Hey, everybody, Jim Cummings here, Thanks for stopping buy don't go anywhere.
Why. I'll tell you why because coming up next we've got tuned in
with Jim Cummings starring Billy West. Billy West, come on, what you
know? You're not going anywhere now. Oh by the way, don't forget
to check out our bonus content on Patreon. Be there. How you doing
out there? It's me Tigger am Dark Wing Duck. It's me Bunkers keep
bobcat. All right, y'all, did it rain your favorite firefly? You
design? Hold the old knock. My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to
tune Jim. But it was funny because it was something to do with Ghostbusters
and Extreme Ghostbusters. We were all eat music, Yeah, yeah, yes,
and mall. And it was funny because I was singing the whole time
and nobody knew it was me, apparently in the podcast, and because they're
all my friends, and I was thinking, somebody knowledge. Then I'm singing
the goddamn theme song, but the sud that's strange in the neighborhood. Who
are you gonna call Ghostbusters? Bit? It was the Extreme Ghostbusters theme song.
It was the same song, but different, really different. Yeah.
Well, and that was interesting that it was interesting for me because I tried
to disavow that I was new. I was green, new in town.
You weren't green. I get booked on this show Extreme Ghostbusters and they said,
yeah, we want you to do a slimer and I said, well,
wait a minute, that's mister Frank Welker's gig. Yeah, and they
said he doesn't want to do it. M hmm. So stupidly I just
said, you know, I mean, everybody was like, yeah, welcome
on, we got you on, blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah,
and I translation, I hadn't even met Frank, right, and boy,
I threw a seven that week. I said, I can't get out of
this. Feel horrible. I felt like heel like a like a small No,
well, nobody thinks that of you, but yeah, they you know,
And I think what Billy's alluding to is then when he said, well
he doesn't really want to do it, they don't finish the sentence right for
Scale, Right, that's what he didn't want to do for Scale. Okay,
yeah, I mean you got a second or third season thanks to who
you know, me a little bit. Could I have some too? No,
none for you. No. And but they don't tell that to the
people that they are never to pay the fiddler. They'd rather spend it on
ice sculptures. Yeah, you know, they never got money to pay the
fiddler. Oh my god, they entertainment sadly, that's deadly accurate. We
were doing something years ago and Wayne, Wayne all Wine, Rucy Taylor,
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and myself. We were down in Florida at the
opening up. I think it was actually for the opening up Disney World.
I mean, this is like, no, it couldn't have been that that
long ago. Anyway, it's some big to do and uh so they all
they had to have poo and Tiger and and Mickey and Minny and so.
And I think Goofy was there, and we're walking by these incredible for the
for the press, these astonishing ice sculptures, big giant and Mickey, you
know, and there's Goofy taking a pee on a tree, big ice tree,
and you know, and there's there's you know, Donald's over there doing
o arm parts and ice. It was amazing, you know, And we
are being schlept on and we'll go wow, oh boy, that went all
out on this. Yeah. And then they go right this way, right
this way, and oh, okay, well this looks pretty good here.
I mean, I like crab, you know, and lobster. And we
go downstairs and we go inside this little Disney tower, a parapet, you
know, like one of those little round things on the edge of the castle.
And we walked down the steps. We're walking and we finally hit the
ground floor, which is like way down there, and it's dark, and
they flick on a light and there's a card table over there with a can
of cheese whiz Ritz crackers and a couple of avions. And then and and
we're we're going wow, you know, and and it was just maybe some
chocolate chip cookies. But you had to open up the ritz. It was
still in the box, you know. And he had to go off when
you saw and we and I the one who set this card table up.
Yes it was it was early on, but yes I had words. And
we walked over and Rucy said, oh my god, look at least there's
a bar here. So she so for it, says, gimme, I'm
our teeny, you know, Rucy Taylor was she was, she was abroad.
She was great, Yeah, yeah, you know and she and and
and he goes, yes, ma'am, that'll be four fifty. She said
what I said, do you know who she is? I'm sorry? And
I said, do you know who she is? This is Minie Mouse?
Mini Mouse wants it goddamn Martini, Gira Martiny. Yeah, And I get
your boss down here, and and I said, no, we have to
leave. This is silly. We're not are we? Are we? You
ashamed of us? Is it something we didn't say? Because we had to
get up at six o'clock in the morning in Florida, which is three o'clock
drivetime, no morning drive. Eighteen radio. Oh that's a big one.
Eighteen radios. Billy knows. Oh man, you you did those? You
were those radio was a great place for somebody like me. We're rolling away,
huh oh yeah here, well yeah we started. Yeah, I think
we still find something. You have to edit it. I don't care.
No, I'm just kidding. My guest, my guest today is the great
Gym coming. Oh yes, I have to get my radio voice. You
know what? Every time I look at podcasts, Yeah, there'll be people
and like everybody's got a microphone. Now, if I invested, like in
Yetti and all those the explosion of podcast it's like the Beatles selling guitars.
You know, it's like, you know what it is. These people have
fetishized microphones to the point they light up their purple and green and uh and
I'm sick of looking at them after forty three years, you know. And
I love it how everybody's got to look the part. Even though you don't
need headphones, we can hear each other. Fine, yeah, yeah that
was you that said that, right, Yeah, I thought so you don't
need headphones and uh and if someone's recording you even with a phone, you
don't need microphones either when I think about it. But no, it's like
you gotta It's like the lifeguard that shows up to the beach, you know,
with a surfboard and a row boat and you know, five pairs of
trunks and yeah, man, I'm a lifeguard. Yeah that's right. I
want I want to say something, okay, And I don't know how I'm
important it is, but yeah, it's important to me because I've got a
lot of friends that I go way back with. Um, you know guys
that became producers or guys that did this or that, and uh, it
doesn't seem like it, but we go back quite a way as at this
point and uh yeah, And isn't it funny when you're sitting with like Robbie
Paulson or Maurice LaMarsh or you know, us tres Tress that we never became
yesterday's men. Do you know what I mean? You could have been put
out a commission seventeen years ago and you never come back. Yeah, so
good. But you know it's like you're one of the reigning champions. I'm
I'm working my way to complimenting you. It's remarkable us twenty years to realize
we were lasting. Yeah, because how many people did you start off with?
Did you know? Did you do auditions with? Did you do and
cartoon one or two? Car tunes one or two? And they are not
around anymore. I mean, God willing, they're still alive, but there
are not working. Well. I was in New York, I had I
had been doing radio in Boston. You know, I came by radio by
the way of being a musician and being out of work when disco came in.
And you have to know that Billy West is one of the baddest guitar
players you ever met, not even if you didn't meet him. Look at
these hands, Look at the arts rioters. You can see the wells and
the bumps. Yeah, but that's a That's a sea cord, isn't it
When you just tell us. See he just held up his hands and he
can't fight it. No, I can't fight it. The funk is in
his trunk. So I got into radio when when Disco came in. You
know, it was like we were playing everywhere and we had gigs, you
know, the team, and it was like one day we got sucked out
of the window of a jet. Fuck. You know, they got rid
of the stages. They brought in the mirror balls and the hanging giant refrigerator
size speakers, and I said, answers the star now, which was bad
news. If you had a combo, you were you were done. Yeah.
So I got into radio at that point, and um, it was
a good lateral move. Yeah. And that was Boston, and then I
moved to New York and I started working with Howard Stern. We were sort
of my boss. I've heard of him. Yes, Hey, Robin,
I just farted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, how yeah,
I turned into Robin there's the Yeah right, I love that. The Idiots
Guide to the Stern Show. Yeah, what do you a sea comp?
Do you coom? Yeah? Yeah? Well I remember seeing and it was
I don't know, I guess it was entertainment Tonight. And you were It
was when Howard was really starting to break. Of course you were there.
You were riding the wave, man, you were you were on top of
it. And and you were there and we had not met yet and you
were still in New York obviously, yes, and you're doing March shot and
I thought, and like that, and then you us that did the Larry
Fine and I said, this guy's amazing. I love Nobody does Larry Fine.
Yeah, everybody. I'm a kind of pan you know, but nobody
does Larry. Everybody's really stoic until you do something low brow like Larry.
And there's so much chisel on the tree. Yeah, you know what.
He was from Philly and they all had I don't know what it is that
Atlantic that plugged up kind of because George O, the voice of George Jetson
was from Philly. Okay, yeah, yeah, that stuffed up Come on,
Cleves away. Yeah, you take an extra five minutes just to get
there. Yeah. I sang a song as George Jetson that really that they
didn't use. I was so proud. Well, I did a couple of
commercials. It was me and the and it was split down between me and
like Jeff Bergman, if you don't know that name, you should is.
He's an incredible technion and voice guy. And he he did his time as
Bugs and he's back again doing it, I believe. But I started to
talk about how when I was in radio, I was auditioning around New York
City and my friend Eddie Gordetski, who was in radio with me and Boston,
became a big producer out here, but this was when we were still
kind of bumming around in New York. And he said, I went to
an audition today and there was a guy sitting next to me and I recognized
his voice, and I said, are you Jackson Beck? And Jack the
Old Mighty Lion says yeah, sure I am. You know, Yeah,
I'm Jackson Beck and yeah, and uh, my friends talking a home and
says, oh my god, I can't believe I'm sitting here with you.
And well, where you've been We've been saving a seat for you, you
know that kind of and and then he said, my end, Billy West,
does you all the stuff that you do and everything? Jesus, that's
wonderful, that's great. Give me his phone number, tell me where he
lives, and I'll kill him. Yeah. See I was thinking that,
yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh that's great. Blue though, yea for
those things, you know. I mean, Jackson Becket was this mighty,
mighty voice of the twentieth century. I mean, if I could, if
I could stick it, hang it on one guy, it was him.
He was the narrator of The Superman on radio. Yeah. Paul Freeze was
in there, Paul Freeze. Yeah, yeah, Um, all these great
voice guys. I mean, we can't help, but you know, mention
them because they they were the grist for our mill. You know, we
were a little kids sitting in front of the TV going what who? Yeah?
Is there there's a real adult behind this character. I mean, I'm
not stupid, I know it, But what kind of people are these?
I thought they were magic, pure magic. Yeah. And I remember meeting
Mark Elliott and he was the guy who did Disney The Disney's Wonderful World of
color. Oh him and he and he was so cool. And and back
back then when we first started, when I first started out here, you
would meet somebody and and it would beat like Don la Fontaine, right,
Don la Fontaine coming up neck. You know, I can't even do him,
you know, you absolutely and and but I mean, you know,
and he'd he'd come up to you and he'd say, hey, how are
you doing? And I thought that movie theaters talking to me, right,
it sounded like I was my name was a movie. It's surreal because it's
the only reference you had for these incredible voices, and they're so iconic,
you just go. It's it just pulls you right back. Yes, out
of the West, out of the Western sky. Call them the sky King.
Yes. Whoever, I don't even know who that dude was. Um?
Who was the guy? Um? The lone ranger guy? Oh right,
he not. I know the actor's name, Clay Moore, but I
can't think of the announcer. Huh um, I can't slipping. But yeah,
we got turned on, like we sat up and barked like Lassie when
we heard these voices. Art Gilmore, Art Gilmore, the guy that did
all those movie trailers Frederick William Foy. So his name Frederick William Foy.
Maybe that is I don't know, three names, sounds good. And those
guys had a similar um approach. And Dick two Feld Hey there, hi
there, oh there, oh yes, Mickey Mouse Club, Yes, and
he played the robot on Lost in Space. Yes, warning a little Robin
Sudden and and uh yes. It was a big influence on us because oh
yeah, he was the radio guy on TV. There was a show called
laugh In and the joy was their phone. He would have one era and
we used to think that that was like an affectation, but it's a little
more than that. It actually helps you. Yeah, and um and I
liked one of his publicity photos where he had a fake hand on the side
of his head and there was no arm. It was just a hand and
he's going like he's talking into a mic. He was so funny and so
just whacky. Yeah for a guy who sounded so straight laced. Yeah,
my favorite line was his this is your off stage announcer, reminding you that
this is your off stage announcer. Yep, there was nothing you know,
he wrote those because he was whacky. Oh manah and so uh you know,
when you were talking to this guy off off off the job site,
you know, if you're having launched or something. You sounded like you felt
like you were in the middle of the eleven o'clock news. Yeah, yeah,
that's true. Yeah, yeah. I had that with Don Lafonte,
Billy whatever had and to that John Chris Flucy, you know, or you
know, I got the Three Stooges their star on Hollywood Boulevard. And when
we were at more So in Frank's once any point, you see that corner
over there, it was like a history lesson where I sat there with Marilyn
Monroe in nineteen fifty seven, and you know, he had a story for
ever because he was like the missing link between old Hollywood and nowadays. Yeah
yeah, yeah, boy, that's cool. Now I think you are the
missing link, the missing link. I don't know, I was feeling it.
Can you walk with your knuckles dragging on the floor, because that would
help? Oh God, what I spent? Let me ask the question,
what do I spend more money on hair dye or men's disposable diapers. That's
a tough one. I just hope I go quietly and definitely the diapers ce
definitely a diapers. In fact, I'll be right back. I gotta I
gotta make a deposit. I got up some mud. Yeah. If you're
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description of this show. But now, when you first got because you you
started in New York with all the with the Howard Stone show, Yes,
and that was that through an agent? Did you do that like a regular
vo guy? Or how did the hell did you get that gig? I
got it because the station and bias him was the flagship of Infinity broadcasting.
It was where you were, and I was there and I wanted out.
It was just it was it was growing pains. I wanted to go to
New York. I didn't care. I was willing to throw the dice.
Yeah, yeah, you know, I'll do the I'll do the sidewalk drill
and do knock on doors. I was willing to do anything. And I
had a lot of energy because I was a young guy. And our sister
station w x RK in New York had come into this morning guy Howard Stern,
who was in Washington, DC originally DC one on one and he got
fired and he was getting a reputation for being like really ranked and notorious,
and what he was doing was laying the foundation for just about everybody's style in
one way or another. Um yeah, you know. I mean, now
there's so many Howards. There's sports Howards, and there's check Howards and there.
You know what I mean. It's and he he himself is it's like
being nibbled to death by ducks. You know, he was he was pure,
he was undiluted. And then you know, yeah, years of people
just taking all Okay, we'll ste our version of that. Yeah, yeah,
that's what happened. But um, but I got it because it was
our Sisters station and the president of Infinity Mel Karmers, and said, if
you want to go to New York, I'll bring you in New York.
Um, but no, not everybody wants to live in a sewa because he
was paying me through probably right about the bean blore o so big box huh
yeah, yeah, okay, pulling coin. Yeah, the subway, this
is big time radio. I used to walk for fifty blocks in New York
because I was just like I was like candid, you know, I was
looking everywhere. Wow, wow, look at this, this is New York.
And then when you're not looking, somebody's like, hey, give me
a wallet. Yeah wow, this really is New York. Thank you,
here's my wallet. It's the least I could do. Yeah. Yeah,
is this local color? Dog gun it? You're good? Yeah, Little
Johnny Jones oh Man, So what was your first animation gig first animation gig?
I was still in Boston. It was nineteen eighty oh in Boston eighty
six. Wow. Um. They were gonna redu Beanie and Cecil, which
was a show from the sixties. Remember a Bob clip pet cartoon, and
that guy was really interesting. There's not a lot about him out there,
but his name was IRV Shoemaker and he did Dishonest John and he did Cecil
was yes, he did both Cecil and Dishonest John. And there was an
announcer you probably worked with him named Jim McGeorge. He played Uncle Captain off
Puff. Oh yeah, but he was doing the Al Perry. Yeah yeah,
yeah that one. Yeah yeah, yeah. That was such a weird
show. It wasn't It was hip and it was really cool. And I
remember there was a lion called Tara Long Lion and it took and I was
fifteen one day and it went wait a minute, I get it. Yeah
right, you know ten years later. Yeah, sure. But there was
some hip stuff going on in that show. There was a avant garde wild
man and they named the the Caveman who was on Beanie and Cecil, the
wild Man from Wildsville and he was beat Nick. Yeah. And there was
bongo music. Yes, yes, yes, I remember the Lord Buckley.
It was really Lord Lord Buckle, the guy oh man you fought because he
was he Oh wow, she has the British guy. It wasn't he,
No, he wasn't British. He was. It was like fake British.
His name was Sir Lord Buckley. But I mean he decided to make himself
why not so that people would just yeah it did he have? Oh man,
that's the wildest. Yeah, you were that beatnick sort of groove and
um then they use and when Lord Buckley was gone, they used scat Man
Caruthers to replace him. Oh wow. Yeah, he was a cool dude,
I know, and all that beautiful stuff. It's so rich and so
magnificent. That's we don't have any of that anymore except for you, thank
god. Really was lady and gentlemen round of about what I know about him.
Oh man, that's fun stuff remembering all these names from New York.
Um, Jutton bird thought, mute Chucker, Oh yeah, remember him,
you know, the devil. And there was a place up and it still
is there, I hope a voicecaster. Oh yeah, in Burbank and there's
a wall of everybody's real to reel and it's like at the Smithsonian of voiceovers.
Yes, voice actors, unbelievable, no way to play them. Yeah,
no where to and no where to play them. Yeah, you know
what I mean. Peter Cullen's up there. Oh, everybody, Well you're
there, I'm there. I used to go to the studio on three ninety
five Madison or two ninety five Madison called Super Dupe. And in the the
the booth where you recorded, there was just a wall of cassette tapes,
you know, in their cases. And I was leaning up against them and
I look at my hand and it's filthy black with dust, and I said,
they're on my ass to make a demo tape, I said, I'll
just send me over. I'll do a dog and pony show for whoever wants
to see me. Look at this. This this speaks volumes like yeah,
yeah. And if you did one and you got into it and everything,
they would always shoot you down and say that's too long. But I wanted
to show you a way. It's too long, yeah, but you that's
all Billy. But I'm not done. No, but I got out.
I think my first one was two and a half minutes long. And then
about ten years later, well I was I was working, so I guess
it didn't matter. But um, I was told no, that's really long.
Yeah, you'd be like forty five seconds, five seconds, I know,
but I wouldn't. I wouldn't get anything done on that time. You
know you need more room. Well, I don't know. You know what
you're you're misguided in a way. You think that you're supposed to be all
things to all people with that one little shot. Yeah, like, how
good a copyrter you are? Are you funny? Do you write funny stuff?
And it's like it's not about that. They just want to hear the
quality and your delivery and then you're off to the races. Yeah, Now,
did you have a first demo? I I finally got one when I
started working for Jeff Danis. Oh yeah, yeah, Jeff Jeff Damis was
our agent for a while there, and I see amazing and he would say,
you need a demo, You have to have a demo. He sort
of baby sat me like a mother. Eighties Yeah, well no, nineties,
nineties, mid nineties, and uh, well he was right. He
used to babysit me kind of like because I was new in town. And
he would repeat. He would say, you're going over the waves studio today
waves. It's north Hollywood, barely outside of Hollywood, and he said it's
on Kwengga Boulevard Waves Studio, you know, because in other words, I
might have been writing when it was delivered like that. And he said,
it's okay to go there during the day. Let's stay out of that part
of town at night. He was warning me. He was right, he
now, let's stay out of that part of town. Yeah, just just
everywhere. Yeah, stay out of everywhere. Yeah, that's very true unless
you really like, you know, cardboard backs, condos, Yeah, refrigerator
boxes, people living in refrigerator boxes. I kind of liked it in Studio
City and I, um, the studios right there. Yeah, but the
neighborhoods started to change. There was like first it starts with the mail theft,
your your box, getting all your mail just grabbed. And well,
plus Tom Kenney moved in. Yeah I know, you got that's you gotta
go by. Neighborhoods and him were like the Hatfields and McCoy's. Yeah.
Tom Kenny is the funniest. Oh, such a refreshing breath of fresh air.
When I first got a load of him, I said, look at
you yeah yeah, yeah, well he's one of those guys. Yeah,
but yeah, that was that was crazy. Going over to the voicecaster,
then Lane Craig. We had all these places, these voicecasting places that are
just no more. Oh was that guy? Don't think he used to eat
while he was talking to even smoke all the time. His name was Stu.
Oh yeah, Rosen, I can't remember. Yeah, he bothered me.
I didn't like him, so I had every audition for him. But
all these characters, Yeah, I like what you do and he beat Yeah,
they're smoking, like, leave me alone. I never smoked a cigarette
in my life. I did everything else, but not that. Wow me
too. Yeah, yeah, I have every cigarette I've ever smoked right there.
I've never mainlined heroin. Yeah, I know I can draw the line
somewhere. But I did mainline cocaine. Yeah, but like a nut in
the eighties, and I wound up with Hapatitus. Oh yeah, I had
serious problems. Oh yeah, it was a bad boy. We've talked a
little bit about this, but it's inspirational to people that are struggling with any
kind of addiction. I mean, there's more trouble to get into nowadays.
It's like there's a basket of Robbins. I was in a band, you
know, we share that experience. You played with lots of people. You
were primarily right. You ever lay out front and just be the singer.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Two bands and uh and I was a
guitar player and a singer, and it's just part and parcel. In the
eighties, it was just part of the deal that you just got blopping drunk
because because it was like depressing, you were only gonna make sixteen bucks a
piece at a VFW hall, and it was money for Chinese. I didn't
have that kind of grief. Well, you had money for Chinese food,
and so so I um, I just said, Jesus is awful. And
me and my buddy would caucus in between breaks and we just try to suck
down as much BlackBerry brandy and other kinds of crap. And I liked it
because suddenly I I didn't have the kind of problems that always plagued me,
which was depression. I was born with chronic low level depression. And there's
no way you can know that when you were a kid, I just thought
everything was upside down. Just thought you were Irish. Yeah right, you
know I know this one. Irish are right. I have a dual citizenship
to Ireland. Welcome to the Divil. Yeah, that's a chapter. And
it wasn't walked, and it wasn't water. No. He said, you'd
better meet him now because you're gonna meet him later on. And I said,
meet the Divil, okay, And he was right though, the old
bastard was right. Yeah. And um, the drug of Irish poets your
birthright, the muse. That's Madam Bottle. Oh my god. Yeah,
so true. And so I had a real tussle with that stuff. And
then somebody said, hey, man, you want to do some cocaine.
And I said, I don't know about that stuff, you know. I
mean, I was but I but I was a blooming garbage head. Eventually,
I just take anything anybody put in front of me and take this.
You look like a party guy, yeah. And so I would do coke
and just get drunken. I'd be so messed up. And I wound up
crashing a car doing like ninety miles an hour, and I fell asleep on
the mass Pike and what woke me up was the sound of the car going
through the guard rail and it flipped upside down on the other side of the
mass Pike. I don't get your attention, wheels going, you know,
and the crap. It was right in front of the Western State Police barracks.
It was like I delivered myself to them. You know. It's like
a perfect the scream for help help. Oh man. Yeah. Someone said
that's a great way to scrape bird shit off your roof. Yeah yeah,
well that too. But um but I my point being is that there's people
that struggle and I don't have to go into a whole sort of tail.
Yeah. But uh but I chased it down stupidly, and I was lucky
to have lived through it. Me and five other chuckleheads once went to Peru,
Thelema we were gonna have. We had this brilliant idea, Hey,
why don't we go where they make the ship? Oh oh that kind of
Peru. I was thinking, Okay, not Machu Picchu. Well I think
that right, um. And so we we went down there, and and
I was so smashed on the way down that I some guy reclined. I
mean I started chicken and boating and making a scene. Now they'll just tie
you up and duct tape. Ye. But I promised I'd be a good
boy and I would switch it on and off. I would be the black
devil one minute and then I'd be like cherubic angelic, and so they they
they were gonna dump me in Orlando. On the way Peru, it said,
you did Disney World as punishment? Yeah, um so, I,
you know, was there with my friends and it was like one big long
day. I was as high as a rat the whole time. It really
was, And and everything like whatever you looked at it looked like a super
eight of woodstock, you know, like too much exposure, too much everything,
and the colors are sort of bleeding, and it was like, oh
jeez, and we got in all kinds of trouble. We were with gangsters
and you know, I'm pounding around like I just took everything so nonchalantly.
And these guys were like Carlos and Lara by their names were, and it
struck me funny. It just for some reason it reminded me of Jack Benny.
Oh Carlos Olaraby, and these two guys had no idea who Jack Benny
was. But if you commit to it a good bit, it's a good
bit. Oh man, Yeah, Diane laughing, They wrote, Oh Carlos,
and they were in they were saying, you know, me and me
go no paranoia, you know, do some coke with them, and one
guy bullet scars, and you'd think that would have phase tip off a little
bit. It was just like a dummy, a drug fueled robot. Yeah,
But luckily I pulled out of the nose dive, you know a few
years later, and I went to rehab in Belmont, Massachusetts. And I
know you're not supposed to tell tales out of school, but Steven Tyler was
there when I was there. Rick James was there when I was there.
Yeah, the heavy hitters, Yeah, Rick James, he's probably still there
in spirit, in spirit in four point spiritual restriction. Man, oh jeez,
a four point see only Billy would know. Yeah, the straight Yeah,
you go out of your mind. You're you're tighting your own tongue.
And they say you're gonna calm down, bud, No, I won't.
No, yeah, right, okay, maybe yeah, give up cave.
You're rolling around on the floor, yep. But are am I saying too
much stuff? No? Hey? Who cares? I mean, do you
think no one wants to hit a life life? Yeah? And I and
I don't think anybody wants to know how great your life is going? Yeah,
yeah, Hey, I'm paste waxing this marvelous old packard out in front
of my house this morning. Yeah. Yeah, you know you too.
I did that too. What a coincidence? Yeah, this marvelous old packard.
Yeah, and uh so. But I mean, no one wants to
hear about how great you're doing. I think it's more interesting to know that
you were teetering. Yeah, no, that you made it through that damn
talk. Yes, oh yeah, yeah, because everybody has him yep.
You know, boy, I know, I sure have trials and tribulations that
that makes us what and who we are. Yep. I'd be scared nowadays.
Yeah, I mean like, oh yeah, yeah, fentonel And how
do you know if you're even getting it somebody? Yeah, come by and
go into your coffee. Yeah, Hey, I don't feel so good.
Yeah, all of a sudden, you gave me this coffee, didn't Yeah,
good night, everybody. Brendan has a question for you, guys.
Okay, I was just wondering, Billy, who was it that helped you
realize you were on the wrong path and you know, help stee you in
the right direction. Is there anyone in particular that you may want to give
a mention to UM. I guess it was the combined efforts of them,
the counselors at a place called Appleton House. It was in Belmont. It
was basically a nuthouse, but they they took care of people that you know,
you had to go in and they give you a lithium and you hadn't
slept. Being passed out is not sleep. You could spend years just passing
out and having never slept, do you know what I mean? You're just
like a walking dead. And so I had my first real night's sleep and
they had great food, and I said, you know, welcome back to
life. I was like going, why can't I just stay like this?
Why it was the depression that was driving me. But you know, like
I said, it's a combined effort of people that gave you advice and everything.
I spoke to a rabbi once on you know, you could talk to
different people, and on that little campus where I was, and the rabbi
I came in and I said, you know, I don't know the route
of my problem. I just know that I had a real hard time with
my old man. And I said, you know something, it dawned on
me. I hate him I think I hate him, And the guy wisely
looked at me and said, did it never occurred to you that he may
have hated you? And I said, no, it didn't. And it
sort of made sense suddenly that this guy wasn't ready to have a son.
He was a perennial team and he never stopped being eighteen oh and he was
he had psychosis and his mother fed him up. So it's like there's this
mental weird illness on both sides of the family, but alcohol sure brought it
out. Yeah, the Irish side and the German side, and um yeah.
It was going to Ireland that made me realize what would being Irish was.
It's not like I'm going to How can I go to Ireland and not
visit a pub? Yeah? How how was that? What you? Well?
This was like this was not that long ago. I got Irish citizenship.
My grandmother was born there and so Ireland made overtures to anybody who had
lineage, and my grandmother was born there in nineteen oh four. I should
have done that. You can still do it. I have a certificate of
citizenship. Need a reason I couldn't, Well, you might either a year
or two. I don't know what's going to happen around these parts. But
um, but anyway, I go over there, and I got to go
to this hall of records in a town called ross Common. And this guy's
driving me and he's giving me a little rundown on what Dublin was about.
You see this river here when I go, yeah, that's the Dublin River
and it splits the city right in half. I said, don't tell me
both sides are at war with each other. And he goes, no,
no, no, something like that. Yeah, but he said, the
Vikings came here and they came right up this river. And he he's there's
a corner, a corner where with like you know, a shop and road
signs, and he goes, and they got out right there, you know
ship. Oh yeah, let's get the Irish. Um. So, you
know, little tales like that were interesting. And he said, what brings
you here? And I said, well, I'm a citizen now I got
dual citizenship. He said, welcome home. I said, um, you
know, I'm I'm I'm thrilled. I'm just gonna see what's going on and
I want to walk around Dublin. And he said, well, there's one
thing you gotta know you before you get it. You gotta have the sweater.
Yeah, you gotta have Irish coffee. You don't have to have booze
in it. We don't. We don't ever run like that anymore. Otherwise
I wouldn't have a me job, you know. So he said, well,
the first thing you should know is that the Irish Army is the only
army in the world that takes a lunch break. And I said, really,
he goes, so don't go attack on us between one and two in
the afternoon. Ask you love that, lord, I love it. I
used to have those. Yes, oh my ashes, Billy Connolly, boh
yeah, oh god, yeah, that's good stuff. Yep, Billy.
Can I ask who are some of your favorite comedians? My favorite comedians?
That's interesting question. Um. The first televised image I ever remember seeing was
in the nineteen fifties. My mom let me stay up and watch your Show
of Shows, which was um sid Caesar. He was a great performer.
He was just like a dynamo doing dialects and um, you know, he
could act. He was our Steve Allen show or your Show of Shows.
It was your Show of Shows. Had Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Imogene
Coca, and then later a woman named Nanette Fabrey. But Sid Caesar was
doing amazing stuff. And then I read his book that he was a mess
the whole time. They'd get out of that theater and it was like doing
a Broadway play every week with no que cards. They had to put on
a ninety minute show minutes like every Saturday night, and you had to go
off the air right when it was cut off time of the sketch. Yeah,
yeah, snippet. So um, I do remember seeing that tons of
pressure. But I was enamored with what this guy was doing and he really
lit the fuse for me. Um, long story short, um Jonathan Winter
after him when I got a load of that comedian Jonathan Winners, who used
to do noises and voices and come up personalities, used to pull him out
of his rear end and he never had material per se. He would you
could just go, oh yeah, you could just look at him and go
expecting bad weather, admiral you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
know yeah. I did a lot of shows with him, and uh he
was on the Adams Family and I was lurch because I'm so tall and uh,
and Rip Taylor was uncle Fester. Oh wow, And I always I
got him right over there. I was gonna go grab him, but I
thought, no, I'll be tempted, and I'll start annoying people with trump
sticks because you know I always bring drumsticks. I don't know why, ye
And uh. And so I was there and Rip Taylor says, handed him
a stick, just one. And I said, oh, okay, here,
Jonathan, here's a stick. And he goes, oh, ka,
must get two foot, must born corporal. You know, I think he
was wait, what's that? Don't god? I got him here, put
this away, you know. Um. He was beautiful. He was so
beautiful. He was willing to just you know. He took us on a
tour of his house because we did a movie. I did a movie with
Mark Hamill, Jess Harnell and Tom Kenney and a lot of voice people were
in. You're in the tail end of it, and um, we got
to go out to Jonathan Winner's house in Montecito. Oh boy, that was
We're going to film a segment in there. And uh and I played this
this kind of shlub guy who works in a factory. And and it turns
out that my uncle created my great uncle created two famous superhero characters. So
all of a sudden, I'm thrown into this comic book world. And and
Mark plays this impresario named Don Swan Yes, Donald Yes, And um so
here here I am in the living room and the cameras a role in.
Jonathan Winners and Sid Caesar my two absolute heroes. And I was like,
you know that talking Head song, and you met find yourself shooting next to
Johnathan Winners. My god, how do I work this? Yeah? Yeah,
you know, and um you ask yourself, You ask yourself, what
am I doing here? Yeah? What am I doing? Next? Caesar?
Yeah? Jonathan Winners? So um so they we were, you know,
we just got it off out of nowhere. They started in and they
said, I don't even know. We were young guys, and you know
we were at war. War was hell, and he was he was waxing
poetic about the war. And he said, when they told you to fire
a torpedo, you got a fire torpedo, or if you didn't have one,
you went out that shoot, and and you know, just crazy stuff.
And Sid Caesar's doing German. He's yelling in German like a German boat.
You boat commander, And I said, look, look, this stuff
is all great and everything, but you guys got to get out of the
way, you know. I mean, I have a right to my grant,
my grandfather's um, you know, creations. I don't care that he
created it while you guys were around. No, he didn't create anything.
We were the ones that wrote it. And I said, oh, it's
fine. Well, you know what, it don't matter because now is now
and I'm here, I am trying to improvise with the two greatest guys that
wrote the book. Yeah, and I just said, I'm gonna cut this
short. And I just went, so, here's my advice to both you.
You better just roll out of the way because the circus is coming to
town. Whoa, that's out of good. So that's pretty good. So
Jonathan Winners goes, I W I went too, you're gonna be rolling out
of the way. La la, he's out of his mind. Yeah,
he's an idiot. You're an idiot. Yeah, just ripping me up.
Yeah, God, that's so nice to say, though, Oh yeah it
was. It was. I was totally dissed by Jonathan and Winners. Oh
good night, everybody. Sorry to hear that. Yeah, yeah, that's
great. Those guys had serious problems too. Sid was raging alcoholic when they
used to leave that Admiral Theater on the end of Saturday night and they're wrapping
up everything and they'd go to Umning Tout Shores or oh yeah, that's that's
the Watering Hall of Broadway. Yeah and um or they go to Leo Lindy's.
It was an eatery that was open all night long and they had cheesecake.
But they were famous for their food. And Carl Reiner and Sid Caesar
and Howard Morris and uh Mel Tolkien and Larry Gelbard, Woody Allen and Mel
Brooks, they all go to eat and Sid, right in the middle of
eating this dinner would just go down in his plate. Oh wow. And
it was the other expression probably know what I mean. They they said that
they couldn't like let people see that because he was the biggest star in television
back then. Yeah, he had a phone in his car in nineteen fifty
two. He told me he had a phone. It was on the police
band. We had. We had a car, but not a phone in
nineteen fifty two, right, So that's so wow. So he went facedown
and they decided to turn it into a bit you know, like trying to
talk to him and everybody riffing and that because they wanted to keep it out
of the papers. Oh wow. Yeah. It was just things were really
different, man. It was like, if something like that came out,
you'd get the network. Now, they'd make t shirts. Yeah, now
it would. Yeah, you could run for president after you fell in your
plate of food. Yeah, good man. Yeah, try the veal.
Oh god, that's painful. Uh, heroes. Here at the full figure
discat network. We produced it twenty hours of podcasts each month, covering the
greatest shows of the nineties, including The Simpsons, South Park, King of
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Discount Network Links earned a description of this podcast. Okay, so that
was back in New York. He were obviously, you know, I'm Beanie
Cecil. But with the first big cartoon that you did, hear what came
first rented? Stimpy Rent and Stimpy came up after Beanie and Cecil because I
hadn't moved to New York yet and my friend Andy Paley, a musician that
I came up with in Boston. He met the Clampett family and the mother,
the wife Bob Clampet's wife, Soldy, and his daughter and his son.
They were going to revive the show, so which I was a part
of. But that's how I met John Chris Feluci. He was an animator
on Beanie and Cecil, and you know, it got a load of him
and it was like the show went for five or six episodes and then the
plug got pulled, you know, and I said, well, so there's
my big career. You know, I don't know what to do now.
And it turned out to be John K's calling card. You know. It's
like six episodes in and like getting a laser sight boom, blow off my
own foot. He was self destructive. Wow, I mean just and um
you know, so he got fired from Renn and Stimpy. But but that's
how I got that job, as he created that show with a few of
his cohorts him. We did four seasons and and uh the first two seasons
were him doing wren when I was doing Stimpson. Jay kat which is coming
back. Yeah, yeah, they're bringing it back. Plus. Wow,
that's cool. Yeah, kitching, let's do it. You ought to come
by there and show them your wares. Yeah, show my wife. Oh,
I see what you mean your underwear. But serially, okay, I
don't know. I mean, I just um, do you know Deborah Wilson,
she's a new but she's not that new. She's she's older, but
she is a killer. There's Wally Wally. She's Karen on a TV show
in the sixties. Probably she's a girl. She's a dream. She's an
ever loving teen and Karen is her name. Um. She she she sets
her hair with great precision. It's her favorite indoor sport. And by the
light of television, she can't even do a book report was the Beach Boys.
Oh wow, that's amazing. I almost remember that. We probably didn't
get that station. I don't know that. We had rabbit ears. Well
I had those with with aluminum foil on luminum foil. Yeah, we're nutty.
We thought we could just get good TV reception by a little It worked
a little bit, but nothing was hooked up. Everything was like you you
were getting your signal from a local station. And that they didn't have a
big signal. You were looking at basically pixels, Yeah, protons. Yeah.
WFMJ was good. When I was at my grandmother's house. Where were
you on in Ohio? Youngstown? We had three stations. So you're a
Midwestern boy and I am too. I was wanted Detroit. Yeah. Yeah,
it's really good to be from Youngstown because you have to leave in order
to be from there. Hey, you know I did that everywhere. Yeah,
that's true with everywhere. Yeah, um, I Detroit is no more.
I mean there's not much, not much left to it. Did you
ever do a convention there? Motor City? Oh yeah, maybe a long
time, long time ago. That's where there's only the only life left that
skyscrapers are empty. But you know something though, every city kind of followed
suit to this day because of COVID and people weren't going to work. And
then I wish I had invested in Zoom at that time. Oh yeah,
what you said. So skyscrapers and office buildings are basically knowing in them,
and there's all this real estate, so they're gonna have to turn it into
housing, you know, for apartments or dwellings or condos, they're gonna have
to because all these edifices, you know, and it's like, whoa,
you wouldn't want to be stuck with that rent no owning that that'd be good.
Well turn it into homeless shelters for people who are homeless, will make
lots of money. No, no, no, no with me. I
know this is this is my landlord. You buck or I'll touch you.
I know that. Dude. I can't believe we both rented from him.
That's guys. How amazing is it that these shows that you know, you
worked on twenty five thirty years ago, I've just now been rebooted and you've
got a new lease on life. You know, it's almost lucky. Careers
have a new resurgence. It's it's it's crazy, and Futurama is bad after
yeah, look at that. After that. So it's like I was ready
to retire. I cashed in my social Security and my pensions and everything.
Well you do that still work? Yeah, that's what I did. Well,
I know, but I didn't really know that. And then I said,
you know what, that's what I'm gonna do because I don't know which
sea suckers in Congress are gonna go after my uh social security right now,
I said, I'm not gonna what. They lick their chops over stuff,
so um yeah, so rent and stimpy, I said, okay, And
I'm screaming and yelling like thirty one years ago and I can still kind of
do it, you know, but it's the recovery time is a little longer,
yeah, because you're just flat out screaming. And I said, you
better keep a paramedic in the lobby because I'm seventy one. Now. Yeah,
I was, you know, calling people an idiot. Yeah, really,
I shall kill you. It was crazy. Yes, that's good.
Yeah, both love you. It was like the best of Peter Laurie.
Uh yeah. And Wren was a Chihuahua, so sometimes he sounded south of
the border, yes, and then many didn't. It was an amalgam of
actual It was like Kirk Douglas, you know, criminals. Yeah, it
was like lots of stuff all rolled into one. Uh huh, and it's
uh, well, those the best characters. Yeah. Yeah. John gave
me a tape originally of all these different guys. Burrol lives, shoot,
that's Julia. Shoot. But you wouldn't believe me living de blul that's all
I can remember. Well, he was. He was intense. He was
a cat on a hot tin roof. I think he's a big daddy,
like a circus act. He was intense. But seriously, wait a minute,
that's a circus term. Yeah, I think so, what is it?
Wait? Tense? He was like a circus act. Okay, was
intense. But I'll be right with everybody. I'll be back in a moment,
back in Burbank, California, the moos and squirrel on the corner of
Pico and Sepulvida where nobody's dream comes true. That's right, seple Vida,
seple vida in Las Sianaga. When I first came here, I said,
even, I know what that means. That means the Sienaga. That's true.
Yeah, oh yeah, but he doesn't like boys. No, I
get used to it. Oh man, they're okay now that we've ruined everything,
we've ruined everything. Yeah. But but from from there you did four
seasons. I thought it was like two. No, it was four.
That's pretty good. Yeah, it was pretty good. And now how many
have you been picked up for? Now? I think we're doing twenty episodes.
Wow, So who knows if they're going to continue it. It would
be nice if they did, but I gotta I'm seeing a voice specialist.
A while back. Jess used to go to this guy named Gary Katona who
was a voice builder. You know when rock groups came to town and the
lead singer was like meat, Oh yeah, he could get a voice out
of him by doing a few of these exercises. Because you're you exercise.
I never knew much about what was going on. I'm gone to one or
two of those over the years, but I didn't. I never cared.
I had magical thinking. I just said, you know, I don't know
what I'm doing so and it working, so what do I care. And
if you don't exercise the muscles around your throat um, they don't usually get
a lot of exercise. So there's certain exercises you can do. But it
protects the throat against you know, battle fatigue, arm slought, you know.
And you know what I do. I used to do. I would
get one of these, see it's a little bottle of water and get three
Ricola cough drops, yeah, and put them in there and then just slowly
drink them throughout the session and it would get warm. It wasn't hot,
it wasn't cold room temperature, and I would just slowly drink, do a
little gargle, swallow and saltwater. The reason i'm sort of I'm smirking is
because you didn't give me that advice once I did, But Nope. Regarding
a particular fellow, oh who came to town once, he fancied himself a
voice guy. Oh, and um, I know you're gonna say. And
this guy was new and he said, so you do ran and stumpy,
I go, yeah, how did that go? And I said, well,
it's really rough and you know, no, no, no, no,
how did that go? He wanted me to show it. In other
words, he wanted to steal my soul. Yeah, and he did this
to me in front and B J. Ward was there and it was a
scoopy. I've got a poster here somewhere, Zombie Island. Zombie Island,
and uh, there's a man named Frank Walker who is like he might as
well have his own, you know, a monument daddy. He's he's it.
Everybody loves Frank Walker. Not only is it the most talented guy,
he's been around forever. He was in an Elvis movie Yep, you heard
me. Yep. He was in an Elvis movie. Damn it. He
has controlled terrible movie, but he was great and he was in it.
Yep on camera. I don't know if I'm getting through to you. He
was in an Elvis movie. Mess with him, all right, you don't
mess with him. And we love this guy and he can he has control
over every chamber in his body. Yeah, to make sounds and noises.
Yeah, I mean it's uncanny. And he was Coujo uh the movie Coujoe.
Yeah, he was Coo. Or anytime a dog comes walking into a
scene and decides to act real friendly and make friendly noises, that's he made
the sounds of them. Yes, he was the dog. He was Coujo.
Yeah. And every time any given monster you wanted to hear any Let's
say, okay, you say to Frank, your casting director, Frank,
we need a Martian dinosaur. Frank would say what side of town see exactly,
and he'd give you that. Dude. You go, oh my god,
that's that's. I mean. We know a couple of little tricks here
and there, like you know, the old guys in the thirties would to
do a bear. But this never run. Oh yeah, that was Frank
could just like it would come roaring up from the depths. Oh yeah,
Dante in front of Yeah, we're talking the other day. The first time
I ever met him, it was at Hannah Barbara and it was a Scooby
Doo. It was just a you know, and I was a you know,
grimy Man number three or something, you know, or baggage. No,
no, it was just this regular old stupid cartoon, you know,
fourteen minute quarter. And um, and I'm sitting here and Rob Paulson's here,
and bj Ward's there, and we're also there's Frank. Frank was like
five feet in front of me, and um, and then Andrea Romana was
the director, and she goes and and then um, and then the lion
the tiger jumped down out of the tree and roared and you hear this,
and and I just froze and I felt the tiger, and I I peed
a little bit. Okay, fine, fine, are you happy I'm minting.
I'm admitting that a bad man. I pete a little bit because it
was a god damn tiger in the room. And and then I look up
and it was only Frank. I stopped peeing. So that was good,
you know, and I realized that and then he's turned. It turns out
he's the nicest guy you can imagine. And here's this suck butt sitting up
there going well, you know, And it was the it was the first
I don't know, I think it was the first Scooby doing maybe twenty or
fifty years or something. Twenty years was made for home release. Yeah,
I made for home videos, and you played like Cajun yeah necks and yeah,
yeah, yeah, looking for treasure and wanted to kill people, wanted
to kill people and um and I ended up wanting to kill that dude.
And I was doing Shaggy and so they hired him to Scooby Doo, and
um, here he was lobbying for everybody's job. You know. He was
like touretting out voices during the breaks and yeah, and um, well I
don't I won't get that far into the story. But anyway, he wanted
to know like where you stood. Oh yeah, you know, like is
he happening with this with Disney? And you know, because he wanted to
do Winnie the Pooh oh and um and so by the way, so I
get on the horn, you know, and I call my good friend Jim
Cummings, and I said, you know, there's this small Yeah, you
know, I don't mind saying it, because I mean, he had a
goddamn nerve and there's only one there's in our business. Really, they're really
a holes are few and far between. Thank all, gentlemen. Every guy
I know is a real gentleman. And yeah, thank god. Um but
but except for Rob Paulson. Yeah really jes so fastl wicking, mercurial,
and I don't like that ship those qualities in a person. I hate that,
especially if he's competing with me. Now, we're great, He's a
great guy. No, And the thing is we're not like, you know,
like competitive, we're not athletes like you know, I've got to drive,
I've got to go one more the distance. No. They walk into
a studio full of these brilliant people and you say, I better be on
my toes today, you know, because everybody is up in the game,
and the same tide raises all boats. If you're with great people, you
just kind of the energy types. So um So, anyway, you said,
well, I'm gonna call him up, or if I run into him'm
gonna give him some advice, because didn't you say something like to you like,
yeah, so how do you Yeah, how's that go? How's that
going? I go pretty well, scream into a pillow. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, and yeah. And he asked me how I get that soft
rasp right on Winnie the Pooh's voice, and I said, you don't want
to know. I go, no, dude, seriously, I'm I mean,
I'm gonna do it. I want to do you. I mean I
want I'm gonna do tager and I'm gonna sitting right there telling me to my
face. And I said, uh, okay, you man. When I
write this down, first to get a pillow. What a pillow? Use
a thick one. Now, you don't want to do it on your way
into the studio. This is all the night before, then a refresher course
at breakfast. Now you get in there and you hold that pillow up and
you take a deep breath and you go, you know, and you just
shred that voice. You mean, at the top of my lungs. Yes,
at the top of your little bitty legs. Okay, and then howl
like a monkey and do your best Tyrannosaurus rex impression backwards Cynosaurus riz and repeat
and and do that for about an hour and a half. CORRECTI band,
got it? Oh wait a minute, don't forget your tea with a little
bit of lemon, not too much, and some Belladonna, just some some
some Macure cross yes, and guard and go get him tigger. Yep,
I remember that. You call up mister Disney in the morning and tell him.
I said, you tell him I'm tired. Yeah, you know,
nerve, Yeah, the nerve. Anyway, there was only one of these
guys, and I'm not gonna tell you his name. It was Scott.
Anyway, Um, I'm done. Oh hi is this are these on?
These are on? Aren't they are? Okay? So speakers and listen.
That's a dulcet tones of two guys that have been around the block to the
dulcemer tones a couple of times, been around the block a couple of times.
You know. Yeah, Well just you SiGe, somebody up across from
me, and you just play them like a piano, you know what I
mean? That's right, said bones, like a finally toned fiddle. With
the Futurama revival, Billy, they've brought back the original cost but have they
brought back the original Rods as well. Futurama has a lot a lot of
the original writers, but again because of the COVID, everything's on zoom now,
Like I see the writers and I see the director, and it's like
it's like when you watch the Brady Bunch opening squares and there's one person in
every square. I hate the story of a greedy producer. Yeah. Yeah,
there's no reason for it now. I don't think. I don't think
for for like sept if here in California apparently, Well, because when you
travel, nobody else is coviding. No, nope, Um, but you
can. You can work from anywhere in what we do, you really can.
I mean I'm sure you have. You brought a set up on the
road with you a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not crazy
about it. I like being in the room with people. I like an
engineer. M yeah, because yeah, because I don't like being the engineer.
No. I don't like to turn it over. No, if I
touch anything, it's a childhood thing. It's like if I mess with anything,
I'll render it unusable. You know, I'm lucky that the phone still
works because I had that, you know, the Mighta's Touch of Gold I
had the touch of shit. All I had to do was touch something and
to be cracked or broken or yeah. Yeah, it's just I you know,
it's autism. I'm on the autism spectrum. And I can't tie my
shoes. That's why I've got these sandals on. I can't tie a necktie.
But asked me to do a fucking friend dresser impression. That's autism.
Yeah, oh my god, there's a reference for you. Yeah, while
we're on the subject of a futurama, you just came from recording today,
right, No, No, I was gonna work today, but I but
I was flying in across the country last night and it got to be so
late because there was flights were late, and I said, I don't want
to show up at a gig, you know, if if they can cancel
it in time, which I did, get the word and I lobbed it
in in time, so they could, you know, just rearrange. Yeah,
yeah, I never do that though. I'm like I got immigrant mentality.
You know, it's like coming to goddamn work till they tell me don't
come in anymore. Just said old Irish thing. It's like, you know,
you had a chance to work for eighteen hours a day and you didn't
do it? Yeah, what do you schmuck? You know? Yeah?
Yeah, well I have a I always say I have a blue collar mindset
toward a no coller career, you know, because how many times have I
worked in T shirts? You know? Plenty? Sure, you know,
but that's like, um, a lot of the old guys in New York
were like that. Jackson Beck was running around which Bermuda shorts, Bermuda shorts
and a T shirt and he was in a Woody Allen movie and we're doing
a political commercial and we gotta we gotta get the voice, the voice,
who's the voice? And Jackson Beck comes in and then he's he does his
thing. He goes call me when you need me, you know. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't matter
if it's you know, um, fruit roll ups yeah, or Thompson's water
Seal or Little Caesars, A little Caesars you can get a crazy eight topping
tops. Oh god, let's bringing back memories. I know. It's like
he was so he was so nice to me. That's good. And this
was guy was a living legend. Yeah yeah, not many of those And
now we're like, I see young people and it's like, oh yeah,
I am I venerable? Yeah are you sure? Oh okay, yeah,
you know when it's better than that? What's what? What? Yeah?
You would think? You know. I always like it when you're at a
convention and some fifty year old guy walks up and I, way, he's
older than me, and no, he's not. Nobody's older than me anymore,
you know, and and and then he goes, yeah, you know,
I uh, we just had a fiftieth birthday for me. And I'll
tell you what, dark wig duck Man that that's my boy right there,
and we agg I'm in Darkwing duck Cake, and I think, you old
fart, I'm that much older than you, that you you were a child.
Great, and that brings you right down. You're right down to earth,
you know what, right down. Bless these people. I love doing
the intentions. I love talking everybody because most of them kind of are on
the spectrum one way or another. And that's that was what geeks were.
I was a geek, you know. I collected comic books and me and
my friend had him and the other the hard guys didn't want to know from
comic books. They will kick your ass. If you were any different,
they'd circle the wagons. And I can't believe I don't have a few sitting
right here anyway, go ahead, So um, so these guys um,
you know, and like if they were conventions back then, I up and
left join the circus. Oh yeah, you know. So so now people
are coming in, and there's voice people that want to do what we do,
and I always tell them we're saving a seat for you, you know,
I just you got to say something encouraging. There's people that come up
with horrible impressions and it doesn't matter because I love these these kids. They
know more about you than you do. Boy, yeah, you're not kidding.
And and so there isn't a narcissist within twenty miles of one of these
shows. These people are empaths, they're sensitive. Yeah, and a lot
of them have unbelievable talent. Like I've seen drawings where this kind of unassuming
kid came up and he wasn't sure, you know, he was kind of
looking down and I drew something for you, and I was like what,
Yeah, Yeah, it's really unbelievable. It's it's a it's a blessing.
Some of these kids. And yeah, there's so many kids that are on
the spectrum. And and it seems, and I've developed this mini philosophy over
the over the years that when if somebody glombs on to one of your voice,
it's it gives them a bit of a life raft, doesn't it.
It's almost it gives them something to hold on to, something to cherish.
It's something. It's a safe place. And that makes me feel crazy.
My safe place is when I started out. Because you're not sure who and
what you are, so you you take a couple of prototypes, Like there
were guys like DAWs Butler who did hand a barbar of voices and Don Masska
and if you could do some of those voices that they did, um,
you you had the basis of where to go. You had a vehicle to
sit in for a while, like a golf cart. Yeah, like quick
Draw mc graw, right, boy, oh quick straw? Yeah yeah.
And that wasn't he my that was but yeah And he was Elroy Jetson Yeah
yeah, um he was Yogi Bear. Yeah. You gotta admit, I'm
smarter than the average bat. Yeah yeah, and you yeah, like an
idiot the back of hand um and these guys. So if you could,
you had your little gallery of heroes, that was your fortress that you could
cling to. But then when you got out in the real world, you
realize, no one's gonna hire you to do Yogi Bear, no one,
no one wants. You know, if your plumber number six, you can't
make them sound like the ranger from Jellystone Park. Yeah, you had to
do variations of stuff that you felt like, you said a life raft.
Stuff that that sang to you, meant something to you, and you say,
I want to just bring something to the table. I got that immediately.
Yeah, you wanted to just bring something to the craft. Yeah,
badly. And now you know when celebrities they stunt cast and they bring in
celebrities. Some of them, some of them are okay, but for the
most part, why are they some of them not? Some of them are
is just so anemic and you don't know how on earth somebody paid somebody twenty
million dollars to come in there. They're not all Robin Williams no or Eddie
Murphy or Murphy or Chris Rock. Yes, and so um, I always
had a real problem with that. And uh, there's an actor he's not
with us anymore. Tony ja He played Jaffar and he was a very you
know, really very British. Well he wasn't Jaffar, he was Oh who
was he? He was um, oh god Dom Claude Frolough in Hunchback.
Oh right, that was his big complaint that he wasn't a mega hit.
After that, Jaffar was, Oh gosh, I forget a British a British
feather another one, but son foreigner, you know, Tony Jum heard he
read articles where I just went off and I said, I don't get this
celebrity voice thing. I mean, someday these people aren't gonna be famous,
and that you're gonna you're gonna watch something and you're gonna go, who who
who is that Brad Pitt? Who gives a shit? What he sounds like?
Yeah, you know you look at him. Yeah, that's what you
do. Well he was sin bad, was he? Yeah? I was
in that Oh okay, and he was yeah, speaking of I mean,
it's a perfect example because he's just whoa. All right, I'll go I'll
go get you know, if you want me to bring back what was it
the treasure? All right, I'll go and get the treasure. Brad Pitt,
Lady Brad Pitt. You know the man voice, the MANI voice,
But we came up cutting our teeth on, you know, whatever anybody threw
at you. You want. You wanted to be an objective fulfillment machine.
You know, like Jimmy said earlier, can you do and ask him all
like you know, falling down a hill and bopping and yeah and yes,
because because you you want, you wanted to get those you were fighting for
your life every day was like that. You go out there. Yeah,
you you can get confident in everything. But I really worried about stuff.
I used to think long and hard, you know, before I opened my
mouth, especially on the show like Futurama. Oh no pressure. They've shown
me photos, pictures of the characters and it's only Matt graining, you know,
And I was like, oh my god, you know, and I
went with my guts on all these pictures, which is the best way to
go? Yeah, the best stinks. I like that, you know,
but you know, and um, there was this Zoidberg character and he's portly
and sometimes for laughs you could play against type. You might give him like
a high a ninny voice, but it wasn't. It's he was Zoidberg.
And I said, well, he's from some Jewish planet or something, you
know, he's from here, and we're waiting for him, you know that.
Yes, And he had all this cool meat hanging off his face because
he was like a crustacean, and and I thought, well, he would
have he would have some sort of impairment. And the first two guys I
thought about were George Jessel from Vaudeville, who used to say, you know
the definition of a smartass a fellow like sid on an ice cream calling and
tell you what flavor it is. And then there was Luji Kolbi from Yiddish
theater. Oh yeah, leaned into Arthur and said, what's it like?
All of that money, you know? And so I think there's the two
of them. Yeah, and Super collided him. However you want to call
it that, And that's was Zoidberg. It was a perfect fit. And
it wasn't like you were imitating anybody in particular. You were you were doing
alchemy kind of yeah, absolutely, yeah. And they used to hire us,
you know, producers used to have a lead bar are on the table
and you'd come in. They say listen, we got a we got a
problem. We gotta lead bar on the table. Can you turn it to
gold? Yeah and boom you would do it. Yeah, alchemy because you
have something has to change. I can't come in and just be Billy West
and be Billy West all over the place and and then some because no one
cares. But if you do some sort of transfiguring, uh, you know,
trans trans modern profication, I can something with transcend it. Yeah,
but it's alchemy. There's where magic comes from. Everybody says, how come
there's no you know, magical voices because celebrities aren't known for magical voices.
Only a couple. Um, but I'm curious where. I'm curious where fry
comes from, because fried, to me, sounds pretty close to your Now.
That was That was me when I was twenty five years old. I
was on the spot and I said, I gotta come up with like a
kid, a twenty five year old, And I said, Jesus, and
I wanted it to smack of truth reality. I didn't want to put on.
So when I was twenty five, I was all whiny and nasally and
complaining, not unlike now, except my voice is lower. Um. But
I would, but I'd be like, I'd break a string. Oh shit,
I broke a string. Now what am I gonna do? You know?
I was like yeah, yeah, and it's got that in there,
and it's like, greetings to the year three thousand. It still sucks.
And that was basically what I sounded like when I was twenty five, and
so I decided to use that voice for him. And and it just when
you're telling the truth, you're always um, you always hit a bull's eye
because somebody can relate to your truth. Yeah yeah, yeah, someone,
It'll it'll ring true to people and they'll go that that doesn't sound like a
put on it. I'm not being had here, yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
And you know, sometime when it comes up to characters and voices,
uh, I have a mini philosophy that if you do a perfect impression of
somebody that nobody knows, that's a new character. Yes. And if you
do a terrible impression of somebody everybody knows you're you're doing William Shatner and they
think it's Boris Karloff, Yeah, that's you got a new character. You
got a new character. Yeah, that's a um. A sentiment shared by
a lot of people. Jess Harney all talks about that. Um, when
they wanted me to do Richard Nixon and UM, and I said, I
you know, that's the thing about doing a perfect impression. Who the hell
cares? You know. Yeah, it's gotta it's gotta have a thought of
that. It's gotta be funny in some weird way, and you gotta throw
a curveball into it for it to make a mark. Yeah, otherwise you
just you know, I don't want to say you're just rich little rich little
is great, but but the impressions is not where you want to go.
So Nixon, yeah, you don't want to be Sparrow Agnew. No that
we have him. It's the headless body of Spiro agne Art. So anyway,
I I thought about Nixon, and I remember, UM, when I
was a little kid, Nixon and John F. Kennedy they were running for
president, and John F. Kennedy just looked beautiful. He looked like a
game show host, you know. He had that buttered toast hair and a
ultra bright smile. And Nixon, on the other hand, looked like a
sweathle. Yeah, always coming in and he would have his hair was matted
and everything, and they did extreme close ups of him because that's what Kennedy's
people wanted to do, yeah, because it was like grotesque and Kennedy again,
he looked like a mattinee Idol. And so I want to be president
of the United and I'm watching him with my mom and he was like,
he was like there was a tug of war going on in his head.
And I said, Mom, he looks like he's going to turn into a
werewolf because I was into horror movies and it was like Larry tall Butt,
you know. Yeah, but he did wait until he got off camera,
right, Yeah, whatever you know, whatever happens, whatever noises you hear
in this room, don't let me out after midnight, you know, because
it would turn into a werewolf. And I thought, I just kept thinking
about that, and I said, what if I play him like a guy
that's on the verge of turning into a werewolf? And it was like,
I want to be personally in because RU. Yeah, yeah, because that's
what that's in comic books. That's how it's written that r U. And
that's what became Nixon. And there's a lot of people that Nixon sounded like
they don't sound anything like Nixon. Yeah, oh that's perfect, but you
but you gotta, you know, put some kind of signature on it,
because if if somebody's doing Nixon impressions and they go a row, they'll say,
well, no, he's doing Billy, He's not doing Yeah. Yeah.
When you get the chance to voice Bugs Bunny, Billy, did you
want to make sure you stay true to mel Blank's performance or did you want
to give that one you ain't spin as well? I tread like hell to
be faithful. But there's lots of things you can be faithful to, like
depending on the director, Like if it was a frizz freeling Bugs Bunny,
it was different from Um from Malampus yeah or um or some other what was
the other director there? Um, I forget um chucks um oh my tongue.
Yeah, there's Robert mckimpson, Chuck Jones, Chuck Jones, and and
you had to pick one to kind of be. You couldn't be everything and
um, so I went with a certain version of Bugs Bunny, which was
not so cutesy, a little bit irreverend, but I wanted to walk it
down the line, you know. But the thing is is you're trying to
replicate choices of the greatest guy to ever step in front of a Mike mel
blank and um, so I you know, I just played it like I'm
gonna just do what the director wants. Yeah, if he says if he
tells me to do something, and I'm not going to say, well,
bugs wouldn't say that, you know, because I'm not an artiste, right
and um you know and that And I thought the movie was really great and
I got to work with a lot of my friends. You did, Dazzy,
Yeah, that was he just came in and came out boom. That
was great. That was great. And we had some good people to work
with. The director Ivan rightman, Um hired me to do that. And
you know Ghosts or No Ghostbusters Daddy Shack Yeah, oh god yeah yeah yeah
yeah. He's no longer with us. Yeah, but he was great.
He was a great guy to work for. Um. Yeah, you can
you know, if you're gonna replicate characters, you've got to try to be
faithful. You can't just try to turn it into a new thing. I
don't believe in that, you know. If I mean, I think impressions
are great, and I'll do him if I'm any good at one. But
but I'd rather always create from the ground up, where you're in on it
with everybody else. Like the writer said, we were thinking of a this
or that, and the producer will go, how about if it was this?
And and you listen to everybody and you become part of the amalgam,
you know, just like I said earlier, bringing something to the table.
Yeah, ain't I a little stinker? That's that's weird? Can you give
me some laugh? Though? Dare you good? Goodbye? I love Eric
Bowsa. He's a new guy and he's a phenom. He's not so new.
He's been on the scene for a while, but he's like shooting like
a rocket. He's coming up and he does I think, I don't know,
it's just my opinion. I think he handles the characters better than anybody.
You know. Yeah, he's really good. I mean he does,
like everybody, Yeah, and he does. He's like Warner Brothers. The
brother really is and um and everybody said, aren't you gonna worry about a
guy like that? And I said, watched the last scene in Um.
Gentleman Jim. It was a movie in the forties. Gentleman Jim Corbett yeah,
I remember Harold Flynn and uh it was George Sullivan Bond. So John
L. Sullivan's the old timer, like an oak tree that used to stand
there and just throw punches, and he you could hit him, and he
was like a piece of iron. Gentleman Jim invented boxing. Yeah he was.
He was all over Yeah, John L. Sullivan like a thirty round
fight. And John L. Sullivan was the big man on campus and everything.
And here comes this guy out of nowhere and knocks him on his ass,
and and it's New Year's Eve and they're celebrating at Gentleman Jim's after the
fight. You know, he's got the he's got the world by the balls
suddenly. And then this old ward Bond shows up at his front door and
he's got a silk scarf on, and he got his belt, his his
world champion belt, and he hands it to him. You know, I
mean, you got to remember that the day is gonna come. Sure,
you know, that's just life, that's how it goes. Oh yeah,
yeah. It's not like I fancied myself of having a championship belt of any
kind. It's just like graciousness, yeah, being gracious Yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah, I know. I hate nothing but the best, nothing but
the best. You know, go for it. It's like I I'm I
root for anybody that's yeah, yeah, yeah, we're not real. This
isn't a real doggy dog and history or if if that's your mindset, yeah,
well it isn't for me. But but you're yeah, you have always
been like a relaxed um, very natural, and then you could put on
World War three at the snap of a finger, and that's what I admire.
Oh well thanks, yeah, you kidding me. Don't levis hang?
Levis hanging? I need to know some some gym Wild War three stories.
Man's never angry. I need to heed some Wild War three gym World War
three. Well, no, I don't know. No, he didn't mean
that kind of it's a you can go. I don't have a lot of
gearing up. We just did this thing the other day, but like eight
eight voices or eight characters, and I just turretted them out. I don't
My problem is all these psychoses and all these problems and neuroses that allow me
to do this. They're like this far under the surface. Yeah, it's
not like I have to go deep diving. That's what correct there, They're
like, get your back and call that. That's your your arms, yes,
um, and and you um had the ability to expand your bag of
tricks probably like like a motherfucker when you came to town. And that's why
everybody wanted some of that DNA of yours. Yeah, wow, that's good.
Yeah, maybe I've still got plenty and thank god we both do,
thank god. Yeah. I was ready to pull the plug, just go
fishing, you know, And then the phone started ringing, and I said,
I want to what you want to what? You know, screaming and
yelling again. Oh well, you know, sure, I mean lucky me.
Let's put it that out right. I don't feel like, you know,
come on, give me a break, you know, because I started
out wanting to work as many hours a day as I could, because,
like I said, my uncles were oh yeah, you know, they were
these blue collar attitudes, journeyman and they would sleep Some of these old Irish
guys in the forties and thirties would sleep in the doorway of work after so
they left the bar at night the way they'd be on time. They'd sleep
in the doorway and the foreman would come in and go get up. I
want to work and and and I looked at their rationale was like, I
didn't want to go home because I wouldn't make it to work. I want
going to lose my job, you know, I don't want to lose my
job. Yeah. Yeah. And they were tight lipped and they were hard
asked, and they had iron constitutions. Man. Yeah, well you know
that I'm a fan of you big time, and I love you. I
just love you, and I think you You've always been like a pace car.
You know. You gotta watch to go. That's how it's done.
Thanks man, you know, thank you very much. God bless you.
Billy West. Ladies, gentlemen, that was good. We're done. I'm
happy. I'm happy, and I'm so happy. Just the excuse to come
over and just shoot the ship with you is fine by me. Well,
thanks everybody. Yeah, I don't know, I'll look at one of these.
Hey, Jim Cummings here tuned in with Jim Cummings with Billy West for
cran out Loud. What else do you want? Subscribe? Yeah? Like,
hey guys, hey, guys, like push that button, like and
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me. We've got something anyway, have a good time. Thanks