A Comic Conversation Ep 30 - Rick Robertson - Animedford 23

[00:00:00] Good morning, good afternoon and good evening! This is Comic Con Radio! Comic Con! Coverage of pop culture events from around the globe. Amazing interviews with celebrities. Daily recaps and reviews of popular television, movie reviews. Everything fandom from around the globe.

[00:00:18] Comic Con Radio! Get ready to enter our universe! Let's go! DBZ nerds, do you guys like cookies? Cause we're making a whole plate of them on this episode of A Comic Conversation! This episode's guest is the king of demons, D'Bora himself, Rick Robertson.

[00:00:51] We talk about his early career in radio, his transition into voice acting and the experience in being such a massive character in the franchise. So get your demon powers ready, try not to get beaten by a Vegeta and enjoy a Majin Buu Cookie because we're ready for

[00:01:04] A Comic Conversation! Our next guest is the voice of D'Bora in Dragon Ball Z, Yomi and Yu-Yu Hakusho, Jinx in New Super Lucky's Tale, President Anton Smith in Borelands 2 and Private John in Red vs. Blue. Where are my Red vs. Blue fans at? Hey!

[00:01:26] There you go, it's an amazing show. Guys please welcome to our stage here the one, the only, Rick Robertson! Yeah! Thank you, thank you. The kids are happy.

[00:01:40] Kids are happy, I'm so excited for this. So we have a dissonance starting podcast, we have a segment on our show called Growing Up Geeky, so Rick, what did you geek out on when you were a kid? You would die if I told you.

[00:01:54] I want to die, please tell me. I'm ready for it. World War One Flying Aces. Okay, that was awesome. To the point where the guys at the Air Force Academy actually called me for trivia. That was how big a geek I was. That is awesome though still.

[00:02:08] That's pretty crazy. I mean, I nerd out on World War Two, not as much on World War One. I've been actually learning more on World War One. Well basically these guys were just flying lawnmowers. Yeah.

[00:02:18] I mean seriously, if you look at the engines, I mean they were just lawnmowers with some fabric. So yeah, they were good. He's not wrong. They were brave. I just watched Top Gun Maverick for the first time in... And you're dangerous. I'm dangerous. That's right, I am dangerous.

[00:02:35] But it was interesting how they talked about the technology of the planes are so advanced now. Like the planes that they flew in the original Top Gun, they're like, oh yeah, that plane is nothing compared to what we have now. Oh yeah. It was nuts. Anyway, sorry.

[00:02:48] One of the things I have to announce is the rollouts of the F-35 for Lockheed Martin. Okay. And so we have to do it for different countries. Right. And it's amazing because you're speaking to five million people at once live. It's kind of crazy. It's pretty intense.

[00:03:02] That is nuts. Yeah. When you put it like that, yes. That is nuts. All right. Let's get into acting, voice acting. When did you know you wanted to be a voice actor? Did you go to school for it? I know you're a DJ before this.

[00:03:14] So how did you get to be here? Wow. Summarize your life in the next 30 seconds. Yeah. Yeah. And we need the entire story. Well, I think what it is is... Ugh, I don't even know how to tell this.

[00:03:25] When I was five years old, okay, there was an album that came out called The First Family. And it was a parody and it had a guy doing an impression of President Kennedy. He was the unluckiest comedian of all time because obviously he didn't have an act the

[00:03:39] next day after Kennedy was shot. Yeah, yeah. Unluckiest comedian ever. But anyway, I digress. I started doing Kennedy when I was five years old and that got a lot of attention, you know? And then, you know, like... That's right.

[00:03:51] Every time I'd like to play some football and clam teata. That's right. Touch football and clam teata. That's what I need. That's great. Anyway, afterwards you do voices to meet girls. Oh, okay. As we all do. Right. Right.

[00:04:05] I'm sorry I had to slap you, sweetheart, but you became hysterical when I said, no more. So good. So anyway, you do those voices and then like pretty much everybody here, you start making fun of your teachers. Right. You make fun of your principals.

[00:04:20] You make fun of your parents. You know what I mean? You just... People always do that. They always go, I don't do voices and I'm thinking, yes, you do. You just don't realize it. Yeah. Because whenever people tell stories, they're always doing voices and not realizing that

[00:04:32] they're telling it in the story. Right. It's like when you do... You tell a story about like, and you start doing a voice for your mom and then you do a voice for your neighbor and things like that. Oh, my mom was a good threat in her.

[00:04:42] You know, because she was very southern and she would like, you know, honey, I'm going to kill you until God you died. I am going to bounce you so high, little mister, the birds will build a nest in your butt before you hit the ground.

[00:04:55] Where did you grow up? Texas. What do you think? That's awesome. That's so good. My mother is hardcore. I've overcome a handicap just to do announcing, seriously. That's how southern her voice is. Oh, that is good. It's funny.

[00:05:09] We just talked to Peter Palamas and he said the same thing. He's like, I wanted to be funny to get girls and I want to do impressions of my teachers to get in with all the cool kids. Yeah.

[00:05:19] I was so impressed one time I interviewed this guy named Yanni. You know, he's a musician. Yeah, Yanni. Right. And he started with a guitar. Now he's the keyboardist. But I said, why'd you do it? He goes to meet girls. That's it. Wow. Everybody starts out like that.

[00:05:30] Yeah. And what kind of conditioner do you use on that hair? Yanni jokes? Nobody? All right. No Yanni jokes. Okay. Let's just throw out that he had the most beautiful perm in existence. Yeah. That's funny. All right. So let's talk about being a DJ. Okay.

[00:05:46] I guess was that in, was that in Texas? Was that? Oh, that was everywhere. Everywhere? Went all over? Were you on like syndicated radio or? Eventually. Yeah. Okay. So I started out at the very first contemporary Christian station.

[00:06:00] And I got fired for reading the Bible versus it contradicted the songs, which I thought was funny. But that sounds hilarious. They didn't like it at all. And then I went to Corpus Christi and I was sued by the mayor.

[00:06:12] I inferred it on IQ of seven or something. And then I went to San Antonio in New York. And you got sued there. Yes. Yeah. Eventually ended up in Dallas, Fort Worth after trips to Tucson and Seattle and, you know, all different places.

[00:06:25] This was the last time I was in Oregon. So I was a DJ in Seattle. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. But yeah, radio is a lot of fun. It really is. So was it different types of like stations, like rock stations?

[00:06:37] Oh, yeah. Whatever, like whatever came. That was the funny thing about the Christian station is there were no oldies because there were, I mean, you don't think about it. Yeah. They just come out. That was it. Yeah. And so. Good point. Yeah.

[00:06:47] I got fired in Abilene for inventing a fake ski resort. Did you just get bored? Pretty much. On these jobs. Yeah, I think you got it. That's funny. That's things that we do on purpose on our shows, do like fake ads and stuff like that. Right.

[00:06:59] Just because it's fun. You know why not? But yeah, here's a product that doesn't exist. There was one, I'm trying to remember the product. We came up with a product that was like intergalactic sandwiches or something like that. It was, it was funny. Yeah.

[00:07:12] You used to have kids call me and go, you know, when I grew up, I want to be a DJ and I'll always say, well, you can't do both. That's good. Yeah, that's pretty good.

[00:07:19] Or the other one was the one that I remember that people thought was real. We came up with a puzzle subscription service, right? So it's like, yeah, if you subscribe to us, we'll send you different kinds of puzzles every week, you know, things like that.

[00:07:29] And it's like, you know, it's not real. Did you ever hear Norfolk and Waypal? It was a delivery service. Oh, oh. You remember the one I'm talking about? Yeah. Well, I have to play it for you later. Anyway, go ahead. All right.

[00:07:39] So they're not here to talk about our fake ads. Everybody's here to learn about Dragon Ball Z. So Rick, did you have to audition for Dragon Ball Z? What was it like getting that role, getting to D'Borah?

[00:07:49] I think I was very, very fortunate because Chris Sabat and I were good friends. Okay, nice. And I had a studio and he came over and he said, I got a character I think you'd be good for. You know, this was D'Bora.

[00:08:01] And so I remember driving over to Fort Worth and, you know, we recorded it. And I thought it would be really cool for my sons. I thought they would be impressed. No, they're like, no. Yeah.

[00:08:10] Which I mean, that kind of puts a lot more context on D'Borah itself because, you know, there's a relationship between D'Borah and Vegeta in the show. So knowing that D'Borah and Vegeta are friends in real life, even more chemistry there, you know. Well, it's so funny.

[00:08:25] I mean, because we're looking for that voice, you know, that was the thing originally just looking for the voice. And so eventually it became deep and evil. He's the demon lord. So the king of demons. And is how I became the king of the deepened world.

[00:08:39] And it's like, I've always imagined like what would happen when D'Bora and King Yama like meet each other because Yama's the king of the underworld. So it's like, what happens when these two guys meet and fight? Because King Yama is like a thousand times bigger than him.

[00:08:50] So well, let's just say it's complicated. That's it. So good. Maybe I could just spit on him. I think you know what I'm trying to say. That's all you're going to be able to do to King Yama.

[00:09:02] So we know that over the years you've worked with Elise Balmin that we've talked with her. Shout out to Elise. She's great. Right. Shout out to Elise. Shout out to Elise. Now I know you guys were both on U-Haka show, of course, different points in time. Same thing.

[00:09:14] You guys were both in Dragon Ball at different times. But like, you know, what are some fun stories that you guys have if you have any that recording together? I think the strangest U-Yu Haka show story is the fact that Chris and I kind of recorded

[00:09:27] it in the hallway of my studio because the Oakretron studios were booked at the time or something. I don't know how it happened, but we had a microphone and we were just sitting cross legged across from each other in the hall and he would direct me and,

[00:09:39] you know, and I would do it. And so that was how that all cabin. That's kind of crazy. That's actually pretty cool to have. That is the coolest story ever. Chris Saban took my video.

[00:09:45] Well, I mean it was funny because, you know, he says, this is a great thing about the character, you know, is you can just be having a conversation like we're having and he just casually crushed somebody's skull. Yeah. So that appealed to me. I like it.

[00:09:58] I like that guy. So what you're saying is I get to be a bad ass. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it's what I've said before when you're playing bad guys, you have to be more likeable than a good guy. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:10:10] I think the best example of that is the Joker in Batman, you know, because Batman's kind of, you know, he doesn't have much personality other than revenge. I guess. Right. That's a good point.

[00:10:21] But the Joker, you know, it's like you have Keith Ledger who that part probably killed him because he had to go to a dark place. But the way that he played that part where he is a masochist.

[00:10:32] And so that every time Batman hurts him or hits him, he likes it better. Right. And Batman has no idea what to do. Right. I mean, there's a couple of different takes and things that he does with that character that are just genius. Right.

[00:10:42] And I love the Nicholson. You know, when he walks in and he goes, where does he get those wonderful toys? Yeah. I always love that. Anyway, even looking at the Mark Hamill in the animated version, you know,

[00:10:54] just kind of over the top and just usable the way that he played it. Yeah. He is really good. Yeah. So how do you find a voice? I mean, yes, you can do voices, but how do you find like, I don't know, their character within the voice?

[00:11:06] I'll tell you a quick story. Okay. Um, you've ever heard the expression originality is how well you disguise your source? Yes. Okay. I've heard that. Um, I did a character who was kind of a one-off for Dragon Ball Z called Oli Buu.

[00:11:19] And his voice was basically a bad Sean Connery. Okay. Hello, my name is Oli Buu, you know. The name is Bond, James Bond. And what they say is, uh... The funny part is that voice is exactly the voice Jim Carrey used in The Grinch. Right.

[00:11:33] You know, all the hooves out in Whoville liked Christmas a lot. But The Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville did not. You know, it was like, it's the same voice. Yeah, they, uh, that's what they say is a bad impression is a new character. There you go.

[00:11:45] Thank you. Yeah, that's all it is. So like a lot of times, you'll hear characters and cartoons and shows that like, oh, that kind of sounds like, you know, this actor, you know, something like that. That's Gregory Peck for sure. Oh right, right.

[00:11:57] Gregory Peck, especially like when you do impressions of older actors because they had, they were just characters for themselves. Uh, yeah. Right. So like, again, you do like a Gregory Peck, you know, or Sean Connery or something like that.

[00:12:07] I was going to say, you know, in Red vs. Blue, we didn't even pretend to not do John Wayne. We were just doing John Wayne. Right. Only two kinds of men gonna be on this beach. Those that are dead and those that are gonna be dead.

[00:12:18] So we're moving out. Yo! So good. Hey, you're not even trying to not be John Wayne. Right. And it fits so well for Halo, so it's just... Anyway. So like we were talking about creating character, do you get a lot of creative freedom

[00:12:34] creating this character or do the directors want specific things? I guess it sounds like you had a good relationship with your director for... A good director isn't gonna tell you how to do a character. He's going to help you polish it. Right. Oh nice. Okay.

[00:12:45] I mean, you need to put on your big boy pants and come in with your own character. Right. And if you want, you can have like, you know, three choices or something, but you need to create that character and the director, if he's good,

[00:12:56] is telling you how to flesh it out and how to make it more than it is. Especially someone like Chris Saban who plays like five or six different characters or Dragon Ball like the guy. Believe me, you can get lost in the weeds with the voices and stuff.

[00:13:06] I mean, I'm serious. See, you can do one and go, well, I've already done that one more time. Yeah. You know, it's just like, hey, you know, maybe you should do it this way.

[00:13:13] You might get a better X, Y, and Z or it might sound better if you do it this way. But not like telling you how to do the character, but hey, this inflection might be better. Right. And sometimes, you know, especially when you're starting with a character,

[00:13:23] you may start too fast. Mm-hmm. That's one thing I would tell people who are interested in voiceover. Slow it down. It's okay, you know what I mean? Give it a little room to breathe. It doesn't always have to be quick because so many people think that

[00:13:33] dead air is a problem, but it's not. Dead air is drama. It really is. That's such a good advice. Well timed dead air is a good word. Yeah, well timed dreaded. Exactly. Well timed dead air is drama. Right. But badly timed dead air is called getting fired. Yeah.

[00:13:49] Because it's all about timing. I mean, that's comedy is nothing but timing. You know, same thing with drama. Drama is nothing but timing. Do you remember a talk show host named Johnny Carson? Yeah, absolutely. He slept on a pillow that said it's all in the timing.

[00:14:02] Yeah, and the guy knew comedy timing. Oh, yeah. One of my favorites is 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You know what that is? That's Bo Derek getting older. Yes. He also did the Karnak. I don't know if you remember this is one of the longest recorded laughs.

[00:14:20] He always, when he did Karnak, he would give the answer and then you'd have, or somebody give him the answer. You'd have to do the question. You know the envelope on the side. So he'd give the answer and he'd guess, Cis boom bye.

[00:14:31] And of course, Cis boom bye. Yes, of course. That's right, good. Cis boom bye. And he goes, name the sound an exploding sheep makes. Cis boom bye. That is so bad. That's so good. God, that's so bad. Yeah, that's Johnny Carson. Oh wait.

[00:14:49] Still shot out to Johnny Carson. Okay. You can still watch Johnny Carson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's reruns. Oh my God. We could just talk and have fun all day long. That's the idea. If you guys have questions, just get them ready.

[00:14:59] Well, we got a mic ready to go. We'll get to him, I promise. And not get too diverted with everything else. I know, right? So gotta ask this. So how much creative freedom did you have with some of the characters that you did?

[00:15:09] If you had any, because I know anime is a little more rigid, but like, I know when you do kind of more, you know, not recorded characters, but like, you know, like, how much freedom did you have with like video games that would like backstories for characters?

[00:15:22] Like, say, uh, Well, you don't, you don't have a lot of latitude on the lines. And the reason is, and I guess everybody here probably knows that we are, we're in a studio and we're looking at a big screen and we're also simultaneously reading off a computer.

[00:15:36] And so the lines have to be a certain length to match the mouth flaps of the original Japanese anime. And so you have to time it just right. So the latitude you have to create is in the dynamics of the voice.

[00:15:49] It's, it's within the, you know, the, um, just the way you say things. Right. You know, But say for like private John, right? Like, I'm sure you got like a bunch of, I had, I had tremendous freedom in that. Right. Yeah.

[00:15:59] You know, just kind of create a whole backstory for him and just like, well, he went through this and went through that. And then so this is why he does this, you know, and kind of just get your own freedom to create that. You do do that. Right.

[00:16:10] You know, and again, it's, it's like what we were talking about, about Batman and the Joker. Right. You know, I mean his backstory of losing his mind is what informs all the things he does. Right.

[00:16:20] There's actually a whole theory and I'm not going to go over it on this, but about how he was actually in Special Forces, the Joker. And there's a lot of like evidence that points to it. Like there are like certain things that he does,

[00:16:31] ways he says things, his proficiency in certain things, and also just kind of his, the way he lies. Yeah. You know, they're like, yeah, no, he could have been, dude was a green beret. Yeah. Let's, we taught, we kind of touched on video games for a quick second.

[00:16:43] Can you tell us the difference between recording anime, anime versus video games? Oh yeah. I knew a singer once who said everything was about the recording. And then when you played live, everything was supposed to be super loose and kind of crazy.

[00:16:58] I think that's really the difference between recording an anime feature, if you will, and doing a game. The game allows you a lot more attitude to go crazy, you know, because it's a game. So when you're recording for a video game, what do they give you?

[00:17:12] Like when you're recording for anime, like, hey, here's the actual footage. You got to match that. But for a video game, do you get to see the footage or is it no? No. No. Did you get more freedom as to where?

[00:17:20] What happens with a video game is that you do the lines and then they create the game. Right. Yeah, because I was going to say, did you get more freedom as to bore in the video games than you had in obviously in the anime?

[00:17:31] I like to think so. Yeah. Really. I mean, again, because you just, you're not really doing a lot of the things that you have to do when you're doing the anime stuff. You know, since it's kind of reversed, I guess I should say.

[00:17:42] Because they're animating based off of your performance versus- Right. You do still have to keep the time limits. Right. That's very important. But other than that, you can pretty much dance, you know? And again, that's where a good director comes in. Right.

[00:17:52] Because he'll help you fill in gaps that need filled in and help you edit things that don't need to be there. So- Again, we're voice acting nerds, so we're nerdy out of here. Right. Sorry, guys. Questions? If you got a question, raise your hand, come on up.

[00:18:06] We'll get it. He's got a question. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, we can just mix and match them between the rest of the questions. What's your favorite D'Bora line? Oh, man. That is a hard one, really. Wow. Man, you know, a specific one isn't coming to mind

[00:18:19] because there's so many- Oh, I've always loved just the fighting aspect of it. You know, the- That kind of thing. Otherwise, I just enjoy everything. I love it, man. So I got to ask you this. So you were in a couple video games, some pretty major ones.

[00:18:40] Just to kind of throw out two video game properties that come to mind, Borderlands 2, SMITE, which are giant franchises. Were you familiar with those franchises before you got into them? Or did you just kind of like learn about them as you were kind of getting the role?

[00:18:53] In terms of SMITE, there was almost a joke in the studio. They would send an audition like every week. You know, I mean, they always had a different SMITE character or something. Right. It seemed like it. So that one, you know, you just did.

[00:19:04] But I had a lot of fun with President Enton on Borderlands. That was fun because, you know, he's kind of sarcastic and he, you know- We took advantage of him for, you know- Some roses and a high five. Who cares? Which is like every character in Borderlands.

[00:19:19] So it's like, it's great. Right. Are you a gamer at all? Like, do you play video games at all? This is really funny. I am not a big gamer. Okay. My son is ranked number two in the nation in World of Warcraft. That's funny. Yeah.

[00:19:29] I'll tell you guys the funniest story about that. So intriguing. Here's what you do to your parents and you don't even know it. Okay. He's on World of Warcraft. What appeared to me 24-7. I just couldn't imagine anybody playing World of Warcraft to that degree.

[00:19:43] So as a dad, I think, well, I'm going to make him well-rounded. Right? So I'm going to take away your computer. I'm taking away your internet. And when I took the internet away, he ran downstairs like somebody whose drugs had just been flushed in the toilet.

[00:19:55] You know, he's like, what are you doing? Come on, God! You know. And he's like freaking out. And I said, listen, I'm serious. I said, I don't want you playing until further notice. You know, guys, not 48 hours later, he had built a computer from spare parts

[00:20:09] in his room and he had pirated the neighbor's internet. Yes. And at that point, I said, well, screw it. I can't stop him. Well, I guess he is well-rounded. Yeah, exactly. And now he's number two in the nation. So, you know, I was an idiot.

[00:20:22] You know, now in retrospect. Did he play Borderlands at all? I think he did. Yeah. What my kids would do was very passive-aggressive because they would download my character in the Dragon Ball Z and just beat the crap out of me when they were mad, you know,

[00:20:33] which I thought was incredibly, incredibly passive-aggressive. Very passive-aggressive. I was like, come on, man. My dad just pissed me off. Right, exactly. You know, beat him up in a video game. You kids, get in here. Stop that now. That's a true story, man. That's crazy.

[00:20:49] That's what they did. That's just a really funny thing. Speaking of going out, I mean, let's talk about D'Vora for a second. What are the coolest characters, strongest characters, but then all of a sudden things changed and you went out. What was it like going through that like,

[00:21:01] hey, I'm going to be a star of this show. This is amazing. This is awesome. Then all of a sudden, boom. Right turn. And they're just like, no, we're just going to make Vegeta the new Bobbie controlled character now. I'm a cookie?

[00:21:12] Wait, I actually thought if this con, I might bring some D'Vora cookies and give them away. That would have been funny. Yeah, I thought that would be good, but I'm not a baker. You know, we need to find you a baker just to do that.

[00:21:24] And so like, I've seen, I haven't seen one at this show, but I've seen people like do Majin Buu. So like, that would be hilarious to have a Majin Buu walk up and eat one of your cookies. That's like drinking someone's milkshake, right?

[00:21:39] I'm going to drink her milkshake, boy. Drink the whole thing. Yeah. That was the weirdest thing. Drinking up a cookie. All right. Well, it was weird for me until I ended up, as you said, going to the other world and singing show tunes in a field.

[00:21:53] That was kind of weird, you know? Not that I didn't enjoy the demon world, the king of the demon world being in heaven, but it just seemed weird, you know? I mean, why am all of a sudden I loving everybody? I don't know. You remember that?

[00:22:05] It's when he's in his own realm. He's just like, eat that. Love. I'm home. Love. It's all love. You know, it's like, oh. So we got to figure out what's going on in Japan. I wanted to spit on myself. I actually did.

[00:22:18] To turn myself to stone, you know? Because it's like, what's going on in Japan? Why did they do this to me? Exactly. Yeah. What do these people believe? What's going on, you know? Yeah, no, it's true. But yeah. It was heartbreaking to lose to Majin Buu.

[00:22:31] You know, I would have liked to have lost to someone more macho, but let's be honest. I was under my control from Bobbety anyway. So, you know, what are you going to do? I mean, to be fair, Majin Buu ended up becoming one of the most powerful beings

[00:22:43] in the entire universe. I could care less. Not my universe. So good. So good. And then when he became Kid Buu, he was terrifying. I'm sorry. Kid Buu was scary, man. Like Majin Buu's like, yeah, he's kind of a joke,

[00:22:58] but then you get to Kid Buu and it's like, what? Right. What is this? That's what I mean. I'd love to be the guys creating this. Yeah. Wouldn't that be fun? Because that's just like, you know. How many gummies can we do in right? Yeah, exactly.

[00:23:12] That's what it feels like. Anyway, all right. So do you have any fond memories of recording this, recording any other project or even like being a DJ? Some fun stories? Oh, I got great stories for being a DJ. That's for sure. I can imagine.

[00:23:27] I guess my big claim to fame. I don't know. Does anybody here know who Rodney Dangerfield was? Oh, absolutely. Okay. No respect. No respect. He sued me. No. Why do you keep getting sued? Well, here's the funny part.

[00:23:38] Because he was a DJ and he talks not about everybody? If you do a voice very accurately, you will get sued and that's the highest compliment you can get. Oh, God, we're getting sued by Disney at some point. No, I'm saying I was doing a park ins commercial.

[00:23:49] Okay. So I go, so I'm leaving park ins, you know. Little respect. A little dignity. And about 12 of these little bars of soap here, have one on me. So at the end, the guy comes back and he goes celebrity voice impersonated. And I go, really?

[00:24:01] When the guy's not a real announcer, he sounded so good. I can't believe it. And so they sued us for making fun of the tag. I couldn't believe it. Oh, it's so good. Oh, man. So I'm walking into a bar, you know.

[00:24:11] I say, bartender, make me a drink. He says, what do you want? I said, surprise me. He shows me naked pictures of my wife. I couldn't believe it. I went outside. I said, taxi, take me where the action is. He took me to my house.

[00:24:24] Saw a guy jogging naked outside. I said, what are you doing? He said, you came home early. You know, it's always the same. No respect. Oh, my God. Even as a kid, I got lost on the beach. You know, I'm a to the life guard.

[00:24:32] Can you help me find my parents? He said, I don't know. There's so many places they could hide. It's rough. That's so good. Oh, my God. It's like being in the room with Rodney Dangerfield, man. Yeah, except I'm not suing you. You're not so different. Right.

[00:24:48] So how did that work out? He sued you for your... The lawyers always win. OK. I will never forget. I was in Abilene, Texas, where a lot of my relatives live. OK. And it was Christmas and entertainment tonight was on.

[00:24:58] And they go, a Dallas voice actor is being sued by... Rodney Dangerfield. I thought, what? I didn't know. You found out, but just like watching the news. I found out seeing it on entertainment tonight. You're like, what? Wow. I did not see that coming.

[00:25:12] You probably like, oh, I wonder which one it is. Oh, yeah, of course you are. You know what I mean? That poor son of a gun. That guy's going to be in some real trouble, you know? But no, that's sadly, like I said,

[00:25:24] the highest thing you can get. Right. So what they say is, what imitation is the highest form of flattery? Yes. All right. Hematitis is the serious form of flattery. Right? But actually he was so litigious, he sued Caesar's palace while he was playing there. Oh, wow.

[00:25:38] He slipped in the sauna and he sued Caesar's palace while he was the headliner. Oh my goodness. That's lawsuit happy, you know? Interesting. I got to ask this. What would be a dream role for you? If you were able to act in any franchise

[00:25:51] or be a voice acting or just on screen? Like what if there's a franchise or just anything that you ever want to be? A part. A part. Like, you know, what's something that you would be your dream role? Hmm. Probably a part I create.

[00:26:04] You know, like if it was something I could write. Oh yeah. You know, that would be my dream role, you know, is to be able to just create it from whole cloth, you know, just scratch. I think that would be fun.

[00:26:14] Otherwise I'd like to come back as Brad Pitt, but that's the whole thing. Right, right, right. That's interesting. Who doesn't? You got a question? Come on up. William, right? William, you got a good voice. Same. This is sort of a, do you ever catch yourself,

[00:26:26] talk yourself like characters? Say that again, I'm sorry. You ever find yourself talking to yourself in your character's voices? You ever find yourself talking to yourself as your own characters? I'll tell you an interesting story about that. Okay, I was in El Paso

[00:26:39] and they had hired this guy who was supposedly an expert on creativity. And we were talking and he said, I asked him, I said, so what do you tell people since you're such an expert on creativity? You know, what do you tell them?

[00:26:50] And he goes, I tell them to listen to that small voice inside them. And I said, well, once if you have more than one voice and you can't get them to shut up. So to answer your question, yes, constantly. Yeah. Go ahead and come on up.

[00:27:04] Come on up, come on up. That was good. Yeah, I talk to myself and my own characters, all of them. So I says to myself, self I says. The DeBoer has a variety of attacks as we are aware of. So came off a couple of your favorite moves

[00:27:17] or attacks that work. I'm straight spit, straight spit, man. You know, I like attacking and I like beating people up. But you know, if I could just neutralize you quick, I'm fine. Yeah. Otherwise, like I said, you're reaching back, you know. The longest haymaker in anime history. Yeah.

[00:27:33] That's what I love about Dragon Ball Z though. Because he's coming. Is you can get hit with more power than anyone has in the universe and you're still back. You know what I mean? They're like, okay, that was one. I took it. Thank you so much.

[00:27:44] Pretty much knock out Goku Black. Come on up. What do you got for us? What questions do you have? So my question is you obviously had to move up with the voice for the character. But then there's also all these sound effects,

[00:27:54] especially for a character of a main villain in an arc like that. What's the practice like or preparation for those specific sounds that you have to come up with in his voice? I hate to answer this for you. Have you ever been constipated?

[00:28:09] That's kind of what it sounds like if you think about it. No, tell us about it. It's the same type of deal really. You know, it's just, you're all clenched and then sometimes, you know, you can really go. That's right. There you go. Yes!

[00:28:23] Does it sound like when you're constipated and throwing a punch? Listen to D'Bora. That's funny. I'm so sorry we're recording this. It's okay. Again, the internet's gonna love it. I know. Yeah, there you go. All right, question for you. Who would you most like to sit next to

[00:28:39] on a 10-hour flight and why? Oh, wow. And I guess we can say living or dead. No, I'd probably say the world's greatest pilot. I want to sit beside on a 10-hour flight. You know what I mean? And I'm like, oh, sure. Not Amelia Earhart, you know?

[00:28:54] Yeah, let's leave the landing lights on for her. Yeah. I need somebody who can land the plane, please. That's right. I joke to Elise on the way here. I said the in-flight movie will be the Amelia Earhart story. Probably true. We are having a bumpy flight.

[00:29:11] I'm actually interested in this question. I'm gonna ask this one. Go for it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So what would be the worst movie sequel ever made? So not a movie that's already been made, but like if there's a movie that's like why was this made

[00:29:22] and then they made a sequel for it? Boy, that's a tough one. Because so many bad sequels have already been made. Right. You know, I mean, you got to rush to that one. All right. So I guess a sequel a long time ago,

[00:29:35] a movie was called Terror of Tiny Town. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? It was an all little person musical Western. It was made right after The Wizard of Oz when they thought, you know, little people were going to be big in the movies,

[00:29:46] you know, like that. And so if I could do a sequel to that, I would love that. You know what I mean? Now I'm waiting for the reboot, which what I love about the movie, if you ever get a chance to see it,

[00:29:55] all the stuff is in real size except the people and the horses. Okay. The horses are all Shetland ponies. Oh my goodness. But the people and everything else is real size. It cracks you up. I have to see this. Because you see the guy, hold on.

[00:30:10] That's so good. Oh my God. Okay. Who are the bad guys? All right, Rick. What are you nerding out on these days? What are you passionate about? What do you like doing besides making us laugh? Oh, well. I don't know. I've gotten into AI a lot. Really? Really?

[00:30:26] Okay. Look at you go. Well, no, it's just interesting to me. It's fascinating. If I hadn't had that when I was a student, oh my gosh. Right? Yeah. Wouldn't you have to write a paper at all? Oh yeah. Because the papers were so hard, you know.

[00:30:37] It's like how do you, because I know teachers could, when I was in high school, they could plug something in and see if it was plagiarized, right? So they could say, oh, here's a line from this paper. Oh, this is obviously plagiarized because it was in this.

[00:30:48] If you have AI right it, it's completely fresh. So how do you know that? How do you catch that as it's? They say some people can tell, you know. I mean, and really there are certain ways that you can question an AI

[00:30:59] where you can find out if it's an AI or a person. But yeah, I mean, it's a crazy world out there. It's going to be even crazier here in a little while. Yeah. A smart kid would have AI right it and then prove free to themselves. But yeah.

[00:31:12] Yeah. I remember when I was in high school, this is a horrible thing to say, but our teacher had us write these things and I had written a paper on teenage suicide. Okay. And I had said at the end of the paper,

[00:31:23] I go, this is really depressing me. You know, and I really, I just feel awful, you know, since I've been writing this and then I just sprung my pen right down the paper. It looked like it was over. Then I wrote just kidding. Teacher Hain.

[00:31:37] Always the class clown, baby. She hated me. No, I bet she did. And then that teacher sued you. No, no, no. I didn't get sued by her. I did get a career boost though because she said, would you like to stand up

[00:31:48] and tell the rest of the class what's so funny? That was my all-fitting favorite. You know, I absolutely would here. As a matter of fact, I would. Yeah. Okay. She sent you on your way. That's great. And you got a cigarette. I left my pack in the machine.

[00:31:59] Okay. Here we go. All right. So we're going to do a couple wrap up questions and then we're going to figure out how we're going to give away this Deborah statue because this thing is amazing. So what is your favorite kind of taco

[00:32:10] or what's your favorite taco spot? Well, you just put me behind the eight ball. I just did the commercials for taco wine. I just did taco bueno. So I can't say that. Taco bueno. Yeah, that's who I love. Taco bueno is? Always taco bueno.

[00:32:23] Best, best tacos in the world. Try them. Here you go. Shout out to taco bueno. Legally obligated to say that, by the way ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much. Or they'll sue him. Exactly. Or they'll sue him. I repeat, do not run for the border. Okay.

[00:32:37] Again, this is on the internet. All right. What's some advice you might have for anybody trying to get into the industry? Um, I had a guy tell me once who was an acting casting director. He said, if I can talk you out of it,

[00:32:50] you don't belong in it. Ah, interesting. He said, if you're an actor or a voiceover or something, that's something you're kind of born to do, you know? Right. And you got to want to do it worse than anything else. Yeah. Right. You know?

[00:33:01] And so I thought that was brilliant. The other advice I would give anybody is contact Elise Bowman. Yes. And for those of you who are here, she is right back over here. She's got a table. Yeah, she's a coach and contact Elise Bowman. She's a great coach.

[00:33:14] Shout out to Elise. And I don't say that she doesn't. I mean, I have no vested interest in that at all, but I think she's a great coach. I think Bob Carter is another great coach too. There you go. So, I mean, there's some good ones out there

[00:33:24] and I think if you start, one of the things that I think people don't realize is when you do like have a seminar for that kind of thing, people need to also teach you the business aspect of the thing. I know she's good at that. Right.

[00:33:35] That's what I'm saying. I mean, it's not just talent and just your voice, although that's a huge part of it. But you also need to know, you know, what the business is. Right. You know? That's good advice. Actually, Rob Paulson just started doing teaching classes.

[00:33:46] If you go to robPaulsonvoice.com. Yeah, here we go. There's a lot of great people out there. Yeah, that's a pretty major one. That's like getting taught by, I'm trying to remember his name. He played Yo-G Bear. Michael Jordan. You know, he played Yo-G Bear.

[00:33:57] You play basketball, Michael Jordan? Yeah. Anyway, if you want to cut a demo, come to me. There you go. There you go. So what's next for you aside from Talk of One? Um, I'm not supposed to say. Okay. And the end. That's fine. That's fine. I like it.

[00:34:10] Okay. We're in the middle of a strike and there's NDAs. Don't worry about it. Right. Thank you very much. I like the T's. What's the next thing that you can talk about? Oh. It could be a con. Maybe it's a con. Yeah, maybe another con.

[00:34:20] Yeah, I'll be, I'll be con in Baton Rouge in a couple of weeks. And Rouge. The very first of September. Yeah. Yeah. Have those people call off. By the way guys, I know you don't think it, but this con is super cool. Literally.

[00:34:31] I was in South Texas in July and they had just set a record where it was 120 degrees actual. And they didn't tell us that we were in a place called Cars and Cosplay. They didn't tell us we would have to do four hours and 115 degree heat outside.

[00:34:45] Oh man. So it was like the Baton Death March of the anime cons. Yeah. That is bad. We had a blast though. You really had a great time. The guys who put it on some of the best people you'll ever meet. That's awesome.

[00:34:57] But I've never been so hot. I have never been so hot. Oh my gosh. It just, you know. Let's just put carbon monoxide out there and make it harder. Your deodorant fails you walking out the door. Yeah. It's crazy. Nope. I'm out. All right. That's not my problem.

[00:35:10] That's everybody else's problem. Yeah, there you go. So who would win in a fight? The Demon King D'Bora or Pan? Elise. Oh that's rough man. That's rough. No. No no no no no no. No no no no. I do not fight children. Sadly, she'll still fight you.

[00:35:28] Sadly, yes. So where can everybody follow you if they want to learn more? If they want to follow what you're doing? Social media, things like that. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram and all that stuff. And you're here today and tomorrow? Yes. Perfect. Absolutely.

[00:35:47] We're supposed to be doing something pretty fun tomorrow, sounds like. Yeah, tomorrow. Yeah. I'm excited about that. If you guys haven't, you know, decided if you're going to come tomorrow, come back tomorrow. We're going to have Peter Kalamas, Elise Bowman and Rick Robertson

[00:35:58] on the stage all at one time. And we have something fun planned for you guys. So if you come back tomorrow. You guys don't want to miss it. Seriously, you guys love it. It's a, let's just say it's a first. Yeah. Okay. And it's going to be fun.

[00:36:09] So here's my favorite part. We're going to have a Texas Chainsaw Deathmatch for this. Yes. All right, so two volunteers. That's all we need. That's all we need. Look at that. I love it. Will's like me now. Grim is in.

[00:36:22] All right, how are we going to give this away? What are we going to do? I don't know, man. I did not plan on giving this away. So let's, uh, How do we want to do this? You want to have them do an impression or anything like that?

[00:36:33] Rock, paper, scissors. I like that. I like, let's do it. All right. So whoever beats King D'Bora and Rock, Paper, Scissors. One, two, three. Who won? Oh, oh. Oh, did he win? Winner. Look at that. Winner, winner, chicken there and watch that foot. I know. Watch the foot.

[00:36:48] It's it's a, He's a tough cookie, but watch that foot. He's definitely a tough cookie. You guys, uh, you got, I wonder, I got, we got to ask Majin Buu, what does a D'Bora cookie taste like? Thank you so much. Does it taste like demon crap?

[00:37:01] I'm just okay. Oh my God. That's this has been so much fun. This has been great. Rick, we've had such a great time. Thank you. We appreciate you guys. Let's get a round of applause for, uh, for Rick Robertson. Thank you. Yes. So awesome.

[00:37:15] If you've had just half as much fun as I've had, I've had twice as much fun as you. So sweet. That's math. I don't know about that. Well, we hope you enjoyed this week's Comic Conversation. This was the production of the Distance Nerding

[00:37:29] podcast and Time for Tacos Media. For more content, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok all at Distance Nerding. If you enjoy our content, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks and keep nerding together.