Who is does the voices?
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ABOVE: BLADE the Vomiting Rocker, during a destructive stay at a Motel 6. Blade always requests EXTRA TV sets for his hotel room because he always "seems to lose a few out the window". Sleeping 4 stories below on the sidewalk (regrettably) was some homeless dude.
Q. Who makes and takes these Touch Tone Terrorist calls?
A. . Me. RePete. The dude in the photo above (wearing the wig and fake tattoos).
Q. Are you a REAL terrorist?
A. Is my name Sheik Mohammed Al-RePete??
Q. Do you electronically alter your voice to do characters like "Junkyard Willie"?
A. One name... Yamaha SPX-90
But don't run out and buy one of these, expecting to be all set to record calls. You also need to a mixer, a phone hybrid, and some other gadgets that will cost you upwards of $1,000.
Q. One guy? No way. Prove it!
A. MP3 (384 K) clip from the Stern show.
Q. How in the world do you generate these INBOUND calls?
A. 1) I used to climb up the telephone pole, cut and splice wires thus crossing lines. 2) An engineer friend at a call center used to tie up his boss daily for a few hours at a time and then redirect calls to me. 3) Lets just say I got fired from a few jobs in recording these calls!
Q. Junkyard Willie seems a bit "racist"; Are you a racist?
A. No. Your mother is a racist. I exaggerate and poke fun at stereotypes, including white trash, hillbillies, high class executive types, rock 'n rollers, etc. With my "Vladimir" character I make fun of Russians... and I'm 1/2 Russian! So go figure. George Carlin spelled it out perfectly.... "At the root of every joke is an exaggeration". Are stereotypes funny? Yes! Stereotypes are hilarious. Anyone who doesn't think so is in denial and they're being anal. From political cartoons to Saturday Night Live to the Phil Hendrie radio show, stereotypes have been building block of humor for ages. This is shock comedy, not Disneyland. If you like to patronize political correctness then listen to 95% of everything else that is out there.
Q. The Jerky Boys did a prank call movie that flopped. Now you're doing a movie. Don't you think you're making a big mistake here?
A. First of all my movie isn't even about prank calls. Secondly I'm NOT going to be playing my boring self in this movie; In this movie the CHARACTERS come to life. Thirdly I didn't write the Jerky Boys script. Every script is different. This is a completely different script.
Q. How did you get airplay on radio shows like Howard Stern?
A. The same way everyone else does. I sent my CD's unsolicited in the mail for them to review. If it's their cup of tea then they air it. Do you really think all those wackos on the show (like John the Stutterer and Gary the Retard) got on with a publicist? That's what is great about the show.
Q. How did you get your calls aired on Crank Yankers?
A. Comedy Central e-mailed me back in November of 2001 about doing calls for the show. I said "sure"!
Q. On Crank Yankers Willie, Jim Bob and Blade look different than on the CD's. Why?
A. Had they used my likenesses then I am assuming that they would have had to license the characters from me, thus costing them more $$. So their artist drew up original likenesses (based solely only on listening to the voices) without ever having seen my web site or CD's.
Q. Have any record companies ever showed interest in TTT?
A. Yes. 2 major labels and 2 small indi labels. But I signed with 3 distributors instead. After Howard Stern began airing TTT I had no real interest in signing a "record deal".
Q. Did you ever shop your TTT act to the Jerky Boys' label Select Records?
A. Yes. In August of 1997 TTT was solicited by an attorney to Select Records. They were NOT interested. BAD MOVE! Perhaps much to his surprise, TTT would go on to get a huge buzz on Howard Stern, and Permanent Lapse of Reason would peak at #5 on the Amazon.com hot 100.
Q. If you are just ONE guy doing all of the voices then how do you explain the overlapping voices on calls like "Trashcan Lid Beating"?
A. I simply pre-recorded 2 bits that I would play back from CD. For example the part that starts with Willie entering the room until when Jim Bob gets beaten and driven out of the room.
Q. Do you get permission from the call subjects?
A. Yes! (including recognizable people heard in the background) They are all paid well too (especially given the fact that it's only for independent CD releases). Some of my calls were recorded in New York. I got permission for those calls too! Contrary to what some misinformed people say, you need to get permission in ALL states to use someone's voice on a CD. You can legally record calls FOR PRIVATE USE in certain states without informing the call subject. You can even legally record phone conversations in 2-party consent states (like California) under certain circumstances. BUT to release phone conversations on a CD's without people's permission can expose you to lawsuits over copyright infringement and invasion of privacy. Therefore you eventually need permission in ALL states.
Q. How did the "Rude Lube" call come about?
A. I placed a casting call notice in an actor's publication. So I was always answering the phone by saying "Katzenberg Entertainment" (which is a typical sounding casting agency name that I made up). After a while I realized that THIS particular call was a wrong number call for an auto lube shop. So I played along with it. The couple got really angry! By the way this call was recorded, mixed and mastered entirely in the digital domain (as they say) on an AKAI DR-16. It's as clear of a sound quality as you can get.
Q. Are any of your calls staged?
A. The closest thing to a "staged" TTT call was on ONE call that appears on 1 of my CD's. I did not stage the call or make any arrangements with anyone to make the call happen. Unbeknownst to me someone instructed a friend of his (whom I had never met) to call me and pretend to be calling about tracking a package. Like clock work I can pick out an imposter caller a mile away, but just this once I was fooled. For about a month, as I waited for my 800 phone bill (no caller ID showed up) I wanted to get permission from the caller to put the call on my next CD release. Finally I figured it out, but by that time I liked the call so much that I said "what the hell" and put it on my next CD release. Again I never arranged for this call to come in. Technically it was not staged but rather unbeknownst to me, someone else arranged for the caller to call me. But other that this ONE call everything else on all of my 4 CD's was calls to and from complete strangers with NOTHING staged or planned in any way.
Q. Why bleep out the names? Why were some left in or changed?
A. An overly sensitive lawyer advised me that I should take them out or ask for permission. When I contacted some companies (like Penzoil, Southern Comfort, Dentyne gum) they showed no sense of humor and immediately said "NO". Only Jack Daniel's allowed mention of their trademarked name on "Kelsey's Liquor Store" but also said "NO" to allowing mention of JD on the call "Airplane Hubcaps". After a while I gave up on contacting these stubborn companies and used my own discretion as to whether products were used in a disparaging way or not. Later I found out that what these companies TELL you NOT to do, does not reflect or dictate law. Merely CONTACTING these companies for permission may possibly constitute a sort of admission of guilt. So I NEVER ask for permission anymore. Nevertheless I try to use parody names if possible. No more free advertising for real companies. I came up with my OWN products like "Old Chicken", "General Express", "Rude Lube", etc.!
Q. Why is this 4th CD your last? We want more!
A. With each CD I've tried to do something new. The first was outbound calls. By the 2nd CD I was running out of good outbound call ideas, but had just starting with the INBOUND calls. By popular demand the 3rd CD contained mostly inbound calls. For the 4th CD I set out NOT to do a repeat of the 3rd CD (shipping company calls). So I disconnected all of my numbers, got new numbers and recorded fresh new customer service calls. Right now I've kind of run out of ideas to carry through a whole new 5th CD. If I was like everyone else I would just wear it out until people got SICK of my calls. But I don't want to go there.
On a business level, the business of releasing independent media is dead. Nobody buys CD's anymore. Only the major labels make money because they have deals with all of the stores to get their products widely distributed. Independents only scratch the surface. Also it's a full time job fighting illegal online piracy. Actually there's more money to be made in suing people who commit copyright infringement than releasing more CD's. That's right seeders commit copyright infringement and downloaders are accepting stolen property, and the settlement amounts are stiff and the court penalties are even stiffer.
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