Carlos Alazraqui - Reno 911, Rocko's Modern Life, Fairly Odd Parents | AW18

When you think of VO legends, who comes to mind? I know! I can think of so many. Our guest this week is definitely up there as well. He is a stand-up comedian turned mime artist turned VO icon. A master of impressions and accents, you guessed it, our guest for this week is none other than Carlos Alazraqui!

Carlos is a talent like no other. He has lent his voice to so many iconic characters like Rocko from Rocko’s Modern Life, Mr. Crocker from The Fairly OddParents, Duggard from Dragons: Rescue Riders, and Mr. Weed from Family Guy.  You have got to hear his story, so what are you waiting for? 

Show Notes:

[4:45] How Carlos’ journey into VO began.

[11:15] How Carlos perfects his accents for various roles.

[16:37] Carlos as an on-screen actor.

[28:55] News on the Rocko’s Modern Life reboot and other shows in production.

[40:17] Carlos’ favorite characters.

[43:13] Q&A with Carlos during the IgTV live.
Instagram: @Alicyn
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Transcript

Intro Welcome to Alicyn's Wonderland. I'm your host, Alicyn Packard. Join us as we journey through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole into the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games. Hey, do a girl a favor and please subscribe to this podcast and go on iTunes and leave us a good review. If you like the show, please help spread the word it really helps us to get heard by more people. Thanks so much. Alicyn Hello, hello, Happy Wonderland Wednesday and welcome to Alicyn's Wonderland, the show that takes you into the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games. We are in a new location today, enjoying this beautiful day here in Southern California. I'm so excited about the show tonight. We have Carlos Alazraqui, is going to be a special guest. He is the Annie award-winning, BTVA award-winning, Emmy-nominated voice actor, man of many talents. He's also an on-camera actor, a stand-up comedian, a producer with an amazing film that just came out and we're gonna talk all about his career, and what inspires him, and everything that makes Carlos tick. So Carlos is one of my inspirations. He is definitely one of the top voice actors in Los Angeles. His body of work, I mean, it's a pool of work. It is just giant so I'm so excited to bring him to you guys tonight. I want to give a shout out real quick to everybody that's joining live SwirlyImaginationStudios, and Isajunior, Hunter, always a pleasure. I'm glad your power didn't run out. BrickmanMosaic, good to see you. Chris Brown, Jonathan. Hey, GameFoxT, AlicynPackardFan, MattTheLost, SeanBurtonVoices, CV, JoeShylee, Christopher, Cole, JazzLee. Oh my gosh, such a good crowd today. Just a quick heads up, there is a question box in the bottom, and if you guys have questions for Carlos or anything pops up, go ahead and put them in the question box. We don't engage as much with this stream channel down below because the audio from this show is going to be rebroadcast into the podcast version of Alicyn's Wonderland, which is available anywhere you listen to podcasts. So go ahead and subscribe for that anywhere you can. And thank you guys so much for joining in live. Feel free to talk amongst yourself, add questions in the block, and I will try to keep it moving. So let's welcome Carlos Alazraqui. How's it going Carlos? Carlos Good for my shadowy, little den here in the backyard garage. Alicyn I am usually in my shadowy den and the light is so bad in my den. Your light actually looks good. Carlos I know I gotta futz with it a little bit. And you might get glare from glasses, but that helps me read the comments, you know. So, you by the pool, I imagine, right? Alicyn Yes, yes, it is covered up. But I'm sitting here just enjoying the last few rays of the sunshine to be determined whether or not I will get eaten alive by mosquitoes because the last time I did this was the very first episode I ever did with my comments were and I got eaten alive. Alicyn Yeah, well, good. Alicyn Crocker, good to see you, too. A lot of comments, a lot of comments coming to Carlos. Mr.Crocker. Hi, Carla. You guys feel free too, we're gonna save a few minutes for questions at the end. So if you have any, go ahead and put them in the question box down below. Carlos, how was your day? Carlos I got a few auditions, you know? I actually went up to the park with my mom, visited her, she's nearby in a senior living place, and did my auditions, i got them in, it was a pretty light day. So, not bad. I was playing softball with my, playing catch with my daughter out in front and it's a big audition house. We always have like a backdrop up and we got the ring light and so she's preparing for an audition. I was helping her read lines. And, you know, pretty easy today. So, wonderful. Alicyn Are both of your kids actors? Carlos They both are, actually. They both were on Summer Camp Island and now Riley, it's been announced, Riley's on Prodigy, Star Trek Prodigy. And Austin just did an Apple TV episode with Will Ferrell, and Will Ferrell's new show about a therapist who manipulates a family of Will Ferrell, and Will plays her uncle, so she has a scene in that, and kids are doing fine. Alicyn That's amazing. I should probably have my earbuds, how's my audio? Carlos The audio sounds good to me. Alicyn Alright, I won't futz with it. So, Carlos, I was like doing my research and there's so much more about you that I didn't even know like that you were the voice of Chuck E. Cheese. Carlos I don't know when that happened. I can't recall what that was. But if it says I did it, I guess I did it. It was so long ago. Alicyn Yeah. And I was just kind of, I was wondering I knew you grew up in Concord, California. Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and what kind of kid you were growing? Carlos Yeah, I actually literally caught a kid named Carlo Naki whose parents were from Argentina, won the All-American Boy Award in high school. But I, when, I had a paper route, I was a jock, I played anything that had like a ball or a football or baseball. I was playing that sport. We were playing hide and seek. We were always outdoors. I was on the swim team, I did swim practice. I was swimming for eight hours a day during the summer. I played football, I ran track, I was just a jog kid that watched a lot of TV and did a lot of impressions. And I was saying yesterday on Tik Tok, that my early voiceover, kind of, career was shaped by my mom's Argentinian accent. No muy lejos Carlitos. Oh, and then my best friend Kevin, his parents were from Scotland and Uncle Danny was always over. And so I just heard all these voices, and my mom had Russian friends. So I just had all these sounds coming at me. But I was a typical suburban kid. I played sports, I had a paper route, I did sleepovers, we TP'ed houses. Blue collar neighborhood, you know, just a blue collar Concord Californian. Conquered high school, played football. How much do you bench Carlos? He's a total jock. And then I didn't get into comedy until college. Alicyn So what was it that kind of got you down the path towards stand up? Carlos I had a professor, Ernie Olson, at Sacramento State and I was majoring in recreation administration. And I was going to either run a sports club or at the time he was going to run a, ropes course in Murrieta, California right by Sacramento. And that was for corporate recreation, which was big. In other words, corporations needed better health and better production from their employees. And they discovered that if they gave them an hour to go out and do challenging things, like ropes courses and trust falls, that these increase their productivity and business and so they set up a ropes course that I was going to be the guy because of my comic background that was going to take people through these ropes courses, but they couldn't get insurance at the time. And so it fell through. And I started doing mime. And then mime finds itself. Yeah. Carlos From ropes course host to.. Carlos A mime company. We would perform at the schools for people or children of the deaf. Schools we would perform at, to deaf children schools, actually, sorry. So we perform at places like that. And we would, and then that branched off into stand-up comedy. And I started in stand-up comedy in '85 - '86. And then I became part of a duo and I placed on the Metro Bar and Grill where a young Brian Posehn used to show up in Sacramento. And then I did hosting comedy by myself at a place called Laughs Unlimited. And then in 1987, I moved to San Francisco with my buddy John Boyle, into a converted garage apartment with Boris the landlord and I was working in two different health clubs and doing comedy at night. And in 1991, there was an opportunity for this show called Rocks' Modern Life. And I met George Maestri and Nick Jennings and Joe Murray in a house. They didn't want an Australian. Alicyn In a house? Wait, wait, you said in a house? Carlos In the garage near suture towers, but there was a big long, I didn't have an agent, there was a big long line of people coming out of the garage auditioning for this project called Rocko's Modern Life. My manager Tracy Forester at the time, now Tracy Forester-Hayden said I got you this audition because I know the producer, Marty McNamara from San Francisco State. He's a professor there. And oh, somebody who likes to hear the Scottish accent and the Australian accent as well. So I went and they go, we don't want this guy, this wallaby is from Australia. We don't want to hit the nail on the head. So we want like a boon apparently like, yeah, I'm funny, too. I tell jokes, and I'm really funny. And so I did stuff like that. And then I did a pretty good. I got, I got a pouch. And it wasn't working. And the first of all, I nailed spunky, who was the crazy dog behind me, right? And Nick Jennings said, you are. So I knew I had a job, right? I knew I was Spunky. And all of a sudden, we started talking about Gene Wilder. And I said, You are not. You want to talk about strengths. Do you want to talk about the Olympian ideal? Listen to me, you are not evil, you are good. And that cracked them up, that kept me in the room. And we opened up a vacuum manual and I just made up something because he was, he's really teethy and jowly. If I can tilt up, he's got the teeth there. And I just said, when you're, when you plug in the unit make sure that everything is attached. And they're like Oh, that sounds kind of good. So I did a couple of lines. And they sent it off to New York and they said, Yeah, this is the guy we want to make a pilot with. And there was a little studio called Poolside Studios on the flat part of Lombard Street in San Francisco at Lombard and Steiner right by Mel's Diner, it's no longer there. And we did the pilot. I think it was Suck-O-Matic or the one we're Spunky throws stuff up into the bathtub. And, and we did a pilot. And about six months later, they said yeah, we're gonna do the series. So that was 1991. Yeah, I was living in San Francisco. Alicyn Amazing. Carlos I didn't have an agent. And then I called everybody and it was one of those things where like, Hi, my name is Carlos Alazraqui, and I'm looking for an agent. Yeah, someone says not here yet. Yeah, yeah, I'm the voice of Rocko for this Nickel - Hold on. So I wined and dined and I ended up going with Arlene Thornton and Associates and my daughters, they're, both my daughters are there now. 17 years later, I'm now in another agency, DPN. But Arlene really took care of me for those first 17 years and Rocko was my ticket in, you know? He was my ticket in, and it was my very first. Alicyn That's a pretty big ticket. Carlos Yeah, yeah. And I had the benefit of being a stand up comic. So we were talking the other day about creating characters. We were creating characters on stage, you know? I had dialects in arsenal, in my arsenal because of the Scottish friends because of watching Monty Python, Ripping Yarns, The Two Ronnies, Fawlty Towers, all that stuff, you know? I just had the British stuff. I had the Scottish stuff. I had the Argentinian stuff. In Australia when I first did Rocko he was really flat daddy's like, buddy smooth talking trash, or not a path of a balanced diet. They said that's a little too hard to understand. So let's Cockney it up and take out the Australian flat sound. But I actually bought a tape that told you if you had to bring your tongue to the top of your nose. It kind of flat erase these like these to make an Australian accent. That's how I kind of learned it. Alicyn You often work with dialect coaches to ensure that the accents that you get are correct and it's important to you. Are there other things that you do to prepare for a role? Carlos Well, I only scored for Daugaard I did on Dragons: Rescue Riders, are you, I have that Scottish accent but to prepare, I listen to John Fratelli from The Fratellis, if you've ever heard of that group. Chelsea Dagger, all kinds of tunes, but he's got a great voice. You've got his tune and I watched Rab C. Nesbitt starring Gregor Fisher. If anybody has ever seen Love Actually, Gregor Fisher is the actor who plays the manager of the singer. I think it's, what's his name, John Ries, he's in now the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. But he, Gregor Fisher is the guy that plays the manager. Five minutes Elton John's is as gay as this one. So he has a series called Rab C. Nesbitt that was just from Garmin, which is near Glasgow, Scotland. Well, basically his parents were from Glasgow. So if I need to repair and get something as authentic as possible, I would watch Rab C. Nesbitt back and get you back into, into the dialect to make sure it's you know, as close as possible. But I always remember my reference was John Heaney, and that upper lip never moved. Let me tell you is Kevin at college, he's going to say right now you're going to roast, you're Tony roast. It's all based off the old Gaelic writing the Scottish dialect, the Spanish dialect, like I'll go back and practice by watching stuff, do lingo for Spanish I do every day. So you know, neighbors, you know, so I make sure that I got the vowels, right. And it's all, it's all about how you move your mouth to make sounds to get the vowel sounds right. So if you know, world in American English is like it's all over the world. But it's got these all over the world. It's a visual for all of us. I think it's a visual reference. If we get a visual reference of somebody doing a voice. It's how Jim Meskimen, and Josh Robert Thompson, and Ross Marquand, and Melissa Villaseñor. It's how they all do their impressions, they get that visual, I think, first and then, you know, if you're going to do the narrow, you got to make the face it helps. You know, when I do Dr. Fauci, Of course, I'm going to start from how I remember him very small at the podium, and deliberate, but it's his physical size that helps me to recreate that sound. So yeah. Alicyn Yeah, that's so interesting. Because also, you know, if you're starting with the physical, it kind of prevents you from getting in your head or overthinking different choices, because you're just, you're coming from the movement. Carlos Yeah, it's just a Zen thing. You're just into it, you're just pretending, right? Alicyn Do you, do you coach as well? Carlos I do coach, I actually coached more on camera than I do voiceover. I don't have the curriculum per se. Although I've gone two or three times the Voice Tracks West with Samantha Paris in Sausalito, California. And I've had fun coaching. A drill that I've done in classes is where I take two disparate types of actors, one really strong with characters, and one really sort of more commercial VO. And I'll have them read the same commercial copy. But then what I'll do for the person that's not confident that they can come up with a, create characters, I'll go imitate the other actor that you're just in the booth with doing that character that they just did, and do your best to do that process. And by doing that, they actually develop a character voice. And Billy West has famously always said that a bad impression of somebody is an original character. You know, Crocker is a mixture of a bad Richard Dreyfuss mixed with a Gene Wilder mixed with, Oh, In good times, they mix it all together, it becomes its own character. So Alicyn It's so great. It's like a master class, a mini master class. Carlos You know, I'm sure you do some tricks as well, you see it, you feel it, you physicalize it. And you go that voice reminds me of the lady that used to be, work in the cleaners or whatever, or my teacher. So I know where I'm going with this, you know? Alicyn Yeah, yeah. Anchoring to somebody that you're familiar with, you know their energy you can feel their energy and you just, yeah, it just anchors you right in versus trying to get in it, into it from like an intellectual standpoint with your pen and paper and making your notes and mark everything up. Sometimes I feel like it just gets me to my head. Carlos Yeah, I just did a session too where I had to pull back on the accent where I thought, ooh they liked it on the call back and they're like, Oh, pull it back just a little bit. And that's where the voice acting comes in, as we know how to refine things on the spot, we're like studio musicians, where they're like, Okay, take this beat, speed it up, make it a back beat. Have the rhythm there, boom, refine it, a little bit faster, and now go. And we're able to make decisions on the fly, you know? Alicyn Yeah, like vocal DJs, you know? Mix it back. Just spinning, spinning vocal records, character. Carlos Yeah. So many people saying hello. To everybody out there. That's amazing for both of us. Thank you for joining. We appreciate you for sure. Alicyn It is a great time when people are in the live. Carlos Yeah. There was another Australian character I did for Handy Manny. Yes, my dino bones. Alicyn Now, in addition to voice acting, you've also done on screen. You've done quite a lot of on camera as well, perhaps most notably, Reno 911. Are you, is that how, what percentage would you say that works as your career? Is it 50%? Or is it, Carlos There was a point where Reno, when we were filming in the seasons on mass was 50-50 at least and now, it's on HBO Max, it's on Paramount Plus, it's on Roku, then another season is gonna come out on Paramount Plus, we're about to film a little special for them that's been announced. It's a little 44-minute movie that keeps on giving. But I would say majority of my work now, outside of my film, which we'll talk about has been voiceover and continues to be voiceover. And I've done a bunch of, I've done about three or four Adam Conover live stuff. And it is cartoon as well. I, my preference is always is relative to the project, you know, because you could be doing a voiceover thing where it's like a video game and you're chewing your voice up and you don't really like, you don't love the session. And you could be on set somewhere waiting around all day going well, but I don't know, I suppose I love them both the same. But again, it's relative to the project because there were days on Reno where we'd be in the trailer all day. And then, all right, we just need you to do this little thing at the end of the day. Or they are, they'll be one where you get the whole bunch of scenes and it's super fun. It just varies but I love, one of my favorite, I love Rocko's Modern Life because that was my first, and Camp Lazlo because it was Joe Murray again, it was Jeff Bennett, he was brilliant, was added to the cast. Steve Little, Joe Tally, but Rocko was, but I love, love, love Fairly Oddparents because Butch was just such a tough dad. And he had Tara Strong, and he had Daran Norris, and Susanne Blakeslee, and he had Grey DeLisle and then later on, we had Kari Wahlgren, and Eric Bauza, and Kevin Michael Richardson, and Rob Paulsen, and the cast would just grow, but I would sit there and watch Jeff Bennett do his Catman. And it was a dead on Adam West and I just cracking up about how brilliant this cast is, you know? It's just like it's symphonic. Right? You get a part of a group cast and it's, people are going nuts. And it's, it's a beautiful thing, so. Alicyn Did you guys have a lot of improv opportunity on that show? Carlos We would riff, yeah, at brunch we'd go, That's very funny. Now do it as written, all right. You know, he was always tough love. And buddy, Oh, he knew the characters so well. He knew a line that would work or didn't work, but he would let me riff with Crocker for sure. I know, Is that a mother here? A girlfriend here? Make it look goofy. Thank you, cat who's my girlfriend? Yeah, he will, uh, Daran, and Tara, and Susanne, just go at it. You know, Greyy. We'd all pitch in and riff a few lines. But he was a tough love guy, which was, which was kind of fun, because we knew he was. He liked to, you know, bust your privates a little bit. Alicyn And so have you heard about I mean, what are your thoughts on the newly announced Fairly Oddparents live action? Carlos I texted Butch right away, you know, Butch, if you needed a Mr. Crocker, because unfortunately for the reboot with Drake, in Hawaii, we do with Jason Alexander. They got, they hired a Canadian actor who did quite well playing Crocker but I was jealous as well. I created that character with Butch and I know how to play him and I'm like, I don't know this live version doesn't pick up with the Timmy Turner thing, it's a little different. But I said if there's ever a Crocker please just let me, give me a shot at it because I'm watching this clip, right? About my problem that was 35 years ago. And I'm like, wait a minute, 35, I could be Crocker. I'm the right age. And I looked like him and I know this character inside out. Just give me a shot to play him. I'm sure whoever they get would be great. Alicyn We all need to just get on board and start, start tweeting that out. Carlos I might have to start doing some live tiktoks as a live Mr. Crocker, got me on the voice. But now we've come out of the bushes. I was picking up dog beds. Alicyn You could do some sketches? Carlos Because you feel like, would you like to play one of your characters live? Which one of your characters would you like to play? Alicyn I think well, it would be really funny to play Little Miss Sunshine. I actually think I might more want to be a Little Naughty though. Like what you get used to doing these voice characters you make the most rediculous faces and you know, I think translate you have to you have to re-engineer the characters. Carlos Very heavy on the eye makeup. Big Red, big, long fingernails. You know, speaking of voice actors on film, you know Tara Strong is hard cap Toronto, and I made a film called Witness Infection. The logline is when a mob boss, his son tries desperately to get out of an arranged marriage. Luckily, his friends and the zombie apocalypse are there to bail him out. And it stars Rob Belushi, who I met through Alison Bosch, and then I met in Rob's commercial acting workshop along with a really great improviser named Tim Stoltenberg. And I cast Rob, Tara Strong, Erinn Hayes, Gary Anthony Williams, Maurice LaMarche, Joe Reitman, my friend Jill-Michele Melean, who co-wrote it, my buddy Vince Donvito, Bret Ernst, who's on Cobra Kai, please do Oh God, the you know, in car dealerships. And it was a great opportunity to for me to be able to go I know Tara can nail the part of Filomena, this jersey girl who's like, You leave him alone, you know? You don't talk to me that way. And then Mo, he got to play Mr. Miola, who's kind of a soft, genial mob boss at five in the morning in Temecula. And just crushing the scenes and it was just so fun to, to give voice actors an opportunity to be on camera and be on film. And you can get it on video on demand. You can go to WitnessInfection.com to find out where it's playing, then you find it. Alicyn Somebody should, somebody should type that in the comments. And we'll pin it. So anybody joining in is able to go check it out. Yeah, so where did you get the idea to do this film? Carlos I had always loved zombie films. I can't see myself but it's okay, my keyboards in the way and I don't know how to get rid of it. I'm just gonna go Hi. I'm gonna say hi. Hi. I just said hi to myself. I always love those zombie films. I love Shaun of the Dead. I always loved The Sopranos. You know, everybody does that, Christopher is not no better. Gandolfini than Kevin Michael Richardson doing a Cleveland table rate you can do to that. Christopher? Oh my gosh. What's his name from angry beavers. We used to do it all the time. But your hallways. I tell you. You're breaking my balls here, Christopher. Hey T, go out and get a bunch of fresh. So I love the mob stuff. I love Shaun of the Dead. I thought I have this idea for a mob zombie film. And I called Jill-Michele Melean who I met years ago as a comic. And we wrote it together. We developed this story, it was way out here but I think, Alicyn I'm back. Sorry. Carlos I think we're live. So I had this idea. I shared it with Jill-Michele Melean. We came up with a script, and we wrote a story about two witness protection, families on witness protection. They tried to continue the robbery introduced poisoned sausage from Tableone's. And then everything goes kapoot, forget about it. People start getting affected people are biting each other. Oh, firewood and sausage. Alicyn And you guys have been doing the festival circuit. Carlos Yeah, we have in October, provided we are able to maintain this streak of being healthy. We're going to be streaming live at Shriek Fest in LA Shriek Fest in October. Alicyn Nice. Do you have a airdate for that? Carlos Well, the date of the festival I'm not sure yet. It will be mid to late October, but it'll be on my CarlosAlazraqui.com, or on my Twitter, on my Instagram, we'll definitely announce it. Andy Palmer is our director. And it's a fun movie. I really recommend it. It's really fun. And it's great to see Mo on camera, Tara on camera, Gary Anthony Williams, of course is always on camera and doing both but it's a fun little film. Promo Hey guys, this is Alicyn Packard. Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to let you know that if you like the show, please please, please remember to subscribe to this podcast. And leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps us to get heard by more people. Thanks so much. Alicyn And so when with casting, did you pretty much just because you've worked with so many voice actors, and those are the people you knew you just went straight to them for cast. Carlos Yeah, we cast it off our iPhones, we just said, I'm texting this person, I'm emailing this person. And we didn't go to a casting agent. We just kept it all us. Alicyn I remember you were shooting tha the day we did ADR on something, was it Toy Story 4? Carlos I think so cuz it's 2018. Alicyn Yeah. So maybe it was actually a movie. And I remember, you know, just how excited you were showing me some pictures of the makeup from set. Carlos Yes. Yeah, great makeup by, I got my buddy Jim Ojala, ojalafilms.com. He's fantastic. And, you know, I had met Erinn Hayes. I was on the pilot of Kevin Can Wait. I played Mr. Alvarez, I had a drinking problem. So I was down at Bethpage for two weeks in. I was in Bethpage for two weeks. And I met Erinn Hayes and when she was not on the show anymore, I said, Erinn, I'm doing this movie, would you like to play a character and she was available? And we were lucky. She's so good. She's so good. So yeah, it was a blast making it and we have something that I financed with my wife, myself, I was the producer, I was the writer, I was an actor. And it was just a labor of love, you know? And it's, it's out there, and people can see it and people like it. Alicyn And what's next for the movie? Carlos Hopefully, after video on demand, it gets to get picked up by Amazon and it can stream on Netflix or Amazon or even iTunes for free. Maybe this festival will get some eyes and ears on and people say do you guys have a sequel? We go Yeah, we got an idea. So who knows? Who knows what's next? Will I make my money back? I'm not sure. But you know, fortunately, we're doing okay. And I made it and I made something happen. And that's, sometimes we do that, right? We invest in things and just say, yeah, I'm going for it. And I'm proud of it. It's really, it's really good. Alicyn I mean, that's really why we're here, isn't it to express ourselves creatively and to to share and hopefully affect people in a positive way. That's making people laugh or making them cry. Wow. Well, I'm very, I mean, I'm very impressed with your ability to make that happen. So congratulations, keep us posted. I would love to share any new news that you have about the movie, by the way, as Justin just shared the link as well as the Instagram. So everybody that's on this live, go and follow and you'll get the latest info from them as well. Carlos WitnessInfection.com we had a trailer and Michele Melean was instrumental in getting us veterans and also the amazing Monique Coleman, who plays a real fun role in that movie. And it's a mix that goes places where you don't think it's going to go and it's a mixture of blaxploitation, Shaun of the Dead, mob, campy comedy, love story. But it all works. It all works. Yeah, yeah. Alicyn Well, you'll see me there in October. I can't wait. By the way, isn't your birthday on Tuesday? Carlos My birthday is the 20th. So I think Cardi Waldron was on the 13th, along with Tom Kenny, on the 13th. Laurie Allen, I believe is on the 20th. I don't know what day it is. Let's see, today is Wednesday the 14th. So you're right Tuesday, the 20th. I'm getting up there. Thank you very much. We're gonna go to the LAFC soccer game this Saturday night because I'm a season ticket holder and I love football as they call it. So we're gonna go with a couple of friends. And then I may join Laurie Allen for a little shindig that she's going to have on the 20th Happy birthday. Yeah, yeah, we'll stop by birthday time. So yeah, it's I'll be working on my birthday too. Because my agent said, Do you want to work on your birthday? And I'm like, Yes, I would love that present of working on my birthday. Please. Alicyn Funnily enough, Debi Derryberry is my birthday twin. Carlos When is, when is your birthday? Alicyn Yeah. Carlos When is it? Alicyn September 27th. Carlos There you go. So we'll have to remember that. Alicyn September 27th. Carlos September 27th. Got it, posted. Alicyn I think we got a little bit of a lag, but I think it's still okay. Carlos Okay. Alicyn I'll try not to overlap you too much. But I do want to switch gears a little bit and just ask you if you could tell us anything about the new Rocko's Modern Life reboot? Carlos Well, the new Rocko's Modern Life reboot we recorded, pardon me, I think we recorded in 2016. We went to Comic Con in 2017. And then it aired on Netflix in 2019. It's called Static Cling, the original cast is back. We ended the original Rocko series with them floating in space, and we pick up from there, where they get sucked down to earth and it's an entirely 21st century, very dangerous century. They get sucked down to the 21st century, the world has changed. There's iPhones, there's sports drinks, they want to see the fat heads again the fat heads no longer exists. So they have to go looking for Ralph Bighead so that Ralph Bighead can create the new fat heads and they go off on this journey to find Ralph Bighead, and there's some surprises in there. And it's really, really well done. It's Charlie Adler, it's Tom Kenny, it's Mr. Lawrence, it's myself, it's Jill Tally, Linda Wallem, who was our original doctor with the hook, oh my gosh, why am I forgetting and she came back to reprise her role since the original cast. It's Joe Murray. It's, it's really well done. It really had to kind of go back and see if the old band could still play the instruments again, and we did a good job. It's beautifully done. People really, really love it. Alicyn Was it exciting to be back in the room with those legends again? Carlos I always thought he was like an old rock and roll guy, he was like, Yeah, he was like, Pink Floyd coming together again for the no excuses hunger concert, right? Roger Waters getting mad at everybody. But he's like David Gill was there, Rick Right, Nick Mason, we're all together again on stage and we're doing his thing again. He was lovely. Right. We still play. I remember the songs we used to play. Like, that's what it felt like that we were on the show old season rock musicians coming back together again. It was wonderful. Wonderful. Alicyn That's amazing. That's amazing. And you have a lot of other projects in production stuff, even new series in production, can you can you talk about any of those? Carlos I'm on the fabulous show. Are we good? Can you hear me? I'm on a fabulous show. We just did 100 episodes with Isabel Alvarez, Alex Gossett, Roxana Ortega, Ruben Garcia, media gold. So many more. Suneel. Somali Motano was the genius last name for Mexico a great comic. He's on the series created by Miguel Kouga and Alcaraz and a bunch of other people. And it's a great series. I play Carlos, dad and he knows everything about everything you don't talk in 1944 the Mayans, actually. Then I play a parrot name just great. I played my favorite characters a guy named Vito Filopodial. Vito is the prince with Apple Alito, name actor. And I just come by the store all the time, the bodega and I go, Hey, if you guys got any extra fruit that you're gonna throw away, I wouldn't mind eating it. It's almost like almost like a Fauci. So I love playing Vito. I'm on a new series on Netflix called Trese thanks to the amazing Eric Bauza, who recommended me to be a part of this Filipino comic book, come to life. And I play Anton Trese, who is the father of Alexa, Alexis, Alexa Trese, and I play Santelmo is the voice of the spire comes out of the phone, and they put effect on it. And it's beautiful. It's this beautiful graphic novel. It's called Trese, T-R-E-S-E, it's on Netflix. So happy to be a part of that. I got to be the voice for Miguelito because the original voice of miguelito on Victor and Valentino decided that it would be more fair for someone with a Latin background to pursue this until I got an opportunity to so I'm getting to recreate a voice that somebody already did on that I'm on Kamp Koral, Stop it you guys, you are being invaded. So that character I'm on Kamp Koral. I get to do a Lego City with Roger Craig Smith, and with Jeff Bennett and with oh my gosh, she works at the Magic Castle Why am I forgetting her name? She's really Misty Lee a whole great cast. So I'm getting to be a part of a lot of fun things right now. I'm really lucky. Really lucky. And it's fun to work on, huh? No, it's, it's fun to be directed by Tom Kenny on Kamp Koral because Tom is, has unbounded energy like, and he gets every detail every fish in the background. That's like going so tumble you Oh, okay. Carlos the fish eyes sees the guy drag curling the chips goes. Like he's so detailed and so energetic. You're like Tom, it's nine in the morning. I can't keep up with you. You know, and he's done three shows at the farmers market the night before and it's incredible to work on that show and but I'm sorry you were you were talking about something else? Alicyn Oh, I was just gonna switch gears but I'm really, I'm curious also, you know, for you know, for you to continue this like with working with Tom and, and Kamp Koral. And you know your experience on that. How is especially without Stephen Hillenburg being a part of this series. Carlos Stephen is a guy I've met on Rocko. I met Stephen Hillenburg and why by 1992 in Studio City that was really where the original Nick studios was on, was pretty close to I would say Colfax and Riverside was the original Nick studios and then it moved to Vineland and the person that was the receptionist was Maria Bamford, she was at Nickelodeon. Oh, yeah. Sure. Let the New Year here. You knew that she was brilliant. And I first, her first voiceover gig I think was with me on Cat Dog. She played one of the women. She was so not confident with her characters on there. And I'm like, Maria, you're brilliant. And of course she is brilliant. And she's amazing. But so to see these guys again, and you know, we all missed what's Steve Hillenburg brought to Rocko, what he brought to SpongeBob. And it's one of the sad things really is that you get these sort of diehard SpongeBob fans that are so accusatory of, this is not what Stephen Hillenburg would have wanted. It's like you guys, Tom, and Bill FOggy and Doug Lawrence knew, Stephen, his family, are a lot closer than you did, believe me, everything that's happening with these later versions of SpongeBob. And these later versions of Kamp Koral Of course, Steve Hillenburg would have loved it. You think for a second? How much love that Tom and I, and Bill Fogger, nad Roger Pompous, and Carolyn Lawrence, and the directors and the producers have for Steve, Do you think for a second they would, they know his wife, they know his son, you think for a second? They would go against what you wanted , no !And it's unfortunate. It's an unfortunate part of our business where people think they know,t here's no way Steve. It's just so sad. But of course, because we're continuing what he brought, of course, Tom loves him and his family of course, Bill. So you guys, you have to say you this is where you got to like step back. You we know you're fans, but you don't know the creator as well as Tom and Bill and Roger and Carolyn does. Yeah, you know, so please just enjoy it. Just enjoy it. There can be, two things can exist at the same time. You can have the original SpongeBob, the newer SpongeBob. The Patrick show, Kamp Koral is all because of this guy who started, that I knew on Rocko's Modern Life along with Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh who created Phineas and Ferb. It's all part of Steve. It's still all Steve Hillenburg. It's still more than okay with his wife and his son and his family. And the people closest to him, believe me. It's no, it is, I really encourage you to just enjoy it. It's wonderful, it is fantastic. And that was a PSA I think I had to do. Because I guess in a sense, it hurts our feelings, to think that we would do this, you know, to think that the, the people that are putting this on, they're doing it out of love, and really knowing who this person was really, really knowing them on a on a personal level. So that's my big PSA for that. Alicyn 100% and I guess, you know, people watch the show long enough, maybe they feel like they have ownership or for some reasons and and maybe in some way they do but knowing that the show is only able to continue when the parties involved that have a copyright or have that you know are agreeing you can't just go renegade and try it. Carlos Right. I get that sense of having ownership over something, or familiarity that you think is real. I remember walking into LA studios to do Phineas and Ferb for Swampy Marsh, and I walk in and I see this move of a woman there. And I know her I'm like, Hey, are you doing? How's it going? And I look at her and I go, oh my god, that's Lucy Davis from the British Office who plays Dawn, and of course is now in the Teenage Witch Sabrina on Netflix. One of my guilty pleasures. And I thought I knew her. So I love the British office. so familiar with her that I thought I knew her as a person. And I went, I don't know you, but I love your work, you know? And I'll tell you how I understand how people are fans of what we do, and how it's such a big deal for them. We both know Dee Bradley Baker, amazing voice actors. But I'm sitting there at Salami Studios, lamenting the fact that I'm horrible at video games. And I say the only game I know how to play first person shooter. First of all, not for dead one. Zinfandel as well from Seattle plays France. Isn't that blown away? So I tell him, we're having a conversation with Dee and Brad I go, I play left for dead too. And he goes, you know, I'm the spinner. And Fred goes, You know, I play Boomer and I'm like, Oh my god, you know, way and I stand like, I totally cuz I spent hours on this game. And I know Boomer and I know this Spitter and the Joker that jumps on your head and goes and I'm like, of course it's Dee, of course it's Brad. But I fanboy it out. And that's when it hit me that people really get invested in what we do. Because they spend so much time with us. One of the greatest compliments I get is from, I was the original Spyro, me, Penny just for now. And Elijah Wood I believe that I was original Spyro Hey, look out for nasty Newark. And people come up to me and go, you were my childhood. And I really didn't understand it until I understand, understood how much I was a fan of Dee and Brad, for being in this game that I love. So I get it. I get that to ownership. Alicyn And do you have an all time favorite character for you? to voice? Carlos That's a great question. You know, it has to be my first which is Rocko, because ABC search your name to who I was, I was this innocent guy. And I really didn't know what a voiceover wise and Charlie was this big and intimidating. Oh Rocko like being on Broadway and be doing voices. So, we were so green. I revere Rocko. I love and I talked about this today, I just sent this to Justin, I do a series on Instagram called how I came up with a voice. As you know, it's sort of a misnomer. It's usually it's collaborative. But one of the things I've enjoyed for since 2001 is doing sound-a-like stuffs for Mike Wazowski was because that presents its own challenge. You know, I'm in Kingdom Hearts 3 and a bunch of games, you know, you know, because Billy Crystal has created this brilliant, original vase that you're trying to replicate and get every detail right. And sometimes you nail it. Sometimes you're just off. But that's the challenge, right? Get to get people to believe that it's a playing Kingdom Hearts 3 that is seamless for them. You know, Roz, you're looking good today. You know, that's our job. And so I love to be able to do that as well. Alicyn Yeah, that's amazing. So people can just make sure that they're following you on Instagram, and then you do this series from time to time. Is it on Tik Tok too? Carlos Yeah, we put little clips of it on Tik Tok to get people to come over and see the full clip. And it lags behind a little. So I have done everything from the Taco Bell dog to Lazlo to Ricochet from Mucha Lucha. But yeah, I really enjoyed doing Billy Crystal. I love Crocker. I love Lazlo because he was so innocent. And Clam was Yeah, the Taco Bell Dog was so famous. You killed it. Viva gorditas I was on Hollywood Squares sitting underneath Whoopi Goldberg and actually got to hear I'll take Carlos Alazraqui for the block. You know talk about surreal I met Sugar Ray Leonard on that show. Yeah, I'm sorry that you know, but Rocco we got to make a you know if I had to go back and if we could do one series again, between Fairly Oddparents and Rocko. I love them both. I think I would choose to do Rocko again, because we need Rocko. Rocko's Winnie the Pooh he's, he's hope springs eternal. Right? Things he did. You know? He's so sweet. So, because Crocker's like out of his mind. Crocker had an 11 all the time. I get exhausted and Rocko has nuance and he's sweet and he's laid back so I love Rocko. Alicyn Yeah, sorry. Somebody's kind of doing that. There's a lot of chirping going on over here. I know. It's my bird feeder in the back. Carlos Remember when COVID first hit and everybody truly was in lockdown. Freeways weren't busy, how loud nature was? That's something we can tell. Alicyn So pretty loud here? Awesome. I want to save time to take a few questions here in the studio audience. Okay, we did talk about Crocker's that's on the live actions fairly oddparents which is a mega Fantastic Mr. Crocker. Okay, how is it being the voice of Monroe on Juniper Lee? Carlos What a cartoon. Judd Winick who I met with William Morris in 1994. We did a cartoon of his and I forgot but I played a clown who use judge from the Bay Area. He created this show the life and times of Juniper Lee. Lara Jill Miller, Kath Suocie. Oh my god, so many wonderful actors. I don't remember them all. But he wanted this guy Monroe. And it was more Bill, it was more Billy Connolly, it's higher pitch than Duggard has from Dragons: Rescue Riders. So I knew Billy Connolly and he was just curmudgeonly, Juniper I told you a thousand times not to check your wrist during school. It's just lovely because it was so inventive. And there's monsters and there's portals and there's wonderful acting. And I love playing Monroe and I love The Life And Times of Juniper Lee, it was so brilliant. I wish that would come back. So well done. And Judd, of course, wrote Hilo, the children's book series, which if your son hasn't read Hilo, it's about a boy robot from space. And it's that whole high love, it's so good. Alicyn Thank you for the test. We'll have to check it out. Carlos Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome. Alicyn It's funny, piggybacking off that Tamir had asked, you know, for your Scottish accents, but you're also gonna get an Irish accent. Now they're easy to mix up. How do you distinguish them? Carlos Regardless, there's an impressionist who does a spot on Conor McGregor, but typical Irish thing where I think Irish is more swallowed. So it's more a little bit more sing songy for me, and then you get the stereotypical Irish which I get to play on Looney Tunes. I know you're in there. See Irish is more swallowed, as opposed to Scottish which is less swallowed. It's more, Scottish to me is more guttural and harder. So let me say a sentence in a Scottish accent. Let me buy you a drink, as opposed to let me buy a drink. Let me buy a drink more back in the throat or swallow. If I had seen in my own professional opinion, it's more swallowed. That is Scottish. That's how differentiate. Alicyn I love it. Thank you. Let's see ChristopherCora asked. How did you like doing American Dad? We didn't talk about how you work on American Dad or Family Guy? Carlos Yeah, Mr. Weed was a blast. Recently on american dad. I just played Henderson play this guy from Arizona who plays the voice and this guy's consciousness or is he or could it be a rude that he talks like this person? I think you remember me. So that's my most recent one. Smaller roles on that. But I was Mr. Weed on Family Guy. I beat you, you're fired. And that was originally Butch and Seth MacFarlane had come from, I think Cow and Chicken and Hanna Barbera stuff. It's a Butch was playing Mr. Weed originally and then they wanted to Spanish Portuguese guy. I knew Linda Lamontagne from San Francisco comedy competition. And we all went skydiving together. We were going through our skydiving lesson. She stopped. I continued and skydive for 15 years. But I knew Linda and so they, I came in for a general and then I got to be a part of this Mr. Weed for Fox. Fox didn't pick it up. And then TNT picked it up. And I was part of that. No, reverse and then Fox picked it up again. And I remember it was really high pressure for Seth MacFarlane because he had to get it right. So he was really overworked. It wasn't as enjoyable because he wasn't set yet. So but it was great to be a part of that franchise up to your fire. I should call you at one. People really revere that character as well. So it happened so quick, and then he died. And then that was it. And then I came back for a little episode where they go back in time and Mr. Weed is still alive. And they've kept me around Katherine and Jackie has been really wonderful about bringing me in for smaller roles. And I continue to be a part of that. And it's awesome. Alicyn That is awesome. Wow. Okay, we talked about, this is a great question, which is just how does it feel to be a voice actor in popular cartoons that inspired people today from their childhood? Carlos It feels great. You know, I would say the same thing I get to meet you and record a live reading of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Our doc new Juniper ranch He brought me, Joel, and Tom Kenny into his living room on the couch Juniper. So as much as she inspired me it feels great that I'm able to be a person that can pass that on to somebody else. And, and hopefully they're a fan and they they might emulate what I've done. And because I continue to emulate what Billy West has done with Jess Harnell, Rob, you know, Tress MacNeille. I remember doing the Animaniacs recently, and I jokingly said that this was my Make a wish, winning the ticket. I got to act with Jess and Tress and Rob Paulson in the same remote was not there that day. You know, so yeah, we're all passing it on to each other. We all pass it down. And Tom Kenny, and Bill Fagerbakke, and these guys, I'm lucky. Rodger Bumpass, and we're just lucky to work with these people. Alicyn That is amazing. Well, I think we're about to wrap it up. I just have one more question for you, Carlos, which is one I like to ask everybody which is if there is a song in your heart, what would the name of that song be? Carlos You got to keep trying, I think. You got to keep trying. You got to keep trying. You got to keep living. I don't know how it would go. But would be sung by Michael Keane with who I really think is amazing. Yeah. Alicyn I think we could make that like. Carlos We're also amazing. Eric, Eric Burton, and Kisara. Adrian inside Eric Burton. Yeah, there you go. Alicyn Well, I got to keep on trying. Yeah. And that's probably your advice to anybody out there who's aspiring voice actors as well, right? Got to keep on trying. Yeah. And we have people ask that question every week and I tell people, that everybody's story is different, how they got into voice acting, whether it was stand up comedy or improv or radio or however, they found their way to use their voice to tell stories. Everybody's story is different. So you get to write your own. Carlos Yeah, I was an athlete growing up, loved sports. I didn't do drama at all. Then I got sucked into stand up comedy, and mime and off I went, and no, no professional training. And I, like you, I've been learning from day one when we stepped in and saw Charlie Adler tearing up that copy, and then working with Billy West and Dwight Shoals and Maria Bamford, and Jim come, I watch, I watched, I watched Tara Strong. I watched Grey DeLisle. I watched Daran Norris. I watched Susanne Blakeslee and Kari Wahlgren. I watched you were in looping groups. I watch how people work and I pick up stuff. You never stop learning. I watch Tom Kenny, Doug Lawrence, you know, Roger, Carolyn Lawrence, you watch and you just see what they do that you're not doing. You can go Wow, I didn't know that. That's an awesome, I'm gonna do that now. So keep watching, keep learning. Alicyn Keep watching, keep learning. Carlos, thank you so much for spending your evening with us. And, Carlos You're welcome, Alicyn. Alicyn I'm so excited to check out everything. Go ahead and follow at Witness Infection. I mean, sure, you probably already follow on Carlos but and he's on tik tok as well. Putting out some hilarious, amazing videos. Next week, we have Richard Epcar, voice actor and voice director is going to be our guests on the show. So I hope you guys come back for that and make sure you're following me if you want. We do these every single week. So yeah, okay, Carlos, well, thank you so much for your time. Carlos That was great. Alicyn Thank you so much. Thanks, guys. See you next week. Outro Thanks for tuning in to Alicyn's Wonderland, where we explore the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games. Please remember to subscribe and leave us a review. For more episodes of Alicyn's Wonderland, please visit us at www.AlicynPackard.com. See you next week.