Interviews – Steve Blum

Starscream here, and I am Lord and Master of

all things Transformers. Don't tell Mechatron.

and welcome to All Things Transformers Version

2 .0. I am one of your hosts, Steve Megatron

Phillips, and joining me in this is... DFT on

mic. And Michael Peacon Court Wilson. In this

latest ATTF interview, we are welcoming the voice

of Wolverine, Spike, Tom, Heatwave, and of course,

Starscream. And everything else, it's Mr. Steve

Bloom. What's up? Hi, Steve. Hey, guys. How are

you? Good. How are you? Good. Excellent. Thanks

for having me on. Before we get started, can

you give us the scoop on what's going on in the

world of Steve Blum? Any upcoming updates that

you can reveal or tell us about? Oh, man. There's

so much happening right now. We're continuing

on with Transformers Prime. That's probably biggest

news. Awesome show. Which I love. I love working

on that show. I love everybody on that show.

Transformers Rescue Bots is still going strong.

And Toonami is back, for those of you who love

anime. After four years off the air, that's a

huge deal in my life. So every Saturday night

we're back on the air and we're taking over Adult

Swim from midnight to 3 a .m. Which is a great

thing. Yeah, it's really fun. It's really fun

to be part of that again. And we're kind of rebuilding

the show from the ground up. And just a ton of

projects. Legend of Korra just finished showing

their first season. And it was a huge success.

I'm on the regular show all over the place. Ultimate

Spider -Man. Guild Wars 2 is either just coming

out or has come out. Warcraft. There's a new

project called Infects that I'm working on. It's

a motion comic with PCB productions. It's fully

interactive with leads too. outside websites.

Really, really cool project. So that's available

for iPad 2 and 3. Awesome. Other than that, I

have nothing going on. Sounds like you keep pretty

busy. Pretty darn busy. Thank God. Well, he has

to. I mean, you know, he has to keep up with,

you know, Megatron schemes. Yes. You have to

stay one step behind. I mean, in front of Megatron.

Yes. For those that don't know, where did you

grow up? I was born in Santa Monica, California.

I grew up in West L .A., and I'm still a Southern

California boy. I never moved out. I lived in

Bakersfield for one year, if that counts, if

any of you know where that is. But it really

doesn't count in my time continuum. For a second

there, I thought you were going to say Burbank.

I'm in Burbank every day, but I haven't officially

lived there. Did you always want to be an actor

or a voice actor? No, neither, actually. I never

had any aspirations of that, nor did I think

I had any talent for that. I was actually starting

out as a musician and not great at that either.

I was a sideman in an R &B band and I used to

play coffee houses by myself with an acoustic

guitar. And I kind of sucked, but I really loved

doing it. And then I got a job at a... film company,

a low -budget sci -fi film company called Empire

Entertainment. We made movies like Re -Animator

and Ghoulies, stuff like that, eventually Puppet

Master movies. I worked my way up in that company

to head of marketing. I actually had a big office

and everything and hated every minute of corporate

life. I sort of fell into voice acting by accident

in the anime world and just kept doing it. Cool.

So tell us the story behind your Guinness World

Record. That was a weird thing. I don't keep

track of my career, and I'm really surprised

that some people care enough to do that. And

I guess the guys at Guinness, there's a guy named

Gaz Deaves. who contacted my agent, I believe.

And they had just paid attention to my IMDB and

did a rough count on it. And it seemed like I

had more credits than most people in the industry

for that. So they asked my agent if she could

confirm my credits that I would be awarded the

most prolific voice actor in video games. And

when they came out to E3 this year. And my agent

and I kind of looked around as best we could

and confirmed the credits that we could. And

I think we came up with 261 confirmed credits.

And I think now they've probably got close to

300, something like that, video games that I've

been in. And so he was out here for E3. He was

doing some other award ceremonies there anyway.

And we ended up... Going to Nickelodeon. I was

doing a session at Nickelodeon. I was working

on Legend of Korra there at the time. And he

presented the award to me in the lobby of Nickelodeon.

It was pretty awesome. It was a very surprising

thing. I never thought I'd qualify for anything

like that in my life. I tried to get a Guinness

record doing spitting as far as I could when

I was a little kid. Or a hot spot or something.

But I never thought that I would ever get an

award for that. And it was a huge surprise. I'm

a pretty happy one. Oh, yeah, definitely awesome.

That is great, yeah. Well, I know, oh, sorry,

I was going to say I'm an avid gamer, and whenever

I hear your voice in a video game, it's like,

oh, that's Steve Blum. I hope it's not disrespecting

for you. No, no, I love it. I really do, because

I love it when I pick up on voice actors that

I recognize. It's like, yeah, you're very recognizable.

I hope that's a good thing. It is, yeah. In fact,

we just picked up your voice in Toonami. Now

that Tom is back, what can you tell us about

that? That was a really happy surprise, too.

I've been working with the guys in Atlanta for

many years doing other things, even after Toonami

went off the air. We'd done a few little bumps

in commercial spots and things unrelated to Toonami,

but still with that little modicum of snark that...

Tom had built. And they gave me a call, I think

it was about February or March of this year,

and they had asked if I would be interested in

doing a little April Fool's surprise for the

fans. And just as sort of a love letter to the

fans, it was sort of held the Toonami flag up.

There were a couple of websites like Toonami

Aftermath and Neo Toonami sort of kept that Toonami

vibe alive for the next generation. And just

sort of as an homage to them and just to see

if there was any interest in the general public

of bringing something like Toonami back onto

the air, they decided to do this little gift

for the fans on April Fool's, and they took over

Adult Swim for the night and brought on a bunch

of the old programming. And we did some bumps

that were new bumps, but very much in the old

style. And they used the Tom 3 .0 version, stuck

them on the air, and the viewership went... from

about 200 ,000 people for normal viewing on a

Saturday night on Adult Swim to 1 .4 million.

And so it pricked up some people's ears and eyes,

and the fans got really excited. They didn't

know what to make of it. They thought it was

a cruel trick to sort of bring back their childhood

for one night and then dump them. But we decided

that... I told the fans that if... They really

wanted to get something like this back on the

air. It was kind of up to them. And they really

had to show their support for it so that they

could justify putting this block of programming

back on the air. And, you know, everything in

programming on a network takes dollars, which

they did not have and still don't have. But the

fan response was so overwhelming. And I joined

in. I was just excited to see the people who

were interested. And so I joined in on these

Twitter wars. We established these Twitter wars

on. Saturday night. And so starting at around

10 o 'clock or so, people would just sign on.

We'd get a hashtag, like bring back Toonami.

And hundreds of thousands of people responded

all over the world. It was insane. And every

Saturday night, we'd spike, we'd trend. It was

crazy. And we did that for weeks until finally

Cartoon Network called and said, all right, if

you're ready to come back on the air, we haven't

got a lot of money, but if you're willing to

work within our budget and bring this thing back.

we want to go full steam ahead. And I said, absolutely

anything that I have to do to get this happening

again, it's, it's the response that I've received

from the fans worldwide has just been overwhelming.

And to bring this to a whole new generation of

fans and to bring it back for the older fans

too, is just a, it warms every cockle of my heart.

Very cool. Before we, before we transition into

a Transformers prime stuff. I was looking at

your IMDb, and you are credited as the squeaky

voice of SpongeBob? I don't think that's correct.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure. No, nobody

can squeak better than Tom Kenny, and I have

squeaked him many times. No, nobody can do that

better than Tom Kenny. I wouldn't even try. There

are a few little errors on IMDb. It's not perfect.

Yeah, no one will. The Internet is not perfect.

Getting into the prime stuff. Take it away, Megatron.

Did you audition for any other roles besides

Starscream? Yes, I did. And I don't remember

what roles I auditioned for. I think I auditioned

for the role of Megatron and Optimus. When I

get auditions in, they usually give them to me

in a lump. And whether I'm qualified for it or

not, I'll audition for everything. And then after

the fact, if there's any interest at all, then

I sort of pick up the pieces and figure out what

I'm going to do. That was kind of a weird one,

though, because when I did get the call to book

Starscream, I really wasn't expecting it, first

of all. And secondly, the guy who had played

Starscream most recently in the movies, Charlie

Adler, is a dear friend of mine. And I thought

his performance was just unsurpassed. It was

brilliant. And I felt guilty. I couldn't take

on the role without getting his permission for

it. And I wanted to make sure that he got his

shot and whatever. And he was so great. Charlie

said that there were several reasons why he couldn't

take the job and go ahead with it and make a

million dollars. I mean, Charlie's a classy guy

and he just gave me his blessing and that was

good enough for me. Awesome. So how did you settle

on? The dark, conniving voice that Starscream...

What was your process? Walk us through... We

know you're Wolverine, and you have two different

variations on your Wolverine voice between Superhero

Squad and Wolverine and the X -Men, but how did

you perfect your Starscream? Well, nothing's

perfect. I don't know. I knew, of course, about

Chris Lotta and his incarnation of him. And they

said they definitely wanted to go with something

a little bit darker than what he had portrayed.

It was a different model for him. I hadn't seen

the drawings at the time, but they said they

really wanted him to sound like he could seriously

do some damage. And they wanted to modernize

it a little bit. And I had heard Charlie Adler's

version. I had heard Tom Kenny's version. Was

it animated? Yeah. And I loved it. I loved Tom's

version of it. But that also wasn't dark enough

for this. They really specifically wanted to

do something a little darker. But they wanted

a character that was capable of going to those

highs that Chris Lotta would find to the craziness

and the cowardice and all that stuff. So I kind

of had to find a happy mix of everything. And

I started him really dark and and kind of built

from there. Yeah. And. I just basically listened

to the direction that they gave me. The guys

that created this show are so brilliant, and

they knew exactly what they wanted. And I felt

that they were pretty good in spelling that out

in the sides that they were handing out to the

actors. And so I just tried to give them what

they wanted, and fortunately they agreed. So

it worked out pretty well. But even at the callbacks

for the thing, they said, we kind of liked where

you started out here, and we're going to play

with it a little bit here and there. And really

the only alteration from there is they'll say

to get a little more flamboyant at times. I nearly

traveled back in time in the 80s. I forget which

episode it is in season one, but there's one

episode. I think it's the one where Megatron

and Starscream are trapped in the cave. You're

just freaking out. It just reminded me so much

of the G1 Lada version. I was like, oh my God,

that's so cool. Well, and that was a love letter

to Chris Lada, honestly. Anytime we go there,

I have him in the back of my mind, and I'm just

grateful that he sort of set that standard. We

can just play with it once in a while. But that

is the direction I get every once in a while.

The hands will go up. They'll give me like jazz

hands in the studio, and that's my cue that I

can kind of take it up a few notches. That's

kind of creepy. It is, and it's really fun and

cool at the same time. And there's so much playtime

that happens behind the scenes that that's one

of the things I look forward to most. And it's

funny because it's not just from the director.

It's like they'll give all the representatives

from... Hasbro and hub are in the room sometimes

on the other side of the glass. And I'll see

like a wave of jazz hands go up when they're

all ready for me to kick it up. So it's, it's

pretty fun. We have, we have a really good time

with it. Awesome. Cool. I'd like to change gears

a little bit and talk about a show that's near

and dear to my heart. Rescue bots. Love rescue

bots. It's a good show. My boy Aiden and I actually

do a little thing on YouTube we call Roll to

the Rescue Bots. Oh, really? That's me, yeah.

Oh, that's you. Yeah. Oh, my God. I didn't realize

that was you. Yeah, yeah. Is that the thing where

you guys are sitting on the couch and you're

asking him questions about it? Basically, yeah.

Yeah, I've seen that. It's awesome. It's awesome.

We hang out and we play with toys. It's a lot

of fun. That's the best thing about being a dad,

dude. Yeah. He's so cute at this age. That's

great. And the things he says is just insane.

Amazing. It's a lot of fun. It's a little hard

on the editing side, but it's nice to get feedback

afterwards. Feedback from a kid is always going

to be honest, so that's about the best feedback

you can get. I love it. The harsher, the better.

I started out in voiceover reading for... little

kids in preschool. And the feedback I got from

those guys helped mold my career. It's amazing.

No, that sucked, Mr. Blim. Do it again. You don't

get that from adults. They edit themselves. Steve,

that was okay, but can we try it with a little

more smile maybe? And in the back of their mind,

they're going, no, that sucks, Steve. Do it again.

I'd rather have it just flat out there. So thank

you to Aiden and thank you to you for doing that.

Oh, well, thank you. Yeah. So, yeah, my boys,

both of my boys, Aiden and Gavin, really love

Rescue Bots. How did that come about for you?

That kind of came about the normal way. I do

most of my auditions from home. I have a home

studio, and I just upload them to my agency.

And she sends them out to the powers that be,

and they mull them over. And so I read for six

or seven characters on the show. Got a call back,

went to the hub and read for those guys and booked

it. It was just a happy surprise like every other

gig is when I book it. I kind of leave the audition

laying there and I kind of go on to the next

thing. I was taught that very early on in my

career. The audition really is the job. And so

when I booked it, it was just another happy surprise.

Just the icing on the cake. Oh, cool. You may

be one of the few performers that actually have

two Transformers roles going on at the same time.

Yeah, it's pretty weird. In two different shows.

Exactly. One's an Autobot, one's a Naughty Con,

so. The Naughty Con. We're going to use that

in the next show, Naughty Con. Frank Welter.

Well, actually, yeah, there are no Naughty Cons

in Rescue Bots, so. No. It's a little rough.

We're all good boys and girls. Just evil volcanoes.

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I'm the oddest of the bunch

just because I have a bad attitude half the time.

And guys like Tim Curry come in and kind of mess

things up for us once in a while. But, yeah,

the Autobots are... Tim Curry's awesome, yeah.

As far as bad guys go, that's an awesome bad

guy. Yeah, talk about fanboy moments. When he

was coming in, I kind of lost it. And my son

came to a session that day, and we weren't scheduled

to be working at the same time. So it was probably

the only episode of anything I've ever worked

on that I showed up two hours early so I could

watch him. Wow. God, he's just amazing. Just

amazing. That's such an incredible element to

the show also. So speaking of bad guys, I have

to say I like your Starscream better than the

Heat Wave, but only because I dig bad guys. Yeah,

well. Do you like playing a good guy better or

a bad guy? I love them all, really, because I

feel like they all represent a different part

of my psyche. The bad guys are kind of fun just

because I can't go out there and be that nasty

to people in the real world without getting in

trouble. It always has that sort of satisfaction

for me. I can get rid of a lot of stress playing

bad guys. I started out, like I said, reading

to kids and wanting to do things in the industry

to actually educate and help people move forward

in their lives. So when I do get to play a good

guy, it's kind of nice to be a good influence

once in a while, too. I don't want to always

be causing people pain and stress and, yeah,

hate. Just for fun, real quick, if Starscream

were to meet Heatwave, what would they say to

each other? Who are you and why are you on my

ship? Well, um, I don't know. I was invited here.

I understand there's an emergency. We can handle

any emergency. And we don't need Autobots. Well,

I found this tea cog and I thought you... Oh,

well, come on in. Let's talk, shall we? Don't

tell Megatron. That's so fucking awesome. They're

kind of in the same vocal wheelhouse there. When

I put them together, it's kind of weird. Heatwave

is... It's still a different tone. It's a very

different tone. Heatwave is kind of like a soft

Wolverine, isn't he? He is, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Kinder, gentler. More robotic. Yeah, but still

cranky. He's got a little bit of that cranky

Wolverine edge to him. The cranky bot. Yeah,

he's a cranky bot, and the other one's a naughty

con. Let's get into some behind -the -scenes

stuff, Steve. Are there any crazy off -the -wall,

behind -the -scenes moments you can tell us about

from Transformers Prime or Rescue Bots? Well,

Transformers Prime, it's just the most amazing

alchemy of performers in that room, starting

with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who are heroes

and legends in their own right. And every now

and then, those two will go off on their own

little comedy routine. And they've known each

other for so long, they really could just take

it on the road. They ad -lib this stuff, and

it's just drop -dead perfect and hilarious. Peter,

a few weeks ago, started into a broader Crawford

impersonation. And Frank picked up on it, and

he was doing, I don't know what Frank was doing,

but they were just going back and forth, and

they basically did an on -the -fly comedy routine.

And it was so funny to the point that they actually

shut down recording, and we just sat there and

listened until they were done. It was incredible,

just incredible. We've got Darren Norris on the

show, who's hysterical, and Nolan North, who's

ridiculously funny, and Kevin Michael Richardson,

who's usually the major cause of most disruption

in our sessions. He's just ridiculously funny

and has several of his own characters that he

does behind the scenes that I probably shouldn't

mention what they are. Well, we are an explicit

podcast over here, so you can. And if you want

to, if you feel like you should. Have you had

him on the show yet? Not yet. I'm waiting until

we actually start our Transformers Prime review

show. Because we're waiting for the show to get

a few more seasons under its belt. But no, we

haven't had him yet. But we will soon, I assume.

All right, so I don't spoil it, ask him about

Escalade. Escalade is a friend near and dear

to his heart, and Escalade makes a visit into

our room every now and then. So make sure you

ask him about that. He'll know what it is when

you talk to him. The other thing that he does

is this takeoff on an old show called My Three

Sons, where he plays, he does it all by himself.

He'll just do it spontaneously out of nowhere,

and he'll become Uncle Charlie, who's basically...

This old curmudgeon sitting in his chair, barking

at his nephew to come and bring him his douchebag

and whatever else he needs to function. And so,

Kevin, just in the middle of recording, he'll

go, Steve, Steve, bring me my condoms. I need

a rubber knife now. You know, something like

that. I think that's kind of an inappropriate

thing to do. to talk about. And at your age,

I don't think that's something that you really

need. Steve! Steve, I need to fill it up. My

blood is like a goddamn pickle jar. They'll do

things like that as we're trying to record these

intimate moments between RC and the kids, you

know, and we just die laughing. The other thing

that happens in there is sometimes Darren Norris,

I was recording some crazy scene where it was

one of Starscream's kind of broken down moments

and he it was actually kind of a quiet thing

where he gets um you know a little bit emotional

and darren is standing next to me plays knockout

and he had shoved a half of a stick of string

cheese up each nostril and he's swinging his

head back and forth in front of me while i'm

trying to deliver these lines talk about mood

breaker but being the professional that i am

i carried forth and we were able to finish it

up but afterwards i almost threw up laughing

so hard it's that kind of stuff goes on in those

sessions all the time and that happens in in

rescue bots also it's it's a filthy bunch of

wackos in there and and uh that kind of stuff

happens all the time it's it's it's really something

to behold in rescue bots i would say probably

the most memorable memorable thing to happen

to me was i was doing some creature voice i don't

remember what it was some dinosaur sound or something

and uh maurice maurice lamarche uh came uh across

the room and he was standing in front of my microphone

he was staring at me i said mo what's going on

and the director was going mo what's going on

and he goes i i just have to see how you get

that sound out of your throat And he's looking

to see how I do something. This is Maurice freaking

Lamarche. And I'm just there like a little kid.

And I go, oh, you're you're actually interested

in something that I'm doing. And I was I was

so honored and flattered. And the director goes,

OK, that's great. Mo, sit down. And Ginny tries

to keep the room flowing there. Ginny McSwain.

And, you know, she she runs a very tight ship

there. But I was just so honored that Mo really.

care that I caught his attention like that. And

it's one of the highlights of my whole career,

I think. Pretty cool. So switching gears into

the next topic, who were some of the other voice

actors that influenced you? Oh, man. Well, early

on, of course, Mel Blanc, like everybody, and

Daz Butler, and all the old greats, June Foray.

But more recently, once I realized that I was

a voice actor, which took me several years of

doing it to actually realize that I was in the

business. A friend had to point that out to me.

Probably Frank Booker was the most influential

person in my whole career, only because he did

every creature voice in every Disney film I'd

ever seen, and just the versatility as an actor

with his impressions and his comedy and everything

that he had done throughout his career. And then

meeting him, working on Scooby -Doo. I came in

on What's New Scooby -Doo, and I came in as a

guest star on that show. And walking into that

room with Frank and Casey Kasem and Nick Cohn

and this whole group of people who I'd been listening

to for so long, I fanboyed out on Frank. I came

across the room at break time, and I just said,

you know, Mr. Welker, I'm such a huge fan of

your work. I'm so excited to be working with

you here. And I'm sorry to have this fan moment,

but I just have to shake your hand and thank

you for everything you've done. You've just been

a huge inspiration. And Frank actually gave me

his phone number and he said, look, he goes,

I know that you're fairly new in this community.

And if you ever have any questions, I'm open.

And, you know, I'd be happy to talk to you and

help you in any way I can. And to get that kind

of a response from somebody at his level that

early in my career was. something i'll never

forget i mean that there's a genuine incredible

human behind that voice too and i find that to

be true over and over and over again in this

industry rob paulson's another one i'm i've become

close with rob recently and uh very recently

recently i mean i've known rob for a few years

now but i mean we've been working together on

a few shows and And then we just did this podcast.

We did his Talkin' Tunes podcast. And Rob came

over to my house and we talked and had dinner

together. And what an incredible, genuine human

being as well as being one of the most talented

people on the planet. And the list goes on. I

mean, you can name almost anybody in voiceover.

And I would say very similar things about all

of them. This community in particular is just

a genuine, warm, amazingly talented community

of friends. It's unlike anything else in the

entertainment industry. I'm just very lucky.

I'm inspired every day by people I work with.

Wow. To comment on something you said about Frank

Welker, I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Frank Welker is a national treasure. Yeah, he

is. This guy, he needs some sort of lifetime

achievement award. I can't – he sure deserves

it more than anybody I can think of, and everybody

in the voiceover industry will say so. It's incredible.

And Frank really is. He's he's a very private

guy and he just doesn't take himself seriously

at all. He just does his job and he's kind to

everyone and he goes home and goes about his

business. And and I have so much respect for

that. Somebody is as huge as he is in the entertainment

industry to still be that grounded. It's just

amazing to me. Right. Right. You're calling us

like that, too. I mean, just to me. Peter is

one of the humblest people I have ever seen.

I've seen him in several different Transformers

convention panels, and he is just aghast at the

fan response to him. And astonishingly talented,

too. Yeah, he is. Just a warm heart, and he's

so kind and so much fun to work with. He's like

a little kid in the booth with us. He's amazing.

He's just amazing. Have you ever seen something

in a script that you would... Refuse to say?

Usually it's only grammatical issues or, you

know, in the case of like Wolverine, there's

been a few incarnations of Wolverine where they

might type something that's a little bit too

formal for him to say. And I'll have to take

out some of the G's from the INGs, that sort

of thing, and rough them up a little bit. But

usually the director will catch it before I even

get my hands on it. Or I'll ad lib a line or

two and they'll keep that. That's kind of how

that works. I never refuse to do anything. I'll

always do it as written first because the writers

have spent a lot of time on it. I have to respect

that. But no, I never refuse to do anything.

I always figure there's a reason for it. And

if we can find that it was just a mistake, then

we'll fix that. So if you have the job, then

you say the words. Yeah, absolutely. But have

you ever turned down a job because maybe you

knew they were going to make you say words that

you didn't agree with? I only turned down one

job in my whole career, and that was basically

a job I was hired for. It was many, many years

ago. It was for an anime, and I walked into the

room. They wouldn't tell me what the project

was. They just called it Project X, and they

said it was adult content. And I don't have a

problem with that. I'm certainly not a prude.

But I walk into the room, and they say that I'm

a monster with all these tentacles. You can kind

of imagine where it goes from there. Within the

first 10 minutes, I was playing this monster

with 100 tentacles, raping a girl in schoolgirl

clothes and with close -ups and cameras from

the inside. And I realized what it was. I said,

you know, I really don't want any part of this.

And I said, with all due respect, I humbly bow

out and I ripped up my contract. I walked out

of the room and I didn't work on the project.

And I told him, please take me off the slate.

I won't work on anything like that. And I can't,

I just can't good conscience work on stuff like

that. So, you know, I don't, I don't have any

judgment for people that enjoy that kind of stuff,

but I certainly don't want to promote it. So

that's okay. Good for you. That's awesome. Yeah.

Transitioning away from that. Happy note. Yeah.

You've been to many of the fan conventions. So

what are your thoughts on them? That's been a

process for me. I started out many years ago,

like I said, in anime. And I went to a convention

very, very early in my career in San Jose before

dubbed Japanese animation was really acceptable

to an American audience. And the wars between

the subtitled fans and the dubbing fans were

just at their beginning there. And the subtitlers

outnumbered the dubbers, you know, 100 to 1.

And going into this convention, I went and did

a panel with some of the guys from Streamline

and there were very few companies even doing

that kind of work back then. And they threw things

at me. They called me names. They issued death

threats against me and my family for having the

audacity to dub Japanese animation into English.

They just thought that was blasphemy. And so

I kind of decided not to go to conventions for

a while. And I didn't go to conventions for almost

10 years. until I was asked to do a convention.

It might have been Anime Expo or one of those

conventions, local. And I thought, all right,

well, I'm going to go to a convention. A friend

of mine is producing the show, and they wanted

some support. I don't remember what show it was.

But I showed up, and the fans had really matured,

and I found that it was just this sweet group

of people, a huge society of people in cosplay

that loved the dubbed animation. They loved what

we did. They supported what we did, and there

didn't seem to be that animosity anymore. And

so it made me feel like, OK, I can come and hang

out with the fans and I really want to find out

what's going on and what has gone on all these

years. And after doing several of those conventions,

I really got to like it. I really enjoyed speaking

to the fans and the stories that I would hear

from them were transformational for me. The fans

were telling me things like, you know, there

were some guys that were stationed in. Afghanistan

and and they would witness horrible things during

the day in the war and they would come back to

base after a Grueling patrol and they'd play

one of the video games that was in and it gave

them some sense of sanity And to hear stories

like that and and to hear stories about autistic

children whose mind opened up watching things

like Digimon, and they started having conversations

with their family when they were previously nonverbal.

Or guys who contacted me and said that they were

suicidal at one time in their life, and watching

one of the shows that I was in saved their life.

I mean, hearing that sort of thing makes me want

to continue going to conventions, and so I go

all over the world. And it just fills up my soul,

hearing the impact that we've had. While we thought

we were just making stupid cartoons. So it's

amazing. I just love meeting people from all

over the world. And it's funny. I'm about to

go to Australia. I'm going next week. And I've

been there before. And to see people dressed

in the same cosplay outfits from all the wonderful

shows I've been able to work on. And they know

the same lines. They behave the same way with

their friends. But they just have a different

accent. It's pretty awesome to see that community

is worldwide. It's incredible. I remember when

I first saw Superhero Squad show, and I knew

instantly, and I think it was because I had seen

Wolverine and the X -Men before, but your voice

is unmistakable. It just is. And as soon as I

heard the line of, hey, Wolvie. Don't call me

Wolvie! As soon as I heard you say that, I was

like, oh, my God. Because if people haven't seen

Superhero Squad, and if you haven't, what rock

are you living under? It's not super deformed,

but it's like super kiddified animation. And

it's really cool. It is very cool. But just to

see Wolverine. In that version of Wolverine,

it just made me laugh so much. So uncomfortable

for those Marvel characters. It's a really great

mashup, but they also are very faithful to what

has come before that, and they'll throw in some

little references and tidbits from the classic

Marvel stuff, and those guys are very aware of

what they're doing, and they're really bringing

it to a much younger audience, and I think breaking

them in in a healthy way, a healthy, fun way.

So later on they'll go, oh, I didn't realize

that Wolverine would actually stab Hulk in the

back of the neck and drop blood. That's kind

of cool, Dan. You didn't tell me that back then

when I was watching Super Hero Squad. But I loved

it also because it's the first and probably only

time Wolverine will actually get to say snicked.

I mean, it's awesome. It's just awesome. We have

the first season on DVD, and the boys, both my

boys, Aiden and Gavin, have seen each. episode

of season one at least a thousand times nice

i've got my itunes and i just When I want a really

good, like, modern cartoon laugh, that's what

I go to. That's great stuff. That show was just

amazing. It should have gotten a third season.

I know, I know. Well, Tom Kenny alone, I mean,

working with Tom on anything is amazing, but

to hear him do those characters and half of what

he does that makes it to the final show is ad

-libbed. They'll just give him an idea, and he'll

go off for 20 minutes, and it's all hysterical.

He's just, he's a genius. That's so amazing.

All right, so to kind of wrap this up, would

you like to inform the fans of where they can

interact with you online if you care to give

that out? Yes, yes. Well, I have a website. It's

stevebloomvoices .com. And I'm also on Twitter,

at Bloomspew. It's spelled B -L -U -M -S -P -E

-W. And if you forget that, that is on my website.

You can just Google my name and my website comes

up. And I do answer as much email as I possibly

can, and I'm pretty good on Twitter. And if I

don't answer you personally, it's just because

I'm busy, and I'll try to find the most commonly

requested questions and things and try to answer

that way. And I do answer my fan mail, and I

sign autographs through the mail if you send

self -addressed stamped envelopes, and all that

information is available on my website, too.

Awesome. Awesome. And my upcoming appearances

are on there, too. Yeah. What do you have coming

up, just so people know? I mean, obviously, we'll

put the website in the show notes, but what do

you got coming up for appearances? I'm going

to look that up as we speak. I have a manager

who books all this stuff for me, so I just show

up. She tells me like a couple weeks before.

Well, the next thing I'm doing is in a couple

weeks, it's in Sydney, Australia. I'll be at

the Heroes and Villains Pop Culture Expo, and

that's August 25th and 26th in Penrith. Then

I'll be at Anime Nebraska. which is Omaha, Nebraska,

November 2nd through 4th. And then at SacCon

in Sacramento, December 9th. I think that's a

one -day -only con. And there are going to be

other ones that come up between now and then,

and I will post them on my website. So if you

just check out my website, I update my website

every couple of weeks. Very cool. We would love

to see you in Chicago. Oh, I've been to Chicago

before. I love that convention there. It's great.

hopefully i'll make it back there sometime soon

they've got a lot of great shows there actually

so yeah crossing the fingers yep i hope so i

love that town and pulling a trick out of the

talking tunes bag we would like to thank mr blum

for taking the time to chat with us here in this

all things transformers interview we will ask

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

this all right take care peace Starscream here,

and I am the lord and master of the Geekcast

radio network. Don't tell Megatron. Hey, bub,

I keep telling you. Don't call me Worvy! Snicked.

Predictable, master. Is that what you called

me? Well, now, who has hit rock... What's that?

I'm sorry. I can't hear you beneath all that

rubble. Farewell, Lord Megatron. May you rust

in peace. But you have survived far worse. If

you managed to free yourself, you would blame

me for your setback. And there is nowhere that

I could possibly escape from your wrath. or worse

yet your mindless followers will come looking

for you and take credit for your rescue credit

that could rightfully be mine that was freaking

awesome and holy crap tentacle porn That's not

cool. I caught that reference and I knew Michael

was thinking the same thing. I was trying so

hard not to break down in the giggles. I almost

was like, and it comes full circle. It's all

Michael Wilson's fault. I know. That's why I

started laughing. He's about to crack open a

big bottle of tentacle grape. and he says and

100 tentacles came out and i just lost it so

so there you go folks that was the interview

with steve bloom my god blue paulson steve bloom

not bloom bloom that was the interview with steve

bloom here on all things transformers um i was

gonna have him and megatron do something i kind

of forgot at the end there but it's all right

we got we got uh there's always next time Yeah,

there's always next time because we will most

definitely have him back. Shoot, maybe by then,

by the time we're actually doing that podcast,

I might be doing voiceovers. So who knows? Hey,

you never know. So there you go. Megatron, you

want to close the show? Not really. I just, I'm,

I'm. grinning ear to ear so it's kind of hard

to do the voice all right so for all things transformers

i am tf2 and mike with steve grinning megatron

and pecan court michael we will catch you at

some point because i've got ideas for att of

episodes so i'll talk to the steve about those

off air so i'm actually editing uh the fourth

episode of role of the rescue bots so that's

very awesome and you should have thy promo Yes,

yes. Well, that might have to wait for the fifth

episode because the fourth episode is jam -packed

full of awesome already. All right. All right,

then. So we will see you next time. See you later.

I love when a plan comes together.