The Harland Highway - 478: Harland's COLLEGE ROOMATE, Rej, drops by!

Episode Date: March 21, 2013

Today my best buddy and college roomate Rej Bourdages drops by. Wait until you hear about all the AMAZING MOVIES he has worked on over his career. Also the Harland Highway Animal Quiz! Lemon juice leg warmers!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, hello, boys and gals. Hey, it's Harland. I tried to do a disguise my voice so you wouldn't think it was me, but then I thought, what is the point of that? Like, do I not want people to be aware of the podcast or think it's the right podcast? No, so, yeah, I'm an idiot. Welcome to the show, folks. Special show today.

We are going to be spending the show today with my. college roommate. My buddy Reg, one of my best friends, and this guy is an incredible talent. Wait to you hear the list of movies feature films, incredibly huge movies this guy has worked on during the span of his career in the animation industry. Fascinating talk. Getting to know Reg, getting to know his work. It's going to be great. It's going to be animated right here on the Harland Highway. Welcome to the Harland Highway. All right, let's get this sucker going, huh?

You are causing a major disturbance on my time. It's the Harland Highway. What's up, Bra? If I'm here and you're here, doesn't that make it our time? I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you think you are doing? You just made a wrong turn.

On to the Harland Highway. This is your fucking wake-up call, man. You're riding down the Harland Highway with Harland Williams. In 30 seconds, you'll be dead. I'll blow this place up and be home in time for cornflakes. Hey, everybody! It's me, Harlan Williams. You are rolling down the Harlan Highway.

And holy cornmeal. What a treat. What a cornmeal treat. I have a wonderful guest. He's on the show all day today, all show. You're going to love this guy. I know I do. He's my college roommate from college.

See how those two go together? College roommate from college. He's one of my best friends in the whole world. And on top of that gang, this guy is a mega superstar animation guy. He's worked. The way do you hear the movies he's worked on. Incredibly talented artist, animator. storyboard guy but i'm going to let him tell you about him uh my buddy redge bordage is here

howdy buddy hi fellow buddy that now the last name we got it's french canadian i even have trouble saying it bordeaux right it's french for bon jovi how do you say it like is that how you say it with the french kick yeah bordeage bordeage bordeage because i've always just say Bordage. Yeah. Well, I say Bordage, too, but in French it's bourdage. Ooh, that's sexy. And sometimes I even say Bordages, because that's how it's spelled.

Boudajis. I used to get that in high school, too. Hey, budaji. Really? Yeah. I used to order that at an Indian restaurant. Line crosser. Guy does hack material right out of the gate.

Line crosser. Line crosser. So we know each other. Me and Reg actually grew up. in the same neighborhood back in Canada, in Toronto. And then our first jobs, really. Your dad was our MP. Her dad was your local, my dad was your local politician.

Yeah, you remember of parliament. Yeah, I remember seeing the John Williams signs. The election signs nailed into people's lawns. So my dad had control over you. Yeah. And then we started off early. You used to work at a hotel called the Prince Hotel. where you set up the banquet hall rooms.

The Canadian room. And then you left, and just by sheer fluke, I got that job. I didn't even know you yet. I came into that job. So we used to go hang out in the back rooms. Remember waiting for the people to clear the banquet rooms. Yeah. And we would draw on, you know, in the back part, on the walls.

Yeah, in the closets and stuff. Yeah. And I remember we had a mutual friend. Yeah. Jim Plezis, I think. He went to school with you. Yeah. And he kept on going,

Your stuff stinks, man. My friend Harley's way better. Yeah. And then when I was leaving, my friend's way better than you. Yeah, he's Harley Williams. He's so great, man. What, my artwork was better than your artwork?

Yeah, he raved about your artwork. And then so anyways, and when, Harley's taking your job when I was leaving. Yeah. And then I heard from you that he kept on going about, oh, Reg is way better than you, Harley. Yeah.

this guy was a nut but then the fluke is we ended up being uh classmates when we went to college we didn't really know each other except through that guy we'd never really we i think we met once no we didn't meet up yeah i think we met when you went to the prince hotel yeah we met once you were and i saw you i didn't know who the hell you were and then as fate would have it we we both went into animation we both liked to draw cartoons and there you were at animation college not only were we classmates but we ended up being roommate in college yeah yeah we kind of looked i remember looking at the the register or whatever and seeing steve williams and harlan williams i know that guy so yeah connected there that's kind of weird and now like here we are

just what seven years later and we're we're still best buddy seven years seven plus maybe a few more got it's like 30 years ago um so you went on to make make uh your way through the animation world. I kind of bailed out and ended up going like into the stand-up and acting world. But you are one of the guys out of our class. And we had a really talented class full of animators in college. You went on to like work for Disney, work for Pixar, work for, what's the British studio? Ardman. Ardman. You worked for Nelvana Studios. I mean, you work for Dreamworks. I mean, you have worked on movies that would make anyone green with envy. Can you give us a little list of some of the major movies you worked on?

Care Bears, number one. Care Bears was number one. That's where it started. You know you're going places when you start with Care Bears. Strawberry Shortcake, that was number one. Strawberry Shortcake. That was the first scene ever did. I was kind of hoping you'd pass those ones over and get right to the good stuff.

But, okay. Nowadays, I'm proud of that. That's a good one on it. You're proud of your straw. Strawberry Shortcake. Little, it was Strawberry Shortcake meets the Berikins. All right.

And they were trying introducing these small mini, you know, in those days, those shows were just like half-hour commercials literally for the toys. Why are you dwelling?

I'm trying to build you up. The big, I clearly said, you should hear the list of movies that would make people green with envy. I haven't heard one movie yet. I've heard Care Bears and Strawberry Shorgate,

which probably made a bunch of people turn it off. What are your movies? Let's go. I'm trying to fluff you up here. The first big one was Asterix in Paris. Asterix? Okay, people don't know that one here because it's,

can we please get to the movies? Roger Rabbit was the first big one. There we go. Here we go, folks. He's finally getting it. We want the big name movies. Wow. Asterix, Care Bears, Strawberry, Shortcake.

Do you want to throw Babar in there just for kicks? Okay, so let's get to the goodies. You started on the biggies, Roger Rabbit. Roger Rabbit. Huge movie. Change the animation industry. Yeah, that was... Then?

Then I went to Disney in L.A. and I worked on... I think the first one was rescuers down under. Rescuers down under. They were just finishing, I think, Little Mermaid. And they wanted me to help out on the cleanup, but I didn't want to do that. I was doing animation at that time.

So I ended up animating on some short things they were doing. And then I got on Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast. Huge in the Beast. Didn't that win a bunch of Oscars? Yeah, that was the first one that was nominated for, like, Best Picture. Even they didn't have a Best Animated Feature, you know, category. Yeah.

That's when animation started kind of making a comeback, started to take a turn. Yeah, it got legitimatized. And you were an animator on that. You actually, like, animated the scenes and. Yeah, with some fellow guys that we went to school with Nick Renary was on that, and a bunch of guys that. I don't think people listening know who we went to school with. Can we please just get to the big title?

What is? Aladdin, Aladdin. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Excuse me, Aladdin was your next one. Would you like to name some more people that worked on it? We don't know. No, Aladdin. Roger Rabbit, Aladdin.

What else? Lion King. Lion King, huge. Lion King. What else? Pocahontas. Pocahontas. Keep going.

Hunchback of Notre Dame's. Notice I'm not giving you any room to talk about stuff that doesn't matter. What else? Then I left. I lived Disney and I went to work at DreamWorks. And what did you work on there? Shrek. Shrek, huge.

Yeah, I got to work on all the Shrecks. All this. So Shrek 1, 2, and 3. And 4. And 4. What else? What other one? Madagascar.

Madagat, huge. Yeah. And then I got to, they were working in, with Ardman, which was this company in England. Yeah, the guys do the Wallace and Grommet stuff? Yeah, so I got to work on Chicken Run. Chicken Run, huge. Yeah, it was great.

And it was all stop motion. It was a total different. Dude, what else? The list doesn't stop. What else? So chicken, and then Wallace and Gromit. I got to work on the Wallace and Gromit. Huge.

Yeah, it was great. And then now I just finished on the Pirates, and they're nominated for an Oscar. So you're basically essentially, nominated for an Oscar. I'm expecting to go pick up the Oscar tonight. Your Oscar bait. Yeah, I'm here for the Oscars tonight.

Oh, that's, dude, what a resume. Are you kidding me? I've been very lucky. Have you ever said your resume out loud like that before? No, no, it sounds more impressive when you're forcing me to say it. Don't you feel like you want to be you now? I know. Wouldn't you want to be you?

Yeah, I do wish I was me. Don't you wish you weren't you weren't you, but you were you? I'm pissed off. I started off with Care Bears now. I should have worked backwards. Aren't you glad I'm your buddy? See how I worked you out of it? No wonder we have no agents.

You should be my agent. God damn. Dude, I mean, it's unbelievable. All these movies were like huge movies. A lot of them were up for Oscars. But outside of that, a lot of those movies we worked on are actually really good movies that stand the test of time. People love they made.

Put those movies together. We're talking the billions of dollars. Billions. Yeah, it's true. I don't think of it that way, but yeah, it's true. I know. It's not like you judge a good movie by the money it made, but I'm just saying you have a very deep and rich resume.

What a career, man. Oh, thank you. You're like an animation god. Oh, no, no, I wouldn't go that far. Well, you wouldn't, but I'm going to say it. Reg is a humble guy. He's a French-Canadian bordecage or whatever it is. But, dude, that's huge.

Yeah, I've been pretty lucky. But, I mean, I think part of it is you work. on good stuff you end up it just kind of you know dominoes into the next job uh excuse me dude you're super talented look i've known regs forever we're roommates in college he's friggin talented folks and and regs started doing the animation the actual in case you're confused with animation the animation is actually creating the movement on film which reg did but now you've segued into where you're a storyboard artist where you will take scenes from an animated script and you will map them all out.

You will do drawings and kind of map out how the scene's going to look, how it's going to cut. Tell the folks like the process, like what a storyboard guy does. Well, we flesh out the script, the script. So we visualize the script. So we also do writing. Sometimes they just have, you know, the idea, the premise, the outline, and you have to, you have to flesh it out, you know, come up with the idea.

So a lot of the times you're writing, coming up with gags, but you're all. Also, you know, putting in the cinematography, to me, it was so much more fun than just working on, like, the frame-by-frame animation, which was boring to me after a while. It was like, oh. And I've seen you in action. What people don't know is that with an animation script, you get the writing on the page, you get the script. But it's guys like Reg that will take the writing and they'll draw it out, they'll storyboard it out, they'll do the cinematography. And like you said, you guys come up with a lot of the hilarious gags. in these movies.

Yeah, it's very collaborative. It's fun. You work with the directors and you work with other story guys and it's probably a bit like what you guys do when you're coming up with jokes and you're, you know, a lot of times we do work with, you know,

comedians and writers. Yeah. Yeah, it's really fun. It's good, but I think people might not realize it. I think a lot of people think, oh, all the funny comes off the script, the written word, and they don't realize that if you go and watch an animated movie,

next time you watch it, folks, just look at moments like in Shrek when that Puss and Boots does the giant kitty cat eyes. You know, the little pussycat eyes and little facial expressions and physical gags. A lot of that's never in the script. A lot of that comes out of you guys. Yeah, that was, well, we know the guy that boarded that. But yeah, a lot of that stuff just comes alive when the board guy comes, you know, and pitches it. He has to pitch the stuff.

He has to sell it. He does the voice. you know, he really becomes that character. Yeah. It's a really fun job, and man, you guys do a killer job. Let me ask you this. What's the difference between kind of the way things were done? Let's say you worked on Aladdin, you worked on Lion King.

What's the difference to be working on one of those movies, which was kind of the old school style, versus working on something today? Right now we're not allowed to talk about it. Reg Works of Pixar. He's working on a new project. We can't talk about it because they're secretive. But what's the difference for you're working on older-style movies versus stuff you're working on today?

Well, when I was at Disney, I was animating, so I never was doing the story stuff then. Right. So I can't. I think it was more in the old days. I don't think stories change that much. You still have to do the same process. Hey, everybody.

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So be sure to use this code Harland so you get your discount and 100% free shipping code Harland. Have fun. Don't throw your back out. No, I mean the process of the animation. Wasn't it like you actually had to like ink out and draw all the animal? Now it's like all computerized, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I'm not in the, I don't do the animation anymore. But yeah, in those days you had to act it out. You have to do thumbnails. You have to draw everything. It was, you know, 24 drawings, you know, 12 drawings a second. It was every two-frame. Yeah, it was tedious. And how does it work now?

It's just all done by a computer? It's all computer. So it's kind of more, they have a model. It's a bit more like puppet animation. They have like a sculpt in the computer, and they move it around the same as they would. It's probably more like puppet animation. You know what I mean? Right.

But, you know, I don't do it anymore, so I can't even speak. Right, but you know the process when you're there. That's what I'm trying to. to get through to the don't don't hold out on the listeners now come on you're you're in the garage you're seeing the you're seeing the magic work i think it's much harder to do the two d stuff because you had to be an amazing draftsman you had to be able to draw like the wind you have to the what stuff the the you know the two d wasn't she on facts of life ah hello hello hack material uh two d fruity the uh no i thought i was

way harder. I hated doing the animation because I wasn't as amazing a draftsman. So some of these guys, you know, you have to be so talented on so many levels to do like 2D, the old school stuff. You know, I'm not taking anything away from the guys that are amazing

at computers, but those guys that were great doing 2D, you know, those guys, you know, they're one in a million, I think. Yeah, yeah. Some of these guys that could draw anything. And they have to make it believable that it's animal and the weight and the acting and yeah you know it's it's an art form it's an art form yeah

they don't you know the puppet animation guys that do the puppet stuff that's like an old you know that's the same talent pool i think you what's an example of the puppet style stuff like was chicken run yeah chicken run those guys wallace and grommet yeah because it more like puppets yeah but there's there could be a scene with 12 guys 12 puppets you can't go backwards you know i mean like you can't make a mistake. They're all acting at the same time. Right. You know, it's amazing. Like, Paranorman, all these movies that are, there's three or four last year that were phenomenal. You know, uh, Frankenweeney. Yeah. Yeah, they're all three, they're all nominated for Oscars this year. But yeah, that stuff is so impressive to me. Wow. It looks great. It's getting

better and better too. Yeah, they're amazing. Um, so out of all those movies that you worked on, yeah, and there's one you're working on now we can't talk about, but what's your favorite movie did it was the one that stood out about all the above all the others you're like man this is the fave i love like they they re-released the lion king last year yeah that still stood out really i loved that movie and you loved working on it more than the others hard to work on but in hindsight it was such a great movie it worked tell us why well when it was scary it was really scary when it was sad it was sad when you know it hit all the elements it's a great movie it's really emotional it was the first time you know you saw like a real death on screen of one of

the characters that's true yeah uh you know it was just great and timone and pumba when they were on the screen it was funny you know and it still stands out the animation was great yeah overall it was really great um the only other one i thought was that i'm really proud of that i loved is uh uh chicken run i still yeah right i still think that's really great still stands out it is it's amazing Yeah, and it's just, you just forget that you're watching puppets, you know. Yeah, right. And, yeah, I think those two stick out. I mean, I'm sure there's more.

I mean, I like the original Shrek just because it was different at the time. But, yeah, I just, those two stick out as being. Okay, good. I asked for one, folks. I know, you got two. You got a double-decker, double feature. I got a double-decker sandwich. I got a, you just cooked us up a bacon, lettuce, and tomato right there, dude.

A Harvey burger special. A Harvey double cheeseburger. Well, let's move on a little bit to college. I mean, any favorite college stories? I mean, we went to college. It was like the 80s. And, you know, we were in the middle of like kind of the 80s music when it was coming out. MTV had just popped.

It's funny. I was telling Denise, my wife, we were talking about the music we were listening to. It really wasn't that 80s stuff. It was all rockabilly and remember that? Yeah, a lot of rockabilly stuff. Everyone we hung out with was all stray cats. Yeah. So we never, I never really listened to that much 80s, that weird techno.

Really? I liked it. I mean, we were watching. We'd stay up late at night and watch Rock video because MTV was still fairly new. Yeah, it was right at the beginning MTV. We were watching Spandau Ballet singing True. We were watching David Bowie singing Put on Your Red Shoes and China Girl. One of the first jobs I had.

in London was doing videos. Oh, really? Yeah. Did you not know? I thought you worked. What'd you work on? I worked on a queen video. It's a kind of magic.

Oh, wow. Okay. Grace Jones videos. It was all the guy that he was the biggest director of video. He did all the Duran Duran Duran videos. Wow. I think his name Russell Mackay. Russell McKay, I think his name.

Anyway, he did all those big videos. Didn't you work on a Paula Abdul video? No, I didn't. Was it the Stones? Did you work on a Rolling Stones? Did I? I worked on... Wasn't there one where they had a bunch of cats running around? Yeah, Harlem Shuffle.

Was that you? Were you on that? No, that was... The guy did run and Stimpy. Didn't you play drums on a couple of stone songs? I did. I worked... I was one of the Eagles, the original Eagles. Nice try. But what's it... Any favorite, like, you know, we got into a lot of hijinks at college.

Anything stick out that was overly fun for you? Any fun memories? Yeah, we had some great times in that. And our other roommate was Steve, who ended up being this huge CGI whiz. Animation whiz. Yeah, I got to get him on here one day. Oh, God. I mean, his resumes just as impressive as yours, except he's in a different category.

He went into the computer animation. He started the computer. He did the first Jurassic Park. He came up with the first dinosaur and T-Rex and all that. But I feel like you're stepping away from the question, which I'm going to ask for a third time. and now I'm starting to think you didn't have any special moments in college. That was a really dark time for me. Oh, really?

No, we had a good time. Wow. Like, was it because I was your roommate? Is that why? Your cheese nest in your room. Can you not think of one exciting time here? Now I'm worried about you. We had a lot of fun.

You're a little bit of fun. What was a fun time for you, Mr. Bordogiajiaz? Oh, God. What do it? There must have been pub nights. Pub nights. Those were good. Yeah, we had a bunch of those.

We used to have a fun time. They used to call them socials. It was like, what was it? Once a month, they would rent out a banquet hall and all the kids from college would go down. I remember one time, you cracked me up. We went out for Halloween. They had a pub night, a social, as they call it.

Yeah. For Halloween. And back in the 80s, there was a big Tylenol scare where some maniac went into like, he went into like the Walmarts and all the all the drug stores and this is before they had safety caps on pill bottles and some maniac just wandered through a drug store opened all the Tylenol things and dropped poison pills and like eight people or 11 people died and that was the catalyst for making safety caps with you know

the plastic seal you get on your your food and your pill bottles it's because of that guy so that that fall, early fall, like 11 people died. So we go to the Halloween social. What does Reg dress up as a giant Tylenol tablet? The guy made a, got a giant piece of cardboard. He was this big round Tylenol. And I remember one guy got really mad at you and walked up. He said, you want to step outside, dude, that's not funny.

Yeah, we had a bunch of guys. I remember there was some guy, that same party, somebody was the porno pope. He dressed up as the pope. I think he had just tons of porno. Oh, yeah, he cut out pictures from Penthouse and Hustler and he dressed as the Pope. There was a lot of, it was during the, a lot of artists went to our college, went to a college that was, you know, theater arts and stuff. It was like the fame school of fame of Oakland, of Oakville. But anyways, yeah, so there was a lot of weird, eccentric nuts that would dress something.

You mean people dressed like Tylenols? Would that be weird and eccentric? Hello? Remember we had a guy that would hide chips, crisps in the trees, up in the trees. Crisps, he says. What are we still in London? Crisp. Crisps are chips, folks, just so you know.

Dill pickle chips up in the tree. Start climbing up a tree on the way back to the zoo. Yeah. Mental. Okay, so clearly you didn't have very many good times in college. I had to answer for you, so I'm just going to move on. Let's move on to something completely. completely different.

Can we go back to the... Glad to know, college meant nothing to you. Go back to the Care Bears' discussion. It was much more funny. How sad and revealing is this interview turned out to be. Oh, man. Have you ever been around someone smelly? Has you ever been around a person that stunk?

Who was it? Where was it? You don't want a name. You don't want names, do you? Well, I do, but if you're not comfortable with it, you don't have to... Yeah, I won't say, but this guy in England never washed. Really? Yeah, and he was a motorcycle guy, and I remember he went on this big road trip for maybe, I don't know, two, three weeks, never showered at all. Come on.

No, and then he came back. I was staying at this house, and there was like two, three people there. He came back, and I remember I'm taking his boots off. I've never smelled anything like. Oh, what did it smell like? Sweet manure. That's all I can think of. Sweet manure.

And crap. Anyway, he took a bath and didn't drain the water when it went out of it. It was dark, dark, dark gray. Oh. It was the first bath he had in three. He stunk so bad. Oh, dude. Yeah.

It's like that swamp. Remember when Skywalker crashed into Yoda's swamp and the things swimming around in the water? Yeah. He was the nicest guy. He was the nicest guy and I thought he'd be dead by now. but I think he had this immune system that was unbelievable because he would eat half-eaten Mars bars off the ground

this is in Paris What? What was he a raccoon? He was kind of not a homeless guy He would just, but he would, you know, people would throw away half-eaten Big Macs. He would just go into the garbage. What? Yeah, but he was never sick, ever, ever-sick.

Are you sure he wasn't a homeless guy? You tell me this was a guy you worked with? Yeah, I worked with. From 9 to 5. Yeah. And after work, he'd go pick a, half-eaten Big Mac out of a garbage can and eat it. We would go to the movies and we'd stop at a McDonald's or he would go into the garbage

and pick, you know, a Big Mac that somebody threw. Come on. So instead of going inside and ordering, he'd stay outside and go through the garbage. He would go inside of the restaurant and pick, you know. And no, you didn't say anything to him? No, I thought it was funny. And then we'd be walking and see a half-eaten candy bar on the sidewalk, kind of brush it off and eat it. Were there ants on it instead?

stuff, like British ants? No, this was in Paris. Oh, so French hands? French ants. He was an English guy working in Paris. Whoa. So he smelled. He ate garbage.

What else did this guy do? Because he'll figure out who it is, but he's, uh... Good. I don't think he's like that anymore. Yeah, he was a, but he was the nicest guy, one of the funniest guys, but, uh, he was a character. He was, uh... Wow. Yeah.

And he was never sick. I think he just had the immune. system of like well let's let's break it down let's say someone eats a big mac yeah they only eat half they go throw it in the garbage can yeah 40 seconds later a guy walks over picks it up lifts it out and eats it where's the germs yeah he had that's what you really think about it was his that was his logic he was always talking about that but the weird thing was he'd be eating stuff off the floor on the sidewalk yeah now that's getting a little sketchier. Wow. Surprisingly, I'm really hungry right now. I want to try this stuff.

Yeah, but that was, he was the smelliest guy. I remember one guy that we shared, we shared a smelly guy once. What? Remember? That sounds wrong. That sounds really bad. That's folks, look, we did not share a smelly guy. Keep it clear. We did. And I don't mean it in a steam bath type of setting. When I first moved to California, me and Reg were neighbors, and we used to go to the gym at the YMCA. And there was one guy there. But you remember, there was this one guy, and he just stunk like sweat.

Remember, you'd get near him and you can barely breathe? And when he'd finish on a weight machine, the stink would be saturated into the leather. He used to wear a white wife beater. And he had, like, curl. I think you, you know, No, there's tons of Armenian guys in Glendale. I think it was an Armenian dude.

And I'm just saying, but it doesn't matter if he's white or black, but I'm trying to help you remember him. And the guy just body odor coming out of the wazoo, man. Sweet and sour. Sweet and sour manure. Unbelievable. So you couldn't figure out a crazy moment in college, which still baffles me. And believe me, we're going to talk about this later.

I'm sure we did. No, you, not we, you. You're just like nothing. Funnest memories was because they didn't have videos. Remember we would go to, they had a repertory theater, like a movie theater. Right. We would go at least three, four times a week to go see. Oh, yeah, they'd show, they showed like movies for a dollar.

Yeah. And it was about five miles from our house and we'd walk all the way there and all the way home. Yeah. And that was fun. That was so fun. and then but we would watch we'd usually be the only ones in the theater yeah and there might be a couple of people in there every now and then there'd be a good movie and we'd be packed and we would you know throw stuff at the screen or you would wait till it's quiet and fart and do some yeah yeah yeah that was fun we had a good time doing that not necessarily a crazy time but no sentimental time yeah i mean You clearly did not have one crazy moment in college.

I'm sorry. I just realized it. Yeah. It was when I left college and worked on Care Bears. It got really fun. Oh, yeah, because life is crazy when you're working on Care Bears. Yeah. What about in your life?

Was there ever a crazy moment in your life like where you just something went off the rails or you did something that you looked at the moment. You went, what am I doing here? How the hell is this me? Is there any ever one of those? I'm not saying there is, but I'm saying what I'm saying. I jumped out of a plane in. What?

Yeah. Hello. Yeah, but the old days. You jumped out of a plane. Yeah, the old like parachuting. Okay, you're going to add the parachute part. Yeah, there was a parachute to it. Okay, thanks.

I jumped out of an airplane that doesn't add the parachute part. Okay. Yeah, I'd say that was crazy. What was that? When did that go down? That was in a weird part in Canada. northern Ontario. Where?

I can't even remember. It was northern Ontario, maybe a couple of hours north of Toronto. God. And I was afraid of heights and I figured this would get me

over it, over it. And did it? No, it was terrifying because I'll never do it again. I was on, it wasn't tandem. There wasn't somebody attached to you. You did it alone? Yeah.

There's a piece of Velcro that was attached to the parachute and the plane. So you would jump out of this plane. Whoa. And at the end of the rope, hopefully the, you know,

the Velcro would pull the parachute out and you would, you know, you'd land. It was terrifying. I assumed, you know, and it was freezing. It was right after New Year's in Canada. My hands were frozen dangling outside of this little Cessna plane

or whatever they threw. So even if the rope didn't pull, your hands would have been too frozen to reach back and release it. And then when I, when the parachute opened, and it did open. Of course, because we're sitting here talking. Yeah, and I assumed that.

For about five minutes, you're just dangling, slowly floating down. Yeah. Then you're terrified landing because you had to do like an hour's worth of jumping off a barn and rolling. So you didn't break. Canada. Yeah, so you didn't break your legs. A barn. Did you land in any sweet manure?

God. Hair flavored. Yeah, it was crazy because, yeah, because then you were worried about when you landed, you had to do a tuck and roll type of thing, so you didn't break your legs. Wow. It's just horrible, horrible. Never do it again. And did someone bug you to do it, or did you just go, I'm going to overcome this fear and go do this? Yeah, I said, I'm going to, and it did. I'm really, I'm not afraid of heights anymore.

You're not? No. And I assumed I was going to be dead when you're looking over outside this plane and the whole side of the plane's open. Why didn't you just say, you know what? I think I'm going to be dead. I'm not going to jump. Can't you just say, you know what, I pay just land. Yeah. I don't know why. At that point, I was the first in line. the guy tapped you on the shoulder and he's like jump and he kind of pushed you out wow imagine if he tapped you on the butt so not only it could be the end of your life but the last thing that happened to you some some guy grabbed your ass line jump on this time yeah

go ahead tap oh crap yeah that was a very yeah i still remember that as being did you ever have like dreams or nightmares about that that falling yeah because when i was falling Yeah, because as I was falling, I froze. You know, I literally... You locked up. Yeah, figuratively and, like, literally, it was freezing cold. I just remember starting to flip over. Like, as you're jumping, you have no control.

You're kind of starting to dive. Start the spiral, yeah. I started to go backwards, and then the shoot open, so it flung me back. Whoa. I was maybe another second I would have started tumbling. Oh. And I just, and I still remember that. I still get some flashbacks.

And where did you land? Where was your landing in a few? You land in a field, and then they pick you up in a pickup truck. They will find you. Just an empty field, or was there corn and stuff? It was like corn, but it was like in the middle of winter, so there was no corn. It was just like weird spikes sticking out. Spikes, okay, yeah.

Let's land. Not only if I'm here, right, let's land in the spikes. Can I just give you a word of advice? Note to self, no parachuting in the middle of a Canadian winter. Maybe do it in Arizona next time? Now I'm jealous. I see these people, you know, they're tandem. They're with professional guys. They're hooked on them.

They take video of them as they're going down. Then it was horrible. I remember when we landed, I landed safely. The people behind us, they never found them. They didn't find, like they were like, they couldn't find them. And they assumed that their shoot didn't open. And they were panicking in the office, you know, where they take up. Yeah, I guess so.

That they couldn't find these. two girls that had jumped after me. Did they splat? No, they didn't. But they didn't find them. They didn't know where, they didn't see them land. So they assumed that it was a streamer. And it took about an hour for them to find them.

They landed way, way off. Where did they land? Like a good mile away, you know. But in what? I don't know. It wasn't. But they were worried because there was frozen lakes everywhere. There was, you know, it's in the middle of nowhere in the tundra in Canada.

The tundra? Yeah. It felt like that. It was empty. Yeah, the tundra's like thousands of miles north and like Northwest Territ. It felt like that. It wasn't that. Okay. Let's not blow this thing up too big, James Bond.

Guy lands in corn spikes. Children of the corn. It was the children of the corn. Middle of the winter in Canada, frozen body onto corn spikes. Can you just have tried to commit suicide? Wouldn't that have been like an easier? At least you won't have to pay for it. Oh, God.

How much was it to do this? It was a few hundred bucks. Yeah, in those days. You could have jumped off a high rise for free, dude. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, those days, there's probably a couple hundred bucks. All right, well, talking, speaking of danger and being on the edge and the adrenaline, have you ever had to run away from something at full tilt?

Like, you know, in your life, have you ever had to, if you ever been in danger or jeopardy or maybe not? Maybe you just had to run full tilt from something. Do you remember anything? I can't think of anything. No. I remember once I threw it. a giant rock through a hornet's nest and I threw this rock

and I threw it through the air and I thought there's no way I'm going to hit this thing and I just threw a perfect shot and this hornet nest blew up and I just I had to run full tilt these hornets were going berserk so I was wondering if maybe there was ever like you know what I just thought when I was in everyone has something that's why I asked to a French public school in Toronto

oh bonjour yeah and there was some bully that was kind of chasing people around. And I remember this guy was twice my size. And he was chasing at full tilt. I thought he was going to kill me. Full tilt. And I just remember stopping and tucking. And he flew over me.

Oh, that's cool. It was amazing. Yeah, I just remember full tilt, just figuring, you know what? I'm going to just stop on a dime. Oh, smart. That's like a hockey move. Yeah, it was right out of a cartoon.

So you're going full tilt. He's shot. Gugging up close behind you. Yeah, I stopped, you kind of tuck. Yeah. And he hits you on the side and just flips right over you. He probably did a full flip over me. Wow.

Landed and was really hurt. And I remember. Didn't that shut him down like he was too hurt to wail on you? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's beautiful. And the teachers came and, yeah. That's justice, dude. Yeah.

Oh, that's a great running away story. Yeah, that was a good one. Not only running away, but we get a full flip out of it. That's like a Cirque de Soleil runaway. And a French school, too. Oh, that's a French Cirque de Soleil runaway. A French dip. Well, let's go to.

We do this every show. We do a quick question where it's just, you know, a real quick answer. It could be yes, no. Try to keep it to one word. Here's your quickie. Are you ready? Yep. Reg Bordage, Bordage, if you put a cat, a donkey, a bear, and a priest, and a car, who drives?

Emilio Estevez. Correct. Wow. You got it, folks. I know it. I read that one already. Good answer. What makes Reg angry? What's something that gets you lit up, man? What gets you?

You're just driving along. You're walking along. World's great. You hear something. You see something. What fires the kid up, man? Good question. Let's see.

That's the top of my head. Let's see. It's got to be something. something yeah um let me see is it the Galleria the Galleria the Galleria oh like the mall going to the mall why what happens there I don't know I just hate it I hate the food court I hate that food court hot dog on a stick that makes you angry it makes me angry a food I never expected this the guy gets lit up at a food court a delicious food corroses what is it that gets you juiced up. All those smells together. They make you mad. It makes it some weird chemical

thing. Really? There's like a cinnabund mixed with a sparrows and I can't stand it. I've never expected that answer. That is hilarious. Yeah. I don't know why. So you actually can get in a rage. Like if you're in a food court, you've got to exit. Yeah. You won't eat in a food court? I won't will not eat in a food court. Wow. Yeah. If I I can help it. I never would have thought that answer at all. Something, yeah, it's all the mixed smells of the, you know, the orange chicken mixed with the, yeah, the hot dog on a stick. It's like a toxic cocktail of smells.

Like if they hit you the wrong way, you could snap. I could snap. There's something that, yeah, it triggers something. You've got like food court anger. I got food court anger, yeah. Wow, dude. Never. See, that's why I asked these obscure questions.

Food courting with danger. Huh? It's food courting with danger. It is, man. I love asking these out there questions because the answers like are just like, you know, guy skydives into corn spikes. Yeah. Guy flips a bully through midair.

Guy gets enraged at food courts. Like, this is classic, dude. Yeah, that's true. What about you? What makes me really angry? I think I'm like a driving guy. Like when people drive in front of me really stupid. Yeah.

Like, like, uh, you know, like today we were driving. Yeah. And we came to an intersection. And whenever you are turning, it's the person turning left who has the right away. Yeah. People turning right have to wait. So we came to an intersection.

The car in front of us could have gone left. There were four cars turning right. The person in front of us waited until all the cars turning right went in front of us. And then they went. And it's like you dildo, you have the right away. And it just, you know, It's like I can smell a food cord in my head. It's like the guys that are waiting for, you know, the light to turn, you know, to turn green.

Yeah. Turns green and it don't go. Yeah. That's the only thing they have to do for one minute. Yeah. And they can't do that right. Yeah. That makes me enraged.

I know. The driving stuff makes me mad. I mean, there's other stuff. I get people who listen to this show, no, I get mad with the airlines because the airlines pull a lot of bullshit on people. That makes me mad, but stuff like that gets me mad. But food courts don't hurt. You don't get angry. I love food courts, dude.

That's weird. I love food courts. Like, I go into a food court. You love your basket. You love ice cream. Oh, I love it all. I want to go into a food court and I go, I wish I had enough time to try each stop in this horseshoe of delights. Wow.

And I stand there, and I let the, I let the smells waft over me and get into my clothes. You're getting me. angry. I want to smell like sweet manure by the time I leave there, man. And you probably do. Probably do. All right, dude. Well, folks, what a wonderful conversation. We don't get to do this enough. I know. I know. And what I really like is people get to kind of hear the inside scoop behind the animation world because, dude, I'm going to go back to the beginning. What a resume, man. I mean, And what an incredible, incredible career Reg's hat. And I'm glad I made you say it out loud because I don't even think you realize how great you are.

No, I honestly don't think about that. And when you're working with a big studio, you're kind of one of the cogs. So you don't think of yourself. We're behind the scenes. Well, let me do this. We went to animation school together. Let's for a minute step back in time. It's me and you.

Day one at college. a guy walks in the room and says hey guess what I've worked on and he's listed every movie you just said wouldn't your eyes like pop out of your head you're that guy dude you know you're that guy you just it's amazing when uh I guess the guy the dean of the animation

uh department yeah he was the only guy that actually had experience working on films I think he worked on uh yellow submarine Yeah. Remember that? Yeah, which was on spiring on its own, but you've done, I mean, we didn't even talk about all your movies. I forced you to jump to the main ones because I knew there were so many incredible ones. You've done a bunch of other things too, but dude, it's incredible.

And again, folks, I'm not allowed to talk about it, but now Reg is working at the premier animation studio, on my mind, in the world. He's over at Pixar. I don't even know what he's working on, but I know they're very secretive. He's working on something. I know it's going to be great. I think I could say it's a dinosaur movie.

It's a dinosaur movie. That's all you can say. That's very cool. That's great to know. And you know Pixar's movies are incredible. And in my mind, Pixar is the top of the heap for animation, even over Disney. Well, it's owned by Disney now.

But, man, your career, if your career was a mountain, it would have been like you started at the bottom of everything. Everest, and now you are just standing on the top of Everest Living Large. Ah, God bless you. Congratulations, and be proud and embrace it and breathe in the smell of success. I never thought of that way, but... I never thought of that way, but... You had me and you lost me.

Picture all your movies as a different food stand in the food court and breathe it all in. Yeah, you've just Annie pretzled me with... I hadn't he pretzled you. Unbelievable. You took me, you put me on this pedestal and just knocked the pedestal off. Come on, dude. You know it's all real. It is funny, though, when I first, I remember being in high school and not knowing what I wanted to do.

Yeah. And I just wanted to do, like, cartooning, like, like, peanuts. He was my idol, you know, Charles Schultz. And it's a total flute that I went into Anna. because the guy was saying, you know, I was asking, well, what school teaches you how to do, you know, comic strips like, like cartooning? That happened to me too. Yeah, like peanuts. And they go, oh, there's no school that teaches that. The closest you can get is animation. Yeah. And I was like, well, kind of like bugs bunny. I wasn't into animation. So we kind of fluked into it. That's how, why I went to us, like, there's no college or university that teaches cartooning, but there's animation. And I thought, well, as long as I'm drawing cartoons and I'm drawing, That's close enough. And if I got to take that over studying algebra or architecture or physics or, you know, sociology, I'd rather be drawing and cartooning all day.

So we went for the same reasons. Yeah. And I loved, I grew up on Asterix as a French-Canadian kid. Those were really popular. And, yeah, so my first big job was to animate Asterix and to draw the character a thousand times or whatever. It was a dream job. Yeah, in Paris. Wow.

like hitting the lottery. But yeah, total fluke that I went in animation because if there was a school that taught, you know, comic strips, I'd be there. Yeah. Well, hey, man. And probably bomb, you know.

No, too much talent. But thank God you did. Folks, as I said, Reg has been part of an amazing array of incredible films that you, probably most of you own half of the ones we talked about. If you go look at your DVD shelf,

I bet at least one to three, three or four of movies Reg has worked on are sitting there. So we give thanks to Reg and his talent. Ah, God bless you. And now we are kind of near the end of the show where we put your brain to work, buddy. And we are, are you ready for the Harland Highway Nature Quiz? Ready. All right, here's how it works.

We do this with all the guests that come on the show, most of them. Every now and then we don't have time. But 90% of the guests we do the nature quiz. And how it works, folks, is I give our guest clues, in this case, Reg. I give him clues about a specific animal. He has to take those clues and figure out what the name of the animal is. And they're not obscure animals. They're pretty mainstream animals.

We're not trying to trick anyone or dupe anyone. So let's go. Let me hit the theme song for the Harland Highway, Nature Quiz. It's time for the Harland Highway. Animal Quiz. All right, here we go. You ready, Reg. All right.

Let's do it, man. Your first question for the nature quiz is, I am the seventh letter in the alphabet and the second half of RIF. Giant Hippagriff. Oh, no, no, not even close. A G-Riff. Ooh. Close.

Oh. Giraff. Hey, bingo. The seventh letter is G. The second half of riff is Raff. Giraff, dude. You see how it works? I'm getting it.

I get it. You got it pretty damn fast, although I like the idea of a G-Riff. A G-Riff. That's like a Rost of a giraffe. Yeah. Yeah, man, I'm a G-Riff, man. What happening, man? Let go smoke a splilip.

on the Bealbob tree by Bealbub This guy makes fun of my accent I did just for him Here we go I am the first name This one's probably the easiest one I always throw an easy one

I am the first name of a veteran news reporter Um And you're an animal Yes And I even thought you would have had it already Wow Sometimes the ones that I think her easiest, turn out to be the hardest.

So it's fun about this game. Does it start with Anderson? No. If it started with Anderson, that would be the first name. Cat. Is it Cat? Oh, what? Cat Stevens. Cat Stevens was a folk singer, not a veteran news reporter.

That would be a large no. Okay, it's not Walter Crong. I am the first name of a veteran news reporter. And you're an animal. I'm an animal. God, I knew I should watch the news shows. I don't know. Who is it?

Oh, come on. Can I give you some clues? Give me a clue. Give me a clue. It's a carnivore. This animal is a carnivore. All right. Carnivor.

Tiger Woods. Does he do news? He made the news. He doesn't do the news. Oh, God. Why don't have it? It's a carnivore. They are names.

They are spread out all over the world, but they are native to North America, which helps narrow it down. Okay, North America, bear. Coyote Jones. Oh, no, you're good. You're in the wheelhouse, though. Really? Now you're in the family. Is it a canine?

I said you're in the family. Yeah. Wolf Blitzer. Bingo. He gets it. Wolf Blitzer, CNN. Good job, buddy. All right.

Did Cat Stevens? He never did a newscast? Cat Stevens was a weatherman. He was a weatherman for Fox News for a while. Tiger Woods? Did he not do the news for CNN? Tiger Woods did the travel news on MSNBC. With Bree Walker?

With Bree Walker, yeah. She had, well, I wasn't saying. She had no hands. Yeah. Yeah. Brie Walker was a newscaster in Los Angeles when we first moved here who had no hands. It was bizarre. I guess she was like a philidomide baby or something.

Yeah, she had like kind of claws. She had like little nubs. She looked like a like a like I hate, I'm not trying to be mean, but she looked like a nuclear mutant. She had no hands and she was very beautiful. Yeah. But she used to, you know, newscasters in the old days used to flip the papers over and she'd get her little red used to call them crab pickers. Oh, and another friend of mine called them ginger roots. Oh.

And she would flip the news pages over with these roots. And it was bizarre because you had this really stunning-looking lady with these crazy gnarled-up mutant nubs. Yeah. And it was weird. And every once in a while, you'd notice it. You'd see it. Oh, you'd see it every show.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'd notice it because we'd pick on it. I don't know if this is true, but someone told me that one time behind a Denny, she gave you a hand job, is that true? Oh, that was my most embarrassing moment, and you brought it up. That's why you didn't want to talk about it. You got a nub job.

You got a ginger root job, dude. Sweet nubbins, yeah. Sweet crab picket. Wow. That was the, yeah, the red lobster. You got behind the red lobster dumpster. You got a, wow, dude. Oh, all right.

Some lobster tail. Speaking of seafood, let's get back to the Harland Highway Animal Quiz. Reg is two for two. We got two more to go. Here's your third animal, Reg. All right. I am a fish that is half the pain a hornet brings and half of what comes through your window in the morning.

A rayfish? A crayfish. Say it again. So repeat the... I am a fish that is half the pain a hornet brings. Stingray. Oh, what? Stingray.

Stingray, there it is. You got the sting from the hornet and the sun ray coming through the window. Three for three, dude. I still like the crayfish. Crayfish? It doesn't work. No, it doesn't work. You can't take my clues and invent your own animal.

All right. What's wrong with you? I know, quit while I'm ahead because I did get three. You've changed since your ginger job. Oh. I don't know you anymore. Gingervitis. Here we go.

Your last. you're three for three can he do it folks I am a large lizard that you might find in a busy newsroom or on the wall at an airport or in front of your computer a frill neck lizard no no no no no a lizard a salamander you might find in a busy newsroom hanging on the wall at an airport or maybe even in front of your computer it's a lizard a large lizard

Large lizard. Computer, computer. This might be the one that stumps the cat. Yeah, you kind of, is it a, the dragon, no. I'm not going to give you the answer. Can you give me another hint? Another hint. Another hint.

Okay. How about there's one. Is you wearing Aladdin sandals? How about there's one sitting in front of my face right now? A lizard. Sitting in front of your face. Oh, if you don't get this, I'm going to back hand you. Sitting in front of your face.

Microphone. What is it? I don't know. What's this giant screen in front of me? A monitor. Hello. A monitor lizard. Wow.

I bought one of the biggest monitors that Apple sells. Okay, this thing's like 19 inches wide. And it's right. Is it an Apple lizard? It's about two, it's an eye lizard. It's about three feet from my face, and he's looking right at it. It's a microphone lizard. It's a monitor lizard.

Hanging at the airport, the monitors, and the newsroom in front of your computer. All right, I get it, I get it. But you did get it. I did eventually get it. It should have been easy, but it wasn't. I have no idea what a monitor lizard looks like, though. You do? No, I don't.

Okay. I've heard of it, but I don't know what I've heard of it. Well, by the way... A Komodo dragon lizard? It looks like a small version of a Komoto dragon. You know what a Komoto dragon looks like. And for those of you that don't, if you saw Skyfall, there was a scene where James Bond goes into this weird Oriental restaurant

and there's a giant lizard that comes out. That was a Komoto dragon. Or the freshman, remember that? They had the guy, I think the Marlon Brando had like a pet Komoto dragon. Yeah, so that's what they look like. and the good news is you've got four out of four your prize you get to pick any style of food from the local food court

it's on us here at the Harland Highway what will you have? I'd like Wurtzels Pretzels Pertzels? Yeah, I think that's a good one as long as it's not amongst some of those are on their own

as long as they're not next to like the Mongolian barbecue Right, so if you're walking through an airport Yeah, I don't mind it. You just don't like them commingling. I don't, no, I don't like that. That's racist, dude. That's really racist. Yeah, I'm a very...

You're a Puritan. Yeah. You're a Puritan. You wrap yourself in a white chain when you make love. You don't like smells. You don't like dirty bathwater. I do, you know, I know. I'm looking back, there's a lot of stuff.

A lot of stuff. A lot of issues that seem to have arose after you got stuck in the corn. Yeah. Child of the corn. Um, we have a child of the corn. Child of the corn here. Reg, we are at the end of the show. It was a pleasure, buddy. Great to have you here. Is there anything you want to plug or anything you want to mention before we go? I always give folks the opportunity if you have anything.

No, if you haven't voted for Pirates, I'm off to the Oscars this afternoon. By the way, folks, we're not kidding. We're not kidding. He is going to the Oscars tonight. And unfortunately, this show is not going to air. This show is going to air like probably a week and a half later. So people can't vote for it. People can't vote for it. But they can emotionally, spiritually vote for you. Do you want to ask the folks to spiritually? Tell me to watch the movie.

Even, it's out on video, so go watch it. Why don't you ask the people to spiritually vote for you? Yeah, please put your vibes in hindsight, backward vibes towards the pirate movie. Wow. That's nice. Yeah. That's a horrible title. I can see why I didn't do that well.

Well, let's, we spent the whole show building you up. Let's not rag you down. right at the end. Really not the right way to end. Unbelievable. Yeah. I'm already negating my... Let's keep it positive. I think this was a career builder right here. Let's not knock down our own totem pole. I should come here for... Yeah, it's great, too. It's good therapy for you. It is. It's good therapy, and it makes me feel

validated when you say all the movies I worked on. Dude, it's unbelievable. I started with that. I'm ending with that. You are a superstar. Thanks, buddy. He's my buddy. Thanks for being here today, Reg. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Reg Bordauch. Check out his films. He's unbelievable. And thanks for being here. And until next time on the Harland Highway, as I always say, chicken chowmaine, baby, at the food court. Thank you.