Episode 145: StocktonCon Summer 2024(FT Talks/ Justin Greenwood, Mary Gibbs, Marty Grabstein, and more!)

0:00 Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Uncle Dad Talks. And if you hear that noise in the background, that's right. We're live again at the one and only Stockton Conn Summer. What's up? And I'm not alone. I'm with the man, the myth, the legend, the real Slim Shady himself, Mike Hampton. Please stand up. Indeed, indeed. Hey, man, how are you? I'm kneeling down. Okay, but how are you? Well, I'm just taking a knee. Okay. Well, you heard him. Yeah, we're here at Stockton Con. This is probably, how many times now have you and I done the show here? Five times? Six times? How many times is the sunrise each year?

0:41 Yeah. Well, we did it twice a year. Wait. Whoa. We've done it a few. Yeah. Okay. You know, I like to say this, that it's basically Uncle Dad Con. Let's be honest, Mike. Well, you know, we're kind of regulars here, and so we hobnob with the other regulars here. And the good thing is a lot of them are good, fun folks that we like to hang out with and talk to. You can't beat that. You can't beat it. You cannot beat that at all. We're not alone. We're hanging out with the amazing Callie Dunlap Art, as I like to always call her. Callie Dunlap Art is here, and she's working on her – she's branched out into pop culture after hanging out with the likes of us. And now she's doing Star Wars paintings. That's very exciting. It's very exciting.

1:23 You guys can't wait to see it. I can't wait for you guys to see it because it's going to blow your mind whole. Not only that, we also have other regulars around us. We've got our man Dan Brereton here. You've got Lonnie Millsap. You've got Jesse Hernandez. You've basically got the whole alumni in the house. Am I right? You have the Stockton Con alumni here in the house. In Stockton. Hopefully, we'll get some fun interviews. Hopefully, we'll – I want to try some new things here today. I was thinking about doing some more games with guests. And since you are the first guest, even though you're the host. I can't be a guest on my own show. Yeah, I mean, you have been in the past. Yeah, that's true. So, Mike, we're going to play a game that we just started called Two of a Kind.

2:07 Okay? Do you remember that game? Is it the one we just played? The listeners should say yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah, yeah. How it works is I'm going to give a category, and we're going to see how in sync we are, and we're going to say there's a first word that pops in our head, and if it matches, you win a point. So, we'll see if it actually happens. who wins a point the audience they win they win they win we win exactly so mike ready here we go. A 80s horror film. Three, two, one. Halloween. Oh, I'm just trying to prove that you and I are in sync, but we're not. Wait.

2:48 Those two are often butting heads. Yeah, true. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Well, we'll be right back after this break. Hopefully we'll have some cool interviews. Mike, what are you trying to make happen this weekend? Besides selling goods. I'm trying to make rent. But besides that, just trying to make you happy. The audience. That's right. Not you, not Uncle Dad. Don't worry about me. And Kelly didn't laugh hard. There you go. It's all about the audience. All right, everybody. We'll be right back after this break. Hi there. This is Dave Mandel. I'd like to think you know me as a writer for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm or Veep or even Eurotrip or, I don't know, The Dictator.

3:33 Clerks, but you probably know me from Cat in the Hat. Oh, well. Anyway, you're listening to Uncle Dad Talks. Speaks. Talks. All right, everybody. Uncle Dad here hanging out behind the booth with arguably one of the coolest looking dudes in this business. That's right. Let's give it up for Justin Greenwood. Justin, how are you? Great. Took me a long time to get these good looks. All I do is hang out with people who have good looks. Mike, what is the key to that? You just look for people with good looks and you hover around them until they acknowledge you that's about it right that's pretty good mike you know you're an artist you know this world very well so i want to go ahead and hand you the lead and ask the first question just ask the first question uh yeah so justin so you know i i know your work i'm very familiar with it getting very up close and personal when i do a lot of the graphics for stockton khan and and yeah i see it and i and i kind of sometimes times I modify the background to extend it to allow for optimal space for logos and copy and stuff like that.

4:38 So what's your approach when coming into working on something that's a promo for something like StocktonCon? Well, it definitely needs to look cool. That's the number one approach. I think Mike usually hits me up with an idea. He comes with something in his mind that he really wants to... He really likes these combo. We do a lot of combo characters. So one year we did like Batman and Venom. One year we did, I think it was not a combo of two characters. It was like a Thor and Spider-Man, like a little mix. But recently he's been wanting to theme them towards which Doctor Con it is. So I'm getting ready to start one that's for the winter show. Like the one that's here now is Save the Day, right? That Hulk drawing. Did you make that poster too? Yeah, I did. Yeah, it came out red.

5:21 So you've done a lot of these pieces. What has been your favorite one that you've done so far? I think my, well, Ramon and I, the other thing is when I started doing these posters, cause Ramon does them on the regular and I came on doing them for the winter version of this show. But what we started initially, we were doing them where we would go back and forth. One of us would draw them and one of us would ink. And so that was pretty fun. Cause you get to riff on whatever somebody else is doing, right? Like, or see, see how an idea that you came up with gets fleshed out by somebody else. That that's actually super cool. As an artist, Do you ever find yourself looking at other art and not necessarily asking yourself, how can I emulate that? But how can I do something that is like that, if not better? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I feel like if you're an artist, you probably, hopefully have a strong desire to get better, right?

6:06 Like you're always seeing, it makes you curious, like always curious. I had a teacher when I was in school who used to say, you know, the minute I stop learning is when I stop being an artist. Like the minute I think I know what's going on and I have it figured out, I'll probably stop growing. in which case it's just going to be boring. Right. So I feel like every time I'm drawing every project, every project I see somebody else's, I'm thinking about what's cool about it, what I would do different. And, and I'm twice as critical on my own work. You know, there's every book is hopefully better than the last one. And I just want to keep getting better. You know, Mike, you're an artist. Do you ever find that as a challenge to like, not being overly critical on yourself? Oh yeah. It's, it's very easy to be overly critical, which is good. I mean, that's what, that's what caused you, you know, like you're, you got to test yourself against yourself.

6:47 But, but also like, you know, you mentioned working with Ramon, you know, I've, I've worked with other artists where we've done the same thing, pencil, ink, back and forth, one of us color. And it's almost like a third artist comes out of that, which is really cool. Like, uh, like, yeah. So, but you also learn a lot just from doing that, just from how someone else draws and inking over their stuff. A hundred percent, especially when their style is a lot different, right? Like Ramon, very detail oriented where I tend to be more like, I don't know, shape focus or shadow focus or something. And what you get is a really, yeah, you're right. You get a really interesting combination of sensibilities. And I think, I mean, I learned a ton from it, you know? So you, now correct me if I'm wrong, am I able to say you are one of the creators of Stumptown?

7:28 Yes, one of the co-creators. I didn't start that book initially. I came on with volume three and we did volume three and four and we've talked periodically about doing a fifth one. So did you have any involvement in the TV show? Yeah. Good. Can you talk about that a little bit for those who don't know what Stumptown is? Yeah, there was a TV show adaptation of our comic and I mean, I didn't have a lot of involvement. I mean, we came on as producers, so we got to kind of get things in advance and check it out. But I mean, I'm sure Greg had a much more active involvement than mine was. I really just came to things as as they were rolling out. But it was awesome. I mean, getting to see something reimagined and on screen versus the way you thought of it sitting at your desk at like two in the morning is pretty incredible. You know, you have it the way it turned out. Oh, yeah, that's great.

8:09 That's a great adaptation. We were really lucky. The only part was unlucky was just timing because we hit during COVID and the book, the show rather, was just un-greenlit due to bad timing. And then also you had something great going for you. You had Maria Hill, right? You had Colby Smulders in that. And who doesn't want Maria Hill, Colby Smulders in your show, right, Mike? That's right. Yeah, that's what I think every day. I wake up and I go, man, I wish Maria Hill was here right now. Now, Justin, before we wrap up, is there anything, or how can our audience connect with you and learn more about your art and all that good stuff? I would say the number one place, I have a website, justingreenwoodart.com. If you have social media, the social media that I'm on, you can grab from there. So if you go to that website, you can find everything.

8:50 Awesome. Mike, any last words? What was the inspiration between the Batman-Conan character mashup? That was a case where I don't think Mike made that suggestion. I think he just said, let's do a combo. And then I knew Brad was going to color it, Brad Simpson. And so I said, I know he loves Conan and I was drawing something in fantasy at that time. So I'm just like, you know what, let's just do like a, it'll be easy rift. That'd be identifiable. Batman is very iconic, right? Like the shapes are really iconic. So you can kind of do anything with Batman and it'll feel Batman ish. So that was probably just what it was. It was, it was an easy solution and it looked cool and it was fun to draw. So it kind of fit everything. Okay. Mike, good question. All right, everybody check them out. Great stuff. Go to justingreenwoodart.com and we'll see you guys all right back in one second. Thank you, Uncle Dad.

9:35 All right, everybody. Uncle Dad here hanging out with another member of the Uncle Dad alumni. That's right. Give it up for the one and only, the muscular man himself, the Raysian, not Cajun. Give it up for AJ Kirsch. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate the kind words. I have been working very hard lately in the gym and keeping the diet dialed in. So thank you for noticing. I can see that. Mike, look at those guns. Look at those guns. I know. I looked and then I look away. It's shame. You that's that's how you feel imagine how i feel how do you feel do you want to make this a therapy session we'll do it again yeah i feel horrible how do i get better, i mean where do you start where let's see believing you can do it wanting to do it even if you don't want to do it knowing that you can do it choosing what you want most over what you want now that's kind of that's really kind of it it's like making healthier choices on an ongoing going basis going to the gym when you don't necessarily want to because you want to be in better health more than you want to enjoy the i don't know french fries and like not doing anything and just staying home so it's it's it's knowing that it's worth it but doing it long enough so that you start to believe it wow mike what do you think i think we might have had a similar conversation on the show about this before am i right or am i wrong probably but this time but But this time, I'm trying to really do it.

10:57 So actually, what you don't know is me and him had a little side conversation. I think we're going to try to make it happen between me and him. And he's going to train me to be the man. Well, clearly, if anyone can, it'd be AJ. Of course. And AJ, how much you mentioned? How much? I don't know. I'm not kidding. I don't know. The numbers don't matter to me. I go more off of how it feels when I'm doing it. And you know when you're working hard. I could be putting up, I don't know, 10 pounds in each hand, but if I've done it long enough or I've done enough reps where my body has to struggle to make that happen, then my body's going to be forced to adapt, which means get stronger.

11:37 So I don't know how much I bench. I don't care. I don't care how much I squat. I care about how hard I'm working when I'm doing it. And there are ways to make very little weight feel like the heaviest thing in the world. Well, Mike, we'll go over all this. I am a freelance personal trainer for your listeners who might be interested. And because you and I are going to talk about making that happen, which I'm very excited about. Yes. And I think when we go through it, our first session, I would like to record it. What do you think? Let's do it. Yeah, absolutely. And then I think people can hear how good he is, and we'll get him more clients. What do you think about that, Mike? Yeah, do I get to watch? That's the next... Watch us working out? Oh, yeah. Please, yeah. Why not?

12:21 I mean, the more the merrier. I'm always up for a laugh. Oh, damn. He's fired. You got him. Shots fired at Stockton Con, and shots are usually fired in Stockton, right? That is true. That is true. True. So, AJ, you also have a very great, what do I call it, personality, alter personality? How do I, what do I say? How do I, how do we describe this other being? Broseph? Let's see. How do we describe Broseph? He's a living liability. He's been crashing in my apartment ever since COVID hit and is making up more and more excuses to not move the F out. No, I mean, in all seriousness, yeah, he's an alter ego. He's a character I made up that I enjoy portraying from time to time.

13:06 What is the future? Can we learn about that or no? Yeah, I mean, Broseph recently decided to leave Hood Slam. I decided to recently leave Hood Slam. This will not be the last that we see of Broseph. There are a couple things lined up both in and out of the wrestling space that are, you know, unless something takes a sharp turn elsewhere, that will be happening. And I'm very excited. I always enjoy hosting and applying my public speaking to new arenas and new platforms. And so for those reasons, I'm very, very excited about what the future holds for me and Broseph. So Mike here has also his own alter ego, and that's called Cap, Captain A-Hole. Right, Mike?

13:49 That's correct, yeah. Who would win in a wrestling match, Broseph or Captain A-Hole? I mean, no, all due respect to Captain A-Hole, I feel like Broseph. You can just say Broseph would win. Okay, great. I'm glad you said it so I didn't have to. He was trying to make you an asshole on our show. No, I wasn't. Yeah, okay. I'm trying to make him the hero. The hero. It's far more comfortable being the villain. Okay, okay, okay. I think we have two villains here. If your name's Captain A-Hole, then it would just be like, who do we hate less? And I think if people were to watch it, they would want both to lose. I think, Mike, we should make this match at pay-per-view. What do you think? All right. We'll fill out some paperwork later. We'll get to work on it. Sign some waivers.

14:32 So, Mike, before we do a little segment we've been working on, do you have any questions for Mr. AJ Kirsch? AJ. So have you – I don't know. There's all this buzz around the new Eminem's album where he is – it's called The Death of Slim Shady, which is also – everyone knows that's his alter ego. Do you think there would ever be a time where somehow you could stage and AJ wrestling with Rosev? Like, how would that look? I don't know if that would be a wrestling match or if it would be an interview series or if it would be an acid trip. I don't know. I don't know how to make that real. Maybe I'll find you at Burning Man on the Playa and maybe acid may be involved.

15:13 Who knows? And it might happen. Hypothetically, of course. Hypothetically. The possibilities are endless. We say all kinds of weird stuff on this podcast all the time. Right. This is probably not the weirdest thing that's happened or been said. Definitely not. I like that idea, though, of you having your own little podcast series where you're talking to Brody. I've thought about that. Okay, so I've thought about starting a podcast for a while now. I have no earthly idea what it would be about because there is so much I want to talk about and so many people I want to talk to. So i don't know if it would just be like an interview thing where i'm interviewing random people or if it's me sharing insights i don't know if it's 10 minutes or hours long but i do think there's something to be said for like what would happen if somebody were to interview a character that they embody so like if i were to interview and this is just coming to me randomly will ferrell and he talked to the elf character or something like i'm gonna say anchorman or Or Anchorman, or any of them. You know what I mean?

16:16 Like, what would happen if Johnny Depp had an interview with Captain Jack Sparrow? Like, I don't know. I just think there might be something there. And it would probably start with me interviewing Broseph, which would be, you know, I think it would be interesting. Sorry, I'm doing a podcast at the moment. I may not be able to say hi. That's okay. We have people in the crowd. People are waiting. You can fix it in post. Can I, like, keep an eye out for you? Yeah, it's all good. I'll find you. I'll find you. Bye-bye. It's all good. We can fix it. Okay, great. Yeah, yeah. So if you want to start a podcast, I know somebody who makes podcasts, and I can help you. Okay, I appreciate that. We should talk about it. Let's talk about personal training, and then we'll talk about the podcast thing. I love that.

16:57 Mike, any last questions before we get to our game? No, I think I've asked enough. You've asked enough? Okay, okay. Yeah, you really need to pipe down a little bit. All right. All right, so what we're going to do is we have a new game we've been playing called Two of a Kind. Sorry. Two of a Kind. And that game came from me and Mike trying to be very similar, or we are very similar, right maybe totally yeah right right he looks just like a mexican i know right. And so we were playing with this idea like if i give you a subject can you guys be in sync and say the same thing i'm curious to find out i don't know i so it's interesting because i'm like okay who would you say and then you're probably like who would he say so i think it'd be best i I don't know what the strategy is. If we just say what comes to our own brains first.

17:45 So then it's like an authentic, you know, are we in sync or not? Exactly. Are the benefit of the audience really? Yeah. They get the points, right? They get the points. The audience wins or loses. We'll find out shortly. Exactly. So we have three categories here. Okay. Mike, AJ Kirsch. First one. I'll keep it very easy. Okay. Just when I, when I, when I point the mic at you, you guys just both say it loudly. Okay. But we get like three seconds. Yes. Yeah. All right. DC superhero. Three, two, one. Superman. Do we have to fight now? Oh. All right. One more. Two more. Two more. Two more. Two more. Here we go. 90s rap icon. Three, two, one. Tupac. Tupac.

18:34 90s? It was 80s. Oh, it was like 89. I don't know. 89? Okay. I don't know. This is what the internet's for. I'll look it up when we're done. Okay okay last one last one we're over too i don't even know why that even came to my mind, because you see what aj is working with and then whichever one i said you were going to say the other one i did not anticipate sir mix a lot she thought for sure you guys were going to say tupac or biggie for either one yeah yeah yeah all right last one last one last one a video game on the nes, Three, two, one. Super Mario Brothers. Damn it! I thought that! Those were on the same cartridge, though, at least. They were. I believe, yes.

19:20 Well, clearly, you two are not a package deal, so no two of a kind here. We're Backstreet Boys. No two of a kind, but let's see if Mike are in sync and I. Ready? An N64 video game. Three, two, one. GoldenEye. I was going to say GoldenEye. I thought my brain GoldenEye. I did that on purpose Have we ever done this with three people? We can do it Let's do it with three Three of a kind My audience has lost Do you have a category? Do I? Ooh Remember it has to be specific So you can narrow it down Yeah yeah yeah Okay Oh Okay I got one Alright Okay, 90s Grunge Song Song Three Two One Smells like a spirit Yeah.

20:04 There it is Yes, there it is. So sometimes three heads are better than two. That's right. We proved it just now. That was science and math at the same time. Just like Three's Company. Three's Company, indeed. Thank you, AJ Kirsch. Let's take a picture where we all jump. Just like this. Yeah. AJ, thank you so much for being a part of this. Thank you for hanging out with us. And, of course, where can our audience learn more about you and connect with you and all that good stuff like that? Yeah. So you can find out more about me at AJKirsch.com. That will take you to my link tree. then there's my social my whatsapp my reels all the work that i do blah blah blah blah so aj kersh.com is probably the best can you spell your last name i sure can great you thank you for saying that it's so it's aj k-i-r-s-c-h that is amazing go check them out and mike i'm so proud that at least i connected with all three of us and you couldn't do it once with one other guy well that's how it goes as we get out of here usually what we do all right everybody we'll be right back after this break thank you guys, Hi, my name is Duncan Wickle. I'm a musician from the band Rising Appalachia, and you're listening to Uncle Dad Talks.

21:13 Hi, everybody. Uncle Dad here, and we're with a very special guest from the dark side. Would you agree with that, Mike? He's very dark, yeah. He's very dark? The darkest guy I know. Yeah, okay. We are with C. Andrew Nelson. And C. Andrew Nelson, I'm going to say your whole name because I want to. I don't want to say the incorrect thing so could you tell our audience what and who exactly you are well I'm C. Andrew Nelson which is the third choice on a multiple choice quiz I'm an actor, visual effects artist animator, voiceover performer and genuine dark lord of the Sith I spent about, 12 years playing the character of Darth Vader for Lucasfilm and the Lucas Companies for film and television and games and commercials and print and everywhere the character was needed it ended up being 70 times over 12 years I know this because my wife made me keep count.

22:04 So I'm in the special edition of the original trilogy as Vader. I'm in the video games like Rebel Assault 2 and Dark Forces playing Vader. I'm in a massive amount of commercials as Vader. Lots of print ads, magazine covers, toy packaging. I'm even on a postage stamp, a U.S. postage stamp as Darth Vader. I thought you had to be dead to be on a postage stamp, but apparently not. Wow. Oh, there's more because I'm also... But wait, there's more. It's like those annoying ads. But wait, there's more. I'm also, like I said, a visual effects artist and animator. I spent about six years at LucasArts helping design and create lots of Star Wars games and other games as well. Then I moved over to Industrial Light and Magic, worked on the effects for the Star Wars prequels and movies like Galaxy Quest and Jurassic Park 3 and Perfect Storm and a whole bunch more.

22:47 Then I'm also a voice actor. I do voices for games and animation. In fact, I even did Luke Skywalker's voice for some of the LucasArts games when Mark Hamill wasn't available. I got the uncle-dad thing beat. I am my own father or my own son. I don't know. However you want to do it. I don't even think I need to ask any questions. He did everything for us. He said it all. We can go. Okay. All right. Bye. That's the end of this. Thank you, everybody, for listening. No, in all seriousness, first off, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I think it's exciting. I want to ask you this just straight. Wait, what is the one mundane thing you could do as Darth Vader? What would you do?

23:31 Ooh, must for one, you know, it's actually, I did this in a commercial. I did this on a commercial. We did, we did a commercial for, for singular wireless. Back before it was AT&T and it's, it's mostly it's Chewbacca in the commercial. So Peter Mayhew was, was, was playing Chewbacca for the commercial there. And it's a Star Wars ringtone commercial. So it, the whole commercial is Chewbacca's in a recording booth and he's supposed to be doing his growl for these ringtones so it's like you know like that and then the director goes that's great and now now do it like you're happy all right that's great now do it like you're sad it's the same every time that's the whole joke i love it now make me hate it you know it's like so at the end of the commercial he's been doing this all day at the end of the commercial you see all these other star wars characters sitting in the lobby waiting for their turn to get in there and do their ringtones and vader's flicking his lightsaber on and off on and off on and off That's the, that's, that's the mundane thing I would do just sitting there flicking it on and off, just killing time.

24:28 What would you do? I don't know. Probably look at my phone or something like most people these days. Why won't the emperor text me back? I've been DMing him for the last two weeks and nothing. Andrew, I've seen you at many shows over the years, and it's always a pleasure. I don't think I've ever seen you not wearing a black shirt or jacket of some kind. And you named lots of times you played this famous character. What are your top three favorite Darth Vader appearances or times you've played him? Oh, wow. Okay. I would have to say that the three that I would pick is when we did the special edition.

25:11 That was probably the most amazing thing. I'd been playing Vader for about two years up until that point, but it was mostly for commercials and television and things like that and live appearances. But when I got to do the special edition, it was like, now I get to actually be part of the movies. And I almost didn't get to do it because the day we were supposed to shoot, this was in, in June of, of, uh, gosh, it was 30 years ago, June of, of, of, of 94, excuse me. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me. Oh, 96. It was 96, June of 96. So it was, you know, it was almost 30 years ago. My daughter was due to be born. My first child due to be born the day we were supposed to shoot. So they kept calling me up and saying, so baby born yet? No, not yet. They're trying to hold it open for me.

25:54 Mercifully, my daughter was born two weeks early, so I got to do it. But that was definitely one of the experiences that I really enjoyed. Another one that I thought was really good was I was doing one of the Kenner commercials that I did. The first Kenner commercial was just a lot of fun to do. It was for a toy lightsaber. And so I had the real lightsaber, which was a plastic rod that they would then use as a guide So that when later on in post-production, they knew exactly where to put the, you know, the visual effects for it and everything. And the kid had a, one of those hollow telescoping lightsabers and they had rigged it up. So it would show up on camera and nice and bright. They'd rigged it up with a halogen lamp that was in the base of this thing with a cord going down his sleeve and, and down his, his leg, pant leg. So you wouldn't see it.

26:42 But we found out that that was heating that, that, that toy lightsaber up really, really, it was practically melting it. And so when we go to clash, it's like his just sort of wrapped around mine and then started to melt. And it's like, no, okay, we have to rig this up differently. So finally, we had to do the whole fight scene without making any contact at all for this commercial. But it was a great commercial to do. The third time, gosh, let's see. It would have to be when we shot all the footage for Rebel Assault 2, the LucasArts game, because we had a half hour of full motion video. It was actually the first live action Star Wars footage that had been shot since the two Ewok TV movies. And so it was great. We brought out all the original costumes and everything for that.

27:24 But it was a lot of fun, but at the same time, it was a lot of work. There was one shot that the director, Hal Barwood, one of George Lucas's old USC film school buddies, was directing all the live action footage for us. He was a game designer at LucasArts at that time. And there was one shot that Hal wanted me to bring my hand right up close to the mask. I'm doing a force choke and I'm, you know, dispatching one of my admirals who was disappointed me for the last time. And so he wanted it up in frame in a very specific spot. Well, you can't see there's no, no peripheral vision whatsoever with the Vader costume. You can only look what's direct. You see what's directly in front of you through the lenses of the mask.

28:04 Or if you kind of crane your eyes down a little bit, you can see your feet through the chin and that's about it. Everything else is a blind spot. So I couldn't see where my hand was. So I had to do kind of like a muscle memory to try to bring it up into, into the right spot. So we kept rehearsing and rehearsing it without the mask on. Then we started shooting it and how I go, that's great. That's wonderful, Andrew. That's beautiful. Let's do it again. Okay, fine. We do it again. again that's beautiful that's fabulous that's fantastic andrew let's do it again over and over and over that's beautiful that's fabulous i'm not hitting the mark you know so that's wonderful and meanwhile the poor guy is having to hit the deck every time because he's dying in this thing so finally we go through like like 20 something takes and finally the last one he goes okay that's good.

28:49 What happened to I'm beautiful I'm fabulous I'm one of no no we got to get on the next shot it's like but that was a lot of fun to do so those are my probably my three favorites those are great choices yeah good answer yeah it's hard it's like 70 times I played Vader but it's so it's kind of hard to not narrow it down it's like you know Sophie's choice like which which one of my children do I you know pick or something so I want to ask you in the world of since you worked on the games there's so many great games out of that game of the Star Wars are you a game of yourself first no i'm that's the funny thing i i played when i before i got hired at lucasarts i played adventure games like point and click adventure games i played the old zork and infocom text adventure games that's the kind of stuff that i like i like story type stuff i'm terrible at like first person shooters and everything so i can't play dark forces i can't play jedi knight i'm terrible at those things you know i was never good at quake or doom or anything like that so i haven't even played half the games i've worked on but i appreciate them i love watching other people play them but i'm just no good at them so no i'm not really i'm a i'm a game i appreciate games but i'm not a gamer i'm a game designer i'm not a gamer how that goes right you you write comics but you don't read comics right i read comics i don't say you yeah those people yeah those people exactly i've seen you read a comic book before so, So before we wrap up here, I actually had a question. I don't know if you've been asked this before, but I'm just curious. Do you have any horror stories from panels?

30:16 No, not from panels specifically, but here's the horror stories I get. When they will send out a local news crew to interview me, they always send out someone who knows nothing about Star Wars, knows nothing about me. And it's always that. So we have here with us Mr. Andrew C. Nelson. That's C. Andrew Nelson. So you worked on Star Trek. No, Star Wars. And I swear to God, this is real. And it was like over and over and over again. It was just the worst questions possible. I was like, why didn't you send somebody out that knew something about this stuff? But those are the horror stories. Now, I haven't had any problems really with the panels too often. Those usually go really well. I love doing panels, actually.

30:57 Awesome. Well, I'm shocked. What about podcasts? What about podcasts? Oh, those are the worst. Especially this one. We're not really doing this. We're just standing around chatting, right? Exactly, exactly. So before we wrap up, I have one last thing I want to do really fast. We've been doing this game called Two of a Kind. And what that game is is to see how in sync we all are with each other's auras and their powers. So what I'm going to do is between you and Mike, I'm going to give you a category. I'm going to count down to three. So let's say an example would be Marvel Super Hero. I would say three, two, one. And then you would say the first thing that comes to your mind. Okay. If you guys can get it in sync, our audience wins a point. All right. Okay. We want our audience to win points. Isn't that right, Mike?

31:39 They got to win points to win the game. Exactly. Exactly. Are you down for that? Oh, sure. Absolutely. Okay. Here we go. Mike, see Andrew Nelson. I'll be ready. Yes. It's an easy one, the first. Hopefully it is. A Star Wars villain. Three, two, one. Darth Vader. Wow. I got it. All right. Who would have guessed? All right. All right. All right. Let's do it for real now. Okay. All right. a this is for you an action a bruce willis movie that's not die hard three two one. I couldn't even think of it. This is so sad. I almost said moonlighting. That was a TV series.

32:26 All right. Well, clearly, again, nobody's in sync with Mike. Nobody's in sync. I'm on an island by myself. You are. But that's okay. C. Andrew Nelson. Joy Fatone or Justin Timberlake are in sync with him. That's good. All right. Before we wrap up, where can our audience connect with you and learn more about all the great things you do? Absolutely. Well, they can go to my website, candrenelson.com. It's being worked on right now, but it'll be up again very soon. The whole revamped version of it. You can find me on social media. I'm C. Andrew Nelson on Facebook. I'm C. Andrew Nelson on Instagram. You can also find me and the company that I co-own with producer Jerry Cornell called Adventurous Ideas. We produce audio dramas, full cast music and sound effects. It's the modern equivalent of the old radio plays from back in the day.

33:07 And so you can go to adventurousideas.com. You can also go to our YouTube channel, which is youtube.com slash at, the at symbol, at Adventurous Ideas. And you can actually hear some of our work up there. We have samples of it up there, including the whole first episode of our current project, Heroes of Extinction, which is a seven-part superhero story, which has a great cast of actors that have been involved with Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, Pixar, even Super Mario. And we also have a podcast up there. So I'm not immune to podcasts. But we have a podcast called The Lowdown of the Down Low, hosted by Jason Brayden, who is one of our voice actors. And he's got interviews with all of our different actors from our projects. And that's up there. There's about 11 episodes of those up there right now.

33:49 So that's, and you can also find Adventurous Ideas on Instagram and Facebook as well. So check that out. We've got two shows in production right now, audio dramas in production, two that are being, just finishing up the casting stage. We've got about nine others that are being written and another 75 plus in development, all audio. And we've got wonderful actors from Star Wars, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, everything you can think of. Mike, any last words? What about an actor for moonlighting? Ah, great. Now I got to go look for a moonlighting actor. Said no one. Thank you, C. Andrew Russell. It was an absolute pleasure. And we'll be right back after this break.

34:30 All right, everybody. Uncle Dad here. Back for day two of the legendary StocktonCon 2024. Day two? Yeah, legendary. Very legendary. Legendary. dairy. What's your favorite kind of milk? You know, honestly, I'm an oat milk guy, number one. Number two is going to be almond milk, and number three is slimy milk. So you're an alt milk. Alt milk. Some would say San Francisco milk. I'm into alt milks as well. What's your top three? Yeah, I like oat. I think coconut is good because coconut is also good for your brain. I've never had coconut milk. And then third would be almond just because it takes so much water to make almond milk. Is that true?

35:12 Absolutely. I actually didn't know that. Well, now you know. Wow. So now I shouldn't drink all my milk. It's an educational podcast. It is. We should just ask people what your favorite milk is. You want to ask somebody? Hey, what's your favorite milk? Let's ask our next guest. All right. I really like that one. That was good. Because I can go so many ways, I feel. My sir, it is day two here. We're hanging out in your booth, chilling. Overall, the vibes are very chill today. What do you think? Yeah, it's a chill day. I think it's the day of our Lord. You're right. It's the Sunday Lord Day. Now, I'm curious, are we going to try to get some more interviews today? What do you think? Well, I think we've put a few feelers out there, so we should test them out and see what the vibe is.

35:57 Let's see what those vibes are. And to keep the momentum going, my sir, let's play a game of two of a kind. Here we go. Are you ready? Yeah. A basketball player, modern. Modern meaning not retired? Not retired. So look at me. We're just giving each other the moves, yeah? Okay. Three, two, one. Anthony Davis. Do your own box. Davis. There you go. All right, baby. We'll be right back after this break. Yo, what up? This is Jesse Hernandez, the Urban Aztec, and you're listening to Uncle Dad Talks. Nacho Mama.

36:38 All right, Uncle Dad here, hanging out with Mike. Mike, we have a very special friend of the family here. It's the one and only, the massive man himself. Give it up for the Retro Gaming Nomad. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Please, no applause, please, thank you. Holding, holding? Okay. Yes, we host the podcast as well, Mike, if you haven't heard it. It's called The Game Papas, which you can find exclusively here on the Uncle Dad Talks platform. Isn't that great, Mike? We have multiple shows. It is great, yes. Multiple shows for multiple topics. Exactly. Now, what are you doing here? I'm scoping it out, man. I came to support you guys along with looking at some retro games that I might not have in my collection. See if the price is right. It's going to be in the bag.

37:21 Oh, it's like he had that pre-planned. That's very well said, right? It sounds like a script that you have ready to go. Is that true? Or is there like a script in your wallet that you keep folded up and recite from time to time? Absolutely not. everything's off the top of my head and i credit my early days of freestyle rapping back in well i won't even say the dates because that's going to age me well you don't have to worry about that but okay uh so this whole weekend we've been playing a new game called two of a kind and we're trying to learn how in sync we are as people and the way this game works is basically i will give you a category an example would be marvel name a marvel superhero i'll then count down three three, two, one. And then the group will say whichever that comes out first in their mind. Okay.

38:04 And then if you say the same answer, guess what? The audience wins a point. Got it what do you think how many points has the audience won so far not much when i'm playing so we're gonna see how in sync you and mike are all right all right so kind of come a little close the first category is a football video game three two one super 10 fltk5 wrong well not wrong but But no match. No match. We're not in sync. All right. One more. One more. A Nintendo 64 color. Lime green. Well, I wasn't saying. He gave me a look, so I didn't think he got that.

38:46 All right. We'll change that one. Scratch that one. Scratch that one. They did different colors? Yeah. I mean, they did different colors. Exactly. That's why you should listen to the game, Papas, and you would know. All right. I'll listen. All right. Here we go. For real this time. them name a popular chevy vehicle three two one 64 impala does that count that counts yeah impala all right that's one point for the audience did you hear that wow finally i'm finally in sync with someone i know dude how does that feel i feel validated you should now let's go take that validation and go get some interviews done what do you think uh yes all right before we go with with our friend here, Mr.

39:30 Nomad, working on our audience. As always, connect with you. Oh, on Instagram at RetroGamingNomad is my handle, all one word. Look for the picture. My little icon is a TurboGrafx Express handheld. Is that it? Yeah, pretty much. And you can listen to the podcast, of course. And we just, and that's it. Hey, everybody. Uncle Dad here, hanging out with Mike. Mike, say hello, as always. Hello. We are with one of the coolest, coolest voices in this business, one of the most legendary animated shows of all time. We are with Marty Grabstein, the voice of courage, the Cowardly Dog. What's up?

40:12 All the things I do for love. See what I did there, man? I do. Wonderful. You built me up. I spoke. I gave a land with the juicy stuff. I was going to say something else, but this is a GP rated. It could be GP or it could be rated R, whatever you want. On a slippery slope with that one. By the way, let's make this clear for all the listeners. Marty Grafsey, myself, is recovering from a stroke that he had about five and a half months ago.

40:56 Why am I referring to myself in the third person? I am recovering from a stroke. Anyway, so this explains my slightly stilted holding speech patterns. But it doesn't matter because nobody cares. They have their own lives to deal with. Who worries about my stroke? I worry. A lot of people out there maybe already had a stroke. You don't even know. All right. I'm going to shut up and let you answer your question. Now you're going to answer. You got to ask them.

41:36 You're going to ask and he's going to answer. that's a dynamic right so you ask, and I answer yes I love it so Courage Cow and Dog is one of my favorite shows growing up and so I want to know this for you was there ever an episode that actually scared you, Interesting, because nothing scared me, per se, because I recorded it in the booths, you know. So I became acquainted with what's happening before there was any tension, you know. But the episodes that actually get me a little creeped out were actually Freaky Fred.

42:24 Which actually when I saw with the music and the tonality of the wonderful Paul Schaeffler as Freaky Fred, the shaving crazy man. And also I love a little mess up, but a big exorcist guy in my historically a big exorcist guy. So the demon in the mattress kind of freaked me out a little bit. Seeing Muriel all demoned up. I did have a moment. A lot of people like King Ramsey's curse. I know returned the slab. I actually did find it a little weird, but mainly I think that fearfulness was very much the special effects driven because they had a three dimensional, you know, effect in a two dimensional world.

43:23 So in that respect, it was creepy, but didn't get me as much as the other ones. See how long the answers are. I love it. Long answers to your podcast questions. All right. We like long answers. How much of yourself do you put into the character when you're doing it? Is that... Yeah, please. It's all myself. Actually, because when I got the role, actually, a friend of mine called me up and thought that I would be right for this. I haven't spoken to her in maybe five years before that point.

44:07 She called me up out of the blue, said, I'm working for a guy named John Deworth. He's casting for the lead character in a new cartoon series he's having called Courage the Cowardly Dog. He's listened to every voiceover artist in the city and over 300 voices can't seem to arrive at an answer. So basically, you know, I said, I'm going to ask some people. I know maybe we have better luck. So I went in really not having any expectations, no preparation, because pretty much it was the next day I went into the audition.

44:54 So I went in. It was an interesting reality. This is because I didn't have a panel this weekend. I didn't have a panel, so I'm doing the podcast. They didn't give you a panel? Next time Mike's going to give me a panel. We've got to talk to Mike. That's okay. I said it at my table the whole time. Committed. Committed to signing and signing all day long. Anyway, so essentially I was talking about But I was in a curiously powerful position because I figured a lot of actions in general don't, you know...

45:49 Actors in general, we're insecure, we're nervous, we're thinking, we want the job, and you're going to present this, give it to us, not give it to us. The same thing with promoters and comic cons, philosophy, we want what you have, give it to us, but interesting thing. So in this situation, the power was over to my side because I was figuring he had to be exhausted. But listening for four months of voices and voices and voices, he can't arrive at an answer.

46:33 I figured I'm in a position to alleviate his tension. I can actually solve his problem you knew he was the answer i i felt that that was the answer so i rare that i in that position any actor is in that position right so it was so cool you know i went in fearlessly and my fearlessness definitely was a big deal because i've just, launched into instinctive ideas about how the cabaret should sound, you know, because.

47:16 Neurotic, the way I'm talking right now, this is the way I delivered the line. The things I do for love, all of that, right? He loved all of that, kind of an ethnic Jewish, New York-ish kind of a sound, right? So he said he was laughing and everything. The only thing he said, can you pitch it up here? Can you pitch it up here? When I did, he... We got it. So he got this lower pitch, raspy guy going above his natural ability to speak.

47:58 And that was what nailed the job. Look at that. That's amazing. It kind of always goes back to what we talked about, about manifestation in some respect. He knew he was the answer and he got it. What do you think about that? He walked in like he owned the place. That's what you got to do, right? I was Neo, essentially. I was going to say Tom Brady. No, Neo. Screw Tom Brady and the blown up footballs. No Tom Brady here, I guess. Sorry. I have to tell you, Marty, it's an absolute pleasure to talk to you. We don't want to take too much of your time, but just thank you so much for taking the time. Your show has meant a lot to me and a lot of people growing up.

48:39 Just thank you for being a part of that. And your legacy will always live on in that show. Thank you so much. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Thank you. And we'll be right back, everybody. Great, man. All right, everybody. We are back after that incredible interview. We have another interview for you. Mike, say hello first. Hi, hello. Mike, we're with somebody who actually knows you very well, I think. Right? Oh, sorry. I'm thinking of a different Mike. I'm thinking about the one and only Mike. What was his name? Can you say it? Mike Wazowski. That's right. You guys can't tell because she has grown up. But this is the voice of Boo from the original Monsters, Inc. Film. How are you? I'm good. Yeah, puberty happened. So I don't sound the same, unfortunately, but I'm still doing good.

49:21 What's the closest you could get to that voice? Mike Wazowski. I'm not an actress. I'm not an actress. I was three. I talked to you about your name and I didn't even say your name. We're with Mary Gibbs. So my question to you, how did you get that role? I don't think a lot of people know about that. So how did you get that role? Yeah. So I mean, being so young, my dad was actually a storyboard artist. He worked at Pixar and Disney for over 30 years, happened to be be working on Monsters, Inc. Right meeting at the right time when they needed a little girl. And it was originally just to draw. And so I would I would be brought in. My mom put my hair in pigtails, which is why she has pigtails now. And I would just run around the studio and they would sketch me. And as the movie progressed and they're looking for voice actors, a lot of times they'll have older people do kids voices because they could actually direct them. But they're like, well, she's comfortable in the studio.

50:07 Let's just try to bring her into the actual recording studio with the big crew. And, you know, my mom thought I was going to freak out. And apparently Apparently I walked in like I owned the place and for like two years of my life, they followed me around with a microphone and yeah, it's pretty easy for me. Mike, that same theme of just walking in like you own the place. Yeah. Well, that's what we just talked about with, with, dog man over here so you were you were the the model of boo and then became the voice of boo so like that's essentially that's that's you when we're watching it totally right yeah yeah good way to put it uh it was gonna be a 12 year old girl with a bob when i was brought in that they're like oh it makes more sense for her to be young and just more curious and less scared as like a 12 year old to be it but yeah you're exactly right i i am boo is that like a fun party trick you pull out sometimes and you're just like, hey, Mike Wazowski.

50:55 It's definitely a good, a good fun fact. Oftentimes, like it's not going to be the first thing that I introduce myself as, but then I'll get to know someone or maybe we'll be at a party. It's later in the night, you know, and I just like drop a bomb on people and it cheers people out. It's great. I love it. I mean, that literally happened to us. We were all like, wait, what? Yeah, that's the best way to find it. So what have, if you don't mind us asking, what have you been up to since those days? Yeah. So when I first did Monsters, Inc., I was five when it came out. A lot of different companies wanted me to just keep acting and I got a couple roles but gratefully my mom pulled me out of it so I didn't end up like crazy child actress just crazy that's all clearly no and then just now I'm studying Chinese medicine and I'm a massage therapist I was a yoga teacher for a few years so completely different world but I actually so I've been doing comic cons about for about seven years so that's kind of my how I stay in touch with this business a little bit I travel around and get to meet fans and sign autographs, kind of like where we're at now. I don't have a booth here though, but either way.

51:57 And through that process, I met a guy named C. Andrew Nelson, who actually has a booth here as well. He was just on the show. Okay, cool. So nice. He probably talked about it. He started a company called Adventurous Ideas. He did. And Heroes of Extinction is one of their first projects. And when I met Andrew like four years ago, he was like, you know, I really see he was one of our main characters in the show. And I was like, I was three. I never did acting, like maybe some theater growing up, but you know nothing crazy and he was like I have faith in you I see you know I see you as that role and luckily he's such a good director because I mean I have a whole new respect for voice actors doing this because you're alone in a booth having to like make up all these emotions out of thin air and I was just grateful for him to like I was like firsthand acting school like he was like teaching me directly and like and directing me and just because he was such an awesome director I was able to like make myself cry at one point like things I never thought I would be able to do It was like I was doing it and he just because he had that faith in me So that's like dipping my toes back into voice acting um.

52:54 Might do some more projects with them and we'll see where it goes but yeah wow it's it's crazy how life can just take you on those journeys right like you do one thing and then you're like i'm not really gonna do that then now you're studying chinese medicine and all it's just how does like what do you think like what's that for you how do you think you get to one eight point to the other well i think what you're talking about like it you're not you're not pigeonholed into one thing right like you know life is big if you make it big you know and it sounds like you you found a niche with being in this circuit, but also like you can also do Chinese medicine and be mindful and like have intentions in the world. It doesn't have to be just that. It doesn't have to be just Comic-Con world and autographs. It can be both.

53:38 And for some people, it feels like it has to be one or the other, but I'm glad you found that there's a medium between it all. It's all about that balance, you know. Balance is key. So before we wrap up, up we've been playing a game called a two of a kind and what this game is it's we're trying to see how in sync we are do you have to go no no i just said no they were no worries uh we have this game called two of a kind we're to see how in sync we are as people i'm going to give you a category so let's say the category is marvel superhero i'll count down three two one after one you say the first thing that comes to your mouth that's spider-man right what's gc versus marvel okay. That's not gonna be the category i'm gonna make it very easy all right here we go are you You ready, Mike?

54:19 So we say it at the same time? Yes, you two say it at the same time, yes. And here's the thing. If you guys are in sync, our audience wins a point. All right, all right. We want them to get points. We want them to get points. All right, here we go. You ready, Mike? All right. A character from Monsters, Inc. that is not Boo. Three, two, one. Mike Wazowski. There we go. Oh, wow. Do you hear the audience? Wow. I'm finally in sync with someone. There it is. There it is. Where can our audience learn more about you and connect with you on any social media? So I'm on Instagram at Visual Boo. And I have a YouTube channel that's been dormant for a while, but Boo Grown Up.

55:01 I have a little series of videos that I eventually want to start filming more, but you can learn some random things about my life on that channel. But yeah, Visual Boo on Instagram is the main one. So. And marygibbs.com is actually in the works where I'll be selling like merch and different things. You can find out what Comic-Cons I'm at and stuff too. So are you going to be at San Diego Comic-Con? I'm so not as a guest. Unfortunately, they won't wave like up and coming people. You know, they don't care about Monsters, Inc. anymore, unfortunately. But I've been working while I'm at this Comic-Con, Stockton Con. I've been working with my management to film and working on their social media. And so I'm trying to weasel my way in there with a media pass. So but you will be at something called mouse con right yes i i will i'm gonna be at mouse con i believe that's october 19th correct me if i'm wrong but mouse con in salt lake city utah so definitely check that out it's gonna be it's gonna be great and go see boo and tell her uncle dad and just mike sent you she would be like what who are they oh fun fact i i'm doing the promo materials for that so i i'm the one that puts your name on the thing so good to know spell it right.

56:07 Yeah, that's spelled right, Mike. Is it a picture? Well, thank you guys so much, or thank you so much. We absolutely appreciate it. Go check her out, and we'll be right back after this break. Awesome. Thanks. All right. As I say, all things good must come to an end, and we are done with StocktonCon Summer 2024. Mike, how do you feel? All things good and bad will come to an end. That's true. And sometimes, even when they come to an end, And they don't just end, they transform. And then they keep going. Do things really ever end? Nothing ever ends. And that's it. But yes, it's all over now. Mike, probably one of our most festive of the Comic-Cons that we've covered in Stockton. What do you think?

56:52 I think Stockton Con is always a fun coloring book of different things, right? Yeah. I love the way you put that because that's true. Every time there's always something else that happens each time that kind of outdoes the last time, right? It's like life. It's a, you just never know. Just never know. Indeed. So Mike, as we wrap up here, we're going to wrap up here. Do we want to say where we are next or no? What are your top three moments of this Stockton Cod? Well, I'm not going to say who, but I was playing with some celebrities. We played a game of flip cup. That was fun.

57:33 Number one. Number two. Always hanging out with my man, Mike, and his partner, Callie Dunlap-Bart. And of course i always love when we get alumni in so having more people that have been a part of the show and part of the family absolutely makes it top three great answers i like it yeah good answer good answer but yes should we tell them where we are next or no go yeah let's tell them okay where we are next we're gonna be at san diego comic-con that's right it's just a couple of weeks. Do you know the booth number you want to say yet or no? I believe it's 1619 is our booth. Let's just go with that. Okay. Okay. Lots of surprises this year, I think. Maybe, hopefully we'll be there hanging out.

58:19 We'll be doing some coverage, bringing you your own, as we like to do here, bringing you your own backstage pass to the hottest cons, the hottest festivals, period. What do you think about that, Mike? You can always just look in the program under Mike Hampton Art, and it'll tell you what booth number we're at. That too. Yeah. Wait, what did you say? I was like, he totally just disregarded what I said, but that's fine, that's fine. It's been a long weekend, let me tell you people. So check that out. Be sure to, as always, follow us on Instagram at UncleDadTalks and of course, follow my man Mike at Mike Hampton Art. I think that's it, man. I think that's all she wrote. What do you think? I think we've probably already said it in another episode or at some other point.

59:00 So I hope you guys enjoyed the show. go well one last thing we got to do one last round of take i keep saying it takes two a last round of two of a kind mike here we go here's the category a bruce willis movie that is not six cents moonlighting which is not a movie die hard or armageddon or fifth element now it's gonna get tough three two one hostage breakable hostage hostage is great I, love hostage I I saw it there I just I'm surprised you said that I said unbreakable because it's a comic book movie or at a comic convention so well.

59:44 That's it again once again we're not in sync and with our friends voice up there that means it's time to go we'll see you all next week and remember we're not uncles we're not dads we're just someone one you could talk to.