The other day I was extremely pleased to find that one of my favorite workday time-wasters, had posted a story about the character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. Tobolowsky is a classic hey-it's-that-guy, most widely known as Ned Ryerson in the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. Mention his name to most people and you'll get a blank stare in return; but mention Ned Ryerson and the light of comprehension dawns.I happen to have a personal reason for being a Tobolowsky fan; I grew up across the street from his parents. June, his mother, was one of my grandmother's close friends, and she used to come across the street for coffee and baked goods, or one of our frequent holiday gatherings, or just for a swim. She was delightful, and so of course I liked Stephen by association. I'm always happy to see him pop up in TV shows and movies (most recently Glee, for which I feel he would have been entirely justified to earn a Guest Actor Emmy nod this year - though obviously he didn't).
Anyway, this story was about The Tobolowsky Files, an ongoing series of podcasts presented by SlashFilm in which Tobolowsky tells stories from his life. Many of them have to do with his long career in the film business, but many others are simply stories about family, life, love, and loss.
So I started listening and immediately I was hooked. Tobolowsky, as it turns out, has a real gift for both voice work and storytelling. The stories are interesting, wide-ranging, hilarious and occasionally incredibly moving. He's already done a documentary in this style (Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party, which was actually the inspiration for the podcasts) but I'd love to see him turn it into a book, or to hear him on NPR, or even to see him do another movie or a one-man-show. Hollywood, let's get on this!
In the meantime, you can get your Tobolowsky fix at The Tobolowsky Files, or by following him on twitter at www.twitter.com/tobolowsky.
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