Interview with Maurice LaMarche on Voice Acting, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain

This is the Brain, and you're listening to the

GeekCast Radio Network. Yes! Chief Quimby here,

and your assignment is to listen to Tooncast.

Chief Brain, what do you wanna do tonight? The

same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take

over the world. They're Pinky and the Brain.

Yes, Pinky and the Brain. One is a genius, the

other's insane. They're laboratory mice, the

gene has been sliced. They're Pinky, they're

Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain,

Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain. Each night is done

Their plan will be unfurled By the dawning of

the sun He'll take over the world Their pinky

and the brain Yes, pinky and the brain Their

twilight campaign Is easy to explain To prove

their mousy worth He'll overthrow the earth Their

pinky Their pinky and the brain Brain, brain,

brain, brain, brain, brain, brain, brain Hello

and welcome to Tooncast. This is the special

interview. We've only done two, well, three,

yeah, two interviews so far on Tooncast. This

will be the third one. Because episode 50 is

coming up, I wanted to get one of the guys who

voiced Chief Quimby, and at first I thought this

guy had voiced Chief Quimby from the beginning.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. However...

We have the huge privilege coming up here in

a few minutes, Kevin and I, Kevin's here, hello

Kevin. I will. Whatever. To interview Maurice

LaMarche, the voice of The Brain from Animaniacs

and Thinking in the Brain. He's also done Mortimer

Mouse from The House of Mouse. He did Salem on

Sabrina the Teenage Witch. He's done a whole

bunch of characters. He did Egon from The Real

Ghostbusters. I meant to get a clip from him

for that, but I forgot about it. So yeah, this

will be a huge privilege for me anyway. I think

this is what, the fifth or sixth voice actor

interview I've done? I don't remember anymore.

This is incredible. Yes, this is Kevin's second

interview. Yeah, and this is like, I don't know,

I don't even know how to speak on this one. Yeah,

yeah, it's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome.

The first interview we did was incredible, but

at the same time a little easier because, you

know, obviously Larry Kenny, as great of a voice

actor as he is, didn't have as long of a career

or hadn't done as many things as today. Yeah.

Well, the thing with Larry Kenny and the thing

with the majority of the interviews that I've

tried to get outside of this interview and the

Tara Strong interview that Jenny See and I did,

they're specific to the show. Like over on Beast

Unleashed with the David Kay and Gary Chalk interviews.

Those are, you know, specific characters for

that specific show. Same thing with Larry Kenny.

We mainly got it for Lionel, Sonny the Cocoa

Plus Bird, Count Chocula, you know, stuff like

that. Whereas the Tara Strong interview and this

interview with Mr. LaMarche, they just have wide

-scoping careers and wide -scoping things they've

done. They're not... I hate to say typecast,

but they're not typecast as one role, even though

most people will know Maurice LaMarche as Brain

from Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. He's

done a lot of stuff. Right. So yeah, that's what

you're gonna hear next here on the Tooncast special

interview of Maurice LaMarche. Good brain here.

I like listening to Tooncast while trying to

take over the world. Hello everyone, this is

Michael Blanchard and I'm joined with my Tooncast

co -host Kevin Thompson who also is a... administrator

over at BehindTheVoiceActors .com. Today we have

the super awesome privilege to interview Maurice

LaMarche. Yes, that's right. The Brain from Animaniacs

and Pinky and the Brain is on the line with us.

Hello, sir. Indeed I am, Michael. And I am here

to help you and Kevin take over podcasting. I

wish. Yeah. So how have you been, Maurice? I've

been great. I've been great. doing the new season

of Futurama. 26 new episodes in production right

now. And we're just coming into the home stretch.

We have about seven more to go. And those will

be two seasons on Comedy Central. So we're really

thrilled to be back. And they're half -hour episodes,

the original format that people came to know

the show in. And I think they're the best shows

we've ever done. I know everybody says, oh, these

are the best shows we've ever done. But these

really are the best shows we've ever done. And

most people don't say it in that voice either.

They don't go, oh, these are the best shows we've

ever done. They use their own voice. But when

I say, when I use my own voice, I'm telling you

the absolute truth. The episodes that we've got

now are like, the show was hitting its peak in

season four, and finding its emotional core,

and we're doing shows that have a lot of... heart

to them. And we kind of pick up where that left

off. We've got episodes that are kind of on the

level of Luck of the Fry -ish and Jurassic Park.

Episodes that will leave you a little tear in

your eye and a lump in your throat. And we've

got some super hilarious ones as well. There's

not a bad one in the bunch. It's really great.

Very cool. Obviously, we are not the first people

to interview you on the internet as you did an

interview about a year ago with our buddies from

This Week in Geek. So we are going to try our

best to avoid asking any of the same questions

that they ask. Having said that, just to get

us started, can you give us a quick summary of

your upbringing and how you became a voice actor?

Well, you know, I'm from Canada where it's very,

very cold. And a lot of Canadian kids, we kind

of shuttered in just based on our long Canadian

winters. And as such, he just kind of bundled

up, got home from school, and just went down

to the basement and watched TV until the grilled

cheese sandwiches and tomato soup were ready

for dinner. And so I was like a TV magnet as

a kid. I just kind of sucked it all in. and regurgitated

it out. I loved cartoons and began to do various

characters. The first cartoon voice I ever did

was... I know his name too. Maybe you guys know

the characters. The baby vulture in the Bugs

Bunny cartoon. It's better than something. I

can't remember off top my head. I know exactly

you're talking about exactly so he's uh Yeah,

he was like one of the first a lot right alongside

the which way did he go George? Which way did

he go? I? Love that. I you know so the first

thing I ever did in my kindergarten was you know

the no blank dumb guy voices and you know little

by little built my repertoire from there and

You know, all through school, they were always

trying to figure out what's wrong with me. What

is wrong with that kid? He won't stop doing the

voices in school. I just saw it as if you're

laughing at me, you can't be mad at me. I was

always putting on a little show, no matter where

I was. When I finally got out of high school,

I noticed I said, got out of, not graduated.

because they very kindly showed me the door and

said, not only have you not attended enough classes,

but we can just see your heart isn't in this.

You come here so that you can be down in the

cafeteria or in the courtyard of the schoolyard

and hold forth and have an audience. We want

to encourage you to go on into your show business

career and call us when you're playing Vegas.

So they kind of cut me loose in the middle of

the 12th grade. And I immediately went down to

a place called Yak Yak's Comedy Club in Toronto

where they were doing the first stand -up comedy

club in Canada. It was kind of revolutionary

because Canadians didn't do stand -up comedy.

And I was kind of like in the first wave of Canadian

comics like Howie Mandel and Jim Carrey and Mike

McDonald and Don McDonald. in the late 1970s,

early 1980s, began to emerge in Canada. In that

time, I'd written myself a little five -minute

high school variety night stand -up act along

with a couple of friends, and I kind of broke

that out and then began to build on that. Well,

the stand -up comic touring was Rodney Dangerfield,

The Pointer Sisters, The Temptations and Four

Tops, and David Sanborn. And while I was doing

that, this little side road kind of opened up

of voiceovers. The voiceover agent of my agency,

which just handled me for variety, saw me and

went, you know, you could probably make a little

extra money doing cartoons. And I was like, eh,

OK. I had my eye on the big prize of getting

myself a sitcom, et cetera, et cetera. I'd read

the Freddie Prinze story in Playboy Magazine,

Good Night Sweet Prinze, and went, well, that's

the blueprint for my career. Go down to LA, become

a fan of comic, do the night show once, have

Johnny love me, and get my own sitcom. That's

how you do it. And so the cartoon thing was not

something that I was really shooting for, and

I think that's part of the reason it happened

for me, because it wasn't my be -all and end

-all goal, so I just kind of zenned into it.

It took a little while, but I eventually ended

up doing a couple of episodes of The Littles

and Wolf Rock TV, which was Wolf Man Jack, which

was kind of cool. My first job in LA was Wolf

Man Jack. And then right into The Chief from

Inspector Gadget. They moved the show, they've

done 65 in Canada. and then they moved the show

down here because Don Adams wanted to come back.

He was done with his supermarket show in Canada

and he came back down here and so he did the

last 22 episodes down here. And from that came

Ghostbusters from the same company, Deke Enterprises,

and this lady, Marcia Goodman, who was a casting

director who just got in my corner right away

and I really kind of over my career. And it kind

of snowballed from there. This is the Reader's

Digest version, anyway. Very cool. Excellent.

In the three decades you've been working as a

voice actor, are there currently or have there

ever been certain animation companies or production

studios that you just prefer to work for or that

have just been a great experience for you? I

prefer to work for the ones that hire me. That

like me. I'm grateful to all of them. I've worked

for all of them. major studios. I would be disingenuous

if I didn't say that I had a tremendous time

at Warner Brothers. That little renaissance that

they had between 1992 and 1998 with the actual

funny cartoons, as we like to think of them.

Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Half Mania, which is

kind of the the Aung Fung Warner Brothers show

that came out during that period, the non -Steelbergian

one, Hysteria. A lot of those shows became like

a big Warner Brothers family. So I had a tremendous

time with that and getting it to come frame.

It was great. It was just a great time because

you knew you were working a couple of times a

week. Which for an actor, to know you've got

two and three days of work during a work week,

it almost became like a regular job. It threw

me off a bit when it stopped. But to have that

much work and have that kind of work for six

years was a real gift and it was great. And to

get to work with Rob Paulson and work almost

as a real -life comedy team. you don't see us,

you don't hear us, and then these drawings would

move. But to get to create that relationship,

both the relationship with Rob the actor and

the relationship the brain had with Pinky, to

have that evolve and grow, was a privilege that's

rare for many actors. It was very, very lucky.

It was a great time. If you could still be working

on any one show that you have worked on in the

past, which show would it be? Well, it's almost

an embarrassment of riches because I've gotten

to come back in Futurama and God knows I'm hoping

and praying that just goes on for almost as many

seasons as The Simpsons. That's a phenom that

that happened. But if we can go to half as many

sequences as the Simpsons have had, that would

be like more than one should dare to ask for.

But because that's already happened, that goes

on the shelf of miracles that have happened.

So I guess if I could restart anything, it would

be Pinky and the Brain. And I keep hoping against

hope somebody somewhere is going to say, It's

time for Pinky and the Brain to motion picture.

And it's time to do it with the original two

guys. That would be a hard problem. Somebody

could decide it and then go, but you know, instead

of the two guys that did it for the TV show,

we're going to have to cast celebrities. That's

when the internet comes in. Yeah. They'll cast,

you know, John Hamm and, you know, Russell Warren.

We wouldn't let that happen. What's the British

Russell? I get them all confused. Russell Crowe?

No, no. Russell Crowe is an interesting choice

for Pinky, actually. I was thinking of the one

that's going to play Arthur. Oh, I don't know.

It doesn't need to be remade. Russell Brannick.

But talk about a movie that doesn't need to be

remade. Arthur is the perfect film. But yeah,

Pinky and the Brain. Boy, I would love to see

that come back in some form or another. It's

just pure fun to do that. In general, what are

some of the other favorites and least favorite

shows you have ever worked on? Well, I had a

particular trouble with this show called The

Popples. It was a show that was about those toys

called Popples that were very popular in the

mid -80s, based on the principle of a pair of

socks, and you fold them into each other and

kind of roll them up. I remember those. And I

had to play a character named P .C. Popple. I

don't know what the hell P .C. stood for, but

it was for political correctness, but the show

is about as politically correct as you can get.

And he was a very, he was an eye -pitch character

who had a really cute voice. And I tell you,

to try to crank out that level of cuteness from

this, you know, six foot tall, you know, barely

thought of Canadian, was really a strain. I'm

a natural tenor, bordering on baritone. I don't

go to that range very easily. So the voice will

crack, and then maybe we'd have to go back. I'd

have to redo lines over and over again. It doesn't

sound cute enough. And when I finally get it

there, they go, well, now you sound like you're

being cynical about being cute. I'm like, I am?

The show was really written to four -year -olds.

It was not the easiest work experience. We had

a great time taking the mickey out of being so

cute and yet being adults and knowing that we

have darker impulses. But that moment was a little

tough. The rest of them have all been pretty

great. I'm always grateful and appreciative of

any job I get, because the natural state of the

actor is to be kind of sitting there looking

at the phone going, ring, god damn it, ring.

I would say I've started working steadily. I

know I have credits that precede 1985, but that

kind of, you know, the run really started with

Inspector Gadget in 1985 and truly hasn't stopped

since. I had a little tiny bumpy period at the

beginning of last year. But other than that,

it really has not stopped in 25 years. So for

me to cast Dispersions on any show, of course

some shows have been much more fun than others,

but you know, I had the honor of being in the

very last episode of The Transformers. And I

know I gave an interview once where, a long time

ago, I just made an offhand remark about how

many takes that particular director wanted. And

it kind of got blown out of proportion. It kind

of followed me around and even got back to the

director when I said this. And I need to say

that, you know, that's the way that director

worked and I needed to be more respectful of

his process. And I think I gave that interview

to a younger time in my life. So, you know, even

on that Transformers episode, you know, it's

great to be part of the Transformers lore, you

know, being in the very last episode. Yeah, that

was probably Wally Burr. That was Wally Perr.

The reputation I know him by is he was a very

huge stickler back in those days of doing multiple

takes. If that's his process, then that's his

process. I needed to perhaps understand that

there are directors that work many different

ways. I'm there, I'm drawing a check, and he

wants me to do it while hanging from gravity

inversion boots. then that's the way I'm going

to do it. Obviously, I'm going to have to triple

scale for that. But nonetheless, I'm being paid,

and I'm going to give him the performance he

wants. So I may have been a little unfair to

him in the previous interview, if I can use this

as a form to extend the olive branch of apology.

I hope you guys don't mind if I do. They've all

been great. To work is great. For an actor, to

work is fantastic. I've been unusually privileged

to do so. Has there ever been a role that you

turned down that you wish you wouldn't have?

That I wish I wouldn't have? No. No, there's

been, there were a couple of things that in the

past, there was one that was a particularly sacrilegious

cartoon for the internet that I passed on. And

I have no regrets about passing on. First of

all, it didn't become anything. And I just now

turned down the chance to read for something

that I won't talk it up or down because It's

still in development, and apart from legal concerns,

it's also not fair to do too much. It was a show

that probably had the most toilet humor of any

show ever. I don't mind the odd fart joke, but

this was a show that was based completely on

farts and fumes. I just want to add this. Sounds

like a Kevin Smith project. Anyway, I excuse

myself from the opportunity. What type of characters

do you like playing better? Good guys, bad guys,

serious characters, or funny characters? Well,

it depends. When I'm playing a villain character,

I don't think of myself as a villain. Villains

don't think of themselves as villains. You know,

Hitler thought he was doing, you know, a good

thing. You know, you can't play a villain as

though he's a bad guy. I'm going to go out and

do bad today. Let me twirl my mustache. You play

the villain as though he's really doing what's

best that people just don't understand. And I

brought that to brain. You know, not to keep

going back to picking the brain, but this is

a glaring example. Characters would have been

very easy to play evil. But I always... thought

Brain just thought he should run the world because

he'd do a much better job than the knuckleheads

who are doing it. And I don't think I'm wrong

about that, actually. Both in my process and

in the way the world is running right now. Like

a two -inch tall lab mouse with an IQ of 210

could probably do a better job than everybody

that's running the world at this moment. I like

to play characters that have some depth. I like

to play characters that have, you know, really

terrific jokes that are true to their character.

You know, curmudgeonly characters are fun to

play. I like to play characters that are muttering

things under their breath. I like Kiff. Kiff

from Futurama. every one of us who's ever been

in a beleaguered position, whether it's, you

know, stuck in a job we hate with a boss that

isn't nowhere near as smart as we are, or, you

know, stuck in a marriage with a domineering

spouse, that sigh is just, everybody can relate

to that feeling of, you know, so, you know, I

love playing that character and, you know, I

always try to play it kind of real. yeah I am

I'm a huge Looney Tunes fan how do you feel about

I would say not really taking over but doing

a newer version of say Yosemite Sam, Pepe Le

Pew, Foghorn Leghorn well you know at different

times I've taken a crack at those characters

I've kind of been the default Yosemite Sam for

most of Warner Brothers productions since Mel

died except for, of course, the big films, in

which case they went with somebody else. But

I listened back to my Yosemite Sanna and of course

I go, well, it's not Mel, but it's my best shot.

And I really ripped myself apart for it, which

I know from reading Mel's autobiography that

he always demanded that Yosemite Sanna be voiced

on Friday so that he had the weekend to recover.

The only way to do Yosemite Sanna is to push

as hard as you can, you know, push that character

as hard as you can. And, you know, there's times

I get close, but, you know, I'm not Mel, and

none of the replacement actors are, but we all

do what we do as a trivia. Oh, yeah. And yet,

I just think it's the most telling thing that

it takes, what, seven of us to do the characters

that one Mel did? Yeah. You know, at any given

time there's like seven of us in the studio,

Bob Bergen of course, you know, does Forky perfectly.

Tweety perfectly. Yeah. So Alasky does Tweety

also perfectly. I think he needs to be pitched

up just slightly. But so did Mel. Alasky's Daffy

Duck is, you know, almost indistinguishable from

Mel's original. You know, Billy's Bugs Bunny,

first rate. But Jeff Bergman's Bugs Bunny, also

first rate, his Daffy Duck also first rate. So,

you know, I think that, you know, there's a lot

of guys that can do the voice print, but Mel

had the timing. He had those years in radio,

which belonged by Jack Benny. And the timing

of a Mel Blank is something that, you know, it

takes two lifetimes. So, I know for me, I'm always

pushing to to get it a little better and a little

closer and really play the character instead

of the voice. We'll see. There is a new Booney

Tunes show that's supposed to be out next year

and it's got a very sitcom -y feel to it, but

I'm hoping that it's all in all a little bit.

In one of our previous Tooncast episodes we focused

on a cartoon that you know obviously called Captain

Planet. On Captain Planet they seem to have made

a concerted effort to bring in big name Hollywood

stars to do most of the villains originally.

And then it seemed like after one season they

ditched that effort and we'll say that they decided

instead to go with the real voice actors like

yourself for some of those roles. Can you give

us any insight into what was going on there or

what your opinions of screen actors coming in

and doing voice work in general? Acting is acting.

I never say, hey, big screen actors, stay out

of our sandbox. You've got that big feature film

thing going on over there where you're making

millions of dollars. There's a few actors that

get very territorial over our work, a few voice

actors. I know Tony Jake, who was very vocal

about that. You know, I feel that if those guys

want to act in cartoons, great. However, the

problem becomes one of scheduling. And realistically,

someone like Jeff Goldblum, who especially at

the time had a major feature film career going

on, yes he wanted to lend his name to this terrific

effort to do an environmental cartoon to raise

awareness of the upcoming generation of the environment.

And I think that was what motivated a lot of

people. It motivated Meg Ryan and Dean Stockwell.

Tom Cruise was the original voice of Captain

Planet. Right. They'd get a film and then they

weren't available for recording sessions. So

that was the case with Goldblum, who I actually

know kind of personally. He was a mutual friend

of Ed Begley Jr. You know, Jeff had, you know,

he'd gotten one of his many film projects, I

think it was actually Jurassic, and he went off

to do it. So, Marcia Goodman once again, weekend

prizes, knowing that I'm a pretty good satellite

guy, asked me if I could come in and try and

approximate the whole film that I did. So I was,

I was verminous scum for the rest of the run.

Then Dean Stockwell fell out, so I did Duke Nukem.

His scheduling conference was quantum leap. It's

always a nice idea, and that might be why a lot

of the big screen actors tend to end up not in

the day -to -day cartoons, but they'll take a

feature film. The production schedule is more

flexible, nights... and that kind of thing, and

they're taking two years to make the same instead

of six months. And that's, I think, why we see

a lot of them doing the big screen cartoons.

But let's face it, there's a magic to being a

cartoon character that only, you know, I keep

sounding like I'm crowing, but only a handful

of people will get to find out what it's like

to see your voice come out of an animated cartoon

character. The first time it happened for me

was way back in like 1979 for for the Canadian

company Naldana Films. And I was called Easter

Fever. It was the very first cartoon I ever did.

It was a one -shot Easter special. And I voiced

like five characters. And I saw my voice come

out of these moving lips. I was like, oh my god,

that's the closest thing we have to magic here

in real life. And it was phenomenal. So I understand

why Meg Ryan would want to drop everything. and

be in a cartoon, or any number of big screen

people. Because it's the one thing they do that

they can show their kids. That's true. Besides

co -hosting Tooncast with Mike, I also work as

an administrator at a website called BehindTheVoiceActors

.com. And one of the things we do there is we

try to compare different voice actors who have

voiced the same characters. for let's just say

batman for example and there's been dozens of

people to do that so we put up a page where all

the people that have done batman are posted there

and you can listen to all their sound clips and

kind of compare them. I was curious, when you

take on a role that multiple people have voiced

in the past like you did with Magneto on the

superhero squad show or like you said with some

of the Looney Tunes characters, even Destro from

G .I. Joe, do you go back before you do that

audition or before you do that role and listen

to other people's representation of that character

or do you prefer to kind of go on it without

hearing those things. Well with Destro, and actually

I went on your website I think yesterday or the

day before yesterday and actually commented as

myself that I like Arthur Berghardt's Destro

the best of the four that you had up there. Is

that you guys? Yeah, I was actually talking to

Mike before we aired this. I was like, do you

think that was actually him that made that comment?

That was actually me that made that comment,

yes. I actually do go on two websites and make

comments as myself, and nobody ever believes

that a man of my stature would have the time,

but I do, and I make the time. So no, that wasn't

me commenting, and I think Burghardt's is the

best. But there was only Burghardt when I stepped

into that part, and that was again a question

of the show changing production companies. Deke

Enterprises took it over and was doing it with

mostly Canadians. And being Canadian, I qualified

as Canadian content. But they were sure they

needed Destro to be as close to the original

as possible. So I did my best. Arthur is about

three inches tall and a huge man, and he's got

an amazing set of pipes. The subsequent Destros,

I have not seen those incarnations except on

your website. It seems to me they took a couple

of more liberties with the character. Whereas

I was really trying to keep it close to Arthur,

and they wanted me to keep it close to Arthur.

In a case like Magneto, I'd never heard the previous

incarnations, and they said they were going very

comedic with, you know, Superhero Squad. So I

just, I don't know, I was kind of doing, you

know, very much in my own register, but with

maybe just a soup song. Orson Wellesian diction

and brought in that kind of annoyed curmudge

in the mouth. And just brought my own thing.

I didn't try to do Ian McKellen or anything like

that. It just depends. With Gadget, when I took

over the role of Gadget, he knew what he wanted

as close to Don as possible. And when we did

the Gadge Teenies up in Vancouver, Don was already

retired. He'd broken his hip. Getting around

was very difficult for him, and I think as a

small, but also he's also suffering from a little

bit of emphysema. He really couldn't get the

big gadget, you know, high -pitched kind of thing

that had made his career. You know, first it

was Seymour Glit, house detective on The Bill

Bainer Show, and Maxwell Small, and then Inspector

Gadget. You know, so... When it came time to

do Gadget and the Gadgeteenies, he turned it

down and said, just get Mo to do it. He doesn't

need better than I do now. So with his blessing,

I took him for the part of Inspector Gadget.

But that was an impression I'd been doing since

high school anyway. So I was fairly practiced

at it. And when I watch some of the Gadget and

Gadgeteenies stuff now on YouTube, I go, that's

pretty good. I pat myself on the back for that

one. Every voice actor seems to have a method

for remembering which of their voices go with

which characters, especially if they're on a

show where they voice a good deal of characters,

like you did on Tiny Toons and Futurama and other

shows. How do you keep all your voices straight?

How do you keep them all in line? Medication.

Mr. Lamarce, are you admitting that the brain

is actually on medication? Yes. No, the strongest

thing brain's on is the baby aspirin. No, truthfully,

I don't know why. It's something that just kind

of comes easily to me. I'll tell you, it's much

easier for me if I have reference. I mean, if

I've got copies of the show at home or something

like that. But I can usually make an association

with, if I have a picture of the character, and

I've watched the cartoon, well then I associate

that voice with that guy and just show me the

picture and I can go. Now though, now it's even

easier though with YouTube, I mean I just book

stuff up. Everything I've ever done seems that

I can just find it on YouTube, you know, and

so I have trouble remembering what Dr. Splitz

sounded like in Captain Simeon and the Space

Monkeys. Look at it. And, you know, and talk

about, now there's a show that never got its

due. I don't know if you guys remember Captain

Simeon. Yeah, I do, yeah. I think it's a very

well -written show, good science fiction, great

cast. And it was cast from, at the time, Babylon

5 was a hot show. Half the cast was from Babylon

5, the other half was from Star Trek The Next

Generation. And then we had Malcolm McDowell,

who was, you know, Clockwork Orange, and David

Warner, who'd been in time after time with Malcolm.

And, you know, it's just... When I was going

down the list of your credits, I think one of

the things that really jumped out at me more

than anything else was that you voiced Salem

the Cat from Sabrina the Animated Series. Yes,

yeah. That was without Nick Piquet's blessing,

unfortunately. But again, it was a question of

the show going Canadian, and they needed Canadian...

There's a certain thing that they have called

Can -Con, Canadian content. So Deke being a Canadian

signatory, you have to have a certain number

of actors in your production be Canadian. So,

you know, unfortunately they were just not able

to... We're able to work Nick in and they also

cut I don't know what else may have happened,

but they Nick said you can't do me exactly or

you know I'll sue or whatever so I just I did

kind of a you know kind of ran him through the

the transporter or the fly chamber with Morris

the cat you know ah character that it was different

you still kind of sly and wry and and I hope

it worked. I wasn't trying to undercut Nick.

I won't do that. If I know an actor is holding

out for more money, I will not audition for the

job. I was the first actor to turn down the opportunity

to audition for the Simpsons back when they were

trying to recast that in the late 90s. Before

they even put out the word, they just came to

my agent direct and said, we'd more like to audition

for some of those parts. And I just said, no,

those are those actors' parts. I won't even try

for it. And then they put out a general audition.

But I just won't do it. So in the case of Nick

Piquet and Salem, it was just that he couldn't

do it. He wasn't technically allowed to. And

so they flew me up to Vancouver and did the entire

series in three weeks. Can you reveal any behind

the scenes moments during Animaniacs or Pinky

and the Brain or any of the other shows that

you've done? Yes, we all work naked. It's funny

you mention that because Kevin and I were debating

on the whole question of do voice actors prefer,

like most of the voice actors we've interviewed

on our podcasting network here. Some of them

have also done live action, and we've often asked

them, do you prefer live action or the voice

acting? And most of them, their answer is the

voice acting, because you can pretty much show

up however. You don't have to look professional.

It's pretty much a come -as -you -are gig. Oh,

yeah. And it's also purely about acting. There's

no hair, lighting, makeup. There's a minimum

of sitting around and waiting, which is the really

tough part of when you're doing the on -camera

gig. the amount of waiting you've got to do.

Get there and sit in your trailer for six hours

until they're ready for your shot. With a cartoon,

it's like you get there, you do it and you go

home. Put your lines in the script, sit down,

or stand up, depending on how you like to work,

behind the microphone, and you're usually done

with the average cartoon within two hours. But

behind the scenes stuff, I wish I had something

juicy for you. Everybody loved everybody. We

all had a great time. And there really wasn't

much intrigue or any feuds or fights or anything

like that. It was really just seeing a bunch

of people really knowing that they had the coolest

gig in show business going at the time. And being

grateful to show up. I mean, you know, it was

Patrice McNeil and Jess Harnell and Rob Paulson.

Jeff Bennett, you know, these sweethearts of

people that are just loaded with talent. I just

hope it always showed that I knew how lucky I

was. Yeah. Staying on the topic of Tiny Toons

and Animaniacs, there have been multiple reports

on the internet citing that Charlie Adler left

Tiny Toons because he was angry at the fact that

actors like Jess Harnell, Rob Paulson, and yourself

were given roles on Animaniacs and he wasn't.

To your knowledge, is there any truth to these

reports, or is it just the internet being unreliable?

To my knowledge, the deal is I have no knowledge

of why Charlie left. Okay. So I certainly hope

it wasn't that. I'm not even sure the show's

dovetailed all that much. So I don't know the

reason behind Charlie leaving Tidefield. was

Buster Bunny and did another yeoman's job on

it. He stepped into it fairly well. But I don't

know the reason behind it. I assume it was perhaps

some kind of contract negotiation. So I don't

know. Certainly Charlie hasn't hurt for it. He's

one of the most working directors in animation

right now and he still has his hand in acting.

Cow and Chicken is just... Just a tour de force.

I mean, he's playing all three characters talking

to us. It's just pages and pages of Charlie talking

to himself, and he's genius at it. Wow. It's

still a classic, Cow and Chicken. Cow and Chicken

and the Red Guy. I mean, you know, come on. In

the thousands of recordings you've done over

your career, can you remember any funny mistakes

someone made or practical jokes someone pulled

while in the studio that you witnessed or were

a part of, too? Well, I do remember there was

an episode of Pinky and the Brain. Sorry to keep

going back to it. Yeah. It's a book called Pinky

and the Brain called You Said a Mouseful that

Gordon Brefac wrote as an all -tongue twister

episode. Now, add to the idea that it's an all

-tongue twister episode, the casting of John...

John... Oh, God. John Moshia? Oh, John Moshita,

yeah. Moshita. John Moshita. Thank you. The fast

-talking guy from Pathetic commercials. So now

we're doing an all -tongue twister script with

the fast -talking man in show business. So...

There were so many opportunities. The kicky sack,

khaki sack plucker. Just use your imagination

to see where that went during the mistakes. Having

to say words like that and Peggy Babcock and

things like that. At one point I got so frustrated.

Excuse me. One second. and I got up from my chair

and walked calmly out of the studio and walked

into the control room and stepped behind Andre

Romano, who was our director, and there was Gordon

Bresak. He was just enjoying the torture so much

and I just punched him in the arm, like you would

to a little brother, you know, and you just walk

by and slug your little brother in the arm. Yeah.

And then walked back and calmly took my seat

and resumed, resumed, you know, tripping over

my tongue. But I just, at that point, I was so

first, I just had to punch him. I had a slug

in my ear. You know, um, and I think at one point

I just yelled out, I hate you Gordon Bressat!

Um, what's the most bizarre or humorous or do

you have any type of audition that's memorable

for some reason that you did? Hmm, memorable

audition. Or the weirdest audition you ever went

to? When I auditioned for the critic, they informed

me they'd be videotaping me. I didn't feel particularly

crazy about that idea. I didn't like that. I'd

like to be completely free. But I dressed up

a little bit to go in to the audition and wore

a sport coat and a very nice shirt. I treated

it almost as stand -up. And that was the only

way I got through the audition. And as it turned

out, Mike Rees and Al Jean used to come down

and see a bunch of comments at the comic store

and I was their favorite impressionist. So it

was kind of fitting that I treated it as a stand

-up gig because it sort of solidified me and

their brains. But that was the idea that I was

being videotaped for a voiceover. I think I even

kind of ribbed them about it from behind the

microphone. But other than that, no, I don't

think I've ever really had to do anything too

bizarre. You've kind of already said that you

go back and watch, you know, you go back and

you look up on YouTube some of the stuff that

you've done. As you were doing it, say like with

Animaniacs or Pinky and the Brain or, you know,

whatever, did you ever go back and see what your

voice sounded like with the character as you

were doing the show? Well, you know, I mean obviously

with Pinky and the Brain, we were very excited.

You know, it's a world with animaniacs. We're

just very excited because we knew we were on

to something. We knew we were doing a really

funny cartoon show. People, you know, up to that

point, cartoons were, you know, basically half

hour long commercials for toy lines. And here

we had shows that were, you know, Spielberg's

vision was to bring back cartoons funny on the

level of Bugs Bunny and that type of thing. Yeah.

So, you know, and Tiny Toons was the first shot

at that. And then he took it further with animaniacs

who were completely original characters. Tiny

Toons were miniature versions of the classic

characters. Hampton Pig was, you know... Porky.

Porky Pigs, et cetera, et cetera. So this was

an entire universe that would never cross over

with the Tiny Toons universe. And we knew we

had to see this from scratch. So yeah, I actually

became an ardent taper of... Back in the days

when people actually used videotape in their

homes of Animaniacs and then Pinky and the Brain

became its own thing. So I revisited that. Ghostbusters

has recently come out on DVD. It's been fun to

watch those remastered and see the adventures

of Vanquen and Stans and Spengler. as Lorenzo

Music and Arsenio Hall and I played, and the

great Frank Welker. So yeah, I did go back and

look. I can hear sometimes the inexperience in

the earlier stuff that I do. You're lucky you

watch yourself grow. The common wisdom now is

that if you put in 10 ,000 hours, Malcolm Gladwell's

theory of 10 ,000 hours is what leads you to

be an expert in something. I think I'm on my

9 ,500th hour now. We've only got 500 more hours

of animated cartooning to go and I'll be good

at it. Do you prefer working, like as far as

voice recordings, as far as voiceovers, do you

prefer like... I hate to call it this, but phoning

it in, or do you prefer working with the ensemble

cast, all the castmates together? Oh definitely,

I like working with castmates. You play the relationships

much more proficiently when you've actually got

somebody to have a relationship with. On that

same note, did you and Rob ever just do Pinky

and Brain back and forth off air? Like a general

conversation? Oh, we'll mess around a little

bit, you know. We still, you know, we still do

shows, you know, we still end up on various cartoons.

We just recently went on Back to the Barnyard

and Cat Scratch. So, you know, we'll throw each

other a little pinky in the brain, you know,

one -liner here and there. But actually, our

favorite thing to do is just talk to each other

in big, snobby, cockney accents like this, you

know. You know, how are you? You wake up. Oh,

I'm following you. You know, yeah, I can. That's

the kind of language we go into. Or we talk to

each other in the broken English of the French

Canadian there. Because he is from Detroit, or

Detroit, which is the only part of the United

States that's north of Canada. And so he knows

a lot of French Canadian there. So we talk to

each other like this whenever we talk on the

phone there. Which voice actors did you most

look up to when you were first starting and which

voice actors do you still look up to that are

still around today? Well, of course Mel Blanchard.

He loved Lorenzo music and I had the privilege

of working with him on Ghostbusters. Welker,

I didn't know how much I loved Welker until I

met Welker and realized that he was so many characters

that I knew. I'm a few years younger than him,

so I was on the other side of the adolescent

line while he was a working actor. Even though

now we're both grey -haired guys. Frank Welton

was a hero, and I got the best education in the

world because the first job I was on, Gadget,

and then Ghostbusters, I sat right next to Frank.

I just watched Frank, and Frank taught me stuff,

and it certainly taught me a lot. a ton about

professionalism, half of which, of course, I've

never been able to integrate into my actual career,

like showing up on time. But he showed me how

to move. He showed me how to turn script silently.

There's a trick to actually being able to keep

going. So you don't have to break the action,

because the two pages you've opened up, well,

we're done with those now. So now we have to

stop, otherwise the whole thing will sound like

crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. It's a big crinkle

fest. He taught me how to do it so you could

actually do a five page run without stopping.

Just to watch him learn by doing, he was great.

He's kind of fun. And Don, from his days as Tennessee

Tuxedo. I love Tennessee Tuxedo. Which voice

actors are you closest friends with in real life?

In real life, I'm very close to Rob Paulson,

and I'm very close to Billy West. Tress McNeil

is a dear friend, and we'll actually socialize

and hang out. And Jeff Bennett. Jeff Bennett's

a good friend. I love working with just about

every other workman. These are people who actually

call up on the phone and say, how you doing?

And usually grab a bite and that type of thing.

And it's always fun when we do that. Are there

any voiceover people that you haven't worked

with yet that you want to that are still around?

Well, I missed working with Mel Blank by 10 minutes

once. Unfortunately, he was doing his lines early.

I was doing an episode of Heathcliff, and unfortunately

it was like, he just wanted to go in and get

his lines out. He was doing it towards the end

of his life. He had bad emphysema, and yet he

wore an oxygen tank, and yet he still smoked

in this studio. It was rather bizarre. They were

just blowing up. But he insisted. So I thought

I was going to get to work with Mel, but I just

picked up the lines later. So it was only one

or two hours. So I missed meeting him, and I'm

sorry about that. In terms of voice actors, I

know it's going to hit me when I hang up. But

I mean, if John Cleese were to ever think to

do a cartoon, he's like the dream guy. I'm like

the dream actor. I'm like, just shake his hand.

I've worked with Eric Idle on Peking Brain, and

that was a thrill, too. But Cleese is my all

-time comedy idol. I think I already know the

answer to this based on some of the other answers,

but I've got to ask these two questions anyway.

Besides yourself, who is the most talented voice

actor of all time, in your opinion? Besides myself,

are you kidding me? I'm way down there on the

list, man. I just didn't want to give you an

easy answer. I'm in awe of Billy West. I'm in

awe of Dee Bradley Baker. I stand still. I still

stand in complete respect and reverence for Frank

Welker's talent. There are just lots of people

in front of me. I've got my own little niche

and I'm grateful for it, but those guys' range

is unbelievable. Rob Paulson can do the song.

You know, in one take, it was phenomenal. Jess

Harnell was there. And Tress McNeil, to me, is,

you know, the female version of all of them rolled

into one. There's nothing Tress can't do. Everything

she does is hilariously fun. And if I may just

pipe up about unsung heroes and, you know, kind

of newcomers on the scene. Dave Herman, to me,

is unbelievable. He was on our show. Scruffy

Camper and Roberto. Everything Dave Herman does

vibrates in front of you. And, of course, DiMaggio,

as Bender, he's taken that character and made

it break out. Phil Lamar, too, was brilliant.

So, you know, I just take my hat off to the entire

rest of the cast of Futurama. So, yeah, there's

lots of folks out there. Absolutely phenomenal.

And I like me, too. I really like me. Okay, you've

kind of answered both of... Kevin asked that

first question, and basically the second question

was, like, the voice actors still working today,

so you kind of answered those both already. I

don't know where I saw this. It might have...

I think it was on the Animaniacs, one of the

Animaniacs DVD special features. Can you tell

us the Ray Liotta story about getting the voice

for Squitz? Well, obviously it was a takeoff

on Goodfellas. I was supposed to do the character.

How did I get saddled with the least imitatable

guy? John Mariano had him down perfectly. Chick

Venaro already sounds like Joe Pesci anyway.

But I found myself out for dinner with my then

-wife, now my estranged wife, but we're still

very good friends, and who was at the next table

but Ray Liotta. He was on, I believe, his second

or third date with the woman who's now his wife.

I noticed him and I was like, okay, cool, it

was Ray Liotta. Isn't that funny that I'm supposed

to be doing him in a cartoon day after tomorrow?

But in those days, they allowed you to smoke

in restaurants. He was polite enough to go, excuse

me, do you mind if I light this up? Do you mind

if I smoke? And I said, no, sure, please go ahead.

And at the time, I was an inveterate cigar smoker.

I was just giving it up. But we talked about

cigars. And it ended up we almost pushed the

tables together and had like a little foursome

date. And by the end of the evening, I kind of

picked up enough nuances in his that I knew I

would be able to go in there and at least do

an approximation of it. Very nice guy. Extremely

nice guy. They made such a cute couple. I was

glad they stayed together. I hope they're still

together. I haven't seen them in ages. Stunt

burping. I'm afraid I'm paid very big money for

stunt burping, my friend. Well, my brother Jason

works cheaper than I do. He'll do it for free

and he does it better. Funny, I have two brothers,

Jason and Paul. Jason does the stunt burps brilliantly,

and my brother Paul does Popeye better than I

do, even though I've played the part on television.

Hey, there was a real floor burp actually. Playing

Popeye was not another show that wasn't easy,

but it was such an honor to step into the part

that I didn't, and don't dare complain about

it, but it was not easy to do that voice. Stunt

burping came from, you know, it was originally,

I just called it my puke sound. It came from

me having a... I wanted to be a practical joker

as a kid, and I bought some plastic vomit in

fifth grade, folded it up in my hand, and then

I wanted to throw up in class, and I knew I had

to make a convincing sound, so I did this. Just

instinctively, I sort of did this turn my tongue

inside out, inside my mouth thing, to fill out

the chambers, and as I dropped the plastic tube,

I went... mortifying the teachers. I was the

joker. I was going to make everybody in the room

die from laughing. Instead of that, nobody laughed.

They were just terrified of what they saw. And

then when he saw that it was plastic puke, he

sent me right down to the office. I think I spent

the rest of the school year there. But I had

discovered this new sound effect. When it came

time for Yacko to burp, I realized it didn't

have to be puking. It could be burping. I still

wish Jess Harnell was here right now to say,

oh, thank you. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me.

Excuse me. It's true. But I mean, the way we

did that thing was Rich Stone actually had me

burp about 100 times and in scales. He placed

them digitally on a keyboard on a synthesizer.

The keyboard literally could play a symphony

of belches. So they edited that together and

that became the great Whack -a -Rotty. You've

been to some of the various Comic -Con fan conventions

that have been held over the years. What are

your impressions of fan conventions and types

of following that some of these shows achieve?

I'm always thrilled to be part of anything like

Comic -Con or this weekend on Sunday I'll be

at the Anaheim WonderCon. It's great. It gives

everybody a chance. People with a common interest

to come together. It gives them a chance to come

together and share in their own recollections

and their enthusiasms. We get to meet them and

they get to meet us. To some degree, I think

they're disappointed to find out we're just humans.

But we spritz. We do the voices for them. We

bump into them in the lobby. It's just like the

three days. you know what it's like to be like

this rock star. You know, it's like, it's like,

it's like when, you know, Superman goes down

to the bottle city of Kandor, you know, it's

like everybody knows for years that he's kind

of, he's kind of, you know, unique and special

when he's outside the, outside the bottle. And

then I guess the inverse of that is it's like,

you know, for 362 days of the year I'm inside

the bottle city of Kandor and three days I'm

outside of it, I'm like a superhero to these

people, I don't know. It's sort of weird. But,

you know, I have a great time and hopefully,

you know, the folks that get to meet are having

a great time too and we have a lot of fun together.

Well, we got a handful of questions left, but

I was wondering if you could give us a few thoughts

of what it was like touring with people like

Rodney Dangerdale and George Carlin during your

stand -up career. If you could give us a few

thoughts on that. Well opening for Rodney was

you know, he was just so generous, you know,

I mean he was he was a He was a guy who really

believed in young comedians and he had no fear

about us He didn't feel like you know, I don't

young guys that coming up to take it on spot

You know, he was just like he loved young comics

and you know, he's responsible for launching

so many people that are now Well, actually, Johnny

put Seinfeld on first, but he was next. He put

him on the Young Comedians, second Young Comedians

special. He launched Kinnison, which, you know,

really changed the face of comedy and dice. And

I gave a lot of guys their first shot, including

me. And I've done a couple of Merv Griffin's

for the first time. I was featured as one of

the crop of seven special Young Comedians who've

been first on the scene. And going around the

country with him was truly an education. Cool.

It was great. One time we pulled up to one of

the venues, I think it was, I can't remember

what it was, Latham New Yorker. Anyway, my name

wasn't on the marquee. Rodney refused to go on

until somebody got on a ladder and went out there

with the letters and put my name up under his.

And he said, man, I tell you, it's tough enough,

man. Tough enough being an opening act when they

know you're coming out. But let me tell you,

I worked five joints, man, but they didn't know

I was the opening act. I'd come out, I'd have

to struggle. I don't want him to have to do that.

You put a name out there, baby. You know, so

he was mad. And sure enough, I looked out, his

road manager just took a look, and he opened

up the little side stage door. We saw a guy up

there on a cherry picker putting my name up before

a show comes. Yeah. Very, very generous. Carl

and I only worked with once. He was very nice.

He popped his head in maybe a couple of times.

He was a good showman. It was a great experience

to work the road as an opening act because you

got first -class treatment without any of the

responsibility of being the draw. I had the fancy

dressing room with the stocked bar. I almost

wanted to get a smoking jacket to receive people

after the show. It was great. It was great. Obviously,

there's lots of different types of voice work.

Which do you prefer the most out of cartoons,

commercials, movies, video games, or anything

else? Well, I mean, each is its own animal. So

even though you're in all those situations, you're

behind a microphone with carpeting on the walls,

each thing is its own thing. I mean, currently,

I've got the great fortune to be the voice of

Lexus. right now. When I'm working with Lexus,

it's just me alone in the room and I'm doing

my spots and I'm talking about a car which I

actually believe in. It's a terrific car. So

it's a real boon to be able to be behind a product

you believe in. But that's different from being

in the room with Rob and Tress and Jess and Jeff

Bennett and Billy West. and having a great time

doing an Animaniacs or Billy and John and Tress

and Phil Lamar and Lauren Tom doing Futurama.

That's acting, that's give and take and that's

improv at times and character creating, playing

three different people in a scene. So that has

its own energy. It's all great stuff. Video games

is hard work, I'll say that. I've only done a

handful, and I'm very lucky right now. I'm about

to go into Mr. Freeze for Ark of Asylum 2. And

games can be a tough gig because you've got basically

three phone books full of pages of dialogue,

half of which are you dying in various situations

and length levels of pain. So it can really be

a workout for the voice. It can really rip you

apart. But then you know your kid thinks you're

cool because you're in the latest Batman game.

Right. That's the trade -off. Can you give us

a little bit of Mr. Freeze's voice? I haven't

had a chance to play Arkham Asylum yet. He's

not in Arkham Asylum. He's only in Arkham Asylum

2. To tell you the truth, I think contractually

I can't. I've got to keep it under wraps. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, but he's out for... He's up for blood

right now, because I can't tell you the situation,

but he's actually a somewhat sympathetic character

within the framework of the game. Yeah. What

was it like being nominated for multiple Emmy

Awards and being nominated and winning an Emmy

Award? It gave my life meaning! At least Brain

took over the award world. No, I'll tell you,

you know, it's... You know that thing where they

say it's an honor just to be nominated? At the

end of the day, it really is an honor just to

be nominated because you're being singled out

and people are saying, hey, good job. It's like

a large -scale version of the employee of the

month award. And it's nice. It's a very nice

thing. But you realize, of course, that life

goes on whether you win or lose, and the next

morning you get up and you... You go into the

bathroom and brush your teeth. Nothing changes

whether you win or lose. You're still you. It's

a night of glamour. Although, I'll tell you,

the first time it happened, I made so much of

it that I went on a diet so that I would look

good if I did win. I got a new tuxedo that I

tried to shrink myself down into. When I didn't

win, it went to Linda Ronstadt. because it was

a variety category. I told the waiter at the

Governor's Ball to just leave the giant terrine

of chocolate sauce that was going over the brandy

of pears. I said, just leave that. Leave that.

It's like the overeating equivalent of leave

the bottle for like, you know. Just leave the

bottle! You know, to the bartender, I was like...

What advice would you give people who are trying

to break into voice acting? Wait until I retire.

You've got about 13 more years, then you can

break in. Until then, just leave the field alone

for me, kids. You know, it's funny, I get asked

this all the time, of course, because I'm at

that age now where I'm becoming something of

the senior generation of people doing this. I

was once the new kid on the blog. I have friends

that are having their kids are now of college

age. They like to do voiceovers. How do we do

it? There is a set of steps you follow. I can't

say though from my own experience that I followed

them. My story that I told you was I tripped

sideways into it from stand -up comedy. While

I share from my own experience most of the time

with some of these advice, I can't say to everybody,

okay, first become a stand -up comedian. Do a

lot of impressions. the voiceover agent from

one of the biggest agencies in the world say,

hey, you want to try this as a sideline. They

generally want to do it as the main thing they

do. So the thing to do would be to take a voiceover

acting workshop, you know, look in the learning

annex, see if anybody in your town is offering

that. Certainly New York and Los Angeles and

Chicago have plenty of voiceover acting workshops

taught by working voiceover actors. I don't do

it because I don't know how to teach. I have

no idea how to impart what I do. But take a workshop.

Then, if you like how you sound on tape or on

playback over speakers, because most people hate

the sound of their own voice, just naturally,

because you can't seem to ignore the vibrations

of your own skull. Everybody's own voice sounds

very high to them when they hear it on playback.

But if you like how you hear yourself on playback

and you know how to read copy as though it's

just coming off the top of your head, well then

you make a demo. And that demo more or less exists

in cyberspace on your website. begin to email

agents with a link or you go and make the rounds

and burn a CD of your minute of commercial and

minute of animation and try to get meetings and

leave your CD or DVD if you're lucky enough to

have any on -camera credits and then, you know,

wait for the phone to ring and then once that

happens, go out and audition and don't do like

Uncle Maurice, be on time when you get the job.

Don't be five minutes late and blame the traffic.

I was wondering, before we close, if you'd be

willing to do a little word association game

with us where I just throw out a name on a character

or show or a voice actor and you just give us

your first thought. We can try. Pinky and the

Brain. Taking over the world. Jeff Harnell. Awfully

talented. Futurama. You watched it! You'll never

unwatch it because they will never cancel it

again Rob Paulson The most talented, sweetest

guy in the entire business and I'm not even going

to try to do his voice He's just too darn good

and special The Dalai Lama Saved my life, saved

my sanity Andrea Romano Awesomely talented and

You know, we kind of butted heads once or twice

on, you know, interpretations of how to play

various lines, but it wouldn't have gotten me

my second Emmy nomination without her. And she

really knows, she knows what she wants, she knows

comedy, and I owe her a ton. Orson Welles. Yes,

without him not only would we not have the greatest

film of all time, Citizen Kane, but also the

greatest... two -inch lab mouse bent on taking

over the world's citizen brain. Three more. Frank

Walker. And he's right. And he's right in that

frozen peas outtake tape. He's right. No way

to emphasize the end of the beginning of the

seventh. Go ahead. Frank Walker. Legend. And,

you know, a mensch beyond, beyond menschiness.

The best. Two more. Tracy Hale. Say again? Tress

McNeil. Tress McNeil. I thought you said Jakey

McNeil. Okay. Tress McNeil. The most awesome

woman in the business. And last one, Maurice

LaMarche. Who? We would like to thank Mr. Lamarce

for taking the time to chat with us in this special

Tooncast interview. Before we close, sir, will

you give us your, um, there was a segment on

the Looney, I was going to say Looney Tunes,

on the Animaniacs DVD where Tress brought up

this laugh that you do. That's not it. That's

my genuine laugh. No, this is the laugh that

would drive Andrea Romano crazy. Whenever something

was supposed to be funny to the characters on

the show. You know, if it was supposed to be

some sort of laugh -walla. And all the characters

would laugh. My... And I would... I got to the

point where I'd do this just to get a rise out

of her. I would almost take the Robert De Niro

laugh from Cape Fear when he's sitting there

smoking a cigar in the movie theater. And I would

just... The characters would go, okay. And Rodriguez

would go, okay, everybody laugh. Three, two,

one. And I'd just go... BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

How many shows we cover that actually feature

her as the voice director? So we have a count

of every time we do a show, like we covered Animaniacs

and Tiny Toons way back in episodes two and three

of the show. And it just surprises me how much

stuff each time we do one that she is involved

in. She's done so much stuff. She truly has.

Yes. Alright, third. She really knows your stuff.

Thank you very, very much, and let's get some

parting words from Brain, and we will let you

go. My friends, it has been a deep and abiding

pleasure to be interviewed by you. And when I

take over the world, you shall be spared. Yes.

No. Laugh. No. Alright, uh, we're gonna go to

the outro of this little clip and we'll be back

after this. Morning my mouse here. And when I'm

not setting Mickey up, I like listening to Tunecast.

Okay, we're back. And not to undercut any of

the other voice actors that I've interviewed.

Wow, was that fun. That was an incredible experience.

I didn't realize how fun that was gonna be. Oh

wow, that was so fun. And just the way that he

would drop in voices every now and then, I actually

did a question that I didn't even have written

down, but he had mentioned something and I had

asked him, I said, wait a second, Mr. LaMarche,

are you telling us that the brain is on prescription

drugs or something? I'm so excited at this point,

I can't even remember what the hell happened

or what the hell he said in the last hour and

a half or hour and 13 minutes or however long

the interview is. But wow. Yeah, that was just

incredible. I don't know what else. He was so

willing to not only answer questions, but not

just to give short answers. He was going in depth.

He was trying to answer every part of every question

that we asked. What a nice guy. And thanks to

him again for a great interview. Yes, yes, yes

it is. So with that, this has been the Tooncast

special interview of Maurice LaMarche, and we

will see you next time here on Tooncast. Bye

bye. My stunt burper is the best in the business

and it's that gentleman right there. And I don't

want to, Moe, I don't want to put you on the

spot and you're so well dressed and handsome

today. Not at all. But if you wouldn't mind,

Moe, would you give us just a little example

of the magic you used to do on my behalf? Go

to zero. It takes a second to warm up. Center,

center, Moe. Isn't that great? That is a thing

of beauty. And now, performing another classical

work, The Great Wakerati. Excuse me. Excuse me.