Alicyn
Welcome to Alicyn's Wonderland. I'm your host, Alicyn Packard. Join us as we journey through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole into the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games. A do a girl a favor, and please subscribe to this podcast and go on iTunes and leave us a good review. If you like the show, please help spread the word it really helps us to get heard by more people. Thanks so much. Welcome to the show The Voice of awesomeness MC Hello.
Mick Wingert
Hi. How are you my friend?
Alicyn
Oh my god, I'm so good. It's so good to have you here.
Mick Wingert
Thank you. It's so good to be here. I
Alicyn
don't think we've ever actually done an interview together
Mick Wingert
you and I know. Yeah, I'm super excited about this.
Alicyn
It's funny because you were saying like you knew the show like way back like the you know, there's been several different incarnations of this show. But you know, are we talking about the 2009 Embarrassing version?
Mick Wingert
There wasn't one earlier than that was there? Yeah, yeah, I definitely remember you know, you were interviewing animators and and show creators and stuff with the Alice in Wonderland Allison's Wonderland brand for sure.
Alicyn
That little cheeky little Yes. icon.
Mick Wingert
Oh, it was super cute though. And a great idea.
Alicyn
Yeah. catalyst of something for sure. would have been great if I you know, continued with it. But here we are. Now. We are did and we're not bored of it. Yeah, that's right. So I've known you when did we first meet?
Mick Wingert
Want to say it was a voiceover mixer around by? Gosh, this will take me back thrown by voices.com. That was like in 2012 2011. Oh, man. No, it was
Alicyn
before that it was 2008 2008 Because I remember even you were your as well as an amazing voice actor. You're also a voice acting coach. That's right. And you would do workshops. You had done one with Meredith lane. Yeah, I finally got to work with this. Yes.
Mick Wingert
I love Meredith. She's great.
Alicyn
Oh my god, she's so good. She's spot on incredible experience working with yourself very, very lucky. But yeah, I remember I would take workshops with you over at your studio in Burbank.
Mick Wingert
And believe it or not, if you remember back in the day, we actually took a workshop together with Andrea Romano back when she was still teaching guest stuff. It was one of the first voice actors networks events. Hmm. And it was supposed to be like limited to 12 people. But there were 19 of us there because we all wanted to work with Andrea and it can't leave me out. Right, please. But yeah, we actually I wouldn't have gone to that. Had you not like gonna let's go to this together. And I'm like,
Alicyn
yes. Just texting you on a flip phone.
Mick Wingert
It was it was I think it was a
Alicyn
Blackberry, BlackBerry, my palm pilot. So I mean, super inspiring thing that I learned about you was that you didn't actually move to Los Angeles until you were 30. That's correct. Wow. So I think there's a misconception that you have to move here when you're, you know, in your 20s or right out of college or grow up here to really have an amazing career and you have built an amazing career through you know, talent and luck, because Sure, and perseverance and, and good luck.
Mick Wingert
It's all of its old charm, viewed beauty, extravagance, beauty,
Alicyn
but so did you when you moved to Los Angeles, were you planning a career in voice acting?
Mick Wingert
What's interesting is and I have to pay homage to your your research that you've accumulated. For this interview, I actually did come down to be involved in Christian ministry of some kind. I didn't know how or where but I had read this book called roaring lambs by Bob Reiner, which was published I want to say like in 1998, I was just at a college, I was working as a copywriter in the Central Valley of California, which is like ag country, some I mean, some big cities, I was in Fresno, which is 500,000 people, or more. So I mean, it's a pretty sizable city. But in terms of California, and the cultural landscape, it was kind of Knowers, at least in terms of influence. And this book that Bob wrote called roaring lamps. The whole conceit of the book was if you've got gifts in, you know, in things that shaped culture, get out there and use them, rather than just seeing a mission field per se, as you know, going to some remote tribe in a third world country, go use the gifts that you have been given to go do this. And so I thought, yeah, I'll go do that. And what I'll do in order to make some money to, you know, pay the bills for any evangelicals out there watching, you might recognize the phrase tent making, what I would do for tent making would be some voiceover work, because that wasn't that great of an actor, but I knew it was I was really good at showmanship so I thought, cartoon voices, why wouldn't I do that? I don't have to be a real actor to do that. As soon as I hit the ground and studied with Pat Fraley for a workshop or two and took my first voiceover class with Dolores deal, bless her heart rest in peace Dolores, she was amazing and super fun. But as soon as I took those in, I realized how much skill was involved and whether or not I really wanted to do this. I kind of fell in love with it. I fell in love with that primarily and and as I matured, I mean, I came down at 30. But you know, like many of like many of us in this industry. We're all kind of just big kids and so that maturity curve might have extended a little long for me. So as I was maturing even at 30, it started thinking, you know, I think regardless of quote, unquote, ministry, this is what I'm crafted to do. I mean, this is just the gift set that I have. So I'm gonna lean into this because I love it. I love it more than anything else. And I was willing to build a lifestyle around it. And that's what it takes. So
Alicyn
yeah, and so that was 2004 they moved to Los Angeles. 1004. And what was your very first voice acting job?
Mick Wingert
Oh my gosh, locally or ever? Um, oh, both Oh, that was my very first voice acting job was in the Central Valley because I was doing community theater at the time. I got pulled into the guy number two in a Levi's jeans commercial for the local department store chain. So this was
Alicyn
I knew you. Yeah. Yeah. Guy number two. Again,
Mick Wingert
as I'm sure you know, I'm friends with James Arnold Taylor. And back in the very, very early days, when I first got to town, we were talking about putting together a demo of just guy two stuff, Guy number two, and that was that would be the name of the demo MC Wingard guy number two, and it was like me saying things like, really? I've heard about Honda or I'm learning Papa John's, you know, stuff like that. Just all the little ancillary radio commercial lines that guy number two would have because you see that guy all the time. And how fun would it be just to have a demo of just that guy. Not sure that we recorded some stuff but never three over here. Number three, office girl number three
Alicyn
him in last place a Papa John.
Mick Wingert
That's right. Anyway, I don't nothing really ever came of that. But we had some really fun times in the studio for coming up with guide number two lines.
Alicyn
Interesting. And so funny story about James Arnold Taylor. He actually is part of the lore of how you became the television version of Kung Fu Panda. Yes, yeah. Tell us that story.
Mick Wingert
So James was auditioning. The way he told it to me was he was auditioning for the video game that was coming out simultaneously with the first feature that was like 2008. And he knew the casting director pretty well. Margaret Tang from will music would love her. And he'd said to Margaret, he said, Look, I do a lot of voice match. There's, here's a there's a lot of characters in my arsenal. But you know, that's my dimestore James and I'll tell Jack Black just isn't one of them. You know, he should call his MC WINGERT. Agent. He call his agent. He's over at fishermen right now. And lo and behold, I got a call from my agent at TGM. D, which was when fishermen became where we both Yes, yeah, we were both there. We knew each other. Yes, there. And as they came, they called me and said DreamWorks wants to hear you on this on Monday for an in person audition with one of the directors of the feature film. And here's a 32nd sample of some of Jack's lines from the feature and match these and go and I did not have a Jack Black impression at the time.
Alicyn
So So you had weekend plans? Yes, I
Mick Wingert
did. Because the call came in on Thursday. And so Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I pulled my hair out trying to figure out how Jack and I sound how to impersonate him and it's actually harder to impersonate someone that you sound like naturally. Is that true? Yes. Wow. Because it's well at least for me, I can't speak to everyone's experience but for me it's really easy to go into the large over the top you know Party favorite impressions, right? You go to something like you know an Arnold Schwarzenegger and it's all about that accent right and you do have to make you know your voice go low of course, but it's about like the round tones that you get and this and that and then you know you have to have the right articulation and things of that nature, but it's really easy like because it's so not me that I know what to do to put that on. Uh huh. Will you get somebody that sounds like me and I'm like, I don't know where is my voice and my my sound stops and Jax begins and I was equated my younger son is a rock climber. So I was a create, equate it to climbing a rock like a mountain or a rock wall where the Schwarzenegger is the Jack Nicholson's that kind of thing. Although Christopher Watkins those guys, they have these huge like handholds to get up the wall. But when you're dealing with a guy that sounds just like you Yeah, you're dealing with like little tiny what my son would call crimps. You're dealing with a little creepy spaces that you're trying to get up this wall and you don't know you don't know how to master this impression because it's so close to who you are. So for me it was a movie called Marga with the wedding, which was not a movie I particularly enjoyed, but it was an indie film. It was studio indie, I think, and Jack was in it playing his typical archetype, but he was a secondary player too. Oh my gosh, was Nicole Kidman. Nicole kit it was Nicole Kidman movie and he basically played like the lovable schlub who's marrying Nicole Kidman, Ins characters sister and he drives up to pick up Nicole Kidman and her son or 13 year old son from the Fareed at the wharf and he like leans over. He's driving his Volvo beat up Volvo and he has Are you Margo, and I noticed that he had this slight underbite in that moment. Now I can honestly say now that I've met Jack that just happened recently, 14 years later, we'll go there but I don't think he speaks with an underbite at all. But in that moment, that was enough for me to go oh, that might be a handhold that separates me from him. Like if he does this that automatically puts me in a different articulation space from Jack and that started to be that way that I grabbed on to it. So if you play the Kung Fu Panda video game from 2008, or Playstation two or Xbox 360, you will hear the world's worst Jack Black impression or I guess it's the best worst Jack Black cars I booked the guy in a job I got the job. But it's it's all mean just doing basically this and letting that you know kind of guide lead. And from there as I refined over the years now I can just like go into it. There's no underbite at all. It's all about I finally discovered that what makes his voice different from mine is the way we articulate our words. I formed my words very much akin to where I grew up as a kid kid in the Central Valley. And he's very much you know, Southern California born and bred guy. And so his articulation is just way different. Very, very surfer. It's kind of like, you know, he does his little thing where he goes like really specific. But he also like, that's a bit and so then you learn how to do the bits and then it all comes together.
Alicyn
Amazing. You broke that down in such a clear and concise way. So you mentioned that you finally after 14 years got to meet Jack Black what was that? Like? It was intimidating.
Mick Wingert
I gotta say and you know, I posted you can see them at at MC Wingard on Twitter or at MC Wingard on Instagram, I posted photos of that encounter. And you know, for Jack, it was just Tuesday or Wednesday. But for me, I was like, Oh my gosh, I've been doubling this guy and living in his shadow and always, like chomping at his heels, like for 14 years. And I'm finally meeting the dude. And he was super gracious. And he was very complimentary. But we've really only got a chance to chat for like a minute or two because it was a screening event for a show that we were both involved in, in our own rights that was panda related. And you know, I came over shook his hand he gave me that. Yes, that Jack Black smell like Ha man, it's good to see it kind of a thing. And then he you know, there were so many other cast and crew that wanted to meet Jack and take photos with Jack and that kind of thing. So he was doing his very gracious celebrity bit and making sure that everybody got some time and attention and got to take their selfies to show their kids and that kind of thing. But it was a really cool experience in terms of just being able to take a photo with him to kind of get his seal of approval and
Alicyn
did you have to give him the backstory did you have to say I am you when you are not you
Mick Wingert
know that he knew. He knew see our worlds had been converging. Ironically enough for the last I would say five years around the time that I did Kung Fu Panda, the paws of destiny for Amazon, which was released on Amazon. That show included Mitch Watson as the executive producer as well as an actor named Michael Rifkin, both of whom are still very close friends of Jack's, so it was Kung Fu Panda project, our worlds were already starting to combine those guys were talking me up to him and relaying his feedback to me. And it was just it was just a matter of time before we finally got to me, I love super cool. It was very easy. Yeah.
Alicyn
What a cool job. And so you've only been here like four years when that opportunity when
Mick Wingert
that opportunity came up? Yeah. I love Jack. Thanks. Thank you, Jack once more. Yeah, I mean, I'd only been here for four years. And you know, back in the I'll just call them the ministry days, I was thinking, you know, I was just going to come in and start booking gigs, because I had had some voiceover experience. I was Guy number two, and I got shots commercial. So why wouldn't I Yeah. And then I realized what it really is, when you get to the Los Angeles market, I don't care what your previous experience is, unless you're a bonafide celebrity, or some sort of talent who's already made a name for yourself in a major market, you have to pay dues when you get here, regardless of your experience level. I don't mean just to the fellow community theater types like I was, but even if you're a pretty big name, use, you're still an unknown quantity until you're not and as an unknown quantity, regardless of your age, experience level education, you've got to get in there until people know who you are. And the
Alicyn
world has exploded the world of animation and the amount of people that work in here. So you know, if it used to be easy to know these three production houses in the 60s Now everything is just it takes a while it takes even longer to get known or 100% you have your work out there. Now your coach mirror voice acting coach so you coach to coach beginners advanced everything in between
Mick Wingert
I do in private session, meaning like one on one via zoom, I will coach any skill level from brand newbies, to experienced pros. And I've had the blessing and the benefit of being able to work with all different skill levels, those who are brand new to the process. Sometimes I get to I get to be that person that that says I love your passion for this. And it's going to take some significant investment beyond you and me sitting here working on some character sides for you to really make it in this business the way you'd like to other times I get to be that guy that says wow, why aren't you in Hollywood right now you need to get working and here's how we put it together a demo and that kind of thing. It's an fascinating seat to be able to sit in. One of my favorite things I'll even say about the screening I was just at with Jack is that they were doing one of the cast members, how can I say this without violating NDA, one of the cast members who I cannot name at this time, but maybe I'll come back and tell you is an established voice actor who basically only done commercial and narration and and was typically cast according to her ethnic background, she booked a major part in animation and I had specifically coached her on the audition. And so watching her I got to see some of her work animated and I was more proud of that than anything I was involved with. With the project. I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's my friend. That's my student. She sounds so good. So great to be able to walk through some of those milestones with people and see people that have coached with me go on to do amazing things. Yeah. So and people that you know, I have made demos for watch them go on to lead shows and, and that kind of thing. It's super cool. It's kind of a magical thing.
Alicyn
Awesome, is it was awesomeness, or I think tagline because
Mick Wingert
because of the show, the Kung Fu Panda show was Legends of Awesomeness. Time. I was like voice of awesomeness. Yeah. But since I mean, I've been Iron Man, and Heimerdinger and all these other things. I'm like, maybe I don't want to just pick myself as Jack. But I mean, being Jack is a bad thing, right? It's pretty awesome.
Alicyn
It's not all you do. Your work encompasses so much. Let's talk a little bit about our cane. Yes. Wow. What was it like working on that show? Oh,
Mick Wingert
my gosh, that was one of the best sessions or sets of sessions one of the best experiences I've ever had. And you can appreciate this as a fellow actor like they let us come into the studio. And even though we were only recording one on one, they gave us the time in the space that the session wasn't overbooked. It wasn't real grindy it wasn't like Okay, give me three in a row. Give me three more in a row, get three more in a row. We're going to talk Hold on a sec. Sometimes your sessions like that. Yeah, sometimes it's very much like we just gotta get in get out. I'm doing some voice directing right now for Disney Jr. in our show tends to be you know, scheduled very tight. And we're working with young performers. And we just got to get the read we need and so sometimes, you know, as Director, I just have to go give me three like this. I've had this amount of them hat. And then they pair it that back to me. Yeah, yeah. And so on. But with our cane, David Lyerly. And his crew of casting associates, as well as Christian and Alex, who are the the EPS of the show, Christian link and Alex Yee, they were so committed to getting this realism and this these grounded performances, they give us lots of space, we would do a couple of takes of the scene, we'd go for different moments, David Lyerly, who is voice directing, he would come in and eat though, you know, that was really good, and I'm not blowing smoke. I think that was a really good tape. We're marking that one. I think you can do better than that. I want to go for even more realism. I want this to really hit home for your character. What's happening here. Let's try just one one more pass. And I'll read opposite UCF something to bounce off of. And it was such a collaborative experience. I was blown away when I mean, I knew it was going to be special from the way that they handled it. Yeah. But when I saw the final product on Netflix like this show is I'm so proud to be a part of it. I'm so honored to be a part of this groundbreaking animation, storytelling and acting. There are definitely celebrity in some a few celebrity a few TV actor names associated with it. But I can overall say I can reaffirm you know what what I've heard David say impressed openings, like they didn't stunt cast a stunt cast, they were going for best performances. And some of those people happen to be doing other things on camera and whatnot. But everybody on that shows a fantastic actor, and I consider myself lucky to be a part of them. Tell us about your character, Professor Heimerdinger. So this is my favorite thing about Heimerdinger is that they told me coming in, he's this furry little creature called a yordle. And this race of beings has the tendency to be very cartoony. And as many of your viewers might know, this is based on a video game. And in the video game, like broad cartoony line delivery has some room, there's room for that. But in this show, they wanted it super grounded. And they were really concerned about whether they were going to keep Professor Heimerdinger, the yordle in the show. And they said it was just dependent on the actor that we got, we needed somebody who could do a high pitch creature voice but could also Give him heart and make him feel like a real person. And so Professor Heimerdinger actually sounds like this. He has a very high pitched voice and is a bit erudite to the way that he talks. And he's talking about science, very passionate about science, but he's also like, lived through genocide and Holocaust and he's lived 300 years and he's got to have this worldview that encompasses longevity and joy and tragedy and relationships and all of these things that make a character a character and to my credit, and again, it was a huge like, this is one of those little treasures I'm gonna keep in my heart for the rest of my life. Like I got a pat on the back on my way out of the audition saying we were looking for somebody who could make this character believable and human and not too cartoony. And that was our biggest worry and we're not worried anymore.
Alicyn
So it was pretty awesome. Amazing.
Mick Wingert
I know it's getting every actor dreams to have those those kinds of moments where you you get that pat on the back that says you nailed that. Yeah, nailed that. So that was kind of fun.
Alicyn
So there is a lot of Push these days towards more grounded or naturalistic performances versus cartoony Can you speak a little bit about that?
Mick Wingert
Absolutely. It's something I've thought a lot about especially as a coach casting doesn't happen now the way that it used to it used to when you came to the industry and I came to the industry back in the early 2000s It was still very much the old school way of doing cartoons it was like a group of people maybe 50 to 75 people strong and they did all the work in town and they were going from two sessions in the morning to two sessions in the afternoon and they were on everything they had to play grandmas and little kids and grandpas and monsters and and you just your whole day was a utility player and only really strong utility players great acting chops could come to that table and get a seat that was a prerequisite well now with the confluence of all media to kind of the streaming format and with the sophistication of the audience level rising like more and more adults are watching animated fare like arcane than ever before in fact arcane isn't even a kid show animation is finally getting its due here in the States and and in Europe as as a viable storytelling medium for beyond kids entertainment. Because of that the more sophisticated audiences are wanting more sophisticated performances, you know, having droopy dog talk like this is or you know,
Alicyn
that strips next
Mick Wingert
now, and this is this is the dog like this, who was that? That was a man, he
Mick Wingert
was like El kabongo He was the Hanna Barbera guy, the horse? Oh, why can I think of his name? You're gonna get cut, put in the comments if you know what character I'm talking about. But having him like talk like this, the whole time was not as necessary. And not only was it not as necessary, could get in the way of an adult audience enjoying what was being presented. Yeah,
Alicyn
yeah, interesting.
Mick Wingert
So that is why there's such a big change, you're getting more shows like what if on effectively, Disney plus parents are watching it with their kids. And they're and they're watching the the actors being brought in from major motion pictures to reprise their roles in animated form. Because it's meant for a general audience, not a not a kid audience, you will always have kids style shows, you'll always have kids entertainment in animation, and there is room still to play big and play wacky and play fun. But a voice actor who's trying to get a seat at that table now has to have more acting chops than ever before, which is the irony of me thinking when I first got to town, I'm not that great of an actor. So I'm just gonna do cartoons, and actually have to be a fantastic actor and have made that journey as an actor and as a coach to dive into those waters, because that's what books so what's
Alicyn
your process? Like? How do you approach when you first get audition sides? How do you dive in?
Mick Wingert
I look at the clock and see how much time I have?
Alicyn
No, for real probably. Is it three days?
Mick Wingert
Sometimes like 9am? Tomorrow? Oh, wow, what time? Is it? 630? Okay, less than 12 hours. Great. All right, well, let's see. For me, it always starts in the way that I coach is it always starts with scripts script is king. First, let the characters talk for himself or herself. See what you can see about the character insides, then for those of you who have not ever gotten an audition set of audition sides, usually what you get is lines in either script format or in you know, they're they're called out in individual like numbered lines, just the lines that you are responsible for themselves. And with that you get this cover page called a spec or specification and the spec gives you the character breakdown. And it's either somebody in casting or a writer of from the show, or both bending over backwards to tell you all they can about how they hear this character in their head. And the thing that I used to do that I think booked me out of several jobs is I'd read the spec first and I'd go oh, they said she he they said he's calm. Okay, so I just got to find a way to play calm. And all these all these moments that they've given me on the sheet. And now I look at it and I go okay, wait a minute, let me just see what this what happens in this scene, how these two people or three people or however many people react to each other, whether there's a sense of attention and the build and that kind of thing and let the character speak for himself. Then if I have questions, I'll go back to the spec. And you're like nine times out of 10. Allison, I kid you not most of the things that I would have written the spec were self evident in the way that the character carried themselves
Alicyn
and you would have been gilding the lily, trying to play them calm. That word is in your head.
Mick Wingert
Exactly. So my process is now like let this character speak for himself. One of the things that my teacher and mentor Pat Fraley taught me is give yourself permission to read things like a fifth grader first, just read them just just to find out where the words go before you make any acting choices so that you don't have to undo your wrong choices in trying to do it correctly. When you discover Oh, that's not where the sentence ended. It was actually went on for three more paragraphs. Got it? That kind of thing. Yeah. So in that sense, I just read it neutrally out loud first, and then depending on how much time I have, and that actually gives me the letting the character speak for himself or herself. And then I start building the character from how I think they carry themselves in the scene and what that should sound like and then I dive into what archetype they are. So You know if it's a lovable schlub character, I've certainly not I've not been reticent to to jump in and start doing this at first and then seeing what else I could do what other kind of lovable schlub kind of character is out there that fits that archetype,
Alicyn
the physical lysing what physical lysing archetype might feel like
Mick Wingert
Is he big as he small I always look at the character art, see how they're drawn, it helps to know what the creator of the show has done in the past. Like if you get a JG quintel show, I don't care if you're voicing a weird looking squirrel, it's going to sound like a regular person, he's just gonna talk like this because this is how JG quintel shows go. They just have normal people voices. So you got to know a little bit about the industry that you want to work in and that's part of that is the the homework that you do when you don't have sides in front of you. It's like just being familiar with the with the industry but physicality is a big deal like we talked earlier about me starting with an underbite on my very earliest Jack Black impression and you know, sometimes just putting your chin the tension of your jutting your jaw forward and, and trying to still stay articulate like this is a great orc position.
Mick Wingert
Mostow are dope notebooks for me but are going to go to the halfling
Mick Wingert
the ash like it's gives you a certain tension and creature Enos that otherwise you may not have had if you just use your mouth the way you're used to using it so giving yourself you know, imagining big teeth to work around like she's got huge and sizes like this and so I'm going to show now all my articulation sounds like this because my lips are being pushed out by my giant teeth that I'm imagining are there right? Yes physicality but it goes beyond face to sometimes you got to give yourself this body. The body how does this guy carry himself I was auditioning for something didn't get it but I remember it was for I think it was a John Constantine animated thing. I don't know if it was just asleep darker was just Constantine.
Alicyn
Hey guys. This is Alicyn Packard. Sorry to interrupt, but I just want to let you know that if you like the show, please, please, please remember to subscribe to this podcast. And leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps us to get heard by more people. Thanks so much. But it
Mick Wingert
was for Disney or not Disney I'm sorry, DC Direct straight to video 90 minute special movie and there was a demon named baru and he was supposed to be this like demon of lust and greed and like creature comforts kind of thing. Just all of your most salacious desires
Alicyn
and cast again, always, always, gosh, they live inside of it.
Mick Wingert
They know, they know I'm just a hedonist at heart. But he was described as being big and massive. And I instead of picturing him as big and muscular, dislike because I'm not that voice here. If you want that guy, you're gonna get David so beloved, he's gonna He's gonna kill it, he's gonna knock that out of the ballpark. For me, I'm not that guy. So what could I give them that was evocative as an option,
Mick Wingert
and I came up with this very like, Dude, I tried to give him Jowers you see, let the mask breathe. And I pictured myself being very very fat, very fat
Mick Wingert
demon because he has the scene with John Constantine where he's talking about how he's standing in front of this pool of human souls that looks like blood and because it's all in hell right so he's like oh, here's
Mick Wingert
the water we find today that like a good boss
Mick Wingert
and just just by hearing this guy yeah carrying myself like I was that want to be sophistic hint, like the guy who was really grimy but thought he was yeah almost like that rolls and the man Oh, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Living in there and imagining that and letting that affect my physicality changed my voice we provide water
Mick Wingert
to start from match with that sound like to see Yeah, and you know really getting nice and through Who is it because you're really very last shout very low evocative into being shall we say? sensual
Alicyn
and it's I'm having nightmares it should
Mick Wingert
be gross. Because this this character is an is a nightmare. He's like a gross demonic entity. And that's what hit me and that's what I auditioned. Because that's how I saw it in my head. And that's how it changed my physicality.
Alicyn
So that guy is going to live in something so who
Mick Wingert
he is he's coming leave you leaving me who's coming back room where
Alicyn
and you just announced a new role. Roll Joker Can we hear what it sounds like?
Mick Wingert
I cannot release that yet. Yet till the show compares. But yes, I get to play the role I've obsessed about since 10th grade when the 1989 Batman film came out.
Alicyn
Oh, that was such a good movie. So
Mick Wingert
good.
Alicyn
So but now this isn't the first time you played an iteration of the Joker. It is I mean officially Oh, didn't you have like a small role is like little Hold on. I know just thinking of Oh, Joker security guard.
Mick Wingert
Yeah, I was a security guard that got killed by the Joker. And oh, your
Alicyn
guard was not actually
Mick Wingert
no it was not. It was not the Joker. It was the guy assigned to the Joker was like A joker is not in his cell right now and red alert. And that's what it was now
Alicyn
it was like you were touched by the Joker and then you later came to embody him? Yes, absolutely.
Mick Wingert
But I will say like I posted online I was speaking about my Instagram earlier like when I finally got to announce the fact that I booked this role because DC announced it I posted pictures the October after my after the film came out in 89. I dressed like the Joker for Halloween and it was a it was the biggest cosplay undertaking that I'd ever done like I made my costume. I mean, back in the days of Rit dye and a machine a washing machines, okay, we're not talking about buying purple fabric and, and fabricating it on your Twitch stream in front of an audience. I'm talking like you find thrift store handoffs, like white nurses pants and a lab coat and you throw it in the washing machine with some purple written on your fingers. And I made my own Joker costume back in the day and had family helping me thank you and call
Alicyn
us and I feel like we need to insert that photo here. So yes, I will
Mick Wingert
have my editor pop that in. I will absolutely send that to
Alicyn
you. So literally you manifested I mentioned that was here. Right? It was your 10th grade vision board.
Mick Wingert
My Tim and I didn't even realize that it was my vision board. But it was I was obsessed with that character. Because it was only a couple years after the seminal comic book came out The Killing Joke which was written by Alan Moore. It's like the Joker graphic novel as it were, although it's pretty slim, but it's a Batman story with the Joker story and I think I was too young to really understand what it was all about. I understand it now about how like one bad day can turn you into
Alicyn
the Joker. But well we're all living through right now, aren't we? Wow,
Mick Wingert
I'm surprised it's not green Yeah, so needless to say that was a big deal. I was obsessed with the character and the one I posted on it on social media was like how it started how it's going. How it's going is the the character art that they released for the Joker on bad wheels.
Alicyn
Now this is a show for kids though this isn't so Joker probably is not as scary as no incarnation.
Mick Wingert
Yes. Here's what I usually say is that this is your Kinder friendlier, funnier, funnier, he really leans into more of a Cesar Romero than a Mark Hamill but I definitely in my version is based very much on on Hamels performance and trying to pay homage to the Joker's that have gone before. But he's definitely Clown Prince of Crime he's not psychotic psychopath. He's just out there having a good time and clown makeup and making bad puns and doing silly things and trying to give Batman a run for his money. Yeah,
Alicyn
Batman. Why don't you get all the good stuff?
Mick Wingert
Right? Exactly. It alone to me
Alicyn
know you also do a lot of Iron Man. That's true Iron Man on a number of different shows. Thankfully, yeah. How did how did that come about the very first casting so
Mick Wingert
most of the big things that I've gotten I've been fortunate enough to book out of the booth and then sometimes that leads to repeat performances and then that goes on to other things but this is one of those situations where they had an animated Ironman locked in and actor had been playing him for the last few years and I and they had a project that he was unavailable for so they just opened up the casting doors on a very imminent was it was a one off it wasn't an official Avengers thing. It just it was like for kids again, it was for little kids. It was called Marvel Superheroes, frostbite and because it was open. I was like, of course I want to audition for Iron Man. Yeah, and if I'm going to audition for Iron Man, I'm gonna do the Iron Man I like which is Robert Downey Jr. Yeah, so So I just took a couple of lines and found the Robert music and added it to the lines that was like a three sentence or three line casting sheet. It was a really small callback. No direct data booth. So that's cool. Yeah, I think you know, the lines he was about playing in Kochi and I picked up on the fact that Robert does this kind of up scoop when he's being clever and he thinks he's clever at least when he thinks he's clever as Iron Man and so I added one of those so that he said the thing I don't know why you would think that but I can see it kind of a thing and did that and somebody in casting loved it and said we want this guy and so I got in by they had me on frostbite it was really fun to record I was in with like Tom Kenny and Matt Mercer and gosh, Laura Bailey and cashew wells at Travis Willingham like this all these people who had been doing Marvel forever and then they I just got a call again at my agents Marvel animation wanted me to do something for Lego because they were doing a Lego Marvel special. So they called they called neurone like, we'd love to have you do Lego or Iron Man to Mike. I would love to do that. And again, over the course of time, I started refining my Robert Downey. So again, it's about placement like for Jack the placement stays the same but the articulation changes for Robert the placement kind of goes up into the nasal passages here. He's also got kind of a flat delivery like that. But what really makes a Robert Downey Jr. Impression stand out is not just when he goes up in speaking like that, but also the fact that he can take a break from saying something, then come back and say the rest of it really fast like that.
Alicyn
So when you get to meet Robert Downey Jr. Now,
Mick Wingert
14 more years from 14 I'm on a one to 14 year cycle of celebrity encounters. So yeah, that turned into auditioning for what if and I did go through a callback process on that. And that has been a dream to actually be part of the MCU with actors like Sebastian, Stan, and oh my gosh, you know, oh, my gosh, I can Samuel L. Jackson. I'm sorry. I'm getting old now. And so my brain is starting to like Fritz and eat more brain food, more salmon in Miami and more salmon. But anyway, Sam Jackson sharing the screen with him sharing the screen with you know, big, big names, who Chris Hemsworth, who had done has always held on a like I have several scenes with Zoe Saldana as Gamora. And are
Alicyn
you guys in the booth individually? So are you hearing you know, hearing each other's performance
Mick Wingert
every once in a while they'll break and recollect. But most of the time, it's the director working with the director. That's how so much of animation is recorded these days? Yeah, that's unfortunate, because it's always better to record in a group.
Alicyn
Yeah. And do you? Do you see that? How do you see that moving forward? I mean, it kind of feels like we're not going back. But as maybe the pandemic potentially gets under control. There's
Mick Wingert
a glimmer of hope that I can talk about having been involved with some of the production on a show called Big Nate for Nickelodeon. Oh, yeah, I
Alicyn
know, you're involved with that. Are you on big Nate? No, no. But Ben and Arne came in the show. I love
Mick Wingert
Ben and Arne. They are taller than me. Yeah, they're so what they may or may not have told you is that big Nate was recorded remotely for a long period of time. And they would still do multiple and group sessions and bring us all in via technology, through the Nick engineering board. So we'd all have separate feeds going into Nick. They'd have an engineer who was a magician recording us and mixing it on the fly. And we were still group recording, even though we were remote. So that's a bit of a glimmer of hope.
Alicyn
That's Mitch Watson made that decision, right? 100%. Yeah,
Mick Wingert
yeah, Mitch is fantastic. When it comes to that he gets it, he gets animation, he gets cartoons, he gets how actors can play off of each other. When we did positive destiny, he brought us in in groups to record it was usually me and the four kids because we were the kid pandas in the show. And then even when he didn't have characters that were in scenes together, they booked them for two talent at a time and group sessions so that they could get that bounce effect so that they could get synergy of more than one actor in the room. So Mitch is great. What?
Alicyn
Like, yeah, so we had to have him back on is done. He couldn't talk about big Nate, when he was on the season before this. You definitely need to have you back on. Oh, my God, Nick, I could talk to you all day,
Mick Wingert
I could talk to you all day. It's so good to talk to
Alicyn
you. It's so great to talk to you, too. So now if we have any viewers that are like hmm, I would love to coach with Mac, are you still taking private clients? Do you have ongoing group classes where can people get more info
Mick Wingert
they can always get more info at MC wingert.com convenient little website that has all my stuff on it and and waiting to not only contact me directly through a contact form, but also it'll take you over to my Calendly page which is how I do all my scheduling anything I may not have the availability that I used to because I'm pretty independent thing folks work and if I can, if I can fit you in and my schedule works with yours, whatever skill level you're bringing to the table, I'd be happy to
Alicyn
I've coached with my coach with make on occasion and just always great to get a an outside perspective on your work and you are also so knowledgeable about the industry and different styles. So you always have such great information and directors I because it is a collaborative process. Nobody expects you to record they can only had one job ever where they were like just sending the files and I was like do that God help me share you know, it's it is a shared experience. What do I do? You know, we're not just in our room being everything so yeah,
Mick Wingert
like I have a I know we're wrapping but I have an audio drama podcast that talks about that too. But yeah, we got it Jalen frequencies, it's it's audio style, like in the twilight style, the Twilight Zone. So it's audio horror 30 minute episodes, but when I record I try to bring them in for groups, I try to try to bring my whole cast in, either in pandemic times it was remotely through technology or you know, and then have them send in their files but be reacting to one another in the in the Zoom space or whatever. But before that when we were recording our first episodes, we were in studio all together and the synergy was happening and all that stuff and super fun. We've got we've got 14 episodes that are out that are been out since like 220 18 and this latest summer we're launching into 10 brand new episodes.
Alicyn
Oh my God, where are you in the production process?
Mick Wingert
Got three or four that are almost done and we've got two there in the casting process and then a few more that I've just got to get busy on
Alicyn
Yes, well as another fellow podcaster I can completely relate you get it you know this one as soon as you get the system down it makes it a lot easier. err but when you're doing other things and juggling, it's not easy, but it's not where can we hear Your Podcast,
Mick Wingert
the podcast is called the hidden frequencies. And if you go to the hidden frequencies, all one word.com, you should be able to find our feed. It'll either take you right to the pod Lane in the show notes too awesome. It'll take you right to the length of the pod bean hosting space, or we also have a website that sometimes traffic gets directed to as well. So either way, you can listen to it on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google podcasts, all your favorite places, as well as any podcasting app with an RSS feed so
Alicyn
and you also do personal appearances and signings at different conventions. Do you have anything coming up? You're at this episode is actually coming out next week. Perfect. That's how quick
Mick Wingert
we can love it. This is an efficient ship.
Alicyn
Not usually. We usually have a little bit of a ticket we are Yeah,
Mick Wingert
turning this around. Quick perfect timing for to announce my involvement at a Vox which is being put on by PCB productions over at the Pasadena Convention Center all weekend long the Independence Day weekend it in Pasadena tickets are still available. And again, it's a three day event. It's all voice actor centered, and it's going to be more than 150 of us cast members doing all kinds of different panels and experiences and games and signings and all kinds of stuff. So I'm excited about that one. That one's coming up.
Alicyn
Amazing. Great, and I'm sure probably following you on your social channels is the best way for people to
Mick Wingert
make Wingard
Alicyn
everywhere make laying their baby every concert at only MC MC in the game.
Mick Wingert
I'm not the only Wingard but I am the ultimate. I'm actually not even the only MC by but I am the only mechanic.
Alicyn
Well, thanks for coming out MC we thank you she did. Thank you guys all so much for watching. Be sure to subscribe and share this with a friend if you like it. And hey, I'm gonna make a big ask why don't you go ahead and leave a comment, leave a review on our podcast page so more people can get to hear the podcast. Yes. Thanks for being fans. We appreciate it. Nick, you're the best. We'll see you again soon. Anytime. Bye, guys. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to Alicyn's Wonderland, where we explore the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games. Please remember to subscribe and leave us a review. For more episodes of Alicyn's Wonderland. Please visit us at www.AlicynPackard.com See you next week.