Rant-Man's Notebook

By Jim "Rant-Man" MacQuarrie

Rant-Man's Book Club

It's time for a brand-new feature here in my little corner of the internet. (The internet has corners? Who knew?) I figure if Oprah can do it, Rant-Man can too. What I'm referring to is Rant-Man's Book Club, a semi-occasional feature in which I tell you about a book and then you go buy it. Books are recommended for whatever perverse reason strikes my whimsy, and are not subject to debate.

Today's first book is "Son of Faster, Cheaper" by Floyd Norman. Known to the animation industry as "Mr. Fun," Floyd has been in animation since the 1950s, working for (among others) Walt Disney, Hanna-Barbera and Pixar, as well as writing the syndicated Mickey Mouse comic strip and several children's books for Disney Publishing.

I met Floyd through my pal Scott Shaw!, and he has quickly become one of my favorite people, owing to his cheerful manner and sharp eye for the human comedy. The man misses nothing. He's also an incredibly kind and optimistic man. Those terms are sometimes considered insults. (A lot of times, when a person is described as "nice" it means they haven't got a backbone; a "nice" person is a toady who has no opinions of his own, a mealy-mouthed weasel whose reason for existence is to suck up and ingratiate himself by any means necessary. This is the diametrical opposite of Floyd Norman. He is simply one of those people who prefers to see the best in everyone.) If you don't believe me, saunter over to Jim Hill Media and read a few of his essays.

Talk to the man for a half-hour, and it becomes clear that he has no place for hate. He doesn't hate anybody; the closest he comes is his intense dislike of Michael Eisner. Even then, he says "I don't hate the man, I just wish he'd go away and stop destroying Disney." If he were so inclined, Floyd could find ample excuse for hate, bitterness, resentment of all sorts. As one of the first african-americans in animation, he faced not only the entrenched racism of the pre-Civil Rights Era, but the even greater racism of the entertainment industry in those days, not to mention the discouraging and widely-held belief that Walt Disney was himself a racist who would never hire black artists (as it turned out, Floyd discovered that belief to be utterly false; his association with the Walt Disney company began with Sleeping Beauty in the early 1950s and lasted up to the present day).

Along the way, Floyd picked up the habit of drawing cartoons of the silly things that happened at the studios on a daily basis. He has collected these little snapshots of the backstage events of the cartoon biz into a couple of books, "Faster, Cheaper!" and now "Son of Faster, Cheaper!" (both books are named after the battle cry at Hanna-Barbera.) He includes short captions to explain the cartoons where necessary. The book is chock full of portraits of people like Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, Steve Jobs of Pixar, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, and dozens of his fellow animators.

The book is a hoot. Order it already.

Next up, we have legendary voice artist Gary Owens' new book, How to Make a Million Dollars with Your Voice Or Lose Your Tonsils Trying.

I met Gary Owens a few months ago at a middle-school production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" which featured Scott's son Kirby as Mr. Biggley. He (Gary Owens, though Kirby is pretty darn cool too) seemed a very nice and personable man, the type of guy who, despite being a celebrity with a 40-odd year career, can shake your hand and say "hi, I'm Gary" as if he'd be surprised that you recognize him. When I made a reference to one of his old radio bits ("What is a Nurny? A Nurny is two krelmans joined together at the gums...") he thanked me for remembering it. It was a fun night, we all (about 25 of us) went out for a wonderful thai dinner afterwards, but there were a lot of people there, and there wasn't much of an opportunity for any kind of conversation with anyone who wasn't seated nearby, and Gary was on the far end of the room.

Last week I showed up at a signing for this book. When I finally made it through the line and stepped up with my copy in hand, Gary looked at me, then there was a sudden flash of recognition and he warmly asked how I was and when had I grown the goatee? I was impressed that he had remembered me despite having only met in passing. But that's the kind of guy he is.

But what about the book? I hear you cry. Well, it is, as the title says, a "how to" book, a guide to getting into voice work. It covers radio, sports announcing, voice-overs, cartooning, videogame voices, dubbing foreign films, books-on-tape, and any other way to make a buck by talking that you can possible imagine. Even better, it's sprinkled throughout with amusing anecdotes from Gary's impressive career, and punctuated with his surreal humor and bizarre non-sequitirs.

Whether you are interested in pursuing a career in voice-work, are just a big ol' fanboy like me, or are simply amused by funny stories, "How to Make a Million Dollars..." has something for you.

Only 2% of americans will read a book this year for the fun of it. Beat the odds.

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