Interview with Jim Meskimen the Impressionist!

Hi, this is Jim Meskimen, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to GeekCast Radio. Also, this is going to be

a ToonCast crossover interview. I am, of course,

TF2 and Mike here at the GeekCast Radio Network.

I'm very excited to talk with Mr. Jim Meskimen

from being Colonel Sanders for seven years to

multiple character voices in animation and video

games. Plus, he sang as Elmer Fudd when Bugs

Bunny and Friends sang The Beatles. Talk about

a good day sunshine in a yellow submarine. Hi,

Jim. How are you? I'm good, Mike. Thanks for

that nice introduction. Yeah, I've been working

as a voice guy for a long time. People have been

hearing me and not even knowing it was me, which

is just fine. Yep, yep, yep. Unless they go to

your YouTube channel and watch that drive -through,

drive -through video. That's right, where I portray

Colonel Sanders and make a given order through

the speaker, just like they're a general public.

And the people behind the counter, they're kind

of flummoxed for a minute, but, you know, it

all smooths out. See, the one thing, you should

have been fully dressed as the colonel. You weren't

fully dressed as the colonel in that video. Not

even partially dressed as the colonel. No, I

know. Yeah, but it's fun. It was a great experience.

You know, I don't do Colonel Sanders anymore,

but seven years. It was really a great experience.

A lot of fun. And I flatter myself that I presented

a very authentic kind of sound. I grew up listening

to Colonel Sanders, as probably a lot of your

listeners did. And, you know, he did his own

advertising for, I don't know, decades. I can't

get that voice out of my head. And his manners

and his attitude about things is just kind of

old -timey viewpoint about things. It's just

very refreshing to dip into every now and then.

Actually, I actually made a lot of content on

my own featuring him talking to different celebrities

and stuff. That's on my YouTube channel, too.

That is very, very cool. And the YouTube channel

for Jim will be in the show notes, as always.

Most everything usually is when we do interviews

here at the GCRN. You can find me pretty easily

at Jim Pressions across most platforms. Jim Pressions,

clever name. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely.

All right. So we usually. Ask this, but I've

phrased the question in a different way now,

just to make sure that nobody gets in trouble,

because there was a time where we almost got

in trouble. But before we get started, can you

give us the scoop on what's going on in the world

of Jim Meskimen? Are there any upcoming projects

you are allowed? To talk about. Yeah, we're on

a short leash, those of us that work in video

games and cartoons and stuff like that, so that

I can't just unload all the things I've been

working on. I tell you, mainly I'm working on

some projects of my own. I have, of course, projects

I'm working on for big studios and big video

game providers and stuff like that. The things

I'm working on for myself are a screenplay that

I'm getting cast and funded. that will feature

me a story about an impressionist who is in las

vegas and he runs afoul of some criminal types

that want him to use his ability to duplicate

people's voices to scam the elderly and he starts

to go down this road of you know begrudgingly

of of working with a con man and because he's

under a lot of pressure to make money his father's

in assisted living and he can't make ends meet.

Like a lot of pressure that people feel these

days. So he eventually gets in very bad shape

with the mob and it's a story about how he gets

out using his impression. how he gets out of

this jam of working for the mob to scam people.

So that's what we're working on very heavily

right now. And then I'm producing tons of content

for Instagram and TikTok and YouTube every week.

Lots and lots of stuff with my daughter. Our

Hey Dad videos are popping up all over the place.

And then I fill in the gaps with audiobooks.

I'm an audiobook narrator, so the studio that

I'm in right now is my home studio. Do a lot

of reading. Nonfiction, fiction, multicast, whatever.

I enjoy it. I love literature. I love reading,

and I love portraying different characters. So

that's kind of a quick wrap -up. Very cool, very

cool. That is so awesome. Yeah, audiobook stuff

is very, very interesting. I've found myself

over the years, when I was a kid, I was a kid

in the 80s, so reading was everything, because

it was either reading or rot your brain on the

TV, because heaven forbid we rot our brains on

the TV, but that was the generation back then.

But yeah, no, reading was everything, and what

I find now is, even though I don't have full

blindness, but I'm classified as legally blind,

and what I find now is I can't get my eyes to

concentrate. on reading the page of an actual

prose novel comic books i can read comic books

all day because i can zoom in and zoom out on

them but i can't zoom in and like because i don't

i don't want to read i don't want to read a prose

novel on my screen i just yeah i can't read text

like that but if it's a comic book and there

are pictures around the text and i just have

to zoom in on the text or like a visual manuscript

essentially kind of thing and but i find myself

going to audiobooks more and more because it's

just so much more enjoyable and most of the time

i'm doing like non -fiction autobiography type

stuff Yeah, it's a huge market and a great thing.

Most of us are multitasking, so it's nice to

be driving and listen to a book. I like it because

it keeps the language, the sound of language

alive. And it also helps people with their vocabulary.

And just to be more specific about what they're

saying, perhaps even be more articulate when

they're speaking. So it's a cool thing. Absolutely,

absolutely. All right, getting into the questions

I have for you today, sir. We're going to talk

a little bit about acting in general, and then

we'll get more specific a little bit later. Acting,

as I just said, is the general term for the craft,

but we all know that there are many differences

and different genres of acting, from voiceover

to on -camera, whether that is film or television.

There's stage acting. What is it about acting

that you love the most after all these years

of being an actor? Oh, it's a great question.

Well, I, Mike, I've been, you know, trying to

be an actor and a performer since I was a little

boy. And my mother, of course, was an actress.

And we, we was very understood in our family

that there was this thing called acting and that

it had, you know, it was fun. And some people

make a living at it, and there's all kinds of

applications of it. For me, it's knowingly taking

on another point of view. So acting is taking

on some other character's point of view and presenting

it. And there's all kinds of benefits to that.

We tell each other stories. We experience life

differently. And I think we all are very eager

to experience life from another point of view,

from somebody else's shoes. to walk around in

those shoes. So I love that because it doesn't

have any cap to it. There's no ceiling to acting.

There's always more challenges. I just recently

put up a video where I was doing an update of

the great Peter Finch's speech from Network.

I updated the context of it a little bit and

made some references to present -day things.

But that was a very meaningful monologue back

in 1976, which is 50 years ago. I remember as

a kid. And I gave myself the task of let's see

how closely I can duplicate this performance,

both his sound and his acting beats that he takes

and the intensity of the performance. And I found

it just fascinating to try to do that because

obviously he created and crafted that thing.

For someone to come in and then try to completely

duplicate that, it was very, very interesting.

It's had some very good reports from people.

So I like the fact that there's always more things

to explore. But I tell you, I didn't always feel

confident when I started out. Most people don't

in the arts or in a lot of enterprises. You don't

feel confident. You're starting out. You're going

to make mistakes. And there's a lot of anxiety

that comes with that because you have a desire.

Well, I want to be an actor. Well, okay, if you

step outside your front door and tell everybody

you want to be an actor, suddenly it's a different

experience than when you're... in your house

and watching TV and going, I think I could do

what Matt Damon does. That doesn't look too tough.

But once you actually start to spread your arms

out a little bit and embrace this whole thing,

it can make you feel very anxious. And indeed,

even though I'd done plays and worked in theater

a little bit in college and had various experiences,

I found that when I really wanted to pursue it,

I had tremendous... Body discomfort, anxiety,

and things, somatics that would turn on. And

it was very distracting. And it made me feel

like, well, maybe I shouldn't do this. Maybe

this is nature telling me that I really don't,

I shouldn't go down this path. Because it feels

like fear and anxiety and warning and go the

other way. You know, the body sometimes tells

us to do. Flee, you know, fight or flight. And

the way I handled it, you might be interested

to know. was with a book, a book that was written

in 1950, of all things, by L. Ron Hubbard called

Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health.

And I know you've heard of it. It's a bestseller.

It's been a bestseller for years and years. I

put that book to work because a friend recommended

it to me. One of my great mentors said, hey,

give this a try. And that was how I eventually

peeled off all the anxiety and I replaced it

with confidence. and ease of feeling and enjoyment

you know so even though i made mistakes along

the way and i had struggled and obviously it

was not always smooth i at least didn't have

this extra burden of weird anxiety coming from

who knows where that was like an obstacle in

my path i took care of that entirely using dianetics

modern science mental health anyway that's a

short commercial but it was for me Life changing.

And I still continue to use those principles

today. And I always recommend them because there's

no reason to go through life with a burden of

strange, unexplained anxiety or fear or trepidation

or, you know, weird computations in your mind

or voices in your head if you don't need to.

I have voices in my head, but I put them there.

I put Robin Williams in my head a long time ago.

I put Robin Williams in there. Oh, yes, I put

him right there on the top shelf. I put him right

next to my keys so I wouldn't lose him. And it's

come in handy, I tell you what. It's a good voice

to have. Okay. Now you... Okay, now I'm going

to make you say every single famous line he ever

said at this point between good morning, Vietnam

and... Good morning, Vietnam! Mrs. Doubtfire,

most famous line from Mrs. Doubtfire. Do you

remember that? I don't. Really? Oh, man. I quote

that almost on a daily. It was a run by fruiting.

Oh, yes. It was a run by fruiting. Yeah. Well,

so many great lines. I mean, he left us with

such a legacy. I also do got George W. Bush just

to change the subject a little bit. I don't know

if you remember. He was the used to was president.

He became a painter. The father or the son? They

both used to was. One used to be alive. They

both used to was. Oh, God. Oh, God. What times

we live in. The sad thing is you went both sides.

You had HW, you had W, and then you went Lewinsky

-ing. That's right. That's right. Just about

all the presidents. Yeah. Yeah. Lewinsky. Lewinsky

wasn't even a verb back when I was growing up.

How about that? Nope. Nope. Wasn't even a verb.

Definitely changed into a verb. Oh, yeah. Anyway,

what else do you want to know? Oh, everything.

So following up the previous question and focusing

in on voice acting, what is your favorite type

of voice acting to do from animation to video

games to narration? There are obviously many

types, but what is your favorite type? I guess

animation, film animation particularly. I've

done quite a few films. Uh, the ones that sort

of skew into, into reality a little bit, make

them sound more like the word they use is grounded.

Uh, you're grounded. Uh, you used to be a bad

thing. Now it's a good thing in the show business.

Who knows? Anyway. Uh, so yeah, realistic stuff,

monsters. The thing, you know, honestly, Mike,

the thing for me that is the greatest about voice

acting is that I can portray any kind of thing.

or person. And, you know, when you look at me,

I'm a pretty normal looking guy. I'm, you know,

a Caucasian. I'm in my 60s. I'm, you know, there's

lots of people that look like me. I'm not particularly

startling looking. But if I play something that

is more monstrous, less human, then you perceive

me as having a completely different identity.

And that's fun. It's fun to turn that on. Or

it could be a fellow like this, you know. Now,

normally, if you walk around the street, at least

where I live, and talk like this, people assume

something about your intelligence. Well, I can

make my intelligence go up or down. You know,

it's like on a sliding scale. Because I can also

sound like someone, you know, like Sir Patrick

Stewart, who we at least grant quite a bit of

leniency towards. We think, well, he must be

quite bright and quite a genius because he's

portrayed so many geniuses on television and

in films. So you can alter the way that people

perceive you because they're not seeing you.

So that's fun. It's like a fun game. Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, so the first voice, I'm like, when did

Clancy Brown show up? Literally, I'm like, seriously.

Nice compliment. Well, because he does have that,

when he does certain voices, he has that kind

of voice. And then when you went into the more

whistly voice, I'm like, wait, is that Ross Perot?

Prospero, he was even more up like this, if you

remember. Yeah, yeah, he was. He was a close

cousin, vocally, to Colonel Sanders, but a little

more Texas. Colonel Sanders, of course, is Indiana,

as you know. Yep, yep, yep. All right, so as

I was doing the research, before we get into

the seven -year stint as Sanders. I scroll all

the way down to get the very, very beginning

of anything, and even though, according to everything

I've looked at, your very first, not very first,

but at least according to the stuff I have, you

did have... acting the comic strip you were two

episodes in the comic strip in 87 i did many

more many more episodes i did 65 episodes of

the comic comic strip i happen to know that was

my first big animation job so yeah i blame imdb

they have it i do i blame them constantly yes

yes blame them blameworthy but yes yes uh but

the first um big film you had was Gordy. However,

when I was scrolling down, just looking at other

things, at least now this could be right. This

could be wrong. I don't know. They credit you

as a secondary character designer on Thundercats

in 1985. Is that correct? Okay. Yeah. My first

career, it was as a cartoonist illustrator. Yeah.

What was that like? Because we are huge fans

of the Thundercats around here. That was one

of ToonCast's very first... I think that was

episode three or four of the pod... No, it was

episode five of the podcast, if I remember correctly.

Oh, really? Yeah, when we started back in 2011.

Yeah, it was a great experience. I mean, we don't

have a whole lot of time, so I won't go into

great detail, but I was hired. I was the only...

Only designer in New York on that show. And it

was a great experience. And that was where I,

you know, I worked at a desk, you know, and drew

cartoons all day long and designed characters,

weapons, vehicles, strange animals and plants

and anything that Jules Bass needed. He was a

great man. I owe him so much. I revere him. And

from there, they invited me one time incautiously.

They said, would you like to come and see the

actors record? And I said, oh, sure. And then

once I was in that studio watching those actors,

Bob McFadden, Earl Hyman, Earl Hammond and Lynn

Lipton and Peter Newman and Larry Kinney. And

I watched them do their thing. I was like, oh,

my God, this is the job I really want. And eventually

I worked for Rankin -Bass. As I said, I did the

comic strip. I did 65 episodes of that show.

So they were very supportive and helpful. I mean,

sometimes companies say, oh, well, you don't

even dream about getting into voice acting because

you're in the blah, blah department. Yeah. And

they weren't that way. They understood that I

was a performer and they were very happy. It's

a miracle, really. They supported me that way.

And that's Jules Bass again. Yeah. Amazing guy.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I remember all those out

to what the, as a Sam off land. Yeah. Yeah. The

outtakes. Oh, the outtakes. But no, that, that's

one of our first loves around here is that show.

And when I saw that, I was like, I at least have

to ask him because I'm like, that's so cool.

Yeah. Thank you. It was a great, great, great

time. Great time to help me stay in New York

and develop my own career. So great. All right.

So let's get the drumstick. Let's get the chicken

leg out the way. So in 2016, you got to start

being Colonel Sanders for seven years. How did

the process happen? Who was the colonel right

before you? Even though we just talked about

it. It was Daryl Hammond. It was Daryl Hammond.

It was Daryl Hammond before you. I had auditioned.

For the Colonel, in the same way that Daryl Hammond,

with the same advertising agency and the same

campaign, I think. Okay. No, that's not, actually,

that's not really accurate. I misspoke. I had

auditioned for an early iteration of some commercials,

and I don't resemble the Colonel at all, so I

didn't have any illusions that I really wasn't

qualified. And it was before they were casting,

you know, Tom, Dick, and Harry. Right, right.

Irrespective of their looks. But I knew that

I did a very good vocal impression. I was very

confident about that because, as I said before,

I'd heard him for years and years in my formative

decade. So I went in and I did that. And they

went, oh, OK, well, there may be a world where

you just do some voiceover. And I went, oh, great.

That eventually evolved into them hiring me to

do. Some demos and then some radio and TV. But

it really came about because I kept in contact

with a copywriter friend of mine who I'd worked

for on some Sony commercials. And I said, hey,

how are you one day? And he said, I'm good. How's

your Colonel Sanders? And he was working on the

campaign. And so I came in kind of through the

back door, which was great because I didn't have

to. My audition consisted of me sending them

samples of what I thought the Colonel sounded

like. And they eventually went, well, that sounds

pretty bloody good. And it was great. It developed

very slowly, but then it was very solid for,

like I say, for seven years, even though it changed

agencies at one point. And the third time it

changed agencies, they flung me off like a dog

shaking water off the bed. You know, seven years

is not bad for a commercial campaign. That's

the longest commercial campaign I've ever had.

There are longer ones, I suppose, but that was

very, very helpful because that was all during

COVID. So I got to work at home. We actually

did. We were very comfortable financially during

COVID because of Colonel Sanders. So I'll always

be grateful to them for that. That's amazing.

Yeah, it was amazing. And it was I always love

those commercials and not to I love the way those

commercial. I love the way that the commercials

were portrayed. I love the storyline of those

commercials when the actors would change the

whole like, oh, well, I don't know what that

last guy. Well, like just the way that they did

those was so funny to me because having to figure

like having to tell a story of why there's now

a new person as the colonel. Yeah. Well, the

George Hamilton one was the quickest, that's

for sure. Yes, it was. I mean, he's already so

extra crispy anyway. I mean, you know. Yeah,

exactly. So, all right, getting into voiceover

for animation. My girlfriend always says this

question's silly, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

Obviously, I know part of the answer. Did you

grow up watching cartoons, and at what age do

you first remember noticing cartoons? Yeah, you

know, I was obsessed with cartoons as a little

boy, and it's Saturday morning. Saturday morning,

I would watch the Hanna -Barbera, and I later

worked for Hanna -Barbera. So, yeah, I don't

watch cartoons anymore, although I know there's

some really sophisticated stuff. The Simpsons,

obviously, is very popular, and I know Nancy

Cartwright very well, and I'm an admirer of the

show, but I don't... I don't tune in on a regular

basis. Uh, there's a show called Rick and Morty.

That's very wild and funny. I know there's a

lot of, uh, a lot of great stuff to consume,

but in this, you know, massive world of, uh,

entertainment on demand, it's not what I go to.

I don't go to animation myself because I don't

know, because I can, I'd rather sit and draw

a cartoon, frankly. Yeah. And I do that for my

own entertainment. Um, I'll, I'll draw on my

iPad. I like to watch older movies, the black

and white movies, the movies that my mom was

in, that generation. I just think it's a different

kind of art form, and I'm just drawn to it. I

don't know why. I can't defend it other than

to say that they were quality and they had messages

and blah, blah, blah. I don't mind that today

a lot of things have no message or are just random

or are just... kind of insane. And there's something

interesting about that stuff. I think of Rick

and Morty, which is so insane, but it's very

funny. So, you know, but if I have my druthers,

I don't really consume cartoons. You mentioned

your mom in the movies she was in. What movies

was she in since you mentioned it? Oh, well,

she was in a lot of movies, but she was in a

movie called Operation Petticoat with Cary Grant

a long, long time ago. I don't know if people

on your... necessarily remember Cary Grant, but

he was a very, very, he was the George Clooney

of his day. Yes, he was. Very handsome man. Yeah,

very masculine and handsome and tan. White, very

white teeth. She was in Operation Petticoat.

She was in Sabrina, the original Sabrina with

Humphrey Bogart. Okay, now that's funny you mention

that because I'm still working on this, probably

still be working on it by the time this airs.

I'm late in actually doing it. I actually got,

because I work with La La Land Records, the CD

soundtrack company. I have the 1995 soundtrack

in my hand of when Harrison Ford, when they did

the 1995 version, Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond.

Literally, it's in my hand right now of Sabrina.

wow wow small world again small world very small

world oh boy so when it when you were a kid watching

the cartoons the fascination with voices what

was it that made you want to be like was there

a specific voice was there a specific character

that you as young jim looked at the tv and said

i want to do that No, I'm not. You know, I didn't

grow up that way. Nancy Cartwright grew up that

way. She was like determined to be a voice cartoon,

a cartoon voice from an early age. I was not.

I was a kid who, like everybody else, you know,

the television was still a new thing. And gosh,

you know, cartoons were something magical and

funny and distracting and amusing. But I didn't

think to myself any more than I looked at Rich

Little at that age and went, wow, that's what

I want to do. I want to get me a nice tuxedo

and be in Vegas and perform. I never had that

thought. It wasn't until I became really a grown

up that I thought, hey, you know, for better

or for worse, after consuming all this stuff,

I have these skills. And maybe there's a way

to supplement my income. or actually have a career

by utilizing this. Because I noticed when I went

to New York in my early 20s, I was just a little

bit better than other actors my age, better in

terms of, well, I could do all kinds of accents,

I could do all kinds of characters vocally, and

I could do impressions. And some of my earliest

work that I got was impressions and doing people's

voices. So I had a bit of a leg up from an early...

moment in my career and so then i realized oh

well i should really you know market myself that

way and and press on that because i have a little

bit of an advantage but it wasn't that from an

early age really from an early age i always wanted

to be a cartoonist that was my that was my big

thing and uh but i found that in order to have

the lifestyle that i really wanted I needed to

stretch and do something more. And that's when

I became a performer because making a living

as a cartoonist was just a lot of, it was very

hard work. There was no residual income the way,

you know, that I knew how to create. So it was

always sort of hand to mouth. And the way I chose

was I knew my mom, when she had worked in commercials,

we would get residual checks and that would help

support the family because she was a single mom

with two kids. And like, well, you know, mom

gets a commercial. It's going to be just a little

bit less tight around here. So I started with

commercials, and I worked that into voiceover,

and then onto TV and film after that. Yeah, the

thing about being a comic artist or a comic book

artist is, I think, and I could be wrong, comic

book artists, you can come at me in the comments

and stab me with your pens, whatever you want

to do. What I've noticed, because I do a comic

book podcast where we discuss comic books that

we read, I think where hitting the ground running

and doing all the hard work that you're talking

about, I think where they sometimes make up where

you're talking about having residuals for stuff.

Their version of residuals is selling prints

at conventions, like going to conventions and

getting the exposure and selling prints and selling

all the extra stuff besides having a multi -sellout

book. Multi -sellout book would be amazing. Obviously,

that's the goal. But I think that's the difference

between the voiceover versus the comic thing.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, everybody's

different. Everybody's comfortable doing, approaching

it in a different way. We all have to earn a

living. We all have to work. I wanted to have

a family. I wanted to have a nice place to live.

And I thought, well, you know, I'm going to need

to have multiple sources of income and not just

be scribbling late at night with a pen on paper.

although I love to draw and today I draw I draw

for myself I draw for my own amusement I draw

to promote things I draw as an artistic expression

I'm quite a trained artist, but I don't know

exactly how to make a really good living at it,

and I don't have time now to shift gears. No,

no shifting gears. Totally in that direction.

No, no, no. Yeah, but I've been very fortunate,

and I love the arts. I'm only interested in the

arts, basically, and writing and doing all these

things. I feel like I'm very lucky to be able

to do all the things that I know how to do. What

was the number one voice you always wanted to

do but you have not done it? Yet or ever. Wow.

I don't know. I don't think that there's anything

that fits into that. I don't know how to answer

that because I've at least tried to do all kinds

of voices. Yeah, I've been pretty satisfied.

I've got to do a lot of different things. I know

you know that I do Ultron for the Marvel series.

Ultron. And Ultron is a lot of fun to do, although

he's evolved over the years since I've done him.

He first started out as a kind of an impression

of James Spader. But then that's changed, and

now he's just a cranky, clanky old villain. He's

about to be a cranky, clanky old villain when

Vision Quest comes out, because human avatars

only, Ultron, because they don't want to put

any special effects in Vision Quest when it comes

out. Uh -huh. Yeah, interesting. Well, because

they released at D23, they released the trailer

for Vision Quest, and it's Bettany and Spader

as Vision and Ultron, and come to find out that

Ultron has been... either locked away or whatever

inside of vision this whole time in the Marvel

Cinematic Universe. And again, this is just me

assuming and making an ass out of myself because

that's what you do when you assume things. But

I'm assuming when Paul Bettany has the line of

human avatars only Ultron, I'm assuming that's

because they don't want to put any more money

into the special effects budget. very good question

don't know don't know can either confirm or deny

nope nope nope nope but yeah no uh yeah no it's

uh in in when i originally wrote up the script

for the questions uh my my placeholder for the

video game section we'll get to here in a minute

was uh before i started writing questions i'm

like ultron Everywhere, all the time, because

every Marvel project you did, I was like, okay,

he's Ultron. Yeah, it's kind of weird. It's kind

of strange that I have this career that stretches

between Colonel Sanders on one point and Robin

Williams on another and Ultron. You can't imagine

them all together on the same camping trip. And

then in some weird haze, I swear at some point

you had played Batman. And then I had looked

again this morning to confirm or deny my haziness.

I'm like, oh, right. He was Commissioner Gordon

in Batman. Yeah, you were Gordon, not Batman.

Not the bat. Not the bat. No, no. Heaven forbid.

One of these days. All right. It's time to pick

your children out of every. Voice and animation

that you have done, which is your favorite to

do and why? I think I like Droopy Dog the best.

He's the most amusing. And it's just a lot of

fun to create this character. It's always inappropriate.

Now all's I have in my head is the one with the

wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. Damn, man. Little

Red Riding Wolf, that's all I have. I love Droopy.

I grew up watching Droopy. Droopy is the ultimate,

before they even did Rover Dangerfield, Droopy

is the ultimate Rodney Dangerfield of cartoon

care. He gets no respect. He gets no respect.

Like, literally, I don't know anybody who is

screaming at the top of their lungs that they

love Droopy. Nope, nope. I met Tex Avery years

ago when I worked at Hanna -Barbera. Tex Avery

walked in to the little office where I was working

to talk to one of the old animators there. And

it was a great, great experience. Wow, that's

awesome. Everyone has a preparation process for

warming up their voice. What is yours? I like

to sing, and I also like to play the mouth trumpet

or trombone. And I find that helps me warm up

my voice. But being musical, singing, that kind

of thing, that's the best way for me. Very cool,

very cool. I wonder how much it would cost me

to ask him to do a new theme song for the podcast,

folks. We'll talk about that later. Anyway, getting

into video games for voiceover. And yeah, as

I already mentioned, I noticed looking through

the video games, I noticed I see Ultron forever.

What was it like doing the marvelous journey

as Ultron? It's always fun. I go in. Obviously,

I don't get to. See the material ahead of time

because it's a video game and it's very hush

-hush and confidential. Sign non -disclosure

agreements and go in and see what it is. And

different games treat Ultron slightly differently.

They like a slightly different kind of performance

sometimes. Even though it seems like it should

always be just one standard way, but it isn't.

There's some wiggle room. particularly in the

area of effort noises. You know, like most characters

in a video game, they have a separate kind of

recording session where you just do, you know,

these kind of either getting struck or hitting

another person or leaping, you know, that kind

of thing. And Ultron generally doesn't make any

sounds like that. So if he gets hit, you know,

I guess it doesn't faze him. And I guess he doesn't

have lungs. So if you don't have lungs, there

are a lot of effort noises that you just don't

have to make. So I consider myself slightly lucky

in that respect that Ultron is just the speaking

Ultron. Yeah, you don't have to go home and gargle

a gallon of salt water to clear out from all

the ee, ah, oo, ah. Yeah. Exactly. And other

than Ultron, you've done so much more in video

games, but what is your favorite part of voicing

video game characters? My favorite part is just

kind of working with the teams, you know, the

teams of people. It's an interesting sub -genre,

subculture of people that are interested in games.

And the creators, the... the the writers the

the people that are really building these worlds

are very interesting people and um often they're

really really buried and enmeshed in all this

all the rules and all the facts and all the characters

and all the ins and outs of this game because

they're really creating a world that has not

existed before or they're trying to and um they're

really wrapped up in it and they're very eager

to to describe to you all these things i did

a video recently of uh of a typical I made it

up, you know, it's not real, so it doesn't violate

anything of a typical voiceover session where

the director is trying to explain to the actor

all the background about what this story is.

And really all the actor has to do is go. Oh,

no. The whole performance. And it kind of feels

that way sometimes that you're in there going,

all right, drop the weapon, you know, and. They

want to explain to you, well, this is a world

in which people have fish gills on their backs.

And they're all orange. And they are looking

for this mineral called plimfamdenum. And, you

know, like, okay, I'm just going to ask him to

put down the weapon. So do we really need to

know this? So it's fun. It's fun to get with

people and to see their creative process and

to experience the worlds that they're inventing.

Yep. Absolutely. So I removed the question earlier.

I had had a question at the end of the animation

one about do you watch the cartoons outside of

the work that you do for them kind of thing because

you had already answered it. Right. But at the

end of this, I'll ask you, do you actually play

video games? I do not. I'm not a gamer. I don't

have any of the equipment. I wouldn't know where

to start. I've seen it, and it looks overwhelming.

It looks like now it's like a speeding train.

Jump on that. You have to be someone with acres

and acres of free time, which I just don't have.

No problem, no problem. All right, getting into

the convention questions. How many conventions

have you, like, how often do you attend conventions?

I'm just trying to get a feel for your... Yeah,

in my career so far, I've done only, I think,

less than half a dozen. I really have done a

lot very often. So I find that I experimented.

I went a few times. I went to Utah. I went to

San Diego. I went to another one. I have an agent

for such things, but... You know, I think because

I don't know. It's very dependent on what are

the fans interested in. And you can't really

manipulate that. They're interested in what they're

interested in. I get some attention for the Robin

Williams genie. I get some attention for Ultron.

But it's not something that I've really scored

big in and not something that I feel terribly

comfortable with. I like meeting people. I like

meeting the fans. And hearing the stories and

seeing how my work affects other people, that's

great. I don't, I'm not crazy about the, I feel

a little bit like I'm here with my hat in my

hand and I'm hoping you'll drop a coin in it.

I'm not crazy about that. Maybe when I need more

coins, I'll change my mind. But right now it's,

I don't know, it's not a big part of my life.

Right. Gotcha, gotcha. Did you, out of the ones

you've attended, do you have a favorite fan interaction

at one of the conventions that you attended?

Actually, I met a really interesting little person

at the Utah Fan Expo a few years ago. And he

was dressed up in this fantastic cosplay. I don't

know, it was some kind of guard in some sort

of game. And he just had this little uniform

on and he was... A lot of people you talk to

that have talked to me want to be voice actors,

but they're cosplayers. Right. Which is a different

flavor of what I do. It's like, well, I want

to be that character visually. I want you to

look at me and treat me as this character because

of the way I look or what I'm holding. And that's

great, too. I mean, it's totally valid. I like

I don't like to dress up particularly. I like

I'm not into cosplay. I don't mind, but I don't

stop my interest. My interest is sounding like

a character. Right. I like that tickles me. So,

you know, I met this guy and we took pictures

and. I tried to inspire him to record his voice

and to do samples and to post them and things

like that. I don't know if he ever did. But I

always try to encourage people, if they want

to be voice actors, they should record themselves

a lot. And first of all, get used to their own

voice. Because most of us hate our own voice.

Yes, yes, we do. When we hear it recorded, right?

Even you. You've recorded yourself hundreds of

hours, I'm sure, but you probably don't feel

tremendously fond of your own voice. 17 years

over 4 ,000 episodes. Oh, my God. So lots and

lots of hours, yeah. Thousands of hours. But

if you really want to do this job, you're going

to need to at least tolerate your own voice because

that's your product. That's what you're going

to be selling. that you were a vacuum cleaner

salesman and you just hated this vacuum and you

just hated it, that would be very hard. It would

be a kind of a sad, sad life. I'm sure there

are people out there who are selling things that

they hate, maybe in big pharma. I don't know,

but you know, it might be a sad existence. So

if you get used to your own voice by repetition,

by listening and by study, then it makes it a

lot easier. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So I

think that's going to do it for the overall interview.

Before we let you go, just as yes, yes, we got

to go through all this stuff. Remind the listeners

what you have coming up of what you're allowed

to talk about. You were talking about one of

your own projects. Does this have a name yet?

Yes, it's called my feature film is called The

Impressionist. And we have it out. That's right.

celebrities right now and some people for funding.

We haven't shot it yet, but it's a good script.

People like it. The Impressionist. I think probably

2028 is when you'll be able to see it released

somewhere. And you can see me, of course, on

Landman, the Billy Bob Thornton series. It's

going into season three. I was in season one

and season two. I have high hopes to be in season

three. That's a great show. You can see me. And

I'm also going to be in, I believe, the season

premiere of Tracker. If any of your listeners

watch Tracker. And, you know, you'll start noticing

me in a lot of TV shows because I've done guest

spots for, I don't know, 50 shows or maybe more.

I haven't actually counted it up. But I stay

pretty busy in television. doing guest spots

on different shows. Of course, I was on Parks

and Recreation many, many times. Anyway, you'll

see my name pop up here and there. Very cool,

very cool. Well, I would like to thank Mr. Meskimen

for taking the time to chat with me in this special

Geekcast Radio slash TuneCast crossover interview.

For now, I am TFG1 Mike, and we will catch you

next time here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

Bye, everybody. All right, Colonel. Say goodbye.

We're bye now. Bye, everybody. Thanks for listening.

And plus, bye is chicken. Yeah. Well, it's not

mine anymore, but keep some wholesome food inside

of you. That's my advice. You've just heard a

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