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VoiceAmerica 0:05
One problem facing people at many levels of business is how to make time for a work life and a personal life. Do you find that one seems to keep getting in the way of the other? This is the work life balance with Rick Morris. Even if you're not involved in the business world, you'll have a lot to gain by tuning into today's show. Now, here is your host, Rick A. Morris,
Rick A. Morris 0:26
and welcome to another Friday edition of the work life balance. So excited to have everybody along. They've got a really, really fun show planned for today. appreciate all of the people reaching out and everything from last week. appreciate all the messages on social media.
Talking about Barb stegman, and in that show, she was she was incredible. My guest here has a lot to live up to and I think he's prepared for the course so we're going to get right into it. This gentleman is an artist who brings a little bit of everything to the table. I mean, he's an actor.
He's appeared appeared on stage and musicals, such as Avenue Q next to normal Spring Awakening, the who's Tommy which is an award winning, Turner's Big Bopper. In buddy, the Buddy Holly Story saw that one recently. He also served as a series creator, co executive producer, head writer and actor on the San Diego based sketch comedy TV series The house which we're going to talk about today on the show. He's produced that on virtually a non existent budget, I think he said something like 50 bucks, but it ran for eight seasons, becoming the longest running sketch comedy show of its type, and it garnered a small but dedicated cult following as well as back to back honors for outstanding regional production with two Telly awards. This led to a sold out live show and a short film geek sex, which was the top video on the site Funny or Die. I could continue to go on and on and on. But he is a writer. He's a personalities speaker he was on bH ones World Series of pop culture. He prides himself on being the original Shazam to his family and friends.
And he's also combined this lifelong passion for cartooning and humor into a commission based business that specializes in animation style pieces, from everything from portraits, t shirts, greeting card signage, and murals. It's got a podcast that he's had for about six years and I mean, just again, it kind of a master of all trades, and we met through kind of a common fandom as well. So let's bring them on to the show. Anthony Donovan. How you doing Anthony? What's up, buddy? Thanks for having me on the original ad is what we call it.
I like that. That's quite a bio though dude. Like I don't even know where to start to unpack that. So I think we just go a little bit about a little bit but what we said just you know how we met we met through the MMC 30 reunion. Yep. Very, very fortunate was just meeting there.
Anthony Donovan 2:50
Because well, and it was funny. I think we we shared that commonality of kind of getting our start on that show behind the scenes. Yep. And that was the first
place that I had ever done like background work and stuff like that. And when I, when I came to the Mouse Club when I first moved to Florida, I was almost 18 years old and I sat in a taping. And I loved the show for years. And I was excited to see that but once I saw the set and the crew and seeing the process of how that all happens, I just became so swept up in it. The Mouseketeers almost became like secondary to me. I would wanted to go there every day and learn everything. And when we met you had told me that you were doing some some camera work on the show. And yeah, I was an intern. So I got to work on about four or five shows a season doing various tasks like they were letting us do all of the production but like, I get to hold the camera or I get to be on the soundboard during a recording session, things like that. Yeah, it was a great place to learn and I almost everybody that's come from that show has echoed that sentiment. It's phenomenal place to learn and now that but the talented people have come out of it has turned into our family and in people that we support
Rick A. Morris 4:00
We were just out in LA together in February at a fantastic event.
Demi Moore was there but Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Tracy and of course our great Mickey Mouse Club. What a lineup.
Anthony Donovan 4:13
We can all cap by by DJ Damon. Yes.
Damon Pamplona, Mr. Damon Pamplona.
Rick A. Morris 4:20
Oh my goodness, nobody can rock a stage like in fact the other the other DJ get jealous and cut off and said,
Anthony Donovan 4:28
I know I know. And I was a little disappointed because they I think he was just getting started.
Rick A. Morris 4:33
I don't think he was warmed up yet. That was the creepy thing. But anyway, um, talk to me about the show the house though that sounds like a really fun ride. And, you know, you still together with the guys tell me tell me how that all came to be and how you got that show produced?
Anthony Donovan 4:46
Okay, well, when I I had always planned on being an animator for the Walt Disney Studios. That was my goal. And then the Mickey Mouse Club happened and it completely changed my life and when the show got canceled, I hadn't even thought about college or anything like that. And I went to film school, and I decided I want to work in television. I want to write comedy. I want to create my own series. And I thought, well, you know, I could go to go to school move to Los Angeles pound the pavement become one of many who are trying to make it happen. And then I thought, what if I were to just do it now? Like in my young naivete, ambition, I was like, I'm ready now. Yeah, let's go. So my best friend who, who we met in college, she was big into directing and choreography. And when we decided to after, after I finished school, the plan was to move to Los Angeles. And, you know, in about a month become rich or famous. This was my plan. And, of course, gotta love being 22. And so we came out here and we stopped in San Diego, and we realized we were out of money. Like we hadn't we had come out with no place to live, no job lined up. We didn't know a soul. And so we were like, all right, well, let's just get our get on our feet here, and then after a couple of months, we were like, you know what we can produce the show here, like, and back then this was before the age of YouTube or social media or any kind of widespread user friendly internet. We used the resources we had in front of us, which at the time was public access. And, you know, if you remember back in the day, it was local cable, anyone could go in there, and you basically had to show you knew how to use the equipment. And you had to have a show schedule. And I had come up with this show, and I'd written a bunch of sketches. And I was fresh out of film school. So I knew how to use every piece of equipment in that studio. And I went in there and I got certified in no time. And it was all on a volunteer basis. And we started to just kind of cast the show and brought in some local actors. And we were as my bio said, on a nearly non existent budget and and Amy Meredith and I as my producing partner, we found every way we have used every ounce of our creativity. To build sets to costume, the show to I mean, you name it, just finding different corners to film in. And I was like, I was like a camera stunt man at one point with an EMG pack on my shoulder. And I'm like hanging from a staircase, try to get an aerial shot. And it's like, stuff that you would I would never do.
Rick A. Morris 7:20
But it sounded cool at the time,
Unknown Speaker 7:23
of course, and
Rick A. Morris 7:24
I can hang on that staircase, you know,
Anthony Donovan 7:30
insurance now I'm fine. I'm in perfect. Yeah. And, you know, we were just trying to think of how to get it done. And we would film the show, I would cut the show. And it took us about eight months to finally get a finished pilot that was ready to air where all the pieces were in place. And when we finally did it, it was like, Okay, well, now I guess we have to fill out a whole season. So that was really where I started to get my bearings of writing a series and the demands of that and one thing just led to another and people I was so consumed with getting the show made. I didn't think anyone would actually watch it. And as it turns out, they did. And they would correspond with us and send us emails. And before you knew it, we we had a following. So we just kind of built on that and kept it going.
Rick A. Morris 8:17
So what was what was the point of the show the sketch show? What was kind of the theme of it?
Anthony Donovan 8:23
Um, well, we had, we had three standing rules. The first was I didn't want to do any political humor. I did not want to do any recurring characters. And I wasn't big on doing parodies. I wanted to do standalone, just funny sketches. And they were very silly, and we incorporated music, and we would sing on the show and that kind of stuff and kind of like a classic variety show.
Rick A. Morris 8:43
But that I mean, that's essentially the story of Kentucky Fried theater, right? I mean,
Anthony Donovan 8:47
I kind of Yeah, I guess we were like a late 90s version of that.
Rick A. Morris 8:51
Because those guys got together and just filmed a bunch of stuff, whatever was in their head, which they started a sketch comedy, then they moved to that film which you can Thank you very movies, right? Classic is one of the best films. It stands the test of time to me but then of course they graduate the airplane and Police Squad, one of them goes and does ghost and the other ones stay in the stupid lane. But that's exactly how they got started. And, you know, I think in the age of YouTube, though, in those areas, that's how a lot of these people are getting started. Just figure it out. You think you've got it? Let's go.
Anthony Donovan 9:23
Exactly. And I also like the fact that it is so accessible now because now it's purely a creative question. Now it's who can think of the best bit not you know, how are you ever going to get the scene by the
Rick A. Morris 9:34
net? Not necessarily, what's the best produced show? Right? What's really funny?
Anthony Donovan 9:39
And and that was a big thing. Like we didn't wait, like we didn't wait till it was perfect. I had something to say. And I was hungry to say it, so we just did it.
Rick A. Morris 9:47
Well, I I imagine there's a tremendous amount of lessons that you that you learn from that and I think we can get into some of those. But we're going to keep talking to Anthony here. I want to get into podcasting with you in the next segment as well just Yo, what's up Good podcast, why is it good, but I need to know because I have one and you know, I don't know if it's any good or not. And then we'll talk about, you know, social media, all that kind of stuff. So we were really just going to cover the gamut here with somebody that I respect in the business and would love to hear from so we hope that you'll continue with us as well. We're gonna go ahead and take a quick break right here you're listening to the work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 10:26
Are you frustrated with the overall productivity of your project management processes? Do you lack consistency and project delivery? r squared consulting provides end to end services to assist companies of all sizes and realizing and improving the value of project management. Whether you want to build a project management office, train project managers or learn how to bring the oversight and governance to your project processes. r squared has tailored best practices to help you in all areas of project management, visit r squared consulting com Are you getting the most out of your project management software. In many cases, it is not the software that is failing, but the implementation limitations or processes surrounding the use of that software. r squared can analyze your current use and help improve your return on investment. r squared can also suggest the best software for your organization and goals and assist in the selection implementation and training. allow our square to ensure that you are getting the value of your investment visit r squared consulting.com today
Unknown Speaker 11:36
from the boardroom voice America business network.
VoiceAmerica 11:46
You are tuned into the work life balance to reach Rick A. Morris or his guests today. We'd love to have you call into the program at 1866475790. Again, that's 1866 725790 if you'd rather send an email, Rick can be reached at r Morris at r squared consulting.com. Now back to the work life balance.
Rick A. Morris 12:12
And we're back to the work life balance on this Friday afternoon meeting with Anthony Donovan who basically, I think it just does it all is what's on the bottom of his business card. But certainly an entertainment powerhouse. So we were talking about, you know, you putting together this sketch comedy shows on a nothing budget. But then, you know, a lot of people will say today that it's almost impossible to age, what do you what do you say to that?
Anthony Donovan 12:38
Well, I think because I hear that a lot from people in the comedy community. And I think that regardless of what kind of business you're in, whether it's entertainment, whether it's business, whether it's art, or writing, you have to get used to the concept of change, nothing is going to stay the same. I've been in this business for more than 25 years, and there are things that I wrote in my early 20s that I would die if anybody Now saw you understand there's an ebb and flow to how these work. And when it comes to comedy, if you constantly punch down and cater to the lowest common denominator, you're going to get the audience you deserve. You have to understand that you don't talk down to your audience. And you have to respect the fact that an audience is giving your attention. I've seen so many comedians bomb, because they go out there with the mindset that they have control of that situation. You have to listen to your audience. And if you don't, you know, and especially for me, I'm 44 now, and a lot of these comics are younger, you have to understand that your audiences are going to get younger too. And it's up to you to grow and change with the times and I think that if your stuff is good, and you're not punching down, you will find a way I think that's a cheap excuse to say you can't write comedy now.
Rick A. Morris 13:47
Yeah, and I totally agree with the punch I love I love intellectual humor just humor that that even like the has the the almost have quadruple meanings when they drop the joke, right? It just kind of keeps hitting me and hitting And hit me afterwards. It's one of my favorite jokes to have with. What's interesting, though, and I want to come back to is the amount of change. Yeah. And I'm surprised by the creativity by a lot of the people. So for instance, you know, I enjoyed vine when that when that came, yeah, you got six seconds. And in fact, my favorite was a bad dad. The guy, the guy that had Batman mask on, he would scare his wife and scares kids and just do silly stuff. But he had six seconds. So you know, it was entertaining every single time, which we're seeing kind of that being revitalized through Tick Tock. Yeah. So every time you kind of see this, this platform change, you've got to change the way you deliver the comedy as well as how you do that. So how do you stay on top of all of that as as a comedian or sketch writer, as somebody who wants to stay in entertainment?
Anthony Donovan 14:51
Well, I think the key is not only keeping on top with where everything is going, but seeing how you fit into that because it's still your voice and you want to make sure that you're not just tailoring everything you do to fit the fashions of the day. You want to kind of walk that fine line of doing what you do, but in a way that's palatable to multiple audiences.
Rick A. Morris 15:11
I'm seeing people like on Tick Tock get a new career, meaning
Unknown Speaker 15:15
yes and no.
Rick A. Morris 15:17
I think No, I'm saying I'm saying in general in terms of viral capacity. Set Donny I can't remember his name, but he's, he plays just a dumb redneck on there and he's funny zone get out. on YouTube, it's not so funny. If you hear him for 10 1112 minutes. It's not as funny, right? But those little one minute clips that he can throw down on Tick Tock has really, really taken off for his career.
Anthony Donovan 15:42
And there is an art to that and actually, if anything moving because we we were still on the air when kind of we started we were feeling pressure from our viewers to put a lot of our stuff on YouTube. And you know, I in my younger days in my sketch comedy, I was very long winded as a writer, and I had to learn how to get more synced with what I wanted to say and deliver my message and it deliver the jokes in a quicker way. So that's that was one of the ways I adapted and I think there is a skill to brevity. I think you know, that to get out there and so things like Tick tock, a lot of people may look at it superficially and think, Oh, well, anybody can get up there and be funny in six seconds. But I'm like, have you ever tried that?
Rick A. Morris 16:21
Right? It's hard. So your so your setups took a long time to get to the end of the punch line. It's
Anthony Donovan 16:29
not necessarily a long setup, but it was just, I said in three sentences, what I could have said in 10 words,
Rick A. Morris 16:36
and how's that working now for you?
Anthony Donovan 16:38
Well, I mean, what I find is that it depends on the venue, if I am going to be doing a hosting event where I go up there and I essentially do stand up, you feel the room, and if they're with you, you can take a little bit longer and you can dig a little deeper into some bits. And if they're not really feeling you and they're just waiting for the next performer, then you find a way to get around that quickly. So I think you know, whereas if I'm Doing something for a video, I tend to go a little quicker. I tend to do a little more succinct on that, because that's kind of the attention span of that. So it depends on the venue.
Rick A. Morris 17:09
And so how do we think is this is changing the consuming side of the habit as well?
Anthony Donovan 17:14
Oh, man, I I die a little on the inside when I hear people bingeing show. And maybe maybe that's my age talking because I understood in the thick of it eight seasons of what it takes to produce series television. There is so much to it, and there was so much blood, sweat and tears in the work of thousands of people. And it takes months and the idea that something like that, could you know, months worth of work can be consumed in an afternoon and then a viewer is looking at you going, Okay, well, when's the new one coming? Yeah, like that. That gives me like heart palpitations.
Rick A. Morris 17:49
Let's see. Show portlandia NBC. Yeah, I'm do that with that Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, it's so well done, right? Because it's so iconic, the done done for Battlestar Galactica and they binge on Watch it, they they seek out to go find Ronald board and make them write more episodes.
Anthony Donovan 18:04
It's true. And I mean, obviously, that was a very, you know, hyper, you know, a lot of hyperbole going on there. But that's kind of how it is. Yeah.
Rick A. Morris 18:13
And why can't you produce something? What Why does it take, you know, nine months to produce a season that I can watch in two days, right?
Anthony Donovan 18:22
You know, like, I'm a while back, I'm in the car with my niece, who's 17 years old, as song comes on the right and she's like, I want to hear this. It's old and it's a song. It's been over three months. Yeah. Like, where is your attention span girl.
Rick A. Morris 18:35
So what that allows it, you know, and David Polina has got a podcast coming out called a tongue lashing we were talking about while the ease of the entry is really good, you know, specifically around music you brought up using the ease of edge for us to have a bunch of suits determine what was going to be popular what wasn't right and you now we have this beautiful method of people getting you know, just Bieber being found on YouTube, you've got Spotify, where you can just put stuff up there and hope it goes viral. But that means we have this abundance of quantity now. Yeah. And we're lacking some of that quality that that some of the control provided.
Anthony Donovan 19:14
Well, and one of the other things that that irks me about that way, especially when it comes to music is I spent a lot of time studying music law in school. And I understood that there are things that happened in the music industry that are standard forms of business practice that are literally illegal and other forms of business. And I know that when you have people on there, like Spotify is wonderful for exposure, but the artists are making a lot of money. And the the model has, in a lot of ways not shifted in favor of the artists. So I think the fact that it has become so consumable, I think, I think there's a plus and a minus to it.
Rick A. Morris 19:50
But so too, right? You just said it perfectly. So if we look at two of the biggest forms of media that I can recall just being younger, that was books. And that was music. Yep. Obviously movies and TV will push us aside. I'm just talking about in forms of media that now. And I mean, when you got that music contract that was huge. Oh, yeah. And, you know, my first book went through the traditional publishing route and I got a nice advance to write it and your royalties that still come in now, you know, everybody's doing CreateSpace and, you know, I can use autotune on my computer and make a song and drop it out there. But there is that just has sucked all the money from the best artists so they've had to adapt. Yeah. Right. So what I what I love is the it's not only the the opportunity or the challenge, but how do you rise through all of that noise? Now? What would you suggest to kind of somebody who's who's just getting into this wanting to be a comedy writer? How do they begin to rise above
Anthony Donovan 20:58
I would say the first thing you need to know Is be solid in the reason why you want to do this and find your voice as a comedy writer. And then once you do that, and you kind of dive in, then it's up to you to navigate what's going to work for you and what's not. And I understand I understand, believe me, I understand being hungry, and needing that gig and, you know, taking whatever you can, but I've seen a lot of young writers get screwed out of a lot of property intellectually. And you, you have to kind of be careful what you're getting into. And I think if you want to take your stuff to social media, that is a great way to be seen. But I would also advise, don't empty the gun. Because, you know, you want to make sure that you're like you said, quality versus quantity. You want to make sure that you're you're keeping your content coming, but make it good content. And you know, don't, don't throw it all out on the floor right away, build what you're doing.
Rick A. Morris 21:59
So Knowing
ground entertainment, or at least studying entertainment law, as well as everything that you've kind of done, what's kind of one of the biggest things you had to to undo or try to get out of? When, because of that it was it was yours. It was clearly yours. Somebody who's trying to siphon in or take it away. Have you ever been in that situation?
Anthony Donovan 22:20
Um, actually, I was I wrote an industrial video back in the day. And I had a co writer working with me. And I was really the writer and she was kind of the idea person. And everything was kind of done on a handshake, even though it was a paid job with the production company. And, you know, we did our thing, and I wrote the script and everything. I delivered it on time, everything was great. And I got a call from the producers, saying, Hey, we need you to come down here and take a look at the script. And I took a look at the hard copy of the script, and she had taken my name off of it. Oh, wow. And it was my completely unfiltered 100% me script And I didn't take those measures to protect myself. There was no paperwork, there was no discussion. It was in my early 20s. And it was just one of those things again, I was just so happy to get the gig. But I didn't know to protect myself. And so that was probably that was the biggest lesson I got where it's like, oh, okay, so you know, yeah, there's friends Yeah, there's business but you need to make sure you're handling your business first.
Rick A. Morris 23:26
And there's no there's really rarely is their friends in this business. Let's that
Anthony Donovan 23:31
was another thing I learned.
Rick A. Morris 23:35
So what's the biggest kind of horror story you have just in general the business?
Anthony Donovan 23:40
I mean, largely, largely, I knock on wood have been very lucky with the stuff that I've done that I haven't been taken to the cleaners to. But you know, you you hear about it all the time. And I've had many friends that have gotten just completely hosed because they didn't read the fine print because they didn't Take the time to research who they were working with. And, you know, not a specific one doesn't come to mind, but just a general overall feeling of, you know, you, it only takes one time for you to see what can happen if you don't protect yourself.
Rick A. Morris 24:14
That's scary. That's scary in it,
Anthony Donovan 24:16
especially as a content creator like you want to. Yeah, it's it's hard and I have joked many times because I don't know if you've heard Pete Davidson from SNL recently did a thing where he had had a show, and he gave out, like, non disclosure agreements to the audience. Wow. So they won't like take his jokes. And, you know, my first thought was, well, a man, a man worried about people stealing his ideas as a man of limited ideas. But at the same time, it's like this is this is where it's got it now.
Rick A. Morris 24:46
When it Chappelle is the Chappelle that makes everybody put their phones in a tote before they
Anthony Donovan 24:51
I think Chappelle did that. Yeah, yeah.
Rick A. Morris 24:54
Yeah, that's starting to become a new thing too.
Anthony Donovan 24:56
Yeah, that's kind of becoming a common practice and and I get that because the Not so much the protection the material, but you know, that's that's the show and you don't want to cheapen the experience by having that be, you know what have you got there never bad night, you know and then the world gets to see you on a bad night. And I having been having had a bad night as a comic. I know how painful that is.
Rick A. Morris 25:15
Yeah, but there's also I mean, there's a there's points of surprise or elements of surprise that can be designed really well in the show. We actually talked about this with Lindsay Allie, you know, she she has put a lot of time and effort into her beautiful, you know, show that she does the Blood Sweat Mouseketeers. Yeah. And then you know, next thing, you know, somebody streaming that entire performance that she did for an exclusive audience, you know, on online and there's some jokes in there that it's not so much protection of material but it cheapens the opportunity for an audience to experience that for the first time.
Anthony Donovan 25:47
Oh, absolutely. And it's it's never the same. Seeing it online is never the same as the experience particularly with comedy is seeing it in person.
Rick A. Morris 25:56
Yeah, there's there's definitely Well, there's that and the other thing is I Like when I watch, like America's Got Talent, they have like full choirs, and it never sounds good on TV but man, will I get chill bumps? If I'm in that audience and hear them hit some of those notes? Yep. Right I literally get chill bumps but it just doesn't translate. I got a chance to see a couple of tapings and there was one choir I just loved and I was telling my family about it. It comes up on on the show and it sounded awful coming through the TV and I was like that was so not what I heard. Alright, so we're going to take another break right here, but I do want to give you a chance just to say I don't hit you cold, but you You are a self professed pop culture. geek. Alright, so I found a quiz that is supposed to be 15 of the pop culture things that most people get wrong and we're going to see how he answers that when we come back after break and listen to the wreck Mars in the work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 26:57
Are you frustrated with the overall productivity Your project management processes Do you lack consistency and project delivery? r squared consulting provides end to end services to assist companies of all sizes and realizing and improving the value of project management. Whether you want to build a project management office, train project managers, or learn how to bring the oversight and governance to your project processes, r squared has tailored best practices to help you in all areas of project management, visit r squared consulting com Are you getting the most out of your project management software. In many cases, it is not the software that is failing, but the implementation limitations or processes surrounding the use of that software. r squared can analyze your current use and help improve your return on investment. r squared can also suggest the best software for your organization and goals and assist in the selection implementation and training. allow our square to ensure that you are getting the value You have your investment, visit r squared consulting.com. Today
you'll find the voice America business network.
You are tuned into the work life balance to reach Rick Morris or his guest today, we'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790. Again, that's 1-866-472-5790 if you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at r Morris at r squared consulting.com. Now back to the work life balance.
Rick A. Morris 28:44
And we're back to the work life balance on this Friday afternoon. We've got self professed that they actually call you Suzanne, is that is that fair?
Anthony Donovan 28:53
Yes. I get a lot of phone calls from my friends being like, Hey, who does the song? There we go.
Rick A. Morris 28:58
So I'm gonna I'm gonna watch me up so I don't hit you local. I'ma give you a warm up. Who, who? Who performs the song of my lead and music?
Anthony Donovan 29:08
That would be the party.
Rick A. Morris 29:09
That's right. All right. That one. That one was easy. Who was the first American Idol?
Anthony Donovan 29:16
Kelly Clarkson
Rick A. Morris 29:18
and this Kardashian sibling is the one without a K name.
Anthony Donovan 29:23
Oh man, I'm
Chloe. No, she's okay.
Is that the one name could chain I don't know. Cuz they just make money. That's their job.
Rick A. Morris 29:35
That is their job and in look, God love them for it. It's it's Rob.
Anthony Donovan 29:40
Oh, Rob. Okay. See, I was thinking sister. Yeah,
Rick A. Morris 29:44
absolutely. I'm starting to get going.
Anthony Donovan 29:47
Like their mom probably has at some point.
Rick A. Morris 29:52
Oh, this one's good finish the TV theme song. Okay. I want to be the very best like no one ever was.
Anthony Donovan 30:01
Want to be the very best like no one ever was?
Rick A. Morris 30:04
I don't know, to catch them as my real test to train them as my cause I don't even know what that is.
Anthony Donovan 30:10
Is that the greatest American hero?
Rick A. Morris 30:11
Yeah, yeah, there you go. Oh, well. Is it pokey? pokey, man. There it is. Alright. Hey, jumping in, man. You're good. I'm old. All right.
So sometimes you want to go
Anthony Donovan 30:27
Oh, where everybody knows your name Jared is
Rick A. Morris 30:29
all right now we're really warming up.
Anthony Donovan 30:30
So here we go by Gary port and I who also sang the theme song to Punky Brewster.
Rick A. Morris 30:38
So what Star Wars movie does the line Luke I am your father come from?
Anthony Donovan 30:41
That would be the Empire Strikes Back 1980
Rick A. Morris 30:44
no line never appeared in any Star Wars movie the actual Oh, because he doesn't
Anthony Donovan 30:48
know he's told you what happened to your father? He told me plenty. He told me you killed him. No, I am your father. There we go.
Rick A. Morris 30:56
There it is. Who was the first Disney Princess Is
Anthony Donovan 31:01
Snow White?
Rick A. Morris 31:02
Ah, it's PR Stephanie is in the silly semi. Yeah. Goddess of spring.
Anthony Donovan 31:09
Oh and a Disney question. Wow, I was good. I've been shamed hard
Rick A. Morris 31:15
first actor to portray James Bond on screen.
Anthony Donovan 31:18
It wasn't Connery it was
oh my gosh, my the CO hosts of my podcasts are screaming at me right now listening to this. I know they are. Be.
Rick A. Morris 31:30
Barry Nelson appeared in a 54 made for TV movie. These are the hard ones they are hard. What is what is the what is the name of the first Harry Potter book?
Anthony Donovan 31:42
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or as it was called in London Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Rick A. Morris 31:48
Oh, get through Harry Potter baztab. What TV program aired the first interracial kiss.
Anthony Donovan 31:57
Was that the Jeffers? No no. We're stopping Track.
Rick A. Morris 32:01
It's credited, but there's actually one called you and your small corner which is a play aired in the UK. That's that very so Star Trek wins. I will Okay, I won't be that hard on you. And then who originally singing the song? I love rock and roll.
Anthony Donovan 32:17
Oh, gosh, it wasn't Joan Jett? It was. Was it Tommy James?
Rick A. Morris 32:22
Uh, he did. No, but it's a British band called The arrows.
Anthony Donovan 32:27
The arrows. Okay.
Rick A. Morris 32:29
I think that's good. I think I i think i tortured you now but you shouldn't be perfect. You're metal,
Anthony Donovan 32:35
you know? And it's funny. I always have friends who run to me if with something to stump me. And of course it does. And when you know, they make fun of me for not knowing something I always tell them the same thing. I'm like, I did not get on the World Series of pop culture because I know everything about pop culture I got on because I know more than you do. So describe
Rick A. Morris 32:56
that experience going out for that show what it was like to film You know, talk about a little bit about that.
Anthony Donovan 33:01
I went out with durwood, Marie and Amy Meredith, who are two of the three other hosts of my podcast, the house of pop culture. And we we went to LA, and there was a written test, and there were 10,000 people. And some people had had like shirts made at that point and stuff. And we did the written test, and we passed it. And then they brought us in to see how well we did on camera. And they gave us some questions. We played a preliminary round, and we won. And then we played a second round in LA and we actually lost and the team that beat us wound up on the show, but they called us and said that the producers had decided that we would be one of the 12 teams on there because I guess we were really I'm sorry. And they decided to have us on the show because we did really well and we were good on camera and we were entertaining. So we we went out there and that was kind of my first experience as an adult. Being on national television with people on the internet. Having opinions.
Rick A. Morris 34:03
Talk about that though.
Anthony Donovan 34:04
Well, when I got when we got to the show when we were shooting, we were on the second season the first season champions, who was a team called El Chupacabra. I met my friend Jody Roth, who was part of that team. And I asked her, you know, what advice do you have for me once this aired? And she thought for a minute, and she said, don't read the comments. And I thought, Oh, that's probably pretty good advice. I'm not going to follow it. Of course, I read every single printed word about us. And I had the greatest moment, as a result, after after our show aired, there was this there was a message board because that was how we did in the 2000s. There was a message board called survivor sucks. And there was a user on there. Her name was Cindy Dendi 76. And I will never forget this as long as I live, she was talking about us on TV and she said, she said, I didn't like the team that beat them. But that guy with the Mohawk, who by the way, was me. She's like, I hated him so much. I wanted to drop kick my TV. That was the greatest moment of my life up into that point because at that moment I ceased being a real person with thoughts and feelings who exists in the world. And I was just one of those guys on TV, and that is all I have ever wanted to be. I was just an image on TV presented for her immediate approval or disapproval. And I thought it was great if I knew who she was, I would send her flowers every year.
Rick A. Morris 35:27
So Seth Godin who wrote the book tribes and he's a marketing genius, I love Seth, but he said if you're not making somebody mad, then you're not doing something right. In the truth
Anthony Donovan 35:39
Hey, you know, Prince once said, it's better to be overlooked. It's better to be looked over than overlooked.
Rick A. Morris 35:43
Wow, there you go. So there you go. Hit me back with the pop culture. There you go. I went business you went pop culture you went.
Anthony Donovan 35:51
Now I do.
Rick A. Morris 35:54
So so taking that experience, right and all that stuff you decide to create this podcast talk to us about the podcast. And what that whole experience is like and what you think makes a really good podcast?
Anthony Donovan 36:05
Well, it was important for us to kind of go off the heels of that because we had some attention on us at the time because of the h1 and we thought All right, well, let's let's get on there. And there was a, there was a fourth guy, our friend, Joe Reese, who in himself in himself as a pop culture, Maven, and he kind of trained us for the show. So we had Joe come on with us, and it's the four of us, and we called it the house of pop culture because all of us were involved in the TV show the house. So we thought let's continue on that and basically because we we have such a useless knowledge and we vamped so well with each other. We we do a lot of top five lists like the minute the movie high fidelity came out, so many of my friends, jack Black's character was like, Dude, that is Anthony for days. And it's true and a lot of my friends are like that. So we started doing these lists and people have opinions, man, they will interact with us, and we asked for show ideas and you know, it gets pretty heated with with the exchanges, and it's really funny but we, we try to keep it incredibly silly. And we we do a lot about movies about TV, about reality TV, we we and then we tried to kind of expand our focus this past year with talking about some other things that weren't necessarily as funny and like we did it. We did an episode about the me to movement and about Harvey Weinstein and what and you know what happens when our our heroes of pop culture disappoint us and they break our hearts. So that was a really interesting discussion that our viewers were surprisingly receptive to like they were cool, letting us put aside the jokes for a week and be serious about something. So that was really neat. And I mean, Rona Bennett, who we both know and love, she was so generous to come on the show, and we had a great talk with her. And yeah, we we've really expanded it to the point where we talk about just about everything pop culture related.
Rick A. Morris 37:53
That's fantastic. So what do you think really goes into making that a success though beyond just you know, being cillian telling jokes What? What if somebody is wanting to start a podcast? What advice do you give them?
Anthony Donovan 38:05
I would tell them, make sure you have something to talk about.
I would tell them because a lot of people and this is this kind of goes, this kind of comes back to that whole public access YouTube type thing where everybody now has everybody now has the resources to do it. I've known a lot of people that are funny in real life, but they are not actors. And when you put a script on them, it doesn't work. I know a lot of people that are funny and talkative in real life, but they don't know how to present content behind a mic. And that makes a big difference. I've heard a lot of people who are great individuals get on a podcast and they don't have a lot to talk about. What they're saying makes absolutely no sense to the people on the other end of that you have to have something that can be received. It has to be consumable, and you know a lot of inside jokes with your friends are great, but you have to open it up and understand you're talking to somebody and you know, understand how to present How to Talk no thumbs and ahhs and have some idea of what you want to say that's the most important thing. And, you know, open it up for things that people want to listen to and talk about you. Ideally, the best podcasts are the ones where you want to jump in and start talking as a listener. And that's been one of the greatest compliments we've had about the house of pop culture is when people hear us and it's like they're having a conversation with for their friends.
Rick A. Morris 39:25
So basically everything I don't do, okay, I got rid of the list.
Anthony Donovan 39:29
You're showing late
Rick A. Morris 39:30
buddy. First of all, listen to people, okay? Don't do that. encourage people know inside jokes, okay. Pretty much everything I do. Okay. So, but But honestly, though, it's, it truly is. First of all, a lot of people think oh, we're going to go start a podcast and I'm going to get all this advertising revenue. Yeah. I wish. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But at the same time, so it has to be something that you're passionate about that Oh, yeah, that you would do, even if nobody listened, because sometimes they won't. And even though that you're not going to generate any money, because it really doesn't generate any kind of revenue,
Anthony Donovan 40:14
we're very fortunate to have Patreon and our patrons are great. And they help cover the overhead, which is not a lot, but none of us are getting rich off of it.
Rick A. Morris 40:22
Sure, sure. So So really, to me, the when people ask me about podcast, I'd say, I ask, Are you ready to serve your audience? Yeah. Because if it's about you, if you think you got something great to say, nobody cares. Let's just be honest about that. And nobody really cares. What they want to know is what's in it for me and how can you serve you my what's my entertainment level? or What am I going to learn? Exactly. So we're going to take our final break here. When we come back, we're going to find out how in touch with Anthony, how he can come to your organization, shake things up, all that kind of stuff. I'm not his agent, so you have to contact them and now It's on media. So therefore it's done. But they'll we'll find out and we'll ask the question we ask every one of our guests in the final segment, but we'll do that right after the break. You're listening to Rick Mars and the work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 41:17
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tuned into the work life balance to reach Rick A. Morris or his guests today, we'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790. Again, that's 1-866-472-5790 if you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at our Morris at r squared consulting. com now Back to the work life balance.
Rick A. Morris 43:03
And we're back to the final segment of the work life balance with our main Anthony Donovan. And you know, when when I do this show, I have a pre show packet I send out to our guests so we can ask some questions, get to know them a little bit. If I haven't met them before, I always ask for possible topics. And you know, Anthony sent me several topics and I chose one called there is no such thing as the right time. And Funny enough, I haven't asked a single question about that, Anthony. So what do we mean by that? And what what do you mean by there is no such thing as the right time.
Anthony Donovan 43:34
I am encouraged I've encountered this so much in my life and career is that one of the things that as a creator, we tend to think, or artsy type people or really anybody is if you want to do your project, you think, Oh, I can't do this right now. I don't I don't have a B and C. This this situation isn't perfect. We don't have the right money. We don't have the right people this that the other night if I had, if I had stopped myself from pulling the trigger on every artistic endeavor, that I wanted to do because of that I would have never gotten anything done. They say the zero they say that the most difficult part is from zero to start. And that really is the most important. It's the truest thing. And I think if you have something that you want to say in a project that you want to do, you know, try to get your ducks in a row. But the most important thing is to do it. My team and I had no business starting a TV show, back then in going out there and just winging it and being first timers and five seasons later, we won a major industry award for our little dog and pony show that because we did it, we didn't listen to, you know, the voices in your head telling you you shouldn't or even the other people who were just like you shouldn't do this. I had something to say I wanted to share something with the world. I wanted to share my comedy with the world and we did it. And you know, same thing with a podcast or things like that. Make sure it's as good as it can be. But ultimately, you got to come through with it.
Rick A. Morris 44:59
Yeah, So one of my dear friends, Colin Ellis says that we do our best work on the edge of uncomfortable.
Anthony Donovan 45:05
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Rick A. Morris 45:06
Yeah. I asked people all the time why they haven't started this or haven't you know? Well, this is what I want to do it the biggest thing I think you probably hear like I do was I'm gonna do a podcast. I hear that all the time. It so that follow up is and what do you start, right? It's not I'm going to but I but we've got to push ourselves to little uncomfortable state where we do our best work. And it's it's one piece at a time. Give yourself a deadline. For me, the best thing is always to tell another person, because I'm big on being impeccable with my word. And if I say somebody, hey, I'm going to deliver the script to you on date. I'm going to do that. And I'm going to get to that finish line. I did that I have a whole a whole season of a series written that I told durwood Murray, one of the CO hosts of my show, I'm like, I'm going to give you this entire script on December 1. And December 1. He called me I'm like I'm in the car. I'm on my way and I put it In his hand, because you that that's the thing follow through it, as they say follow through is the superpower. Well, there's actually science behind that. So if you make a goal that is, is voluntary, and is is active that you you volunteered or shared that to somebody, you will follow through, it's or you have the higher chance of following through. So when we do we do declare public of personal goals. When I do coaching, it's, it's what are you going What are you committing to me? And when they, when they say it to me, then they don't want to show up, you know, the next week or the next month and not have done it
Anthony Donovan 46:37
exactly way. And it's not to say that, you know, the seven days leading up to that won't be me sitting in front of my laptop, or o'clock in the morning. Yeah, cursing the heavens because my imagination chose not to show up to work that day, but I'm going to get it done.
Rick A. Morris 46:51
But you you just said something really important. It's something you know, when I'm writing books and in when I'm doing a lot of this stuff. There's just days Where you have seasons, the seasons of creativity come and go. Oh, so how do you kind of force?
Anthony Donovan 47:07
Yeah, you know, and that's a that's a fine line. And I learned that from writing for series because, you know, we we had an air date, and we had to have something to shoot. And, you know, you, you just kind of get in there and you you, especially with writing, pounded all out, do the do the verbal diarrhea on the page, and a lot of it's going to be terrible. But until you start doing it, you're not gonna have anything to work with. So the key is just even if it's bad, keep going, you will come back to it, and you'll find something of value in it to build on.
Rick A. Morris 47:38
So what's some of the best advice you've ever received?
Anthony Donovan 47:41
I think one of the best pieces of advice has always been, Never be afraid to ask for help. And that is something that has bit me in the rear end a number of times early on in my career, and sometimes I still have those moments where I I kind of work it all out in my head. And I'm overthinking it. I'm thinking All right, well, this isn't gonna work. And this isn't gonna work. And I have to figure out a way and and I realized that there are people in the world that want to see you succeed. And it's important for you to reach out to them, because my favorite thing in the world is when I can be of service to somebody else. Sure, you know, and when somebody says, I wasn't gonna call you, I'm, like, offended. I'm like,
why wouldn't you call me?
I can help you with this. And I forget that the rest of the world, it works the same way with other people.
Rick A. Morris 48:27
Right? Absolutely.
Anthony Donovan 48:29
You know, so don't be afraid to ask for help you, you would be surprised what is waiting for you if you just stayed it out loud and you're ready to receive it.
Rick A. Morris 48:39
So how do people get in touch with you and are you available for higher bookings and things like that? I
Anthony Donovan 48:44
I sure am. Particularly in Southern California, I am available for speaking stand up the whole nine yards. The best way to get ahold of me is probably through social media. I'm Anthony Donovan on Facebook. You can also reach my official art page because I'm also a cartoonist on Anthony Don art on Instagram. And you know other than that the best way is find one of those two things and shoot me a direct message. I'm also on Twitter at the boy da Bo y.
There's a long story behind that name. But uh,
Rick A. Morris 49:14
yeah, I don't want to hear it Is that bad? I kinda want to hear it.
Anthony Donovan 49:17
Well, you know, when I, when my roommate and I, we first moved here, we were like, so Charles Dickens, so poor that she, she was at work one time. And she had mentioned to a co worker, she's like, I gotta get home and feed the boy. Apparently, her co workers thought she had a baby. And so that kind of became my nickname. And when I when I got on twitter 150 years ago, I decided to just use the name, boy. And what I found is that there's a lot of people out there that want that name. I've had people offer to buy that handle from me, and I'm like, Well, I
Rick A. Morris 49:51
yes, I'm the boy.
Anthony Donovan 49:54
Remember, remember
Rick A. Morris 49:57
any final words for the audience?
Anthony Donovan 50:00
Thanks for listening. Thanks for all the support. Thank you, Rick for having me on. I really appreciate it. And yeah, I hope to see many of you real soon.
Rick A. Morris 50:08
Absolutely new. Any any
upcoming engagements, maybe they can catch San Diego.
Anthony Donovan 50:16
I'm actually I have a show opening tonight.
Rick A. Morris 50:19
Hey,
Anthony Donovan 50:20
I am in the musical Sweet Charity at the Brooks Theatre in Oceanside, California. And that runs through March 29. And musical theater will always be my first love. So we'll be doing that for the next month.
Rick A. Morris 50:33
Well, we appreciate you coming on the show, sharing your talents with us sharing your wisdom and allowing you to
Anthony Donovan 50:40
check out the house of pop culture on Spotify and Stitcher and pod bean. There you go.
Rick A. Morris 50:45
Yeah, if you didn't drop your own podcast, I thought we did a pretty good job earlier but absolutely need to go subscribe to that. But we appreciate you being here and sharing everything with us and hopefully we'll get you on again in the near future and find out what's going on your world.
Anthony Donovan 50:58
I would love that. Thank you so much.
Rick A. Morris 51:00
Appreciate your brother. So coming up next week, I think next week, it's going to be just me on the show. I'll share some topics, some updates things that I take that I take that back. Now I'm right. So next week, it's just me and then we're going to go into replays as I do the international Maxwell conference in Orlando, Florida that I do twice a year. And probably one of my most popular shows is the recap from that event when we come back so that that is our upcoming shows and upcoming show schedule. Otherwise, we appreciate you hanging out with us listening to the work life balance every Friday continue to listen to the voice America network for the next upcoming show. And until next Friday, we hope that you live your own work life balance will talk to you that
VoiceAmerica 51:45
thank you for joining us this week. The work life balance with Rick Morris can be heard live every Friday at 2pm pacific time and 5pm eastern time on The Voice America business channel. Now that the weekend is here, it's time to rethink your priorities. Enjoy it. We'll see you on our next show.
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