Special Guests Toy Story 5's Mr. Potato Head, Bugs Bunny and Dolly Parton.

Welcome to Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show. I'm Ted Bonnitt.

I'm Phil Proctor. Remote from Lewis, Delaware, where it's sunny and wonderful today.

Wonderful. Well, we have a lot of people in the studio right now.

Yes, so I've heard. I'm glad I'm not there.

In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank Prison.

Oh, it's Morgan Freeman.

Oh, that's wonderful, George.

Oh, George, I. I'm getting my push button fingers. George.

Janie, I gotta ask Mr. Spicely for a raise and you're.

What am I doing?

For crying out loud, George.

Oh, that kind of a Gracie Allen. All right, George.

Now wait a second, Wait a second.

Hold on a second. You know, I had Mel Blanc on my show in the 1950s.

That's right.

I was Mel's neighbor. I'm Walter Mathau.

Oh, I woke and how are you?

Remember that?

I was his neighbor. Wow.

Now who's the little guy with the lots of red hair and the six shooter over there in the corner?

Say, I smells of carrots. And where there's a carrots, there's rabbits. Oh, you chevity Sam.

See bugs right over here. Oh, bugs.

Oh, carrots are divine. You get a dozen for a dime.

It's magic me. What's up, doc?

And look over there, your buddy Daffy.

Oh, why does that rabbit always get to go first? What am I, chopped liver?

You could be frad.

Oh, frad E Abbadabba Doo. Barney, get away from my cereal.

Watch me trick Fred out of his Cocoa Pebbles.

Well, if you haven't figured out yet, we have some incredible voice actors here in the studio. You'd think there are about 12 of them. There's only two, a husband and wife. Jeff Bergman and Carla Delaney. Bergman.

Hi.

So nice to have you here. Oh, my goodness, it was a real treat. Jeff, you were Emmy award winning voice actor. You're heard worldwide as the voice of Bugs Bunny.This summer you're gonna be a big motion picture star.

Oh, my goodness.

Mr. Potato Head.

What's the matter with you? Why do I care? For crying out loud. I'm Mr. Potato Head. What's it to you? You.

So you're in Toy Story 5 as Mr. Potato Head, filling the big shoes of Mr. Don Rickles.

Why don't you go milk a Clydesdale for a half hour, Ted?

And Carla, you are also an award winning playwright, you're an actress and you're a voiceover artist as well. Yes, you've been in Family Guy, the new Looney Tunes.

Yes.

Captain Marvel.

Oh, yes.

Harley Quinn.

Yep.

Kite Man. Hell, yeah.

That's a spin off of Harley Quinn. That was super fun.

Sausage party. I've been to sausage parties, but I don't know the.

Oh, that's Seth Rogen's naughty show. I do. It's all about food.

Hey, babe, it's gotta be PG here. We don't wanna get in trouble with the mcc.

It's all about playing with your food in a naughty way. So instead of Mariska Hargitay, I'm Kirschka Hargitay.

Sweet.

I love that.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for packing it all in here today.

Thank you for having us today.

There's so much to talk about. We have a mutual friend.

We do.

Noel Blank. The great Mel Bl. Noel himself is a remarkable person. He's been on our show. You can hear his interview on our podcast, SexyBoomershow.com.

That's a great interview, which I thank you for sending that to me.

Oh, my pleasure. I've known him so long, it took me three years to talk him into doing an interview. He's something else. Impersonations is your tradecraft, Jeff.You started this as a kid. You did Ed Sullivan when you were like, five years old.

Yeah. I mean, whoever was the. You know, I did Ed Sullivan. I did LBJ. I did Jimmy Stewart. Well, I always like to do Jimmy.And then there was the Jimmy Cagneys and the Bogeys. But I didn't start to do cartoon voices until after I met Mel Blanc, so it never occurred to me. No.

That's interesting. Now, you met Mel Blanc the way I met Mel Blanc.

Yes, Mel with a degree of separation.

That's right. Mel in his later years, had a great time doing college speaking tours, and I saw him at Boston University.

Oh, wow.

What year was that, Ted?

76 Or so.

Yeah.

Okay, so I saw him in 1980, so it was just a little after that. Yeah.

Sellout crowd. It's amazing how beloved he remains. My theory is that he did so many characters he never did himself, so he didn't burn out.

Yeah, and we talk about that as well, Ted, that when you talk about people of the day, Jimmy Stewart, Jimmy Cagney, Cary Grant. These were, you know, mythological, you know, Hollywood stars of the golden age.Today, so many people won't know their names, but everybody knows Bugs Bunny.

It's true.

Jeff and I talk about this. When you touch someone's. Their heart from their childhood, that is such a sacred, lovely space. I mean, that's so meaningful.People want to pass that on to their children, to their grandchildren. So I think that's another reason why he lives on.

He's immortal.I was at a Walgreens three days ago, and there was a guy who was, you know, probably in his 60s, working the cashier, talking to a woman in her 20s or 30s. And he referenced a Looney Tunes line.

I love it.

And they both got it.

Yeah. Isn't that great? Generational. Crosses all the generations.

Jeff. I spent the weekend at the University of Pittsburgh.

No.

No way.

That's where we're. Well, I'm from there, and Jeff went to college there. That's crazy.

Yes, I know. I went to a wedding. My Amish and Irish and my relatives, the Yoders, come from that part of Pennsylvania.

You see a lot where my parents live. You can see Amish with the horse and the buggy. I mean, to this day. Oh, yeah, yeah.

My claim to fame is Monroeville.

I know it.

The Monroeville Mall.

Oh, my God.

I was a zombie in dawn of the Dead.

Dawn of the Dead was. Yes, for those people. You really know that. Dawn of the Dead. That's.

You know. When you talk to people into cult.

Movies, can you pick yourself out in the crowd?

No. I was out there on a crew filming documentary called Document of the Dead.And they had already sold the international rights to the film and were already in the black before they wrapped, so they had extra film reels. So they decided, let's do some extra scenes just for the fun of it. And that was what the pie throwing scene at the end of the movie was all about.It was sort of a spontaneous thing. So I was made up to be a zombie that was flooding into the mall to get a pie in my face.So it was supposedly this endless stream of zombies coming down the fire escape. And they cut right before I came on camera. But that's the story of my life.

We all have interesting lives.

We all have been on the editing floor, you know.

So you enjoyed your time there, Phil?

Oh, very much. It's a beautiful city. I really was expecting more of an industrial.

That's what people think. Mr. Rogers came out of there, I mean.

Oh, is that right?

Yep.

Pittsburgh had a real turnaround decades ago. I mean, many decades ago. It's come back a long time.

Yeah.

After that, we drove back here to Delaware by way of Lancaster, which is, you know, a farm area and a very heavy Amish area. Well, Lancaster has turned into one of the most diverse and hippest towns in the country.

Okay, Phil, the word Lancaster and hip don't usually go together.

I know that seems incongruous there, but,.

Hey, I think it's amazing.

It was wonderful. Shops selling all kinds of exotic goods and smoke shops and lots of, you know, hip people.

In Lancaster, I would think it was like knife. Yeah, a lot of knife sharpening.

I was gonna say, other than whittling some wood. You've gotta do something to entertain yourself. So we do voices.

Carla, did you start doing voices early, too?

Fairly early. But I'll tell you, unlike Je, I was a singer. So I started as a singer. And I loved to sound like other people.I tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition, yawn and stretch and try to come to life working 9 to 5. So I studied musical theater in Pittsburgh at Point Park College. And I loved music and sound. And I thought, oh, I can only sing like them.When Jeff heard me doing impressions, I was in a show, a theater show called Forbidden Broadway. We spoofed a bunch of Tony Award winner.

It's hilarious, that joke.

Yes, it's so fun. Jeff said, well, you know, if you can sing like that, if you can sing like celebrities, you can talk like them.So I had to kind of develop the muscle talking, but yeah.

Did you meet through work?

Not exactly. Really?

I was running a theater, like a, you know, 99 seat theater. Jeff came in for a writing class of all things.

Here in la?

No, this was in Penn Penny in Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

And we just saw each other across the candy count.

I didn't like the Clash, but I liked the girl. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Classy girl.

Wow. I figured you met in a studio doing voices.

One would think. Yeah.

So you met, got married. The pillow talk must be remarkable.

Okay, I knew that was gonna come.

You ready for that?

I said to Jeff, people ask, okay, do you do this? Do you talk back and forth to each other in your alone time? Not exactly, but if I just. On the edge of naughty, I'll say that we had neighbors.At one point, we were living in an apartment building and we had neighbors who were really loud, intimately, with a thin wall. And so I thought in a passive aggressive way, I thought, you know what? We could do, like some obnoxious voices. Like, we'll do it back to them.Like Sofia Vergara. Oh, Jay Preachy J Preachy, Pull my hair Jay Preachi. Because Jeff does animal.

Or we could just pretend we have a little baby you.

So it's like, I want to, like, use it A little passive aggressively.

Yeah, very nice. All couples fight once in a while. Do you fight in voices? And if you do, who do you bring to the fight?

If we want to break the tension, all he has to do is give me a Fred Flintstone Wilma. And I just. I can't.

But, you know, it's funny. We'll audition in our homes because we have a home recording studio. So if we get really loud and we have.Occasionally there's where we have to scream. You know, we think, my God, what are. The neighbors. They think we're abusing each other.

I want to put a pie on their doorstep with a little note that says, voice actor, not murderer.

Exactly. Exactly.

Getting back to your roots, Jeff, you had this remarkable experience with Mel Blanc because we both saw him speak at colleges. And I got in line to meet him. I had to meet the man. And he was so tanned and he was so full of gold, and he had such a joyful. And he was just lovely.I know I was like number 300. But he was just so kind and sweet to me, and I'm so glad I had that moment. But you took it a step further. You stalked the man.

Oh, now, come on now, we're not gonna go there.

Nothing wrong with a little light stalking.

I'll tell you what happened. As you well know, he was terrific. He did the voices, he showed a couple of cartoons. They had a reception for him at the student union.But then I thought to myself, well, gosh, I wonder maybe I could catch him before he goes back to Los Angeles. So I found out where he was staying from the student council.And about 10 o' clock at night, I knocked on the door and there's a voice that says, just a jiffy. So, okay, I said, wait a second, that's gotta be. That's Mel Blanc. It sounds like Barney Rubble just said, jiffy.The door opens up and there is a man standing there in a cordovan, reddish ruddy kind of a smoking jacket with a gold chain. And at the end of the chain is a high. And he looks at me like, well, what do you want? And I said, Mr. Blank, I saw your lecture today at Pitt.I'm a Pitt student. I'm your biggest fan. Please, I just have three questions to ask you and I promise I won't hurt you.

To give the right answer.

Right? And he said, well, are you Jewish or Italian? And I said, I'm Jewish. And he goes, okay, come on in.So we sat on those two uncomfortable twin beds for about 45 minutes. He asked me about my career while I was majoring in at college. And I did some voices for him.No cartoon voices, but, you know, like his contemporaries. And he. I mean, he was like you said, he was very kind and sweet.And he said to me, now, those are good voices, but if you can create your own characters, that's even better. He said, but I'll tell you what he said. If you get out to Los Angeles, look me up when you do. And that was my experience.

Good.

See, that changed the whole trajectory of my life. It was like there was an open road. It's like I knew what I wanted to do.Not in that moment, but maybe a few days or a couple of weeks after that lovely story.

That's really nice.

And now you honor the voices and consider yourself, in a way, a caretaker of them.

Such a huge responsibility. Because it's everyone's childhood. And so you have to try to. What do people really remember? You know, and the fact that I got acquainted with Noel.We had met 37 years ago, but we hadn't re. Established a connection until a few years ago.

May I tell the story about how you met? Yes, of course. So Noel told me that a lot of voice people have done the characters over the years. He did Porky, you know, and he does a great Porky.

And he even visually assumes the character as well.

Cause he observed his dad doing it.

Precisely.

And now Jim Cummings, Billy west, really talented people have come in and done particular voices. Right. But you know that I met Jeff. He didn't do one of the Looney Tunes characters. He did my dad's normal voice.And I can't say the word here, but it scared the out of me. He said it was my dad speaking to me.

Wow.

And, you know, the really good impersonators that I've met over the years, not only they can technically do the sound, but they embody body, the spirit.

That's right. They become the characters.

Right.

Jim Messeman is my mentor when it comes to that.

Jim's great.

Oh, my God. He can do anybody.It's interesting the way you guys got to your voice work, which was basically responding to voices that were out there and, you know, having fun playing with them. And I was just thinking, I didn't get there that way. I got there through language, Carla, like you. I got started singing.

Yes.

I was in my grandfather's arms back in Goshen, Indiana, and he was singing a hymn to me, probably Onward, Christian Soldiers or something, I don't know. And I started humming it back to him. And he was so impressed, we went downstairs and we repeated it for my family.And that's the last time I ever worked for free.

You know, Phil, that's so fascinating because Mel Blanc had that facility as well. He was so musical. Noel said he had perfect pitch.

Well, it's like a muscle, right?

So some people, that's the way in through music, with voices.

It's very true.

Big Bear Lake, his hit song.

And also, in reading about your careers, I realized that the difference in my career from yours, even though I've done cartoons, I'm basically best known as Howard on the Rugrats. You know, see, that opens more doors for me than anything. You'd be surprised.

Rugrats. Beloved. Beloved Rugrats.

Yeah. But when I became a member of the Firestine Theater, I realized I could create all of my own voices. I could create these characters.

It's powerful and liberating. Yeah.

Isn't it a wonderful, wonderful feeling? So. So we're blessed to have this gift. And as usual, almost everybody started in radio.

Did you do radio?

Yes, I did. Started in radio. Absolutely.

I did not, but Jeff did. Yeah.

Yeah, I started in radio when I wanted to break into comedy.I just created characters and characters were the perfect thing to hide behind because you could attribute all the screw ups to the character fail safe.

You know, some people will say, like, oh, I can't do radio because there's no audience there. And stand up comics, they hate that because there's no one laughing.For me, when I did stand up, I was so scared because if I didn't get laughs, it was, you know, this dead silence. But if you're in a recording studio, there's no one to laugh at you.

That's right.

So you're fine and you do a.

Live show and if it bombs, you can walk out of the building. No one's gonna throw a tomato because they don't know who you look like.

Right. Until you get the pink slip from. Yeah, from the station.

You know, it all started for you with Charlie the Tuna.

It did start with Charlie the Tuna. That was the first, like, legit big job. Hey, tell em Charlie sent you. Oh, I'm waiting to get hooked by Stark is now.

That was originally Herschel Bernardi.

That's right, Herschel Bernardi, 1961. That was the first commercial. Really?

Went back that long.

Went back that long. And I took over in 1987. I wanna say yes.

So you would just go to auditions? Is that how you got known?

Well, I mean, you know, you could audition for I don't have to tell you all you. Everybody knows you could audition to hundreds and not book anything. And it just so happened he had passed away.And I felt like a connection to that voice. So I asked my agent at the time. I said, could you get me in? But the agency was Leo Burnett. It was in Chicago.So I went there, I made a tape on cassette and got to meet the head of the creative on starkist. And he heard it. He said, that's actually pretty good. So. So nothing really happened to it.But then the public relations company called my agent and said, would Jeff be willing to put on a Charlie the Tuna suit and be in a hot, smelly suit? They didn't sell it that way. And go up to Citarella's Fish market on Broadway.

Oh, you blend right in with the smell.

Yeah, exactly right. And just wave to the fans and whatnot. And I said, oh, man, a suit. Like, somebody's been in that suit. Who knows if it's clean?And my agent said, I think if you do it, you're gonna get the job. So I did it. And when I got into a limo, there was the vice president of starkist Foods there, and he said to me, you are Charlie the Tuna.

Were you working for Scale Flip? You a couple of fins? Yeah. Yeah.

You were hooked.

Yeah. So I got the job right after that. Because I did.

That's wonderful. That's a great story. One of the stories that really resonated with me was how you got the Bugs Bunny voice by. After.After being rejected by putting together a tape that intercut between Mel Blanc doing the voice and you doing the voice and the guy who was gonna hire you couldn't tell the difference. Right.

Well, it's just crazy of me to think that that would have. I mean, it was a crazy thing to do, because on one track was the.A Bugs Bunny cartoon with the sound effects and the music and obviously Mel Blanc's voice. And on the other track was just another channel. And I didn't add any music or sweetening to it, so it was obvious that they could tell.But I guess some of the people thought, well, maybe he pulled the music out, you know? But in those days, you couldn't do that.

They really thought you were Mel.

I guess some people thought, like, wait a minute, are we being tricked here somehow?

But it's so confident.

Confident and adventurous and courageous.

Invaluable aptitude.

You have to do that if you've got your eye on the prize. Let me tell you a story like that that I Think you'll.You'll both appreciate this was told me by a director friend of mine who originally had been an assistant to an advertising firm in Detroit, Michigan. And one of their clients was a car salesman. And every week they do a series, a commercial for the radio that was, you know, the specials of the week.And this one time they go in and the guy lays down the tracks. And he and the boss go off for lunch. The boss says, okay, Bill, go through the tracks, pick out the takes you like the best.I'll come back and make the choice as usual, and then we can call it a day. He says, okay. So the boss leaves. He says, all right, let's go. Let me hear what we got. Oh, says the engineer, that's not what you want to hear.What do you mean, oh, what? He says, I don't know how to tell you this. I don't know what happened. But somehow I only got the first take and that's all I got.He said, oh, my God, I'm going to be fine. I said, don't worry, don't worry. I can fix this. He says, what do you mean, don't worry? I'll fix it.So what he does is he puts a slate, a different slate on the same take. And he does like, he does seven of them.

Wow.

The boss comes in. Okay, let me hear what you got. And so he plays the seven takes, and it's all the same take with a different slate. And he's.And he's listening, and he's listening. He's making notes. And at the end he says, okay, let me hear 3 and 5.

Play black 3 and 5.

And then play says, 3, 3, 3. Definitely 3. And he never knew. Now, isn't that the best voiceover story you ever heard?

That is great. I mean. Cause we've all been in that situation.

Only two words an actor never wants to hear from an engineer is get what?

When you do the Looney Tune characters. Now, Mel streamlined the production by saying, why don't I just do all of the Daffy character lines? He didn't do the ensemble at the same time.Cut it in together. How do you work when you do Looney Tunes?

It's the same thing. Because you want to stay in character. Because if you're doing a scene between scene. Well, especially, say, Bugs and Daffy.Bugs Bunny was never sped up, but Daffy was. So you'd have to be careful how you navigate that in the recording. So you'd want to do it separately. Same thing with Porky and Tweety.They were sped up, very speeded up a little bit. Like, I don't know the exact percentage, but, you know, where's Foghorn, Yosemite Sam? Those are characters that are not. But we do them separately.

How taxing is it on your vocal cords? How long can you go on a session for this?

Well, I mean, know, it really depends on the director. Because if you're gonna do, say you have 40. 40 Lines as bugs. Well, if you do two takes, that's 80 takes.

Yeah.

If you start doing three or four now you're into. You're over 100 takes. That's just one character. So it depends on the director. Depends on the material.So, you know, if there are one or two lines, I probably can get it out in one or two takes, you know.

Yeah. And it's true. Different directors work in different ways. You worked with Hanna Barbera, right?

Oh, absolutely. I had William Hanna direct me, and he never did that, but he just. Joe Barbera was not there that day.And I had Bill Hanna direct me as George Jetson and Mr. Spacely for the movie the Jetsons.

How was that?

Oh, it was terrifying.

Terrifying.

Oh, my God. He was falling asleep. And every time that I would say a line and I would joust him, he would wake up and he would.

Go, I'm doing again.

It wasn't right. It wasn't right.

How old was he at this point?

Oh, he was in his 70s for sure. Yeah. And he would fall asleep. So that doesn't say much about me either.

So I did quite a few of the different characters for Hannah Barbera when I first came out here. And I was. I ended up being a character called King Gerard on the Smurfs.

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But the technique of that show was they did it like a radio show.

Yeah. It's great to do that.

And you've probably been in a situation like that. All the actors are there. It's wonderful to do that. I'm sitting next to Jonathan Winters, and, oh, my God, all of my idols are there.And we do a radio show. And then they would do pickups afterwards. Okay, say, Phil, do that line again. And you could do it, like, three different ways.Cause they're gonna make a choice and then cut it in.

I think that gets such a good performance usually out of your actors.

I do, too.

Yeah. You've got the camaraderie. It's wonderful. But they so rare.

I mean, Phil, thank you for sharing that story.You remind me, because Jonathan Winters is one of the kings of comedy, is that when I was doing tiny tunes, I had the honor to sit next to Don Messick. And we all know he was so quiet.You know, when we're sitting around in the green room, we're just chatting in between records, and he would have his coffee. He wouldn't say much, but, boy, when that mic was on, he just exploded.

Maybe he was saving his voice.

He probably was saving his voice. But what little he told, it really affected me. And many years later, Cartoon Network was looking to create a voice for the network of Boomerang.And I don't know what made me think of it. And so the voice that I ended up doing for Boomerang was. It's all coming back to you on Boomerang from Cartoon Network.Watch the Flintstones and the Jetsons, which is kind of an amalgamation of him and some announcers of, like, the 40s and 50s. So it was, you know, I just sort of ingested it, just being around.

We were all inspired by these wonderful actors. Did you ever work with Joni Gerber?

I think I did work with Joni Gerber. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I mean, remember, I was on the east coast, so I didn't come out here full time.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah. Until 2008. But I came out here in the late 80s, and I was here in the 90s when I was doing pebble serial.So I didn't really know a lot of people because I wasn't here for, you know, a long stretch of time.

You actually turned down some work in LA so you could maintain your life on the East Coast. And what were you in Philly or New York? Where were you?

Well, it was both. I mean, I raised my sons in Pittsburgh, but born and raised in Philadelphia and had a lot of family there.So in those days, it was, you know, it was territorial. If you were a New Yorker, you worked in New York, and if you were in LA or Chicago, and you worked in Chicago, so it just wasn't so easy to do.Today, you can be anywhere.

That's right.

You're listening to Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show. Our guests today, Jeff Bergman and Carla Delaney. Bergman. Carla, you've done some impersonations that have been on the Kimmel Show.

Oh, yeah. Late night. Loves impressions.

What did you do?

Well, for Kimmel, I did Sarah Palin when she was in the headlines. Oh, you know, that kind of, you know, very Midwestern thing. You betcha. And we love spoofing her. I think for Conan, I did.We did a bunch of bits with Martha Stewart. And they were just naughty and funny.

You were in the Groundlings? Yeah, the improv group here in Los Angeles.

And I'm a Groundlings mom.

Yeah. Jeff is my Groundlings.

I did all the shopping and everything. I looked out for her.

Yes. Bought all the snacks.

How long were you with the Groundlings?

I think it was like five years total.

Did you work with Phyllis Katz?

Yes, and I love Phyllis Katz. She's phenomenal.

Isn't she?

Amazing. She's so brilliant and such a giving, so creative, such a giving. Wonderful host.

Another past guest on our show.

Oh, I love Phyllis.

And Phyllis is also a genius in song improvisation. And like you, Carla, she's a playwright. She writes.

Yes. You know, at the Groundlings, you know, that was the best thing on the performance end.But being at that kind of a comedy place where you're literally writing a new show every week that you're putting up in front of an audience. So I think for a lot of actors who start with performance, it shows you, hey, you've got to be a different kind of triple threat.You've got to be a writer, producer, you know, you've got to put on these different hats and you walk out of there. Most people have this ability to be a multi hyphenate after they've gone through that.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Wonderful training.

You are working on a book with Noel Blank's wife, Kat.

That's Catherine.

Yeah. Who is Mel Blanc's daughter in law. She writes children's books. And you're writing a book with her about Mel's life.

Yes. So it's a children's picture book. And I'm not sure how much we're at liberty to say yet, but yes, we have been writing this wonderful book.I cannot wait for it to be in the world. I can't say much else about it.

Fair enough.

But when it makes its debut in the world, you will be one of the first to know.

Please. And you guys are collaborating on a two person show?

Stage show. Yes, we've been working on that. We are super excited.

What's that on? Can you talk about that?

Well, I can talk a little bit about it. It's.

You have more security clearances than a CIA. We had to wait to see.

We'll have you sign two NDAs.

I'm sorry, I can't talk about Mr. Potato Head. I cannot talk about.

But now we can. Now we can. Yeah, yeah. No, this two person stage show really is. Are so many things that have happened in my life and so many Incidences.And so Carla and I started to collaborate on this.

Well, I've written three one woman shows, three that have done pretty well.

And so in the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Yeah, I think my brain thinks that way. And so when Jeff started, he would tell me these stories and I would think, oh, my gosh, Jeff, please pen these down. These are really great.Just the way you got an agent. I was like, I can visualize this. I don't know.

Do you want to tell me how I got an agent?

Were you in a Charlie the Tuna suit?

No, no. It's a little bit less conspicuous than that. It was something as simple as I was getting ready to graduate Pitt.I had my finals to take, and I thought, well, I got about a week. I'll go to New York and see if I could drop my tape off and maybe get an agent after I graduate. So nobody would take my tape.They didn't want you to drop off any pictures, resumes or tapes. And I thought, well, how's anybody gonna get heard?

Yeah, a strike.

So I decided instead of doing it that way, I would deliver my tape as a delivery boy and I would get the reception at William Morris to sign for me. And so. And I just put on. I said, I'm here to give a tape to Carol Baker for the voiceover department. He assigned. Yeah, it's Jeff Bergman or whatever.And she looked at me like, I see through this. I see through. Through the ruse, but, all right, I'll play along with you. So she signed for it and she took the tape back. I forgot all about it.Couple of weeks later, I guess they're watching the tape in one of their conference rooms and the receptionist walks by and goes, wait a minute. That guy in the tape, that was the guy who delivered the tape. So they realized they were punked.But anyhow, there was an advertising agency that had their client Lee and Parent's Worcestershire sauce. They needed somebody who could do like Bogey and Cagney and Cary Graham, some classic Hollywood voices.And they said, well, look, we haven't met the guy. He's not our client, but we'll send over this tape and if you like him, then book them. So they liked it.William R. Has called me up, left me a message on my answering machine.

He's in college.

In between finals, I'm going home. And I hear, boop. Hi, this is Debbie from the William R's agency. Call us back. You have a booking at 2:00 clock at Blah, blah, blah.

Yeah.

And I go, what is a booking? What does that mean I'm going to jail? Yeah, right. I'm booking. So, yeah, it just was.

What were you studying?

Well, it was speech and rhetorical communication was the fancy degree. So I'm still trying to figure out what that degree was.

Seemed applicable.

Yeah. It wasn't theater and it wasn't radio. But anyhow, it was out of desperation because, you know, what are you gonna do?

Desperation breeds opportunity.

Well, I like that.

Chutzpah.

I like. Yes.

And so a lot of the show is weaving itself, you know, as do. If you've ever. I don't know if you have any.If either you or Phil have ever done any kind of like one person work, but it tends to weave itself together, I kind of think magically. And all these stories. We just started compiling stories and they just. There was a theme there and it's.

Well, we're dramatizing, you know, as a scene. So we're really super excited about it.

So you're looking at what, end of the year?

End of the year? It could be end of the year.

Yeah.

Possibly a premiere at the end of.

The year here in Los Angeles or Monroe ville.

Well, I can tell you it won't be in the lab.

I'm gonna say theater in Lancaster.

Yeah, I.

Well, don't, you know, so many shows that premiered in Lancaster.

Well, now you're selling it, Phil. You're saying it's so hip now that maybe we have to consider that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Opening it to horse and buggy.

Listen, we hope it's in LA and so we can promote it and have you back.

How is the landscape of your profession these days? Everything's in such flux, you know, from the pandemic.

Then we had the strikes and the fires. So, you know, it takes years to recover from strikes alone. So I think we're now just bouncing back. Don't you think so?

I do, yeah.

I get that feeling.

It's really. I don't know if I want to say reshaping itself, but there are. For everything that seems to be contracting, there are things expanding.So it's kind of just getting our heads around. What does a micro drama look like? What does a vertical look like? How do we be in this space right now?

So you're looking at this as entrepreneurs as well?

Yeah, I am.

Well, yeah. Because today when I go to a Comic Con or fan expo, the first question how do I get started? How do I get started? And I tell people the same thing.I mean, Carl and I made a video the other day. It was Mel Blanc's. Birthday.

Oh, wonderful. How many voices can you do in 45 seconds?

Right.

F. Bergmanofficial. Go to Instagram. Jeffbergman official.

Like Peter Bergman.

That's right. And there's a video.

Or Ingrid Bergman. If you're overseas, the two of you.

Are on video saying, the challenge of how many Looney Tunes voices can you do in 45 seconds?

Yeah.

Well, how many gender? I couldn't. I lost count.

Thirteen.

At least. Thirteen.

Thirteen.

Yeah.

It's fun. And that went viral. That's it.

Yeah. We have almost a half. I think we have a half a million views on TikTok.

So there's a whole business opportunity.

There's a whole business for anybody that wants to get seen. I mean, you used to have to go to a comedy club and be.And if you got on at one o' clock in the morning and catch a rising star, maybe somebody would see. Or the improv. Now you do a video and everybody sees it.

You know, energy's energy. You can either spend it. It's like anything. You can spend it saying, oh, what are we gonna do? What's happening? Or you can say, all right, well, let's.What can we do?

So you're thinking of yourselves as independent content creators in some ways.

I think all artists are being asked if you are comfortable with that, to pick up that gauntlet. Yeah.

I mean, look at that movie that just is out in the back. Back rooms.

The kid did it.

Yeah.

The YouTuber backrooms. 20 Year old.

Yeah. 80, $81 Million. It opened.

Yeah.

It's a new world. And now you can do everything remotely from your home. I don't really know the business, but I see animation coming out of Atlanta. Archer.I'm hearing that the studio model. This whole idea of sets and location and fixed places is sort of going by the way of AI.

Yeah.

And they don't need so much many physical props and they don't need physical scenic as much as they did, which is terrible because all these folks are generational businesses that are going out 11 labs. AI vo. Do you get offers to license your voice for AI?

I haven't yet. That. That has not happened yet. But I mean, we do get a lot of auditions for podcasts. So I mean. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you've had those as well, Phil.

Like dramatized?

Yeah, dramatized.

Yeah. I've done some of those recently. But I have been approached to do one of my voices for perpetuity with. With a company which I cannot.Of which I cannot speak.

Yeah.

But if I do. They'll kill me and they'll still use my voice. Where's.But I do want to mention one thing, and I'm sure that you guys will both hear degree before the, the contagion hit, we would all go into our. Our agents offices, right? They had little studios. And you'd sit with all of your peers, all of you, your voice over friends.

I missed that.

And tell wonderful stories. And then sometimes you'd go in and work together.All of a sudden that all went away and now we have to sit in our own little private studios or closets or whatever we work from and send stuff out and we don't even know who we're competing against anymore.

They call it the vacuum.

Yeah.

We go from the vacuum tube, which I'm sure only I remember, to the. To the vacuum. Right. I'm grateful that I'm as old as I am right now and don't have to keep up with. With it. I don't feel the necessity to do that.And by the way, in my book, where's my Fortune Cookie?Like you, Jeff and Carla, I talk about the coincidences and the incidences that led to, you know, representation and remarkable coincidences that led to the meeting with the Fireside Theater and the odd way that our careers, you know, lead us into various roles.

You never know. Yeah.

So Mr. Potato Head, this is a big deal to be a character, a fixed character in a franchise of that magnitude.And doing Don Rickles, how was that experience all in all? I mean, did you audition? Were you called? How did you get the job?

Do you want me to tell?

No, you tell this. Yeah.

Okay.

Well, I've been on the journey with him.

The short story is when he passed away, I was so distraught. I was so upset because I thought, I love this movie so much. I took both of my sons to see the first one 31 years ago.

Fantastic movie.

It's an amazing movie. I mean, it's the first all computer generated film. I mean, it was a remarkable achievement.

Yeah. I'm glad to have inspired you.

Thank you, Phil. Thank you.

My pleasure.

I just was so like, oh, does that mean we lose Mr. Potato Head? You gotta be kidding me. And so, you know, I thought to myself, well, they could retire the character then. That's it.But then I thought, well, kids don't really know per se who voices it. They just hear it and go see it. And that's Mr. Potato or that's so and so.So I started to work on the character because of the love that I had for the character and for John Rickles, of course. So eventually I made a tape. It took me about, I don't know, maybe six months to make. I had Carla to help pick the takes and send it to my.

So it's a big. It's a long training process for you to get these voices. They don't just come naturally to you.

Some more so than others. This took more time and I just.

Wanted to think of that. Rocky da na na, you know, the montage. Sometimes you really have to work for it.

And so I brought it to my agent and she said, okay, it's great you do old Jews, I get it. What do you want me to do? And so I don't know. I didn't know what to do.So a couple of years ago, this is almost nine years ago, a couple years ago, they're talking about there's going to be Toy Story 5. And so I said, maybe I'll finagle up another sample or I'll edit it down. Anyhow, I presented it to my manager. She got it to casting at Pixar.They were already looking at higher profile people than me, other comedians and actors, but she got it to the casting person. They thought it was good. She asked me to submit a second audition in my own voice, which rarely.

Happens when we do voice matching, which stunned me.

Your own voice?

Yes, we just want to hear your voice. I said, well, what would you like me to read? She said, anything that you want.

So now this is okay, we're talking about the synchronicities. So this two person show that we've been writing, Jeff had written a piece.I'm going to jump in just so I can say Jeff wrote a piece about his and you can tell the story, but about his first exposure to Don Rickles as a child. And I said, traumatic as it would.

Be for any child, right?

But I said, I think this is the story. This is what you do with your voice. You've got to tell this in your voice, but go ahead.

Well, it was. My parents were so. They were so taken with Don Rickles album hello Dummy. And that was, we're talking 58 years ago that that album came out.And so they'd be sitting in the living room listening to that record, getting sloshed with their neighbors and giggling. And I was at the top of the steps as an 8 year old kid laughing. I don't know, I couldn't get any of the jokes, but they're laughing, so I'm laughing.Never could I have imagined that the Mr. Potato Head that I'm playing with as a child. And that comedy album with Rickles would converge at some, you know, 40, 50 years later.So that he inspired me. And being bullied as a kid, which we do talk about in the two person show, Rickles made it easier to be who you are because he picked on everybody.There were no sacred cows. Right. We all remember that.

I kid you because I love you.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Sometimes you need that.

People knew what a really warm hearted person that he was. And so that was all just exaggeration on his part. Well, anyhow, told that story. And then I peppered in a couple of Don Rickles lines in there.They heard both of the tapes. She sent it to the director, the casting director. Director heard it and said, book him. He's the guy.

Wow.

So I'm still pitching myself.

Congratulations, guys.

Thank you. I mean, it is an honor to be in a Toy Story film. And then for an iconic voice like Don Rickles.

Oh, man, we're out of time.

Oh, went so fast.

Do I do the sign off, Folks?

Oh, man. Thank you so much. Jeff Bergman. Carla Delaney Bergman. What an amazing couple you are. Thank you so much for coming on our show.

Thank you, Ted.

Thank you.

This is Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer show.

Thank you, Phil.

You can hear all our shows at SexyBoomershow.com. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you soon.