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IS JOHNNY BRAVO FILIPINO?

Seriously.  ”Is Johnny Bravo Filipino?”  For those of you who think that’s an odd question, given he’s a blonde, buffed, Elvis talking, American male, I would have to agree.  From all accounts, he doesn’t scream Filipino.

Irish?  Maybe.

German?  Perhaps.

Russian?  That would explain his love of Pancake Week.

Filipino?  You gotta be kidding me!

Yet, I’ve been asked that question more than you would think.

The short answer to the question is, music please, (Pum puh puh pummmmmm!): “sort of.”

Since I was born in the Philippines, have Filipino parents, and know a few Tagalog words (Maraming salamat sa inyo.), that would classify me as “totally ” Filipino.  And since I created Johnny Bravo, and I can’t help but be influenced by my ethnicity and culture, that would make Johnny “sort of” Filipino.

If this were the DC universe, Johnny would be my illegitimate son from Earth 26.

I rarely get the opportunity to do international publicity (let alone Asian ones) so whenever I get the chance, it’s really exciting.  Below is one I did for a story on Cartoon Network Studios back in 2002.  That’s me on the bottom right.  (If anyone can translate what it says, that would be awesome!)

Recently, CN Asia set up a press junket with various publications in the Asian region to promote “Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood.”  And this may be hard to believe but, after 15 years in the industry, it was the first time I ever did an interview with a Filipino journalist!  I know, right?!  Unless I count the unaired, sit down, on-camera interview I did with Cheche Lazaro for her Probe show in the Philippines (it never aired as the show ended before they put the spot together).  Of course, all the people I talked to were very nice, but it was interesting to me that they were surprised by my ethnicity.

So for those of you who are still reading (who didn’t have to go back to watching “Dancing With Stars” on their DVR), before the PR folks throw you to the media, they usually do a briefing. Below are a few of the “possible questions” I received before my interviews.  Note the Filipino nature of many of them.

1. Tell us about your lineage. Are you full Filipino?
2. How long have you stayed in the US?
3. How old are you and how long have you been with Cartoon Network?
4. What got you into animation?
5. Describe the animation process from storyboard to production.
6. For those who are unfamiliar with the show, who is Johnny Bravo?
7. What inspired you to create a character like Johnny Bravo?
8. How long did it take to create and produce Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood?
9. Why did you choose this premise for the movie?
10. What, in your opinion, is the state of the local animation industry in the Philippines?
11. What are the strengths of Filipino animators?
12. What does the future look like for Filipino animation?
13. What would you want Filipino animators to know about the animation industry?
14. Do you have upcoming projects with Cartoon Network?
15. What’s next for Johnny Bravo? Will we be seeing a sequel to Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood?

The one comment I kept getting from the reporters was that they were disappointed that I have never been back to the Philippines and know very little Tagalog (Welcome to my world.).  But like the song from “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” says, “There’s always tomorrow.”  So, in case you haven’t gotten enough of me talking about me, here are a few links to some of the interviews I did in the Philippines:

http://entertainment.inquirer.net/23473/meet-the-creator-of-‘johnny-bravo’

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=750601&publicationSubCategoryId=70

http://www.asianjournal.com/galing-pinoy/59-galing-pinoy/14296-van-partible-executive-producer-at-cartoon-network-and-creator-of-johnny-bravo.html

And if you hate clicking links, posted below is an interview I did with Balikbayan, an Asian Journal Magazine in the Philippines, which also highlighted my roots.

So the next time somebody asks you if Johnny Bravo is Filipino (which I know they will!) you can send them over to this link.

Thanks for stopping by!

FUN FACT:  CN Asia had a Bollywood poster artist paint a few 8 foot tall posters for “Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood” the way they do with regular Bollywood movies.  Below is a copy of one of them. Enjoy!

DOODLE DOO DOO…

What’s with all the doodles?

Well, I’m glad you asked proverbial voice-used-to-make-it-seem-like-someone-else-is-talking-besides-myself!

It’s not often that, we as artists, get a chance to work together and do something good for the community.  Above, I’ve attached detail photos (they’re from my iPhone, so pardon the low res) of a jam board that was created specifically for an auction to benefit the organization, New Directions For Youth.  On it, are sketches of Cartoon Network creations, both old and new, drawn by artists at the Cartoon Network Studios (many of them drawn by their actual creators!).  The following is the list of contributing artists:

Steven Choi – Character Designer – Ben 10

Chap Yeap – Character Designer – Ben 10

John Fang – Supervising Producer – Generator Rex

Mike Roth – Supervising Producer – Regular Show

JG Quintel – Creator – Regular Show

Van Partible – Creator – Johnny Bravo

Dave Smith – Storyboard Artist – Dexter’s Laboratory

Dave Wasson – Creator – Time Squad

Tom Warburton – Creator -  Codename: Kids Next Door

C.H. Greenblatt – Creator – Chowder

Serapio Calm – Character Designer – Chowder

Maxwell Atoms – Creator – The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy

Ian Wasseluk – Storyboard Artist – Billy & Mandy

Pendleton Ward – Creator – Adventure Time

Michelle Xin – Character Designer – Adventure Time

Rebecca Sugar – Storyboard Artist – Adventure Time

Patrick Seery – Production Assistant – Adventure Time

Kent Osborne – Story Supervisor – Adventure Time

Tom Herpich – Storyboard Artist – Adventure Time

Natasha Allegri – Character Designer – Adventure Time

Ian Jones-Quartey – Storyboard Supervisor – Adventure Time

Cole Sanchez – Storyboard Artist – Adventure Time

Alex Campos – Clean-Up Artist – Adventure Time

Oliver Akuin – Animatic Editor – Adventure Time

Santino Lascano – Background Designer – Adventure Time

Andy Ristaino – Character Designer – Adventure Time

Now that you know who these artists are, see if you can match the name with the drawing in the photos above!

And while you do that, a big thank you to all those who participated!

To learn more about the New Directions For Youth, you can visit their website at http://www.ndfy.org/

FUN FACT: For those of you at home, playing Six Degrees of Mary Poppins, the event where the auction took place was at the Skirball Cultural Center and the evening’s entertainment was none other than Dick Van Dyke and the Vantastix!  But if that fact isn’t “fact-y” enough for you, three, count ‘em, three of Cartoon Network’s show creators work on the Disney Channel’s “Fish Hooks” right now: Tom Warburton, Maxwell Atoms, & C.H. Greenblatt!

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JB GOES TO BOLLYWOOD… DONE DONE AND DONE!

So it’s finally finished!  After almost two years of work, we’ve finally outputted the final mix for our 72 minute opus, “Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood!”  It was produced primarily out of Asia and will soon be arriving at a Cartoon Network near you!  The only problem is, I have no idea when that day is!  What I do know, is that it’s going to premiere in Australia later this year.  Other regions will soon follow after that.  In the meantime, I’ve posted a few images from the production.  Above is the layout for the opening main title.

Below is a mood board produced by the artists at Inspidea for the Bollywood Song, “Learn About Bollywood.”  For those of you who don’t know what a mood board is, it’s a technique used in animation (and other design arts) to help set the tone and style of the production.  I wanted to share this piece because it gives you a nice idea of how much effort we put into the production to make it really feel as alive and as vibrant as the most colorful Bollywood productions…

And finally, a faux magazine cover which appears onscreen for a few seconds in the middle of the film.  There’s barely enough time to enjoy the full magazine cover in the film, so I thought I’d give props to the artists who put so much time and effort into developing this fun piece of art…

As I get more information, I’ll be sure to let y’all know.

So until next time…

JESSE TYLER FERGUSON

As the new fall TV season approaches, I thought that I’d post a video promo which stars (IMHO) one of TV’s funniest actors, Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson.  It was made back in the late 90′s for Cartoon Network’s “You with us?” campaign. The fine folks in Atlanta did a genius job in writing and directing a series of live action commercials to promote, not only Johnny Bravo, but the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Ed Edd, and Eddy. I’ve always had a copy of these on videotape and hoped that someone would someday post these online for everyone to enjoy. Enter Crimsonflamewolf on Youtube and BAM! So enjoy JTF as new recruit, Steve Mank, in the cult of Johnny Bravo.

Thank you Crimsonflamewolf for posting these!

PRESS CONFERENCES AND MONKEYS

No.  I didn’t have a press conference with, or about, monkeys.  The title was my eyecatcher for those of you who love both press conferences and monkeys.  But before you skip this post because you don’t see any monkeys (I didn’t hide any in the above picture either), you may be pleasantly surprised by the end of this post.

Above is a stitched picture pan of the lovely people from the press in Malaysia.  The group included representatives of The Star, The Sun, NST, Berita Harian, Superkidz, K-Zone, Gempak,  New Man, TV2, HOT, and RTM News.  Interesting note: the majority of them were female journalists. I don’t know if it’s because that’s the way things are in Malaysia or if they thought that they were going to meet somebody that actually resembled Johnny Bravo.  Either way, it was fun chatting with them all.

We officially announced the start of Cartoon Network Asia’s Malaysia specific Snaptoons initiative.  We kicked it off with a talk from Silas Hickey of Cartoon Network Asia, then Kamil Othman, Vice President of MDEC (Multimedia Development Corporation), and myself. Beforehand, we got our talking points and press briefing, which made me a tad nervous because I tend to talk off the top of my head with a lot of nervous energy.  But then again, it’s not like we were trying to hide a scandal or anything.  Everyone ended up being very cordial and the whole event made the morning that much more fun.

Afterwards, I spent my final day at Inspidea Animation Studios drawing pictures and hanging out with the crew.  Again, it’s just like any other animation studio in the States.  On their free time, they play video games…

Gossip…

And hang out in front of the studio playing guitar and smoking cigarettes.

I spent my final night with the staff at a fantabulous dinner where I got to know them all a little better.  Who’s dating who, what they do in their spare time, what their favorite movies are, why they’re ranked number one in countries that spend the most hours on Facebook and have the most number of friends.  Bonding stuff like that.   It was a fun way to end my time in Malaysia.

So now is the part where you say, “Can we get to the monkey portion of the post already?”  Wait for it…

Before I hopped on my plane to LAX, CJ See brought us out to the Batu Caves where you can climb 272 steps and see… you guessed it…

Monkeys!  They’re just all around you frolicking the way monkeys do.

From Mongkok to Malaysian Monkeys, thus ends my time in Asia.  Ni Hao America!

INSPIDEA

I downloaded the above picture from my camera, looked at it, and thought, “That just doesn’t look real.”  But it is.  It’s the view from my hotel of the Petronas Twin Towers, which were the world’s tallest buildings from 1998-2004 (before Taipei 101).  Whatever it’s height credentials, it’s still massive!  Every time I look out my window, I imagine myself as Big Man Japan tromping around the downtown area.

So with that, you may have been able to guess that I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Yesterday, I went and visited the lovely animation studio, Inspidea.  They’re the ones that are doing the heavy lifting for our upcoming TV special, “Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood.”  For those of you that have never been to an animation studio in Asia, I thought that I’d give you a mini-tour of the place.

First off, I wanted to share my lunch with you.

(I love makeover shows, so I had to fit in some sort of before and after shot somewhere.)

Anyhow, Inspidea was founded by four guys, two of whom are still there, Andrew Ooi and CJ See.  Terrific to see them.  We worked together on another Snaptoons project a few years back.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the outfit they run here in Malaysia.  The outside of the building is rather unassuming. Below is a picture of Silas Hickey, the Creative Director of Asia Pacific Animation Development, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, Inc. (Whew! Long title!) waiting for them to buzz us in.

The first thing I noticed was the most obvious cultural difference: we had to take our shoes off.

From there, it was just like any other independent animation studio in the states.  There were several floors of artists, all working on computers, but in different areas of production.

Again, the only differences were cultural.  For example, you weren’t really allowed to shake the hands of some of the females due to religious beliefs.  More interesting to me though, was the average age of the people who worked there.  At Inspidea, they were a predominantly young lot.  It may have been due to their Asian skin, but it felt like I was walking amongst a group of university students. I’m used to seeing veterans who had been around for decades peppered in with a few younger folks.  I was told that it was because there isn’t a huge pool of talent to pull from in Malaysia so a lot of their talent come straight out of the schools.  Below is a group shot of all the people that are going to be working on my show.

I gave a talk, similar to the one I gave at CNAsia, where I introduced myself, talked a little bit about my background, and expressed my gratitude and excitement for the project they’ve agreed to undertake.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can bring to the table and excited about their potential of being a major player out here in Asia.

So that’s day one in Malaysia.  I’m hoping to get a picture of the monorail that runs through all the major parts of the city.

Wait a second.  What was that?

Did I just say monorail?

I sure did.

CARTOON NETWORK ASIA BOUND

If you’ve been missing my day-to-day posts, fear not, I’m still here. I’ve most recently been working on an international Johnny Bravo project with Cartoon Network Asia that should be finished some time next year.  It involves Johnny Bravo and Bollywood.  Then hilarity ensues.  In different languages, even. (That last sentence should be said using Snagglepuss’ voice.)

We just finished a whirlwind recording with some amazing voice artists this past week in Los Angeles.  The show was directed by the multi-talented Charlie Adler and we went from 8 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening, non-stop, with one five minute break.  It was like a crazy rollercoater ride!  But even though we went at a breakneck speed, Charlie was able to yield every ounce of direction from his being and make sure that the performances ended up being top notch.

Below, from left is Lou Fagenson (composer), Sharon Muthu, me, Cree Summer, Tara Strong, and Charlie Adler.

Charlie, Tabitha Kumar, me.

From top: Me, Guy Hector, Charlie, Brenda Vaccaro, Jeff Bennett

From top: Eric (the engineer), Sheetal Sheth, Lou, Charlie, me, Amir Talai

Me, Mark DeCarlo, Ajay Mehta, Sunil Malhotra, Tom Kenny

Having finished that, I’m now in the middle of my trip overseas.  My first stop was to visit the offices of Cartoon Network Asia in Hong Kong.  I was finally going to to meet the folks across the Pacific to say “Thanks!” and poke my head in their offices.  So after my fourteen and a half hour flight, I hopped in a taxi with Silas Hickey and Ivy Lau from CNAsia, ran to a boat, and took a bus to a golf course where CNAsia’s creative services team was having a retreat.  I was told that many of them never leave work earlier than midnight so when you talk about dedication, props to them!  I put on an improptu presentation, met a number of folks, took pictures, and drew a few drawings.

The following day, I was able to venture around the offices and meet some more fun folks.  I got to see their crazy offices and spent some time in the massage room (a little room with electronic massage chairs!)  From there, it’s been a lot of meetings mixed in with sight seeing.  And scary taxi rides.  All in all, it’s been a fun and cultural experience visiting here.  If I had to sum up my experience in Hong Kong, I would have to say that it’s an eye catching, fast paced city, filled with lots of color and beautiful architecture.  A few random observations:

Hong Kong is a very vertical city.

The hotels have a 13th floor.

It’s daunting to see bamboo used as scaffolding.

At 8:00, the skyscrapers put on a light show.  So it’s like Disneyland.  Without the churros.

The escalators in the subways move twice as fast as the escalators back home.

Random people tend to unabashedly burp in your face without saying “Excuse me.”

I now know what a real “pungent” smell smells like.

And if you’ve never been to Mongkok, the Guinness Book of World Records calls it the most densely populated area on the planet. Mixed with the heat and the smells, let’s just say it’s an experience and a half.

Next stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!  But before I go…

Big Hug to Hong Kong!

P.S. My new friends, Tim and Tina, took this picture to make sure the kid didn’t pickpocket me.

JOHNNY BRAVO AND BLUR ANIMATION

When I was developing my senior thesis film at Loyola Marymount University, I ran into a huge problem.  With my storyboard set and my models ready to go, I had to try and figure out how to animate my 5 minute project, by myself, in a few months, while keeping up with the rest of my schoolwork.  My animation professor, Dan McLaughlin suggested that I watch “The Dover Boys” and freeze frame the inbetweens to study Bobo Cannon’s usage of  blur animation. (For those of you who are wondering what I’m talking about, the blur animation starts at about 3:02 with the introduction of Dan Backslide.)

I was completely enthralled.  I saw things moving that only had three inbetweens between them.  “I could do that!” I thought to myself.  Watching the cartoon, I knew that all I had to do was move the shapes of the characters and stretch the masses from one pose to another.  According to what I was freeze framing, I simply had to make sure that the predominant masses and colors were represented in the blur.  No antics needed.  No overshoots or cushions.  Who would’ve guessed that there was such an untapped time-saving style of animation?  All I had to do was create strong poses to smear into and I was home free.  In short, the technique grew from my college-aged need to do things cheaper, faster, and easier.

The sequence below is from my first Johnny Bravo short.  The layout is by Ginny Hawes, the clean up by Miriam Goodman, and I did the inbetweens.  In it, Johnny has just slid up to a fine looking zookeeper and proceeds to check his armpit fragrance.

Scenes like the one above were always fun to animate.  The only problem we ran into was making sure the masses were colored correctly.  Otherwise, the movement would pop.  The colorist had to consistently refer to the sequence of drawings to make sure they were keeping the masses consistent.

This type of animation was a key ingredient in helping me create the unique persona of “Johnny Bravo.”  I think that it may have had a lot to do with the selling of the show.  It made it stand out from the rest of the other projects being pitched by creating a character trait based on the way the character was animated.

It also made for some surreal Dali-esque cel set-ups.

When I got the series, I realized why blur animation wasn’t used very often.  It was a special type of animation that had to be called for overseas.  Most producers weren’t going to take the time to call for it on the sheets every time (although, I did catch them using it on “Sonic The Hedgehog” when it was still in production).  Whatever the reason, I feel fortunate to be able to capitalize on a technique developed by Robert Cannon and Chuck Jones in their original Warner Brothers short.

HOW TO GET TO SESAME STREET

If I had to name one major influence in my life as a model for the type of entertainment I strive to create, it would have to be Jim Henson. Most notably, I stand in awe of his amazing work on Sesame Street. They did everything from puppets to animation, parodies to heart-warming specials, and if that weren’t enough, they created music that stuck in your head.  What I admire most about Jim Henson is that he did it in a way that was accessible to both kids and parents.  If you were a child born after the 70′s, then you were a child influenced by Sesame Street.

From day one, Sesame Street enlisted the talents of some of the top names in independent animation. Back in 1996, Linda Simensky, the current senior director of programming for PBS and former president of ASIFA-East, put together a two hour program to celebrate 25 years of animation made for Sesame Street.  It was like watching Sesame Street in a whole new light because I never knew that the people behind the shorts were some of the most cutting edge independent animators of their time.  Now that I know what I know, and can see them in retrospect, I have a greater appreciation for them.  The works in the show included the Hubley Studios, Buzzco, Michael Sporn, Will Vinton, Dan Haskett, Bill Davis, Pixar, and Mo Willems.  The one below is by Maurice Sendak.

I still hold onto my dream of someday joining the ranks of these esteemed artists by animating an interstitial for one of their upcoming seasons.

Much to my delight, when I took my first animation class back in college, my animation professor, Dan McLaughlin, showed us how to work the university’s giant Oxberry camera by demonstrating a pan with a 2-field cel and background from a short film he did for Sesame Street.  Needless to say, I was totally in awe of this piece of artwork! You may remember the film.  It was the one where the backgrounds were black and white and these kids were sitting on the steps outside their front door.  Suddenly a man pushing a fruit cart starts yelling, “Fruit!  Fresh fruit!”  He walks on, the kids get some fruit, and the man continues on his way.  It was also shown on the Spanish PBS show, Villa Allegre, with the man yelling, “Frutas!  Fresca frutas!”

Fast forward a few years. I have my own show and I thought, “That would be awesome if I could recreate even a little bit of the fun and insane comedy that Jim Henson and his cohorts were able to do week after week.”  (Not exactly in those words, but that was my intention.)  Jim Henson had been such an influence on my life that I wanted to pay tribute to him somehow.  The only question was, “How do you extrapolate the genius of Sesame Street and infuse it into a show about a twenty-something slacker/womanizer?”

The answer: you do your best.

Like Jim Henson, I always tried to make sure that Johnny wasn’t mean spirited. He was just ignorant and naive. Most of all, I tried to capture his silliness. If I had to describe the Muppets in word, it would have to be “silly.” Silly humor is what I always try and strive for. It always trumps rude and obnoxious for me.

In our first season, we were unable to come up with a proper send up of Sesame Street that would do it justice. It wasn’t until our fifth season that one of our writers, Craig Lewis, came up with the idea for the episode, “Hunk At The End Of This Cartoon” which was a parody of “The Monster At The End Of This Book.”

I thought it was the perfect Muppet piece to translate into Johnny’s world.  Craig kept it silly and ridiculous, just the way the book was.  So we did our best.

Now.  There’s probably someone in Birmingham, Alabama thinking, “That’s great and all, but wasn’t the title of this post, ‘How to get to Sesame Street?’  You didn’t really tell us how to get to Sesame Street.”

I’m getting there.

When I was a kid, I never really grasped the concept that Sesame Street was on a soundstage.  During the opening credits, they showed all these kids wandering the streets of New York City with it’s gravel streets and tall buildings, until the final shot where they got to Sesame Street and the roads and sidewalks suddenly lost all their grit.  And it wasn’t as sunny and bright as the park they just showed. But it looked fun!  And I always wondered, “Why is it so hard to find? Isn’t it on a map or something?”

Back in 1998, my wife and I decided to plan a trip to New York City. Knowing how much I loved the Muppets, my agent arranged for us to visit Sesame Street.  What I thought was going to be a quick ushering through the soundstage by a tour guide, turned out to be a dream come true.  They were actually filming an episode when we arrived on the set!  As long as we kept out of the way of the cameras, we got to wander the street and explore everywhere from Mr. Hooper’s Store to Big Bird’s nest.  We even got to visit Elmo’s World!

The most surreal moment of the day was meeting Caroll Spinney, the Muppeteer behind Oscar The Grouch and Big Bird.  The crazy thing was, I didn’t know how I was supposed to react when I came face to face with a Muppet.  When it was my turn to take a picture with Carroll, he held Oscar up to my face and said, “Hi.  What do you do?” I froze.  I wanted to tell him what I did, but I also wanted to tell him how much he’d touched my life and how the show helped shape my world view of imagination and creativity.  I wanted to tell him all kinds of things.  But in the moment, I couldn’t figure out if I should talk to Oscar or Carroll.  I completely blanked.  I was so flustered that the only thing that came out of my mouth was a giggle.

A giggle.

I giggled like a little boy when I shook his hand while my wife took a picture of us.  I remember thinking, “Boy, Oscar has a manly grip for a grouch.”  After the flash went off on my camera, Caroll made Oscar blink as though the flash somehow affected his eyesight. I don’t even remember if I said anything to him (I hope I didn’t come across rude) but I had my moment.  Sadly, the moment quickly passed and another person came up to him to take their turn to meet him.  Or them.  Honestly, I felt as though Oscar and Carroll were two separate entities.

Everybody we met on the set that day was so nice.  I could have stayed there all day.  In fact, one of the crew said, “If you stick around, we’re gonna be filming with Sully in about an hour so you can see how Oscar gets around.”  But we didn’t want to overstay our welcome.  We watched them film a scene with Susan and Oscar, took a few more pictures, and ended up staying for about two hours before we took the subway to see the rest of the city.

So if you ever find an “in” or can get a job working for the Sesame Workshop, I highly recommend a visit to “the street.”  And be prepared to address a Muppet.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

I forgot who told me this, but a few years ago, I got this great piece of advice about doing interviews: Try and keep your answers down to a few choice words because, chances are, the reporter only needs a sentence or two from your interview for their story. So try not to give rambling answers that go nowhere.

I wish I had learned this when I first started speaking in public.

I mean, honestly, who ever thinks that they’re going to be interviewed by the media?  Not I.  And how do you really prepare for an off-the-cuff question so that you come across poised, knowledgable, and competent?  I shrug my shoulders.

I have to preface this blog by saying I, like so many others, was afraid of public speaking. I did drama in high school, but that was me being a character.  Me being me was nerve-racking.  I couldn’t even raise my hand to say anything in my interpersonal communication class in college because I was so dumbstruck.  (For 20% of our grade, we were given a choice between joining in the class conversation or doing a 30 page paper.  I opted for the paper.)  I eventually got over this fear because I had to.  It was in my job description to talk to the media.  Fortunately, the interviews got easier and I’ve now grown fairly comfortable in my skin that I’m able to speak on a dime.  I’ve breezed through dozens of interviews, taught at Loyola Marymount University for several years, given seminars at several universities, and done a number of public speaking engagements in front of some pretty diverse audiences.  Mostly because I have something to say and I’m confident in my content.  On the other hand, throw me into a room alone, full of strangers, and I head straight towards something to lean on.

I wanted to share this with you upfront so you can fully appreciate all the nervousness and anxiety that lie in between the lines of  the transcripts you’re about to read.  That is, if you’re still reading.  You are?  Cool.  The following is from my first public speaking engagement to the media.  It took place in July of 1994 at the Television Critics Association Press Tour at the Universal Hilton Hotel. The panel consisted of Betty Cohen, the Executive Vice President of Cartoon Network, Mike Lazzo, the Vice President of Programming, Fred Seibert, the President of Hanna Barbera, Ralph Bakshi, and three new cartoon directors: Butch Hartman (who went on to create The Fairly Odd Parents), Craig McCracken (creator of The Powerpuff Girls), and myself.  The audience consisted of about 75 print journalists, Turner executives, and guests who were basically there to report and judge the programs we worked so hard to produce.

Beforehand, we were given a potential Q & As/Talking Points folder which we were to familiarize ourselves with if someone asked us a question. Which I fecitiously say, did little to prepare me for sitting in front of all those people staring at me.   The following is an excerpt from the actual transcripts. This was my first recorded line of publicity:

QUESTION: This is a question for Van, what cartoon have you created? Tell us about your character and how you did it.

VAN PARTIBLE: The character I created is called Johnny Bravo. It’s this guy. (laughter) And he looks a little bit like James Dean kind of thing, but he talks like Elvis. And he’s picking up on people at the zoo, women at the zoo. And he finds this animal trainer girl, and she realizes that the gorilla’s escaped from the zoo, and basically he tries to pick up on the girl and all kind of stuff ensues. It takes off from there and it’s pretty funny. It doesn’t sound funny from what I’m saying, but it’s funny. I think it’s funny.

To highlight the absurdity of my existence in this panel and show how unequipped I was at public speaking, here’s another excerpt from the actual transcripts:

QUESTION: Van, I have a question for you. I’d like to know how it feels having just graduated from college working next to such veterans as Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, Ralph Bakshi. What does that feel like?

PARTIBLE: It’s really neat, because the job I had before this, I was working at a school. And so I’m like — I mean, I tried applying at all these other animation places and nobody liked me because I didn’t have anything to show them.

And finally they had this talent search. I guess Hanna-Barbera had this talent search. And they saw my film and I guess they liked it because they called me back in. Because I did this student film back in college, which was last year. (laughter)

And they said, develop something. I developed something and beyond that and I was like wow. So it kind of like hasn’t really hit me, because I basically don’t feel myself on that level. So it’s really neat.

QUESTION: Ralph, you’re shaking your head. How does it feel to be sitting next to someone who just graduated from college? (laughter)

Ralph went on to say how he thought the program was “sensational” and how “these kids are coming in and being allowed to be themselves,” while I sat there thinking, “I just said, ‘It’s really neat.’  A lot.”

It’s been a long road, but I’m happy to say that I’m now able to take a breath and answer questions without rambling so much.  I mean, I still ramble at times, but I always try to make sure and conclude my statements with a breath and a few choice words.

I recently did an interview for The Loyolan, the newspaper at my old alma mater, Loyola Marymount University. Fortunately, they e-mailed me a list of questions that I could ponder and answer in my own time. You can find it at:

http://www.laloyolan.com/entertainment/lmu-originated-johnny-bravo-on-dvd-1.2243967

Before I end this post, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has posted on this site. It’s humbling to know that people actually read my ramblings and care enough to comment on them.