When it comes to vocal performance, Hal Lublin has done it all. Who else can claim regular status on Welcome to Night Vale, founding membership of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, and a major billing in Adult Swim’s longest-running show currently on air? And that’s not even mentioning We’ve Got This, the Maximum Fun podcast he co-hosts with fellow actor Mark Gagliardi, where the duo “settles the impossible arguments that people care the most about, like Star Wars vs. Star Trek, or if you should put ketchup on a hot dog.” It also omits his role in an upcoming Cartoon Network original — but we’ll get to that.
An animation fiend as a kid, Lublin never imagined his delightful fate. “Lots of people who are either pursuing or have succeeded at voiceovers never knew that doing cartoons could be a career,” he told The Dot and Line when we caught up with him ahead of this Sunday’s Venture Bros. season finale. “It is a life-changing moment.” As we see it, that makes him more than qualified to play the season’s big bad in a show hellbent on homage.
What brought you to The Venture Bros.?
The way I got involved was through The Thrilling Adventure Hour. I’ve been with that show for ten years, which is also a podcast, for anyone who’s not familiar with it. That’s sort of where I met a lot of my voiceover heroes, and Jackson Publick was a regular guest every time we came to the East Coast, so that’s where I developed my friendship with him.
I didn’t know that!
Yeah! He’s done the show many times. So he and I became friends through that, and there’s a great thing about a show like that where you’re doing a ton of characters all over the map. Basically, when somebody like that comes in, you’re unwittingly auditioning for them. So he had a sense of what I could do, and it was less a matter of auditioning after that as it was there being an opening for something that I could do with him. He knew I was available to do it the same as Mark Gagliardi, my fellow Workjuice Player. He knew both of us and he knew what we were capable of, so when there was an opportunity, he brought us into the new season.
“Oh, I know how do this, to add a little extra salt onto this. Just succumb to your lung disorder.”
You play two characters on Venture, Wide Wale and Manolo, which as someone who’s done numerous characters must not be terribly new to you. How’s juggling it been?
It’s not bad at all! We’ve basically moved through the scripts in a linear fashion, if I remember correctly. So, sometimes both characters would appear. There are a few other characters that I’ve done, two of whom have appeared in the show so far, and I think one of them has yet to appear. So it was just sort of picking up things here and there, and it’s not terribly difficult as soon as you’ve figured out what you’re going to do. And you have a great director in Jackson, who’s there to help you out. Sometimes it’s tough when an actor directs, but Chris [McCulloch, aka Jackson Publick] is so talented, you know, he’s a great artist, great voice artist, great writer, and great director, so he makes it easy and fun.
And that’s an interesting thing that I’ve found in general with animation. A lot of the guys who are involved tend to be so incredibly multi-talented. Do you get the sense that that’s more true in animation than in other areas, or do actors generally tend to do a lot?
People who are able to do something artistic for a living are able to explore their artistic side a lot more, which means they may not be limited to the one thing that just provides their income. They all of a sudden have either time or that sort of momentum of working to create art gives you the inspiration to create other art. So I’ve certainly seen a lot of people who are multi-discipline, but it does seem like in the voiceover world there are a lot of musicians and singers, a lot of people who have a passion for music.
Which makes sense, because you’re focusing so much on the sonic quality of something.
Yeah, there’s a musical aspect to it in general, in breaking down copy, even in picking up somebody else’s voice, if you have to do a voice match. You’re picking up the notes, and you have to hear things and interpret things musically.
I know there’s gotta be water in his voice. Something that has that watery feel.
How would you do that with a character? Let’s use your major character in this season, Wide Wale, as an example. There’s a ton of influences on that character — Doc Hammer and Jackson tend to be expert pop culture historians — but how did you develop that voice?
Well, I had a sense coming in of what they were looking for. I’d been told he’s like Kingpin essentially, but he’s also part fish. I know he’s a big gangster, and I know there’s gotta be water in his voice. Something that has that watery feel. So that sort of just becomes, Where do I place my tongue? I think doing the gangster voice is a little bit easier, that idea of [slips into Italian mobster caricature] “Hey, how’s it goin’, guys?” But it’s hard figuring out how to add some water and make him, like, a heavy guy. So you’ve got a New York gangster, you’ve got water constantly in his voice, and also he’s out of breath all the time because he’s so overweight.
Yeah, so it sounds kind of like Marlon Brando drowning.
Yeah, exactly. You know, I have asthma. It’s something I developed out in LA, just being out here with the great air quality. So something like that, if I need to wheeze or something — like that first time [Wide Wale] appears and he walks into the room and he’s breathing, that’s like, Oh, I know how do this, to add a little extra salt onto this. Just succumb to your lung disorder.
I’m sorry, I got kind of hung up on the fact that you developed asthma just by going to LA.
You know, it’s not all that bad there. It was one of those things where as a kid, you could have developed asthma and it never happened, and then I came out here and it just did over time. It’s not a lot, but it’s just enough that — well, you learn how to use it. It’s just like, okay, how is this a tool that I can use, and how can I handle it medically, or maintain lifestyle choices that let me suppress it when it’s necessary.
You should be doing full-body acting when you perform, even when you’re doing voice acting, but it’s all going to be channeled through your voice.
As you mentioned, you did The Thrilling Adventure Hour, which is in person but also a podcast, and you’re on Welcome to Night Vale. Would you say there’s a difference in how you perform, or how you prepare for performance, between these different media?
Sure! For Thrilling Adventure Hour in particular, and Night Vale for the live shows at least, you’re not playing it for the recording. Never in 10-plus years now of doing Thrilling Adventure Hour have I done it thinking of what the experience is going to be like for someone sitting at home listening. I only think — and all of us are the same way — you have an audience out there and that’s who you’re playing to in the moment. And part of what makes it fun to listen to is to a certain extent we’re able capture that live energy, and we do it because nothing feels staged. It’s just, it’s all in the moment, let’s perform outward. But for television, or radio stuff, or if I record Night Vale stuff at home for an episode if they send me a script or something, I’m much more focused on the performance in that moment. It’s me and the mic, and I need to be descriptive in a different way. I don’t get the advantage of physicality that I do when I’m doing Thrilling Adventure Hour live. So that becomes the real challenge in voice acting — not only being physical, but communicating that physicality and descriptiveness without really being able to use your body in a visual way for the people who are going to consume it. You should be doing full-body acting when you perform, even when you’re doing voice acting, but it’s all going to be channeled through your voice.
And you don’t have the benefit of audience feedback night after night to tell you what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. You always have direction, but without an audience it’s different.
You have to trust your instinct to a certain level, and you have a director, so you have a partner. If you’re recording with other people you have them to go off of, but ultimately you really never know. That’s sort of the case with everything. The feedback’s more immediate onstage. But if you have something planned out, unless you’re improvising, they’re gonna react how they’re gonna react anyway. You just find out quicker.
As opposed to the review on Monday, it’s the person right in front of you in the second row.
It’s an entire room full of Rotten Tomatoes. You know whether you’re certified fresh or not immediately.
What kind of animation have you worked on before The Venture Bros.?
My start in animation was doing anime, for a project called Read or Die. I was playing the ghost of a German aviation pioneer, which was fun. I’ve done some commercials here and there, a couple of video games. I’ve done some ADR [automated dialogue replacement, or “dubbing”] work, so loop group stuff. And then I did an animated series for AOL, I’d say maybe early 2006, called Slammo and Sloshie. They produced an entire season of it, but it never really took off. One episode rolled out, and for one reason or another it never made it fully out on the AOL platform. And kudos for AOL sort of gambling on it at an early time. In 2006, it was still sort of the Wild West days of the Internet.
The era of Harry Potter Puppet Pals.
Exactly. But for me, Venture Bros. is the biggest thing I’ve done so far. And I’m also recording right now for a series called Mighty Magiswords. If you go to CartoonNetwork.com or download the Cartoon Network app, you can actually see some of the original digital shorts. I think they’re five to seven minutes each? And they got picked up for a full season of television, and it’s really funny. I recorded something for the digital short, and it got picked up, and they wanted to keep my characters, so I’ve gone in and recorded a couple times already. And it’s one of those things where every time I go in to record, I’m excited, and I come out more excited, and I can’t wait for the next call to come in and record. Kyle Carrozza created the series and voices the main character and a bunch of others, and Grey Griffin is the other lead. It’s just silly, delightful fun, and it feels like one of those things that could be a gigantic hit. And should be.
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I’m excited. It’s already got the “It’s kind of like Adventure Time” accolades. The great thing about this era for me as a kid who grew up rolling D20s is, like, this is “cool” now.
It really is a pretty crazy time, when nerd culture becomes cool. I grew up the same way you did, Dungeons & Dragons and cartoons and comic books. And now… you know, it’s really cool to work in stuff like this, but even the things that I’ve gotten to audition for in the last ten years are insane. The little kid version of me would go crazy if I could travel back in time and tell him what he’d get to even try out for, whether he gets it or not.
What were the differences between recording for Cartoon Network and recording for Adult Swim?
Well, for the Venture Bros. I recorded for Titmouse, which is an independent studio. But for Mighty Magiswords I’ve gone to the actual Cartoon Network studios, the one in Burbank. For me, the Venture Bros. experience felt a lot more independent of any production studio, it felt like we were in there getting it done and it would all come together later. With Cartoon Network, it feels like I’ve gone into the factory, and it feels like everything is made there — whether it is or isn’t. But they’re both awesome experiences. The first time I got to go in and record at Cartoon Network, that was a thing for me. I’m here! I actually get to go into Cartoon Network, and not just to look around or visit somebody I know. I’m here working. So that was a sort of big deal in and of itself. But in the end, both the things I’m working on have great directors. Jackson’s a great voice director. I work with Kristi Reed on Mighty Magiswords, and she’s a great director. In that way, they’re similar. Just fun, satisfying experiences.
What’s a favorite anecdote from working with Doc and Jackson?
I remember a couple years ago at ComicCon having lunch with Doc and Jackson and our friend Ken Plume. And the interplay between the two of them — they’re so comfortable with one another, and they’re both creative and always fine being distancing, and keeping it extended, and playing almost a ping-pong match. And you look at it and go, This must be how the show is written. You almost see the sensibility in who they are, which is pretty amazing.
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