Arts and Craft

Bill Timoney

Season 1 Episode 2

Actor, director, comedian Bill Timoney, currently performing in in the Kenny Leon-directed revival of Thornton Wilder’s OUR TOWN on Broadway, joins us for our premiere episode. We chat about life in NYC’s infamous Manhattan Plaza, his run in with Michael Jackson’s Capuchin monkey, and learn a little bit about the world of ADR. And as a bonus; six degrees of separation with Julia Roberts.

BILL TIMONEY has worked in movies, primetime & daytime TV shows and commercials, and on Broadway and in regional theaters throughout the USA. He was a regular roster member at NYC’s famed Original Improv comedy club during the stand-up boom of the mid 1980s. Bill’s best-known role is “Alfred Vanderpool” the preppie nerd of Pine Valley on the popular soap opera “All My Children.” Bill portrayed the bespectacled, bow tie-wearing Alfred from 1982 thru 1987, returning to the role on a cameo basis from 1998 thru 2005. Bill can be heard in hundreds of TV shows, feature films, and cartoons. He’s voiced numerous recurring roles on that never-ending anime program POKEMON. He writes a column for Videoscope Magazine titled “Heard Not Seen: Adventures in Voice Acting.” Bill is currently in previews on Broadway this Fall in the Kenny Leon-directed revival of Thornton Wilder’s OUR TOWN.

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Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.

If you're around the business at any any frequency all kinds of stuff happens great great things happen for you horrible things happen there are there are horrible people in the business as well as wonderful people in the business he's an actor director script writer producer and a standup comedian he's recently been on Broadway in pearly Victorious and will be back in our town this fall Bill Timoney is our guest today on arts and crafts my name is Nancy Magarill. I'm a singer songwriter composer performer graphic and web designer and I'm Peter Michael Marino and I'm a writer producer Creator performer and educator we are new york-based artists you may or may not have heard of and we are here to introduce you to other artists you may or may not have heard of you guys lived in La at all no no but I was there for an earthquake really as a visitor and you got lucky yeah I did did you live in LA Bill oh yeah I've done three I'm so sorry to use this phrase It's terribly insulting to say three tours of Duty but um in the 80s when uh my career sort of plateaued I went out there so I was in my 20s and then in the '90s when my career hit rock bottom I moved back out there to discover that Rock Bottom had several sub basements and then um in the early 2000s when my wife and I got together um and we moved into Manhattan because my number came up at Manhattan Plaza and I said' look my number came up we have to move at Manhattan Plaza and the second night manah Plaza she said' I'm not going to be able to live here so she spent some months going you know so many people in the business in La they all want you to move out they're all promising you jobs work opportunities let's move out to L and I said you don't understand people in the LA when they make offers of promises they don't expect you to accept them and she found that hard to believe so we moved out to LA for the third time in which after about eight months she said you know now I understand and we moved back and did you lose your Manhattan Plaza Apartment oh yeah yeah we're one of the only people you'll ever meet who moved in after 13e weight and moved out after less than a year it was not for us and why wasn't it we're in the 10th Avenue building we had a wonderful dog our dog was you know would see people and wag and roll over and show belly my dog did not snap at people or anything like that but uh there was a lot of really wacky people in that building and we didn't feel safe it's a cranky building cranky thank you it was very cranky building you have to wait a very long time for the elevators it's inconvenient they used to give out free tickets for shows that was I remember I mean that's kind of one of the benefits of belonging to equity well it was yeah like before the pandemic you would just go to see a Broadway show for free you know Equity would give out tickets producers office the old one no no that's not a thing clearly they don't need us did you live either of you guys live in Manhattan Plaza no and I never wanted I never wanted to be surrounded by that many singers I knew I wouldn't be able to write Manhattan plus is actually like a setting in the Alicia Keys Musical on Broadway it's the setting yeah yeah oh I didn't know that I didn't know anything about the show yet it's called Hell's Kitchen it's about her and her mom growing up in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan Plaza there are a lot of people who live there who remember Alicia as their babysitter for their kids she said it was 75 bucks a month yeah because it's you know it's it's Section 8 housing it's onethird of your monthly income I was I just wrapped doing a pearly Victorious on Broadway for for mons thank you and one night after the show I'm you know heading because people are all over it was nuts the people who came to the show and then came backstage and someone said hey I really liked your performance and I looked up and there was Alicia Keys oh so I started chatting with her and they were still running off Broadway I said can I take a picture she said will you come see Hell's Kitchen I saidof course I will she said let take a picture oh my God that's so Hell's Kitchen of her to like you know yeah do a little deal like and it's about her art you had to support my art before I'm gon to give you anything and she was great about it we had we left and yeah I will be going sometime very soon in your in your uh eclectic career which celebrity made you go you know didn't any which was yeah yeah it must have been one yeah oh Bill's making a very like little hearts are coming out of his eyes right now yeah my first attempt at La I'd had three good years on a soap opera here in New York followed by one lousy year and was that all my children All My Children yeah in ' 85 I had one you we shoot a show a day and in 85 after three really good years and busy years I averaged one show a month wow so I I went out there I heard some scuttlebutt from the makeup room that several of the actors one day were debating who should go out to LA for pilot season which you know this at that the time they had that thing pilot season yeah and apparently Susan Luchi said well the only person on this show who should be out in La is Billy timony because we're all doing melodrama and he's doing sitcom and that's where they make the sitcoms is out there so I went yeah yeah so I went out there and a buddy of mine who was I played his he was the leading man and I played his preppy nerdy roommate on on All My Children he happened to be out there and he was very friendly with a very interesting family and they they were all my children fans and they basic adopted me they were the fieldings uh Camille and her daughters Claudia and Elizabeth and they lived up above the Hollywood Bowl in a house that was built by Max Reinhardt who had left the German theater when MGM hired him to direct the first sound version of Midsummer Night's Dream with Mickey Rooney's Puck etc etc so la already I love oh no oh no no Pete stick around so so Camille the mother was the Widow of J Jerry Fielding Jerry Fielding was the composer who scored most of the films of Sam peeka and in fact the pool table they had is where pkaa used to put his moviola and that's where he edited Straw Dogs and the Wild Bunch and the getaway all on that while Jerry was in the Next Room at the piano coming up with the scores now peka was gone Fielding was gone but the girls had all of pek aa's cats still running around this house this mag ific magic Henda house which I loved I haven't answered your question yet one day one of the girls had to go see a friend and again I'm learning La I never really been in La trying to get make a living and all that and she brought me with her to run this erand off just off dhini and it was a married couple she knew well the husband was the actor Simon mccorkendale who was known in this country for playing Manimal the NBC TV series where he could turn into a panther or a but his wife was Susan George the female lead opposite Dustin Hoffman of stra dogs which I saw in college and I was far too young to see it at that time because at the time it was extremely explicit and Susan George was very brave in that movie and also I don't know that movie at all well for a young man it was a uh uh somebody Neil Neil abut I believe it was or maybe James Mangold did a remake uh never go near it but but the original the peaw version with Dustin Hoffman is a classic but it's very explicit and they said and this is my friend Bill timony and Susan George turned around and looked up and gave me her Susan George smile and said hi Bill I don't think I ever really fully Rec congealed after melting Susan George man yeah wow yeah that's that's who did it for me I don't think anyone else is having this conversation right now no I met I mean I've met a ton of people in the business you know I've been doing this a long time and uh I've paid attention since we're in Los Angeles though bill yeah what is the craziest show business experience you had in Los Angeles and then and then we'll ask about which one it was in New York well Michael Jackson's monkey bit me which uh okay let's move on to New York wait no no no no how the hell did that happen I had a real ulyses and night toown adventure in in La my first my first attempt then my second attempt was I basically had day of the Locust because I got my survival gig was to the building manager of the a really cruddy building I lived in on Venice Beach and yeah it was it was day the locus it was a cast of uh has been never was and and never will be and uh yeah I remember the I remember the day I had to uh use my pass key as a building manager to open up uh the apartment down the hall because the guy's girlfriend kept calling me saying David's not answering my calls and I found his body after he ODed and I had to do all that thing with the cops and all that so and know fenice Beach if you looking for trouble in the 90s that was a very easy place to find it but in the 80s somehow um it was the it was the cast of the TV series Fame and somebody I knew was trying to get me involved with them and some young lady from the show took me to some like dance club one night and like they're all in lingerie and the guy who was sort of the main dancing guy Leon I think he was just there dancing with his shirt off or and I would just like you know I'm wearing my New Jersey stuff you know my members only jacket you know just whatever sweats and there the guy had a buddy who was a real La Hollywood Hangar and all he wanted to do was talk about Michael Michael because he wanted to let everybody know that he knew Michael and he had this capin monkey on a chain on his on his shoulder and it was Michael's monkey from Michael's zoo and Michael asked him to take care of the monkey for the weekend and I just I think I must have had a short sleeve shirt on because I had kind of like my my shoulder up and I looked at the monkey and I just kind of nodded like you know I met somebody and I looked away and I guess the monkey you know the monkey just was giving me the I'm not going to be ignored so the monkey leaned down and and bit my bicep oh my God and did it hurt was it like a I I I said to the guy your monkey just bit me to which he went it's not my monkey it's Michael Jackson's monkey okay I'm just going to back up a second um how about like a Los Angeles story about like the business oh yeah like what kind of you know like what is your craziest you know being an artist in Los Angeles if I can put those words together oh yeah you know it's again you cannot believe anything that anybody tells you out there did you know that then of course not I'm from New Jersey right you know I thought I thought if someone said you know oh you're very talented I think I think we can do some business together no um I took in the 90s I had a survival job there I taught at the comedy traffic school uh because I had been a standup at The Improv in New York back in the 80s when I was which is when I met you you were standup yeah I was on the I was on the soap and that helped me get bookings and I was a cute clever guy and you know the girls wanted to listen to my work and I'd get out of there before the guys tried to beat me up so I'm I'm doing the uh I'm doing the uh uh teaching of the comedy traffic school and had all lots of odd people take my class Bruno Kirby took my class once uh Jerry Spence who was one of the leads of the road warrior with Mel Gibson he's the blonde guy who's the head of uh who's the head of the uh the little Outpost uh who gets you know he's got the white hockey mask on or hockey cage um he had moved to LA to make it after Road Warrior nothing happened and he went into business he owned a a fleet of limos and that's what he did he managed limousines in LA but he'd gotten a speeding ticket he came to the class and this guy came to my class one time and he uh um he had this business they were Consulting other businesses about how to handle Y2K oh God and he hired me to be the sky to give some presentations because he lik the way I I handled myself in front of the group and uh uh after our first job uh he he gave me a ride because I was living in Venice Beach and I didn't want to lose my parking spot in the weekend which is a true thing and when he dropped me off he didn't uh he didn't he kept talking to me until I realized he had uh he was trying to handle me he had his hand on my thigh because he he had given me a job and now it was my time to uh thank him wow and what' you do I jumped out the car I got paid but uh I didn't have to give him that kind of receipt there was oh guys there's I mean you if you if if you're around the business at any any frequency all kinds of stuff happens great great things happen for you horrible things happen there are there are horrible people in the business as well as wonderful people in the business yes you know and so why do you keep doing it uh I have a nice pension good um I tried let's see I've twice tried to uh to go straight so to speak yeah um I should have said how do you keep doing it I'm sorry why seems yeah accusatory yeah it is it is uh how do you keep doing it knowing you know that it's just this swamp I love it and not only do I love doing it I love the getting the chance to do it yeah because every time I do or like when I coach other actors I love spilling the beans letting young people who are ready to be it's a young actor going to business they're like a herd of wilderbeast coming down the riverbank and they don't see whether crocodiles are and I love letting them know where the crocodiles are so I foil the plans of those blank blank blanks who would exploit us love that and then and I get to do a job so sometimes I go oh I've got to do the job for four years the casting office of The Black List would bring me in for a co-star and I never booked it and every time I went in I was I was so high because they brought me in the second time because they liked what I did the first time but the role wasn't right right and the second time same thing third time so I was I was so filled with confidence the fifth the sixth the eighth the 11th time I went in and when I told my agents this she said would you please tell my other clients that way because all my other clients are all going to go ah when are they going to cast me they've had me in five times right but I was just it just empowered me so much and the 16th role I read for on that show was on in the eighth season I booked and of the of all 16 co-stars I audition for this was the best role this had the best scene the and the casting people were so in a way they were so happy for me but they went but we're so upset because we're not going to be seeing you anymore because I always had great auditions with them because I was always psyched that I knew it was just a matter of time I never got frustrated or down about it and I guess that answers your question I really enjoy this [Music]

process side note something that I learned about auditioning which is probably one of the last times I auditioned it was for a uh an immersive show called Pips Island which wound up playing for a year off Broadway and um they asked me to come in and read for four different roles a beaver park ranger a mole and the villain and they had illustrations of what they all looked like it was all based on a book so I was like all right well let me make some choices because I love to make choices I'm just going to make that choice and go in and if I I fail great or if they say try this even better I love that I love getting direction and and working on the spot because I don't do homework I just like make a choice and do it so uh anyway I I do the first three sides and they go really well I'm like please don't make me do the villain please because I was I just was not connecting to that character at all I was like that's not me it's not me can you read Jules vter the villain I was like sure and you know he's very he's just an evil character that's it there's no levity there's no it's just the bad guy that's his role the bad guy right and he's tall and slender and blue and he shoots electricity out of his fingers well I just decided to make him an idiot in that moment just like oh well look who's here I'm here it was like it was a combination of like count chocula and you know um Tim Curry from The Rocky Horror show it was I I don't know what it was but by the end of it my character wound up under the audition table oh I love that and I finished the scene and I popped my head up and I said and scene and that was it and they and the director looked at everybody else and she said we're not supposed to do this but we just love to offer you the role right now oh that's great I couldn't believe it and I truly couldn't believe it because I did not see myself as that character at all isn't that great though that you made this amazing choice and you just went with something that was just off thewall and interesting and I think if I would have worked on it I would not have been as good I think I was good because it was like [ __ ] I got to do it all right do something and you also did something very different than anybody else probably did that's how I won the best singing waitress in New York award I was working at the Left Bank restaurant on 81st and Amsterdam and I somehow saw I don't know if it was in backstage or whatever there was a competition for the best singing waitress in Manhattan so I went in naturally and I'm sitting outside and I hear every single woman is belting their brains out were the auditions in a restaurant or at a place no they were at a place and it was for can't believe I can't remember it was a big celebrity Peter somebody who was judging and the winner was going to perform with Tony Randall of course so anyway I hear all these women belting their brains out and so when I go in I decide I'm going to sing poisoning pigeons in the Park which is this comedy song it's All soprano goofy yeah it's such a great song I've been behind the table so I sang poisoning pigeons in the park and they were laughing hysterically and and afterwards they said thank you and then he said oh no no no no please can we let her sing her ballad and I knew right then and there that I won so I sang My ballad and and I won and I knew it was because because I had done something different I couldn't sing the um comedy song at the show because I was performing with Tony Randall and he had to do all the comedy so I had to sing The Ballad at the show which is why he was smart to say let her singer ballad because he need knew he need they needed to hear that but I I knew at that moment I had won it Nancy when someone asks you what was the moment that you thought would be the one this is the story you should tell it has Tony Randall in it it has singing waitresses this has every this is a Sandra Bullock movie waiting to be made and now back to our guest I see that you're going into another Broadway show you're going into our town I am and it's Kenny Leon directing just like pearly Victorious and the same producing team Jeffrey Richards Hunter Arnold Irene Gandy Lou gun um yeah then we start rehearsals in August and previews in September that's so wonderful amazing it it is and it's a great cast it's a really really good cast uh Billy Eugene Jones who is git low and pearly Victorious he's going to be Doc Gibbs um they're using a a tagline uh in our town for our time so so Kenny is uh is mixing race uh ethnicity multicult not changing any words uh not not you know not rewriting anything about it it's just the Gibbs family happens to be black the web family happens to be white and that's how he's going to present he had said to me during the Run of uh pearly Victoria sometime like in November when the news came out that he was going to do uh our town he said uh I want my hour town to be running on Broadway on Election night oh an hour town for hour time I'm so excited for you because when I met you very nice of you thank you so much yeah when I met you you were a comedian and I I don't remember how long you stayed in Max's class you have to tell Pete the story about the first first class that you took I didn't stay in that class long I I didn't frankly think much of of of the class uh and I knew I wasn't going to stay long when somebody got up and said I've been studying with Max for nine years now and and I think I'm I'm I'm finally getting ready to audition yeah that's crazy to me yeah and and that's and that was like a lot of teachers in this business this crazy business they manipulate the vulnerable so they'll keep coming back and giving them more money yeah and you know if you're an actor in an act class it's not to it's not the job of the of the teacher to get you to idolize them and seek their approval but I felt like a lot of other classes I sort of sat in on that was the game with with Max I mean Max was never going to go he was never going to go you've been here a year but you're you're ready you should get out of here and and go someplace else to work you know but a good part of that class I'm going to say I think most of that class at least when I first started in that class most of that class was on Broadway or in soap operas they were all working because I know that like we almost had like the whole cast of 42nd Street in that class it was a guy named Max gardberg Pete and you know I'm sure I'm sure he's long gone and that's how I got in your class because I grew up in the same town with Susie Sullivan and Susie was in the cast of 42nd Street so I'm sure Susie was either in Max's class or somebody recommended it to her recommended I just I felt guilty I was on a soap opera and I was working as a standup at The Improv I was a regular at The Improv and I'd never taken an acting class I I'd been acting since I was a kid but I'd never taken a quote unquote you know formal training class so I went into this class with Max because I thought well I'm just you know I'm just a kid from New Jersey who's locking out and what helped me understand about Max in class was oh oh I I do know what I'm doing yeah and then you went so you you were doing all my children then you went back and forth from La New York La New York what were you doing when you weren't working were you teaching or what what has it been like for you I'll do this as quick as I can because Pete and I don't know each other and I don't want to bore him um you I can take the risk of Nancy it's it's not me it's thousands of listeners so no pressure so I went out to you know uh 86 87 I was out in La I had my first experience and no Michael Jackson's monkey biting me was not the only wacky thing happened to me but I didn't I really didn't work I didn't I couldn't figure it out I took rejection personally and I didn't know how to do la speak I didn't know you know in New York I love you means I love you and drop dead means drop dead in La it's like Shalom I love you in La could mean I love you or could mean drop dead um and I you know when I landed at LAX I went looking through the terminal for the kiosk where they hand out sitcoms for New York actors coming into town and I never found that kiosk I kept looking I never found it uh so when I came back with my tail between my legs I on the backside of my 20s uh and I did what everybody else did I worked as a graveyard shift pargal at scadden Arps which at the time was the world's largest uh M Law Firm um I worked as a waiter I worked as a bartender uh I worked as a proofreader I did all four those jobs living with two other guys in a studio apartment and all that kind of thing and right around the time I turned 30 I decided if I can't get work doing what I want to do which is acting I want to I'll I'll work in other ways in the business that will help me understand the business so I got a job as a casting assistant with uh Maxine Marx at Cunningham and Walsh um advertising agency and Maxine the daughter of chicko marks was great and we just had this fantastic friendship until the day she died and she was a real rock for me in the 90s uh I got a job as a freelancer writing uh little bio books for the young teen Market a friend of mine was in book packaging he said didn't you tell me you know Luke Perry and I said yeah Luke and I were friendly during our soap days he said because everybody wants to know about Luke Perry is on this show Beverly Hills 0210 I said I've heard about it haven't seen it they said can you write a a bio book for the young teen market for about Luke Perry and I did they wanted a Tiger Beat here's how you can here's how you can win his heart instead because I knew Luke was such a hard worker I wrote it like a if you know this uh the Horatio aler stories of the early 20th century which are all you know boy from under privilege makes it in business so I framed it that way and they liked what I did so for a couple years I was making not much of a but I was actually paying my rent in New York writing all these pocket they called them pocketbooks because I mean they're like the size of what your cell phone is now um and I you Denzel Washington Jason Priestley Gloria esta I mean I did all any any pop person that they thought young people were into and I are those like anywhere to be found I sure hope not I I never used my I never used my real real name um my favorite I used several aliases my favorite Alias was bronwin Burke uh I wrote a lot of these under bronwin Burke wow yeah and this is before the internet you had to actually do research oh yeah yeah I love the library but starting with somebody like Luke who I knew he had been on loving my two best friends in the business were from loving uh a guy named Brian Cranston and a guy named Perry Stevens and Perry and I were best Fells we had a Cabaret act we we used to do like a Dean Martin Jerry Lewis nightclub act where I use my standup stuff and and like he he was Dean and I was Jerry type thing and we would sometimes triple date with with Luke Luke was because Luke and Perry were seeing two gals who were rooming together Yasmine blee and n and Nancy Valen uh and Perry would call me and I would i' bring a date and the six of us would would go out so that's how I knew Luke and that's how I knew enough to write about his story

[Music] amazing All My Children was my training ground started doing background work on there when I was still in college did u5 work did standin work and every now and then they asked me to uh be a reader at auditions well I'd been playing Alfred Vanderpool for a year or two this is like 83 is shady4 and the casting director the wonderful Jon Deno asked me to come in on a day when I wasn't filming uh taping because uh she wanted me to be a reader they're bringing on Dr Cliff Warner's n doell kids sister uh and they're going to be reading actresses and and it was kind of a touchy scene in fact it was a makeout scene so she thought I would be able to you know be professional about it and so I spent the day with all these young actresses in New York who looked so Barber worthy and it was interesting to see how it was all handled I'm I'm there as the reader I'm there to support them make them look good some of the actresses would sort of mime the kiss uh some of them did like a tentative kiss some of them attacked me and had their tongue down my throat and that was that was my day wow cut to some years later there used to be a like a diner across some the Ed Sullivan Theater where they do the C Bear show now and I was there with a gal pal and we were having like breakfast and it I mean they still had um they still had phone booths because there's a phone booth right outside us across from at S I remember because it was that pretty woman was the big film of the year and it was that picture of Julia Roberts with Richard Gear back toback and she's holding his tie and whatever she's got the big all right and who walks in with two guys and one guy is a guy who used to be on the soap Michael Woods and I start to say hey Michael and My Gal pal says hey Michael and we both go you know Michael Woods and Michael comes up to us to say hi and the guy with him and the guy goes uh I know you you're bill timy yeah yeah who are you because I'm Michael's manager Bobby Macwan now Bobby mcgaan had a great reputation back then for approaching young women in public and saying you should be on a soap unlike most men who do that to most young women Bobby McGowan was legit oh Bobby rarely handled men uh Michael Woods was one another was Eric Roberts I love Eric Rob and Bobby says to me I'll never forget that day Julia said that was so funny about you and her I said excuse me yeah the the whole the kissing thing with her I'm sorry Bobby I don't know yeah well yeah it was like summer of what was it I don't know 83 884 and uh Eric told me his kid sister was coming up to spend the summer in New York from Georgia where they live and she was going to work at Orange Julius or Grace papaya whatever that thing was by 72nd in Amsterdam Grace papaya Grace papaya he said but um he asked me would I help her out and get her an audition so I got her her first professional audition and it was to audition all my children for Dr Cliff wonderers n Dell kid sister and I asked her to come back to my office after her first audition so I could you know find out how she was and she walked in and she couldn't stop laughing because the reader was the actor who played the preppy nerd on the show and she had to make out with the preppy nerd that was your character right and I went I I made out with Julie Roberts oh she thought it was so funny and she did this to you I said I I made out this is at the height of Pretty Woman amazing I I made out with Julie Roberts so I've been telling that story for years it's one of my favorite stories as you might imagine um what changed for me was in the early 90s I found my way into ADR group looping which was which is was the white whale back then no actors in New York knew about group looping every actor in La knew about it let's explain what that is to the folks who are not aware okay uh when a film is completed production and then post-production it gets edited together now you're going to put in some things you're going to put in your your uh musical score you're going to put in the Foley which is the car tire screeching it's the it's any non-human sound is the Foley but you also have to have uh humans talking let's say you shot a crowd scene in a restaurant well the people in the background behind George Clooney and uh Scott Johansson they can't really be talking they have to look like they're talking but if they make a sound what they're saying might bleed into the principal's dialogue in the foreground so they MIM and then a team of eight or nine improvisers go in and they improvise all the sound for every place that it's needed and sometimes they replace people um I'm on the six cense and if you ever see the six cense again when Bruce Willis gets shot in the belly and he falls back on the bed and he's groaning and gasping you're looking at Bruce Willis but you're hearing me great work because because by the time you get to the ADR group looping session it's months later Mr Willis is off making another film maybe in another country you're not going to fly him back just to have him go

um if you ever saw Hannibal the sequel to Silence of the Lambs when uh jeo ivanick pitches Gary Oldman out of the out of the wheelchair and Into the Wild boes and the the Hogs tear him to pieces as he's shrieking in horror that's me doing all the shrieking so it's it's you know you hang out with somebody who's a Looper the experience of watching a movie will forever be ruin for you you know I'm at a point where I can tell when it's not that person's voice and all that stuff and Sex in the City I did a ton of sex of the City episodes where a knuckle is a Loopers best friend you see two people making out you're watching two on camera actors make out but you're hearing a guy sucking on his his knuckle okay that is hilarious I never knew that it's day player work it's not background extra work you get a salary like you were on camera playing a principal role which means residuals my residuals for the six cents are are still a lot more than 6 cents good although my my sex Citys by now are like five six cents anyway so I do I do ADR group I work on other people's groups and every now and then I get a gig where I put my own group together and I worked at MC I was with MCC in the 90s the Boone group yeah MCC was like Alison johanny and uh uh Gil Bellows and Thomas Gibson some very cool people Peter Hedges Timothy Blake Nelson uh fact my wife and I did the ADR group for Tim Blake Nelson's film The One his son directed last year um and we've done a lot of Peter hedges's work I did uh The Odd Life of Timothy Green um and most recently uh Ben is back with his son and Julia Roberts oh God so are you improvising when you're doing um mostly background scen you guys are if there's a principal role like a waiter or a offer um and they're going to replace that person's voice it'll be scripted uh but the vast majority of what you're doing is you're improvising so what I have done in the past and this is nutty but if I know I'm going to be on a looping team because I know somebody on a film I'll go work that film a day as a background extra just to get to know what the filmmaker is going for and then months later when we have it in post and I put together the team I mean nobody else does this it's stupid and it's nutty but I love it so I reached out to Grant wilfully an old buddy of mine and I told him and he put me on a day on Ben's back and it was the scene opening scene Christmas Eve midnight mass and and Peter sees me and immediately he kind of announces to the crew this is my friend bill timony I want him to be the head Usher so let's have the camera follow him as he goes up and down the aisle as people are sitting and there's Julia Roberts one of the stars of the film up in the front pew and at a certain point in time there's a break and Peter comes down to chat with me and I tell him the story I just told you guys and Peter goes does Julia know and I say and there's no and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna you know she she has she has an intense AA you don't walk up to people on a set and ask for autographs or chat or whatever so I was like no no no cutu we rap Peter's up there on the altar I walk up there to say good night I take two steps up he's talking to a couple of his ads I figure I'll wait I'll wait I don't have to rush I'll wait and I step back and I turn around and boom nose to nose Julia she start making out with you and just boom she's looking at me and we're you know we're half an arms like the part and I say Julia my name is Bill timony you're first professional audition was for all my children and I was the preppy nerd on the show and and I was your reader for the role and what do you think Julia Roberts might respond to someone saying that to her I think she probably remembered Julia Robert said and this is incredibly insightful to what you have to be to achieve the kind of success she's achieved but I didn't get it what she remembered was that she did not book the role oh my God yeah to which I said I know and I'm sure it was my fault I then put my hands around her waist and I pull her into me in a hug and when the side of her head is matched to my side of the head ear to ear I am struck by this what the hell am I doing it's like in a Bruce Willis in uh in um unbreakable when he touches somebody he could see everything I could see the thousands of men who had come in for unwanted hugs and kisses on her and I'm and I'm now one of them and I'm stuck and I don't know what to do but I know I have to disengage and slowly ease her hips off of my hips and before I can meet her eyes to see the the the anger the she has Peter comes bouncing right next to us Julia this is my good buddy Bill timoy and many years ago and just as I turn to him and I go I just told her she says he just told me but I didn't get it [Music]

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note I was doing stomp at the Orum theater uh in the East Village for many many many years I developed a little bit of an attitude of I did the show I'm going home am I'm going out the back door I'm not going out front and signing the garbage can Lids that you purchased for $25 and brought your shark I'm not signing your drumsticks I'm not talking to you about my craft I mean I always did think like oh it's because I'm I'm just a dick I just I'm a dick but I now know that I just have terrible social anxiety I which I was not aware of nobody was aware of what social anxiety was we didn't have Google and we didn't we we had the dog digging the hole that was how you found stuff oh my God I forgot about the dog di no one was talking the word mental health you didn't see mental health in anything but a hard cover book anyway way I know now that I just had social anxiety and I just felt weird so I would justify it by going I just did a show for you I'm done and actually a lot of Broadway performers feel similarly and it's only gotten worse because the backstage the stage door people are monsters and it's self-preservation and it's self-preservation long side note longer it was around Halloween and Stage manager came downstairs after it was a Sunday said Peter someone is in the courtyard would like to meet you the courtyard was a special area where like special guests you know like great ones like Robin Williams and stuff would get you know shuffled off to off the side and then we would all say hello to Robin Williams which we did and uh I was like ah you know what I just did two shows I don't know who who is he's like doesn't matter there's somebody who really just wants to say hello to you and I'm like h fine so yeah I'm huffing and puffing and I go out there it's [ __ ] Julia Roberts and she's like I'm so sorry to bother you I just tell you that I thought you were hysterical and she reached out her hand and shook my hand I think she said hi I'm Julia and I was like hi I know did you hug her and now back to our guest I want to know what you feel about Fame and if you is is that kind of Fame something you want for yourself as an artist or do you even care about that it was 1984 and I'm going to say this out loud I've never said in public I'd been on all my children for 3 years I had a very hot storyline part of the Greg and Jenny Tad and Liza thing and I get I would get I would get stopped a lot I wasn't wearing a bow tie but you know people would would see me and a buddy of mine from college named miles miles was a a diminutive fellow and with a very orange red beard so of course he would get troll leprechaun whatever he get teased and bullied a lot and he was a very I mean miles it should have been short for M for mild he had a wonderfully calm way and in fact one of my other Cates Nick named her miles from nowhere um but we're four years out of college he comes down to visit me and we go to a comedy show um what's the one in Time Square where where it was is like you got the one act was it Carolines Carolines yeah Carolines yeah and Miles wanted to see somebody he had a crush on Sandra burnhard king of comedy have been out about a year and now Sandra was doing she was doing her headliner stuff and we went and they gave us the front row table and she started and she said something that was really like dirty or sexy or whatever and she looked down at my buddy and she went you know what I mean right and people could see him because you know first you know first table you're in the light and every every body laughed and then she said what's your name handsome miles brought down the house and I mean she went she must have gone back to that well a dozen times during her 45 minute set and it always always worked she was a genius at it and he loved it he loved it and at the end of her set when she said said good night you know I want to thank you all for coming and I want to thank you miles you know did that whole thing and then she pointed next to Miles where I was sitting and she said and I know you you're Bill timony and there was Applause she didn't say and I know you you're Bill timy who plays Alfred Vandal and all my children or and you're the guy who plays a preppy nerd you're the preppy nerd of Pine Valley she didn't say any of that there was no expositional qualifier all she said was you're bill timony and I got this Applause it terrified me it was the exact opposite of I thought what it would be I'm a young guy everybody else I always practice my Oscar acceptance speech when I'm when I'm fallen asleep whatever you know uh in my 20s certainly when you're immature the idea about celebrity attracting well really went into the business because I didn't know any girls to talk to and once I was out of soap opera pretty girls wanted to talk to me which was a huge eye opener for me so certainly the idea of notoriety celebrity uh was very appealing to me but when that happened I thought about it just today which is I guess it's in my frontal lobe and I'm sharing it with you guys but I've never really told I've told my wife this but really nobody else but I I think that was 1984 and I'm very good at helping out my friends Advance their careers the knock on me Cranson would tell you the knock of me is I spend more time on my friends careers than on my own and I wonder if that's not not a part of it I don't have fear of success I mean I want to do well and I've had I've had great streaks of doing well but I wonder about that night and what I learned about myself or what I chose not to learn about myself so I don't know how much more I can answer that question I mean I love being on Broadway I love being on Broadway uh and I I I just did a short film that won a nice award for me last night at a film festival down here in Red Bank congrats thanks thanks but um yeah I mean I'm I get I'm thrilled by Brian's success and the success of my friends I want to support I mean I want to bring in enough money that my my wife can live in the comfort that she should live in she did not do herself a favor by marrying me 20 years ago financially at least uh but uh no it's not that I'm I'm afraid of success but that was a that really shook me and uh maybe I'm coming out of it now by actually daring to say it out loud to you guys it's actually because Pete and I on how much we've meant to each other over these years uh Bill you're at a party you don't know anybody there someone comes up to you and says what do you do what's your answer it was always I'm an actor sometimes it was I'm a standup back then when Nancy and I knew each other and very often because I'm from New Jersey so if I were at a party nobody else was in the entertainment business uh the the the response to standup was say something funny and the response to actor was oh yeah what restaurant do your weight tables at haha which was always fun to be able to say uh ABC 1M Monday through Friday you know I was able to do that uh you know they're being a dick to me being a dick back uh the stand up one was always uh I they say say something funny I'd say sure you want to buy two drinks minimum or just something like that but ever but ever since then like I go oh are are you a doctor oh can you examine me right now you know I would do that in kind yeah um but I don't you know it's depending it's you know it's I work so you're at a party tonight and you answer I'm an actor is this is this what you're this is what you're answering now right by now yeah I mean I took a break in 2012 and I was the producer of a a TV news show live morning Monday through Friday I had to get up at 1:10 in the morning to open up the uh the studio at 300 a.m. and it was International my my bosses were part of a media conglomerate in uh Istanbul and we all got shut down when uh Eran uh blamed my backers for the for the attempted coup I'm told some of my guys are still in prison with without being charged um but we did it we did it just across the Hudson in New Jersey from a studio there and it was cool but you know getting up at that hour was I burned out after a year but it was like when am I going to get offered the opportunity to produce TV News international news yeah so at around that time I was happy to say I'm a TV news producer but since then it's you know I'm an actor that's cool well thank you I'm so glad we did this I am too hey thanks for checking us out links to today's guest can be found in the show notes don't forget to subscribe like us rate US and tell all your friends about Arts and craft

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