Secrets to Comedy Success: Podcast with Bill Paddock

Bill Paddock on Voices, Improv, and Finding Comedy in Retirement at The Villages

Season eight of Villages Vitality Life: Seniors Life Unscripted opens with host Mike Roth interviewing Villages resident Bill Paddock, a retired Bureau of Prisons correctional officer and former Marine who moved from Pennsylvania to The Villages to be near family. Paddock describes how Looney Tunes voice actors (especially Mel Blanc) sparked his interest in character voices and comedy, and how early attempts at standup were derailed after realizing a headliner had recently used similar “different laughs” material, keeping him offstage for nearly 20 years. Though he considers himself introverted, he enjoys performing for unfamiliar audiences and shares a Marine Corps prank story and a radio improv character, “Bobby with an eye,” including a parody Sinatra-style song. Roth explains key improv rules and invites Paddock to local Monday sessions; Paddock plans a voice-driven podcast, Mad Dog Comedy, aiming for release by Christmas.

00:00 Season Eight Kickoff
00:40 Meet Bill Paddock
01:12 Why The Villages
01:33 Cartoons Spark Comedy
02:09 Voices and Improv
04:37 Finding the Funny
05:13 Military to Corrections
06:06 Okinawa Phone Call Win
10:01 First Standup Set Flop
12:40 Alzheimers GLP One Update
14:20 Introvert on Stage
15:51 Improv Rules Basics
16:41 Make Partners Shine
16:54 No Mistakes In Improv
17:24 Why Improv Beats Script
17:41 Show Night Highlights
18:08 Radio Improv Origins
18:56 Bobby With An Eye
19:39 Sinatra Parody Clip
23:11 Prince William Aftermath
24:03 Retirement And Pickleball Pressure
25:16 Villages Club Culture
26:58 Tap Shoes Mixup
27:39 Mad Dog Comedy Podcast
28:49 Closing Thanks And Supporters

New FAN MAIL features TXT & Voice Mial

Transcript

Secrets to Comedy Success: Upcoming Podcast with Bill Paddock

[00:00:00] Nancy: Welcome to Season eight of Villages Vitality Life, Seniors Life Unscripted . In this new season, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live in and around The Villages. We also talk to people who have information vital to seniors. You will get perspectives of what is happening in and around The Villages, Florida, in addition.

We will add more information for all seniors. We are a listener supported podcast.

[00:00:35] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth on Villages Vitality, Senior Life Unscripted. Today I am here with Bill Paddock. Bill, thanks for joining me. 

[00:00:44] Bill Paddock: Thanks for having me, Mike. 

[00:00:45] Mike Roth: Bill, before we get started, why don't you tell our listeners

in 30 seconds a little bit about your background before you got to The Villages .

[00:00:51] Bill Paddock: My name is Bill Paddock. I'm originally from Massachusetts, however, I came down here from Pennsylvania. I retired from the Bureau of Prisons in 2014. Went on to work security at a

college in Pennsylvania. And then I worked drive at a forklift for a granola factory.

And then I retired from that and came down here to The Villages. 

[00:01:11] Mike Roth: Okay. Why The Villages? 

[00:01:13] Bill Paddock: I got a sister who lives down here and I had, I guess my mother and two older brothers that were living down here at the time too. And it took me forever to come down to even visit. 

Once I did, I went over my finances and I thought, this seems a little crazy.

This is a very nice place to live. I got family down here and I think I'm gonna, retire down here. It seems nice. 

[00:01:33] Mike Roth: Good. What got you started and interested in comedy? 

[00:01:36] Bill Paddock: When I was a kid a lot of us watching those Looney Tunes with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Porky Pig stuff, it dawned on me as I'd watched these cartoons over and over again that there was pretty much one man Mel Blank that was doing all these voices.

And I was really blown away by that. And because I really enjoyed the characters and the animation that was the start of it for me. Really? 

[00:01:57] Mike Roth: Mel Blank. Yep. 

[00:01:57] Bill Paddock: I know a lot of people, you're looking for somebody to say, oh, maybe it was Richard Little, or or some of these other people.

But it's like Mel Blank when you're a kid and you're looking at stuff and you're hearing it and you're going, wow, that guy's doing all those characters. 

[00:02:09] Mike Roth: Yeah. 

So

how many character voices can you do? 

[00:02:11] Bill Paddock: I don't, I've never counted them and I can't say I can do all the best ones. I can only do the ones that I can do, but they've morphed over the years into different things.

It's Interesting that you even say that because like I mentioned Mel Blank, I know Bill Thompson was another guy during those Looney Tunes eras that would do voices and he would do droopy dog for example. I don't know if you remember Droopy Dog. He would talk like this and say, I'm so jolly pip.

And you hear that voice and you go, oh my God. Wow. Droopy dog. You could use that in so many different ways. And as you get older, you're like, I'm here listening to ZZ Top. And it's you got Remy was going around the nut text town about that Shaq down at La Grange, and I'm thinking, that sounds just like Droopy dog.

And then, but Mel Blank would have the. The Martian guy, you know where it was like Melvin the Martian, or Martin the Martian or something. I haven't P 32 space modulator, and I'd listen to that guy and I'm thinking, wow, as I got older. I'm thinking that's Boss Scaggs, danger, there's a breakdown deadhead, and I'm thinking you could really morph these voices from one thing to another on a lot of them, not, obviously, you can't take Sylvester the cat and say, sucking Insta, we're gonna, 

what are you gonna do with that? There's no avenue there. 

[00:03:31] Mike Roth: Actually there is an avenue. It's in improv comedy. 

[00:03:34] Bill Paddock: There's improv comedy, but I was thinking of a song, nobody wants to listen to that for about two minutes in a 

song. 

[00:03:40] Mike Roth: put You into improv comedy and, 

[00:03:42] Bill Paddock: oh, improv comedy, yeah. 

[00:03:43] Mike Roth: You'd be a big hit with all, those Funny voices.

That's one of the most difficult things for most of the seniors to do, is to do a second character other than themselves. 

[00:03:54] Bill Paddock: Yeah.

It's interesting you say that because I watched Rich Little one time doing a roast, I think with Dean and

I had seen him. Many times before, as a kid, I would stay up late watch Johnny Carson and he would nail every voice and I thought, wow, he's doing, and then I watched him on this roast and he was trying to go from voice to voice It's so true that, if you're not into it or something catches you off or maybe your voice just isn't right, or maybe you haven't practiced it I'm thinking, boy, one voice is blending to the next blend to the next. It doesn't sound too, different sometimes, but he's still a, was a genius.

[00:04:28] Mike Roth: Y'all think he was very good. 

[00:04:30] Bill Paddock: Oh he definitely was very good. 

[00:04:32] Mike Roth: He all knew exactly what he should be saying.

[00:04:34] Bill Paddock: Oh, he knew exactly what he was talking about. Am I? 

[00:04:37] Mike Roth: Yeah. Okay.

And what made you first realize that you wanted to go on this comedy journey? 

[00:04:43] Bill Paddock: I think once you find yourself feeling like you have a knack for it.

Obviously you try it out with your friends and family, and I think if none of them laughed it probably would've killed it right there. But I think once you hear them laughing at what you're doing it's like feeding an addict. You want more of it. It's oh yeah, This is a good feeling.

I'm making somebody smile and laugh like your mother or your brothers and sisters. And so when you see that, it definitely, there's a feeling there that you just feed off.

[00:05:10] Mike Roth: How long ago did you start in the comedy field? 

[00:05:13] Bill Paddock: Actually My life took me in another direction from comedy, even though I used comedy my whole life, When I graduated high school, I went out to a community college and I got an associate's degree, but then I joined the Marine Corps. So I was in the Marine Corps for four years and I met my wife who happened to be a another Marine, and we married and had kids.

Now you're outta the military. You gotta make a living. You don't, when you got kids and a wife, you can't think of, wow, I'm gonna make a living. I'm gonna yep, I'm gonna go make a million dollars doing comedy. You can't do that. You're looking for a job that can support your family.

And so I had applied at police departments. I thought that's an avenue I wanted to go. And I applied at the Department of Justice for the Bureau of Prisons, and I became a correctional officer. And so I was a correctional officer for about five years until I, 

[00:05:58] Mike Roth: Sounds like a very funny job.

[00:06:00] Bill Paddock: It's, whether it's the Marine Corps or the Bureau of Prisons, there's definitely plenty of characters that you get to know. 

[00:06:06] Mike Roth: Okay.

[00:06:06] Bill Paddock: lemme go back to the Marine Corps because I do have one highlight. Many highlights. That I probably can't talk about, but one particular one that I think you might find amusing.

I worked in S one, which was a human resource department And so I was in ninth motor transport batalion. I'm over in Okinawa, Japan, and we had been getting ready for a Mc Dawson inspection, which is we were up till two in the morning. You're going over, you're dotting i's crossing t's, making sure the maths you're going over is this marine being paid, right?

If he's over in Guam or if he's TAD to some place and so you're going over all kinds of payroll stuff. 'cause you wanna make sure everything's good for this to mc dot that's gonna come audit you. So they come. And we'd been getting ready for months and we get, I think, and now I'm going back years, but maybe a 15% error rating, which was really good.

So now we're out on the parade deck and there's a thousand of us out there in a battalion. The colonel comes, the general comes, the general's all happy. And general's marching up and down, you guys did such a good job. I'm gonna give you a 96 and good job Marines, and we're all thrilled.

And 96 is four days off. The general leaves, the colonel comes out and he says, you know what? You didn't do a good enough job for me. So you all will report here tomorrow at zero 600 and we're gonna continue to work because I thought what you did was a shitty job. So now we're all bummed. These two women Marines pull me aside and they knew my personality and they said, corporal Paddock, you've gotta call headquarters Marine Corps.

Not back in Washington, but headquarters battalion. Right there on the island and say the colonel just overwrote a general on you're 96. And I was like, I can't do that. They find out who I am. I'm they gonna send my ass to the brigg.

I can't do something like that. They begged and they said, no, we will be the lookout. We'll put you in this room. Here's the phone.

The old rotary phone in the eighties. So I call up headquarters battalion. And I was trying to think, because I worked in the human resources. I knew there was a Sergeant Davis who had just left the island and then I think another guy had come in, but his name wasn't Davis, it was David.

So I made sure that when I called, I screwed up the names so that they couldn't tell if they were checking which Davis it was, because it wasn't a Davis, it was me. So I said, I was like. Private Davis. So I call up and I'm like, yeah, yes sir. I, this is private Davis and I'm from Ninth Motor Transport Battalion and I wanna know how a colonel Sir.

Sir, can you hear me? Yeah. He said, who's this again? I said, it's private Davis from ninth Transport Battalion. And I wanna know how a colonel can override it. General. The general was just here and gave us four days off, and the colonel came in after he left, and Sorry, I'm getting emotional, but then he took it away.

Just a minute. Private. All of a sudden then this captain gets on the phone and he goes, is this Captain Meyers or something? I go through the whole spiel again and I said, sir, I would like to talk to the general 'cause that's why I called. And the captain's like, where are you from again, son?

I said, I'm from ninth transport battalion.

And I don't know how a colonel can override a general, alright, private could stand down and then all of a sudden, boom, the phone goes dead. 

And I'm shitting my pants thinking, my God, I hope they don't find out who it is. go back to my desk. Shuffling papers and the sergeant major comes in and he goes, 

Pat, 

I need a roster.

How many Davises do we have in this battalion? I'm sir. And I'm, acting all nervous, grabbed the roster. I said, sir there's I think there was a Sergeant Davis that left yesterday, but I don't think we have any others. And he took it. He takes the roster, goes back, talks to colonel, about 10 minutes go by, Colonel comes in, he says, I've reconsidered.

I was going over some of you guys' work, he says, and I'm gonna give you that 96 sergeant major call formation. So I got the whole battalion in 96, but that was like one of my highlights of the Marine Corps was that bit right there. And of course nobody knew it but me and those two female Marines because I swore 'em to secrecy.

'cause I said, you tell anybody, they gonna hammer me.

[00:09:56] Mike Roth: So you got into doing voices.

When you were a young guy. 

[00:09:59] Bill Paddock: Yeah. 

[00:10:00] Mike Roth: And invitations. Now did you also do standup? 

[00:10:04] Bill Paddock: I didn't do standup until very well. I actually have a story on that as well. when I moved to Ohio, I was in between jobs. Got a wife and three kids. 

[00:10:15] Mike Roth: In between prisons. 

[00:10:16] Bill Paddock: Actually I was waiting for the interview with the prison right in Pennsylvania and I'm living with my wife's brother. We're all in his garage, cramped in there living. And I believe it was around that time there was a comedy club in Cleveland, Laugh Factory . And so I drove down there.

And I had this whole bit, had this, I had this all figured out. I'm thinking, okay, I'm gonna go up there and I'm gonna do my spiel.

And I guess I, I was so naive to the whole thing, but I guess what you wanna do is you wanna be. The opening act for a headliner, because then that headliner, if he likes you, he'll take you around the country and that's how you get known. I go up there and I figure I'm gonna do my spiel and I start out, I'm full of confidence, coming from a large family and the youngest is seven. And the one thing you notice first off from a large family is they all have different laughs. Like my sister had this, we called it raised on the farm laugh where I'd get her laughing and she'd go, oh my God, 

Billy, 

And she had this it sounded like a jackass laugh.

I had an older brother who had this. Unemotional laugh. I would try to make him laugh so hard and he just was unemotional and he would just sit there with a silly smirk on his face and he'd go, that's pretty funny. Yeah you got me right here. And then of course she, my mother was a heavy smoker and I'd get her laugh at, and she, one of her laughs, the only laugh she had was a,

God.

Oh God. That's 

funny. And then you got , the one brother who had like a machine gun laugh.

And then I had an alarm clock laugh and, but I went through all these laughs and I sounded a lot more confident but nobody's laughing. And I had done this for other people, so I knew the stuff was funny and the staff member comes over or the manager comes over and he says, and I said, no. He goes, he just headlined last week. Did a lot of the same laughs. And I was like, and I was devastated. It just, it took my confidence and just shot it through the floor because I didn't know who he was talking about. I had these laughs since I was a kid from my family, and it's almost it's almost what is this stuff in the air?

Whoever picks it first, whoever grabs on a joke first or maybe does it, and I still, to this day, I'll use the different laughs in different things.

[00:12:11] Mike Roth: There's a, an old rule in comedy that you don't use with people's material. 

[00:12:15] Bill Paddock: There's absolutely that rule in comedy. I learned that later too.

Even though I never did, I never would on purpose use anybody else's material. But you're right, that's one of those unwritten or written rules where it's like you don't plagiarize anybody else's 'cause it's, you get ostracized 

way. 

But it just ruined my confidence from doing any, I did not step on a stage after that for.

Probably 20 years almost. It was 

[00:12:37] Mike Roth: No, it's a shame. It's a shame Because

The

same events happen to other people. . 

[00:12:40] Bill Paddock: Yeah. 

[00:12:40] Mike Roth: So we're gonna take a short break here and listen to a Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis. 

There have been some studies that people have talked about using GLP one drugs to help Alzheimer's. What's the story on that?

[00:12:54] Dr. Craig Curtis: So that was breaking news a few months ago. They released the results that showed it was not a positive study, which means there was no statistical difference between the placebo group and those that received GLP ones for the length of the trial, which was approximately two years.

Now. What they did find is that those. On the GLP ones did have trending biomarkers. The levels of tau and amyloid seemed to be moving in the right direction, so it's possible they didn't receive the treatment long enough. Maybe a two year trial was not enough.

Maybe you need it for a longer amount of time. Yeah, longer than three months. Longer than. Three months. So there's going to be more data released at a big meeting coming up in Copenhagen in March that I'll be attending, called the Alzheimer's PD International Parkinson's Disease International Meeting.

And they're going to release more information about the biomarkers, in that study and whether or not they will do more. So stay tuned. I don't think they quite have answers yet, but the overall study was. A failure if you wanna look at it from a totality or the study in full. 

[00:14:04] wARREN: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate The Villages community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, CraigCurtisMD.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

[00:14:20] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth. I'm back with Bill Paddock. We're talking about comedy as seniors.

Bill 

what is it something that, that people don't know about you?

[00:14:30] Bill Paddock: Probably that I'm not very outgoing. 

I 

think if somebody gets to know me one-on-one, I think they think, oh this guy, wow, he sounds like he's a lot of fun. Like he's really outgoing or I wanna go have a beer with him, or I want to go do this, or I'm not outgoing at all. I'm almost borderline antisocial.

And that's not to say I don't like people or anything. I just am very private person 

[00:14:51] Mike Roth: Is that.

An introvert. 

[00:14:53] Bill Paddock: Yeah. 

Yeah, And introvert. 

I'm sure a lot of people would say how can somebody who wants to do comedy or even thinks about going on a stage like that, even though Bill, even though you said that ruins your confidence back there you still want up there.

It's, for me, psychologically, I feel like I can go in front of an audience of people. I don't know. And say whatever. If you bomb in front of an audience you don't know. Yeah. What do you, yeah, I don't care. Now you go in front of your family and friends and all of a sudden you want to, all right, I'm gonna do this for my family and friends, and you, bomb.

That's a different, that's a whole different deal. You bomb in front of them and it's you gotta live with 'em the rest of your life. 

[00:15:26] Mike Roth: it sounds like you got a guy, you are a guy who's got a sense of humor and you learn how to use your voice. Consequently, I'd say you're invited to come to one of the improv sessions.

In fact, there's a session every Monday night from six 30 to eight 20 over at Rohan, and that's a great place to learn a little bit about improv and have some fun using

your

humorous skills. 

[00:15:49] Bill Paddock: Thank you Mike. I really appreciate that.

 What is it that you learn at improv?

[00:15:53] Bill Paddock: I understand improv as in being like, I remember watching the improv shows of comedy and okay, different people go up there and say, okay, bill, I might go up there. Okay, here's a piece of paper, make something out of But what do they get out of it? Outside of just doing that what do you get out 

[00:16:07] Mike Roth: , In improv comedy, there are a number of rules of improv, but there's only four that you really need to keep in your head to be funny, play safe and

Make a good scene is one is

say

the first thing that comes into your mind, okay?

Don't spend a lot of time censoring it.

So

be fast. Number two is always accept offers. Whenever you're offered something

accept

it. If someone says, let's go to the zoo, you don't say, no. I'd rather go to a museum.

You

say, yes, and I'd like to have a hot dog, or whatever. Okay.

The third rule of improv is to always make your scene partner look good.

Don't put 'em on the spot. Don't ask him a question, provide the answers to the question that you had in your head. 

[00:16:51] Bill Paddock: ever go anywhere? 

[00:16:52] Mike Roth: Oh yeah. A lot of very good scenes. And the fourth rule in any improv, there's no such thing as a mistake. 

[00:16:57] Bill Paddock: Where do you go with it?

[00:16:58] Mike Roth: It's an opportunity. If you've seen partner makes a mistake.

You're, in, you're improv getting in a car. I saw it, and I've done it a couple of times, is, you take the stage motion to open the door and get in the car. Okay? And there are two people and the guy getting in the car is on the right side and the other guy looks at him and the guy got on the right side, said, Doug, this is an English car?

Get in and it becomes funny. 

[00:17:23] Bill Paddock: yeah. 

[00:17:24] Mike Roth: So there's a lot of different things that happen in improv. And

to

me it is a lot better than scripted comedy because it's made up on the spot. you don't have to memorize lines. 

And then there were fewer mistakes because actually there are no mistakes.

They're just opportunities.

we have a lot of fun with it. 

[00:17:40] Bill Paddock: Yeah. I do. 

[00:17:41] Mike Roth: We just had a big improv show for the improv academy last Friday night.

We

had about 80 people in the room. It was a riot.

[00:17:50] Bill Paddock: Yeah, 

[00:17:50] Mike Roth: it was just a laugh riot. A lot of the improv routines we do here parody the routines that you've seen on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

You gave me some clips. Why don't you tell the listeners a little bit of a setup so we can play 

the first clip. that you sent me with the Frank Sinatra song? 

[00:18:08] Bill Paddock: When I in 2003, I this local radio station in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1 0 2 0.7 Kiss fm. Gary Chrisman show he had an improv competition. And I happened to win the improv competition, so I went on a radio show and one thing led to another where we're doing just different characters and Gary himself does different characters.

And so if I was to talk like Jack Nicholson, he'd say no, you can't do Jack Douglas. Like he, because we have to make, Jack Nicholson can't be walking by the radio station. We can't have, there has to be a reason why he's here. So I'd do somebody else and I'd say, 

oh my goodness, look at me, I'm bobbing with an eye and I just love everybody. He'd say, okay, we can use it, but what are you gonna do with it? and so I said we cracked some jokes. And so I recorded this song. Something stupid by Frank Sinatra where I sent in this instrumental music and I came up with some words for the song something stupid, and I had Bobby with an eye singing it to Prince William, or about a time with Prince William where he had a crush on him and he was over there in England.

So I wrote the words and I sing the song to it. And so that Bobby, with an eye character took off and I would use that. But we do, like recently I did a baby, it's cold outside, where I had Bobby with an eye hitting on Jimmy Stewart. He didn't like it. No.

[00:19:23] Mike Roth: Jimmy, didn't. Jimmy didn't like it. Jimmy. didn't.

[00:19:24] Bill Paddock: Jimmy was trying to explain to him, I'm marrying, got kids. It was all in fun. And it was for the Christmas show that they did.

But I've had a lot of fun with the character over the years. But anyway, this is me on the radio station as Bobby and I singing about my one time with Prince William. 

 This is a surprise, not, not much surprises me with you, but, , uh, William is a much younger man, and Yeah. I know you, you've had a crush on Prince William for quite a long time. Yes, I have. And, um. This, this is about, you know, my, uh, my one, my one time out with him, which, like I said, some people might call it abusive, some, some, uh, might call it s and m, I don't know what you call it, but I was, um, I'll never forget it, and it means a lot to me.

All right? Yes. Are we ready for this? Gary's mostly involved over here. This is Bobby with an eye and it's a song regarding. . Prince William. Prince William. All right. We are, we're set. We're ready. Everybody's set. Ready to go? Yep. Ladies and gentlemen, Bobby with an eye.

[00:20:20] Speaker 2: I know why. Stand in line and tell you. Thank you. Have the time to. Spend an evening with me. Oh, and if we go someplace to drink, I know that there's a chance that you'll be leaving with me. Uhhuh. Then after you get drunk, I start to put exciting Bobby moves on you. Oh,

and then I go and spoil it all by. Saying something stupid like, I love you. I can see it in your eyes that you just wish you had more time to be alone with me,

and though you decide to black in my eyes, that's why you expressed your love for me. I fall off my bar seat while still holding onto my drink. Then you curse at me.

My nose protects my face. As you begin to use your fist to make the swelling go down,

the time is right. Your cologne fills my head. This starts getting red in my face is so black and blue, and then I go and spoil it all by saying something. Than stupid, like, I love you. Oh, Will's. Will's, honey. I think I'm bleeding inside my body. No, Willie. Willie. Don't kiss me now. I think I have vomit in my mouth, but I still love you with my good eye.

Oh, Willie will Sweet. Oh, I think, I think I need a doctor. The time is right. Your cologne fills my head. This stars get red and my face is so black and blue. And then I go in. Spoil it all by saying something stupid like, I love you.

I love you. Oh, will, will. I think I'm seeing great, great grandpa poke me. He's been dead for years. Will, what's that white light I love you Will Willamina. I need a doctor. Bobby's Bobby's gotta go that night. Now, will today go all night? But I. I love you. 

[00:23:04] Speaker: Whoa. Well, there he is, Bobby with an eye. Oh 

[00:23:09] Speaker 3: my. So emotional.

[00:23:11] Speaker: So that was a very 

[00:23:12] Speaker 3: emotional, just a little, yeah. 

[00:23:13] Speaker: So it was a rough meeting with Prince William. He, he wasn't feeling quite the same way, was he? 

[00:23:18] Speaker 3: I, 

[00:23:19] Bill Paddock: I think he did. I think he was, you can call me in denial, but I, you know, it was a good time. That one night. Yeah, one night it was something. 

[00:23:26] Speaker 3: Okay. 

[00:23:27] Speaker: So you, how long did it, uh, did it take you to recover from the injuries?

[00:23:31] Speaker 2: Well, I think I was in a coma for a couple of days. I know he was thinking of me when, when I came to, he 

[00:23:38] Speaker: was in, he was in the, like the, the, the British Army over there. So he ki kicked the crap outta you. 

[00:23:44] Speaker 2: Well, I just love expressing itself, put right like that. So he had a different way of showing love.

I know he cared. I I, I know he did. 

[00:23:56] Speaker 5: Okay. He cared. I'm sure. 

[00:23:58] Speaker: Ladies and 

[00:23:58] Speaker 5: gentlemen, he called 9 1 1 

[00:23:59] Speaker: Bobby, 

[00:24:00] Speaker 5: that's 

[00:24:00] Speaker: how he showed.

[00:24:00] Mike Roth: Great, great. 

[00:24:01] Bill Paddock: Even though I retired. The first time in 2014, I didn't officially retire till August of last year when I was driving a forklift for this factory, and it's, so I never really had any time off to myself, but it's almost like a cult, where these people.

And I got nothing against them. My sister's involved in water volleyball and my wife has since gotten involved, but I just refuse to do it. But they've just all come over and it's you gotta join pickleball. You gotta do this, you gotta do that. And it's oh my God. Gimme, I just wanna relax. I don't need all this.

I don't want to right now.

And my idea 

for my podcast was doing little bits of this. For just The Villages and then have it go to a song. No, but you'll learn. And it's no you don't. It's almost like, where are these people? It's oh, you'll, after we give you golf papers, you will learn. It's I don't, I have no interest in, I went through the Marine Corps.

Without learning how to play cards. I went through the Bureau of Prisons without learning how to play cards. My wife plays cards. I still don't play cards.

[00:25:01] Mike Roth: I can understand. I'm 

[00:25:02] Bill Paddock: down here, they would sit there and say, there's a club for that. You wanna learn how to do Texas Holden? No. Oh, you'll learn. No, I won't. No.

I don't. Why? I don't No, 

[00:25:10] Mike Roth: Then

after COVID got finished, we said, eh, we're not gonna go back. It wasn't that much fun. 

[00:25:15] Bill Paddock: Yeah. No I understand.

We've met some people since we've been here who had said, go to I think you go to one of the rec centers and they set it up to where, I guess the best way to explain it is like the way somebody would explain speed dating to you. You'd sit down on one table and you'd start, talking to each other.

You'd see if you liked that person, and you'd just keep jumping tables. They'd have shuffleboard. They'd have this game. They'd have that game, and you would do 15 minutes of each game to see which one you like, or if you are interested in any '

of'em. and they've said then once you do that, it doesn't even interest me.

It's like, how could that not interest you? They look at you like you're a mental patient. It's like how are you not interested? So what do you do? And then they try to shame you into being, it's look

what?

I have dogs. I walk my dogs. 

[00:25:54] Mike Roth: I think a lot of people have come that way and a lot of people have become set in their ways here in The Villages.

[00:26:00] Bill Paddock: I understand everybody. You wanna have a purpose I know when I worked, regardless of what job I had, that was your purpose.

I have a sister down here who, loves water volleyball, plays six hours a day, seven days a week. she just loves it. But it's almost like I used to be an avid runner when I was younger, and you go running, you miss a day, your body's oh my God, I gotta get out there and run.

I think that's what happens down here. you're not just gonna sit there and watch tv, right? You're gonna get out and play something. And it's no, I don't wanna sit here and die, but I really have no interest in getting up and doing something I don't want to do.

Try it.

And they 

at you like

No, nobody's imagination's that 

good.

[00:26:33] Mike Roth: Yeah. I got other things I wanna do with my time. And that's the kind of place The Villages is. We might not really have 3,500 clubs and activities. I'll bet it's at least 2,700. 2,800.

[00:26:44] Bill Paddock: I've heard of all the clubs and I'm blaming me.

My wife's on me all the time that we ought do this, we gotta to do. Now she's branched out to where she's trying to learn pickleball and she's trying to do the water volleyball thing, but it's nice that she wants to do it. That's fine.

[00:26:58] Mike Roth: My wife came back to me one day and she said, Mike, I'm gonna take, dancing.

I said, okay, what kind of dancing? And She said, I lot dancing.

I said, oh, okay, great. And,

then a couple of days later, a package comes from Amazon and She,

picks it up. And I say to her, what's that?

She says, oh, that's my tap dancing shoes. Oh, I thought it was lap dancing Yeah.

That's 

[00:27:16] Bill Paddock: That's funny. You gotta have a sense of humor.

[00:27:19] Mike Roth: Hey, 

[00:27:19] Bill Paddock: You gotta have a sense of humor. That's one of the things I definitely enjoyed over the years, no matter what job I had, was pranks. You get to know your coworkers, you get to know your boss.

You get to know what you can get away with and what you can't. And that's one of the benefits I think is getting older, is you reach a point where it's I don't think the person's gonna be mad, but you know what, at this point I really don't care because this is funny as hell.

[00:27:38] Mike Roth: Okay, good. And let me ask you this last question.

When could people hear your podcast or

are

you gonna get that podcast on the,

air? 

[00:27:46] Bill Paddock: I wanna get on the air in the name of it's mad Dog Comedy. 

Mad Dog comedy, and the thing, it's taken a long time because I've learned as I'm sure you, you've experienced it as well. The editing part just takes up so much of your time.

But because I'm emphatic about doing all the voices myself and all the storylines, at first when I started doing it, I had a few bits that I did and I thought, I'll just do it off the top of my head. And I'll just see where it goes. That was a little bit too arrogant and stupid because yeah, you might have had a good moment there, but it's gotta have a direction, it's gotta have a timeframe and where's it going and how's it fit into this other story?

Okay, now you wanna do it again? I lost the words.

[00:28:26] Mike Roth: Okay 

[00:28:27] Bill Paddock: so, I have to do a script. So now I've learned to do a script, get a thought out, read it out, and then let it go. 

[00:28:33] Mike Roth: So give us a month that you think,

in 2026 that you're gonna get that podcast, that first episode out.

[00:28:40] Bill Paddock: I hope by Christmas of this year.

[00:28:41] Mike Roth: You can come back and announce it. 

[00:28:43] Bill Paddock: Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate this time, but yeah, I'm gonna say by Christmas of this year, and if it's earlier, 

I'll announce it then. 

[00:28:49] Mike Roth: Thanks for being with us today, Bill. 

[00:28:50] Bill Paddock: Mike. Thanks for having me.

[00:28:51] Nancy: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9:00 AM. Should you wanna become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. This is a shout out for supporters, Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Duane Roemmich, Paul Sorgen, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K 2 in The Villages.

We'll be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show. Contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. The way our show grows is with your help. Text your friends about this show. If you enjoyed listening, use the fan mail button on our homepage, Villages Vitality.Life, to leave comments, be sure to include your name, email, and phone number. We thank everyone for listening. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth Voice 2026, all rights reserved.