BW&BK; recently caught up with former SLASH PUPPET frontman Mif, who currently has a recurring role in the new Disney XD program Aaron Stone playinh the evil Dr. Necros. In the excerpt below Mif discusses his humble beginnings as an actor in the early '90s, crediting the legendary David Carradine for giving his career a signifucant push.

“I got onto the set for Kung Fu: The Legend Continues as an extra, and David Carradine – God bless him – picked me out of a crowd. I was on the show doing nothing special, just playing the part of stiff in a group of people, but I happened to have my full regalia of jewelry on my face from the Slash Puppet days. The nose ring, two earrings on one side, one on the other, the shaved head, and at one point between scenes he basically pointed over towards the crowd and starts gesturing with his finger, ‘Come here.’ I’m pulling a DeNiro in my head: ‘What? You talkin’ ta me?’ (laughs), when it became very clear that he was pointing and talking to me. I slowly walked over in a state of euphoric shock feeling some trepidation, as the on set rules for the lowly extra actor are very clear: ‘Don’t speak to anyone important unless you’re spoken to first…’ and even then this could still be a potentially job ending scenario.”
“Anyway, I took the chance. I go over and Mr. Carradine starts telling me how much he digs my look, and that conversation turns into him telling me about his son who’s a marketing executive in L.A. and that the hair on one side of his head is purple and the other half is yellow. ‘He’s got rings, too, but I can’t tell you where..,’ that kind of thing. So there I am treating David Carradine like the legend that he is – he was the first big actor I’d ever met – and about a month or so later I was on set doing my first speaking scene as the ‘Bardos Bartender’ with none other than the legend himself.”
“I can never be absolutely sure that our previous chance conversation had anything to do with this, but I genuinely believe in my heart that it may very well have. Regardless, it was my first taste of true acting and apparently I must have done a pretty good job for them, as I recall being pleasantly shocked to see that the executive producer of the show, Michael Sloan, had given me a single slate credit that read ‘And also co-starring as the Bardos Bartender – Mif’ much to my delight and amazement. I got a call later on from Michael Sloan to go in and audition for a major role in some project he was putting together. I can’t help but believe that in some way Kwai Chang Caine, at the very least spiritually anyway, had a hand in launching my career as a professional actor. It truly saddened me to the point of tears upon hearing of his recent passing, as I always wished that some day I would be on set in some project with him again so that I could thank him.”

Go to this location for the complete interview. Click here for an overview of Mif's acting career.

(Picture by Ron Boudreau)

(Mif appearing at 6:36)