Hey everybody, welcome to Jon D Podcast.
I'm your host Jon D Miller.
Welcome to episode number 68 everybody.
Number 68, numero sesenta y ocho in the old Espanol language.
That's right.
Mm hmm.
One thousand two hundred forty three going on one thousand two hundred forty four days
now as I begin to record this intro of no booze.
No booze.
Yeah, no booze.
I say intro because once again I have a fantastic guest for you today, this evening, wherever
you are, whatever you might be doing.
How are yous, how are yous, how are you else?
So I've known this gentleman for about 14 years and I've been thinking about getting
him on the show for a while.
And one of the reasons why is because he has what literally one of the coolest jobs you
could probably ever hope for, at least as long as if you're into things such as animation
and the TV show Family Guy, because he is a storyboard artist on that show.
I did, I hit him up.
I said, hey man, I've been thinking about having you on the show.
He said, you know, but in an open invitation, don't no rush, just whenever.
He said, what are you doing tomorrow?
I said, I'm recording a podcast with you.
That's what I'm doing.
So that's what we did.
We had a very cool conversation.
It was a lot of fun.
He's a really genuinely awesome and sincere person, but we talk about where he is today,
how he got there and some really awesome insights into not just animation, but the TV show Family
Guy itself.
And I really appreciate him being on the podcast.
You're going to really like it.
That being said, please follow me on social media, Jon D Comedy, Jon D Podcast on Twitter.
That's right, suck it, Elon.
Jon D Podcast on Facebook.
Jon D Podcom on Instagram and threads.
You can write the show John D Podcom at gmail.com.
I think that's everything.
Yeah.
I think that's everything.
So this was awesome.
I've been literally so recorded this past Thursday.
So it's been a few days since I've done this and putting this all together is just, it's
been really cool.
So hang out and enjoy my conversation with Mr. Patrick McCarthy.
And here he is, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the podcast, a longtime friend
of mine, not one I've talked to in quite a while, but I'm so excited to have him here.
I hit him up literally yesterday, but I've known him for a long time.
And I said, Hey, dude, I've always wanted to have you on the podcast.
Would you be interested?
And he said, dude, let's do it tomorrow, which, which I take as a, I don't know, I don't even
know how what to call it.
Compliment.
Please welcome to the podcast, everybody, Mr. Patrick McCarthy, who is has one of the
coolest jobs I've ever heard of in my entire life.
He works on the award winning and renowned.
It has won awards.
It has, it should, in my opinion, a family guy.
Please welcome to the podcast, Patrick McCarthy.
Patrick, thank you so much for being here today.
Of course.
Thank you.
Let's talk about your back.
So you are, what do you do right now?
So we're going to start like the movie does where it starts at the end and then it goes
back and tells the story.
That's what we're going to do.
So we're going to start at the end.
You may ask, how did I get here?
Yeah, exactly.
So how, so what are you now?
What do you do?
I am a storyboard artist at Family Guy.
Yeah.
And you know, a lot of times when I'm trying to explain it to people, it's, it's kind of
like being almost like an engineer or architect for the cartoon.
We're the first ones to kind of map it out.
You know, we're kind of determining where the camera is going to be, where the characters
are and what kind of main actions they're going to do.
So it's like the kind of the first step between it just being words on a page to what it's
actually going to look like.
Right.
Because then, yeah, after, after we map it all out, then it goes over to Korea and they
animate everything over there.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
I knew there was some overseas going on.
A lot of people do that nowadays.
They do it in podcasting, which, you know, working in that.
I know.
I mean, I do my own, but yeah, they, they do send it overseas a lot.
But yeah, that's, that's, that's what a storyboard artist does.
You take the words, you make them into the pictures that we all get to see and enjoy,
which of course on Family Guy would be Peter, Lois, Stewie, Brian, right?
All them.
Meg.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Very cool job.
But you, you didn't always do that.
So let's start off a little bit and let's go back a little bit now.
Do you still do stand up at all?
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Huh?
What made you decide to stop doing it?
Well, so you and I met between 2010, 2011, because I moved out.
Was it that late?
Mm hmm.
Well, because I was in school.
Oh, that's right.
You were, that's right.
You were at Virginia Tech.
Yeah, I was.
Yeah, that's right.
And I studied creative writing there because I like, I knew like freshman year of high
school that I wanted to like move out to LA and do the whole Hollywood thing.
But at the same time, I also loved stand up.
You know, I would like, like during the summers, I would watch like all the Comedy Central presents
the all the different little like stand up specials Comedy Central would have during
the day and then when I turned 18, my senior year, I was like, okay, I'm going to the Funny
Bone and I'm doing their competition.
And first time I did it, I won.
And yeah, it was cool but it was just funny because I went back home, told my dad, I was
like, dad, I'm on first place at the Funny Bone and he goes, I must not understand comedy
anymore.
Makes that is the encouraging one.
You know what, I want to say that's awesome, but it's also so bad at the same time.
But it would be funny in a movie.
I can laugh at it now.
Right?
Yeah, sure, sure.
Yeah, but so I went to Virginia Tech to study creative writing.
I wanted to go out to California but my dad was like, no, you're staying in state.
You're a little young for the time, right?
18, 19 when you were talking about doing it, right?
Yeah, well, I gotten into a film school out there.
But my dad just, again, but it's all good because when Virginia Tech had a good time
there.
And then when I graduated, I came home and was living with my dad again.
And I was just like, I don't have camera equipment.
I can't like record anything.
I don't have enough funds to just go move out to LA.
What can I do?
And I was like, oh, well, I love stand up.
Let me do that.
So it was kind of just like a way to kind of get myself out there, express myself.
But it was funny because I came out of the whole college mentality which college is great
but all the professors and everybody, they just kind of like, you're gonna do great.
You're gonna change the world.
And so you kind of come out like you're like, we're all gonna change the world.
Right, guys?
And so that's what they're supposed to do.
Right.
I think that's what they do.
You're gonna change shit.
That's what you paid us all this money to tell you.
So I came out with all this enthusiasm, which is definitely a good thing.
But you know, I also put my foot in my mouth a lot.
And just wasn't thinking, I wasn't doing a good job of thinking about where other people
might be at or what their experience is up to that point.
You know, like, it's kind of like when Justin Bieber came out with this documentary, it's
like, like never stop believing or whatever.
I'm like, dude, when did you have a chance to give up?
You like made it when you were 12.
Right?
Good point.
Yeah, absolutely.
So it was like, you know, I'm like, we're all we're all gonna do it.
We're all gonna make it.
We're all gonna succeed.
And and it's like, yeah, easy for you to say, bro, you just got out of school.
Yeah, he just I mean, he was just on the scene and it seemed like he already like the struggle.
So I did stand up for about a year in Richmond.
And and yeah, we got to meet up a few times.
It was it was cool because with you, like we didn't see each other too often.
But you know, I got to know some of the other comedians and they would speak highly of you.
They're like, oh, man, you should see when he performs.
I'm like, OK, where is he?
When am I going to see him?
I didn't know those people said nice things about me.
And you know, it's funny.
The other night I went to that open mic and somebody called me an OG.
I got you're an OG.
I don't know.
Maybe I'm just an old guy.
Maybe that's it's all it is.
Yeah.
So 2012, I started seeing like, hey, I'm out here.
I'm not dead or anything like that.
I'm I'm doing all right.
And I was like, that's you know, that's cool.
Good for him.
Because one of the things that I never like I've known comics, I've known other people,
not just comics, but other people who have left their comfy town or whatever, not visited,
but literally moved to another city that is a whole nother place, New York or L.A.
I used to want to go to L.A. used to want to work in animation, but I was more of a
voice guy and then do stand up.
But I always respect the people who did it, who who went out there and chased their dreams.
I mean, is anything else before you left Richmond?
You were like, hey, I'm going to you go out there with the intent of doing stand up.
It was it was my excuse to move out to L.A. like I was like, OK.
And it was kind of my my building leaping off point.
So it's like because, you know, L.A. is huge.
It's got millions of people.
It's almost like its own little country just because every section has its own name and
it's its own like little municipality or whatnot.
But yeah, I got out here to L.A. and and thanks to stand up, I was able to like, OK, let me
go to the Hollywood improv.
Let me go to the comedy story.
Let me try to get up there like and meeting people and kind of get to know some people
and just having that, but that at the same time, you know, I would want once I kind of
got my feet planted because actually the first few months I was in my car and didn't have
a place to stay.
Yeah.
So this is this is where I kind of wanted to touch on this because, you know, you were
in the car.
What what was that like?
So you get there.
Did you not have a place to stay and you lost it?
Like what was it was?
What happened there?
It was kind of partially my own fault that it was like I was planning on moving out to
L.A. and as I was looking things up, I was like, you know what?
I'm not going to understand until I actually get there.
So instead of trying to like lock in a place or lock in a job and these things that are
these are good, stable things to do, I was like, ah, it's going to take me forever if
I try to line all this stuff up.
So let me just go.
And so I just went and yeah, like I would I found a gym.
I joined a gym.
There's like a 24 hour fitness so I could go to sleep in the parking lot.
But I would go in at night, you know, shower, brush my teeth, go sleep in the car in the
morning, go work out, go shower and then go on about my day.
But I was and I was using stand up to like, you know, I was traveling all these different
places around the city, kind of learning the different areas.
Go, OK, this area is not so nice.
OK, this area is pretty safe.
And so then from there, I finally got a job.
And then once I got a job, I was at first place.
It was really just weeks apart.
My first job I really had, I kept the entire time I was a valet.
I was a valet parking cars.
Nice.
Seven years.
Nice.
I think, you know, I think I remember hearing you talk about this at some point.
I don't know where maybe it was Facebook or maybe some I don't know.
There's something I might have heard.
But what was that like?
What was being a valet like?
I got to hear this some of this for a second, at least.
Well, I mean, that job specifically was very unique.
So essentially it was valet work, but it was at a high rise condominium where a lot of
rich people live.
So instead of it being like a hotel where people come in and out, it was it was a home.
OK, where you had like regulars, all these people, like people you knew.
Yeah.
So instead of kind of putting on that hotel concierge type of song and dance, it was more
so trying to build connections and being like, oh, you know, Mr. So-and-so, how are you doing
today?
Did that work out for you?
Like, you know, just make small talk with them, make them feel comfortable in their
home.
And it also helped me in some ways because like, for example, one resident that lived
there was a writer and he'd written on Simpsons, he'd written on Malcolm in the Middle, Frazier.
And so I was like, hey, I'm I'm trying to be a writer.
And I entered like the Warner Brothers Writers Program.
I was like, can you read my script and give me notes?
And he was like, yeah, sure.
And he read a Family Guy spec script that I wrote.
And his compliment was, it reads like a script.
I was like, all right, I'll take it.
Yeah.
I mean, you're in the right direction.
Yeah.
And but it was also enough for him to trust me with things.
So he invited me into like he had his own show.
So he invited me into the writers room.
So I got to kind of observe how that went.
Can you say what show that was?
Yeah, it was a show called Wendell and Vinny.
It was on Nick at Night back in 2012 time.
And it was great.
It was a great show.
But you know, it's like Nick at Night, like kind of a confusing demographic.
He's like, who is that for necessarily?
And he was incredibly nice.
But the reason I kind of prefaced that the job was weird was because it also had very
unique management.
And so a lot of the employees there would get away with anything.
So we're parking, you know, half a million dollar cars.
We're parking Lamborghinis, Ferraris and stuff.
And these guys would scratch them or just not show up to work or even one time our boss
was like a Christmas party or something.
It's like one of our employees had just gotten a divorce after just getting married over
a weekend in Vegas.
Right.
Nice.
One of those.
But the boss kind of made a joke about it.
And then he went down into the garage and peed all over the windshield of our boss's
car.
Really?
We're just like this dude, you're going to get fired.
But right before the boss called for his car the next day, we took like a hose and we did
like a pressure washer, washed it off real quick.
But I mean, that, okay, that was just one.
And that guy didn't get fired or anything.
Anybody who left that job just left.
They just left on their own volition.
Nobody ever got fired.
Yeah.
They were getting kicked off of it.
Yeah.
No matter what crazy things happen.
Well, you're parking Lamborghinis so you can drive stick, right?
So that what you could do.
Yeah.
A lot of people can't drive stick anymore.
That was one of my silly little stand up bits that I had for a while where I was just like,
I was like, Oh, my car has a great security system that keeps anybody from stealing it.
It's called a manual transmission.
Yeah.
And it's so good, even I can't take it sometimes.
So that's an interesting job.
So you were a valet at an apartment complex.
So you had the regular people, which is kind of a different thing because I know in LA,
you know, I visited a few times out there and I know that, you know, any place you go
a lot of times it's, you know, any place you go, you go to someplace on sunset, you go
to a bar, you go to a club, you know, it's valet, it's valet, valet.
And one of the biggest things about those is I always thought was funny was, you know,
I'm like, where are you parking these things?
Because it didn't seem like there was any place around for them to put these cars, but
they would just take your car and then they come back.
I always had rentals when I was there, so I wasn't that worried about it.
But if I actually owned a Lamborghini or one of those type things, I'm sure I'm sure
I'd have been more worried about it.
So you get so you get on that show, you're a valet and then you but you get in with the
writer, you're working on the show at Nick at night.
And then how did that kind of progress from there?
So it was really observation.
Like I was in no way affiliated with the show, but it was great just exposure kind of just
understanding.
I feel like that was one of the first early lessons that I learned out here is just you
don't know until you know.
You like you don't know what your goal or dream is until you come out here and see the
other people doing it.
And you're like, oh, that's what they're doing.
That's how they're doing it.
Okay, where do I start now that I know that?
Right.
And and so even with that, there was there is kind of like to be like a writer on a television
show.
There is like a trajectory, right?
You can be a PA and then be a writer's assistant or you can do these programs and then hopefully,
you know, eventually become a staff writer.
But that like the PA and writer's assistant stuff is kind of like a luxury.
Like you had to be able to not receive income and keep yourself afloat.
So those weren't really available to me at that point, right?
It's kind of like a college kids thing.
You went homeless for that long, were you?
I mean, it was I moved out here.
It was the end of July.
And so it was like August, August, September and October.
Well, so that August and September, I was in my car and then somebody I went to high
school with was also out here and then I crashed on his couch.
But I was one of like six in a two bedroom apartment.
But then by that November, I got a job, got a place.
And so then finally was no longer in my car.
And yeah, was was parking cars for the next seven years after that.
But was doing other things.
Yeah.
So that's what I was to say about stand up.
So once I kind of got my feet planted and I was like trying to write, like, you know,
because I was learning from him or whatnot, like I was also doing stand up, but it'd be
like an hour to get to any open mic.
And you had to get there an hour early if you wanted to sign up.
And then you have to wait about an hour into the show before you get up for a three to
five minute set and then another hour to get home.
And I'm like, man, I could spend that four hours writing something, creating something.
So it just it just didn't make sense when I was I was finding that L.A. had everything
available to you, like anything you want to do, you could do.
But in terms of like, like if you want to be a stand up, there's plenty of different
things.
But that wasn't my only goal.
That was just like a fun excuse to get out here.
I wanted to go out there and do stand up, but I don't I mean, I think I do OK as a stand
up.
I think I can hold my own, definitely.
But, you know, I was talking to my my last episode buddy of mine from Canada, who's a
comic named Darryl.
And we were talking about how like you go to L.A. in New York and, you know, you think
you're good, you think you have it.
And then you go up and you watch somebody you've never heard of before just destroy for 20 minutes.
And my experience is in places like New York and L.A. is that, you know, you're watching
some of the all stars from where they're from, you know, you're watching the best from Wisconsin
or the best from, you know, some guy.
I remember one time I was out in L.A. and there was some dude I can't remember his name.
He was from Idaho of all places.
And he literally went in there and just killed it at some little spot I was at.
But yeah, the animation thing was I was going to do voices.
It doesn't matter.
But, you know, but you had other things.
It does matter.
Everything we want in this world.
Well, I like the mentality you have, Patrick.
That's fantastic.
You were always a you always seem very, very bright and positive when I knew you before.
So yeah, I mean, nothing good.
Good.
I'm glad I'm glad L.A. you know, because that's what they say.
People go to L.A. and they get bitter and they get jaded.
Are they?
Well, I I would say the culture shock for me in that regard is is is L.A. trained me
that you have to be an asshole.
But you can do without what you want.
So what I guess I mean by that is like people out here are going to force you to have to
say something you can't just be.
And so it's like, OK, well, what kind of asshole am I going to be?
So I just always try to make sure that if I'm being an asshole, it's because I know
I'm in the right, right?
Or like it's not just about me.
Like I'll yell, I'll do the whatever as long as I know it doesn't just benefit me.
Yeah, yeah.
It's one thing to be an asshole.
It's not going to be like a self-centered asshole.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like if you're if you're standing up for somebody else or for a group of people or, you know,
whatever it might be, you know, even yourself.
But at the same time, it's got to be correct in what you're doing.
Right.
Yeah.
Make sure you get that right.
And it's just yeah, it's just L.A. is just so full of crazy people, crazy things.
And it's just like I feel like in Richmond, like, of course, there's crazy people and
crazy things.
But it's like I feel like when those situations pop up, you can kind of just like whisper
and be like, wow, that guy's all that guy's a little crazy.
I'm just going to go now.
But it's like out here, you get confronted with it so often that you're like, I'm going
to have to do something.
I thought that never happened in New York.
But I spent a total of one week in New York back back when I was I was in Virginia.
I went up to New York to do to try stand up up there just to see what it was like.
And so it's kind of got a good impression of what people were like out there and that
short window.
But I quickly noticed that the difference between L.A. and New York is that people in
New York are like, hey, who the hell are you?
Who do you think you are?
But out here in L.A. is like, do you know who I am?
You know how important I am?
That is extremely well put.
Dude, you just that is literally you nailed it on the head.
That is exactly.
Yeah, it's like, yeah, New York people hate when you have an ego and L.A. people are astonished
when when you don't recognize their ego.
God damn, that is perfect.
Somebody write that down.
Share something.
That's the quote.
Do you know who I am?
But I overall, I still like I'm very happy having moved to L.A. as opposed to New York
because in terms of chasing the dream, you really and you can make it either place, right?
Whatever it is your goals are.
But I found that over the last decade of being out here is there's more to life than the
pursuit.
There's more to life than than trying to quote unquote make it.
And so what's nice about L.A. is since it is its own kind of mini country, anything
you want to do, any interest you have, there's something out here for you.
All right.
So it's like, you know, me and my wife, we we go hiking, we go play volleyball at the
beach, we go salsa dancing.
Like all these things are easily found and accessible all in one city.
And then you can go and be on TV.
I know that when I visited, I was always like I really was.
I almost moved there.
I really like I almost had it.
And then but you know, I just never the balls to do it, which is why I respect people who
do because it is a leap, you know, and it is a thing.
And I loved it out there, but I was always happy to come home.
You know, I always remember when I would be leaving on the plane and they would take off
from the back wheels would come up like, I'd see you next time, L.A. I'm going home, you
know, and I was always happy to have done that.
But so, yeah, like I said, I mean, I always respect the people that really that made the
jump and did it.
So you get out there, you get on TV.
I don't think I know what your on TV experience was.
What was that?
Can you?
Well, OK.
So is it something you don't want to say?
Well, it's it's it's more so like there's the Hollywood dream than there's the Hollywood
reality.
Right.
So when I first moved out here, you know, I was trying to expose myself to anything
I'm doing to stand up.
But I was also trying to audition for things.
Right.
Like you're you got to try to do the whole actor thing as well.
And there was like this calling thing where they're like, come out and and we'll pay you
50 bucks if you just like ring a doorbell, say some cheesy line and then some girls could
be like, sorry, you can't get in.
So it was essentially just to be be footage for a reality show, a dating show.
OK.
All right.
So it was like it was called Excused, hosted by Eliza Schlesinger.
Yeah.
And so I came out and I did the whole doorbell thing and they fed me some cheesy like, I
just say this and like, all right, cool.
And then they're like, hey, do you want to be on the show?
What?
And they're like, yeah, you could like I had a girlfriend at the time, but they were like,
yeah, it doesn't matter.
It's like we'll pay you like 150 bucks for a day's work.
And I'm like, all right, well, I'm unemployed.
And then so I did it and it was three girls and three guys.
And no matter what, whether you win or lose, you're paid the same.
And they explained that to us on the day of.
So it's like, they're like, OK, if you're like the first guy eliminated, then you're
leaving by lunchtime.
But if you're the winner, you're going to be here by like 10 o'clock midnight.
And so all the guys were like, you'd be charming.
You'd be charming.
Nobody wanted to work the whole day, especially if you can pay the same regardless.
Like you don't want to have to go.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So I was luckily one of the first eliminated.
I got out of there by lunchtime.
And it was because when I auditioned, they like they brought me in and they wanted me
to interview and talk about myself.
But this was going to be chopped up footage for the girls to review about whether or not
they let me into the house.
And it was just so funny because this woman, she set me up, this woman interviewing me.
The way she's asking these questions, I'm just, oh, how does this sound out of context?
Like, you just chopped this up.
And so I felt like I did good the whole interview.
I was like, all right, I've nailed it.
There's nothing embarrassing they could pull on me.
And then like at the end of the interview, she's like, OK, you don't have a home address
listed.
I was like, oh, well, technically I'm living in my car right now.
She's like, oh, talk about that.
Are I trying to win a date?
She said, no, no, no, it'd be fine.
Talk about that.
So, yeah, I said something about living in my car.
And then she fed me some corny line to say about it.
All right.
And then sure enough, you know, fast forward back three months later, no longer in my car.
But now I'm on this dating show and the guys are all waiting.
They're like going to eliminate the first person.
Please eliminate me.
Patrick, I'm like, yes, we really like you.
But dude, you live in your car.
And I was like, yes, yes, I do.
It brought good something for once.
But then it was just funny because I was on it for such a short time.
But then, I don't know, maybe after that aired a month or two later, I went to the comedy
store to do a show.
And because I was still doing standup at the time and I'm meeting this guy, just this random
person, I'm like, hey, nice to meet you, Patrick.
And he's like, oh, I know.
Yeah, excused.
What?
You should have said, you don't know who I am already.
Don't you know who I am?
That's what you said to the guy.
No, but actually it was funny because there's a comedian, Odell Harrison from Georgia that
I met up in Richmond one time.
He was up there performing.
But after I did the show, I got a voicemail from him.
He's like, why the hell am I seeing you on this show talking about living in your car?
I don't know, man.
I mean, you were just being honest.
I did it for $150.
I mean, that's LA for you.
I mean, it's all it's money.
It's based on money.
You want money, you want fame.
And you had a guy at the store recognize you.
So that's pretty cool.
But other than that, no, I did like some crowd work on like a different show.
And I mean, the only time my name is in the credits now is on Family Guy.
Yeah, which is awesome, by the way.
So I want to hear about it.
So we're gonna do more.
So let's take a quick break.
And then we're gonna hear more from Patrick McCarthy.
We're going to be talking about his work at the TV show Family Guy.
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And welcome back to part two of John D. Podcasts with Patrick McCarthy.
I'm so glad he's here.
We learned in the first half of the episode, Patrick, the first part, I'm not sure it's
going to be a half evenly, but the first part of the episode, we learned about you're leaving
Virginia, you get out to LA, we learned about some of your experiences out there and everything
else.
And then you are doing now, you get out there and you work on Family Guy.
How did that start?
When did it start?
And I mean, I have a, of course, I mean, probably we could probably do a whole episode on it.
Obviously, we're not going to because I wanted a little backstory, but how did it start?
How did that, how did you go into it?
Because I know at one point you were doing Bantam Box, right?
Which is Bento Box.
Bento Box.
That's the one.
Yes.
Yeah.
I'll let you tell the story, but I'm, dude, I'm riveted.
Go ahead.
It was kind of like, it was partly a result of just like coming out here, you can't have
a linear plan.
You can't say I'm going to do this and then I'm going to do this and then I'm going to
do this.
And I'm like, all right, I'm going to do this and one of five things might happen.
And if two, if number two or number three happens, then I'm going to create a new branch
and figure that out.
And so, that's kind of what happened is I was learning, teaching myself how to animate
while trying to make my own content.
And so, I put out a bunch of cartoons and stuff and they were all well received, but
it was just a lot of people who claim themselves a writer.
Whether they are, aren't, are good or not, it doesn't matter.
But like in terms of animation, there's not many people that are saying, I'm an animator,
I can animate well.
So, it's like, I would put out this stuff and they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, the writing's
good, but you animate?
Can you animate this?
Like, so, I would just get more and more attention from the fact that I was animating things.
And so, I rolled with it, right?
And eventually, I did what I called spec animations, where I was like, okay, I'm going to like
showcase myself and my ability not only to write like a certain show, but to animate
like the show.
So, I made like a South Park spec, I made a Family Guy spec, and those did really well.
And then I did a Game of Thrones prequel spec type of thing.
But the Family Guy one, Stewie Potter, that hit the front page of Reddit.
It got over like a million views when it did and Family Guy saw it.
So, they saw it and the producers reached out to me from the animation side, the animation
producers reached out and they were kind of like, hey, I can't say that we saw it, but
we saw it and it was really good.
And that was them being awesome because it's like, you know, what if Family Guy comes out
with an episode and it seems to have content from my video, they want, they need to have
plausible deniability or whatnot, but they were awesome.
They reached out to me and when I met with them, they were like, do you want a job?
Do you want to like work here?
I'm like, well, yeah, but I just figured my own way.
I don't know how to do this in a professional setting.
And they were like, oh, okay.
I mean, you know, classically trained.
Yeah, they were like looking at my video and they're like, well, I mean, you do good at
this or good at that.
Like maybe you could try for one thing or another, but at the same time I made friends
with people there.
So like there was one person who was a storyboard artist there that me and him would grab lunch
and he was like, dude, you could be a storyboard artist.
Sure.
I mean, every animation I've made, I've had a storyboard before.
I'm sure I could do that, but I don't know how.
And he's like, I'll show you.
So you showed me their storyboards and then like, I started to learn more on my own, learn
new software, learn Storyboard Pro, which is kind of like the industry standard for
storyboarding.
And then at Family Guy, they have like, there's the storyboard artist position, but then there's
one below it called Revisionist, which is essentially the one that comes and cleans
up all the stuff that the storyboard artists and the directors have slashed up.
And so I applied for that.
So I took the test for that and Family Guy said, thank you, but no, thank you.
So they told me no, and it was cool.
I kept working at things.
I was still making my stuff.
And then a year later, they're like, hey, we were reviewing your old test, your application.
We want to bring you in for an interview.
And so I was like, okay, cool.
Like maybe now they're bringing me in.
So I go in, I interview, it's like six or seven of them in the interview room with me,
right?
And then, well.
That's a pretty big panel to have to face.
Yeah, it was all the producers and all the supervising directors.
So just for quick reference, it's like there's, in the storyboarding department, it's like
there's revisionist, board artist, assistant director, director, then supervising director.
So all the supervising directors were in the room and so were the producers.
And just kind of got to know them all.
It went well.
And then afterwards, they were like, thank you, but no, thank you.
Help me do it again.
Kill me over here.
But then this other show called Hoops, which was going to be a basketball show on Netflix
over at Bento Box, some Family Guy people were jumping over to that.
So like one of the retakes directors there was going to be the supervising director for
that show.
And so my friend, he told me that he's like, hey, apply for that, you know, because a new
show they don't command the same respect, right?
Like people from Family Guy aren't going to necessarily jump ship from the most reliable
show on earth to the first season of something.
So I applied to that and the interview went really well.
And you know, because I know a little something about basketball, despite the most storyboard
artists aren't exactly the biggest sports fans.
Right.
But you know, the game man, right?
Yeah.
So March Madness.
Right.
But so I got the job there now.
And that was huge.
That was like, I still remember, like I got the email that I got the board artist position
there while I was doing laundry at a laundromat.
And I just like I just like because I was like, oh, my God, I get to put in my two weeks
notice at work.
The ballet at the ballet.
Yeah.
I was still parked cars up to that point.
That'd be a moment.
That's like a that's an LA moment right there, man.
You had the LA moment.
You're like, look, what am I doing myself?
What's good?
Yes.
Right.
Yeah.
Got it.
And then when somebody put their dirty socks in my washer, they all said, all right, I'm
putting in my two weeks notice.
Get my own washer, damn it.
Yeah.
So no, that was.
And I mean, I had I've had a couple of surreal moments just because even before, like with
Stewie Potter, right, that blew up on Reddit.
And while it was blowing up, I was at work parking cars.
So literally thousands of comments are pouring and being like, oh, this, you know, this guy
should be on Family Guy or whatnot.
Meanwhile, they're like, Patrick, go park a car.
You know, it's it's it's it's such a weird dynamic.
That's when you say, do you know who I am?
I have a which what is your YouTube channel is?
Patrick McCarthy animations.
Two C's in McCarthy.
Yes.
Yeah.
Patrick McCarthy animations.
Yeah.
I haven't posted anything in literally years and a while.
But dude, I do that.
Go and look at it.
I've looked at some of the stuff on there.
I was going to update things on there soon just because I have to work on my own personal
project.
But anyway, so hoops hired me and I put in my my I did my triumphant exit from the Carlisle.
But then I learned that storyboard artists are constantly searching for work.
You get staffed up on a show, you work on a few episodes of the season and the season
ends and then you have to go find another show.
And now I had a company like Bento Box, they can help you.
You'd be like, oh, well, we're also doing the Great North or we're also doing Bobs
Bird or we're also doing this.
But nothing's guaranteed.
They're not required to put you on another show.
So I get on there and then it's like they're like, yeah, you're going to be on the show
for 10 weeks.
Oh, I might need to go back to parking cars.
Right.
Well, how long were you on the other one for, though?
On hoops, you're talking about hoops, you're on 10 weeks.
You're talking about.
Oh, OK, for 10 weeks.
OK, so I get the hoops and they're like, yeah, you're on for 10 weeks.
And so it's like, well, you said people could leave whatever and go back.
So with the valet job, right.
So you had that in your pocket.
Yeah, but I kind of I put in a whole 30 day notice like I was because they gave me 30
days.
They're like, all right, you're going to be on the show like in April.
So I told my boss as soon as possible and I was telling every resident there and like,
oh, I'm going to be leaving.
Goodbye.
It was nice knowing you.
Yeah, I will not be back.
Yeah.
But I mean, that's that kind of job.
You don't burn bridges.
You don't burn bridges because it's a small world.
Right.
But amongst the elite, it's an even smaller world.
I think that's why they call me elite.
Yeah.
But it's so these people, you know, they may all be in this one such a location, but as
you're working your way up in the industry and dealing with people in higher levels of
authority, there's going to be some overlap and there's going to be people that have connections
to where I was parking cars.
So I made sure to be as friendly as possible on my way out because I had no animosity.
That place kept me afloat, kept my bills paid until I did get to that next step in my journey.
Right.
I think everybody who goes to Hollywood and does something where they any whatever they
a lot of people there's a lot that's the LA story.
I mean, you get out there, you do a job that that's it's not entertainment related.
And so you move on from that.
So you did it, man.
You put in the work.
This is why I wanted to tell your story because you were out there.
So you go hoops with bento box.
Right.
And then what's the progression on?
So you're moving on from there.
So it got near and to my time there, like I've worked on a few episodes.
They actually added a few weeks on to us because they were behind on schedule because they
had an impossible schedule to start with.
But it was cool.
I was happy for the extra time.
But then it became like, OK, what am I going to be doing next?
But so then I email family guy, the producers over there, I'm like, hey, so I've been storyboarding.
I've been over here at bento storyboarding.
Would love to to come over to you guys if you have anything open.
And they respond back to go, yeah, sure.
Come on over.
Like after these two big no's and and just years of knowing them and not.
It's just like once you got that first gig, like nobody wants to be the one that you learn
your mistakes on.
Right.
So after that, like once I got hoops and I emailed them, it was easy.
I came on over and so I started off as a revisionist on family guy.
And that was August twenty nineteen.
So April twenty nineteen, I was at hoops August.
I jumped over to family guy and then I've been there ever since.
Yeah, it's been it's been great because it you know, as I just said, like normally storyboard
artists are jumping around from show to show to show.
But then I got family guy as said, twenty nineteen.
And then it's just kind of this forever show that's constant.
But then the pandemic hit.
Right.
The pandemic hit.
And so it's it was good for animation because it was one of the few things that could be
done during the pandemic.
But it was just, you know, I had all these ideas in my head.
I'm like, OK, OK, yeah, I'll work a family guy for a year and then I'll try to get like
a director.
Like, you know, you don't move out here ambitious and then stop being ambitious.
It's like, all right, what are my next steps?
But then the pandemic hits and I'm like, oh my God, thank God I have a job.
Yeah.
And I've been very loyal to family guy.
And even through that time, just as I've been working on my own personal ambition and thinking
about what's next, it's like it's always been but never at the cost of family guy.
Like I got to make sure I'd be a good employee.
But because I was a good employee parking cars for seven years, I could be a good employee
to family guy.
I was also keeping my dreams alive.
But so that's the short of how I got into family guy.
And what's nice about it is I feel like my animation journey has been completely opposite.
Like a lot of people they go and they learn traditional drawing and then like the 12 fundamentals
of animation and then they learn software and special effects and all that stuff.
And I came in the opposite.
I was like, okay, what's this software?
What does this do?
And learned all this crazy stuff.
And then I was like, oh, I need to learn how to draw.
And family guy is a bit old school in how they do things.
They bent a box like all the board artists are doing all kinds of crazy like animatic
type of stuff but family guy has its own department for it.
So the directors and all, they're very on top of what each panel looks like.
How does each individual drawing look like?
So it's been a good experience for me because you could watch family guy and think that
the characters look very flat.
And like, oh, there's a very 2D flat characters but trust me, it could look a lot worse.
It could look much worse.
And so with the limited lines that you have for the characters, they teach us how to make
sure that they keep that volume that they're believable in their posing and acting.
And so it's been a great experience.
I think the most amazing thing for me at this point is to go from parking cars eight hours
a day to doing something eight hours a day that makes me better at the things that I'm
passionate about.
That's what's amazing.
It's like, okay, I clock in and by the time I clock out, even if I've done nothing for
my own personal project, I've gotten better at what I do.
So that's been the greatest part of it for me.
Also one of the things with the animation, I'm a huge Looney Tunes type fan.
And that's what I wanted to go do.
I wanted to go work at Warner Brothers but I want to do voices.
You wanted to be Mel Block?
Yeah.
Yeah, man.
I loved that dude when I was growing up.
I don't know.
Making my own voices or whatever has always been a challenge but I think I could have
done it.
Yeah, but Mel Block, that was one of my idols kind of coming up.
And then one time I got to work with Charles Fleischer who was the voice of Roger Rabbit.
I got to work with him one time in DC.
That was a really cool experience but I didn't have to lose in touch with him.
So with the animation part of it, I think it's really cool because the animation, I
know that from my own research that Family Guy, and I love the show.
I mean, it's literally one of my all time favorite shows, especially in animation because
it is the content in it and some of the social commentary but also just the plain basic level
of comedy that it does sometimes is really cool.
And so I know that the animation that they do there is sort of old school animation and
sort of made into more of a modern day sort of animation that kind of take the two, kind
of combine them.
Is that a good way to describe it?
Yeah.
And one thing that the producers are very proud of is Family Guy is one of the few animations
that's still hand drawn.
Yeah.
Like when it gets shipped over, it's like what you watch on TV, even though it looks
much cleaner than it did, you know, 15, 20 years ago, it is still hand drawn.
It is still like pencil and paper that they do over in Korea.
Like the storyboarding we all do digitally.
But I mean, before I got there, they did do it on like stickies and notepads and stuff
and but yeah, it's all it's that it is still traditional animation that's done over there
and it is sometimes cool.
It's like the directors, what they can request is they can have, you know, the Korea is going
to work on the whole animation but they might have a handful of scenes that they're like,
I don't know how that's going to look.
Like just based off the storyboard, I'm not sure how the movement is going to be so they
can request a pencil test.
So they'll do a pencil test animation of certain scenes so they can get it, review it and kind
of like try to spice it up, fix it however before it gets finalized and colored and all
that stuff.
But it's like when you see things without all the color and all that, you kind of realize
you go, oh wow, yeah, that's a drawing.
They drew that.
Yeah.
And then the listeners and people would know a pencil test.
So if you watch like DVD extras, a lot of times they'll have like the extra and they'll
have a scene and it won't be the actual animated movie but it'll be like a scene from the movie
and you'll see it and it's drawn like a pen.
That's like a pencil test, right?
Is that correct?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Family Guy is still going strong at that.
They haven't changed their pipeline.
They've just refined and improved it.
Family Guy is a well-oiled machine.
Like for such an irreverent show, it is such a good work culture.
Like everybody there is nice.
Like if anything, one of the biggest blessings I've had beyond what I said before in terms
of my own creative endeavors is that they are a corporate job but they are also very
respectful.
Nobody there is forced to like do crazy hours or unrealistic expectations.
If you feel like you can't get something done, they'll get someone to help you.
It's definitely a dream job just in terms of it's a job, right?
We all have jobs that we've got to work but at least it's one where it's like they look
out for their employees.
It's not like some of these horror stories that you hear at certain studios where they're
offering the employees cocaine just to keep them up all night to get the work done.
I know a lot of people who would have wanted to work at that studio.
Not me, I'm just saying other people I know.
Yes, but cocaine to get more work done, that sounds great.
Yeah, you're going to do a lot of great work on that too, right?
High quality work.
Yeah.
Wow.
It's very much been a blessing in terms of the job.
All right, so I have to ask because anybody listening to this would have to ask.
I'm sure they ask you all the time who from the show that we actually hear, we don't see
but actually hear, including people like Seth MacFarlane and people like that, who have you
met, who have you rubbed elbows with at all?
You got to tell this.
That's a much better question.
Usually the question is have you met Seth?
Have you met Seth?
No, I want to know.
Mila Kunis is on there.
Yeah, you got all kinds of really cool people on there.
I have.
So I've had a conversation with Alex Borstein.
Oh, yeah.
I didn't say it.
Yeah.
Of Matt TV fame, she was.
Yes.
Oh, you look like a man, Miss Swan.
Absolutely.
I went straight to it too.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
She's brilliant.
She's great.
And they like to tease her now because she's won awards on The Amazing Miss Maisel.
Mm hmm, just carrying on that too.
And but it was just like we had Family Guy's 500th episode.
There was like a party and it just so happened the table we sat at was right next to Alex
and her parents that were there.
I feel.
Well, okay, kind of a funny side story about it.
So it's like I haven't like I haven't had like a conversation with Seth.
I have talked to like Mike Henry, who is the voice of Cleveland, who used to be the voice
of Cleveland, who was from Virginia, right?
From Richmond, Virginia.
Yeah.
He went to collegiate high school and all that.
I actually met him when I was in high school because I gave him the spec script of Family
Guy when I was like, I was like, I want to write for your show.
And so I got to talk to him about that.
I'm like, do you remember that?
And he's I don't know.
And it's like, it's cool.
It's cool.
Okay, here you are.
But what's funny is, so he stepped down from doing Cleveland and then there is this guy
that I know, Arif, that he was doing his own Cleveland impression while playing like Call
of Duty and stuff.
He had this big YouTube channel, like millions of subscribers on there and one of the directors
that I've worked with on there, like he's like, hey, do you know this guy, Arif?
Oh yeah, me and him.
We talked before, we tried to work together on indie animations and he's dude, he's a
great Cleveland.
And I was like, yeah, no, he's awesome.
He's a super nice guy and we should bring him in, right?
I was like, dude, you would never regret it, right?
And so the producers were thinking about bringing Arif in to be the new Cleveland and so I texted
Arif, yo man, they're gonna reach out.
They're gonna reach out, like practice your A, B and C take, you know, like try to be
ready for it, right?
And so obviously under his own talent and hard work, he got the gig, but it was really
cool that we both knew each other before either of us worked at Family Guy, but then now like
he's now doing The Voice of Cleveland and I'm drawing out what Cleveland's actions are
gonna be anytime.
That's pretty cool.
Well, the whole thing with Mike Henry was with him stepping down as being The Voice
of Cleveland was he was a white guy doing The Voice of a black guy, right?
And then so he decided he wasn't gonna do it anymore and then Arif came in and took
it over.
I can cut that part out.
Which is great for Arif.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's nothing wrong with it.
I think it's a great thing because Mike Henry is fine.
It didn't displace him any.
He does have the voices on the show anyway.
Yeah, he was very fine with it.
He's still getting residuals for any past time he's doing Cleveland and it's great for
Arif because he's someone that can do the role and now he's able to, you know, make
a living off of his own talent.
I think it's a great thing.
If we're speaking politically, voiceover is not the realm for appropriation or racial
gatekeeping because part of the fun of it is that you can be anybody, you can do anything.
It's your voice, you can shape it to whatever character.
It's like, okay, if we have alien characters, do we need to go out to outer space and pass
aliens?
No.
It's whoever can do The Voice or it could even work in reverse, right?
You know, you've got Phil Lamar, great voiceover actor, you know, he's been the judge and family
guy.
He's also great on mad TV.
He's also Samurai Jack, who's an Asian character.
So is it bad that he did it?
No, of course it's not bad that he did it.
He was great.
He's iconic.
He did an amazing job.
So I feel like we just kind of got to be careful in that realm.
Animation is imagination, right?
Right.
Well, that's one of the great things about animation that I've always thought was really
cool is that you don't, the only budget you need is the budget to be able to make it happen
on a screen.
I don't even really watch the show, but it was like a behind the cameras view of some
big scene on Game of Thrones, right?
And it was a bunch of army and it was a bunch of explosions and a bunch of other stuff going
off and everything else like that.
And it's just like this huge movie set, like this whole hundreds of people were running
across and you don't have to do animation.
You can just make it whatever.
And it's one of the things I always, I always really loved about it.
Really cool.
So what is the typical day for you?
Do you work from home?
I was wondering, are you actually go to an office or do you, when you actually-
Yeah, there's family guys one or just a lot of family guys specifically is not really
planning on bringing everybody back to the office.
So that'll change with COVID, right?
Everybody you-
Yeah, everybody left, but that, you know, again, like we have nine directors on the
show and they're all pretty seasoned.
They've been doing it forever.
Like over half of them have been on the show from like the start, right?
And they don't want to go back.
They don't want to go back to the office.
And it's like family guy can't function without them.
So they're pretty much calling the shots and the family guy is getting a new office, but
it's a smaller office with the intention of everybody not coming back.
They're like, all right, we're going to downsize so that some people can come in, but other
people don't have to.
And my position is definitely one that doesn't have to come in.
We kind of work in a bubble.
So a typical work cycle for me would be is I get assigned to an episode and with a director
and then the director will give me about a third of the episode, like in terms of different
scenes throughout, like however they want to disperse it, but they, you know, the script
is about 40 pages, so they'll give me about 12 pages or maybe more depending on how it
reads.
But I get assigned that and then I get a chance to kind of look through it, figure out what
complications I may or may not have, any questions I may have for clarity about something and
then we jump on a call with the writers and it's called our storyboard launch.
And so that's the opportunity for the director and any of us artists to kind of ask any questions
like, hey, when you said this, were you imagining Stewie wearing his normal outfit or should
he be wearing like a sailor's hat or something?
Like what were you thinking when you wrote that?
So any kind of clarity that we want or anything like that.
And then we go through essentially a three-step process where we do what's called the thumbnail
storyboards and that's where we keep things really loose, really rough.
We're just kind of getting those early ideas out there like, okay, so we're thinking the
camera's here and maybe Stewie's on the couch and Brian comes walking in stage left, right?
And they're like, no, no, no, no, let's do it from over here and let's have Stewie on
the floor, not on the couch, right?
It's just like we want to keep it loose because we want to be able to change the ideas easily.
So if one idea isn't working, you don't want to put all this work in and they go, nope,
we're cutting all of that.
So we do the thumbnails, keep it real loose and then we pitch that to the supervisor director
and we're like, okay, so we're thinking of doing this, right?
We're going to do this, this, this.
And then they get their input and then we go and do what's called comps or A panels
and that's where we take the frame with the most information of any certain shot, whether
it's the establishing shot or Brian and Stewie and Stewie's room and we go and put everything
on model.
We go, okay, this is what the shot's going to look like.
And so then the director can say, the crib's too small or Brian's too big compared to Stewie.
It's very much the math of it, like, okay, this is not working respective wise or, you
know, let's swap these things around.
So once we've put every shot to that test, then we act them all out.
Then we get to have fun.
We bring in the audio track, hear the acting of the characters and kind of imagine what
their gestures are.
And overall, family guy, we have a lot of typical go-to poses, but every once in a while
you can squeeze in some fun acting.
We're like, oh, what if he like did some weird curtsy thing on that line?
And every board artist is different, but I always do try to throw in something odd to
see if it sticks and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's like, you won't know
unless you try.
So then you throw that in there and then it gets thrown to each person above you and they
give their notes and then either a revisionist will clean up or it might go right back to
me and I cleaned up.
It's usually easier when the person who's had the entire time sees it through.
But yeah, and that process can take two to three months per episode.
So there's a lot of activity early on when we start, right?
A lot of talking to different people, a lot of figuring things out.
But then right now where I'm at, and one of the reasons why I had some availability is
I'm actually between episodes.
I finished one episode and they're figuring some things out before putting me on another
one.
So I'm just kind of helping out on another episode.
So the director's like, here, do this.
I'm like, okay, okay.
Yeah, because you were saying yesterday this was a light week for you, but then next week
that could all change.
And then you know when it's coming, right?
But you have your lulls and then you have your peak times, right?
Yeah.
Well, we also go through what's called hiatus.
So it's almost near the end.
So whichever episode I work on next, it's either going to be the second to last or the
last episode of the season.
So after that, there's going to be kind of like a hangover period where there's just
not much work for board artists.
So they ask us to take some unpaid time off.
But versus the wilds of other shows, it works out all the same.
So I'm like, yeah, great.
You work on other things and then you do family stuff, right?
Speaking of family guy, right?
Every show has that.
It's just a production type of a situation.
And that's just the way it works out.
That's so cool, man.
It's so cool that you have this job that is just, I'm not jealous.
I don't know what the word is for it.
Yes, I don't know.
But you earned it.
So that's really cool.
That's really, really cool.
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that perspective on it because you can easily take it in either direction.
Sure.
And I don't like people who do that.
And I'm not going to say I'm not going to sit here and say that I've never been guilty
of doing that.
I don't when I was younger, if I'd known you like, all right, like I'm 50 now, right?
But if I'd known you and what was going on and it was I was 30.
Yeah.
Well, how the hell did you get on there, man?
I could do that.
I could do hell, man.
But I know and I know you've earned it, too.
That's also part of the equation.
Don't get me wrong.
But I look at people who are in situations like you now with so much more of a hell yeah.
And I don't even care who the person is.
I don't even know.
You could be one of those people walk around going, do you know who I am?
But I would still I would still go for that, dude, because because I know you got there.
Well, this may sound silly, but I you know, when I worked parking cars, one of the fun
things about is we had so much time to just stand around and talk because we just wait
for residents to come home.
But like a lot of my coworkers were like actors or musicians or what?
We're all on that Hollywood pursuit.
But I would say that the mentality is in your head, you have the ego of of the all time
greats in your head.
You tell yourself I'm as good as Charlie Chaplin or I'm as good as Tarantino or whatever.
But you don't act on that ego until after you've done all the things to prove it.
Right.
To me, what carries me, what pushes me is telling me it's like I can be as great as
them, but it takes years and years and years of hard work and refining and practicing and
improving.
And so I don't get to believe or act on that belief until after I've done it all.
And so right now, I'm very happy with with what I'm doing, but I have nothing on my resume
to justify any level of ego.
Right.
Well, I think it's really cool.
I mean, you're definitely have it's definitely an achievement, though, that nobody can take
away.
You definitely have made it to one of the most known shows in all of the world, much
less, I think, in human history.
You can't go anywhere.
I remember one time, a while back, I was talking to a friend of mine.
He was in Asia, I believe he said Thailand.
And he said that he was walking down the street and there was all these there was a cart that
all these bootleg DVDs of Family Guy.
And apparently the guy had just got a bunch in and people were literally like lined up
to buy these bootleg.
I don't know if they're bootleg.
They probably were, but they were buying Family Guy DVDs.
He said they looked bootleg.
But yeah, they were just they were just it's just that popular and people were just like,
yeah, yeah.
And they were just money hand over fist for those things.
And Family Guy did such a good job of knowing like their top priority was always be funny.
I know other other shows, other stories have different priorities to like we're going to
be funny, but also have meaning or whatever it is.
Family Guy is like, we will cut in the middle of the story just to tell you a funny joke.
We don't have the cutaways.
I mean, they are synonymous for the cutaways.
This is like the time I ended up in such and such and then it cuts away and it's, you know,
Peter getting ahead with the bowling ball or something, right?
You know what I'm saying?
And it's like, boom, and it goes back.
Now those are awesome.
So what do you what are your?
Well, I mean, you have a family now, too.
So this is I was talking about that.
So where did you I know you're married.
You have a you have a son is a Dorb's man.
That kid's adorable.
He is.
I was awesome.
Yeah, it's it reminds me because my kid's 11 now, but he's very big for his age.
He's he's 11, but he's like 510.
I like he's tall.
Yeah, he's always tall as me.
I'm like six foot.
And but he doesn't look like a little kid much anymore.
But I go back and I look at the old pictures of him and it reminds me of when I've seen
a picture of you and your family.
I'm like, man, cool looking kid.
So how did you how did you meet your wife?
If you don't mind dancing, you better.
Oh, OK.
OK.
Salsa dancing that.
Yeah, like I what I I was born shameless.
My mother raised me to be shameless.
So what that's one thing that made it easy to do standard writing like I'll talk about
whatever on stage, whatever.
But I would always clam up and get embarrassed when it came to dancing.
So I was like, I'm going to change that.
And it was funny because I had my best friend at the time.
We were like trying to get out and do more social things.
And he's like, I'm thinking of taking hip hop classes.
And I was like, I agree with you, but salsa.
And he's like salsa.
I'm like, yeah, it's partner work.
Like you have to dance with somebody.
Yeah, but like, yeah, not you, though, dude.
Right.
Like, that's what I would say.
I'm not dancing with you.
Right.
So you got so you got partnered with her.
Let's say, if you don't mind.
Yes.
Yeah.
Leslie and and it was just like it was great because it kind of played out as I could only
hope like took the classes, got got good enough that I don't embarrass myself on the dance
floor.
And then they that same teacher hosted like a salsa night at a club.
So I would always try to go to those because there'd be people that I knew from class and
whatnot, but then I danced with her and we had a great time.
And then like I was looking for another partner, whatever, because you dance with a bunch of
people.
It's like, you know, just whatever between songs.
And then I saw her again and she just like shuffled over with this big smile on her face.
And I was just I need that enthusiasm in my life.
And it turned out that's just who she is.
Right.
And in terms of like dating and stuff, I cannot give advice because I feel like it was very
much luck.
Right.
Like you just go out and but in terms of compatibility between partners, you could look for any number
of things, but me and her on the same wavelength, we have the same type of enthusiasm and energy
and that just makes a world of difference.
Like I've gone on dates with girls where it's just, you know, they might be a little bit
like, oh, opposite attract, right?
Like I'm I'm boisterous and outgoing and she's quiet and reserved.
It's like, no, man, no, not going to happen.
It doesn't work.
We both got like we joke that it's like donkey and donkey on another world with adventure.
We're just two donkeys going on crazy adventures together.
No Shrek in this picture.
I mean, that's awesome, dude.
And that they're great looking family.
I'm happy for you in that.
But what are your plans for the future?
Obviously you got the solid with the family guy.
But what are you looking to do down the road that you would possibly expand on what the
creativeness of what Patrick McCarthy, of who Patrick McCarthy is?
I mean, like the original intention was to, you know, tell my own stories, right?
So but so much of my time in L.A. has been figuring out what does that mean?
What does that look like?
And not only like how does that look from a professional and technical standpoint, but
also what's the story I'm telling, which sounds silly.
But you know, one thing that's beautiful about standup is you're answering that question
without realizing it.
So when you do standup, you get up there and you do 30 minutes of material and then and
then if you want, you could take a moment and go, what did I choose to say with that
time?
I had a couple hundred people in front of me and I decided I wanted to talk about politics
or I wanted to talk about my family.
It's like, OK, so did these things matter to you?
Like, well, no.
Then why did you get up on stage and talk about it?
Like, what matters to you?
And the same thing exists.
And like, if I'm going to put years of my life trying to get a story told and made and
get networks to be behind it, is this a story that I need to tell that that is important
to me?
Is it important to me?
Because otherwise, motivation will wane at some point.
So I kind of just like made sure that whatever I make is doesn't when I say meaningful, it's
just essentially out here, they say make what you love.
Right.
So when you hear that saying, you're like, OK, well, I love sci-fi horror.
OK, so then make a sci-fi horror.
That's what you need to make because that's what you love.
And that's good enough.
But I also have like heard, you know, it's be who you needed when you were younger.
When were you vulnerable?
When were you turning to entertainment?
When were you in need of it?
Right.
For me personally, that was when I was 11 or 12.
My parents going through a divorce, you know, much turbulence in the household.
And that's when I'm watching Dragon Ball Z, playing Pokemon, watching Family Guy.
These are the things keeping me oblivious to what's going on in a good way.
Right.
That's how I got into stand up, man.
Yeah.
Parents are going through a divorce when I was a kid.
And one of the things that I remember one time I mean, we didn't know about him then.
I would tell the story of Bill Cosby.
My mom, I think they were separated, but my mom and dad were fighting about something.
My mom took me in my room and put on a Bill Cosby record.
Oh, and I listened to it.
And I just, you know, back then he was, you know, he was everybody's second dad.
But yeah, no, that's funny because I have thought lately on my own because I, you know,
I did stand up for a bit there and then I got out of it and I got, I've gotten back
into it.
I've been doing some here and there when I can.
And one of the things that I've, I'll literally think of a joke and I'll go, no, and I won't
do it.
And even I'll tell my wife and she'll laugh at it because she did.
And I'll try my jokes on her and she doesn't laugh a lot of times.
Right.
But there was one recently that I did.
I said to her and I go, yeah.
And she goes, that's really funny.
I go, nah, that's not going to work because I try to think of what I would have laughed
at when I was younger.
Do you know what I mean?
I'm like, what would I have laughed at?
Yeah.
So that's what I'm, that's my point of that was like the correlation between the two.
Yeah.
Be your favorite comedian.
Yeah.
I need to start writing for myself, not, because I really, I fully admit there was a lot of
times I'd be on the road, you know, I'm writing jokes for drunk people on a Friday or Saturday
night at 11 o'clock when all these people should be home with their children instead
of paying somebody else to watch them.
You know what I mean?
Like what do those people want to hear?
No, I need to.
That's awesome.
Totally.
And I kind of, I kind of had that epiphany when, what was it?
2017.
So in 2017, I broke up with my then girlfriend and we had been sharing a place together.
So I knew that the only way I was going to be out here in LA by myself was I would need
to spend some time back in my car to save up some money.
So I went back in my car, I was in my car for like four months that time around.
Really?
Yeah.
And, but I had, I was working at that valet place and it was a 24 hour building.
So sometimes I would just sneak into an empty office and sleep on the floor there, but it
was just what I could do to make sure I had enough money saved up so I could put a safe
security deposit, find a place with something of affordable rent.
Like don't want to talk finances too much, but essentially in my time out here, I was
essentially using a credit card and was using that to essentially fund my dream.
So it's like every year I was just building a little bit more debt.
I was just like, I was paying my bills, but I was just a little bit of debt.
And so that's what it's like, okay, well, if I need to have actual cash on hand because
you can't just use a credit card for rent.
So it's in my car, but then during that time when I was transitioning back to a place,
I was just, I just felt like the world was kind of not over, not so dramatic, but I was
like, okay, restart of my life, new breakups or breakups.
But I was watching the anime Naruto.
Okay.
I'm hanging with it, but yeah.
But it was just like, it was for a different generation.
Like it wasn't my generation.
My generation was watching Dragon Ball Z, right?
We were loving that.
But I was watching that and I went, man, like 11, 12 year old me would go nuts for this.
And then I was like, man, there's a version of me that would go nuts for something.
Like, cause current me doesn't go nuts for anything.
I'm current me.
It's like, oh yeah, I might go see that.
I might go do that too.
But there's a version of me and who knows me better than me that can obsess over something.
So just as you did, right?
It's like, okay, let me write a story that I believe 11, 12 year old me would love to
obsess over.
I feel like I've been doing that and so where I find myself currently is I've finished a
trailer for my own show and I've been kind of shopping it around.
And shopping is a weird term.
Like there's the Hollywood jargon where it was like, oh yeah, you know, doing this, doing
that, pitching it around.
I gave myself this whole year to understand what the hell does that mean?
What does that mean to like itch and shop it around?
Cause it's a crazy game and these executives that are in charge of that stuff, they have
their game that they know how to play and you're trying to play by it.
And, but at the same time, I'm, I don't, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm trying
to figure it out as I go.
So I made a trailer, put it into some film festivals just to see who I meet at these
things and learn about, you know, could I make it on my own?
Could I self invest and, and, and produce and then later, later get it on a platform,
you know, because there's shows that have done that.
There's, there's all kinds of new ways of getting it done out there, but so I'm just
trying to be diligent, but so yeah, made my own fantasy comedy series and yeah, right
now talk to some people, other things, but at the same time, trying to be calm about
it.
Right.
You're believing yourself always, right?
But you want to kind of stay grounded, I guess is the term on the, maybe I'm looking for.
Well, it's also, it's like, um, a lot of writers that I've met, you know, they'll write half
a dozen different pilots for different show ideas, whatever.
Cause they're just trying to throw shit at a wall and see what sticks.
And it's kind of like in comedy, right?
He's, Oh, I'll go do an open mic or like Chris Rock will do like three hours of material,
toss out two of it.
Right.
Yeah.
I'm not trying to do that.
Right.
I put my time and energy into this because this is the story I'm going to tell.
This isn't, I'm not seeing if it's going to stick.
I've, I've worked it reworked it, reworked it, but execs aren't used to that.
So I throw something over to them and they might just go, okay, yeah, yeah, thank you,
no, thank you, because it doesn't hit them right away.
Because they feel like that's how much work you put into it.
They're like, well, you just put that initial work into it.
So I'm just going to give it a quick glance, but who knows?
I might be talking out my ass for all I know.
So I'm just going to put it out there, follow up with them, try to get feedback from executives
and see if I can't get one of them to go, Hey, actually this works.
That's awesome.
Well, I wish you luck on that, man.
It's so cool.
You know, one of the things I know about LA is it's hard to deal with rejection.
Like, you know, it's kind of, you know, you deal with a lot of it in all the entertainment
business.
I don't know.
It's kind of one of the reasons I was like, I don't know what Patrick says, no, to coming
on the podcast, but then you were, you were so cool about it.
Well, if you, if you, Hey, if you need anybody, let me know.
You got my number, but that's awesome, man.
I really appreciate you coming on here and wish you the best of luck and all that.
And you're welcome back anytime and keep me posted, man.
I really, I want to see what you do.
And of course, every time I watch Family Guy, I'll be looking at the end.
There's Patrick.
There's his name.
But no, it's really, you got to pause it because it's trying to go to the next show.
Right.
Well, it really is cool.
And I don't know, for instance, like what you actually work on, but it is cool since
I've known you've been working on the show that sometimes I do watch an episode.
I go, Oh, I, and I wonder which ones you, you might be doing.
Like I wonder which, which frames you might've been working on, which is really cool.
Well, I think I just check, uh, of the latest season of Family Guy for, for any of your
listeners that want to check it out.
I think that two of the more recent ones, lifeguard Meg and supermarket Pete of this
current season, I worked on those ones.
And so if you watch lifeguard Meg, if Stewie and Brian are in a cafe, I probably did that.
Not all of them because the directory, he split them up to different ones, but I definitely
did a lot of stuff with Stewie and Brian running a cafe and, and the, uh, supermarket, supermarket
Pete one.
If you see Joe and Brian together, it was probably me because definitely anytime they're
at the drug and clan and supermarket Pete, I, I, I boarded all of that.
So cool, man.
Yeah.
That's really neat.
That's really, really neat, man.
I'm happy for you, dude.
I really appreciate you taking the time to do all of this.
Oh yeah.
I mean, like I said, I was like, I don't know if you want to do it, but I mean, you know,
I had an in, so I thought why not?
Well, I appreciate you letting me, uh, talk out some things.
We're going to talk to you again at some point to get an update and everything else like
that.
Thank you, Patrick McCarthy for being here on the podcast.
Everybody.
Thanks for listening, Patrick.
I'll see you soon, buddy.
And how was that everybody?
Did you enjoy my conversation with Patrick McCarthy?
Thank you so much again to him for coming on the, on the podcast here.
Absolutely fantastic of him.
He had told me that his schedule was light for last week.
So you know, I said, Hey, let's get you on now before you get busy.
Cause that's what he was saying he's about to do.
Making more awesome episodes of Family Guy.
Cannot wait to have him back on the podcast here.
At some point we'll do a little more hanging out, a little less interview, right?
That's what I'm saying.
So let's get to our charities.
No Kid Hungry.
Many school-aged children are in situations where the best meal of the day for them comes
from school.
No Kid Hungry helps children in need with meals when they are away from school, such
as weekends and holidays.
No Kid Hungry.
Wounded Warrior Project, the brave men and women who have served our country deserve
the best care we can give them after they return home.
Some of them have wounds that are external and or internal that they might need help
with or even just accessible housing.
Okay.
Wounded Warrior Project.
BestFriends.org is making a difference by helping homeless dogs and cats and shelters
be adopted faster and in more numbers.
Their goal is to have the entire country no-kill shelters by the year 2025.
Check out these charities if you can and any others that may be in your local areas.
And after all that charity, if you got time for a little chair-me, you can support the
show through our official listener support app Venmo at John D Podcom.
Don't forget Twitter, John D Podcast, John D Comedy.
That's right, suck it Elon.
Right to the podcast, John D Podcom at gmail.com.
Facebook, John D Podcast.
Instagram and threads, John D Podcom.
Executive producers for John D Podcast are Tom Hancock and Liz Miller.
Thanks to them each for helping them make this happen their own ways.
This episode was recorded and produced by yours truly John D Miller in the Amber Tree
Media Studio.
Don't forget Blendjet.com.
John D Pod one two as your code for 12% off and free shipping.
Honestly and sincerely thank you again to Patrick McCarthy for being on the podcast.
Be sure to check out his YouTube channel, Patrick McCarthy Animations.
McCarthy has two C's.
If you can't figure that out, just whatever.
You shouldn't be using YouTube.
No, that was awesome.
Very fun time.
Thank you for listening to episode number 68 numero 68 in the old Espanol language of
John D Podcast.
I've been your host, John D Miller.
All right.
I know times are getting a little crazy.
Let's chill out a little bit.
All right.
Take care of yourselves.
Take care of each other and until next time later view.