AnimeNEXT 2011: Inside the Voice Actors Studio – The Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society Miscellanea and Ephemeron

Almost all the voice actors were present, except for Vic Mignogna and Greg Ayres. From left to right: Chris Niosi, Michelle Knotz, Robert Axelrod, Leah Clark, Trina Nishimura, Tom Wayland and Bill Rogers.

Bill:

Tom:

Trina:

Robert:

Trina:

Leah:

Robert:

Michelle:

Chris:

Host:

Michelle:

Q: If you could live in any time period, when would it be and why?
Chris: The year 2020 just because it sounds interesting. It’s one of those ’10 sec. into the future’ except its not 10 sec. It’s just in the future of “What am I going to be now? Will I be a bum on the street? A hobo in NY?”
Michelle: I can’t live without running water, toilets, cellphone, technology, my computer, I like now. I like to live a little bit in the future, because you want to know whats going to come up.
Robert: I want to live in the year 3000. Because by that time, they’ll discover a way to do air travel to outerspace alot quicker than now. Something to do with time travel. That sounds like it’ll be exciting. But they’ll still need actors!
Leah: I like the now, but a few years later. The now, but after the economy recovers.
Trina: I would totally look at sports and go back in time and bet on them. That’s what I would do, if I could live in any time.
Tom: I would live far enough in the future when time travel exists. Then I would live in ALL TIME simultaneously. *audience applauds*
Bill: I will make it even better. I am a Time Lord, just that I choose to live one minute at a time.

Q: The first job you ever had…besides babysitting.
Chris: I was very fortunate that my first job was doing graphics animation for a company in Long Island called Pigeonware. They do stereotypical educational games, like Leapforg, Jumpstart. I did all their graphics animation for the games, doing lots of rainbows, animals, weird stuff. I did a little bit of voice work too. I was 16, I was in highschool. It was an internship which turned into a job. I never had to do retail, I count my blessings every day for that.
Michelle: No fair! I did babysitting when was 14. My first job beyond babysitting was Burgerking. I was 15 years old…flipping burgers….
Bill: *sings* Ding, fries are done! Ding, fries are done! *audience laughs* I can see you with a paper hat.
Michelle: We had those hats like the tennis players wore. There were horrible uniforms back then! It was fun….
Robert: My first regular job was a paper boy. I was 12. I use to go around to collect money at times. I lived in a pretty safe neighborood. I hooked up with an older guy, he was 19 and he delivered the papers during the day to a rather large area. And I would go around at night and collect the money. So I didn’t have to deliver any papers. My father was an accountant so I was good with numbers. My first paid acting job was with the company I joined in NY. We did a show ‘Little Trips’ and we played Soho, south of Houston Street which is a very artsy area of NYC. The show ran for a year so that was my first official acting job.
Leah: I was Michelle’s bitter rival during my first job at McDonald’s! It was awesome…since I’m vegetarian.
Host: It’s not real meat, how would that offend you?
Bill: It’s fecal matter.
Leah: We could steal the happy meals before the kids get to them. I do the drive through alot so my friends would come through and I woud give them free food so it was cool.
Chris: So you were doing voice acting from back then! *imitates speaker*
Trina: *speaks with Texan accent* I’m from Amarillo, TX, I dunno if y’all know where that is…it’s right on top up there. *breaks accent* There is a steakhouse there, called the Big Texan. They serve a 72oz steak with potatoes, shrimp cocktail, salad and a roll and if you eat all of that in 1 hour, you get to eat it for free. I was the strawberry shortcake girl. I wore a funny saloon girl outfit with a giant flower in my hair. And when people are done eating said steak, I would go on stage and make strawberry shortcakes. *audience laughs* And there will always be that Texan guy or that tiny Asian man that were like, “Hey, strawberry shortcake girl, make me a strawberry shortcake after I finish this giant steak!” I’m like “I’ll get you a bucket man, you’re going to need it.” After awhile… “Just don’t get it on the costume, alright?” *audience laughs*
Tom: That’s a funny coincidence, because I was also the strawberry shortcake…. My first job, I worked at Bradley’s. Which was interesting. It was 1988…something like that. It was before they had scanners. So it was like… *starts tapping the table* “Aw…crap, hang on.” *starts tapping some more* Putting in one item because each has these giant sku numbers. I worked there and my girlfriend worked there. And it was awkward because other girls worked there too and were cute. It was one of those first experiences where you meet girls you don’t go to school with all the time. I used to work in the AV department all the time and that was fun since I cranked up metal on all the radios. I ended up getting fired…I got fired, but I was okay with that. After that, I worked in a movie theater and it was the greatest job ever in highschool. In a movie theater, when you’re on a date with a girl, you’re such a pimp. Because you can see any movie you want and can go in front of the line. It’s great.
Bill: My first job was like Robert’s. I collected money on a paper route. It was my uncle’s paper route. It was alot more exciting then saying “I was working in an ice cream store scooping ice cream.” I did shortly thereafter worked in Sears, in the backroom. I was a scrawny guy and the bigger guys was like “Hahahaha, here…catch!” And they would throw shit at me. We had a big, burly supervisor who everyone was afraid of, so when everyone was smoking in the back lift, I would get behind the boxes and go *imitates supervisor* “Hey, guys, get back to work!” And they would go, “Oh, shit!” *audience laughs* “The little guy has a voice!”

Q: What is your dream car?
Bill: Time traveling Delorean. *audience applauds*
Tom: I will give an even nerdier real answer which is a hydrogen fuel cell car. Because hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. And the byproduct of the car is water so pure you can drink it right out the back of the car. The problem is not the technology to create it but its the infrastructure to refuel them. So children who are still in school, someone forget about the anime stuff. Learn how to do that and be a millionaire. Then you can make your own anime!
Trina: What Tom said, I agree with that.
Leah: I want that but I want it to have wings. That is my dream car. Everytime I get stuck in traffic, I can have wings and then I’ll just hover. That is my dream and it will probably remain my dream.
Robert: I’ll stick with the car I have. I have one of those smart cars. They’re big on the inside too. I don’t have to have a deep knee bend to get in, as you can see I walk with a cane and have a torn ligament in my knee. That’s perfect for me, just the right size.
Trina: I want to take you home and feed you M&Ms. *audience laughs*
Bill: I have a Scion and suddenly feel like I have monster truck. You have a smart car.
Michelle: I would love a flying car, that’ll be great. But really I would like a hover car while I’m at the studios so I wouldn’t have to pay for parking. That’ll be nice.
Chris: I’m very happy with my dark green Ranger that I got as my graduation present recently. But if not that, a time traveling Delorean and one from the first movie. I don’t want to fly, I want to stick to the ground.
Bill: Michelle, you want a car that doesn’t fly, but ony hovers?
Michelle: It’ll fly, but it’ll hover right over the studio so I don’t have to pay for parking anymore.
Bill: Because now I have in my head me and the wife in the car hovering and you just hear *making hovering noises* and she goes “The car doesn’t make that noise, stop.” *audience laughs*
Host: You are all talking about eco-friendly cars. What about the Ferrari I bought you last time? Look under your chair!
Bill: I think the best thing from Oprah would be like, “Everyone gets a puppy, look under your chair!” *audience laughs*
Host: My friend in highschool actually bought a Delorean and it was up to me to fix it. All the problems they show in ‘Back to the Future’ with this car happened. And the doors seem very cool going up but when you have to hold them up their without the lifts, it becomes a difficult process.

Q: Most unusual convention memory? Doesn’t have to be an anime convention.
Michelle: This is unusual and kinda sad and kinda makes me mad, I was with Bill….
Bill: I’m sorry, I really am! I can’t apologize enough!
Tom: He didn’t know it wasn’t necessarily him in the picture on the tweet…but he did send it right? *audience laughs*
Bill: It’s not me in the picture, okay, it was me. But I didn’t send it, oh okay I sent it. But I wasn’t naked, oh I was? Oh, I only sent it to one girl, no, I sent it to 5 girls. Okay! It was *incoherent ramblings*
Michelle: Dude, I don’t want to see you naked, I’m sorry. *audience laughs* Now you’re going to be sad…sorry you’re not going to laugh. Bill, I and Mike McFarland were at CPAC and we were doing a panel just like this. Kid raises his hand, stands up and he saids, “Were you guys voice actors because you couldn’t cut it as real actors?” We look at each other and wow…. I have never been asked that question at a convention…I didn’t answer it at all.
Chris: Perfect segue, I don’t know why I remember this, but I got slapped at a convention once.
Host: By Michelle?
Chris: No, not by Michelle. I won’t go into the details, but I was slapped in the Dealer’s Room. It was pretty funny. It didn’t hurt either, it went over my head or else I would have done something.
Robert: I’ll tell you about the nightmare I had. It was at a convention I was at one a half years ago. It was a nightmare, the people who ran it. They got us there, into a hotel and didn’t want to pay per diem. All of a sudden she told me-the gal who ran it said-I did not my fulfill my contract because I was [away from my] autograph table which was suppose to set up all day, which I didn’t mind at all. But the one time we sit up until 8pm, the place was empty at 7:30. So I packed up, and left 7:30. I put a sign up on the table ssying, “If you want an autograph tonight, call me.” I left my cellphone number. Nobody called me, but she saw it and she took it as me abandoning the table and didn’t want to pay me. I did all my panels.
Trina: What is her name? I’m going to write her a letter!
Robert: I’ll tell you her name-
Trina: No, don’t really tell me. *audience laughs* I’m sorry.
Leah: Well, I was at this panel and someone came up to me and said, “I don’t have anything for you to sign, will you sign my arm?” I said, “Sure!” But shortly after, everybody started to ask me to sign their body parts. You know…everywhere. *audience laughs* It was really awkward.
Chris: Define everywhere.
Leah: Like, the feet. I signed legs, arms.
Trina: I signed somebody’s neck yesterday. It was weird, I never done that before. Is that a thing? Like sign my skin?
Leah: I hear people ink them.
Trina: Johnny [Yong Bosch] had somebody-this is his story, I will use his! Johnny had somebody go “Please sign my arm! I will go to the tattoo store and get a tatto of your autograph!” And he was like, “No! Do not do that you, crazyhead!”
Bill: He’ll start forging documents…
Trina: Johnny said he’ll take a piece of paper and autographed that.
Bill: As for signing body parts, I had somebody ask to sign his stomach yesterday.
Trina: Was it hairy?
Bill: *whimpers* *audience laughs*
Trina: Was that like at your first job where you just closed your eyes and cry? *audience laughs*
Tom: Nice! So I used to work at CPM and one of the anime labels at CPM was Anime18 which was hentai. The Big Apple Anime Fest which ran for 3 years at 2001-2003 was what branched out into CPM. Everyone of us had to go. I had to do interviews with people…. *receives a text* It’s from Vic.
Trina: What does it say?
Tom: Huh? “I would be there, but I don’t like Trina….” I mean, he is modeling at the J-pop fashion show. Anyway, at the time, there was a new company called Newtech in LA and they were doing hentai dvds with actual porn stars for the voices. Great! I got that idea too! We were at the convention and this woman comes up to me and she like, “Excuse me, but are you Tom Wayland?” And some of you are too young to remember but she is one of the Japanese adult film actress….And she saids, “I wanted to meet you because I want to come to NY and work with you.” I’m like “Really? Okay, here is my card.” She started calling me at work and leaving me these-harmless stuff! She is really interested in doing work and she said that it was her dream to be in Disney movies and stuff. But ooo…sorry.
Bill: The little barmaid…Pocahontas….
Tom: She used to call me and sing Disney songs in my voice mails. “She called! She called, c’mere!” She was such a nice, sweet young girl. Unfortunately, it never worked out. But that was pretty weird…propositioned by-but not in that way-a porn star chick.
Bill: And I thought the conversation was going to go, “And my wife saw my cellphone…’Why is this porn star calling you?'”

Bill Rogers announced that he and Michelle will be signing ‘fanboy stuff’ at 1pm which means that they’ll leave early. We applauded them as they left and continued with the questions.

Tom:

Trina:

Robert:

Leah:

Chris:

Host:

For some reason, corn was brought into the mix…which means….

Tom:

Chris:

Boku no Sexual Harassment

Tom:

Q: Have you learned any life lessons from any of the characters you have voiced?
Chris: Doing Borr in Pokemon was like big to me because in a way, the character was almost like myself in the show to some extent. He wasn’t even a character from the video game. Viral was a character form the game. He was just a standin for the boy trainer. He was really the focus of the 5 episode arc. He goes from being a total wimp to “I’m going to be a detective!”
Tom: And he gets the girl!
Chris: I don’t want give a spoiler, but they hook up and go on their journey through Johto. In that sense, it was like I grew with this character, being able to use whatever [attacks] was like great.
Robert: That’s great…what was the question? *audience laughs* Life lessons! I think I embued life lessons into my characters. Have they given me any life lessons. I learned alot from Wizardmon. He had alot of integrity. He alot of gentle strength, so I’ll go Wizardmon. *audience applauds*
Trina: I learned a few things from Sgt. Frog. Like don’t bring in strays or they’ll probably bring their friends and take over the planet. True story…
Leah: No, I learned nothing.
Tom: I played Pokemon in the last season, a boy named, Flint who had this ‘little orphan Annie’ fro thing. He was one of the Elite Four so he was one of the grand champions. The thing he tried to teach Ash and others was about confidence. Its basically, if you’re full of self doubt, you’re not going to succeed. Its not as easy as ‘If believe I can do it, therefore I can do it.’ But it is a central part of it. You have to believe you can do the thing and then you’ll have the chance at succeeding at it. That’s sort of what he imparts to Ash. That you need the confidence in your abilities otherwise you’ll just sabotage yourself. That’s why it’s the most popular show in anime history. Deal with it.

Q: What is your favorite pizza toppings?
Chris: Nothing. I just like nothing. I’m weird, I know.
Robert: Extra cheese and sauce. Mushrooms and sometimes meatballs.
Leah: Extra sauce, all vegetables except mushrooms.
Trina: I like everything. I can’t pick anything I don’t like. I don’t like…pineapples. I feel that it’s wrong, a litle sacrilegious. Pineapples on pizza is wrong. I like sausage…pepperoni. I like the cheese that is kinda like mozzarella but softer? Feta? I like that too. Spinach, I like chicken, italian sausage, I like Irish sausage….
Tom: I’m old school. I like pepperoni and coming to the NY and living in NY for over 10 years, I’m spoiled because we have the greatest in the world. *audience applauds*

Q: So what is you favorite dessert?
Tom: I don’t know…. It depends on the mood. Ice cream sometimes is the perfect thing and you can’t do better than that. But other times, maybe it’s not the thing. I like cake. I’m a big fan of cake. For my birthday, I always get yellow cake with chocolate froesting.
Trina: From a box?
Tom: Someone makes it for me. And its usually shaped likea super hero.
Trina: That’s so cute! It’s sweet and really cute…must take some note: I need a super hero cake. My favorite dessert is little cakes, petit fours. I love those little tea cakes, frosted and with a little flower on top. I love those cakes that like boxed cakes, but better. Like your grandmother made them on crack. Those little cakes which are delicious. I would eat them all day long.
Leah: I like a little bit of size. I like cupcakes. I’m a big fan. Making them, eating them, looking at them…smelling them…giving them away at times.
Robert: I like a white cake with white frosting. Preferably a whipped cream frosting.
Trina: I got it, it’s on the list.
Chris: I will agree with cake and ice cream being in general the best ones, especially cupcakes. For a rarer delicacy, I will go for ice pops in the summer time. It’s something you can’t really walk into a story and buy. Lemon ice bars, cotton candy ones. Sometimes I stock up on those.
Tom: Something about the ice cream thing will bring you back to being a kid. It doesn’t matter how old you are, if you get yourself a chocolate eclair, a toasted almond or something, it’s like ‘I’m nine…yay.’

Q: If you had a $500 Walmart gift certificate, what would you get with it?
Chris: You guys don’t know this but I’m actually going through an image makeover right now. This is one of the first times I’m not wearing my sweat pants and baggy shirt all the time.
Tom: Do you have person doing that for you? A stylist?
Chris: I don’t remember the name of the store, but I spent too much money on a bunch of clothes. I’ll probably buy mostly new clothes.
Tom: So you’ll get $500 worth of clothes?
Chris: I’m a lemon.
Tom: That’s fine! At Walmart, I tend to get socks. See look, I wear like *props foot on the table* this kind of thing all the time and unfortunately, these eat socks. I’m a size 13 feet. You know what they say about guys with big feet…big shoes. *audience laughs* I would probably go and get $500 worth of socks and I’m good for a decade now.
Trina: $500…$500…Robert, what would you do with $500?
Robert: I was just at Walmart last night. Get a package of donuts…assorted. I like my donuts assorted. I would put it towards a new laptop, if Walmart carries laptops. Because mine just about had it. That’s what I’d do.
Trina: Probably home decor, appliances. Stuff like that. Low priced. I just have real commitment issues. Serious problems with commitment in general. So I have never bought a cooler and I have a birthday party every year at this pool, my boyfriend’s-my gay boyfriend since I actually don’t have a…. *audience laughs* He always goes, “We should get you a cooler since we do this every year.” But you know, I’m not ready to commit to a cooler. *audience laughs* We always get those styrofoam coolers and we always throw them away. So I’m just not ready to commit to a cooler right now.
Tom: But with $500, you can a sweet one.
Trina: Well, this is what I’m saying, I commited to a cooler recently. And the cooler lights the grill. I purchased a grill!
Leah: You own a grill?
Trina: I own a grill!
Chris: You can have a soap opera with like your….
Trina: Don’t judge my commitment issues, alright? I have a grill! I have a cooler! I’m striving (Me: Destressing?) as a person and that’s what my therapist said. *audience applauds* Thank you! Now I can buy outdoor stuff. You know that people have outdoor stuff like a pinic table, a rug….
Tom: Like a chiminea….
Trina: A chiminea! I want a chiminea. I’ll get a chiminea then!
Robert: What is a chiminea?
Trina: It’s a little fireplace. It’s more of little terrace then a fireplace. It’s kind a phallic really…. *audience laughs* I can commit to that! We can have barbeques at my house. We can make s’mores in my chiminea that I commited to because I’m a grownup! *ends in a singsong voice* *audience laughs*
Host: Trina, I have a question for you. Are we at risk of you smuggling Mr. Axelrod out in a bag? *audience laughs*
Trina: I would just like to say that that is incredibly inhumane and I would never do that to you, Robert. I will put you in a box with holes. *audience laughs*
Robert: Where are we going?
Trina: Bali, pumpkin. Bali!
Robert: I’m all for that.

Q: If you could offer one piece of advice to any of your characters or multiple of the major characters you voiced, what would it be?
Tom: I would tell Crowe from Yu-gi-oh 5D to stop screaming. I know, I know! They will not be buying the cards until YOU’RE SCREAMING! Yeah, so that’s what I’d do.
Trina: I would tell all of my characters the most important piece of advice that I’ve ever received in my entire life. I think it’s for across the board, no matter the life and time, space, magical power issue, deal you’re handling…. Wear clean underwear. You never know, you get into a car accident…. That’s what your mom always say, right? My mom used to be like if you get into a car accident, you must be wearing clean underwear. When I was little I thought that when you got into a car accident, they’ll rip all your clothes off and ‘Clean underwear! We’ll save her!’ *audience laughs*
Leah: I would tell Nodoka to grow a pair. Get over it, get a haircut, get the hair out of her eyes, we want to see her pretty face.
Robert: I would tell Lord Zedd to divorce Rita Repulsa. *audience laughs* And get on with the business of being mean! 100% because that’s Lord Zedd’s business. I would say to Armodillomon to speak up more…because he doesn’t have enough lines. But I think in movie, that was cool. I have no complaints here. *long silence* That’s it!
Chris: Oh, perfect segue. How many people here have seen ‘Go, Go Parody Rangers!’
Audience: YES!
Chris: Oh, wow, thank you. It just an old cartoon I did, a ‘Power Ranger’ parody. Some of you may know I did the voice of the character of Lord Zet, the bastard child of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd…BEFORE the one in the actual show, for the record. My character sucked. But I will tell him to get out of his very abusive relationship with the cat chick and since his parents who are currently in the process of divorce…in which case, I’ll tell him to move in with his dad.

Q: If there was one job you could do, what would it be?
Tom: Yankees. *audience applauds* I will be playing on the Yankees. That’s one of the things I say at these conventions to these people like ‘I really, really want to be a voice actor!’ and I say that ‘If that qualifies you…really wanting to do something. If that qualifies you, I would be on the Yankees.’ That’s what I want.
Trina: Did you ever see that one movie, the guy in the submarine? Oh god, what’s his name? He is a very famous director, the one did ‘Titanic’?
Tom: James Carmeron?
Trina: Yes! It was a movie about a little submarine and he has these random chicks in the submarine…. Wait, I don’t know if I want that job. I want to be an explorer! An astronaut or a cool scuba diver. Something like that but I don’t want to be dirty. I don’t want to explore like jungle.
Chris: You can be Captain Nemo!
Trina: Yeah! I want to be Steve Spacey.
Leah: I want to go work on a soap opera as a writer because they don’t have to go to work every day, you get to commit to the same characters for a long period of time. Seeing that character, creating it. It’s consistant work and even if it’s bad, people who watch it, just love it and they’re into it so you win every time.
Robert: I would be a film director…so I could hire myself as an actor. *audience laughs* I’ve directed ADR, dubbing alot and I’ve directed some stage plays, but I’ve never done any film directing so that’s what I would like to do.
Chris: This answers’ kinda hard since primarily what I do is animation and voice over which I’m very fortunate to be able to do. Yeah, I want to do more things related to the acting field. I’ve directed alot of actors for my own stuff before. I love casting…
Tom: It’s a power trip dude, that’s what it is.
Chris: Casting director, but more in the acting field, that’s what I say.

Q: What job would you least want to do?
Chris: *immediatey* Retail.
Robert: I would least want to…be a stenographer. (Cast plus audience: Stenographer?) You got to know all those little symbols and signs. Or a court stenographer. Shorthand…that just came off the top of my head.
Trina: I like it! I think that’s a great answer! I wouldn’t want to be a stenographer! Is there anyone here who would want to be a stenographer? Wait…is anyone here a stenographer? *one raised his hand*
Tom: I’m so sorry.
Trina: Your job is awesome…but the rest of them-
Robert: Are you a court stenographer?
Audience: I was, but I quit because my fingers hurt. I got carpal tunnel!
Trina: See! You don’t want it either!
Leah: The job that I don’t ever want to have and I feel so bad for those that have this is the one that has to put the dogs and the cats down. *collective awwws*
Tom: Pet executioner. Sales…. I was in a place when I was in college, one of the jobs that I had was doing telefundraising. I was in NYU but I was doing that for a new school, which is basically you hustling people for money. I was pretty good at it but now, the idea of having to do a sales job. Calling people you know that ‘You don’t want to talk to me’, it’s just that I wouldn’t want to do that. I feel for those people who call me. I don’t get angry at them, it’s a job. But no thank you.
Chris: You got a job that is: ‘Hello! I’m here to interrupt your dinner. Please hang up on me!’ *audience laughs*

Q: What is your favorite word?
Trina: floccinaucinihilipilificates.
Chris: Yeah? It’s so not one word.
Trina: It’s the longest word in the English language. Actually, it’s the second longest word. floccinaucinihilipilification is the longest word.
Tom: What does it mean?
Trina: floccinaucinihilipilificate is a prostitute and floxinoxinihilipilificatration is the act of prostitution. Thank you, Mr. Bakers, AP English. *audience applauds*
Tom: I think my favorite word is prostitute.
Trina: Ding!
*everyone begins to try to say the word*
Chris: Is that a pokemon?
*Robert is unable to say the word*
Trina: *to Robert* I’ll tattoo it on your arm later. *while teaching Leah* ‘Nihili-phili’. You have to ‘nihili’ the curst to ‘phili’ up! *together with Leah* ‘Floxi-noxi-nihili-pili=fica-trates’!
Chris: Oh god, they’re doing the fusion dance!
Tom: We’re going to give you the awesome hat tonight.
Trina: I have lots of words. I’m just lucky to have a career/profession where people pay me to talk. They use to just ignore me. *audience laughs* True story!
Leah: I have a word that is similar, dahlima.
Trina: What is that?
Leah: It’s prostitute.
Robert: Lots of words for prostitute.
Trina: This should be a game! What’s your word for prostitute, Robert? And don’t say ‘Trina’ cause that’s rude. *audience laughs*
Robert: I wouldn’t do that!
Trina: Thanks, Robert!
Robert: Geez….
Trina: So cute!
Robert: Word for prostitute is…hooker.
Trina: I’ve got floccinaucinihilipilificate, dahlima and hooker. What do you got?
Chris: Mignogna. *audience laughs* I meant, whore! What did I say? Really…I don’t know.
Trina: *singsong voice* Scandalous!

Q: Least favorite word.
Robert: I didn’t even get to say my most favorite word.
Trina: What is it?
Robert: ‘Per diem’.
Trina: Can it be an abbrievation? IRS. They’re evil. They’re evil people.
Robert: Yes, they’re very cruel. Mine is ‘naught’. Which means nothing.
Chris: In the context of ‘gay’, I really don’t like people who use it.
Tom: You don’t like the word ‘gay’? Are you from Tennesse? What are you suppose to say instead of gay? Tokay? ‘Instead of gay, you just say tokay!’ *audience laughs*

Q: What sound or noise do you love?
Tom: This might be a little gross, but there is almost no time that a fart isn’t funny. *audience laughs* When I worked across the street, there was this place where I was working on this live action programming. One of the dudes that I was working with, he used to direct 4Kids and stuff, he had this habit of projecting fart sounds every time a character makes a weird face. I’m sorry…maybe I’m 8 but it’s funny every goddamn time.
Trina: Favorite sounds. My favorite sound is probably my family laughing. My mom, my grandpa. That’s my favorite sound. It’s corny, I know but you know if they’re laughing A: it means that they’re having a really fun time and I’m about to walk into something great or we’re all Irish and we’re all drunk. *audience laughs*
Tom: It’s a traditional Nishimura.
Trina: I’m half half!
Leah: That’s awesome! I once had a dog-I don’t anymore-but whenever he was with me, I would love the sound of him breathing. It’s Rex! He was the sweetest dog ever.
Trina: What is wrong with you and Rex?
Leah: Nothing…. He is almost as cute as Robert.
Trina: I’m sorry that I have to tell you this but, there was this anti-Rex movement at Funimation.
Leah: Seriously?
Trina: This poor girl, this poor devoted dog owner…she left Rita’s wedding to give her dog insulin. Her dog was diabetic…he used to pee everywhere, he used to bite me sometimes and you talked crapped to him! *audience laughs* What is your favorite sound, Robert?
Robert: My cat purring. I have a cat and a dog.
Trina: What are their names?
Robert: The cat is called Mookie Mandel and the dog is Nacho. A shihtzu.
Trina: This man owns a shihtzu, a smart car, a cat named-
Robert: Mookie Mandel.
Trina: Mookie Manel and his favorite cake is white with whipped cream.
Chris: He is not going home, he is going to Texas now. *audience laughs* My favorite is a little bizarre. It’s quotes, but its contextual depending on who I’m talking to. If I have a friend who makes a funny sound or saids a funny phrase, that’s their thing. Whenever they do it, it always makes me laugh. So it varies to whoever is talking.

Q: What is your least favorite sound?
Tom: *makes flapping sounds* I was very annoyed with that noise. Let me tell you, I must say its gross and awesome in the same way. I always called it the ‘casserole sound’. This is good if you’re sound designing a hentai thing. If you have like a tuna noddle casserole, or something like that and you move a fork through it real slow…. That noise.
Chris: I had to make a few disgusting noises for a friend who was making an animated film. It was like ‘Ren and Stimpy’ kind of humor, I had to make disgusting sounds.
Robert: Charlie, my next door neighbor’s dog. I take care of Charlie during the week in the mornings. We have a deal, I take care of him and he takes care of my dog when I’m traveling. We’re friends too so it’s a symbiotic thing. His bark would make your ears fall off. He is a small dog, about the size of my dog. But he is a mixed breed. And his bark is so irritating. He barks at anything, anything that is coming up the stairs. The mailman, he goes wild over the mailman. He’ll hear him approaching up the street and start going wild. That’s my least favorite sound. Thank you!
Leah: I have to say my least favorite sound is probably Tom’s favorite sound. I’m not a fan of farting noise. Anytime, anyplace. I just don’t like it. It’s a dealbreaker for dates when somebody lets it out.
Trina: Everybody farts….
Leah: Not in my prescene…. Not used to it.
Tom: But that may not be the time for it, but as a comic device, it’s unbelievable.
Chris: Doesn’t Colleen murder people when she hears fart noises?
Leah: I stand behind her on that.
Trina: I didn’t know that.
Leah: We’re the anti-fart.
Trina: My least favorite has got to be the voice of my ex-boyfriend. *audience ooooo* No, not my most recent ex-boyfriend, he is fantastic. And not the one before that, we talk alot. But the very first boyfriend that you had, he’ll call you once in awhile and go ‘Hey…what’s up?’ Oh my god, please it’s been a very long time ago, I’ve moved on with my life. Why are you still calling? ‘I’m calling to see how you-‘ And you can’t hang up! I really can’t…it’s so mean and we shared so much….
Chris: Go, ‘Wait! *crackling noise* ‘You’re…breaking…up.’
Trina: I’ve totally done that! ‘I think I’m gonna-‘ Beep! And I turn off the phone real fast. I then feel like I’m cheating and I sit there and look at it off….

The host then noted that since he didn’t have Michelle and Bill around, there were time for audience questions.

Robert:

Tom:

Robert:

Tom:

Robert:

Tom:

Q: What is your favorite Pokemon?
Tom: What it’s pronounced ‘po-ke-mon’…an apostrophe on the ‘e’.
Host: Yes, what is your favorite ‘poke-a-mans’? *audience laughs* My license plate saids ‘Espeon’ on it, I’m a very big Pokemon fan.
Tom: My favorite creature are loud screechy ones, they’re kinda fun. But I like, Arceous, because I play it in the movie. It’s a Pokemon god and he is such a bitch. He doesn’t lord it over everyone enough. And out of the current creatures, I like Dwebble, Cilan’s little crab. Do you guys know any Pokemon?
Trina: No, I love Pokemon! He is fantastic! Dwebble! See?
Chris: From a personal standpoint, I like Scyther and Scizor. *audience cheers* I liked them since I was 10-12. And from a general standpoint, it sounds weird, but I really like Pikachu.
Tom: Satoshi is a genius. And from a photo design standpoint, Pikachu is such a brillant, iconic character. Satoshi Taijiri is a genius. He is like a Mickey Mouse and then buy it! He is adorable, powerful and all in one thing.

Q: What is your favorite candy?
Tom: The peanut butter Twix. I like those.
Trina: I like starburst. Do you like the strawberry kind? I love them. I’m a big fan of *starts humming a tune*
Tom: Kitkat bar.
Trina: I like those, kitkat bars. What is your favorite candy?
Robert: M&Ms.
Chris: I like the tootsie rolls. Especially the lime ones.

Q: Design on a toilet paper? Celebrity?
Chris: I would say Pikachu, he is like a celebrity, but he probably already has a toilet paper.
Robert: Regis Philbin.
Trina: I would like to put a bunch of useless trivia on toilet paper. Then you can save on paper. People will be using them anyway. So you’ll just be pulling it down.
Tom: I would like to put a target on there. Different scores, play the game. Look I got a 85!
Trina: ‘Look honey I got-‘ ‘Honey, we’ve been over this!’ ‘But-‘ ‘Drop!’
Leah: I will go with game…and the toilet paper.
Trina: The target or the words?
Leah: The words.
Trina: We can write a whole novella…or maybe even a novel!
Leah: Maybe choose your own adventure!
Trina: *getting excited* Yeah, choose your adventure!
Tom: ‘For the next part, turn over the next toilet paper.’

Q: How do you like your steak?
Tom: Medium rare.
Trina: I like it very much, thank you. Steak…rare.
Leah: I like it alive, walking around, eating grass. Gee..I’m a vegetarian.
Robert: How do you like your steak? I don’t eat steak much. Um…but I like it well done.
Trina: Really?
Robert: Yeah….
Trina: I don’t know if this is going to work out, Robert. *audience oooo*
Robert: *quickly* It depends on the kind of steak. It’s got to be tender. If tender, I like it rare, medium rare.
Trina: We’ll meet in the middle.

Q: Is there an anime that you feel is awful and you’ll do it much better.
Tom: The really shitty dubs are often a combination of things: the show itself sucks and on top of that it’s even worse. What are some legendary ones…like Garzey’s Wing…but that’s over the shit bellcurve from ‘eh’, ‘horrible’, ‘awful’, ‘terrible’, ‘funny’…you know. Garzey’s Wing is so bad, it’s funny. Some parts were dubbed before I was there, but worth watching when you’re drunk.
Trina: I think it’s bad to say when dubs are bad or when dubs are good. Whomever does any work, they put alot of time into it.
Tom: No, not really all the time. No…you are mistaken. I’m saying not the dubs that you worked for and these days. I think anime dubs these days in general across the board are sooo much better then when they were like 12 years ago when we were just figuring it out and that’s where these awful dubs come from. The late 90s and there’s more crap back them.
Trina: Maybe they’re doing the best that they could with the tools that they have. Protools wasn’t around then.
Tom: Yeah…no…Protools doesn’t do the acting.
Chris: I’m giving myself permission to say this since I have a good friend who was on it. *anime title here*
Tom: Yeah man! It’s Canadian?
Chris: It’s Toronto, yeah.
Tom: It’s just so clunky and the script adaptation was not a good adaptation and that have so many problems with lipflaps so people will. Stop speaking. In the middle. Of the lines. To match the flaps.
Chris: Toronto has great actors and they do alot of prelay stuff, but I don’t think they understand how it works.
Tom: Or perhaps that kind of stuff pays infinitely less than prelay stuff, so you get a different pool of actors. Or like this anime is 6 years old so who cares….

Q: Has there ever been a movie that you walked out of?
Trina: There has only been one movie that I ever walked out of, that Nicholas Cage one…it was ‘Ghostrider’. I just watched it for like a minute and I was going with this guy I was dating at the time. And I don’t think-and he said yeah, we could just go. I love Nicholas Cage, but it didn’t work.
Tom: I don’t think I ever walked out of a movie. But the worse movie I ever saw was ‘Fire Walk With Me’, which was the Twin Peaks movie and I like the show. But that movie is some kind of torture with all strobe lights and screaming. And it was just soooo unpleasant.
Leah: When I was 13, I went to see this movie called ‘Raising Cane’. It was psychological thriller and I couldn’t handle it at the time. It was very scary.
Robert: I never walked out of a movie. I always hoped that maybe some towards the end would somehow justify the crap I was watching. *audience laughs*
Tom: Maybe some boobs…something.
Robert: Yeah, maybe a naked wasit-up shot. No…. But…there have been some bad comedies. Nothing comes to mind, there are so many movies. I constantly have the tv on to these stations. But I try to watch some good ones.
Trina: It’s probably good since that means you like everything.
Robert: Yeah, I do a little research before I go to the movies. I rememebr the film society in LA, the Screen Actors Guild Film Society. For $90 a year you could see 50-60 movies. I usually get good stuff. One of the 3-D movies…I just saw it last week, ‘Thor’. ‘Thor’ was pretty much a waste of time. For me! I stayed awake throughout the whole thing. When it’s really bad, I just go *starts snoring* but it wasn’t a bad-bad movie. It was just not my movie.
Chris: I have only walked out of 2 movies in my life. The first one was ‘Mighty Joe Young’ only because I went to the theater to see the ‘Runaway Brain’ animation short that was before since the commercial was good. The other one was-if I see it now, I’ll probably love it-‘Monkey Bone’ which I saw when I was 10 so I was scared by it. It was half liveaction, half stopmotion, some 3-D animation. I’m sure if I saw it now, I would love it. But as a kid I was ‘ooookay.’ Other than that, I use my money for the ticket even if the movie sucks. I sat through ‘Dragonball Evolution’. That film was hilarious and everyone in Texas would be agree I’m sure. *to Robert* There was a live action Dragon Ball Z movie a few years ago.
Audience: And it was every bit as bad as you think it’ll be.

The content was definitely more revealing than I thought they would be. Between Trina wanting to abduct Robert and the honest comments about dubbing studios and conventions, we gain more insight about the actors we love. ^.^