Scott Innes is the voice of many of Hanna-Barbera's characters, including Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and Scrappy. He joined Connie Willis (info) on Saturday's program to discuss his work as a voice over artist and how he became the official voice of Hanna-Barbera's famous cartoon dog character, Scooby-Doo. Connie began the interview by asking to speak with several of the characters in Innes' voice arsenal: Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, Astro, and Snagglepuss.
"I grew up on cartoons, and I loved Hanna-Barbera... I used to sit and mimic them as a child," Innis explained, noting he would recreate episodes of Scooby-Doo at night when he didn't want to go to bed. He recalled auditioning for the 2010 Yogi Bear movie and not getting the roles of Yogi or Boo Boob because the studio wanted to cast celebrities Dan Akroyd and Justin Timberlake. No kid out there went to see the movie because Akroyd and Timberlake were voicing the characters, he suggested.
"As long as the characters sound like the characters you're good to go," Innes suggested. A rare exception would be Bill Murray in the role of Garfield the cat which Innes thought worked well for the movie. He expressed gratitude for his career bringing beloved animated characters to life. "It's a huge honor to do this voices," Innes said.
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In the second half of the show, Paul Sugar, founder and director of the Scottsdale Institute for Health and Medicine Center for Mindfulness, revealed how the principles of mindfulness can be used for stress reduction and to achieve peak performance. Sugar has spearheaded a number of mindfulness-based research studies in the healthcare field and has an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course.
"Mindfulness is being able to pay attention moment by moment on purpose to the body, thoughts, emotions, and the breath," Sugar explained, noting the body is the gateway to the present moment experience. According to Sugar, people can get stuck in the fight or flight response which leads to them living in fear, specifically the fear of dying. "It's not unusual at all for people to come to the realization that they've been stuck in this fight or flight mode for decades," he reported.
Fear disconnects us from the body, Sugar continued, adding the practice of mindfulness is proactive. "The body senses that we're reconnecting and it takes that as a signal that there's no more danger out there," he revealed. We lose the fear and all the negative changes that take place because of it, and gain balance, Sugar noted. "If you continue to stay connected to the body... you will begin to have that present moment experience twenty-four seven," he disclosed, pointing out this allows one to get into a flow state where a more prosperous life is possible.