0115 with Voice Actor, Puppeteer, Storyteller, and Sound Producer Nate Begle - The Puppet's Heart

[00:00:06] Intro: Today on my podcast, I sit down with Nate Begle. He's a voice actor, puppeteer, and audio producer with over 25 years in the entertainment industry. From working with Sesame Street and the Jim Henson Company to voicing characters in national campaigns for Xbox and Taco Bell, Nate's career spans nearly every corner of storytelling. I met him uh as an announcer for an awards ceremony. He's narrated over 30 audio books, including works by bestselling authors like James Patterson. He brings a rare blend of technical skills and creative soul to everything he touches. In this episode, Nate opens up about the philosophy behind performance, the discipline of voice acting, and the art to breathing life into characters. The art of breathing life into characters. It's packed with insight, encouragement, and a good dose of humor. A conversation that feels both masterclass and campfire chat. Let's dive in. Junkyard Love podcast. At what age do we learn how to have better comprehensive Junkyard Love podcast

[00:01:10] Nate: I'm a big fan of greenery and nature. So it's right now pretty plump and green. So I'm enjoying Austin at the moment. Plump and green is how I like my That's how I prefer my nature, actually. Yeah, I prefer it to be plump and green. I've actually been contemplating naming my first two children plump and green. So, plump and green.

[00:01:35] Jacob: Wait, wait for it. Wait for it. Dude, I was actually going to I was hoping that you would bring the sound effects. I was listening to you on another podcast and you were Oh, I go Well, I mean, welcome. Um, we do have a live audience here. No Zoom is left unsoundffected by me. Yeah. Do you get off Do you often get podcast guests that bring their own sound effects? No. First timer, baby. I like I like to break new ground. I like to break new ground here. That's funny. Which podcast were you listening to? I'm curious. Uh with uh the uh the host's name was Bob.

[00:02:12] Nate: I forget the name. Oh, uh DJ Bob. DJ Bob. Yeah, that was one podcast. He has been a super good friend of mine. Talk about somebody breaking ground. Um, buddy of mine. He's I call him a like sweet baby kid. He was a kid when I first met him. He was 15 when I met him. And uh he's almost 30 now. So I've known him for a good chunk of time. And um young kid I guess he'll always be it's you know how you know I feel like that way with my nephew is now 15. He's twice the size of me. But I always like, you know, they're always just like encased in amber in Jurassic Park style.

[00:02:52] Jacob: Like you're always this size and this age in my mind when I think you're also still cradling them also, right? Um so

[00:03:00] Nate: But Bob DJ Bob um the DJ Bob show please everyone look it up. It's he uh kid with keep saying kid. He's a young gentleman with he's got cerebal palsy and he's his um passion is you know and his level of CP he doesn't wasn't able especially as a kid to get out a lot do a lot of stuff so he really embraced popular culture and animation and

[00:03:27] Jacob: Television and music and that became his life really and so and his goal he always wanted to be a DJ a radio DJ

[00:03:38] Nate: And you know kind of created his own show and his own podcast and his he's been doing the DJ Bob show in various forms and now it's pretty much on like weekly kind of podcast uh for like 15 years um as a kid with CP. Yeah. Wow. And he's awesome. So I got to know him through and I'm sure we'll get into it through you know part of his pop culture fascination was puppetry, Sesame Street, Muppets and stuff like that. And that's how we got connected um on the earlier days of the social medias and the in the in the early days of podcasting. Um I had a I had a puppetry podcast back in the day. Um that uh is how we kind of got in contact and yeah stayed in contact ever since and I've done a lot of audio stuff and voice over for his show and I was a audio a producer for his show for a good number of years. Um, and then you know, work life and work a lot, so I wasn't able to dedicate as much time to it as I want to, but he's got other people helping him out. But super good, dude. I love that you listened to that chat. It was a fun It was a fun chat. I always have a good time talking with him. Yeah. Yeah, it was enjoyable. I always like the perspective of like uh longtime work friends. Let's sit down and kind of like break that fourth wall of uh like, "Hey, I did this thing for you and you did this thing for me and we've been through a lot together." And it's uh it's cool to put a microphone in front of that relationship. I also from I don't know a ton about him, but just from what you've said and listening to that episode, um I dude I admire someone who just like they just see something that they want to do and they don't wait for someone to give them a way to do it. They're just like, I'm going to make this happen. I feel like so many creatives can relate to that. It's like if you see something that's not available where you're at, then make it, you know, like just make a door if there's not one. I love that. He is the personification of that of passion. Passion taking over and not letting something not letting anybody tell you can't do it. And he of course has had a lot of people tell him he can't do something because of his physical limitations. And it's a really it's it was a in working and knowing with knowing him for as long as I have and getting a chance to even talk in that way of just like just let's just talk to

[00:05:54] Jacob: Even though I knew it's it's so I don't know it makes you makes your heart grow three sizes that day you know when you see you know everyone has their own trials and tribulations and everyone has their own hang-ups their own walls that they need to climb or break through in order to do what they need to do. But seeing, you know, getting a different perspective of somebody who has going through something that not a lot of people can relate to um and his challenges of life and health challenges and physical limitations and uh you know persevering through that and making his own way and doing it how he's able to do it, figuring out a way to do it and riding that passion wave, you know what I mean? and like cuz he has he's had a lot of people say, "You can't do this. You can't be a radio disc jockey." He's had people boldly and rudely say horrible things to him um in regards to what they believed he could or could not do in this realm of and so yeah, it's pretty it's awesome. He's inspired. He inspires me all the time for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely picked that up from the episode. I'm inspired by him as well. I love that, man. If someone tells you can't do something, a lot of times you figure out who the heck you are on the other side of just action through those things other people tell you can't do or other things that just don't really have a route and you just find a way to make it happen. And then suddenly you look back and it's been 15 years and you're like, "Whoa, I've been doing that thing that like nobody thought I could do." That's pretty cool. As the great Dr. Ian Malcolm once said, "Life uh finds a

[00:07:29] Nate: Way." Indeed. Bravo. Uh, okay. All right, Mr.

[00:07:34] Jacob: Nate. Valiant. Uh, Mr. Nate, welcome. Welcome to welcome to the Junkyard Love podcast.

[00:07:41] Nate: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this, man. I appreciate your time. Um, Jacob, this is awesome. I can't wait. I'm so stoked and I am so stoked that you know how we got in I was say how we

[00:07:53] Jacob: Got engaged, how we engaged, how we connected, how we met and bringing us to this kind of point. It's awesome. Yeah, let's talk at all. Let's let everybody know. Do you think if we were engaged, would you be the proposer or would I be the proposer? Oh, I would I don't know. We'd probably propose at the same time. Okay. How would you do it? I think we would do it at the same time, but I would we would try to outdo each other in creating production for sure. Yep. We would try to out Yeah. in our levels in our in our histories of in the entertainment business and doing fullcale stage productions and things like that we would try to uh outdo I would probably get well one if we were engaged I would know like your favorite like cartoon character your ver your favorite actor your favorite cartoon your favorite animation I'm going to ask you about it later and then I would either get a cameo I would have I would go to Cameo and I would get this guy to propose to you on behalf of me in the voice of like your animated icon. Yes,

[00:08:53] Nate: The answer is yes. That's what I would do. The answer is yes. So, we're engag legally, I think. I mean, this is recorded, so we might we might legally be engaged. It's happened. It's happened now. We'll uh I'll have my lawyer look it over. No, but I love that how we connected and we you and I just kind of jived and bonded right away, even just working on a show together. And uh I love that it kind of just stemmed from this just like hey let's stay in touch. So I'm happy to be here. I was actually I was sitting next to a friend the videographer. So the show we were just doing I was the director for and you were the announcer for uh we have we have actually crossed paths before but I'm typically in a different role so I'm very much like uh DJ with his headphones on over in the corner like I'm not very uh as extroverted as I get to be when I am in technical director. last show we got to actually like interact more, right? Yeah. And so, um, yeah, it's nice to meet people like that and I always this podcast kind of, you know, that old saying of, uh, as you walk the path appears or like as you walk the bricks lay themselves or whatever it is. Um, roads where we're

[00:09:58] Jacob: Going, we don't need roads. Precisely. And that's how this podcast works, dude. is I was sitting next to the videographer uh as we were at the airport and I was messaging you on LinkedIn and it was just this perfect like as I was talking about it we're like yeah we should definitely have you on uh let's have this talk. So it just it worked out well because we connected on LinkedIn and then when I looked at your page the most your most recent post was a clip from your podcast. I was like oh right on let me check out what his podcast is and it just it was serendipitous. it just jived because um you know and then I did my little not even like a hard self. I was like I would hey I'd happy to come on and chat. I love doing podcasts in addition to this you know with the theme of your podcast. Um I was like yeah I'm

[00:10:44] Nate: An unorthodox teacher in addition to uh a talent performer producer audio guy like you as well. Um, I teach not not I literally I ended a half an hour before we hopped on here. I changed my shirt really quick because I was soaking wet sweating, but I did a whole uh VO character workshop for a group of um you know 9 to 13 year olds uh that are professional kids that audition and stuff like that. So, we had a whole group um character VO animation workshop

[00:11:16] Jacob: Just before uh you and I hopped on. Okay. Well, I want to hear all about that. Can you give me the details on that? And while you're at it, uh, I'm just barreling through on you. Give me your bio if you will, if you'll give me like your quick elevator pitch and then tell me about what you did today. Elevator pitch. So, what I say when I introduce myself to people in this in this capacity or in any kind of capacity, I say, "Hey guys, I'm Nate Begle. I'm a voice actor and I'm a puppeteer. And what I do for a living is I bring characters and stories to life." And that's that is my that I leave it at that. And then it we can go we can go deep, right? It can get deep. That's like a That seems like a simple phrase, but man, it gets deep. There's a lot of facets to that, a lot of elements to that. And I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about my history and what, you know, what has brought me to this point in this wacky life of that we lead. Um,

[00:12:08] Nate: But yeah, that's my quick and short pitch. Voice actor, puppeteer, I bring characters to life. And in I have been doing this professionally full-time for over 25 years. And I through that time, through that journey and my journey that still continues on, I have very gratefully and thankfully been able to uh do that storytelling, bringing characters to life in many different mediums um on stage, on camera, um in voice over, as a puppet, as a fleshy meatsack puppet of myself. Um which is what I don't prefer. I say what I like to do. Nate, I prefer I um you see it on my LinkedIn. They're like, "Hey, where's Nate?" And you go, "Oh, he's behind the mic or below the frame. That's where I like to live. That's where I like to hence our first thing. I love being the announcer. I like being the guy behind the curtain." Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I have a DJ background and I much prefer to go back to the time where the DJ was hidden. I want to do more events where people are like, "Who is the DJ and where is he?" And like you never get to see him. I want to play more like that. It's that like the it's the Wizard of Oz. Yeah. Right. It's the man behind the curtain. Yeah. Kind of vibe. And it's um Yeah. Now DJs are front and center now. It's a big thing. Yeah. Right. They love it. Look, man. When I when I was 22, 23, I love that attention, too. Now it's like, hey, put some like put some sanctioning around me in front of house or something cuz I'm jamming and I want to be jamming, but like it's not about me. It's about the environment we're creating, you know? Yeah. And I think that's part of me too. It's like and I've done, you know, when I uh was pursuing a career in the arts, in the performing arts, um it all starts with like look at me, look at me, look at me doing the thing. Yeah. Let me juggle. Dance monkey dance kind of thing. Doing stuff on stage as an actor, you know, speech and drama in school, doing all the musicals, all the plays. And um but the through line for me uh was puppetry. Puppetry is my was my gateway my gateway drug into the into the entertainment world. Um my uh I say I call it my light

[00:14:29] Jacob: Switch moment. Um Jacob um I don't I'm

[00:14:33] Nate: Not sure what our age difference is. So, we should probably know this before we got engaged, but um I am a child of the 1980s and um when I was uh but a young lad in the 80s, there was a show called Fraggle Rock. Sure. You're probably familiar with Frag. You're pro. Are you familiar with Fraggle Rock? I know the name. It sparks a bell. Most definitely. Okay. So, but you know Sesame Street? Yes. You know the Muppets? Yes. Kermit, Fuzzy, Piggy, all that. Right. So, I grew up I was a kid that grew up watching Sesame Street as many kids over the last 50 years were kids raised on Sesame Street, right? Watching these characters, learning from these characters, loving these characters, laughing with these characters, right? And it was at age seven in the mid80s, I had my light switch moment had watching a show that Jim Henson ended up doing called The Fraggle Rock. Um, it was a show that he put together in the 80s and it was like his way of it was his desire to like I

[00:15:33] Jacob: Want to solve world peace. Basically, he created the show to like bridge cultural gaps and it became a global phenomenon. They ended up being like talk about like franchises, you know, how The Office has like there's an off version of the show The Office in like every country. Yeah.

[00:15:51] Nate: Fraggle Rock had that. There was a Fraggle Rock and the same thing Sesame Street has that. There's a Sesame Street in like multiple countries. Um like their version of it and Fraggle Rock was that it was like creating the Fraggles lived in this world and hidden from the real world of us humans and they called us referred to us as the silly creatures and then there was another world of other creatures called gorgs and stuff like that. So they were like this bridge in between these two worlds and fascinating really fun. You can look it up. a new version of it on Apple TV Plus. Um, basically conceived and done uh by the great John Tartagia, who is one of my Is Duncan Trussell in that? Am I thinking of the wrong one? The Do you know who Duncan is? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Ah, okay. I've watched a couple episodes of that. I'm a big Duncan Trussell fan, so I've stumbled across that one. Duncan Trussell was uh Doc, I believe. Is that right, Duncan? I've watched it. My memory with things like the specifics on shows is horrible some days. Yes. I believe we're thinking of the same person. The actor, the older actor, Duncan Trussell. Is that right? He has like a very scratchy voice. Very um original voice. Yeah. Yeah. Who's in Boondock Saints? I don't know. Is that the actor we're talking about? I think we're thinking of the same person. I'm trying now. I'm like someone in the comments are listening is screaming that person. If only we had a way to look this up while we're literally talking to each other. Jamie. Jamie, look it up. Um, but uh, watching Fraggle Rock, I had the light switch moment. I was 7 years old and I went from knowing these characters, loving these characters to going, "How do they do that?" Like, I had already grasp the concept at this point that was like, I get it. They're not real, right? I get, spoilers. Sorry everyone listening. The Muppets and the puppets ancestry, they're not real. Um, there are I get that there are human beings bringing those characters to life. There's somebody doing that.

[00:17:50] Jacob: How are they doing that? I got to know. And that was the light switch moment. And so where some people might be like, "Oh gosh, my whole life is a lie. The magic is ruined." Um, I was the magic

[00:18:03] Nate: Exploded even more. I needed to know what was going on below that frame. how are those performers bringing these characters to life? And then not too long after that, there was a um and you could probably find this on YouTube. It's pretty great. The Jim Henson was very open with showing the magic behind

[00:18:24] Jacob: The magic. He was very much he pulled what's behind the curtain, right? It whereas like some other companies, Disney a lot of the times doesn't like to don't say you don't need to know what's happening, right? Don't ruin the magic. for Jim it was like no the

[00:18:41] Nate: Magic is what's happening down here and bringing this to life this is where the magic is and people need to see that and so there was a show that he did it's called the Jim Henson Hour um that was later on either late 80s or early 90s that came on and there's a phenomen fantastic I think one of the last episodes of the Jim Henson Hour all the Muppets uh like there's this whole bit of like Gonzo they're showing like how they have to do like the visual tricks like Gonzo's gonna enter the frame and pick up a phone, but Gonzo doesn't have live hands. He's not a live hand puppet. He's a what's called a hand and rod puppet. And his hands are little floppy kind of fingers. And so they literally walk you through like Gonzo enters the frame, the phone's ringing, he walks over to the frame, he reaches up and then they have to cut and they cut to a shot where now they have attached the phone to the puppet's hand and it's like a closeup shot and now he's like, "Oh, hello. You don't say." Does the whole joke like, "You don't say. You don't say." And then and then hang it up. Cut to again. Now it's that wide shot where he removes the hand and now he's not holding on to it. And that whole little simple bit, right? Cuz it was like with puppetry, we c he can't actually go up there and grab the phone. So, we have to do this cut visual effect, if you will, some, you know, movie magic. And he broke it down. Broke it down into that whole thing. And so that was really fascinating and like just like, oh, that's so cool. It's so cool how but like how quick that is. And we watch it and go, oh yeah, it's totally by mine that he just picks it up, but not even thinking, oh, he can't actually physically do it. So that's why they had to do a cut. It just all seamlessly works and blends together in the storytelling aspect of it and you write along with it. And so it was really cool to see the behind the scenes of that cut to the end of that episode.

[00:20:28] Jacob: I believe it's that same episode. It's all the muppets, all the characters together in the shot and then the camera starts to back they even make a bit of they're like ah who's who are these people? Like down here they're like ah who are these people? And the

[00:20:44] Nate: Camera pans out slowly and you see then you get to see everybody, all the puppeteers holding the characters, looking down at the monitors and still staying in character, keeping those characters alive. And I was just that I need to do that. Kind of like we were talking about DJ Bob of like he's like I'm the I'm going to do this and I was like I need that. That's what I need. I need to do that. And that's what started my journey really and I say this I was just doing a workshop with kids I do a lot of workshops with kids in voiceover and uh I say when I'm giving them my little history I was like you know kids back in my day we didn't have a thing called the Googles or the YouTubes or the zooms we had to if I needed to learn something I had to go to this place this magical place called the library and in this place there were these things called books on the walls and so you know I play that little bit up but I have to go I had to go to the library check out every book that I could in school at the public library about puppetry the art of puppetry and the more I immersed myself in that knowledge of like just the history of it you know puppetry is one of the oldest forms of storytelling that we as human beings have with each other like just after like painting on cave walls is puppetry, taking things and manipulating them, showing like, oh, this big thing chased me, you know what I mean? Bridging language barriers and stuff like that. I was just the more I learned about it, the more I was like, this is amazing. And through that process of learning my the history of puppetry, the art of puppetry, learning how to build my own puppet, how to like from scratch, how to, you know, sew, how to, you know, design and, you know, make patterns and all of this kind of stuff. And just from book after book after book through that process I discovered where I was really gravitating towards was the performance aspect of it was once this character is here physically now physically animating it bringing

[00:23:00] Jacob: Life to this inanimate object. Right? That's where that's where I noticed that was like this is my thing. This is where I'm this is my strength in this. this is what's really propelling me through this. Um, and it was through that whole process of like designing a character from scratch and then physically building it and then physically animating it and then of course that cut to giving it a voice and all that kind of stuff. Giving it thought, giving it feeling, giving it personality, giving it movement and breathing life into this inanimate sack of fur with eyeballs, right? You know what I mean?

[00:23:39] Nate: Yeah. And it was through that. And so that was my passion. I was like, I want to be a professional puppeteer. I want to be those guys. And it was like, I have two goals for myself. I want to work on Sesame Street and I want to be uh work with the Jim Henson company, work with the Muppets. And I've since gotten to do both of those things multiple times. And it was through that journey, and that was my laser focus was puppetry. Now, where I was growing up, there wasn't really a puppetry outlet for me. It's not like it is today where I could click on a YouTube video and learn how to do monitor work on puppetry. And there wasn't a lot of people teaching puppets in my where I was growing up. I was grow uh I was going to grade school and high school in the central Florida area and there wasn't a lot going on. There was some puppet stuff within school. There was this company um that's I believe is still around. I was talking about it on the DJ Bob show actually. Um it was called Kids on the Block. Are you familiar with Kids on the Block? It's been around for like 30 plus years. And it basically was um puppet shows

[00:24:41] Jacob: Designed for like middle school kids to be the puppeteers and go tour around elementary schools to teach other kids about kids with disabilities. Oh. And so

[00:24:56] Nate: These were puppet characters that all had a specific disability. Like there was a blind puppet, there was a puppet with CP, uh there was even um like a puppet care kid that had been in a houseire like a burn victim and like very similar like Sesame Streetesque things of like, hey, this kid is different. Sure. Yeah. And it's okay and he can still be your friend. It was it was very much in that vein, right? It was pretty cool. That was a puppetry outlet that I did have and I was a part of that. the kids on the block. Um, not the new kids on the block. They were just the kids on the block. I wasn't Donnie Wahlberg. Um, but um, so that was an outlet. So I had to go through because like I said, the core element of it for me was the performance aspect of it, bringing things to life. I went through the traditional acting route and I studied classical acting, acting 101. I did all the speech and drama classes in grade school. cut to high school doing all the plays and then I found my love of musicals, musical theater and telling stories in that way and so doing stuff as a human being but also harnessing my acting skills as a performer and whenever I could I would input what I was learning into my puppetry or I would incorporate puppetry elements in projects or in scenes or in sketches or in plays or something like that if it made sense. you know, at the time like the only puppet thing that was really kind of out there was like Little Shop of Horrors was a puppet thing. This is long before Avenue Q was a thing. Um, so that was my thing. I cut to I as I'm

[00:26:33] Jacob: Graduating college, I double major in college in musical theater and you'll appreciate this, my friend, digital media production. Mhm. In the early arts. I graduated high school in the 1900s. Um, and I graduated college in 2003. And from 99 to 2003, it was like, hey, this new thing called digital media, this new thing called the internet, it might take off, right? Um, and so I was really fascinated with audio storytelling always. And so in college in that double major, performing as a musical theater, but also doing digital media production with a focus on television and radio. Mhm. So I interned at radio stations, interned in the news vans, the local news station and stuff like that, learning how to put together stories and edit and all that kind of stuff. Um, so that's what I did. Cut to graduating 2003, sold my car, sold a majority of my

[00:27:30] Nate: Possessions, and I backpack and a suitcase and took the Amtrak train to New York City. And I said, I gave myself six months. So, I'm gonna give myself six months to book something. I saved up enough money at this point to do that, including selling a lot of my stuff. And I was like, six months to book something. And uh I ended up staying there for about 15 years. And that's where I built up my career in puppetry as a performer. Cut to now make this incredibly long- winded spoilers. I talk for a living. Um but I think these little elements are like important, right? They're all part of this journey and one little element leads to the next one which informs the next one. And it was through my first gig that I the first pro gig in New York that I booked was uh a show called Die Hard the Puppet Musical. Oh wow. And it is just as awesome as it sounds. A musical based on the movie Die Hard with puppets. Okay. Okay. And it was just

[00:28:34] Jacob: Amazing. Just incredible. And that's how

[00:28:37] Nate: I got involved in the New York City puppetry scene, working with the puppet pros there that were that were there, learning from them, connecting with them very much. One show led to the next show, which led to the next show, which led to working with Jim Henson folk, working on Sesame Street, working with Jim Henson projects, working with those professionals and the idols that I grew up loving and watching. And talk about a master class, just being in the room with these performers and watching them just effortlessly bring these characters to life. And I'm just like just soaking it all in. And one of my uh mentors, the great Tyler Bunch, you guys can look up Tyler Bunch. He's amazing. He's been working with Sesame for oh well over 30 plus years and many different characters, character performer, and a voice actor. And he's the one that literally, you know, I was so hyperfocused. So, in spoilers, in New York, I do a lot of kid shows, do a lot of puppet stuff. I was doing all kinds of stuff. Puppet stuff for kids, puppet stuff for adults, puppet stuff, you know, that new fangled internet thing was taking off. Doing stuff for web series, you know, independent things were it was cool because there was new ways to like do stuff with puppet characters. I was playing so many different characters and working on numerous projects with these colleagues and idols of mine. Tyler Bunch is the guy that says to me, "Did you ever think about doing voice work?" I was like, "No,

[00:30:02] Jacob: No." I was so hyperfocused on pups. And he's like, "You should you should think about it. You should think about what you're doing." I was like, "Really?" And he's like, "Yeah, what you are doing?" He saw and this is one of those to take it into, you know, teaching and having mentors and coaches and people that guide you, guides on your journeys. It takes sometimes it takes that one person to go, yeah, this you see, maybe you should look at this what you're doing.

[00:30:32] Nate: And basically what he was saying, he said, he was like, everything that you are doing when you're playing a character, he's like, I see it. I see the journey that you're going on when playing your characters. Regardless of how silly it is, regardless of how little it was, I was putting the same concerted effort into all of my characters. And that was all that's always been it's kind of been my root thing. I go for it always. And I put a lot of work into it. I regardless of how small the bit part might have been. I was always creating story

[00:31:01] Jacob: Backstories, histories, you know, levels of detail of their personalities and who this character was in their world and

[00:31:11] Nate: Using that to fuel the characterization, using that as the as the as the seed in which, you know, eventually the voice would come out of. Nine times out of 10, it was always, you know, a fun voice or whatever that was doing to for the character. But in doing so, I was expanding my range vocally as well. And I was able to really differentiate. I was playing multiple characters in the same show and making them all different. That was always like a goal of mine. I want to make sure that they were all very unique and different. So they didn't all sound the same, right? They needed to. And how I got them to not sound the same was like really internally make them so inherently different from each other. And then the voice is what followed. And that was the element that Tyler noticed and he's like, "Yeah, the stuff that you're doing will absolutely serve you incredibly well in the voiceover world. You think about that." And that's what blew the door doors open for me. And I there's a lot more work in voiceover than there is in puppetry. Yeah. Spoilers. And I've been full-time VO and with a little bit of puppetry whenever I can ever since. And um yeah, that's so that's a that's a little bit of a long a long short story of how I've gotten and through that through the voice over diving into voiceover I've been able to over the years 20 years now been able to uh branch off into all the different facets of voice over of course leading into live announcing and stuff like that you and I met on doing like a live award show and how that's one element one genre of voiceover that I've been able to uh get into and do and do pretty well. And um but yeah, my core passion has always been puppetry, always been character-driven, animation, video games is primarily what I do. I do a lot of dubbing. I have my own production studio now. I do a lot of audio post-production and things. I do a lot of dubbing um for anime and other uh foreign properties and stuff like that because it's not just anime. Anime is not the only foreign animation in town um that want English voices on it. So yeah, that's where and that's still where my passion lives. But again, to take it all the way back to the beginning, I bring stories and characters to life in whatever medium that takes, but I put forth the same, it all comes from the same place. And I think because of that, all of my stuff is worked, you know, and having to bend, I call it like bending the needle, like you go down one path, but sometimes you got to bend the needle a little bit to make it fit through this one little avenue, but it all is rooted in the same kind of place, if that makes sense. as I'm, you know, doing. We're in ghost now and we're making the pot. Yeah. With sees and to me more I'm feeling the romance. Yeah. I mean, we are engaged, Jacob. So, we are. Of course. Yeah. We'll try to keep it PG on the podcast. We don't want to PDA everybody out here. Exactly. Man, so brilliant. I really love for one, I would like to ask what that 6 months was like. For sure. I want to know more about that six-month period when you first moved to New York. But I also just want to pinpoint before we go there. Yeah. The power of encouragement. Uh I had this I was writing some poetry the other day about um uh

[00:34:17] Jacob: Basically like human beings need encouragement. Like I think it's safe to say that it's an actual need. Like if we don't have anybody around us telling us or digging, you know, we could we can make everything that we're into so very muddy and just someone could like see through the mud and go like, "Hey, that thing you're really good at it and I think it's awesome that you do it." And then we're alone afterwards an hour later going, "Huh?

[00:34:41] Nate: I love doing that thing and it's helpful when people see it and I could do that. It's pretty profound. So the encouragement um part is just so profound and I love it and I love that um so we inherently discount

[00:34:57] Jacob: Ourselves. We're always talking ourselves out of things, right? We're why and why do we do that? Yeah. And that's why it is it is it's some weird subset uh of in our DNA why you know and not everyone of course not everyone is like this right but most of us tend to get down on ourselves a lot right it's a lot easier to go ah I can't do that to like oh I could do this I should do this it's hard and that might be part of it right it's hard it's hard to go after something that you want um sometimes, right? And it and it with the help of that encouragement um is yeah, it's paramount. It is it's massive. And that's something that I absolutely apply to my

[00:35:46] Nate: Own coaching and my own teaching, my own work with actors of all ages. And I coach puppetry, I coach voiceover. Um and I have actors of all ages. My youngest is four and she's incredible.

[00:36:00] Jacob: Nice. Incredible. How fun. And my oldest

[00:36:04] Nate: Actor just turned 92. Equally as fun.

[00:36:07] Jacob: Equally as fun. And like you know it's so and when the passion is shared and my

[00:36:15] Nate: And that's what I do. I'm just always encouraging everyone's journey everyone's passion being able to pinpoint this is where your strength is. All right. Let's focus you know because everyone learns something. Everyone learns differently. Everyone's journey is going to be different. There's no one way. Bob, DJ Bob is a great person to vocalize this in a way. He's like one size does not always just fit all. Right. And he uses that, you know, in a way of like, you know, not everyone with cereble Pauly is the same. Yeah. Right. We don't all have the same type, right? Like, so there are people that have it's not all one sizefits-all. And I think that's that way with anybody, anybody's journey, anyone's passions. We can share the same passions, but we're not going to have the same way to we get into it. And I think the struggle that we have as tutors and as mentors, especially in this day and age and my younger students that I'm noticing with in is, you know,

[00:37:09] Jacob: The our instant gratification culture, the social media, you know, all I need is this. All I need is a 100,000 likes and I'm good, right? I'll be fulfilled. But talk about, you know, and that's the flip side, the double-sided coin to that encouragement, right? We crave it. We need it. And we will often get it from wherever we can get it. And I and a lot of people get it get and that the flip side of that is the thumbs the thumbs ups that we get. Yes. The any of the thumbs downs or any of the criticisms that are the internet is lousy with feels bad can equally knock people down a few pegs. And you know, we're all fully aware of the power the power of social media and with Spidey. Spidey know Uncle Ben knew it, right? With great power comes great responsibility. But and I so I take that like as silly as that sounds, but I take that truly to heart whenever I'm working with actors that are that are wanting to pursue a passion and I'm always here to encourage them and guide them in whichever way that's going to that I see fits for them. Yeah. Yeah. It's I

[00:38:21] Nate: Mean it's cool to uh as you as you get older and you get yourself into more teaching roles, this is true for me in my own ways as I'm in teaching environments, whether I intentionally want it to be this way or not, the teachers that taught me come through my words, you know. So like the way I encourage people that I'm teaching on, you know, job sites or whatever it is that I'm working on now, uh I cannot de decouple the fact that my teachers are speaking through me. So it's just it's just it's a beautiful thing. Yeah. And I will and I will quote them often. I will say this mentor gave me this line that resonates with me, this phrase that resonates with me as a as an actor. I have a phrase and if I had my uh if I could turn my webcam is mounted on my monitor here in my booth and I so I can't turn it. It's just like this is what you get. Um but every time I before I step up to the mic, I have this quote and it's a Sanford Meisner quote. If you're familiar with Meisner, Meisner is one of the many acting techniques that there are as a performer. There's different teachers, different tutilage, you know, and the Meisner technique is one of those. And for me, and I say like I always say this too, it's like for me is very applicable in this particular realm of voice over in how it is our job as a voice actor to express so much

[00:39:41] Jacob: Information solely through our voice, right? That's our channel. That's our mode of delivery of we're expressing thoughts and feelings and sometimes especially in the case of animation movement just with our voice. That's

[00:40:00] Nate: Uh bas in essence what we're what voice actors are doing. So an audience goes, "Oh yeah, I get it. I know exactly what's happening. Even if they can't see us, they know what's happening." That's the that's the skill that voice actors have. and the Meisner technique. There's this beautiful quote on what acting is. And I say this with all anybody that's learning to wanting to get into voice over or voice acting. I say voice acting is not about this isn't the quote, but voice acting is not about your voice. It's about your acting. It's capital A lowercase V because you are in fact acting with your voice. Right? That's what voice acting is. It's not about your voice. It's about your acting through your voice. Does that make sense? That's what I set with people. So I have this quote from Sanford Meisner about acting and it's acting is behaving truthfully

[00:40:52] Jacob: Under imaginary circumstances.

[00:40:56] Nate: It's a very simple quote. It's a beautiful quote talk but we can go deep with it, right? You can absolutely go deep but it's a beautiful encapsulation of what that means. behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances, you know, and some things in the world of animation, there's fewer things that could be more imaginary than like talking animals and aliens and objects that have, you know, talking dogs in Australia that have a family and a house. You know, Blue is a great example. Such an imaginary circumstance, but there's truth in that. There's truth like these characters all these characters are acting and thinking and behaving truthfully in a way that we connect with as humans and that's a fun fundamental the fundamental root of acting and it's that way the audience goes oh yeah I get it I buy it I totally understand I connect with that it's all about connection right so I have that quote so that's a quote that I always put out and I was like and I look at that every time I step up to the microphone that's such a great one every time that I go it's behaving truthfully so every time even there's words in front of my face. It's what I was doing with a puppet. Like, how do you take a as a fun example, I don't have a spoon in here, of course. Why would I have a spoon in my thing, but I bring out a spoon. I know I should have brought a spoon. Let's pretend I don't even have a pen. Wait, do I have a pen?

[00:42:14] Jacob: I have a harmonica. I have a harmonica. Same thing. Same, right? Who doesn't have a harmonica? Okay, Jacob, here's a harmonica. I want you to tell me what this harmonica is right now. Okay, here we go. Oh, it's a it's a mana uh walking cheerfully. Okay, but let's just let's just go emotions. Let's just go. Oh, sorry. Yeah. What is the harmonica right now? Dancing. Dancing. How is he feeling? Cheerful. Cheerful. Happy. Great. Now, what is this harmonica feeling now?

[00:42:53] Nate: Sadness. Solemn. Sad. Right. All right.

[00:42:56] Jacob: Now, what is this Vermonica feeling? Excitement. Excitement. What else could it be? Uh, fear. Fear. Excellent. Excellent. So, you So, this is what I say. You just told me that a harmonica was happy, a harmonica was sad or solemn, and a harmonica was excited or fearful

[00:43:18] Nate: With no facial expression, no nothing.

[00:43:21] Jacob: No sound harmonica. No sound. Just by

[00:43:25] Nate: The simplistic movements that I It's easier with a spoon. You can see it a little bit better than with harmonica. But in essence, and so I would say it was a spoon. I was like, you guys just told me that a spoon was happy, that a spoon was sad, that a spoon was scared, right? That is the power of storytelling. It's the power of acting. And in the similar way, that's where we're having to do. You need to know. Now, here's the thing with a voice actor. You can't see that I'm scared.

[00:43:52] Jacob: You can't see that I'm solemn. Right. That connection point is missing. So, you have to hear it. You got to hear that I'm scared. You got to hear that I'm happy. Right. You got to hear that I'm exhausted. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so, that's the building blocks of that of how I get people started with that whole thing. So, but again with the quote so that I use that as a quote. Say Sanford Meiser acting is behaving truthfully, right? And then it goes deep. Why is he feeling that way? depending on why he's scared will inform

[00:44:21] Nate: The level of scared, right? The level, you know, same thing with tired, the same thing with happy. Depending on what's going on, what he's thinking, what he's feeling is going to change the degree of that, right? And it's all this instant play that we can that we can get into that if we allow ourselves to find it and think about it versus just looking at words and going, "Okay, I'm saying words in front of my face now. I'm voice acting." Haha. And that's the thing that most people discount. I deal with it with puppetry all the time. The public at large inherently discounts the work needed, the skills needed to build

[00:44:55] Jacob: And acquire to do this work really well.

[00:44:58] Nate: Everyone just thinks it's just talking. You just get behind a microphone, just start talking. Dealt with it a lot in co everybody just like, "Oh, I just got to plug my mic. I'm home. I got nothing else to do now." So, I got so many things like, "How do I get into voice work? I just got to plug in my microphone and my laptop and I can start making millions of dollars." Right. Easy, isn't it? Yeah. Right. And so, but I also deal with that with puppetry. There's this inherent discount that the public has at large still that like, oh, it's just puppets. You just put a little sock on my hand. There we go. I'm pupier now. Hello, Jacob. So, nice to see you. Did you know that puppets eat words when they talk? Riveting story. Do they? Um, but anyway, so I it's something that I point out with people that work with, they're like, "Oh, yeah. I guess it is a little bit deeper than that." And then when people start to do it, they're like, "Oh, yeah. That's a little bit. It's not as easy as all that. Um but um one of my really quick passing from a mentor quote and then we will move on and I will stop talking. No, talk all day. We're here to talk. Um but again like taking something that a mentor gave you that really resonates that resonates with now I did not know Sanford Meiser. I believe he was long past when I started doing this. Um don't fact check me on that. I don't know. But um his book came out in the 80s. Um,

[00:46:12] Jacob: The great Mick Wingert. Are you familiar with Mick Wingert? I'm not. I've coached and worked with Mick Wingert. Mick Wingert is people probably would know

[00:46:20] Nate: Him. He's like the go-to Jack Black voice double. He's like does all like he does like Jack Black ADR. He ended up taking over the role of Kung Fu Panda for other series. He did all the Kung Fu Panda stuff for video games. He's like he's it's scary how much he sounds like Jackpot. But he does more than just that. That just something that I think people would maybe know him from. But he teaches voice acting. He's a great coach and a mentor. And he gave me this phrase. It's one of those things that just Whoa. It just hits you. And it was

[00:46:53] Jacob: Find your irreducible minimum. And I was like that's juicy. What's your irreducible minimum? And I was like, "Oo." And it's like, "What is it?"

[00:47:06] Nate: And that's what I had to discover. And what I discovered is for me, my irreducible minimum was not puppetry. I thought it was, but when I looked at it deeper like that, like reduce it more.

[00:47:18] Jacob: Reduce it to where you can't reduce it anymore. It's irreducible at this point. It's the literal minimum. What is the kernel? What is the seed? And for me, it's storytelling. Yeah. It's telling stories. It's bringing stories to life.

[00:47:32] Nate: And that opened the doors for me. Discovering my irreducible minimum brought me out of like only focusing on puppetry. It then helped me focus on telling stories and voiceover, telling stories through audio production, audio editing, which I also love. I love that aspect of bringing a story to life orally, you know what I mean? sound immersion, you know, and especially with the as the technology was changing and as audiobooks were becoming a thing, um podcasts were starting to take off, people were like getting their content like very intimately, right, with our earbuds and our headphones. And so being able to start to tell tales in that realm, knowing that this is how they're taking it in became a really fun, interesting way to explore storytelling and sound design. And I was like, "Oh, yeah. I love that, too." So being able to have these multiple passions all shared the same irreducible minimum. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that was just a profound quote that one person, Mick

[00:48:40] Jacob: Wing, gave me. Okay. Give me say someone

[00:48:45] Nate: From any even someone not wanting to pursue voice acting they're just interested in this how would we find each I love this irreducible minimum what would be your advice for everyone to seek out and really kind irreducible minimum that's a question for everybody's different but that's it starts from there what is your irreducible minimum and it's going to take some time took me some time to figure it out like what is it that truly brings you joy you know on a on a on a like on the surface kind of you know stereotypical like you've all heard it they're like hey how do I become an actor and they're like don't you know don't do this to yourself it's

[00:49:26] Jacob: Hard you know and any like actor on inside the actor studio have you ever watched any of those inside the actor studios like with Jame James Lipton it's kind of like that right and they were like hi uh Mr. so and so Mr.

[00:49:38] Nate: Pacino. Uh I'm studying to be an actor and I was wondering and you know I'm using Pacino as an example but oftentimes they're like yeah don't do that like yeah you're in the wrong you know my advice is don't do this is a lot of these old older actors would say that you know cuz it is it's tough but basically I think a softer version of finding your irreducible minimum is basically like find what brings you joy. Like if you can find the a way to look at that is it's like if you can find when approaching say something in the arts and if you discover like they basically like if you can find joy some

[00:50:20] Jacob: Semblance of joy doing anything else

[00:50:25] Nate: Go do that right because but if your irreducible minimum is this like I can't do anything else then you're where you need to be and you need to And this is where you focus your journey, right? Pick a focus and pick a lane. And in the realm of voice over, when I work and coach people that are just starting because it can be overwhelming, right? There's so many different branches of voiceover, of entertainment, of acting in general. There's so many different types. And voice over is not just one thing. We don't just go, I just do voiceover, right? Nobody just does voice over.

[00:51:02] Jacob: They're like, what kind? It's like somebody saying like, I'm a dancer. What would the next question be? What kind of dance? What type of dance? What kind of dance do you do? Right. It's not like Oh, no. I'm a dancer. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of dance? Dancing with your feet. Yeah. I move my body. Yeah. Okay. Where in things, right? It's not how it works. you're like, "Oh, uh, you know, uh, you know, and they dancers, I love using dance as an analogy for getting into the arts, the performing arts, if you will. There's so many different facets, right? There's so many different branches in the performing arts tree. I love to like use the a tree as a as a visual analogy of this. And from the trunk of the performing arts is like that core connection point, the acting, us behaving truthfully as human beings. We all connect in this similar way. We all know right away when someone's happy, when someone's sad, you know, just by looking at somebody's face, right? Instant connections can happen, right?

[00:52:04] Nate: And then thus stories stem from this,

[00:52:08] Jacob: Right? It's why we connect to certain things. It's why you know we people you know a connection can be created you know when people go to horror movies horror movie fans why are they there connection is to be scared to the jump scares or whatever right and if they go to see a horror movie and they're not scared they're not connected they're moved out same thing you go to a comedy show you want to laugh and if you're not laughing there's a disconnect there right and so the that whole there's similarity that we all stem from it's all it all turns into storytelling. But I use um in regards to analogizing dance

[00:52:47] Nate: To voice over. I was like nobody let's talk about ballet. Have you ever been to a ballet, Jacob? Gorgeous. Talk about storytelling. Just in music and body movement, a full story

[00:53:00] Jacob: Is told. No dialogue, no vocals. solely to told in body language, brilliant, effortless, gliding, floating movement and music, right? And we all if we're everyone any there is not a single person sitting in the audience of a ballet performance going, I can do that. Not a single one. Why is nobody going, "Oh, I can do that." Look at how easy. Look at how easy that is. They make it look effortless. They're floating. They're gliding. Look at how easy that is. I can do that. Not a single person is doing that. Why? Why is no one watching a ballet performance going, "Oh, I can do that." Why? Because I think we as humans, we inherently know our physical limitations. Oh, right. Yes. The people sitting there going that we know, oh, they spent years Yeah. training and practicing to get that good. We watch like, you know, the B ballroom dancers like Dancing with the Stars, you know, watching the pros on there and they're like, "Oh my god, they're amazing." But we know they worked their entire life to be that good, right? But when somebody sees a voice actor doing what they do,

[00:54:19] Nate: Making it look effortless and easy. Mhm. Everybody's talking into a mic. I can do that. Oh, I can do that. Right. So, there's that inherent like discount. We immediately it's interesting, right? But in essence, we're doing the same thing. It's the same amount of training, same amount of skill, same amount of effort, same amount of storytelling. Sure. Yeah. That's happening here through a particular medium. The ballet, the b the ballet dancers are telling that story through their whole body. Yeah. Voice actors are telling that story through their voice and connecting with you in the same way. And that's something that they voice actors when they start to train and start to work, they go, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's a lot." Yeah. Yeah. I get the visualization of uh, you know, just your typical iceberg of like what you see versus the work that it takes to go in the tip of the iceberg. Yeah. Absolutely. It and it really is that, you know, and it also, man, I was also thinking of um I had uh one of my ex-girlfriend's grandmothers would always say, um uh if everybody liked the same thing, we'd all be dressed as grandma. And uh isn't that so great? It's not so great. Uh but it makes me think of like, man, there's no there's no I don't think there's an accident to the thing that you really like. Like the fact that you were a kid and you saw some puppeteers and then you saw them break that wall of like, oh, they're showing the actors and you're like, that's so cool. I mean, someone might be sitting right next to you and think that's not that cool. Whatever. But so, oh my god, Ian made fun of so much. I have vivid recollections. I would be listening to as a kid listen to my Walkman. Oh, did

[00:55:57] Jacob: You have anti-shock? Did you have bass boost? I had bass boost. Oh, you had money like that, too. bass boost with my and that it was like the I had the cool uh the earbuds but they were the in- ear over the head earbuds. Oh yeah, you know the ones you know the ones I like the flat twist basically earbuds but it was still over the head. Anyway on my Sony Walkman with bass boost um listening to I used to record I used to record movies on my tape recorder used to record like dialogue just record full-on movies u but also listen to soundtracks. I was really big into movie soundtracks, you know, it all it all it all makes sense, you know, I it just in listening to soundtracks, you know, even before and granted I grew up and there was home video for sure. I lot watched a lot of stuff on home video, Betamax into VHS and then of course DVDs, but um growing up, you know, watching a movie then the soundtrack I could take with me and relive the movie and listen to that kind of stuff, right? And so I love soundtracks and just songs, any songs. I was a huge Weird Al fan. I still am a huge Weird Al fan. Weird Al is very much a found fundamental uh building block of who Nate is today. And my sense of humoring you on this. I love Weird Al. Up to up to a certain I want to say up until the either the Bad Hair Day album or the Poodle Hat album.

[00:57:22] Nate: Everything prior to that I still have memorized. If you started to play it, I could probably sing along with it. Um, that's that just lives in me. So, I had all the Weird Al tapes, all the Weird Al uh stuff like that. And I have a vivid memory of and I would practice lip-sync on the bus. I was that kid sitting there with my headphones on listening to Word Al and lip-syncing to it and then in the zone. Yeah. and then

[00:57:49] Jacob: Soon as like taking it off and then coming back into reality, hearing the cacophony of laughter and point kids are so brutal. Yeah. And you know what I mean? And yeah, I'll never forget I remember was like Yeah. And I thankfully was of the

[00:58:10] Nate: Had the fortitude to be like whatever. Yeah. Yeah. You were having a conversation with something that they couldn't hear is the thing. 100%. I was just immersed in my own zone. And but then hearing the laugh and then getting, "Oh, they're making fun of me. They're laughing at me." And at a certain point, I got to the point where I was like, "Whatever." Yeah. You like what you like. Not a lot of kids do. And so I do encourage a lot of my kids that are art artistically inclined to Don't let anybody yuck your yum, man.

[00:58:41] Jacob: Yeah, it's not about you actually don't want to be like everybody else as it turns out. You want to be like you. But I mean just you brought when you mentioned that like somebody sitting next to you like I don't know about that. Like I have literal vivid memories of doing that. I used to do that all the time. I practiced my lips sync on the bus um as a kid. For sure. Yeah. Well, that's great though. I mean you followed you know you followed your bliss. You leaned into that thing and you didn't let the other kids on the bus uh you know. And the other the other element to that is too and the thing that I encourage with a lot of my younger actors and even younger actors in their youth but also like newer

[00:59:18] Nate: Adults coming into this voice work to

[00:59:22] Jacob: Set the stage for them that's like you have to work for it. And with the instant gratification we have a lot of people that a lot and I've seen it where it's like because it's not as easy as all that we give up. they give up or they quit, right? And so that's that's something that could have very easily happened to me. It's like, you know, it's too overwhelming. I'll never be able to do this. But letting that passion p continue to push me, the passion was the pusher in my pursuit alliteration. Heck yeah. You know, the passion was my pusher for my pursuit of

[01:00:01] Nate: Puppetry. But write that on a shirt and sell it. Yeah. Try to say that five times fast. Speaking of which, did so. It's so funny. I as I see it up here. I do I do warm-ups. Let's do a fun Let's do a fun thing. We're talking about puppetry. Uh or not puppetry, but in warming up when I have my uh my students that I was coaching with today this morning, it's important to warm up. Do all this kind of stuff. And when we're doing v vocal stuff, a really good warm-up is tongue twisters. So, and I literally just saw it and it made me think when I was doing the passion was my pusher of pursuit of puppetry. Uh, I did a fun tongue twister that I did with my kids this morning. Do you want to do it? Oh, wait. I do. Yes. Okay. I need to start tongue twisters before podcast.

[01:00:41] Jacob: Can you let me share my screen? Yes. Cuz I'll let you read it. It's easier if you can read it. Yes. I love this. This so great. Okay. Uh, you should be good. Here we go. The tongue twister of the

[01:00:53] Nate: Day is gobbling gargoyles. Gobbled.

[01:00:57] Jacob: Gobling. Goblins. Gobling. So, say it once slowly and then I want you to do it three times fast. Do you want me to go first or do you want to go first? Uh, you go first. Okay. So, it's gobbling gargoyless gobbled

[01:01:11] Nate: Gobbling goblins. All right. Here we go. Gobling gobbling gargoyless gobbled gobbling goblins. Gobling gargoyless gobbled gobling goblins. Gobling gargoyles. Gobbled gobbling goblins. There it is. Wait. Oh, I hit the button.

[01:01:26] Jacob: Wait, there it is. Yeah. All right. Now it's up to you. Okay. Uh, slow first gobling gargoyless gobbled gobling goblins. Yep. So, you can see like this is what we're working on is the ga going. And you can see how it's a good tongue twister because it really works all of the elements of moving your jaw and your lips. Yeah, I should have done my face yoga today. Yeah, face yoga. Oh, so important to do that face yoga. But for funsies. All right. You ready? Whenever you're ready, sir. Gobling gargoyles. Gobbled goggling goblins. Gobling. We got some gobling. We got some gobling goggling goblins. I'm going to accidentally say a bad word here. Gobling gargoyless gobbled gobbling goblins. Gobling gargoyles. Gobbled gobbling goblins. Gobling gargoyless. Gobbled gobbling goblins. Woo.

[01:02:18] Nate: Nailed it. It's fun though, right? Yeah. Yeah. I hope people are listening to this wherever they're at in their cars in their apartments just like screaming about goblin gargoyles. Wait. Yeah. I was like, "What? You see goblin gargoyles?" Goblin goblins. It's like the uh Did you ever see um Twilight Zone? Yes. The Twilight Zone the series and then the movie and they had the terror at 20,000 ft. Okay. Yeah. Like the goblin that's on the wing of the plane. Yeah. And in the series it was William Shatner and in the movie it was John Lithco freaking out with the goblin on there. And I always think of though to put me into my zone I always think so there's that. I know that version. I know the Twilight Zone series version with William Shatner and I know the movie version with John Liithkco. But what I always think about is Jim Carrey as Ace

[01:03:08] Jacob: Ventura on the plane doing Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura doing William Shatner going like there's something on the wing some

[01:03:19] Nate: Thing. Yeah. Yeah. My brain populates more my brain populates more with the Jim Carrey. He's a great example of someone who could like stick a storyried scene in your head so quickly. For sure. Yeah. again. And all of that, that's elements that I, as I've continued on in my career, like it's all a part of me and I access all of it. I access that Weird Alowl sense of humor and rhythm and pacing. I learned that like, oh, Weird Al taught me musical rhythms and stuff like that as well is where the comedy lies in the music and in the pacing. And you know, in addition to just being a brilliant like parody lyricist, but also Jim Carrey, talk about Jim Carrey and like Nick Cage are people that commit And talk about like

[01:04:03] Jacob: Making a choice and going for it. Yeah. And that's an important element of this too. But that's also an important element of the pursuit. The pursuit in general of your passion that's pushing you, right? Yeah. Commit to it. Yeah. Make that choice and stick with it. Yeah. Yeah. There's a reason why you have that one. You know what I mean? Like they didn't hand that one to the person next to you and the house next to you. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And all of those just, you know, add elements to the success that I have found in these certain avenues, especially in characterizations and comedy and that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so tell me about I want to rewind back a little bit. These first six months that you went back here. Uh how old were you when you first went to New York? These six months where you're like, I'm going to get booked on a show. I'm going to give it my all. I saved up a little bit of money. I'm in New York. I just graduated college, so I just turned I wasn't even 21 yet. So, I graduated high school at 17, so I was 20. And you got a couple bucks in your pocket in a dream. And I mean, I mean, what did this look like? Did it after the six months, did it look how you thought? Were you discouraged very quickly? Um uh I will say for me, I was able to book my first thing within the first month. Amazing.

[01:05:16] Nate: Uh not my first puppet thing, the first show that I did was within the first month. And then just hitting the pavement though, like and it was it was old school back in the day. It was like you get backstage the paper to find where auditions were and go to that like and do that kind of stuff. And then with it was it was Backstage and Play Bill. Pay Play Bill had their own uh um

[01:05:41] Jacob: Uh what's the word I'm looking for? I use words for a living. Uh publication that you could find auditions for as well. So I just hit the hit it. And then in addition I got a job. Uh you know you got to get finding a job. I my journey was definitely different too cuz I also talk about making a passion and making a choice and I made a choice that probably that if I were to again it's that classic like if I were to do over something I probably would not have been this stubborn and the stubborn choice that I made being an a young actor in pursuit of performing was I am not going to wait tables not going to do it And it wasn't for any

[01:06:24] Nate: Reason of like I'm better than that. It was be all stemming from my job in

[01:06:31] Jacob: High school was working at KFC and it

[01:06:34] Nate: Was the worst job I ever had. So you knew what you didn't want to do and I was like I am ne I made this like solemn vow to myself at 16 that I was like I will never work in the food service industry ever again. Ever. And um in hindsight, I probably could have uh had an easier time in New York than I did. But at the same time, I don't regret it because it forced me to hustle. It forced me to hustle, to get gigs, to get money. And what it led me to was finding job, a job to keep the lights on in between doing gigs in New York. Um, and I started working at a uh a rehearsal studio space and I became a studio manager uh at this rehearsal studio space. To even to date me even further, prior to that, I was a store

[01:07:34] Jacob: Manager at Blockbuster. Mhm. So, in it's like a cool thing to have on your resume now. Kind of. It's so vintage. Except if you look back to it, it's like all the jobs that I've had like prior to doing performance full-time was uh 1-hour photo center at Walmart. A 1-hour photo. You don't need to do that anymore. Uh Blockbuster and projectionist at a movie theater. Three jobs that don't really exist anymore. They're still projectionists out there. God bless them. And if I if I if I had my brothers, I think I could

[01:08:11] Nate: Thread a 35mm projector still in and I haven't done it in years, but like I did it so much. Um the multiplex that I worked at um only had was 16 theaters,

[01:08:24] Jacob: Had 15 35mm projectors and uh only one digital at the time. And by the time I left, I think they were already starting they were only down to like three 35 mm.

[01:08:35] Nate: Now everything's digital of course, but that was I was back in the day where I get to like build movies like build get the film reels and put them together. It was cool. It was what a cool job. But so I had that kind of work and I'd had and studio store manager experience prior to getting this job as a studio manager in New York. And that was the job that kept me afloat throughout all of my theatrical endeavors. And it worked out in a great way. not too dissimilar to a lot of actors that were waiting tables, right? Getting to audition and stuff during the day and then working at night. They were coming away cash in hand. I was unfortunately like getting paid like normal like bi-weekly kind of thing as like at like a job. Um, so I wasn't walking away with cash in hand every night, but I was immersed in this theatrical world there working in this rehearsal studio space. and I got to make so many great connections with a lot of performers with different Broadway productions would rehearse there. Um, work it was it was part of NYU. Um, and so working with like a lot of the NYU uh alumni and stuff like that in the theater program. Um, so it was a it was a cool thing and I would not have found that if I had gone the like I'm

[01:09:51] Jacob: Just going to wait tables and do gigs. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think there's something to be said about that because I think I'm kind of like you in that aspect of um uh I've got to kind of like be around it. You know, I always I would go through stages of telling myself minimum I need I would tell myself, you know what, I could just do Uber Eats. I could I could just you know what? If I get low on bills, I'll do this. But I don't ever do it because it's like as I'm driving the Uber Eats, I can't stop picturing myself as like less than I want to be, you know? And so it's kind of it could be um even almost unreasonable, but sometimes you got to recognize that if you are the type that needs that.

[01:10:31] Nate: Well, I will say in the reverse, if you are someone who um seriously all power to you, if you're able to wait tables, if you're able to, you know, drive Uber Eats, whatever, I mean, tuck your shirt in, be the hardest working person there, like remember that you're building up all these attributes and character traits that will lead into the things you're passionate about when you're not making doing that job. But um yeah, I have a lot of actor friends that's how they approach that too. They're like, "Yeah, I'm doing a role. I'm playing a role." Yeah. And sometimes they would go in and like I'm doing That's a great trick. I'm I create a whole new personality from one night to the next as I'm serving tables. And I did a very similar thing working at Blockbuster before there was caller ID. You know, I got it was funny. It was a fun little story. Got prank called. got prank called a lot at Blockbuster and it was at the beginning of like they were doing soundboards and it was like Arnold Schwarzenegger prank called me at Blockbuster and Alpuccino prank called me at Blockbuster and that gave me the idea that I was like I'm going to start playing along and then some days on like slow days and bored days I would answer the phone in different accents and play different people and different names as the manager.

[01:11:46] Jacob: Like I would play characters all the time. Yeah. Even at Blockbuster. I mean, that's what you should do though. I think it's kind of a hack on life, right? It was like be the character who would serve that role amazingly. Who you know, someone who It's not about you, but if someone comes in to Blockbuster to Red Something, they walk out and they're smirking from ear to ear at the character you just gave them. And you feel good and they feel good. And how much better could you I mean what a way to really serve a role right there. Like you're giving them a story as they come in to get their stories. Exact stories as they get their stories. Yeah, man. What a good That's a good way. That's a t-shirt. That's the t-shirt. Here's some stories while you get your stories. Yeah. No, for sure. Yeah. I always wanted people and that's just again another irreducible minimum of me personal uh person as a person. Um not what I want to do, but like who I am is like I just want to bring joy. Literally my I just want people to smile and be happy for a moment, you know? That's always been my that's always been my goal. Taking it back to the job that we worked on together was an award show for high school kids that work really hard for this moment. You know, these are kids that are going through this process of becoming the future business leaders and you know, they're getting recognized for their hard work and all the stuff that they put in there and they're there to be celebrated and that's such a great energy that I naturally always want people to feel. I want people to feel great and feel happy and feel celebrated. And so when I'm live announcing fifth place to first place, guess what? Every single one of them gets equal juice. They all get the same amount of juice. They're equally celebrated regardless of this person won fifth place versus this person winning first place prize in this particular event. They all get the same amount of acol of

[01:13:45] Nate: Energy and

[01:13:48] Jacob: Accolade from my read of their name. I never hit anybody more than anybody else. And that's always been my kind of stamp that I do when I do the live awards announcing. Yeah. So I'm thinking of like a m magician finding his magic. And what's cool is when you approach it that way, each name actually has its own energy that you can tap into for that. Oh yeah, sure. Like if you just if you just approach it in a way of remember I always think about this with um uh just big live concerts. something I see, you know, I'll be in the realm of, not to throw them all under the bus, but rap concerts, for example, sure, is the quickest way that I find the performer sending it in, phoning it in, like they're getting just messed up backstage. They're not really, they're not tapping into the fact that when they walk on that stage, there is hundreds and hundreds of people who they got a babysitter that night. They've been excited about this. It's been on the calendar. They listen to hours and hours of your music, you know. So getting yourself to where you remember how important it is. It's not about you as the performer in that moment. It's about like this is an exciting fun thing. This person worked a lot for or they've been excited about it. You know, if you could tap into that, you'll find that it's just a wellspring of energy to give right back to them. You know, it really is and it's fulfilling. You find it being fulfilling. I do. And I think of it in that same that you just reminded me of another great quote that the great Stan Lee of Marvel fame has and it's uh any comic is I may be bastardizing it or we're not bastard but I might not quoting exactly but it's basically any comic is someone's first comic book. So even though he's doing hundreds and thousands of Spider-Man comic books, right, continuing a story, he always approached it was like any one of these comic books is going to be somebody's first comic book. That's kind of cool to think and it fits in that realm of what you were saying, right? Absolutely. Everybody, you know, this could be that person's one night out for the whole year, right? I feel that I do a lot of work with um after leaving New York, I moved to back to Central Florida in Orlando for family reasons um just pre uh COVID and um I do

[01:16:04] Nate: A lot of work with the theme parks down here and uh different elements, puppetry elements, voiceover elements, things like that. Some fun performance motion capture kind of stuff for entertainment things in the park. And the theme parks, Disney and Universal, uh, especially, they all have that same kind of mindset of like it can be very easy,

[01:16:27] Jacob: Especially say a performer that's like does this show and they do the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It might even be something that's like we hit play and it's the same. It's literally the same thing, right? I toured with a show for about four years

[01:16:44] Nate: Called John Tertagia's Imagination and it was a black light puppet show that took place under the sea, under the ocean. It was so cool. The lights would go out and the stage was only illuminated in black light. So the puppets were literally flying like on stage. Such a cool thing. And it was a kid shows 45 minutes, but it was all pre-recorded. It was you hit play and it is the same. Pardon me. Get out of the way. It is the same show. It's the It's hit play and it goes. The recording is the same. Wow.

[01:17:21] Jacob: Every single time. I did over a thousand of these shows. Jeez. Um but so how does one not make it the same? Mhm. Every every audience is going to be different. every reaction is going to be subtly different. Even though the audio and the dialogue and there was moments that the characters are lip-syncing and beats and story stuff, a lot of it with blacklight stuff is all a safety issue because the performers were dowsed in black. Like it had to be very strategically choreographed for safety and to match with the timing of the playback, right?

[01:18:00] Nate: But doing that a thousand times, there was always finding once you lock into it, then you can always find there's something we can change up a little bit. There's always a moment that you can change to give it new life, give it a slightly different energy, fun little reactions. If your character's not if my character is not talking but reacting, I can change up the reaction that they make to what's just been played subtly. This still makes sense.

[01:18:25] Jacob: But again, even in that realm, you can find new ways to add life, to bring more life, to change the energy up a little bit. And often times the audience will help you with that. Mhm. Right. Does that make sense? So like in that same way, you're like, "Oh jeez, here we go." And we all go through it. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're all human, right? We all have bad days. We all have, you know, but if you are able to and it takes time and it takes practice, I think for performers to get to that point to be able to despite whatever you're feeling that day, whatever bad day you've had, it's the it's the age old adage, right? The show must go on. Yeah. Yeah. Right. The show must go on. And in that moment, however long it is that you're on there and I have found solace in it, in myself when I've had bad days or something horrible's happened and I still need to go do the show,

[01:19:24] Nate: Finding in that little pocket of time, that little pocket universe that I'm now in, we can let that real world go away for a minute and find new fun energies in this particular moment, even if it's repetitive. Right. And just lock locking on to one

[01:19:44] Jacob: Little kid with a very distinctive laugh

[01:19:48] Nate: That just that makes all of us on stage like cackling. And what was so cool doing the puppet show I was talking about because it was playback. We're not miked. We're not live. They can't hear us at all. The show's really loud. So we're talking to each other on

[01:20:05] Jacob: Stage and like I vividly remember them. It's a true story of hearing one little kid in the front row having such a ball like a degree above everyone else with a very distinctive almost iconic hilarious laugh that I don't even think I could replicate it. And it just made us all crack up the whole time. And that is a show easily within probably the 800th time that we have done this. And that show stands out to me because that moment just made us so happy hearing this one kid be his like whatever it was. It was like this very like just hilarious laugh that we could hear so loud and proud and he was just uh and it's moments like that go, you know what? Yeah, it's all right. We're okay. We're doing something all right. It's like a like find a way to get out of your head and into that room, you know, like the magic is in that room. If you can tap into it, that's beautiful. Okay. Um we are getting up here in time, my friend.

[01:21:10] Nate: Anyway, uh we are getting up here in time. Um I would love to ask I can keep going. I could keep going on and on. We could talk for hours. We'll have to do it. We'll have to do a part two. But yes, please ask me questions. Count me in. you'll have to be in touch on what new projects to do. Maybe we'll uh time it around that and talk about the projects. But um I would like to just give me um say people are listening right now or like you know some someone's listening right now and they have their teenage kid in the back seat or their 10-year-old in the back seat and they're fascinated by this and they're like I want to voice acting sounds cool, puppeteering sounds cool. Uh this uh recording audiobooks sounds cool. Whatever it is uh this is the guy to go explore more. So, not only are they going to be able to click on your um your IMDb and profile links and such below, but uh what kind of advice would you have for them? Where would you send them to begin? Uh what encouragement would you give them? If someone's interested in this, where do they where do they start? Um such great questions. So, again, I mean to take even take it back to, you know, pick a focus. If you're like, I'm interest, again, voiceover is not just one thing. Uh even puppetry is not just one thing. to talk about there's different forms and styles of puppetry. Pick one. Pick one to start with. Like most people are like, I want to do hand and rod. I want to do the Muppet style stuff. Then there are nowadays I would say there are so many free resources out there um to look up. Um, but in regards to voice over, I think it's really important to um you can always if they you can reach me through your links and stuff like that and I'm always an open book to help guide someone to coach, work with people, work with professionals, work with um meet with people that do this for a living. Um, don't just go to social media and look at Instagram feeds of people um and say, "Oh, I need to get this mic. I need to get this thing. They're telling me I need this, this, this, and this, and this to get before I even do any kind of voice over." And all of that is patently false. There is, like I said, there's no one way. Everyone there where there's is a where there's a will, there is a way. And not everyone's journey is different. Not everyone I do. So, meet with someone. meet with someone that does this. Talk to them and say what and really choose. Choose what you want to do. You can't just go, it's not about taking spaghetti and throwing it against the wall for this. It's really important to pick a primary focus first and start

[01:23:39] Jacob: To learn how to navigate that path. And

[01:23:43] Nate: As you maintain, you may discover this isn't for me now. I'm going to go over here. Or you may discover, oh, this is for me. Oh, and I'm also learning all this other stuff that'll lead me down this other path. That's what happened with me, right? I love puppetry. Oh, it led me to voiceover. Oh, which led me to doing animation. Oh, which led me to do to video games. Oh, which led me to do uh audiobooks. Oh, which led me to do all of this kind of stuff, right? And because I was like, oh, all of this stuff that I'm doing totally works for this and I can succeed in this as well. Are you kidding me? You I didn't discover that until I went down this path. So, pick that one path. And

[01:24:18] Jacob: Sometimes it takes people a while to go, well, what do I want to do? Right? And one, it's okay to not know what you want to do. Always it's okay to not know. Um, but give yourself, so give yourself the time, give yourself the grace, give yourself the patience to go, hm, I want to try this. And do your research. Research it. Don't just look at YouTube and Tik Toks and Instagrams. Check

[01:24:40] Nate: Out books. check out, you know, there are lots of professionals like myself and many others that I could also guide you towards that do this line of work that coach in the genre that you want to pursue. You know, there are ones that train for animation and video games, myself included. There are ones that do solely for audiobooks there, which is an entirely different beast, by the way, when it comes to voiceover. Let me tell you, if people want to do audiobooks, yes, please. I love them. But it is a very different beast. Um, and so yeah, do your research. Do your research. Um, and reach out and connect, contact, go to these people's websites, look at the work that they've done and reach out to them. And any of these people that do coaching like myself or I promise you will go, "Hey, yeah, absolutely. Let's talk." And you know in talking with someone like I had I'm sure Jacob that you've had with other mentors of yours that you know help you go oh maybe I should look at this or I didn't even think about that. What a great idea. You know and that's where it's important to really have this one-on-one an in uh you know to chat with someone who does what you want to do is the best way to do it. Find the people that do what you want to do and ask questions. That's literally the best thing you can do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's so perfect. I love that. What a what a perfect answer. Okay. Um I would love for you I'm going to put you on the spot. Are you ready to Okay, I'm here for it. Spot. Okay. I would like say that you had say that you had a say that you had a megaphone to humanity. I don't need one. No pressure. Everyone can hear me just fine. Yes. A mega a megaphone to humanity. And you have to give them I mean and it could be cheesy. It could be funny. It could be uh encouraging. What? Whatever it is, whatever comes to mind. And I would love for you, this is the challenge for you on the spot, a character that would best communicate such a message. There's no wrong or right. You got a megaphone. You could tell everybody a short message that they may need to hear from a character that could speak it. Okay. The stage is yours. Take

[01:26:50] Jacob: Your time. Oh, it's just a Oh, I thought it was like, what are they? Oh, I was like, wait, scenario. That was the setup. It's like it's a megaphone to humanity. Just everyone's listening. Okay. Um, all right. You know, it's going to be Kermit. He's just going to be on there. I'm going do my Hey everyone, Kermit the Frog here. Yay. I want you all to do what you love. No matter what it is or what it takes, just do what you love. And haters going to hate. Do what you love. There's a quote. There's a quote. I love that again. Quotes that resonate, right? The Little Miss Sunshine. You ever see the movie Little Miss Sunshine? Yes. Paul Dano plays this character that doesn't speak throughout the whole movie. And when he does finally speak, it becomes pretty profound, right? He's gone through this whole movie silently. He's chosen not to speak. And at the end, he basically says, "Do what you love and the rest." So, is Kermit doing a nicer version of that? Everyone, do what you love. Follow your dreams. Follow your passions. Learn. Don't be afraid. I'm keep the mic. The microphone's still on. I'm still going. Don't be afraid to fail. Guess what? Failure is a great teacher.

[01:28:11] Nate: And it's okay. You're going to fail. You're not going to be good right away. It's gonna just keep going. Keep the

[01:28:19] Jacob: Great philosopher Dory from Little Nemo. Just keep swimming. I'm just naming other people's quotes. Just keep swimming. I mean, they are good. You can't deny it. There's a reason that they're good and there's a reason that they resonate, but like just keep swimming is a beautiful one. I love that one. And I think in and yeah, just keep just keep swimming. Keep doing live your truth. do like don't be afraid of what other people think of you and don't let don't let people that are laughing at you if you're lip-syncing on the bus sway you from following that

[01:28:56] Nate: Path to a career. Yeah. You may you may know something or be tapped into something that they're simply not and they don't need to know right now. Um yeah, it actually I'll give it one of my own. Something that I was just talking about the other day that I always remember um I rode unicycles when I was in elementary school. Um, nice.

[01:29:14] Jacob: Yeah, strangely enough, I was on unicycle. Did you juggle? Did you juggle while doing? I did not. I did not juggle. I did actually uh bunny hop on mini trampolines while on a sixoot unicycle, though, which is sounds insane. I do not I could There's no way I could do it now, but I did in elementary school. Does, but I'm here for it. Yeah, we performed at Sonics and Trailblazers. Impressive. Uh, but anyway, so what's funny is I always remember the thing that clicked with me when I first started riding it. I saw it and I saw other people do it and I thought they were cool as crap and I was like I want to do this and I would you push off the wall and you fall and whatever. When it clicked for me it was literally when it feels like you're about to fall just keep pedaling and like that was the most profound light bulb moment. It worked for me and I see. Excellent. When you feel like you're going to fall, just keep just keep pedaling. Just keep pedaling. Just keep swimming. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. So good, man. There's plenty of amazing quotes for everyone to take home. Uh please look below, read below, click on the links, check out Nate's work here. Uh please reach out to him if you have any more interest in his work or anything we talked about today. And uh yeah, we'll have to do a part two and talk about more like other fun things.

[01:29:14] Nate: Yeah, I you know what's funny? I had a I have a lot of like philosophical uh character questions about like kayfabe and um how we interface with the world. And yeah, we have uh much more conversation to have, my friend. Part two, baby. Part two. It's happening.

[01:29:14] Outro: Cool. All right. Well, everybody, uh, I'm going to hit end on this record here. Drink some water. Stretch. Hydrate. Do your voice. Hydrate. Please hydrate. Water. The breath of life. Get a cheap filter for your fridge and all that. Um, yeah. So, anyway, we will see you next episode. Check out the links below. Goodbye everybody. Love you long time.