Interview with Pat Fraley on Voiceover Acting, Character Creation, and His Role as Krang

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles So we are

currently dialing the technodrome and hopefully

someone will answer. Hello. You have reached

the technodrome. Please consider leaving your

name and number on the floor because I don't

want to talk to you. Don't hang up Steve Mike.

It's Pat. How are you guys doing? Oh, man. That's

awesome. Now, Mike, you're in Louisville. Yeah.

And Steve in Detroit. Detroit area. Yeah, he's

in the Detroit area. He's not actually in the

city. Yeah, well, nobody lives in the city. It's

all Detroit area. Yeah, that's true. Hey, so

where are you guys? Like, are you in a basement

or in your house or where are you? Let me get

that. Give me a picture of where you are. Mike

I'm I'm in a little one bedroom apartment living

room kitchen combination. I guess you could say

I've got a Six foot by nine foot desk. It's huge.

It's essentially a command center essentially

something that would probably be Yeah, when you

live in a one bedroom apartment that cuts down

the you know possibility so I we know exactly

where you are I'm currently located in the basement

of my two -bedroom townhouse. Yeah, that's good.

That's a good place for you. Yeah, hovering in

the dark over my desk. Well, I'm here in Hollywood.

I never thought I'd be the guy to live in Hollywood,

but I actually live next to the Hollywood Bowl

and I'm outside in the garden. I turned that

off the fountain and It's crystal clear, was

about 80 today, and it's a fun place to live.

I grew up in Seattle, so it's still, I wake up

in Hollywood and go, wow, there's palm trees

out there. For those of you who are just tuning

in and don't know, we are here on GeekCast Radio,

IMTF2 and Mike, along with Steve Megatron, and

we are talking with the incomparable Pat Fraley,

who voiced Krang in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles. He also voiced Den of the Last Dinosaur,

Ace from G .I. Joe, a real American hero, and

a bunch of other places and people and characters

and everything else. What's been going on with

you, sir? Let's give people some insight on what

you've got going on these days. Well, I just

got back from New York where I taught and I teach

a lot. I go around the country or actually North

America and I teach on the weekends. I've always

taught my whole career, which will be about 40

years next year. And then as far as voiceover

work, I just saw on TV that something I recently

did. I don't know what the name of it. It's a

Harvey Weinstein film about the taking down of

Ben Laden. And I did the voice of the Secretary

of Defense on that. And then tomorrow I do a

cartoon, a narration in a kind of French old

man voice. Once upon a time there was a little

artist. So I'm going to do that tomorrow. A lot

of what I do these days are little roles in really

good movies. Whereas in the 80s and 90s, I was

the lead in really bad TV. So it sort of switched

around. I kind of feel like Alec Guinness, the

British actor, who said, one becomes knighted

in England, so one can go to Hollywood and play

potters. But that's sort of what happens when

you get old. Or Jedi Masters, that's right. So

It's a good trade -off really less lines good

money great movies and And that's what get that

what that's what happens we get old They only

need one grumpy general to tell all the other

soldiers to go out and die. That's me That's

funny. The old grumpy general, wow. Yeah, all

the other actors that play interactive games

complain about having to scream when they die

a lot and it hurts their throat. The good news

about a grumpy general is he goes, all right,

man, I want you to go out there. Oh, heart attack!

That's all you have to do. That's awesome. So

tell us the story of how you broke into the business.

Well, you know was more like a more less breaking

than preparing and slowly getting in there What

I did is like it really I'm doing now the same

thing I did when I was four years old. I Can't

remember a time when I wasn't doing characters

and making silly noises Learning how to talk

backwards at recess And then when I went I went

through high school and college for six years

and studied acting and doing characters. Went

to Australia and started my career as an actor

and also as a teacher. It was a top of my whole

career. And then I came to Los Angeles. I'd met

a guy actually on vacation in Tahiti and he was

a producer for Hanna Barbera, Don Jurich. And

he said, well, if you come to Los Angeles, I'll

listen to your demo. So I did. But I saved my

money before I came so I could be here. And I

wouldn't have a day job. So I could, you know,

if some of my actors or producers say, would

you like to go to dinner or something like or

lunch? I'd say, yeah, sure. So I did that. It

took me about three years of doing that and getting

to know people. And then I started working in

cartoons. The first role, the roles I had were

doing the villains on Scooby -Doo. Oh, wow. And

so, it really is a... Oh, that's my little Boston

Terrier. He's barking upstairs on the balcony.

It's okay, it's only me. So, it really, guys,

it's a story of like, they always say, oh, it's

who you know. Well, it's who you get to know,

but when they say, can you do this, you say yes

and you're ready. You know, Woody Allen said

85 % of... Success is being there and so I put

myself in a vision of position of being skilled

and being there and Had enough money to get through

until I started working and of course, that's

where you're out of control is who hires you

but I was ready Yes We're gonna talk about your

Disney career because I had no idea you had a

Disney career. Yeah Disney's been a big Part

and by the way, this is kind of interesting career

Career means that you got hired for the same

kind of job over and over again But there's no

word in the Bible for career. There's a word

for job and skills or craft and so careers I

never looked at I never look at it as a career.

I look at it, I got hired over and over again

doing certain things. But I just think that's

interesting because a lot of people get a lot

of pressure on themselves by going, oh no, my

career isn't going anywhere. Hey, it's just job

after job, you know. I'll rephrase, the Disney

portion of your acting career there, is that

better? Hey, I wasn't admonishing you. No, I

know. Yeah, I didn't mean I started doing cartoons

for Disney when they entered the market in the

80s Or actually I jumped in in the 90s doing

tailspin And I did a character called Wildcat

who was the ignorant but lovable mountain lion

balloons, buddy And they had they were having

a hard time casting it because he looks dumb.

So everyone was coming in and playing him dumb.

And I thought, well, maybe he's not dumb. Maybe

he's naive. And so I played, I auditioned for

it, playing a character that sounded like, Baloo,

is this a wrench or a banana? I forget. And oh,

look, there's a new island on the map. Oh no,

there's guacamole. So he was kind of delightful

and light and stuff. Then I started to look at

a few more projects for Disney, and then I landed

the sound -alike, the sound match for Tim Allen's

Buzz Lightyear. And to infinity and residuals.

It turned out that Tim was so busy with his series

and his great career that he couldn't do a lot

of the toys, the rides at Disney, the interactive

games. and stuff, and so I was the sound -alike.

Well, that was a good ride for about nine years.

So I did a lot of work for Disney there. And

then as I did, I got to know John Lasseter at

Pixar, because in Toy Story 2, I actually did

part of the Buzz Lightyear role, because Kim

Allen didn't like doing exertion sounds. he would

uh be silly so they hired me to go in and do

part of that role and then they kept then they

started hiring me on doing other roles uh monsters

ink chicken little um and also disney started

hiring me doing roles on like tangled and so

that's been a real good relationship very cool

very cool do you have a favorite voice from all

your various Disney roles? I think Wildcat. I

liked it. I'll tell you why. I mean, this was

20 years ago, right? Yeah. So what happened to

me was I started getting notes and calls and

stuff from kids that watched it that are about

21 or 22 years old. And a lot of them have their

autistic or have Asperger's or some kind of difficulties.

And I've been in touch with them. In fact, even

his summer went to a graduation backyard party

for one of my students who really loved tailspin.

Also, I got a role called Lurkey in Rainbow Bride.

And he was kind of like that, too. Whoa, what

a wonderful day in rainbow land. So he was kind

of silly and in some ways challenged. see what

happened with these kids would be going to school

in public schools where they have resources to

help people with uh... the mentally challenged

kids and they come back and they'd be course

uh... brutalizing school you know the kids would

keep them now they come back home and after school

they watch a cartoon and they watch characters

who are challenged or different and all the other

characters in that show love them and so they

really identified with that and it gave them

up a respite from their life. And so it really

had a great deal of meaning for them. And so

how good is that for me? I mean, here I'm just

doing this silly voice and it means something

that really is important for some kids. Oh yeah.

That's part of it. I love it. But you know, what

I do is amusement and amuse in Greek means not

think. So I'm in the not thinking business. but

how wonderful is it when you give somebody that's

challenged and Arrested from that and they They

can identify. Yeah, that puts import in to a

life that otherwise would be just about entertainment

and amusement and silliness Yeah, so I guess

that's a that's a real reason. I love that character

and other characters I did that were very silly

and kind of naive and We're going to talk about

when you were ace on GI Joe. How did that come

about? I can't remember to tell you the truth,

but I probably auditioned for it. It was really

me just being a little smart alecky, a little

cool. I ain't ace, the fly guy. I know about

pilots because my father was a bomber pilot in

World War II. They're pretty cool. You know,

that got a little slick. And so I just took that

kind of feel for it and auditioned for it and

did it. And we didn't know that it would be so

popular, but you know, it was a wonderful thing.

You know, I always, you know, let me go back

to that thing, doing naive characters and characters

are a little challenge. I grew up around the

deaf because my grandfather taught the deaf and

blind. in state schools in North Dakota and in

Idaho while I grew up around these kids. And

so I didn't know it, but that's sort of what

I brought to the role at the time. I honestly

didn't know it. I just thought, well, he's naive

and he'll sound like that, you know? And the

same thing with Ace. My dad was a flyer. When

he was a young man, he was pretty cocky. They

hang one on and get drunk and then they have

to... take a B -52 up to Colorado from Texas,

and so they'd suck oxygen out of their tank and

pull hairs on their legs to keep awake, you know?

Just wild, young guys. And so that's what I brought

to the party to ace. And all of what I do and

what I, you know, the people that I knew best,

Jim Cummings and Rob Paulson, some of the really

luminaries in voiceover, there's always something

they bring to the party from their experiences.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's sort of the inside track

into the way I've created characters and the

way I know other people create them is that there's

something about their own life and their own

experience they bring to it. For example, you

remember the old school character Huckleberry

Hound, hello, how you doing? Yeah. Yeah, by Dawes

Butler. Well, he was doing his brother -in -law

from North Carolina. Oh, that's funny. It was

an impression of his brother -in -law. Yeah,

that's so cool how just people you know or influences

have a lot to do with the characters that we

know and love. Yeah, you know, it's like we've

been rehearsing all our lives, so why not use

it? Yeah. I've made so much money doing an impression

of my brother as a smart aleck. I'm not very

cynical, but my brother's like the king of cynical.

So when they say, well, we want this character

cynical, I just do an impression of my brother.

That's awesome. So we're going to jump into some

turtles talk. OK. What was it like coming up

with the character of Krang during the audition

process? Well, it was kind of interesting, guys,

because I was a replacement for the director,

who had cast himself as Krang, and about three

other characters. which is way too many to do

in the show when back in the day we didn't have

guests so he had cast himself in it and the producer

wanted to recast it and so Fred Wolf and so Fred

Wolf said okay you got two minutes come up with

something and I read the description first of

all you got to know this I read the title Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles oh this is not going to

go anywhere right So it says, you know, crang,

a burbling, shortling, disgusting blob of an

evil villain, but funny. And I thought, well,

I don't have anything I have, you know, I could

pull from other shows I've done. So I thought

about how I have, as a teacher, broken down the

character voice into different elements. For

example, pitch, pitch characteristic, tempo,

rhythm, placement, and mouthwork, six elements

to a character. So I thought, well, what I'll

do. as I'll assign a character trait to each

of those elements. And Fred said, OK, we're going

to roll in two minutes. So I thought, oh boy,

I better be fast. So I thought pitch. Well, I'll

give him quite a bit of a pitch range so he can

go very up and very down, and he can go all over

the place. So he can be doing this. Then I thought

pitch characteristic. Well, I'll give him kind

of a cockney kind of pitch characteristic, as

he is a brain of a little chortle. shortly character,

then I thought tempo well I'll vary it so he'd

be very fast and very slow and he can have a

lot of room to move and that'll add to the villainous

part. Then I went I got to a rhythm well I'll

give him kind of a staggering rhythm because

he's a blob so he's undulating sort of like Katharine

Hepburn you know. I felt he had that kind of

thing going and then I thought mouthwork well

I'll make him puffy and I'll place him in the

back of my throat, replacement, and then he's

gonna be disgusting, so I'll add some disgusting

sounds, and they'll all burp every so often.

Then I thought, oh, they'll never let me burp

between the lines. Things go very fast, they

don't want anything slowed down. How about I

do the trick I learned at recess in third grade,

and that's how to talk backwards. where you bring

in air rather than expel it. So instead of saying

hi, you go, hi. And so it was time to audition.

And I just went, well, I'm just hoping this works.

And so, well, so you're surrounded by idiots.

This is what I get. How would you like to be?

Boiled in oil with just a touch of cilantro.

Wow. That is so cool. So it was pretty, in my

experience, it was a pretty unique voice because,

you know, who's done a character like that? You

know, it's so weird. And, you know, people, I

read online, people, oh, I like your... Crank

better than somebody else's that took it over

because there's been a there's now there's about

two generations of Performers that have done

it and I say look, you know, they have to imitate

this weird thing. I came up with come on Give

them a cut them a little slack. It's tough. I

Mean, I barely came up with it let alone them

having to imitate me. Yeah Yeah, did you audition

for any other roles on turtles or was it just

crying? You know actually that was it and then

when I got there Fred said you're doing Baxter

Stockman Vernon and burn Thompson as well because

we did he was very How do you say this? Sheep

You didn't want any you know guests on the show

So though I think there were eight of us when

you count out everybody that was in the cast

And we were there every show and we had it to

cover every character And so I said, look, I

can do, I can't do more than, uh, I can do, uh,

Burton Thompson, go, go, go. You know, that guy

and Kate Casey. Hello. Violator. I do. I could

do those and Baxter Stockman who came into the

show and disappeared. But I said, I can't do

Vernon, which was such a great thing because

Pete Rennaday took it over and did such a wonderful

job. In fact, I got to tell you guys. In all

the sessions, I recall the one character we all

laughed at and broke up on, and they have to

do retakes on, was Vernon, that he did. Because

Vernon was so scared of everything, and he chilled

us. And he didn't chill us with ad -libs. Now,

Rob Paulson and I love improv and ad -libbing,

so we ad -lib more than any of the other cast

members. And we'd get in trouble, and they liked

it, and they would not let us do one and all

that stuff. But we sat together for nine years,

and we just loved. In fact, we used to give each

other ad -libs for characters, because Rob did

Raphael, and I did Frank. Now, we very rarely

had scenes together. But I would hand him a slip

of paper saying, oh, for an ad -lib based on

his line that was better than the written line,

and vice versa. And that sort of started a relationship

and we went and we did Bobby's World together

that way and other shows because we loved, you

know, pulling it off the page and coming up with

something funnier. That was the, I wasn't, I

did an audition for other roles. They were just

given to me, but I turned down one key one. It

was very good and it was very smart. Now that

I look back and I've done all my careers, don't

take everything. Turn down auditions. turn down

roles because you never want to have anybody

hear or see you not doing your best. And if you

figure somebody else can do it, let them do it.

Right. Right. So what were I know you personally

talked about it, but what were some of the voice

sessions like? Like were there a lot of goofy

moments in it or? Oh, yeah. Especially are you

talking about Ninja Turtles or any sessions?

Ninja Turtles specifically, but any session if

you have any story from any other ones. But yeah,

Ninja Turtles. Well, you know, it was such a

delight because we had all of the players there.

We're all in a room. We're there in the room

once a week for nine years. I mean, that's unheard

of. Even in on -camera TV shows and stuff to

go to nine years and also to be in the same room

together. So it wasn't like, you know, there

would be a scene with Some sitcom and you weren't

in it, but no we were all there every time and

The first year we didn't know what we had and

so the producers gave us a lot of a lot of room

to ad -lib Because they didn't know if we came

up with a funnier line Then we got the it went

in the shell the second year after it became

this huge success then then they were a little

more picky and we'd have to beg them to We'd

do three ad -libs and they'd only let us use

one of them. It became like union arbitration.

But it was just a joy because you get so close

to people in show business. It's very weird.

You watch the Letterman Show or Jay Leno and

you see these people come on stage and they're

kissing each other and hugging. Well, it's so

unusual. that people get to work together, or

even work, that people bond very quickly. So

here we have nine years. People say, well, during

that time, Barry Gordon went through a law school.

Here he was Donatello, and he went to law school.

No, wait, wait. Yeah, I think it was Donatello.

Yeah, Barry was Donatello. Yeah, and Renee Jacobs

was running a really successful medical business

with her husband. And I was raising, I had four

boys in five years during that time. And so we

had these huge lives, but we were all together

and it was a joy and very silly. Because part

of the important part of an ensemble session

when you're doing comedy, you gotta keep that

energy up so when we'd be recording and... They'd

stop and the director would give notes. We'd

be being silly the whole time to keep that energy

going. So it was a delight, as it was during

that era. Even today when I do a show, it's a

delight to be there with all these wonderful,

skillful actors. Because remember, it doesn't

matter how you look in voiceover. It's all about

the skills. So there's nobody in the room that

doesn't have the skills. So it's the highest

skill level of any performance medium I know

of. Nobody gets in there on their looks. Yeah,

and not every person makes a million dollars.

Right. Right. Now, let me ask you a question

about that. What do you mean by that? Oh, you

didn't hear a couple, was it last year? It was

last year. Last year, Chris Rock made a comment

that he gets a million dollars per voice job

or for certain voice jobs. tore the internet

into an uproar. Oh yeah, you know, come on. He's

doing comedy. Yeah. Everyone knows that. No.

Yeah. And he was just because Chris Rock, when

he works and he's wonderful, he does his own

voice. And so, and he's a star. So good on him

to get a lot. No, you know, a lot of us decided

to be rather than race horses, decided to be

Clydesdales. In other words, we're out there

plowing the field day by day. You know, somebody

asked me once, well, what was the contract like

for Ninja Turtles? And I said, well, I did 200

shows. I signed 200 contracts. We were day players.

We never had a weekly contract or a deal. It's

a good day. It pretty much is a day rate. Now,

what you do is you get residuals on it. We all

did really well in that area. I don't know if

we all made a million, but close to it on the

whole series, but not on one job. That's the

nature of the business. I think it's great that

stars are involved with animation because when

they're not available, as Tim Allen wasn't for

me doing Buzz Lightyear, I made a wonderful living.

having his back and doing his voice when he wasn't.

And also for every hit movie, there's three of

them that come along afterwards, and we get hired

for them. And it also inspires the animators.

You know, they get Tom Hanks in a role, and they

can see him in their mind. And finally, it helps

raise money. You ever wonder why they have a

star like Whoopi Goldberg in a movie and no kids

know who Whoopi Goldberg is, but it helps. It

helps them get money and get that movie produced

So I think having stars is a win -win situation

and with Pixar and Disney Disney they cast so

well that they do really well. Oh, yeah Yeah,

there's yeah, there's exceptions like Brad Pitt

and something like treasure planet, but that

happens Happens a lot more on camera where they're

miscast in an animation. Oh, yeah Oh, yeah, most

definitely. What are the other voice actors that

influenced you or what are the other voice actors

maybe growing up that you kind of looked up to

or like a lot of us at least because I'm 33 Steve

is 26 I think yeah, I don't remember You know,

I'm 33 I I grew up watching all the old reruns

of the Scooby stuff of the old Hannah Barbera

stuff and everything else and Back then I didn't

know you know that it was does Butler and Don

I didn't know the names I didn't know the names

behind the voice I just knew I liked that voice

so what about you what voice actors or actors

in general influence you as far as your career

and your aspirations well first of all let me

address this I didn't know what their names are

and to this day I don't think I should know what

their names are I mean you see an animated character

and you don't want to it's like a puppeteer You

don't wanna know who the puppeteer is, you just

wanna know that puppet. You know, who cares if

somebody does Elmo? I'm interested in Elmo. So

in animation, I think it's the same thing. I

love the idea that we don't, we aren't known.

We, you know, we're just a support craft for

that animation. And when I was a boy, I watched,

I was, I'm 63, so in 1957, Hannah Barbera started

creating cartoons for kids on TV with the Rough

and Ready show and a lot of those early ones

Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, those things done

by two men Don Messick and Dawes Butler. Now

I didn't know who they were and I didn't know

they even did all the voices on shows, but I

loved all that. But bear in mind guys, I didn't

think of doing cartoons until Somebody said,

oh, you're good at doing that, big characters.

And that was years later. I just like to perform

characters. In fact, when I'm in front of the

mic, I still think, oh, well, Jim Cummings put

it best. He's a voice over talent, a wonderful

voice over talent. He says that we don't do voices.

We do characters that happen to have interesting

voices. True when you see us recording we're

all over the place We just can't run around the

room because we have that mic but other than

that Katie bar the door. It's big performances.

It's so when you get now getting back to your

question my big influences came When I was in

college and when I was at Cornell getting an

MFA in acting master of fine arts in acting and

they made us listen not watch performances. They

knew it was important for us to listen to it

and put it in our ear. And I listened to a comedy,

a comedian called Lord Buckley, Richard Buckley,

in the 50s, who was wild. And that was interesting.

Also Charles Lotton, the famous actor in all

the black and white movies. That inspired me.

I was also inspired by a performer called Ruth

Draper, who was Used to go on stage in Broadway

and she'd play multiple female characters in

monologues or just just alone on stage those

things were really inspiring to me and somehow

they just kind of came into me and you know,

I guess the creative process is a finely honed

endeavor of plagiarism because I took stuff from

all of them and sort of mixed it up and Out came

what I do Very cool No, you know and really I

became guys I became a character voice actor

Because I was in a sense of failed Repertory

or theater actor. I was okay, you know, I go

I do Oh, I was good at French farce, but when

it came to check off man, the pilot light went

off I was okay, but I've always been exaggerated

as I mentioned I grew up around the daft and

so, you know More is not enough for the deaf,

as far as expression. And so I was always more

comfortable being big. And so I was in Australia,

somebody called the theater and said, do you

have anybody that can do a Jimmy Cagney impression?

And they said, oh, yeah, we got a Yankee in the

company, because they all think we do impressions,

you know, Americans. So I go down to the studio.

I do it. And as I'm leaving, somebody goes, oh,

we like you. And I go, why? And they go, oh,

because you're so big, we can't get the other

actors to be that big. And I thought, wow, here

they've been busting me for a couple of three

or four years in school about being too exaggerated,

and here's somebody that loves it. And so I thought,

well, there's my career. I'll just embrace the

fact I'm big and find where they need big. Awesome.

Now, as far as I've noticed that you do voice

coaching, which is very interesting to me. Because

I myself am striving to get into the the voiceover

business I I've been doing a lot of fan projects

and a lot of various audio projects for years,

but So how did you get in? start doing the voice

coaching and How's that? Well, I thought Is this

Steve? Yes Good 50 50 percent chance and I got

it right Okay, Steve. Well, I taught I was teaching

the high school I taught you know, the sophomores

when I was a senior in college when I was a senior

I taught the freshmen when I got over that I

started my career in Australia someone called

the theater and said who teaches vocal dynamics

and I said I'll do it and so it's always been

a mix of what I've done and Which is a little

unusual, but and also I've got to tell you, I've

had the best teachers of my life who can't act,

and wonderful actors I know who can't teach.

But God gifted me with the ability to do both.

And early on in my career, because you can't

teach without deconstructing or breaking down

the aspects of what you teach. Well, I love that

too. I have an analytical side of my mind and

also a silly side. So I have those two things.

And so that's how I, it's always been part of

what I was. And going back to being, you know,

too big for theater and too big for film and

TV, you'll find that the most dynamic part of

you is brought up in your youth in a disparaging

way. In other words, when I was a kid, they said,

oh, you're a know -it -all and a show -off. And

I turned out to be a teacher and a performer.

It turns out those are good things when you're

a teacher and performer. And so that was my journey.

I just always had it with me. And I never could

give up one for the other. I love both. And to

this day, it's always been different. Sometimes

I was performing so much I could barely teach.

And now I'm teaching so much I barely can perform.

But I love it all. I love both those because

both of them are a way for me of hiding. You

know, as a character, they don't know who I am

and I get to do a funny character and I can do

anything I want. They don't know who I am. In

teaching, I can live through my students. For

example, I've got a student, Nancy Cartwright,

that I teach and she does The Simpsons. She plays

Bart. We definitely know her. Well, what delights

me is I watched the show and I can hear my influence

on her. How cool is that? That's awesome. Yeah,

so I don't know if that answers your question,

but that's sort of how I got into teaching. Very

cool. Very cool. Now, how much teaching do you

do per year? You said you're doing more teaching

now than actual, you know, voice jobs, but like

how much, is it even or is it like 70 -30, 80

-20? How much of each do you do per year now?

Well, you know, as far as time goes, I suppose

that teaching would be like more like 70 -30.

As far as money goes, I do a small job on a a

movie and then I get residuals, it's huge. So

it's hard to deal with it. Here's basically how

it works. On the weekends, I fly to New York,

Chicago, Canada, all over, San Francisco, Dallas,

and I teach. And then during the week, I'm home

to take a little job and have a life, and that

all works out. That's sort of how it goes these

days. But I teach on the weekends and I like

to fly in and I teach people and enjoy that time

and come back and then I'm back in town for auditions

and for jobs doing small roles on movies and

stuff like I'm doing lately. Very cool, very

cool. Would you ever want to, or would you ever

audition for any new TMNT stuff, or have you

already auditioned for TMNT stuff that's currently

going on? You know, I'm always up for... I have

auditioned for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuff.

No, wait, I'm trying to think. Yeah, yeah, the

stuff that the second generation, when they call

for a characters extra or whatever. But, you

know, it's a new generation, a new culture. Now,

Rob is playing a turtle on the new series of

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because Rob has

this light tenor voice, and he can play young.

To me, I mean, I've gone down in my years, and

I'm almost a bass, which often happens. It happens

to opera singers and voiceover guys. So, you

know, I can't do, you know, a teenager. I sound

like a teenager with a mortgage. I get, can I

have the keys to the car? It's not gonna happen,

right? And so, you know, and so I do. Yeah, I

have no problem with it. And I think it's wonderful.

And I think it's wonderful because, you know,

popular culture changes. And, you know, whereas

you are nostalgic and many of your listeners

nostalgic about things you grew up with as I

am. Thinking about Rough and Ready, Huckleberry,

Hollow Town, Yogi Berra, or Yogi Berra. People,

there's new kids watching, new kids sitting in

Indian style in front of the TV with a Froot

Loops stuck to their forehead enjoying a new

presentation of characters. So I have no problem

with it. And yeah, I'd audition in a minute for

stuff. But I don't feel bad when someone else...

there's a new crane. I mean, that's, it's, it's

really, and I love the fact that they in between

you and me, and of course, you know, thousands

of people, but I love the idea that somebody

else is imitating my voice because some producers

said, well, that was so good. We're not going

to change it. We want you to sound like that.

So there's a legacy involved. I love that. Right.

And while I personally might be nostalgic for

all the stuff that I grew up with, I still love

between the new Transformers Prime cartoon and

the new Nickelodeon Turtles cartoon. I love those

two shows. Those shows are just amazing what

they're doing. Sure, it's not what I grew up

with. Sure, it's a different iteration, but I've

grown to accept different iterations unless they

just don't appeal to me. And I honestly think

that it's one of those things where Because and

it's not just because but it's it's mainly because

of the fact that Rob is back, but Rob is doing

Donnie this time instead of Raph But the dynamic

of that cast and what that show is gonna do is

just it's just amazing to me And I can I can

surely embrace that just as I embraced The 87

version as a seven -year -old, you know, yeah,

you know That's the way to go because when you

think about it and you look back on shows The

animation was not as good, definitely, in the

80s and 90s. It was not as good as it is now.

Things are much better. The recordings, the performances,

things have gotten better all the way around.

And so yeah, I have a heart for nostalgia, but

I also think things are so much better now. And

so it's a good balance. And if they get it right,

the show, and the writing is better now. The

writing is better. So everything is better. back

in the day of the writers were in the power structure

so they were paid as much and so they really

leaned on the actors to make the scripts better

but now the writers are better and they type

the shows are tighter and because of you know

they had been a digital recording digital editing

everything is cleaner and works better because

poor when i started If you watch those Scooby

-Doo shows in the late 70s when I started, they're

like a slideshow. They really were funky animation.

Speaking of funky animation and cartoons, when

you look at The Simpsons, the animation is very

modest. It's that writing and that performing.

With the exception of anime, we go in there and

we do our performance and those animators It

has to be evocative, and those animators are

stuck with what we do. So it really has to be

evocative for them. And that's what I've always

been pleased about being a voiceover guy is that

we really guide it. We're the ones that set how

good a show will be. Very, very awesome. All

right. Would you like to inform any of the fans

or the listeners where they might be able to

interact with you online? I know you were on

Facebook, but I don't know if you keep that as

kind of like your... Personal page or do you

do Twitter at all? No, I don't do Twitter I will

be doing it but you know I sat next to somebody

in a plane and they said Facebook is the company

picnic and so I try to make keep things light

But where they can go in this life, I would suggest

it if they go to pat Fraley calm They'll click

on the free pay our menu. There's a Free there's

a whole volley of free lessons video and audio

that I prepared so people can enjoy stuff without

putting out money and so for anybody going I

kind of find this interesting go there and listen

to a bunch of them find a section on character

voice or on audiobooks or just techniques and

tricks and enjoy and If they want stuff they

can go They'll be guided to another place where

they can buy stuff, but enjoy stuff for free.

That's patfreely .com. Yeah, we'll put a link

in our post so people can be sure to go over

there. Before we let you go, remind everyone

what you have coming up or what people can either

see or hear you in, whether it's animation or

TV or whichever. Gosh, a lot of stuff. I just

did Spielberg's Lincoln. The movie's coming out.

I don't know the title of the Harvey Weinstein

film. It's coming out a couple days before the

election on the taking down of Bin Laden. But,

you know, I did recently put some books, Boots,

Tangled, The Muppet Movie, Happy Feet 2. You

know, the main thing is, you know, they can always

check what I've done somewhere. You know the

good news about me is that you know, I'm in there

they'll hear it somehow and It allows me to walk

down to the grocery store without doing a handshaking

tour Very awesome. We would like to thank mr.

Fraley for taking the time to chat with us here

in this special geek cast radio interview that

is a part of our week -long celebration of Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles We'll ask you to hold the

line and we'll be back after this Don't! There's

no telling what might come through that porpo!

Ready? I want to talk to you! What is it this

time? Why are you wasting time building mousetraps

when you have yet to provide me with a body?

My problem is more urgent. Hamato Yoshi and his

accursed turtles will ruin us if they're not...

There would be no problem if I had a body. This

is my fight. I must have the honor of destroying

them. Saki, come back here! twice those turtles

defeated you sake i hope you fail again and again

and keep failing until at last you have no choice

but to give me a body there you go folks that

was our conversation with mr pat fraley voice

of krang denver the last dinosaur and everything

else he's done that was pretty damn cool oh yes

Oh yes, oh yes. This will kick up, kick up, kick

off TMNT week as far as the interviews. We're

hoping to get more. We'll have to wait and see

if it happens or not. I'm gonna be putting my

internet ear to the grindstone and I'm gonna

be sending out a bunch of emails and anything

else but no. It was really interesting to hear

his story and hear how he... The fact that he

wanted to be an actor since or a voice actor

whatever since he was four and he liked to do

it. It was more so about characters than it was

about the actual acting. I know he's an actor.

I'm not trying to insult him here but most of

his conversation was creating characters and

that's just amazing that he can do that. Oh yeah

and I have noticed with various audio recordings

he's done or podcasts for Voices .com for instance.

that he does have a knack and an ear for whether

it be accents, audiobooks, demos, different pitches,

layers, and everything to the characters. Just

like how we broke down Krang in this interview,

the guy knows his stuff in and out. It's definitely

helped put perspective to what I try to do. I'm

nowhere near that good, obviously. It gives me

a picture of what I have to get to. It was simply

cool listening to him explain all that. That

was very awesome. There you go, folks. That's

our interview with Mr. Pat Fraley. We will hopefully

get more interviews here on GCR for TMNT Week.

Unleash the geek in you and we will see you later.

Whoa, I've heard him going out of your skull,

but you take the cake Listen to me the room with

the master control is one slide up go there and

destroy it Wait a minute. Why should I believe

a talking brain? There's no time Your friends

are in danger! Hurry! My Lord! What has happened

to your body? It's a long story. I lost it when

they banished me to this miserable mud ball.

Those three youths just blasted their way right

out of my technodrome! The neutrinos have eluded

us! Neutrinos? Running loose here on Earth? Suck

it, you imbecile! What did I do? Who are these

neutrinos? A gang of juvenile delinquents from

Dimension X. They're a threat to everything we

stand for. They hate war! They refuse to join

any army! And what's worse, they encourage people

to have fun!