Podcast Episode #12 - Sam Weber

[Neighborhood Archive]

Finally! A new podcast is up...

http://neighborhoodarchive.blogspot.com/2012/09/podcast-12-sam-weber.html

Thanks to a member of this message board, I was able to connect with Sam Weber who you may remember from Episode 1573 of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Still dealing with some iTunes issues but the link above offers some options for listening to the podcast regardless of those issues.

[sriv94]

Nice interview, Tim.  Really well done.

[setlori]

This is the first podcast I've listened to. Sam Weber's episode is one of my boys' favorites and I've watched it many, many times. (I even heard one of my kids having a "phone conversation" with Sam Weber the other day.) After hearing this, I like him even more.

[bka]

excellent & he really "got" Fred.

[sriv94]

I know you tapped a bit in that episode, Betty, and also remember you tapping during the 1975 episodes with the "giant frisbee."  (Can't recall any other times offhand.)  You were pretty good.  :)

How much training in tap had you gotten at that point?

[NAhelper]

Ah ha! So the dance studio is a set. I always thought it looked like one. The other time it looks like a set to me is when he goes to the dentist in 1629 (the windows especially give it away). Have you heard anything about that one being a set Tim?

Wonderful podcast, splendid guest, very neat insights, and a great job by the interviewer :). I surely hope there will be more like this in the future!

[bka]

actually had very little tap training - I was not allowed to take tap. Took ballet, modern dance, jazz - was in a modern dance company I left at age 16 to play Anybodys in a company of West Side Story starring Byrne Piven (father of Jeremy Piven).  My favorite tap dancer was Paul Draper - and he taught himself & was related to the superb Ruth Draper. Loved Jean Kelly as well.  Studied dance from the time I was 5 or 6 until my dancing days ebbed in the maybe late '70's. Never managed to get modern dance (the real deal - Graham, Humphrey-Weidman, Limon) on the program.

[sriv94]

actually had very little tap training - I was not allowed to take tap. Took ballet, modern dance, jazz - was in a modern dance company I left at age 16 to play Anybodys in a company of West Side Story starring Byrne Piven (father of Jeremy Piven).  My favorite tap dancer was Paul Draper - and he taught himself & was related to the superb Ruth Draper. Loved Jean Kelly as well.  Studied dance from the time I was 5 or 6 until my dancing days ebbed in the maybe late '70's. Never managed to get modern dance (the real deal - Graham, Humphrey-Weidman, Limon) on the program.

Funny you mention Byrne Piven--I took acting classes from him in 1991-ish.  He helped me put together my first voiceover demo.  I liked him a lot--very talented man.  And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree with regard to Jeremy.

Thanks for your response!

[bka]

did you study with Byrne (& his wife Joyce?) in Chicago?  Did you improvise (as we did) from Salinger short stories? :0)  what did you include on your reel, pray tell?

[sriv94]

did you study with Byrne (& his wife Joyce?) in Chicago?  Did you improvise (as we did) from Salinger short stories? :0)  what did you include on your reel, pray tell?

I saw Joyce a few times, but she wasn't officially part of the class.  I don't recall doing much Salinger, but it's been a while--although I do recall getting the script for "The Actor's Nightmare" and doing something with that.

Byrne had some old commercial scripts at his home and we spent a few nights combing through them.  The demo was good enough to attract one agency through whom I got a fair amount of work.  Work started to dry up a bit (my voice is a very quirky character-type rather than straight announcer).  On the advice of a producer, I changed agents.  Got a few jobs from them, but it's still a very sporadic business.

I'm typing this on an iPhone as my computer is in the shop, but when I get access to it again I'd love to post a link to my current reel.

[bka]

please do!

[sriv94]

please do!

I forgot that I had access to another computer, so here it is:

http://www.nakedvoices.com/men.asp?ID=64&DID=1

It should play automatically, but if not, look for "Doug Scherer" in the name section.

Comments are welcome, but they should probably be messaged to me rather than posted here so that we don't completely derail this topic.

[mitsguy2001]

actually had very little tap training - I was not allowed to take tap. Took ballet, modern dance, jazz - was in a modern dance company I left at age 16 to play Anybodys in a company of West Side Story starring Byrne Piven (father of Jeremy Piven).  My favorite tap dancer was Paul Draper - and he taught himself & was related to the superb Ruth Draper. Loved Jean Kelly as well.  Studied dance from the time I was 5 or 6 until my dancing days ebbed in the maybe late '70's. Never managed to get modern dance (the real deal - Graham, Humphrey-Weidman, Limon) on the program.

Betty, if you don't mind me asking, what do you mean when you say you were "not allowed to take tap"?  Do you mean that your mother did not allow you to take tap?  Or do you mean that Fred did not allow you to take tap.

[sriv94]

Or do you mean that Fred did not allow you to take tap.

Not to speak for her, but it would seem kind of odd for Fred to have her tap-dance in several scripts without letting her take at least one class (of course, one of those scripts was a tap class the day after we learned what the giant frisbee was for).

I'm guessing it was her folks.

[bka]

well, my folk. as I was raised by a single mother. I think she associated tap-dancing with a (to her) low-brow form of dance. much of it is - some tap dancers are all feet, no arms....or maybe she thought if it as a kind of chorus line uniformity. dunno.  But ballet was classical and approved of, so that's where I started, and in my teens moved over to modern dance, because I had a better body for modern than ballet, and because I liked the bare feet over the restriction of toe-shoes, and because it was a very creative and newer form of dance minus (at its best) the "prettification presentations" of ballet. Ballet being the foundation of all dance in the way that one romance language may make you capable in another one. In my late teens I began to branch out with all sorts of dance forms, taking class in NYC with some wonderful teachers, as well as with great teachers at National Music Camp (Interlochen Michigan) and Bennington College (Bennington Vermont). When at 16 I went out in my first musical theater tour, I was able to dance the original choreography for West Side Story, and playing Anybodys, I got to dance the best stuff, as the only girl in the Jets gang. super great!