like polishing that version. And so then I once I knew he trusted me with just inherently with the material, the performance, he trusted
me with my improvit. It really made me kind of loosen up and kind of go, Okay, this is a safe space in here for me to explore this character.
Oh well, you're just killing it.
You're you're doing You did a fantastic job. I'm surprised that that was your first voice act.
Yeah, it's I put a lot of I really study those lines and rehearse them in the in the car. I remember saying, you know, even like my first song on the series, I would sing that for days. I was singing those lyrics over and over. It's because you don't want to, you know. It's of course it's your first the song, the first song, the first song, it's a duet that I have with Bryce Pinkham, who is a Broadway singer. So the pressures at all, I still can I can like get myself to that nervousness just
thinking about it, like I get work. I remember my heart pounding in the car and I'm cranking up the volume because they sent me the demo track that which Sam Half. Sam Half who composes a lot of these songs. He's also a brilliant singer. So I'm hearing his demo track and singing along to it and trying to really get my my notes to match. And and also he writes very fast lyrics for me. He writes, it's almost like like eminem fast and so I I.
Which, I think, no pressure that no.
Pressure, it was it was. I remember it being a very rough first half of that session, just getting myself because I wasn't used to singing. I wasn't even used to voice acting still at the time. And so now I'm having a voice saying, you know, which is different and I have. I had a really bad habit, by the way, my whole the whole first season of the show, I would always go like this with oh wow in different directions, right, it's like sound of music, yeah, with
the thing in her in her brazier or whatever. And so I was in the bush.
I forget where it was.
I forget where they put the mic. They stuffed it somewhere, okay,
uh anyway, but yeah, so so it this. I've only had two roles at least that I could talk about voice acting, uh, that are out there and it so I can't wait to get to a point one day where I'm able to be you know, I see people like you and Tara and Gray at these conventions with like this whole roster of characters, and that is it is cool now seeing, Oh, I can work toward that, like I can I can have, you know, And that was never on the table for me before this role
because I never considered myself of I never thought I would ever be a voice actor. And so now I get to see what that's like through the eyes of you know, Richard and everyone he's worked with for so long. I get to see what that road looks like, and it's it is much more lucrative and fun than the route of YouTube.
Oh, I would think, Yeah.
But you've been doing YouTube for a while, for a.
Long time, since I was in high school. I remember I made my the YouTube account that I still upload videos on today. I made that in my high school library.
Wow, and that was kid.
Yeah, I'm thirty six at school year it was two thousand and six, so I was right when you started. Yeah, it was about a year old. Technically they started in two thousand and five. But yeah, I remember thinking, because at the time I would make YouTube, I would make videos on like vhs you know, cam quarders, and we would put once a week we would screen them in a classroom with a teacher would let us gather in a classroom at lunch and we would just spend the hour,
you know, watching whatever it was we made. And there was a real satisfaction to like, whatever you put on camera can go in front of people, like it goes on the screen. Whatever we capture in this little tiny device. And we were making movies in like a field somewhere, like we were on another planet. It was just like a way to be a like a to hang out
with your friends. It was a really satisfying way to hang with people, and b it was really cathartic to sort of express yourself and play different characters and then put them in front knowing that every Friday at lunch we were all going to watch this.
You can do it.
Yeah, And we had to edit in the camera at the time, so if you messed up to take, you'd rewind film that again. So you were editing it as we shot.
Yeah. I did that with my home movies, so I understand completely.
It's it's uh And there was kind of a fun like satisfaction to that because you knew you were working with the final cut whatever was in there, was like that's what they're going to see. Yeah, So I liked that. And then so anyway, so YouTube, yeah, comes out two thousand and five, and I'm like, there's a way to share this with anyone in the world, like everyone in the world, everyone in the world. I mean it, I felt like it was blowing my mind more than other people.
And I remember looking around going like, why is no one really everyone was still excited about my Space more than YouTube, And I was like, why is no one getting the fact that we can upload videos? And I mean granted very low resolution, and I think you weren't allowed to upload anything more than ten minutes, which I mean that's still a good chunk of time, but it was very restricted still like we would we would, you know.
It was yeah, you get out there and do something in ten minutes, that's for sure. Yeah, And that's we were That was a comedy acts don't go that long.
Right, right, right exactly, So it was still you know, it was still a lot of possibilities with a ten minute, low resolution video, and and so yeah, that's how it was a no brainer. As soon as YouTube came out. I just immediately, like I started making videos for that made it for you. Yeah, I took in high school, they offered an elective that year, is my senior year in video editing was an elective and they taught us
on like the newest technology. So at the time, it was like iMovie was like the cutting edge, like it was a very new software, and so they taught us on that, and I remember were falling in love with editing because I'd never learned to edit before, and I remember thinking, this is so easy. And then you just you just plug the camera into the computer. The footage
is on the computer. You could just cut and splice, and granted, back then you had import in real time, so whatever you shot, if it was an hour, it would take an hour to import. Oh wow, so that was kind of a pain in the ass, but like there were but at least you didn't have to edit
it in the camera. And so anyway, this is a very roundabout way of saying that, like that's that's ultimately how I started doing YouTube was I just took that editing class, made that YouTube account senior year, and then and then everything else in my life became a planet orbiting around that that was sort of the pinnacle of even like my job, my school, everything was second priority to just me expressing myself in the Internet and I and at the time that was not a safe bet
because there was no future in video streaming, you know, it was it was seen as like a hobby site. Still, that's true, and so it was the term YouTuber only recently and with younger generations as a form of respect that it didn't have for such a long time. Sure, but yeah, so it wasn't like I felt like I
was investing my time wisely. And it's one of those examples of like that there's an image of like a guy picking an axe, you know, through a tunnel in the ground and there's like a gym five feet away and he gives up and goes back, and it's sort of an example of like I'm glad I didn't put
down the pick axe, you know. Yeah, And and so yeah, it wasn't until you know, I moved to LA and had many jobs of just customer service or just very entry level positions that I could and I was constantly getting fired because I was always focusing on my on my films in my series.
Oh that's really familiar. Do you have something similarly now? No, Yeah, well, in New Orleans when I moved there, when I was a kid, I say, a kid, I was just turned nineteen. But I wanted to be a band, being a band, being a singer. But yeah, blah blah blah, and I would I would have, you know, I changed what was it? Firestone? I think I might have Firestone. I fixed flat tires for a while. Oh but we have a gig where oh and oh so I have to we can't go. I can't commend Friday.
Okay, so.
All of a sudden Monday I had to get a new job, and so because and then finally the band was working enough that I didn't have have a didn't have a need for the job, so that worked out, you know, so I understand.
Yeah, it's it's not a lot of people, do you know, especially back then, it was no one under you know, yea. Even my own friends were like, all right, have fun editing. I'm going to go study. Like it did feel like I would.
Do something that I can actually use in the world.
And YouTube wasn't really tangible. It wasn't saying it wasn't it wasn't something that you could like that. Yeah, well, yeah, I know it's it's the whole world's changed, and I if only I knew it was going to change in my favor, I probably would have done it even more aggressively. But no, I'm happy the way that it panned out. You know, and a lot of people get famous for doing you know, once the internet became, you know, sort
of this shouting contest anyone could you know? It was just I want to do anything to get famous, and sometimes people you know, haven't forbid you get popular for something you don't enjoy doing. For again, Mack, that you did. So I was always there was a long time where I was kind of trying. I was trying to do vlogging where you just you know, map out your whole life for the whole world to see, or trying to
do like prank videos. I was trying to do oh googging. Yeah, And I'm just so glad that ultimately what really stuck, what the fans really responded to the most, was what I love doing the most, and that's you know, storytelling. That's creating these characters and telling stories through these these characters that I, you know, wrote for myself to play and it's yeah, it's anyway, it's a very satisfying line of work. But I did not think it was going to be possible.
Well, I think, you know, I've got my kids, my nieces, nephews, whatever, you know, and I I always tell them, you know, well, if you want to be an attorney, you want to be a doctor, that's great, but you know, make sure you do something that you would do all day long for free and do it so damn well that somebody will pay you. And that to me is the ultimate
not revenge, but that's the ultimate career, you know. I mean, if you if you would do it all day long for free and you do it so well, somebody pays you, right right, ding ding ding. That's that's the brass ring.
It's and I agree, I and it if I you know, twenty years ago, I would have said that's impossible, or like, oh that sounds nice, but it really is.
Yeah, I mean, and also, anology has been your friend.
Chet technology has been right there on my side. But I've also I've been around now long enough since that point of view that I had to see how everyone else my age has done. And it really if there's one thing I've learned. It's just you're if you're persistent, you're good at something, Eventually someone's going to pay you for it. I have all of my friends who just stuck with it because they liked it are now doing
it very successfully now, you know. And I'm very proud that a lot of people I went to college with that I grew up with, you know, moved to la
eventually and just stuck with their dreams. And I think what united us in high school and college was that we were so obsessed with what we love and those same people are here in l A doing it for like Netflix and Amazon, and yeah, it's like so so anyway, Yeah, I do believe that if you are, like you said, if you are good at something you know, and you just do it long enough, eventually you know someone's going
to pay you for it. And I just think that persistence, like I said, that pickaxe thing, it's just you never know when it's going to happen, but eventually it does.
Yes, it does.
But yeah, I never thought I'd be sitting here next to you on you know, on the show say, I mean, I think about that, like with any of my cast with the hell of you know, Richard Horowitz. It's just so surreal, Yeah, that I'm even meeting you people, because for so long, y'all were mythical creatures in my mind.
Yeah, there was like, oh they existed a different Yeah, I understand that because you know, I worked with Don Messick, who was the king of Hannibar Era, and just any number of people, you know, June for A, Rocky and Bullwinkle and all these people, and they were still around when I first started my career, and I just thought it was like, wait a minute, this is this is crazy, you know because a year or two before I was working in a steel mill. So you know, this is okay,
this is better. I'm gonna do this now. So I'm with you.
Oh wow, that is that.
I'm with you.
That's that's and I like that we I just have to say that this is us getting to know each other for real. I've I see you all the time at conventions, but it's nothing more than just like the person I'm like getting coffee next to it, oh you know, like or at the table that I watched, and so it is it is kind of cool to get to know you just right here. Actually on the podcast, I've I I have to ask, do you I always wondered about Disney voice actors, especially the really prompt, like like
very well known Disney voice actors. Is it what is it a day at Disneyland like for you?
And how often do you go Disneyland Disney or I guess it quite nice, it's very nice. Yeah, well, Chris will tell you. You know, we've been any number of times together with family events. And it's interesting because some people you can tell that. I think I'm pretty sure there is a rule at Disney if you work at Disney, uh and you recognize I mean, just pick somebody like uh, I don't know, George Clooney, somebody not not me, but you know, and you're not allowed to acknowledge them. I'm
pretty sure. Yeah, it's like hi, uh, step right this way, you know, and you can because you can see I have I have been able to see that people when you're literally when you're getting on a ride, and of course they'll give me a guide to to bring me. They're very gracious in that regard that so you don't have to wait mobile lines right right right and we'll be walking by the feet but working at the radag on.
Yeah, yeah, I imagine, you know, and and I just.
Give him a little poo or a little tigger. Yeah, stay sweetest, honey, keep one bounting, you know something. And they.
Step this way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's cool. They have to be cool.
Yeah, they have all but but you can't I notice they can't hide that in the face. That's that's it's just so crazy. I'm sure you get this all the time, but just hearing that voice, such a voice I've heard so many times in person, it's.
That is you were sick of me and you didn't even know it. Sorry, keep hitting your TV.
But yeah, that's that's so So is that so in the right? Is that that's your voice?
And oh yeah, so.
What I mean your first time going on that right? You know? Was that actually was that your first time having your voice in a Disney ride?
Uh no, No, there was one prior to that. In fact, we were talking about it earlier. There was what was it they were taking one away. There was I think it was Pooh's log ride or Poo's something, and they took it away, but they replaced it with a store and then part of it and then they cut out anyway. It was raised berets. What the hell? Uh yeah, Ray from the Fireflying Princess and the Frog what he has
to do with hats? It just rhymes, yeah, I think it's And then the Princess and the Frog Ride was right next door, so I was like, okay, well they the Lord take it away and Lord giveth and then then next thing you're on the Princess and the Frog Ride. Uh So that was fun.
Poo's log I did not if there's any way to make Pooh's name sound dirty or it's calling it Poo's log ride.
Yeah, that's oh.
Wow, that's it was.
I could be wrong about the.
Yeah, I have an answer to that question as well. Yeah, going to Disneyland with Jim Ruins Disneyland, wow, because because you tell they give you the tour guide, they give you the tour guide. They treat you, you know, like like royalty, like you are, and then when you go by yourself, you know, it's like I'm standing in line.
Oh it ruins it that way. You know, It's like it's such a phenomenal treatment that like just going there ordinarily is just not even the same, you know, and like oh yeah, they take us up into you know, like Club thirty three, you know, like all the you know for.
Those in Actually we had uh one of them gave us. We had something for Hell of a Boss. That was the tour. It was the it was the guy thing. But I was only able to stay for a few hours. But I needed to see what this was. And I think for anyone who doesn't know, it's basically someone and correct me if I'm wrong. They just they take you to the front of the line of each.
Day, right, and you can right as many times you can literally sit there on Space Mountain and be like wave at the people in line and just keep riding, just keep riding, keep riding.
So I didn't know that all. I was just there for a couple hours, so I just got a We saw Club thirty three, which was that was really cool that they're only gifts and I and I asked if we could take the elevator, just because I knew I would never take this elevator again. Probably, Yes, that's right.
It's a pretty cool elevator.
Oh it's beautiful. And I thought it would take me out of the ceiling like in Willy Wonka. Yeah, right, grant me a wish, But no, it was Yeah, and I wish you know, it sucks. I don't even remember where I had to go. I don't even remember where I had to be that day, and so I'm just like, I cut my day in half for something I can't remember. But yeah, it was.
It was.
It was quite an experience and I didn't know that existed. I don't go to Disneyland very often, but I am at Yeah, if I my next time, I think that was my last time there actually, So now if I go back, I'm probably it'll probably be ruined for me.
Well that's what we're here for.
Wow. So so okay, So going on, I have to ask the Pooh Ride whatever. I know it's on the Hunting whatever it is, Now, what was it? What was that like? Because your voice is all over that thing.
Yeah, well it's interesting because you know, you're kind of you're trying to remember, Oh yeah, I remember doing that, Oh yeah, I remember, oh yeah, And it's very very well done. You know, all their animatronics are and it's little vignettes. You know, you go around and you're slurping around and you're hoping that it doesn't stop, you know, for repairs in the middle, and it's just a kick. I've gotten used to it. Yeah, I've had a few.
I mean, let's I think the first thing that I voiced for Disney was a Dark Wing Duck stage show, Dark Wing Duck and launch Pad, and I was dark Wing Duck and there was oh no, it was Disney Afternoon. That's what it was, back when Disney Afternoon was a big, big thing a long time ago, late eighties maybe something. And uh and I was in all of the skits. At one it was fat Cat, one was Monterey Jack, one was Pooh and Tigger, and one was dark Wing.
And I think that was it. But I just remember thinking, this is this is exactly what I wanted to do when I was five, and it was so cool. I just, you know, sounds like I'm bragging. I'm really not. I was kind of flabbergasted.
That was you know, was it was it hearing your voice specifically in that medium that well.
Yeah, And and then you look around and everybody's going yeah, oh.
When you see the react, you know.
And that that's that's very gratifying.
It's different when you see people react to it. The one downside of the Internet, of being on the Internet is that you don't get a see, because I love doing stand up as well, only only for the energy that's right there. For in fact, I prefer doing stand up in a smaller room because the people's energy reverbates back to you somehow. Yeah, sure, intimate thing and so yeah,
I can. I can relate to seeing people's reactions. And then suddenly you're something about being in front of a room of thirty people feels more meaningful than three hundred comments on something. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, and so.
Well, it's immediate and it's genuine.
It's genuine. Yeah, it's knee jerk, knee jerk reactions. But I also have to say, outside of Disney, you I believe, and Craig me if I'm wrong. You voiced my favorite version of Robotic, which was the more sinister one.
That's true.
Yeah, be a friend of Sniveley's Snibley. Yeah, Oh my gosh, I mean there was. I had the comics that went with that specific series. I was the massive I was drawing pictures of Robotic and like all of his when I was bored in school, like that was such a like escape from my brain. And so to see that you also had that on your Rothstars. Yeah, I was well, I was.
They did one batch of the in Canada, like I don't know, sixty episodes, and I think we only did like two dozen down here when I did it. But I've had people tell me that mine was scary and the other one was cartoony. The other car, Yeah, the one I guess they did it, and I think it was Jalil White in Canada. I think it was Jilliel White and he because he was my he was my sonic Jilil White. He was, you know, and I remember, and there was and I and I did now that
i'm thinking of it. One thing that used to get everybody every time cats to see, especially a great young actress lady voice, lady. I would always do, wait a minute, you have a jug in the dungeon. That's good, And it was. And it was that because you could see that you just I just wanted to make it seem like he was what could I could do a lot with the dungeon. The possibilities are coming over, Yes, yes, And then I went back to Winnie the Poo and I even doubt.
And it is such a departure from from a lot of the versions of Robotic because there are a lot of them are mostly goofy.
Yeah.
Yeah, and so this is one that was genuinely scary.
Yeah yeah, I thought it would be fun.
Yeah, no, that was good. Was that your was that? Did you come up with that?
Yeah? Yeah, I don't think. I don't. I don't think there was one before. I don't think there was a cartoon or oh so he didn't have before that. I don't. I don't. I don't think so. I could be wrong.
It was a game, right, it was a game. I'm not sure which one came first though.
Yeah, that's true.
I'm not sure anyway, I'm sure.
Comments. Please come on, come on outside here, we're floundering. Yeah.
Thanks, So, I uh, I have to I have to add. What is one of the most common things people have you say as winning the when they when they request your Winnie the Pooh Boys.
Well, for some reason, it's oh bother And that's not much, you know, oh bother? Oh that's perfect. You sound just like him, just like him. That that's my favorite. You sound just like him, like it's a separate little bear on your TV or wherever. But yeah, that that's definitely it.
What oh bother? Is that supposed to be his equivalent of oh, some four letter word.
I probably yeah, because literature does he use it like.
It's like a dang it.
It's like a British thing though people like really say that, like well, at least they used to bananas British and she used to. She used to always be like, oh, bother, you know.
Like.
Weird American.
Yeah, bother bugger you know like oh bugger, yeah, say that as.
Well, something like that. It means things aren't going perfectly.
Okay, we don't a lot if Americans have such a middle tary. It's either like oh, yeah, you know, we need to know bother.
Maybe we have less violence. Yeah, what will people ask you to say? Mostly as blitz, sorry I fucked your husband?
That one is that is a that'll probably the most common one. And I like writing when I said, it's the most common thing for me to sign too. And when I sign it, if there is a husband and I'm writing it for the wife, I look at the husband many cringes and cringes I know, I I yeah, I don't know people.
People.
I get a lot of people in my line who I think get a kick out of how adult the show is and they're not even they're not like younger people either, the people who clearly like live a life where they don't they aren't exactly permitted to exude that kind of language or that, and so they they when they get to see me, it's almost like a little escape where if they're teaching fifth grade, you're right, And a lot of them aren't teachers that teach kids, and
they go like, so many of my students know who you are. They shouldn't anyway, please say sorry, but anyway, Yeah, it's it's all walks of life come up, and I mean it's all very alternative, you know, it's it's yes, it is. My line looks like you can't tell if they're lending up for me or the grand opening of a hot.
Topic, and it's very hot.
It's a very alternative crowd, which I like because I know when I was before I did YouTube, I fit right in with that crowd. I still do like I definitely it's nice to feel like the people I make stuff for are me. It's not that I'm making stuff for like some other Oh, it's for I would never watch my No, It's like I make what I like, and I think that people have very similar sensibilities and so it's it's nice to see, like you said, in person,
when they're there. It's so gratifying. And I have a hard time moving my line along because I very much connect with with a lot of the people and it's hard to Okay, thank you know, it's it's really you. You do want to take your time with a lot of these people that understand you.
And you write for the show as well.
Yeah for both? Yeah for uh well I write for no just for for Heleva but uh but uh a lot. So sorry, I'm like moving you around. The guy who helps me write my videos also writes for has been in Helva Okay, so has been has very similar flavors to my my videos because the person who helps me write them right, so so kind of there is a similarity there with tone. But yeah, it has been in
hell Ofva. Are both? I mean, I don't know Viv has such a specific career or history because I don't know anyone else who just their first big thing was two big things, you know, and like just created both shows and with such a specific flavor to it, you know.
I I'm very proud of her. I don't even know how I got on this tangible was the oh yeah, yeah, no, I I love And the reason why I feel like I connect with the fans is because, you know, the writing is I am very picky with the writing and my stuff, and I think that when people relate to that, they're relating to a very genuine part of my soul.
You know, the conflicts that the characters go through, and the different morals that the that the you know, the out you know, what the lessons learned from each film I do or series I make. It's all from here and it's stuff that that's close to my life. And so when people relate to that and they under you know, it's very genuine, it's genuine, and I feel like they get a large part of who I am, and even more so than a lot of my own family. You know, a lot of my family loves my work, but you know,
they I am the only entertainer in my family. No one else works in entertainment. And so you say familiar, Yeah.
We're good with truck drivers. Had a few de mill people in there, and yeah, yeah, one of them.
Yeah yeah, So yeah, it's it's my family and I'm assuming probably sounds like yours too, are very passionate about practicality. They're very practical people, and and you know, yeah, we just I mean we would go to the movies occasionally, we would watch TV like Basic cable, but we were never like a we never nerded out a lot over stuff.
And and uh and I I really, you know, getting older, I started to really appreciate the whole nerd aspect of because really what nerd means is just someone who loves something so passionately they need to label it as nerd. You know, It's like you're just so in love with something, and I just I'm really drawn to people who are so in love.
With something, so am I I understand that completely.
And so I so being in now I'm full fledged in con culture. I'm like like neck deep in nerds, and I'm and it's just there's there's a part of me that's like, damn, it took me thirty five years to get here, Like I finally feel like I'm at home. And it took me thirty five years to feel like I'm home. Yeah, but I do. I've never felt more at home in my entire life than the last year and a half. That's great, and largely because of the conventions.
You know, to go to a city that you don't know anybody and to feel like you're loved by everyone.
That's such a thousand people show up and all of a sudden, you know people.
Yeah, all of a sudden, you have friends, you feel loved any any like. It's almost like a like a cure all because people are loving something that you love. It's like people gathering to love your kid. It feels it's yeah, we're.
All gathered around the same campfire.
Right and and coming from the YouTube world, you know, I'm I go to I used to go to conventions like VIDCN and Playlist like conventions that were about clout more so than the work. So it's the people that line up to me there are more concerned with who you are as opposed to what you make. Oh I met this this YouTube, I met this creator, and that's that's great. I got the selfie. But at these conventions, people are asking me questions about my work, what I
have coming up. They're picking prints of characters that that connect that they connected to.
So it's not.
About me, It's about what this thing that I helped make that we both connected with, and I just I didn't realize that there was such a difference in energy with conventions, Like I did not like going to the VidCon as.
Yeah, I was going to ask you, did you go before you were signing? I mean, yeah, yeah.
And now now I choose to exclusively be around this type of crowd because I love I love so much, I mean, both the fans and then behind the scenes. I get to meet other voice actors and hear about you know, parallel journeys that other people have had doing what I what I'm now doing and so and also because I'm so new, this is just such a welcoming profession. Everyone here, you know, it's been doing it longer than me, and they're just welcoming me with open arms, giving me
tips and advice. And there's no sense of like hierarchy, you know, connecting with all kinds of voice actors at these conventions, and they're just all such lovely people to be around. You. You're with the fans all day, and then it's nice to just go behind the curtain and just decompress with someone who's also been around the fans all day, and you kind of connect in a different way for you know, for lunch, and then you go back out there and connect in a different way with
with those people. So yeah, it's it's it's given me like a different, like a new sense of purpose with what I do.
Yeah.
Yeah, And I already felt like I had a lot of purpose with what I did before this, but now I'm like, oh, here's I get to see up close the effect that the work has on people.
Oh yeah, well that's what I always say. We make our living in rooms with a few other people, right, no audiences per se unless you look in there and people are giggling after you do your line, and then you know, you just kind of do it. You hope it, hope it. Well, I'll just knock this down, you know, you hope it resonates with people. And then eventually when you get to a convention and then at that one time where you you know, and you said pull my finger and and you know, and it was like, okay,
so that I got you. So you were you were paying attention, thank you.
Yeah, And if it's any like sometimes I like to go to watch parties at people's houses because it's a good reminder of like, oh yeah, when people watch my stuff, this room full of laughing people, that's the energy it could bring to certain households. And I think that you're right. We do it quiet in a studio, and it's very almost deflating in a studio because there's a you can't they don't let you hear them laughing because you know
that would ruin the mess up the track. But so so you're used to when you just say a joke, whether there's one person in the room or a whole group of people, you're used to hearing some form of responsive laughter. Yes, no, I'm doing doing the same thing. So when you don't hear that immediate laughter, it almost
feels like, oh, I've bombed and uh. And I think even now that I know it doesn't mean that there's still this like inherent knee jerk reaction of like, oh they oh that's right, I can't hear.
Them, especially if you're used to doing something in front of people. Yeah, it's an immediate response. That's that's one of the greatest things about theater or live live anything, Yeah, is you get an immediate response.
And you know, so many of our casts there in life, they're Broadway people, and so this is a way different. You know, if it's different for me, I'm I'm on camera but like to be, you know, going from Broadway to that. So I think it is a bit of a culture shock, at least initially. You know, being in that quiet, quiet room, you have to really be looking
through the glass to make sure they're they're enjoying. Yeah, but uh yeah, it's it's it's crazy because you don't think about you know, when I'm in that studio, I try to think about the rooms of people watching it, you know, the people at home, you know that are like I try and pretend they're right in front of me and I'm just doing it for them, and it is it is different. And also just I like to stand.
I think standing ads you know, as long as I could stay on the mic, standing for me helps me do more things with my my diaph no, I agree. But yeah, it's it's it has been a very very rewarding new variant of the work I was already doing, you know. I I, for instance, I'm now very cognizant of clothes that make noise.
And oh yeah, that's so true.
And I'm very cognizant of also just like my posture just where I'm at with you know, mics and equipment.
Well plus it affects you if you're standing or sitting. I mean, you know, what's his name, Paul standing and kiss I think I remember he used to lay on the floor and they would drop a mic down at him. And I tried that to sing and and I tried doing that, and it's awful. He's out of his mind, you know, your diaphragms folding up, shot at all, loud or whatever, something about shouting, you know, And it was no, get up, it's get up off of there, mister.
It's gook funny.
Yeah yeah, yeah, walking laying on the floor, yeah, in his mouth.
Wow.
Yeah.
So that's so I have convention because I've only been in on the scene for a couple of years, not even have conventions changed significantly since COVID or well.
I think so, because the people are dying to get out of the house. Yeah, you know, because you know it was you know, COVID was you know, I had it and I didn't even know I had it same So that's how that's how badly it affected me. So I thought it was much ado about nothing, and I was a little vocal about that, for better or worse. But you know, I think everybody was just oh, man, I can't go to a convention. I can't, you know, got to sit home, can't go to Disneyland? Kick? Can I go to the show?
Yeah?
As long as you keep you know, you're in a scuba diving outfit. And uh, you know, it just got old. And I think when everybody said, okay, can we just quit pretending? Can we go back to work? Can we go to a convention? Can we go to Disneyland? Can we go to the park and swing on the swings? Yes? Okay, good? Boom the floodgates opened. Wow?
And so when did you notice the cons release start picking back up? Because I joined after it was full fledged.
Yeah, I don't know about a year. What would you say about a year ago, year and a half?
Yeah, probably like twenty twenty two, I'd say, okay, so I must have joined right when it was yeah opening.
Yeah, I think you're good. Yeah.
Oh wow, okay, I yeah, I just uh And is it similar to what it was like before COVID or has has it been changed?
Well? I think there's more people.
Yeah, I think it's been become more popular since COVID.
I also feel like, just generally, I feel like pop culture is inherently more of a part because like the you know, I don't know at least a lot of the people I know. You know, the younger you get, I mean the older you get. You know, someone in their thirties today having action figures is a lot more acceptable than you know, thirty years ago someone having action figures at this stage. I just if you look at Target,
they now have a pop culture section. Oh yeah, so it's like, yeah, I think that, yes, everyone wants to get out of the house, but I feel like we're at a point now where like anyone who's itching and get out got out. I feel like a pop culture is really kind of on an upswing.
Well, they figured out how to make it part of the capitalist machine, you know. I think that has a lot to do with it too, that they're figuring out how to monetize each and everything.
You know, the money's there, people are spending lots of money.
Yeah. And I was just at the last convention we were at. I was talking to Miley Flanagan and they didn't even used to. They used to the promoters would just pay actors or voice actors or whoever to appear and then just sign like it wasn't charged per autograph.
Yeah, that was like the the first one I did was that.
Yeah, and so even recently, you know, that is another mode of commodification, you know, and it's you know, you see the people standing in line and no pictures unless you pay for it, you know, like, oh can I have a selfie? Well? Did you pay for it? You know, it's like right, so commodified.
Yeah, yeah, that's insane. You know what blew my mind was when I first started signing a lot of the people online go to every convention they can go to, and they're so in tuned with like, oh they know the CULD, they know the routine, and.
I call it the con culture, the conic culture. Yeah. Yeah.
And so I'll have people just sort of line up and they'll some of them, some of them it's their first time, like, oh, I don't know, how do I do this? Do I pick? Some of them are like yes, this, make it out to this, make it out to this, I want too selfies on one video and they just and then they once they got their stuff.
Boom, they're gone.
And there's kind of something I respect about them.
They they do what they want for sure.
Okay, I do the people who come up, they'll they'll talk to Jim and be like do I pay you? Is like so precious. It's like, oh, it's like you're first time, right, you know. It's it's so precious because they're so shy and likes excited all at the same time.
Very sweet.
Usually, I at least from what I've seen, it's the smaller towns that usually have people like that, Like Vegas, I rarely meet people like that. But then like I was just in West Virginia and almost every person I met I was their first. Oh that's great person I met or the first. So it is a different energy and it is kind of I like them both, honestly. I like the people who know what they want and
to get out. And there's some people that are just possibly you're the only celebrity there to meet and when I was, you know, and it's very sweet. It's very sweet. Yeah, it comes from a very innocent place. It's it's weird. It's interesting seeing so many people in their most nervous state of mind. It's like you're just seeing people I don't know. You just get you start to get used to meeting nervous people.
You get cariers.
Yeah, criers, and that could be an interesting Oh yeah, way to talk. By the way, this is the first ever podcast as WRE I get to talk about this stuff with something who knows what I'm talking about. Oh yeah, like, oh, well, I love I love unloading. I'm like, am I never unloaded about this?
One's no one's ever asked. Yeah, well, believe me, you're in good company.
Okay, So criers, Yes, this is a cork.
Yes, I can't. I mean, I'm sure you get criers, but like with me, I'll have criers and they all cry over Winning the Pooh. I love the fact that you get criers over Satan. I know, you know, Oh my god, Satan. Oh, I'm pretty sure my uncle he passed away last year. Pretty sure you know him, real ass wife. He's uh, you know, he's quite a turd socket. I don't know if you Lenny Lenny. He's from New York. I mean, yeah, I know.
I know turd Socket from Winnie the Pooh.
Well that was only Jim coming, so don't be alarmed.
I I yeah, it's it's so so. I The way people connect with my characters is a little different. These are most of them are alternative or queer or people who don't feel like they fit in with a lot of their the people around them. And I think the work that I do, especially you know, as Blitz, I think there's something that they see in him, because Blitz is sort of I mean a lot of the characters on that show are are relatable to, you know, people
in the queer community. And in a way that right, I know, I was really hoping for the Martha Stewart fans. Yeah yeah, but which, by the way, we have the same birthday.
Oh get out, well, I have good news. You failed miserably in Martha's Stewart category. The other one you're doing great.
Right, right right? But anyway, yeah, so the people come up to me. I mean people cry for different reasons. Sometimes people cry as just a physical reaction. They're not even that adamant about anything. They just can't help, but their nerves work them up into textrue. So there's a million of reasons why someone can cry, and some of them, you know, I will I have a hard time, you know, you know, cutting off my time with I have a really hard time with someone. But some of them, okay,
so you have to understand. I think what people don't realize is that you're meeting human beings humans constantly. You're one person after the other the other, and they're all coming at you with ten out of ten energy. Whatever the energy is, if it's good, if it's bad, if it's silly, if it's whatever, it's a full force that energy. Right, So when when someone's crying, they're crying hard. When someone's laughing,
they're laughing. Everything's so intense. Even the people who just shut down like that's sort of an intenseness to that where they just don't say anything. So for us to you know, it's it's as human beings, we inherently have to mirror the energy. Whether you're having dinner with one person or if you're in a room full of people, we kind of match energy as as just as yeah,
that's species. So when they're at the table, we have to It is difficult to have to toggle your energy between all these different types.
Of tens, a lot of frequency, a lot.
Of different frequencies that you're tuning to. So so someone could just be crying and you've brought yourself to this very personal place with them, and the next person is screaming, and just so and you have and they're elated. You have to get yourself to be as elated as they are. And I'm not saying that one energy is better than the other. They're just all different and they're all a lot, and so it can be tiring as a just as a human being to do that for hours, and.
It's an odd discipline. It's odd drain, but it's a bit of a drain because you don't want to. You don't want to, you know, ruin not be there for everyone.
Right And so I'm never out there unless I can be a silly version of my normal self. I'm never my normal, normal self. I'm always like a little bit of a heightened version of myself just so they can, you know, just to make their day a little better.
But if I can't put on that mask, if I have to, if I'm like to it, because sometimes I will get to a point where I'm just like I can't even muster like a smile right now, yes, Like I just your brain is just like throbbing, and you just need a second to just sit down and drink some water and just take a few deep breaths. Because it's just a lot of people and I do my
best to match everyone, but it is tough. Yeah, and so and again you don't want the because the one person you do let yourself down with a little bit, they're gonna go, oh, like, what's he's in a bad mood. It's like no, no, no, no, I've just been doing this for hours. One time, I had food poisoning and I was like trying to I was going to the bathroom to like throw up and then come back, and
I was just not feeling great. And there were people who I remember, people who were not knowing to move along, people who were staying for like like well past their time and they're crying and I can't tell them to move along. But I'm also dealing with like not wanting to throw up. So it was it was. There are times where I'm yeah, it does push me and I have to go take a break and yeah.
Yeah.
People say like, well, you're just signing, why didn't you take it? It's like no, it is like it's like mental yeah.
Socially yeah, it's not like your hands tired.
Yeah, it's not my hands tired. And my back's fine. Physically I'm fine. It's just all it's like my heart and my head are like both yobby.
Right, but and and plus you know, you get well, you know, I get the stories about things that I was home and I just lost my grandma, and and then Pooh came on, and then I remembered that we used to sit no, I used to sit on our lab and we want and that where run came on, and it was reminded me of my grandma. So thank you. And I went, oh, oh, you're welcome. You know, I didn't even I didn't okay, yep, could not be more welcome.
I'm very grateful that you told me that. Yeah, you know, so you get those and it makes it all and.
The most better. I'm learning that, like the more, the most that I can do in those moments is be as present with them as possible. Yeah, and if I can at least just do that. Some people it's a little harder to be more present with than others. Some some people are so elated to where their logic I can't. I'm having trouble keeping up with their story because it's
going here. But I yes, I'm like I if I you know, and I'll ask Them'm like I'm your mom said, you know, but yeah, but yeah, yeah, I just try and be present with them. I don't I don't want anyone to ever feel like I was looking through them, and you know, and and yeah, it's it's I do feel bad when people come up and they say, oh, remember me from from Tampa or from this other convention. Oh, I don't remember you.
You were the guy on the T shirt? Was that you? I do you have a baseball hat?
On?
Richard taught me, And I'm he's probably gonna hate me for spilling the secret, but let's take that.
He said.
He said, it's he always says, it's nice to see you. That's what it is, nice to see you, because it could be whither it could be nice to meet you, or it could be if I see you again, it's it sounds familiar. So I've always leaned on nice to see you. Oh it's great to see you, because it could I could be meeting you for.
The first time. And it's right. Yeah, that's true.
It's it. That's it. I have very vanilla, very vanilla, and it lets them do what they want with it.
Yeah, I have interpretation exactly.
I've said in the past, nice to meet you to many people, and they go, we met before.
Actually I'm like, oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah.
So I'm like like, yep, yep, I was. I was testing you. Yeah, I'm glad you remember.
Yeah, that reminds me of a story. I'm gonna tell a story really quick because I love this story. I was at a friend's father's memorial service a couple of years ago, and there was a bunch of uh, like, you know, my peers from high school. We all went to high school together. We all knew. This guy's name was Papa Joe, and he like had the house that everybody partied at, you know, oh boy. And we're standing around in a circle and it was like I went to like a pretty small high school, Like there was
only one hundred kids in my graduating class. Oh wow, you know, so like everybody knew everybody. And we're sitting there, we're standing there sharing some stories and stuff, and this girl comes up and she had had a lot of work done since high school, a lot of work on her feet, which, yeah.
Your high school wasn't that long ago. Yeah, she was an overachiever.
Yeah, And she comes up and one of my friends goes, oh, hi, I'm Greg, nice to meet you, and she looks at him she's like Greg, it's Amy, like, oh, like we definitely know each other. And he was like, oh my god, I am so sorry, Like I didn't recognize you student class.
Yeah, wow, that's well.
I probably should have changed the names.
Yeah, that name and he's real name, I mean, gladys Is. And then he said, good to see your face cleared up, you know, because that's nice, and give him a compliment. Your face cleared up, you know, that's yeah, yeah, I didn't recognize you.
All right, we have we have this game that we played on this show. So I'm going to explain it right this time.
Oh, here we go.
Jim will do one of his iconic voices whole say a line like say oh bother or you know, one of his character voices, and then you'll imitate that same line with one of your characters. Okay, and then we'll go back and forth. All right, are you game?
I like that?
Alright?
I was hoping for something like this.
All right, let's see, how about I haven't done Hondo in a while. Yeah, Honduo Naka. He's my guy from Star Wars Clone Wars Rebels and oh okay and uh okay, so he's a he's a space pirate space from from a galaxy far far away to get that. Yeah, throwing it out there and let's see. Okay he is he's a bit of a comment. Oh, so here we go.
Okay.
Oh the stories I could tell, so many of them true?
Okay, just blitz. Yeah, Oh the stories I could tell and so many of them true.
That's pretty good.
I love that. I'm a big fan of that.
That was good. Yeah.
Show Okay, it's my turn.
You sound just like him? Okay, go ahead, there you go.
See you sound just like him?
No, no, no, no, that was me being a fan.
Oh say, oh, I just say any line.
No you say no, you're You're on your own now.
Okay, and any line.
All right, let's go lick some ass. I really had to think of that one.
Okay, can can it be tazz?
Okay?
Ass okay, I mean no questions.
Who would you say is your most vulgar character? If any, it's got to be that guy from Grand Theft Auto? Right?
Yeah, yeah, well who are you and Grand Theft? I sell arm? I sell arms?
He was like the arms dealer. What's the name of that store?
This is this the five? Yeah, it's where you go. Yeah, it's where you go to buy ammunition to ammunation.
Yeah, ammunation ammunition.
Oh my god, I've killed you so many times, really thinking that I could get the yea. But you're hard to kill because you can't bring a gun in the store. So you know what I do is I p I prop the door open. You can prop the door open with an objective park a car, park a bike or something. You prop the door open and then you just stand outside and then you run in and steal all the Yeah, but it's hard. It's hard because your your gun. You have to be fully outside the door and find a
way to keep the door open. You can kind of prop it open yourself, but it's hard to do anyway.
I'm going to take your word on that one.
Yeah, yeah, wow, wow. That is They should have made him look like you.
Kids, don't try this at home.
I wouldn't have I wouldn't have killed him if he looked like you.
You would have just thrown a grenade.
I would have just the grenade.
We don't feel those That's right.
Let's do let's do one more.
Let's do uh and I misunderstood the assignment, by the way. Okay, So so it's fine, okay, okay, cool, Yeah, we got it.
Yeah, I think who should have?
Who's another character? You got to do? Classic Pooh? I know we keep doing Pooh. Leave in the comments. By the way, who think of some voices for these voice swap games for Jim to do? Because we were kind of in a in a pattern. Now, yes, so drop a comment of what voices you want to hear? But how about we do Pooh and Katie killed Joy?
Okay, okay, Pooh and Katie kill Joy. Okay, let's see. Would you please pass loney, I'm.
Gonna need you to pass that. Honey, I'm gonna need you.
And then let's just do vice versa.
Breaking the news and breaking those bus sizes.
Okay, geez, I don't know who should respond to breaking the news and breaking those bus passes see see Disney see not bad? Right? How am I doing?
That's pretty sure they're applauding your improv skills.
Yeah they are, And I'm applauding the fact that you didn't make me cuss too badly. Hey, I'm surprised, yeah, restraint is.
I'm surprised that the universe allowed us to be like in this proximity for.
This all life is good, ladies and gentlemen, can we hear it?
Yes? Yes, Do you have anything coming up that you want to plug, anything like that?
Anything?
I don't think so, I just uh, oh, I'm doing a show by now. I think all of the episodes are streaming. It's a show called Class Acts. It's kind of like, uh, the Office meets a hell of a Boss. It's written by the same people and so it'll be properly demented, properly demented. It's a show about an acting class in l A and I play an acting teacher.
Oh that's great.
So yeah, it's it's a lot of fun. It's that's a great idea. Yeah yeah, I mean it's a very flexible show. You can have a lot of different shenanigans. And I've taken a Bajillian acting classes, so I felt like I knew that the source material.
Well, oh that's great. That's a great idea.
That's a great past.
Class Acts and it's eight episodes.
A right, break a lip, just YouTube YouTube.
Just yeah, break a lip, brother, Thank you very much. All right, let's hear it, ladies and gentlemen, ran and writer. Let the crowd went mild right, that's what I always say, but that was for me, not you.
Okay, all right, well, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, and thank you guys all for watching. That was another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings. Don't forget to like and subscribe. We are closing in so close to one hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube, which is just awesome. Thank you for all the support. We really appreciate it. Don't forget. You can find bonus content, that's right, bonus content on Patreon. Thank you for all our patrons.
We really appreciate you guys there. And of course Brandon Rogers joined us today. Thank you so much, and we'll see you in the next one. And of course almost forgot. You can find this podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts and especially YouTube. We love you guys. We'll see you in the next one. Come boom.
Thanks.
That was a lot of fun. You're gonna have to come on again. You got a lot to say.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, that was fun, fun,