Jim Meskimen (Celebrity Impressions)

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Your favorite firefly you desire?

Hold the old knock guy. My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In.

Welcome back everybody to another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings. I'm producer Chris. How are you doing today, mister legends Jim Cummings.

Yes, that's what I feel. I'm having a very legendary day. Thank you for asking.

That is a great day.

It is absolutely and you're all invited.

We have a great episode coming up for you guys. Today.

We are sitting down with Jim meskam In. You know if you love him. It was a great conversation that we had.

Yeah, him, and when Jim shows up, you've got like a cast of thousands that you can talk to. And they also and he's got the greatest impressions in the world. I'm telling you.

Yeah, we think you guys are gonna really w They're really granny. We had a good time.

We want to give another thanks to Borisa LaMarsh for last week's episode. That was a great episode too. And we've been having a lot of fun on this show lately.

Absolutely a lot of good conversations.

Well, Moe's one of my oldest pals into business, and he played my dad sixty five plus times because he was Tasmanian Devil's dad and I was Taz and he was dad and Lola Dad, so tas like that day and so we had a good time. You got to tune it, you got to be there.

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So don't forget about Patreon and check us out there. And Jim, you also have some merchandise that you sell, don't you.

Why funny you should mention it. I just so happened to be wearing Look at this guys hop on say Jim Comings Shopify.

Right, yeah, Jim Commings closet on Shopify if you want to get some of this sweet and merchant.

Not in the closet, but I'm out now and I'm wearing this. You can see what is that? The Karate Kid? No, it's the Honey Kid. And anyway, there's a lot of cool stuff in there and a little something for everybody, I think, right, yeah, it comes in all sizes and colors, especially yours, and tune in and spend too much.

Lastly, I think you're going to be at a convention this weekend, aren't you.

Yes, For those of you who are in the neighborhood, and who are and would like to be in the neighborhood. Do it in Las Vegas and it's called anime Las Vegas. I'm a huge star in the world of anime anyway. Uh, so be there, come by and say hi, and we'll have a grin.

Please absolutely, absolutely, Okay, let's get into it. Then here's our episode interview with Jim Meskuman. We hope you guys enjoy it. We'll see you in the next one. All right, welcome back, everybody to another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings as always and joined by Jim Cummings of course.

Oh everybody, Thank you, Producer Chris.

Thank you.

I'm producer Chris. And today we have our special guest, Jim Meskaman. Thank you so much for being here.

Hey, double Jim show. We're here at the gym together and.

The crowd right. Wow, yes, fantastic, Thanks for being here, my pleasure.

Yeah.

Thanks great to sit and talk to you. I mean we've spoken very little.

Yeah, yeah, careers so far. True enough. And we uh were on the way in, we were cheating and we listened to a podcast you did on a infinitely less interesting podcast. I don't even know the guy's name. I made that last part up, but it was very interesting. It was very cool.

Oh cool, cool.

Yeah, well, I'll try not to tell those stories or to tell them in a different way.

Yeah, that's right. And I always think it's nice when you know there's there's a legacy aspect, because I remember that Mel Blank tried to pull his son Noel into his footsteps and it kind of didn't work very well, because I mean, Mel's Mel and everybody else, even his son isn't.

And Paul freesees has a son who's also very good, but just sounds totally different.

I mean, you know I did not know that, Yeah, yes, And Paul Freese, can you tell everybody who may not? Never, but I think everybody knows Mel Blank. Yeah, well Paul free I don't know Paul Freese.

He sounds like surrender, foolish mortals.

Is this that?

Yes, something like that in the voice of the Hunting Mansion. Yes, And he had always had a kind of an orson Wells.

Absolutely. I heard that we're mistaken for each other a lot.

Yeah, I'm sure they were vocally, and I'm sure he worked hard at that to make that illusion complete. And you just had Maurice LaMarsh in here not long ago, and yes, it's one of those people that's specialized in evoking that wells in delivery. But Paul Frees also you may or may not know this. It's very trivial, but it surprised me.

He is also the voice of.

The Pillsbury dough Boy. Oh yeah.

And Tony Curtis's female voice in some like It Hot did you know that?

Wow?

So in some like an Billy Wilder.

Film where he Jack Lemon are pretending to be women and.

Hotel Dell and what was that, Hotel del Coronado.

Oh exactly exactly.

And anyway, when Tony Curtis was either unable or unsatisfactorily able to do the his female voice, Paul Freese is doing that voice.

Wow, that's increating. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah.

Paul Frees's son, whose name escapes me at the moment because it's a name, wrote a book about his dad and there's all kinds of interesting trivia. But he was just multi multifaceted, and he was kind of the guy to go to for everything. I mean, he's like one of these legendary characters in the day of voice over where you have fifteen sessions a day, and you'd around in an ambulance just to make.

All the books and uh.

And he also he also worked as like an undercover cop. Somebody did you work with the police undercover towards the end of his life.

Anyway, a lot of fascinating.

Stories about the Great Paul Freeze, but mostly known to people that Disneyland and that's spooky, spooky, haunted mansion.

Feels very dofent. And was he somewhere somewhere along the line the Green Giant very likely? Yeah, yeah, a little bit of everything. I think he was the Horus battern Off. I think he was too. Was John Moss and Squirrel, Gid the Moose and Squareal, Yeah, I think that was him. Yeah, it goes on and on. I've heard him.

He did some a d R for the original Godzilla with Raymond Burr.

You can hear him.

He just pops up all over the phone. You're just never not in front of a microphone. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm.

A little bit of well he did what was his one The thing he was in the Thing, the original Thing with Cara on camera with James ar Nest was the thing. And yeah, the one that Kurt Russell was not in, you know that one and uh yeah, and I think he looked like a carrot James arnested, but he was on camera in that. And it's so funny because you're you're you're seeing that this this group scene, and all of a sudden, he.

Goes, well, now where should we go? He He's got to be somewhere, you know, and you're going, oh wow, because it's so distinct.

He's also one of these guys. This is turning into a show about Paul Freeze. But the other thing I'll say is that he's one of these guys that got out of the army. Was in New York City, was walking down the street and someone said, and he's looking for work and someone said, hey, they're hiring people at CBS to do some some things. That was wow, just very simple route into a major career.

Geez.

One of the stories you just voiceover guys. We love all that trivia. We love all those stories about people and how they got started stories. And you know, now I'm unacquainted with how you got started. Now, what was your first big break?

Uh? Well, it's really atypical. But for what it's worth, I wanted to do this since I was five. I've said that before. All the greats, by the way, are like that. Oh oh well, they want to know from they wanted from an early age. They got it.

Their eye on the goal, and that is tremendously potent.

Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think so. But I didn't have an agent, but had I worked at a video depot when you didn't have an agent. I was a video game when I was hired. What's that? Yeah, well, when I was fine, But no, I think there's more like when I was twenty nine something like that. But I worked at a place at Anaheim Hills video depot and one of our customers was Bob Starr. He was the voice of the Angels. And another one was another

You came up from Anaheim Hills and I'm.

To yeah, to Hollywood and I auditioned for it, and he was very gracious and I got the job.

What did the audition consistent? Did they give you a script.

Or yeah, they gave me a script and they and they said to send a demo to them in advance, which I did and they said, okay, you're at least good enough to get an audition, and I got and I had the audition. It was Dumbo's Circus and it was people in costume. It was a continuation of like the end of the Dumbo the movie, and it moved on well. I ended up playing basically Timothy the mouse. But the problem was it was live action and it was some little people in costume and some you know,

And was it looping? Did you like have to lip flat?

No? No, that's that was a great That was a fortune fortunate thing. We would record it and then they would take it over to the set and they had a green screen. Everything was green screen back then, and Dumbo's circus that they walked inside of, and it was about this big you know, and they do the magic of you know. And that was my first job. And it lasted a year and a half. Oh my gosh. So a weekly show. Yeah, and I went from making four hundred something a week to double that. Hey see,

And then I worked to turn into a union job or did you join right?

Oh? Yeah, it was yeah, it was alas yeah and uh and then the rest is mystery.

When was the last time you saw a residual check for that show?

That's a good question. Years, Yeah, decades, I've never heard. I don't know that it was this century. Yeah, I don't think it was. Yeah, what a great first opportunity.

And after you've done sixty five episodes or something, you must have a tremendous amount of confidence and ease a microphone and.

Yeah and yeah, well nobody told me it was impossible to break into so I, you know, and I just walked in and can I have another job?

Sure?

Yeah, And I thought that's how it worked. It did for you apparently, Yeah, yeah I did, and I and I you know, I thank you lord. You know, it's just very grateful. Yeah, yeah, well that's a big thing. It's to that point.

I think it's extremely important that people do understand if they want to get into this business that, you know, the the tropes about it being a small, closed, difficult to enter field. Obviously there's nuggets of truth in there.

Yeah. Yeah, well that that was wise.

That was That's a spot like I did, Jim, I did a lot of stupid things toopid.

That was spot. And you know, I have to ask you, do people when they think of you do they think of course they think actor, but do they think comedian? Do they think impressionist? Or do they go yeah, that's they're all him.

I'm not a mind reader, Jim. I don't know what I can't tell you.

Or mind reader? I forgot that. What about mind reader?

Yes, I knew you were going to say that.

I don't know. That's great.

I think I'm sort of buttered all over the industry, so I think people do mostly I've made. I think if people think of me at all, I think they mostly think of me as an impressionist.

And that's because you're incredible. That helps. Thank you. I've certainly worked on it a lot. That helps. I've worked on a lot, and.

You're a wonderful impression is too. I must say it took me a long time to realize that that was the tip of the spirit in my career, was impressions, because I it's just so much a part of me. I don't think it's anything particularly special. In fact, for years I thought, well, this is in every guide to this. This is what guys do, right, Yeah, imitate people. Yeah it's not we teachers and friends and.

Yeah, did you do that too? Because my aunt Grace has been God lover. She's been in a lot of cartoons, and so is my uncle Sam. My uncle Sam's always a dragon or the troll. And my aunt Grace, what does your uncle Sam sound like? Just? Oh, Jesus. And he used to call me James eye Goal and that was some kid he went to school with. And then my head Grace. This is the way that she sounded to me when I was five, And I'm sure God love her. My cousins are going you know, my mother

Yeah, yeah, so yeah, this is what we do. We extract interesting personas and try to sell them. You know, I've got lots of people in my life that I've tried to sell and they haven't been sold yet, so there's still out there. But some I have definitely instituted. But mainly I've been doing you know, well known celebrities and people on TV and movies and stuff like that. But so if people think of me, I think they

But I was in my I was fifty before I figured that out.

So maybe it will all would have gone differently. But I've had different kinds of careers, very very different that didn't involve impressions and didn't even really involve voiceover very much, character very much.

That was your impression of missus c that's what I don't have that.

Well, I yes, my mother, Yes, that's your mother. Yeah, my dear dear mom. I just saw a couple of days ago and she's ninety six.

Oh my goodness, from happy days of you that don't know tell the world.

Mary and Ross have happy days.

Missus C, the beautiful missus C, who I admire more every day the more I learned about what she's done. I mean, she was a single mom, raised two kids, very determined to be uh, to make it in show business. And I just recently learned I'm listening to we We put her together with a ghostwriter a few years ago, and she penned her memoir and did an audiobook of it, and did you know, narrated her own audiobook, And so

Was, you knew it, I knew everything.

Yah.

Know what point was my wife, Tamma and I were trying to get her together with someone to record these stories because we knew she had these stories. She would tell us these stories are like, oh my god, I don't remember all the ins and outs of this.

We got to go get her together with someone.

So she did.

It's called my Days Happy and otherwise.

Yeah.

And one thing I learned recently about my mom which I didn't know, was that she always did theater. Her goal was not to be a movie star. Her goal was not to be I mean, she was born in twenty eight, so she didn't have the goal to be a TV star because it hadn't been a minute. Her goal was to be a Broadway actress and to do big plays and to be and she got into TV and film because she thought, that'll help me get on stage.

I'll get better roles on stage.

Oh my gosh. And I think the whole world thinks differently, doesn't it. I mean, sure, you know, I think, well, all right, I'll do a couple of play you know, fine, fine, you.

Know, because it's a lot of work to do a play, yeah, and rather unrewarding in a lot of ways. I mean, it's maximum labor, and you know, you really run the risk of people not showing up, especially in this town.

I mean, it's almost a joke.

But she eventually, at an early age, did make it to Broadway and Wow in a play that didn't last very long, but she had that experience. And then later on, after she'd become a star and a known celebrity, she toured with Jeane Stapleton and Arsenic and Old Lace, which started on Broadway all over the country. And but she would even in the hiatus of Happy Days, she would do plays and it was just like I never questioned it, I ever thought about it.

Then as I got to be an adultter was like, it has a lot of trouble.

She wasn't getting paid tremendous amounts of money, you know, eight shows a week and she was in her sixties.

And oh that's true. Yeah wow.

And she'd go to Seattle and do Long Day's journeying the night and go somewhere and do go to Toronto and do one of the Neil Simon plays and.

It's like, this just work.

But that was what she really wanted to do. Anyway, I'm pretty crazy about her.

Oh yeah, well everybody is everybody. Did you work with her? Yeah? That I could say.

So she's SpongeBob's grandmother.

Oh wow, episodes that she knows Tom Kenny and those guys and Fred Yeah yeah, oh that's yeah.

I can see that.

Yeah.

And the last couple of jobs she did, I record her.

At my house in my in my studio. Wow, I bet you do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've been working worked at home COVID.

Yeah, yeah, luckily I was waist set up for that.

I do audio books.

So ten years ago, twelve years ago an audiobook company sent me up with a booth, and I I spend a lot of time here.

If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings, and more. You'll feel the difference, so go ahead and join the tuned In family today at patreon dot com. Slash Jimming's podcast do It Now. That's really cool. Do you do any books? No, you really don't need to.

Yeah, no, but I wouldn't advise it.

You know the book you really love, well, I would do a Confederacy of Duncis, you know, And I just I'm really really fond of that book. It's it's probably the book i've read reread the most out of uh, you know, I'm a pretty decent reader. And uh, good old what's his name?

That guy?

Yeah? No, no, John o'tool? Yeah anyway, call in folks please, Yeah, that's Queah. But uh, I can't I actually heard that. I haven't read it myself. Yeah, ignacious O'Reilly was the protagonist, and it's just a delicious character. And you know, and personally, I.

You know, I I'm John Kennedy.

John Kennedy Tool. Yeah, I had the wrong Kennedy. But but it's it's it's set in New Orleans, and I have a great fondness for New Orleans. I moved there out of high school. I was a deckhand and oh really yeah, I designed Martin groffloads for a few years. Yeah. Wow, a typical career path. You know, are you a visual artist is a sort of I was. Yeah. They paid me, yeah, which was astonishing. Wait, I I do this stuff for free. Yeah. I worked for Comas Momis and Proteus for about two years.

Yeah, wow, wow, it's how long were you in New Orleans area?

Oh? Maybe ten years?

Oh my gosh, you probably got a good Cajun accent and all that suff Oh.

Yeah, I've that's good I've been designated Cajun a lot like a Hanna Barbara.

Oh that's good to have.

Yeah, because nothing pisses me off. And I'll get this off my chest again. I probably have you know, Lety'll say, Okay, now we need a Cagun. That ain't gonna be no problem. I'll tell you what. I'm a cage and I'm thinking, no, yeah, that's really good. No you're not, how about that? You know? But I did get that cage of letterhead. He was from them teenaged newtant Ninja turtle and they dog like that and that's and that was, for what it's worth, that was literally my uh, the voice of my first

I never forget your first captain.

You never forget your first captain. And he hated my guts. What I got some Yankee college board. This is my last time on the river. I got to put up with your little pickass at you and I'm sorry. I'm from Youngstown a while and uh, but I picked up on the Cajun accent and I've, like I say, I've used it oh for sure, for sure.

Now it's so great.

Yeah. And when Ray the Firefly, Princess and the Frog, you know, he from down there.

Yeah, will you come on, we pass a good dome, make me like my butt and uh so yeah that's me.

I love the dynamics, so that that's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, you know, you're quite a sponge too, I mean I am.

I am a total sponge. I mean, uh and I find it's the best way to learn an accent that I've ever encountered is actually make friends with somebody from that place and just kind of be them, you know, because they'll give you. First of all, you're in the room with them. You're right with them, you know, living life in some respect, and so you know about their viewpoint and their background and how they hold themselves, and

Nice and my.

Boss, mister Alfhauser, was German who had been in the Second World War. I moved to England and was so he had sort of a hybrid accent. It was German, but he would say, young man, we've got to get you the road, and it was a sort of British German thing, and I was like, yeah, cool the way he sounds.

Yeah, that's interested in a part. But I can't believe and I heard both of them. That's pretty good.

Yeah, it's just me being him so's yeah. Yeah, it's all those little indicators are there.

Do you play any instruments or have a musical background.

I love to sing. I never have learned an instrument. I started to learn. I got interested in the piano, but never really because I drew cartoons and I drew constantly.

That was kind of my little artistic flow, and.

I I just focused on that, and I regret not knowing how to play keyboard.

But my father my parents were divorced, so I go to my.

Father's house on the weekends. And he was.

A guitar player and a folk singer.

Oh and we would not professionally, but that was his kind of hobby and we should add it.

And he would sing Jimmy Rodgers songs.

He would introduce me to a lot of music, and he would play guitar, and he and my sister and I, my younger sister, would sing every weekend for an hour and a half.

Wow, you know before dinner. Well, let's see grant his guitar and smoke a cigarette and no kids.

We'd sing the fox lie down on chili and I pray to the moon.

Dude, give him my you know.

We'd sing these old texts of songs or whatever the little kids.

It was so sweet.

And yeah, I don't think anything of it, you know, you don't when you're a kid, just like, no, this is what we do every weekend.

We do this.

And but later on I realized, well I learned that there's singing is fairly simple activity. It's nothing. I mean, if you want to be a professional. I guess you can get training. Then it's like a thing you can you can go down that road. You can you know, dig that row.

You get trained for training for singing and little here and there, here and there.

But I I, since that wasn't really where my heart so much lay. I was already like I can sing, I can sing out, and I've sung for Disney a bunch of times, and I'm good.

Enough to with help muscle through something.

I just quickly. I worked on a game.

Called Epic Mickey hm oh, which you probably were on too.

Yeah, I think I was in there something. Yeah, I'm sure you were, with a lot of characters black blots on the screen or whatever.

I remember that exactly. So Epic Mickey won. There was a character and it was all these kind of backwater that's not the right word, but the ancillary characters of Disney that they had in the in the store room somewhere that they still owned and they wanted to kind of, you know, revivify. And there was a character of a mad doctor, this big slavic looking guy with rubber gloves in a white lab called which was that was it for Mickey still has a shop and on labra.

Brain transplants.

Yes, yeah, hair.

But anyway, so that was like in Epic Mickey one, that was all he did. He may have said a couple of things, but he just kind of laughed niacically. A couple of years later, they said, hey, they're doing Epic Mickey two. Did you were you on that one?

I don't. I don't know.

So they said, well, well the Mad Doctor's back in that big Mickey too, and I'm like, oh, that's good. I show up and it's like five ballads, ballads, ballads, song you just did singing oh and complex like Sondheim ishu you know.

So he went from to rather big orchestral numbers some.

Yeah like that.

Like so, how did you tackle that?

Well a bar at a time. I mean, I'm pretty good at remembering.

They want yeah still yeah yeah, singing like that.

But singing yeah, so, which, you know, that's something we have to do. We have to stress out our voices sometimes. But they had a piano track and Ben Hoppey at Disney character voices helped me because I don't read music, but I would have the music there and I go, oh, I see it is that same note that all goes down a little bit. Okay, I kind of understand that, and I was like clinging to it like a barnacle

Oh?

Yeah, because it's now everything.

Because you probably just were going with the melody a very pane.

Anyway, So I came out to say, and I loved to sing, but I don't play these instruments.

To answer your question, yeah, the reason I asked was just because with impressions and from the people that we've talked to and had on this show, it seems like you all have a really good ear and really good at hearing your own voice.

Yeah, and you're interested in that.

You're interested in the vibrations and in the pacing, and then how much air is in it and the speed and the velocity and all of the things that make up an impression. You know, I think a lot I'm sure you do this instinctively, Jims as an impressionist yourself, well, like Sterling.

Holloway, a lot of air sure.

And also also there's a factor that I haven't heard anyone talk about before, which is kind of like pressure, how much pressure is it contained? And being you know, modulated by the voice, you know, because we kind of like we're kind of relaxed and we kind of let things come out with.

Other people have I'm thinking of like Steven Spielberg kind of seems to have just a little bit of it's a little bit under pressure a little bit and the sound kind of comes out little little gusts.

Yeah, and that's just something I listened for other people are you know.

Like almost its like a big loose balloon. Yeah. Pat Freeley pointed that out a long long time ago, and it was he was quoting Dale Robertson, and Dale Robertson was a fifties sixties cowboy actor and he would always let me tell you it's another Western deal, you know, and it was kind of like, Okay, what's exactly that get this guy at Tom's.

It's like it's a particular factor of the instrument. I mean, we play this instrument. Yeah, that's right, our lungs in our throat and the cavern of our mouth and changing you know, the depth of it, and making the shalloon and all of those things and pitch and rhythm, and.

It's just obviously we're interested.

You were interested since you were five.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was just basically just doing impressions of everybody that I could. So that's what got me going. And like I said I would, I would do impressions of people that nobody knew, so new character. And I'm sure you've done the.

Same, yeah, and hybridizing them yeah together.

Yeah. Yeah. What was your first gig in show business? Did we touch on that? I mean, oh, like number.

One first paying gig was really nepotism perfect. Yeah. Yeah, I was on an episode of Happy Days and.

I don't remember all that must have been awful.

I don't remember auditioning. I don't think. I think it just got handed to me. Sure, And it's now all these years later, it is. It is a famous episode referred to on a daily basis. It is the jump to shark episode, and I am a young man on the beach that announces that there is, in fact sharks and I say, I think Ralph or Potzy comes out of the surf and says, what's going on?

What's going on?

And I say, they got a shark out there. They got to pend up until marine Land can come and pick it up.

Exposition wow. And then if you unpack that, you sound just like you. Yeah, actually not much more like this.

I have much tighter but still look I'm in great shape back then, seventeen years old on the beach with Jerry Parris's son, the director's son is also in.

That scene with me.

A lot of nepotism on that one, but that The funny thing about that is funny or weird is that people think, jump the shark. It's come to mean something. What does it mean to you? Jump the shark? When a show is jumped the shark.

Jump the shark? It means to me, I've always understood it is we gotta do something. We gotta do something. We're losing we're losing viewership here.

We gotta.

Got to jump the shark. Exactly exactly? Is that? Is that?

What?

Yeah?

That's that's definitely. I think one of the definitions of it are one of the ways it's used. Another one is like, Wow, this show has outlived It's it's welcome, it's over state, it's welcome, and they're resorting to stunt casting and bizarre things and we'll it's.

Do a musical version of the show of.

Swat and so that's the way I think of it. But weird thing is Happy Days a round eleven seasons. That was the fifth season the jumped the Shark episode. Wow, had it really jumped to Shark?

I don't know.

They still had a lot of mile lege ahead and Ron was still on the show. He didn't leave until season seven.

I think when did When did he he left? I don't even Yeah, yeah, that's direct.

Yeah, he always wanted to direct from a young age. I mean he had it as an actor by the time he was probably yeah, Ron Howard by about eight nine, he was like a lot other jobs I have here, that looks interesting.

Oh, that's cool.

I've worked for Ron a few times, five of his films and yeah, very remarkable guy.

As it happens, I watched three Andy Griffiths yesterday. I just you know tvlan Oh, I watch this great show. Oh yeah, done knuts? Oh God, did you ever work with him? You must have no wood that I did. I'm sure you haven't done nuts and I met him one time.

Yeah, it's not when I specialized, I need to I need to dig deep.

And how long how long does it take you, like when you hear a voice that you want to impersonate, or how long does it take you to develop that sound?

You know, it's no set time. I mean everyone someone some I'm still struggling with, you know, people like Alan Rickman left a sort of back off myself. Really, it takes a lot of practice.

It's really really good. Some I listened to.

I mean because my agent every day or every couple of days sends me something, can you sound like this person? It's not always someone famous. It's often someone they're just replacing in a little bit of a movie or a TV show because there was some grinding sound or you know or yeah, yeah where he had flam or something he had a cold. Yeah, And so I'll listen to this person and usually within a few seconds I can go, Okay,

Good age range.

I know that accent and I see what he's doing, uh, you know, Or it's like oh no, he's twenty five.

Forget it.

Yeah, what are you even asking me for?

It? Is human about that one?

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, I don't even try that. Someone under forty. I'm like, give me someone eighty.

Yeah, I'm all over there. I can do it. Yeah, and good show.

You.

Do you have favorites? Do you have favorite ones that you enjoyed?

But I lately I really enjoy some pat because there's something about the whole persona. See, it's very very I mean, if I could spend all day acting like this, I think it would drive people in my family and saying, but it would be very pleasant.

I just saw Beauty and the Beast yesterday, really, so I just you know, it's one of those things comes on and go, I'm not in the damn thing, mind you, but it was really good. Is he in it? Yeah, he's he's the I think he's it's the clock, the live version, the live.

Live the did I see I don't think I've seen the live version.

Yeah.

So it's a live version of the animated version.

Of the live Yes, yeah, yes, I think they have a musical of it.

Yes, oh one.

But yeah, I met David Ogden Steers one time and he did the Cogsworth Yeah, I did too, and also yeah, and I met him one time and I was like, you know, I really admire what you do. You did the narration in the beginning of The Beauty of the Beast, and right in the beginning of the show, it says, and I said, you had this orchestral kind of delivery because it went places, and he went, oh, that's very nice of you.

Actually I'm an orchestra conductor.

No kidding. Yeah. Well, so he was in and I think I ran into him a couple of times, you know, I was in it, but yeah, the hell of a guy. Yeah.

Well, you remember very well the times when you and your cohorts and the big stars would all get together in a big recording studio and do the show.

That happens very infrequently. Now, yes it does. It's too good. Yeah, and I don't like I never really did like it. And I don't even know I remember when that happened. But yeah, like Chippendale Rescue Rangers, all the Disney Afternoon I was in all of the Disney Afternoon TV shows and it started breaking up. Well when they got movie stars and you know, they can't what time is it? You know, can't you can't get there, you know, so pick me up separately and then you know, but but

Was the big guard who you know, pred says, you will have to take it up with you far I was that guy, and and he decides he snaps his fingers and he's a prosecuting attorney and I'm the witness in the in the standard, he's going, so where were you on the night?

You know this? And that? And and I had lived something and they kept it and but then his line didn't work, so he had to come back in and do it again, and then we redid it again, and then something happened something He goes, well, I'm sorry, but I will not be upstaged by a tertiary character. And he reached down and grabbed my toes and rolled me up like a blind poofed me off into oblivion and was never to be heard from again.

Oh my god.

So I get to say that I was personally dissed. You are evaporated, You were vaporized? Yes, yes, feel free to applaud. Yeah. Not everyone can say that Robin Williams gave them the finger.

Generally has a pretty good reputation. I've been doing the Blue Genie for a long time, after Dan, after after Dan, and after Robin, but before Robin passed, but after Robin started.

Doing Yes, yes, yes, Oh man, have you ever done a Simpsons? Just curious?

No, never done a Simpsons? Yeah, never done a Star Wars thing? Hm, not that, not that I notice.

Yeah, yeah, not that I would have. Yeah, okay, if they call it, I don't know if I have taby. I really am kind of busy. If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned in with Jim Cummings, you could support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early in ad free access to the show. Itself,

You want to tell us about that?

Oh sure, well let's see every now.

And then I put up a one man show because uh, it's been a successful thing for me.

To just freaking thousands, why not cast.

A freaking thousands and people like it, and yeah, I can do it cheaply, and my wife has a theater, I can put it up there. And I did it at the Gary Marshall Theater last September in honor partially of the fiftieth anniversary of Happy Days. So it was a good mixture, and I kind of leaned into my

Had a unique perspective.

And then I also, yeah, sing I do musical numbers, which I've created with my keyboardist, Noah Sunday Lefkowitz and did some audience interactive stuff. And you know, I've been doing one man shows here and there since the early eighties, and I like the challenge. It's super fun. People seem to like it. It's not hugely lucrative or popular. I've never done a tour.

But it sounds like you really enjoy it.

I do, and it kind of gets it kind of you know, actors, especially ones that aren't maybe as fabulously successful, and congratulations him on your career.

It's just inspirational.

But for the workaday actor who's still trying to struggling to break in, I really count myself among you need to sometimes convince yourself of what it is you do that's good and can be appreciated. And I find that if I can, if I do a one man show, I kind of get it. I go, Okay, I see I see the reaction. I see that people like this.

Yeah, it is.

Part of what I'm here to do, and I can always. There's really no excuse to not do it every now and then. So yeah, I put it up and I've got a fairly nice video of it now too. If anybody's interested, they can go to Jimskimon dot com contact me there and I will send you the private.

Link absolutely free. Oh there you watch it.

And yeah, it's like I said, I've done a lot of different things. I am very just didn't being a TV and film actor, and I continue to pursue that very avidly. Uh, but I am aware that I have this skill. I worked on a Landman with Billy Bob Thornton, uh the season finale of that show, and uh, you know, and I.

Went, I was like, God, what's Billy Bob Thorny gonna be like?

And ye what was he like? Well? He was he was cool.

I actually had a really good time with him. So he as the star of that show obviously, and we were filming in a hospital, a real hospital in fort Worth, and his his sort of assistant guy who's not bodyguard, but you know, his major domo who is also used to be Axel Rose's assistant, uh, taking care of him. And he said, Bill Bob said, yeah, same same kind of group of rocker.

Uh. He said, Uh.

Billy Bob said you can hang out with him if you want, in his room and I'm like, okay, so I go in and Billy Webb says, so, uh, I'll hear you do impressions.

All right, we're gonna get along. We're gonna get exactly what he said.

So I dragged out all my funny, weird, kind of old movie impressions.

Yeah, like Burgess Murders. You know, I feel like that.

I told you to my body, the body.

And it was great.

And he's I respect him as an actor a lot.

I really like his.

Genuineness and authenticity, reality and subtlety and all that stuff.

You know. It was interesting because his first big splash was sling Blade, right, and he he and he successfully avoided the James Woods syndrome because James Wood's first big movie was what was it? The movie where he played a horrible, incredible, murdering killer type person. Yeah, and people didn't want him. And I remember Cisco and Eber going, well,

Oh my god, cat Dog.

He was cat Dog and I'm kidding. Yeah, now you can see the resemblance.

So, yeah, it's in the Caroline.

I think who else would it have been? Yeah? That was that was my one little He's quite a singer too. You know.

He's got a band, the box Masters. Yeah, they tour around. He thinks, he told me that he thinks of himself more as a musician who acts, no kid, but he's really good at both.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, we're not worried about him. Not worried about Billy Bob.

They call him Bud, the group does anyway, calls him Bud, Bud Bud.

So next time you see him, folks, you're in the inner circle.

That's right, Hey, Bud. Yeah, Why who the hell are you? I get that a lot. Who the hell are you? Who do you think you are? I think I'm mister lucky.

I wanted to ask you about growing up with a parent that's on TV and a celebrity. What what was that experience like growing up because I had a similar experience, not to the same degree, but my dad was an actor and on TV and me personally, and we've had a few other other actors on this podcast who have had, you know, famous parents or whatnot, can continued on their legacy, so to speak. But I want to ask you did you feel pressure at all? Was there pressure to be an artist?

Was there?

I know your I heard you say that your mom encouraged you to be artistic, But did you feel any pressure did you feel just what was that upbringing?

Like with that dynamics?

As you know from your own experience, there's something special about having a parent who's on TV, even if they're just the guy you know, sure make Tag repairman. Yeah, there's there's an ascension that seems to happen. It is almost as if this person who you know we see every day has entered a new universe and they've somehow made it into through this membrane.

Of into this other world. And you're like, oh, you must be. You're a little immortal. You've got some immortality.

You know that you've you've achieved.

So before she was a famous person, she was always a working actress in my youth. And uh, but for grown up shows that I didn't watch, you know, like Mission Impossible Side and yeah, yeah, you know, occasionally I think she did an episode of the Brady Bunch and uh, but so I felt a little bit special there, but we were pretty broke, so I didn't feel tremendously entitled. But when Happy Days was a situation where the show

That wouldn't have happened because they did the pilot.

Gary Marshall writes about this in his book He's Got a wonderful book called Wake Me when It's Funny, and he wrote that they.

Did the pilot.

We did the pilot for Happy Days, and it didn't sell. ABC didn't buy it, so they put it on the shelf at Paramount and they let it sit there. Then at the same time, George Lucas, the filmmaker named George Lucas, asks the casting director, you know, do you have any footage of Ron Howard in a kind.

Of a fifties look for this movie? And they sent him the Happy Days pilot and he looked at that and he went, oh, I'll put Ron Howard in American graffiti.

American graffiti.

Then, I mean there's a lot of time involved, right, So it's the casting American Graffiti shooting American graffiti, releasing American Graffiti, it becomes a hit. Then Michael Eisner at the time went, don't we have a pilot with Ron Howard in the fifties sitting on the shelf, And they dragged it out and they put it on the air, and then it became popular, but not crazy popular. It was still one camera.

And Phonsie had a great coat.

Fonzie had like a wind breaker, a wind breaker. Yeah, I didn't have a didn't have a leather jacket. There was a lot of talk about that. Yeah, and like should he be a hoodlum? Is that's the point he hoodlum?

You know? Yeah?

And so and then when they went a multiicam in about season three, then it became a hit.

So it was this slow ramp up.

So my mom was like, from my viewpoint, it's like, oh, mom has a job, she got a pilot. No, it didn't sell. Oh well, uh, now she's looking for it. Now she's doing commercials and she's doing whatever, and you know, we don't we don't have a lot of dough and uh.

And then then oh, well they're going to put it back on the air. Oh they are.

And then it's a little series like, oh, oh, that's nice, but she's not making the money. First of all, the women didn't make what the men were making anyway, she didn't make.

What Tom was making.

Tom Bosley he was making three times what Marian made.

Well.

Yeah, and then it built and she began to actually be popular.

It was a hit.

And then then we started being able to go. I think she could relax as a parent and as a breadwinner. And I think there was a certain point five or six years in where her accountant said, you should spend some money. Yeah, yeah, you're losing the money in the bank and you're losing opportunity to And then and then she started adopting. I noticed this kind of not avariciousness or anything, but but she got a little looser, and she would buy things just because she liked them, you know,

She would go in and buy.

A car off the showroom floor, for example, Oh boy, things.

Like that, because she could, because she could, and there was absolutely no negative effect at all. Yep. So yeah, that'd be tough one to find a negative in that.

But for me, you're asking about mymy was it weird where their pressures? I was confused by it all because it messed with me a bit because once the show got really popular, there was just tremendous attention on those people that show My Mom and it had nothing to do with me.

Yeah, didn't make you want to do the same thing I want?

Who would not want that attention? Were so close by?

It was like, sure, it would be like there's a there's a conveyor belt full of gold coins going by.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so close. I can I go get something? You didn't want to be Pete Best?

No, I didn't want to be the best Pete Worst.

I wanted to Yeah.

But and but I didn't understand my own attraction to it either. It was a little bit suspicious, a little bit insecure about I was like, is it because I love acting or is it because I want the attention?

And it took me a long time to resolve that.

Well, it's kind of a little both, huh. And it's a little both for sure.

Yeah, But it took me a lot to get to make my peace with it. And actually pursue acting took a long time because I also really wanted to draw paint, and I went to school for that, and I studied and went to Spain and studied painting.

And about your time in Spain, what was the what was.

The Yeah, I was studying.

I went to Santa Cruz University, California University, and I met a Spanish artist was a visiting artist there, and he was he was a real really stood out he was at that school at that time, and probably a lot of the schools.

They were painting.

If you wanted to learn how to be a painter, you wanted to be and they wanted to teach you how to be an abstract expressionist.

You splash paint.

You technique was nothing, you know, it's all about talking about it was much more important than doing anything.

It was like if you could talk.

For an hour about a painting, you were you were cock of the walk. But my friend Gel, who later became my mentor, was a guy whose class I got stuck into. Because I couldn't get into this popular guy's class. They said, you're going to go to Michael's class.

And I went, okay, And I.

Go to Micgel's class.

And he is a classically trained Spanish beis Arte's painter. The guy had been looking for all my life. Mmm, so it was a lucky break.

Wow he started talking. I went, holy crap, I'm in the right place. Yeah.

And I studied with him for three years. He invited me to go to Spain.

I went a couple of times in Spain, studied old master techniques, learned everything really well, a lot of the fundamentals. I mean, it's a lifetime thing, really. But I learned enough to be a painter. I did not learn how to make a living as a painter. I did not learn, but I was interested.

I tried to. But were you the guy with the palette? You had the.

Whole palette, the beard, Yeah, there you go, the stains on the sho you almost have a beret on now, So that's a guy. I wear a beret when I can. Yeah, absolutely still wear a beret.

And they wore them in Spain.

It's a very European thing, and I'm so grateful for that time.

It was very arduous. You know.

Anytime you studied anything to a classical degree, singing, musical instruments, painting, freaking ballet, whatever you learn so much about existence.

How to make this do that.

You know, how to make your hand do something, how to make your voice do something, your diaphragm do something it's not natural.

You know, your ankles dance in a way.

You know your toes do shit that it shouldn't be doing, and that that you carry with you your whole life. I think, and it informs everything.

Whether you actually do it. Very few people do, I'm sure.

I mean, all the people I knew that were studying painting, very few of them actually do it, but they learned no kidding, yeah, wow, because it's it's like voice over. I mean, how many people I was thinking about this on the way over. I'm sure you get this all the time too, at comic cons and things, and people saying I'm really interested in being voice actor. Oh oh, And they ask you questions and you give them advice and stuff. Thousands of people because they look at it

Yeah, but yeah, will you pursue it?

You know, that's the question.

And how many people actually do you know of the people that we've talked to just casually at comic cons, A very small percentage of people actually, And you're surprised, aren't you when someone says, well, you know what, I got a job and now I'm on this show. You're like you are, Yeah, you actually followed my advice.

Yeah, there was a gosh about eight ten months ago, I was at a comic con you met remember this?

I remember this?

Yeah yeah and those yeah yeah, and uh a young man and he had a table next to mine, and hey, it's had a pretty nice crowd of folks that came up. Anime is a big deal, you know. Yeah, I'm it's it's not my thing. You're in that world a little bit, though, right, But I am that Yeah. Well I think I did like two enough things. But but I'm milk. I'll get under that cow and milk it. Believe me. You know, halfway through the day or like from Friday Saturday. He goes,

Didn't you have like a sign picture from you back in the day too? I swear he brought like the autograph from the conversation and he was like, you signed this for me and I did it.

Yeah.

Yeah, And then he went off and and and did it, you know, and I gave him here's my little advice. I don't think we covered this, but you know, if you do a perfect impression of somebody, that's gold. I mean, because you never know when you can use that I'm famous person. And if you do a terrible impression I'm a famous person that nobody knows who the hell you're doing. You know, you think it's the greatest job Wayne in the world, and they think it's you know, Fred Flint's.

Of the you know, the the outlier, the guy that actually had the gumption to to do what you recommend it.

Yeah, and doing it helps you know, saying you're going to do it, and and how many times have you been signing an autograph or doing this or that? And they go, you know, I I'm going to get into that.

I'm going to do it.

Yes too. Oh yeah yeah, I said, so what are you doing? Have been in place? What do you mean?

No?

No, no, no, I want to do I go, okay, well I was in a freaking hundred plays as a kid. He goes, ooh, do you have to do that? And I go, can't hurt you know? Yeah? Yeah? And I and Jess are now. I give him credit every time he says, if you want to be a voice actor, what you have to remember that it's a small V but a capital A.

Yeah.

Great, great, So that's just knows. Yeah, just he knows and he would know. Yeah, and uh so you guys should be carving that into stone by the way out there. But yeah, it's it's it's a curious thing. It's a curious thing. If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early in ad free access to the show itself,

Rarely right, Okay, But when you first started to say that, similarly though, I thought about, you know, if you draw the long bow and you don't release, it's not fewer times it's going to hit the target, but it could shoot a lot of arrows.

Yeah.

Absolutely, Yeah.

I think you you just you learn about you, learn about you, You learn about the art form, you learn about people's reaction.

What you're doing is just learning, learning, learning.

I think it's fair to say that with your career you shot a lot of arrows. I mean, just doing my research on you, I couldn't believe how many different projects you've been on and so many different meetings, you know, voiceover on screen, all these different ventures. And one thing that I was thinking about just I played sports my whole life. I played football up until a professional level. And it just kind of reminded me, seeing your career and your credits of like how most people don't know

You know, dare you?

Yeah?

No, But I want to know what because as an actor myself, you know who has like little day player credits here and there? Like what keeps you going? Like what keeps you coming back and keep pursuing and keep pursuing and going and going debt? Actually, but there's got to be some there's got to be like a more serious like drive to it, because it's it's hard.

I mean, I know it's hard.

You know, to generate interests, you have to have you have to be interested. And it's true that after decades and decades and sometimes bang your head against the wall, your interest wanes and you go, what else is there to do? And I'm guilty of doing that a few times. But I find that you that interest is within our control. We can get interested, we can develop interest, and I try to do that is part of the reason why I do the Impression show.

I have to.

I have to forces me to get interested in like what will audiences?

Like?

What should I do?

What can I do?

You know?

What are my resources? And usually your mind starts to work on it. And when I watch TV, I watched TV TV.

I don't.

My wife and I watch TV together mostly uh, And it's mostly what she wants to watch because that's marriage happy write, which is fine, she likes, she has good tastes. But when I watch TV, I realized I watched TV somewhat differently than she does. I am dissecting it and I am looking at the actor and I'm watching what the actor does, and I'm.

Very rarely carried away and like, well, what a great story that was?

You know, I've just seen so much TV in so many films that I'm looking at, Wow, how he held his hands, and my wife is just kind of absorbing it and enjoying it and having a great time doing it the right way, and I'm doing it the bullshit way of just like kind of like studying and thinking, thinking about the voice, thinking about all kinds of stuff that doesn't.

Really have much.

And if you ask me, the restory was, yeah, it's research it for me. It's like my excuse is that I'm researching things.

Do you enjoy the housewives of fill in the blank as much as I don't will anything about any one of them? And unfortunately I know about all of them.

My wife likes to watch British you know, detective shows where it's a small town and the Vickers involved somehow and oh yes, all things.

And there's one.

That Anne, there's a there's an there's one called called the Midwife, which is all about babies and being born and nuns. And you know, I think my wife really wants to live in England, and so she'll go there, you know, every couple of nights. And I like the British show and like little bit I don't know that kind of yeah, yeah, but uh, you know, but I'll watch We've been lately watching the films of Mike Lee. If you watched Mike Lee films, British film director, Oh

Well, I'll have to send my real to him and then not get hired. I can't wait to not get hired by this day. Mike Lee.

Okay, all right, we talked about it briefly before the podcast, but I want the viewers to hear your story about becoming the Colonel.

Oh yeah, well I did Colonel Shanders for about you have Years for Okay, Outfit and mighty nine bunch of people.

I love the Colonel characters so much because he's just so full of beans and so such a throwback.

Yes, yes, and so this was a I'm getting one of those things some reason I really want something.

So I was doing what I do when I want to get work, and I was just looking through my U I used to look through a Rollodex. Now I looked through my emails from two years ago, three years ago. Who haven't I talked to for a while? And I've came across this guy who was a copywriter. I'd done

It was the hack.

It was the hack. It was the Sony hack.

Yeah, yeah, I think, And anyway, so that went away. But I had met this copywriter who wrote the copy and so I wrote him. I said, how are you, Devin, And he said I'm good. By the way, how's your Colonel Sanders? And I went, well, it's pretty often good, yeah, because I can hear Colonel Sanders. I mean I was a child.

I remember that. You know, don't forget your grandfather's overcoat. That was in the recipe. Remember that.

I don't remember that. That's so funny.

They were trying to get him give us the secret recipe, and he said, well it is, Oh forget your grandfather's overcoat. He really put it one over on them, you Randy Chap, Yeah, yeah exactly. So I sent him.

I sent him a demo and then he liked that, and I sent him another demo. I had auditioned for the colonel physically for an earlier campaign, like a year prior, and I'd done the voice and that was yeah for on camera.

They were looking for it.

They were looking for a colonel at that point, and I was like, I don't even know why, why should bother go on? This not really the right type. But I went and they were like, you know, there may be a world where we use your voice. And so I knew then that like, wow, okay, I think I sound like him, and they think, more importantly, they think I say like him.

So that was established in my mind.

So when my friend Devin said, how's your colonel Sanators, I went, you know, it's it's surveyed out rather well, So I sent him a demo.

You sent him another demo.

They hired me to do a demo, so now now the flow is reversed and I'm making money. And then they hired me to do a voiceover, and then another and another for seven years, and I had a lot of fun because I took that character and made my own content with the colonel quite a bit. I would do these because they didn't care. They didn't care at all, nobody I have a YouTube channel and I need content.

So I would do a conversation between a Colonel Sanders and other notable figures they would call up on the telephone. And one thing, I think, I like to pride myself for the thing I have noticed about Colonel Sanders. You much like him. I want you always to hear as much ash. Oh, yeah, she's rather important for the time, you see.

So I would do these.

I've got tons of videos online of him talking to Robert Oppenheimer and talking to Humphy Bullguards and talking to Marlon Brando and talking to whoever I felt like I

Yeah, yeah, bring a lot of joy.

Yeah, you make some really good content. I just saw your YouTube channel and your Instagram is really funny too. You do a lot of funny skits on there.

Yeah.

My daughter and I we it's it's her job to help me load up a lot of Instagram stuff. So she does he hey dad, Hey dad, what do and we don't contrive it. She actually pounces on me and you know, do Joe Biden and he's explaining.

That so good.

The one that went viral was Joe Biden explaining that the plot to Star Wars, so there's a galaxy parked on the you know, it's not that kind of galaxy.

It's just the robots and.

They're not the droid. You're looking for.

Any of them, George, anybody's nobody's looking for joys. Come on, never mind, come on, come.

On, man, come.

On man, you dog face pony Soldier.

So funny, so funny, that's delicious. Yeah, you do all the presidents so well. I saw a little video and you're doing all the president. I was like, how do you like? It's just like you don't even have to introduce yourself. You're so good at it. It's just you know, most people say their impressions and like turn around, well the naga. You know, it's like, okay, we I.

Do a fair amount of that.

But yeah, the presidents are so ubiquitous. You know, we hear them. Oh, whether we like it or not.

You know, it is Donald Trump with us by any time, Trump for shure.

You know, I noticed recently I don't do a lot of Trump because there's so many guys that do fantastic job.

That's fantastic, I don't you know. I think I'm but one thing.

I really listening to him recently, and.

Like it always sounds a little mournful. There's a kind of a mindful thing, and we're going to do a great job.

Everything's going to be terrific.

It's a little bit of this is kind of on we do.

You hear the music because whenever I have to do music of it, yeah, I think there's music in that. You know, I for what it's worth it when I don't do impression, and I'm damned if I'm going to do it in front of this guy. But but when when I do, uh, there's always you know, like John Wayne would be, well, I could tell you one thing, you know, and it's there's music.

In it, right, because there's rhythm and there's yeah, tonality and pitch and how how you know, Like, uh, this is another thing I've noticed about human beings. We all have voices, and we actors tend to really modulate a lot more than normal people. And and us in our normal lives, we don't modulate quite so much. You know, we don't go down to talk to the guy at the CBS or something like, yeah, I have an appointment

Unless it's like, hey, dude, don't do that.

You know, you don't really vary from that, But everybody has their own kind of vocal signatures. You can actually see it when you're looking at a piece of software that's recording and uh, it's beautiful, it is music. It's it's exactly like music. Yeah, and yeah, it's it's a beautiful it's it's like birds all have birds song, you know, they don't think about his song.

They're just yapping, you know.

Yeah, people like that.

We're like that.

Yeah. And and always whenever a bad guy, it's like soundtracks because it's always reflected like on the rifle Man, Down Down Down, But when the bad guy sneaking around the back of the barn in the night, boom boom boom, boom boom boom. Got to slow it song, slow it down. Minor key, minor key, got a in a minor key. That's how you know shit's gonna hit the fan. Minor key.

Oh.

You know, that's a big trend now that's happening with trailers and soundtracks is they'll take some sweet song from from our past and they'll give it a minor key.

And have some plaintive kind.

Of vocalist singing it. And you're like, oh, that's a scary song and it's like a sippity doodar or something.

Yeah, yeah, it's so true.

Oh god, you know this one, there is someone walking behind you, turn around, look at me. I can't think of the movie that used that, and I thought, oh my god, that was this romantic song from when I was like five or whatever. You and then you hear it now and it scares the crap out of you. It's been Tim Burton turning around. You know. It's we just are manipulated by it, and it's it's a beautiful thing to notice and capture, and you do that so well. Oh,

And I wanted to ask you when you first started working, who was the first big, kind of stellar voiceover person that you interacted with.

Well, jeez, for me, well, the first JOW I ever did was Dumbo Circus and a live action.

Sure, I'm a fan, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

But uh but Hal Smith was on there, the great Hal Smith, who was Otis Campbell the Andy Griffith Show. He is the town drunk. And I walked in and my younger brother, he his friend Dave from from Youngstown, callous sophisticate that he is, came out and he said, I'll never get He goes up to Hal Smith and he goes, Okay, it's nice to meet you.

Now.

Don't take this the wrong way, because I'm not trying to insult you you know who you look like, you look like the drunk on Andy Grafft and he goes, I had a drunk and I went, you know, so yeah he was. But he was my first, my first biggie. Have you ever been Have you ever met somebody that's kind of intimidated, intimidated you knocked you back a little bit, like somebody big, big super.

Star or you know, yeah, yeah, sure, mostly.

Yeah, mostly, yeah. I get that with my mailman. So yeah, yeah.

I've worked with a lot of on camera and behind the mic too, with a lot of big guys and Oscar winners and you know, but I worked with Daniel day Lewis on There Will Be Blood that for a couple of days, and.

That was that was interesting. You know, he's a pretty good voice guy. Oh yeah, I mean the gangs. Yes, oh yeah.

To me, it sounds like he's doing Robert than There on that movie. I'm just yea like a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. But he in the we didn't had such a small part. I wasn't allowed to look at the script of There Will Be Blood, but I could see my pages and uh it was the scene where he comes in and the very start of the movie where he comes and gives an appeal to a bunch of townspeople to buy their land, and he gets you know, they shout him down and he goes off in a huff.

And he's there with his son.

And I didn't know much about the story, but i'd heard from the casting person that it was based on a book called Oil by Upton Sin So I read that book because I had a lot of downtime and it's a great book. And I discovered later that at about page seventy in this five hundred page book, the movie in the book all like that, Oh doesn't become you know.

It's psychotic. They are no longer.

It's like a whole other book.

But it's very cleaves, very much to the original up till about page seventy. So I was in that early page seventy period, so I had no idea.

That he was going to you know, that the character was going to go the way he went.

But when watching him, because I watched him do that speech, it's a long speech. It's his first long speech in the maybe the first utterances that you actually hear, because there's awful lot of silent stuff in the beginning of it, and you know, I'm watching him and you know, he's just a believable I believe he's the guy. I believe we're here. We did it over and over again. I'm like, yeah, that's the way to do that.

You know, it's very sensible.

It wasn't like there wasn't a lot of history on or fireworks or technique or it was just like, no, that's simple. Just that's that's really good. Yeah, like that's a good actor.

You know.

Of course he does other magnificent things in that film. But yes, and I met him and he was his character name was Daniel, and his name is Daniel. So there wasn't a lot of like, oh, now he's being Daniel. Well, yeah, he's arrived as Daniel. He's so I shook his hand and he said, nice to meet you.

You know, was he in character? He was, Yeah, he stays in character.

He was doing that John Houston kind of voice. Yeah, so he stays in character the whole time. But that makes sense. It's a sensible thing to do, you see.

So like Jim Carrey with the what was it one about Andy Kaufman, Yeah, man, the Man in the Moon.

Yeah, I work with Jim too work on the Wrench.

On the Grinch. What was that set like?

Oh, it's great.

What was that set like? What an amazing sets, such a work of art.

It was like being inside a huge work of art. So and then all the characters were all decorated, you know, basically, And that's in a sound stage, and that was on a massive sound stage.

Yehiverse, I was there four months.

That's right, four months. How long is that makeup?

Three hours a day? Three hours? It's like total or putting on?

Uh no, another hour to take it off, dang hour and plus to take it off.

Always felt good to take it off. But I loved I loved having the makeup on. It was fun. Yeah, they do someone to hide behind, Yeah, and you know, I could manipulate.

I learned how to like moving around because my nose was up here.

We could do you know.

It was kind of puppeteering with your nose and amazing actors and.

There's a skill that.

Yeah.

Were you around Jim on site?

Yeah, fair amount. But he was not having a good time.

No, no, unfortunately that makeup alone.

Yeah, he had these full scleral eye caps.

Oh, because his eyes were yellow.

Yes, two sets of child offers and yack for and and prosthetics, and he was just in pain. It's well known and he talks about a lot, so you know, I understand why we.

Didn't all pal around.

Yeah he was because in between takes he was kind of seething, trying.

To trying to get through the day, get off.

And one day, one day I came to work and early in the morning, always because we had to do three hours of makeup. I came to work on Universal lot and I saw the Grynch walk by and I could tell, well, that's not Jim. It's Jim's taller. That's probably his stunt double Pat Banta. So I go, hey, Pat, and the guy says, oh, no, no, it's not Pat, it's Ron.

And this is the day that Ron Howard uh was.

You know, Jim had been complaining.

About the makeup and stuff.

So I said, I decided one day I'm going to come in do the full makeup and spend.

The day and see what that's like.

Wow.

He did it all day long and he had the end of the day went see, I see what you mean.

That's pretty awful.

Sitting there going yeah, yeah, I get it.

Agony, yeah, yeah, but again, that's roun an hour. I don't know another director in the world that would do such a thing.

Is that so funny? Yeah?

Oh my god?

Do people know that story? Do you guys know that story? I've never heard that story never. That's hilarious.

That's in your book, man, that's good, it's amazing. Yeah.

So it's a it's been an interesting career. It hasn't gone at all the way I.

Thought it would.

I never have thought that I would be like mainly being an impressionist, and these days I don't even know how long it's going to last with AI. I know a lot of my work is going to go away, like soundlike stuff in ad R quick spot things.

And be able to really you think so absolutely, I mean I would.

I mean if I was a producer and like we need Colin Firth to say, come on in, you know, okay, well I think we can.

You know that's oh yeah, that we're not too crazy about all that stuff. No, of course not.

But it's a but it's a tool and I think about it all the time. I think about it every day, and it does put pressure on actors to be more, more better, uh, you know, more original, more to be more, you know, because an AI doesn't have your replaceable irreplaceable, Yeah, to be creative.

And so yeah, and hopefully they don't add lib. Hopefully the AI doesn't add LIB. I live and I think.

I watched a I watched a twenty minute video on YouTube yesterday about how AI cannot draw a full glass of wine.

Oh I saw that.

Yeah, can just cannot do it.

Yeah, it has draw a full glass.

You can ask AI to draw a full glass of wine filled to the brim. It will never do it. It cannot do it. What kind of weird the weirdest this guy like goes into like this whole explanation for twenty minutes, like deep bunking.

Like why who and who found that out?

This is just random YouTube? Yeah, you're not a random YouTuber. I'm going to link your video actually in this video because you deserve some credit.

That was a good video.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's fascinating. It's like it seems like it's so capable and then so deficient at the same time. Right, Yeah, but yeah, it'll be interesting to see how all that plays out. But I'm not a big believer. I think it's vastly overstated what it can actually do, but only time will tell.

Yeah, for certain effects it's very good, and for other things it just will always be inferior.

Yeah, I mean, we this is what I was thinking about earlier.

It's like, you know, people have talked about, well, photoshop came along and it didn't destroy photography. It didn't well and and you know it go back further. You know this never happened, but you wouldn't say, well, ventriloquism is just going to destroy it entertainment.

Just look at that. This is a guy.

You can put a voice into a non living thing and it makes it look like a living thing.

I mean, that's it.

We're done because now you'll just we'll just always have been able to have dummies and people providing voices for it, not really because nobody really we get a little bit of entrilogaism.

We're fine. That's I'm gooding out for a year.

Yeah, two minutes, I'm done.

But because it's all drawing.

So with the AI, we're drawing and scrubbing from things, and it's not really original, and it's a lot of plagiarism and it's stuff we've seen before.

That's why it's there, and so.

It has that me meditation and I you know, when I see the things on Instagram pop up and it's like, wow, look at this. It's Star Wars but nineteen fifties, and you're like, wow, that's really interesting. I'm you know, I'll take forty seconds of this, but it's not going to change the world.

Shirt. Yeah, completely compelling. That reminds me of this line in I Robot with Smith and he's sitting down interrogating, you know, the android, and he's like, can you make a.

Work of art? Can you write a symphony? And the android looks at him, he's like can you.

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, you better wise guy, Yeah yeah I could. If I could, I know a guy who knows a guy.

Yeah, that's right. If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings, and more. You'll feel the difference, So go ahead and join the tuned In family today at Patreon dot com slash Jim Cummings podcast. Do it now, Well.

This is why we respect the great artists, the great composers, the great writers, They somehow find the time, find the interest.

Level, develop their skill.

It's a miracle. If a machine does that is not a miracle. It's it's plagiarism.

Program and it's programming, and it's yeah, it's digits.

Yeah.

Yeah, hard to be ampathetic with it something.

But I can see a lot of a lot of work disappearing because it would be just like you know, we we talk to robots all the time on the phone, Yeah, because it's like who.

We all love it and we're like we'll put up.

With it because he can't really imagine somebody doing it all day long saying yeah please hold and all that.

Yeah, unless it's outsourced.

Yeah, I get that with a lot of actual people. I feel like I'm talking to robots.

Well, that's true.

We have to be we have to exert our humanity, right, And that's the key to any kind of success with anything is first be there, be present, and be willing to communicate with other people and to have that evolution, you know. And yeah, I think it puts a lot of us on notice. You know, how unautomatic can you be?

Yeah?

Because the more automatic, you know, like this is why marriages go bad, because the husband or the wife is kind of like, oh.

Yeah, I'm married, and it's it's just gonna run.

And I've done my bit, you know.

I I paid the bills and I bought the ring. No, that's just the entrance fee.

You know, it's just Skynett letting us know they're listening.

Oh, Skynet, I didn't mean it. I did not mean it. Hey, it's the best thing I ever hear them.

Yeah, the smart hub notification pops up on the TV for you guys confused at home.

It's it's very suspicious.

Say, no attention to the man behind the curtain.

But did you have anything you wanted to advertise or plug upcoming that you got going on?

Nah?

Not really visit my website, jim Meskama dot com s.

I mean email, don't you if I'm not mistaken.

Oh, it's not really set up yet.

No.

No, I did a bunch of online videos, but we haven't figured out how to host it properly yet. One of these days, though, stay in touch when they get on my man.

Stay tuned, Yeah, stay tuned.

To follow you on social media, of course. Yeah, you guys have to. It's actually really funny.

Yeah at jimpressions on Instagram. I'm on TikTok and I had a lot of success there, not monetarily, but I'm told I've made like over eight.

Dollars on Instagram.

So I really don't know how to get it out of the See now you're talking though, Yeah, we're talking.

Oh man, that's great, And I'll.

Do my my one man show again. And I'm working on a screenplay and I'm always just trying to.

Well, do I have any co stars?

That's my really funny joke. Well that's great, man. That takes a lot of guts. I've thought of that every every eight or so years. I think maybe I should do it one man show. No, that scares the crap out of me.

Oh so cold A good reason to do it?

Well, you got to take it sold. If you let me know, I'll be there for sure, because please.

Yeah, I mean you can start off. I think start off modestly, you know, do something for friends.

No, I mean I want to come watch you. I'm not going to do it. Yeah, I'm not bilt on stage.

Yeah. I just always enjoyed.

You know, I didn't become a stamp. That's another lifestyle.

You know, it's kind of what I do.

There's probably what you do too.

There's a little overlap in that world, but that's a very specific trail and those guys, you know, you got to work it and you got to be willing to go through the agony of it.

And apparently that's pretty agonizing. It looks like hell.

But then if you surmounted and actually get established, you could make a Like I went one time to see Eddie Izzard at the Hollywood Bowl and I looked around and I looked on my phone. How many people fit in the Hollywood seventeen thousand people to see a stand up comic and they all had a great time.

Jeez.

I thought, if I could do that, I think I'd be pretty happy.

Yeah.

So yeah, looking for start looking at working for a way to do that. But he started off just busting and doing all kinds of crazy nonsense, no kidd you know on the streets and England.

The dress fits. Yeah, very brave, very brave. There's doing it.

One more thing that we do on this show.

It's a little game that we play if you're if you're game to play, and it's a little voice swap game. Sure, and since you do so many impressions. I thought it might be fun to do the voice swap with impressions. How do you feel about that? So Jim will say a character line of his, you know, say Winnie the Pooh or dark Wing or I.

Need to I need to branch out more. I need to think of more characters. Maybe Ray.

Yeah, just one of his quick characters will say a line and then if you repeat that same line but in an impression voice, just picked a voice, okay, and.

Then we'll go.

Now that's what it is, or be self evident or do you want to assign it to me or you?

Yeah, you just pick. I have confidence we'll be able to tell dealer's choice.

Okay, there you go. So maybe Ray from Princess.

Yeah, we don't know. Yeah, we don't do Ray very much. Yeah, we don't do Ray very much.

Okay, where you know you know what they always say, do women love a man with a big back?

Poach?

Well you know what they say, wayman, I love a man with a big back porch.

Matthew McCarty. Matthew McCatty. Yes, that'll be part two to the game.

We'll guess. Yeah, So the pressures all.

Right, so far we're tied.

Oh yeah, Now do I feed him? So yeah, yeah, you feed him alive and then okay, good, So oh, I wish for something outrageous.

Oh, wish for something orageous.

That has to be Robin Williams.

That has to be Robin and Tiger. I don't know Tigger.

Yeah, Paul Winchell, the great Paul Winchell.

Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, oh yeah, yeah. I know him well. I knew him well. I went out with his daughter for a while. Really yeah, oh sure, yeah, and I know her very well too. And I guess this is slightly uplifting, but uh but I feel like I should tell this. I don't think I've ever told this, but Paul was a buddy of my I mean I actually knew, you know, for years, and uh and I would do Tigger when we're very very very very first start late late dadies. He was still going back and forth to Africa.

I want you to take care of my little buddy for me, tigger and I get cus pups telling that story and uh so yeah, so anyway, there you have a story man, Yeah yeah, but a bittersweet story and with not a not sad uplifting I would think.

You know, well, I feel of hope beautiful that he knew who was going to take that over and he passed over the reins to you, and.

Yes, yeah, that's that's actually good for you. That that's that's the way I've thought of it. Yeah, that's way I thought of it. Yeah. Well, and then you know that inspired my joke and said, when I finally pass on, I hope I, you know, have enough characters that there's five people to get again. Yeah that's not bad. That's not bad. That's right. But thank you so so so very much, and talk with you.

All right.

That does it for another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings. Don't forget to like and subscribe. We appreciate all of you guys watching, and don't forget you can find bonus content on Patreon. We're really uploading a lot on Patreon, so go check us out. Thank you to all our patreons on there. And I think that just about does it.

I think so.

We will see you in the next one, Jim ask men, thank you so much for being here and we'll see you later.

Thank you, sir, thank you, yeah, thank you.

That was fun

Mhm.