In honor of National Skilled Trades Day, we are hitting the MyFixitUpLife talk show interview vault and sharing an interview with John Ratzenberger and his take on why having a skilled trade is important.
We first saw him as Cliff Clavin on Cheers and loved him on Toy Story and Monsters Inc, but did you know John Ratzenberger is a skilled tradesman? Specifically, he’s a skilled framer.
Our interview with John Ratzenberger
“Because I know how valuable it is. I know how valuable having carpentry skills was to me, it still is, because I can do anything in the world with a confidence to know that I have a skill that no one can steal from me.
“I have a skill that will enable me to get work anywhere I go. How many people can actually say that?” says John Ratzenberger.
John Ratzenberg can frame houses
Mark: You started out, before you were acting and before you were a voice actor and all of this Pixar and Disney movies, I hope I have that right, knocking a couple hunks of wood together and building houses, you’re a house framer, 16 centers, headers, the whole thing.
John: I can actually tell when they’re building houses, this happened to me the other day, they’re building a new house and I knew that the header was at least a quarter inch out of square.
Mark: You could see it.
John: I saw it from the road.
Mark: Yes.
Theresa: I love that.
John: I stopped and I told the foreman and I said, “The header is about a quarter inch out of whack.” He was like blah, blah, blah, who are you anyways. “Measure it.” It was a quarter inch.
Theresa: Wow.