He Voices EVERY Simpsons Character

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Can just be a kid. Join Bank of America in supporting Leanne's cause. Give if you can at bfa.com slash support Leanne. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. References to charitable organizations is not an endorsement by Bank of America Corporation. Use one of your... favorite characters that you like to do? If it's an episode where Dan hasn't recorded yet and we're doing an early pass, Homer is...

really fun. He's not that far off my normal voice. You start to tighten it up a bit, and I understand how he came up with it. He started by doing Walter Matthau, you know, frosty chocolate milkshakes, and then over time... he started to refine it and polish it and make him dumber and slower. I think they said Homer started angry and then he got dumb.

Our next guest has voiced over 300 episodes of The Simpsons. He regularly voices Rod Flanders and Luigi. He often stands in for other characters and guest stars during table reads. A viewer's numerous credits are Tom and Jerry, DreamWorks Dragons, film, anime, and video games. Simpsons Declassified welcomes my dear friend, Chris Edgerly. Well, Chris Edgerly, welcome, welcome, welcome to Simpsons Declassified. Thank you, Nancy Carter. Yeah, this is a real

Pleasure to have you here. Oh, it's my, it's, pleasure's all mine. No, it's mine. It's all mine. And it's Sophia. This is Sophia Kurtz. Hi, Sophia. Hello. She's our co-host. How are you? Very good. Thanks for coming on our show, Chris. It's a blast. Already. Yeah. I mean, look at all this. That's so cool, right? Look at all that, everybody. This was done just for you. Just to wheel out the awards to intimidate the guests. Yeah.

No, listen, I want to roll back time just a little bit. Sure. And I want to go back about 14 years or so when you first came on to The Simpsons, if you can recall that time, because I sort of remember when you came into the room because you were... new guy. We knew that you were coming on because we need somebody to do the voices, like the temp voices at the table reads.

I don't know that you knew how much pressure was on you. Did you? It's not like this was a brand new show trying to find its footing. I knew The Simpsons, right? I grew up in the 70s and 80s when The Simpsons first started coming on. I thought it was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Because, you know, you watch The Flintstones, you watch The Jetsons. These are fun shows. They didn't do the things The Simpsons did. The Simpsons took...

everybody off guard. And when it started airing as a regular series, I was in college and our dorm room, we would have this communal TV room at the end of the hall. We'd all watch The Simpsons. And I just loved it. I wouldn't miss an episode. And then 20 years later.

I get a call from my agent, okay, there's an audition for you. You got to be able to do these particular parts, have them all ready, and then you're going in tomorrow. Now, a lot of people would have freaked out at that. But I started out in stand-up, and I used to do Simpsons impressions on stage. Easy laugh.

Easy laugh, obviously, if you can do Homer and all that stuff. And, you know, the crowds loved it. I watched a couple of clips here and there. I thought, okay, okay, I want to make sure I can do this. How does Homer laugh? Oh. Oh, hey. I just did one earlier. Sorry, let me collect myself. I'm sorry, Dan. It's not as good as Dan.

Nobody's as good as Dan. Yeah, but that's awesome because you had a little crack in his laugh. That's Dan. That's pure Dan. Yeah, if you're around Dan for 15 years, you'll start to pick up. So totally true. So yeah, so that's my thing is that you've got to be... a Swiss Army knife to just get this first stage of animation done because it's...

always the actors. It's always you guys. But in the meantime, they've got to get it from A to B. You guys take it the rest of the way. But this is just to help the animators and everybody else to get started. Absolutely. And then at the table read, obviously. If somebody can't make it, sometimes somebody has a cold. Sometimes somebody's just, they can't get in there. And then we need somebody who's just, you know, like the writers are great, but the writers don't want to do it.

Right. Like we need somebody who can actually kind of get us there. Unless they're Conan. I'm sure Conan must have been amazing. Yeah, Simpsons Declassified. Yeah, he did it. He just like would stand up and, you know, become all of us characters. I'm sure. And this guy was just so far out of the box. And then look what happened to him. It's incredible.

Yeah, it's a shame nothing really happened for him. It didn't really do well. Yeah, but for most things you audition for, it's a few minutes, especially if it's voice acting. You just, you send in your audition, you wait to hear. This was an hour.

in Bonnie Pietula's office. Right. And the stack of copy was that thick. Wow. Because you need to be able to do these characters. And she would say, okay, this is a table read. You have to pretend there are people at the end of the room. You got to make sure you project. So having a stand-up background. It was a major plus because you're used to working a room. You're used to getting a reaction. Right. To this day, when I come to an in-person table read.

I love it because I start to watch people filing in. And I've even mentioned this to you before. If they're already talking and chattering and excited, I know it's going to be a good reason. That's a good crowd. It's like going to a Broadway show in a way because people have it.

embedded in their minds the images of all of these characters. So when we like contribute and inject life, because animate, isn't that cool? It like actually literally means put... life spirit into like something that's inanimate. Oh yeah. And I remember seeing you.

Being in awe of you, not just what you could do, but you would work the room before we started. To put everybody at ease, you'd go up and do Bart for the kids. Work the room. Work the room. Work the room in a good way. You would get people excited. Oh, Chris, you know, when it's something that you really are meant to do, it's been such a long goal. And you too. I mean, because you said, it's like you started out doing stand-up. That's not an easy start. You had such a trajectory.

You walked into the room 14 years ago to do this thing. We just kind of sat back to see how is this guy going to rate? Can you hold your own? And Chris, it's just, you blow me away because I am checking out. Was that true? or is that, you know, is that chrisedulate? It's easier, like, I always joke with them. Bart...

When I do him, Bart sounds kind of like a 55-year-old man. So I try to match your cadence. I try to remember what you did at the read. If I'm doing like an animatic for it, I'm trying to remember what was the beat she hit, what was the kind of read she did. I try to... those mental notes because that, you know, they need at least that timing, you know, and then later you guys are going to put your spin on it, but it starts at the read. And I'd love to hear.

what you guys do at The Read, because that's going to help me if I have to do something, you know, to get everything started. Right. That first day, my wife will tell you, I didn't get to sleep for the first two hours. Like, because I found out, like, I...

read Friday and I found out Saturday okay you got it they're messengering a script and on Monday I'm walking into you're in yeah I'm in and I'm in the green room and there's Dan there's you there's everybody was really welcoming everybody's very friendly. But that first, like, they don't tell you the rules. Like, Ian was directing us. Okay. So here's Ian, big, tall drink of water. Yeah. And I've got the first seat next to him. We do a take.

And like, I know I'm filling in whoever's not there. Right. And then after the first take, Ian says, oh yeah, Chris, by the way, we're going to do two full takes. And after that, you're just going to truncate takes three and four and you're going to give everybody a cue. Okay. All right. Take two. Of course, four, two, three, whatever. Just don't admit you don't know what the hell's going on. Just to figure, all right, I at least know what this show is. Grab hold and hang on.

Right, but you eventually started to feel a little bit like a part of the group. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. There was a funny joke. I remember once I talked to Matt Groening after one of the table reads, and Gigi was with me. Matt loves comic books and he loves music. And we talked to him for a minute. And later I got a call from Bonnie saying, look, just try not to hold Matt up.

after the table reads because he needs to get to the writer's bungalow, you know, and say, even though he loves chatting and all that, it's just trying not to hold him up. And I said, oh, I had no idea. And she said, oh, well, we didn't tell you anything because we didn't know if you were going to laugh.

And I thought, I told Gigi, I said, baby, I love this business, but if you weren't neurotic before you get in, it's going to turn you neurotic. It's like, what rule did I just break that I was not aware of? This is like... 13 years ago. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. To this day, when the table reads over, I'm like, get out of everybody's way. Don't hold anybody up. You got to be a quick study.

That would have been so scary. This is a machine, right? I'm this little tiny piece in the machine, so you've got to understand the machine needs to work. And it works really, really well. Well, it's interesting because fans... that are watching this show and especially fans that are interested in voiceover work as a profession, the support that you get, as long as you have that kind of support, you have Gigi for sure. And us witnessing, like you guys have two.

kids. And it's kind of, we've gone through so many things, marriages, divorces, kids. I'm a grandma. It's like, it's a long time that we've been together and you are definitely.

a big part of our family well i'm thrilled to be a part of that family well cool yeah cool that's beautiful and chris can you tell us a little bit more you kind of walked us through your first time like auditioning and being there what's been like you know your personal experience seeing this show grow and change it's been almost 15 years for you what's that experience been like

It's amazing because obviously the cast, obviously just getting to read with you guys. And on top of that, to see how they've added a couple of... people to the cast now, like Kerry Washington now is Bard's teacher. And, you know, there's no replacing Marsha Wallace. She was unique, but... Carrie's a pretty formidable talent. I know she brings her thing to it. And now we have Jenny Yokobori, and we have Tony Rodriguez, and we have these different voices in the room. And you see writers come in.

like Brothie and Christine Nangle. I like to call her, I said, Nangle, if we were in France, I would call you Nangle. They're just, I love seeing the show remain this institution, but also it turns over new soil.

Yeah. Gets new ideas in. Yeah. What you want to do. You want to keep things as fresh as you can. And I love seeing the show watch these these things in the outside world happen and say, all right, we're going to grab that and comment on that. I think the Simpsons strength has always been. been the satire of it.

How they love to send up things. And they're always finding new targets. And it doesn't matter. Oh, we're owned by Disney now? Let's take a shot at them. Why not? You know, I just, I love seeing that happen. Realizing that I'm this little tiny.

drop in that tsunami that just keeps rolling. It's amazing to see that. It is, yeah. I don't know how far back this went, but it's been a few years, but all of a sudden, a lot of the attention got put on how the Simpsons writers are... doing these predictions. Oh yeah. I get asked that. I know you must get asked that. What's the next prediction? I know it's like they're time travelers or crystal ball comedians or something. And it's like, have you ever put any attention on that?

And like, what is your most favorite kind of out-of-the-box sort of prediction that they established? Well, I have two theories, and I believe both of them, if that's possible. One, if you predict enough things, something's going to happen. Something's going to come true. And it's a volume business, this prediction, because the show loves to throw a lot of things at the wall and see what sticks.

But number two, we got some really smart people in that writer's room. These are some big, big brains. There's some beautiful minds in that room. And I think they just see the world differently. I think maybe they see the matrix a little bit and they... They kind of see the way things are going. And yeah, okay, maybe we're going to have this reality show host as a president one day. They kind of called that shot.

100 days in office, so many accomplishments, lowered my golf handicap, my Twitter following increased by 700, and finally, we can shoot hibernating bears. My boys will love that. But at the same time, these guys, not only do they know... Media, they know the world. They also know the trajectory of things. You know what? Maybe we are a society that's eventually going to elect a reality show host as a president. Twice.

Twice. Twice. You're in. You're out. You're in. Whatever. Fine. Okay. You're going to say that weird thing now. Yeah. Not only do the Simpsons staff understand culture, they are. part of the culture. So I know it's a little meta, but maybe just understanding the culture to that degree makes it easier to kind of see what's coming. And so I think they're scarily accurate about some of this stuff. So, yeah, I do hope their eventual prediction of Lisa becoming president comes true.

administration will focus on the three R's. Reading, writing, and refilling the ocean. Thank you very much. We're still looking for our Lisa. Yeah. If you're out there. Please run for president. It's not a bad thing to look for. No. I mean, every parent wants their kid to, you know, emulate the... qualities that she is. Lisa would make a great president. Yeah. Absolutely. Bart has some qualities that might make for an interesting, interesting president. Keep the people.

on their toes. Yeah, that's for sure. Nobody knows Bart better than you. I think you could understand what a Bart presidency might be like. Vote for Bart! Yeah, exactly. I think Lisa may have...

Maybe chief of staff. There you go. Yeah. Exactly. And so, Chris, riding on that a little bit, you know, like when you're voicing Dolph and actually... Would you mind doing a little bit of Dolph for us? Okay, so Dolph, that's Tress's early, right? Yeah. For some reason, Dolph and Jimbo are always easier for me. Because, you know, Tress is Tress. She has this...

Beautiful honeyed voice. But when she decides to make him, you know, a little bit more, you know, like a bully, for some reason I can get there. Right. And so, I don't know, it just sort of fits for me the way Jimbo could too. Like my Milhouse sounds more like Kirk because I'm just older, you know, but Dolph and Jimbo, for some reason, I can get. teenage boy a little bit easier right so yeah that's so good yeah so just riffing on tress

That's awesome. Yeah. But totally makes sense. Yeah. Totally makes sense. And when I was doing this guy, and then next thing you know, I was assigned Kearney because when we're there, I don't know that you know this, but we go back. in time to the earlier scripts, I would get the script for what we're going to be doing that.

next day. And all of a sudden I'm assigned Kearney and I have no idea who he is and what he's saying. It's like, wow. And there's no audition. It's just, we were assigned these characters and you got to come up with it. And how do you do that? I don't. I'm glad I didn't call her up and say, do you need an audition? I just did it. I don't know. Just necessity alone kind of lifts your abilities up. It's like, if I don't do it, I might lose my job. Did you know that...

uh, that, like, Nelson's gonna be Bart's antagonist. So, okay, not Bart, at least, to start with. Well, that voice is so, it was like the easiest voice in the world for me to do. I'm so glad I picked that for him. And I can't see of all the other boys that I do on the show, they would never fit Bart. It just somehow. it was just kind of like...

perfect thing coming together, you know? And Matt's like, that's it. You're hired. But when Kearney came along and you could look at the show, this is definitely Simpsons declassified because nobody knew that the show was going to be going on. We're going to 36, 7, 8, 9, 4. We're going to hit 40 seasons, which it's unbelievable. And it's like it was such an evolution.

The point I'm trying to make is that voice actors, you have to be very specific about the quality of the voice that you're doing and make sure that there's some longevity in it. Is there sustainability? Because otherwise, I don't know. Nelson, I'm glad he's not such a lead character. That takes a lot of energy to do. And the ha-ha. Ha-ha. That's upper respiratory work. I'm just saying. That's a lot.

But yeah, so I just softened him. Yeah. I took this and just softened him, like what you do with Dolph, and you just soften it a little bit. Hey, Dolph, how's it going? Where are you headed right now? Huh? I'm going to punch Bart in the stomach. You want to come with? Oh, I am so into that, man. Let's just practice. Let's just practice the gut sounds. Are you ready? He deserved it for showing up. Really cheap that. We deserve retribution.

Poor Dolph. So good. Just following along to get along. So good. When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at WhatsApp.com.

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kind of prophetic episodes and things like that, before they came true, did you ever read a script and kind of think to yourself, like, that's... actually something that could happen. Like, obviously the writers are putting out all these ideas, but has that ever kind of come into your mind when you're reading them? I, you know, years ago I might have said, oh, maybe there's only one or two examples, but the way the world's going.

I don't know if anything is impossible. I think almost everything is on the table now. Yeah. Seriously, with the way that... apparently Canada is supposed to be the 51st state. That honestly sounds like a writer's room joke, right? That the president would say, they're going to be the 51st state. We'll love you. We'll cherish you.

And I just thought that would be something that they would put a bunch of index cards up on the wall. What do you think he's going to say? I don't know. I think maybe a Nixon candidate. Now, come on, man. Let's keep it in the realm of the possible. I don't know if anything is off the table anymore. You know, without burdening anyone with my politics, I just think that we've got a sideshow happening and it's front and center. I didn't see that coming.

Yeah. Right. And, you know, so I don't know if there's any one thing that sticks out anymore. I just think that it's all possible. Right. I mean, all the things they predicted back in the 90s that. started happening. Yeah. I thought, okay, maybe at the time that seems a little, oh, that's a little too fanciful. No, not anymore. I mean. So true. We have AI now. Yeah. AI is scary.

Right. And so just, it seems like something Frank would have come up with that just got away from him. Right. Yeah. And it's happened. So yeah, I don't put anything past anything anymore. Yeah. AI is very interesting. Yeah. AI will never get the soul. The real live communication is where it's at, you know? Hank said it best. He did. I think there's a humanness that the AI can't do right now, at least vocally.

and may never be able to do that involves a character's motivation, certain emotions, subtleties of physicality, facially or otherwise, that add up to a human being. I mean, who's better than Hank to carry that message? Who can create those characters the way he did? And he just showed that, yeah, AI can maybe replicate what I'm doing, but it doesn't have a soul. It doesn't have a lived experience. You can try and program a lived experience. It's just not human. People need people.

Agree. Exactly. Let AI do speeches and letters of introduction. There you go. Term papers. Term papers. Yeah, apparently it's doing that. Or if you want to read an article, AI will generate a... a summary for you. Yeah, those are handy. Nice. Okay, fine. You can tell when AI is doing narration for like a YouTube video. Right. Because it will just...

mispronounce a word. It has no business mispronouncing because it just doesn't know it's AI. It just does what it's told. Right. Exactly. Yeah. There's no human spontaneity. Literal robot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Remember that, people. It's a robot.

Yeah. Not a person. Not us. What would your robot sound like for AI? Man, that'd be interesting. I guess I would want it to sound like me. Right? Just so people can be sort of at ease. So it would kind of be like me. But I would want it to deliberately mispronounce certain words, like really poorly. Like which ones?

Oh, sorry, I'm getting a ring on my pahoon. Let me take this. I have to take this call. Yeah, something like that. It's like, oh, okay. I thought that was Edgarley for a minute. It was just his stand-in. I am Chris Edgarley's AI. Something like that. It's like, yeah, just, but can you do that, AI makers? Can you put in the obvious trip up so we know we're talking to AI? Yeah, no deep faking around here. Please, no deep fakes. Yeah, no more.

If they had me to do it, I would call Tress. Oh, really? That's what I would do. I mean, she would nail something like that. Yeah. Yeah. She probably would. She doesn't have time for that. She doesn't suffer fools well. No, no, no. She would not suffer AI well. Let's do an improv. Let's do another improv. Who's one of your favorite characters on the show that you like to do?

They're all really fun, and I guess I move into your realm. I'm trying to think, like, if it's an episode where, like, Dan hasn't recorded yet, we're doing an early pass, and if there's a lot of Krusty, I'm thinking, oh, this one's gonna hurt. This one's going to take a toll. Because there's only so long you can do this, right? So good. And he has the laugh, right? But Homer is really fun.

Homer's really fun. He's not that far off my normal voice. You start to tighten it up a bit, and I understand how he came up with it. He started by doing Walter Matthau, you know, frosty chocolate milkshakes, and then over... time he started to refine it and polish it and make him dumber and slower and i think they said homer started angry and then he got dumb that's right he's he's so much fun because you get to

sit in the room with Dan and listen to him do what he does. And I think, okay, I've just got to try to get in the ballpark. No one's expecting like Dan. I just got to get him started. And then he's going to come in and he's going to do all the things that you guys do. He's a lot of fun because he's just caution to the wind. Homer is just fully himself. Right. And how's Skinner for you? Oh, this was a Skinner heavy day. We had a great episode with Skinner.

Skinner is, again, if I just go a little lower, he's easier in the morning. I'm a little more resonant in the morning. And Skinner's sort of the opposite of Homer, always worried about how he's going to come off. And Harry, again, just so perfect. perfectly sets that tone, that authoritative, avuncular tone. And he's stiff. He just never gets the joke.

And it's just so great the way that he's oblivious in that. Like, Homer and Skinner are oblivious in such distinct ways. And it's so much fun to play. Wow. Right? Yeah, I love doing that.

So I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I kind of do. But I'm wondering if like Bart is in the principal's office. Okay. And then in walks, let's say Ned Flanders comes in. All right. So that's the scene. I'll start, I guess. Dad, come on, man. I didn't do it. I swear I didn't do it. It was Todd Flanders.

It's always Todd or Rod or whichever one. I don't know who can even tell the difference these days. Listen, boy, I'm only going to take your guff for so long. Or are you going to take it? I've had quite enough guff myself. We pass it off to a neighbor. Well, did somebody say neighborino? I'd be highly happy to take a little guff.

So good. So good. The public, they get a chance to actually, it's almost they're at a table read right now. You know, they get to experience you doing this and you create such an image, you know, in their mind. of these characters, it's so helpful. The writers are just, you know, they drool because to get just anybody just to read a line isn't enough. They can hear because you said you study and you recognize the timbers.

And the tone and the pacing that I do. If you do Bart, I will never make you do Bart. I don't want anybody to do Bart. Nobody's going to do Bart. Nobody can do Bart. I do the best I can with these guys. I'm sure in your travels you have met quite a few people that do the other characters for you. Oh, I do a great this, I do a great that. Yeah, there are plenty of people out there that do these voices. They do them really well because they've been in our consciousness for decades. Yeah.

But added to that is I get the advantage of having a stand-up background and then getting to sit next to you guys for 15 years. So you've gotten your... your talent all over me it's just it's it's embedded in there and i hear how you do them and so i think okay i'm going to jump off of that right because i can't do it without hearing you guys right you can't you came up with these characters so

All I'm doing is taking it and I'm just running with it just enough for the writers to go, OK, that's the timing we were looking for. Got to make sure the joke works. And so, yeah, it's I can't do Homer or Ned or Skinner without. Harry and Dan making those guys who they are. And that's all I'm doing. I'm this mimic who is trying to make it as organic as possible for a very brief period of time.

so the writers can get it to the next stage. And then those guys come in, you guys come in, and you just...

Take it to what we see on the screen. You're beautifully humble, I got to say. Thank you. It's very appreciated what you do. It helps the show, and that's the whole idea. I think of myself, I'm a Swiss Army knife. I am versatile, available, and quick. Like, you know, get it done. We got other stuff to do. We got other people to record. Let's get them through it to the next stage, right? I'm a part of one stage of production.

And you guys are this massive next phase of it. And sometimes, like very often when I get in, you've already read. Like you're an early reader. You get in there sometimes and you've already recorded. So it's all right, no bard today. I'm like, whew. All right. Because I really do try to get up there a bit. You know, and it's just because it helps me match what I think your cadence is, you know, and what I've heard you do. So a lot of times, like, Nancy's already read, I'm thinking.

all right, that's going to be a little easier on me today. Yeah. So yeah, your bard is quite safe. Trust me, it ain't going to be me. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. Okay, so we're going to put you a little on the spot with our next game, Chris. Okay. The next game is Wheel of Voices. All right.

Let's do this. You're so game. Yeah, why not? All right, so this, we're going to have Nancy spin it. And then whatever character we land on, you're going to do an impression of that character or... that actual human being okay some of these will be fun some of these will be an embarrassment but let's uh let's try are you game oh yeah absolutely always here we go spin spin Oh, is that? Okay, from SpongeBob.

Okay, let's see. Is he the one that sounds like this? I remember my kids watch the show and I get it from a distance as I'm fixing lunch. So good, you must be. Do your kids, do they love it when you do voices? It's funny. Or are you just dad? I just sort of, you know, when they were younger, I did it a lot more because it's a great way to get their attention and make them laugh and all that. And now it's oddly enough.

I will, we'll come up with our own. Like, I'm sure you come up with voices that you just do for your kids. Right. Well, when I did it, when they were really little guys, like the show came on the air about the same time. My daughter's 35, my son's 33, so in the early 90s I didn't watch the show much. Right. But when I did it, they're like, no, no, just be mommy. Right. You want me to do it.

That was that, and they just really just wanted a hug and a squeeze and just hot chocolate. Yeah, that's kind of the way it is. It's like, okay, Dad, yeah, we get it. And our son is a voice actor now. Oh, wow. oh, what a cush job that dad has. It's like, oh, you're in your pajamas half the day, right? So he wanted to do it. So now I kind of encourage him, oh, if you've got a voice, let's hear it. You know, let's hear it. And he's 12, 13? He's going to be 14. Oh, wow. Yeah, he's 13.

right now and and uh he started doing it he joined the union at six whoa i joined at 30 he joined at six got a little head start yeah but mama is a professional singer and performer and dad is a professional jackass you know and our daughter's an artist and she does a little voice stuff too but it's so when I do a voice for them I know they enjoy it but at the same time they're almost like grading and it's like oh okay that's not bad you know it's like I don't think there's a

10 out of 10. Yeah. It's like, B minus, okay. I don't know if they're as impressed, you know, as your random kid on the street would be. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do another one. Let's see what the wheel has. Here we go. Oh. Oh, God. Just the one. There's just no way. We had to put him in there. Come on, man. Let's hear you duplicate that. Oh.

Eat my shorts. Eat my shorts. Come on, man. You know? So I sort of do him a little bit like this, because sometimes he can do this or this, you know? But I can hit your heights. But I know sometimes he has that cadence and, you know, so... Sometimes I can, it can hit that cadence. Sometimes I take it up like this. That's pretty good. How about... It's good. You got the rhythm. Right. That's the whole point. Exactly. Trying to do your voice almost puts me in that rhythm.

But at the same time, it's like it has to be something that you did. Otherwise, it's not helping the production. It's like, yeah, that's not how she's going to read it. Yeah, but don't you think it might have something to do with the fact that I have more estrogen in my body? You have more testosterone. I think it just, I've never heard a dude be able to do BART. It's like you got somehow it's roughing up. It's like a guy doing a falsetto. Right. Women just sing in soprano. Guys do falsetto.

those right yeah exactly so for a guy you can like i can get myself up here to falsetto etc etc you know but you can just get there naturally you know you can hit that note without having to go falsetto that's right when i do that That's my falsetto. Exactly. So yeah, the estrogen, testosterone, that's definitely in the mix. So again, rhythm. I just try to match that rhythm.

Well, it's working. Don't change. Yeah, don't change. Yeah, I need the gig. Yeah. All right, here we go. Let's see what the wheel has. Oh, boy. You see, one of the things I like about Jeff Goldblum is, oh, you, you, there's a certain cadence that doesn't have to make any sense. It's somebody who's just sort of amusing himself. And, yes, saddles on his own. I don't, what have you, we're going to spin the wheel some more and see what it has in store for us. So good. Wow. So good. Thank you.

You studied him from watching interviews, watching films? Oddly enough, he did a movie. He did it with Alicia Silverstone, and I can't remember the name. It was sort of a sci-fi movie. It was the first time I think I really got hit with a... the Goldblum-ism, he was doing a little press for the movie. And he said, there are things about the movie that I think people are going to find scary.

Are you trying to scare me with your description of the word scary? And I thought, he has that thing. And then when he did The Simpsons, he played Troy McClure's agent. Right. And Troy said, you know, when are you going to get me some work? Ha ha, you. Jury duty is work. And I thought, oh, and he throws stuff away. And then he'll do it in the same sentence. He'll just throw something away and then sort of stop.

where he is. And then he goes right back into his own thing. He says, he goes down this road and he comes back and he meets you later on somewhere in the Senate. That's incredible. Yeah, I don't know. And writers probably love him because he is so animated in life. Right. The guy's just out there, right? He's his own thing. You're such a pro. You saw that.

And then, you know, the specificity that you put into that is incredible. I mean, you do a fair amount of mimicry yourself. I think we just notice things without knowing we're noticing it. Just pick up on stuff. I just think we find people really interesting. People are very interesting. They're little quirks and ticks and things. Yeah. This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher. Last year's critically acclaimed series returns to follow Evan, Gwen, and Marky.

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Terms and conditions apply. How long do you study someone before you feel like you got that essence? Some of them I think maybe you can get right away and others are like a code you got to crack. And sometimes... Watching another impressionist do them helps. Oh, interesting. Because, oh, they found a way in. Okay, now I get it. Now I get it. Yeah. So, yeah, I will take whatever works. I will absorb whatever is useful.

Well, Jim Eskiman, you've heard this guy, right? He's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Men of a thousand voices. Yeah. And then some. Yeah. Yeah. And he sings. Really? Yeah. He sings too. He's just really talented. Yeah. Right. And he'll do his face too, like when he does his George Bush. Can't really get there until you're squinting, trying to find the answer in the back of the wall.

Right. So there it is. That was what I was going to say. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. There's just, there's so many different ways to get there. So good. So good. Should we do another one? Sure. Let's do it. Bring it. Oh, I was hoping. I was hoping Banderas came up. Now, this is the thing about Antonio Banderas is that he is very Latin, right? And his voice is very smoky and sultry. And so he also has his own quirks. He is not quite like the...

Jeff Goldblum, but he has times where he can sort of think of something to himself and then toss it off. Right. And so I remember seeing him in the movie Desperado, which I like very much. Any movie where Salma Hayek is in the movie, I am watching the movie, right? But he's on the phone and he says to his friends, how fast can you get to Santa Cecilia? And I thought this, he tossed, he tossed the sentence off, but he does Latin.

So it makes it very, very interesting to me. It's a chance to be sexier than I am in real life, right? So you embrace it, right? Like Antonio. So good. It's a double whammy. It's Puss in Boots and Antonio Banderas. Yeah. Are you my hero? For you, baby, I could be. Right. Love that. Oh, that's awesome, Chris. That's so cool. Can we do one more? One more. You never know. Let's see who you got. Let's do who we got.

Oh, there you go. Cain, okay. Let the record state, though, that the two best Michael Cains have been established, and it's Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in The Trip. Those guys do the best Michael Cain I've ever heard. Michael Caine off but mine's not bad right the first thing for me when I do Caine is because I don't have as much I don't have as many years smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol as Caine does so I can't get as low

as he is. But when he goes up, I can do him. Like, if you see victory... If you see that movie he did for John Huston, he did it with Sylvester Stallone. He was slamming it, right? But he said, Hatch, stay on the bloody line. Stay on the bloody line. You're a goalie. Don't get out of the goal.

How'd you like to play football with the Germans? That guy I can do. I can do him. Angry, younger Michael Caine. I can get there, especially if you give me a pint. But not a pint of ale. It's got to be a pint of vodka. I've got to get there. He's working class. So, yeah, that guy I can do. Oh, that's so good. Bravo!

Thank you. So good. So good. We could do this with you all day. Yeah, totally. Seriously. We have some questions from the fans for you guys. I'll read them. This is our handy dandy. Check this out. Declassified. Goes up. Okay. It's got some answers in there. I like it. Top secret. Our eyes only. All right. So. First question is from our YouTube audience. This is at Complex Cortex. Shout out Complex Cortex. The question for you guys is, what's your favorite...

opening sequence couch gag. Do you want to start, Chris? I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but there's one that sticks in my, well, there are two that stick in my mind. Okay. All right. One of them is so quintessential Simpsons. I'll save it for the second one. But the first one is when they took a medieval turn and you just start to hear this.

sort of medieval chamber music, like with the flute. And I think they started on like a tapestry, and they just kept going. It was like the tapestry was passing in front of you, and it just kept going more. and more parts of this medieval tapestry, and it must have taken at least a minute. And this is when I realized that, wow, they, you know what, they just commit.

to the gag. It doesn't matter if it's going to make the advertisers wait a little bit longer, we're getting the gag in. And I loved that, that commitment. And the second one... is when the family runs in and, you know, there was always this sort of transparent Fox logo on the corner of the screen. Right. And I don't know who ripped it off and they ripped the logo off, put it on the floor and they start.

I started stamping on it with real malice. I thought, yes, that is fantastic. I love that. I love that. Those are great. Yes. Well, mine's sort of, it's sort of a similar take on your first one about the medieval and the tapestry and that, but it's, I think it's the first time, I don't know how long ago it was, but I think it was in the first, within the first five years, they sit on the couch and all of a sudden it's...

Let's open. And it's like a circus. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. And it just changed. And now you've got the woman riding on the elephant's back and you've got the three ring circus thing going on, the different rings and confetti is falling and popcorn is flying all over the place. And that to me, it just kept going on and on and on. And I'm like, wow. Yeah. The opening is, it was about a minute, I think, itself. Yeah.

And the music was incredible. That was Alf Clausen, I think, doing that. Was it? Yeah. Yeah, just keep stacking the joke. Just keep playing it out. I love that. And now we've got 800 different openings. How do you pick? I know there must be just this bucket of openings they haven't tried yet. Yeah. And then they get informed by new things that happen in the culture. And it's like, all right, let's riff on that. Right.

That's true. So, yeah. Right. Those are awesome answers, you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, here's our next question. And this one is from Instagram from at Gabster420W. They ask...

How do you do multiple voices at once in a scene? Do you wanna demonstrate? Uh, sure. You get paid to talk to yourself, basically. Exactly. I mean, I think people who are naturally artistically inclined, we're maybe a little neurodivergent. I got the ADHD, you know, whatever you want to call it. But we just see the world differently.

We have conversations with ourselves, okay? And so this is just what's going on in your head. And just for whatever reason, you can just riff back and forth from one to the other. And I just have one of those voices where, you know, if I have to go from this voice to this voice. I'm a little upset with you. She spent her whole life being upset with you. Yes, well, if I might step in where I'm not invited. Yes, Seymour, I am constantly disappointed in you now that I think about it. Finally.

ho, neighborino, sticking my neck in. Yes, if I may give the key to the city to those who stick their necks out more than any other. And, you know, we go on down the list of all the characters that we've seen. Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think maybe I'm going to be your supervisor from now on. Yeah, and as his best friend, I can vouch for that, too. And you just keep going. It's going right in the act. I don't like you anymore, Krusty. I don't know why I do it.

You know, I just do because it's this beehive of a brain and you just find an outlet for it and you just sort of push the button and the voice obeys. And it's a thing. It's a parlor trick. I can't... teach it. I don't think it can be taught. I just think that you can teach a person who might have that ability how to listen to it more, unlock it and pay attention to it and be in the moment. And then boom, there you go.

Wow. Did you always do that? Like as a kid, you just kind of always had funny little voices? Yeah. When I was a kid, I was a huge Rich Little fan, right? For us Impressionists, he's the guy. And I would watch what he did, and I'd just start writing down voices I think I could do. And I would do them to amuse my brothers and then my friends and all that. And I just love that.

that I could do that. And so I don't really sing. I don't dance particularly well. I'm learning guitar and piano, but I'm not very good at them. I have, my instrument is this and I can do things with that. So I don't know, it's just a proclivity. And I just, I've found a way to avoid real work. doing that whoa proclivity that's a 25 cent word if i ever heard one yes it's a word i programmed using my ai dictionary so yeah so again but i i

I use what other people have already thrown out there, what Hank has done and what Harry has done and all of you guys have done. Dan, Julie, Nancy, Yardley, Tress, Pamela, all these wonderful people. They put it out there and then, you know, the little flies like me, we land on it and carry it away a little bit. You know? How do you do it? Yeah, Nance. Because I've seen you throw a few around. Flip my voices around like that? Yeah.

Yeah, there's been some shows where I had to do that in. I would just imagine that if I was at the playground and Bart was... Would you mind? I was here first. Back off, little dude. You know... Yeah, um, little help here, little help here. What seems to be the problem, little Bart? Uh, you're the wrong guy. Um, Lisa! Help me. No, I don't do Lisa. I don't know anybody that does Lisa the way Yardley does Lisa. Nobody can. Nobody can. Her natural pipes. But she's got this skill.

to take a grown woman's voice and then turn her into an eight-year-old. And it's a minor adjustment, but it's a major contribution to the show. Yes, and it's the world's smartest and most sensitive and insightful eight-year-old. Yeah. Right. So yeah, that's amazing. I'm still amazed at your Ralph. I love Ralph. Because that's like a special tone. That's because I'm a special little... guy yeah that is not an easy one for anybody to do

And then there's this special cluelessness about Ralph, and it's the sweetest cluelessness. It's so sweet. Obviously, the technical aspect of it must help you, but the headspace you got to get in. to be Ralph, right? To see the world for that instant through that pair of eyes. Well, you know what it is, is that I just have to smile when I do him. And as long as I keep that in mind.

And when I say smile, I don't literally mean smile, although I may do that. But it's like, even if it's something drastic, like my, and I don't want to use a common thing, but it's like, if you were to say, oh, there was an... accident on the side of the road we better go now he kind of says it in a way that like

It's a happy thing. Yeah, maybe it's not a big deal. Everybody's fine. Yeah, yeah. I'm Idaho, which totally doesn't make any sense at all, but it's like he's the walking non sequitur, and I think I just scored on one. of the script, I was assigned him. Oh, really? Yeah. I just put that on. You know, he's like that, and there's a slight variation. If this is Ralph Wiggum, and then this is Todd Flanders, they're very close. But you look at, I don't know what's happening with my mouth.

right now as I do this, but when I... do ralph the eyebrows go up yeah and when i do todd it get a little serious that's true your eyebrows furrow more of the lower jaw gets engaged yeah i wonder like ralph means no malice to anyone and i feel like

like rod maybe there's a little rage in there somewhere maybe rod's tired of always having to be good it's a little held down there's a little bit held down right yeah so i don't know it's interesting because once you've created that character now the right start They start building on that. Okay, we put something in there, but you did this. And now they start thinking of that voice when they write stuff. Yeah. Right. And all the work's been done years ago. Yeah. And new writers come in. Right.

demonstrate their abilities yeah can you write for that character yeah yeah and keep it in character exactly wow so impressive yeah incredible incredible chris tell us anything you want to let you know our audience know anything that you're up to sure sure uh if i may brag on my son He is Glorden in the movie Elio, the Pixar movie Elio. He is an amazing performer. And my wife and I couldn't be happier just to see him just sort of.

breathe a little life into a character that just getting to see the way characters are created on The Simpsons and seeing how the writers respond to it and how they work together. We saw that happen with his character of Glorden. how they created this character, chose his voice. And then as the voice started to feed the character, it worked back and forth as they rewrote. Amazing. And just to see him go through that process as a...

I couldn't have done that as a kid. I couldn't have done that as a kid. Incredible. And I was there for the records, and then my wife was there for the records. And... Just enormously proud. And also our daughter, an artist, she's always creating things. She wants to be a Pixar artist one day. So just to see her go on that path, we're equally proud of both of our kids. Don't wanna start nothing.

Love you both. But you laid the foundation for them. It's like the choice. You're such a cohesive family. It's beautiful. We're together. We're together on this. We're joined at the hip there. That's what they're up to. And I write books. I wrote a couple of science fiction history books. It's like a series. I'm going to write 10. I've written two. It's called Soldier of Ages. And if you go to Amazon, you can buy like the e-book of it.

or the hard copy if you want. That would be called a deckology. A deckology, wow. I didn't even see that one coming. Wow, I got, yeah. I got Nelson's right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's basically about a time traveling warrior who fights in different battles across history. So I love history. Wow. I think action is pretty cool. And I thought, well, it'd be great if a friend of mine put it this way.

if Jason Bourne was a time traveler? Yes, I'm going to write that. So each book's a different battle. So if you look up Soldier of Ages by Chris Edgeley, you can find him. And the next one I'm writing right now, and this one, the first one was Tetenhall, which was the Anglo-Saxons versus the...

Vikings and the second was the Battle of the Bulge from World War II. This one I'm writing right now is Lexington and Concord. So I just, I love history. I love to write these things. I'm just doing them to amuse myself and hopefully somebody will pick one up and read it. That sounds fascinating. That's what I'm up to. That's so cool. And then the rest of the time, I'm trying to sound as cool as these lovely people on this beautiful show. The greatest gig I've ever had. Ever.

What a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much. My pleasure. Thank you so much, Chris. This was so much fun. Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate it. Bam. Bam. Show's over, losers. That means no small talk. Crazy weather we're having. No, it's not. It's just weather. It is an introvert's dream. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

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