I couldn’t wait for the cartoon series that I have been directing for the past half year, Little King Macius, to end. The show itself was fine. I even enjoyed it! And the actors did a wonderful job creating their hilarious characters. But as the dubbing director, I had to sit through each episode at least eight times – in excruciating detail. The only people who should be as intimately familiar with a cartoon series are the geeks that live at Comic-Con.

When the final episode was completed last month, I promised myself I wouldn’t direct dubbing again for a long time. And then I got a phone call. A recording studio in Barcelona (a converted mansion, actually) found themselves with a series of eight short horror vignettes based on wonderfully bloody and somewhat ridiculous urban legends to be dubbed into English. A prominent Catalan director who I had worked with in the past recommended that they call me to head the project if they wanted it done right. Not wanting to let said director down, I agreed. Eight episodes, six actors, three days, and one severed head later, the project was completed. My favorite episode was the one where a female postal worker unknowingly licks an envelope that had been occupied by a cockroach, cuts her tongue terribly, proceeds to feel horribly ill, passes out, and watches helplessly as five nasty roaches burrow their way out of her now fat and puss-filled purple tongue. Sweet.

As I was packing up my shizit on the last day of recording, one of the girls from the studio pulled me aside and told me about an upcoming TV ad that they would be dubbing next week and told me that I might be perfect for the part. The clients were looking for a native English speaker who spoke Catalan with a thick foreign accent. She footnoted her request by saying that my Catalan accent was probably too good but that I could play it up. Happy to oblige, I recorded a few castings right then and there for the studio to send on to the client. I felt like an idiot speaking with such a crap accent but the thought of the paycheck kept me going. This morning I got a call from the studio. The clients chose me and I’ll be recording the spot next week. Nice.

As if this wasn’t enough, someone at HP found out that I was an actor and sent me an email asking if I’d be interested in acting in an upcoming video that they’re making and plan to post on the web. I’d have to demonstrate how to use a third-party media cutter in conjunction with one of our 60-inch Z6100 printers and then record the voice-over narration. It sounded interesting and possibly even fun so I would have probably said yes even if they didn’t go on to say that I could practically name my price. Awesome.

Looks like Emily is going to have a very happy Chanukah this year.