Todd Haberkorn. He acts. He writes. He's going to get a tattoo of Natsu if "Fairy Tail" gets picked up through episode 100. He wants to be a superhero. He is in the midst of a war with Vic Mignogna. He will soon be bungee jumping as a Kickstarter reward for fans. What more can you want from a voice actor?

The man who breathes life into Death the Kid; who makes "Pasta, Not War," and who voices the second-coolest frog in entertainment, will be appearing at Tekkoshocon X, hosting a wide variety of panels covering much of his career.

SM: How did you get into voice acting?

TH: It was something that found me. I had done it when I was a kid. I had always acted on stage, but as far as voice acting, it was something I did as a kid to entertain myself or my friends, we all just kind of hung out and did it.  I didn't know that I would be here one day. It really was something I did for fun, and I would do impressions and watch movies again and again and again. Really, my mom was so busy with work, and my dad was non-existent. It really was movies and television that kept me company. I guess you can say I was raised on Beta and then VHS and DVD. My first DVD was "Austin Powers," I still remember that. That was back when DVD players were like $500.

SM: Were you a fan of anime before you got into the business?

TH: Well, I didn't really know about anime, but realized I had been watching it all along, like Voltron, Teknoman. I was looking back, and just knowing now, I realized I had been watching it.  It was great to see how different it was from American animation. Anime is even bigger now, but what I think most of the American audiences don't realize is that it goes deeper than Western animation typically does, unless you're talking about something on a film level like "Toy Story."  

Your day-to-day, TV-fare stuff is very, very one-dimensional. Which isn't to say that the people involved in it aren't doing a fantastic job as far as artwork or voice-over work, it's just that the story itself isn't meaning to be shallow, and that's the wrong word for it, but that's their job, that's the formula. They have to turn it out quickly, and it there to entertain the kids, and aim at that demographic. Where as with anime, they are looking at it like an art form. And again, that's not a knock on Western animation at all, and that's part of our culture and I hope to keep working in Western animation and freelancing like that. To me that feels good, that feels right to want to work in that, but there is a difference between the two mindsets of animation.

SM: What are some of your favorite roles you have done?

TH: Sgt. Frog is my first favorite. I wish we had done more of that; there's so many episodes of it. I have to say that Natsu from "Fairy Tail" is my next fave. I mean, I'm willing to get a tattoo over it, so that's kind of crazy. I think what's funny is that I don't think people realize what a big deal that is, honestly. For someone to say, "You know what, I love this show that I work on so much, that I am willing to ink it on my body for the rest of my life." I mean that's a big thing. People are having fun with it, but I don't think they realize that is how much I care about it, that if people get out there and support it and buy it, and get us more episodes, the next 50 so we get to 100, I will get that tattoo.

It's funny because people ask me "How can I support this? How do I show that I want more of the is show? Who do I write to?" and it's not about writing, it's about buying the show. That's all there is. That's the easiest way to communicate with businesses. But that works both ways, for example "X-Men 3" I thought was just a horrible movie, but I went to see it just to see how bad it was, but the studios don't hear that. All they hear is "Todd went to go see it, he must have liked it."

Yeah, that role, and Allen from "D. Grey Man" were really fun for me.

SM: Are there any roles that you really wanted and auditioned for and didn't get?

TH: Oh yeah, sure. All that time. For every one role that I book, there are probably 10 to 15 others that I didn't get. That's just for everybody.  

The one that really stings was Spider-Man. The reason it stings is because of the journey it took to get to that audition logistically. I was literally flying to a convention when I got the call. Well, I was driving to the airport when I got the call, running late. I had to pull off to a studio, a friend's studio that I just happened to be by, record it, send it. On my way to the airport, sitting on the plane getting feedback from my agent, made arrangements when I landed at the con I was going to to find a studio to record at, in that hour and send it off. I was like, "Okay, surely that, in the mystical realms, that journey means I got it," but then I didn't.

Marvel was like, "Man, we really liked it. It came down the wire." That's what upsets me, is that I was so close to getting it. I ended up auditioning for Spider-Man three times total, for three different games, and each time they wanted something that my previous audition gave them, if that makes sense. My first time I read for them, they go "Oh man, we wanted to go a little younger with him," so the next time I auditioned I went younger, and their feedback was, "Man, I wish it would have been older." So I was l like, "Just take the first audition I did, and listen to it! (laughs)."

It's kookiness, this world. I mean, it's one of those things where anything can happen. I'm hopeful though; I've auditioned for a lot of superheroes and I hope to one day join their ranks.

SM: When you are dubbing an anime, you have a pre-existing version that was done in Japan, so how do you approach that? How much of yourself do you put in, or do you listen for cues from the other one?

TH: We definitely listen to the other one for the timing and to see the emotional intent, the story and such, and to get a little idea of the character. The Japanese version is kind of just a guideline for me, to let me know what my boundaries are as far as literally syncing words into the flaps and the energy level, but I try to bring my own take to the character, because even though I am acting, every actor brings a little bit of themselves into these roles.  You can't escape that. I have tried to get away from that, but I think I am trying to find a good amalgam of knowing that a little bit of me is going into it, but it's still this character. So they are a good guideline, but outside of that, it's still up to me to make sure that over the course of the show I am getting across a realistic journey for that character, no matter how crazy that character is, and that I am staying true to the Japanese as much as the director would like, and that it's entertaining.

SM: From an actor's point of view, is it more daunting to take on a role in a series that is already well-known even before the dub comes out, like "Hetalia," vs something that is more unknown?

TH: I have been lucky in the sense that when a big show comes along, I don't know anything about it. I don't know how big it is or what the fan following is, before I do it, but there's really no pressure. The only time there was pressure was "Sgt. Frog" because I was actually approached to read for that role and I was told how many episodes it was, and what a big deal it was, and we were doing a test episode. I knew that was a big show. That actually made it harder to audition because I didn't want to mess it up.  So I kind of wish that I didn't know anything about superheroes, so that when I auditioned for them I didn't get my hopes up.

SM: So are you a big fan of superheroes?

TH: Oh yeah. I have been my whole life. I collected comicbooks and had a ton of action figures. Because I am an only child, and there used to be a time when you could just go out and play with your friends, but it started to kind of fade off as I got older as a kid. So I would play by myself, with my toys. That's what I had to keep me company, that and when video games came along, but it was really my superhero toys. I moved so much, I was always moving as a kid. I went to three different high schools and five or six different elementary schools, so with all that moving around, state to state and city to city, I couldn't make long-term friends, so my superheroes and comicbooks kept me company.

SM: So who are your favorites?

TH: Batman is just amazing, and Superman too; the two big ones. And sprinkle in some Hulk in there.  

Nobody likes Namor, people pretend they do, but nobody likes him. Let's see, who else, Green Arrow, he's alright, but I don't know why he's getting his own show. It's kind of the heavies that everyone knows, are kind of my favorites. There's a reason they're part of the Justice League and they're awesome, and I am right there with them.

SM: How did your Tribute Wars with Vic start?

TH: That started when we were in New York and we were working on a project together. He was complaining that he was not able to get back to LA to record for a booking, and he was being kind of negative. So I wanted to remind him, no matter how difficult it is, you're still Edward Elric from fucking "Fullmetal Alchemist." Or you're still this from "Bleach" or this from "Naruto," you have an incredible life. You go around the world to meet fans at conventions. It's an amazing life, you really cannot complain all that much. There are things people complain about for sure in everybody's life, no matter what level they're at, but I felt I needed to remind him about this. And he felt he needed to remind me of that, so it sort of became this Friar's Roast thing in videos, because I was complaining about stuff too, y'know. So we were having this back-and-forth.

He made that video and I made my video, we made them at the same time. He showed me his, and then I showed him my video, and we uploaded them to YouTube at the same time. The fans just kind of picked up on it, and he rebutted and we joked about it, and then I rebutted. We kept raising the bar. and so we can't let one one-up the other. He's about to release his, he's going to show his at A-Cen, and then I'm going to show mine at Collossalcon.

This one is on a whole different level, we had a Kickstarter, I had an investor, I mean this is the biggest one I've ever done; longer, much more involved, many more moving pieces. This is the final one though, he and I both agreed, it's just too costly. It's so expensive to do these videos. Mine is going to be exclusively shown at cons until the end of this year. You won't see it on YouTube, you won't see it anywhere else except at specific cons. And people will be able to actually rent it online. The reason I'm doing this, I'm not doing it to be a pest. This is a major project that has been undertaken.  

It's funny how fans, well people in general, because I'm sure I'm like this too. They have no problem going to Best Buy and picking up the DVD of their favorite show, like "Game of Thrones." But someone that's not a Best Buy, like me for instance, says "Well, I put just the same amount of time into my episode of my quote-unquote 'Game of Thrones,' and it costs you 99 cents or something to rent it," they're like "OH MY GOD! Why? Why would you charge that? Holy Shit! Oh man, oh god, I want to jump out of a window!" It's insane. It's the same thing. It's content. I wrote this script a year ago. I've been in pre-production for months. I've been talking with my crew for weeks. I've got guys driving in from out of town and flying in to work on this thing, so I feel like with all that in mind to charge a dollar or two dollars for something that we've put months and weeks of work to do it, is not too much to ask. We'll see what happens.

SM: I saw your Kickstarter and your bungee jumping incentive. Is that the kind of stuff you're into, doing things like that?

TH: Oh God no! I hate it. That scares the shit out of me, but I care about this tribute video so much, and doing it as best as possible that I am willing to do it. That's going to scare the shit out of me. I am not ready for that. I told (the fans) I would do it, and I'm ready to rock on it, and I know they'll get a kick out of it. I'm actually buying this piece of photo-tech equipment that's going to be a harness for a POV cam on my chest for this shoot. That will be fun.

SM: That will be fun, the plummeting not so much

TH: Yeah (laughs).

Examining the flaws of never-ending series, the names of ninjas, poor decisions of mech pilots, and the foibles of elves and plumbers trying to save their respective princesses, Uncle Yo (real name Karl Custer) has been bringing his geek-centric comedy to conventions all over the country for the past five years as he pokes fun at the shows, movies and games he loves.

 A spokesman who proudly proclaims that “The Geek shall inherit the Earth” simply because they are having more fun, Yo’s presence is often felt throughout the cons he attends, as he runs panels and MC's events. He has also written "The Anime Convention Survival Guide" and recently started his podcast "We Are The Geek."
 
Uncle Yo will be returning to his "home away from home" and performing at Tekkoshon X, which runs March 21-25 at the Wyndham Grand in Pittsburgh.
 
SM: How did you get started with stand-up?
 
YO: The entire original idea behind developing a stage name (and short-lived persona actually) was to get into anime conventions without paying for the badge.  
 
I had staffed a few cons before and hadn't seen an anime-specific stand-up. I sort of cheated by playing up the audience desire to scream and applaud at the mere mention of a fan base. My bit "The Woo Factor" is a real-life observation on this phenomenon.  
 
I've seen many other stand-ups at conventions, which is very unsurprising, but the ones who stick around longest, the ones who end up forming a fan base and making a name for themselves, end up being the ones who talk about shows they love and sharing that appreciation with mutual fans. "This is why I love anime" goes so much farther with an audience than "This is why this show is stupid."
 
SM: Where did the name Uncle Yo originate?
 
YO: My sister has been calling me "Yo" in an attempt to be "hip" for many years now. Then she learned how to reproduce (some successful attempt at budding, I believe.) So for about two years I enjoyed being called Uncle Yo around the house. When I made a list of potential stage names (my real name doesn't sound good over a set of speakers, nor do people hear the name Karl correctly the first time.) Uncle Yo flowed well, was easy to  spell, made Asians think I was one of them, and just sounds friendly.
 
SM: What are your favorite sources to draw material from? Are some shows gifts that keep on giving?

 
YO: I keep an eye on popular cosplays at conventions and trends to keep up to date, because there's never knowing what someone in the crowd has and hasn't seen.  
 
SM: You have become a regular fixture at Tekkoshocon and its related shows. What do you like about the Pittsburgh crowd?
 
The staff. The staff of Tekkoshocon was the first group to welcome me and know me directly as Karl. It's become my home away from home. The crowd is also very Midwestern in their politeness and open to change. There's a big para-para and Asian pop following, which always leads to more dancing and caution thrown to the wind. To this day, The tekko "rave" is the only dance I attend at conventions.
 
SM: Do you ever participate in general comedy showcases, or is it best to stick with your target demographics?
 
YO: Could I go in front of an open mic in a bar in midtown filled with foreigners, tourists and closeted Republicans and talk about Skyrim and Pokemon? Also, a
comedy club isn't an anime convention. Why go through the ladder scheme in the NY comedy scene when I already get a private audience at conventions?
 
SM: What other comedians do you admire?
 
YO: Without question, George Carlin made me happy to play with the English language and encourage social criticism from the safety net of comedy. Dana Carvey and late nights with "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast" gave my mixing for random humor and character acting. Monty Python told me to question and attack everything.   
 
SM: As you have played some shows multiple times, do you modify your act to fit the type of show, or is it more about generally updating the act?
 
YO: Flash Fact: I have never done the same show twice. I don't reuse jokes year after year, because the chances are people in the crowd have already you-tubed the same joke. I had that happen in Jersey. I was going through my "waiting in line at registration" material, and saw the front row mouthing and whispering my next punchline, so I changed it on the spot from "beheadings" to "tentacle rape." I swear that joke words better in context.  
 
While some people want to hear the bits they know and have memorized, like the Naruto Name song or the Death Note rants, I find a lot of fans coming to different shows because, like them, I watch different things over the years and am willing to talk about the new shows.
 
SM: You have performed at a lot of shows over the last few years. What have been the highlights for you?
 
YO: Any show I'm able to walk away from is a good show. I'm always nervous after a show that I didn't meet expectations, not so much the audience's, but my own.  
 
My second year I felt I had a relevant, quick-hitting set, but didn't know it would work until I did it for the recording of my 1st live CD, "What's the Hell Your Heart?!" I'm usually too in my own head during a show thinking, "Crap, what comes next?" to really pay attention to the crowd. After I recorded the CD, the entire audience, about seventy people, rushed the stage and mob-hugged me. That felt good.  
 
Some shows have me do my stand-up the moment I arrive, some make me nervously rehearse until just before closing ceremonies on Sunday. I had a show down south where my panel was 10am Sunday morning. In the next room to me was an acoustic Eyeshine concert. There were two people in the room. We all went next door to watch Eyeshine.  
 
Earlier this year my show was sandwiched between two bands. My hour became twenty minutes, but I wasn't going to go over because, off to the wings and glaring at me, was Eyeshine. So I ran through my bit and left the stage with the minute to spare to which, and this is why I love her, the bassist from Eyeshine,  Crystal, high-fived me and said, "You f&%$ing rock, dude." That made it worth it.  
 
High School and College anime clubs are always challenges to win over the crowd, which makes them more stressful and rewarding at once. But honestly, sometimes it feels like I wait the entire year just to say, "How we doin' tonight, Pittsburgh?"

Mixing his love for hip hop and video games, Random a.k.a. Mega Ran, has become a growing voice in the Nerdcore movement, gaining a following from both the gaming and mainstream hip hop crowds by celebrating games like “Mega Man” and “Final Fantasy” through verse.

Fresh from co-headlining “The Vs Tour,” which combined concert performances with video game tournaments centered around the new “Street Fighter X Tekken,” Mega Ran stops in Pittsburgh to perform at Tekkoshocon, Pittsburgh’s Japanese pop culture convention.

Until last year, Random (real name Raheem Jarbo) had been teaching middle school in Phoenix, Az, while doing the music on the side. His growing popularity, and demand for more performances prompted him to quit his day job to pursue his art.

“It's been crazy. I quit my full-time job in May. Since then I've been a full-time musician. I am surprisingly still hanging in there. I didn't know how long it would last,” said Random. “I can't complain at all. Life is good, it's a struggle, but it's worth it definitely. Working for yourself is so much more fulfilling in the long run.”

“It got to the point where I didn't have a choice. I just had more and more demand as far as music and travel obligations. I tried to do both as long as I could, and then I ran out of sick days,” he said.

“Being a teacher, you've got to be there everyday or else you are doing a disservice to the children. I really felt like not being there for them at that level, when they're in middle school, wouldn't be fair to them. So I had to step down.”

Random’s 2006 debut, “The Call” was more traditional hip hop before he made the jump to video game-beats.

“(I was) feeling like I had exhausted everything creatively that I really wanted to say in the first album. So I flirted with the idea of quitting and not doing any more music. So I took a hiatus, and when I took a break from music, I fell back into video games. Video games were probably my first addiction, probably right around the same time as hip hop for me. And so it was just a matter of going back.

 “Once I got back into video games, I played the old games and it just kind of hit me that this is a part of me, as big of a part as hip hop so it's something that I needed to embrace. I never felt that both could be done at the same time because hip hop is just a heavy, masculine, ego-driven thing, and video games are considered to be a lame, nerdy thing, that it would seem weird to put them together. But I always said if I could find a way to do it and like the sound good and be proud of it, then I would embrace it and go all the way.

Random blended his two loves with 2007’s “Mega Ran,” which launched his new career and led to him getting official approval from Capcom.

“In 2007, I got this crazy idea to make a Mega Man hip hop album. So I do that, and put it out. I was really afraid of possible legal ramifications, so I tried to keep it as much under the radar as I possibly could, but with the internet, that's just not possible, he said.

“I got a MySpace message one day from a guy who worked at Capcom who then told me, ‘Don't worry, this is not a cease and desist. We actually really love what you're doing. We've been playing your music in our office. The actual composers of the music have heard it and they love it.’ It was like a couple weeks before Comic-Con and they were like, ‘Hey, why don't you come out to San Diego for Comic-Con and you can hang out at our booth. There are plenty of people who really want to meet you.’”

“They continued to let me sell my music and create more music – I got a licensing agreement, which as far as I know is the first of its kind for a musician, to allow me to create new stuff with their blessing. It's been a great ride. Not something I ever imagined would happen when I used to play these video games back in the day. Now the people who make these games know who I am.”

Following another “Mega Ran” album and the old school celebration of “Forever Famicom,” Random next set his sights on the best-selling Square RPG with “Black Materia: Final Fantasy VII.”

“Maybe even more so than Mega Man, Final Fantasy VII is such an instrumental game in my life because it hit at a really, really strange time in my life. I was really out the whole video game thing when FFVII came out. That was the game that encouraged me to get back into gaming. I bought a Playstation just for that game. I played though it forever. I mean, I put 80-90 hours into that game because I was so wrapped up in that storyline. To me, it was the perfect game.”

Random rediscovered the game on a long flight to a show, and became immersed in the story once again.

“I brought my PSP, and on there I had ‘Final Fantasy VII.’ So I started playing it again, and once I got back into it, it was all over from there. I was hooked all over again.  I didn't think that the game would age well, that the story would age well, but it actually did, so it really inspired me to get to work.”

The resulting album was a breakthrough recording for the artist, garnering tremendous support online, as well as being spotlighted in major hip hop and gaming publications.

“I never could have imagined it would have been as big as it was. If I could credit just one thing, it would be that album that gave me the confidence to quit my job. It kind of blew up pretty quickly on the internet. I can remember having Google Alerts set up on my phone and I was at work teaching and my phone would go off like every two minutes for like the entire day. I'll never forget that. It was ridiculous. Stuff was happening so fast. ‘Playstation’ magazine picked it up, ‘Nintendo Power,’ ‘Game Informer,’ all of the huge gaming outlets embraced it. As well as the mainstream hip hop outlets like ‘Complex.’ It was to me the ultimate fusion of hip hop culture and gaming culture.”

Looking though Mega Ran's YouTube channel you will find his reality series “Life After Lesson Plans” and various music videos for his songs, one of which is called “‘Aerith’ Final Fantasy VII *Spoiler Free Edit*.”
 
“You would be really surprised how many people were commenting ‘Oh my god! Spoiler alert!’ and I was like, ‘Really?! It's a 14/15 year-old game.’ At this point, if you haven't played it and at least gotten to that point, you're probably not going to play it ... unless they do a remake. So I don't know.

 Like a lot of things, Random dealt with the outcry over Aerith’s tragic end with humor and posted his re-edited video.

 “That was just kind of for humor's sake. And people were like ‘Why didn't you take out the last verse?’ because in the last verse I mention what happens to her, so looking back I should have just deleted out the last line, but then it wouldn't be a complete song. So I had to take out the visuals because some people told me, and I can understand it, that seeing that visual of what happens to Aerith still kind of touches them the same way as when they first saw it.”

“I still remember playing that game, and hopefully I wasn't the only one that remembers my friends telling me that ‘Oh no, she comes back at the end’ or there was some sort of GameShark code where you can keep her. ‘Don’t worry, you gotta play all the way through the game and then she comes back,’ or ‘You gotta defeat all of the Weapons.’ People would just make up so many rumors about that game.

“Just that moment alone is what I think made that game so epic and timeless. It was the first time that I can remember where a major character would die, so it forced kids at a young age to kind of deal with the reality of death. And people like me were angry, you're like ‘Man, I spent all this time leveling up this character.’”