Interviews – Neil Ross – Vocal Recall A Life in Radio and Voiceovers

This is Neil Ross, and you are listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. I've got better things

to do tonight than die. Hello and welcome to

Geekcast Radio. This is yet another one of our

interviews here on Geekcast Radio Network. I'm,

of course, TFG1 Mike. Joining me is Steve Megatron.

Hello. Hello. And for the first time in three

years, we welcome back... That roller derby announcer,

Mr. Neil Ross. And the ladies are off on the

bank track and into the lead goes, I can't remember

any of their names. Isn't that sad? Hi, everyone.

Has it really been three years? 2015 was the

first time we interviewed you with my buddy Optimus

Solo. Seems like only yesterday. I wasn't sure

how far back it was. I thought it was like 2016,

2017, but July 30th, 2015. Time flies, man. Yep.

The older you get, the faster it goes. Trust

me. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So Neil has

written a book and done an audio version of it.

Vocal Recall. A Life in Radio and Voiceovers.

Wow. this is amazing well i hope so it's um never

having written a book before never having thought

that i would ever write a book one one wonders

is one delusional is there anything in there

that anybody would even want to read you lose

all trace of uh objectivity after a certain point

and uh and you just put it out there and hope

for the best yeah Now, when did you decide to

do this? Well, it grew out of me attempting to

write a monologue. I did an appearance here in

Los Angeles with Rob Paulson. We were at the

improv, and I was terrified. I mean, the improv,

real professional grown -up comedians work there.

What the hell am I doing at the improv? But it

was part of a thing that Rob does called Talkin'

Tunes. And he gets people who do voiceovers for

animation to get up on stage with him. And, of

course, the place was filled with fans. It was

a salute to Transformers that night. And I had

a ball. And I thought, boy, what if I wrote a

monologue and then I could book myself in places

and do the monologue and then after that take

questions from the audience? Wouldn't that be

great? So I started to write this monologue and

it got completely out of hand. And I realized

at a certain point I either had the world's longest

monologue or shortest book and that I had to

make some kind of a decision. And then it was,

could I possibly write a book? And a year later,

the answer was yes. Absolutely. Yeah. 40 or 50

plus years, folks, condensed down into almost

570 pages of a book. That's a feat. Well, it's

funny. People say to me... who have read it,

boy, you had a lot of interesting stuff happen

to you, and I thought, I kind of did. And yet,

if you had approached me before I wrote the book

and said, have you had a particularly interesting

life, I probably would have said, no, not really,

as most people. But you start to sit back and

think about it, and all the wild stuff that happened

to me over the years and all the different things

that I've done, it has been kind of interesting.

And as you say, it's well over 50 years now.

Right. And of two wonderful passions that chose

me, the first being radio and me becoming a disc

jockey and production guy, and then the second

was, of course, voiceovers, which, again, chose

me. I did not choose it. And when I say it chose

me, I mean it's more than just, geez, I think

I'd like to do that. I was anyway, seized with

this uncontrollable passion, this mad desire

first to do radio and then 20 some years later

to do voiceovers. It was something I absolutely

had to do. I don't care what the obstacles were.

They had to be overcome somehow. I had to be

in these businesses because they had chosen me.

And I'm very grateful that they did. Yeah, listening

to the radio career part, because I didn't know

everything about the voiceover part, but I know

a lot of stuff that you've been in, because I've

watched pretty much all of it. But the radio

part really fascinated me, because there's one

part in the book where you talk about moving

away and not being able to listen to KFWB, potentially,

like if the signal didn't catch from... la to

san diego or something and i'm like well that's

just like me when i moved from sadly from boston

massachusetts to louisville kentucky 20 years

ago now um you know i could i knew i couldn't

listen to any of my boston stations because there

was no way to do that and i'm like yeah i really

miss that stuff so i knew when you were telling

that part of the book i knew exactly what you

were feeling in that moment whether you know

the whole concern of Can I actually listen to

this or not? Well, I should I should explain,

you know, rock and roll was in its infancy. I

had really only just discovered it a few years

previous. And I get to Los Angeles and suddenly

out of nowhere, there's this amazing radio station

suddenly goes. I mean, they'd been on the air,

but doing other stuff. But suddenly they were

there. They were playing the top 40 with. Really

exciting, vibrant disc jockeys in a wonderful

format with all kinds of crazy gimmicks. I mean,

I just, for all I knew, that was the only station

in the world like that. And the old man says,

we're moving, and do I have any questions? And

the only question I could think of, the only

thing I cared about at that point was, can I

still hear KFWB, where we're going? He looked

at me, you know, you half wit. Yeah, so it really,

it really, that's all I cared about at that point.

Yeah. Yeah, growing up in Boston, it was 105

.7 WVBF with Lauren and Wally in the morning,

and that was pretty much the only station I listened

to half the time. And it was more for the show

than it was for the music. The music was, you

know, 80s and 90s pop rock kind of stuff, which

is fine, but, you know, it was more for what

the morning show was doing than anything else.

Sure, sure, well. Of course, you're the FM generation.

When I was doing my radio, the big station in

Boston would have been WRKO, I think, the AM.

Yep. Boss radio, but it's going back to the 60s.

I think it was AM680, WRKO. Yeah, yeah. I used

to listen to Paul Harvey on that all the time.

Good day? That's my Paul Harvey. I'm surprised

you actually didn't even mention, not that you

had to, I don't think you had any interaction

with him, but I'm really surprised with all the

radio stuff you've done that you hadn't even

mentioned him in the book or anything. Because

the whole time I'm listening to the book, I'm

like, I wonder if he's going to pull out a Paul

Harvey impression at some point. Yeah, it's funny.

I have a buddy who was actually he did news on

my show down in San Diego. And to this day, when

we talk on the phone as the call is ending, he'll

say, well, good day. And I'll say, good day.

And we'll hang up. I finally found out why Paul

Harvey did that, which I found fascinating. He

had to be off the air at exactly 1215. He had

to. Split the black, as we say in radio. That's

the big dot at the top by the 12. Right. The

second hand had to be in the middle of that black

rectangle when he went off the air. And so what

he would do is he would do his kicker story at

the end, the comedy story usually. And you could

see him. Once you knew what he was doing, you

could figure out how it was going down. Because

he would maybe have 20 seconds still to go on

the air, and he was a little early, so he would

repeat the setup to the joke. The lady says to

the clerk, the lady says to the clerk, the lady

says to the clerk, I already have a dog. Paul

Harvey, good day. And he split the black. And

you could hear him feeling the timing. Oh, I

got to pad a little bit because I'm early. That's

funny. Repeat his setup line three times and

chuckle. He was a character. I mean, I never

met the man, but he sort of, the sound that he

had was perfect for AM radio. Back in the 50s,

which is really when he got rolling, I think.

Because you picture some guy in a barn and he's

got this crappy old radio that he inherited from

his father and it's all static. And he's bailing

hay. And a guy who talks like an FM announcer,

he's not going to hear him. But Paul Harvey,

his voice cut through all that static and all

that noise, and you could hear every word he

said. And whenever I would hear him, I would

picture some farmer somewhere with a battered

old radio who had kind of stopped his chores

for 15 minutes to listen to Paul. Absolutely.

That's the mental picture that I always got with

him. But enough about him. Yes, more about you.

I find it interesting that you've kind of had

that passion for speaking, whether it's through

radio or through voiceover, since you were very

young, which I can kind of relate to that because

I used to also record myself into a tape recorder

and never really much thought about it. eventually

ended up doing podcasting like this, which is

much easier to get into than, say, radio, which

I've not had the joy of working in at any given

point. But I found it interesting, your journey

through starting at that point, through actually

getting into radio, and then how it evolved over

the years. Yeah. As I say in the book, Vocal

Recall, A Life in Radio and Voiceovers, details

coming at the end of this podcast, boys and girls.

Yes, I just, I started out, I would listen to

the radio a great deal. We didn't have television.

But the radio that I heard was very varied, the

kind of radio that just doesn't exist today.

We got the best of the United States. I was in

Canada at the time. We got the best of the United

States, the best of Canada, and quite a bit from

the BBC in England. And there were comedies,

there were dramas, there was all kinds of stuff.

And I just found myself sort of compulsively

trying to reproduce the various voices and accents

that I heard. And then, as I chronicle in the

book, this amazing day came when my father brought

a tape recorder home from the business where

he was working at the time. And in those days,

portable home recorders just did not exist. Even

these so -called portable tape recorders, they

were the size of a suitcase and very expensive.

And he just brought the company tape recorder

home for the weekend. And he let me experiment

with it. And I recorded the entire funny papers

from the Sunday paper. And I cannot describe

how interesting it was to hear the playback.

Because I really wanted to know, do I sound like

I think I sound? Am I doing these things that

I think I'm doing? And finally I could hear a

playback, and okay, I more or less am succeeding

in making the sounds that I want to make. And

as I say in the book, you know, every kid discovers

something they like. Some kids build model airplanes,

and other guys fool around with electronics.

I just sat in my room and more or less talked

to myself. But it sort of began this arc that

led to the rest of my life and the career that

I've had. I just always wanted to reproduce the

sounds and accents and voices. It's just always

been there. I remember... late well 88 yeah in

1988 when it was probably 89 or 90 once it eventually

came out on vhs at the time when back to the

future 2 hit and i i didn't even need like yeah

i heard you say it in the book but i'm like wait

a minute that's springer from transformers announcing

at the biff tannin museum what the heck is going

on here i thought that was hilarious because

i love both you know All of us love Transformers,

Back to the Future, Die Hard, any of that kind

of stuff. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the

Biff Tannen Museum, dedicated to Hill Valley's

number one citizen and America's greatest living

folk hero, the one and only Biff Tannen. Of course,

we've all heard the legend, but who is the man?

Inside, you will learn how Biff Tannen became

one of the richest and most powerful men in America.

Learn the amazing history of the Tannen family,

starting with his great -grandfather Buford Mad

Dog Tannen, fastest gun in the West, see Biff's

humble beginnings, and how a trip to the racetrack

on his 21st birthday made him a millionaire overnight.

Yeah, that was an odd... an odd thing for you

to suddenly flash on but it's funny as i say

in the book there's there's no big story to go

with that i don't think i even auditioned to

be the voice of the biff tannen museum i think

i was just booked and i don't know how they stumbled

across me uh you know a lot of the time you just

don't find that stuff out yeah And I breezed

in in two or three takes. We got what we want,

thank you, and out the door. And then years later,

I'm at these conventions, and people come up

and shake my hand and say, it's such a thrill

to meet someone who is part of the trilogy. And

I'm a very small part, but... You should ask

them which one, because there's lots of trilogies

now. Somehow to them, that's the trilogy. Between

that and Star Wars. Well, films don't just stop

at three anymore. They should. Some of them sure

should, I guess. I mean, technically, Star Wars

started at four and ended at six. We don't need

to really remember one through three. But, yeah.

The Star Wars thing is just too complicated for

me. I've lost track. We've spent, a couple years

ago, we spent, including Spaceballs, Mel Brooks'

film, we spent six hours reviewing Star Wars

movies. Now, Spaceballs, I like. Absolutely love

that movie. Yeah, that was, my favorite line,

I don't know why, it's, he comes out of the transporter

and he's backwards. Yep. And he looks down and

he says, why didn't somebody tell me my ass was

so big? We're combing the desert. Their radar

is jammed. Yeah, absolutely. Throughout the book,

folks, Neil gives you, you know, obviously his

story, but the stuff that you will learn about

this man. If you've only ever seen or heard him

in something like Transformers or G .I. Joe or

something like that, I had no idea you did the

Academy Awards announcing for the 75th Oscars.

I had no clue. Yeah, well, it's so different.

But that's one of the areas where I've been very

fortunate. I've been pretty active in almost

every phase of voiceover. Some people kind of

specialize and mostly just do animation and games.

I've been lucky enough to be able to run the

gamut. And there really isn't any reason why

you would make the connection, you know? Yeah.

But, again, that was a lovely, lovely opportunity

that, well, I had to read for it, but, you know,

it came along, and I was utterly amazed when

I got the job. You know, I'm usually lucky to

be a finalist in these things, let alone actually

book the gig, but that was probably the high

point of my career. I doubt if I'll ever be involved

in anything that big again. Well, you've gone

on to do, like, the Emmys and other things like

that as well. Who knows? Maybe they'll ask you

back. I mean, let's hope. I mean... You never

know. They could all go mad and... I know what

to do. Let's get that guy again. Oh, man. Yeah,

it's crazy when... You were talking about all

these different roles that you've had the chance

to portray over the years, whether it was the

announcer roles or the video games. And I've

either watched or played a lot of these. And

so it was kind of interesting to discover that

it was your voice I was hearing throughout these

things and not even really knowing it. And it

just, although it wasn't like. like a lead role

as far as like some of the games like mass effect

with, uh, the Kodak or, or, uh, like command

and conquer and things like that, uh, which I've,

I've played all those ad nauseum, but, uh, I

just, I didn't realize that you were so entrenched

in, in all these different areas, uh, before,

uh, listening to you recall it in, in, uh, the

book. Well, uh, voiceover. Generally speaking,

at least for us plain rap guys, as I call us,

and gals, there really are no stars, per se.

Obviously, stars are now doing voiceovers, but

I'm not talking about them. I'm just talking

about us regular folks. And we're almost like

a repertory company, you know? Well, all right,

this week you get to play Hamlet, but then we're

doing King Lear and we really only need you to

play, you know, third page from the left in that

one. Oh, okay, fine. You know, sometimes you

have the lead. Sometimes you're just doing a

few lines on the side. It's, you know, we just

show up and do what's asked of us and do our

best. And I can't complain. It's been a hell

of a ride. Yeah. Yeah. your career has just been

so amazing after listening to and reading through

the book like you've essentially done everything

there is to do in entertainment I hope not I

hope there's nothing I mean, like all the different,

like you said earlier, narration, animation,

the radio stuff, the announcing stuff for the

Oscars or the roller derby, or you've been in

every facet of it at this point. Pretty much.

I was not, in fact, I did not devote a chapter

to it in the book because I just didn't do it

enough. I was never that successful in promos

or movie trailers. You know, I've done a few,

but, you know, of course, a lot of the guys who

do promos, that's all they do. Yeah. And to me,

I don't know that I'd want to spend my life just

every day coming in and essentially doing the

same thing. You're just plugging in a different

show and some different names. But the thing

is, the read is always the same, you know. Tonight.

On NBC, it's another. And there are some folks

who that's all they do all day long, five days

a week. And I don't know that I would enjoy that

as lucrative as I'm sure it is. So I really didn't

feel that I had done enough in the promo trailer

world to be able to even write authoritatively

about it. Someone else will have to do that.

That's probably the one area that. I don't remember

in the book. Yeah, there's one movie voice that,

in my personal opinion, will only be one movie

voice. May the man rest in peace, Don LaFontaine.

Because that guy could do anything with a trailer.

Yeah, he was, well, he, I'm not in any way belittling

his talent. He had a marvelous voice. But he

also knew how to use it. And what a lot of people,

I didn't even know this, but I think the big

secret to his success was long before he started

voicing these things, he was writing and producing

them using other talent to voice them. Right.

And so when he picked up a piece of copy, he

would scan it and he would understand what they

were trying to impart. Because he had written

these things. He had produced these things. He

knew exactly what was needed. And that's what

made him, in my opinion, so unbeatable, was those

years that he spent writing and producing these

things. And so that he understood the concept

organically. He wasn't just trying to get a job

or, you know. Right. He really understood what

was going on, and that coupled with that extraordinary

voice made him just... There was a period of

time where I remember somebody once came to my

house, and the wife said, Oh... You're in that

business. You'll know. What's the deal with the

guy who does all the movie announcements? I mean,

he does them all. Is that a government job or

something? She couldn't understand why only one

guy did all the announcements. And I said, no,

he's just very good. They all want to hire him.

It's not a government job. Yes, President Reagan

hired Don LaFontaine. Yeah, when you talk about

the breaking into the voiceover, I love hearing

those types of stories because it not only gives

us insight into not necessarily how to break

in, because it's a very hard business to break

in, but what it was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.

And it doesn't seem like... Like you said in

the book, it was a hard door to kick down back

then, and I'm sure it's an even harder door to

kick in now. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It

was difficult then, it's difficult now. It's

just difficult now for completely different reasons.

Yeah. As I point out in the book, when I started

out, it was a very small group of people, and

they were very firmly entrenched, and it was...

really tough to break in now there's the problem

you have is there are thousands and thousands

of people doing it or trying to do it and uh

and the reason is that there's all these people

is because of technology because as you said

in the book you know when you were sending in

auditions you were sending in audition tapes

audition cds audition that audition this whereas

nowadays you can just send an mp3 to an agent

or to the buyer or whoever it's going to be,

you know, the producers, and it's all done electronically

now. Yeah, that had a big... The digital thing

changed the business immensely. Essentially,

you had to physically be in Los Angeles or New

York to work in voiceovers. That's no longer

true. Now, it's no longer true for certain things.

In the world of animation and games, they still

want you physically in a studio. Yeah. You can't

MP3 that. I suppose all bets are off if it's

a celebrity and they say, well, I'm just not

available to come into a studio. Oh, okay, then

we'll fly to wherever you are and we'll bring

a tape recorder. We'll do whatever we have to

do to get you because you're so wonderful. But

they're not going to do that with us. They want

us in a specific studio. So I think if one wanted

to do animation and games, one would have to

bite the bullet and move to LA. But for a lot

of the other stuff, no, you can do it from anywhere

in the country. No problem. Yeah, there's only,

I'm sure there are plenty other celebrity voiceover

scandals out there, but the only one I remember

is how self -important Chris Rock thought he

was. In what project? I don't even remember what

project it was. It was a few years ago. It was

a few years ago that somebody had gotten cast,

and then the director or whomever it was, I don't

even remember who it was, but somebody had gotten

cast, and then they got recast because Chris

became available, and he said something about,

oh, I can do voiceover now because I'm whatever

it was that he said. But it was one of those,

it was like four or five, six years ago, it was

one of those things where it was like, really?

You think you can do voiceover now? All these

other people that have been doing it for the

last 30, 40, 50 years beg to differ. Well, some

people manage, but, you know, it's a little bit

of a different animal. And advice to any celebrity

is contemplating doing it. Find a good coach

and take some lessons because your face is not

going to be there for you. Your body language

is not going to be there for you. The only thing

you are able to contribute is your voice. And

you have to put a little extra in there. And,

you know, as some people in the book, I mentioned

Robin Williams. And I say, you know, if Robin

Williams had never been a big star, he would

have been one of the top voiceover talents. He

would have been right up there with Welker. So

I had absolutely no problem with Robin Williams,

any of the stuff he did. He was brilliant. He

more or less made those movies. But some celebrities,

they just don't. quite get it yeah and um well

you know i mean that that ship sailed and yeah

uh just what you can't fight city hall you can

but sadly most people try to end up losing um

so How many titles did you go through before

you settled on vocal recall? Well, that's funny.

I started thinking about titles and I solicited

the opinion of many people and anybody suggested

anything, I wrote it down. I had this huge page

of titles. And somewhere along the line, I dreamt

up vocal recall and I wasn't that thrilled with

it, but I wrote it down. And then... I just sort

of started eliminating all the other suggestions

for all kinds of different reasons, and I suddenly

realized, well, all that's left at this point

is vocal recall, so I guess that's it. And my

greatest fear was that I would publish the book,

and two weeks later the real title would occur

to me. It would be too late. But that hasn't

happened, so I guess I'm stuck with it. I think

it's a great title. It's an amazing title. Oh,

thank you. Thank you. What I... Well, not necessarily

with... Gone with the wind, but somebody told

me to take that. Creative Commons. Exactly. Yeah,

there are times that I love being able to reference

a title, and I think you even say in the book,

well, this is my vocal recall. And I love being

able to do stuff like that, because it's just,

hey, poking fun at the, you know, this is what

it's called kind of thing. No, it's an amazing

title, and not only was it an amazing read, it's

an amazing listen. You did such a good job on

this. Well, you know, I won a highly competitive

audition to get that part. Yeah, you only had

to beat out Frank Welker and Peter Cullen. There

you go. I couldn't afford either one of those

guys. I tell you, that's work. My hat's off to

people that narrate books. That's hard work.

I almost fired myself three times. That's a long

haul, man. I don't think I'll voice another book.

It's just too much work. Hey, if you're going

to do one, do your own. Exactly. That's the only

reason I got through this thing, was that I wrote

it. Some other stooge had written this. I would

have quit around Chapter 7. It's funny you say

this, because I can only listen to audiobooks.

I can't do the fiction audio, but the autobiographical

stuff and things like that, I can only listen

to it if the person that actually has written

it or the person that it's about actually does

the audio because it takes me out when somebody

else reads that person's... It just takes me

out of it. Hmm. Interesting. Well... Yeah, I

can kind of see what you're saying. Although

in some cases, how do you, well, I suppose it

says so on the packaging or how do you even know

it's not that guy? Well, in a particular instance,

I'll say, because I know what the singer sounded

like. There was a singer from a famous eighties

band that I love that had done a book. and it

goes between him narrating and his ghostwriter

narrating, which is fine. I got used to it after

a while, but at first I thought it was just going

to be the singer doing the narration, and that's

not the case. Eh, it is what it is. We all have

our different listening preferences and things

like that. Go ahead, Steve. I was going to say,

one of the stories that kind of... Resonated

with me a little bit, too, was the the discussions

on Wally Burr in the recording studio. And the

reason I bring this up is because a number of

years ago you were at TFCon 2012 and in Mississauga,

Canada. And I happened to actually be there.

So I met you, Wally, Scott McNeil. And it was

funny when we were doing the casting call for

the where people could read the little script

that was the comic that was written for the convention.

And Wally was up there trying to voice direct

everybody and managed to put the entire thing

behind schedule. trying to voice direct everybody,

every fan that went up there to try and voice

characters. And they were like, okay, we got

to, you know, limit it to one at a time here,

you know, because we were like almost out of

time and we hadn't even started yet. Yeah, Wally,

he couldn't help himself. It became a session

to him. And he got these poor people and, you

know, now here's what I want. And this and that.

And I'm looking at this poor person and they

have this deer in the headlights look. And Wally

is loading them up with direction. And, yeah,

they had come and they said, well, you only have

10 minutes. So don't, you know, just one or two

criticisms and move along. And he just do it.

Bless his heart. Two seconds in, and it's a real

session for him, and he's got to have that read.

Yep. There ain't no session like a Wally Burr

session. No, that's true. That's true, and heaven

knows I sat through enough of them. But, yeah,

I mean, it was just humorous. When you were discussing

that in the book, I was just thinking back to

that time that I actually witnessed. Like a brief

snippet of what you would have had to go through

on a daily basis. So it was just interesting

to me. Well, a promoter came up to me after that

and he said, you know, I had a lot of you actors

come to these things and you've talked about

what it's like to be directed by him. We thought

you were exaggerating, but obviously you weren't.

Finally got to see Wally in action. I was like,

you guys aren't kidding. Yeah, it was it was

very humorous, though, to sit there and kind

of watch. And you were kind of poking fun at

the process, too, just because, you know, like

I lived this. Well, I have to say. And I always

want to point out that Wally, you know, could

could drive you crazy. But he was so fiercely

loyal to us actors. I mean, if you came in and

did a good job for him, he remembered. And he

would have you back. And he helped us with our

auditions. I mean, I got a lot of jobs that I

never would have gotten without Wally's help.

And so I always try to remind people that at

heart, he meant well. He really wanted a good

quality product. 18 hours later, you have it.

Exactly. You know, of the many, many, many, many

shows that I did over the years, the two that

people seem to still remember and build conventions

around and still revere to this day are shows

that he voice directed, G .I. Joe and Transformers.

he would be more than entitled to say, maybe

it was all worth it, fellas, because these are

the shows they remember. Yeah, and you can definitely

tell he put his heart into it, even between the

shows and at the conventions when he would appear.

It just, you know, you could tell. Yeah, he was

a very sincere guy. He wasn't doing what he did

to be mean or abusive. He wanted the best. And

he just wouldn't settle for anything less. Which

is a good quality to have. You know, sometimes

you'd get mad at him, but it wasn't because he

was a mean guy. It was because he wanted the

best. So you kind of have to forgive him in the

end. Oh, yeah. Certainly. Absolutely. That's

like, you know, whenever I edit stuff now. People

are like, oh, you should have this done within

an hour or two hours. I have to listen to every

single beat and figure out where I can razor

and where I can't or where I should trim this

or trim... For an hour and a half show, sometimes

it takes me two or three hours just because I

listen to every single thing. Like you said before

and like you say in the book, yes, the joy is

in the performance, not the playback, but for

me, I don't... And the point of that quote is

you were talking about in the book how you don't

really listen back to anything that you've done.

Once I've edited it, because I listen to it as

I edit it, I don't actually listen to it after

I've published it online. I just can't, because

I already know it by heart. You can ask Steve.

People ask me, hey, what was that episode of

ToonCast? One of our other... other podcasts,

which episode was that? And I'm like, episode

67 was USA Cartoon Network Express or whatever

it was. I'm like, yeah, that sounds about right.

I'm one of those guys that I can commit almost

everything to memory that I've done or that I

have planned out. It's just, I don't know. I'm

strange that way, I guess. Okay, so you've got

the book out. You've got it on your website.

Is it actually going to be in stores as well,

or is it just on your website? Well, it's going

to be sold via the Internet. There may be, at

some point down the line, it may end up in stores,

but for the time being, you have to order it.

I have a website dedicated to the book. If you

decide to get a print copy or a Kindle, you click

on it, it will send you over to Amazon and they'll

take care of it there. If you want a PDF or audio

book, click on that and you go somewhere else

and get those. But the main website to go to

for the book is www .neilbook .com. B -O -O -K

dot com. And you go there and all will be well.

Absolutely. Are you going to do a tour for this

at all or are you just going to let it be out

there for everybody to explore it themselves?

Well, I'm doing a number of podcasts and of course

I'm going to be doing conventions. Okay. I'm

going to do the L .A. Comic Con next weekend.

Oh, very cool. Nice. I'm going to actually physically

have some books with me there. Cool. Conventions

further afield. Unfortunately, I can't lug books

with me, but what I can do, if people are interested,

is I can give them an autographed book plate,

and then they can write down their name and address

and email, and when I get back to L .A., I will...

have the book shipped to them, and then they

take the book plate, which I've already given

them, and put it in the book, and they have an

autographed copy. Very cool. So we'll see how

that goes. I'm sort of playing this by ear and

trying not to be obsessed with how many books

have I sold. Yeah, but you really can't not obsess

over that. It's like us with podcasting. How

many downloads do we get this week? How many

didn't we get this week? You know, it's like

everybody obsesses over the numbers at some point.

Sure. Well, I did not write this book for the

money. Oh, I can clearly tell that you didn't

do that. Yeah, I didn't write this book to make

money, and so far my plan is working perfectly.

But if you go to the website, www .neilbook .com,

you will see that should there be any profit

from this book, it will all be donated to the

Broadcasters Foundation of America and the Actors

Fund. So even if I do end up making money, I

won't make money off this book. It's one of those

things where once you have a project that you're

invested in that essentially is your own life

story, it'd be great to make a buck off it, but

that's not why you do it. You do it for the enjoyment

of getting it done and having it out there for

all the millions of people that have... paid

attention to your career at one point or another,

whether it's people that listen to you on the

radio, whether it's people like us that saw and

heard you in Transformers and G .I. Joe and all

of that stuff. I've been podcasting almost 10

years now, and have I gotten donations and gifts

and certain things like that over the years?

Yes, absolutely. However, I don't get an hourly

or a... pay scale wage for this at all. We do

this, I put my own time, Steve puts in his own

time, all the other people that work with us

on our network put in their own time and we don't

get an hourly wage or anything like that and

honestly I probably wouldn't want one because

then it would really feel like a job and it's

like, oh crap, I really have to do this now.

I see what you're saying. Well, and I think too,

aside from monetary considerations. In a way,

the book is summing up. I mean, I've reached

an age now where stuff happens. I've had to say

goodbye to some longtime friends, and they were

younger than I was, or younger than I am. And

so I thought maybe now is the time to kind of

sum up everything that's happened to me and put

it down on paper or digit. Let people read it.

Absolutely. Not only is it an engrossing read,

it's a wonderful listening experience because

it's just one of those things where you can listen

to the book and hear you tell your story and

how fascinating that story is. Like I said, the

time in radio, the time you were living in Canada,

moving from Canada to California, all of that.

I believe in it at one point, I forget, I think

it was in California, you had mentioned something

about apartments were for rent for like 75 bucks

back in the day or something like that. Yeah,

that was from an air check of an old... A friend

of mine named Mel Hall, when he was on Radio

Cadeo, Channel 90 Wonderful in San Diego. And

this air check is, I believe, from 1960. And

the commercial's on there. Yes, there's an apartment

complex in La Mesa, and you can rent apartments

there for $75 a month. And I don't know what

an apartment in La Mesa would run you now, but

I suspect it's considerably more than $75 a month.

Yeah. And the other part about the book that

I love is when you talk about commercials and

infomercials and all of that, how they've changed

over the years, and how now they seem more robotic

than they used to. There's only one ad that I've

absolutely loved in the last five or six years,

and it was for something in Louisville. I'm in

the Chicago area now, but it was something in

Louisville, Kentucky for... a website that it's

a job hiring website, like career builder or

something like that. It's called Louisville help

wanted .com. They did an ad campaign where they

had this guy who came in and was really, really

annoying. And the whole point of the job was

don't be like, don't be like Dave, go to Louisville

help wanted that. Just the, if I, if I had that

audio, I would, I'd send it to you to see you

could listen to me. It was so funny. And I hadn't

heard a funny radio ad in at least 10 years.

Yeah, they're few and far between. It almost

sounds like, well, how many words can we cram

into 60 seconds? And I don't know. I remember,

as I say in the book, there was this sort of

golden age of the radio commercial. And there

were these places in Los Angeles where they would

write and produce wonderful, wonderful entertaining

radio commercials. And that's all gone now. Unfortunately.

Absolutely. All right. So you can go to neilross

.com. You can go to neilbook .com. Both links

will be in the post for the interview. Anything

else you want to impart with our listeners before

we let you go for this time around? Well, let

me think. There's a couple of things. I'm going

to be at the retro. ToyCon in Greenville, South

Carolina in November. You might want to look

that one up if you think you might be in the

area. And I checked with him and it's okay to

talk about it. I'm in a new game that's coming

out, Rage 2. There was a Rage and now this is

Rage 2. In which I play Dr. Kvasia. I guess he

tells the player what to do and how to do it

and that sort of thing. So that will be rearing

its pretty head in the spring, as I understand

it. So those are a couple of things to watch

for. Very cool, very cool. Very cool. Where can

the people interact with you online if you'd

like to give that information? I'm available

via email at neilross .com. I haven't done any

Twittering or Instagramming or any of that stuff.

I can't figure any of it out. Don't feel bad.

I still can't figure out Instagram. I get Twitter,

but beyond that, I'm kind of stuck. I refuse

to use Instagram or Snapchat or any of that stuff.

I just refuse. Twitter and Facebook is pretty

much all I need. And I'm less on Twitter now

than I was five years ago, so... I'm on Facebook,

and I would... A little tiny bit of advice. If

somebody wants to friend me, don't just send

me a friend thing, because I don't know who you

are. Send me a message saying why you want to

be a friend, and, you know, maybe I will friend

you. But just sending me a friend notice, that

automatically goes to delete. Because you could

be an axe murderer. What do I know? That's not

good. All right. We'd like to thank Neil Ross

for taking the time to chat with us. We will

ask you to hold the line, and we'll be back after

this, folks. Nobody would listen to an uncharismatic

bore like you. Huge thanks to Neil Ross. As always,

go check out neilbook .com, folks, for vocal

recall. I got lucky with the Transformers movie.

My characters Hook, Slag, and Bonecrusher only

had a line or two. But I had landed a new role

a few months earlier, a character named Springer.

Springer was in a number of climactic scenes

in the movie and was given a fair amount of dialogue.

The other new characters were voiced by celebrities

who were replaced later by us regular folk for

the TV episodes. I was lucky they didn't give

Springer to a celebrity. A green Autobot triple

changer who can transform into both a car and

a helicopter, Springer is the archetypal action

hero. He's great in a fight and is always ready

with a deadpan sarcastic quip. Springer also

appears to have a thing for female robot RC.

Fans often ask if the relationship was ever,

shall we say, consummated? I always assure them

that a gentle robot never discusses that sort

of thing. Besides, how the hell do robots consummate

anyway? And get the audiobook because it's even

better listening to it. as it is reading it.

We will catch you next time here on the Geekcast

Radio Network. In the memories of the ancient

Autobot leaders. So just get blasted again and

almost die. Then you can enter the Matrix and

find out for sure. He's only kidding. Tell him

you're only kidding. He knows, R .C. He's not

as dumb as he looks. Come on, let the boy cogitate

if he wants. He won't do anything rash, will

you, Rod? To this day, I'm never very anxious

to hear my own stuff. The joy for me is in the

performance, not the playback.