James avery actor jewish6/30/2023 ![]() But the gravy days were overwhelming and a busy time of life for me. What I’m talking to you about now are the gravy days, and only in performing because I teach more than I ever have before now. I thought my career was over, but fortunately they never watched each other’s shows.Įvery person’s career is measured in three different eras: the salad days, the gravy days, and the back-in-the-days. It was the same voice, and I got all three. I remember once auditioning for a role on ABC, NBC, and CBS, all within the same few days. ![]() That happened after He-Man got such huge figures in 1983. And the shows were 65-episode buys, meaning they were made for after school Monday through Friday. It was a matter of a few of us in Los Angeles, maybe about 20, that could do three character voices differently in a 20-minute show. What was it like working on so many major projects within such a short period of time? Joe, Pac-Man, Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Alvin & The Chipmunks, The Jetsons, and other top shows in the 1980s. You went on to do voices for TV shows including G.I. I felt a little bit better about that because I was certainly a good manager of skills and talent by then, even if I had less ability than they had. I realized then that it was a matter of talent and management with a capital M that propelled their careers. After a month, I realized that they might be doing a different voice with a different dialect. I was in shock because I had grown up with those voices when I was young. It was so bad that Variety magazine headlined the review “Scooby-Doo Doo-Doo.” But when I went in to Hanna-Barbera, I was humbled by the talent around me. When I did my first gig at Hanna-Barbera, I was 30-years-old. One of your earliest voice over gigs was working on Scooby-Doo in 1979. He can’t teach gifts, but a good teacher recognizes the gifts, points them out to the student, and teaches them the hard skills that they need. It turns out that all a teacher can give to a student are skills. But I was fully aware that I had very few skills. What I didn’t understand as a young man, was how important those gifts were. You want Frankenstein’s monster, you want a donkey, you want a mattress-I’m your guy. What prepared me was the gifts that God gave me, specifically how to commit to anything you want. When I got through my amateur standing and started studying acting in earnest at Cornell, I realized how few skills I had. I’d say, “Oh, I arched my back, foamed at the mouth, and yelled something that sounded German.” So, I’ve been teaching and performing my entire life. And after I got shot and they were around me, they would ask me how I died. I died really well, so everyone wanted to shoot me. When I was four, we used to play army in the neighborhood and I was always a Nazi. Somewhere along the line, they started paying me. I started performing when I was four-years-old. I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I did conducting it. We talked about his impressive and lengthy career, bonded over both of us being teachers, and much more. I spent 90 minutes speaking with Pat, making this my longest interview ever, and it was a delight. ![]() During the past 10 years, Scott Brick, an award-winning audiobook performer, has taught alongside Pat. He has taught audiobook narration for 20 years. For nearly 50 years, he has guided more performers into meaningful voice over careers than anyone in the history of voice over instruction. His performances and projects across all entertainment mediums garnered him Emmy, Annie, Cleo, and Audie award wins and nominations.Īs a teacher, Pat is the architect of voice over instruction. Pat has created voices for over 4,000 characters - placing him in the top 10 of all time to be cast in animated TV shows. Pat Fraley is well known for creating and performing the evil, bodiless Krang on the original animated TV series: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. ![]()
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