Hoytus Interruptus

Here's a story that's not for the faint of stomach. It's about one of the more inevitably reliable hazards of travel and how one of us Hoyts almost always seems to escape the worst of it, able to nurse the other back to health. 

Except for that one time.

I've interviewed quite a few celebrities over the years, but I think I got my biggest personal thrill from talking to three legends from my childhood who largely toiled in obscurity. Such is often the life for voice actors in the field of animation. 

One day in 1978, I was lucky enough to gather the cast from Jay Ward's classic TV show "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle & Friends" on a single phone call. This is the story of how it came about, although all but a bit of the audio from that day is lost to history. 

I'm not sure how it's possible to both love and hate a story at the same time, but that describes my relationship with this one. Act One is horrifying. Act Two provides a (very tiny) bit of comic relief.  TRIGGER WARNING: If you have a checkered history with stinging insects, you might wanna pass on this one.

It seems that I've begun a pattern of telling a story about a hoofed animal every other week. (Who does that? Plus, I can't help wondering what two weeks from today will bring!)  

This week's story features...a deer that wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Deer are a most common sight on my island. This is the time of year  when the local hunters cull the herd a bit. Some fill their freezer with venison as a simple act of revenge for the damage the deer population wreaks on gardens, crops and landscaping.

Had the pleasure of spending a few days with our daughter last week. Seemed like a good time to roll out a favorite story that used to embarrass her when we told it to friends (thankfully, she's past that). I take you back to when our little girl was just four years old...and yet, even at such a young age, she stood ready to call out evil when she saw it. 

Big ups to the actor Jeff Kingsbury of Olympia, WA, who made this moment extra special for reasons that will soon become obvious.

Seeing the Seattle Mariners make a push for the playoffs in the final weeks of the regular season conjures memories of a magical 7-year stretch when they were in contention every year and drawing near-capacity crowds night after night. 

The team mascot was feeling the pressure to "keep it fresh," regularly inventing new comedy routines to perform for the fans between innings.

This is the story of when I was tapped to play "comedy accomplice" to the Mariner Moose.

I try to look askance whenever the hype surrounding just about anything launches into overdrive. Pretty sure I get that from my journalist dad, who never met a sacred cow he couldn't poke and prod. 

So, when crass commercialization started creeping into my own personal Holy Land, my skeptic radar began to blink.

It's hard to woo a girl when you're driving the most uncool car on campus. Fortunately, the girl I was wooing could not have cared less about the wheels that got us from one place to the next.

To kick off Season Two of guaranteed true stories from a life (mine), here's the story of "the one," a summer that couldn't end soon enough and the ugliest car on the planet.

Time to get back on the storytelling horse! Season 2 of Hoytus Interruptus kicks off next week with a portion of the Jeff and Cindy origin story. The weeks that follow will feature: The story about the little girl who asserted herself; planting seeds in New Age brains; a priceless moment with show biz legends; the teacher and the DJ who steered me right; my checkered history with bees; plus tales of humiliation before crowds ranging from 6 to 40,000...and many more. 

Please subscribe wherever the heck you get your podcasts.

And many thanks to my friend Chris Ballew for the groovy, loopy trailer rhythms! 

Thanks for listening.

-jeff

Chris Ballew's new solo record, "I Am Not Me," flies you deep inside an evolving creative arc for one of music's most interesting players. You'll hear elements of Chris' Presidents of the United States of America days coming through along with notes that remind you that he's made nearly 20 records for kids as Caspar Babypants.

The totality of it is a groovy, abstract trip inside a record that begs to be your traveling companion: in your car, on a walk, in the kitchen or on the couch. 

I commandeered the radio for an hour to sit down with Chris for an extended Hoytus Interruption. We play a few tracks and talk about the record and what it was like to create during the height of the pandemic.