A Comic Conversation Ep 35 - Sam Kwasman - Gem State Comic Con 24

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

[00:00:16] Everything fandom from around the globe. Comic Con Radio! Get ready to enter our universe! Let's go! You know, ducks can be kind of frightening. Especially pantsless ducks who tend to get angry at a moment's notice.

[00:00:42] But the actors who play the ducks, well they tend to be way cooler. And that's who we're talking to in this episode of... A Comic Conversation! This episode we talk with Sam Kwasman, the genius voice actor who brought us classic characters like Little Quackers and Donald Duck himself.

[00:00:57] Plus we talk about his comedy career, acting and working with Jerry Seinfeld. So get your dancing shoes on, apologize to a Tomcat and really get ready to talk Ducky to us. It's time for another... A Comic Conversation!

[00:01:12] Ladies and gentlemen, our next guest is a veteran actor, comedian, even professional dancer in movies such as... Mami. Mame. Mame with Lucille Ball. He's guest starred on Family Ties, Airwolf, Matt TV, Evening at the Improv. He's also an accomplished voice actor working on Robot Chicken.

[00:01:29] The voice of Little Quacker on the new Tom & Jerry show. And for over 17 years, he has voiced a little known duck that nobody knows about named Donald. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sam Kwasman. Thank you very much. Oh boy! Did you sit on something? Ouch!

[00:02:00] My voice is a little...mousy. Oh, why should we do that? Ah, chill! Gesundheit! I'm a segmenter very much. Sam, I'm already having too much of a good time. So we have a segment on our show called Growing Up Geeky.

[00:02:20] What did you geek out on as a kid? What did I geek out on? Well, I geeked out on musical comedy or not. I lived in the theater when I was eight years old. I wound up pretending I was an actor. I still do that now.

[00:02:35] An acting is pretending. And I just lived in the theater. I took dancing lessons, acting lessons, singing lessons. And I wound up a duck. I studied everything. And I did musicals like I did Maine with the Seal Ball. I did it at Long Last Love with Madeline Kahn.

[00:02:53] I was a dancer. I started out in a Disney show with Patrick Swayze. And he was Prince Charming and I was the lead alligator in Fantasia. He just had better hair. He was a great guy. He could do Donald Duck. He could do it in Spanish. Wow.

[00:03:07] The way you're scared, you're a duck. I could do it too, you know? He was a guy and we danced in this Disney show. Today you see it as Disney on Ice but it was originally a dance show. Oh, wow.

[00:03:20] I remember going to Disney on Ice as a kid. And I loved cartoons. I geeked out on Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Perky Pig. And I went to the Mel Blank School of Voices because I studied everything.

[00:03:28] And I met Mel Blank and I did Donald Duck for Mel because I was doing Donald Duck at the time. And he did Daffy Duck. And of course he was the original voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Perky, he did hundreds of voices.

[00:03:38] All of the merry melodies, all of the loonies. Yeah, yeah. Marvin the Martian, you know? You realize, of course this means war. And he said to me, it's great if you do somebody else's voice but he made his whole career on original voices. So I should study that.

[00:03:54] And he was right and he was wrong because when he passed away it took 10 guys to replace him. And since that time we've had about four or five different Bugs Bunnies, Daffy Ducks. So there you go. Right. Yeah. Ornered the market and sometimes. Yeah, you never know.

[00:04:08] It's a hard choose to fill. They really are. Yeah, he was a giant in business. Absolutely. Which came first? Stand-up comedy or acting? And who were some of your role models growing up? Oh man, acting was... I grew up on all those old movies,

[00:04:22] you know, like Jimmy Cag and those guys. And they ran them on television. They didn't have to pay any kind of a sigil to those big actors. They had to provide them with an Apple Box. Yeah, pretty much, yeah.

[00:04:35] Anyway, so they ran all these old movies and stuff and so I would watch them and imitate them. And of course everybody imitated Bugs Boy did that. And you know it was just a lot of fun, growing up on television shows and... Questions? Any bottles? Any rags?

[00:04:52] So how did you like start it? I know when you were in Little you did all the... You mimicked and all of that but how did you actually decide, hey I'm gonna be a stand-up on it. I'm gonna go into acting. I'm gonna dance a little.

[00:05:06] Yeah, well I was 13 when I started mastering Donald Duck and I was doing Bugs Money, I was a kid, you know. And I was always in a show. And at 19 I turned pro for a show called Disney on Parade, choreographed by Anna White.

[00:05:18] Anna White had just won the Academy Award for Oliver. Wow. And she also did Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, you know, Beat's Dragon, things like that. And she hired me for this Disney show. We're in rehearsal and we're the big show.

[00:05:30] Today you see it as Disney on Ice, an arena touring show and, you know, it was a really... Learned your craft as a dancer. And I sat down at the piano one day in a break and I did a bunch of cartoon voices and played the piano.

[00:05:42] And I did Donald Duck and the next thing I know, I'm the voice of Donald Duck for Disney on Parade. And I do it live, 10 shows a week, 14 shows a week. I did What's My Line and I did the radio shows to promote the show.

[00:05:52] And I was on it for almost two years. I watch a lot of What's My Line so I need to know what season that is so I can go look for it. Yeah, it was 1971, August 1971. We were in New York City with the show.

[00:06:02] And like I said, they got rid of the dancers and so it's the same show but it's shorter and they skate... They skated we ran. It's called ourselves Holiday on Wood. Holiday on Wood. And then from there, Anna was doing Mame with Sail Ball

[00:06:18] and I went in audition, I got the part and I wound up working dancing in the show, dancing with Lucy in Mame. And I would jump over the hedges and I would do these double attitude turns in the dirt if anybody knows what ballet terms are.

[00:06:31] What do you do? You turn. Anyway, it's hard to describe. And Lucy would tell me stories. She was a serious woman, she wasn't funny offstage. So I'd say to her, I like the three Stooges and she got bad props, they almost killed me.

[00:06:45] I mean, she just did everything and I think that was her secret, she never turned down work. And this is the late 30s and she was powdering her nose with this fine powder and one of the Stooges turns on a fan and she goes,

[00:06:56] and it goes in her mouth and her throat and all this fine powder and she's in the hospital for three days. She relives it while she's telling me. I think it's for two weeks I'm blinking like this and it's like sandpaper and I go,

[00:07:08] I guess I'll go work out. I'll go practice. But she was really serious but you could talk to her on the set. She was really amazing. She was the head of a studio and Bob Preston, Robert Preston from the Music Man,

[00:07:22] he was in the show, he was her romantic lead and you had to call him Bob. Bob had his little cigarette and he always had a little cigarette. He's turning away. So I go over to Bob and I go,

[00:07:35] Bob, I thought you were wonderful in the Music Man and Bob goes, you know, kid, I've done more than that. So I said, well, do you want to take a photo? Sure, come on over here and take a photo. So we took a picture.

[00:07:48] It was a lot of fun. I loved that movie. Hence the reference that I just made right now. It's just further on the way. So dancing, acting, stand-up comedy, voice acting, which one is your greatest love? Which one gives you the most enjoyment?

[00:08:04] I think the reaction from an audience is the most fun. You can give a better reaction than that. Come on guys. Oh my goodness. Clap for the duck. Thank you. Action! Yeah, so I'll tell you a little secret, something I regret to this day.

[00:08:31] I was dancing in Maine with Lucy and my friend Wade comes over and he says, do you want to do another move? I said, well, what do you got to be? He says you got to be a gay guy in a tuxedo getting beat up by cowboys.

[00:08:43] I said, I think I'll become an actor. It turned out to be blazing saddles. Oh yes. So every time I see Wade, he goes, hey everybody, this is Sam. You know, he turned down blazing saddles. Thank you, Wade. So I should have learned from Lucy.

[00:08:59] Never turned down work. Because you get the code name and you never know what it is. Yeah. So I happened to go over the comedy store and these guys were doing stand-up and it was kind of new. It's 1975. And I go over to the comedy store

[00:09:13] and I said, well, I can do this. I start to put an act together and I do my little things. And she goes, yeah, I can use you. And I became a regular at the comedy store. I learned comedy writing

[00:09:25] and I learned stand-up and how to write a joke and how to present a joke and how to create a character. And it takes a long time to be a stand-up. And I was there with Michael Keaton by a door. He's an amazing actor.

[00:09:37] Could have been a line-er. Whatever he wanted to do. And Jay Leno was there and David Letterman and Robin Williams. Robin and I used to do medical Shakespeare and he was something else. He was really fun. And so I was with all these great

[00:09:49] comedians, Pat Roft, who wrote Airplane, which I was in and got cut out of. Welcome to showbiz. So I get this close. So I was on the Bob Newhart show and I played a ventriloquist. And I believe the dummy was real and wanted to leave the act.

[00:10:03] So I go to Bob Newhart and Bob goes, well, you know, how'd this happen? I said, don't you mean dummy? You're making the dummy talk. And I go, well, that's how it started. But he's grown up and he's pretty much should do it though.

[00:10:17] Anyway, it was such a funny episode to this day. Bob says it's his favorite episode. I talked to him last year. He's 94. And he said he tells everybody it's his favorite episode from Bob to Soa. And he's just a great guy. He's real.

[00:10:29] I mean, what you see on stage is what you see offstage. He's just a really sweet guy and really down to earth. I think that's his secret. He's real. He's as much as offstage. Did he ever offered those? Never. I have to ask this because you let

[00:10:41] into it already speaking of your Vince Willoughquist days. Where is Irving? Irving broke up the act. He's on his own. He sells real estate in the valley. That makes sense. No, he comes out once. So I almost brought him here. But you know, Bob Newhart so long ago

[00:10:55] they get anybody with. I remember the Bob Newhart show. Oh, thank you. Oh, there you go. I loved it and then I loved at the end of the Newhart. They're harking back to it. And you know, he did say that he in public that

[00:11:09] when in the minute he got off television and he quit the Bob Newhart show went off to do his, he thought his act was in standout, you know, at Vegas and all that. Said that when he got off of television people didn't know who he was.

[00:11:21] So they had to create a new series for him which was new. A little inside in. We're getting inside T here today. It's like I've done everything. I can do everything except make a living. So just kidding. I'm just kidding. I have part-time jobs.

[00:11:37] I'm currently the male stripper at the Jewish Home for the Agent. It's a great job. You come back the next day. They think you're the new guy. Are your kids okay over here? Oh, yes. I'd be on my phone too if I were you.

[00:11:51] So getting into voice acting. What was your first voice acting? Donald Duck. That was the first thing you did. The first thing I did in, I did their records and toys and tapes and everything after I did Disney on parade. I went over to the studio

[00:12:05] and Duckie Nash was still alive. He was the original voice Donald Duck from 19. Somebody called me and said, I have a toy for you to do or a book. I said okay. Then when I went in a couple of times I said, Duckie is still alive.

[00:12:19] Shouldn't you give this to them? They go no we want to do it. So I didn't want to, if you turn down work you don't work again. Lucy told you not to turn down work. Never turned down work. Yeah, I should listen to her more.

[00:12:33] I did the voice of Donald Duck in 1987. I did the voice of Donald Duck and for their records toys, the Mickey Mouse audio animatronic talking doll which was like Teddy Ruxman came out and they went wait a minute, we invented that. What the hey?

[00:12:49] So they do a Mickey and so I did that and I did the talking books with Richard Price and all those things. And we did commercials. We did gold bond ice cream. And they were all through it. We did a splinter in the original Ninja Turtles. Oh yeah.

[00:13:05] And he was in the Bear Jamboree in Disney. He did a lot of voices. And he was an excellent theater actor. And Goofy was done by Tony who did Teddy Ruxman. And they still used him as Goofy for the mouse audio animatronics.

[00:13:21] And we were all, we were a team for like 17 years, 20 years, and then this they changed CEOs and they came in, comes this new group and they just took everybody out. Animators, everybody, all the old guys and they just brought it up. I blame Bob, I, Iger.

[00:13:39] No, no, Iger wasn't in there at the time. I still blame him. This is Eisner. You didn't hear it from me. Roussi was still playing Minnie though, right? Yeah, Roussi and Wayne Allwine became Mickey Mouse and my good friend Bill Farmer is the official voice of Goofy.

[00:13:57] I was acting and stand up and theater. I did musicals, I did Hello Dolly with Martha Ray who you may not remember, but she was something else, man. She was the third person to do Hello Dolly on Broadway.

[00:14:09] And she was Bet Midler before there was a Bet Midler. She could sing, she could act, she was hilarious. And Opening Night I'm the lead dancer, I'm the head waiter for Hello Dolly. And I'm standing there and it's the opening number and I get somebody

[00:14:23] pinches me on the butt. And I turn around, it's Martha Ray. And she's bent down like this because she's supposed to pop out, you know? She goes, here take my card. And it says Maggie, third person to do Dolly on Broadway. She was nuts.

[00:14:43] But she was brilliantly funny and she told me a story about how she was 17 and won a singing contest. She was from Montana and won a singing contest on a radio show. And her first prize was to fly you down to MGM and get a screen test.

[00:14:57] She gets the screen test and she gets the signer. And so she starts doing these shows and I go, wow, what's it like at MGM? You know, Louis B. Mayer. She says Louis B. Mayer was the devil. She's scared to death.

[00:15:09] And she said she begged to get out of her car after three or four. And then she went up on Dennis. But she was something else. And the Bob Newhart show was great. Suzanne Pluchette. Do you remember when we were on the set and it was

[00:15:23] blocking and it's dress rehearsal and she's really beautiful. I mean, she's a beautiful. And she comes over and goes, oh here, she gives me a kiss for good luck cheek. And I'm an idiot guy. I'm like 20 something. You know, I have a girlfriend. And she says, so what?

[00:15:39] I have a husband. He's right over there. Just stupid. It's okay. You get a passion for 20. Thank you. I'm surprised you didn't forget your girlfriend. Yeah, right. Not everybody is smart at 20. No, we're just, you know, we don't think at all. So let's get into a little more

[00:16:03] in depth talk about Donald in general. Oh, Donald, yeah. Completely iconic. One of the hardest voices to do. I want to say walk us through your process of doing Donald. I know Tony and Samo used to have to twerk his body

[00:16:17] to do it. You know, like how do you get into doing voice? Where's your range on that? Well, I did it so well that they would bring me into the ground work or like the Caballeros at Walt Disney World. And I would do it in 20

[00:16:31] minutes because it's just so natural for me. So I'd sing with three Caballeros. I'd sing, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours,

[00:16:45] how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours, how many hours? Thank you. And they'd have to give it a Tony because he's the official voice and it took him an hour and a

[00:17:11] Groundwork to make it so natural as I practice it was every day, you know 14 shows a week You know so it was something that now it's just coming so natural to do anyway. That's what the director

[00:17:25] It's kind of funny that like you're laying that you're basically doing the scratch track for Tony and so yeah, yeah, we don't talk about He's in another world Yeah, go ahead in general what's it like working for Disney?

[00:17:40] What's your experience working? Oh, it's a lot of fun. You're around the most creative people ever me I mean, you know an Academy Award-winning director comes up. It's okay. Let's do this and you know working with the best people You know they're amazing amazing

[00:17:51] Animators are like these genius artists. They're just unbelievable And so it was a real treat to do it's a privilege to do these voices And you know if the people don't understand that it that you're lucky at Azzar and I were friends for 50 years

[00:18:04] You know who it is there is up. Yeah, he said asner voice of granny goodness. Yeah. Yeah He was And I did a lot of things that people didn't realize he did he was one of those actors Yeah, that was that has no

[00:18:20] And he he won seven Emmys so I used to call him mr. Seven Emmys He didn't like And every time he'd win an Emmy I call him up and go what like there? No other actors like you're the only one and he goes

[00:18:32] I hope it doesn't price me out of the business and every great actor I ever met said to me I got lucky the ones who are really fortunate so and and he wasn't the only one I mean there were a lot of actors out there

[00:18:41] I think Michael J. Fox was just a real at you know attitude or not and most of the most successful actors I work with they just want to work. They want to do the work You know, we're unfortunately you hear about the divas the park

[00:18:53] So you assume everybody's like that but most of the people I worked with I've new art family ties airwolf movies of the week

[00:18:59] Whatever it is Elizabeth Montgomery who I did between the darkness and the dawn which was a movie of the she wanted to give an actor a break And I came in and did the audition and she picked me up cold

[00:19:08] She didn't she just said okay, you can give it She wanted to give an act she was that generous and and she was there. She was about the work

[00:19:15] It wasn't about no break a tantrum or anything that it was getting getting it right and those are the best act And that's why you look at a Robert Downey. Wow this guy knows stuff come back that he's made Don't call it a comeback

[00:19:27] You know I watch Michael Keaton and it's like an acting exercise is like an acting lesson much him Robin That way it was a comedian at the comedy store named Tim Tomerson Who was Robin Williams before there was Robin?

[00:19:40] That good he did the entire movie stagecoach live on stage All the characters and the stagecoach yeah, yeah Yeah, my name's Leonard stupid ugly old Leonard I'm on the stagecoach, you know

[00:19:59] And you know these guys you learn from you know you watch it. You don't you know you don't try to you know Emulate them but learn learn from these they know what they're doing. I mean I think Keaton never took an acting

[00:20:11] I think he was just born that way. I don't know but Remember the backlash where it was like mr. Mom is playing Batman. Yeah Well and now they're like oh, yeah, mr. Mom is playing Batman awesome Nowadays most people don't remember mr. Mom and remember him

[00:20:30] Yeah, yeah at the time that people were mad that a comedian was gonna play Batman Yeah, and I remember this big director I did a pilot called Hollywood high with Annie Potts and he's the big director and he called me up one day

[00:20:44] He said you see night shift, you know this guy Michael Keaton. I go. Yeah, he was at the comedy store He was amazing. He got no kidding, you know, so when he was up for Batman

[00:20:52] We both said oh, he'll do this, you know, if you get the right director in the right script He'll be fantastic. Yeah, it was the same backlash that Heath Ledger got when he played Joker. Yeah, and look what he did Oh, yeah, in a good way. Yeah Yeah

[00:21:06] TV though, okay What was it like working on like family ties and airwolf like what was it like on those sets? Well? Family ties was a sitcom and the guy who wrote my episode of Bob Newhart was the co-executive producer of family ties and

[00:21:21] The funny that we had a sat down for lunch one day and he said, you know I got to tell you episode you did of the Bob Newhart show that started my career as a comedy writer Oh, that's just jettisoned to this, you know thing

[00:21:33] So he was a comedy writer and he was the co-executive producer said, you know, I have a part for you on family ties I said great. So I walk in and they have all these ventriloquists lined up. They played another ventriloquist

[00:21:45] And and I walk right past them and I go in and then he says oh Just do your little comedy acting comedy store with the dummy and they're all laughing and they go, okay at four o'clock

[00:21:53] And after you got the part show up. That was it, you know, wow But Michael Fox is wonderful Meredith Baxter burr these guys were just happy. They you know that they were working together

[00:22:01] They were a good team and there were no errors about it. Nobody gave no good game atmosphere That's what you want on a set want everybody to be positive and enjoy the journey Okay, am I talking too much? No, no

[00:22:13] I just didn't want him to get he wanted to he's a like huge Batman fan. I didn't want him to go on that rabbit Well, they did he did Batman I did Fat Man It's a joke it's a joke

[00:22:29] So did Kevin Smith. She thought she was believing me here So Kevin Smith She has a show called fat man on Batman When I was called fat man beyond

[00:22:41] So going moving kind of jumping around back to Donald yeah, yeah doing Donald that that help you understand Chippendale a little bit more No At least Donald's frustration Well see any little thing will tick off Donald duck, but he doesn't get mad to get mad

[00:23:01] He gets mad when he gets frustrated or the nephew play a trick on him or something like that And actually for Tom and Jerry where I do a little quacker, you know You know Sounds like the same voice doesn't it

[00:23:19] So something about ducks in Hollywood, right so except Howard So we're coming up with scripts I wrote several episodes of Tom and Jerry because I could do everything to make a living so so I'm I'm I remember Donald duck did an episode in

[00:23:36] 1948 where he gets hit on the head with a brick and his voice changes and he becomes Frank Sinatra He's one of these you know And the women are just going nuts for him and in Daisy duck figures

[00:23:49] Oh, she lost him and then one day she sees him walking down the street And she's crying and he gets hit on the head again with something and he goes back to his Donald duck voice and recognizes

[00:23:57] Daisy and there was another episode where he takes a voice pill and he changes his voice to Ronald Coleman This very famous a beautiful speaking voice and Ronald Coleman. I'll get that That's for me, right so they wanted to talk to the duck, right? Yeah So

[00:24:23] So they so Ronald Coleman is his voice story He takes a voice pill it sounds like Ronald Coleman and Ronald Coleman was one of these guys as gorgeous speakers So he's in a star back in the 30s and 40s

[00:24:34] And it was like oh, it is of all whole better thing I do with an FF and so this is Donald's I remember this episode because I remember as soon as he became Frank I don't think they could get Frank but he got somebody like it. Yeah, yeah

[00:24:48] So so what happens we I? Pitch this idea to the executive producer of Tom and Jerry And we decide to make him into an opera singer so little quacker becomes an opera singer

[00:25:00] I remember that episode too. Yeah, and he they get this guy who's a big opera singer big tenor And he's got this huge place and he sings And we get Steve Stanton does Ronald Coleman he does the voice

[00:25:14] So now quacker has three voices Ronald Coleman and this opera singer and Macarons opera and it was a little awesome Yeah, cool, huh? I mean, I'm struck at the missus. It's the thought behind creating here kind of like how you come up with these ideas and everything

[00:25:29] Yeah, I mean like because I was gonna lead into Earlier if anybody knew who the quacker was yeah and have people here It's a smaller And he eventually became yaki doodle for Hannah Barbera

[00:25:47] I forgot the name of the John he just passed away at like and he did the perfect look back. He do back in the 60s or anybody was born We got one yeah Not a pretty story, but or is it the prettiest story of me exactly

[00:26:04] So you also wrote some of the episodes for Tom and Jerry Yeah, yeah I would submit ideas and stuff and then we develop it into an episode like quacker finds a lucky penny and then He finds the lucky penny and then

[00:26:15] Tom steals the penny and if you steal the penny you have bad luck. So Tom gets you know beat up To quacker, you know, there was a lot of awesome. Yeah any questions any bottles and actually

[00:26:28] For questions we do want people to start like if you have a question We got a couple more questions before we get to it But get them ready and we'll let you guys know when we can ask some questions here Do you have a question?

[00:26:42] That's my husband listen, I I did I did not give her my room key. I did not I Did not so I gotta ask this though. Yeah, you've done a lot of work for robot chicken. Yeah. Yeah

[00:26:56] Who here's a fan of robot chicken? Yes. Okay. I was hoping right yeah, what's it like working with Seth green Seth is great We did Mickey and Donald at a bar picking up chicks I My favorite episode

[00:27:11] I made a reference to Howard and Seth plays Howard. So it's like yeah now you have two two ducks in the room Two ducks. Yeah Howard the duck. Yeah. Yeah, that's two ducks one bar. Yeah two ducks one bar

[00:27:24] Two ducks one cup. No do not ask what that is No, do not ask that reference That's nothing so the first one I ever did was Mickey's admirer which is Mickey and Donald at a bar picking up chicks

[00:27:35] So Donald duck tells Mickey. Hey this girl's staring at you, you know, you should go over there and talk to her It turns out to be Minnie Mouse. He says who wants to be who wants to date a girl? It looks like you an address

[00:27:48] And then he gets upset and he goes oh my god, she's coming over I gotta leave Mickey gets up and leaves and then Donald duck looks around there's daisy duck. He goes. Oh my gosh I'm a hideous woman And he says oh my gosh I'm a hideous woman

[00:28:09] And then he says you want to get out of here. He says you want to get out of here, you know still gotta pick her up Donald has no standards And I had to be the fun as the first one we did I still think it's the funniest

[00:28:27] That's awesome. So to lead on to that before we go right into the the question What is your fondest memory of any of the roles you've played like any fun stories from recording sessions or just something

[00:28:36] That comes to mind when you think of like, oh, this was fun aside from obviously picking up chicks at a bar with Yeah, yeah Well Seth was great to work with just a real bro

[00:28:45] Well, it's hard to tell you because when I did Wacker it was so much for us all these great these actors came in Oh and and with robot chicken you sit there and there's these big famous people

[00:28:54] He got all these big name actors, you know, Brent Spiner from data was there And you know, you guess all these major stars to come in and do these ridiculous things, you know And and I could you know, we I did one with um, oh, what's her name?

[00:29:08] She was she's she was on the 70s show 70s, you know No, the other one. Uh, mela. Mela cunis. I know mela's done a lot of stuff for Yeah, yeah, but this is uh, you know adult adult uh, yeah

[00:29:21] Comedy and uh, so we're doing it with mela and donald duck eyes. It's too crazy or seth mcfarland's star wars everything he does star wars related on So let's let's start with some questions here go ahead and uh ask your question. All right, so

[00:29:37] Comedy store in the 60s 70s 80s. What's the craziest story you can share in this with this audience? From the comedy store. I'll tell you. I'll tell you at least rated e Yes, there was a comedian named lennie schultz was brilliantly hilarious funny guy

[00:29:54] And he would get up on stage and do just about and hit himself in the head with a flower bag and you know cover himself Or whatever so somebody yelled out throw up throw up throw up

[00:30:03] It's falling on stage before they could stop him. He stuck his finger down Lenny throw throw up Lenny. Uh, he was banned from the comedy store for a while Yeah, that's a picture. I don't want to I don't want to deal with that. Yeah, yeah

[00:30:20] But um, you're leaving me. Oh no, I think you got a question. Oh my god Um, so you've done a number of interviews through the years What is a question that you've never been asked but you've always had an answer ready for?

[00:30:32] Um, uh, geez that's a good one because I have no I was ready. Oh, uh, uh, let's see. I was ready to talk about uh, uh acting and he never got around to acting You know just do donald duck and do your do your comedy get out

[00:30:48] That's a great question How long have you been acting? Uh, well if you talk to my last girlfriend quite a while We'll remember he's only 22. Yeah, yeah Well since I was eight, you know, uh

[00:31:02] They put me into one of these acting singing dancing hula baton twirling schools at eight years of age So I learned to tap dance. You know, that's awesome. Yeah What was your favorite type of movie you played? What was my favorite type of movie?

[00:31:15] Uh, you did I did. Yeah, well, uh, let's see It was fun to do at long last love with madeline con I was a dancing caveman the best dancers in hollywood and we act like we were in the uh, It was spastic children's foundation

[00:31:32] And meanwhile burt reynolds tap dances from the waist up Go figure he's a star. He's a star you see this and you hear the taps and it's like Yeah, so I don't I can't do voices

[00:31:45] But even when I like pretend to attempt it hurts my throat. So doing different voices Do you ever find that I mean? What do you do to take care of your voice because I cough and I choke and it makes my throat dry like

[00:31:59] Do you do something special that helps protect your voice when you do the characters? Uh, not really Well, I take a lozenge, you know something to keep you Hydrated know something to suck on like a coughed coffee hard coffee hard. There's a voice tea

[00:32:17] That a lot of coaches will kind of teach you about and it has honey ginseng cayenne pepper Lemon right and you put that in hot water, uh, and you drink that and it'll help loosen your your vocal cords

[00:32:30] So that's something if you like if you want to practice a little bit and you know Because a lot of it is also training right? So it's the more you train the easier it gets on you that tea will help you

[00:32:39] Loosen your vocal cords and kind of get in that groove. That's something I I learned from working in the music industry But I know it works in voice acting as well

[00:32:48] How long did it take you to do donald duck's voice and can you teach us how to do it? Like you said eight eight years old. Yeah, take my job Oh got one from the back. Okay, she's dramatically coming up Pause Um, yeah

[00:33:10] Do you think that voice actors are treated differently than screen actors? We don't get as much money, but That sounds very different Very different. Uh, also a lot of the voice actors are brilliant actors in their own right They just happen to find out voices

[00:33:24] I've met billion actor great actors shakespearian actor and he's done all this theater And he knows how to create a character hundreds of sys and that's he decided he just rather do voice

[00:33:33] And then he had this a bill. Do some of them like get into audiobooks at all? No, I haven't done it But that's a big deal and they'll hire some shakespearian actor with a bigger than I will

[00:33:43] Read these, you know serious books. Nobody wants to hear donald duck out. He was the best of times He was the worst of times That is absolutely what I wanted Nobody wants to hear That is the question Oh my god

[00:34:09] Um, I was just curious about um the prep work it takes to do um to get prepared to start doing your voices acting For like the final the final product like how much practice does it take to get to that point? Like do you have to constantly? reread

[00:34:26] reread your lines over and over like like three days like how long does it take to memorize? Yeah, that's a great question because when you do voiceover for a cartoon you don't have to memorize

[00:34:36] But they'll give me the the dialogue ahead of time a few days ahead of time So I can work on the words for donald duck or a little quacker rather because you know it's hard to understand

[00:34:45] So you as you do it you try to substitute other other words But when we did one called uh the ugly duckling something like you know like the ugly duckling Which I you know to say the word ugly was the hardest thing in the world to do

[00:34:59] So I would say And I had to break it up to two syllables, you know and still it comes out You know give me a break Did it did it take a lot of takes to get it just right?

[00:35:14] Yeah, it did for ugly it did and most of the time for a duck voice you would break up the words You know make one word into two two words, you know like something or I don't know

[00:35:24] I can't remember a word now, but just to kind of break it up so you could understand what he's saying. Yeah, thank you But I can do super califragilistic expo. No problem

[00:35:34] I would like to hear that right now, but anyways, um, so how would you to um, give somebody who would like to be a voice actor a Like outline or a way to get about that

[00:35:46] Well, you have to have a voiceover demo to give to an agent who can see that you have a range of voices Or that if you have one thing that's really you then nobody else can do which is you know hard to find, you know

[00:35:58] Not everybody's d Bradley Baker Or bill farmer the voice of goopy. He does hundreds of voices. He does all the presidents. He did it for me He does all the press. I tell you okay try and do Lincoln

[00:36:14] We got another one. Oh, yeah. Oh here we go. I love it. I like that. We're getting them from all over the It's more of a personal a personal question. Are you married? Do you have kids and grandkids?

[00:36:24] And how do they feel about your role my role? Well, I have two kids that I know of My son is 38 and my daughter's 35 and they fixed my son's a computer genius Didn't get it for me

[00:36:36] My daughter worked for the Girl Scouts for many years and then now she's a personal assistant to somebody And uh, unfortunately, I lost my wife many years ago But how did they feel towards your roles as donald

[00:36:47] Let's say funny, you know, they could tell people their dad was And I used to read them my daughter loved it. I read books in the morning And the to go to bed you had to read him a story

[00:36:58] So I do it in all these little different voices. So she remembered that So it was cool for them to say my dad Yeah, and a lot after a while when they get a little older, they don't want to know they don't want to tell anybody

[00:37:10] It's like when I took my daughter to disneyland. She's five six seven years Oh, my dad's donald My dad did donald duck. Oh my god. And now uh, then she became a teenager and said dad. Don't do donald duck We're at disneyland shut up

[00:37:23] Just just keep it to yourself. Oh dad. Don't do that Yeah, that's what my wife does every time I do mickey anywhere. Yeah And my son never liked disneyland I go your dad's donald Do you have grandkids? Huh? Do you have grandkids? I can't hear you

[00:37:42] Do you have grandkids? No, unfortunately, uh, my my kids were young when my wife passed and they are not married, you know, why are you busy? You know, I live alone I Have a chest herpes and an 800 number

[00:37:59] Thank you. What thank you. Oh, okay. You're welcome. I enjoy hearing your voice. Thank you very much Thanks So we have oh no, we're running on time. Okay. We're out of time

[00:38:11] So I have some wrap up questions for you here. Okay, wrap me up. I'm gonna wrap you up nice and tight Uh, I'm gonna ask you the hardest question that you've ever been asking your life. Why are these people in the back so far in the way?

[00:38:21] Yeah, just why is everybody in the back? Are you afraid of ducks? So they could sneak out. They don't have to hear it It's okay. You should be afraid of ducks. You guys see ducks. They're scary

[00:38:34] Except for his duck he the both of his ducks are not scary at all. I give good duck. Yeah Except when donald's mad What is your favorite kind of taco taco? I'm not a mexican food

[00:38:44] Ah, I eat junk food. My father lived to be 102 on junk junk food seriously Seriously, uh, is a true story if you didn't come over the box to seize candy at his house at 100

[00:38:55] You know, he'd send you out to get candy and when he had and when he passed that 102 Uh, he had his mind at 101. He did his taxes Yeah, he did him wrong but he did him And we had a big memorial for him and we

[00:39:11] Invited everybody to the the memorial that his friends and everything and this 90 year old woman comes over to me and says Oh, what did he eat that he could live to be 102? I said well hamburgers hot dogs crap

[00:39:22] You know junk food, you know seize candy Mars bars, you know at 100 We took one of Costco, you know hot dog at a coke And she says to me well, you know if he'd eaten healthier he would have lived longer Oh my gosh

[00:39:36] To 130. Yeah, I said what a month, you know He's 102, you know You know, I think that was probably just reactionary is like, yeah, we would live longer really. Yeah, really So unfortunately, uh, I've struggled with that all my life to get the uh, I need healthy um

[00:39:55] If you could choose between Characters, would you rather do donald duck or a different one? Well, that's one of you should ask that because I always wanted to do like daffy because daffy to me was the greatest

[00:40:07] Single character ever invented because he had such. Yeah, how is your daffy? Have you tried it? Yeah, I could do daffy Are you talking to me? What's donald duck's favorite food? Wow, not a licks favorite food acting 101

[00:40:32] That's food. No, no, no, what how does the character think? Oh, yeah, well, uh, let's see. What is he? What is donald duck eat? I don't remember eating anything. I don't think I've ever seen him. I've never seen him

[00:40:41] I maybe oh you guys are missing a good thing. I know the and thanksgiving donald duck had a turkey Oh, so he's accountable. Yeah It's in a cartoon and they're they're carving up a turkey. It's the ducks eating it. Yeah, yeah, well

[00:40:58] Yeah, so there you go. How's that? What's donald duck's favorite color? Favorite color. Oh, it'd have to be blue or navy blue, you know, because that's what he wears And he doesn't wear pants. Yeah, thank you What's her name? What's her name? Ronan. I'm sorry Loken Ronan

[00:41:19] Ronan, oh Ronan what makes this so much better is this is going to be on the internet so you can hear that Apparently Pikachu is her favorite She likes ducks. Look at this. If you could choose one character would it be donald duck Or daffy duck

[00:41:46] Well, like I said, I always wanted to do daffy duck, you know, like the greatest he was he had all these emotions He was jealous. He was egotistical. He was obnoxious. I mean, he just you know, play are you following me?

[00:41:58] You know, would you would you pick like donald duck to be like your best friend or mickey mouse? Well, it has to be donald duck Even though donald's best friend was mickey mouse. Yeah. Oh, yeah, thank you. Oh Yeah, he speaks for me

[00:42:17] So again last question here and it's we almost kind of answered it here, but uh, normally we ask who would win in a fight, right? Donald I mean, I'm not going to put them in a fight situation. So quack off

[00:42:28] Who wins in a quack off little quacker or donald duck? Well, he's just an innocent baby little duck I mean, you know, yeah, well, where's donald's a grown-up person. So I imagine donald

[00:42:37] He's just gonna just the the the amount of energy donald has for being an adult is just packing out Yeah, all right. Well, where can everybody follow you learn more about you if they want to follow everything you do I have a website sam k 3000.com

[00:42:53] Sam k a y Thousand calm somebody stole the k so it's k 300 Is that the other website and you see all the work I did with bob new heart and family ties and stand up and you know

[00:43:04] Little butt chicken and uh and backer and tom and jerry and all that stuff And yes, I can do super calyp retchalistic expialidocious. Do you want to hear it? Absolutely The amount of joy that just rose in me right now

[00:43:39] I love it sam. Thank you for your time. We appreciate you so much And uh, you're gonna be here for the rest of the day, right? Yeah, I'll be here. Yeah, so for anybody who has any questions for sam or wants to go get an autograph

[00:43:50] He's gonna be at his table over here guys. Go go say hi. Yeah, okay Thank you so much. Thank you Well, we hope you enjoyed this week's comic conversation This was the production of the distance nerding podcast and time for tacos media for more content

[00:44:08] 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 podcast spotify or wherever you get your podcasts Thanks and keep nerding together

[00:44:20] Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening signing out from another amazing episode of Comicon radio For your daily shows of comicon radio go to comicon dash radio dot com Reach us on social media instagram Comicon radio comicon radio taking the world one listener at a time