Fred Melamed | Rebooting The Voice

You know, i think there's a lot of vanity

2

00:00:04,308 --> 00:00:07,134

Fred Melamed: and other foibles that come to my attention

3

00:00:07,260 --> 00:00:09,568

Fred Melamed: frequently, both my own and other people's,

4

00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:11,745

Fred Melamed: but I also think that it's beautiful that

5

00:00:11,785 --> 00:00:13,530

Fred Melamed: people do it, because it's not easy.

6

00:00:14,100 --> 00:00:15,707

Announcer: Welcome to Story and Craft.

7

00:00:16,301 --> 00:00:18,368

Announcer: Now here's your host, Marc Preston.

8

00:00:18,620 --> 00:00:19,404

Marc Preston: Hey, how's it going?

9

00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,648

Marc Preston: I'm Marc Preston back, another episode of

10

00:00:22,788 --> 00:00:25,985

Marc Preston: Story and Craft And I know, i know, i know

11

00:00:26,085 --> 00:00:27,008

Marc Preston: it's been a few weeks.

12

00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:28,585

Marc Preston: You're going, Marc, where have you been?

13

00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:31,965

Marc Preston: I've been working on some very cool, fun

14

00:00:32,026 --> 00:00:34,772

Marc Preston: projects but also very time consuming

15

00:00:34,832 --> 00:00:37,867

Marc Preston: projects, so it's been a moment, but we're

16

00:00:37,948 --> 00:00:38,229

Marc Preston: back.

17

00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:40,885

Marc Preston: I've been jazzed, i've been looking forward

18

00:00:40,925 --> 00:00:42,875

Marc Preston: to it because I know I've got like really

19

00:00:42,895 --> 00:00:44,141

Marc Preston: cool guests coming up.

20

00:00:44,301 --> 00:00:47,490

Marc Preston: Kind of like today, actor Fred Melamed

21

00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:50,244

Marc Preston: Little sit down to talk story with one of

22

00:00:50,264 --> 00:00:53,772

Marc Preston: the most recognizable character actors out

23

00:00:53,852 --> 00:00:56,947

Marc Preston: there Men in films, kind of like in a world

24

00:00:57,590 --> 00:01:00,218

Marc Preston: Hale Caesar, the Coen Brothers movie, the

25

00:01:00,259 --> 00:01:01,322

Marc Preston: Spy Who Dumped Me.

26

00:01:01,543 --> 00:01:04,712

Marc Preston: Also TV Brooklyn Nine-Nine The Morning Show,

27

00:01:04,853 --> 00:01:08,262

Marc Preston: barry WandaVision, his new show on Hulu,

28

00:01:08,343 --> 00:01:09,425

Marc Preston: super Crazy, funny.

29

00:01:09,506 --> 00:01:10,909

Marc Preston: It is called Reboot.

30

00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:13,365

Marc Preston: Got Paul Reiser in that one.

31

00:01:13,425 --> 00:01:16,526

Marc Preston: Johnny Knoxville Cast is awesome, super

32

00:01:16,566 --> 00:01:16,847

Marc Preston: funny.

33

00:01:17,281 --> 00:01:18,667

Marc Preston: Again, reboot the show.

34

00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:19,764

Marc Preston: We'll be talking about it.

35

00:01:20,180 --> 00:01:21,643

Marc Preston: And don't forget the website,

36

00:01:21,943 --> 00:01:24,688

Marc Preston: storyandcraftpod.com.

37

00:01:24,848 --> 00:01:27,813

Marc Preston: Once again, storyandcraftpod.com.

38

00:01:28,540 --> 00:01:29,803

Marc Preston: Everything you want to learn about the show,

39

00:01:30,265 --> 00:01:33,152

Marc Preston: what's going on, past episodes, just head

40

00:01:33,220 --> 00:01:33,401

Marc Preston: there.

41

00:01:33,441 --> 00:01:34,124

Marc Preston: It's all right there.

42

00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:36,585

Marc Preston: And if you would a little favor, no matter

43

00:01:36,685 --> 00:01:39,050

Marc Preston: what podcast app you are using, if you

44

00:01:39,070 --> 00:01:41,002

Marc Preston: would follow the show That way you get that

45

00:01:41,042 --> 00:01:43,609

Marc Preston: little notification every time there is a

46

00:01:43,669 --> 00:01:46,807

Marc Preston: new episode, a little review, a little five

47

00:01:46,867 --> 00:01:47,530

Marc Preston: star action.

48

00:01:47,570 --> 00:01:49,537

Marc Preston: If you're loving what you're hearing, that

49

00:01:49,557 --> 00:01:51,744

Marc Preston: would be super cool, all right, so let's

50

00:01:51,784 --> 00:01:52,286

Marc Preston: get after it.

51

00:01:52,346 --> 00:01:56,278

Marc Preston: Today is Fred Melamed Day, right here on

52

00:01:56,358 --> 00:01:57,302

Marc Preston: Story and Craft.

53

00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:02,529

Marc Preston: Thank you so much for taking time out to

54

00:02:02,569 --> 00:02:03,150

Marc Preston: meet with me today.

55

00:02:03,380 --> 00:02:04,384

Marc Preston: I so appreciate it.

56

00:02:04,545 --> 00:02:05,147

Marc Preston: It's my pleasure.

57

00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:06,042

Marc Preston: Where are you?

58

00:02:06,062 --> 00:02:06,845

Marc Preston: where are you joining me from?

59

00:02:06,885 --> 00:02:10,145

Fred Melamed: today I'm in Valley Village, California,

60

00:02:10,185 --> 00:02:13,671

Fred Melamed: which is in the Valley part of the northern

61

00:02:14,272 --> 00:02:15,234

Fred Melamed: suburb of Los Angeles.

62

00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:17,765

Marc Preston: I know you're a New York kid, but are you?

63

00:02:17,906 --> 00:02:19,509

Marc Preston: is LA your home base now?

64

00:02:20,071 --> 00:02:20,331

Fred Melamed: It is.

65

00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,287

Fred Melamed: I've lived in LA for about just under 10

66

00:02:23,327 --> 00:02:25,224

Fred Melamed: years, but you're right that I was born and

67

00:02:25,244 --> 00:02:26,448

Fred Melamed: spent most of my life in New York.

68

00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:27,882

Marc Preston: For a New York guy.

69

00:02:27,922 --> 00:02:29,065

Marc Preston: You had all those great delis.

70

00:02:29,586 --> 00:02:31,090

Marc Preston: Just a personal question what's it like

71

00:02:31,110 --> 00:02:31,571

Marc Preston: getting in LA?

72

00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:33,785

Marc Preston: Where do you like to frequent to grab?

73

00:02:34,086 --> 00:02:35,791

Marc Preston: is it like Cantors, or is there anywhere

74

00:02:35,811 --> 00:02:36,441

Marc Preston: else you like to go?

75

00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:40,646

Fred Melamed: You know Nate Nals was the kind of standard

76

00:02:40,787 --> 00:02:44,288

Fred Melamed: answer I do like Cantors.

77

00:02:44,420 --> 00:02:48,208

Fred Melamed: I'm not a huge deli eater actually, but

78

00:02:48,730 --> 00:02:49,110

Fred Melamed: it's funny.

79

00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:53,147

Fred Melamed: People often ask me do I miss New York?

80

00:02:54,740 --> 00:02:56,488

Fred Melamed: And the truth is that New York has changed

81

00:02:56,549 --> 00:02:59,020

Fred Melamed: so vastly from the time that I lived there

82

00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:00,929

Fred Melamed: and from the time that I remember growing

83

00:03:01,009 --> 00:03:03,520

Fred Melamed: up there that there's precious little of it

84

00:03:03,581 --> 00:03:04,646

Fred Melamed: left to miss anymore.

85

00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:06,263

Fred Melamed: All the neighborhoods that I was attached

86

00:03:06,283 --> 00:03:09,812

Fred Melamed: to when I was a kid are gone.

87

00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:12,507

Fred Melamed: New York has become in many ways like any

88

00:03:12,547 --> 00:03:13,029

Fred Melamed: other city.

89

00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,309

Fred Melamed: It's just a big homogenous kind of mass.

90

00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:19,384

Fred Melamed: Also, new York was always expensive, even

91

00:03:19,424 --> 00:03:23,492

Fred Melamed: when I was a kid, but it was possible for

92

00:03:24,574 --> 00:03:27,127

Fred Melamed: actors, artists, poets, weirdos of

93

00:03:27,147 --> 00:03:29,173

Fred Melamed: different stripes to kind of eke out a

94

00:03:29,213 --> 00:03:29,775

Fred Melamed: living there.

95

00:03:30,718 --> 00:03:32,605

Fred Melamed: Although it was difficult, they could do it

96

00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:37,367

Fred Melamed: And that added to the intellectual sort of

97

00:03:39,490 --> 00:03:41,273

Fred Melamed: muscle of the city and also a lot of its

98

00:03:41,313 --> 00:03:41,934

Fred Melamed: vitality.

99

00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:43,485

Fred Melamed: But that's really changed.

100

00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:45,085

Marc Preston: I was surprised that you're hearing about

101

00:03:45,105 --> 00:03:45,988

Marc Preston: people on Broadway.

102

00:03:46,180 --> 00:03:47,905

Marc Preston: I think the perception is, if you're on

103

00:03:47,965 --> 00:03:49,831

Marc Preston: Broadway, you're doing great.

104

00:03:50,060 --> 00:03:51,566

Marc Preston: I was speaking with Melissa O'Neill.

105

00:03:51,980 --> 00:03:53,727

Marc Preston: She's on the show the rookie.

106

00:03:53,780 --> 00:03:55,247

Marc Preston: I was just talking, she was on Broadway.

107

00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:57,407

Marc Preston: She's like yeah, she's barely eking it out

108

00:03:58,160 --> 00:03:59,965

Marc Preston: And so maybe it's kind of a misnomer that

109

00:04:00,125 --> 00:04:02,250

Marc Preston: Broadway means you've made it financially,

110

00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:04,646

Marc Preston: you've made it professionally, yeah.

111

00:04:07,504 --> 00:04:11,752

Fred Melamed: I think it's more of a Marc of recognition

112

00:04:12,092 --> 00:04:15,300

Fred Melamed: than it is actually unless you're kind of a

113

00:04:15,380 --> 00:04:20,811

Fred Melamed: name star than an indication of your wealth.

114

00:04:21,592 --> 00:04:25,425

Fred Melamed: It's funny I remember I have a good friend,

115

00:04:26,067 --> 00:04:28,551

Fred Melamed: a woman director, writer, actress named

116

00:04:28,591 --> 00:04:31,363

Fred Melamed: Lake Bell, and some years back she was

117

00:04:31,785 --> 00:04:33,770

Fred Melamed: offered the chance to do a show on Broadway

118

00:04:34,740 --> 00:04:36,464

Fred Melamed: And she was wondering whether she should do

119

00:04:36,524 --> 00:04:38,609

Fred Melamed: that or take a movie that was coming her

120

00:04:38,669 --> 00:04:38,889

Fred Melamed: way.

121

00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:46,348

Fred Melamed: And I made the point that even as a

122

00:04:46,428 --> 00:04:48,592

Fred Melamed: relatively humble star of movies and

123

00:04:48,632 --> 00:04:52,865

Fred Melamed: television, you can work pretty much when

124

00:04:52,905 --> 00:04:54,148

Fred Melamed: you want to on Broadway.

125

00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:56,404

Fred Melamed: The reverse is not true.

126

00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,612

Fred Melamed: The power of media is so vast that if

127

00:05:02,652 --> 00:05:04,436

Fred Melamed: people know you from television or from

128

00:05:04,476 --> 00:05:07,586

Fred Melamed: movies, it's a much easier jump for you to

129

00:05:07,627 --> 00:05:09,193

Fred Melamed: do a show on Broadway than it is if you're

130

00:05:09,213 --> 00:05:12,626

Fred Melamed: a Broadway regular trying to go the other

131

00:05:12,666 --> 00:05:12,826

Fred Melamed: way.

132

00:05:13,540 --> 00:05:14,264

Marc Preston: Speaking with someone.

133

00:05:14,284 --> 00:05:16,757

Marc Preston: The other day and I have always wanted to

134

00:05:16,777 --> 00:05:18,184

Marc Preston: have an opportunity to sit down with Sam

135

00:05:18,244 --> 00:05:19,945

Marc Preston: Rockwell, always just enjoyed his work.

136

00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:22,305

Marc Preston: I'd spoken with two people and they both

137

00:05:22,325 --> 00:05:23,168

Marc Preston: said, yeah, we're going to go see him.

138

00:05:23,208 --> 00:05:23,930

Marc Preston: He's on Broadway.

139

00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:25,667

Marc Preston: It seems like there is a lot of support

140

00:05:25,747 --> 00:05:28,319

Marc Preston: from the theater folks or the folks that

141

00:05:28,359 --> 00:05:29,725

Marc Preston: are in film or whatever that came from

142

00:05:29,805 --> 00:05:32,455

Marc Preston: theater to kind of support their friends

143

00:05:32,495 --> 00:05:34,423

Marc Preston: who are in performances and will travel to

144

00:05:34,463 --> 00:05:35,527

Marc Preston: come see that.

145

00:05:35,841 --> 00:05:37,507

Marc Preston: So, going back real quick, you mentioned

146

00:05:37,547 --> 00:05:37,968

Marc Preston: Lake Bell.

147

00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:41,189

Marc Preston: I got to tell you Sam Soto is a voiceover

148

00:05:41,229 --> 00:05:45,729

Marc Preston: guy, one of my favorite characters ever in

149

00:05:46,050 --> 00:05:46,371

Marc Preston: the film.

150

00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:48,025

Marc Preston: It was so thank you.

151

00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:52,599

Marc Preston: That was so fun, i guess for people that

152

00:05:52,619 --> 00:05:53,363

Marc Preston: did, i know you do.

153

00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:56,266

Marc Preston: Vo is part of your ecosystem, without a

154

00:05:56,326 --> 00:05:59,964

Marc Preston: doubt, but I love the fact Lake Bell took

155

00:06:00,024 --> 00:06:03,271

Marc Preston: on the side and showcased the characters

156

00:06:03,992 --> 00:06:05,883

Marc Preston: and voiceover and that whole idea of the

157

00:06:05,963 --> 00:06:10,002

Marc Preston: thing, or it's back, the idea that

158

00:06:10,863 --> 00:06:14,350

Marc Preston: voiceover folks are vastly anonymous but we

159

00:06:14,390 --> 00:06:15,092

Marc Preston: hear them all the time.

160

00:06:17,067 --> 00:06:18,280

Marc Preston: How did that role come together for you?

161

00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:19,464

Marc Preston: You just knew her and you're like, hey, we

162

00:06:19,484 --> 00:06:20,528

Marc Preston: need my dad in this film.

163

00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:21,804

Marc Preston: How did that come to be?

164

00:06:22,004 --> 00:06:22,947

Fred Melamed: No, i didn't know her.

165

00:06:23,007 --> 00:06:23,810

Fred Melamed: I didn't know her at all.

166

00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,027

Fred Melamed: It was an interesting thing.

167

00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,670

Fred Melamed: I had done a film in 2008.

168

00:06:29,740 --> 00:06:31,304

Fred Melamed: I made a film with the Coen brothers called

169

00:06:31,324 --> 00:06:34,592

Fred Melamed: A Serious Man, which kind of put me back

170

00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:35,661

Fred Melamed: For many years.

171

00:06:35,782 --> 00:06:38,368

Fred Melamed: I won't bore you with the whole trajectory

172

00:06:38,408 --> 00:06:41,743

Fred Melamed: of my work as an actor, but for about over

173

00:06:41,783 --> 00:06:43,609

Fred Melamed: 20 years all I did was voice work.

174

00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:49,668

Fred Melamed: That was all From the early 80s really,

175

00:06:49,808 --> 00:06:51,151

Fred Melamed: almost until 2000,.

176

00:06:51,171 --> 00:06:52,113

Fred Melamed: That was practically all I did.

177

00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:56,187

Fred Melamed: I would do an occasional movie, but I had a

178

00:06:56,327 --> 00:06:59,613

Fred Melamed: very, very bad experience on Broadway doing

179

00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:02,467

Fred Melamed: the original medical production of Amadeus

180

00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:04,825

Fred Melamed: Horrible, crippling, stage fright,

181

00:07:05,341 --> 00:07:07,220

Fred Melamed: absolutely awful.

182

00:07:07,340 --> 00:07:08,686

Fred Melamed: I thought, well, i've made this horrible

183

00:07:08,726 --> 00:07:09,088

Fred Melamed: mistake.

184

00:07:09,421 --> 00:07:11,161

Fred Melamed: I went to Yale Drama School, i'll be an

185

00:07:11,262 --> 00:07:13,107

Fred Melamed: actor, but people said it's so hard and I

186

00:07:13,127 --> 00:07:13,849

Fred Melamed: said I'll show you.

187

00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:15,825

Fred Melamed: And then I found I really didn't like

188

00:07:15,965 --> 00:07:16,808

Fred Melamed: acting on stage.

189

00:07:17,540 --> 00:07:19,226

Fred Melamed: I felt very humiliated because I had

190

00:07:19,246 --> 00:07:20,029

Fred Melamed: trained to do that.

191

00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:20,802

Fred Melamed: About what year is this?

192

00:07:20,863 --> 00:07:24,280

Fred Melamed: roughly, i got out of Drama School in 1981.

193

00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:28,100

Fred Melamed: This realization is 1983.

194

00:07:28,482 --> 00:07:31,339

Fred Melamed: End of 1983, and I finished the run of

195

00:07:31,359 --> 00:07:31,520

Fred Melamed: Amadeus.

196

00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:32,824

Fred Melamed: End of 83, beginning of 84.

197

00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:39,288

Fred Melamed: Anyway, i had an agent, harry Abrams, who

198

00:07:39,328 --> 00:07:42,453

Fred Melamed: was a prominent in the voiceover world.

199

00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:45,620

Fred Melamed: So I said I'd like to do voiceovers And

200

00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:48,627

Fred Melamed: this was when the voiceover world was very

201

00:07:48,708 --> 00:07:49,710

Fred Melamed: different than it is today.

202

00:07:49,790 --> 00:07:52,404

Fred Melamed: Oh my God, yeah, it was almost 40 years ago.

203

00:07:54,840 --> 00:08:00,189

Fred Melamed: There weren't the throngs of people

204

00:08:00,650 --> 00:08:01,732

Fred Melamed: overpowering the gates.

205

00:08:03,140 --> 00:08:05,386

Fred Melamed: It was a very small coterie of people who

206

00:08:05,426 --> 00:08:07,271

Fred Melamed: did 90% of the work.

207

00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:09,838

Fred Melamed: There were about 150 people who did 90% of

208

00:08:09,878 --> 00:08:11,184

Fred Melamed: the work And everybody knew everybody.

209

00:08:11,224 --> 00:08:13,243

Marc Preston: back then Nobody knew who was doing the

210

00:08:13,283 --> 00:08:13,404

Marc Preston: work.

211

00:08:14,220 --> 00:08:15,323

Fred Melamed: Well, there were no home studios.

212

00:08:15,864 --> 00:08:18,390

Fred Melamed: So therefore you'd see people either at ad

213

00:08:18,430 --> 00:08:21,186

Fred Melamed: agencies or movie studios or recording

214

00:08:21,226 --> 00:08:21,548

Fred Melamed: studios.

215

00:08:22,061 --> 00:08:24,308

Fred Melamed: You'd see there was a social element to it

216

00:08:24,368 --> 00:08:25,672

Fred Melamed: because there was no such thing as

217

00:08:27,638 --> 00:08:29,444

Fred Melamed: internet-based recording in those days.

218

00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:35,551

Fred Melamed: Anyway, for about 20 years of my life, that

219

00:08:35,591 --> 00:08:38,530

Fred Melamed: was all I did, and occasionally I would do

220

00:08:38,688 --> 00:08:39,546

Fred Melamed: a movie.

221

00:08:39,703 --> 00:08:41,568

Fred Melamed: Like there were a couple of casting

222

00:08:41,725 --> 00:08:46,283

Fred Melamed: directors who liked me And they would offer

223

00:08:46,323 --> 00:08:46,724

Fred Melamed: me stuff.

224

00:08:46,764 --> 00:08:47,988

Fred Melamed: I wouldn't audition, i would get very

225

00:08:48,029 --> 00:08:51,528

Fred Melamed: spoiled And I made a great deal of money as

226

00:08:51,568 --> 00:08:53,697

Fred Melamed: a young single guy without responsibilities

227

00:08:54,359 --> 00:08:55,323

Fred Melamed: in the voiceover world.

228

00:08:56,860 --> 00:09:00,071

Fred Melamed: I was the voice of MCI, mercedes-benz, sony,

229

00:09:00,091 --> 00:09:02,739

Fred Melamed: consumer Products, burger King, lots and

230

00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:06,947

Fred Melamed: lots of advertising and then lots of promos,

231

00:09:07,007 --> 00:09:09,812

Fred Melamed: as well USA Network as the voice of CBS

232

00:09:09,852 --> 00:09:10,193

Fred Melamed: Sports.

233

00:09:10,233 --> 00:09:13,087

Fred Melamed: For many years, anyway, that was all I did.

234

00:09:14,161 --> 00:09:16,941

Fred Melamed: And then later I got married, i had

235

00:09:17,002 --> 00:09:19,183

Fred Melamed: children And when I started having

236

00:09:19,244 --> 00:09:22,137

Fred Melamed: responsibilities there was a big kind of

237

00:09:22,217 --> 00:09:24,961

Fred Melamed: sea change in the voiceover world And they

238

00:09:25,001 --> 00:09:28,011

Fred Melamed: started wanting people with real-sounding

239

00:09:28,051 --> 00:09:30,139

Fred Melamed: voices rather than dramatic James Earl

240

00:09:30,179 --> 00:09:30,983

Fred Melamed: Jonesy voices.

241

00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:33,523

Fred Melamed: And all of a sudden I found myself kind of

242

00:09:35,687 --> 00:09:38,452

Fred Melamed: non-grata after many years of being quite

243

00:09:39,861 --> 00:09:42,561

Fred Melamed: prominent in the voiceover world, and by

244

00:09:42,601 --> 00:09:44,546

Fred Melamed: then it was rough because I had a family

245

00:09:44,587 --> 00:09:45,288

Fred Melamed: and all that stuff.

246

00:09:46,460 --> 00:09:50,509

Fred Melamed: So my agent called me one day.

247

00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:52,622

Fred Melamed: This is after.

248

00:09:52,642 --> 00:09:54,508

Fred Melamed: A serious man came out and said do you know

249

00:09:54,528 --> 00:09:55,370

Fred Melamed: who Lake Bell is?

250

00:09:55,460 --> 00:09:57,025

Fred Melamed: And I said well, i know her name, but I

251

00:09:57,165 --> 00:09:58,008

Fred Melamed: don't really know who she is.

252

00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:00,806

Fred Melamed: He said well, she's an actress and she's

253

00:10:00,946 --> 00:10:02,070

Fred Melamed: left a script here for you.

254

00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:03,406

Fred Melamed: Now this is when I was living in New York.

255

00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:05,205

Fred Melamed: Lake was already living out in California,

256

00:10:05,866 --> 00:10:06,909

Fred Melamed: but she had come to New York.

257

00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:09,265

Fred Melamed: My agent said she's left the script with a

258

00:10:09,365 --> 00:10:09,967

Fred Melamed: note for you.

259

00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:12,465

Fred Melamed: So I went to my agent's office and picked

260

00:10:12,505 --> 00:10:13,901

Fred Melamed: up the script and read the note And it was

261

00:10:13,941 --> 00:10:17,577

Fred Melamed: a lovely handwritten letter saying you know,

262

00:10:17,617 --> 00:10:18,360

Fred Melamed: my name is Lake Bell.

263

00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:19,487

Fred Melamed: I don't know if you're familiar with me or

264

00:10:19,548 --> 00:10:21,400

Fred Melamed: not, but I've written this script and I

265

00:10:21,500 --> 00:10:23,026

Fred Melamed: just have a feeling that you'd be really

266

00:10:23,086 --> 00:10:23,829

Fred Melamed: good in this role.

267

00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:25,325

Fred Melamed: Please read it and tell me what you think.

268

00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:27,886

Fred Melamed: And she didn't know at the time that I had

269

00:10:27,946 --> 00:10:31,378

Fred Melamed: spent so many years telling those feels,

270

00:10:31,398 --> 00:10:33,664

Fred Melamed: but she thought that it was plausible that

271

00:10:33,725 --> 00:10:35,149

Fred Melamed: I would be a voiceover guy.

272

00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:38,107

Fred Melamed: So I read it and I really liked it.

273

00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:42,851

Fred Melamed: I really liked the script and I did it.

274

00:10:43,580 --> 00:10:44,685

Fred Melamed: I came out to California to do it.

275

00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:47,241

Fred Melamed: This is before I lived in California, but I

276

00:10:47,301 --> 00:10:50,691

Fred Melamed: wasn't aware at the time that there was

277

00:10:50,731 --> 00:10:52,877

Fred Melamed: this enormous groundswell of people

278

00:10:53,699 --> 00:10:55,185

Fred Melamed: yearning to be voice actors.

279

00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:58,980

Fred Melamed: You know, this was a shock to me And in

280

00:10:59,021 --> 00:11:03,312

Fred Melamed: fact when we made the movie the movie was

281

00:11:03,372 --> 00:11:06,280

Fred Melamed: kind of more about the family, this family

282

00:11:06,460 --> 00:11:11,230

Fred Melamed: that happens to work in this particular you

283

00:11:11,270 --> 00:11:12,473

Fred Melamed: know kind of small area.

284

00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:13,301

Fred Melamed: It's funny.

285

00:11:13,361 --> 00:11:15,790

Fred Melamed: I always thought the voiceover world was

286

00:11:15,850 --> 00:11:18,981

Fred Melamed: kind of this people acted like they were in

287

00:11:19,001 --> 00:11:20,966

Fred Melamed: the movie business, who were in it, but it

288

00:11:21,006 --> 00:11:22,590

Fred Melamed: was really this adjunct, separate thing.

289

00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:24,445

Fred Melamed: It was a separate movie business but still,

290

00:11:24,927 --> 00:11:27,298

Fred Melamed: you know, they drove Maserati's big ones

291

00:11:29,022 --> 00:11:31,768

Fred Melamed: and they read the box office, you know

292

00:11:32,590 --> 00:11:33,832

Fred Melamed: doings of movies and so on.

293

00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:36,364

Fred Melamed: But it was kind of a separate, the separate

294

00:11:36,405 --> 00:11:36,866

Fred Melamed: little world.

295

00:11:38,780 --> 00:11:41,506

Fred Melamed: But it was a great, enjoyable experience

296

00:11:41,526 --> 00:11:43,691

Fred Melamed: for me because the people in it were great

297

00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:46,324

Fred Melamed: And it was a great character because he was

298

00:11:46,424 --> 00:11:50,013

Fred Melamed: so obviously so vain and so full of himself

299

00:11:50,060 --> 00:11:51,747

Fred Melamed: and he at the same time, in his own screwy

300

00:11:51,787 --> 00:11:54,880

Fred Melamed: way, he actually did love his daughters.

301

00:11:55,362 --> 00:11:56,965

Marc Preston: Oh, i love that There is a piece in there

302

00:11:56,985 --> 00:11:58,736

Marc Preston: where you're trying to say basically and I

303

00:11:58,756 --> 00:12:00,302

Marc Preston: know it's her words that she wrote but

304

00:12:00,844 --> 00:12:02,428

Marc Preston: you're basically trying to say there is a

305

00:12:02,468 --> 00:12:06,489

Marc Preston: reality, this is not the easiest business,

306

00:12:07,282 --> 00:12:08,507

Marc Preston: this is you're trying to protect her from

307

00:12:08,527 --> 00:12:08,848

Marc Preston: herself.

308

00:12:08,940 --> 00:12:10,403

Marc Preston: I think a lot of people who work in the

309

00:12:10,604 --> 00:12:12,789

Marc Preston: entertainment industry, if their kids are

310

00:12:13,490 --> 00:12:15,643

Marc Preston: enthusiastic about it, they're like pump

311

00:12:15,663 --> 00:12:16,665

Marc Preston: your brakes for a moment.

312

00:12:16,686 --> 00:12:18,190

Marc Preston: You know you really want to get into this.

313

00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,406

Marc Preston: I love the relationship and just there was

314

00:12:21,427 --> 00:12:22,950

Marc Preston: that kind of tension there, but you could

315

00:12:22,970 --> 00:12:23,492

Marc Preston: feel the love.

316

00:12:24,241 --> 00:12:25,226

Marc Preston: I just love the character.

317

00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:26,989

Marc Preston: It's, without doubt, my favorite one of the

318

00:12:27,029 --> 00:12:28,840

Marc Preston: film and actually seeing, like a friend of

319

00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:31,227

Marc Preston: my, joe Sipriano and the great late, great

320

00:12:31,267 --> 00:12:31,808

Marc Preston: Marc Elliott.

321

00:12:31,929 --> 00:12:32,310

Fred Melamed: Oh sure.

322

00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:33,984

Marc Preston: Marc Elliott, another one of those guys

323

00:12:34,024 --> 00:12:36,442

Marc Preston: from back in the day, and Marc Grau, who

324

00:12:36,462 --> 00:12:38,087

Marc Preston: I'm sure you've been in the studio at least

325

00:12:38,107 --> 00:12:38,668

Marc Preston: a couple of times.

326

00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,600

Fred Melamed: Those guys all became my fast friends Joe

327

00:12:43,621 --> 00:12:44,624

Fred Melamed: Sipriano, Marc Grau.

328

00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:48,190

Fred Melamed: We got to know each other well doing that

329

00:12:48,250 --> 00:12:50,040

Fred Melamed: movie and I've continued to be friends with

330

00:12:50,100 --> 00:12:51,886

Fred Melamed: them for these many years, which I'm very

331

00:12:51,927 --> 00:12:52,468

Fred Melamed: happy about.

332

00:12:53,041 --> 00:12:54,605

Marc Preston: Now I think that one of the things that's

333

00:12:54,726 --> 00:12:56,711

Marc Preston: funny is you put, you touched on that.

334

00:12:57,381 --> 00:12:59,225

Marc Preston: I've been God, i've been doing this like 30,

335

00:12:59,386 --> 00:13:02,352

Marc Preston: 31 years and coaching talent for about 20.

336

00:13:03,060 --> 00:13:04,123

Marc Preston: And I've noticed people would come like

337

00:13:04,223 --> 00:13:04,584

Marc Preston: actors.

338

00:13:04,645 --> 00:13:05,527

Marc Preston: You know, hey, man, i want to.

339

00:13:05,627 --> 00:13:06,630

Marc Preston: You know, i got the skills.

340

00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,347

Marc Preston: I want to kind of transfer that to VO and

341

00:13:09,407 --> 00:13:11,001

Marc Preston: I'm like great, i think.

342

00:13:11,683 --> 00:13:12,986

Marc Preston: When you got in, i think what a lot of

343

00:13:13,006 --> 00:13:15,092

Marc Preston: people don't understand movie business.

344

00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,780

Marc Preston: You always needed the agent, you know, And

345

00:13:18,860 --> 00:13:20,764

Marc Preston: now with VO was like that.

346

00:13:20,804 --> 00:13:24,992

Marc Preston: But now people, internet, home studio, they

347

00:13:25,032 --> 00:13:26,073

Marc Preston: can carve out a career.

348

00:13:26,660 --> 00:13:29,812

Marc Preston: So it is interesting to see how many people

349

00:13:29,892 --> 00:13:32,061

Marc Preston: just I think a lot of people view it like a

350

00:13:32,101 --> 00:13:34,397

Marc Preston: side hustle, you know, and they're quickly

351

00:13:34,478 --> 00:13:34,800

Marc Preston: educated.

352

00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:36,426

Fred Melamed: Yeah, it's an utterly different business,

353

00:13:36,607 --> 00:13:38,302

Fred Melamed: utterly different, i mean it's.

354

00:13:39,324 --> 00:13:43,272

Fred Melamed: There's no point in belaboring how the

355

00:13:43,292 --> 00:13:44,053

Fred Melamed: world has changed.

356

00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:46,146

Fred Melamed: It makes you older than you already are.

357

00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:50,727

Fred Melamed: But you know, when I was doing a lot of

358

00:13:50,767 --> 00:13:53,332

Fred Melamed: voiceover work and enjoyed it, it was

359

00:13:53,392 --> 00:13:54,234

Fred Melamed: entirely different.

360

00:13:55,583 --> 00:13:56,586

Fred Melamed: First of all, it was all union.

361

00:13:57,328 --> 00:13:59,204

Fred Melamed: True, there was nobody working on union,

362

00:13:59,986 --> 00:14:02,161

Fred Melamed: which made an enormous difference I mean, i

363

00:14:02,422 --> 00:14:04,025

Fred Melamed: was a millionaire when I was in my 30s from

364

00:14:04,045 --> 00:14:04,366

Fred Melamed: doing it.

365

00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:11,529

Fred Melamed: Nowadays there's a lot more work, but it's

366

00:14:11,569 --> 00:14:13,613

Fred Melamed: divided up among many, many, many more

367

00:14:13,653 --> 00:14:16,648

Fred Melamed: people and the rates are dramatically less.

368

00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:19,344

Fred Melamed: And there's thousands of people auditioning

369

00:14:19,384 --> 00:14:22,703

Fred Melamed: for so many jobs And people, because there

370

00:14:22,743 --> 00:14:25,534

Fred Melamed: are no union standards, there's always

371

00:14:25,595 --> 00:14:27,563

Fred Melamed: people fighting to do jobs for less and

372

00:14:27,583 --> 00:14:29,323

Fred Melamed: less and less, and that, you know, that

373

00:14:29,363 --> 00:14:30,847

Fred Melamed: hasn't, from my perspective, that hasn't

374

00:14:30,867 --> 00:14:31,910

Fred Melamed: been good for the business at all.

375

00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:34,967

Fred Melamed: But you know, time marches on and that's

376

00:14:34,987 --> 00:14:35,468

Fred Melamed: kind of the way it is.

377

00:14:36,300 --> 00:14:39,647

Fred Melamed: Also, it's also true that I think what

378

00:14:39,667 --> 00:14:42,312

Fred Melamed: they're looking for has changed and tastes

379

00:14:42,352 --> 00:14:42,833

Fred Melamed: have changed.

380

00:14:46,024 --> 00:14:53,416

Fred Melamed: So to me to be worth using, i've always

381

00:14:53,556 --> 00:14:55,059

Fred Melamed: asked to have some qualities that are

382

00:14:55,099 --> 00:14:57,385

Fred Melamed: identifiable and that are compelling.

383

00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:03,085

Fred Melamed: An awful lot of what I hear on television

384

00:15:03,246 --> 00:15:09,515

Fred Melamed: anyway seems to not distinguish itself.

385

00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:11,125

Fred Melamed: It seems like everybody sounds like

386

00:15:11,165 --> 00:15:11,787

Fred Melamed: everybody else.

387

00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:13,604

Fred Melamed: Look, obviously, some people of whom that

388

00:15:13,645 --> 00:15:15,902

Fred Melamed: isn't true, but an awful lot of, it seems

389

00:15:16,003 --> 00:15:21,513

Fred Melamed: very, very, very homogenized and not as

390

00:15:21,533 --> 00:15:22,214

Fred Melamed: interesting to me.

391

00:15:23,143 --> 00:15:24,650

Marc Preston: You know it's funny you say that because I

392

00:15:24,711 --> 00:15:26,680

Marc Preston: think that a lot of people do chase after

393

00:15:27,061 --> 00:15:28,928

Marc Preston: that the homogenized sound, of which

394

00:15:29,591 --> 00:15:31,357

Marc Preston: there's a pendulum that swings between the

395

00:15:31,438 --> 00:15:33,901

Marc Preston: big voices to the unpolished sound, and

396

00:15:33,921 --> 00:15:34,303

Marc Preston: it's funny.

397

00:15:34,343 --> 00:15:35,890

Marc Preston: I was speaking with the director, ariel

398

00:15:35,950 --> 00:15:38,601

Marc Preston: Vroman, and he said on film that's one of

399

00:15:38,621 --> 00:15:40,170

Marc Preston: the first things he pays attention to is

400

00:15:40,211 --> 00:15:41,880

Marc Preston: the voice, the sound of the character.

401

00:15:42,021 --> 00:15:43,407

Marc Preston: He said I don't care how beautiful they are

402

00:15:43,447 --> 00:15:46,520

Marc Preston: if the way they sound doesn't fit the

403

00:15:46,580 --> 00:15:48,526

Marc Preston: character, he doesn't really think they're

404

00:15:48,546 --> 00:15:48,988

Marc Preston: going to fit.

405

00:15:50,141 --> 00:15:52,166

Marc Preston: But I'm curious though you did mention, to

406

00:15:52,547 --> 00:15:54,411

Marc Preston: kind of hit rewind on the origin stories

407

00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:56,024

Marc Preston: you mentioned, you went to Yale.

408

00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:00,046

Marc Preston: You had a pretty substantial stage bit of

409

00:16:00,087 --> 00:16:00,688

Marc Preston: stage training.

410

00:16:00,728 --> 00:16:02,230

Marc Preston: Am I accurate in saying that?

411

00:16:03,433 --> 00:16:04,194

Fred Melamed: You are absolutely.

412

00:16:04,901 --> 00:16:06,706

Fred Melamed: I'm not sure how much good it did, but I

413

00:16:06,766 --> 00:16:09,160

Fred Melamed: was trained in the theater as people In

414

00:16:09,220 --> 00:16:10,283

Fred Melamed: fact, when I went to Yale.

415

00:16:10,343 --> 00:16:13,050

Fred Melamed: I went to Yale, which is a graduate program,

416

00:16:13,070 --> 00:16:18,169

Fred Melamed: drama program from 1978 to 1981, so I got

417

00:16:18,189 --> 00:16:21,798

Fred Melamed: out in 81, there was absolutely no training

418

00:16:21,958 --> 00:16:24,024

Fred Melamed: offered whatsoever for television or movies

419

00:16:24,185 --> 00:16:25,449

Fred Melamed: as part of your training.

420

00:16:26,060 --> 00:16:28,931

Fred Melamed: The presumption probably arrogant and

421

00:16:28,991 --> 00:16:30,958

Fred Melamed: incorrect presumption was that if you were

422

00:16:30,978 --> 00:16:32,643

Fred Melamed: a competent stage actor you would have no

423

00:16:32,723 --> 00:16:35,691

Fred Melamed: problem transitioning over to other media.

424

00:16:35,751 --> 00:16:36,994

Fred Melamed: But I don't really think that's true.

425

00:16:37,461 --> 00:16:39,500

Marc Preston: Now you mentioned the stage fright thing,

426

00:16:39,561 --> 00:16:41,003

Marc Preston: though How did?

427

00:16:42,065 --> 00:16:45,812

Marc Preston: it seems almost exceptionally ironic that

428

00:16:45,832 --> 00:16:52,192

Marc Preston: you would have this training from a great

429

00:16:52,212 --> 00:16:52,373

Marc Preston: school.

430

00:16:52,393 --> 00:16:53,195

Marc Preston: What kind of fire that up?

431

00:16:53,215 --> 00:16:55,400

Marc Preston: Or in 83, you said gosh, this is just not

432

00:16:55,500 --> 00:16:56,223

Marc Preston: my thing.

433

00:16:56,424 --> 00:16:57,106

Marc Preston: you know the stage.

434

00:16:57,620 --> 00:16:59,968

Fred Melamed: My own neuroses, my own inner conflicts.

435

00:17:00,730 --> 00:17:03,760

Fred Melamed: I think, like many people, i had chosen the

436

00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:06,607

Fred Melamed: profession that I chose with some partially

437

00:17:06,867 --> 00:17:12,180

Fred Melamed: unhealthy pretty unhealthy reasons, and I

438

00:17:12,420 --> 00:17:16,107

Fred Melamed: think that it became clear to me.

439

00:17:17,931 --> 00:17:20,516

Fred Melamed: Well, i'll explain it a little more

440

00:17:20,556 --> 00:17:20,916

Fred Melamed: personally.

441

00:17:22,279 --> 00:17:24,707

Fred Melamed: So I think there are some people who feel

442

00:17:24,868 --> 00:17:27,619

Fred Melamed: innately lovable They have the good fortune

443

00:17:27,639 --> 00:17:28,965

Fred Melamed: of feeling innately lovable And there are

444

00:17:29,005 --> 00:17:31,617

Fred Melamed: other people and I count myself among the

445

00:17:31,657 --> 00:17:34,584

Fred Melamed: secondary camp of people who feel at some

446

00:17:34,644 --> 00:17:37,789

Fred Melamed: level that it always must be earned that

447

00:17:37,830 --> 00:17:43,224

Fred Melamed: they must in some respect be extremely

448

00:17:44,546 --> 00:17:47,511

Fred Melamed: beautiful, extremely intelligent, extremely

449

00:17:47,572 --> 00:17:49,881

Fred Melamed: articulate, extremely talented, extremely

450

00:17:49,941 --> 00:17:51,726

Fred Melamed: charming, extremely compelling in some way.

451

00:17:52,568 --> 00:17:53,812

Fred Melamed: Otherwise they're more or less

452

00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:54,581

Fred Melamed: indispensable.

453

00:17:55,804 --> 00:17:59,913

Fred Melamed: I think that was a kind of a dynamic of my

454

00:18:00,334 --> 00:18:03,761

Fred Melamed: upbringing And I think I chose to be an

455

00:18:03,941 --> 00:18:10,712

Fred Melamed: actor because of that to some measure.

456

00:18:11,453 --> 00:18:12,975

Fred Melamed: I was very close to my father growing up.

457

00:18:13,020 --> 00:18:14,143

Fred Melamed: My father was a lovely guy.

458

00:18:14,183 --> 00:18:15,907

Fred Melamed: He was a producer, early television

459

00:18:15,927 --> 00:18:18,341

Fred Melamed: producer, very sweet, nice man.

460

00:18:19,304 --> 00:18:21,090

Fred Melamed: But there was a quality of depression about

461

00:18:21,131 --> 00:18:23,900

Fred Melamed: him always And I kind of thought that it

462

00:18:23,940 --> 00:18:27,628

Fred Melamed: was my life's work to make life seem like a

463

00:18:27,688 --> 00:18:29,271

Fred Melamed: winnable proposition for him.

464

00:18:29,291 --> 00:18:33,047

Fred Melamed: I thought that's what I'm here on earth for.

465

00:18:33,261 --> 00:18:35,052

Marc Preston: You think the depression, the feeling that

466

00:18:35,092 --> 00:18:36,440

Marc Preston: he had, the way you interpreted it, do you

467

00:18:36,540 --> 00:18:38,907

Marc Preston: think that was because of the success with

468

00:18:38,967 --> 00:18:39,870

Marc Preston: work, wasn't enough?

469

00:18:40,311 --> 00:18:41,802

Marc Preston: It was just this generalized sense.

470

00:18:41,982 --> 00:18:42,766

Marc Preston: That's what you're saying.

471

00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:45,305

Fred Melamed: Yeah, i don't think you.

472

00:18:45,565 --> 00:18:48,391

Fred Melamed: I think people who have not accomplished

473

00:18:48,471 --> 00:18:52,828

Fred Melamed: what they want work-wise tend to assign

474

00:18:53,209 --> 00:18:55,697

Fred Melamed: that threshold as being the thing.

475

00:18:55,937 --> 00:18:57,323

Fred Melamed: There's always a thing that you're going to

476

00:18:57,383 --> 00:18:59,294

Fred Melamed: get, that's going to make you happy, that's

477

00:18:59,314 --> 00:18:59,918

Fred Melamed: going to complete you.

478

00:18:59,938 --> 00:19:01,673

Fred Melamed: I'm going to finally get married, i'm going

479

00:19:01,711 --> 00:19:03,004

Fred Melamed: to finally become a millionaire, i'm going

480

00:19:03,042 --> 00:19:05,149

Fred Melamed: to finally get on Broadway, i'm going to

481

00:19:05,209 --> 00:19:07,799

Fred Melamed: finally admit that I'm gay, i'm going to

482

00:19:07,839 --> 00:19:10,126

Fred Melamed: finally do this or that And then, finally,

483

00:19:10,227 --> 00:19:10,869

Fred Melamed: i will be happy.

484

00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,610

Fred Melamed: Well, the truth is that there is no signal

485

00:19:14,650 --> 00:19:15,372

Fred Melamed: point like that.

486

00:19:15,814 --> 00:19:18,317

Fred Melamed: Whatever you achieve, the sense of

487

00:19:18,432 --> 00:19:20,830

Fred Melamed: emptiness that people have most people have

488

00:19:20,946 --> 00:19:22,684

Fred Melamed: doesn't derive from a lack of

489

00:19:22,820 --> 00:19:24,784

Fred Melamed: accomplishment and therefore accomplishing

490

00:19:24,845 --> 00:19:26,709

Fred Melamed: things doesn't actually ameliorate it.

491

00:19:28,573 --> 00:19:31,670

Fred Melamed: It has to do with other things Early

492

00:19:32,271 --> 00:19:34,097

Fred Melamed: psychodynamic forces on you as a child

493

00:19:34,178 --> 00:19:35,863

Fred Melamed: usually, and how they bounce off the way

494

00:19:35,883 --> 00:19:36,645

Fred Melamed: what you're born with.

495

00:19:39,020 --> 00:19:43,169

Fred Melamed: So I don't think his depression, the

496

00:19:43,209 --> 00:19:44,572

Fred Melamed: depressed sort of outlook that he had,

497

00:19:44,632 --> 00:19:45,922

Fred Melamed: derived from the fact that he wasn't

498

00:19:45,942 --> 00:19:46,704

Fred Melamed: successful enough.

499

00:19:48,128 --> 00:19:49,992

Fred Melamed: I think it had to do with deeper things in

500

00:19:51,083 --> 00:19:52,928

Fred Melamed: his upbringing that I can only guess at.

501

00:19:55,723 --> 00:19:57,006

Marc Preston: Well, he's from that generation where he

502

00:19:57,046 --> 00:19:59,792

Marc Preston: probably didn't discuss that stuff too much.

503

00:20:00,321 --> 00:20:02,281

Marc Preston: He didn't really discuss, And he in

504

00:20:02,341 --> 00:20:06,024

Marc Preston: particular, yeah, Yeah, I'll talk with my

505

00:20:06,064 --> 00:20:08,510

Marc Preston: kids and I'll say listen, I'm doing this

506

00:20:08,630 --> 00:20:10,443

Marc Preston: for you, with you, because this is what

507

00:20:10,463 --> 00:20:11,591

Marc Preston: happened when I was a kid and I was like

508

00:20:11,651 --> 00:20:13,221

Marc Preston: that's not going to work really well.

509

00:20:13,662 --> 00:20:15,306

Marc Preston: So when I have kids, I'm not going to do

510

00:20:15,366 --> 00:20:15,566

Marc Preston: that.

511

00:20:16,288 --> 00:20:18,441

Marc Preston: So I try to explain to them some of the you

512

00:20:18,481 --> 00:20:20,365

Marc Preston: know they're mature, they're a couple of

513

00:20:20,386 --> 00:20:23,583

Marc Preston: them are college kids now, But back then

514

00:20:23,944 --> 00:20:25,452

Marc Preston: your father probably I'm assuming the

515

00:20:25,492 --> 00:20:27,060

Marc Preston: generation probably just didn't discuss

516

00:20:27,180 --> 00:20:28,727

Marc Preston: those internal things too much.

517

00:20:29,100 --> 00:20:29,742

Fred Melamed: Well, especially.

518

00:20:29,982 --> 00:20:31,586

Fred Melamed: I mean I think you're right that in general,

519

00:20:31,847 --> 00:20:34,602

Fred Melamed: in his generation you know he was World War

520

00:20:34,622 --> 00:20:38,254

Fred Melamed: II generation such things were not openly

521

00:20:38,696 --> 00:20:41,163

Fred Melamed: discussed, and I think he was particularly

522

00:20:44,051 --> 00:20:45,816

Fred Melamed: elusive, secretive about some of his

523

00:20:46,297 --> 00:20:46,899

Fred Melamed: internal life.

524

00:20:46,919 --> 00:20:55,752

Fred Melamed: I think that was just his nature, anyway,

525

00:20:56,353 --> 00:20:57,335

Fred Melamed: to bring this back around.

526

00:20:57,395 --> 00:20:59,619

Fred Melamed: So I think I took a lot of that into my

527

00:20:59,779 --> 00:21:01,403

Fred Melamed: acting and I thought it's the actor's job

528

00:21:01,443 --> 00:21:02,727

Fred Melamed: to be kind of superhuman.

529

00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:10,348

Fred Melamed: And I remember going to the theater and

530

00:21:10,408 --> 00:21:12,451

Fred Melamed: feeling this great weight that I had this

531

00:21:12,511 --> 00:21:16,322

Fred Melamed: responsibility, and I began to resent the

532

00:21:16,423 --> 00:21:18,047

Fred Melamed: audience, which is something you sure don't

533

00:21:18,067 --> 00:21:18,749

Fred Melamed: want to do, right?

534

00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:20,846

Fred Melamed: And I felt horrible because I thought you

535

00:21:20,886 --> 00:21:23,920

Fred Melamed: know here, you know I've trained to do this

536

00:21:24,161 --> 00:21:26,192

Fred Melamed: and I said it's what I want to do and

537

00:21:26,272 --> 00:21:27,559

Fred Melamed: people are paying a lot of money for these

538

00:21:27,599 --> 00:21:29,085

Fred Melamed: tickets and it's a great work, it's a great

539

00:21:29,126 --> 00:21:32,139

Fred Melamed: play, and yet all my effort is going to

540

00:21:32,179 --> 00:21:33,826

Fred Melamed: just getting myself through this play

541

00:21:33,866 --> 00:21:36,317

Fred Melamed: instead of being great at it, because it's

542

00:21:36,358 --> 00:21:37,521

Fred Melamed: so hard for me to just do it.

543

00:21:38,563 --> 00:21:40,867

Fred Melamed: And when I finished the run of it, i

544

00:21:40,887 --> 00:21:46,080

Fred Melamed: finished the show and then I thought, well,

545

00:21:46,100 --> 00:21:47,969

Fred Melamed: i don't want to set foot on stage again, i

546

00:21:48,009 --> 00:21:48,451

Fred Melamed: really don't.

547

00:21:48,552 --> 00:21:50,782

Fred Melamed: And I felt extremely defeated by it and

548

00:21:50,822 --> 00:21:51,605

Fred Melamed: very upset by it.

549

00:21:52,548 --> 00:21:55,278

Fred Melamed: But I needed to make a living and so I got

550

00:21:55,338 --> 00:21:56,562

Fred Melamed: lucky in the voice of a world.

551

00:21:57,365 --> 00:21:58,590

Fred Melamed: I got a couple of big accounts.

552

00:21:58,651 --> 00:22:01,000

Fred Melamed: I got Conoco Oil right out of the chute,

553

00:22:01,020 --> 00:22:02,463

Fred Melamed: which at the time was a big oil company,

554

00:22:03,205 --> 00:22:04,949

Fred Melamed: and then I got MCI, which nobody remembers,

555

00:22:04,970 --> 00:22:05,952

Fred Melamed: which was a phone company.

556

00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:08,986

Marc Preston: My first big national actually was GTE with

557

00:22:09,326 --> 00:22:12,032

Marc Preston: Patrick Stewart back in 93.

558

00:22:12,513 --> 00:22:13,924

Marc Preston: I say GTE as I could try to explain to my

559

00:22:13,944 --> 00:22:14,125

Marc Preston: kids.

560

00:22:14,366 --> 00:22:16,116

Marc Preston: You had to actually get your own separate

561

00:22:16,337 --> 00:22:18,165

Marc Preston: long distance service and they're like

562

00:22:18,185 --> 00:22:18,888

Marc Preston: what's long distance?

563

00:22:20,735 --> 00:22:22,200

Marc Preston: But yeah, that was a big deal back then to

564

00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:23,225

Marc Preston: have that kind of an account.

565

00:22:24,924 --> 00:22:25,667

Fred Melamed: Yeah, no, it was great.

566

00:22:25,867 --> 00:22:28,194

Fred Melamed: I was very lucky and I did very well,

567

00:22:28,656 --> 00:22:30,661

Fred Melamed: especially for a person with no response.

568

00:22:30,701 --> 00:22:33,366

Fred Melamed: I was a single guy, a Dinemini, major

569

00:22:33,687 --> 00:22:37,360

Fred Melamed: financial responsibilities, so it was from

570

00:22:37,380 --> 00:22:38,465

Fred Melamed: that point of view it was great.

571

00:22:39,289 --> 00:22:41,479

Fred Melamed: It was artistically, i was writing and

572

00:22:41,519 --> 00:22:43,244

Fred Melamed: doing some other things which kind of

573

00:22:43,825 --> 00:22:45,088

Fred Melamed: satisfied some of my needs.

574

00:22:45,168 --> 00:22:47,761

Fred Melamed: But I was more concerned that I was making

575

00:22:47,801 --> 00:22:49,585

Fred Melamed: a living and that I was, within that small

576

00:22:50,046 --> 00:22:51,769

Fred Melamed: world, kind of a big player.

577

00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:58,747

Fred Melamed: But then around the early 2000s that

578

00:22:59,147 --> 00:23:00,569

Fred Melamed: suddenly ceased to be.

579

00:23:00,709 --> 00:23:02,632

Fred Melamed: There was this massive change.

580

00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:06,425

Fred Melamed: But to go back to what we were saying,

581

00:23:06,746 --> 00:23:10,879

Fred Melamed: talking about Lake and that movie, i really

582

00:23:10,959 --> 00:23:12,964

Fred Melamed: didn't understand when that movie was made

583

00:23:13,084 --> 00:23:17,132

Fred Melamed: quite how much the ranks were swollen with

584

00:23:17,172 --> 00:23:17,993

Fred Melamed: people trying to get in.

585

00:23:18,380 --> 00:23:19,102

Fred Melamed: So I started to do it.

586

00:23:20,505 --> 00:23:21,828

Fred Melamed: Every two or three years there'd be an

587

00:23:21,908 --> 00:23:24,220

Fred Melamed: article in TV Guide that said the

588

00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,028

Fred Melamed: millionaire voices you never see, and then

589

00:23:27,088 --> 00:23:28,921

Fred Melamed: for maybe a month there'd be people trying

590

00:23:28,941 --> 00:23:30,626

Fred Melamed: to get into it and then it would quiet down.

591

00:23:32,972 --> 00:23:35,620

Fred Melamed: But it's become this kind of entirely

592

00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:36,543

Fred Melamed: different thing now.

593

00:23:37,005 --> 00:23:39,714

Fred Melamed: I often wonder why people are so attracted

594

00:23:39,754 --> 00:23:40,055

Fred Melamed: to it.

595

00:23:40,697 --> 00:23:42,986

Fred Melamed: I think part of it is because there are

596

00:23:43,026 --> 00:23:45,073

Fred Melamed: people who are intimidated by the way that

597

00:23:45,113 --> 00:23:45,595

Fred Melamed: they look.

598

00:23:45,615 --> 00:23:48,750

Fred Melamed: They don't feel very confident about how

599

00:23:48,770 --> 00:23:50,958

Fred Melamed: they look, but they know that they can do

600

00:23:51,018 --> 00:23:52,502

Fred Melamed: different things with their voices And some

601

00:23:52,522 --> 00:23:56,790

Fred Melamed: people, including me, feel freer orally

602

00:23:56,830 --> 00:24:00,244

Fred Melamed: than they do AU orally than they do

603

00:24:00,305 --> 00:24:00,787

Fred Melamed: physically.

604

00:24:00,908 --> 00:24:02,154

Fred Melamed: I think that's also part of it.

605

00:24:02,275 --> 00:24:05,384

Fred Melamed: Also, i think people like the idea this

606

00:24:05,424 --> 00:24:09,452

Fred Melamed: kind of probably incorrect idea that it's

607

00:24:09,492 --> 00:24:10,153

Fred Melamed: not so hard.

608

00:24:10,193 --> 00:24:12,064

Fred Melamed: You know you can be your own boss and wear

609

00:24:12,085 --> 00:24:13,449

Fred Melamed: pajamas and stuff like that.

610

00:24:14,031 --> 00:24:18,885

Fred Melamed: I think any career where you're responsible

611

00:24:19,086 --> 00:24:21,833

Fred Melamed: for being hired by yourself is a lot of

612

00:24:21,893 --> 00:24:24,159

Fred Melamed: work You wind up having to do.

613

00:24:24,179 --> 00:24:26,528

Fred Melamed: You know the job becomes about getting jobs.

614

00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:28,164

Marc Preston: Well, what I tell my students and the

615

00:24:28,204 --> 00:24:30,470

Marc Preston: people that approach me on occasion I say,

616

00:24:30,510 --> 00:24:31,421

Marc Preston: listen, there was an.

617

00:24:31,481 --> 00:24:33,266

Marc Preston: I even wrote a little article about it once

618

00:24:33,326 --> 00:24:35,101

Marc Preston: and I said you know, the equipment is so

619

00:24:35,141 --> 00:24:37,955

Marc Preston: much less to buy it The ability to get on

620

00:24:37,975 --> 00:24:40,844

Marc Preston: the internet and find out people to hire

621

00:24:40,864 --> 00:24:40,924

Marc Preston: you.

622

00:24:40,984 --> 00:24:43,489

Marc Preston: You can actually carve a career out without

623

00:24:43,569 --> 00:24:46,361

Marc Preston: having one of the big agents, and I think

624

00:24:46,783 --> 00:24:50,353

Marc Preston: it's just a creative thing that I think

625

00:24:50,975 --> 00:24:53,181

Marc Preston: people perceive as it being within reach.

626

00:24:54,403 --> 00:24:55,927

Marc Preston: You know, especially like you mentioned,

627

00:24:55,967 --> 00:24:58,873

Marc Preston: the nature of the voices that people want,

628

00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,166

Marc Preston: and advertising, or in promos or in

629

00:25:01,186 --> 00:25:02,992

Marc Preston: different genres, is different.

630

00:25:03,373 --> 00:25:06,362

Marc Preston: But I don't know where it came from.

631

00:25:06,402 --> 00:25:07,766

Marc Preston: And I tell folks, unless you're really

632

00:25:07,866 --> 00:25:10,252

Marc Preston: willing to commit yourself emotionally,

633

00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:12,625

Marc Preston: artistically and everything and really put

634

00:25:12,645 --> 00:25:15,192

Marc Preston: in the time, sell baskets on Etsy or

635

00:25:15,252 --> 00:25:15,592

Marc Preston: something.

636

00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:17,966

Marc Preston: You know this is not a side hustle.

637

00:25:18,607 --> 00:25:19,329

Marc Preston: You know you're going to be very

638

00:25:19,349 --> 00:25:20,392

Marc Preston: discouraged very quickly.

639

00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:21,984

Marc Preston: And then there are people out there like

640

00:25:22,164 --> 00:25:24,290

Marc Preston: yourself or Joseph Riano and those guys we

641

00:25:24,310 --> 00:25:26,626

Marc Preston: mentioned, that they're around for decades

642

00:25:26,727 --> 00:25:29,195

Marc Preston: because they adapt and they're.

643

00:25:29,697 --> 00:25:31,904

Marc Preston: You know they got that a special sauce.

644

00:25:32,025 --> 00:25:32,687

Marc Preston: You know if you will.

645

00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:35,828

Fred Melamed: And most of those guys actually are now

646

00:25:35,888 --> 00:25:39,138

Fred Melamed: doing a lot of teaching because even they,

647

00:25:39,780 --> 00:25:41,728

Fred Melamed: even their diet of work, has been much

648

00:25:41,788 --> 00:25:43,616

Fred Melamed: reduced because the work has been so spread

649

00:25:43,716 --> 00:25:46,504

Fred Melamed: out And there are major companies now big

650

00:25:46,544 --> 00:25:48,288

Fred Melamed: major companies that don't want to pay

651

00:25:48,408 --> 00:25:49,009

Fred Melamed: union rates.

652

00:25:50,112 --> 00:25:53,004

Fred Melamed: So therefore they're hiring people, you

653

00:25:53,044 --> 00:25:55,168

Fred Melamed: know, who are working out of a garage

654

00:25:55,208 --> 00:25:55,549

Fred Melamed: somewhere.

655

00:25:56,871 --> 00:26:00,224

Fred Melamed: You know, i don't begrudge people's desire

656

00:26:00,244 --> 00:26:01,868

Fred Melamed: to make a living, however they want to do

657

00:26:01,948 --> 00:26:07,323

Fred Melamed: it, but for me, you know, somebody says,

658

00:26:07,343 --> 00:26:08,873

Fred Melamed: well, i'm a professional voiceover artist.

659

00:26:08,893 --> 00:26:10,321

Fred Melamed: Well, they're telling the truth.

660

00:26:11,103 --> 00:26:12,887

Fred Melamed: But that's like saying I'm a professional

661

00:26:12,907 --> 00:26:15,633

Fred Melamed: musician and I play in a band every night

662

00:26:15,740 --> 00:26:17,645

Fred Melamed: and we play bar mitzvahs or weddings, or,

663

00:26:18,327 --> 00:26:19,350

Fred Melamed: you know, maybe once a while we play in a

664

00:26:19,370 --> 00:26:19,471

Fred Melamed: bar.

665

00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:21,184

Fred Melamed: Well, that guy's a professional musician

666

00:26:21,264 --> 00:26:23,191

Fred Melamed: and he can even be a very good musician,

667

00:26:24,736 --> 00:26:27,684

Fred Melamed: but that's a slogging life that I wouldn't

668

00:26:27,724 --> 00:26:27,985

Fred Melamed: want.

669

00:26:29,308 --> 00:26:33,499

Fred Melamed: So, you know, is it better to work in a

670

00:26:33,539 --> 00:26:35,305

Fred Melamed: dentist's office, you know, and make

671

00:26:35,345 --> 00:26:37,572

Fred Melamed: $50,000 a year, $60,000 a year?

672

00:26:37,773 --> 00:26:40,301

Fred Melamed: or is it better to be a voiceover artist

673

00:26:40,361 --> 00:26:40,702

Fred Melamed: and do that?

674

00:26:40,762 --> 00:26:41,083

Fred Melamed: I don't know.

675

00:26:42,206 --> 00:26:47,019

Fred Melamed: It's, you know, but for me, i always I

676

00:26:47,059 --> 00:26:49,626

Fred Melamed: don't think I would feel satisfied unless I

677

00:26:49,686 --> 00:26:52,312

Fred Melamed: had the larger stage to work on.

678

00:26:52,500 --> 00:26:53,665

Marc Preston: Yeah, yeah, it was funny.

679

00:26:53,685 --> 00:26:55,753

Marc Preston: I think I started in voiceover roughly

680

00:26:55,813 --> 00:26:59,027

Marc Preston: about $92, $93, somewhere in there, and my

681

00:26:59,087 --> 00:27:00,795

Marc Preston: mentor, a gentleman at Dallas University at

682

00:27:00,815 --> 00:27:02,381

Marc Preston: the time, was a voice of American Airlines.

683

00:27:02,421 --> 00:27:04,286

Marc Preston: Back then you could just do regional work

684

00:27:04,366 --> 00:27:06,881

Marc Preston: or even in a big metropolitan area you can

685

00:27:06,901 --> 00:27:07,944

Marc Preston: carve out an amazing career.

686

00:27:09,067 --> 00:27:12,357

Marc Preston: He I remember he was just talking about how

687

00:27:12,517 --> 00:27:16,086

Marc Preston: in the 80s it was money hand over fist And

688

00:27:16,427 --> 00:27:17,710

Marc Preston: we're talking about early 90s, which was

689

00:27:17,730 --> 00:27:20,162

Marc Preston: still going pretty well back then.

690

00:27:20,603 --> 00:27:22,748

Marc Preston: But that's really interesting to have a

691

00:27:22,788 --> 00:27:25,161

Marc Preston: chance to speak with someone who did have a

692

00:27:25,201 --> 00:27:27,969

Marc Preston: chance to enjoy a career early on doing

693

00:27:28,050 --> 00:27:29,474

Marc Preston: just voiceover.

694

00:27:29,514 --> 00:27:32,462

Marc Preston: But you're to say it's a success story.

695

00:27:32,482 --> 00:27:34,707

Marc Preston: It's a grotesque understatement, but you've

696

00:27:34,767 --> 00:27:37,413

Marc Preston: had equal success, i feel, on camera.

697

00:27:37,500 --> 00:27:38,667

Marc Preston: I mean, anytime you show up.

698

00:27:38,868 --> 00:27:40,396

Marc Preston: This is not meant to stroke you at all, but

699

00:27:40,436 --> 00:27:44,107

Marc Preston: anytime you show up in something, i'm like,

700

00:27:44,227 --> 00:27:45,369

Marc Preston: oh, okay, it's going to get good.

701

00:27:45,610 --> 00:27:47,093

Marc Preston: Just in some way, one division.

702

00:27:47,180 --> 00:27:48,785

Marc Preston: I had no idea you were on the show, my son,

703

00:27:49,166 --> 00:27:50,490

Marc Preston: he's getting me all schooled up on the

704

00:27:50,550 --> 00:27:52,911

Marc Preston: Marvel universe And I was like, wait,

705

00:27:52,931 --> 00:27:53,575

Marc Preston: there's Fred right.

706

00:27:53,595 --> 00:27:54,942

Marc Preston: I was like, okay, this is going to get good,

707

00:27:54,962 --> 00:27:56,388

Marc Preston: this is going to get interesting, you know,

708

00:27:56,549 --> 00:27:59,301

Marc Preston: or you know you're, oh gosh, the spy who

709

00:27:59,381 --> 00:27:59,802

Marc Preston: dumped me.

710

00:27:59,863 --> 00:28:01,788

Marc Preston: You being a bad guy is like, yes, okay,

711

00:28:01,828 --> 00:28:03,212

Marc Preston: more of this, it's, it's.

712

00:28:03,901 --> 00:28:05,426

Marc Preston: I do adore seeing you show up, because

713

00:28:05,446 --> 00:28:07,150

Marc Preston: there's always going to be a leveling up in

714

00:28:07,170 --> 00:28:08,923

Marc Preston: that moment, i think And again, i'm not

715

00:28:08,963 --> 00:28:10,468

Marc Preston: trying to stroke you, i'm just, like always,

716

00:28:10,488 --> 00:28:11,972

Marc Preston: happy to see you arrive on screen.

717

00:28:12,100 --> 00:28:13,944

Fred Melamed: Well, i appreciate you saying that.

718

00:28:14,065 --> 00:28:20,499

Fred Melamed: I mean, my whole thing is I want people, i

719

00:28:20,559 --> 00:28:22,784

Fred Melamed: want, i want to be, i want people to be

720

00:28:22,825 --> 00:28:24,228

Fred Melamed: entertained by what I do.

721

00:28:24,308 --> 00:28:25,831

Fred Melamed: I want I want it to be enjoyable.

722

00:28:27,182 --> 00:28:30,213

Fred Melamed: Now, what constitutes entertainment is, you

723

00:28:30,534 --> 00:28:31,798

Fred Melamed: know, different for different people.

724

00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:35,052

Fred Melamed: I'm on a show now called Barry I'm, i'm, we

725

00:28:35,092 --> 00:28:36,257

Fred Melamed: just started working this week on the

726

00:28:36,297 --> 00:28:38,306

Fred Melamed: second, my second season, therefore, season,

727

00:28:38,326 --> 00:28:40,696

Fred Melamed: but my second season on it, and that's a

728

00:28:40,756 --> 00:28:44,025

Fred Melamed: show It's on HBO or HBO Max, for those

729

00:28:44,045 --> 00:28:49,014

Fred Melamed: people that have streaming where it veers

730

00:28:49,495 --> 00:28:52,748

Fred Melamed: wildly between funny and harrowing.

731

00:28:53,858 --> 00:28:57,408

Fred Melamed: Yes, it's, you know, but but, but Bill

732

00:28:57,448 --> 00:28:59,132

Fred Melamed: Hader, the guy who is the lead and also the

733

00:28:59,192 --> 00:29:03,767

Fred Melamed: writer, director of it, is able to walk

734

00:29:03,807 --> 00:29:06,952

Fred Melamed: that line with, to me, unbelievable skill.

735

00:29:07,673 --> 00:29:11,686

Fred Melamed: So I always, you know, i to me, i, i, i,

736

00:29:11,787 --> 00:29:14,352

Fred Melamed: it's important to to that I be entertained

737

00:29:14,372 --> 00:29:15,260

Fred Melamed: when I watch something.

738

00:29:15,601 --> 00:29:17,726

Fred Melamed: So I'm always, i'm always, i'm always

739

00:29:17,746 --> 00:29:20,452

Fred Melamed: hoping to sort of haunt the audience.

740

00:29:20,552 --> 00:29:21,994

Fred Melamed: That's, you know, when something's really

741

00:29:22,074 --> 00:29:24,736

Fred Melamed: good, when I see a movie or a TV show or

742

00:29:24,816 --> 00:29:27,026

Fred Melamed: play or even read a book even read a book,

743

00:29:27,789 --> 00:29:28,572

Fred Melamed: that's really good.

744

00:29:29,615 --> 00:29:31,703

Fred Melamed: It keeps replaying through my head, i keep

745

00:29:31,743 --> 00:29:32,365

Fred Melamed: thinking about it.

746

00:29:32,385 --> 00:29:33,509

Fred Melamed: That's how I know that it's good.

747

00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:33,860

Fred Melamed: Yeah.

748

00:29:33,901 --> 00:29:34,863

Marc Preston: I'm the exact same way.

749

00:29:35,064 --> 00:29:36,728

Marc Preston: If I see a movie that affects me some way,

750

00:29:36,748 --> 00:29:38,522

Marc Preston: the whole next day it just pops into my

751

00:29:38,602 --> 00:29:38,883

Marc Preston: mind.

752

00:29:38,983 --> 00:29:40,447

Marc Preston: There's something about it, a performance

753

00:29:40,528 --> 00:29:41,841

Marc Preston: or a line or something like that.

754

00:29:41,861 --> 00:29:42,283

Marc Preston: That's funny.

755

00:29:42,303 --> 00:29:43,900

Marc Preston: I'm the same way as you, Yeah.

756

00:29:43,940 --> 00:29:46,609

Fred Melamed: And for me characters are the whole, are

757

00:29:46,689 --> 00:29:50,261

Fred Melamed: really the most interesting thing For me.

758

00:29:50,482 --> 00:29:51,766

Fred Melamed: The characters are what really

759

00:29:51,827 --> 00:29:55,279

Fred Melamed: distinguishes something Like you know I've

760

00:29:55,319 --> 00:29:58,086

Fred Melamed: seen The Godfather God A Zillion Times.

761

00:29:58,106 --> 00:29:59,670

Fred Melamed: You know I that's one of those movies where,

762

00:29:59,750 --> 00:30:01,565

Fred Melamed: even if it just happens to come on

763

00:30:01,605 --> 00:30:03,255

Fred Melamed: television, you know I'll just watch it.

764

00:30:03,296 --> 00:30:04,601

Fred Melamed: I'll just stop whatever I'm doing and just

765

00:30:04,641 --> 00:30:06,646

Fred Melamed: watch it, even though I've seen it so many

766

00:30:06,706 --> 00:30:06,947

Fred Melamed: times.

767

00:30:08,109 --> 00:30:10,722

Fred Melamed: But if you ask me to tell you the plot of

768

00:30:10,742 --> 00:30:13,008

Fred Melamed: The Godfather, i could only give you kind

769

00:30:13,028 --> 00:30:15,542

Fred Melamed: of a very general idea of the plot, of what

770

00:30:15,582 --> 00:30:16,283

Fred Melamed: actually happens.

771

00:30:16,664 --> 00:30:21,933

Fred Melamed: But there are so many things, moments of

772

00:30:21,973 --> 00:30:23,682

Fred Melamed: characters, things that happen that I

773

00:30:23,722 --> 00:30:25,887

Fred Melamed: remember so vividly, and that's the

774

00:30:25,927 --> 00:30:26,449

Fred Melamed: characters.

775

00:30:26,489 --> 00:30:30,627

Fred Melamed: So for me the story, the plot is kind of

776

00:30:30,687 --> 00:30:33,435

Fred Melamed: like this clothesline on which the

777

00:30:33,475 --> 00:30:35,280

Fred Melamed: characters are hung, But it's the

778

00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:37,065

Fred Melamed: characters that make that bring me back to

779

00:30:37,125 --> 00:30:37,506

Fred Melamed: things.

780

00:30:37,586 --> 00:30:37,887

Fred Melamed: You know.

781

00:30:38,468 --> 00:30:40,112

Fred Melamed: It's the kind of human element of things.

782

00:30:40,682 --> 00:30:41,807

Marc Preston: Yeah, It's being a character.

783

00:30:41,827 --> 00:30:43,897

Marc Preston: I mean I, I have only gotten through one

784

00:30:43,937 --> 00:30:45,964

Marc Preston: season of Barry so far, but Henry Winkler,

785

00:30:46,505 --> 00:30:48,410

Marc Preston: it is so nice to see him be an unpleasant

786

00:30:48,450 --> 00:30:49,292

Marc Preston: person for once.

787

00:30:50,764 --> 00:30:51,948

Fred Melamed: It's so interesting, isn't it?

788

00:30:52,481 --> 00:30:52,862

Marc Preston: Yeah, it's.

789

00:30:53,042 --> 00:30:54,507

Marc Preston: It's like wait, that's not, that's not the

790

00:30:54,547 --> 00:30:55,128

Marc Preston: Henry Winkler.

791

00:30:55,148 --> 00:30:57,704

Marc Preston: But you know it's almost for him to pull

792

00:30:57,745 --> 00:30:59,429

Marc Preston: that off and everybody knows he's a mens.

793

00:30:59,610 --> 00:31:01,807

Marc Preston: You know is, is is a trick, but that's,

794

00:31:01,867 --> 00:31:02,610

Marc Preston: that's a great show.

795

00:31:03,023 --> 00:31:05,442

Fred Melamed: Yeah, i play his agent Did you come in at

796

00:31:05,784 --> 00:31:09,105

Fred Melamed: season three or, yes, this past season, the

797

00:31:09,125 --> 00:31:09,305

Fred Melamed: season.

798

00:31:09,405 --> 00:31:11,490

Fred Melamed: That's the latest season and we just

799

00:31:11,510 --> 00:31:13,033

Fred Melamed: started the next season, just began it.

800

00:31:14,461 --> 00:31:16,126

Fred Melamed: I knew Henry from before because we had

801

00:31:16,166 --> 00:31:17,369

Fred Melamed: done a show together called Children's

802

00:31:17,430 --> 00:31:17,871

Fred Melamed: Hospital.

803

00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:21,267

Fred Melamed: And there was another man, alec Berg, that

804

00:31:21,287 --> 00:31:23,112

Fred Melamed: was one of the creators of Barry.

805

00:31:24,300 --> 00:31:25,804

Fred Melamed: That I also knew because I had worked with

806

00:31:25,824 --> 00:31:28,209

Fred Melamed: him on Caribbean enthusiasm and some of the

807

00:31:28,530 --> 00:31:29,773

Fred Melamed: Sacha Baronan con films.

808

00:31:30,542 --> 00:31:33,829

Fred Melamed: So it was very wonderful for me because I

809

00:31:33,869 --> 00:31:35,292

Fred Melamed: already knew a bunch of the people and it

810

00:31:35,332 --> 00:31:35,713

Fred Melamed: was great.

811

00:31:36,561 --> 00:31:41,321

Fred Melamed: You're right that Henry is known you know

812

00:31:41,722 --> 00:31:43,968

Fred Melamed: aptly for being one of the sweetest, nicest

813

00:31:44,008 --> 00:31:46,253

Fred Melamed: people you'll ever encounter anywhere.

814

00:31:47,401 --> 00:31:49,347

Fred Melamed: But it is great to see him play this kind

815

00:31:49,387 --> 00:31:52,723

Fred Melamed: of demi-jerk acting teacher with all of his

816

00:31:52,784 --> 00:31:53,666

Fred Melamed: selfishness and all that.

817

00:31:53,786 --> 00:31:55,350

Fred Melamed: And I don't want to ruin it for people that

818

00:31:55,370 --> 00:31:56,092

Fred Melamed: may not have seen it.

819

00:31:56,621 --> 00:31:58,326

Fred Melamed: But some other people who start off very

820

00:31:58,426 --> 00:32:00,953

Fred Melamed: nice or you might think they're very nice,

821

00:32:02,981 --> 00:32:05,142

Fred Melamed: notably Sally.

822

00:32:05,322 --> 00:32:07,970

Fred Melamed: The character of Sally has a big.

823

00:32:08,090 --> 00:32:11,023

Fred Melamed: As you go on she changes and one of the

824

00:32:11,043 --> 00:32:12,507

Fred Melamed: things that the writers of that show love

825

00:32:12,527 --> 00:32:14,872

Fred Melamed: to do is to confound the audience's

826

00:32:14,932 --> 00:32:17,426

Fred Melamed: expectations, but in a ways that actually

827

00:32:17,466 --> 00:32:18,069

Fred Melamed: makes sense.

828

00:32:20,009 --> 00:32:21,316

Fred Melamed: So I have high praise for that show.

829

00:32:21,336 --> 00:32:22,040

Fred Melamed: I really love that show.

830

00:32:22,401 --> 00:32:23,824

Marc Preston: You always seem to get on really

831

00:32:23,984 --> 00:32:25,066

Marc Preston: interesting ensembles.

832

00:32:25,126 --> 00:32:27,752

Marc Preston: I mean part of the story of your career

833

00:32:27,772 --> 00:32:29,922

Marc Preston: that I enjoy so much is where you find you

834

00:32:29,943 --> 00:32:31,346

Marc Preston: know you've had a chance to work with Woody

835

00:32:31,427 --> 00:32:34,702

Marc Preston: Allen more than once, the Coen Brothers Do

836

00:32:34,742 --> 00:32:37,191

Marc Preston: you make decisions on projects based upon

837

00:32:38,081 --> 00:32:38,603

Marc Preston: What do you?

838

00:32:38,864 --> 00:32:40,649

Marc Preston: what is your criteria when you're looking

839

00:32:40,669 --> 00:32:41,331

Marc Preston: to take a role?

840

00:32:42,221 --> 00:32:43,627

Marc Preston: What are the criteria you look at before

841

00:32:43,667 --> 00:32:44,189

Marc Preston: you say yes?

842

00:32:45,141 --> 00:32:46,647

Fred Melamed: Well, there are a few different criteria.

843

00:32:48,304 --> 00:32:50,970

Fred Melamed: One thing that's important to me is the

844

00:32:51,010 --> 00:32:54,364

Fred Melamed: people that I'm working with, so it was an

845

00:32:54,424 --> 00:32:56,611

Fred Melamed: opportunity to work with the Coens again,

846

00:32:57,754 --> 00:33:03,063

Fred Melamed: or somebody like Bill Hader or Paul Thomas

847

00:33:03,124 --> 00:33:05,775

Fred Melamed: Anderson, for example, who I love Now his

848

00:33:05,835 --> 00:33:06,960

Fred Melamed: father was a big VO guy.

849

00:33:07,702 --> 00:33:08,423

Marc Preston: He was indeed.

850

00:33:08,704 --> 00:33:11,490

Marc Preston: Ernie Anderson has a great for people that

851

00:33:11,510 --> 00:33:12,291

Marc Preston: haven't had chance to listen.

852

00:33:12,552 --> 00:33:15,305

Marc Preston: The Outtake Real Ernie Anderson's Outtake

853

00:33:15,365 --> 00:33:18,567

Marc Preston: Real is so satisfying to listen to,

854

00:33:18,768 --> 00:33:20,172

Marc Preston: especially her voice over the talent.

855

00:33:20,702 --> 00:33:23,271

Marc Preston: It's just like oh, yes, yes, you know that

856

00:33:23,291 --> 00:33:24,636

Marc Preston: anyway, ernie Anderson was.

857

00:33:24,937 --> 00:33:25,920

Marc Preston: But yeah, i didn't mean to wrap you, i'm

858

00:33:25,940 --> 00:33:27,424

Marc Preston: sorry, but you said Paul Thomas Anderson.

859

00:33:27,444 --> 00:33:29,309

Marc Preston: I'm thinking you know what a, what a nice

860

00:33:29,329 --> 00:33:30,292

Marc Preston: dad I'd like to grow up with Ernie.

861

00:33:31,701 --> 00:33:33,464

Marc Preston: So your decision is who you get to work

862

00:33:33,484 --> 00:33:33,945

Marc Preston: with.

863

00:33:34,006 --> 00:33:34,847

Fred Melamed: That's one thing.

864

00:33:35,248 --> 00:33:39,761

Fred Melamed: Then there is the character, and in

865

00:33:39,842 --> 00:33:41,967

Fred Melamed: characters I'm always interested in people

866

00:33:42,227 --> 00:33:42,608

Fred Melamed: that are.

867

00:33:42,929 --> 00:33:44,432

Fred Melamed: I'm interested in the opposites within

868

00:33:44,472 --> 00:33:44,773

Fred Melamed: people.

869

00:33:45,362 --> 00:33:47,006

Fred Melamed: I'm interested in people who are, who have

870

00:33:47,046 --> 00:33:49,032

Fred Melamed: contradictory things within them.

871

00:33:50,102 --> 00:33:53,544

Fred Melamed: To give you an example the guy that you

872

00:33:53,584 --> 00:33:56,242

Fred Melamed: mentioned, sam Soto like Bill's character's

873

00:33:56,383 --> 00:34:00,110

Fred Melamed: father in In a World, is obviously, you

874

00:34:00,150 --> 00:34:03,144

Fred Melamed: know, vain and kind of narcissistic, but

875

00:34:03,205 --> 00:34:05,501

Fred Melamed: his feet are so clearly made of clay, he's

876

00:34:05,562 --> 00:34:07,450

Fred Melamed: so threatened that he can't even compete

877

00:34:07,471 --> 00:34:09,319

Fred Melamed: with his own daughter and he loves his

878

00:34:09,359 --> 00:34:09,540

Fred Melamed: daughter.

879

00:34:10,102 --> 00:34:12,208

Fred Melamed: So it's interesting to me when people have

880

00:34:12,308 --> 00:34:14,275

Fred Melamed: inconsistencies, that's always a great

881

00:34:14,335 --> 00:34:15,980

Fred Melamed: thing to play a character that like that.

882

00:34:16,681 --> 00:34:18,164

Fred Melamed: And then there's money to be considered.

883

00:34:18,765 --> 00:34:21,611

Fred Melamed: Now I have two no longer teenage 20 year

884

00:34:21,671 --> 00:34:25,284

Fred Melamed: old boys, twins and college and all that is

885

00:34:25,344 --> 00:34:27,650

Fred Melamed: going on, and I just got divorced about a

886

00:34:27,751 --> 00:34:28,332

Fred Melamed: year ago.

887

00:34:29,122 --> 00:34:31,530

Fred Melamed: So money is not to be sneered at either.

888

00:34:33,842 --> 00:34:34,747

Marc Preston: Sorry, i don't mean to laugh.

889

00:34:34,847 --> 00:34:36,395

Marc Preston: I'm kind of like the been there done that

890

00:34:36,455 --> 00:34:36,898

Marc Preston: thing Yeah.

891

00:34:37,199 --> 00:34:37,320

Fred Melamed: Yeah.

892

00:34:38,423 --> 00:34:41,071

Fred Melamed: So there's different piles and most actors

893

00:34:42,001 --> 00:34:44,330

Fred Melamed: have a pile of stuff that they do because

894

00:34:44,370 --> 00:34:45,454

Fred Melamed: they want to do it, because there's

895

00:34:45,474 --> 00:34:46,658

Fred Melamed: somebody they want to work with or it's a

896

00:34:46,698 --> 00:34:48,347

Fred Melamed: great script, and they have a pile of

897

00:34:48,488 --> 00:34:49,716

Fred Melamed: things that they do because they need to

898

00:34:49,777 --> 00:34:52,224

Fred Melamed: make some money And, if you're really lucky,

899

00:34:52,665 --> 00:34:54,489

Fred Melamed: you get a kind of a confluence between them

900

00:34:54,529 --> 00:34:56,553

Fred Melamed: and there's some projects that cover more

901

00:34:56,573 --> 00:34:57,214

Fred Melamed: than one base.

902

00:34:58,041 --> 00:34:59,445

Fred Melamed: But I think most people are not aware of

903

00:34:59,485 --> 00:35:02,704

Fred Melamed: the fact that in movies, for example, you

904

00:35:02,744 --> 00:35:04,597

Fred Melamed: do a lot of a lot of people do a lot of

905

00:35:04,658 --> 00:35:07,890

Fred Melamed: movies for very little money, even very big

906

00:35:07,950 --> 00:35:11,960

Fred Melamed: stars, because the movies just can't afford.

907

00:35:12,703 --> 00:35:13,907

Fred Melamed: I'm not talking about, you know, marvel

908

00:35:13,968 --> 00:35:16,563

Fred Melamed: movies, but I'm talking about movies that

909

00:35:16,983 --> 00:35:21,232

Fred Melamed: appeal to a more kind of artsy side of

910

00:35:22,113 --> 00:35:23,035

Fred Melamed: those artists.

911

00:35:25,123 --> 00:35:26,427

Fred Melamed: They do them because they want to do them

912

00:35:26,527 --> 00:35:28,272

Fred Melamed: and they can't support big salaries.

913

00:35:29,146 --> 00:35:30,637

Fred Melamed: And then they do other movies on which they

914

00:35:30,657 --> 00:35:31,060

Fred Melamed: get a big payday.

915

00:35:31,060 --> 00:35:33,211

Fred Melamed: But even really big, famous actors do a lot

916

00:35:33,292 --> 00:35:34,338

Fred Melamed: of stuff for very little.

917

00:35:34,419 --> 00:35:36,419

Fred Melamed: Also, you're speaking of those life changes.

918

00:35:38,331 --> 00:35:39,317

Marc Preston: That's got to be an interesting time in

919

00:35:39,338 --> 00:35:39,740

Marc Preston: your life right now.

920

00:35:41,206 --> 00:35:42,853

Marc Preston: And I've got two kids at Loyola in New

921

00:35:42,934 --> 00:35:44,340

Marc Preston: Orleans and she's 19.

922

00:35:44,380 --> 00:35:46,488

Marc Preston: My son's turning 18 shortly I'm going God,

923

00:35:46,508 --> 00:35:47,319

Marc Preston: they're going to be 20.

924

00:35:47,461 --> 00:35:49,133

Marc Preston: And my youngest is still 16, so I still got

925

00:35:49,153 --> 00:35:49,697

Marc Preston: a little bit of time.

926

00:35:52,067 --> 00:35:53,675

Marc Preston: And of course, i have a divorce and I know

927

00:35:53,715 --> 00:35:54,218

Marc Preston: that's not where you are.

928

00:35:54,238 --> 00:35:54,560

Marc Preston: That's not easy.

929

00:35:56,046 --> 00:35:57,632

Fred Melamed: Now, when you say, of course I have a

930

00:35:57,672 --> 00:35:58,656

Fred Melamed: divorce, why do you say of course you have

931

00:35:58,676 --> 00:35:58,917

Fred Melamed: a divorce?

932

00:35:58,977 --> 00:35:59,861

Fred Melamed: I mean, of course you have a divorce, you

933

00:35:59,881 --> 00:36:00,506

Fred Melamed: have to be divorced.

934

00:36:01,240 --> 00:36:02,763

Marc Preston: Of course, with your divorce added into the

935

00:36:02,823 --> 00:36:04,206

Marc Preston: equation.

936

00:36:04,427 --> 00:36:05,048

Fred Melamed: My divorce.

937

00:36:05,068 --> 00:36:06,010

Fred Melamed: Oh yeah, yeah, I thought you were saying

938

00:36:06,030 --> 00:36:06,572

Fred Melamed: your divorce?

939

00:36:06,692 --> 00:36:08,604

Marc Preston: Oh yeah, that too, but but no, i know that

940

00:36:08,644 --> 00:36:10,370

Marc Preston: it's of course that's never easy.

941

00:36:10,460 --> 00:36:12,508

Marc Preston: I'm sorry I probably did not enunciate

942

00:36:12,548 --> 00:36:14,546

Marc Preston: properly, but the thing is you have all

943

00:36:14,566 --> 00:36:16,624

Marc Preston: these life changes, so that's kind of a

944

00:36:16,745 --> 00:36:18,550

Marc Preston: probably in a growth spot for you a little

945

00:36:18,610 --> 00:36:18,771

Marc Preston: bit.

946

00:36:18,820 --> 00:36:20,407

Marc Preston: You know things are a little different.

947

00:36:20,701 --> 00:36:22,368

Marc Preston: Are you looking at anything differently now?

948

00:36:22,500 --> 00:36:25,006

Marc Preston: Is it what kind of projects or experiences

949

00:36:25,067 --> 00:36:26,310

Marc Preston: you want to be having right now in your

950

00:36:26,330 --> 00:36:27,192

Marc Preston: career or personally?

951

00:36:27,721 --> 00:36:28,062

Marc Preston: Sure?

952

00:36:28,644 --> 00:36:30,891

Fred Melamed: I'm looking at several things different.

953

00:36:31,201 --> 00:36:33,028

Fred Melamed: I'm looking at women differently, certainly

954

00:36:33,221 --> 00:36:37,882

Fred Melamed: Now that I'm unattached ogling might be the

955

00:36:37,922 --> 00:36:41,652

Fred Melamed: right, wrong word, but certainly a

956

00:36:41,692 --> 00:36:42,053

Fred Melamed: different.

957

00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:43,262

Fred Melamed: Yeah, and I have a.

958

00:36:43,562 --> 00:36:47,389

Fred Melamed: You know I have some interest in particular.

959

00:36:47,610 --> 00:36:52,183

Fred Melamed: you know one, but I won't bore the audience

960

00:36:52,203 --> 00:36:52,544

Fred Melamed: with that.

961

00:36:53,567 --> 00:36:55,200

Fred Melamed: Yes, so that has changed.

962

00:36:56,287 --> 00:36:57,656

Fred Melamed: Of course divorces change things,

963

00:36:57,676 --> 00:36:58,949

Fred Melamed: financially certainly, and emotionally,

964

00:36:58,969 --> 00:36:59,820

Fred Melamed: there's no doubt about it.

965

00:37:00,542 --> 00:37:07,884

Fred Melamed: You know I I'm a person who had certain

966

00:37:08,125 --> 00:37:10,411

Fred Melamed: problems, deficits in my early

967

00:37:10,431 --> 00:37:12,709

Fred Melamed: relationships with my parents, some

968

00:37:12,729 --> 00:37:14,985

Fred Melamed: problems in there, and I kind of thought

969

00:37:15,547 --> 00:37:19,207

Fred Melamed: when I'd have my own family I would strive,

970

00:37:19,649 --> 00:37:21,759

Fred Melamed: do my best to remedy those things and not,

971

00:37:21,779 --> 00:37:25,148

Fred Melamed: you know, and I felt like for a while I was

972

00:37:25,549 --> 00:37:27,634

Fred Melamed: successful at that and I was very gratified

973

00:37:27,674 --> 00:37:33,640

Fred Melamed: by it, and then it fell apart.

974

00:37:34,788 --> 00:37:36,097

Fred Melamed: So it's a big adjustment to, you know, have

975

00:37:36,118 --> 00:37:36,460

Fred Melamed: to deal with it.

976

00:37:36,864 --> 00:37:38,097

Fred Melamed: I mean, obviously my children are still my

977

00:37:38,117 --> 00:37:42,767

Fred Melamed: children, my ex-wife is still around, but

978

00:37:42,888 --> 00:37:44,476

Fred Melamed: we were a happy family for a long time and

979

00:37:44,496 --> 00:37:46,846

Fred Melamed: it's quite an adjustment to have to have to

980

00:37:46,867 --> 00:37:49,960

Fred Melamed: have that, see that kind of fall away.

981

00:37:51,206 --> 00:37:52,915

Fred Melamed: And you know we're still a family of sorts

982

00:37:52,995 --> 00:37:53,940

Fred Melamed: but we're much more dislocated than we were.

983

00:37:56,770 --> 00:37:59,019

Fred Melamed: And you know I'm 66 years old and you know

984

00:37:59,039 --> 00:38:02,808

Fred Melamed: I didn't the idea of dragging my 66 year

985

00:38:02,868 --> 00:38:04,552

Fred Melamed: old ass out into the cold winds of the

986

00:38:04,612 --> 00:38:07,358

Fred Melamed: dating world did not particularly welcome

987

00:38:07,398 --> 00:38:07,519

Fred Melamed: me.

988

00:38:07,559 --> 00:38:10,007

Marc Preston: No laughing, believe me, i am, i'm here,

989

00:38:10,047 --> 00:38:11,573

Marc Preston: with you speaking with a good friend who

990

00:38:11,593 --> 00:38:14,808

Marc Preston: was going through the exact same thing And

991

00:38:14,829 --> 00:38:16,178

Marc Preston: I said it's like getting back to a place

992

00:38:16,198 --> 00:38:19,216

Marc Preston: you've never been And it's ironic because

993

00:38:19,236 --> 00:38:19,940

Marc Preston: you're still a family of sorts.

994

00:38:19,940 --> 00:38:20,421

Marc Preston: You're single.

995

00:38:20,461 --> 00:38:22,367

Marc Preston: You've been single before you've, but now

996

00:38:22,407 --> 00:38:23,991

Marc Preston: you have kids, you have life experiences,

997

00:38:24,020 --> 00:38:25,466

Marc Preston: so there's no, like I say, you can never go

998

00:38:25,546 --> 00:38:25,767

Marc Preston: home.

999

00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:28,167

Marc Preston: I think that the concept of being single

00:38:28,729 --> 00:38:29,411

Marc Preston: does change.

00:38:30,081 --> 00:38:31,565

Marc Preston: I was reading an article yesterday about

00:38:31,585 --> 00:38:33,309

Marc Preston: people doing online dating and how that's

00:38:33,389 --> 00:38:35,341

Marc Preston: changed the paradigm, and they said that

00:38:35,362 --> 00:38:38,690

Marc Preston: there are more single guys now because more

00:38:38,750 --> 00:38:40,421

Marc Preston: relationship, more people are seeking

00:38:40,501 --> 00:38:42,205

Marc Preston: healthier relationships and they're a

00:38:42,246 --> 00:38:44,872

Marc Preston: longer term or something to that effect.

00:38:45,300 --> 00:38:47,228

Marc Preston: You know you just it's Carpe Diem.

00:38:47,340 --> 00:38:48,727

Fred Melamed: You still have to enjoy the day in some

00:38:48,748 --> 00:38:50,779

Fred Melamed: shape, former fashion and well, certainly,

00:38:50,879 --> 00:38:52,764

Fred Melamed: but I do think that I think that the

00:38:52,804 --> 00:38:55,690

Fred Melamed: challenges of the last few years have not

00:38:55,751 --> 00:38:57,904

Fred Melamed: been good for the marriage Marcet.

00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,886

Fred Melamed: When I had to at the end of the beginning

00:39:01,906 --> 00:39:05,934

Fred Melamed: of 2021, i had to find a divorce attorney,

00:39:06,060 --> 00:39:08,006

Fred Melamed: so I got myself a very good woman divorce

00:39:08,046 --> 00:39:12,026

Fred Melamed: attorney And when I first decided to hire

00:39:12,066 --> 00:39:14,271

Fred Melamed: her, she said just so, you know, you're our

00:39:14,331 --> 00:39:14,953

Fred Melamed: last case.

00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,007

Fred Melamed: We have books full for like five years

00:39:17,047 --> 00:39:17,248

Fred Melamed: ahead.

00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,632

Fred Melamed: There have been so many divorces since the

00:39:20,692 --> 00:39:22,520

Fred Melamed: lock the COVID lockdown that we literally

00:39:22,660 --> 00:39:23,986

Fred Melamed: can't take any more people.

00:39:24,580 --> 00:39:27,329

Marc Preston: That is, you know, but I feel for you, you

00:39:27,349 --> 00:39:28,753

Marc Preston: know, much love too, because I know that,

00:39:28,773 --> 00:39:30,486

Marc Preston: no matter how you carve it up, it's, it's

00:39:30,526 --> 00:39:31,781

Marc Preston: an odyssey, but you know you come.

00:39:31,801 --> 00:39:33,546

Marc Preston: you always come out on the back end

00:39:34,228 --> 00:39:35,741

Marc Preston: learning more about yourself, and I think

00:39:35,761 --> 00:39:37,190

Marc Preston: that's that's the way I've tried to look at

00:39:37,230 --> 00:39:37,552

Marc Preston: things.

00:39:37,652 --> 00:39:39,341

Marc Preston: you know, you know that's actually a

00:39:39,381 --> 00:39:39,802

Marc Preston: question.

00:39:39,842 --> 00:39:42,809

Marc Preston: you were, you know you had a family, i

00:39:42,870 --> 00:39:43,170

Marc Preston: believe.

00:39:43,230 --> 00:39:45,002

Marc Preston: if I read something, or maybe you heard you

00:39:45,023 --> 00:39:46,988

Marc Preston: at one point in time, your sons, they were

00:39:47,249 --> 00:39:48,051

Marc Preston: on the spectrum.

00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:49,406

Marc Preston: Am I, am I correct in saying that?

00:39:49,460 --> 00:39:50,924

Marc Preston: And you've been a big advocate for that?

00:39:50,944 --> 00:39:54,584

Fred Melamed: Yes, Yes, that's a that was a big, big part

00:39:54,604 --> 00:39:56,690

Fred Melamed: of of my life and our lives together.

00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:59,427

Fred Melamed: I have twin sons that are will be 20 this

00:39:59,488 --> 00:40:02,788

Fred Melamed: year, one of whom has quite severe autism.

00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,887

Fred Melamed: The other was was diagnosed with autism

00:40:06,947 --> 00:40:09,292

Fred Melamed: when he was younger, when he was quite

00:40:09,352 --> 00:40:11,665

Fred Melamed: young, but functionally it hardly affects

00:40:11,705 --> 00:40:13,931

Fred Melamed: him at all in any discernible way anymore

00:40:13,940 --> 00:40:17,168

Fred Melamed: And he's very, very high achiever and also

00:40:17,228 --> 00:40:18,692

Fred Melamed: very personable, very smart.

00:40:18,732 --> 00:40:20,205

Fred Melamed: You know he really is doing great.

00:40:20,900 --> 00:40:23,727

Fred Melamed: So we had both ends of the spectrum in our

00:40:23,948 --> 00:40:24,630

Fred Melamed: in our family.

00:40:25,460 --> 00:40:26,783

Fred Melamed: So that's, you know, that was a major

00:40:27,865 --> 00:40:31,312

Fred Melamed: factor in my, in me and my wife's life and

00:40:31,633 --> 00:40:33,285

Fred Melamed: decisions about where to live and all that

00:40:33,345 --> 00:40:35,222

Fred Melamed: stuff, and so we.

00:40:35,402 --> 00:40:36,745

Marc Preston: so you were living somewhere where you had

00:40:36,986 --> 00:40:39,892

Marc Preston: great resources for the, for the, for your,

00:40:39,932 --> 00:40:40,092

Marc Preston: son?

00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:42,407

Fred Melamed: No, as a matter of no, we did not.

00:40:42,540 --> 00:40:44,104

Fred Melamed: What happened was we were living in

00:40:44,124 --> 00:40:46,210

Fred Melamed: Manhattan, in New York city, and we had a

00:40:46,310 --> 00:40:46,912

Fred Melamed: country house.

00:40:47,060 --> 00:40:49,506

Fred Melamed: This is in the in the glory days of my my

00:40:49,566 --> 00:40:51,900

Fred Melamed: glory days of voiceover business, when I

00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:53,163

Fred Melamed: was the voice of CBS Sports.

00:40:53,203 --> 00:40:56,290

Fred Melamed: I was the person who said the NFL on CBS,

00:40:56,430 --> 00:40:57,092

Fred Melamed: that guy.

00:40:57,620 --> 00:40:59,525

Fred Melamed: So I had that job, that unbelievably good

00:40:59,565 --> 00:41:03,882

Fred Melamed: job, for about seven years I think, and I

00:41:03,943 --> 00:41:06,088

Fred Melamed: bought a house, a really nice house, out in

00:41:06,148 --> 00:41:08,101

Fred Melamed: Montauk, in the Hamptons, in the east end

00:41:08,121 --> 00:41:10,620

Fred Melamed: of on the east end of Long Island, and we

00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:12,465

Fred Melamed: had that as a country house and we had our,

00:41:12,785 --> 00:41:14,770

Fred Melamed: our, our apartment in Manhattan.

00:41:14,790 --> 00:41:16,643

Fred Melamed: We'd go back and forth And I built a little.

00:41:16,783 --> 00:41:18,569

Fred Melamed: By this time people were building home

00:41:18,609 --> 00:41:20,145

Fred Melamed: studios, so I built a little studio into

00:41:20,165 --> 00:41:20,506

Fred Melamed: the house.

00:41:20,980 --> 00:41:22,584

Fred Melamed: I had a studio both in New York and in the

00:41:22,624 --> 00:41:26,442

Fred Melamed: house in in Hamptons, and when our kids

00:41:26,482 --> 00:41:28,507

Fred Melamed: were diagnosed which was 2000, the

00:41:29,449 --> 00:41:34,360

Fred Melamed: beginning of 2004, there was such an

00:41:34,621 --> 00:41:36,526

Fred Melamed: avalanche of cases of autism in New York

00:41:36,566 --> 00:41:39,172

Fred Melamed: city that even though we were entitled to

00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,326

Fred Melamed: be able to get services for them, you

00:41:41,366 --> 00:41:42,008

Fred Melamed: couldn't get them.

00:41:42,529 --> 00:41:42,770

Marc Preston: Really.

00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:44,865

Fred Melamed: Um, there were just not enough people, Yeah,

00:41:45,900 --> 00:41:47,985

Fred Melamed: So, uh, we couldn't.

00:41:48,065 --> 00:41:50,029

Fred Melamed: we were told to get one particular form of

00:41:50,070 --> 00:41:52,223

Fred Melamed: therapy called ABA therapy, a behaviorally

00:41:52,283 --> 00:41:52,986

Fred Melamed: oriented therapy.

00:41:53,488 --> 00:41:55,517

Fred Melamed: that was the only one that was shown to

00:41:55,577 --> 00:41:58,506

Fred Melamed: really have, you know, significant positive

00:41:58,707 --> 00:41:59,108

Fred Melamed: effects.

00:42:00,060 --> 00:42:02,132

Fred Melamed: But there weren't therapists available

00:42:02,249 --> 00:42:04,370

Fred Melamed: because in New York there were so many

00:42:04,487 --> 00:42:05,463

Fred Melamed: cases of autism.

00:42:05,463 --> 00:42:06,747

Marc Preston: I'd be so frustrating where you're, you're,

00:42:07,168 --> 00:42:07,930

Marc Preston: you know you're sitting there.

00:42:07,970 --> 00:42:08,743

Marc Preston: You know I'm an actor.

00:42:08,803 --> 00:42:09,166

Marc Preston: What am I?

00:42:09,186 --> 00:42:09,649

Marc Preston: you know you're?

00:42:10,071 --> 00:42:11,560

Marc Preston: you want somebody's professional to be able

00:42:11,620 --> 00:42:12,885

Marc Preston: to guide you on what to do.

00:42:13,647 --> 00:42:15,106

Fred Melamed: Right, and also for them to have a certain

00:42:15,126 --> 00:42:16,374

Fred Melamed: number of hours of therapy.

00:42:16,414 --> 00:42:18,002

Fred Melamed: because we were told, you must get this and

00:42:18,042 --> 00:42:20,228

Fred Melamed: it's absolutely of of of prime importance

00:42:20,248 --> 00:42:21,010

Fred Melamed: that you get it quickly.

00:42:22,100 --> 00:42:23,985

Fred Melamed: So we had this other house out on Long

00:42:24,105 --> 00:42:26,331

Fred Melamed: Island and there, in that county, which was

00:42:26,371 --> 00:42:29,206

Fred Melamed: a different county, suffolk County uh, the

00:42:29,246 --> 00:42:30,309

Fred Melamed: services were available.

00:42:31,460 --> 00:42:34,389

Fred Melamed: So we moved full time out to that other

00:42:34,449 --> 00:42:37,839

Fred Melamed: house and raised our children there, uh,

00:42:37,940 --> 00:42:39,707

Fred Melamed: for the first 10 years of their lives.

00:42:40,330 --> 00:42:42,218

Fred Melamed: um, precisely because we found a school out

00:42:42,238 --> 00:42:45,061

Fred Melamed: there that was great for both of them, uh,

00:42:45,202 --> 00:42:47,347

Fred Melamed: it, it served both kids that had

00:42:47,467 --> 00:42:49,031

Fred Melamed: developmental disabilities and also kids

00:42:49,051 --> 00:42:51,165

Fred Melamed: that were on the sort of genius scale.

00:42:51,820 --> 00:42:54,126

Fred Melamed: So both of our, both of our ends, were

00:42:54,166 --> 00:42:55,350

Fred Melamed: covered by that school and they did

00:42:55,390 --> 00:42:56,882

Fred Melamed: wonderfully well there, but it only went,

00:42:57,544 --> 00:43:00,603

Fred Melamed: uh, as far as fifth grade, so, which

00:43:00,664 --> 00:43:01,780

Fred Melamed: prompted our move to California.

00:43:02,241 --> 00:43:03,485

Marc Preston: I had a good friend who, who?

00:43:03,625 --> 00:43:05,089

Marc Preston: or I have a good friend whose uh son of

00:43:05,109 --> 00:43:08,149

Marc Preston: guy's son's almost 30 now, uh, but when he

00:43:08,209 --> 00:43:09,877

Marc Preston: was younger, one of the things that I

00:43:09,917 --> 00:43:11,783

Marc Preston: remember her telling me that they wanted uh

00:43:11,843 --> 00:43:13,628

Marc Preston: the people in the know had her do was have

00:43:13,668 --> 00:43:17,166

Marc Preston: him watch older, uh, sit family, sit comp

00:43:17,186 --> 00:43:17,648

Marc Preston: family.

00:43:18,240 --> 00:43:20,066

Marc Preston: I don't know where you could see families

00:43:20,146 --> 00:43:21,370

Marc Preston: modeling behavior.

00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:23,585

Marc Preston: So that was a big thing for the, for the

00:43:23,625 --> 00:43:25,910

Marc Preston: children, for him, for him to see is what

00:43:25,930 --> 00:43:27,273

Marc Preston: are kind of a traditional family.

00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:29,725

Marc Preston: You know it's uh, it's it's different

00:43:29,745 --> 00:43:32,972

Marc Preston: challenges, but you know it's um, you know

00:43:33,012 --> 00:43:33,781

Marc Preston: I know different people.

00:43:33,821 --> 00:43:35,067

Marc Preston: As they say it's it's a spectrum.

00:43:35,220 --> 00:43:37,088

Marc Preston: So people like even in your own home you

00:43:37,128 --> 00:43:39,338

Marc Preston: had a spectrum of experiences, most

00:43:39,378 --> 00:43:40,983

Marc Preston: certainly is, but are some of it?

00:43:41,003 --> 00:43:42,487

Marc Preston: you said they're doing the college thing or

00:43:42,507 --> 00:43:44,292

Marc Preston: are they going for advanced education right

00:43:44,312 --> 00:43:44,432

Marc Preston: now?

00:43:44,660 --> 00:43:46,605

Fred Melamed: Well, one of them, uh, goes to Chapman

00:43:46,685 --> 00:43:48,549

Fred Melamed: University here in California and he's

00:43:48,590 --> 00:43:51,707

Fred Melamed: studying psychology, uh and and acting both.

00:43:51,820 --> 00:43:52,582

Fred Melamed: He's been in a couple of movies.

00:43:52,602 --> 00:43:54,107

Fred Melamed: He's quite a good actor, but he decided he

00:43:54,147 --> 00:43:55,210

Fred Melamed: wants to be a psychologist.

00:43:55,962 --> 00:43:57,147

Marc Preston: He'll be working with some actors.

00:43:58,901 --> 00:44:00,343

Fred Melamed: I think he wanted to work with mentally ill

00:44:00,363 --> 00:44:01,324

Fred Melamed: people because it was a healthier

00:44:01,364 --> 00:44:01,965

Fred Melamed: population.

00:44:11,661 --> 00:44:13,385

Fred Melamed: He's doing great and my other son the one

00:44:13,425 --> 00:44:15,410

Fred Melamed: who has autism is you know as much more

00:44:15,490 --> 00:44:18,781

Fred Melamed: serious goes to a special school strictly

00:44:18,841 --> 00:44:21,410

Fred Melamed: four people with autism and he graduated

00:44:21,430 --> 00:44:22,813

Fred Melamed: high school but now he's in kind of like

00:44:23,535 --> 00:44:26,141

Fred Melamed: post high school kind of vocational

00:44:26,181 --> 00:44:27,633

Fred Melamed: training, although he doesn't actually get

00:44:27,774 --> 00:44:31,067

Fred Melamed: too much vocation job preparation because I

00:44:31,107 --> 00:44:32,571

Fred Melamed: don't, he probably will not be able to

00:44:32,672 --> 00:44:35,758

Fred Melamed: handle a regular job, but he gets schooling

00:44:35,979 --> 00:44:38,311

Fred Melamed: in life skills, self-help, that kind of

00:44:38,331 --> 00:44:40,798

Fred Melamed: stuff, and he can continue there, i think,

00:44:40,838 --> 00:44:41,661

Fred Melamed: until he's 22.

00:44:41,991 --> 00:44:43,756

Marc Preston: You have a family member who went through

00:44:43,796 --> 00:44:44,558

Marc Preston: something like that.

00:44:46,010 --> 00:44:47,755

Marc Preston: They've learned, you know the skills just

00:44:48,056 --> 00:44:49,901

Marc Preston: interpersonal skills and like things like

00:44:49,941 --> 00:44:51,875

Marc Preston: that and I know those programs really can

00:44:51,895 --> 00:44:53,620

Marc Preston: work wonders because she feels great

00:44:53,660 --> 00:44:55,153

Marc Preston: satisfaction with what she does.

00:44:57,130 --> 00:44:57,913

Marc Preston: Just a real quick question.

00:44:58,033 --> 00:44:59,558

Marc Preston: One last question about kind of the origin

00:44:59,578 --> 00:44:59,779

Marc Preston: stories.

00:45:00,050 --> 00:45:02,299

Marc Preston: So now you grew up, is your family more on

00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:02,400

Marc Preston: the?

00:45:02,862 --> 00:45:05,312

Marc Preston: were they more orthodox maybe to the reform

00:45:05,372 --> 00:45:05,914

Marc Preston: side of things?

00:45:05,954 --> 00:45:06,435

Marc Preston: growing up in New?

00:45:06,455 --> 00:45:06,977

Fred Melamed: York City.

00:45:08,472 --> 00:45:09,858

Fred Melamed: They completely made fun of it.

00:45:09,930 --> 00:45:11,154

Fred Melamed: They thought it was a lot of hooey.

00:45:13,510 --> 00:45:16,876

Fred Melamed: My parents were old enough to have grown up

00:45:16,896 --> 00:45:20,864

Fred Melamed: in the Depression and they were, you know,

00:45:21,030 --> 00:45:23,477

Fred Melamed: lefties from the Depression era and then

00:45:24,099 --> 00:45:25,302

Fred Melamed: grownups in World War II.

00:45:26,826 --> 00:45:30,819

Fred Melamed: So they were quite skeptical about religion.

00:45:31,692 --> 00:45:33,898

Fred Melamed: Maybe I'm overstating it, but I mean I had

00:45:33,959 --> 00:45:34,721

Fred Melamed: no religious training.

00:45:35,071 --> 00:45:38,004

Fred Melamed: I was at the age of 11, which is when you

00:45:38,025 --> 00:45:39,210

Fred Melamed: have to start Hebrew school if you're going

00:45:39,230 --> 00:45:40,052

Fred Melamed: to get Bar Mitzvah.

00:45:40,272 --> 00:45:44,500

Fred Melamed: Usually I was asked do I want to have

00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:46,264

Fred Melamed: another day of school a week?

00:45:46,410 --> 00:45:49,419

Fred Melamed: and Jesus five was more than I could handle

00:45:49,459 --> 00:45:49,720

Fred Melamed: anyway.

00:45:50,210 --> 00:45:51,175

Fred Melamed: So I said no, i didn't.

00:45:51,290 --> 00:45:52,673

Fred Melamed: So I was never Bar Mitzvah, never had any

00:45:52,754 --> 00:45:54,458

Fred Melamed: religious education at all.

00:45:56,290 --> 00:46:01,400

Fred Melamed: And I remember once asking my mother is God

00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:01,741

Fred Melamed: real?

00:46:03,250 --> 00:46:05,817

Fred Melamed: And she said if you think God is real, then

00:46:05,877 --> 00:46:06,499

Fred Melamed: God is real.

00:46:07,450 --> 00:46:09,237

Fred Melamed: If you don't think God is real, then God is

00:46:09,277 --> 00:46:09,538

Fred Melamed: not real.

00:46:09,890 --> 00:46:12,178

Fred Melamed: At the time I think I misunderstood.

00:46:12,310 --> 00:46:14,018

Fred Melamed: I think I thought I thought what she meant

00:46:14,079 --> 00:46:16,169

Fred Melamed: then was that God is just something in

00:46:16,209 --> 00:46:16,912

Fred Melamed: people's heads.

00:46:18,110 --> 00:46:21,537

Fred Melamed: But what I later came to feel about it was

00:46:22,299 --> 00:46:24,664

Fred Melamed: what she was saying was it doesn't matter

00:46:25,211 --> 00:46:27,777

Fred Melamed: if God actually is real, if there is a kind

00:46:27,817 --> 00:46:30,023

Fred Melamed: of God, if you don't think there is a kind

00:46:30,090 --> 00:46:31,656

Fred Melamed: of God, then God's existence won't matter

00:46:31,737 --> 00:46:32,018

Fred Melamed: anyway.

00:46:32,813 --> 00:46:33,396

Marc Preston: Yeah, it's so funny.

00:46:33,470 --> 00:46:35,957

Marc Preston: I look at it as more of a cultural thing

00:46:35,997 --> 00:46:36,659

Marc Preston: for my family.

00:46:36,719 --> 00:46:38,291

Marc Preston: Even my great-grandfather came over from

00:46:38,632 --> 00:46:39,416

Marc Preston: Odessa, ukraine.

00:46:40,131 --> 00:46:41,857

Marc Preston: A lot of the people there were very learned,

00:46:41,917 --> 00:46:42,659

Marc Preston: very intelligent.

00:46:42,830 --> 00:46:44,437

Marc Preston: They were not skeptical.

00:46:44,570 --> 00:46:46,679

Marc Preston: They knew the Torah backwards and forwards

00:46:46,739 --> 00:46:49,129

Marc Preston: and everything, but they looked at it as

00:46:49,230 --> 00:46:50,173

Marc Preston: it's their culture.

00:46:50,254 --> 00:46:51,257

Marc Preston: That's why they're learning it.

00:46:51,510 --> 00:46:52,893

Marc Preston: It's not that they're taking you to some

00:46:53,735 --> 00:46:56,401

Marc Preston: you have to do this thing, but they were

00:46:56,461 --> 00:46:56,742

Marc Preston: very.

00:46:57,230 --> 00:46:59,295

Marc Preston: A lot of them were more surprisingly, more

00:46:59,355 --> 00:47:01,621

Marc Preston: even than the agnostic realm, if you will.

00:47:02,511 --> 00:47:04,938

Marc Preston: But the culture, of course, it was there.

00:47:04,978 --> 00:47:05,360

Marc Preston: The food.

00:47:05,730 --> 00:47:06,152

Fred Melamed: The culture.

00:47:06,192 --> 00:47:08,092

Fred Melamed: I was well-uncoocated with The culture.

00:47:08,452 --> 00:47:09,775

Fred Melamed: I don't mean the religious elements of the

00:47:09,815 --> 00:47:13,610

Fred Melamed: culture, but Yiddishism's in my behavior, a

00:47:13,650 --> 00:47:14,313

Fred Melamed: kind of Jewish.

00:47:15,690 --> 00:47:18,477

Fred Melamed: I was once asked what to you is Jewish?

00:47:20,690 --> 00:47:25,882

Fred Melamed: The way I answered that was that to me, not

00:47:25,942 --> 00:47:28,288

Fred Melamed: being able to be quiet about everything in

00:47:28,350 --> 00:47:33,302

Fred Melamed: life that's ridiculous or unfair is Jewish.

00:47:33,570 --> 00:47:35,315

Fred Melamed: Not being able to keep your mouth shut is

00:47:35,355 --> 00:47:36,438

Fred Melamed: what I think of as Jewish.

00:47:36,579 --> 00:47:38,613

Fred Melamed: And having to react to all that is unfair,

00:47:38,993 --> 00:47:42,341

Fred Melamed: difficult, painful in life vociferously,

00:47:43,130 --> 00:47:44,134

Fred Melamed: that seems Jewish to me.

00:47:44,435 --> 00:47:47,400

Marc Preston: Yeah, one thing I miss about being my age

00:47:47,421 --> 00:47:47,642

Marc Preston: is all the.

00:47:47,662 --> 00:47:49,230

Marc Preston: I mean, most of the elder folks are passing

00:47:49,250 --> 00:47:51,602

Marc Preston: on or have passed on and I used to love as

00:47:51,698 --> 00:47:54,253

Marc Preston: a kid being at a bar mitzvah or a wedding

00:47:54,273 --> 00:47:55,879

Marc Preston: or something and some of the old guys be

00:47:55,919 --> 00:47:58,789

Marc Preston: sitting around just chewing the fat with

00:47:58,850 --> 00:48:00,717

Marc Preston: each other and just listening to, like my

00:48:00,737 --> 00:48:04,090

Marc Preston: people, my grandfather's age that anything

00:48:04,110 --> 00:48:05,856

Marc Preston: that lacked common sense drove them nuts.

00:48:06,970 --> 00:48:08,175

Marc Preston: They kind of tore into each other.

00:48:08,830 --> 00:48:10,360

Marc Preston: I remember one thing my grandfather liked

00:48:10,381 --> 00:48:11,810

Marc Preston: the real close shave and I remember his

00:48:11,890 --> 00:48:14,076

Marc Preston: friends, somebody in famous like Harry.

00:48:14,116 --> 00:48:15,741

Marc Preston: But how long does a close shave last?

00:48:16,090 --> 00:48:17,756

Marc Preston: Why are you so worried about a close shave

00:48:17,776 --> 00:48:18,077

Marc Preston: at last?

00:48:18,490 --> 00:48:20,034

Marc Preston: Because the arguments these older Jewish

00:48:20,075 --> 00:48:22,161

Marc Preston: guys would have warmed my heart.

00:48:22,430 --> 00:48:23,550

Marc Preston: That's all I'm saying In tech.

00:48:23,570 --> 00:48:25,877

Marc Preston: My family immigrated through Galveston,

00:48:25,917 --> 00:48:26,318

Marc Preston: texas.

00:48:26,639 --> 00:48:27,221

Marc Preston: A lot of people did.

00:48:27,610 --> 00:48:28,272

Marc Preston: They come along the coast.

00:48:28,292 --> 00:48:31,575

Marc Preston: Galveston, new Orleans, you know, so you

00:48:31,596 --> 00:48:33,605

Marc Preston: run up in New York had to be readily

00:48:33,665 --> 00:48:34,810

Marc Preston: available bagels.

00:48:35,091 --> 00:48:37,096

Marc Preston: It had to have been really nice, you know.

00:48:37,677 --> 00:48:39,891

Fred Melamed: Yes, there was all that stuff There was.

00:48:40,672 --> 00:48:42,977

Fred Melamed: I grew up thinking most people must be

00:48:43,017 --> 00:48:44,721

Fred Melamed: Jewish, because most people that I knew

00:48:44,761 --> 00:48:47,556

Fred Melamed: were Jewish, so I assumed that was the case.

00:48:48,990 --> 00:48:50,115

Fred Melamed: I went to a special school.

00:48:50,170 --> 00:48:52,381

Fred Melamed: I went to a sort of genius school called

00:48:52,401 --> 00:48:54,089

Fred Melamed: Hunter College Elementary School a model

00:48:54,129 --> 00:48:56,732

Fred Melamed: school for gifted children, and two-thirds

00:48:56,752 --> 00:48:57,736

Fred Melamed: of the people there were Jewish.

00:48:58,250 --> 00:49:00,636

Fred Melamed: So I said, well, most people must be Jewish.

00:49:03,471 --> 00:49:06,076

Fred Melamed: I learned, i think, in my second year of

00:49:06,116 --> 00:49:08,682

Fred Melamed: college, that no, it didn't take me that

00:49:08,722 --> 00:49:10,514

Fred Melamed: long that most people were not Jewish.

00:49:12,153 --> 00:49:14,979

Fred Melamed: But I, you know, strong feelings is what I

00:49:15,019 --> 00:49:15,761

Fred Melamed: think about Judaism.

00:49:16,610 --> 00:49:17,655

Fred Melamed: That's my real association with it.

00:49:17,810 --> 00:49:19,033

Marc Preston: That's a wonderful articulation.

00:49:19,073 --> 00:49:19,876

Marc Preston: I think that's perfect.

00:49:20,056 --> 00:49:20,778

Fred Melamed: Yeah, Who was it?

00:49:22,993 --> 00:49:24,458

Fred Melamed: Oh God, what's her name?

00:49:25,370 --> 00:49:27,577

Fred Melamed: She was a famous wit from the Algonquin

00:49:27,918 --> 00:49:28,499

Fred Melamed: Roundtable.

00:49:29,110 --> 00:49:29,914

Fred Melamed: I can't think of her name.

00:49:30,450 --> 00:49:31,896

Fred Melamed: One of your listeners will know, Oh God.

00:49:33,774 --> 00:49:35,531

Fred Melamed: Anyway, she was half Jewish And this was in

00:49:35,551 --> 00:49:37,956

Fred Melamed: the 20s, when the Jews were a relatively

00:49:37,976 --> 00:49:43,315

Fred Melamed: smaller part of the Jewish community, The

00:49:43,376 --> 00:49:45,220

Fred Melamed: makeup of the New York intelligentsia.

00:49:46,690 --> 00:49:49,839

Fred Melamed: And she was asked what are Jews actually

00:49:49,919 --> 00:49:50,140

Fred Melamed: like?

00:49:50,610 --> 00:49:52,496

Fred Melamed: And she said Jews are just like everybody

00:49:52,576 --> 00:49:53,639

Fred Melamed: else, only more so.

00:49:57,699 --> 00:49:58,862

Marc Preston: That's exactly the truth.

00:49:59,130 --> 00:50:00,272

Marc Preston: You know, whenever that phrase people use

00:50:00,332 --> 00:50:02,596

Marc Preston: now the kids use a lot, now going oh, she's

00:50:02,716 --> 00:50:03,217

Marc Preston: a lot.

00:50:03,537 --> 00:50:04,739

Marc Preston: You know that phrase is like what I was

00:50:04,759 --> 00:50:06,141

Marc Preston: like yeah, that's my phrase, or extra.

00:50:06,382 --> 00:50:06,882

Announcer: She's extra.

00:50:07,123 --> 00:50:07,604

Marc Preston: That's what it is.

00:50:08,630 --> 00:50:09,755

Marc Preston: That's my family right there.

00:50:09,775 --> 00:50:10,638

Marc Preston: There's a whole lot of extra.

00:50:10,910 --> 00:50:12,835

Marc Preston: There is a recovery time I need after any

00:50:12,875 --> 00:50:16,192

Marc Preston: kind of family get together, But that you

00:50:16,212 --> 00:50:17,055

Marc Preston: know to go back.

00:50:17,115 --> 00:50:18,438

Marc Preston: You're mentioning something in the way you

00:50:18,458 --> 00:50:20,391

Marc Preston: grew up, Do you think?

00:50:21,173 --> 00:50:23,760

Marc Preston: I think we maybe had similarities in the

00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:24,972

Marc Preston: way we grew up And I think it kind of

00:50:25,012 --> 00:50:27,660

Marc Preston: breeds a people pleaser muscle.

00:50:27,890 --> 00:50:30,510

Marc Preston: It gets, start, starts building in you, And

00:50:30,570 --> 00:50:32,556

Marc Preston: I find that all the actors I know, the ones

00:50:32,596 --> 00:50:35,250

Marc Preston: I speak with, the ones I chat with here I

00:50:35,310 --> 00:50:36,914

Marc Preston: think that a lot of people go into

00:50:36,954 --> 00:50:39,039

Marc Preston: entertainment have that people pleaser

00:50:39,279 --> 00:50:41,832

Marc Preston: muscle pretty well developed And I don't

00:50:41,872 --> 00:50:43,658

Marc Preston: know what came first chicken or the egg, I

00:50:43,698 --> 00:50:45,213

Marc Preston: don't know But there are a lot of people in

00:50:45,233 --> 00:50:49,247

Marc Preston: this business that do put, sometimes

00:50:49,327 --> 00:50:50,813

Marc Preston: inordinately so, a lot of stock in what

00:50:51,013 --> 00:50:51,716

Marc Preston: other people think.

00:50:52,130 --> 00:50:53,676

Marc Preston: Do you notice that as well, or do you

00:50:53,716 --> 00:50:53,937

Marc Preston: concur?

00:50:54,791 --> 00:50:56,476

Fred Melamed: Yes, I do think that's endemic to our

00:50:56,516 --> 00:50:56,978

Fred Melamed: profession.

00:50:57,038 --> 00:50:57,780

Fred Melamed: I mean, think about it.

00:50:58,050 --> 00:50:59,494

Fred Melamed: You have to have people, strangers make you

00:50:59,535 --> 00:51:00,297

Fred Melamed: feel that you're okay.

00:51:01,119 --> 00:51:02,534

Fred Melamed: Right, they're all strangers in the

00:51:02,574 --> 00:51:02,815

Fred Melamed: audience.

00:51:03,510 --> 00:51:05,314

Fred Melamed: I mean, i don't think everybody has that,

00:51:05,355 --> 00:51:08,562

Fred Melamed: but I do think it's a common trait among

00:51:08,582 --> 00:51:10,015

Fred Melamed: people that are drawn to this profession.

00:51:10,570 --> 00:51:12,296

Fred Melamed: I also think that it's a noble profession.

00:51:13,350 --> 00:51:18,082

Fred Melamed: I think examining life in an artistic

00:51:18,503 --> 00:51:21,029

Fred Melamed: milieu is a worthwhile pursuit and it's not

00:51:21,090 --> 00:51:22,294

Fred Melamed: easy as well, you know.

00:51:23,050 --> 00:51:24,734

Fred Melamed: So I think both, in some ways it's very

00:51:24,814 --> 00:51:28,362

Fred Melamed: silly, and I think there's a lot of vanity

00:51:28,422 --> 00:51:31,916

Fred Melamed: and other foibles that come to my attention

00:51:31,997 --> 00:51:34,703

Fred Melamed: frequently, both my own and other people's.

00:51:35,050 --> 00:51:36,895

Fred Melamed: But I also think that it's beautiful that

00:51:36,935 --> 00:51:38,861

Fred Melamed: people do it, because it's not easy and

00:51:38,921 --> 00:51:39,021

Fred Melamed: it's.

00:51:39,511 --> 00:51:42,780

Fred Melamed: You know, when you see a great work of art

00:51:43,121 --> 00:51:46,730

Fred Melamed: of any kind, you go yeah, that's so true

00:51:48,113 --> 00:51:50,279

Fred Melamed: about something or other in life.

00:51:53,514 --> 00:51:56,302

Fred Melamed: To me there's a test, a three-prong test,

00:51:56,583 --> 00:51:59,070

Fred Melamed: to establish whether there's greatness in a

00:51:59,091 --> 00:51:59,572

Fred Melamed: work of art.

00:52:01,090 --> 00:52:02,937

Fred Melamed: Thing one is that it has to be true.

00:52:03,050 --> 00:52:04,314

Fred Melamed: You have to look at it and go, oh, that's

00:52:04,435 --> 00:52:04,936

Fred Melamed: really true.

00:52:06,010 --> 00:52:08,137

Fred Melamed: Thing two is it has to be surprising.

00:52:09,170 --> 00:52:10,113

Fred Melamed: Even though it's true, it has to be

00:52:10,153 --> 00:52:11,898

Fred Melamed: something that you haven't really thought

00:52:11,958 --> 00:52:14,095

Fred Melamed: of or seen in that way before.

00:52:15,010 --> 00:52:16,513

Fred Melamed: And thing three is that even though it

00:52:16,533 --> 00:52:19,079

Fred Melamed: surprises you, it has to have its own

00:52:19,179 --> 00:52:20,102

Fred Melamed: internal logic.

00:52:20,830 --> 00:52:22,897

Fred Melamed: It can't be quirky for the sake of being

00:52:22,938 --> 00:52:23,319

Fred Melamed: quirky.

00:52:23,410 --> 00:52:23,931

Fred Melamed: It has to have.

00:52:24,392 --> 00:52:26,938

Fred Melamed: There has to be something innately right

00:52:26,978 --> 00:52:28,542

Fred Melamed: about it, even though it has surprised you.

00:52:29,431 --> 00:52:32,517

Fred Melamed: So any great work to me has those kind of

00:52:32,577 --> 00:52:35,222

Fred Melamed: three simultaneous qualities.

00:52:35,402 --> 00:52:35,863

Fred Melamed: I love that.

00:52:36,913 --> 00:52:38,621

Marc Preston: That kind of leads to why something may

00:52:38,682 --> 00:52:39,908

Marc Preston: stick with you when you watch a great

00:52:39,928 --> 00:52:40,330

Marc Preston: performance.

00:52:40,430 --> 00:52:41,674

Marc Preston: And my daughter and I were watching.

00:52:42,055 --> 00:52:43,338

Marc Preston: Going back to Sam Rockwell, there was a

00:52:43,398 --> 00:52:46,387

Marc Preston: film he was in Steve Carell was in it as

00:52:46,407 --> 00:52:48,952

Marc Preston: well The Way, Way Back, And basically it's

00:52:49,053 --> 00:52:51,137

Marc Preston: really about a kid whose mother is dating

00:52:51,658 --> 00:52:52,340

Marc Preston: Steve Carell.

00:52:53,970 --> 00:52:55,456

Marc Preston: It's kind of a coming of age kind of a

00:52:55,536 --> 00:52:57,277

Marc Preston: thing And I looked at it as like and one

00:52:57,297 --> 00:52:59,289

Marc Preston: thing I loved is any kid that grows up and

00:52:59,309 --> 00:53:00,834

Marc Preston: things are a little tumultuous at that age.

00:53:00,854 --> 00:53:02,317

Marc Preston: You're kind of looking for a mentor or

00:53:02,378 --> 00:53:06,054

Marc Preston: someone that is quirky and off-center, as

00:53:06,094 --> 00:53:06,835

Marc Preston: they happen to be.

00:53:07,457 --> 00:53:11,712

Marc Preston: They kind of give you kind of a beacon or a

00:53:11,833 --> 00:53:13,694

Marc Preston: north star to follow, And he was this

00:53:14,098 --> 00:53:15,410

Marc Preston: really great character.

00:53:15,570 --> 00:53:17,156

Marc Preston: It kind of invigorated this kid, got the

00:53:17,196 --> 00:53:18,179

Marc Preston: kid come out of his shell.

00:53:18,290 --> 00:53:20,490

Marc Preston: I'm going that's the character he played.

00:53:20,490 --> 00:53:22,656

Marc Preston: I was like that's when I was that age who I

00:53:22,817 --> 00:53:24,281

Marc Preston: wish I would have met somebody with that.

00:53:24,410 --> 00:53:28,688

Marc Preston: So the truth in that, I think that's the

00:53:28,728 --> 00:53:29,070

Marc Preston: other side.

00:53:29,130 --> 00:53:31,492

Marc Preston: I think great performance It resonates with

00:53:31,512 --> 00:53:33,670

Marc Preston: different people in different ways, But

00:53:33,690 --> 00:53:35,177

Marc Preston: they all love it for a different thing.

00:53:35,290 --> 00:53:37,951

Marc Preston: Like you said, the Godfather, Some people

00:53:38,051 --> 00:53:40,538

Marc Preston: are just like the aesthetic of it or just

00:53:40,839 --> 00:53:42,331

Marc Preston: the way you feel watching it, And some

00:53:42,351 --> 00:53:43,895

Marc Preston: people are really into the dialogue, but

00:53:43,915 --> 00:53:45,439

Marc Preston: they all you know, you all appreciate it.

00:53:46,310 --> 00:53:47,874

Marc Preston: Talking about the quirkiness of the people

00:53:48,014 --> 00:53:50,660

Marc Preston: in our industry and going, excuse me, into

00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:51,202

Marc Preston: reboot.

00:53:51,910 --> 00:53:54,235

Marc Preston: I know the general premise of it, but could

00:53:54,295 --> 00:53:58,043

Marc Preston: you explain what is reboot exactly?

00:53:58,170 --> 00:53:59,654

Marc Preston: Because this has a great cast and I kind of

00:53:59,674 --> 00:54:02,691

Marc Preston: want to know what we're going to expect and

00:54:02,731 --> 00:54:03,334

Marc Preston: checking it out.

00:54:03,890 --> 00:54:08,700

Fred Melamed: The idea is that there was a show that was

00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:12,328

Fred Melamed: popular in the early aughts kind of a la

00:54:12,969 --> 00:54:14,734

Fred Melamed: friends kind of show that you know, a show

00:54:14,754 --> 00:54:20,177

Fred Melamed: with a large cast And it's successful for

00:54:20,217 --> 00:54:21,400

Fred Melamed: quite a long time and then it goes off the

00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,755

Fred Melamed: air And then Hulu tries to get all these

00:54:24,815 --> 00:54:28,103

Fred Melamed: people back together to relaunch the show

00:54:28,210 --> 00:54:29,775

Fred Melamed: And of course, many years have elapsed and

00:54:30,176 --> 00:54:31,640

Fred Melamed: some of them had affairs with each other,

00:54:31,770 --> 00:54:33,095

Fred Melamed: some of them can't stand each other.

00:54:34,330 --> 00:54:36,561

Fred Melamed: You know there's all these different forces

00:54:36,622 --> 00:54:38,250

Fred Melamed: at work with these people that have known

00:54:38,371 --> 00:54:39,475

Fred Melamed: each other for this length of time.

00:54:39,810 --> 00:54:41,336

Fred Melamed: So they try and remount the show.

00:54:41,630 --> 00:54:42,774

Fred Melamed: That's what that show is all about.

00:54:44,490 --> 00:54:46,654

Fred Melamed: It has a wonderful cast.

00:54:47,736 --> 00:54:50,321

Fred Melamed: Paul Reiser is in it, judy Greer, rachel

00:54:50,362 --> 00:54:53,814

Fred Melamed: Bloom, keegan-michael Key lots of really

00:54:53,854 --> 00:54:58,263

Fred Melamed: good people, rose Abdu many, many friends

00:54:58,303 --> 00:54:58,704

Fred Melamed: of mine.

00:54:59,090 --> 00:55:00,053

Marc Preston: And Paul Reiser, by the way.

00:55:00,113 --> 00:55:02,940

Marc Preston: what a great guy to see showing up more and

00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:03,100

Marc Preston: more.

00:55:04,712 --> 00:55:06,355

Marc Preston: God, he was on something I think it was

00:55:06,375 --> 00:55:06,977

Marc Preston: called Red.

00:55:07,297 --> 00:55:09,842

Marc Preston: it was an, i think an Amazon show Red Oaks

00:55:09,903 --> 00:55:10,484

Marc Preston: or something.

00:55:10,570 --> 00:55:12,336

Marc Preston: Oh God, i should have looked this up, but

00:55:12,777 --> 00:55:13,519

Marc Preston: Oh, i know what you mean.

00:55:13,740 --> 00:55:15,907

Fred Melamed: Oh, gosh, jennifer Gray was on it.

00:55:16,532 --> 00:55:17,557

Marc Preston: I can't remember the name of it, but I know.

00:55:17,791 --> 00:55:18,936

Fred Melamed: Yes, i know the show you're talking about.

00:55:19,271 --> 00:55:20,435

Fred Melamed: I can't remember the name of it, but yes,

00:55:20,957 --> 00:55:21,779

Fred Melamed: he does a lot of stuff.

00:55:21,819 --> 00:55:23,274

Fred Melamed: Now I've known him for a while.

00:55:23,314 --> 00:55:24,037

Fred Melamed: He's a great guy.

00:55:24,057 --> 00:55:24,779

Fred Melamed: I really enjoy him.

00:55:25,330 --> 00:55:26,233

Fred Melamed: He plays on the show.

00:55:27,470 --> 00:55:30,276

Fred Melamed: One of the conceits of the show is that

00:55:30,657 --> 00:55:32,862

Fred Melamed: they hire two generations of writers.

00:55:33,830 --> 00:55:36,861

Fred Melamed: There's an older generation, and I'm one of

00:55:36,901 --> 00:55:38,407

Fred Melamed: those older generation of writers And then

00:55:38,447 --> 00:55:39,290

Fred Melamed: there's a younger generation.

00:55:39,330 --> 00:55:41,616

Fred Melamed: They hire three very young writers, kind of

00:55:41,676 --> 00:55:44,312

Fred Melamed: just out of school writers, and we don't.

00:55:44,754 --> 00:55:47,164

Fred Melamed: We come from entirely different realities

00:55:47,626 --> 00:55:48,991

Fred Melamed: and kind of don't understand each other at

00:55:49,031 --> 00:55:49,151

Fred Melamed: all.

00:55:49,171 --> 00:55:50,534

Fred Melamed: But the network wants to keep the show

00:55:51,898 --> 00:55:54,632

Fred Melamed: current, even though it features a somewhat

00:55:54,693 --> 00:55:55,315

Fred Melamed: older cast.

00:55:56,130 --> 00:56:01,269

Fred Melamed: So Paul Reiser plays the sort of head of

00:56:01,289 --> 00:56:05,063

Fred Melamed: the older writers And so I get to do a lot

00:56:05,083 --> 00:56:05,244

Fred Melamed: with him.

00:56:05,506 --> 00:56:07,914

Fred Melamed: So you know, for me that was I've known him

00:56:07,934 --> 00:56:09,610

Fred Melamed: for a while Very enjoyable for me to work

00:56:09,630 --> 00:56:09,891

Fred Melamed: with him.

00:56:10,305 --> 00:56:11,950

Marc Preston: I mean the cast, i mean it looks like so

00:56:11,991 --> 00:56:13,114

Marc Preston: much fun to watch.

00:56:13,627 --> 00:56:15,983

Marc Preston: And I know again WandaVision for my son.

00:56:16,023 --> 00:56:18,431

Marc Preston: We had such One thing I loved about that

00:56:18,511 --> 00:56:18,812

Marc Preston: show.

00:56:19,795 --> 00:56:22,492

Marc Preston: It was I don't have any real background

00:56:22,532 --> 00:56:23,215

Marc Preston: with the Marvel thing.

00:56:23,345 --> 00:56:24,991

Marc Preston: I had zero idea where that show was going,

00:56:25,151 --> 00:56:25,894

Marc Preston: none whatsoever.

00:56:26,325 --> 00:56:28,871

Marc Preston: So having It was kind of nice to see,

00:56:29,593 --> 00:56:33,553

Marc Preston: almost in a Kind of like you know, i love

00:56:33,594 --> 00:56:36,148

Marc Preston: Lucy-ish kind of that era of TV And have

00:56:36,188 --> 00:56:37,132

Marc Preston: you show up black and white.

00:56:37,526 --> 00:56:38,850

Marc Preston: It's like this is I just want to keep

00:56:38,890 --> 00:56:39,171

Marc Preston: watching.

00:56:39,191 --> 00:56:40,235

Marc Preston: This is so cool, you know.

00:56:41,168 --> 00:56:42,974

Marc Preston: And then the show evolved into what it was.

00:56:43,325 --> 00:56:45,412

Marc Preston: But it's, i know that whole Marvel Universe

00:56:45,472 --> 00:56:46,134

Marc Preston: thing is a.

00:56:47,012 --> 00:56:48,305

Marc Preston: You know, you've now got your stripes.

00:56:48,949 --> 00:56:50,560

Marc Preston: You're officially in the Marvel Universe.

00:56:50,641 --> 00:56:54,554

Fred Melamed: Yes, And I have to say I admire Kevin Feige.

00:56:55,968 --> 00:56:57,032

Fred Melamed: You know that was a risky.

00:56:58,168 --> 00:57:02,144

Fred Melamed: You know Marvel has its own very loyal fan

00:57:02,164 --> 00:57:05,273

Fred Melamed: base And to do something kind of that kind

00:57:05,314 --> 00:57:10,554

Fred Melamed: of way out, so risky for that fan base, i

00:57:10,594 --> 00:57:12,181

Fred Melamed: admire him doing that And I think My

00:57:12,241 --> 00:57:13,305

Fred Melamed: impression was that he succeeded at it.

00:57:13,687 --> 00:57:16,144

Fred Melamed: You know, i think he did a really good job

00:57:16,164 --> 00:57:18,392

Fred Melamed: with it And you know I'm proud of that show

00:57:18,412 --> 00:57:19,114

Fred Melamed: and I like that show.

00:57:19,526 --> 00:57:21,011

Marc Preston: Again, i really appreciate you spending

00:57:21,071 --> 00:57:22,034

Marc Preston: time with me here.

00:57:22,425 --> 00:57:24,271

Marc Preston: I always wrap up all interviews.

00:57:24,411 --> 00:57:25,815

Marc Preston: I call my seven questions Just a quick

00:57:25,855 --> 00:57:26,136

Marc Preston: seven.

00:57:26,566 --> 00:57:28,052

Marc Preston: Kind of It's a little fun to get to know

00:57:28,072 --> 00:57:29,931

Marc Preston: you, kind of in addition to what we've been

00:57:29,972 --> 00:57:30,213

Marc Preston: doing.

00:57:30,305 --> 00:57:32,253

Marc Preston: But I always ask the first question in.

00:57:32,666 --> 00:57:34,526

Marc Preston: I'm a food guy so I always ask it is what

00:57:34,646 --> 00:57:37,193

Marc Preston: is your favorite comfort food?

00:57:37,454 --> 00:57:39,510

Marc Preston: That thing that just You maybe had a bad

00:57:39,530 --> 00:57:40,293

Marc Preston: day or an amazing day.

00:57:40,345 --> 00:57:41,630

Marc Preston: You've got to sit down and have some of it.

00:57:42,325 --> 00:57:42,907

Fred Melamed: I'll tell you the truth.

00:57:42,968 --> 00:57:44,012

Fred Melamed: You know I have a.

00:57:44,807 --> 00:57:46,616

Fred Melamed: I've been eating too much and had a problem

00:57:46,737 --> 00:57:48,245

Fred Melamed: controlling my weight for many, many years,

00:57:48,746 --> 00:57:51,014

Fred Melamed: and for the last two and a half years or so,

00:57:51,810 --> 00:57:53,042

Fred Melamed: i've been doing not keto but something

00:57:53,063 --> 00:57:53,305

Fred Melamed: close to it.

00:57:53,948 --> 00:57:57,285

Fred Melamed: So I don't eat bread, potatoes, pasta.

00:57:58,174 --> 00:58:01,094

Fred Melamed: I haven't eaten sugar in 17 years, so a lot

00:58:01,114 --> 00:58:02,581

Fred Melamed: of the things that I would say are my real

00:58:02,662 --> 00:58:05,092

Fred Melamed: comfort favorite foods I have no longer eat.

00:58:06,370 --> 00:58:12,361

Fred Melamed: But yeah, but in a perfect world, in a

00:58:12,381 --> 00:58:14,368

Fred Melamed: world where I didn't have to worry Meaning

00:58:14,408 --> 00:58:16,374

Fred Melamed: I didn't have to worry about how fat I was.

00:58:18,598 --> 00:58:19,143

Fred Melamed: I like crap.

00:58:20,629 --> 00:58:21,051

Announcer: I like to eat.

00:58:21,091 --> 00:58:22,455

Fred Melamed: Doritos with dip.

00:58:24,649 --> 00:58:26,153

Fred Melamed: No, i like you know some people like real

00:58:26,213 --> 00:58:27,036

Fred Melamed: food, i like junk.

00:58:27,648 --> 00:58:29,063

Fred Melamed: I like to eat Doritos with dip.

00:58:30,315 --> 00:58:31,224

Fred Melamed: I love brownies.

00:58:32,194 --> 00:58:33,143

Fred Melamed: I love Rocky Road ice cream.

00:58:35,054 --> 00:58:36,983

Fred Melamed: I'd say my most delightful thing that I

00:58:37,024 --> 00:58:38,855

Fred Melamed: could eat, that I can imagine eating, is

00:58:39,681 --> 00:58:42,733

Fred Melamed: Rocky Road ice cream with bananas and hot

00:58:42,793 --> 00:58:43,295

Fred Melamed: fudge in it.

00:58:44,251 --> 00:58:46,285

Marc Preston: Oh my God that does sound good.

00:58:46,871 --> 00:58:48,063

Marc Preston: Now I'm curious what's your favorite deli

00:58:48,083 --> 00:58:48,305

Marc Preston: item, though?

00:58:48,988 --> 00:58:50,426

Marc Preston: Because I got to ask because you know Well,

00:58:50,849 --> 00:58:51,996

Marc Preston: do you mean strictly deli?

00:58:52,278 --> 00:58:53,305

Marc Preston: Oh like, if you're going to go into deli,

00:58:53,345 --> 00:58:54,550

Marc Preston: let's say you're only going to Katz's in

00:58:54,610 --> 00:58:57,707

Marc Preston: New York, at Cantor's on Fairfax, what are

00:58:57,727 --> 00:58:58,751

Marc Preston: you ordering there?

00:58:59,305 --> 00:59:00,548

Marc Preston: Let's say that somebody's given you a pass,

00:59:00,888 --> 00:59:01,931

Marc Preston: a massive cheat day.

00:59:01,991 --> 00:59:02,412

Fred Melamed: What would you get?

00:59:02,432 --> 00:59:03,815

Fred Melamed: Well, because, okay, that's important,

00:59:05,526 --> 00:59:06,891

Fred Melamed: because I can't eat rye bread anymore.

00:59:07,305 --> 00:59:08,812

Marc Preston: So without rye bread, delis, are you know?

00:59:09,546 --> 00:59:11,112

Marc Preston: Yeah, I feel for you on that.

00:59:11,325 --> 00:59:14,175

Fred Melamed: So let's say that I don't know.

00:59:15,409 --> 00:59:17,094

Fred Melamed: There's an asteroid heading for planet

00:59:17,134 --> 00:59:17,275

Fred Melamed: Earth.

00:59:19,331 --> 00:59:20,855

Marc Preston: You would dark on that but okay, if I get

00:59:20,875 --> 00:59:22,509

Marc Preston: your deli, then we're going to do that,

00:59:22,529 --> 00:59:22,690

Marc Preston: yeah.

00:59:24,807 --> 00:59:26,974

Fred Melamed: So in that case, not only are we all going

00:59:26,994 --> 00:59:27,988

Fred Melamed: to die, but I could probably get what I

00:59:28,048 --> 00:59:29,032

Fred Melamed: wanted in the deli for free.

00:59:29,454 --> 00:59:37,809

Fred Melamed: Okay, so I would order a sandwich that is

00:59:38,331 --> 00:59:43,706

Fred Melamed: part pastrami, part corned beef, with

00:59:45,209 --> 00:59:50,470

Fred Melamed: coleslaw on it, grilled Grilled, failing

00:59:50,510 --> 00:59:53,446

Fred Melamed: that, something that's not so deli, but I

00:59:53,526 --> 00:59:55,174

Fred Melamed: love grilled cheese with bacon.

00:59:55,275 --> 00:59:56,601

Fred Melamed: Also not whole foods food, but I really

00:59:56,622 --> 00:59:57,285

Fred Melamed: like grilled cheese with bacon.

00:59:57,526 --> 00:59:58,731

Marc Preston: Yeah, i'd say I've.

00:59:59,827 --> 01:00:02,589

Marc Preston: I'm just like I need My daughters my

01:00:02,629 --> 01:00:03,793

Marc Preston: youngest is just like me We're not.

01:00:04,325 --> 01:00:06,466

Marc Preston: Pasta shows up on our menu occasionally but

01:00:06,506 --> 01:00:08,520

Marc Preston: it's like, yeah, pastas, breads, trying to

01:00:08,540 --> 01:00:09,305

Marc Preston: get away from all that.

01:00:09,507 --> 01:00:11,907

Marc Preston: But when I am at Cantor's I'm always.

01:00:11,927 --> 01:00:13,826

Marc Preston: They got that mishmash, matzbal soup,

01:00:13,866 --> 01:00:15,250

Marc Preston: krapeluch and all that kind of stuff.

01:00:15,490 --> 01:00:16,673

Marc Preston: Oh, yes, and I always get the.

01:00:17,195 --> 01:00:21,591

Marc Preston: Nobody ever gets The harder salami sandwich,

01:00:21,631 --> 01:00:22,973

Marc Preston: the lobster On rye.

01:00:23,194 --> 01:00:23,534

Fred Melamed: I'm sorry.

01:00:23,815 --> 01:00:25,538

Fred Melamed: Oh yes, that's good, That's very good.

01:00:26,305 --> 01:00:27,127

Fred Melamed: I think I see nobody ever orders the

01:00:27,167 --> 01:00:28,170

Fred Melamed: lobster at Cantor's.

01:00:28,230 --> 01:00:28,932

Marc Preston: They have lobster.

01:00:28,952 --> 01:00:30,054

Marc Preston: Yes, that's.

01:00:31,767 --> 01:00:33,091

Fred Melamed: Dead at the end of the menu.

01:00:33,352 --> 01:00:34,034

Fred Melamed: Nobody orders it.

01:00:34,386 --> 01:00:36,103

Marc Preston: Same lobsters in there for 20 years from

01:00:36,123 --> 01:00:36,285

Marc Preston: the tank.

01:00:36,385 --> 01:00:39,830

Marc Preston: It's got great hair now, yeah, But yeah,

01:00:39,991 --> 01:00:40,693

Marc Preston: that's now.

01:00:40,713 --> 01:00:42,770

Marc Preston: I'm hungry Now, if you're going to sit down,

01:00:42,790 --> 01:00:43,894

Marc Preston: next question Oh, let me.

01:00:44,586 --> 01:00:46,213

Fred Melamed: No, i'm sorry to make my answers so long.

01:00:46,486 --> 01:00:48,292

Fred Melamed: So, given my current thing, the way they

01:00:48,352 --> 01:00:49,154

Fred Melamed: actually do eat.

01:00:49,305 --> 01:00:51,250

Fred Melamed: My favorite food to eat is Greek salad.

01:00:51,491 --> 01:00:52,795

Marc Preston: I love Greek salad Yeah, i like that too.

01:00:52,835 --> 01:00:53,457

Marc Preston: We do a.

01:00:53,657 --> 01:00:54,239

Marc Preston: Well, you can't do it.

01:00:54,279 --> 01:00:56,305

Marc Preston: We do something with like a orzo pasta.

01:00:56,445 --> 01:00:58,646

Marc Preston: We make a Greek salad like that, but yeah,

01:00:58,666 --> 01:01:00,012

Marc Preston: again, it's pasta, so you can't do that.

01:01:01,230 --> 01:01:02,596

Marc Preston: Now, if you are going to, let's say, go to

01:01:02,737 --> 01:01:03,742

Marc Preston: your favorite coffee place, you're going to

01:01:03,762 --> 01:01:05,513

Marc Preston: sit down with three people, living or not,

01:01:05,533 --> 01:01:07,184

Marc Preston: and you're going to talk story for a few

01:01:07,204 --> 01:01:07,305

Marc Preston: hours.

01:01:08,174 --> 01:01:09,285

Marc Preston: Who would you like to sit down with?

01:01:09,948 --> 01:01:10,531

Marc Preston: Three people?

01:01:11,114 --> 01:01:12,159

Marc Preston: just for great conversation.

01:01:12,179 --> 01:01:13,204

Marc Preston: Now, when you say talk story.

01:01:13,972 --> 01:01:16,110

Fred Melamed: Are we living in our conversation to

01:01:16,171 --> 01:01:17,560

Fred Melamed: strictly things about story?

01:01:17,681 --> 01:01:18,265

Marc Preston: Oh, no, no, no, no.

01:01:18,666 --> 01:01:19,728

Marc Preston: I mean kind of like you're just talking

01:01:19,749 --> 01:01:20,250

Marc Preston: about life.

01:01:20,310 --> 01:01:21,272

Marc Preston: You're talking about what?

01:01:21,333 --> 01:01:22,696

Marc Preston: Anybody I could meet Yeah anybody you could

01:01:22,716 --> 01:01:23,197

Marc Preston: sit down with.

01:01:23,305 --> 01:01:25,399

Marc Preston: You feel like it would be just a great

01:01:25,862 --> 01:01:26,224

Marc Preston: conversation.

01:01:26,305 --> 01:01:28,143

Marc Preston: Three people maybe there's the chemistry of

01:01:28,164 --> 01:01:30,470

Marc Preston: those everybody being together you think

01:01:30,651 --> 01:01:32,415

Marc Preston: would be educational and fun.

01:01:32,576 --> 01:01:35,214

Fred Melamed: Well can they be If they can be disparate.

01:01:35,275 --> 01:01:36,461

Fred Melamed: entirely different people.

01:01:36,903 --> 01:01:37,305

Marc Preston: Oh yeah.

01:01:37,770 --> 01:01:40,875

Fred Melamed: I would say from the modern world, my three

01:01:40,956 --> 01:01:42,063

Fred Melamed: favorite people that are the most

01:01:42,084 --> 01:01:44,171

Fred Melamed: interesting and have affected my life the

01:01:44,231 --> 01:01:44,532

Fred Melamed: most.

01:01:45,990 --> 01:01:48,265

Fred Melamed: One is an author called Patrick O'Brien.

01:01:49,292 --> 01:01:50,721

Fred Melamed: Wrote a series of books about the

01:01:50,741 --> 01:01:53,204

Fred Melamed: Napoleonic Wars, my favorite author of all

01:01:53,224 --> 01:01:55,204

Fred Melamed: time, my favorite artist of any kind of all

01:01:55,224 --> 01:01:55,305

Fred Melamed: time.

01:01:55,727 --> 01:01:56,811

Fred Melamed: Patrick O'Brien was one.

01:01:57,687 --> 01:01:59,727

Fred Melamed: The other would be Donald Fagan, who I've

01:01:59,787 --> 01:02:01,807

Fred Melamed: actually met, of Steely Dan, my favorite

01:02:02,429 --> 01:02:05,891

Fred Melamed: producer and composer and producer of music.

01:02:06,706 --> 01:02:09,134

Fred Melamed: And the third would probably be Steve Jobs,

01:02:10,029 --> 01:02:11,737

Fred Melamed: who fascinates me as an individual and

01:02:11,757 --> 01:02:12,642

Fred Melamed: because of his accomplishments.

01:02:12,702 --> 01:02:13,305

Fred Melamed: Now, none of these people.

01:02:14,130 --> 01:02:17,009

Fred Melamed: These are all sticky individuals that are

01:02:17,109 --> 01:02:20,024

Fred Melamed: not warm and fuzzy or fun to be with for a

01:02:20,044 --> 01:02:21,932

Fred Melamed: lot of people, but they're all fascinating

01:02:21,972 --> 01:02:22,172

Fred Melamed: to me.

01:02:22,807 --> 01:02:24,332

Fred Melamed: If we're allowed to go back further,

01:02:28,415 --> 01:02:31,165

Fred Melamed: einstein fascinates me, although I don't

01:02:31,185 --> 01:02:31,265

Fred Melamed: know.

01:02:32,168 --> 01:02:33,412

Fred Melamed: I wouldn't be able to understand him.

01:02:35,930 --> 01:02:46,169

Fred Melamed: Let's see Aristotle, einstein and I don't

01:02:46,209 --> 01:02:47,255

Fred Melamed: know who the third one would be.

01:02:47,275 --> 01:02:48,400

Fred Melamed: I have to think about it more.

01:02:48,561 --> 01:02:48,903

Marc Preston: I like that.

01:02:48,963 --> 01:02:51,070

Marc Preston: Aristotle, a Warner Earhart from Est.

01:02:51,190 --> 01:02:51,752

Marc Preston: There we go.

01:02:52,394 --> 01:02:52,655

Marc Preston: Who again?

01:02:52,675 --> 01:02:52,995

Marc Preston: I'm sorry.

01:02:54,389 --> 01:02:56,275

Fred Melamed: Warner Earhart, the guy who invented Est.

01:02:56,476 --> 01:02:57,840

Marc Preston: Okay, yeah, you know it's funny.

01:02:57,860 --> 01:02:59,285

Marc Preston: When you said Aristotle, i started thinking

01:02:59,466 --> 01:03:00,992

Marc Preston: I was talking with my daughter.

01:03:01,305 --> 01:03:04,428

Marc Preston: We were in line getting a coffee and I said

01:03:05,732 --> 01:03:07,887

Marc Preston: something about a nickname that somebody

01:03:07,947 --> 01:03:09,732

Marc Preston: used to call me, marcus Aurelius kind of

01:03:09,772 --> 01:03:11,296

Marc Preston: joking, because she thought it'd be funny

01:03:12,088 --> 01:03:13,706

Marc Preston: if I was at the drive-through at the coffee

01:03:13,746 --> 01:03:13,926

Marc Preston: place.

01:03:13,946 --> 01:03:16,490

Marc Preston: That said Marco, and then she said maybe

01:03:16,510 --> 01:03:17,251

Marc Preston: they'll say Polo.

01:03:17,411 --> 01:03:18,673

Marc Preston: And I was like what's your name, should we

01:03:18,693 --> 01:03:19,314

Marc Preston: put on the coffee?

01:03:19,354 --> 01:03:20,716

Marc Preston: And I'm like I said let me tell you the

01:03:20,756 --> 01:03:22,238

Marc Preston: nicknames, we're just talking about it.

01:03:22,258 --> 01:03:23,740

Marc Preston: And she said who's Marcus Aurelius?

01:03:24,505 --> 01:03:26,247

Marc Preston: I said you've taken philosophy at the

01:03:26,287 --> 01:03:27,909

Marc Preston: college level and you don't know who that

01:03:27,930 --> 01:03:27,970

Marc Preston: is.

01:03:28,030 --> 01:03:28,851

Marc Preston: And she said you know, i'm not a coffee

01:03:28,871 --> 01:03:29,692

Marc Preston: maker, you can't be, so I'm just giving her

01:03:29,712 --> 01:03:29,992

Marc Preston: a hard time.

01:03:30,052 --> 01:03:32,235

Marc Preston: So it's like my college kids are going to

01:03:32,255 --> 01:03:33,817

Marc Preston: be smarter, that like more educated than me

01:03:33,837 --> 01:03:34,458

Marc Preston: very shortly.

01:03:34,498 --> 01:03:36,080

Marc Preston: So it's like I'm like, oh, i know something

01:03:36,100 --> 01:03:38,262

Marc Preston: they don't Just to backtrack for a second.

01:03:38,322 --> 01:03:39,864

Fred Melamed: So when I go to the coffee place they ask

01:03:39,884 --> 01:03:40,305

Fred Melamed: for your name.

01:03:40,425 --> 01:03:44,556

Fred Melamed: You know you go to the famous coffee place

01:03:44,596 --> 01:03:45,137

Fred Melamed: which I won't mention.

01:03:45,746 --> 01:03:47,190

Fred Melamed: So I always say my name is Hansen and they

01:03:47,230 --> 01:03:48,354

Fred Melamed: go, hansen, and everybody turns around.

01:03:50,537 --> 01:03:53,092

Marc Preston: I'm going to do that Because my youngest

01:03:53,830 --> 01:03:56,537

Marc Preston: she it's like this battle, like I don't try

01:03:56,578 --> 01:03:58,871

Marc Preston: to humiliate her ever, but I try to be like

01:03:59,092 --> 01:04:00,409

Marc Preston: you know, do something goofy where she just

01:04:00,469 --> 01:04:01,011

Marc Preston: rolls her eyes.

01:04:01,051 --> 01:04:03,067

Marc Preston: If she rolls her eyes, it's like a mission

01:04:03,087 --> 01:04:03,990

Marc Preston: accomplished for me.

01:04:04,351 --> 01:04:04,832

Announcer: You win.

01:04:05,153 --> 01:04:05,835

Fred Melamed: Exactly.

01:04:06,325 --> 01:04:07,952

Marc Preston: Now, if now let's go back when you were

01:04:08,012 --> 01:04:10,285

Marc Preston: younger, who was your first celebrity crush?

01:04:10,667 --> 01:04:11,230

Marc Preston: You know someone.

01:04:11,250 --> 01:04:12,838

Marc Preston: You just were like Haley.

01:04:12,858 --> 01:04:16,083

Fred Melamed: Mills No Love Haley Mills.

01:04:17,332 --> 01:04:18,882

Marc Preston: She's on a top three next to Olivia

01:04:18,902 --> 01:04:21,727

Marc Preston: Newton-John, who just my heart breaks, and

01:04:22,128 --> 01:04:22,911

Marc Preston: I tell my daughters.

01:04:22,972 --> 01:04:24,962

Marc Preston: I said Haley and Olivia were on the list

01:04:24,982 --> 01:04:25,305

Marc Preston: for girls' names.

01:04:25,807 --> 01:04:28,901

Marc Preston: I went with Lily and Emma, but Haley Mills

01:04:28,921 --> 01:04:29,285

Marc Preston: oh my God.

01:04:29,887 --> 01:04:32,494

Fred Melamed: Haley Mills and Haley Mills and Maureen

01:04:33,345 --> 01:04:35,976

Fred Melamed: Maureen O'Sullivan from the early Tarzan

01:04:35,996 --> 01:04:36,257

Fred Melamed: movies.

01:04:36,277 --> 01:04:37,622

Fred Melamed: I used to watch Tarzan.

01:04:37,883 --> 01:04:39,558

Marc Preston: She played Jane No but what was your

01:04:39,578 --> 01:04:39,739

Marc Preston: favorite?

01:04:39,760 --> 01:04:40,265

Fred Melamed: Haley Mills movie though.

01:04:41,214 --> 01:04:43,332

Marc Preston: I think that's kind of like what phase was

01:04:43,352 --> 01:04:45,184

Marc Preston: she like a parent trap, or was it a parent

01:04:45,204 --> 01:04:45,285

Marc Preston: trap?

01:04:46,614 --> 01:04:47,057

Marc Preston: I got you.

01:04:47,661 --> 01:04:49,453

Marc Preston: I've never heard somebody say yay, you're

01:04:49,473 --> 01:04:51,043

Marc Preston: my mishpocha, i like that.

01:04:51,446 --> 01:04:53,580

Marc Preston: So now, if you're going to be going on an

01:04:53,641 --> 01:04:56,171

Marc Preston: exotic island for a year, it's somewhere

01:04:56,191 --> 01:04:57,054

Marc Preston: you're going to enjoy being.

01:04:57,305 --> 01:04:58,589

Marc Preston: But you're there for a year no streaming,

01:04:58,649 --> 01:05:00,906

Marc Preston: no ability to watch anything but you can

01:05:00,926 --> 01:05:07,174

Marc Preston: bring a DVD of a movie, cd of an album, and

01:05:07,194 --> 01:05:09,050

Marc Preston: some people I speak with they don't really

01:05:09,110 --> 01:05:10,862

Marc Preston: watch movies that much, ironically, but

01:05:10,882 --> 01:05:11,305

Marc Preston: they read a lot.

01:05:11,666 --> 01:05:14,426

Marc Preston: So if you'd prefer a book, go for it, but

01:05:14,446 --> 01:05:16,204