Clancy on WIRX 09/15/03

This is the transcript from Clancy’s radio-call in segment on Southwest Michigan’s WIRX/Rock 107.1, with John Jay and Brother Phil.

clip from “Carnivale” – Clancy Brown as Brother Justin, giving a sermon to his congregation: “Latter day versions of the vile plagues that rained on Egypt… The fires that consumed Sodom and Gommorah… Scourges of the Old Testament, yes, but even now, brothers and sisters, even now drought and pestilence fester in the very heart of this great land. Titanic sandstorms, the likes of which man has not seen since the days of the Prophets… And I ask myself, what are these things? What are they, if not evidence of God’s fury? What are they, if not harbingers of the Apocalypse?”

John Jay: There ya go! That’s Clancy Brown on “Carnivale” as Brother Justin Crowe, HBO’s newest series, its newest original production. And welcome to the show, Clancy Brown, live from California, where it is 4:37 in the morning, and you are quite a sport, my friend…

Brother Phil: Yes, thank you!

Clancy: Well, thanks for having me.

John Jay: It’s a pleasure and, honest to God, it’s just so exciting for me, since I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time. I know, and I hope you take this as the compliment it is, you’re one of the great character actors. You know, when people say, “Hey, did you see Clancy Brown last night?” a lot of people might not be able to place the name with the face, but as soon as they SEE you, they go, “Oh, my God! That’s the guy from “The Shawshank Redemption,” that’s the guy from “Bad Boys,” that’s the guy from… The list goes on and on and on…

Clancy: (Chuckling) Well, that’s good of ya…

John Jay: (Laughs)

Clancy: (More laughing) You know how to treat your guests!

John Jay: We were describing you earlier this morning as the guy who got the livin’ crap beat out of him with a pillow sack full of pop cans in “Bad Boys.”

Clancy: Yeah, yeah… My career’s just been one beating after another…

John Jay: (Laughing) Usually you’re dispensing the beatings, though! You’ve played a lot of heavies!

Clancy: (Chuckling) Yeah, every now and then.

John Jay: Yeah, one of my favorite movies, I saw it, and maybe I’m not dating myself, but telling you what my movie tastes run to, was “Shoot to Kill.” It had to have been cool to work with Sidney Poitier in that movie.

Clancy: Yeah, he had been in retirement, and hadn’t done a movie in about ten years, and ran into some tax trouble and very quickly got enough money to pay his tax bill. He did a couple of movies right in a row and figured he kinda liked it, so he did a couple of more movies after that. I haven’t seen him much lately, but what a great man he is!

John Jay: And he was great in that movie! I thought he just did a really, really good believable job!

Clancy: Oh, yeah! I was a young man when I did that, and I was sittin’ there watching him doing a scene, and thought I should get my schoolin’ in, and I went and watched it, and I thought, oh no, this guy, he’s lost it. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s from a different era, he’s too old to do it anymore… Then I go to dailies, and you can’t take your eyes off the guy! And then I felt like a… fool! (Laughter all around.) But at least I didn’t TELL anybody what I thought, at the time. He’s… He’s just amazing.

John Jay: Well, it’s a cool movie. I mean, every time that it comes on cable – and it’s on TBS about every seventeen minutes -- so I watch it on that… It’s got Tom Berenger in it, and Kirstie Alley – back when she was really…

John Jay and Brother Phil: (in unison) HOT!

Clancy: (Laughs)

John Jay: And it’s got Clancy Brown in it, pitchin’ guys off a cliff! You gotta love this movie! And shootin’ an old lady in the eye!

Brother Phil: Yeah!

Clancy: Well, some old ladies just GET to ya… (everyone laughing)

John Jay: And then YOU get shot in the eye by Sidney Poitier, in the end.

Clancy: Yeah, that was very smart-alecky, don’tcha think? (laughing)

John Jay: Yeah, yeah it was. It was a little bit contrived, but I liked it! I really enjoyed it. That was super good. And then, of course, you were the big, bad officer from “Shawshank Redemption.”

Brother Phil: Yeah, my all time favorite movie.

John Jay: Phil’s favorite movie…

Brother Phil: Yeah, yeah! My ALL-TIME favorite movie!

Clancy: That’s on about every fifteen minutes on cable, too.

Brother Phil: Yeah, though I can’t watch it every fifteen minutes, cuz it’s seventeen hours long.

Clancy: Yeah…

John Jay: And it’s also… in all these movies, you put ‘em on cable and they get so heavily edited. Ya know, I’d like to watch the original version, thank you very much, so that’s why I bought the DVD version.

Clancy: Ya wonder why you HAVE cable when they edit those movies!

John Jay: I know, what’s the point?

Clancy: Why can’t we just see the whole thing?

John Jay: Aren’t I paying for this? I mean, on air TV, go ahead and edit the crap out of it! Now, the new show, “Carnivale” just started last night on HBO, and it is a strange show. Even you admitted that it’s a little bit weird…

Clancy: It’s a VERY strange show. It’s even stranger than I thought it was. I mean, the stuff I do is pretty segregated from the carnival stuff, so I can watch the carnival and have a good time, cuz I’ve never seen any of it before, that aspect of the story. But even I, even I, was shaking my head, and kinda looking at it with consternation and curiosity and confusion. However, I was VERY interested!

John Jay: Were you doing, last night, when you were watching it… Well, first of all, was that the first time you’ve seen the whole thing, the final cut, all put together and everything?

Clancy: Oh, yeah!

John Jay: So, when you watched it, didja do sorta the lean back in your couch and itch your chin, going, hey, what the hell…?”

Clancy: (laughs)

John Jay: Cuz that’s what I did a coupla times. The scene with you, with no dialogue whatsoever, but you go to Mr. Chin’s, and you’re standing in front of the place, and all of a sudden there’s a snowstorm, and then it’s raining blood on you…

Clancy: Yeah.

John Jay: And then the crucifix appears in the neon sign, and we’re back to sort of daylight… I know it’s gonna make sense for me eventually…

Clancy: (still chuckling)

John Jay: But, WOW!

Brother Phil: A lot of people are second-guessing that last puff they took!

Clancy: We’ll explain that eventually. But we got a few reviews that said, “This is really boring and nothing happens.” But you just said it! You just said, I’m walking in front of some bordello when suddenly it starts snowing, then raining blood, and then the sign explodes and there’s a cross, and I fall to my knees, and then everything’s back to normal… NOTHING HAPPENS in this show! (laughs)

John Jay: You’ve got an old lady rippin’ money off outta the collection plate, then puking coins!

Clancy: Right! But NOTHING HAPPENS in it…! (laughing)

John Jay: That was the twisted scene from hell!

Brother Phil: (laughing)

John Jay: We just ran that scene on the show about fifteen minutes ago, because I HAD to have Phil see this thing…

Brother Phil: Yeah.

John Jay: He watched the Bears on TV last night…

Brother Phil: Well, I HAD TO… I do the sports on the show, so I have to do my own kind of research, and it just so happens the Bears were getting their asses handed to them by the Vikings last night, and I had to watch that.

Clancy: So that was pretty weird, too!

John Jay: Now are you from Chicago?

Clancy: I went to school in Chicago and spent some time there, so I have a soft spot in my heart for the Bears, although I was heartened to see that the Reds beat the Cubs, cuz I’m an Ohio boy…

John Jay & Brother Phil: (razzing) Okay…Oh, all right… Whatever… Yeah, well…

John Jay: Yeah, we’re working on getting the Cubs into the post-season here, now don’t jinx us in that.

Clancy: No, no, no… I’m very happy for them. Ya know, the Reds aren’t in it, so I’m actually hoping they get in it, too.

Brother Phil: The Cubs are working on NOT making the playoffs right now.

Clancy: NOBODY wants to win the Central. That should be obvious by now.

John Jay: It’s unbelievable… So, yeah, we saw the scene with the woman puking the dollar coins, which was completely strange.

Brother Phil: And what happened to the coins?

John Jay: Yeah, they just disappeared!

Clancy: Yeah, they just disappeared! So, did it really happen, or was it just a trip into her mind, or…?

Brother Phil: You’ll have to watch next week.

John Jay: Or is Brother Crowe just goin’ nuts?

Clancy: Right! That’s true, too! Could he just be insane?

John Jay: Now, you had the same dream last night on the show, though…

Clancy: Yes, we’re sharing the same dreams, that’s our only connection right now, between Ben and I, is that we have the same dreams, the same subconscious imagery going on. And that’s actually the only thing that’s going to connect the stories for a while.

Brother Phil: Wow! Okay.

John Jay: And the imagery… is disturbing, to say the least.

Clancy: All right…

John Jay: And stuff that I feel like, as a watcher of the show, I need to pay really close attention to.

Clancy: Well, that’s where I have the advantage. You DO need to play close attention to it, but I know what every one of those images mean, so…

John Jay: Yeah, cuz you’ve got this big muscular guy with this huge tree tattoo on him, and you’ve got a bunch of World War I battle scenes, you’ve got some prissy looking guy in a tuxedo… I mean, it’s like all over the map!

Clancy: Yeah…

Brother Phil: I like Amy Madigan, too.

John Jay: Oh, I love Amy Madigan…

Clancy: Yeah, she’s the greatest…

John Jay: She’s super.

Clancy: She’s a Chicago girl…

John Jay: She plays your older sister, right?

Clancy: Yes, indeed!

John Jay: Iris Crowe.

Clancy: She may or may not be older…

John Jay: Oh, may or may not be older…

Clancy: (chuckling) She’s my shorter sister.

John Jay: And then you’ve got, of course, all the carnival… the carnies.

Clancy: All those carnies…

John Jay: And then you’ve got that little guy, the little short guy, Michael Anderson, from “Twin Peaks” – Backwards Talking Man…

Clancy: Yeah, he’s great! He’s a very smart fella. He’s one of the best things about the show, I think.

John Jay: And then one of my favorites, I think this guy is hilarious, is Toby Huss as Stumpy Dreyfuss, although we didn’t see him much last night.

Clancy: Oh man, you wait till later on in the show… He shines!

John Jay: Is that right?

Clancy: Yeah, that’s his family there that do the Cootch Show – his daughter and his wife.

John Jay: Is that right?

Brother Phil: I love that guy…

John Jay: That’s really cool. And ya know, I gotta do this before my youngest son takes off for school, cuz I wasn’t even aware of this… You’re on “SpongeBob SquarePants”!

Clancy: (Mr. Krabs voice) That’s true, sir!

John Jay & Brother Phil: (Breaking up with laughter)

John Jay: Who do you play on SpongeBob?

Clancy: (Mr. Krabs voice) I play Mr. Krabs, and I only do it for the money!

(more laughing)

Brother Phil: That’s great!

Clancy: (Mr. Krabs voice) I coulda been a great Shakespearean actor! But, you know, you gotta do whatcha gotta do…

John Jay: How did you get that gig? How does the guy that beats the crap out of people in “Shawshank Redemption”… How does a guy with your pedigree end up on “SpongeBob SquarePants?”

Clancy: (this time in his own voice) Ya know, I had a daughter a few years ago and decided I wanted to stay in town, so I started exploring voiceover stuff and just fell in love with doing animation, doing cartoons… That was another weird show, I couldn’t make head nor tails out of it, but I went in and met the fella, and did a couple of funny voices for him.

Brother Phil: That would be great.

John Jay: It’s gotta be kinda weird being involved with that, because “SpongeBob” has turned into a phenomenon.

Clancy: Unbelievable! It’s unbelievable money that they make for Viacom. Millions of dollars!

Brother Phil: SpongeBob clothes…SpongeBob EverythingPants, is what’s going on right now! NudiePants, DoctorPants, whatever…

Clancy: They’re even getting bids in from designers!

John Jay: Yeah! The thing is that it’s not just kids!

Brother Phil: I know!

John Jay: I mean, I think the show is funny, and I know a bunch of adults that won’t miss it. And they have the SpongeBob slippers that they wear around the house, and I see perfectly sane adults walking around with SpongeBob key chains!

Clancy: (Mr. Krabs voice) Yes, well, ya know, SpongeBob, he’s a talented young man. But he couldn’t match my “Julius Caesar,” I’ll tell ya that right now!

John Jay & Brother Phil: (laughing)

John Jay: Ya gotta do me a favor and say hi to my son, Trace, as Mr. Krabs…

Clancy: (as Mr Krabs) Trace, this is Mr. Krabs. Go into your father’s wallet and send me every piece of money that’s in it! Send it to Mr. Krabs at Bikini Bottom – and I’ll be your friend FOREVER!

John Jay & Brother Phil: (laughing)

John Jay: That’s good! Excellent! There we go! There, now I’m a hero for five minutes, anyway…

Clancy: (laughing)

John Jay: You helped me be a hero for five minutes. Ya know, he got sent home from school for wearing a “SpongeBob NudiePants” tee-shirt!

Clancy: Oh, my goodness.

John Jay: I’m not kidding ya.

Clancy: (as Mr. Krabs) Well, we’re EDGY…

John Jay: We live in the Midwest, Clancy. My kid got sent home for “SpongeBob NUDIE Pants!” IT’S A SPONGE!!!

Clancy: (Mr Krabs voice) But we’re edgy, though…

Brother Phil: Right, the people at school obviously don’t understand that, you know, it IS a sponge!

Clancy: (in his own voice) Hey, I’m from the Midwest, too, man. We’re all good people, sometimes a little misguided, sometimes take things a little seriously… But don’t mess around with our children, see? We’ll even look out for your children FOR ya.

Brother Phil: Yeah, that’s the problem.

John Jay: Right, ya know that sponges don’t have genitalia! Let’s not really worry about it, all right?

Clancy: (Mr. Krabs voice) That’s right… But he does have butt cheeks!

Brother Phil: Yes, he does!

John Jay: What is THAT?

Brother Phil: A sponge with butt cheeks…

John Jay: Why does a sponge have butt cheeks?

Clancy: (in his own voice) I dunno! Ya know, why do they have campfires in the middle of the ocean?

John Jay: I know, I know! I love it! I saw an episode where there was like actual live action.

Clancy: Oh yeah, they do that a lot.

John Jay: Where the squirrel comes up out of the water or whatever…

Clancy: (laughing) Yeah!

John Jay: And she’s got the little helmet on. The squirrel’s always got the little deep sea diving helmet on.

Clancy: Right.

John Jay: That is funny stuff… Absolutely funny stuff! Now you’ve got all the episodes of this new HBO show, “Carnivale,” done for the first season…

Clancy: Right.

John Jay: And you still don’t know what’s going on?

Clancy: I SORTA know what’s going on, but I don’t know how it’s gonna end up. I mean, I know what goes on in this season. See, this is like a novel. I mean, I like to say it’s an epic story told in great detail. And you’ve read like the first chapter, which is kinda just exposition and descriptive, and you’re not really gonna understand anything in the first chapter.

John Jay: I gotcha.

Clancy: But boy, oh boy, it gets deep and complex, and a lot of stuff happens as we go along.

John Jay: Well, I like the fact that the show is on… number one, on HBO. I don’t think that there is another network that does more risky programming than HBO does.

Clancy: Well, there would be a lot more jokes if we were on another network.

John Jay: Oh, God… Yeah, there’d have to be.

Clancy: There’d be a laugh track on the show.

John Jay: There’s just so many strange programs that HBO will take on and make successful because of the, I think, probably the creativity they give the people, and the freedom they give em to do things right.

Clancy: Well, that’s for sure. And I also think that this show got under the skin of a lot of the executives. They just… They became “Carnies” really, they just kinda wouldn’t let it go. And they pound through it, there’s a lot more involvement with the executives of HBO in this show than any other show.

John Jay: Well, that’s evidenced in the website they gave you guys. From the very start, before the show had even been on the air, the website is unbelievable!

Clancy: Yeah?

John Jay: I mean, it’s really, really detailed, and they’re very obviously passionate about the program.

Clancy: They’re very passionate about this show, and thank goodness. Cuz I think you’re right, if the weren’t…? (laughing)

John Jay: You’d be in trouble…

Clancy: You’d never see us.

John Jay: That’s right, you’d be in serious trouble. So, kudos to HBO and to the people you’ve got involved in that show. It’s great stuff! Clancy, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you getting up so early in the morning and calling us and chatting a little bit about this program…

Brother Phil: Mmm-hmmm!

Clancy: No problem! Let’s do it again!

Brother Phil: Good!

John Jay: I am a big, big fan! And I am very proud that I have gotten the opportunity to chat with you. And good luck with the show! I hope it is a HUGE success!

Brother Phil: I’m sure it will be…

John Jay: And that you guys are able to do another season. Make sure they don’t kill off your character toward the end of the show.

Clancy: Oh, no… (deep, scary voice) I’m not going ANYWHERE…

John Jay: Oh, good! We just got a scoop! Clancy survives!

Clancy: (long, evil laugh)

John Jay: Brother Justin survives season one!

Brother Phil: Excellent!

John Jay: Clancy Brown from HBO’s “Carnivale.” Thanks again, man…

Clancy: Thanks Phil, thank you, John…

John Jay: I really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. Have a great day, man!

Clancy: Take it easy.

John Jay: Go get some sleep.

Clancy: All right, you bet.

John Jay: Bye-bye. That’s Clancy Brown from HBO’s “Carnivale.”


To comment on this Interview click HERE