Earl Schmerle is part of The Rock-afire Explosion's comedy act, sharing stage right with Rolfe DeWolfe. He is a puppet, located on Rolfe's right hand. He is the comedic foil to Rolfe DeWolfe.
With the exception of a period in the mid-1980s where ShowBiz Pizza Time produced its own Rock-afire show tapes, Earl has been voiced by Aaron Fechter.[1][2]
Development[]
In the development of the Rock-afire, Earl was the only character that did not originate as a character in either the Wolf Pack 5 or The Hard Luck Bears. However, his voice closely resembled that of the Wolfman from the Wolf Pack 5.
Personality[]
Personality-wise, Earl was the complete opposite of Rolfe. Whereas Rolfe was loud, outspoken, and rather rude towards the band, Earl was quieter, and rarely interacted with the rest of the Rock-afire Explosion. His main role in the shows was to antagonize Rolfe. Earl had a large vocabulary of insults for Rolfe, including geek, nerd, wolf-face, "Scum of the Earth", dork, etc.
Earl would usually call Rolfe out on his various schemes, such as shattering the illusion that Rolfe was getting fan mail when it was really his mother and the IRS or having Johnny the Jockmo (the band's never-seen manager) tamper with the Frank Sinatra record Rolfe was lip-syncing to. Earl would always follow up a foiled scheme with the line "You're a geek! I can't even stand to look at you!" and closing his eyes while turning away from Rolfe.
In an ironic twist, during the final Showbiz showtape, the Rolfe and Earle Show, Earl became the one who was clueless and had no idea what was going on, which was usually Rolfe's role in the shows. In contrast, Rolfe became the witty one and even threw a few insults at Earl, calling him a dummy.
Concept Unification[]
During Concept Unification, Earl was completely removed (both the prototype and the final), as the right arm assembly containing his animatronic was replaced during the conversion of Rolfe's animatronic to Chuck E. Cheese[3]. After these events, it is likely that Earl was most likely either destroyed, put into storage, or sold to a collector.
It should be noted, however, that during concept unification, Rolfe and Earl performed the last official Showbiz Pizza show known as The Rolfe and Earle Show. During the show, both characters were voiced by ShowBiz employees.
Voices[]
References[]
- ^ "Animatronic Rock!". Branded in the 80s. 2011-02-28. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. http://www.webcitation.org/6Dd8eSOrp. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
- ^ a b "ShowBiz Pizza - The Rock-afire Explosion". VoiceChasers. http://voicechasers.com/database/showprod.php?prodid=4858. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
- ^ "Concept Unification Installation, Part 3". ShowBiz Pizza Time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx8UZ5xyh34. Retrieved 2013-01-09.
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