It's for Mother's Day. By the way, buddy, well
done. Thank you. We have Mother's Day episodes.
I hope you guys enjoyed that one. But we've been
itching all week. This was the interview that
we've been. Not because he hasn't took a shower,
but we've been itching all week. That's besides
the point. But, oh, and also we can't forget
Mr. Quez on the other side right over there was
going on. Quez over there to help us out with
the comments today. Wake up, dude. It's show
time. We're live now. Live. That's a lot of excitement.
All right. So guys, we have a special guest with
us today. Very special guest. Oh my gosh. We've
been so excited for this. We've been anticipating
it for the last couple of weeks. And it's just
the cool thing is that. I reached out to him
and he answered right away. It was kind of a
it was it was kind of embarrassing because I
put the wrong name when I did research of accident.
Maybe you shouldn't be telling this. I shouldn't
be telling this story. I mean, here we are anyway.
But ladies and gentlemen, without further ado,
ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you
guys, Mr. Gary Chalk. Ladies and gentlemen, how's
it going? It's going very well. Thank you. I'm
I'm up here in my my man cave My place of my
place of seclusion where I do my work and and
play music and Just basically get away from everybody
We could see that you were jamming out to the
very beginning of our intro. Oh, yeah, I got
my pianos right here. I don't know if you can
see it, but there it is right there. No, what
happened was I got booted out of my studio. Oh,
OK. Downstairs on the ground floor. OK, understandable.
Well, my kids moved in. Okay, and they needed
a place to live and so they Got my studio I had
to move upstairs Right, but there was nowhere
for me to go because my wife's office is right
there and it's too noisy if I'm playing music
and doing right, right so we bought a greenhouse
We put it on the the roof deck of our house.
I have a roof deck Okay, you can see it, but
that's that's back there. Anyway, I have a roof
deck there. Okay, and and I closed it in and
give some baffles and whatnot and got all my
music and my Recording stuff up here. There you
go. There you go. And I've got this this This
greenhouse, it's made funnily enough. It's made
in Israel and It's strong. It's withstood 50
mile an hour winds up here and has no problems
and it's dry and that I just I Love it. I I'd
never want to part with it Okay Just thinking
out loud transformed It will not engage. I've
been up here for two years now, man. I love it.
Oh, that's fantastic. That's awesome. It's great
when you're able to pivot successfully, especially
when you make sacrifices for your family. That's
true. That's true. That's the important thing.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. They try and move
in here. That's it. Oh, no. The gloves are off.
The gloves are off. I don't blame you. I don't
blame you. So let's start from the beginning,
Mr. Chalk. Tell us a little bit about where you
grew up and how we got into voice acting in the
area you're in now. Wow. Okay. Well, okay. Kick
back a little bit and have a listen. Yeah. Oh,
we're ready to go. Yeah. I was born in the UK.
I was born in a place called Southampton in England
and I Immigrated with my family here in 1957
out to Vancouver and We were on a plane load
of Hungarian refugees who were coming from Hungary
after the revolution in Hungary Okay, and we
flew from London to I think our first stop was
Iceland We went to Iceland, we went to Gander,
and we hung out at Gander for a little bit, and
then we flew to Toronto and then to Vancouver.
It took about three days for us to get here.
We were on this plane. I think it's called a
Constellation. It had three tail fins. It was
quite an adventure. I'd never been on an airplane
before, so that was really something. So we came
here to Canada. I've been living in Vancouver
basically ever since I had a two -year stint
in Toronto or in Ottawa for a while and That's
how that's how I grew up as far as I you know
I've lived here. I've got the high school little
little unknown thing I went to 15 Different schools
from grade one to grade 12 Wow, and I was never
a bad guy. There you go figure that out. No,
I just My parents just kept moving around and
moving around I guess they were looking for the
right neighborhood and I don't know but right
right I learned how to make friends fast That's
awesome and learned a lot about about the city
because I was all over the city and And as far
as being theatrical, I was always a singer. I
sang since I was a kid. I did my first appearance
on television at the age of 12, singing on Ron
Moriarty's Saturday kids party. And it was a
lot of fun. And sang Christmas carols with the
choir. That was my first thing. And I didn't
think much more of it. I loved to sing and I
was always participating in things like that.
But I never thought about theater or working
as an actor until I got into high school. And
a friend of mine, Keith, he tried to talk me
into doing this musical play that they were doing
on at the theater, at the school. And I said,
I don't think so. doing a play because that was
a bit of a grease ball then. East side guy. I'm
not doing a play. Yeah, come on. I mean, that's
just sort of weird, man. That's not what I like.
He goes like this. The chicks love us. That's
all it took. That's all it took. Really? And
he goes, dude Come on So I said okay. I'll do
this and I ended up playing in this play called
the boyfriend which was fantastic and I made
a lot of people laugh I got hooked on making
people laugh and that was really fun and of course
there were always the chicks But that's politically
incorrect today the the the the females, the
women. They were very, very nice, and I quite
enjoyed them. I mean, just their company, just
their company. Because I was in high school,
after all. I was in high school, after all. I
wasn't quite yet a walking hormone with feet.
Anyway. But I always thought it was just for
fun right right and um so I I did I did about
three or four different musicals and then I went
into work in the real world when I finished high
school and did work as a stock trader at the
stock exchange and a phone boy and a board marker
and then I worked in social services that I worked
in restaurants as a waiter and a cook and all
these different things and I had a sort of an
epiphany, and I got really sick with some kind
of a stomach thing. And I ended up in hospital
for like, oh, I don't know, 10 days or so. And
while I was in the hospital, I was thinking about
my life. And I went, you know what? This is crap.
I'm going to do something else. So I decided
I was going to go to university. I went to university
or college because I wanted to be an English
teacher. Anthropology teacher because I love
anthropology. Okay, so I did that and I excelled
at those those things But one of my projects
for English was to go and do a review of a play
Okay, so I reviewed this play called of my son
man. That was at Langara Little plug Langara
College and it was a play at the at the school
and I went and watched this play and I was completely
blown away I mean, I mean literally they the
the production values the acting the it was just
fantastic. I just loved it. I thought This is
what I want to do and So I I I said okay, and
I abandoned my studies and went down to the theater
department since I'd like to audition for this
And so I got an audition. I went and I did my
thing. I sang a song, I did a play, or I did
a monologue or a couple of things like that.
And the head of the department was an old English
fellow named Anjani. He's reading a newspaper,
and he's sitting there reading the paper, and
he's looking up and he goes, you've got some
talent, not much, but some. All right, off you
go. I thought I'm doomed. I'm not going to get
in. So I guess I can go back to being an English
teacher. So no, but then I got a letter saying
I'd been accepted into the school. Now they only
take 15 students per term from across the country.
Like, wow. Well, shit, now I've committed. Right
now I got to commit. I went and learned everything
I did the dance and the mime and the voice and
singing and acting and text analysis Stagecraft
and all these things 12 hours a day fully committed
everything that I had into doing this stuff for
two years and on my term off I would get like
it would work one term on one term off one term
on one term off and so on I would work I worked
two jobs and I worked seven days a week It's
that would be like 16 hours a day for five days
and then What do you call them eight hours for
two days? And and what I did is I took the daytime
job and that paid for my school and the nighttime
job paid for me living and So I I did that and
I graduated from the theater school With of the
15 only I think three or four of us only graduated
And only two of us were actors. I think no three
of us were actors Who are still doing it? My
friend Gordon who was my sort of rehearsal partner
in school is now the top for the Cirque du Soleil,
you know Cirque du Soleil? He travels around
the world, he's Mr. Super Clown on Cirque du
Soleil. Gordy White, he's just the best, the
funniest guy. He walks on stage, you start laughing,
he doesn't have to do anything. You just start
laughing. Shout out to him, man, that'd be awesome.
No, it's so good, and my first gig... Was a What
was a show called jockbrows alive and well living
in Paris and that was still at the university
But it's the first show they held over till after
we finished school. So they had to pay us, right?
Oh, they paid us and I went I'm getting paid
to do this. This is amazing So I went got my
first professional show which was a thing called
loot which he toured across Canada with And I
had a very small part. I was also a stagehand
and the stagehand and small part, but I Was just
wired and that's how it's gone. Now my first
voiceover gig Was a thing called Hiawatha can
actually find it on YouTube. It's where I want
the 1983 and I'd never done an animation cartoon
before and my agent in Ottawa Because I had to
get seconded out there with my wife for a couple
of years, right? She said go and try them. See
if you can do this cartoon thing I've never done
the cartoon, but I love the voices. I love doing
that Yeah, and she says yeah, we'll go and try
so it was called Hiawatha So I went and I auditioned
for Hiawatha and Hiawatha dad and a villain and
a couple other things I ended up getting four
voices in this cartoon including Hiawatha There
you go. And I went well, this is great So I you
know come up with these different voices for
the you know Hi, would you key was you can't
do this and they did different voices like that
and I got my check What oh well, this is this
is good So I I pursued that and I ended up doing
a bunch of things and I Was bad venturing into
doing commercials, right? Commercial voice and
I went and this is a great silly story. I went
did this commercial voice for a Company in Ottawa
and it was for the Ottawa citizen And I said,
the Ottawa citizen for the latest and greatest
in arts, news, and entertainment, and sports,
and all that. And did the ad. And they said,
we don't like it. Oh, wow. OK. What do you mean?
Well, you don't sound like our guy. And I said,
well, what is your? Well, that's OK. You're fired.
And I got fired. Oh, my gosh. I've never been
fired from anything. Wow. Wow, this is a weird,
weird feeling. So I went to the, the, uh, boss
of the, of the studio where I recorded this.
And he said, it's not your fault. You didn't
know. And I said, I'll tell you what, if you
show me what to do, how to do this stuff and
make a good demo, I will do your next spot for
free. And he says, deal. So he taught me about,
you know, the latest in news, entertainment and
sports, where, you know, that kind of thing.
Or remember last year running around in the last
minute looking for the right Christmas gift,
you know, that read or the man in the street.
Hey, listen, I got, I got something I want to
sell you. And he'd tell me all these different
kinds of reads, you know. for different products
and who, what, where, why, and how much and where,
you know, and where. And, um, so he showed me
all that and we made a demo reel and it was a
great demo reel. And true to my word, I did a,
his commercial for free and it was for revenue
Canada. Oh, okay. All right. So that was about
that. At that time would probably, I'd probably
been paid about. $300, maybe $400. That worked.
Well, that demo, that demo made me thousands,
millions, maybe. Wow. So I thought I could have,
I could have walked away and said, I'll never
do this again. Right. But what I did is I went
to the guy and I said, Show me how to do this
and because I want to do this right and I became
a prolific voiceover guy I did lots of things
my a lot of things for the United States like
Dollar General stores with their everyday low
price hours, you know Did all these commercials
and It was it was quite something you know to
to carry on with that career, and then I guess
it was late around 1987 that I did my very first
cartoon in Vancouver, and I think it was Captain
Nintendo Yeah, and I played this character called
King Hippo. I thought, well, this is great. But
the first two that I auditioned for, I didn't
get. And why not? They were great voices. Why
not? But then I'd listen to them and I would
listen to a bunch of cartoons. I listened to
different voices that played with different voices.
And I ended up getting all these shows, one after
the other, Beanie and Cecil, G .I. Joe, He -Man,
Master of the Universe. Oh, my God. 50 for Salty's
Playhouse. All these just one after the other,
like tons of them every day. I was working every
day and I'm going, this is amazing. This is amazing.
But at the same time, I was doing my film and
television career. Wow. But that's basically
what, what it is, is persistence. Right. No,
you go around. I just went around to all these
different students for commercials. I kept bugging
them until they said, okay, for Christ's sake,
I'm going to do an ad. We'll let you do an ad.
I was doing an ad for Ikea. Remember them? Yes.
Ikea. And I did this, this ad called death defying
plants when even your favorite deep and bucket
is pushing up the daisies. Anyway, it won an
award. So they went, oh, okay. Well, okay. Then
we'll hire you. And so they hired me and I, I
literally worked every day, uh, doing commercials
and cartoons combination. How I got film stuck
in there, I'll never know. But I ended up doing
a lot of film and television as well. And the
rest, as they say, is history. There you go.
Yeah, we're chewing out. We're going over the
back story. You also did one of 2003, Freddy
vs. Jason. You came out. Oh, yeah, I did Freddy
and Jason. I killed. I killed Freddy. That was
my, I was the sheriff. My claim was the sheriff
killed Freddie or made Freddie what he is today.
Also came out on MacGyver, which is one of the,
one of my, one of my favorite shows back growing
up. Original MacGyver, original MacGyver, original
MacGyver did a few of those. Yeah. And also Highlander,
the series did a few of those. Wow, man. That's,
that's amazing. But you know that Highlander,
here's a funny story about Highlander. I did
a lot more episodes than are on there. Because
when they were filming in France in the latter
seasons, they were filming all their stuff in
France. And a lot of the French actors had notoriously
bad English accents. So you can understand them.
So I went in and I would voice, re -voice some
of the French actors. And the most famous one
or one you'll ever I don't know if you ever see
it was it was a trial of it was the trial of
Highlander I think and I I got a call from the
producers and they said you can you can you match
this voice and I said I don't know and then I
took it home and I took a videotape And I started
playing with him, playing with him, playing with
him. I think I got it. Let me just have a look.
I think, yeah, I think I can do that. And so
I went in and I did only half of the guy's dialogue
in the show. And what happened was, and I was
afraid, I was afraid it didn't sound like him,
but apparently I did. what happened to the guy
is the guy had open -heart surgery, who was the
real actor, and he could not do the looping,
the re -recording of his dialogue in the show.
So they called me in to re -voice half of the
dialogue. And I watched the show, I can't tell.
And I thought it was amazing. And when I watched
the show, I went, hey, that's pretty good. So
half the dialogue is him in the show, in the
MacGyver. Half is him. Sorry, Highlander. Half
is me. Right. Wow. OK. That's amazing, man. And
you and I were going over your stats here. And
we also saw that you were the original Man in
Arms. Yes. Yeah, well, I wasn't the original
Man at Arms. I came along second time. Okay.
Because I'm too old to play He -Man. It hurt
me. It hurt you inside. Yeah, I know. I had a
lot of fun with Man at Arms. He was great. He
was an iconic character, but I mean. Just building
on what you said, how do you process that? They
tell you you're too old to play He -Man. I mean,
granted, the guy who did He -Man sounded kind
of... Well, because He -Man played two characters.
He played Adam, who was a young man. And he also
played He -Man, who was, by the power of Grayskull.
By the power. But the guy they got was a guy
named... Clark. What's his name? Something Clark.
I can't, it's been so long. Cam Clark, that's
who it was. Cam Clark. And so Cam Clark could
do that voice, but he could also play a very
young man. And so he played the two parts. Whereas,
you know when I did he man 20 years ago or where
however long it was 27 Let's not anyway They
gave me mounted arms and that was that was wonderful
so I ended up doing that and I love that new
iteration it was Great music great story and
the great animation. It was right now Going forward
to the most iconic one was, uh, Optimus Prime
himself. Optimus Prime and Prime and Optimal
and yeah, I did, uh, I did those guys. How did
we, how did we come about you coming up to do
those ones? Would you called up or did you, uh,
go ahead and, uh, I auditioned for, for that.
And, um, it was quite the process. I auditioned
about two or three times and they narrowed it
down and narrowed it down. And it came between
me playing, uh, Megatron, uh, David K playing
optimist primal. Okay. And then they decided
that I would be a much better optimist primal
than a Megatron. But I actually did play Megatron
once. In the Unicron trilogy, I think, I'm not
sure. I know that I did, but I just don't remember.
So they made me Optimus Primal. So I thought
that was cool. I really didn't have much of a
history with the Transformers. I did the commercials,
I think, back in the 80s. I did some criminal
Transformers Generation 2 with Jetfire. Go. And
I remember those. But that's all I remember.
I knew nothing about the toys or anything. So
I guess it was in a great place, because I could
just play me. Just be the character. They really
liked that. And I didn't think anything of it.
I just went, oh, great, another cartoon. And
I'd been working with cartoons all the time at
that time. Had no idea and then we they brought
the cast down to Los Angeles for a Transformers
convention in Anaheim, I think it was oh my goodness
and So I thought oh great thing I've never been
to a convention before I didn't know what to
expect and I went down there and the Organizer
brought me into this auditorium And there were
these three women sitting there at a table on
off to our right. And they said, Hey gang, this
is Optimus Primal. And I don't know if you've
ever, you've seen galaxy quest, the movie. Yes.
Never would Tim Allen walks into the, into the
convention and all the girls go, Oh yeah. That's
exactly what happened. These girls. Okay, okay.
Now there's probably, I don't know, maybe 1 ,000,
1 ,200 people in this auditorium. And so they
brought us up to the backstage and they went,
ladies and gentlemen, the cast of Beast Wars.
And we all walked up on stage and the place went
absolutely insane. That's awesome. That's awesome.
What the hell have we so bought into here? I
went, oh, OK. But now this means I've got to
live up to this. Which is great, because people
were lined up for autographs and signing and
taking pictures. And then we did somebody's script
who did a Transformers script. Oh, wow. They
were crying when they were doing it, when we
were doing the script. They thought, this is
the most amazing thing in my life. I can't believe
this is happening. And I thought, well, that's
good, good. And since then, the Transformers
has brought me into England and over to the Czech
Republic and then to America and Canada. and
Australia, all these places. And I never realized
what a big deal it was. If I didn't know what
a big deal it was, I'd have probably screwed
it up. Because I had tried really, really hard.
But no, I just wanted to give a good performance.
And that's what I did. And I have the distinction
of being optimist or both optimists, the optimist
primal and optimist prime. Yes. I have the distinction
of being that character longer than any of the
other guys. Right. Because I did it longer than
Peter Cullen and Neil Kaplan and even David Kay
and of course, Rock Perlman. Right. Yeah, Rock
Perlman's right. Yeah. So I had that distinction.
I was a bit... disappointed when I didn't get
called to do Rise of the Beasts with him playing
my part, Ron Perlman was playing my part. I created
the part and I liked it and it was great fun.
And the thing is... I really like Ron Broman.
He's such a great guy. I don't know if you ever
met him or interviewed him. Oh, he is the nicest
guy in the world. And a great like when you look
at me. Oh, he's so scary. That's scary. I played
golf with him one day. Okay. Yeah, we were he
was he was doing something in town. And so I
I hooked up with him on the golf course and It
was wonderful. He was just a marvelous guy so
much fun. So I Said to people that I am disappointed,
but you know what more power to the guy, you
know, right, right, right I think it's a great
thing for him and and I've already moved on to
other things. I guess like I did a wonderful
series that airs over in the UK and in in Scandinavia
called Monster Loving Maniacs. There you go.
That sounds interesting. Well, it is. You can
see clips of it on YouTube. It's very funny.
And I think I did 50 episodes of it. Oh, wow.
So it's kind of cool. It's going to be around
for a while. Yeah, it sounds like it. I know
my son. He's a huge Sonic fan. He watches all
the cartoons, Sonic cartoons and everything as
much as possible. When I told him that we're
going to have you on the podcast, he goes, Dad,
you know who he is, right? I go, yeah, he's Optimus
Prime. I know who you know, Dad. He's also, uh,
uh, dr. Robotnik from the series and he goes
and he goes not only that dad when he goes see
sonic He came out also. He was there hot stream.
I'm like really I go. Wow Yeah, I was in the
movie So, yeah, so not only the doctor's pride
he also does uh, you do play the villain also
so yeah That was very cool. Did you see it? There
was a scene in the uh, you know when we're chasing
after uh chasing after the little blue guy, Sonic.
And we've got to bring this guy in. He's known
as the Doctor. But, you know, what happened with
that is the new adventures of Sonic. I was playing
Grounder and other characters. We were the henchmen.
And a great pal of ours, Long John Baldry, who's
a rock and roller, played Dr. Robotnik. And his
voice was like this, I hate that hedgehog. Throw
down, bring me a PsySonic. And I go, okay, well
that's kind of cool. And that's what he said,
that's his voice. That's what he sounded like.
And I remember I used to drive him home after
the show sometimes. He wanted to go downtown.
If I went one half a mile over 30 miles an hour,
he would go, oh. I'd go, what? Too fast. You're
going too fast. Don't scare me. He'd say, no,
you're going too fast. He was such a, it was
such a gentleman, such a lovely man. He passed
away a few years ago. So what happened was he
was because he was a, he had his band. He's a
famous rock and roller and he was touring all
over Europe. So he couldn't do, um, Sonic. And
while he was away, I was the scratch track. I
would do the scratch track for him, but then
they said, you know, you sound like him. You
do it. So I ended up, I ended up playing. Oh,
there's a great story about that too. If you've
got time, we've got time. We're doing, we're
doing the, the cartoon show, uh, the new adventures
of Sonic. and my friend Phil Hayes and myself
were playing Scratch and Grounder. And we'd done
about six episodes and we were doing kind of
a Abba Costello kind of thing. And the producer
came into the studio and she goes, they don't
like the voices. What do you mean? They don't
like the voices come up with something else something
brilliant or you're fired Wow, and I went um,
when do you need this now? No pressure so we
started coming up with all different kinds of
combinations mutton Jeff spike and tyke all these
different, you know combinations of that and
No, not happening. Tick -tock tick -tock. Wow.
So I said to Phil, I said, Phil, you play Scratch
and I'll play Grounder. And he came up with this
laugh for Scratch. Like that. And I came up with
this, I'm not stupid. I just locked my head for
a moment. So that's how we did it. We sent it
back to the headquarters, head office. And the
head office came back and go, we love it. We
recorded the last six episodes. So we had to
re -record the last six episodes and continue
recording. And they became favorite characters.
Yeah. Yeah, they were. They were absolutely love
the show. Yeah. But it was also in that show.
I had the famous belching belching story. Oh,
okay. There we go. Where they had to do it. I
had to do a big belch like this. And I just didn't
have it in me. No pun intended. I started knocking
back at Coca -Cola and I just knocked it back
like that. And they said, are you ready? This
is take 41, take one. And I went. And the big
thing of foam, wrapped in an amniotic sack, flew
out of my face, and it hit my script, and I went.
And it went all the way back. And I went, oh
my God, oh my God, I'm so sorry. But when you
hear it on the tape, because I know it's out
there somewhere. Like that. And the gal who is
the script supervisor and Phil were laying on
the floor. killing themselves laughing. We couldn't
stop. They said it was the most incredible thing
they've ever seen in their lives. It was just
like this big ball of Coca -Cola foam literally
hit my scratch. And I went, oh! Wow, I feel like
a stargate. It was pretty exciting, I gotta say.
The life of a cartoon actor is not boring. Absolutely
not. I would take that so, yeah. Knocking back
would result in one of the greatest moments of
your life. We like it. Do it again. I could never
repeat it. Never in a million years. You probably
shouldn't try it. I wouldn't try it. Not now.
Oh, my God. Go ahead. No, I was just wondering,
building on what you said a little, the life
of a voice actor is never boring. But from hearing
other voice actors speak, it can be... I don't
know if you would agree with that. It could be
kind of lonely because you are in a booth by
yourself. You don't get to interact with the
other actors. Well, that's how it is. I don't
know why that that's how it is now. You know,
that's how it has been with COVID. We all had
to do our recording separately. Right. All the
shows I did in the past, we all did it ensemble.
It was ensemble recording. Right. Right. and
the reason why they did it ensemble is because
there's a process that goes between actors that's
organic and you have reactions and and ad lib
things that just don't happen normally right
like with uh with hack and slash when we were
doing hack and slash uh in a show called reboot
right right yes Half the dialogue was improvised
between hack and slash. We'd make stuff up and
then we'd record the recorded script and then
they'd ask you to do an improvisation of that
and we'd do that and a lot of times they'd keep
the improv because it was funny. Now, I mean,
the last show that you're talking about, Monster
Loving Maniacs, I did all 50 shows by myself.
Wow. In the studio, that was just me, and because
of COVID. But the great thing about that is you
can record it really fast. It's knockoff four
episodes in an hour and a half, which is Wow
It's usually it takes about four hours per episode
In the beginning it would take eight hours per
episode, but You know tape and whatnot, but now
with digital it's just so I miss recording with
our an ensemble cast. I love it and So we did
that we we recorded singly and the tricky thing
about it is you really got to know your stuff
when you when you're recording by yourself You're
basically imagining What that other person is
saying and and how they're saying it, you know
talking a vacuum so I would I would picture the
movie as best I could and Then I would do it
three different ways, each line, three different
ways to cover how the other person would respond
in the scene. And it takes a long time to learn
how to do that because you're basically seeing
the movie in your head and then reacting to basically
nothing. And it must have worked for me because
I only had, I think out of 50 shows, I maybe
had six pickups. Sometimes I've got to say sometimes
Sometimes a recording can be difficult I Find
that with some people who are who don't have
a lot of experience it can be very hard for them
They don't get it just yet or get it off the
page right away Other times, you've got a director
who wants something very, very specific. Wally
Burr was one of those. I don't know if you remember
him, but Wally was a tremendous animation director
back in the day. He directed all of the... He
directed sergeant slaughter he directed Conan
Conan the barbarian And we used to call it the
Bershenda was gonna go like this remember One
guy one poor guy had a he had a word a thief
thief thief No, no what I'm looking for is You
gotta be accusatory, but you can't be really
angry. And he goes, ah, there you go thief. And
it would take forever. And I know that some people
like 50 takes doing a line. Just not hearing
it anymore. And that's how then it's, I gotta
be honest with you. That's only happened to me
once, but it was on, on a commercial called dollar
general stores. Remember dollar general stores?
I know they're big in the Southern States. I
used to do all the commercials. I didn't be like
dollar general stores. They're reveal a low price
hours. And, um, Nice. A 35 takes. Wow. Ours.
Oh, really? One word. And I go, they're everyday
low price. Ours. He goes, nah, that's too, uh,
too ironic. And he tries something a bit different.
They're everyday low price. Ours. Nope. Too happy.
Too trying too hard. Uh, they're everyday low
price. Ours. No, sexy. Find all these different
variations on this one word. Wow. I bet you went
for take two. And it's like a mantra. You forget.
You're just going, ha, ha, ha. OK, here it is.
Hours, hours, hours. Do you appreciate that kind
of feedback, or is it just like? Sometimes sometimes
when you've got You've got too many cooks You
know, I remember doing a I was doing a commercial
once for A &W There's a new A &W teen burger
to all beef patties lettuce cheese under no peas
lettuce onions on a sesame seed button and And
that was it was great And they said, no, that's
kind of straight. Can you do something? So I
did like a Walter Windchall from all the ships
at sea. And I did that. And they had all these
executives there. And they said, well, I like
it. Do you like it? No, I like it. How about
you? Do you like it? Yeah. Well, let's call up
head office and see if they like it. So they
take the phone. They go, OK, this is the commercial.
Have a listen. So they put the phone up against
the speaker. That's how long ago it was. And
they, I did the commercial, they listened to
the recording and he said, so what do you think?
Didn't go too far, huh? No, it's good? Okay,
thanks. Okay, it's good. It's good. It's good,
thank you. You have different people have different
ideas and they all have to put their input in,
right? You know, the spots were like the commercial
for dollar general stores where I'm recording
here. They got the ad office in in St. Louis
and the head office down in down south somewhere
and there were all on these telephone lines and
there's always always the delay between you know,
this and that a landline not like today. This
is great. This is how I actually did my last
cartoon. The director would be on a screen like
this and I'd be sitting in the booth literally.
Nothing but the engineer. Yeah, so that's it.
I mean, I love ensemble playing more than anything
because of the organic nature of it. Right, right.
You've really got to be on your game when you're
doing When you're doing solo in the booth, I
think I was Bruce Willis one times I know one
line that he was doing for over the hedge and
he says I've done this line 51 times. This cartoon
stuff is really hard. Were you on the other side
looking? Amateur. What? Were you on the other
side looking? Amateur. What? Amateur. What a
noob. What a noob. You don't know what it takes.
I would have gotten the second take. But he was
okay. He was good. I liked him. But obviously
he didn't stick with it. No, he didn't. He was
just carried on with his acting career. Yeah.
Well, he did okay. I mean, he was doing his thing
and that was all great. And I really like, you
know who my favorite cartoon actor is? John Leguizamo.
Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, when he played that three
-toed sloth in Ice Age. Yes. Oh my God. Yeah.
He's just so great. He inhabited that slot like
it was him all along He does he does some very
good voices he does very good voices Yeah, really
amazed to see him. And so I'm now what's his
face? Maurice LaMarche is another one, you know
that red and stimpy guy Work with them on on
a show called salty's lighthouse And I've met
Pete Cullen a few times I met Frank Welker and
William Bell Met a few of them, but they're just
they're just those They're a great group of people
if you ever gonna interview them there, right?
That's one for the books I mean we can get any
anybody that's done voice acting work or been
in a movie they debate on our podcast to give
the the RGB of one of encouragement to Proceed
and something that you guys do. You know, this
is more like a study I guess a study video or
a manual to see what it takes to get out there
in the pictures, I guess, in the pictures. In
the movies. Well, the thing is, it's all about
persistence, and it's all about really believing
in yourself and believing what it is you can
do and being aware also of what your limitations
are. Right. Sure. And knowing your limitations.
is wonderful because you can go 110 % all the
way. Right. Right. Because you know exactly where
you can go. I know I'll never play. I will never
play a princess. Never say never. Never say never.
You did. If you play a princess. But I would
never play that. We are in the 21st century.
You're absolutely right. Anything is possible.
Anything is possible now. That's why they invented
Pitch Rider. Exactly. I could easily hear you
being Princess Peach in the next Marvel movie.
But you know, I got to tell you something. Gotta
tell you something I did I think I did a demo
a demo of the very first voice sampler and it
was You know the digital sampling for keyboard
and stuff Take the voice ago. Hi And I did this
a good evening Dr. Ace good evening doctors and
just do it on the keyboard right right and uh
it was uh it was uh built and invented by a fellow
named Ralph Dyke who worked for Roland you know
Roland yeah yeah and he built the first sequencer
for keyboards and a lot of electronic stuff for
uh For Roland electronics, but I remember working
in this studio with him and various keyboards
at a music music store music studio and playing
with a Sequencer and playing with a sampler.
I never even heard of what a sampler was they
just take a sound like You know like that Yeah.
That's what the, uh, the, um, the big belch was
for a, for a, uh, no, no, there was another belch.
There was another one, but this one I didn't
do in a Coke, no Coke foam. It was for, um, for
a show called, uh, Captain, Captain Zed and the
dream patrol. And, um, It would they had nightmares
these characters that were nightmares and They
loved doing crazy things and they sang this song
called This is a song that'll get on your nerves
get on your nerves get on your nerves. Oh And
they wanted a keyboard sound that was all belches
So we go. So you make it and then they'd sample
it and play it over the game. Crazy stuff we
did. I'll tell you what. Well, you are the innovator.
You know, we used to yell at the tape, so it's
the voice stuck. There you go. Well, that was
you know in those days, you know, we were we'd
work with with 24 track and 16 track and whatnot
and I remember doing commercials Laying the voice
track down in the commercials and and you would
go if there was a mistake you go Slice tape fluid
I love it. You find the right, you get the right
preamp and the right mic and It's a great sound.
It's actually a great tool. I've been using it
for years now. It's got to be. It's amazing how
the technology has come so far that you can actually
do everything that you used to be able to do
in a studio in your home. You can do it in your
home. It's amazing. I remember I had one of the
first Apple laptops where it was a tabletop but
it looked like a a bulb like this and it had
a digital sequencer in it but you had to program
everything you had to program the note the value
the rest whether it was a quarter eight sixteenth
whole note half note and then when you and it
took all day like 20 bars and then when you played
it it would go and it just never sounded good.
It sounded like it was made by a machine. It
didn't have the feel. Right, right, right. You
know, like the Mario Brothers music. There you
go. I hear you. But now you can play it live
and it's just like... recording on a tape recorder,
only a really good tape recorder, having an unlimited
number of tracks to play with. I mean, that's
just fantastic. And, you know, with the, I don't
know how you feel about AI is kind of encroaching
on everyone's. Watching have you I don't know
if you've been watching On Facebook they have
these AI They have these ads from Mark Zuckerberg
and Jimmy Patterson and different people all
going you know something I have a an opportunity
for you That's gonna be the most amazing opportunity
you've ever seen. I am a billionaire I didn't
always be a billionaire, but now I am a billionaire,
and I'm gonna show you how to do it. Well, I
know that guy personally. And he doesn't sound
like that. Jimmy Patterson, I used to work for,
I was a lock boy for Jimmy Patterson when he
had a used car lot back in the early 60s over
at Over he was like Jimmy Patterson car lot.
It was a you know, Jimmy Patterson Ford. I think
I remember he always had a kind of voice like
this and and as he got older his voice got a
little thinner and readier, but their voice that's
on the commercials. Hi, I'm Jim Patterson No
scam doesn't like Mark Zuckerberg doesn't sound
like that But they match the voice to the mouth.
Right, right. Perfectly. When they take all the
like, they've even got Pierre Elliott Trudeau,
the Prime Minister of Canada. Yeah. Come on.
But that's the danger of AI. Right. Right. I
can make you say or do anything. And that's what
I don't we've been vehemently against it in our
in our unions. Right. Right. Yeah. Can kill us
especially in in a voiceover in the voiceover.
I mean you listen to you listen to these ads
or stories on YouTube So this is you know, what
was the one I was listening? Hadrian's wall built
in built in Scotland in the third century AD
was around CE Was one of the most formidable
engineering contract in the world and it sounds
like Like from what I know it sounds like an
an Asian person speaking English and Yeah, when
you listen to the ad or you listen to the the
voiceover on the YouTube like on YouTube and
that And those things on Facebook. They're all
AI generated. Yes. Yeah, I don't know if let's
see if I can find one here They're they're actually
quite amazing. I won't I won't uh, I won't infringe
on any copyright or anything No, but you you
do you do have a point the the it's the uncanny
value of the voice that they use exactly No,
they have the pictures also and yeah in the video
and all that all that stuff now. Yeah It's insane.
Yeah. Oh, I know which one it's uh, you know
the you know those um There's one's uh Not the
golf. I do like the golf one though. I mean,
we've had guests come on. our podcast music musicians
who are worried about that exactly exactly they
say there's a prompt to it and also there's a
con to it so creativity wise it is interesting
because it can take you down yeah certain you
know exactly but i think this might be it okay
listen to see what i can see take a nice oh no
that's a real guy Oh, here's this one. This one.
That they are. Yes, yeah. I call it the uncanny
value of voices. It does sound mechanical. There's
no war to it. No, there's nothing. There's no
dynamic. Yeah, there's no dynamics to it as opposed
to someone's like an actual voice actor. I don't
know if there will come a time that people can't
pick it up, but it's scary to think about. I've
always said that you can never, you can never
duplicate a human voice because all you have
to do is look at a human voice on an oscilloscope.
And it has so many different bands in it. There
are so many different variables within a voice.
Trying to find a person with perfect pitch. I
have good pitch, but it's not perfect. But when
you think you're hitting a C note... If you watch
it on a telescope, it goes up and down and up
and down and up and down. It never stays exactly
on the C. Same thing with these voices. they
never vary you know they don't have they don't
have that human quality like that little breath
you know would take a breath between the words
you know or if you hit a specific you know vowel
or combination of vowels or consonants in a word
you know you just you just have that that feeling
in our human voice yeah yeah Well you get certain
words you know certain words will be That look
proper on paper are mispronounced when they're
spoken out loud And that's the weirdest ones
for me yeah guys we are an hour and 5 minutes
into the pocket. Has it been an hour already?
Hardcore information. It's been a blast. Yeah,
I mean, 1 1 last question for you before we go.
Through the career you've had through the years.
What would you say to you an upcoming? We want
to go to voice acting and be an actor and musician
or going to the arts like you did. You know what?
What advice can you offer? And on top of that.
If. Mr. Optimus Prime himself was right next
to you, how he was saying his career has been.
If Optimus Prime was sitting right next to me
exactly. How would I say my career been? My career
has been, I gotta say, amazing. I have had a
completely blessed career. I've never been a
famous movie star. I don't make millions and
millions of dollars. I'm just a working stiff.
I'm what you call a blue collar actor. There
you go. I never made aspirations of being a star
I all I wanted to do was work at it and make
a living doing it and That's what I did and and
as I've said before small steps you take us you
take I'm gonna learn how to do this and Then
you learn it's a I'm gonna try and get a smaller
job or I'm just gonna try and get a job And then
somebody will give you a job. Will you take it?
and then you move on and you move on and you
and you you aspire to bigger and better and greater
things and Then one day you'll look back and
you'll go How the hell did I end up here You
know That's basically what it is if somebody
had told me back when I was just getting out
of school That I had be sitting on a podcast
talking about my 40 year plus career, I had a
laugh in their face. I had no idea this is how
it was gonna be. All I knew was that if I could
just stay with it and commit to it 100%, and
that's what I did, I stayed committed to it and
kept always trying to... Home what little skills
I had right eat them and keep them fresh and
keep them up and keep them happening all the
time and always be committed and be Basically
true to yourself because there are a lot of people
who are in love with the idea of doing this But
the reality is not easy. The reality is full
of rejection and full of self -doubt and all
these things and the thing is you develop this
thick skin of like rhino skin and You said doesn't
matter You know and and this is what I say to
you know when I was coaching people and teaching
he says Whenever you go into an audition or you
do an audition everybody's pulling for you You
want to get the part because well if you get
the part you get the part you get paid your agent
wants to get the part because They get a cut.
The casting agent wants you to get the part because
it will make them look good that they brought
you in. Producer and director want you to get
the part because if we can find this guy in you
or this girl in you, then we don't have to worry
anymore. It won't cost us any money. We'll just
say that... We've got you. I'm and and that's
the thing is I'm here to solve your problem.
You're not here to solve my problem and It is
my job to make sure that I do solve your problem
in the in the best way possible that comes with
years of practice and it comes with a dedication
to doing what you do and not be lazy and and
and also Be satisfied with the fact that you
may never be a star but you will always work,
you'll always make a living, and you will always
have a great time. If you keep aspiring to the
high, high, high, and if that never comes, then
you'll live a life of perpetual disappointment,
and that doesn't work out so well. You'll see
how that happens, but there's that, and one thing
I've always said is that if you do get a job
on a film set or in a studio, Find out what everybody
does. Find out what everybody's job is. You may
like those jobs, you know. You go on set and
respect the people that you work with and the
people around you who you work with. Let's say
I've done, I don't know how many, I think I'm
over 400 anyway. 400 productions. Yeah, and I
always go in like it's my first day. I always
go in and whenever I whenever I say I'm going
to work I'm driving home driving along and I'm
laughing my ass off. I'm going to do And you
go and you go on set and and people are glad
you're there and you're glad you're there and
you treat everybody with respect and you you
you treat everybody like They're the ones that
make the movie work, because they are. Without
any one of them. When you go on set and all these
people running around, it looks like chaos. It's
not chaos. Everybody has a specific job. And
when you watch it and the whole organic process
of it, it's just amazing. Same thing in the studio.
When everybody, as I said, when everybody's pulling
for you with all that positive energy coming
your way, how can you fail? The only way you
can fail is basically you don't look like the
person that they want. I've sat on both sides
of the table and I know exactly how that works.
And I've sat at the table and I'm going, how
the hell are you gonna choose? They're all fabulous.
And that happened. I don't even remember a movie
called Big Time Movie. It was a Disney, you know,
the big time, big time rush. It's on. I can't
remember. I think it's on Paramount, but Big
Time Movie. And I was cast as the head of MI6
and they were casting the gal who was playing
my partner. And so they asked me to come in and
watch. So I'm looking at all these women coming
in and reading this part of one They're all great.
How are you gonna choose? Yeah, and The director
was a guy named Savage Steve Holland He's looking
at him and he's looking at him and he goes you
know what you remember that that blonde girl
the blonde girls yet there was just a hint of
vulnerability about her that I just loved and
And I said, yeah, she's kind of cool. And that's
the girl who got the part. And when you watch
it on the movie, you go, it makes perfect sense.
It was so good. It was so funny doing that movie.
And then there was another one called, oh, what
the hell was it called? Oh, Osage, August Osage
County. Okay, yeah, that one it was a play I
was doing the play and The director asked me
to come in and read with the women in the show
because she wanted me to play this part and smooth
in this play and Again, it was the same thing
I was reading with all these women and they all
had something different to offer and they were
all Fabulous and I planned each one according
to what they were giving me, because that's what
acting's about. It's about playing tennis, hitting
back and forth. And so it was another suggestion,
Janet, how are you gonna choose? And she goes,
I don't know, I don't know, but please do my
play, please do my play, please do my play. If
my show does not get picked up, I will do this
play Please I hate to say this but don't get
your show picked up Wow So what happened my show
got picked up right and it was a series called
the killing oh That it was with What's a me ray
Enos and Joel Kinnaman I It was the most wonderful
experience working with those two they were just
so brilliant and I had to up my a game to to
be there with them and We had so much fun on
the show so I I had to work the series and the
series was for the whole year So I couldn't do
the play and that's it But yeah, that's how it
happens, but there's those things you know that
you just don't know what's gonna hire you If
you start to think about things like, oh, they
didn't like my hair, or I wasn't black enough,
I wasn't white enough, I wasn't this, I wasn't
that. No, it's the mood of the universe. That's
how it works. Because in my case, I've been in
the business for so long, over 40 years, and
all the actors that I read against have also
been in the business over 40 years, and they're
all really good actors. And so sometimes you
get the part, you go yay, they all cry. That
sometimes they get the part, he yays and we all
cry. That's the way it goes. They spin a wheel,
and the wheel of fortune round and round of where
it goes, where it stops, nobody knows. It stops
on this guy. And I've seen it happen. I've seen
it happen in real life. I was sitting in the...
with the producer of a mini series I did with
Farrah Fawcett way back when. And the producer
was from ABC television. They were casting for
the lawyer for Farrah Fawcett. And I'm watching
the tapes with them. And these guys were no slouches.
They were all A -listers out of Toronto, and
they were just great actors. And I'm watching
them, I'm watching them, and says, eh, so what
do you think? And Lou, the producer, and David,
the director, are looking, and they're going,
I can't make, ah, Jesus, no, these guys are all
good, I can't make, honey! The producer calls
over his wife, and she watches the tapes, and
she goes, and he goes, so what do you think?
And she looks and she goes, you know, I really
like that tie. He got the part. He got the part.
He liked his tie. Wow. Oh, wow. Okay. That's
no bullshit. That actually happened. I was sitting
right there and I went, oh my God. I believe
you so well. Because they couldn't decide because
they were all equally good. You know and it happens
even with the big a -listers the big eight -time
a -listers You know Who's who's gonna get cast
who doesn't get cast? It just happens like that
and you have to and the thing is you have to
accept it and my motto has been Always surrender
yourself to the universe and the universe unfold
as it should I want to say thank you, Gary. I
appreciate you coming on the podcast playing
with it for a while. Great stories, nonstop,
great information. Yeah, that's a great information.
Great information. I do appreciate you. Do you
have any social medias that you'd like to post?
No, I'm just on TikTok and Instagram. You can
find me there and I have my fan page and that
over on Facebook and you can find me there as
well. That's about it. I have a YouTube channel
called primal parodies. That's quite fun We just
do parodies of different songs at Christmas time
every year. Oh Okay, so we rewrite re rewrite
famous carols or was the night before Christmas
when all Anyway, thanks guys. I got to rehearse
now. You're talking about singing. I'm performing
tonight at eight o 'clock. I will not hold you
any further. Thank you so much for your time.
My pleasure. Continue doing your legendary stuff
because you will be imprinted in our minds at
the end of time. Thank you so much. Thank you
so much, guys. See you later. Bye -bye. Ladies
and gentlemen, that is the podcast for today.
Oh my gosh, uh, all I can say is that wow. Yeah,
it's a lot of information from mr. Chalkman.
Uh, those of you that want to go into the uh
into the arts of uh Well, I mean it's like it's
like you said be prepared for hard work But also
be prepared that you know, maybe you won't become
the the huge celebrity that you think you should
be or or want to be you know exactly just Continue
to plug along and you know what? What I find
most amazing, uh, what he was saying is that,
you know, he didn't, it really, I really have
heard it from other actors too. Like they didn't
know the impact that they were having when they
were doing the character. They just showed up
and did the character and did, you know, their
part as best as they could. And it just, it just
hit. With everyone and you know, that's that's
how they became this legendary sandwich But uh,
ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much Uh, we
will see you next week. We got local talent coming
in next week. So be prepared for another great
episode the cheating podcast, uh any last words
to Surprisingly, no. Wow. Amazing item speechless.
This has just been a really great episode. I
know is that we have put us in the in the podcast.
We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the show.
Anyways, guys, we'll see you next time. All right.
You all take these. We'll see you next week at
seven thirty p .m. Tune in Facebook Live and
like always.