Interview with Joe Sanfelippo on Voice Acting

Hey, this is Joe Sanfilippo, you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Once upon a time,

in a land beyond imagination, comes the tale

of Ever After High, a high school for the next

generation of fairy tales. Each student is charged

with following in the footsteps of their fairy

tale parents, ensuring their classic stories

will continue to be told. but one student raven

queen daughter of the evil queen doesn't want

to follow in her mother's villainous path and

can you blame her i mean who wants to be the

most hated of them all she is evil what if i

want to choose my own happily ever after and

this rebellion did not sit well for the royals

at the school led by apple white daughter of

snow white she has to do it i mean if if she

never poisons me then i'll never fall asleep

and i'll never be kissed by my prince and i'll

never become queen and i'll never And so we find

a school divided. You have the Royals who were

promised their happily ever afters. Like Apple's

best friend forever after. Briar Beauty. Daughter

of Sleeping Beauty. If I'm gonna be catching

Z's for a hundred years, I gotta live it up now.

Ashlyn Ella, the royal daughter of Cinderella.

New shoes? And Blondie Locks, daughter of Goldie

Locks, who's also a royal. Kind of. On the other

hand, you have the rebels who feel they should

be able to conjure up their own destinies. I'm

Cedar Wood, and I pledge to follow my destiny

and be the next Pinocchio. Well, I mean, not

the next Pinocchio. And then there's Cerise Hood,

daughter of Little Red Riding Hood. Let's just

say, well, she's hiding a secret. A big bad secret.

Madeline Hatter, daughter of the Mad Hatter.

Hello, narrators. Isn't it a haptastic? She can

hear us and since every fairy tale needs a prince

charming ever after high is full of Prince Charming's

Hey Raven, uh, you look gourd. I mean great And

of course there's wait what Hello and welcome

to GeekCast Radio, I am your host TFG1Mike and

I am doing a latest interview here on the GCR

feed. I have been listening to the AfterBuzzTV

network for about half a year or so. I think

I started listening to their American show. I

don't know if I caught the very first episode

of the podcast, but basically what AfterBuzzTV

is, is it's a network of podcasts that... uh...

several different hosts for any number of shows

and after buzz has all god twenty thirty forty

fifty different tv show review podcast what they

do is they watch the show then go into a actual

high -tech studio. I mean, this thing looks like

something out of Star Trek, for crap's sake.

And they all talk about it immediately after

the show. And one of the shows that I first heard

the guest that's going to be on with me here

in a moment is The Americans. And then I found

out he was going to be on the blacklist. And

after listening to him and all of his opinions,

I was like, I got to talk to this guy, because

this is a cool guy. Not only did I find out after

the fact that he is also a voice actor as well.

Please welcome to GeekCast Radio Network, Joe

Sanflippo. How you guys doing? Oh, I'm doing

well. This is going to be a blast because I completely

agree with you. On everything? Oh, well, on the

fact that I'm Team Sanflippo. I'm Team Uncle

Flippo when it comes to the fact that she's...

His daughter. It's so obvious. What else could

it be? If it's not that it's a creep, if he's

not her dad, then the whole thing on the blacklist

is a creepy, weird uncle. I don't understand

it. He's got to be your dad. Exactly. Fraz Will

is just nuts. No, Fraz, he's running up and over

and over again, but he's naturally contrarian.

So you got to understand that about Fraz. So,

you know, it's entirely possible it may be that

he goes the other way because I've gone this

way. Yeah, and sadly, he's pulled Julia on his

team as well now. The latest episode, she's like,

yeah, I'm with you, Braz. I don't believe he's

her dad. All right, so Joe San Flippo, where

were you born and how did you, how did voice

acting kind of come into your, I know you didn't

always want to be a voice actor when you were

a kid. Not a lot of us did, but not a lot of

us knew about it back then, but. Tell us a bit

about yourself. How do you know where you grew

up? How you get into the business all that kind

of good stuff? Well, I was born in and in the

beautiful San Fernando Valley, which for those

of you who don't know la there's there's la la

proper is a huge place and The valley is kind

of like the redheaded stepchild of Los Angeles

And so if you know anybody that lives in la you

ask me about the valley It's kind of like it's

kind of like Brooklyn except with Like Brooklyn

is to New York without any any actual cred There's

the valleys kind of like an awful place as far

as most people are concerned But I was born in

the Valley, and then I wound up at UCLA. And

when I was a kid, I used to be the guy who they

would not let me sing in, like, the Christmas

pageants in Catholic school. Like, I wasn't allowed

to sing because I couldn't carry a tune to save

my life. So they would instead invent roles for

me in all of these Christmas pageants, which

is why I think I'm an actor, is you're like,

listen, you need to shut the F up. So we're going

to add a character that has a line, and that's

you. So. So that's basically, I think, why I

eventually became an actor. Now, if you weren't

acting, what profession do you think you would

be in? Oh, god. I don't know, man. I like to

think I'd become a psychologist, although I don't

know if I have the patience to talk to people

about their problems for that long. But I think

you'd be fine. All right. So looking at your

website, you've done a lot of announcing gigs,

haven't you? Oh, yeah. I've done a ton. I think

about 80 or 90 commercials at this point. Yeah,

and the funniest thing and I I'm so glad I got

to be able to talk to you because I actually

thought when I first started listening to the

blacklist and i don't know wasn't no what first

i was in the americans i'm like hey is is that

david k what's he doing on after buzz tv i really

thought your voice sounds similar to his and

then i look on your website i'm like all that's

why i thought they were similar because they

both done and they'll be network and fox sports

west promos uh... but you i mean you're It's

staggering how much you've done in such a short

amount of time Well, you know, I think I think

it's like you find your niche I think sometimes

in town like, you know I got a graduate from

UCLA and then I you know, we're all of us more

in school We all think we're hot shit. So we're

all oh, I'll do I'll do I'll do soap operas if

I have to all right, you know I'll do voiceover

if I must you know Cuz you all think we all think

that they're gonna be knocking down your door

the day you graduate but um, but you know, it's

like I don't know. For me, I finally found something

I think that works really well. I did a lot of

on -camera, but that's not fair. I did some on

-camera. And just for whatever reason, I've never

been quite right on camera. But I think voiceover

-wise, I seem to work out really well. And the

nice thing is, you can be right for so many different

kinds of voiceovers. When you're on camera, you're

only how you look. You can't really stretch that

far. But when you're doing voiceover, you can

be a ton of different people, and it's a blast.

Yeah, and I'm just noticing on your website JoeSanFlippo

.com with all these past works that you were

the voice of one of my favorite restaurants growing

up in Massachusetts. You're the voice of friendlies.

I was briefly. I don't know how long I did with

friendlies, but I wouldn't say I was their voice

for a hot minute. They flipped me pretty quick.

I'm still a fan of friendlies. Are they good?

Oh, yeah. Uh, Friendly's is, I'm trying to think

of, well, I can only compare them to what's here

in the South, here in Loyola, Kentucky, but they're

kind of like Big Boy, like Frish's, but a little

bit better. Alright, I'll take it. It's that

kind of restaurant. But you've also done stuff

for Nintendo, you do the ads for the DS, you've

done Lego City. What were you doing for Mattel?

For Mattel, Mattel owns, um... uh... monster

monster high and after after high and i'm not

on the narrator on ever after high and i play

a couple characters on that too and that i don't

know if you checked it out it's a great little

it's a great little show their other selling

dolls essentially and you know the same the same

business model they did forever after high and

they're great and the guy who puts them together

his name's how do paid and he's the director

and he writes a lot of them and um... he used

to direct direct an executive produce on the

animaniacs when we were kids So working with

him is a blast because he does the voices he

wants you to do better than you do, you know

He's like no. No, you're almost there. Try this,

you know, it's a blast. He's really he's really

he's a neat guy to work with Yeah, I watched

that promo that you have on your site and I'm

like, you know, like there's only 20 seconds

left How are we getting all this information?

I'm like, oh my god, that's so hilarious funny

stuff They're all up on Netflix now, so if you

go to Netflix you check out ever after high There's

a ton of them, but that's that one's a lot of

fun Awesome. What was it like working for ESPN?

It was real brief. That's how it was for me.

They go through guys. They go through them. They

use you for what they're going to use you for.

And if they love you, they bring you back religiously.

Unfortunately, they did not fall in love with

me. It's their loss. That's what I said. Screw

you guys. No. And I hate them until they call

me back. Modern Family, tell us about that. Modern

Family have done a bunch of work for... Are you

just doing their promos or are you doing their

own camera stuff? That's been basically background

voice and then a lot of featured stuff like pilot

on an airplane kind of stuff or announcer or

calling a football game or calling a horse race.

Whatever's in the background that's specific

that the cast is interacting with. That kind

of stuff I've gotten to do a whole bunch of,

which is a blast. Oh, sweet. Awesome. Who are

some of the people that influence you? Who are

some of the other voice actors that influence

you? Well, I got really lucky. When I went to

UCLA, I got into comedy with a bunch of great

people. I did a lot of comedy with Taron Killam,

who's on SNL now, and Naseem Padran, who's also

on SNL. and Mikey Day, who writes for SNL. So

these are some folks I got to do comedy with

in college. And so when I first started doing

voiceover, I started with Jerry Zucker. I was

doing a pilot that he was doing called... What

was the name of that pilot? It was National Banana.

And I did a bunch of voiceover for National Banana,

and I had never really done it before. And...

And so in the course of auditioning for some

of the comedy stuff, he's like, well, I got these

voiceovers I need. I think you'd sound great

for them. So they were comedic, over -the -top,

bizarre, goofy voiceovers, which was a blast.

And then from there, I met one of the other guys

on the shoot. And he asked me who I was rep by.

And I didn't have anybody for voiceover. And

he's like, well, you got to go meet my agent.

So that's how I kind of got into it. And since

then, it's been really cool, because my agency

represents a lot of promo people that we grew

up listening to. And you meet some of these guys

and their voices. It's bizarre, because you listen

to them your whole life, so you're instantly

comfortable around them. I don't know how else

to describe it. Oh, no. Yeah, I agree. And so

Andy Geller is one of the guys I met over at

Solid Eye. I really am a big fan. I follow him

around like a puppy dog, and he's probably tired

of listening to me talk. I'm like, hey, tell

me things. But he's terrific, and he does a lot

of promos for CBS and ABC. And you've heard him

your whole life. And he's just got one of those

voices where you're just like, my god, man, that

is. He makes me sound like I'm a 12 -year -old

kid. It's unreal. But those are the guys that

really I look up to the most, like the Andy Gellers,

your Ben Patrick Johnsons, the promo guys that

have such an amazing deep sound that I naturally

don't have. I'm not that deep, but they're, you

know. For me, they blow me away. And I got to

work with a gal named Debbie Derryberry, who

was the voice of... Jimmy Neutron. Jimmy Neutron.

And Debbie's amazing. And, like, you meet these

folks and it's... Before you have time to get

starstruck, you know, you're actually able to

talk to them for a little while before you find

out who they are. So it kind of saves you that.

Like, if you meet somebody that's really, really

huge that you grew up watching or maybe you had,

you know, your kid watching in the case of...

Debbie Derryberry. You get a little messed up

right away. But if you don't know who they are,

you can establish a rapport. And then when you

find out who they are, you're OK. You're like,

oh, we're cool. But that's the kind of stuff

I enjoy. I enjoy meeting people who've been around

and done it for a long time. It's a treat. Yeah.

You're talking about the promo guys. I know it's

been a number of years since we lost Don LaFontaine,

but more recently we lost one of the other great

movie trailer guys. That was kind of sad. Oh,

what was his name? Now I can't think of it. I

know people are screaming at their iDevices at

me now. All right, so where... It's a small little

world, man. There's not a handful of guys that

they use for that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Where do you see or where would you like your

career to take you? You know, to be honest with

you, I love where it is now. I love voiceover

because it's not... It's... It's a... You feel

creative. You feel like you're a part of the

creative process. But you're not as... How do

I put it? You're not as out there as you are

when you're on camera. And for me, what I love

about it is, number one, you're not as exposed.

I don't expose the wrong term, but you're not

as available to everybody. And you have your

privacy, and you have your career. And nobody

really knows whether you're doing well or not.

And that's kind of a nice feeling. It's kind

of neat. You know what I mean? If you're on camera

only and nobody's seen you for a hot minute,

they're like, oh, things are going terrible,

huh? The other thing that's nice about it is

you can be so many different things. Like, you

know, you can have, you know, obviously you have

a range, you know, but you can do, you know,

I can play an older man. I can play a younger

man. I can play, you know, a higher pitch, lower

pitch, you know, and that is such a treat to

be able to play different kinds of people, different

kinds of roles at any given week. It's nice.

Very awesome. All right. How did you get involved

with AfterBuzzTV? That, my buddy Joe Braswell,

who you are familiar with. Yes. Mr. Braz, he

works over at Ian. So he was doing some stuff

with Maria, and he was talking to her. He's like,

you know, I'm trying to get this podcast going

on. It's going to be like just a pop culture

podcast. I want to do this. And she's like, well,

why don't you just come do it for me? And he's

like, what are you talking about? She's like,

after buzz, it's my thing. And he looked it up,

and he called me up, and he's like, we got to

go do this after buzz thing. I'm like, what is

this? And he told me what it was, and I said,

I don't know about that, man. You know, I don't

know about talking about a show. I don't know

if I could do that. And I was very surprised,

number one, how many opinions it turns out I

had. Number two, I was very shocked. I was like,

wow, apparently I have some thoughts. And I was

surprised by how engaging talking about a show

is, if you can take it seriously. Some shows

you can't take seriously, but some that are worth

talking about, I mean, an hour is not enough,

you know? Yeah, no, I mean, you know in the six

years that I've podcast that I've done Sometimes

I've done two three four our podcasts on certain

topics. So no, I Know where you're coming from

there So I like I was saying off -air. I I first

heard you on the Americans And that show, when

that premiered, I was like, oh my god, it's 2002

all over again, and FX is knocking us on our

asses with the shield. Because The Americans

was the first show since the shield on FX that

I absolutely got. I cannot imagine how come its

numbers aren't higher than they are. I mean,

to me, I've been married 11 years. I think it's

the best relationship show I've ever seen. I

think they get a marriage on that show like nobody

else. It's crazy. The interactions between Philip

and Elizabeth, they're so brilliantly put together.

The espionage stuff is so well done. I mean,

it is, to me, one of the best shows on TV. I

don't understand how the numbers aren't higher.

I think it's brilliantly done. It's carefully

thought out. Just this last week with Agent Gad,

I don't know if you guys watch the show or don't

watch the show, but one of the characters, they

introduced you to his house ever so briefly,

and they could have made it like a cookie -cutter

suburban house. Instead, they made it clear that

Agent Gad... was in Vietnam and brought home

a wife. And he's got two kids up on a mantelpiece

that obviously it's in a shrine of some sort

with fruit. And you're like, what is all this

all about? They don't tell you, they just leave

a mystery. Like here, you know what? We set the

table for you and we've made this character so

much more interesting. And next thing. They're

never lazy on that show. They're great. The funniest

thing, I just found this out and I'm glad I was

able to do this interview with you now because

you can bring this up on the next Americans for

me. I noticed recently, going back through my

Netflix queue, I had watched a movie a while

ago called Beautiful Girls with Matt Dillon,

Marisa Vino's in it, and Stan Beeman is, Noah

Emmerich is in that movie and his portrayal in

that is so far from what Stan is. He plays this

wild and out Massachusetts homeboy who's just

like the party, was the party guy in high school

and And I went back and I looked at him like,

oh my god. Because right before the Americans,

where I knew Noah Emmerich from was White Collar.

He had done a stint on that. He did the show

too, didn't he? Yeah, yeah. No, the Americans

is by far one of the more interesting. The Americans

could only have happened now. Yes. It couldn't

have happened 10 years ago. 100 % on every level.

Because word of those and as far as the style

of television you're 100 % right. Yeah, because

the thing is is Even ten years ago. Everybody

still remembers half the stuff that happened

with the Cold War I mean everybody remembers

it but it's like by now it's there's so much

stuff that's happened since that it's so far

in the back of our minds and They bring a show

on about it. Well, we're far enough removed now

I think that they can actually they can actually

have a show that that doesn't pick a winner Like,

10 years ago, you would have had to pick a winner.

Especially just post -9 -11, you would have had

to pick a winner. You would have had to see the

Americans are the heroes and the Russians are

the villains, and that's how it is. But that

show would be boring as hell. That wouldn't be

any fun to watch at all. But now that we've gotten

enough distance, they can kind of say, okay,

the Russians are... are... are... are... are

not... are... are... what do you call it? No

one's blameless. Everybody's gray. Everybody's

wrong. Everybody's right. And it makes for a

much more interesting television. Oh, yeah. Absolutely,

and then oh And I'll say this again I've never

I always used to think and this is like back

in his early days on Didn't spader do private

practice. I didn't he take over private practice

at one point. I know he said he did something

on that I've never really been a James Spader

fan overall. I mean, I've never been against

the guy, but I've just never really Because I

always and I know this is gonna be insulting

to a lot of people I always used to think James

Spader and Captain Kirk were the same guy because

they kind of sound a little bit alike But no

NBC launched the blacklist and I was right there

again and it's like wow Yeah, he definitely did

private practice and for me James Spader has

always been The drug dealer in less than zero.

I don't know if you've ever checked that out.

It's a it's a James Spader Robert Downey, Jr

It's a movie, I think, I want to say, 85, 84,

85, and it's basically about this high school

kid who he just can't get his proverbial -ish

together, and he's got a big coke problem, and

eventually winds up, you know, he hits rock bottom.

But it is wonderfully done, and if you want to

see James Spader as a kid in a great role, and

Robert Downey Jr. as a kid in a great role, check

out Less Than Zero. It is really, they are babies,

and they're brilliant. Awesome. Awesome. All

right. What have you got that you can talk about?

What have you got that's coming up for you? I've

got some stuff coming up for Bank of the Midwest

and Colorado Community Bank, Midwest Bank. What

else? Some stuff running in Texas. More Ever

After High. Some State Farm radio stuff coming

up. I've got a Target radio spot coming up. Those

should all be hitting the air pretty quick. And

then I've got the stuff that's on the air now.

So it's a nice flow. Everything's great. So if

you hear something from Target about a huge basket

or something, somebody yelling at a basket, that's

me. And then, like I said, State Farm should

be coming out in the next couple of weeks. And

then Bank of the Midwest, Midwest Bank. Those

are two different banks, I think. And then something

about Colorado Community Bank. Awesome, awesome,

and you can catch Joe every week on AfterBuzzTV

.com. You can actually watch him live. You can

see him in person as they do these shows. The

schedule is on the website for AfterBuzzTV. You

can check out his website, JosephSanFlippo .com.

Can I tell you one more thing we got coming up?

Sure, sure. This doesn't air until next week,

right? Right. Or the week of this 8th or 10th,

wherever you're listening to it, it's when it's

airing. OK. So we've got a new project my wife

and I put together. It's called Miss Erin's Magical

Dance Class. I don't know if you have kids or

not, if you're listening to this. No, I don't.

But the listener's mine. The listener's mine.

If you have kids that are dance age, that are

young dancers, it's basically a show to dance

along with Miss Erin and her magical friends.

It's an animated show that kind of teaches kids

dance. So if you guys are interested, the website

is MissAaron'sMagicalDanceClass .com. Check it

out. And if it looks like something you want

to grab, grab it. It's a great show, and it's

a blast for the kids. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah.

We need more stuff that's a blast for the kids

when it comes to dance, because Dance Moms just

isn't cutting it. No. It's a rough scene, man.

yeah all right well I would like to thank mr.

Joe San Flippo for stopping by taking the time

to chat with me here in geek cast radio ask you

to hold the line and I'll be back after this

for the closing thanks Mike Only on Nintendo

3DS, LEGO City is under construction, and crime

is on the rise. We need Chase McCain. This is

his rookie mission, and it'll take everything

Chase has to save LEGO City. Are we sure that

parachuting down is the best option? Hmm... Whoa!

That wasn't a proper end! There you go, ladies

and gentlemen, my interview with Joseph Sanflippo.

Amazing, cool guy to talk to. Check out his website.

Check out his animated series website. The links

will be in the show notes as well. Just absolute

fun talking to that guy. Great, great guy. So

until next time, Unleash the Geek in You, this

is TFJoneMike, and I will see you later. First,

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