Piotr Walczuk

Interview by Brock Garrison

July 2009

During one of my many YouTube sessions, I stumbled across a guy performing impressions better than ANYONE I had ever heard. I was astounded at the talent of

Piotr Walczuk (pronounced: "pea-oh'tr / vowel-chook"), and contacted him so we

could talk about his many talents and what's happening in his life. - Brock G.

BG: Hey Piotr, so good to speak with you! Thanks for making some time to do

this. Piotr is quite an unusual name, at least in America. How'd your parents

decide on that?

PW: My mother is from Poland and my father is Polish-American, so they wanted to continue

with my Polish roots. My dad was thinking about naming me Pierrot, a French name but my

mom said, "Why would we want to give our son a weird name?"

BG: HA HA! And ya know, so many folks in Hollywood change their names once

they get in the biz, what's your opinion of that? Would you change your name

because some "suit" told you to?

PW: I think changing your name nowadays seems less common. I see more and more people using their

birth names and people are fine with it. If I had to, I'd probably stick with my first name to stay unique and

recognizable and maybe use my middle name, so I would be "Piotr Michael." If I could be a totally different

persona I would name myself something like, Elroy Waltz or something like that. It would be easiest to just create an original character and have multiple aliases. Much more fun!

BG: So tell us about your childhood a bit. Where are you from? When did you first realize you wanted to be an actor and what was the first impression you remember learning?

PW: I was born in Southern California and my family moved a few times. From California to Ohio to New Mexico and most recently to Hawaii. My dad was always doing theater so acting was something that became a part of the family. Even my mom who doesn’t perform in public, is the biggest actor of us all! I remember seeing Charlie Chaplin in “Modern Times” when I was about seven years old and mimicking his singing scene. While watching that I remember jumping in front of the television and mirroring his actions. I think that impressions just came naturally to me, I remember mimicking to make my family laugh whenever watching a film, I’d do impressions of velociraptors after seeing Jurassic Park or I would mimic cartoons, I loved Looney Tunes. The first time my impressions were really recognized was in the third grade. I was sitting in music class and our teacher was auditioning for the Wizard of Oz, I started speaking like the Lion under my breath and a fellow student started shouting, “He can sound just like him!” So I was pulled to the front of the class and cast in the school play as the Lion, mimicking his singing style, with all his grunts and such.

BG: Please tell me you have a video of you doing the Cowardly Lion at your school play!

PW: I wish I did! I think I have something from my birthday where I lip-synced the tune, but it's buried in boxes of VHS tapes.

BG: Have you ever called in to a morning show on the radio as a celebrity just to mess with the dj's or the people listening? You'd be pretty darn good at it!

PW: Never a call in to a professional show or anything, mostly with friends and family. I would leave messages for my mom sounding exactly like her friends or our uncle, "Piotr needs a bigger allowance, he's a good kid!"

BG: Why did you first put yourself on YouTube? What was the initial reaction from viewers?

PW: I posted my first impressions video because I was so irritated by people and their “100 voices in 2 minutes.” I remember saying to myself, “Those aren’t impressions, those are sound effects! I can do better!” I call those impressions “sound effects” because I think anyone can sound like any voice if spoken in four syllables or less! It was slow to respond, but some people would go “hey that sounds just like Gandalf!” and I didn’t think much would happen. I assumed YouTube was just another site that would blow off the small guys and focus on the “Jackass” videos and hyper chipmunk music videos. It wasn’t until my second impressions video that people really started to notice. I was suddenly featured on the front page of YouTube and I remember getting hundreds of comments overnight. Something like 300 email notifications. I was so excited, about 20,000 views I think. I’m very modest about my talents, so even though I was excited, I didn’t feel like I deserved it.

BG: You've posted dozens of videos since then. You already have over 6,000 subscribers to your page. So many characters it's hard to know where to begin! What are your favorites to perform? Are there any impressions that you don't currently do, that you've been working on?

PW: My favorite characters would have to be Doc Brown from Back to the Future, Gandalf, Emperor Palpatine and Austin Powers. Those mainly because they come so naturally to me, they fit my tone so well and it never felt like a true challenge to do them, so the material I created was more natural and free flowing, and the result I think was much more humorous. I do enjoy challenging myself though and doing elderly characters and dialects from the UK more often. I find that I can’t remember most of my impressions! I have so many, I often have to refer to a list many times to remember! At the moment I am working on Tony Shaloub, Alan Alda and Stephen Fry to name a few…. shhh!

BG: After the recognition on YouTube began to grow, you were contacted by Saturday Night Live in August of 2008, to try out for the show. How was that experience? Who did you get to meet while there?

PW: I didn’t get to meet big shots first hand but I did meet many comedians who auditioned with me, such as Kyle Dunnigan and John Mulaney. There were twenty in total. I was allowed only five minutes, and traditionally people audition with three to four characters/impressions. I was urged to do twenty impressions in five minutes! The producer who contacted me was so excited that I could be a possibility, and it really was a huge deal. I was flown from Hawaii to New York City after a two day notice! I was treated like a star and it felt so odd, but I wanted to focus on the audition not the joys of sleeping in a fancy hotel! It was during the Olympics, so the main SNL stage was in use and I auditioned at the Conan O’Brien stage, which was super small in person! When I auditioned I saw Seth Myers rocking back and forth from laughter and that felt great. Lorne Michaels was just as deadpan as always, but I didn’t get to see much of the producer's reactions as the lights blinded me. I walked out as high as a kite. I didn’t care whether I was chosen or not (yeah right!) and I was so happy to have made people laugh. My dad said something to me on the phone after I auditioned, “Do you realize you’ve just entertained the entertainers of the world?” So it was a life changing event, and it has been very positive since!

BP: And then in November you were picked as the winner of the FrankTV Impression contest... Tell us about that.

PW: After the SNL audition, I decided to study abroad for one year in England. I wanted to experience life in Europe before a possible transition to Los Angeles. I was actually told by a fan on YouTube about the contest. You had to submit your best impression, an impression that Frank Caliendo does on his show. I submitted my Robert Deniro impression, and I felt like it was a rigged contest. You know, like those contests from soft drink companies that go out and no one seems to win that two million dollars worth of Pepsi branded couches? So I submitted and forgot about it. About one week later I got an email saying, “Congrats you won!” I thought it was spam but noticed it had TBS in the subject so I opened it, and sure enough it was from the FrankTV contest. I still didn’t believe I had won. I thought they’d send me $500 dollars after taxes or something odd like that with their manipulative loopholes and such, but it was all genuine and my Deniro impression was actually rated by people as better than Frank Caliendo’s!

BP: I'd say 2008 was a pretty good year for you!

PW: It certainly was, and it was a fast year for me! I felt like I accomplished more in that year than many people get to in there whole career, so I feel extremely lucky and charged for the future.

BG: What are your plans for '09? How much more school do you have? And speaking of, what are you studying?

PW: I’ve been trying to do more original characters lately. I see impressions as a window that can lead to other things, but the real skill is in creating new characters. I am working on a voice demo now to show off my best stuff and after this school experience in England, I will be checking out Los Angeles and meeting with producers and managers there. I hope to do voice acting, improv workshops, and get a tan again! I am in the middle of college now, but I am considering a year off to see how hot L.A. can get. And if things are good I plan to study some more there. I am studying film, theater and art at the moment.

BG: Recently you started performing stand-up comedy. How's that been so far?

PW: It’s been an extremely beneficial experience. It teaches you differently from what you learn performing in a group. You control everything you do on stage, so there is great freedom as well as a great responsibility to the audience and yourself. The British crowd is very warm to new comedians, and I look forward to be performing in London during the summer. I haven’t done any impressions on stage yet, I wanted to see how much I could do without it. I certainly admire Frank Caliendo and other impressionists, but I don’t want to be labeled as such, so I’ve been trying original characters on stage. Most people love it when I act out during my set and surprise them with voices, it is a joy to do.

BG: I'm very excited to see some of your stand-up! Will you be posting any online soon?

PW: I hope to get my last two sets online soon. It is in the processing stage but the net is there for people to share, and I definitely plan on sharing my stand up. I know a lot of people would love to see my full performing features, rather than just my face!

BG: I was checking out your site at www.nuzarc.com and discovered that in addition to your amazing impressions and original characters you do, you are also quite an accomplished artist! Any professional aspirations in that field?

PW: I am an Art Major and was always interested in a career in animation. I think that is why I was drawn to voice acting, because I wanted to bring characters to life. Drawing is such a patient process and voice acting for me is much more immediate, so I’ve swung more towards it, but I plan to continue studying more drawing and filmmaking. I think if I were to be artistically involved in animation, I would prefer having creative control. I am working to include more animation in my web projects.

BG: What has been your influences in each of your artistic fields?

PW: For comedy; Monty Python, SNL, Robin Williams, Bill Cosby, Dylan Moran and Jim Carrey. For voices; Peter Sellers, Mel Blanc, and Billy West. With art it is much harder to say. I just love drawing. Stephen Silver is a favorite influence.

BG: We here at Banned Promotions are music lovers to the core. What about you? What have you been listening to lately?

PW: I am pretty open to music. I don’t have specific favorites or songs that I can listen to over and over. I have an ever-changing tide of taste. It goes in and out of genres. At the moment I listen to Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash, Smashing Pumpkins, and a lot of alternative bands like the Whigs, and the Flaming Lips. In a few months I know I’ll be sick of them and fall back into my Beatles mania phase and warp out into Wolfmother and maybe some Philip Glass. I like to mix things up when I can, and I like to keep my ears open for any new music. If I shut out to a specific genre I know I’ll be missing a lot. Most certainly though, I don’t enjoy the commercial hip hop… I get enough of that at the gym!

BG: What do you see yourself doing in, say, five years?

PW: Probably as a security officer for the New World Government, but if not... I’d love to see myself doing voice over work for cartoons and games, and performing stand up across the country. I hope to be working in film, both in front and behind the camera. Knowing how much has happened to me in just two years, five years time can be very positive if I continue to work hard.

BP: Any last words for the internet masses before we say farewell for now?

PW: Do what you love to do and make sure people know about it.

BP: Alright, thanks for taking the time to do this! I have truly laughed myself silly watching your videos!

Guys and gals, go check out Piotr's work online!!!

www.nuzarc.com

And go check out his videos on Youtube... Just search: Pokedachef

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