LUNCH WITH BOB THE BUILDER

by Steve Steinbock

National Novel Writing Month

Last week I had lunch with Bob the Builder. To be more precise, I had lunch with William Dufris, the actor who provided the voice for the Nickelodeon cartoon character Bob the Builder. I met Bill over a decade ago at annual lobster bake sponsored by Audio File Magazine held in honor of all the audiobook narrators that make that industry interesting. We have narrators coming to Boothbay Harbor, Maine from all corners of the US and Great Britain. Ironically, at the time, Bill lived just over a mile from me.

I remember that on my second or third Audiofile Lobster Bake, I brought my family. Sam, who must have been two or three at the time, fell on the rocks and skinned his knee. Bill saw him crying and came over. He began talking to him in his cartoon persona. At the time, Bob the Builder was at the height of its popularity in the US among the pre-school set. Sam immediately began smiling and said, “You sound just like Bob the Builder!”

Over the years, Bill has narrated over 250 audiobooks, and as an engineer, has produced and recorded hundreds more. He’s won nineteen Earphones Awards from Audio File Magazine, and is counted among their Golden Voices. He has also received six nominations for the Audio Publishers Association Audie Award. His narrating accomplishments have included novels by S.J. Rozan, Steve Hockensmith, Donald Westlake (both his Dormunder novels and his Parker novels), Jeffery Deaver, and six novels by Dashiell Hammett, three of which won earphones. Today he subcontracts to Audio Renaissance, Blackstone Audio, Brilliance, and Tantor Media, narrating books himself and bringing talent into his studio and directing spoken word recordings. While living in England, Bill performed on a number of full-cast dramas produced for BBC Radio.

For years Bill and I have talked about developing a mystery radio drama here in the States.

One of the things Bill confessed to me over our turkey roll-ups was his love of mystery short stories, and his regret that he doesn’t get more mystery work. (Young adult novels are fun, science fiction novels can be interesting, but are rarely well-written).

Here are a couple samples of Bill’s work. The first is Woody Allen’s “Dracula” spoof, for which Bill provided all the voices. The second is a reading of H.P Lovecraft’s story, “The Statement of Randolph Carter.”

I’m working with Bill to try to give short mystery fiction a wider presence – or should I say a louder voice? Stay tuned and as things develop you’ll hear about it here.

NaNoWriMo Update

Writing 1,700 words of fiction per day is not easy for your Bandersnatch columnist. My laptop is dead in the water, and won’t be back afloat for at least a week. (My other computer is here in my attic office, amid too many distractions. I do my best work at cafés and coffee houses, amid the clank of dishes, the hiss of steaming milk, and the bouquet of dark roasted beans. That may be the subject for another Bandersnatch!)

I’ve been averaging about 500 words a day; or a little less than one-third what I need to make the 50,000 word mark by November 30. But as they say, every journey begins with a single step. And I’ve taken several thousand single steps.