SiDEBAR - COMICS, ART & POP CULTURE

Podcast Episode 128: 'Dexter' Star JAMES REMAR Gets in Character

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Of course, he does, he's badass. But he's also smooth and sophisticated. Cunning and dangerous. Passionate and caring.

In other words, don't typecast actor James Remar. He's got way too many things he can do well to be put in a box. As he himself says in our interview, he's played everything from an escaped convict to a Native American to a billionaire playboy. And that was just last month!

Seriously, all three of us 'found' James at different points in his incredibly varied career. For Dwight, it was as Ajax in The Warriors. For Adrian, it was Joe Dylanne in Quiet Cool. For your boy, I went mainstream—Ganz in 48 Hrs.

Other great performances by this gentleman actor can be seen in Cruising, The Cotton Club, Drugstore Cowboy, What Lies Beneath, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Flash Forward, Battlestar Galactica, Sex and the City and most currently on Showtime's Dexter, playing 'Detective Harry Morgan', father of the lead character.

Remar began his acting career in the theatre as a younger man and transisitoned into TV and movies back in 1978. Since then, he's worked on over 100 television and film projects.

In our talk, he discusses his craft and many of his famous roles, changes he's seen in the movie business and his recent work in New Orleans on the comic book-based Red.

Red (Retired Extremely Dangerous) was originally a three issue mini-series created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, published by Wildstorm back in '03. It's now in post-production as a major motion picture from Di Bonaventure Pictures.

James plays Gabriel Loeb in the film alongside folks like Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Mary-Louise Parker. Red is set for release in October of this year.

The talk is kept pretty honest in our chat with James, so this is true insight into the thoughts and opinions of a successful working actor. We thank him much for hanging out with us and being so candid—he was terrific.

**Also, many thanks to friend and artist Warren Drummond for helping us get in contact with Remar.

Ep. 71: Comics, Craft and Keeping It Real with Smallville Actor PHIL MORRIS

Celebrity is a funny thing. When you meet people who fall in the category, they're usually either just like you thought they'd be, or nothing like what you thought they'd be. Phil Morris..well, he was both. Let me explain.

As an actor, Phil is versatile. He can do dramatic things like Law & Order and CSI, but still show great comedic timing for a Seinfeld or Wanda at Large. He's quick to flex his geek muscles for stuff like Star Trek: Voyager and of course, Smallville. Plus, he's one hell of a voice actor on cartoons like The Secret Saturdays, Legion of Super Heroes and The PJs!

So, when I met him on the floor of Dragon Con, our hometown convention, I didn't know what to expect. What I got in those ten minutes we chatted though, was a little of everything mentioned above. He was warm, approachable, funny, genuine—and a real fan too! Naturally, I asked him about coming on SiDEBAR, he said "absolutely, I'd love to", and told me how to get in touch with his agent. I was on the phone with said agent two days later and here we are.

Our conversation with Morris covered much about his career, including noted roles as attorney Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld and J'onn J'onzz a.k.a. the Martian Manhunter on Smallville (that's the correct spelling of J'onn's name, by the way). We also talked about his voice acting work, his enormous comic collection (100,000 of 'em—who knew?) and some family stuff. Phil's sister Iona Morris is a terrific actor and so was his dad, the late Greg Morris. Greg set the bar way high on the original Mission Impossible TV show and was one of the first black male leads on prime time.

Going back to Phil's versatility, he's also writing a book about African-American images in the Action/Adventure genres entitled BAW-BAM! (Black Action Woman-Black Action Man). And he'll be appearing on-line in a hilarious new web series starring the Sklar Brothers called Back on Topps. Go here to laugh your butt off at the pilot!

Our thanks to the actor for coming on the show and sharing with us. As geeks, we definitely look forward to more of his appearances on Smallville and just plain old more! Hey Phil...much respect.

**For this episode, we played a snippet of Sly & The Family Stone's "Family Affair"—'cause it is!

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Ep. 37: CREE SUMMER - Voiceshifter

A shapeshifter, for those who don't know, is a being who can change its form and shape at will. That's why we call Cree Summer a voiceshifter. Not only is she great in front of the camera, she's an incredibly versatile voice actor who's considered one of the best working in animation today. With appearances on shows like Inspector Gadget, Care Bears, Animaniacs, Mortal Kombat, Batman Beyond, Justice League, The Proud Family, Pinky and the Brain, Clifford The Big Red Dog, Rugrats, Danny Phantom, Ben 10 and Class of 3000, Summer clearly knows her stuff.

Many remember her only as the free spirited Freddie from NBC's A Different World, but this lady has quietly kept very busy since that time. She's also a gifted singer-songwriter and her 1999 Work Records release, Street Faerie, introduced the world to Cree, the musician.

In our talk, we cover all of the above, plus her love of comics, poetry, her sisterhood of the seas, The Pirates and a whole lot more.  This was an easy one, folks, as we felt right at home talking to this down-to-earth, but very talented performer.

Speaking of uber-talented, a special shout of thanks to our best friend in the world, Mr. Phil LaMarr for hooking us up with Honey Brown. Likewise to her manager, Larry "One B" Robins for helping out with the details - thanks, guys!

**This episode features three snippets of Cree Summer's music from Street Faerie: Revelation Sunshine, Mean Sleep and Miss Moon. There's also a small portion of Aretha Franklin's A Different World theme.

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Ep. 27: WENDY & LISA Talk HEROES and the Future

Boys will be boys and girls will be brothers, or at least that's the way Wendy & Lisa see it! These two musicians, re-dubbed The Girl Bros, have been making it funky since their early 80's roots playing with pop music icon Prince. After years of collaborating as the guitarist and keyboardist in his band The Revolution, they left Prince’s camp in 1986 and began establishing their own path. With four great albums to their credit, the third being the glorious Eroica, they put being artists on hold and focused on composing for TV and film. Movies like Dangerous Minds, Soulfood and Something New have all benefited from their touch, plus shows like Crossing Jordan, Carnivale and Brothers and Sisters. But it's NBC's surprise hit Heroes that has everyone buzzing. Heroes is fantastic in and of it's self and it's made all the better by Wendy & Lisa's terrific music. We had a wonderful talk with them in between sessions for the show and they brought us up to speed on this season, the writer's strike and the possible future of Bionic Woman too. We also get into a little of their past with Prince, their early days as recording artists, Seal and their love for comic books and b-movies. It was truly a blast—thanks, grrls!

http://www.wendyandlisa.com/

**This episode features several snippets of music Wendy & Lisa either wrote and/or performed on. All of their CDs can be purchased on-line and we highly recommend our favs, Eroica and The Girl Bros.

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Ep. 26: Live Long and Party - More with ROBERT MEYER BURNETT

Welcome back for Part II with director and producer, Robert Meyer Burnett. Rob gives his opinion on the upcoming Speed Racer movie from the Wachowski Bros, the new Watchmen script and a riotous round of Either Or/Gage Your Geek (not sure what we're calling it yet). THIS EPISODE IS VERY OFF COLOR AND VERY BLUE, so please be advised. It was the tail end of a three hour talk that basically descended into an R-rated geek free-for-all. "I've got a bad feeling about this..!"

http://www.ludovicotechnique.com/

**Part II with Rob contains a snippet of Prince's Partyman because we just let go and had fun. Also, big thanks to Mary Forrest for the use of her pics.

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Ep. 25: Dance, MOVIES, Sex and Romance with ROBERT MEYER BURNETT

This is Rob. Actually, this is a picture of Rob looking like the suave, ultra cool, L.A. kinda guy he is. You may know Rob from Free Enterprise, the geeky romantic comedy he co-wrote and directed back in 1998. Or from the many movies he's done DVD production work for like The Usual Suspects, X-Men II or Superman Returns. Or maybe even from the comic books he publishes through his company Ludovico Technique. But forget all that stuff for now. From this day forward, remember him from this picture. Looking like the suave, ultra cool, L.A. kinda guy he is. One evening in late September, we got the chance to chat with Rob from his editing bay and it was stellar. It was a short talk (3 hours!) and here are some of the highlights from Part I: CG water, Shoot 'Em Up, Larry Cohen and blaxploitation movies, The Exterminator, lessons from The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, The Warriors, New Jack City, the 80's and the video revolution, Barry Lyndon, PRINCE, Clarence Williams III, mutual hatred of Red Dragon, music licensing, Rob's tactic, I Claudius, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, what is a dooku?, Superman Returns, the new Free Enterprise, Living in Infamy and Cody Banks.

http://www.ludovicotechnique.com/

**This episode features a snippet of Prince's DMSR and that sound you hear in the background is us killing water bugs in my basement…sorry!

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Ep. 19: PHIL LAMARR Comes to SiDEBAR

Solid acting chops—you got it! Great comedic timing—covered! Versatile voice acting—no problem! Phil LaMarr has been doing his thing as a successful working actor for well over 20 years. His resume is chocked full of some wonderfully funny TV and film moments and he's shared the stage, camera and microphone with many other fine actors. MADtv, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Murphy Brown, Spiderman 2, Barbershop (the TV series), Samurai Jack, Metal Gear Solid, The Animatrix, Futurama, Justice League, Kim Possible, Family Guy...stop me when you’re convinced. This L.A. native has done a lot in his career and in a relatively short period of time. We had the pleasure of talking with Phil about his background in improv, his sketch comedy work on MADtv, his roles in Free Enterprise and Pulp Fiction, and his undeniable skills as an accomplished voice actor.

**Our thanks to Ms. Patty Woo for her help in making this interview possible.

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Ep. 6: Comix with an X - A Chat with 99X's JENNERS

Everyone has a side of themselves that they suppress a little at work, but this has been nearly impossible for Rob Jenners of Atlanta's 99X. In the eight months he's been a part of The New Morning X, he's gotten his geek on many times on air and we immediately recognized him as kindred brother. Jenners was cool enough to sit down with us one afternoon and talk about his love of comic book characters and their movies, the TV show Heroes, The Simpsons, Star Wars and the radio biz too. Outside of being smart, funny and genuine, he was also a really nice guy. Thanks for the chat, Rob!

The New Morning X is Sean, Leslie and Jenners and it's on weekdays from 5:30am-10am on WNNX 99.7. Check 'em out!

http://www.99x.com/

(Unfortunately, Dwight couldn't be here for this interview. He was on assignment doing correspondence at the Spiderman 3 premier in Melnibone.)

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