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Mining the hearts and minds of unorthodox teachers.
Here you'll find playful, inquisitive, and friendly dialogues with the likes of psychologists, musicians, teachers, yoga instructors, philosophers, DJs, health educators, entrepreneurs, astrologists, holistic healers, meditators, life coaches, athletes, hairdressers, authors, speakers, comedians, leaders, advocates, changemakers, seemingly regular people bursting with wisdom, artists, mathematicians, and much more.
The Junkyard Love Podcast - for a better life.
...
four...
three, two...
I'm a big fan of greenery and nature, so it's right now pretty plump and green, so I'm, I'm enjoying Austin.
It's great.
Plump and green is how I like my...
It's how I prefer my nature, actually.
Yeah, I-
I prefer it to be plump and green.
I've actually been contemplating naming my first two children Plump and Green, so.
Plump and Green?
Wait, wait for it, wait for it.
Dude, I was actually gonna...
I was hoping that you would bring the sound effects.
I was listening to you on another podcast and you brought up the sound effects.
Oh, were you?
Yeah.
Oh, I go...
Well, I mean, welcome.
Hey.
Yeah, we do have a live studio audience here.
I go nowhere.
No Zoom is left un-sound-affected by me.
Yeah, do you get of-...
Do you often get podcast guests that bring their own sound effects?
No, first timer, baby.
I like, I like to break new ground.
I like to break new ground here.
With us.
That's funny.
Which podcast were you listening to?
I'm curious.
Uh, with, uh, the, uh, the host name was Bob.
I forget the name of the podcast.
Oh, uh, DJ Bob?
DJ Bob, yeah.
That was the one I was listening to this morning.
Yeah, the DJ Bob podcast.
He has been a v- super good friend of mine.
Talk about somebody breaking ground.
Yeah.
Um, buddy of mine.
He's...
I call him a ki- like, sweet baby kid, but he was a kid when I first met him.
He was 15 when I met him, and, uh, he's almost 30 now.
So, I've known him for a good chunk of time.
And, um, young ki-...
Uh, I guess, uh, he'll always be...
It's, you know how you know?
And I feel like, that way, with my...
My nephew is now 15.
He's twice the size of me, but I always, like...
You know, they, they're always just, like, uh, eh- encased in amber, in Jurassic Park style, of like, you're always this size and this age-
Yeah.
...
in my mind when I think of you.
You're also still cradling them, also.
Right?
Um, so, but Bob, DJ Bob Runkle, um, the DJ Bob Show, please, everyone look it up.
It's, uh, he, uh...
Kid with, uh...
I keep saying kid.
He's a, uh, a young gentleman with...
He's got cerebral palsy, and he is...
His, um, passion is...
You know, and his level of CP, he doesn't, wasn't able, especially as a kid, to get out a lot, do a lot of stuff, so he really embraced popular culture and animation and, and t- television and music, and that became his life, really.
And so...
And his goal, he always wanted to be a DJ, a radio DJ.
Mm-hmm.
And s-...
You know, kinda created his own show and his own podcast.
And he's b-...
He's been doing the DJ Bob Show in various forms, and now it's pretty much on, like, weekly kinda podcast, uh, for, like, 15 years, um, as a kid with CP.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, wow.
And he's, he's awesome.
So, I got to know him through, and I'm sure we'll get into it-
Yeah.
...
through, uh, you know, uh, part of his pop culture fascination was puppetry, Sesame Street, Muppets, and stuff like that, and that's how we got connected, um, on the, the, the earlier days of the social medias.
Yeah.
And the, and the, and the early days of podcasting, um...
I had a, I had a puppetry podcast back in the day.
Um, that, uh, is how we kind of got in contact.
Yeah.
And yeah, yeah, I've stayed in contact with him ever since, and I've done a lot of audio stuff and voiceover for his show, and I was the audio, uh, producer for his show for a good number of years.
Um, and then, you know, work, uh, life and work a lot, so I wasn't able to dedicate as much time to it as I want to, but he's got other people helping him out.
But super good dude.
Yeah.
I love that you listened to that chat.
Uh, it was a fun, it was a fun chat.
I always have a good time ch- talking with him.
Yeah, yeah, it was enjoyable.
I always like the perspective of, like, uh, longtime work friends.
Let's sit down and kind of, like, break that fourth wall of, uh-
Yeah.
...
like, "Hey, I, I did this thing for you, and you do this thing for me," and we've been through a lot together, and it's, uh, it's cool to, to put a microphone in front of that relationship.
I also, from, from...
I, I don't know a ton about him, but just from what you've said and listening to that episode, um, I...
Dude, I admire someone who just...
Like, they just see something that they wanna do, and then they, they don't wait for someone to give them a way to do it.
They're just like, "I'm gonna make this happen." I, I feel like so many creatives can relate to that.
Yeah.
It's like, if you see something that's not available where, where you're at, then make it.
You know?
Like, just make a door-
Yeah.
...
if there's not one.
I love that.
He is the personification of that, of passion.
Inspiring.
Passion taking over and not letting something...
Not letting anybody tell you you can't do it.
And he, of course, has had lot of people tell him he can't do something because of his physical limitations.
And it's a really...
It's, it, it was a...
And, and working and knowing, and knowing him for as long as I have, and getting a chance to even talk in that way, of just like, "Just, let's just talk." To hear, to...
Even though I knew it, it's, it's so...
Uh, I don't know.
It makes your, it makes your heart grow three sizes that day, you know, when you see...
You know, everyone has their own trials and tribulations, and everyone has their own hang-ups, their own walls that they need to climb or break through in order to, to do what they need to do.
But seeing, you know, uh, getting a different perspective of somebody who ha-...
Uh, is going through something that not a lot of people can relate to, um, in his challenges of life, in health challenges and physical limitations, and, uh, you know, uh, persevering through that, and making his own way, and doing it how he's able to do it, figuring out a way to do it and riding that passion wave.
You know what I mean?
And, like, 'cause he has.
He's had a lot of people say, "You can't do this.
You can't be a radio disc jockey." He's had people boldly and rudely say horrible things to him, um, in regards to what they believed he could or could not do in this realm of...
Mm-hmm.
And so, yeah.
It's pretty, it's awesome.
He's inspire-...
He inspires me all the time, for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I, I definitely picked that up from the episode.
I, I'm inspired by him as well.
I, I love that, man.
If someone tells you you can't do something, a lot of times, it...
You figure out who the heck you are on the other side of just action through those things other people tell you-
Oh, yeah.
...
you can't do, or, or the things that just don't really have a route, and you just-...
just find a way to make it happen.
And then suddenly you look back and it's been 15 years and you're like, "Whoa!
I've been doing that thing that, like, nobody thought I could do." That's pretty cool.
As the great Dr.
Ian Malcolm once said, "Life, uh, uh, finds a way."
Indeed.
Bravo.
Uh, okay.
All right, Mr.
Nate.
Valiant.
Uh, Mr.
Nate, welcome-
What's up, bro?
...
welcome to, welcome to the Junkyard Love podcast.
Thank you so much for agreeing to do this, man.
I appreciate your time.
Um, this, this is awesome.
I can't wait.
Jacob, I, I'm so stoked.
And I'm so stoked that, you know, how we got en- I was gonna say, "How we got engaged." How we engaged-
Yes.
...
how we connected, how we met, and bringing us to this kind of point, it's awesome.
Yeah.
Let's talk about-
Yeah.
Let's, let's let everybody know.
Do you think if we were engaged, would you be the proposer or would I be the proposer?
Oh, I would be, uh, I don't know.
We'd probably propose at the same time.
Ooh, okay.
How would you do it?
I, I think we would do it at the same time.
But I would, we would try to outdo each other in, in, in-
It'd be a production for sure.
...
creative ways.
Yep.
We would try to out...
Yeah.
In our levels, in our, in our histories of, in the entertainment business and doing full-scale stage productions and things like that, we would try to, uh, outdo.
I would probably get...
Well, one, if we're engaged, I would know, like, your favorite, like, cartoon character.
Your fav- your favorite actor, your favorite cartoon, your favorite animation.
May- I'm gonna ask you about it later.
And then I would either get a cameo, I would have, I would go to Cameo and I would get this guy to propose to you on behalf of me in the voice of, like, your le- animated icon.
Yes.
The answer is yes.
That's what I would do.
The answer is yes.
So we're engaged legally, I think.
I mean, this is recorded, so we might-
Yeah.
We might legally it's, it's happened.
We might legally be engaged actually.
Yeah.
It's happened now.
We'll, uh, I'll have my lawyer look it over.
No, but I love-
Um...
...
that, uh, how we connected and we, we, we, you and I just kind of jived and bonded right away, even just working on, uh, a show together.
And, uh, I love that it kind of just stemmed from this.
Just like, "Hey, let's stay in touch."
Yeah.
I, um...
Awesome.
So I'm happy to be here.
I was actually, I was sitting next to a friend, the videoar- So the show we were just doing, I was the director for and you were the announcer for.
Uh, we had, we have actually crossed paths before, but I'm typically in a different role, so I'm very much like a DJ with his headphones on over in the corner.
Right.
Like, I'm not very, uh, as extroverted as I get to be when I am in technical director or director roles.
Right.
Yeah, this last show, we got to actually, like-
Yeah.
...
inter- interact more.
Right.
Yeah.
And so, um, yeah.
It's, it's, it's nice to meet people like that.
And, and I always...
This podcast kind of, you know, that old saying of, uh, as you walk, the path appears.
Or, like, a- as you walk, the bricks lay themselves or whatever it is.
Um, the, the...
More.
Roads?
Where we're going, we don't need roads.
Precisely.
Uh, and that's how this podcast works, dude, is- I, I was sitting next to the videographer, uh, as we were at the airport, and I was messaging you on LinkedIn.
And it was just this perfect, like, as I was talking about it, we're like, "Yeah, yeah, we should definitely have you on.
Uh, let, let's have this talk." So it just-
Yeah.
It builds itself.
It worked out well because we, we connected on LinkedIn, and then when I looked at your page, the th- the most, your most recent post was a clip from your podcast.
Yeah.
I was like, "Oh, right on.
Let me check out what his podcast is." And it just, it was serendipitous.
It just jived 'cause, um, you know, and then I did my little, not even like a hard sell, but I was like, "I would...
Hey, I'd be happy to come on and chat." I love doing podcasts.
In addition to this, you know, with the theme of your podcast, um, I was like, "Yeah, I'm an unorthodox teacher."
Mm-hmm.
And in, in addition to a, a talent performer, producer, audio guy like you as well, um, I, I, I teach.
Not n- not n- I literally, uh, ended a half an hour before we hopped on here, I changed my shirt really quick because I was soaking wet sweating, but I did a whole, uh, VO character workshop for a group of, um, you know, nine to 13 year olds, uh, that are professional kids that auditioned and stuff like that.
So we had a whole group, um, character VO animation workshop just, just before, uh, you and I hopped on.
Okay.
Well, I want to hear all about that.
Can you give me the d- details on that?
And while you're at it, uh-
Yeah.
...
I'm just barreling through on you.
Give me your bio.
Let's do it.
If, if, if you will.
If you'll give me, like, your quick elevator pitch and then tell me about what you did today.
Elevator pitch.
So what I say when I introduce myself to people in this, in this capacity, or in any kind of capacity, I say, "Hey, guys.
I'm Nate Beagle.
I'm a voice actor and I'm a puppeteer, and what I do for a living is I bring characters and stories to life." And that's, that is my, that...
I leave it at that.
And then it, we can go, we can go deep, right?
It can get deep.
That's like a, that seems like a simple phrase, but man, it gets deep.
There's a lot of facets to that, a lot of elements to that.
And I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about my history and what w-, you know, what, what has brought me to this point in this wacky life of, that we lead.
Um, but yeah, that's, that's, that's my quick and short pitch.
Voice actor, puppeteer.
I bring characters to life.
And in, I have been doing this professionally full time for over 25 years, and I, through that time, through that journey and my journey that still continues on, I have very gratefully and thankfully been able to, uh, do that storytelling, bringing characters to life, in many different mediums.
Um, on stage, on camera, um, in voiceover, as a puppet, as a fleshy meat sack puppet of myself-
Yeah.
...
um, which is what I don't prefer.
I say what I like to do.
What Na- I prefer, I li- Um, you, you see it on my LinkedIn, they're like, "Hey, where's Nate?" And you go, "Oh, he's behind the mic or below the frame." That's where I like to live.
That's where I like to-
Yeah.
...
hence our first thing.
I love being the announcer.
I like being the guy behind the curtain.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's funny.
I, I have a DJ background and I, I much prefer to go back to the time where the DJ was hidden.
I want to do more events where people are like, "Who is the DJ and, and where is he?"
Right?
And like, you never get to see him.
I want to play more like that.
It's that, it's that, like, the, it's, it's The Wizard of Us.
Yeah.
Right?
It's the man behind the curtain-
Keep me behind the curtain.
Yeah.
...
kind of vibe.
And it's, um...
Yeah, now DJs are, DJs are front and center now.
That's a big thing.
Yeah.
Right?
They're out there-
They love it.
...
doing their, doing their thing.
Yeah, dude.
Hey, look, man, when I, when I was 22, 23, I loved that attention too.
Now it's like-
Okay.
...
hey, put, put, put some, like- ...
put some sanctioning around me around, uh, in, uh, front of house or something 'cause I'm-
Yeah.
...
I'm jamming, and I wanna be jamming.
But like, it's not about me.
It's about the environment we're creating, you know?
Yeah, and I think that's part of it too.
It's like, and I've done, you know, when I, uh, was pursuing a career in the arts, in the performing arts, um, it all starts with like, "Hey, look at me.
Look at me."
Yeah.
"Look at me doing the thing."
Yeah.
"Look at me juggle.
Dance, monkey, dance, kind of thing." Doing stuff on stage as an actor, you know, speech and drama in school, doing all the musicals, all the plays.
And, um, but the through line for me, uh, was puppetry.
Puppetry is my, was my gateway, my gateway drug into-
Mm-hmm.
...
the, into the entertainment world.
Um, my, uh, I say, I call it my light switch moment, um...
Jacob, um, I don't, I'm not sure what our age difference is.
We should probably know this before we got engaged, but, um- ...
I am a child of the 1980s, and, um, when I was, uh, but a young lad in the '80s, there was a show called Fraggle Rock.
I'm sure you're probably familiar with Fraggle.
You're prob...
Are you familiar with Fraggle Rock?
I, I know the name, and it sparks of bell most definitely.
Okay, so, but you know Sesame Street?
Yes.
You know the Muppets?
Yes.
Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy, all that, right?
So I grew up, I was a kid that grew up watching Sesame Street as many kids over the last 50 years were.
Kids raised on Sesame Street, right?
N- l- watching these characters, learning from these characters, loving these characters, laughing with these characters, right?
And it was at age seven in the mid '80s, I had my light switch moment, had watching, uh, a show that Jim Henson ended up doing called the Fraggle Rock.
Um, it was a show that he put together in the '80s, and it was like his way of...
It was his desire to like, "I wanna solve world peace," basically.
He created the show to like bridge cultural gaps, and it became a global phenomenon.
They ended up being...
Like talk about like franchises, you know how The Office has like, uh, uh, uh, there's an off- version of the show The Office in like every country?
Yeah.
Fraggle Rock had that.
There was a Fraggle Rock, and same thing, Sesame Street has that.
There's a Sesame Street in like multiple countries, um, like their, their version of it, and Fraggle Rock was that.
It was like creating...
The Fraggles lived in this world and, uh, hidden from the real world of us humans, and they called us, referred to us as the silly creatures.
And, and then there was another world of other creatures called Gorgs and stuff like that.
So they were like this bridge in between these two worlds.
Um, fascinating, really fun.
You can look it up.
There's a new version of it on Apple TV+, um, basically conceived and done, uh, by the great John Tartaglia, who is one of my f-
Is Duncan Trussell in that?
Am I thinking of the wrong one?
The, do you know Duncan Trussell is a comedian?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yes, yes.
Ah, okay, I watched a couple episodes of that.
I'm, I'm a big Duncan Trussell fan, so I've, I've stumbled across that one.
Oh, Duncan Trussell was, uh, Doc, I believe.
Is that right?
Duncan Trussell.
I've watched it.
My memory with things like th- specifics on shows is, is horrible sometimes.
Um, yes, I believe we're thinking of the same person, uh, the actor, the older actor, Duncan Trussell.
Is that who you're talking about?
Yeah, he has like a, a very scratchy voice, very, um, original voice.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
He was in Boondock Saints.
I don't know.
Is that the actor we're talking about?
I think we're thinking of the same person.
I'm trying to...
Uh, uh, no, I'm like second guessing myself.
Someone in the comments or listening is screaming, "No, it's this person."
They're like, "Yeah.
If only we had a way to look this up-
Thank you.
...
while we're literally talking to each other online."
Jamie, Jamie, look it up.
Um, but, uh, watching Fraggle Rock, I had the light switch moment.
I was seven years old, and I went from knowing these characters, loving these characters to going, "How do they do that?" Like, I had already grasped the concept at this point that it was like, "I get it.
They're not real." Right?
I get...
Uh, spoilers.
Sorry, everyone listening.
The Muppets and the puppets on Sesame Street, they're not real.
Um, there are, there...
I get that there are human beings bringing those characters to life.
There's somebody doing that.
How do they do that?
I gotta know.
And that was the light switch moment.
And so where some people might be like, "Oh, gosh, no!
My whole life is a lie.
The magic is ruined," um, I was, the magic exploded even more.
I needed to know what was going on below that frame.
Wh- how are those performers bringing these characters to life?
And then not too long after that, there was a, um...
And you could probably find this on YouTube.
It's pretty great.
The, uh...
Jim Henson was very open with showing the magic behind the magic.
He was very much, he pulled what's behind the curtain, right?
It...
Whereas like some other companies, Disney, a lot of the times, doesn't like to...
"Don't say...
Uh, uh, you don't need to know what's happening." Right?
"Don't ruin the magic." For Jim, it was like, "No, no.
The magic is what's happening down here and bringing this to life.
This is where the magic is, and people need to see that." And so there was a show that he did, it's called the Jim Henson Hour, um, that was later on...
You know, late '80s or early '90s it came on, and there's a phe- phenom- fantastic moment.
I think one of the last episodes of the Jim Henson Hour, all the Muppets, uh, uh, like there was this whole bit of like Gonzo, their showing like how they have to do like the visual tricks.
Like, D- Gonzo's gonna enter the frame and pick up a phone, but Gonzo doesn't have live hands.
He's not a live hand puppet.
He's a, what's called a hand and rod puppet, and his hand's a little floppy kind of fingers.
And so they literally walk you through like Gonzo enters the frame, the phone's ringing, he walks over to the frame, he reaches up, and then they have to cut-And they cut to a shot where now they have attached the phone to the puppet's hand and it's, like, a close-up shot.
And now he's like, "Oh, hello?
You don't say." He does the whole joke, like, "You don't say.
You don't say." And then, and then hang it up.
Cut to again, now it's that wide shot where he removes the hand and now he's not holding onto it.
And that whole little simple bit, right?
'Cause it was like, with puppetry, we can't, he can't actually go up there and grab the phone.
So we have to do this cut, visual effect if you will.
Some, you know, movie magic.
And he broke it down.
Broke it down into that whole thing.
And so that was really fascinating, and like, just like, "Oh, that's so cool." It's so cool how, but like how quick that is, and we watch it and go, "Oh, yeah, it's totally fine that he just picks it up." But we...
Not even thinking, "Oh, he can't actually physically do it." So that's why they had to do a cut.
It just all seamlessly works and blends together in the storytelling aspect of it, and you ride along with it.
And so it was really cool to see the behind the scenes of that.
Cut to the end of that episode, I believe it's that same episode.
It's all the Muppets, all the characters together in the shot, and then the camera starts to ba- they, they, they even make a bit of, they're like, "Ah!
Who's, who are these people?" Like, down here.
They're like, "Ah!
Who are these people?" And the camera pans out slowly and you see, then you get to see everybody.
All the puppeteers holding the characters, looking down at the monitors, and still staying in character.
Keeping those characters alive.
That's cool.
And I was just...
That-
Yeah.
I need to do that.
Kinda like we were talking about DJ Bob
Yeah.
Of like, you're like, he's like, "I'm the, I'm gonna do this." I was like, "I need that.
That's what I need.
I need to do that."
Mm-hmm.
And that's what s- uh, started my journey really, and I say this, and I was just doing a workshop with kids.
I do a lot of workshops with kids and voiceover.
And, uh, I say, when I'm giving them my little history, I was like, "You know, kids, back in my day, we didn't have a thing called the Googles or the YouTubes or the Zooms.
We had to...
If I needed to learn something, I had to go to this place, this magical place called..." "...
the library.
And in this place, there were these things called books on the walls." And so, you know, I played that little bit for them.
But I would have to go, I had to go to the library, check out every book that I could in school at the public library about puppetry.
The art of puppetry.
And the more I immersed myself in that knowledge of, like, just the, the history of it, you know.
Puppetry is one of the oldest forms of storytelling that we as human beings have with each other.
Like, just after, like, painting on cave walls is puppetry.
Taking things and manipulating them.
Showing like, "Oh, this big thing chased me." You know what I mean?
Bridging language barriers and stuff like that.
It was just, it, the more I learned-
Mm-hmm.
...
about it, the more I was like, "This is amazing." And through that process of learning my, the history of puppetry, the art of puppetry, learning how to build my own puppet, how to, like, from scratch, how to, you know, sew, how to cr- you know, design and, you know, make patterns and all this kind of stuff.
And just from book after book after book.
Through that process, I discovered where I was really gravitating towards was the performance aspect of it.
Was once this character is d- is, is here physically, now physically animating it.
Bringing life to this inanimate object.
Right.
Right?
That's where, that's where I noticed that I was like, "This is my thing.
This is where I'm, this is my strength in this.
This is what's really propelling me through this."
Yeah.
Um, and it was through that whole process of, like, designing a character from scratch and then physically m- building it and then physically animating it, and then of course the cut to giving it a voice and all that kinda stuff.
Giving it thought, giving it feeling, giving it personality, giving it movement, and, and breathing life into this inanimate sack of fur with eyeballs.
Right.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And it was through that, that...
And so that was my passion.
I was like, "I wanna be a professional puppeteer.
I wanna be those guys." And it's like, I have two goals for myself.
I wanna work on Sesame Street and I want to be, uh, work with Jim Henson Company, work with the Muppets.
And I've since gotten to do both of those things multiple times.
And it was through that journey, and that was my laser focus, was puppetry.
Now where I was growing up, there wasn't really a puppetry outlet for me.
It's not like it is today where I could click on a YouTube video-
Yeah.
...
and learn how to do monitor work on puppetry.
And there wasn't a lot of, uh, people teaching puppets in my, where I was growing up.
I was grow, uh, I was going to grade school and, and high school in the Central Florida area.
And there wasn't a lot going on.
There was some puppet stuff within school.
There was this company, um, that I believe is still around.
I was talking about it on the DJ Bob show, actually.
Um, it was called Kids on the Block.
Are you familiar with Kids on the Block?
I don't think so.
It's been around for, like, 30 plus years.
And it basically was, um, puppet shows designed for, like, middle school kids to be the puppeteers and go tour around elementary schools to teach other kids-
Oh, cool.
...
about kids with disabilities.
Oh.
And so these were puppet characters that all had a specific disability.
Like, there was a blind puppet, there was a puppet with CP.
Uh, there was even, um, a, a, a, like a, a puppet charac- kid that had been in a house fire, like a burn victim.
And like, very similar, like Sesame Street-esque things of like, "Hey, this kid is different."
Sure, yeah.
And it's okay.
And he can still be your friend.
It was, it was very much in that vein, right?
It was pretty cool.
That was a puppetry outlet that I did have, and I, I was a part of that, the Kids on the Block.
Um, not the New Kids on the Block.
They were just the Kids on the Block.I wasn't Donnie Wahlberg.
Um, but ...
Um, so that was an outlet.
So I had to go through, because, like I said the core element of it for me was the performance aspect of it, bringing things to life, I went through the traditional acting route, and I studied classical acting, Acting 101.
I did all the speech and drama classes in grade school, cut to high school doing all the plays, and then I found my love of musicals, musical theater and telling stories in that way.
And so doing stuff as a human being, but also harnessing my acting skills as a performer.
And whenever I could, I would input what I was learning into my puppetry or I would incorporate puppetry elements in projects or in scenes or in sketches or in plays or something like that w- if it made sense.
You know, at the time like the only puppet thing that was really kind of out there was like Little Shop of Horrors was a puppet thing.
This is long before Avenue Q was a thing.
Um, so...
That was my thing.
I cut to I...
As I'm g- uh, graduating college, I double major in college in musical theater, and, you'll appreciate this my friend, digital media production-
Mm-hmm.
...
in the early aughts.
I graduated high school in the 1900s, um, and I graduated college in 2003.
And from '99 to 2003, it was like, hey this new thing called digital media.
This, this new thing called the internet, it might take off, right?
Um, and so I was really fascinated with audio storytelling always.
And so in college, in that double major, performing as musical theater but also doing digital media production with a focus on television and radio.
Mm-hmm.
So I interned at radio stations, interned in the news vans, in the local news station and stuff like that, learning how to put together stories and edit and all that kind of stuff.
Um, so that's what I did.
Cut to graduating 2003, sold my car, sold a majority of my possessions, and I...
Backpack and a suitcase, and took the Amtrak train to New York City.
And I said...
I gave myself six months, said, "I'm gonna give myself six months to book something." I saved up enough money at this point to do that, including selling a lot of my stuff.
And I was like, "Six months to book something," and, uh, I ended up staying there for about 15 years, and that's where I built up my career in puppetry as a performer.
Cut to w- now make this incredibly long, long-winded, spoilers, I talk for a living- Um, but I, I think it...
Th- these little elements are like important, right?
They're all part of this journey and one e- little element leads to the next one which informs the next one.
And it was through my first gig that I w- the first pro gig in New York that I booked was, uh, a show called Die Hard: The Puppet Musical.
Oh, wow.
And it is just as awesome as it sounds.
A musical based on the movie Die Hard with puppets.
Okay, okay.
And it was just amazing, just incredible.
And that's how I got involved in the New York City puppetry scene, working with the puppet pros there that were, that were there, learning from them, connecting with them, very much one show led to the next show, which led to the next show, which led to working with Jim Henson folk, working on Sesame Street, working with Jim Henson projects, working with those professionals and the idols that I grew up loving and watching, and-
Yeah.
Talk about a masterclass, just being in the room with these performers and watching them just effortlessly bring these characters-
Mm-hmm.
...
to life, and I'm just like, "Ah!"
Yeah.
Just soaking it all in.
And one of my, uh, mentors, the great Tyler Bunch, you guys can look up Tyler Bunch, he's amazing, he's been working with Sesame for, oh, well over 30-plus years and many different characters, character performer and a voice actor.
And he's the one that literally...
You know, I was so hyper-focused on it and so...
In...
Spoilers, in New York you do a lot of kid shows, do a lot of puppet stuff.
I was doing all kinds of stuff, puppet stuff for kids, puppet stuff for adults, puppet stuff, you know, that, that newfangled internet thing was taking off, doing stuff for web series, you know, in- independent, th- things were...
It was cool because there was new ways to like do stuff with puppet characters, I was playing so many different characters and working on numerous projects with these colleagues and, and I- l- idols of mine.
Tyler Bunch is the w- guy that says to me, "Did you ever think about doing voice work?" I was like, "No." No.
I was so hyper-focused on pups and he's like, "You should, you should think about it.
You should think about what you're doing." And I was like, "Really?" And he's like, "Yeah, what you are doing..." He saw, i- i- and this is one of those, to take it into, you know, uh, teaching and, and, and having mentors and coaches and, and people that guide you, guides on your journeys.
It takes, sometimes it takes that one person to go, "Yeah, this, you see, uh, uh, maybe you should look at this."
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
"What you're doing..." And basically what he was saying, he said, he was like, "Everything that you are doing when you're playing a character," he's like, "I see it.
I see the, the journey that you're going on when playing your characters." Regardless of how silly it is, regardless of how little it was, I was putting the same concerted effort into all of my characters, and that was a- it's always been, it's kind of been my root thing.
I go for it, always.
And I put a lot of work into it, I've, regardless of how small the, the, the bit part might have been, I was always creating b- story, back stories, histories, you know, levels of detail of their personalities and who this character was in their world, and using that to fuel the characterization.
Using that as the, the, as the, as the, the, the seed in which, you know, th- eventually the voice would come out of.
Nine times out of ten it was always, you know, a, uh, s- a fun voice or whatever that I was doing to, for the character.
But in doing so, I was expanding my range vocally as well and I was able to really differentiate.
I was playing multiple characters in the same show and making them all different.
That was always like a goal of mine, I wanted to make sure they were all very unique and different so they didn't all sound the same, right?
They needed to...
And how I got them to not sound the same was like really internally make them so-...
inherently different from each other, and then the voice is what followed.
And that was the, the, the element that Tyler noticed, and he's like, "Yeah, the stuff that you're doing will absolutely serve you incredibly well in the voiceover world.
You should think about that."
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, boom, that's what blew the door- doors open for me.
Yeah.
And I, I, I, there's a lot more work in voiceover than there is in puppetry.
Yeah.
S- spoilers.
And I've been full-time VO and with a little bit of puppetry whenever I can ever since.
Yeah.
Man.
And, um, yeah.
That's also, that's a little bit of a long, a long short story of how I've gotten in.
Through that, through the voiceover, diving into voiceover, I've been able to, over the years, 20 years now, s- uh, been able to, uh, branch off into all the different facets of voiceover.
Of course, leading into live announcing and stuff like that, that you and I met on doing a, like, a live awards show, and how that's one element, one genre of voiceover that I've been able to, uh, get into and do, and, and do pretty well.
And, um, but yeah, my core passion has always been puppetry, always been character-driven.
Animation, video games is primarily what I do.
I do a lot of dubbing.
I have my own production studio now.
I do a lot of audio post-production and things.
I do a lot of dubbing, um, for anime and other, uh, foreign properties and stuff like that, 'cause it's not just anime.
Anime is not the only foreign animation in town, um, that want English voices on it.
So, yeah, that's where, and that's still where my passion lies.
But again, to take it all the way back to the beginning, I bring stories and characters to life in whatever medium that takes.
But I put forth the same...
It all comes from the same place.
And I think because of that, all of my stuff has worked, uh, you know, uh, and, and having to bend...
I call it, like, bending the needle.
Like, you go down one path, but sometimes you gotta bend the needle a little bit to make it fit-
Mm-hmm.
...
through this one little avenue.
But it all is rooted in the same kind of place, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
As I'm, you know, doing...
We're in Ghost now, and we're making the pot-
Yeah.
...
with, with Swayze and Demi Moore.
I'm feeling the romance, yeah.
I mean, we are engaged, Jacob, so...
We are, of course, yeah.
Let's-
We'll try to keep it PG on the podcast.
We don't want to PDA to everybody out here.
Um-
Exactly.
Man, so brilliant.
I, I really love...
For one, I would like to ask what that-
Yes.
...
six months was like, for sure.
I wanna know more about that six-month period when you first moved to New York.
But I also just wanna pinpoint, before we go there-
Yeah.
...
the power of encouragement.
Uh, I, I had this-
Yes.
I was writing some poetry the other day about, um, uh, basically, like, human beings need encouragement.
Like, I think it's, uh, safe to say that it's an actual need.
Like, if we don't have anybody-
Oh, 100%.
...
around us telling us or digging...
You know, we could, we can make everything that we're into so very muddy.
And-
Yeah.
...
just someone could, like, see through the mud and go like, "Hey, that thing, you're really good at it, and I think it's awesome that you do it." And then we're alone afterwards, an hour later, going, "Huh, I, I r- I, I love doing that thing.
And it-"
Yeah.
"...
it's helpful when people see it, and I can do that?" Uh-
Right.
...
it, it's pretty profound.
So, so the encouragement, um, part is just so profound, and I love it, and I love that, um, that, that your mentor did that for you.
It's so necessary.
We, we, we inherently discount ourselves.
We're always talking ourselves out of things, right?
We're, uh, why, and why do we do that, yeah?
And that's why it i- it is.
It's some weird subset, uh, o- of, uh, of, in our DNA wa- you know, and not everyone, of course.
Not everyone is like this, right?
But most of us tend to get down on ourselves a lot, right?
Yeah.
What do you mean?
It's a lot easier-
Not everyone's neurotic all the time?
...
it's a lot easier to go, "Ugh, I can't do that," to like, "Oh-
Yeah.
...
I could do this.
I should do this." It's hard.
And then that might be part of it, right?
It's hard.
It's, it's, it's, it's hard to go after something that you want, um, sometimes, right?
And it-
Yeah.
...
and it, with the help of that encouragement, um, is, is, yeah.
It's paramount.
It, it is.
It's massive.
And that's, that's something that I absolutely apply to my own coaching and my own teaching-
I bet.
...
and my own work with actors of all ages.
And I coach puppetry, I coach voiceover, um, and I have actors of all ages.
My youngest is four, and she's incredible.
Nice.
She's incredible.
How fun.
And my oldest actor just turned 92.
Equally as fun.
Equally as fun!
And, like, you know, it's so...
And when the passion is shared, and my, uh, and that, that's what I do.
I'm just always encouraging everyone's journey, everyone's passion.
Being able to pinpoint, "This is where your strength is.
All right, let's, let's focus." You know, 'cause everyone learns something, everyone learns differently, everyone's journey is going to be different.
There's no one way.
Bob, DJ Bob is a great person to, to, to vocalize this in a way.
He's like, "One size does not always just fit," all right?
And he uses that, you know, in a way of, like, you know, not everyone with cerebral palsy is the same.
Yeah, yeah.
Right?
We don't all have the same type, right?
And like, so it, there are people that have...
It's not all one size fits all.
And I think that's that way with anybody, anybody's journey, anyone's passions.
We can share the same passions, but we're not gonna have the same way that we get into it.
Mm-hmm.
And I think the struggle that we have as tutors and as mentors, especially in this day and age in my younger students that I'm noticing w- in, uh, is, you know, the, our instant gratification culture, the social media, you know?
All I need is this.
All I need is 100,000 likes, and I'm good, right?
I'll be fulfilled.
But talk about, you know, and that's the flip side, the double-sided coin to that encouragement, right?
We crave it.
We need it.
And we will often get it from wherever we can get it.
Mm-hmm.
And I, n- and a lot of people get it f- g- and that the flip side of that is the thumbs, the l- the thumbs-ups that we get.
Yes.
But any of the thumbs-downs or any of the criticisms that our l- the internet is lousy with-
Feels bad.
...
can, can equally knock people down a few pegs.
And you know, we're, we're all fully aware of the power, the power of social media.And with Spidey, Spidey knew.
Uncle Ben knew it, right?
With great power comes great responsibility.
But - and I, so I take that, l- like as silly as that sounds, but I take that truly to heart whenever I'm working with actors that are, that are wanting to pursue a passion.
And I'm always here to encourage them and, and guide them in whichever way that's gonna, that, that I see fits for them.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
It's, I mean, it's, it's cool to, uh, uh, as you, as you get older and you get yourself into more teaching roles, this is true for me in my own ways, as, as I'm-
Sure.
...
in teaching environments, uh, whether I intentionally want it to be this way or not, the teachers that taught me come through my words, you know?
100%.
So like the way I encourage people that I'm teaching on, on, you know, job sites or whatever it is that I'm working on now, uh, I, I, I cannot de- decouple the fact that-
Always.
...
my teachers are speaking through me.
So it's just, it's just, it's a beautiful thing, right?
Yeah, and I will, and I will quote them often.
Oh, yeah.
I will say, "This mentor gave me this line that resonates with me, this phrase that resonates with me." As a, as an actor, I have a phrase, and if I had my, uh, if I could turn my...
My webcam is mounted on my monitor here in my booth and I, so I can't turn it.
It's just like, this is what you get.
Um, but, but every time I, before I step up to the mic, I have this quote, and it's a Sanford Meisner quote, if you're familiar with, uh, Meisner.
Meisner is, is one of the many acting techniques that there are as a performer.
There's different teachers, different tutelage, you know.
And me- the Meisner technique is one of those.
And for me, and I say like, I always say this too, is like for me, Meisner is very applicable in this particular realm of voiceover, in how it is our job as a voice actor to express so much information solely through our voice, right?
That's, that's our channel.
That's our mode of delivery of...
We're, we're expressing thoughts and feelings and sometimes, especially in the case of animation, movement just with our voice.
That's, uh, ba- in essence what we're, what voice actors are doing.
So an audience goes, "Oh yeah, I get it.
I know exactly what's happening." Even if they can't see us, they know what's happening.
That's the, that's the skill that voice actors have.
And the Meisner technique, there's this beautiful quote on what acting is, and I say this with all, uh, anybody that's learning, wanting to get into voiceover or voice acting.
I say voice acting is not about...
This isn't the quote, but voice acting is not about your voice.
It's about your acting.
It's capital A, lowercase V, 'cause you are in fact acting with your voice, right?
That's what voice acting is.
It's not about your voice, it's about your acting through your voice.
Does that make sense?
Oh yeah.
That, that, that's what I say with people.
So I have this quote from Sanford Meisner about acting, and it's, "Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances." It's a very simple quote.
It's a beautiful quote.
Talk about, uh, but we can go deep with it, right?
You can absolutely go deep.
But that's a beautiful enco- encapsulation of what that means.
Mm-hmm.
Behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances, you know, and some things in, in the world of animation, there's fewer things that could be more imaginary than like talking animals and aliens and objects that have, you know, talking dogs in Australia that have a family and a house.
You know, Bluey is a great example.
Such an imaginary circumstance, but there's truth in that.
There's true...
Like these, these characters, all these characters are acting and thinking and behaving truthfully in a way that we connect with as humans.
Mm-hmm.
And that's a fun- fundamental, the fundamental root of acting.
And it's...
That way the audience goes, "Oh yeah, I get it.
I buy it.
I totally understand.
I connect with that." It's all about connection, right?
So I have that quote.
So that's a quote that I always put out and I was like, and I look at that every time I step up to the microphone.
That's such a great one.
Every time that, and I go, "It's behaving truthfully." So every time, even there's words in front of my face, it's what I was doing with a puppet.
Like how do you take a, a...
As a fun example, I don't have a spoon in here.
Of course.
Why would I have a spoon in my thing?
But I bring out a spoon.
Unprepared.
I bring I know, I should have brought a spoon.
Let's pretend.
I don't even have a pen.
Wait, do I have a pen?
I have a harmonica.
I have a harmonica.
Same thing.
Same, right?
Who doesn't have a harmonica?
Okay, Jacob, here's a harmonica.
I want you to tell me what this harmonica is right now.
Okay, here we go.
Uh, it's a, it's a man d- uh, walking cheerfully.
Okay.
But let, let's just, let's just go emotions.
Let's just go-
Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
What, what, what, what, what is the harmonica right now?
Dancing.
Dancing.
How is he feeling?
Cheerful.
Cheerful, happy.
Great.
Now, what is this harmonica feeling now?
Sadness, solemn.
Sad, right?
All right.
Now what is this harmonica feeling?
Excitement.
Excitement.
What else could it be?
Uh, fear.
Fear.
Excellent.
Trembling.
Excellent.
So you , so this is what I say.
You just told me that a harmonica was happy, a harmonica was sad or solemn, and a harmonica was excited or fearful with no facial expression, no nothing.
Just solely-
No sound from the harmonica.
No sound.
Just by the simplistic movements that I was...
It's, it's easier with a spoon.
You could see it a little bit better than with a harmonica.
But in essence and that, so I would say, say it was a spoon.
I was like, "You guys just told me that a spoon was happy, that a spoon was sad, that a spoon was scared." Right?
That is the, the power of storytelling.
It's the power of, of acting.
And in the similar way, that's where we're having to do.
You need to know...
Now here's the thing with a voice actor, you can't see that I'm scared.
You can't see that I'm solemn, right?
That connection point is missing.
So you have to hear it.
You gotta hear that I'm scared.
You gotta hear that I'm happy-...
right?
You got to hear that I'm exhausted.
Yeah, yeah.
Right?
And so that's, that's the building blocks of, of that, of, of how I get people started with, with that whole thing.
So, but again, with the quote, so that I use that as a quote, say, Sanford Meisner, "Acting is behaving truthfully," right?
And then it goes deep.
Why is he feeling that way?
Depending on why he's scared will inform the level of scared, right?
The level...
or, you know, same thing with tired, the same thing with happy.
Depending on what's going on, what he's thinking, what he's feeling is gonna change the degree of that, right?
And it's all this instant play that we can, that we can get into, that if we allow ourselves to find it and think about it, versus just looking at words and going-
Yeah.
...
"Okay, I'm saying words in front of my face now.
I'm voice acting.
Ha, ha, ha, ha." And that's the thing that most people discount.
I deal with it with puppetry all the time.
The public at large inherently discounts the work needed, the skills needed to build and acquire to do this work really well.
Everyone just thinks it's just talking.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
You just get behind a microphone and just start talking.
Dealt with it a lot in COVID.
Everybody was just like, "Oh, I just gotta plug my mic...
I'm home, I got nothing else to do now." So I got so many things like, "How do I get into voice work?
I just gotta plug in my microphone and my laptop and I can start making millions of dollars." Right?
And you're like, "Easy, isn't it?"
Yeah, right?
And so, but I also deal with that with puppetry.
Yeah.
There's this inherent discount that the public has at large still, that like, "Oh, it's just puppets.
Just put a little sock on my hand, there we go.
I'm puppeteer now.
Ha, ha, ha, ha."
Yeah.
"Hello, Jacob."
Yeah.
"So nice to see you.
Did you know that puppets eat words when they talk?"
Riveting story.
"Wait, do they?" Um, but anyway, so I, I, it's something that I point out with people that work and they're like, "Oh, yeah, I guess it is a little bit deeper than that." And then when people start to do it, they're like, "Ooh, yeah, it's a little bit m-...
It's not as easy as all that."
Yeah.
Um, but, um, one of my really good passing from a mentor quote, and then we will move on and I will stop talking.
No.
Talk all day, man, you're good.
We're here to talk.
Um, but again, like, taking something that a mentor gave you that really resonates, that resonates with me.
Now, I did not know Sanford Meisner.
I believe he was long past when I started doing this.
Um, don't fact check me on that.
I don't know.
But, um, his book came out in the '80s.
Um, the great Mick Wingert...
Are you familiar with Mick Wingert?
I'm not.
I've coached and worked with Mick Wingert.
Mick Wingert is...
People probably would know him, he's like the go-to Jack Black voice double.
He's, like, does all of, like...
he does, like, Jack Black ADR.
He ended up taking over the role of Kung Fu Panda for other series.
He did all the Kung Fu Panda stuff for video games.
He's like J-...
He's...
It's, it's scary how much he sounds like Jack Black.
But he does more than just that.
That, uh, just something that I think people would maybe know him from.
But he teaches voice acting.
He's a great coach and a mentor, and he gave me this phrase.
It's one of those things that just, whoa, it just hits you.
And it was, "Find your irreducible minimum." And I was like, "Ooh," like, "That's juicy.
What's your irreducible minimum?" And I was like, "Ooh," and it's like, "What is it?" And that's what I had to discover, and what I discovered is, for me, my irreducible minimum was not puppetry.
I thought it was.
But when I looked at it deeper like that, like, reduce it more.
Reduce it to where you can't reduce it anymore.
It's irreducible at this point.
It's a literal minimum.
What is the kernel?
What is the seed?
And for me, it's storytelling.
Yeah.
It's telling stories.
It's bringing stories to life.
And that opened the doors for me.
Discovering my irreducible minimum brought me out of, like, n- only focusing on puppetry.
Then helped me focus on telling stories in voiceover.
Telling stories through audio production.
Mm-hmm.
Audio editing, which I also love.
I love that aspect of bringing a story to life aurally.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Sound immersion.
You know, and especially with the w-...
as, as the technology was changing and as audio books were becoming a thing, um, podcasts were starting to take off, people were, like, getting their content, like, very intimately, right?
With our earbuds and our headphones, and so being able to start to tell tales in that realm, knowing that this is how they're taking it in became a really fun, interesting way to explore storytelling and sound design.
And I was like, "Oh, yeah, I love that too." So being able to have these multiple passions all shared, the same irreducible minimum.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that, that was just a, a profound quote that one person, Mick Wingert-
We got it.
...
gave me.
Okay.
Give me...
Say someone from any...
even someone not wanting to pursue voice acting-
Yes.
...
they're just interested in this, uh, how would we find each...
I love this irreducible minimum.
What would be your advice for everyone to seek out and really kind of-
Like, how...
Well, I mean, and again, that's-
...
like, sit back?
How do we find our irreducible minimum?
That's a question for e-...
and everybody's different.
Yeah.
But that's...
It starts from there.
What is your irreducible minimum?
And it's gonna take some time.
Took me some time to figure it out.
Yeah.
Like, what is it that truly brings you joy?
And, you know, on a, on a, on a, like, on the surface kind of, you know, stereotypical, like, you've all heard of the, like, "Hey, how do I become an actor?" And they're like, "Don't." You know, "Don't do this to yourself.
It's hard." You know, and any, any, like, actor on Inside the Actor Studio.
Have you ever watched any of those Inside the Actor Studios-
Oh, yeah.
...
like, with James, James Lipton?
Kind of like that, right?
And then they were like, "Hi, uh, Mr.
So, So-and-So, Mr.
Pacino, uh, uh, uh, I, I'm, I'm starting to be an actor, and I was wondering..." And, you know, uh, and I'm using Pacino as an example, but, uh, oftentimes, they're like, "Yeah, don't do that." Like- ...
"Yeah, yeah, you, you're in the wrong..." You know.
Uh, "My advice is don't do this," is a lot of these old, older actors would say that, you know, 'cause it is, it's tough.
But basically, I think a, a, a, a s-...
a softer version of finding your irreducible minimum is, is basically, like, uh...Find what brings you joy.
Like, if you can find the...
A way to look at that is if like you can find, when approaching, say, something in the arts, and if you discover like, they basically are like, "If you can find joy, some semblance of joy doing anything else, go do that." Right?
Because but, if your irreducible minimum is this, like, "I can't do anything else," then you're where you need to be, and you need-
Mm-hmm.
...
to start, and this is where you focus your journey, right?
Mm-hmm.
Pick a focus and pick a lane.
And then in the realm of voiceover, when I work and coach people that are just starting, 'cause it can be overwhelming, right?
There's so many different vo, uh, uh, uh, branches of voiceover, of entertainment, of acting in general.
There's so many different types.
And voiceover is not just one thing.
We don't just go, "Oh, I just do voiceover." Right?
You, nobody just does voiceover.
They're like, "Well, what kind?" It's like somebody saying like, "I'm a dancer." What would the next question be?
What kind of dance?
What type of dance?
What kind of dance do you do?
Right?
It's not like, "Oh, no, I, I, I'm a dancer." "Yeah, yeah, what kind of dance?" "Dancing."
With, with your feet.
Yeah.
"I, I move my body."
Yeah.
"Okay, where?" "I- in things." Right?
It, it's not how it works.
Maybe.
You're like, "Oh," uh, you know, uh, you know, and they...
Dancers, I love using dance as an analogy for getting into the arts, the performing arts, if you will.
There's so many different facets, right?
There's so many different branches in the performing arts tree.
I love to like use the, the, a tree as a, as a visual analogy of this.
And from the trunk of the performing arts is like that core connection point, the acting, us behaving truthfully as human beings.
We all connect in this similar way.
We all know right away when someone's happy, when someone's sad, you know, just by looking at somebody's face, right?
Instant connections can happen, right?
And then the stories stem from this, right?
That's why we connect to certain things.
Mm-hmm.
That's why, you know, we, people, you know, a connection can be created, you know, when people go to horror movies.
Horror movie fans, why are they there?
They love, the connection is to be scared, to, the jump scares or whatever, right?
And if they go to see a horror movie and they're not scared, they're not connected.
They're moved out.
Same thing when you go to a comedy show, you wanna laugh.
And if you're not laughing- ...
there's a disconnect there, right?
And so the, that whole, there's, there's similarity that we all stem from.
It's all story, it all st, turns into storytelling.
But I use, um, in regards to analogizing dance to voiceover, I was like, nobody...
Let's talk about ballet.
Have you ever been to a ballet, Jacob?
Uh-huh.
Gorgeous.
Talk about storytelling.
Just in music and body movement-
Mm-hmm.
...
a full story is told.
No dialogue, no vocals.
Solely told, told in body language, brilliant, effortless, gliding, floating movement and music, right?
And we all, if we're s, everyone, any, there is not a single person sitting in the audience of a ballet performance going, "I could do that." Not a single one.
Why is nobody going, "Oh, psh, I can do that.
Look at how easy, look at how easy that is.
They make it look effortless.
They're floating.
They're gliding.
Look at how easy that is.
I can do that." Not a single person is doing that.
Why?
Why is no one watching a ballet performance going, "Oh, I can do that"?
I don't know.
Why?
Why?
Because I think we as humans, we inherently know our physical limitations.
Oh, right, yeah.
The, the people sitting there going, that we know, oh, they spent years-
Yeah.
...
training and practicing to get that good.
We watch like, you know, the ball, uh, ballroom dancers, like Dancing with the Stars, you know, watching the pros on there, and we're like, "Oh my God, they're amazing." But we know they worked their entire life to be that good.
Right.
But when somebody sees a voice actor doing what they do, making it look effortless and easy-
Mm-hmm.
...
everybody goes, "Oh."
They're just talking into a mic.
"I can do that.
Oh, I can do that."
Yeah.
Right?
So there's that inherent like discount.
We immediately, it's, it's, it's interesting, right?
Yeah.
But in essence, we're doing the same thing.
Yeah.
It's the same amount of training, same amount of skill, same amount of effort, same amount of storytelling-
Sure, yeah.
...
that's happening here through a particular medium.
The ballet, the ball, uh, the ballet dancers are telling that story through their whole body.
Yeah, yeah.
Voice actors are telling that story through their voice.
Yeah.
And connecting with you in the same way.
And that's something that, that they, voice actors, when they start to train and start to work, they go, "Oh."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
"Oh."
Yeah, there's a lot, yeah.
Yeah, I, I get the visualization of a, you know, just your typical iceberg of like what, what you see versus the work that it takes to go in, you know?
Exactly, the tip of the iceberg, yeah.
And, and-
Absolutely.
...
and, and it really is that.
You know, and it, it also, man, I was also thinking of, um, I had, uh, one of my ex-girlfriend's grandmothers would always say, um, uh, "If, if, if everybody liked the same thing, we'd all be dressed as grandma." And, uh, it's, it's-
I know her.
...
Isn't that so great?
Isn't that so great?
Uh-
Here for it.
But it, it makes me think of like, man, there's no, there's no...
I don't think there's an accident to the thing that you really like.
Like, the fact that you were a kid and you saw some, some puppeteers, and then you saw them break that wall of like, oh, they're showing the actors, and you're like, "That's so cool." I mean, someone might be sitting right next to you and think, "That's not that cool," whatever, but so-
Hunter, oh my God, I got made fun of-
Yeah, so lean in, like- Yeah.
...
so much.
I have vivid recollections.
I would be listening to, as a kid, listen to my Walkman.
Oh, did you have anti-shock?
Did you have bass boost?
I had bass boost.
Oh, you had mine like that too.
Bass boost.
Bass boost with my...
And a, it was like the, I had the cool, uh, the, the earbuds, but they were the in ear over-the-head earbuds.
Oh yeah.
You know the ones?
You know the ones.
I had those, like, the flat-
Oh, I do.
Yeah.
The twist 'em in, yeah.
It was basically earbuds, but it was still over-the-head anyway.
Yeah, I gotcha.
On my Sony Walkman with bass boost.
Um, listening to, I used to record, I used to record movies....
on my tape recorder.
I used to record, like, dialogue, just record full, full-on movies, um, but also listen to soundtracks.
I was really big into movie soundtracks.
You know, it all, it all, it all makes sense.
You know, I, it just...
In listening to soundtracks, mm, you know, even before...
A- granted, I grew up and there was home video, for sure.
I lot- watched a lot of stuff on home video, Betamax into VHS, and then, of course, DVDs.
But, um, growing up, you know, watching a movie, th- the soundtrack I could take with me and relive the movie, and listen to that kind of stuff, right?
And so I love soundtracks and I just r- songs, any songs.
I was a huge Weird Al fan.
I still am- ...
a huge Weird Al fan.
Same here.
Weird Al is very much a found- fundamental, uh, building block of who Nate is today, and my sense of humor.
I'm high-fiving you on this 100%.
And, and, and-
I love Weird Al.
Up to a s- up to a certain, I wanna say up until the m- either the Bad Hair Day album or the Poodle Hat album, everything prior to that I still have memorized.
If you started to play it, I could probably sing along with it.
Yeah.
Um, that's, that's, that just lives in me.
So I had all the Weird Al tapes, all the Weird Al, uh, stuff like that.
And I have a vivid memory of...
And I would practice lip sync on the bus.
I was that kid sitting there with my headphones on, listening to Weird Al and lip syncing to it.
And then d- in the zone.
Yeah.
And then soon as, like, taking it off- ...
and then, uh, coming back into reality, hearing the cacophony- ...
of laughter-
Because it-
...
and pointing-
Kids are so brutal, yeah.
And, you know what I mean?
And, t-...
Yeah, I'll never forget it.
Yeah.
I remember I was, d- I was like...
Yeah.
And I thankfully was of the-
Yeah.
...
had the fortitude to be like, "Whatever."
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not a lot of kids do.
You were having a conversation with something that they couldn't hear, is the thing.
100%.
I was just immersed in my own-
Yeah.
...
zone.
And-
Yeah.
But then hearing laughter and then getting, "Oh, they're making fun of me.
They're laughing at me." And at a certain point, I got to the point where I was like, "Whatever."
Yeah.
You like what you like.
Not a lot of kids do.
And so I do encourage a lot of my kids that are art- art- artistically inclined to, "Don't let anybody-"
Yeah.
"...
yuck your yum, man."
Yeah.
I- it's not about the, you know-
You actually don't wanna be like everybody else as it turns out.
No.
No, no, no.
You wanna be like you.
But, I mean, just, uh, y- you brought...
When you mentioned that, like somebody sitting next to you and being like, "I don't know about that."
Right.
Yeah.
I'm like, "I have literal vivid memories of doing that." I used to do that all the time.
Yeah.
I practiced my lip sync on the bus, um, as a kid-
Yeah.
...
for sure.
Yeah.
Well, that's great though.
I mean, you, you've followed, you know, you, you followed your bliss.
You, you leaned into that thing and you didn't let the other kids on the bus, uh, you know-
Mm-hmm.
...
t- t- tell you that flame or whatever.
And the other e- the other element to that is too, and the thing that I encourage with a lot of my younger actors, and even younger actors in, in their youth, but also, like, newer adults coming into this voice work, to set the stage for them that it's like you have to work for it.
And with the instant gratification, we, uh, have a lot of people that a l- and I've seen it, where it's like, because it's not as easy as all that, we give up.
They, uh, they give up-
Mm-hmm.
...
or they quit, right?
And so that's, that's something that could have very easily happened to me, it's like, "Oh, you know, it's too overwhelming.
I'll never be able to do this." But letting that passion pers- continue to push me.
Yeah.
The passion was the pusher-
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
...
in my pursuit.
Alliteration!
Heck yeah.
You know?
The passion was my pusher for my pursuit of puppetry.
We'll write that on a shirt and sell it.
Yeah.
Try to say that-
Uh...
...
five times fast.
Speaking of which, did I...
So, it's so funny, I, as I see it up here.
I do w- I do warmups.
Let's, let's do a fun, let's do a fun thing we were talking about.
Mm-hmm.
Puppetry.
Uh, oh, not puppetry.
But in warming up, when I had my, uh, my students that I was coaching with today, this morning, it's important to warm up-
Mm-hmm.
...
do all this kind of stuff, and when we're doing vo- vocal stuff, a really good warmup is tongue twisters.
So, and I literally just saw it and it made me think of when I was doing the, the "The passion was my pusher of pursuit of puppetry." Uh, I did a fun tongue twister that I did with my kids this morning.
Do you wanna do it?
Oh, I do, yes.
Okay.
Uh-
I need to start tongue twisters before podcasts.
Can you let me share my screen?
Yes.
'Cause I'll let you read it.
It's easier if you can read it.
Yes.
I love this.
This is so great.
Okay.
Uh, you should be good.
Here we go.
The tongue twister of the day is gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
That's difficult.
So-
Gobbling...
What?
So say it once slowly, and then I want you to do it three times fast.
Do you want me to go first or do you wanna go first?
Uh, you go first.
Okay.
So it's gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
All right, here we go.
Gobbling garg-
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
There it is.
Wait, oh, I hit the button.
Wait.
There it is.
Thank you.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for that.
Now it's up to you.
Okay.
Uh, slow first.
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
Yup.
So you can see, like, this is what we're working on is the ga-
Yeah.
...
ga- gobbling.
Yeah.
And you can see how it's a good tongue twister because it really works all of the elements of moving your jaw and your lips.
Yeah, I should've done my face yoga today.
Yeah, face yoga.
Oh, so important to do that face yoga.
But for funsies.
All right.
You ready?
Whenever, whenever you're ready, sir.
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled goggling goblins.
Gobbling gargoyle-
Ooh, we got some goggling.
We got some-
Yeah.
...
goggling, goggling goblins.
I'm gonna accidentally say a bad word here.
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
Whoo!
Yes.
Nailed it.
It's fun though, right?
Yeah.
I, I hope people are listening to this wherever they're at, in their cars, in their apartments, just like screaming about gobbling gargoyles.
Wait.
Yeah, it's like, "What?
You said gobbling gargoyles?"
Are you okay?
Gobbling goblins?It's, like, the, uh...
Did you ever see, um, Twilight Zone?
Yes.
The Twilight Zone, the series and then the movie.
And they had the, the Terror at 20,000 Feet.
Okay.
Yeah.
Like, the, the goblin that's on the wing of the plane.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And in the series, it was William Shatner.
And in the movie, it was John Lithgow-
Oh.
...
freaking out with the goblin on there.
And I always think of, though, to put me into my zone, I always think...
So, there's that.
I know that version.
I know The Twilight Zone series version with William Shatner, and I know the movie version with John Lithgow.
But what I always think about is Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura on the plane doing Jim Carrey, as Ace Ventura doing William Shatner going like, "There's something on the wing.
Something."
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that goblin gargoyle.
My, my, my brain populates more...
My, my brain populates more of the Jim Carrey.
He's a, he's a, uh, a great example of someone who can, like, stick a, a storied scene in your head so quickly.
For sure, yeah.
Again, and all of that, that's elements that I, as I've continued on in my career, like, it's all a part of me, and I access all of it.
I ac- access that Weird Al sense of humor and rhythm and pacing.
And I learned that, like, oh, Weird Al taught me musical rhythms and stuff like that as well, is where the comedy lies in the music and in the pacing.
Yeah.
And, you know, in addition to just being a brilliant, like, parody lyricist.
Yeah.
But also Jim Carrey.
Talk about j- Jim Carrey and, like, Nick Cage are people that commit.
And talk about, like, making a choice and going for it.
Yeah.
And that's an important element of this too.
But that's also an important element of the pursuit, the pursuit in general of your passion that's pushing you, right?
Yeah.
Commit to it.
Yeah.
Make that choice and stick with it.
Yeah.
Th- there, there's a reason why you have that one, you know what I mean?
Like, they-
Yeah.
...
didn't hand that one to the person next to you in the house next to you.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And all of those just, you know, add elements to the success that I have found in these certain avenues-
Yeah.
...
especially in characterizations and comedy and that kind of stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so it's...
So tell me about...
I wanna rewind back a little bit.
Yeah, rewind.
These first six months that you, uh...
You were back here.
Uh, uh, how old were you when you first went to New York, these six months where you're like, "I'm gonna get booked on a show.
I'm gonna give it my all.
I saved up a little bit of money.
I'm in new York."?
Yeah.
I had just graduated college.
Take me back to this time.
So I had just turned...
I wasn't even 21 yet.
Okay.
'Cause I graduated high school at 17, so I was 20.
And you got a couple bucks in your pocket and a dream and l- I mean, I mean, what did this look like?
Did it...
After the six months, did it look how you thought?
Were you discouraged very quickly?
Um, uh, you know, what- what was the whole thing like?
Um, I will say for me, I was able to book my first thing within the first month.
Amazing.
Uh, not my first puppet thing.
The first show that I did was within the first month.
And then just hitting the pavement, though.
Like, and it, and it was, it was old school, back in the day.
It was like, you get backstage, the paper, to find where auditions were.
Yeah.
And go, go to that, like, and, and do that kind of stuff.
And then wh- it was, it was play- uh, backstage and in Playbill.
Play- Playbill had, had their own, uh, um, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
I use words for a living.
Uh, publication-
Ah.
...
that you could find auditions for as well.
So, I just hit the...
Hit it, and then in addition, I got a job.
Uh, you know, you gotta get...
Finding a job.
I, my journey was definitely different too, 'cause I also talk about making a passion and making a choice.
And I made a choice that probably, that if I were to...
Again, it's that classic, like, if I were to do over something, I probably would not have been this stubborn.
And the stubborn choice that I made being an, a young actor in pursuit of performing was, "I am not gonna wait tables."
Hmm.
"Not gonna do it." And it wasn't for any reason of, like, "I'm better than that." It was bec-...
All fr- stemming from...
My job in high school was working at KFC.
Hmm.
And it was the worst job I ever had in my life.
So you knew what you didn't want to do.
And I was like, "I am ne-"...
I made this, like, solemn vow to myself at 16 that I was like, "I will never work in the food service industry ever again, ever!" And, um, in hindsight, I probably could have, uh, had an easier time in New York than I did.
But at the same time, I don't regret it, because it forced me to hustle.
Mm-hmm.
It forced me to hustle to get gigs, to get money.
And what it led me to was finding job, a job to keep the lights on in between doing gigs in New York.
Um, and I started working at a, uh, a rehearsal studio space, and I became the studio manager, uh, at this rehearsal studio space.
To even, to date me even further, prior to that, I was a store manager at Blockbuster.
So, in, in co-
It's like a cool thing to have on your resume now .
Y- kind of.
It's so cool.
It's vintage .
Except, if you look back to it, it's like, all the jobs that I've had, like, prior to doing performance full time was a one-hour photo center at Walmart, a one-hour photo.
You don't need to do that anymore.
Uh, Blockbuster and projectionist at a movie theater.
Three jobs that don't really exist anymore.
There are still projectionists out there.
God bless them.
And if I, if I, I, uh, if I had my druthers, I think I could thread a 35-millimeter projector still, and feel nice about it.
Nice .
Yeah.
And I haven't done it in years.
But, like, I did it so much.
Um, the multiplex that I worked at, um, only ha- was 16 theaters, had 15 35-millimeter projectors and, uh, only one digital at the time.
And by the time I left, I think they would already cert- They were only down to, like, three 35 millimeters.
Now everything's digital, of course.
Hmm.
But-That was the, I was back in the day where I got to, like, build movies.
Like, build...
Get the film reels and put them together.
It was cool.
It was a...
What a cool job.
But, uh, so I had had that kind of work, and I'd had, and I'd...
S- studio, uh, s- store manager experience prior to getting this job as a studio manager in New York.
And that was the job that kept me afloat-
Mm-hmm.
...
throughout all of my theatrical endeavors.
And it worked out in a great way.
Not too dissimilar to a lot of actors that were waiting tables, right?
Yeah.
Getting to audition and stuff during the day and then working at night.
They were coming away cash in hand.
I was unfortunately, like, getting paid, like, normal, like, biweekly kind of thing as, like, at, like, a job job.
Yeah.
Um, so I wasn't walking away with cash in hand every night.
But I was immersed in this theatrical world there-
Mm-hmm.
...
working in this rehearsal studio space, and I got to make so many great connections with a lot of performers- ...
from different Broadway productions would rehearse there.
Um, work...
It was, it was part of NYU, um, and, and so, uh, working with, like, a lot of the NYU, uh, alumni and stuff like that in the theater program.
Um, so it was a, it was a cool thing.
And I would not have found that- ...
if I had gone the, like, I'm-just-gonna-wait-tables-and-do-gigs.
Yeah.
I- I-
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
I, I think there's something to be said about that, 'cause I think I'm kind of like you in that aspect of, um, uh, I- I- I've gotta kind of, like, be, be around it, you know.
I always...
I w- I would go through stages of telling myself, "You know what?"
Yes, irreducible minimum.
"I need that."
Yeah.
Like, I, I would tell myself, "You know what?
I could just do Uber Eats."
The creative juice.
"I could, I could just...
You know what?
If, if I get l- low on bills, I'll do this." But I don't ever do it, because it's like as I'm driving the Uber Eats, I can't stop picturing myself as, like, less than I want to be, you know?
And so it, it's kind of a-
Mm-hmm.
It could be, um, even almost unreasonable, but sometimes you gotta recognize-
Yes.
...
that if you are the type that needs that...
Well, and I, I will say, i- in the reverse, if you are someone who, um...
Seriously, all power to you.
If you're able to wait tables, if you're able to, you know, drive Uber Eats, whatever-
Yes.
I mean, tuck your shirt in.
Be, be the hardest working person there.
Like, remember that you're, you're building up all these attributes and character traits that will lead into the things you're passionate about when you're not making...
doing that job.
100%.
But, um, yeah.
If you recognize yourself-
And I have a lot of actor friends that that's how they approach that too.
They're like-
Yeah.
...
"I'm doing a role.
I'm playing a role."
Yeah.
And sometimes they would go in and, like, "I'm doing..."
That's a trick.
That's a great trick right there.
"I, I, I'm...
I, I, um, c- create a whole new personality from one night to the next as I'm serving tables."
Yeah.
And I did a very similar thing working at Blockbuster before there was caller ID.
You know?
I got...
Uh, it was funny.
It was a fun little story.
Got prank called.
Got prank called a lot at Blockbuster.
And it was at the beginning of, like...
They were doing soundboards.
And it was like, Arnold Schwarzenegger prank called me at Blockbuster.
And Al Pacino prank called me at Blockbuster.
And that gave me the idea that I was like, "I'm gonna start playing along." And then some days, on, on, like, slow days and bored days, I would answer the phone in different accents.
Yes.
And play different people and different names as the manager.
Like, I would play characters all the time.
Yeah.
Even at Blockbuster.
I mean, d- that's what you should do though.
I, I, I think it's a, it's kind of a, a hack on life, right?
It's like-
Yeah.
...
be the character who would serve that role amazingly, who...
You know, someone who...
It's not about you, but if someone comes in to Blockbuster to rent something, they walk out, and they're smirking from ear to ear at the character you just gave them.
100%.
And you feel good, and they feel good.
And how much better could you...
I mean, what a way to really serve a role right there.
Yeah.
Like, you're, you're giving them a story as they come in to get their stories.
Exact...
Ah, stories as they get their stories.
Yeah, man, what a good...
That was a good one.
That's a T-shirt.
That's the T-shirt.
"Hear some stories-"
Yep.
"...
while you get your stories." Yeah.
No, for sure.
Yeah.
I always wanted people...
And, and that's just a, again, another irreducible minimum of me person out-...
Uh, person, as a person.
Um, not what I want to do, but, like, who I am is like, I just want to bring joy.
Literally, my...
I just want people to smile and be happy for a moment, you know?
Yeah.
That's always been my, that's always been my goal.
Taking it back to, uh, the job that we worked on together.
It was an award show for high school kids that work really hard for this moment, you know?
These are kids that are going through this, the process of becoming the future business leaders.
And, you know, they're getting recognized for their hard work and all the stuff that they put in there, and they're there to be celebrated.
And that's such a great energy that I naturally always want people to feel.
I want people to feel great and feel happy and feel celebrated.
And so when I'm live announcing fifth place to first place, guess what?
Every single one of them gets equal juice.
Mm-hmm.
They all get the same amount of juice.
They're equally celebrated.
Regardless if this person won fifth place versus this person winning first place prize in this particular event, they all get the same amount of accol-...
Uh, uh, of energy and, and accolade-
Yeah, yeah.
...
from my, my read of their name.
Yeah.
I never hit anybody more than anybody else.
And that's always been my kind of stamp that I do when I do the live awards announcing.
Yeah.
It's, I- I'm thinking of, like, a, a mag- magician finding his magic.
It's...
What's cool is when you approach it that way, each name actually has its own energy that you can tap into for that.
Oh, yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
You know?
Like, if you just, if- if you just ap- approach it in a way of rememb-...
I, I always think about this with, um, uh, just big live concerts.
Something I see, you know...
I'll, I'll be in the realm of-...
not to throw them all under the bus, but rap concerts, for example-
Sure.
...
is the quickest way that I find the performer sending it in, phoning it in-
Sure.
...
like they're getting just messed up backstage, they're not really...
They're not tapping into the fact that when they walk on that stage, there is hundreds and hundreds of people who they got a babysitter that night, they've been excited about this, it's been on the calendar, they listened to hours and hours of your music.
You know, so, uh, getting yourself to where you remember how important it is, it's not about you as the performer in that moment, it's about, like, this is a exciting, fun thing this person worked a lot for-
Yep.
...
or they've been excited about it, you know?
If you could tap into that, you'll find that it's just a w- a wellspring of, of energy to give right back to them, you know?
It really is.
And it's fulfilling.
Uh, you find it being-
Absolutely.
...
fulfilling.
I do.
And I think of it in that sa- that y- you just reminded me of another great quote-
Hmm.
...
that the great Stan Lee-
Ah.
...
of Marvel fame has.
And it's, uh, any comic is...
Uh, I, I may be bastardizing it, or not bastard- but I might end up quoting exactly.
But it's basically any comic is someone's first comic book.
Ah.
So even though he's cr- d- doing hundreds and thousands of Spider-Man comic books, right, continuing, uh, a story, he always approached it with, like, any one of these comic books is going to be somebody's first comic book.
And that's kind of cool to think.
And- and- and- it- it fits in that realm of what you were saying, right?
Absolutely.
Like, everybody...
You know, this could be that person's f- one night out for the whole year, right?
Yeah.
I feel that way.
I do a lot of work with, um, uh, uh...
After leaving New York, I moved to, back to Central Florida in Orlando for family reasons, um, just pre-, uh, COVID.
And, um, I do a lot of work with the theme parks down here.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, different elements, puppetry elements, voiceover elements, things like that, some fun performance motion capture kind of stuff for entertainment things in, in the park.
And the theme parks, Disney and Universal, uh, especially, they all have that same kind of mindset of, like, it can be very easy, especially, say, a performer that's like does the show and they do the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again.
It might even be something that's like we hit play and it's the same, it's literally the same thing, right?
I toured with a show for about four years called John Tartaglia's Imaginotion, and it was a black light puppet show that took place under the sea, under the ocean.
It was so cool.
The lights would go out and the stage was only illuminated in black light, so the puppets were literally flying, like, on stage.
Such a cool thing.
And it was...
The kid show's 45 minutes, but it was all prerecorded.
It was you hit play-
Ah.
...
and it is the same...
Pardon me.
Get out of the way.
It is the same show.
It's the s- it's hit play and it goes.
The recording is the same-
Wow.
...
every single time.
I did over a thousand of these shows.
Geez.
Um, but so how does one not make it the same?
Mm-hmm.
Every a- every audience is gonna be different, every reaction is gonna be subtly different, even though the, the audio and the dialogue, and there is moments that the characters are lip syncing, and beats and story stuff, a lot of it with black light stuff is all a safety issue because the performers were doused in black.
Like, it had to be very strategically choreographed for safety, and to match with the, the timing of the playback, right?
But doing that a thousand times, there was always finding, once you lock into it, then you c- they can always find, "There's something we can change up a little bit." There's always a moment that you can change to give it new life-
Hm.
...
give it a slightly different energy.
Fun little reactions.
If your character's not...
If my character's not talking, but reacting, I can change up the reaction that they make to what's just been played, subtly, but still makes sense.
Mm-hmm.
But again, even in that realm, you can find new ways to add life, to bring li- more life, to change the energy up a little bit.
And oftentimes, the audience will help you with that.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Does that make sense?
So-
Yeah.
...
like, in that same way, you're like, you feel like, "Oh, geez, here we go," and we all go through it.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
We're all human, right?
We all have bad days.
We all ha- you know, but if you are able to...
And it takes time and it takes practice, I think, for performers to get to that point, to be able to, despite whatever you're feeling that day , whatever bad day you've had, it's the, it's the age-old adage, right?
The show must go on.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Right?
The show must go on.
And in that moment, however long it is that you're on there, and I have found solace in it in myself when I've had bad days, or something horrible's happened and I still need to go do the show, finding in that little m- pocket of time, that little pocket universe that I'm now in, we can let that real world go away for a minute and find new fun energies in this particular moment, even if it's repetitive.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
And just lock- locking onto one little kid with a very distinctive laugh-
Yeah.
...
that dist- that makes all of us on stage, like, cackling.
And what was so cool doing the, the, the puppet show that I was talking about, because it was playback, we're not mic'd, we're not live.
They can't hear us at all.
The show's really loud, so we're talking to each other on stage.
And, like, I, uh, vividly remember them...
This is a true story of one little kid in the front row having such a ball-
Yeah.
...
like a degree above everyone else with a very distinctive, almost iconic, hilarious laugh that I, I don't even think I could replicate it.
And it just made us all crack up the whole time.
And that is a show-...
easily within probably the 800th time that we have done this.
And that show stands out to me because that moment just made us so happy hearing this one kid be his like...
Whatever it was.
It was like this very, like, just hilarious laugh that we could hear so loud and proud.
And he was just l- uh...
And-
Yeah.
...
it's moments like that that go-
Yeah.
...
"You know what?"
Yeah.
Yeah.
"It's all right."
Yeah.
"We're okay."
Yeah.
"We're doing something all right."
Yeah.
It's like a, like, f- find a way to get out of your head and into that room, you know?
Like like, uh, like, like, the, the magic is, is in that room if you can tap into it.
That- that's beautiful.
Okay, um, we are getting up here in time, my friend.
Magical sound.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
.
Anyway, uh, we are getting here, up, up here in time.
Um-
We are.
...
I, I would love to ask you-
I can keep going.
I could keep going on and on.
We could talk for hours.
We'll have to do a, we'll have to do a part two.
But yes, please.
I'm in.
Ask me.
Yes.
Y- yeah.
Ask me any questions.
Count me in.
You'll have to be in touch on, uh, what new projects you do.
Maybe we'll, uh, time it around that-
Yeah, man.
...
and talk about the projects.
But, um, I-
Totally.
...
would like to just give me, um...
Say people are listening right now or, like, you know, some, someone's listening right now and they have their teenage kid in, in the back seat or their 10-year-old in the back seat and they're fascinated by this and they're like, "I want to...
The voice acting sounds cool.
Puppeteering sounds cool.
Uh, this, uh, recording audio books sounds cool." Whatever it is.
Uh, this, this is the guy to, to go explore more.
So not only are they going to be able to click on your, um, your IMDb and, and profile links and such below, but, uh, what, what kind of advice would you have for them?
Where would you send them to begin?
What encouragement would you give them?
If someone's interested in this, where do they, where do they start?
Um, such a great question.
So again, I mean, to, to even take it back to, you know, pick, pick a focus.
If you're like, "I'm interested..." Again, voiceover is not just one thing.
Uh, even puppetry is not just one thing.
Uh, talk about there's different forms and styles of puppetry.
Pick one.
Pick one to start with.
Like, most people are like, "I want to do hand and rod.
I want to do the Muppet style stuff." Then there are...
Nowadays, I would say there are so many free resources out there, um, to look up.
Um, but in, in regards to voiceover, I think it's really important to, um...
You can always...
If they...
You can reach me through your links and stuff like that.
And, and I'm always an open book to help guide someone to...
Coach, work with people, work with professionals, work with, um, meet with people that do this for a living.
Um, don't just go to social media and look at Instagram feeds of people, um, and, and say, "Oh, I need to get this mic.
I need to get this thing.
They're telling me I need this, this, this, this, and this to get before I even do any kind of voiceover." And all of that is patently false.
There's, like I said, there's no one, one way.
Everyone, there, where there's is a...
Where there's a will, there is a way.
And not everyone's journey is different.
Not everyone I do...
So meet with someone.
Meet with someone that does this.
Talk to them and say, "What..." And really choose.
Choose what you want to do.
You can't just go...
It's not about taking spaghetti and throwing it against the wall.
For this, it's really important to pick a primary focus first and start to learn how to navigate that path.
And as you maintain, you may discover, "This isn't for me.
Now I'm gonna come over here." Or you may discover, "Oh, this is for me.
Oh, and I'm also learning all this other stuff that'll lead me down this other path." That's what happened with me, right?
I love puppetry.
Oh, it led me to voiceover, oh, which led me to doing animation, oh, which led me to doing video games, oh, which led me to do aud- uh, audio books, oh, which led me to do all of this kind of stuff, right?
And, uh, because I was like, "Oh, all of this stuff that I'm doing totally works for this and I can succeed in this as well.
Are you kidding me?" You, I didn't discover that until I went down this path.
So pick that one path.
And sometimes it takes people a while.
They go, "Well, what do I want to do?" Right?
And one, it's okay to not know what you want to do always.
It's okay to not know.
Um, but give yourself...
So give yourself the time, give yourself the grace, give yourself the patience to go, "Hmm, I want to try this." And do your research.
Research it.
Don't just look at Y- YouTube and TikToks and, and Instagrams.
Check out books.
Check out...
You know, there are lots of professionals like myself and many others that I could also guide you towards that do this line of work, that coach in the genre that you want to pursue.
You know, there are ones that, that train for animation and video games, myself included.
There are ones that do solely for audio books.
There...
Which is an entirely different beast, by the way, when it comes to voiceover, let me tell you.
.
If people want to do audio books, yes, please.
I love them, but it is a very different beast.
Totally.
Yeah.
Um, and so yeah, do your research.
Do your research, um, and reach out and, and connect, contact.
Go to these people's websites.
G- Uh, look at the work that they've done and reach out to them.
And any of these people that do coaching, like myself, are, I promise you will go, "Hey, yeah, absolutely.
Let's talk." And, you know, in talking with someone, like I had, and I'm sure, Jacob, that you've had with other mentors of yours that, you know, help you go, "Ooh, maybe I should look at this." Or, "Ooh, may...
I didn't even think about that.
What a great idea." You know, and that's where it's important to really have this one on one, an infor- uh, you know, to, to chat with someone who does what you want to do is the best way to do it.
Find the people that do what you want to do and ask questions.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
That's literally the best thing you can do.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's so perfect.
I love that.
What a, what a perfect answer.
Okay, um, I would love for you...
I'm gonna put you on the spot.
Are you ready?
Okay.
I'm on the spot.
I'm here for it.
Okay.
I would like-
Let's do this.
Say that you had-
I'm scared.
Say that you had a-
I'm not, I'm not scared.
Say that you had a megaphone-
Okay.
...
to, to humanity.
I don't need one.
No pressure.
E- everyone can hear me just fine.
Yes.
Um-
A mega...
A megaphone to humanity.
And you have to give them...
I mean, and, and it could be cheesy, it could be funny, it could be, uh, encouraging.
What, whatever it is, whatever comes to mind.
Okay.
And I would love for you, this is the challenge for you on the spot, a character that would best communicate such-
Okay.
...
such-...
a, a message.
Okay.
There's no wrong or right.
You got a megaphone, you could tell everybody a, a short message that they may need to hear from a character that could speak it.
Okay.
The stage is yours.
Take your time.
Oh, it's just a...
Oh, I thought it was like, what are they- Oh, I, I, I was like, wait, what-
That's the whole scenario.
That was the setup.
Yeah.
It's like, it's a megaphone to humanity.
And just everyone's listening.
Okay.
Um...
All right.
You know, it's gonna be Kermit.
He's just gonna be on the air.
I'm gonna do my, "Hey, everyone.
Kermit the Frog here.
Yay!
I want you all to do what you love.
No matter what it is or what it takes, just do what you love and haters gonna hate." Do what you love.
There's a quote-
Amen.
There's a quote, I love that.
It, it...
Again, quotes that resonate, right?
Oh, same.
Little Miss Sunshine?
Mm-hmm.
You ever see the movie Little Miss Sunshine?
Yes.
Paul Dano plays this character that doesn't speak throughout the whole movie and when he does finally speak, it becomes pretty profound, right?
He's gone through this whole movie silently.
He's chosen not to speak.
And at the end he basically says, "Do what you love and the rest." So there...
This is Kermit doing a nicer version of that.
Everyone, do what you love.
Follow your dreams, follow your passions.
Learn.
Don't be afraid.
I'm keep...
The mic, the megaphone's still on, I'm still going.
Don't be afraid to fail.
Guess what?
Failure is a great teacher and it's okay.
You're gonna fail.
You're not gonna be good right away.
It's gonna...
Just keep going.
Keep...
The great philosopher Dory from Little Nemo.
Just keep swimming.
I'm just na- name other people's quotes.
Just keep swimming.
That's-
And they, they are good.
You can't deny it.
There's a reason that they're good.
Yeah.
And there's a reason that they resonate but, like, just keep swimming is a, a beautiful one.
Yeah.
I love that one.
Man, I-
And I think...
And, and, and...
Yeah.
Just keep, just keep swimming.
Keep doing.
Live your truth.
Do, like...
Don't, don't be afraid of what other people think of you and don't let, don't let people that are laughing at you if you're lip syncing on the bus-
Yeah.
...
sway you-
Yeah.
...
from following that path to-
Yeah.
...
a career.
Yeah.
Don't worry.
You may, you may know something or be tapped into something that they're simply not, and they don't need to know right now.
Nope.
Um, uh, yeah, and, and actually I, I'll give it one of my own.
Something that I was just talking about the other day that I always remember.
Um, I rode unicycles when I was in elementary school.
Oh, nice.
Um, yeah.
Strangely enough, I was on unicycle teams-
Did you juggle?
Did you juggle while doing it?
I did not, I did not juggle.
I did actually, uh, uh, bunny hop on mini trampolines while on a six-foot unicycle though, which sounds insane.
I d- I c- There's no way I could do it now but I did it in elementary school.
I don't-
It does but I'm here for it.
Yeah.
We performed at Sonics and Trailblazers.
What?
No.
Impressive.
Uh, but anyway, so what, what's funny is I always remember, the thing that clicked with me when I first started riding it, I saw it and I saw other people do it and I thought they were cool as crap.
Love it.
And I was like, I wanna do this.
And I would...
You push off the wall and you fall and whatever.
When it clicked for me, it was literally, when it feels like you're about to fall, just keep pedaling.
And like that was the most profound light bulb moment.
It worked for me and-
How d-
See?
Excellent.
When you feel like you're gonna fall, just keep pedaling.
Just keep pedaling.
Yeah.
Just keep pedaling.
Just keep swimming.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
All right, man.
I, I love it.
So good, man.
W- There's plenty of amazing quotes for everyone to take home.
Uh, please- ...
look below, read below, click on the links, check out Nate's work here.
Uh, please reach out to him if you have any more interest in his work or anything we talked about today and, um-
Yeah.
We'll have to do a part two and talk about more, like, other fun things.
Yeah.
I, you know what's funny?
I had a, I, I have a lot of, like, philosophical, uh, uh, character questions about, like-
Ooh.
...
kayfabe and, um, um, how we interface with the world.
And, uh, yeah.
We, we have, uh, much more conversation to have, my friend.
Part two, baby.
Yeah.
Part two.
It's happening.
Cool.
All right.
Well, everybody, uh, I'm gonna hit end on this record here.
Drink some water, stretch.
Hydrate.
Yes.
Do, do your voice warm-ups.
And also hydrate.
Water.
Please hydrate.
Water, the breath of life.
Everyone...
Get a cheap filter for your fridge and, and all that.
Um, yeah.
So anyway, we will see you next episode.
Check out the links below.
Goodbye, everybody.
Love you, long time.
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