Mr. Invincible #5: Mrs. Invincible

This was the fifth "Mr. Invincible" traffic safety spot written, produced and performed by Sean McDevitt and Phil Galbraith while they worked at Newstalk 780 KOH in Reno, Nevada. In the interest of giving full credit where it's due:

Mr. Invincible: Phil Galbraith
The Announcer: Sean McDevitt
Mrs. Invincible: Christy Casella
KOH Tag (used at the end of several of these spots): Mike Buchanan

This one was a bit tricky to put together; from what I remember, none of us were able to be in the production studio at quite the same time, so the final product was assembled from numerous separate takes. (This was 1997; it would be another couple of years until the KOH facility went digital, so everything was put together on carts and reel-to-reel machines.) Eventually we were able to take advantage of the digital frontier, and as much as I hate to admit it (being an old-school, traditional type at heart) it really did free us up creatively. Interestingly, although we did wind up going the digital route after all the old analog technology had been removed, Phil and I got to the point where we could record our sections of the spots -the snappy, back-and-forth repartee- sharing just one microphone; as Phil used to say, "Hell, the Beatles used to do it". You'd think it'd be the other way around- our sections would be assembled later, using the best individual takes from each session- but it was exactly the opposite: analog was recorded one line at a time, digital was performed mostly live, with the mixing to come later.

I have a happy memory of our Program Director, Dan Mason, being especially pleased with this spot. I also remember Phil and I gasping for air after the "funny, the map doesn't show a bridge to Hawaii" line came about, we were laughing so hard. And on an inside-joke level, it's always amused me that the sound of Mrs. Invincible's cold cream splattering all over the windshield was the exact same sound effect used for "Mr. Invincible # 3- Dashboard Hibachi", when ketchup is spilled all over our hapless driver's lap.


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Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Mr.
• Invincible
• Sean
• McDevitt
• Phil
• Galbraith
• Reno
• Nevada
• Newstalk
• 780
• KOH