Danny Pudi calls his twins his “biggest critics or should I say, my smallest critics”

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Danny Pudi talks about parenting twins. (Photo: Getty; designed by Quinn Lemmers)

Welcome to So Mini Ways, Yahoo Life’s parenting series about the joys and challenges of raising children.

Depending on your age, you know Danny Pudi either through his comedic turns on the beloved sitcom Community or his current series, Mythic Quest, or through his voice work on cartoons, including the reboot of DuckTales, Mira, Royal Detective and Smurfs. : The Lost Village. The latter group will be delighted to hear that the Chicago actor is once again lending his vocal talents to children’s entertainment, voicing the eponymous lead character in the new GoKidGo podcast Bobby Wonder.

Pudi plays a 10-year-old on the podcast, but in real life he and his wife Bridget are the parents of 9-year-old twins James and Fiona. Here he talks about trying to impress his “smallest critics”, introducing the twins to Community and passing on cultural traditions as a half-Polish, half-Indian father.

How does it feel to have twins?

It’s just full of joy and wonder and bananas at times, but it’s just amazing. This is the opportunity to review everything differently. They’re both very different too, so it’s really fun because we’re exploring different worlds with that and sharing all of those experiences with them. I guess in some ways it’s really the silver lining of last year, that when the schools were closed and the world was going through this incredibly tough time, it was nice to have at least those times when we spend a lot more time together. They don’t see me working anymore. We go for long walks with our dog. We all try not to overeat. We’re all just sharing more experiences together, so it’s been really, really wonderful. It’s cool just to see what they take and what they find funny, what they find funny. I like to watch them watch shows and see what they find entertaining and funny and what makes them laugh. It’s always interesting to me.

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It’s just the greatest gift in the world, being able to share experiences with them and see the world through their eyes.

As a parent, do projects like Bobby Wonder have any appeal?

It came to my mind during that time when a lot of us are at home and still looking to create … so this was an opportunity to do something at home with my kids. I just thought it was really attractive. For me, it’s always a question of finding the balance; there are projects my kids can’t listen to [laughs] and some they can. This one falls into this camp, where it’s something that I could share with them and they literally heard me working on it and they heard it set up. It was fun because it’s one of those unique projects where they get to watch me work when I’m upstairs in my office screaming and pretending I’m getting hit in the face with a baseball. They find it, I think, even nicer [laughs] as the finished product. Just like, “What are you doing, daddy ?!”

As for the project itself, it’s a podcast, so it’s unique; I have never worked on something like this before for children. I thought it was really exciting to enter this space. And the character himself, Bobby, is this curious cat who really looks at the world in a beautiful way, in wonder. And then on top of that, he wakes up on his 10th birthday and he has superpowers where he doesn’t feel pain, he can fly and do all kinds of cool things. It was really exciting for me. He has blue hair … I had a ponytail in college, so I can relate to that too.

On top of that, you’ve done so much cartoon voice work, including DuckTales. Does it give your kids street credit in school? Are they impressed?

I don’t know if they are impressed at all. I think they’re so used to me being awkward with them. I think they like having these cool worlds around them. But I think in some ways that they are actually my biggest reviews or I should say my smallest reviews [laughs]. My daughter will say something like, “This character looks a bit too much like the other characters you’ve created” or “I think you must look younger”. But I think they like it, and every once in a while I hear my kids say, “So-and-so is watching DuckTales” or “So-and-so has heard of that character you made.” They’ll kinda whisper it to me, so hopefully that ends up giving me some credibility on the street. That’s part of the reason I’m doing this, I’m just trying to impress them.

You published an article about home schooling your kids in social studies. Has your community experience helped you in any way?

I definitely haven’t taught Who’s the Boss to my kids. But yeah, we watched Community during the break. We got to watch a few episodes and share that with them, and it was really fun to watch. A lot of people will stop me on the street and say things about DuckTales or Community or sometimes Mythic Quest. Some of these things I can share with them, others I can’t. Things like Bobby Wonder, I can certainly share with them; it’s really nice. Things like DuckTales I can share with them. But now they’re interested in that kind of “what’s wrong that we’re not ready for yet, daddy?” And so I start to help them understand that, and the community is a part of it.

And I guess that’s been part of my responsibility as a social studies teacher, just figuring out what’s appropriate for my children’s development. They are smart and they quickly realized that their mother, my wife, was a fourth grade teacher and is incredibly better equipped to answer their questions and determine what is appropriate. So she takes care of most of them; she does most of the heavy lifting while i’m thinking, is that appropriate? I’m not really sure, and I show them episodes. Right now we’re all finding out together, so it’s been fun. It was really cool to put on a new hat as a teacher. I will say my appreciation and admiration for teachers all over the world and it has always been high but it took to another level during this time. I really think they are real heroes in every way.

You are both Polish and Indian. You have published articles about Polish fairy tales on your Instagram. Are there other little things you have passed on to teach your children about their heritage?

We are trying. My mom is probably going to be disappointed that I’m not doing it enough. My family is in Chicago, my mother was born in Poland, and my father was born in India. It’s a big part of who I am, so it’s definitely something I want to pass on to my kids and they are very much aware of it. I wish they had more Polish speakers around. We read a few books; there are Polish books on the shelves. They will hear me sing songs. For every birthday we always sing “Sto lat”, which is our Polish birthday song. We celebrate a Polish tradition called Wigilia every Christmas. We cling to this tradition called the opatek where we go around the table and exchange this cake and exchange blessings. And there are Polish tongue twisters that I like to make at home and that I try to teach [the kids]. They are incredibly difficult, but a great vocal warm-up. It’s a great exercise for everyone. [Recites Polish tongue twister] It’s impossible to do, but it’s a great exercise for your face. I hope we can pass some things on, but I should definitely do more, according to my mom [laughs].

I have to bring up your infamous “Larry, I’m on DuckTales” moment with Larry King. What is a luxury for you as a parent? Obviously not a private jet.

I mean, you know, my two big guys are coffee and running socks. As a parent, a luxury would be to find an activity in which we can all be successful and flourish. We did an escape room together during quarantine, and it was amazing. It was this escape room that looked like an abandoned mine. It was a time when the four of us were having the best time … So for me it’s a luxury, all I feel, OK, it’s something we can all have fun doing together . I say the escape rooms [laughs]. We need more escape rooms in our life.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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