WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 768 - Billy West

Episode Date: December 15, 2016

Comedian Billy West is a master of voices and one of the preeminent voiceover artists working today. Billy tells Marc about his need to escape into characters while growing up in a chaotic home. It was a retreat from reality that led to success later in life with Ren and Stimpy, Futurama, The Howard Stern Show, and countless other projects. And it all hinged on his lifelong love of The Three Stooges. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed,

how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Lock the gates!

Alright, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fucking ears? what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucking ears what the fucksicles what's happening i'm mark maron the what the fucksicles was for the winter weather i'm mark maron welcome to my show this is my podcast this is wtf the podcast did i say that twice it's a podcast hope you're having a good day wherever you are my guest today is voice over artist extraordinaire uh billy west for those of you who uh were brought up on ren and stimpy he was both of them for a time uh so that that's exciting it was exciting to talk to him i knew

him from back in the day in boston so that's who's on in a little bit. Also, I want to apologize to the denizens. Is that the right word? To the people of Manchester, Massachusetts, because in my conversation with Casey Affleck, I referred to Manchester by the sea as Manchester, New Hampshire, and God damn it, I am sorry. Okay? That's all I can say. There is a Manchester, New Hampshire, and I've been there. I'm not sure I've been to Manchester, Massachusetts, but I know it exists and I know I fucked up. All right

there. That's out of the way. Good. Okay. I do want to mention, cause a lot of people asked me about my, my last special more later, which I did for epics and a lot of people asked me about my last special, More Later, which I did for Epix, and a lot of people didn't see it, but I'd like you to see it, so it's now available on iTunes. If you just look up Marc Maron, More Later, you should be able to grab one of those. I worked hard on it. I think you can still see it at Epix, but go get that. Also, Marc Maron related.

The big too real tour that I had to postpone a bit of is going to be in action starting January 24th kinda I'll be at the Ruby Diamond Concert Hall in Tallahassee but after that I'll be heading to Durham, North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina

Ridgefield, Connecticut Portsmouth, New Hampshire Montreal, Toronto New Haven, Charlotte, North Carolina, Ridgefield, Connecticut, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Montreal, Toronto, New Haven, Troy, New York, Burlington, Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver, Austin, Boulder, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. Throughout the spring, you can go to WTFpod.com slash tour and get hooked up with some tickets. Oh, my God, what is happening? I had to go to the doctor. I was having trouble breathing, getting the deep breath,

you know, that feeling when you're like, oh, it's just not satisfying. It's not getting all the way in there. What's going on? And I'm at an age, 53, where, you know, peers drop dead or have heart attacks. And I talked to Dana Carvey about his heart. And, you know, I've certainly experienced panic-ridden, anxiety-induced chest compression before, but I was having a little shooting pains and a little this and a little that. And also, I know that because of my role in the upcoming Netflix show, Glow, that I've been smoking a lot of fake cigarettes,

which are nonetheless cigarettes of some sort. I don't even know what the fuck is in them. Here's the weird thing. They're herbal cigarettes. Okay, good. You can't get tobacco. You can't get nicotine, which I'm getting from my lozenges anyways too much

but uh you're smoking something you're breathing hot shit into your lungs burning the little tissues you know making the little celia cringe and get pasted up against your passages but i don't know what's in them i don't know why we take everything for fucking granted it just sort of like i i don't know why the brain works like that but now we've all had to put some special filters on to sort of protect us from bullshit at every turn. Hearsay and bullshit. Clickbait and bullshit. Memes and bullshit. There just has to be a little filter.

But I realize that it affects my whole life. I'm just smoking these things. They're herbal. I'm just burning leaves leaves sucking them into my lungs i mean there's a broader point about not knowing things and taking things for granted obviously or else just believing bullshit in general but nonetheless my my lungs were irritated and i went in there and of course i i went to my my insurance my health carrier my clinic the bob hope clinic which you know it'sake, does not instill confidence,

but it's good. It's a great, I have a great health coverage and I'm lucky and fortunate. So I go see the doctor, they do the blood pressure, they do the pulse, they do an EKG, everything looks good. I breathe a bit, they do the stethoscope, it's fine. And then the next day I go back, I get chest x-rays i'm panicky i smoked for what shit 25 years so i don't know when that's going to kick me in the ass or the balls or the lungs or the pancreas whatever but i you know i'm prone to panic and when i can't breathe it makes me panic more and i got the chest x-rays they come back clean so what's that tell you that tells me that in this time of panic for the some of us where we uh feel like there's somewhat of a cultural and political

free fall going on i wanted a little reassurance you know i've been enjoying the every sandwich but i i would like a a little bit of like just something in the life to go like yeah you're okay so i of course gravitate to uh the the medical arts because my old man was a medicine man and uh when there was an emotional stoppage which was usually or i couldn't get his attention which was always uh if i had some sort of uh uh suspected medical issue i got a lot of attention and focus so i sometimes think uh occasionally i'll go to the doctor just to to on some level in the uh in the the psycho-emotional sphere to have my dad say everything's okay so everything's okay but then i i wondered in terms of being out here in los angeles and being in show business and going to the clinic that services us you know that the

these symptoms that i had which were specifically could be attached to anxiety i i don't know why one of the questions when they were looking at my chart was uh how do you feel about the election i i think i might have had a trump related breathing disorder and uh if that's what it is i i'm glad i i've identified it and i'm over it and i got the reassurance i wanted, but I'm still in a free fall of panic. But something is weird, you know, something is weirder than just what's already weird and disturbing is that I'm losing faith in the shadow government.

The shadow government. What's up? What is up, shadow government? You know, I'm no stranger to the conspiracy theory i know that is a something that gets attached to the other side these days but uh those of us on the left side of things have a a nice long history of uh beautiful conspiratorial thinking wide ranging you know i think the the pivotal one which i don't think is partisan uh is the uh the jfk conspiracy i was never one of those but i certainly have dipped into the illuminati new world order

conspiracy at different junctures in my life i'll i'll go ahead and let my brain run with that bullshit because uh you know in a pinch where things get confusing and you have no god in place why not get mystical and paranoid? Why not do that and just attach it to signs and symbols that surround us on a day-to-day basis? Perhaps someone's name, perhaps the logo, maybe even some event in the news that seems to have happened nearby, something that was connected to something else in your strange fucking head.

Why not do that? But the one thing i can tell you for sure and i think that has always played in to the uh to the big conspiracy uh umbrella is of course the cia the central intelligence agency god knows they were involved in you know many coups secret foreign uh adventures and overthrows i always believed there was a shadow government that there was somebody pulling the strings whether it was through the intelligence agencies or through the global um business network the uh the new world order as uh as cousin alex calls it and then you know you have uh the illuminati which is a little bit more of a ornate and elaborate

set of symbols but there's an interconnectivity towards the you know kind of movement towards the totalitarian possibilities of a one world government and whatnot i've i've thrown my head in that direction i've skipped that rock on that pond you know thankfully i've kerplunked out enough to realize that uh you know what's for lunch but here's my point is that one of the things that this trump president-elect is doing by being who he is he called out the cia in public in front of the world and the cia did what nothing yet but i gotta tell you being a you know an old lefty conspiracy theorist and not even as old as the original ones and not even as committed in any way but the shadow government the cia he called him out so in my mind if he's not taken

out or something dreadful doesn't happen to him then that's about 50 years of hippie thinking that's just out the fucking window and all we got is like oh the cia gets just that's just people who work in an office building just out the window i just took you down a fucking portal. That's all. All right. So before I bring on Billy West, a real nice little email. Subject line, Pink Floyd in New Mexico.

Mark, I've been meaning to tell you this for a few weeks now. I was in New Mexico at the beginning of November teaching a photography workshop in Santa Fe. When the workshop was over, I was very excited and jazzed up about all things creative. My students took the ideas I presented them and ran with them. At the end of the class, one student told me, now I have a lot to think about. Doesn't get any better than that. Plus,

I love New Mexico. My wife and I have been going out there at least once a year for a decade now. After the workshop, I booked a few days to myself so I could photograph. The night before I left Santa Fe, I was listening to your interview with Roger Waters. Who's not a big fan of Pink Floyd? What got me was at the end when he talked about getting messed up with a friend and driving Route 14, the turquoise trail between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. That night, I loaded up my iPhone with Pink Floyd, Pipers at the Gates of Dawn, a saucer full of secrets. Wish you here animals in the wall i spent the next two days driving around new mexico in a dodge something or other with my 1949 speed graphic camera and no agenda i just roamed photographed and listened to floyd it was the most relaxed in my own head

in a good way i've been in years it was a great way to end a great trip. Big fan, Rob. Glad to inspire, Rob. Glad to inspire. All right. My guest today is Billy West, and he's an amazing voiceover actor. He was on WBCN back when I was in Boston. I remember him from then, and I've sort of known him on the periphery for a long time. Voiceover is a very unique thing, and now you get to meet one of the fellas who does a lot of the voices they're interesting people all right this is me and billy west he also has a uh a podcast um you can go check it out at billywestpodcast.com or anywhere you get podcasts this is me and billy hi it's terry o'reilly, host of Under the Influence.

Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category,

and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead

courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com. Best. This is the recollection I have, is that I got to Boston in 19, I got back, I went to college there. I know. I left in 87, and then I went back in like 88. By the time, I think you were just leaving.

By the time I got to Boston, And I met you a couple times. I remember that I'm sometimes confusing memories of you in a comic I knew. But you were sweaty. Well, because I was high as a rat. I was on coke for a long time. And did you wear a hat a lot? Yes, I did. And I was nothing but trouble.

Right. 180 pounds of trouble. And yeah, you were kind of a a bastard right yes yeah and i i knew that because you were part of the bcn thing yes but i can see it in my mind and i have this like there's a governor on my laugh but i should be laughing my balls off because i survived right Right. But you started out like, because you were a radio guy and you were with La Codera and then, but it was after, it was the Big Mattress Show, right? Yes. And then, but Dwayne Ingalls Glanscock was a different thing, right? Yes.

It was sort of, it was under the same roof. Right. It was Charles's alter ego. Dwayne Ingalls Glanscock. Yeah. And he was the morning guy in the New England area in Boston for years. Right. Charles was sort of, I think, I felt like he was phasing out, like the heyday had gone.

But let's track it back. So you're born in Detroit, Motor City. You remember it. Yes. What'd your old man do? Oh, boy. Well, you know, there's a difference between a job and a career. Yeah.

He went from job to job to job. Yeah. And it was like delivering soda pop for Canada Dry. And it was my eighth birthday. Yeah. And we used to get cases of Canada Dry at the house. Yeah. And I took all the flavors and poured them in a punch bowl.

It's like, who couldn't figure that out? I don't have a beautiful mind. You know what I mean? I just figured it out. And everybody raved over it. Wow, it was a carbonated punch, which didn't exist. Come on. There was only Hawaiian punch.

Are you about to tell me you invented carbonated punch? Hold on. Wait for it. I know, you're sitting there, what pray tell divulge? No, my mom said to my father, Bill, take this and bring it to your boss. And he was like, I don't know. And she said, go on in, tell him what your son did. So he brings it in and it's like the typical, you know, Mr. Smith goes to Washington sort of. I don't know how assertive I should be.

And he says to his boss, you know, my son, he's eight years old. And we had a party and we used all the flavors that we make that actually exist. Uh-huh. And he said, but he put them all together in a punch bowl. And that's all, Bill. But, you know, you should see. That's all, Bill. And he walked out.

And then the next thing you know, they came out with a carbonated punch. And me and my mom invented names like Hawaiian Dry, and we finally came up with Tahitian Treat. Yeah. And bang. Really? It was their biggest seller. Come on.

Yeah, forever. And have you been credited? Well, you know what that's like. Canada Drive, the top dogs didn't give you the credit you deserved. No, this was 1950, I don't know, seven, eight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they just stole it. Those were cold, dark days, man.

They'll just take it from a kid. Take a kid's idea, not give them the... Dad, am I going to get anything from this? You know what? I changed jobs. I work for the home tea company now. That's where he went next? Yeah.

What should I invent next? That's, but I'll tell you, I was a weird kid like that. Yeah, I think you're still a weird kid. Well, yeah, I am. Yeah. But you used to invent shit? Well, yeah, I was always looking to invent stuff like, you know, I loved Rube Goldberg. Yeah.

Who built these crazy ass inventions that one thing would trigger the other. There's a wheel and a bird. By leverage and gravity and what do they call it? Velocity. Yeah, yeah. All those things. And I didn't know that I was trying to understand physics. Yeah.

But physics is really interesting. Did you study physics? Nope. Yeah, it is interesting. But I understood some stuff when I read it. Yeah. But then I watched the three students every morning before I went to school. Yeah.

Yeah, I stopped going to church. I found my saints, you know? Yeah, yeah, sure. And so Mo put out the best explanation of E equals MC squared when he said, we ain't getting no place fast. And that's it. That put it all together for you? It did. Yeah. I said, we ain't getting no place fast. And that's it. That put it all together for you? It did.

Yeah. I said, oh. I get it now. I understand, Einstein. Thanks, Mo. Yeah. But so you're in Detroit, and your dad's doing all these other jobs. Yep.

And then you end up in New England. How did that happen? Well, my dad was certifiable. He was a drunk and a crazy, and he was very abusive. I was the whipping boy. How many kids? Three boys. Yeah.

And you got it? Oh, did I ever. Every day. Really? It was a way of life, yeah. Dickens wishes he had the kind of childhood. Really? I wish I had his childhood.

Physical abuse? Well, yeah. Yeah. Just beat the shit out of you? Yeah, all the time. For nothing. Because it was a kick at the cat, yeah. Yeah. Just beat the shit out of you? Yeah, all the time. For nothing. Because it was a kick at the cat, yeah. He was angry.

He had secrets. Yeah. He's drunk. Drunk. Oh, man. And so that's kind of what I grew up with. So I grew up hypervigilant. Hypervigilant.

And I imagine looking for an out. Looking for a world that did not exist anywhere near me. Right. So you could visualize them. Yeah. Yeah, I remember we had this old, do you remember the ancient Plymouth DeSoto car? Yeah. It's a big, chunky, funky old car.

And back in those days, right in the back of the back seat, there was a ledge. Yeah. And then there was this curved glass and a kid could fit it up there yeah so we'd be driving along at night and i would crawl up there and i'd lay down on that ledge and look straight up through the curved glass and all the lights were it was like going through a black hole yeah except i really didn't know but i said this is the coolest thing i've ever seen in my life because it was like I was in a glass enclosure. Yeah. And looking at these lights smashing into each other.

And hard to explain that stuff. But I imagine like being in a, you were the oldest or no? Oldest. Oh, God. So there was just that never-ending competition with you and the old man of some kind in his mind. I'm going to tell you a secret. Yeah. I took my first beating in utero

really yeah my my mom came home one day she was 20 yeah and she said to him you know guess what honey I'm pregnant yeah and he was smashed yeah and he got up and he started beating the crap out of her in the kitchen and he kicked her in the stomach you know this guy did not want me to be born. Yeah. Because it was grow up time. Right. He was one of those guys that never stopped being 18.

Right. Yeah. How old was he when you were born? Maybe 24 or 25. Fucking kid. Could you imagine that? I mean, do you have kids? No, I don't.

Yeah, I don't either. But like, you know, when you see a 20-year-old, like my mom was 22. I see a 22-year-old, it's like, what? How do you have, like, they were kids. Yeah, you're still eating Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers. Well, do you think that that, you know, like, I don't know when you started, you know, finding the talent to find these other voices. But do you connect it to your need to escape from the abuse? Nothing but.

I was a loner. Yeah. Because if I try to do stuff that I thought my peer group, the other kids, you know, I was like in the middle. I would be either king of the little kids or hang along with the big kids. Right. And there was really nobody my age. Yeah. So I was kind of like odd big kids. Right. And there was really nobody my age.

Yeah. So I was kind of like odd man out. Right. And I would go for walks and I would narrate what I was doing. Yeah. Yeah, and I... To the other kids. Yeah, an audience.

Yeah, and I tried to explain why and I didn't even know why. Right. You know... Because you were like having a disassociation. Yeah, because I'd be, you know, I'd take up in progress with him and I'd go, as you remember, you know, only in like a kid voice. Sure, sure. And me and my cousin used to play. We'd put up like, his dad was a photographer, so we put up cameras like they were movie cameras.

Yeah. And I have a picture of me and him and he's adjusting a camera and i'm holding a script yeah but i don't think i don't think that's what i meant yeah but it sure looks like the future you know how the future stares you in the face every single day you just don't know what it is yeah i like that yeah i mean anything yeah your brothers are still around we lost my middle brother. Yeah. Yeah, the three of us became alcoholics.

All of you. And my mother was not. She kept away from all that stuff, but here it was, you know, growing around her. And I feel horrible that that turned out that way. It's like, you know, I think of the Three Stooges, I go, you know, like Steve Sweeney, the comedian stooges i go you know like steve sweeney the comedian he used to go poor mrs stooge so you move with your with your whole family to my mom left excuse me my mom left detroit to get away from my dad and she brought the three of us to boston you know and i went to elementary school there did that well you know what it is is like you spend your whole life trying to do battle with the guy you swore you'd never be.

Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Did he ever come back around? No. He was gone a few years. He was gone about a decade after that. Yeah? Yeah.

After she split? Oh, he died? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Pancreatitis. You know, he just did himself in. Really? He didn't want responsibility because he knew that it would go down the drain.

And when did you start playing music? Well, I had a trumpet when I was 10 in Detroit. Yeah. So I could play, and I played with other kids. I knew a few notes. Yeah. I could hold a note longer than the teacher. Yeah, yeah.

You know, that was the little contest. If anybody in here thinks that they can um you know hold a note longer than me um how about it yeah you know and i'd be up there and he would hold a note he played clarinet and he would hold it and hold it and hold it and i thought that's nothing yeah you know because i was a swimmer at the time yeah i mean not a professional but i was like i loved swimming and i could hold my breath like a like a whale yeah and uh i get up there and i'm like you know and he was like going like trying to get me to stop and it was going into a minute yeah yeah because i was born with this this weird chest huge chest for somebody my size in a big inner cavern or something. And you need that for voices, too, kind of, don't you?

I don't know if you do. It's the only thing I ever could judge anything else by. So, but when did you start doing the band thing? The band thing? Were you in Boston? Yeah, 60s. Yeah, so, like, you know, Boston's pretty heavy, man. Yeah, I started playing guitar in 61 in Detroit

because we had an old Stella down in the basement. Sure. And I would plunk on it and stuff. Didn't really grab me because I could draw. I wanted to be an artist. You were just a creative guy in general. I was screaming some way to find a way to express myself. Right, yeah.

And my dad was an artist. He was? He was one of those guys that would torment me. You know what I mean? Yeah. He started out as Mozart to me, and then he just became Salieri long after he was dead. Yeah. But he could sit down at the piano and not know what he was doing and start playing.

Really? He was a talented guy, gifted guy. He was a draftsman. what he was doing and start playing really good talented guy gifted guy he was a draftsman he went to uh cast tech which was a mechanical drawing yeah all that stuff yeah and uh he could draw yeah and i tried to impress him and so i grew up thinking everything i did was nothing or no big deal oh it's so sad man i mean you I mean, it's like that weird competitiveness between emotionally fucked up fathers and their sons is the worst. They just annihilate your ability to develop a sense of self. Yeah, it's an Irish-German thing or something. I don't know. It's just a narcissistic

fuckhead thing. Well, yeah, but I didn't learn those words till later, but I knew something about Germans and I knew something about Irish. Yeah. Where were you located when you got to Boston? Roslindale, Massachusetts. Yeah. So you weren't in, like, Southie or nothing. You weren't in that.

No, but I used to go down there. We used to go to Carson Beach and City Point. Yeah. Yeah, and I remember this was when I was getting ready to start playing music i couldn't wait to graduate school yeah i never i never had any use for academia i have to tell you honestly yeah i'd go to school every day with a head full of fantasy and and made up i don't know entities yeah you know and i could hear. I could hear how they went. And that's really how I started doing, you know, voices.

Yeah. I was just, I would turret out noises and voices, you know, and it was just an urge. Did you have friends? I had about one and a half friends. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're an oddball.

Yeah. Didn't fit in. But there's also somebody across town. In those days, it had to be somebody far away from you and i would find whoever it was who had comic books your comic book i was like a homing pigeon yeah yeah there's someone in this area that's comic books and uh and this is like the 60s yeah so these early 60s. So these were the basics, the comics. What were the comics that you had to have?

Well, I had the issue where the Flash meets the India Rubber Man. Or was it? I forget. Yeah, the elongated man. Yeah. Wasn't he the enemy of the Flash? You're asking the wrong guy, but I'll go with you on it. Well, what happened is he went to a carnival, and he sees this old swami drinking something called gin gold.

Yeah. Or ging gold. Yeah. And that's what the guy said. That's his secret. That's how he gets in those rubbery like that. And so the guy created a hybrid of ging gold. Yeah.

And what are these, these DC comic uh-huh you know the plots you know yeah sure but but it's still fascinated me because this guy could stretch and he was all over the flash yeah yeah he was wrapped him yeah yeah yeah or his arm would go up and wasn't there a good guy that could do that mr. stretch wasn't there

like a good one mr. fantastic yeah he could stretch right right? Yeah. Yeah. That's in the ego. Somebody calling themselves Mr. Fantastic. Lucky he was just a comic book guy. Yeah, really. And now it's all postmodern art. Yeah. You know, cartoon, I mean, a comic book can sell for upwards of 900 bucks sometimes.

Did you save any? No. No, because we had to jettison a lot of stuff just to get out of the house in Detroit, get on a plane and go to Boston. My mom started shipping stuff, luckily. To her family. Yes. Yeah. And this was all done on the sneak. But I got to tell you something.

I'm not irreligious, but I just, I'm, I believe in a higher power. Sure. I believe in a force that makes nothing but sense to me. Right. It's pure physics. Right. If you put out a certain kind of energy, other energy like it will find it because like energy attracts. Yeah.

If you put out like this pissy, moany, piss cloud, all energy like that is going to come shooting for you like a javelin. Right. And I didn't understand that stuff until later on. Yeah, I believe that. I think that's a good way to do it. Good way to frame it. But I believe that the higher power was just like the force of the world and our relationship to the universe. Yeah.

And that somebody hears me. Yeah. Some things. You can see that later. What's that? That's what you pulled together later when you needed to. Do you have that when you were a kid or no? No.

I had religion shoved down my throat. Catholic? Yeah, Irish Catholic. So I used to know more about religion than most people. Yeah. The mass was in Latin then so that you couldn't figure out what they were talking about. Keep it coded. Yes. Keep it weird. On your stay. Quit all the speck out what they were talking about. Keep it coded. Yes.

Keep it weird. What's he saying, Mom? It doesn't matter. Yeah. So you believed that you were afraid of hell. I was afraid of hell. Yeah. Yeah.

And like a kid takes it on face value because these are adults. Yeah. That's how you think when you're a kid. Yeah. Yeah. And like a kid takes it on face value because these are adults. Yeah. That's how you think when you're a kid. Yeah. I wasn't delinquent. Right. I just took all this stuff under consideration. Yeah.

And my leanings were stuff that had nothing to do with God. Yeah. And I don't mean like bad stuff. Right. Or criminal stuff. Right. like bad stuff or criminal stuff. It's just that I was interested in creating characters and I wanted to play music so bad.

So when did you start playing guitar? 61. Yeah, and then you started a band? By 66 when I moved to Boston. The actual city? Yes. Yeah. And I found a kid who was my friend

and he was kind of a drummer, but we used to sit and play together, and I played guitar. Yeah. What little I could play. Yeah. And I realized, geez, this is for me because you could go downtown to this place, Mod Clothes. Yeah. Carnaby Street.

Right. Only in Boston. Right. In the combat zone. Right. Yeah, where the strip clubs were. Yeah. Down by Nick's.

Yeah, and it was like, ooh, I felt weird even being in that area. But it was adventurous, you know? I'm going to go buy the coolest clothes in the world. Yeah, try bringing them back to Roslindale and putting them on someday. I was in school, and I had flowers all over my shirt with white cuffs and white collar. You can just picture this. And some kid goes, hey hey your flowers need watering really i'm seriously but it was all that kind of stuff like i couldn't figure out why people would have this instant like fear that turned into anger yeah. No one ever tells you back then

that if you're able to do something cool and you can't wait to share it with others, you'll get no props. You'll get bullied. You'll get nothing. Yeah. And so I figured whatever I did just is not making it.

Right. So I figured I have to be so much better than this for them to respond. Or at least it's good that you didn't feel like you had to be more like them, whatever that was. I never went that way. I mean, it was at the risk of being alone or finding some other kid with peripheral interests. But that's kind of the way it always was. I think it might be different now that we live in a media, entertainment-oriented.

Sure, you can kind of find your people easier. You can find them a lot easier. And plus, you had no way to get to another town. That was unthinkable. Oh, yeah, you got to take a bus, you got to get someone else to drive you. If you had permission. Yeah, right.

So I started playing, and I met this guy, and we started playing music, and I started meeting other kids. They were very few and far between, but they were already in bands, and I would go hang around them. Sure. Just to see how it's done. Yeah.

And I had what it took at the time. I could play, and I became like this little guitar gunslinger eventually. Yeah? Yeah. And I could sing. But we were always doing cover songs. So when the kids at the dance are applauding for you, they're applauding for the Rolling Stones. Right. So when does the booze start? The booze started in 72. 71 or 72 21 22 yeah and i was like i was a model boy yeah you know i kept my drawers

straightened with the clothes in them and everything and i i was tidy and it was like a boy scout sort of thing and then at 21 i went be fucking zerker yeah having my childhood that i never had yeah that's you know i figured that out as I never really had a child. I was like a, I mean, childhood, I was an old kid. Yeah. Who had to take care of the full-grown adults sometimes. Yeah. Falling asleep.

And your brothers too? Yeah, my brothers. I was man of the house at 10. When did you get the gig on radio? How did that sort of happen? Oh, the band days were coming to a close. Was it late 70s yeah because i was incorrigible nobody nobody wanted to take me home nobody wanted to pick me

up were you doing blow at that point yes and drinking yeah yeah it was horrifying those were the things those were the things and and i once i found blow i said this is great i don't have to drink anymore yeah famous last words yeah just makes you drink more yeah I felt this is a classy high and and then our two later you're looking at people how do I look with your teeth gritted in this Ren Hoek Ren and Stimpy face how do we look? Does anything show? Am I clean? Is my nose clean? Yeah, and then you're sitting at a party,

and everybody runs out of shit to say at the same time because the coke is wearing off, and they all look like, you know that picture of Al Pacino sitting in the chair in the Godfather, sort of looking down like this pissed off little crow? Yeah. That's what we looked like. And I'd see a crumb on the floor. I'm going to snort that. And I would be searching the floor.

And everybody, all these civilized young adults would be searching the floor. For rocks. Yeah. And you look up and it's a plaster ceiling that has that surface on it. Popcorn surface. Yeah. So stuff had fallen. And in Boston, though, you're all jacked up and you're hanging around with those, you know, borderline criminals and drug dealers.

Yeah. And they're all those sort of Boston dudes. Yeah. It's a little scary. It was scary because when I got into that, I would just spend whatever money I had on that and I'd always owe somebody money. Right. You know, I'd wake up the next morning and I'd say, and I'd reach into my pocket and it was crumpled up pieces of paper.

Not the snow seals that the blow came in. Snow seals. But notes like, call this number, call Jeff, you owe him $300. Right. I promised somebody that. The guy with the blow. Because you're in your right mind the next day. And you realize he's going to come down.

Because you willingly tell him where you live just to get it. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you've got Whitey Bulger's guys coming over. Yeah, really. So the group that I was doing blow with, we got sick of bad blow. I was like, oh, it tastes like baby powder or laxatives. The whole Peruvian army marched through it. Pancake batter. So somebody says, why don't we go where they make the shit?

Now you've said something. I was like, yes. So we put together our dough. We get on a plane. Get the fuck out of here. Yeah, to go from Boston to Lima, Peru. Five chowder heads. Yeah.

You know, thinking that they're going on a drug vacation. And we get down there. I was a mess. Peru, not Bolivia. No, Peru. Why? How'd you decide that? Because that's the home of the winking white stuff.

It is? Yes. All right. Yeah, well, well i mean it was big yeah and that's kind of what you knew about peru yeah so you go down we go down there we're on our way and i'm so drunk on the plane some guy turns around and goes hey you think you might want to see your way clear to being quiet for a while and i took that as a sucker punch yeah i started beating his seat with my two feet. You know, I was like, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Yeah. And they were going to stop in Orlando.

Yeah. To get me out. But for some reason they didn't do it in those days. Yeah. You know, they figured they could like come by and say, please, sir, please. And so we get down to Peru. We have our hotel. We get there and everybody is like, and everybody is pretty friendly.

I had been drinking. Yeah. And we started having this adventure. Yeah. Separately. Yeah. Everybody was off on their own little adventure. I met a couple of girls, Peruvian girls.

One's name was Doris Doris yeah and and I would be talking to them and in my mind I thought they could understand me right and it was weird because I had lunch with this two Peruvian girls and a guy from another country and I'm explaining my stories to these people I'm acting them out you know know, and it was like charades. Yeah. But it was crazy. I mean, I thought they understood. Did you find the blow?

Well, eventually, we ran into a guy. He worked, like, at the hotel. Yeah. Or he was a cab driver. Yeah. And he said, you know, he pointed to his nose, and I said, glad to see you. You know, like Bilko.

Yeah. Glad to see you. Don't kick the tires. And so I go with him. This is the guy. This is my man. And then later the girls told me, no, no, no, no, no. Policia.

You know, so he had been monitoring us plus he was getting stuff so i was like confused yeah and what blow yeah yeah so i was getting better yeah yeah it was like 95 pure yeah it was 11 a gram yeah this is just drug talk for those were the days yeah you know anybody listening yeah um so i i had my room and i laid in there and i was ordering cervezas and cervezas and room service and uh you know i'd lock the door there was a bolt in the chain and there was a little glass hole so you could see and uh one night i drank myself almost into paralysis because I got a Quaalude from somebody, but it was bathtub Quaaludes. Yeah.

In other words, you could take one, nothing. Yeah. You could take another one, nothing, and the full Lollapalooza would be in the third one. So I get on the third one, and all of a sudden I was like narcolepsy. I was paralyzed lying in the bed. Yeah. Still trying to reach for a Cerveza and everything.

And earlier that day, I was out walking around town, and I went into a little crafts booth. Yeah. And these people were nice, and I was like the fucking, you know, bad news. Yeah. Yeah. And I go in, and I go, you know, what do you got? You know, speaking yeah yeah and I go in and I go you know what do you got you know speaking too loud and messy and sloppy and I said you got any guitars and the guy shows me a guitar a big guitar oh and I'm looking at it and

I go this neck is as crooked as a ram's horn how much you want for this and he told me I said this is a piece of shit. And I was being so insulting. I can barely remember, but I do remember, like, the main little things. I'm lucky I didn't get shot to death. Yeah. So somehow I passed out in that store, but I was standing up. Yeah.

And the next thing you know they threw me in a vat of unmixed orange paint what yeah i was covered with orange uh-huh pigment yeah hands shoes legs yeah hair yeah and i guess i got out of there but i don't remember it and walked back to the hotel orange yeah fully orange long before Trump and full frontal orange yeah yeah so I I woke up standing on my feet in front of the hotel with orange all over me and that's when I went back up to my room and took the quaaludes right and then ordered cervezas yeah bolted the door I was paranoid I was belligerent you know because i'm working both ends yeah yeah you know and we're your friends and the blow they were off on their own adventures so i i get up

and i see someone standing at my door yeah in the light crack and the door was locked by that time double locked and i, who is this? And I found out, I knew already that they had a house detective. Yeah. And I says, this stupid dick thinks he's going to bust me and, you know, he'd be like the crime buster of the year down there. And I'm going, that motherfucker. And I said, I'll just wait him out. Yeah.

Didn't move. He's still like looking through that thing trying to see me maybe he has a reverse yeah yeah you know where he can see in somehow and I was like I I was getting angry this motherfucker he won't leave it's been like three hours he's standing there so I creep across the floor it took me like 20 minutes to go from the bed right to the door so i could not make a sound i was totally paranoid yeah and i'm like oh what am i gonna do i gotta get a better look at him so i go up to the the door and i stand on my

head and i'm looking underneath the crack just to see if I can get some more information. Can you imagine a full-grown man? Yeah, just out of his mind. Yeah. Like Trump now. What'd you find? What'd you find? No, so I said,

this motherfucker, I gotta get rid of this guy or he's gonna take care of me. Yeah. So I undid the lock. That took me like 15 minutes. Yeah. And the other one slowly, quietly took me about 10.

Yeah. I mean, this is all in slow-mo because I didn't want to give this guy a clue. Yeah. But there he is. And so off come the locks. I doubled back and I opened the door. Ah! Off come the locks.

I doubled back and I opened the door. Ah! And in front of me on the mat was my pair of orange-covered shoes that I didn't want to come in the room with. And I was swinging and I went, pfft, fuck. You know, right back to, you know, you'd think you'd learn something. So you come back from Peru and you're still working at the record store. Well, we came back to Peru, but we were so well-known as, you know, you'd think you'd learn something. So you come back from Peru, and you're still working at the record store. Well, we came back to Peru, but we were so well known as, you know, ugly Americans that they had phoned Logan Airport.

Yeah. And they had 50 U.S. Marshals waiting for us. Really? Yeah, because it was five of us. Yeah. And they were all ready. Yeah. And they were doing strip searches and everything.

Oh, they thought you were bringing shit back? Yeah. Yeah. And I almost did, because I did buy a guitar and I was going to carve out, see, no one will know. Yeah, right. I figured it out. This is where you put the bow.

The world's most stupid criminal. So I'm going, I can put it in there because I met two gangsters when I was down there. Yeah. In an alleyway near a bar. Yeah. And he's like, you know, Hey, you know know no pereno

i am mi amigo you know and he's got like bullet wounds healed on his chest yeah and i'm not scared of him because he gives me some blow yeah hey you know and he goes my buddy me amo carlos uh you know and he's larrabee and the name struck me so funny because it sounded like two names from the old Jack Benny radio show or something. So I started doing the routine to them and I went, Oh, Carlos. Oh, Larrabee. And they started doing it and cracking up laughing. Oh, Carlos.

Oh, Larrabee. And they didn't know that they were imitating an American comedic icon. Right. But it didn't matter because what's funny is funny. Yeah. And that proved it right then and there to me. Yeah. If something is funny, they picked up right on it and I was going to bring some back that they had given me.

Right. And, you know, so the strip search at Logan Airport and everything. I came home in a daze. This was 1983. I was still at, I pretty much was new still at BCN. So you were already a character on the radio. People knew who I was. I didn't get much credit.

You know, they didn't want to say my name a lot. But when did that start? So when did you make the jump from the guitar shop to BCN? How'd that happen? I had already was a winner of one of their contests when I lived like outside of Boston with my mom. Yeah. Which those were frequent recidivism visits, you know, to my mom. A comedy contest or a?

No. Well, on the radio one morning, and you might know this guy, Eddie Gordatsky. Yeah. He was one of my first friends there. And we're talking 32 years ago at BCN. Eddie was at BCN? Oh, yeah. He was the comedy guy.

You know, he used to take that blank piece of paper and get on the typewriter. Next thing you know, he's like- He's like a part of everything. He came over here with Elvis Costello when they came over. He knows everybody. Doesn't he? And he's like on every show. I used to say, Eddie, when they finally send something up to Mars and you might be the

first guy to go because you're so cool, you're going to get out and they're going to know who you are. And he's got this- Eddie. Yeah. Look, Eddie. Well, he knows Dylan and he knows he's got all those great 78s. Yes.

He's a huge record collector, but he's also, he was there at the beginning of the comedy channel that's right and I worked for him you did at BC I was the announcer for the comedy channel after I left BC and well let's get there so I didn't realize this so now it's all coming together Eddie Gord I sobered up is what happened after I moved to New York uh-huh but I knew Eddie from Boston but he was writing for Saturday Night Live and Letterman okay so wait

so you win the contest you're at your mother's Eddie Gordetsky is doing the bits of BCN so they knew you because of this concert what kind of contest was it? I remember my friend called me up and said hey WBCN's looking for a guy

who can sound like mel blank yeah and you win or something yeah and uh he said call him up so at his but you haven't been doing voices in any real way just fooling around myself or on stage you know if you broke a string in those days or your amp blew up you had to sit there like a fried egg and try to figure out what you're going to do to entertain people and you would would do what? Bugs Bunny or what? I would just launch into stuff. Yeah. Like what was your favorite go-to?

And there's a final word. Goodbye. You know, stuff like that. Yeah. Or anything. Yeah, yeah. So, all right. Whoa, blow me down.

You know. Yeah. Oh, olive oil, olive oil. I used to be able to do it better my mouth is like a buzzsaw this morning what yeah popeye i bring you some flowers there i redeem myself in the eyes of voice purists all right so you win this contest or whatever but because you were like you get when did they put you on to the morning crew because there's something about radio at that time so this is what 80 what when i won and then i knew to sign off with that's all for air folks you know and it's like we got a live one yeah so they invited me to come up to the prue where they

were broadcasting from prudential building the prudential building and uh so i go up there and everybody's super cool like too cool to talk to me yeah but i won yeah and this is what did well what did you win was it walker darrowra Show? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. But when Eddie picked me off the listener line when I called in, he went, hold on. And that was the beginning of that whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. Eddie and Charles and Oedipus. Yeah.

Yeah. So you're there. So now you got a job? I have a job, but I was getting increasingly out of control. But you were doing the morning show. Yes, I was. So that's 6 o'clock. Yes.

And you're just, you know. I'm just getting in from the night before at 4.15. Right. But everybody was doing that, right? How, though? How did we do those things? I don't know. But you're at BCN, so I imagine you're going to concerts.

You're hanging out with whoever's in town. I'd always be obliterated. I couldn't tell you what happened after 7 o'clock at night most of the time. Really? For a majority of my adult life at the time. And you were shown up and what were the voices you were doing for Charles? Oh God, I'd have to pick something. Yeah. And I would mimic like types. Yeah. You know, like wobbly wizards and, you know, demonic creatures. And you'd just make them up spontaneously? Accents, yeah. What was your favorite one? I don't know. It you just make them up spontaneously? Accents, yeah. What was your favorite one?

I don't know. It's just something funny about an Indian guy calling someone else, you're hammerhead. You know, I'm using stooge, like, ad hominems for people standing right next to me. You are a hammerhead. So you'd be the weird, crazy, sweaty, fucked up guy. You're not going to let go of that, are you? Well, no.

Charles would be driving the show. I'm just trying to see what the crew look like. Yeah, he'd be driving the bus. And how many people would be in the room? Eddie would be next to me, and he would have written words, bits, wrap-ups to contestants like, you know, you win. So you weren't live on the mic all the time. No. Uh-huh. But I was voicing my own stuff.

Right. We didn't have any actors, you know. Yeah, yeah. No, I was like, I had to learn. So it was a fluke you got into this. Yeah, but you know what I acted like? Like I could care less about being there because I couldn't wait to get out and. Get high.

Take care of my ossification. But you started to make money though, right? A little bit, but it was, there was a low, low ceiling there. And, you know, I knew why I didn't because how could they, how could they, they would point up, you know, number one, you're, you're like an insurance liability. Yeah. You know, for starters. Yeah. And, you know, it was all that kind of stuff, but I sobered up in 85. What happened to make you sober up? I had flipped a car on the Massachusetts Turnpike, you know, east and west, and there's a guardrail in the middle. I was coming home towards Boston, and I fell asleep doing about 90 miles an hour. Yeah.

And next thing you know, what woke me up was the sound of the guardrail lifting me over it, and the car was upside down and landed on a fast lane of the westbound mass turnpike. And I was like, I didn't know what to do, and I could feel the engine. I could smell it. Yeah. Probably going to blow up. Right. what to do and I could feel the engine like I could smell it yeah probably gonna blow up right so so I'm standing in there I'm trying to figure out what to do yeah and as soon as I realized what happened I just didn't take it that

seriously you know what I mean like you didn't care like invulnerable yeah kind of magical thinking yeah hey what's meant to happen is meant to happen you weren't hurt. I wasn't. I had probably a little bit of joint problem in my heel. Yeah. That was about it. And you were shit-faced.

Yep, and a mass statey, state patrol trooper pulls up. It's like late, late at night. And he comes over and he gets me out of that window that is now laying on the ground. And he said, before I arrest you, I just want you to know that I've been working this shit for 12 years. And every time we come out there, we come with shovels and plastic bags to scrape the blood pudding that's left of you into them. He says, you're one lucky bastard. And I was just, yeah? And he wanted to beat the crap out of me. So I spent the night in the station.

Somehow I was let go home. But what happened was I never showed up to court over that. And a year later, they recontacted, because I was nonpaymentment of rent and the judge had my record earlier and he goes wait a minute aren't you supposed to be uh you're going to jail for this uh non-payment of rent I don't care about this uh you know accident yeah yeah and um so they put me in Charles Street Jail which is a pissy smelly 300 year old Bastille which is a pissy, smelly, 300-year-old Bastille, which is now luxury condominiums. Of course.

But on a warm Boston night, you can still smell 300-year-old piss. Yeah. Yeah. How long were you in jail for? Probably close to two weeks, I think. Yeah. And I just figured it out right then and there. I'm a quick study.

Yeah. Yeah. It takes me the hard way to learn everything, but I figured it out. I said, you know, because you have to go, how did I get here? Yeah. And I can't go anywhere.

And I've got people bugging me for anything I have in my hand. If you have a comb in your hand, gone. You read the sports page, gone. You know, anything you had was somebody else's. Yeah. And I realized it. hand if you have a comb in your hand gone yeah you read the sports page gone you know anything you had was somebody else's yeah yeah and uh i realized i leaned into it no i wasn't scared because i was in a daze yeah you know like like you just got hit in the head and you're waking up right so um so i get out of there i come back and and people saw this guy who the devil had been cast out or purged totally from me. You were just like this crazy man. Yeah. And alcohol, well, being Irish, I know that it's,

there's way more to it than alcohol and being an alcoholic. It is a psychedelic experience. Oh yeah. It's the drug of Irish poets. You know, Madam Bottle, that was your muse. Yeah. Because, like, you were infamous by the time I got there, and you were already sober. But, like, you were this known wild man. Yeah. But you don't remember most of it. No, my legend loomed large, but I didn't know what it was about.

But you were, like, this voice guy. You were the voice guy. Yes. Yeah. But I happened to be good. Yeah. know what it was about but you were like this voice guy you were the voice guy yes yeah but i happen to be good yeah even in a blackout yeah i would do stuff yeah and i wouldn't even remember doing it yeah yeah it was like the talent part just totally took over yeah and overrode the whatever part of the brain makes you act like a shit fuck. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So when you got sober, what'd you do? I wanted to take an assessment of myself and figure out where I am in relation to the business

and the world and everything. And a guy named Howard Stern was starting to make noise out of Washington, D.C. Yeah. Then he was syndicated in Philly and New York. And you'd only been at bcn doing those bits yeah since i was there from 81 to 89 so yeah i was working on um the howard stern show when i moved to new york how'd you get that gig it was our sister station right and i went there to work

in production and this is before stern is stern um he was starting to make a big noise. Yeah. Yeah, real quick. I mean, he would say, no, what are you talking about, man? It took me forever. And, you know, he was pretty cool. Like when I first met him,

he'd be like, you know, whatever you, you know, I know you're new in town. If you need to get acclimated, I'll help you out and all that. In New York or D.C.? Yeah, when I would meet him, they were just getting off the air.

Yeah. And I was coming in. But it was in New York? In New York City on West 57th. Yeah. that in new york yeah dc yeah when i would meet him they were just getting off the air yeah and i was coming in but it was in new york in new york city on west 57th yeah yeah you were coming into it from east 57th or something and you were doing the next show what do you mean um no i would go in and do production okay station business right you know like uh and you know because i had a head full of big dumb announcers yeah and if you wanted to be a pro, you had to sound like these big, dumb announcers who loved far and away above everything else in the universe, the sound of their own balls vibrating and carrying them on a wheelbarrow. Yeah.

You know, coming to the Worcester Centrum. And they would, like, add that hamburger helper. You know, it's 11.15. Right here. A lot of them were still doing that yeah and it was like madison ave was filled with these big dumb dinosaurs that were about to go extinct yeah and then the breed came along they were raptor like they were more facile they were quicker they were more versatile um enter little dumb announcer yeah like and the guys that I came up with.

Yeah. What was that sound? You know, it was just like, let's try to stay away from that. Because by then, people knew that if you were talking on the radio, someone's lying to you. Yeah. They put that together. Yeah. By then, in the 80s.

Yeah. You know, I just started doing commercials, and I would put my own spin. I made off-the-nose choices for everything. And then I got this job. You know, I was auditioning for everything, and I was sneaking in and out of work. What was your relationship with Stern? Oh, I used to be on the show like three days a week. And you'd be in the room with him.

I'd be in the room. Yeah. You know, and he would just, something would come up in the news. Yeah. And he would have heard me ruminating before the show. Yeah. Like, what was that thing you were doing? You know, like the first time he called me, I was at home.

Because the day before, he was getting off the air and he's eating his baked potato. And I came in and Lucy was like at the Cedars-Sinai. You know, it was almost good night, funny lady. Yeah. And they were showing the bonbon clips on TV, the grape stomping. I said, oh, you know, poor Lucy. Yeah. So I come in, and I started doing the no estrogen Lucy for Stern.

Yeah. And I was like, why are you people bothering me? He says, shit starts coming out of his nose, potato and snot. Yeah. Yeah, he's choking. Yeah. I lived a very long and prosperous life. You know, instead of, oh, Ricky, it was, oh, Ricky.

So he was doing that, and he goes, I'm going to call you tomorrow morning, man. I'm going to have Gary Call you tomorrow morning And you do that Just do that So we get there And the first call Was like

Is this the Cedar Sinai Yes it is You know I was just like Ad-libbing Instead of searching For words

Yes it is We want to talk to Lucy Is Lucy a ball there So it turned into Hey Robin We're going to call Lucy. Is Lucille Ball there? So it turned into Hey Robin, we're going to call Lucy. You know, and it sounded very real as if it were happening in the here. Hello?

Lucy! Yes? You know, and you have to hear the entire bit. It was so dark but it was like irresistibly funny. Yeah, I know. Live radio and doing that stuff where you have just a it's like it's all theater of the mind bit. It was so dark, but it was like irresistibly funny. Yeah, I know. Live radio and doing that stuff

where you have just a, it's like, it's all theater of the mind shit. So Lucy, your parents, you're saying your parents, when we read

that when you were a little girl, they used to chain you to the clothesline and put a dog harness around here. And Lucy would say, you say it like

it's a bad thing. And Stern was like, he was just wanted to play play to the very bitter end yeah and boy oh boy the next morning this gossip columnist this bitty named Kay Gardella and the Daily News is going I heard the most horrifying thing on the radio and it was like shame on you Stern yeah you know and he was like he loved it and he loved it yeah he loved it and i would characters would evolve yeah because i would do those boston women yeah that were

screaming about busing and yeah get off our beach this is cassin beach it was always a nice white beach get off it wasn't meant for yous this is Point. The bus comes from white neighborhoods to come to a white beach. Get out. You know, I grew up hearing all this stuff, you know, and then a black guy would call in and he'd go, I know that's Billy West. I know that's Billy West. Oh, my God, Howard, you bad. You know, so most people understood that it was pointing up the grotesqueness of racism.

Yeah. Yeah. How long were you with Stern? For a few years. I left in 95. To come out here? Yes. So I got to do a lot of stuff.

But I auditioned for Ren and Stimpy. Yeah. And I worked with John Kay when he was doing Beanie and Cecil, which lasted six episodes, and I was playing Cecil, the C-6 C-serpent. Yeah. John Kay created Ren and Stimpy. And this is also where I met

my Today partner in creativity, is Jim Gomez. Yeah. And we have a podcast. Do you mind if I talk about it? Sure. While we're... Yeah.

I'm all over the map, man. It's all right, buddy. I'm sorry. It's all right. I found out I had ADHD. Yeah. Like about a year ago. Uh-huh. I couldn't over the map, man. It's all right, buddy. I'm sorry. It's all right. I found out I had ADHD. Yeah. Like about a year ago. Uh-huh.

I couldn't wait to tell my friends. I was like, hey, guess what? I get that stupid ADHD. And this guy looks at me and he goes, you paid someone to tell you that? We knew. Yeah. Oh, everybody knew. But anyway, we thought it would be a funny idea just to create something.

Just for fun. I mean, just for the fun of it. The podcast. Yes. And it's BillyWestPodcast.com. And there's barely time for me on my own show because there's all these disruptions and distractions, people coming in, arrest warrants or somebody calling on the phone or whatever, but it's me. Yeah, of course.

Yes. But I also bring in my voiceover friends, not to interview them. Yeah. Let them work. That would be more of the same. It's like, okay, that's my interview, and I didn't have to put anything into it. Right. So I created content, and I wanted these guys to play people from my real life.

Yeah. So I created content, and I wanted these guys to play people from my real life. Yeah. And I have just priceless performances from my very own friends that inspire me to this day. And it's all produced. You guys spend time with it. Yeah, we have to. Yeah. And the problem with that is that people want to keep them coming.

Every week. And it's difficult. Yeah. Yeah, to produce it. Yeah. I mean, I can talk, but I'll hang myself if I'm allowed to be me and talk. Yeah. Yeah.

So you're better off doing bits. It's better off creating characters. You know, we created a character named Billy Bastard. I don't know who I named that after, but the way I was in the old days. Yeah. Yeah. What's that guy sound like? And he sounds like Buddy Rich.

You ever hear those Buddy Rich bus takes? You guys are blowing clams! You guys are playing clams for me up here! Well, I wrote the chart to I'll Take Manhattan. Well, you can take Manhattan and get the fuck off this bus right now! Tonight! And it's sort of like that.

And he's Billy Bastard. Do you remember that guy billy bastard i mean sure i do were you a yeller i would scream and yell and i and i had like the lung capacity and certainly the vocal yeah yeah i can't say my gentleness belied my great strength i think it was just you know demon power yeah yes i mean that's like, I have the blood sugar of 81 seagulls. Yeah. Don't mess with me. Yeah.

That's the guy. Yeah. Yeah. Or I would say shit like that. Yeah. Yeah. Just because I was, the silliness was always there. So when you did Ren and Stimpy, that was your big break.

I mean, that was this weird kind of rebirth of animation for a new generation of young people. It was on MTV, right? MTV. And it was huge. Yes. And originally, I auditioned for both voices. Yeah. That's what John Chris Felici wanted.

And we actually went to MTV to do a live pitch in front of the women at Nickelodeon. And we recorded. This is right out of the movies like out of the stooges out of the 30s yeah there's a broom and we get a little mic on it we're in a closet up the street from Kurt Loder's office right and uh and we're in there and I'm reading the script as both voices he goes in he comes out a half hour later and he says congratulations what you just did sold the show who said that uh John Chris yeah and I said wow you know so did sold the show. Who said that? John Chris Lizzie. And I said, wow.

So they get the show in production, they sold the show, and John decided that he was going to do the voice of Ren. Yeah. And I didn't give a fat frog's ass who did what. I was lucky to have a job. Yeah. I was thrilled to death. So I did Stimpy originally, who was based on Larry from The Three Stooges,

except you couldn't make him sound like a depressed old Jewish guy yeah you know hey Moe my hernia I don't know how big of a stooge guy you are but Larry is the most sublime peripheral voice I've ever heard in my life be careful Moe you know yeah hey Moe you took my money didn't you yeah then it's shamp he's come back to haunt us you know it was priceless the little that he said i'd be like you know because i watched the stooges um every little frame everything and it was like somebody trying to get more out of the lobster long after it's done like sucking the legs and looking for green shit. You know, maybe that's edible. And I began to watch the corners of the pictures instead of the obvious focal points and the gags. Yeah.

And Larry was always making faces and, oh, no. Yeah, yeah. Chewing up scenery. Yeah. You know, and... Do you like that? Oh, I love that, but I fell in love with this voice that I didn't care about. I mean, I didn't early on care about it.

Everybody knew Moe, and everybody could do Curly, and they could do the voices. But nobody gave a damn about Larry. So John Chris Felici heard that earlier on when we were recording Beanie and Cecil, and I was doing Larry. And he said, you know that Larry Fine voices you did, Stooges did stooges yeah so I want you to do that for Stimpy and what happened was you can't have him sound like Larry because it's not a spark right that really adhered to a cartoon character that I do adhere to a cartoon universe so he sped him up you know and then it became like a sped up Larry. Yeah.

You know, hey, Ren, will you button me? And Ren would be like, you shut up. You fool. Yes, I shall kill you. And John got fired after the first season. And I wasn't his partner. I wasn't like his creative partner or anything I was a hired gun yeah and uh they they came and auditioned they came back to me and they thought hey wasn't he

supposed to do it in the first place so I re-auditioned and uh I did both parts you know I had nothing to do with their battle right nothing the scenes. And he called me and he said, you know, I said, I'm sorry that, you know, you got dumped. Yeah. And he's like,

well, you don't have to do the show. And I'm like, I don't think it works like that. You know? Yeah. Because he was offering nothing. And plus, He just wanted you to do his bidding

because he got fucked. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And he was trying to use me as a weapon against him. Like, you know, if you quit, they'll never be able to do the show without you. Yeah. You know, so then I can, my bargaining chip would be him.

Yeah. You know, but you're not going to use me. Right. You've got nothing to gain from that. And you'd probably be the one that takes the hit. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.

So you get it. You know what it is? Yeah. Is I had all these bad things happen to course. Yeah. Yeah. So you know what it is? I had all these bad things happen to me. Yeah. But when I grew up, I realized, you know what? I never went to asshole school. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know sometimes what anybody's talking about. You were an impulsive asshole, not a political asshole. Or a business asshole. Or one machination asshole. Right. Like, you know, I'll play this one

against this one and then I'll lie yeah calculating yeah nothing like that I was innocent of it and

so you took the gig so I just took the gig yeah and you did both voices for all those seasons for three seasons after that yeah and it was a lot of screaming

and yelling it was great and I did those incidental voices like the announcer. Yeah. You know, how long can Stippy hold out? Can he hold out? Will he press the button that will erase his very existence? You know, and I would put the emphasis on wrong words. Yeah.

You know, like, in the next Target Adventure. That was your device. Yeah, but I got it from Colonel Bleep. Did you ever see Colonel Bleep when you were a kid? See, I grew up in the 50s. Colonel Bleep was this alien who was like an astronaut or a commander, and he had a caveman with him and a puppet. And it was animated, really early, primitive.

And the announcer on the show was at this fever pitch all the time. Yeah. Yeah. And it was like, how does this guy not pass out? Yeah. Because he's always up here. Yeah. Oh, no.

Yeah. And all that stuff kind of works in. All of it goes in your percolator. Yeah. And whatever you spit out is not like you clip something from somebody. It's a hybrid of what your influence is for. Well, yeah, and you're also integrating because you grew up like, you brought up Bilko and that stuff and Jack Manny.

I mean, that stuff was stuff that you saw as a kid. Yes, and I was really influenced by that. But when I saw cartoons for the first time and I was able to read, I looked at the credits. And I'd just have heard 10 voices or so, and to read, I looked at the credits. Yeah. And I'd just have heard ten voices or so and I'd see two names in the credits.

But like, what, the Tex Avery stuff? All of it. Yeah. Yeah, Mel Blanc, one voice. Yeah. And he was the first guy,

I guess, that got credited on the title cards. Did you ever meet him? Yes, I did. Yeah. In 1980. Yeah?

Yeah. Did you guys do dual voices? No, he got mad at me. Oh, he did? Yeah, I was yelled at by Mel Blanc. Why? No, he got mad at me. Oh, he did? Yeah, I was yelled at by Mel Blanc. Why? I didn't get yelled at. How'd that sound?

We were in Clark University in Worcester, Mass. It's an old- I know that school, yeah. Old wooden hall. Yeah. I don't know about now, but here comes Mel Blanc. I just happened to find out about it. Was it some sort of conference or panel?

Oh, you mean you went to see him? Went to see him, and it was a voice and slideshow. Yeah. He was given a lecture. And he eventually showed a cartoon. Yeah. But there he was, the guy, you know. He was Bugs.

He was Elmer Fudd. Who was he? He was Barney Rubble. He was Pepe Le Pew, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat. Yeah. Yeah, and he wasn't just a collection of witty little voices. Right. He could really act his ass off on every one of those characters.

Yeah. Like they were separate entities. Yeah. Which is what you're supposed to aim for. Right. So you go see him. And he's all done. And I said, oh, man, there he goes.

He's going to be. And he goes, if anybody wants autographs, can you make a line over here? That's what he sort of really sounded like. Yeah, yeah. And so I get up, and I'm body slamming little kids and checking them into the boards and all this and that. And he looks up, and he goes, could you let the little kids go first? You know, and when I met him, it was like that, is it a painting? I guess it is.

Yeah. Where man is reaching up, pointing his finger, and then there's God. The Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel? With his index finger. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And this earthbound dude is trying to get some of that DNA. Yeah. That's what it was like meeting him.

Yeah. Oh. What was it like when you got the opportunity to play characters that were established by Mel Blanc? I did Space Jam. Yeah. And I got to work with Michael Jordan, too, Doc. The closest thing to a religious figure that we have.

Oh, and I got paid in carrots. You know, I was just doing it to be faithful. Yeah. But, see, everybody has their own perception of what faithful is. They might be thinking about one decade or another decade because the directors were different. And one person would lean in. Ivan Reitman was directing me. And somebody over at Warner Brothers would lean in the door and go, he sounds too Jewish.

Okay, thank you for that update. And then somebody else would poke in and he goes, he's not tough enough. He's got to be more Brooklyn. Okay. With Bugs or with anybody? They were doing what they thought he was. Like everybody had a different perception, it seemed like to me. Of Bugs.

And I was trying to please Ivan Reitman. Right. That's the only name that mattered to me. So I was doing it that way. And, you know, it wasn't everybody's cup of tea. There's people that are stuck on a certain kind of bugs. He should have been the one that was really irreverent, like eating a carrot, like, hey, screwy. You know, that kind of, what you doing, screwy?

And I sound like Maury Amsterdam. Yeah, a little bit. Hey, Rob, here's the comedy spot. You know, I sound like Maury Amsterdam. Yeah, a little bit. Hey, Rob, here's the comedy spot. So I had moved to California from New York, got out of the Stern Show. Yeah.

And I got out here and everybody knew who I was. Right. It was like an electronic business card. Before I'm writing Stimpy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and before I left New York, I had been doing the Red M&M that I get cast for. On the commercial?

Part of the American landscape. Yeah. What was that guy sound like? Have you ever eaten me? You know, it's basically like my wise-ass voice. Yeah. Yellow. You know, and the commercials are great.

Yeah, yeah. They're very artistic and funny, I think. And I've heard from a lot of people. And it plays every day in some theater somewhere, and it's like, we're sick of you, man. Put the commercials on TV, you're good. I'm sick of me. Yeah. Yeah, so...

Did you do a lot of commercials? Yeah, when I moved to L.A., I did tons of them. And what was the next big, for you, the big event in your life, career-wise. In 1999, Matt Groening was going to do a new cartoon outside The Simpsons. Yeah. So he created this show called Futurama. Yeah.

And that's all I knew about it. Yeah. And he says they're doing auditions, so I get some sides as Philip J. Fry. Right. Zoidberg and The Professor and um and bender the robot yeah so i went in and i just did instinctively people go how do you know what to do i said they give you enough information about the character so that you can formulate you know what it should be yeah and you just throw shit against the wall and hopefully one of them will be dead on on the bullseye and they'll

go that's what we're looking for. Yeah. So I did something I never did before. I sort of used my own voice for that. Yeah. Yeah, only when I was 25 and I was whiny and complainy and, you know. For which character? Oh, man, I just broke a string for Fry.

Yeah. Oh, man, I just broke a string. Now what am I going to do? You know, that's exactly what I sounded like I was like oh man we don't have any tubes the amp just blew up now what the fuck am I gonna do you know yeah and um and so I just injected that in there and I did um zap ranigan which Phil Hartman was supposed to do and I met Phil Hartman when I first moved out here. But in New York, he called looking for me before I left. And my wife, I called in coming from New York and she said,

guess who called here looking for you? I said, who? She said, Phil Hartman. I said, do you know how many guys I know that could pull an elaborate prank like that on you? And she goes, no, it was him. And he left his number. He wanted to say hi. And I'm like, okay, we'll see. And he was on the set of news radio. I call him back and it's him. And he goes, no, I just wanted to just say hi. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, we'll see. And he was on the set of News Radio. Yeah. I call him back, and it's him, and he goes, I just wanted to just say hi. I'm a fan of your work.

And I was like, well, I kind of know who you are too, you know. And I eventually met him. Yeah. And he was eager to help me get acclimated. Yeah. He was the most generous of spirit person. He had no, like, was coveting anybody else's talent or performance. Right, right. No, he was secure, and he knew who and what he was.

Yeah. And so we found out we had that big, dumb announcer love. Yeah, yeah. You know, because he had done them. Yeah. And we talked about those guys, and we found out, you know, it's like, oh, you remember a guy named Alex Dreyer? You know, we're pulling out names, Jackson Beck. You know, a few of them oh, you remember a guy named Alex Dreyer? You know, we're pulling out names.

Jackson Beck. You know, a few of them sound a little the same. Yeah. And then there was, you know, the old-fashioned guys that would come on the radio and say, I have to update the info because I don't remember any old commercials. But today's program is brought to you by Bluetooth. Now brain cancer comes in a new color. Blue.

Bluetooth. You know, and who talks like that? Only those guys. But when you did see it in person or something, they stuck with the act. Yeah. Yeah, because it gave them, you know, people would go. That's who they were. Wow.

Look at that. That's the weird thing about radio is that, you know, when you do see the radio guy, you're like, you're the guy? Yeah. That probably still happens to you. You're the guy. You're this little nabbish. I'll tell you a story. One time I auditioned for a character from Dinosaurs, the movie.

They were going to do the home game, and they couldn't find anybody to do Della Reese's character. Yeah. And they searched high and low. They had black actresses come in. You know, anybody with like a masculinized female voice. Right. And they weren't finding it, so the guy at Disney calls my agent and says, Do you think, really, just come in and maybe just...

And I go in and I nail it. You know, because she had this big voice. Bailin', honey. You know, because she had this big voice. Bailin', honey. You know, and she was a holy roller, too, so she had that religious, you know, hellfire rolling around in her voice. And so I'm in there, and people are, like, looking, like,

to see who the hell it is. We got somebody, and they see this white guy sitting there. But, you know, I was up for trying out anything yeah anything you threw at me what's the worst that can happen um they don't use it but on futurama zap was going to be done by phil but you know he died yeah um and it was such a shock it was horrifying um horrible way but then they started thinking about the character again and they said, do you want to try it? And I said, well, I have my own version of Big Dumb Announcers that sounds similar to what Phil would call upon. And I really wasn't trying to mimic him because I had to create a new character. So I based him on a few disc jockeys that I grew up working with or listened to.

disc jockeys that I grew up working with or listened to. And one of them had this voice like this. And he used to use big words like serendipity. You know, serendipity. And they used the hamburger helper, you know, with that, you know, well, it's seven past five in the morning. Good morning, everybody. You know, and i that just that's the hook yeah yeah i put that in the character yeah careful let them in i made it with a woman

you know that kind of crap she's a beautiful ship i'm gonna fly her brains out that was it it puts this button on it that makes him more important than anybody like that's the last word yeah no one can top that right it was beautiful but it came from something real now when you do that because like you you know I've done a just very little voiceover and it's not much different than me it's just different pitches of me but it's interesting when you're on a mic and you've got your cans on because you know i'm i'm also an addict you know that there is a complete departure of self that happens yes right yes and

you can feel it like you know it's the only thing i know how to do right except play music but but when you're in it when you're in those words and you're you're just completely all your momentum is into whatever those choices you made. You're completely departed from yourself. It's an out-of-body experience in a way. There's this idea that we came up with earlier about having to, I imagine when you got sober, I don't know if you got sober the way we get sober, but the idea of having a higher power that will function for you, this idea of these forces or that these things these energies that come and go and that everything's sort of integrated it seems like that the manifestations

of all these different voices are part of a continuum of of time and place and people and frequencies that you've absorbed over time well the stakes are higher with those things because i wasn't left to run wild this was a character that was worked on for probably a few years. Which one? All of them on Futurama. Yeah. And to get to the point where they chose you to interpret their work, I have to have nothing but respect for the artist's intentions.

Yeah. They're all artists. All artists, musicians, everybody are my bros. You know something? My heroes were never fucking celebrities yeah still yeah you know i mean uh my heroes were composers yeah and da vinci's and yeah you know architects sure you know people who did something real important yeah pulled it out of the thin air yeah i never worshiped celebrity i didn't give a damn about it you know all i knew is that is that I was bursting to bring something to the table. Yeah.

That's all I cared about. I didn't know you could make money or be famous. I just said, you know what, I think, in all my cockiness early on, I said, I think if they put me in something, I'll find a way to make it better than it was. Yeah. And I lived kind of by that. But I took the responsibility real carefully. So you had to create a character.

You had to craft it the same way they did to arrive at this character. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like there's no vigilante. There's no Lone Ranger in this process. And there's no swathing it off. No. Yeah.

No. And so, in other words, you say you see this thing happening in front of you. It's like because they're real to me. I took them very seriously. Yeah. Yeah. And it's paid off. Yeah.

It's really special. It's like, you know, it's a hard feeling to describe. Mostly every day I walk in a room full of genius level performers. And a lot of people don't even know who they are. Yeah. And a lot of people don't even know who they are. But thanks to the internet that lately, or not lately, I'd say in the past 15, 16 years, people are starting to know who does what. Right. And that is the coolest thing in the world.

Yeah. Because I do these comic book conventions. I'm going to Australia. Yeah. All these people knew me from Nicktoons. Yeah. And the little kids know me from something that I just did, like the 7-D for Disney. These are beautiful kids because they were me.

Yeah, that have this obsession with something that mostly nobody else cares about except the people you're with. Right. Yeah, real nerd stuff. I recognized the energy, and I said, that was me. I don't even know, that was me. And I... I don't even know what that noise is. That's a dentist who left his door open. He's working on Sundays.

On a very big mouth. Like Shemp. Yeah. Do some more Larry. Let's end on some Larry. Hey, Mo, I pissed on my shoe. Isn't there something just about that voice that makes you laugh? I love that you love it because I wouldn't have ever looked at it that way.

But go back and watch it. I'm going to now. And the little that he says is like, you know, make some Keith Richard of the Stooges. Suddenly he's who Charlie now. He's a big, important guy. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they're all Bells, all these women.

Bell of the ball. Anything you say. I think he lived the longest. Be careful, Mo. He was in a nursing home in Woodland Hills. Yeah. Yeah.

And I had a friend from Boston. One of the guys from the Stooges, the band, went to visit him. Yes. Regularly.

And he took a big beta machine and made a beta tape of Larry sitting there. It's black and white. You've seen it? I have seen it. And Larry's sitting there

and they set up the interview and he's like, okay. You know, because he had had like three strokes. Yeah. And there was a picture that he created seen it and Larry's sitting there and they set up the interview and he's like okay you know because he had had like three strokes yeah and there was a picture that he created that he drew of Mo behind him in an old firehouse short that they did yeah yeah and he's like you know he's stroked out but he still had his sense of humor yeah and the guy says what was uh Mo like? Well, you know, he was a very sweet man, and he picked me out of a vaudeville act,

you know, because the Stooges were looking for one guy to fit in with the crazy man and the boss man. Yeah. So he said, I was playing violin and did a stage act with the Haney sisters. Yeah. You know, we never heard of these people. Thank God he got out of there.

Mo just picked him and said, you're going to be a stooge. And so there he was and oh my God. It's like, you know what? People used to say, what are you getting out of this? Okay, we know you're not big on school. What are you getting? I couldn't

explain it, but here I was learning comedic timing, comedic performance, and acting. You know, where you act as a voiceover guy, I act on those words. Sure, of course. You know, I was smart enough to, I went to Stella Adler while I was in New York on Stern. And, oh, my God, I was cramming like a super college student. I remember reading Man and Superman almost overnight.

Bernard Shaw? Bernard Shaw. Yeah. Almost overnight. And I had to learn the prologue to Henry V overnight. Yeah. Yeah, because I was too busy during the day running around New York. How did that go for you at the class?

Did you learn anything? Went to some stuff I could not do right by this particular teacher. Yeah. Because she said to me, all right, we're going to have you do examples of a covered entrance. And I said, I wonder what that is. Is it like to slip in and be invisible? Yeah. In plain sight?

No, it wasn't even that. I never understood what it was. No. I never could get it right. So, you know, and then i meet real actors and celebrities that are my friends and i mentioned that and they said i never heard of that you know it's like when i worked at the boston navels i worked at the boston navel shipyard when i was like 17 18 no i was a little more than 15 and i was a carpenter's apprentice working in the

No, I was a little more than 15, and I was a carpenter's apprentice working in the building shops that made stuff for wartime. And I was putting together a sawhorse, and this one guy comes in, one carpenter, and he goes, hey, what are you doing? I said, I'm pounding a nail. Who the fuck taught you how to pound a nail? You know, and so he shows me his way. Yeah. And I go, okay, okay. I'm not going to hit my thumb.

I was doing okay. And then another schmo comes in, and he goes, he goes you know like what the fuck are you doing you know same exact thing he says who taught you how to do that you know i i said this other yeah and uh and he did it his way yeah so i learned something that i knew when when i inherently in my heart of hearts, I learned at 10 years old that adults were full of shit. Yeah. Everyone's got to be right. They got the way.

Everybody's got to be right and random. Yep. Yep. Yep. I never thought of the adults like that. Yeah. Oh, that's a good lesson to learn. But I realized deep inside when I'm seeing hypocrisy and double standards and I'm going,

I didn't use the phrase, but I I just said these people are full of shit just like me yeah yeah and it's a that's an important lesson to learn it is isn't it yep it's great talking to you great talking to you too I I wanted to meet you for a long time yeah I'm glad we did because I followed you from Boston doing your stage stuff I came and saw you yeah and um and then Air America yep you were on there. And I tell people today when they use the word sheeple, I said, I know the man. Well, I don't know you. But there's a guy that made that up and it just catches on. I wonder if it was me.

It was you. I know I used it and I used... Sheeple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that thing. But it's like lemmings. Yep. Yep.

I loved it. I love doing Air America. And I'd never done radio before. And I'm insecure about my skills on these mics, but I know that my personality comes through. It doesn't matter. That's right. No, your wit. Yeah.

Your skill is like undefined to everybody else until you define it. Yeah. I love these mics. Yeah. These are wow. You can put your whole mouth around the front of it. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. All right. I turned into a jungle cat. It was beautiful. All right, that was Billy West. Ooh, that was like a rollercoaster ride of an interview. So, yeah, we've got some more WTF Uncovered. Uncovered WTF's coming up.

We've got one up tomorrow. And what else? I can play some guitar. I don't want to hurt my ear, though. I'm getting old. Thank you. A little messy. Didn't quite come together as I'd hoped. Boomer lives! You can get anything you need with Uber Eats.

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