Gary Schwartz
Gary Schwartz began his professional career as a mime at age 13, performing up and down the Hudson River with Pete Seeger and the great folk entertainers of the 1960s.
In the 1980s he appeared in numerous film and television projects including the Oscar-winning feature film Quest for Fire. Schwartz has lent his voice to hundreds of film and TV projects and is the voice of several well-known video game characters, including Heavy Weapons Guy and Demoman in Team Fortress 2.
Schwartz has written for two children’s television series in which he co-starred: Zoobilee Zoo, where he played Bravo Fox; and the Disney Channel’s You and Me, Kid.
Schwartz studied with and became the protégé of Viola Spolin, the creator of Theater Games, the basis for improvisational theater in America. He is a passionate, dynamic improv coach and facilitator devoted to carrying on Spolin’s techniques.
1) Do you remember the moment you decided that you would like to become a writer?
I don’t remember wanting to be a writer, per se. I wanted to act and perform. I wrote material for myself and my partner, and wrote scripts and screenplays to fill the time an actor has while not acting.
It’s more recent that I became serious about writing books. It’s a way of traveling through my imagination and I like that.
2) How did you go about following your dream?
It was a series of accidents. My dream of being an actor was squashed by my parents and upbringing. “Nobody goes out and becomes an actor for a living. Get real.” That was my programming.
So I became a bartender, who performed on the side. After a serious car accident I realized a normal job was not for me. Still not convinced I had a chance at show business, I wrote to a mime teacher in Boulder Colo. I went to study with him and learn about the Kabbalah. Yes, he was a spiritual Mime. I was ready to live a life of a poor mime on a mountain top. When I got to Colorado, he had booked himself a European tour and left my money with the post office.
I went to LA to be a bartender, but fell in with other mimes and one thing led to another. In retrospect, I followed my dream.
While auditioning for a comedy show, I was not dismissed properly by the producers and stood there while they batted around sketch ideas. I tossed in a few and became a writer on that show for the Playboy Channel as well as a performer. Everything was sort of accidental.
3) Is there a particular author that inspires you?
The first author to make me cry was Nikos Kazantzakis’ "Zorba the Greek". I finished the book in 8th grade under my desk while in class and broke down. I wanted to be that kind of a writer inspired by people who lived life richly and fully.
Then, of course Norton Juster, Roald Dahl, S.J. Perelman all tickled me and entertained me. I’m more of a Roald Dahl and Woody Allen fan for writers.
Zorba the Greek
The Phantom Tollbooth
Good to meet you Gary and I really enjoyed reading about your long route to publishing – I’m also delighted I’m not the only one who can’t read their own writing any more 🙂