The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast

Bob Smithhouser: Hi, Odyssey fans. Welcome to The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast. I'm Bob. And I'm Jesse. Today's edition is all about our dear friend, Andre Stoica. If you heard our last podcast, you know that the role of John Avery Whitaker is passing from Andre to Phil Crowley. And if you want the full story behind that transition, why it's happening, and how Phil was chosen, go back and listen to that episode first. Because today we're focusing on Andre. Andre has a storied career. Phil called him an elder statesman in the world of voiceover, and that's a fitting description. Outside of Odyssey, Andre is best known for the voice of Owl in Winnie the Pooh, the role he inherited from Hal Smith, the original voice of Wit.

He also has more than a hundred acting credits in TV and movies, including The King in several Cinderella movies and various voices on Scooby-Doo. His long run with Adventures in Odyssey began before he voiced Wit. Andre first appeared as William Brewster in the episode Stepping Stones. Elder Brewster? Now, now, be calm. We rehearsed this many times. Richard, you are to detain the magistrate at the door. Do not allow them into the house until I give you the signal. Yes, sir. That guest appearance came when the Odyssey team was searching for a new voice for John Avery Whitaker. Part of the audition process was hearing how these folks would interact with the rest of the cast.

Out of a very talented field, Andre emerged as our new wit.

Andre Stojka: He stepped into the role starting with Darien's Rise, where he shared scenes with Jack Allen, who was played by Alan Young.

Dave Arnold: Hi, Jack.

Bob Smithhouser: Hi.

Dave Arnold: What in the world are you doing out on a day like this?

Bob Smithhouser: Well, I wanted to see you.

Dave Arnold: Huh?

Bob Smithhouser: And from there, Andre settled into Wit's familiar spot behind the counter for many years to come, bringing his own warmth, humor, wisdom, and yes, that unmistakable sense of fun to the character.

Andre Stojka: We wanted to give Andre the chance to look back on his years as Wit, the memories that stand out, and how he feels about this new chapter.

Bob Smithhouser: And we thought the perfect person to have that conversation would be someone who's recently gone through a transition of his own, former Odyssey executive producer Dave Arnold. Dave and Andre have shared a lot of Odyssey history together, so we asked Dave to sit down with him. Let's hear what they both had to say.

Dave Arnold: Well, Andre, it is wonderful to hear your voice. Thank you so much for carving out some time to speak with us today. Well, it's good to hear your voice. we've been spoken for a long time, so it's great to hear you. Now that we're talking about your career, which is an amazing one, take us back to the early day, the very first day when you were first asked to audition for the role of John Avery Whitaker. Did you know anything about Adventures in Odyssey at that point, in particular about Whit, when the opportunity arose?

Andre Stojka: Well, it was interesting because I had been asked to audition for Whit, and I was having, at the time, a very busy career, and I had just bought a vacation place on Catalina Island. This goes really back far, and it was the first thing I turned down because

Dave Arnold: Do you remember what year that was?

Andre Stojka: Yeah. No, no, but it was pretty close to 30 years ago.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, I'd say it was probably early 90s when, right after Hal Smith passed away.

Andre Stojka: Yeah, yeah. And I had just, you know, I have a young little baby boy and bought the place. So, I just, I hated to do it, but because, you know, I would do anything to do radio drama. That's the love of my life. but I had to turn it down, and so when this came up years later, I was absolutely thrilled because it was, I love radio and I love radio drama, and that's the real reason I'm you. I'm really fulfilling my real interest.

Dave Arnold: Well, the role of Whit had already been portrayed by two really loved actors

Andre Stojka: Yeah, yeah.

Dave Arnold: before you stepped into it, because again, Hal Smith was in the role first, then you turned it down after that, and we moved on to Paul Herlinger. Was it a challenge for you to sort of slot into that role after those gentlemen had been involved in it? Because in some ways you kind of want to, you know, do things the way they did it so it doesn't feel like a departure of the character, but then you have to also bring yourself to it, right? Was it difficult finding that balance?

Andre Stojka: Uh, at first, yes, because I'm, you know, everybody wants to hear what they heard before. And, what you, you know, in the ideal world, there'll be no change whatsoever except I'm doing hell or ball, you know? But in the real world, you have your own feelings toward the story, you have your own feelings toward characters, you have feelings toward the situations, and you have to bring yourself to it. So that's what, eventually, I said to myself, I just have to be me, and eventually- and work my- and not try to do a voice or anything like that, but be a real person. And- and they're- and it's quite a real person to be.

I mean,

Dave Arnold: It's wonderful.

Andre Stojka: Wit is quite a guy, you know. You know, in the real world, if somebody were like Wit, he'd have an ego a mile long. But Wit, you know, but he can't be that way. He has to be a human guy, warm, a loving guy. You know, and so that's what I tried to present to as I evolved into Wet.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, how long did it take before you felt comfortable in that role?

Andre Stojka: Probably at least a year. At some point, you've done it so many times, and you're, I'm reading you too. I'm trying to see how you react to me. And, you may, you've got to just, you say, well, OK, I'm now comfortable in this because, you know, David is not going to come through the control room window and hit me, you know.

Dave Arnold: Have I ever done that? Did I ever do that? Let's just make sure the record is clear for all those people listening right now.

Andre Stojka: You're a great guy to work for, and I really have appreciated your support over the years.

Dave Arnold: Oh, I've enjoyed working with you so much, and just the time we've been able to spend together is always a treasure to me. Whit, the character Whit, you talked about this already. I mean, he, there's so many facets to his character, right? I mean, he's warm on one hand, but he's also has humorous moments. He's adventurous, but then he's also can be stern if he needs to be. He's brilliant, but he's also vulnerable. There's so many sides to the characters, and sometimes they're even in the same episode. So which sides of the character of Whit come most naturally to you, and which ones maybe require a little more effort?

Andre Stojka: The warmth comes easily to me. Sometimes he has to be very strong, and he has to, you know, arrange things, and that takes a little thinking through how to get there. Because sometimes within the same sentence, he has to be authoritative and yet warm. So you have to, you think through every word, everything is, and an actor does that in a microsecond. That's, you know, that, I guess, is why actors are actors and they can do that.

Dave Arnold: And you didn't study the script ahead of time, right? You're reading it as the script is coming along.

Andre Stojka: No, no, no. I asked, along the way. I, you know, I value this program. I value my participation in the program, and, no, I want to do a good job, so I've asked very early in the show whether I could get the scripts in advance, just send them on the computer. When I get a script, the first thing I do is underline my part. So I just separates it from the visually, it makes it easier. Once I've read it out loud, as I do at home, I've made my mistake. Now I have to go back and do it correctly. It's like when they say in writing, you don't really write, you rewrite. The way you get a really terrific piece of writing down

is you write the bad part, and then you look at it and you say, oh, how terrible that is, I better fix it.

Dave Arnold: Yep.

Andre Stojka: Any creative thing needs a first draft.

Dave Arnold: Did you find that even in the studio, Andre, when you were delivering takes that you wanted to go back and do multiple takes because you wanted to adjust some of what you've done before?

Andre Stojka: Yeah, yeah, always, but but, uh, uh, less so in the studio because I've already had the experience at home.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, gotcha. Uh, was there any particular genre of story you enjoyed more than another, or did you enjoy them all equally?

Andre Stojka: I wish, uh, we had done some more action adventure things, that would have been more fun, but other than that, I- you know, I'm- I've- I enjoyed them all.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, is there any sort of pet favorite that you have?

Andre Stojka: They all, I guess there are shows which were more important in the lives of the care. I'm thinking of that show where Connie lost her mom. I mean, we were all in tears during that show, which is out of life, and it's one of those things that you don't hear on television or radio. It's because it's too personal, and but it wasn't too personal for this show, and I thought that defined this show because it it's talking about reality. Whether it's that kind of reality or your spiritual relationship or, I mean, these are all important things, and nobody ever touches these things, ever, except this show.

Dave Arnold: Mm. you mentioned Connie, the character of Connie. she's such a pivotal character for the series as well. Tell us about Whit's relationship, his friendship with Connie, and also about developing your personal relationship with Katie Lee, who plays the role of Connie.

Andre Stojka: Yeah, well, Katie and I are friends, and we've become friends, but you know, this whole show has been a family affair, you know, its own unique family, for- because we've been together for so long. Katie is a wonderful actress and has played that part so well, because she's kind of a rock, if you think about it.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, she is.

Andre Stojka: You know, and yet she's emotional, and yet she's a rock, so she's- she plays it in a very interesting way.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, the character's really developed quite remarkably, actually.

Andre Stojka: Yeah, yeah.

Dave Arnold: So, Odyssey, as you know, as I think most everybody listening knows, that we record all of the actors together as an ensemble, not piecemeal. your presence, I mean, this is true of some people, not everybody, but there are people that have a presence in the studio that helps anchor the sessions, and you did that when you were involved in the sessions. And many of these tapings included very young performers, new to the show, and maybe even new to voice acting in general. What did you do in particular to help make them feel comfortable in the studio and draw them in to the group?

Andre Stojka: I just try to be visually comforting, smiling at them, giving a sign saying it's okay, it was really good. That kind of encouragement really gets them to feel more comfortable in their part and give a better performance.

Dave Arnold: Yeah. One thing I've found too is that when you're in the studio, behind the glass on, the director and the engineer side, you're making sort of evaluations of things you need to change, and the actor, bless your hearts, behind the glass can't hear what we're talking about, so there's a bit of, you know, unsureness, right? And so in the context of those things, you all bind together and help one another through that until we can come through and say, it's all great, we just want to make minor tweaks. any thoughts about that in particular?

Andre Stojka: One of the things that I used to hate was, in cartoons, if I was having a conversation with Pooh, for example, as I played Owl, and I was having a conversation with him, I'd never see him because they would just come in and record my lines. And yet, you know, the performances would be so much better if we could interrelate with each other, even though we didn't want to have our voices, you know, overlap. there's just something about having another person there, and nobody in those cartoons understood that. So this is, uh, one of the u- unique things. And another part of this is you can overlap somebody in, in, uh, Odyssey.

Um, that's the way people are. They overlap, they, uh, it's more real than, than most other voice acting. It's really unique.

Dave Arnold: Mm. You know, the character of Whit, uh, Andre has served as a mentor and a spiritual guide to so many of the characters, and to our listeners, of course. How did playing that role and that piece of the role in particular challenge or encourage or maybe even strengthen you personally?

Andre Stojka: Well, from a spiritual point of view, of course. there aren't many opportunities in which you're asked to contribute your spiritual feelings toward a role.

Dave Arnold: Yeah. Well, let's turn a corner here and talk a little bit more about the transition from you as the character of Whit. You knew that the team had begun exploring how the role for Whit might continue into the future, and you were very gracious. You've always been very gracious with us. It was a tough decision to make in making that. What crossed your mind as that all began to play out?

Andre Stojka: How am I changing as a person? Is the perception of me now the same perception of me five years ago? And I can't judge that. You know, I do a lot of other recording, and I sound pretty much the way I think I sound, but, you know, obviously perceptions change and times change, and also there's a question of age. Wit is of a certain age, and as he gets older, his attitudes would change as an older person. Older people get set in their ways maybe a little bit more, you know? Uh, and then the issue of my health came up. I've had some pro- health problems, and, uh, it's, I'm- I'm- I seem to be, uh, getting over, but it's taking time.

Dave Arnold: Yeah. Yeah, well, we're- we're all on a clock that's ticking away, so we know that at some point we're gonna hit zero, so-

Andre Stojka: No, I'm gonna stuff that clock under a pillow.

Dave Arnold: If you can do that for me, I'd appreciate it.

Andre Stojka: I'll do it through prayer, that's what I'll do.

Dave Arnold: Thank you, thank you. That's what we'll all have to do. so now that the search has reached its conclusion, and we have Phil now in the role, and he's begun recording, how do you feel about moving outside of that role and having somebody else come in in this new chapter for a character that's meant so much to you personally, as you've already talked about.

Andre Stojka: Well, you know, the truth of the matter is I love doing the show, and I don't like the idea that I'm not doing the show anymore. Anybody would have that feeling.

Dave Arnold: Sure.

Andre Stojka: And so, but there are reasons for it, and I, we live in a real world, and I have to accept what's in the real world.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, yeah. Well, that's very gracious, and I thank you for that. So for the last several sessions, as we just alluded to, Phil Crawley has stepped into Wit's shoes. You know Phil. What do you think qualifies him, and what qualities does he possess that you think will best serve the role into the future?

Andre Stojka: I think he's a basically nice person. You know, and I don't know if you've looked at the television or listened to the tracks, but no, there are not a lot of roles for nice people to play. Usually, you know, I mean, the everybody's tough and every, you know, and violent and all of that. And but Phil is a nice guy. He's compassionate, and he's a human being, and I, my guess is that he will connect very well with the audiences and work his way. He's going to have the same problems that I had finding himself as he comes into the role, and so there's only, there's no way of doing it intellectually, and that, you know, you have to actually do it and see how people react to it and bring that into how you continue to perform.

Dave Arnold: Mm-hmm. So as we gaze into the road ahead of us, what are your hopes for Adventures in Odyssey, for the role of Whit, and for the listeners that are tuning in into the future?

Andre Stojka: Well, I think, first of all, Odyssey is a unique program, and I think that it fills an important role for people who are listening to it. I read the Facebook pages of, you know, the, I see the comments that people make and realize how important the show is to the Odyssey fans. my feeling is that we need more programs like that. We need, what we really need is an Odyssey for adults. You know, I mean, when you look at the way people act in the real world, adults act toward each other, you really need to, well, we need to teach them a lesson. My dad used to say, you know, you want to know about a human being, you want to know how he thinks, watch how he drives.

Dave Arnold: That's very true.

Andre Stojka: And you can tell everything about that person by the way they drive. Are they selfish? Are they greedy? Do they push ahead? Um, you know, that's all there, and

Dave Arnold: There- there's a cautionary tale for us all right there.

Andre Stojka: That's right.

Dave Arnold: Well, in some ways, I do think that Odyssey, it transcends one age range. You say we should do an Odyssey for adults, but I know a lot of adults listen to Odyssey.

Andre Stojka: Sure.

Dave Arnold: So that that's the beauty of how the team has crafted these stories through the years and ongoing, I think,

Andre Stojka: Sure.

Dave Arnold: is that it's not dumbed down, right? There's there are layers that different ages can sort of take on board for themselves, and I think that's a- that's a gift from the Holy Spirit to be able to tell those kinds of stories because it's very rare, as you've said.

Andre Stojka: Absolutely, absolutely.

Dave Arnold: Well, Andre, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. You're such a dear friend, and, let me just say how much, I appreciate everything that you have done for this show through the years. You've been wit, I think, longer than anybody else has been wit, and so, probably most of the people listening to the show identify your voice as that character. You've made a huge impact on people's lives, and I just want to say thank you for all that you've done.

Andre Stojka: Well, thank you for the opportunity. You know, you don't get a chance to make a difference very often. And this show makes a difference, and as being part of the show, I guess I've made a difference too.

Dave Arnold: Yes, you did.

Andre Stojka: So it gives you a good feeling, you know? This show gives me a really great feeling I've done something, you know, worthwhile and important.

Dave Arnold: Mm. Well, God bless you, my friend.

Andre Stojka: God- and listen, enjoy your retirement.

Dave Arnold: I am absolutely thoroughly enjoying my retirement. I know you'll never retire, so I won't tell you that.

Andre Stojka: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm doing audiobooks, and so, I've got a stack of them ready to go, so it's good. I've been blessed, you know?

Dave Arnold: Good.

Andre Stojka: And I mean, you really, when you think about it, the doing the things that we're doing, affecting people, it's a blessing.

Dave Arnold: Yeah, what better thing is there in life, right?

Andre Stojka: Yeah, yeah, it's terrific. Doing good and helping people and being able to survive and get paid to do it is just a wonderful, wonderful thing, and God has been very generous to you and me.

Dave Arnold: Yes, he has. I'm very grateful.

Bob Smithhouser: That was a beautiful conversation, Jess. Andre had so many wonderful things to say, and Dave did a terrific job.

Jesse Florea: It sounds like this transition has been bittersweet for Andre, just as it's been bittersweet for the entire Odyssey team. You know, there's a lot to celebrate, but there's a lot of history, gratitude, and emotion wrapped up in this change too.

Bob Smithhouser: Absolutely. Andre has meant so much to this show and to all of us who've worked with him.

Jesse Florea: I know, I always loved listening to him in the studio.

Bob Smithhouser: Mm. You know, speaking of listening, album 83, phase 1, is now underway. What's coming up next in the club, Jess?

Jesse Florea: Tomorrow, November 12th, it's Fighting Back.

Bob Smithhouser: And what's that one about?

Jesse Florea: Oh, Chris.

Chris Anthony: Now in the Adventures in Odyssey club, Kayla has some issues with the recent reporting at Channel 10.

Andre Stojka: Morgan, have you read the next story?

Dave Arnold: Yes, of course.

Jesse Florea: Does it feel right to you?

Dave Arnold: Yeah, what's the problem?

Jesse Florea: Well, we're only reporting half the story.

Chris Anthony: Meanwhile, Trey is frustrated with the new rules at school.

Bob Smithhouser: I can't take any more of this assigned seating.

Andre Stojka: Me either.

Bob Smithhouser: This is unjust.

Chris Anthony: It is, and we shouldn't take it.

Andre Stojka: But what should we do? Go on strike or something?

Chris Anthony: The Calhouns fight hard for their causes. Now in the Adventures in Odyssey Club.

Jesse Florea: Fighting Back releases November 12th on the club, and while you're there, we have links to some of our favorite Odyssey episodes and podcasts featuring Andre, so you can revisit more of his years as wit.

Bob Smithhouser: That's all for this edition of The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast, a presentation of Focus on the Family.

Jesse Florea: Join the club or find out more at adventuresinodyssey.com.

Bob Smithhouser: Or call us at 1-800-A-FAMILY. I'm Bob.

Jesse Florea: And I'm Jesse, reminding you that with God in your life, every day is an adventure.