WR: Just like London.

CA: Yeah, you're a craftsman.

WR: You do all these different things.

CA: Right, exactly. It's like London so you're considered an artist and so there are no rules about that. When I came out here and Mark (Pearlstein), the then agent at Abrams, said, 'Well, we're gonna sign you for on camera.' I said, 'Well, great,' and then I said, 'Do you guys do a lot of voice-over? 'Cause I do a ton,' and at that time I was doing anywhere from 7-15 radio spots a week and here -- by the way I think I've maybe done 15 radio spots in my entire career in Los Angeles -- they just do not get it. I make everybody very nervous. But New York got me, which is why it's so odd.

WR: Is it possible you actually have energy and so does New York, do you think?

CA: Yes, my energy was very off putting. But it is in life and I don't expect to go to the prom nor do I want to be invited to every prom. It's fine by me.

WR: I'll keep that in mind.

Adler currently stars in the primetime Emmy nominated series and international hit Cow & Chicken as the voice of Cow, Chicken and The Red Guy. © Cartoon Network.

CA: I'd absolutely consider your prom. So Mark made it very clear to me that you do not, when you sign with an agency out here, sign across the boards and I said, 'Well, I have to be represented for voice.' He said, 'You have to meet that department separately.' And I said, 'No, I do not, it's all or nothing. Buh-bye.' He said, 'Wait right here!' So I had never been particularly clever in business.

WR: You mean to say, you had a certain amount of leverage and you didn't realize it at the time?

CA: I don't know if I was even aware of the fact that I had leverage. I just think it annoyed me. I think it was that visceral and I'm that immediate. It just pissed me off is what it did and five minutes later I was down in the voice-over department and I met Arlene Thornton and (Ginny McSwain), who was then the agent there, who totally had no interest in me whatsoever.

WR: So it wasn't love at first sight?

CA: You know, the re-telling of the story is how it was instant love but it wasn't. That first meeting was very difficult and it was, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on back in a week. Do you have any tapes?' And I said, 'No, I didn't need a tape in New York, I just work. I don't have a tape.' Well, what do you do? I had done one animated thing in New York. I did two of the specials, My Little Pony I and My Little Pony II, and that was it. Spike the Baby Dragon is my career. Hello! So I didn't have any tapes of that nor did I have any voice tapes.

WR: But, of course you were there in person. With your actual mouth.

CA: Right. So they said, 'Come back in a week and we'll make a tape,' and I didn't know what the hell to make so I ended up -- luckily, I had done a lot of improv in New York and a lot of improv in life and a lot of character work and so I just threw together -- they said five minutes, I did twelve minutes -- but I did it wearing this fine hat and sunglasses and with my back to them 'cause I was too embarrassed.

WR: Your back to them? You, of the theatre?!

CA: I didn't want anybody to look at me, which really, honest to God is true. Now they remind me what a retard I was. I just absolutely would not be looked at. I was so embarrassed.

WR: We pause now to conjure up this mental image. Okay. So that was your audition and then you had representation?

The Wild Thornberries with Tim Curry, is yet another Nickelodeon series directed by Charlie Adler. © 2000 Viacom International Inc./ Nickelodeon. All Rights reserved.

CA: And then I auditioned and then they got me a general audition at Hanna-Barbara. Then I was flown up to San Francisco to do an on camera commercial for Beck's Beer and I was up in San Francisco and got off the plane and checked my voicemail and there's a message from Arlene that said that I had been hired to replace Joey Kamen as a Smurf. They had killed off one generation and they were turning them in to the babies. So they turn on the Tidy Bowl. So I did that. That was my first animation job out here was Smurfs.

WR: What was your awareness of animation prior to working in it?

CA: Not a lot, not a lot. I mean, like everybody else I had stuff that I loved and I certainly loved all the -- my favorite stuff didn't have voices. My favorite thing was the Road Runner. That always just made me pee in my pants. I loved that. Let's see, do I not want to see it or do I want to take a dump? Hmm. That's a weird expression. So my favorite characters probably were Tweety Bird. I loved Tweety Bird and I loved Krazy Kat.

WR: The comic strip?