How are you doing out there? It's me tigger, am dark waiting,
duck, It's me bunkers keep babcat. All right, y'all? Did it
rate your favorite firefly? You design? Hold the old knock. My name
is Jim Cummings and welcome to tune Jin. Welcome to tuned in with Jim
Cummings here on the four Finger Discount Network. I am Dana, joined right
now by producer Chris. Hey you doing, sir? Hello? Everyone good?
How are you doing? Going fantastic? And we also joined, of
course by the man, the Myth, the legend. He is mister Jim
Cummings. How are you, sir? Hello? And a good evening to
one and all. But wait, there's more. But wait, there is
more, and it's not one guy Davis, he's off checking on a holiday.
We're joined by someone who's fodio. Who is it? This is my
wife, Margaret, and she just so happens to be mother to Christopher.
How about that. It's a family affair. We won't call him mother.
Margaret? You no, no, no, how are you Margaret? I'm
good? Thanks? How are you good? You look nervous? Don't let
me know. Let's do this I'm excited to finally get you on the trust
me. She's shy, She's not. Anyone who's followed him on social media
knows that Margaret is definitely not a shy person at all, and for good
reason. So Margaret, you guys just got back. We're here to talk
about your trip down under. You just got back from Australia, but you
came here earlier in the year. How was the second trip round? Was
it it was an improvement? Was it just as good? How was it?
Well? From what I heard, we got the cold weather when we
went this time it was freezing it is our winning and raining. I think
it was one one celsius in Perth not good. When you're not from Australia,
you think Australia is always hot and in winter it's really not. Perth
is usually the warmest it gets. Perth is the warmest it gets in Australia
year round. How was it in Perth? Was it still cold in Perth?
Well, it was colder in Perth than it was in Sydney. And
in Perth it was rain. It was raining the whole time. We had
one day where it was sunny, but I mean we had our twoks or
beanies, whatever you want to call them on our big coats. Yeah,
so did you go to Australia or did you go to Alaska? Did you
get your trips confused? All? Yes, I think I could have been
Alabama. Well, when we got to the airport, all the flight attendants
were late coming in and so they were all getting on the plane along with
us because they were going off about that there was ice on the tarmac and
they were slipping in, sliding because they had to do something earlier, and
they couldn't believe it was cold, and it was like the cold has it's
ever been? And yeah, so we just got lucky, I guess.
Yeah, but I'm you know, I'm from Canada, so you used to
it was nothing. He was gone, where's the cold? It's not too
cold? What were you doing Chris whilst mummy and daddy we're over here in
a shy What were you doing? I heard you want a bit of a
right trip, ry bit of a road trip? Yeah, I went to
Nashville. It was more of a plane trip, okay, but yeah I've
met up with some old friends and yeah, reunite and had a good weekend.
I was I was living it up, living it up. Who lives
it up more? And who lives it up more? In the In the
household is Chris old? Is Margaret and Jim? Yes? Margaret and Jim
definitely? Oh, absolutely not? And Chris. Yeah, it's Jim and
Chris. I think it was you and your dad. How about there,
we'll get that out of the way. Fine, what's let's say if Jim
noses, what does Margaret's drink of choice? Jim, the ones that's near.
It has to be near. She likes wine, wine, okay,
any particular wine. Margaret, Well, I like red wine, red wine,
okay. Which was hard for me to figure out because in Australia,
every where we went on the menu was Australian wine. Yeah, so I
did not know that either that Australia produces quite a lot of wine, very
good wine. One of the restaurants we went to, I think it had
like forty five pages of wine from Australia from Australia. Right, did you
bring any home with you? No? No, I'm not that big of
a whiner. Favorite favorite was Koala. Surprise was her favorite. How was
the flight? Was it all right? Are you a good flyer? I?
Just leave it to the pilots. Yeah, I'm sure. The thing
is, I'm sure if you if you went up there and you know,
in Winnie the Poo voice said I would love a try, if I could
just take over for five minutes, They'll probably go, oh my god,
oh my god, oh my god, go for it. Oh my god,
oh my god, oh my god. Security. Yeah, probably probably
would happen. Have you ever fled the plan before? H let's see no,
no, I jumped off of Haleakala. Well, you know, halfway
down to see you the Premier in London for Christopher Robin. They gave Jim
a Winnie the Pooh bear to take home and that was the worst thing that
could have happened to us on the flight because we were up in first class
and it went all around that Jim was, you know, Jim Cummings and
Winnie the Pooh and every that had a crying baby on the back of the
plane would come up with the flight attendant and saying, oh do you mind
could you just give her a baby a little bit of Pooh? The next
thing you know that the stuffed animal was out permanently on the foot of the
bed and a baby would come up and Jim would be between the little poo
and some of them brought their own pooh. It was less than rewarding bathrooms
that way, Lady. Yeah, if we were trying to stick him up
in the overhead, but he was like a real special pooh, so he
didn't want to jam him up there with all the luggage and stuff. We
were hiding poo throughout the whole flight, trying to put him under the blankets
and the pillows. Yeah, thank god no one walked in in the middle
of this conversation. That would have a completely different connotation. But you must
love it though, right, You know that you can just bring joy into
Yeah, because I find to England with my wife with two small kids in
about four weeks time, and I am panicking because it's a twenty four hour
flight with a four year old where you are going to be. It's good,
It's gonna be a nightmare, but you know the fact that you know
the peoples only can you can you come with us? I need you there
too, right to keep my kids from crying as well. Oh gosh,
well, one word books on tape or so you know, yeah, here
here the headphones, honey, Well, we had a lot of luggage we
had, which Jim wasn't thrilled about because we brought Lulu with us as well.
She's a teenager, so you know how teenagers love their wardrobe. Teenagers.
So when we would get on and off the shuttles to transfer because we
went to Fiji in between, Jim would get like a little overwhelmed with all
of the luggage and he would start to get this face expression, and we
always tell him, Jim, you gotta watch your face. People know who
you are. Jim just stopped that with your face. And then he'd say,
well, you're you're governing me. All the bags are telling me what
to do. And then I'd said, Jim, Jim, people are going
to record you, and it's gonna be it's gonna be on the internet,
and it's gonna say Winnie the Poo gets mad at the airport in Sydney,
them record my hernia instead. Here tell it to my hernia, the true
Hollywood story. Oh yes. It suddenly put on like a normal face,
like wait, what, oh bother, we've got tonight's scandal. Whinnie the
Pooh yells at children, yes, oh God, or falls on the carousel
of the luggage because the bags were so heavy, or the wheels got broken
off and we'd have that was always fun. That's a tradition. Everywhere we
go we lose a wheel by wait wait, wait, go back. Did
you actually fall into carousel or was that just a joke? I hope that's
it? No, he did he fall? What? Yeah? I know
he falls on the might not have been there. Show him your hand.
No, it was the other gym. They're fine. There are we happy?
No? Yes, today, I'll never play piano again. He has
to do physical therapy for his fingers because he fell on the escalator. And
see how they're bent. No, that was they're not They don't go all
the way yep, I don't. Yeah, they matched my head. Oh
this is painful. Are we done yet? So did Jim pack anything?
It was a Jess, Margaret and your daughter. Yeah I packed them.
No, Jim. I could my nickname for Jim's suitcases the baby suitcase.
I say, why do you always have to pack that baby suitcase? Jim?
He could travel with one little bag and he would be fine, completely
fine. Two T shirts, three underwear. What we did see in Perth
was we went to the Perth zoo and we actually saw a real Tasmanian devil,
yes, wow, which we've never seen before. And it was wide
awaken, running all around, and you know, with Jim doing the TAS
voice, he was recording the Tasmanian running around and he was talking his Tas
and this woman did not appreciate it. And I was trying to get my
phone out to record her standing behind him listening to what he was doing,
which I'm sure you can give a sample. And he was talking to the
Tasmanian devil in Ta's voice. Yeah, while he was recording, and the
little guys he's in there running around pissed off at the air. You know,
nothing was going wrong and everything was perfect, and he had free food
he had I think there might have been a family in there with him,
wife and kids, and you know, I had a nice little hunch that
you know, And and I was doing that too, and the lady didn't.
I was underappreciated, let's put it that way. And Lulu was like,
Dad, you're embarrassing me. Dad, she doesn't know anything about Tasmanian
devil. Obviously, stop it, Dad, And so of course Jim just
did it more. Yeah, and he's called Tasi devil, as you may
well know. Yes, So, so did this woman say anything to you
or was she just sort of just but her faces were so obvious. Oh,
she was like a really disgusted looking at him like he had a problem,
and like how dare he make these terrible noises? And yeah, yeah,
where is this man's help out? What's going on here? Yeah?
I was mad she didn't want an autograph. I couldn't understand it. Yeah,
I'm right there. What are you gonna running to me next week?
And didn't get it. And every animal we saw, Jim had to create
a sound for the animals, even if they didn't sound like that, Like
he hasn't sounds for giraffes. Oh yeah, we need to hear this.
Oh well, I can't remember it now, but it sounded tall. Now,
it was a very tall sound, you know, a little dell there,
mind my wizard, you know, don't don't walk under there. Do
you have any pets, because we have a couple of pets and I put
I've created voices for my pets. Do you have pets and create voices for
them as well? Or that just a weird brendan, But no, I've
got some pet algae. Okay, that I that I've got it. No,
we have cats at this point. We used to have well we had
dogs, er and cats, dogs and cats and fish and yeah now we're
down to too many fish and too many cats because there's two of them.
But so you came to you came to Sydney first, you flew into Sydney
and yeah, actually had a trip in between, which we'll get to in
a moment. But you've already been to Sydney before there, right, this
isn't your first trip. I've been there a few times. Ye. Yeah,
yeah, it was my first trip. It was your first trip to
Sydney. Really, huh, I've never been. Wow, how'd you find?
Did you do all the touristy stuff? Did you go to the opera
house and the bridge and all that stuff? Yeah? We did. We
um, we did a lot of stuff. But you know, Jim was
doing a convention as well. Yeah. And with this convention they have Jim
obligated in the evenings to do meets with their VIP. Yeah. Yeah.
And then it was what was vivid? It was Vivid the light Oh yeah,
that was first of all, the light show in Sydney. So that
was amazing because they had like big, huge would they look like squids that
were all like kind of roaming down on the boardwalk of downtown Sydney with the
harbor is and then the drones would all come flying over across the bridge and
that went on. I guess it was going on for a couple of weeks,
but when we got there it was just about it was the last weekend,
so that was quite amazing to see that. Did you see all the
drones in the sky doing it like a light shot as well? It was
like drones that looks fantastic. Oh yeah, yeah. I was able to
shut down a couple of them, so it was okay. I I took
the precaution of bringing a sling shot, as you would, because you never
know exactly. You can't trust every drone you see. You can't. You
can't possess a gun in a shy, but you can't possess a sling shot.
So yeah, that's right. We went to the Shangri La Hotel because
it has a tower restaurant at the very top, and I just knew with
so much advertising on the plane with about this vivid, I said to Jim,
we've got to find someone where we can watch this, like from above
everywhere. And so we went over there and went up for an early dinner
because I think the light show started at five thirty or six. It gets
dark and yeah, yes, really dark. Yeah yeah, so um we
were able to see that one of the nights. But you know, the
conventions are really long and time consuming, and then you know, you're so
exhausted, and then Jim's doing all of the meeting and the greeting. And
what was funny was the convention was forty five minutes from the hotel, so
they had every every single talent all put on one bus, and so we
all loaded the bus and we were waiting on you know, the managers,
the handlers, the talent, everybody to get loaded on this bus and then
and then off we'd go and go to the convention. And then that bus
didn't leave till every single person was finished on the floor. So if somebody
had like a late photo up, we were waiting and it didn't matter.
Like Elyssa Milana was there and she had lines for days for her photos,
and so the bus would be just sitting with all of the rest of us.
You know, like the illustrator or the creator of teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
and your name. Everyone was super fans on there. Everyone was on there
and we're just like waiting and then you have to go into now the meet
and greet. So by the time we got back to the hotel, we
were lucky if we could even get dinner because a lot of places weren't taking
seating anymore. Yeah, Alyssa was hungry. I'm just envisioning you guys are
getting on this bus. You know, Jim breaking out in the wheels on
the bus go round and round. I set that to him in the morning.
You know, everyone's half asleep. And I got Jim and we sat
in the very front because I wanted like a big view of while we're driving
right forty five minutes of Sydney. Who knows what we're going to see.
And I said, Jim, there's a mic and it's it turns on like
look post on switch. And I said, you should give a tour as
we need the pool. But it was it was to make stuff up.
And I was like, now, Poo's asleep. You know who needs who
needs some serious dollar signs to Yea in the morning. If you're enjoying everything
we do, hear it tuned in and want access to even more Jim Cummings
podcasts, you can support the show today on Patreon. Here you'll not only
get early and add free access to the show, but you'll also get access
to our exclusive Q and A podcasts prize draws, our exclusive Facebook and Discord
communities, as well as that Commings commentaries where Jim goes back and records audio
commentaries for all those classic Disney Afternoons cartoons and in character. Well kick things
off this month with a revisit of an episode of Dark Wing Duck. So
go ahead and support Jim by becoming a member of the tuned in family today
at patreon dot com. Slash Jim Cummings podcast link is in the description of
this show. So I guess that's the sibe I don't really see with these
cons is just how exhausting it can be on the talent, because you know,
people have their little couple of minutes with the guests and they're off on
their way to do whatever they want to do. But like you know,
Jim, you know, the all day it's got to be tiring. Like
I said, you gotta plus the waiting as well. Yeah. Yeah,
And I have a personal philosophy that I don't I want to be up for
every single person. Yeah, because it's not like they can come next month
and run into me or I them. And I try to have try to
treat treat each and every one of them just as if they're the first and
the one and only, you know, and the little kids will come up
and and it's it's I'll tell you. One thing that's very interesting is that
whenever I do Winnie the pool, people think, oh my god, you
just do it, you know a lot of and and the little kids their
eyes go like saucers and and it's really a blessing. It really it warms
my heart. And they go, I thought you had need a microphone or
a special effect or something. And I go, well I do. I
stick my finger in my ear and I twist that that screw in there and
outcomes with either pooh. And so it's very sweet. And of course for
a tugo, you dads have to do some bounting and h and and I
just love that, you know, the eyes that when they it's because it's
like, especially ladies, if I may say so they could be seventy or
eighty and all of a sudden they're five years old again. Yeah, and
it's so sweet, it really is. Yeah, I can imagine. Maybe
that's one sort of benefit you have being a voice actor is if it just
a normal like a usual actor, where you're not a voice actor and you
want to be up, you've sort of got to be enthusiastic. Way if
you've just got that voice in your catalog, even if you're up or not,
if you just pull that voice out, whether you're tied or not,
it will just make someone's day. It's true, you know, it's it's
like I say, it's a it's a blessing and it's a it's just it's
so wonderful to see people's reactions. You know. Well, you know the
last time Chris, you went right Jim? Did you sit down at the
table with Jim? Yeah? I did. For periodically we'd go back and
forth and the line was huge when we were out there. What was the
line like when you guys were out there, it was wrapping around huge,
huge, it was Jim had the biggest lines other than oh, with the
Superman and Superwoman or who always later they were there together. Um, but
yeah, it never stopped for Jim on both days. It's amazing. You
know what people love in Sydney is Bunkers awesome. Yeah, Bonker, Steve,
Bobcat, I was. Everyone was talking about Bonkers. And and so
was Widget the World Watcher, Yeah, which was an old cartoon that I
did many moons ago with Rucy Taylor, she of Mini Mouse Fame, God
Rest her soul, and she was Widget the World Watcher and I was Mega
Brain and people were coming up with Mega Brain things for me to sign,
and I'm going, my god, I barely remember doing this and yeah,
and people would put me on the spot because I guess some people have seen
our TikTok's where it really doesn't know a lot of Jim's characters. And then
they would ask and I would go bright red and I didn't know, and
then they would get so mad and they'd say, how can you not know
who which it is? And I'm like, who which it from? Woo?
Who where? What? From? Chop puff? And stuff? Is
that they And they got me on the Honda naka because I thought the bird,
well Jim has a picture of Honda with this, I thought it was
a bird on his shoulder, and I just got schooled and this guy was
parted the whole thing because evidently it's a monkey. It's a lizard. Okayzard
just any monkey? Okay, who knows that were here? Did you know
that? Chris? I'm sorry you can no longer be a part of this
podcast. A right, all right? I mean it looks like a bird.
Well, okay, fair enough, because you didn't see all of him,
and then they gave his good monkey parts. That's the did you do
just a bird making noise? Too? Boy? I think so and I
might have just you know, it's like you know one of those things.
And here's my favorite, one of my favorite trivia questions. There are two
kind of two listen monkeys in the Star Wars universe. I slash hondo O
Naka. I own one of them. No, I cannot expect that you
would know this voice or no his name. But do you know the other
Star Wolves character who has one? The crumb character? Isn't that's Joba the
Hot That's not a monkey. I don't know who is it? That was
it? It was? It was Jabba the Hot lizard monkey. Oh yes,
yes, and it was a bird in my name. Well, see
mine is Pilf muck Muck, and his is oh gosh, I'm gonna forget
his name, Milf puck Puck. Yeah, no, it's something that's interesting
anyway, mind's better. Yeah, So I got schooled about that all day
long. They were very, very offended that I didn't know who the pink
was Lizard Margie. There are some definitely characters at those conventions, for sure,
and they get very testy if you don't. I remember I worked at
one of them once for my previous employer selling I was selling board games,
right, And for example, there's an old movie Bill and Ted. You
may have had a Bill and Ted with Kiano Reeves and Alex Winter and the
Bill and Ted board game. And this guy went, I like, you
know anything about Bill and Ted? Tell me who was the actors? And
I went, Kiano reason Alex Winter one of my favorite movies. Yeah,
well what year did it come out? I'm like, oh, no,
nineteen eighty seven or something eighty eight. He goes, h well, okay.
Then I was like, why are you so angry at me? I'm
just trying to sell you a board game, the Bill and Ted board game.
And he's like, but if I didn't know anything about Bill and Ted,
how dare I try and sell him the board game? He was just
you're so angry at me? Oh yeah, no kidding. Well, you
know you can. You can tell him that his favorite pe well had a
really lousy cartoon. I shouldn't. I probably shouldn't say that out loud.
Anyway, they had, They had a cartoon. I did about two or
three episodes him on a Saturday. That was one of my favorite cartoons as
a kid. But was it the first? That's what I meant, That's
what I Okay, let me finish. That was one of my favorite cartoons.
God, you just cut cut me off. Okay, just cut me
off. But no, it was It was really a good It was like
I was saying, and Keanu would show up and he and he would say
he would cuss and and he would always sit in the corner and he go,
oh, whoa, I am a foul mouthed youth with a straight face,
and yeah, thank you, Yeah, I am a foul mosk yes
and so and Gordon Hunt went, uh huh, yeah, who did you
play on that show? Because I was only about thirteen episodes of it,
that one guy that remember that guy, Oh, the guy who knows the
other guy? Yeah, I know that one guy who was standing next and
then he went, whoa, there's something like that. Yeah, I don't
remember, because they did that series and then they did a second season,
but it was Kiano and Alex went a part of the second season. They
just they bought the rights to the show a different company and just made it
their own. It was weird. Yeah, oh wow, that must have
been wonderful. Oh it was. You thought the first one was bad?
Yes, they did. But did you get did you get any good gifts
from fans this time around? And the last time you were given special candles
or something. Someone gave you some candles when you're in Melbourne that time.
Oh yeah, the Disney candles. Yeah. We got so much stuff.
I mean yeah, we had we had to ship like four boxes back.
Yeah. I had a fifty pound piece of chocolate. That's that's the thing,
because because of because of how impactful these characters are, it's like they're
paying to see you, but they also want to thank you as well,
and they've they've got things for you. Yeah, oh my gosh. Well,
we were trying to collect all of the zoo animals because people were giving
us the koala bear. Oh yeah, and what is that the animal that
rolls up into a ball kidna a kidnap a kidna around we call it.
We call it a porcupine. No. The quaker, Oh well, like
a little quaker is like a mini wallet. He's like a little ka Okay,
yeah, he's well, they were giving us all the stuff. He's
yeah, yeah, yeah, And I love those little guys with the permanent
smile. The quaker is a fantastic aren't they. I mean, there's they're
one of them. That's they're all by themselves. Yea. You know they
make they make koala bears look like gargoyles as far as I'm concerned. You
know, you can only see them in Perth and nowhere else. You can't
find him anywhere else. I don't know that. There's an island called Rottnest
Island and that's that's where they originate from. There. You can only find
them there. They might have him at zoos and things, but you can
only find them in the wild on Rottnest Island. Wow. So um.
Christina Vie is that her name, Christine Vie. She plays the voice of
the Lady Bug. It was a Ladybug cartoon. I believe it the Lady
and she does a lot of autemy. She went to the island, right,
Yeah, And I guess they stayed in what are those tents called tents?
No, they're like Christopher, what are those They're like kind of permanent
tent. Yeah, but they have like a fancy name for them there.
Anyways, constructs. They got tucked into going there, and evidently they spent
the night there and they froze and poured with rain and they had hardly any
blankets. And it was like quite a you know, new experience to be
able to see these animals weird because on Rottnest Island it's literally like a potty
island. You can go there and stay in results and things, while you
would live in a tent on that island is crazy. Maybe they wanted the
true experience of being out in the wild. I guess while they were misinformed,
definitely, while we were we are not going to use their travel agent.
Yes, but what what gifts did you get though from fans around?
Well, we got a lot of honey, Yeah, a lot of honey.
We got a lot of honey. Really, yeah, a life size
piece of chocolate of Australia. It was hard to get on the plane.
Yeah, not a small piece. I want to pay the time that thing,
no way, Yeah, I know it was. I'm cereal it was.
It was about as big as a home plate in baseball in a baseball
game. With that, really, it gives you an idea. Yeah,
I'm not a small piece of chocolate. I can't imagine doing anything with it
but staring at it. So listeners out there, if you're going to approach
Jim with a gift at a convention, think about how he's going to get
at home. Yes. Right. They had really big unique pieces of I
guess Disney characters that Jim did or Funcle pops that like you we haven't seen.
Like. They had King Triton a Funcle pop and it was huge.
My kids got one in there. They're like a six inch one. They're
the bigger ones. Yeah, right, are real? Okay, I had
to get that out of my system. Yeah, so you know, we
had to get those kind of things. And I think we found a Funcle
Pop of well Jim is now doing the voice of Blue Blue, Yes,
yeah, And so we found a Funkle pop blue and like just things that
we haven't found over in the United States. What was the other one that
was really rare? Oh gosh, that's Savage dr King, Louis King lou
Oh yeah yeah Louis Yeah, the Tailspin one, the Tailspin Yeah, and
then then good old Louis from Tailspin Yeah, right, Tailspin, and then
the one from Tournament jungle Book jungle Book Right. One of my favorite clips
is of you is you Send It to Me. It's one of the behind
the scenes videos available on our on the Patreon. As you find finding things
to do, the hold up in the camera to do the voices for and
you go, oh you, Jim go, you're gonna hear Jim go,
what's that that thing? That's stupid thing over there? And you're like a
pop, yeah, Pop, what's that stupid thing over there? Yeah?
Well, Christopher's sitting in the in the pop room, Funcle Pope room.
They're all to the other side. We're building the funk pop. Yeah.
Now, now, having done Bloo for the what is one hundred anniversary?
Um, I've kind of come full circle. So I'm thinking and and give
me your professional opinion, I should do a duet with myself singing oo bit
do I want to be like you who who oh bo bo ba ba ba
bo you know Louie and baloo Oh. Yeah, there you go, because
I do a duet with myself. I've done it with Tigger and Pooh,
as long as you're doing the dance at the same time, right, yeah,
well yeah, okay, well mama, yeah that's me. I'll do
that. I did get to meet Louie Prima once once, so I was
very very honored. And uh, he was standing outside of You're not gonna
believe this, but it was in New Orleans, in the French Quarter,
outside of a nightclub. Crazy crazy, right, and I and I and
I was and I, you know, you see somebody famous and and I
probably probably not many kids from Ohio knew who he was. But my dad
was crazy about him. And he liked the one song he said that that
he had and it was called how Come my Dog Don't balk when You come
round? Because the thing was, you know, his wife was at home
and anybody who comes by the door, the dog goes out of his mind.
And there's a friend of his that an acquaintance of his that can come
around and the dog doesn't balk because he's been there a few times when Louis
wasn't home. And and I told him that, and he goes, yeah,
that's that's the one, because you don't ever want to have to sing
that song. And I said, okay, that's right, yeah, great
guy. And and I knew Sambutara too. I hired him was to play
it a They had to play it an affair. So the one for your
birthday? Was it? The one? Yeah, because there was one you
lost your voice for your birthday, was your fortieth or something? Oh no,
no, no no, but it was for a birthday. It was
for a birthday today, So Jim makes his birthday. I was gonna say,
so, it sounds like Jim likes they throw a big birthday bash from
himself every year he does. We're actually going to do his seventieth this year
because it was his seventieth last year and he was working and I was sick
and the kids weren't around. So we're going to throw a big, huge
one this year. I mean, at seventy, you've got to do it.
I'm assuming you just look at disney landing is going to let you rent
the place out for nothing, right. Well, I think I think Christopher
is on the wait list for Club thirty three, aren't you? I'm joining?
Yeah, I am serious. So Club thirty three, how does that
work? That concept at Disneyland? So what is for the people who aren't
aware of Club thirty three? Tell us how does that work? Well,
that's it's hard to say. Well, it's it originally started because it was
named after the year that we and he started his Disney empire, nineteen thirty
three. And it originally started as a very private, very intimate, little
gathering hole, watering hole, the only place that served any alcohol, mind
you, in Disneyland. And if you're looking for it, good luck,
you're not gonna find it. You gotta know where it is. And you
really have to know somebody to get in. And so I've been there some
x amount of times, but over the years, and uh, you know,
you have to know somebody. Then they'll you call somebody, and then
somebody send somebody else down and then they walk and then they check you out
and they you know, look this way in cough and then okay, good,
you can commit. So uh so we did that, and I remember
it was years ago. I was there. Oh, gosh, a good
while ago. It was right after Princess and the Frog. Kind of a
cute story, and they had completely redone it all completely completely. Wouldn't have
recognized it. And so I'm walking they let us in and I was there
with my leg I say, my two younger daughters, and we're walking up
the steps and they're they're smiling, and they're looking at me, and they're
going, so, do you know where you are? And I go,
yeah, I think I'm in Club thirty three and they go, yeah,
but you were here before, and I go, yeah, it goes it
doesn't look the same, and I go, it looks nothing. Not one
board looks the same. And so and then I'm walking along and there are
pictures of on the wall, and of course these are Disney paintings, so
they're moving and there's a little log cabin sitting on a bayou and there's smoke
coming out of the chimney actively, it's not just a painting of smoke coming
out of it. And I said, oh, okay. Then you look
and then there's oh, wow, is that is that a No, that's
an alligator? Okay, good in the water. And then you're walking and
then there's another one, and then you walk into the room and there's a
nice, big, gorgeous bar there, and there is a there's a picture
of a sax player and a trumpet player on the wall, and there's a
trumpet hanging above the bar and a saxophone hanging above the bar. And depending
on who's taking a solo, the musician disappears from the painting reappears up on
the wall playing the solo, and then they go back and forth, trumpet
to sax. And I'm walking around and my one daughter was sitting over there
at the tap at the piano playing these songs, and they and this fellow
says, do you still not know where you are? And I go,
wow, this is really really familiar. And they hand me, oh,
I think you can hand me that little thing over there, hunt They hand
me the menu. Yeah, and they say you're in Tiana's Place from Princess
and the Frog, right, and there's the menu with my big glowing butt.
Right, yeah, yeah, that's right. Come on in, y'all.
There you go, Club thirty three. Oh that's right. And uh
and there by the way is Evangeline. Look how she lights up the guy
that's my bell Evangeline, and here's my bell Margaret. So I'm assuming the
oldest, like starstruck by you, right, I guess. And I didn't
know anybody. I guess you know, I'm a voiceover guy. And I
and I said to him, I said, how did you know I am?
I mean, don't I don't get that. And he goes, he's
so sweet. The guy says, mister Cummings, everybody here knows who you
are. And I and I look around and I go like this, and
there's like eight or ten waiters and they're all sitting there looking at me,
and I go, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, I see,
okay, Hi, you know, you know, no many parts today feeling
it's fitty to song to and so I felt like the Pope for a minute.
But so that's my story. Wait, what was on the menu?
We gotta know, we gotta know something that was on the menu. Well,
we just so happened to have it here. I couldn't hear you her,
I can, I cannot open it for you. Okay, do they
have some damned crawfishes? Let me tell y'all what we got. We got
the ruby got that ruby red grape fruit. There you put it in your
face. And let's see what else we got. We got the churing menu,
but there ain't no cheering on the menu. Where we're gonna to keep
looking? How about that a sort of mountain death beverages. Oh, you
know that's good. It's a pountain and a beat, a room beer,
beat a root beer. M Well, there's nothing good on here so far.
Well there is anula anyway. There you have it here, I'll give
you the I was about. I was about to say, it's a good
sales for Club thirty three and two. He sill, there's nothing good on
Yeah, well, you know, according to Ray, I can imagine the
prices must be up there as well. Only those you can afford to get
the Club thirty three can afford to pay for the food there as well.
No, listen, honestly, ask Chris. He's on the waiting list.
He's got he's getting a membership. It's like it's like the same as getting
like a golf membership at a country club or like you know how they have
those like members only restaurants like Soho House and stuff. It's like a similar
process to that. Yeah, it's like you get a recommendation, yea and
then you pay, you know, wait on a waiting list and then eventually
one day you get accepted and pay all their fees and everything. Blah blah
blah. Well, here in Australia we have a really big sporting ground where
we play Austlian roles football and cricket's called the MCG the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
And even want to be part of the social club there. It's like a
twenty year wait to get in there. But you gotta you know, I've
got friends who have put their kids on the list now who are like three,
and they'll get they'll get in there when they're like twenty. But you
gotta that's how long you gotta wait to get bad. Yeah, yeah,
we've we've heard it's quite a while for Club thirty three, like close to
ten years. Wow. Yeah, it's funny you brought up now because I
now think I've been in there by accident. So I was there on my
honeymoon in twenty sixteen, right, and we met friends over there who also
from a show but over there as well, and we thought we're so hungry,
but we'd always wanted to like a crappy Hamburg and chiplet let's go fine
somewhere, and we somewhat across this place. Well, is it like a
restaurant because it looked like it felt like a restaurant, right, yeah,
And then I was just off fancy blah blah blah, and we walked in
and there was no one in there, and we just sort of walked in.
We sat down. It's weird a restaurant and Disneyland and no one's in
here anyway, right, So we're sitting down and men looking at the menus
and people are looking at as funny. And this girl walks over and she
goes, I'm excuse me, I'm do do you have an invitation to be
in here? And we go no, no, just walked in. She
ah, I'm sorry, we enough to ask you to leave. It must
have been Club thirty three. I shouldn't say it was club Was it upstairs?
And she was just like, I think you need to leave, sir.
You are not welcome here. Oh boy, yes, I think I've
been in there, sat down, but I was I was a commoner who
they looked at, laughed at for a little a little bit, and then
they escorted me at quiet. Okay, Well, those members of club thirty
three. They know how to party. They shut Disneyland down. Oh yeah,
remember so Chris, Jim and I the girls. There was just a
pile of us. We got invited because Jim was singing at Club thirty three,
right for like a private or private party climate for Club thirty three and
at the party with time at the party start Chris eleven midnight, Yeah,
midnight, Yeah, and they get you. You get on the train and
everyone loads up on the train which I didn't even know that thing when anywhere.
I thought it was kind of for show. No, yeah, takes
it through Jurassic Park World and stuff like things I didn't even know they had
there. And then you get off and it's the whole entire park is closed
down with bands everywhere, completely close down. Be a huge buffets with ice
filled with crap, lake sticking out, lobster everywhere, big giant ice sculpture,
big part champagne flutes everywhere, and no no us staff really other than
people that are like serving the food. And it's a free for all.
And you can go on the ride and after dark, yeah, you can
go on the rides. Nobody's there to like strap you in or do anything.
We went on what was that ride with the water Oh, the water
ride the Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh, yes, that was it.
We just went on and that over and over again. It was like two
in the morning. Yeah, there was. We didn't see anybody. It
was like ten of us all piled off. Nobody's getting telling us to get
off. I got stuck on that ride for nineteen minutes. It's stopped right
at the very start. It was just this. That was this thing going
dead Men Tell No Tales. I mean to listen to that stopped. Let
us get off. Ninety minutes of dead Men Tell No tal And you thought
you were going to become one of them and tell this tale, but you
made it. If you don't let me off this thing, you will be
sad. Yeah that's right. But yeah that sounds great, so good.
That was that party. What were you singing at the party? How long?
Guy? Was it? Well? It was um it was. They
had me sing both my songs from Princess and the Frog Okay, gonna take
you there and my bell Evangeline and boy it was fun. Yeah. And
I was on the I was on the boat with with like a I don't
know, a seven piece brass band. You know. They had a tuba,
they had trumpet, saxe. It was so nice. It was really
well done, very very classy. They had some unique food there. I
had an alligator gumbo. Yeah, I remember alligator gumbo and like I swear
it was like stork or something. It was some exotic bird. It was
a weird bird, not a stork, but it was something that are extinct
for the commona but for Disney fans, for Disney, yes, yes,
Well, these members they all know each other and evidently they like travel everywhere
together and they go and do everything so like they send it like they're not
even playing around. Like the parties are like a whole other level because they
all know each other and they're all like big kids that are filthy rich running
around to Seyland in the middle of the night. Yeah. I was happy
to be their mascot, you know that night. Well, i'll tell you
just shooting back to Sydney. Um. The one thing that Jim did that
was a little bit different was they had him on a stage right, oh
yeah, like a little mini kind of yeah yeah, yeah, it wasn't
that mini, but it wasn't mini. It was like I was gonna say,
like a little mini stadium because people were singing in there and stuff like
that. Yeah, and the questions were very serious, very different than in
the United States. They came very prepared, they had their notepads, they
had their questions. They were really considering it like it was like a journalism
interview. And so that was really interesting because you actually got to hear some
real serious dialogue. Evidently. You know, there was a lot of questions
about Disney doing the movies, the sales of their films, their animation,
and you know, the competitors, and they had all their their numbers figured
out, and you know, in the United States, not many people would
ask somebody who's been on the front end of Disney for almost forty years about
the competitors and what the money they're making and stuff like that. So they
were taking it really seriously there. I found that one pretty interesting. Yeah,
absolutely. I wonder if that's because you know, here in Australia they
might have been taken the perspective of, well, Jim may never come back,
so this might be my only chance to asking some questions, so let's
not asking the stuff he's already been asked. Where maybe in America you know,
because you do so many in America. It's almost like they don't take
it for granted. But it's like, oh me, he might come back
next year or things like that, where we not that we respect it more,
but it's like we treat it like this could be a one time only.
Sure that makes perfect sense. Yeah, and I do have that sense.
Yeah, I think it means more to us as well, because you
know, you're coming this far, like there's there'll be people there that you
may never come back, you know what I mean, Like it's it's a
it's a big trip, you know, you never know. Yeah, and
it's been what ten years in between trips, so yeah, I think a
show is just really respect to the fact that they're getting the chance to meet
you, Like they really respect the fact that you've made the trip down.
Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. There
were very respect It was very serious. It was still fun, but it
was it was more serious topics. And the ones that didn't get, you
know, the mic to come over to them, they then would get in
the line and they would wait in the line, and then you'd see him
with these pads and I was like, I wonder if who's that that's coming
up, and then they would say, you know, I didn't get to
talk to you at the Q and A, so do you mind can I
ask you these questions now? It was like, it's fine be interviewed on
the floor in the lineup for the autographs. Again, they weren't going to
let that one go. Yeah, that was very cool. Yeah, I
enjoyed it so much. I want to ask you a question. There is
a Ninja Turtles movie coming out in next month, well early August, and
Leatherhead's in it, but it's voiced by a woman. Were you ever at
all consulted for that role? I heard about that, and that's going to
be interesting. Yeah. I can only assume leather Head is going to be
a female in the movie, because you wouldn't. That doesn't really make sense
to hire Roads to play their own male character, right, Yeah, that's
yeah, leatherette Head, I have no idea. Yeah, I wasn't approached.
None of my friends were that I know of the you know, the
guys are from the cartoon. Yeah, so I don't know. That's a
that's a strange one to me, that that that, you know, you
guys were the original voices, and the fact that you want to be consulted
on the character just seems it seems wrong to me, especially especially for that
character. I mean I could see another one, you know, here or
there. I mean, maybe even a turtle. I don't know, but
um, you know the idea of a female Ninja isn't you know? That's
not that far fetched Electra from Daredevil. But yeah, the idea that Leatherhead,
because Leatherhead the voice that I used was the captain from the very first
Tugboat I think I mentioned. You know, his name was Leon's LeBlanc.
And it don't sound like no woman. No, okay, b Arthur maybe,
but but she's the only one makes a good makes a good soup,
right, you had to make a good sup That's right. I don't know.
I can't wait to not see it. I mean, I'll see it
as soon as I can. But didn't you just do didn't didn't you just
do a video game as letter it? I think? So you just didn't?
I think didn't you do Shredder recently? As a video game? You
did shredd Oh yeah, I was Shredder. I was one third of Shredder
of the Shredders. So you were you were you Shredder after James past Or
James left, he didn't Yeah, he left, well, he left,
Yeah, he left. James Avery left, he was the first one.
Then Dorian Harewood, my buddy, he one of my fellow California reasons,
and then um, I don't know what what happened with that, but I
was Shredder for the last maybe two years or a year and a half something
like that. Okay, of the of the series, the original series,
it's one of one of the characters that you don't really get sort of assigned.
When people think of Jim Cummings, they very really think of Shredder.
But Shredder is a very very big character. But it's just odd that,
you know, no one thinks of Shredder Jim Cummings. You know, it's
always we need to poo teague dark means it's not Shredder. Yeah, I
was the third Shredder, so that that'll be a part of it. I'm
sure, I'm sure. But you know, people in Australia shir did I
signed a lot of Shredders. Yeah. Well, I've got an interested part
of sort of like Ninja Turtles fan groups and so many people commenting on how
amazing it was hearing Leatherheads speak and hearing this the history of Deliverhead character and
getting to meet you know, there were so many people that were just so
glad they got to meet the Leatherhead you know, wow, that's great.
Well, I like meeting them too. So you went to Sydney and Perth
was the one after, but in between, so you know, we're going
to do a show when you're down here, but we didn't find time.
And I messaged you us like, Jim, do you want to do a
show, And you're like, oh, I could, but I'm on my
way to Fiji. I was like, what what was about? Figi?
It was great. It was her idea, you know, big surprise,
and she were sitting around and she goes, okay, so let's pack up
some of our bags and uh, we're gonna put the others in storage andago
and why do you suppose we do that? She goes, We're not going
to need him in Fiji, and I went, oh, well sure,
okay, you know, so off we went. And I had no idea.
Fiji was so close because when you first Topics Guy our the co host,
you messaged me saying they'll be doing a show tomorrow, and I went,
I think Jim's going to Fiji. He's like, what, where?
What? And I looked it up and it's only about a three to four
hour flight away. I always thought faj was so far away from Mischia,
but yeah, it's actually quite close. And Nicola and my wife was like,
wouldn't it be nice to just decide I'm going on a holiday to Faj.
I was like, it would be lovely. But yeah, you were
telling me that when you were there you got to record some songs with a
band or something. It was fun. Yeah, would you tell them?
Well, we went to Idea. We went to one of the hotels after
dinner to see if we could find like, um, some music or something,
you know, and there was these three gentlemen. They were Fijian and
they were credible. They were sitting with their guitars and they had their mics
and they were kind of a bit of a cluster in the beginning. Really
remember the mics fell off, the scan, the speaker fell over. I
mean we were just going, oh my god. And Jim was like,
oh, I feel so bad for these guys. And it was kind of
you know, and they got it together and they were wonderful and then yeah
sang when they started, Oh my goodness, and they were doing a lot
of cover bands. Oh yeah, a lot of run of American music that
Jim loves. And so Jim was kind of clapping away and everyone was very
you know, serious, and Jim likes to acknowledge when somebody's finished singing,
and if he likes the music, you know, they're good. Now I'm
sitting there clapping forcing everybody else to clap. Yeah, and you could kind
of get a couple claps from everybody, but nobody was like really into it.
And then I went over and I left a tip, which I guess
is something that you guys in Australia don't do either. Well, we make
the businesses pay the works a lot more money, that's what we do.
Yeah, that's good. And so I went up and I tipped them and
I said, you know, my husband just loves your music and he's a
singer. And they were like oh really, oh wow, thank you so
much, and we sat back down. In like twenty minutes later, they
asked Jim to come up and sing with them, and we were like what,
So Jim went up and they took like five minutes to figure out what
they were going to sing and ended up singing stand by Me when the Night
is coole that one? Yeah, did you sing the Benny King version or
the John Lennon version? Which version? Did the Benny King? Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, the old one. John was good and they were so
good. Yeah, And we just had so much fun with them. We
enjoyed it so much that um I gave them our hotel and our room number,
and I said, why didn't you come to our hotel tomorrow night and
play with us in our suite? And they were like, what are you
sure? You know? Done? Yea, they had a gig. Yeah,
And we said, yeah, we'll hire you guys. We would just
want to keep hearing you guys sing. And so the next day I said
to Jim, oh, we should go down down and catch the fire dancers
down by the pool. It was starting it like I don't know five,
And we went down there and we met the general manager of the hotel and
we started talking and we said, oh, yeah, we have a band
coming over from the Sharans. He's making ourselves at home. He said,
oh, let me get you a big sweet and you have a view of
the ocean. Let me set all of that up for you. I'd love
to do that for you. Blah blah blah. Here's my business card and
email me and I'll make sure you have it. Well, we never heard
from him again. And then we got a call. And then we got
a call from the front desk and they said the band is here. And
Jim and I were actually saying, I don't think they're gonna show. I
mean, do they really think we're serious? You know, we were kind
of having some drinks. I don't know, I don't know. Let's just
shower anyway. Yeah, we've gone snorkeling all day. We were there as
well, and they showered in. Lulu outs to the phone and she comes
and she says, hey, and I'm in the bathroom in the shower,
and I go, yeah, it goes the band's down in the lobby.
Oh my god. They showed so like I'm trying to shower as fast as
I can, like full of salt water in my hair. We're snorkeling all
day and then Jim's like, what do you think? And I go,
come on, let's go down there. And we're like twenty minutes late,
and you could see on their face, and I mean they had all of
their equipment, the speakers, the microphones, the guitars, everything, and
you could tell on their face that they were just about to walk up to
the front desk, maybe to leave a message that they were leaving, or
that they were going to call us and say, you know, we're just
going to head out. Yeah. And one of the guys turned and he
caught me kind of looking at my hair is all wet, all clomb back,
you know. I wasn't sure if he recognized me. I said,
it's Jim Cumming's wife, how are you? And their face just something like
they let out like this huge side and they all looked at each other and
then we all just started hugging. And then Jim came in and Hi,
flying everything and he said, come on, let's go, and they put
all the equipment on the suitcase trolleys. We found an elevator. It was
great. We set up in our suite which wasn't that big, and that
we just moved the furniture around you. Yeah, and they jammed and they
play a lot of their Fijian music, which was just beautiful and to look
at them and then to hear them sing, you just would never imagine that
it's coming from them. Yeah, and then Jim got in with them,
and Jim jammed with them and we recorded it, and then they said,
you know, we just want to let you know that we have our gigs
still tonight back over at the Sheraton, So we got to pack up and
head over there, but we would like to invite you back to our house
and jam tonight. And just so you know, they're sixteen of us that
live all together, and we are not people of means, but we all
really really love music, and we all love each other and it's what makes
us happy and it would just be us our honor if we could bring you
back to the house and you know, we could continue this jam session.
The only problem was that we were flying out in the morning and we had
to be at the convention in Perth and they were playing at the Sheraton and
they were closing, so that would have been too late for us to have
done it. But we're definitely going to take a rain check on that.
Yeah, it was just down there. Next week. We'll see them.
You sang I stand by me at the show. But like what did you
sing in your room with him? Oh gosh, maybe like a Billy Joel's
song or something you remember, Yeah, you sang Billy Joel. Yeah,
and then you sang some of the feet, one of the Fijian songs with
them. And then they actually want Jim to come back and they want to
record a song, a Fijian song with Jim, and I think we're gonna
we're gonna look into the possibility of doing some time. I'm there. Are
you coming back to the super Niver's Light in the year or is it?
Are you done for Australia now for a while? I think we're done for
a while. Yeah, they have one that is two more at the year
the end of the year, but wasn't sure what you're coming back for those?
Yeah, I don't think so. I understand them to be smallers and
I've got different things spoked up here, So yes, yeah, if it
comes up that we could make it work, we would because then we would
go over to Fiji after and how you know, Chris and everyone come on
out and make a make a holiday out of it, and then Jim could
record the song. So you know, we never see never, but for
right now that it's a bit of a conflict with the schedule. There was
another thing where I was confused by the text. So the first thing was
I'm going to Fiji. No. I was like, okay, I'll see
you when you get back. And then you miss him be saying, hey,
the band's coming over tonight. Did she we record something? And I
was like, what these cryptic messages? Bands coming over? FYI? Margaret's
got no phone doesn't work or something, and Jim's lost his Fine, I'm
like, then how are you texting me? Well, Jim loses it and
then all you have to do is feel his pockets and then it's like,
okay, he didn't lose it. But I'm prepared to say, okay,
he's lost his phone, what are we going to And then within thirty seconds
he's found because he was just sinning. Yeah, I just get it.
I just tell her that. So she feels my pockets. Yeah, that's
understandable. There I've said it. Are you happy? So yeah, you
went from Fiji went to Perth. Yeah, so all around you enjoyed your
trip down Under? Oh? Absolutely, I love it. The only thing
was that not many people take cash. Yeah, it was just a case
of that's sort of one of the things that sort of popped up during COVID.
They're like not doing cash and businesses have just gotten used to it now,
which I'm not for it because I'd like to carry around cash in my
pocket, you know, do cashes on the weekend here and there jobs,
and it's just like, well, I've got twenty dollars here, take it.
Like, no, I'd rather your card. I'm like, but I'm
holding twenty dollars right here, would you not like to take? Well,
we were at a restaurant, yeah, oh, last night, and when
we went to go pay, Jim was pulling out cash and he had just
thrown some in his pocket because we weren't taken you know, a lot of
stuff with us. And they started laughing and said, oh, absolutely no,
we don't take cash cards only. And so Jim's like, well,
what if I don't have carts on me? Like and they're like well,
um, oh well, and so we're like, well the dinners should be
free then, shouldn't it. And we were kind of laughing because I had
my wallet on me, but they didn't find the humor in it at all.
In fact, they were shocked that we did not have a card,
or they don't even look at you when you're ordering like fast food, and
they just throw the card up and they're they're down getting your your shake or
your juice, and then they throw the machine up and they're just waiting for
you to tap and then when they finally look up because they haven't heard the
beep, they send see, oh you have cash, like it's it's a
it's a really big pause when you pull cash out in Australia. Yeah,
it's hard. I think that the service may differ because you know, like
we're saying earlier with the tips, we don't do tips here, so you
know, you workers get paid more, so whether they're nice or whatever,
they don't really tend to go the extra mile because they don't necessarily have to
because they're getting it in their way. They're getting any way to America and
the weights are so they're your best friend for the night because they rely on
those tips, where in Australia they're not relying on tips. They're just being
paid accordingly. They're just said to do a job. So I think that's
where that's where it's a little bit different. Maybe oh yeah, oh yeah,
we noticed that big big, big team. I remember when we flew
to the States and I wasn't used to tipping. You know, I live
in Australia. It was the first time I've been to the States. And
the lady who drove us from the airport to the hotel, she was saying,
we gave us some money when we got there. We paid her the
fee or whatever, and she said, no, no, I'll get your
bag out. And I went and took I've got It's fine, I can
do it. And she goes, no, no, I've got it.
I went, okay, fine, thank you, and she took it out
and she should have expected a tip, and I was like, I've got
no cash on me at the moment. It's just sort of plumped my bags
in and left and I was like, okay, okay, So what have
we got coming up in the near future? So you just finished Super over
here in a Stralia. What's coming up next? Do you know? Margaret?
Look, what's the next time jim schedule? Convention wise? Is there
anything coming up on the knee horizon? Oh? Oh wow? Okay,
yeah, So I don't know if you've ever heard of to morrow Land.
Yes, Jim is gonna be voicing. That is that right, Yes he
is. Jim has been voicing Tomorrowland years for over twelve years. Yeah,
and um, they are bringing Jim and his family to Belgium for the opening
of Tomorrowland in on the twenty first of July, six hundred thousand people.
It's a little get together, just a little thing I threw together. And
Jim is the country the Wizard. Are you a wizard or a private don't
know. I think I'm a wizard. Give us the wizard. Well,
people of Tomorrowland, Well come be at one with the universe. Another boulder
roll, another blah blah blah yakadish mcadee, you know. And it's kind
of like that, are you gonna be out on stage in your Dumbledore outfit
or you're just gonna be doing the Jim offered. Jim offered to go and
costume he would have love sex, And then they were thinking about it,
and then they're like, no, actually we don't, we don't want him.
We want we want Jim Cummings like he is the voice of love for
our tomorrow laugh. I was just going to say that, Yeah, he
was like that. We I mean, he just loves Jim. He did
not know who Jim was until um thought during COVID the only thing I did
because he wanted to try and get a hold of Gym during COVID and Jim
had switched agents, and you know, Jim was mostly working from home and
people were you know, yeah, it was a different time, and so
so he was looking him up to try and find him. And then that's
when he discovered who Jim was as a VO. And so he was telling
us the story that like he almost fell out of his chair. He couldn't
believe it. So he was like, you know, we've got to bring
him out here. We've got to have him meet all the DJs, this,
this and that. But you know, during COVID, when Jim did
the recording, or was it just before COVID or after he was just after
COVID around because at the they were closed for two years. Yeah, so
I didn't have my glasses on. And Jim gets the email of the script
and uh, and so I'm looking at it and I'm trying to make the
font binker bigger for Jim. So you know, he's going to do it
in the recording studio here at home, and it says we want you to
kind of capture this feel of this this um link of this this guy talking.
And I wasn't really reading like every word, so I just click on
the YouTube link and I didn't have my glasses on, right, and it's
and it's this guy with this little tiny mustache and he's talking like in the
in the twenties. Yeah, it was, it was yeah, And it
was a very stentorial yeah, you know speech, a rousing speech, a
rallying speech. And so I said, oh my god, Jim, Jim,
you can't do this. You can't do this opening for Tomorroland. And
he goes, well why not? And I go they want you to do
a speech about hit with Hitler. I think Hitler's doing the speech, and
he goes, what this is unacceptable. I'm not doing this, and he
just kind of looked over at the screen and saw the guy and it was
like a black and white video and he's doing this. So he didn't listen
to it too much and he gets on the phone immediately to his agent and
he says, I can't do this. Call me back, and she calls
him back and he says, there's no way. Am I giving a knockoff
speech? Of Hitler and she's quiet and she goes Jim, it's Charlie.
Chaplin was like, Jim, he won't you talk like Hitler. God,
I was doing the white, he was doing the way and everything. Then
we turned up then we turned up that. Yeah, we turned up the
sound and it was just you know, it was yeah. And so we
still laugh at it to this day. And I'll play it to him when
he's getting ready to do and you know, from now on now they have
him go into a studio, you know they're not getting they're not gonna risk
any of that. He says, no. Again, it didn't confuse you
why Hitler was running a little black hat. He was wearing a black hat.
He wasn't And he was speaking about like the unity of it was actually
human race, quite beautiful and how everyone needs to come together. And you
know, very rousing, very yeah, very moving speech. But I didn't
have my glasses one. I thought it was Hitler or the sound. I
can just imagine, Jim, what get her on the phone? Yeah,
yeah, right, And I told I told the Tomorrow lad guy that and
he didn't laugh at all. It was funny, Beltim. I said to
Jim, I don't worry about it. It's just lost in translation. Yeah
it was lost, all right, mostly lost. But yeah, so that's
what Jim's got coming up. And then he's doing He's he's doing um the
forty Con three three or forty Con in Montreal, Quebec, which we weren't
sure if that was going to go on, and you're all invited because of
the fire, but we're missing we're missing jazz week Jazz week ends the weekend
before. Okay, so that's kind of too bad, but those are the
Belgium is the big thing. And then um Yeah, and then Jim's at
in Tampa Bay. He's got his um, he's got his summers for him.
Yeah that Colorado, Colorado. Let us start doing some cardio, working
out, getting ready for your big summer. Absolutely. Yeah. It's funny
you mentioned how the guy was gobsmacked that Jim's who he was. I think
what's happened is, you know, you were a voice of so many shows
from when we were growing up. Now we're all of an age where we're
sort of where some of us are executives and we're sort of running companies and
it's like all the people who are running the show now were the ones that
you raised with your voice, And now everyone it's like you've got a whole
new your whole career, your careasically, like a whole new resurgence as a
result. Oh yeah that plus Disney Plus. You know, Disney Plus was
I mean a lot of people complain about the streaming services, but Disney Plus
is just a plus in my opinion for many reasons. Oh yeah, same
here. Yeah, you know, I think I've said for you know,
it'll be a convention or something. There's a four year old dressed as Darkwing
Duck or King Louis, you know, from Tailspin, And I'm like,
okay, well that show went off twenty years before you were born. So
and they go, oh yeah, no, we got Disney Plus. We're
you know well. And the other thing too is Jim didn't even have a
Spotify account. And when we redid his office for him, um, I
had the computer and I logged in and I created him a Spotify account.
And when I logged in and and there's Jim Cummings and it's just it's it's
it's a station that's somebody made. And I said, who's doing this?
So I emailed Spotify, and they said, well, upload his driver's license
so we know it's him and it's his and they gave it to him.
So they had just made this Jim Cumming Spotify with all of Jim Cummings music.
And at that time he had like one point two listeners a month listening
to Jim Cumming and we didn't even know didn't even didn't even know about it
because you know, it's a different time. And so now of course we
know. And so a lot of people also talk to Jim about his singing
because he sung so many different songs. And now I get an extra like,
I don't know, one hundred and twenty five grand a week, so
I'm really glad she's found that. Or it might just be twenty five bucks.
It's one of those. I think they're called royalties, Jim. They're
royal, they're very loyal. So just like, for example, Adventures of
Winning the Pooh, right, the New Adventures back in the eighties, are
you still getting like kick ass royalties from that because it's now on Disney Plus.
I don't know if it's kick ass royalties of royalty though, right,
it's money for nothing now, I mean you put in the hot Ards twenty
thirty years ago, and now he's still getting money for it. That's a
great gig in my opinion. Oh yeah, yeah, well, you know
every now and then, I think maybe about twelve months ago, thirteen months
ago, I got a check for fifty bucks for Roger Rabbit and that from
eighty five. Yeah, and I was just a bullet. Yeah, and
so that you know, it never thank you Lord, never goes away,
you know completely. So do you get a royalty check for every character?
Or does Didney just go here is Jim Cumming's account? No, it's it's
per show and you know, one character and two characters same rate. But
if you do three characters you get a ten percent bump. So you know
you're looking for three and and yeah, and that that that's solid. That
that goes throughout the recording process and on twenty thirty years later, it's still
according to that paradigm. Have royalties changed like percentage wise over time? I'm
not really sure really how royalties work. Is that something you need to work
out when you first sign on to do a voice the royalty is going forward?
Is that something you have? How does that all work? Well,
you don't want to sign off on them you want, yeah, yeah,
but it's you know, we've gone on strike to get a bigger bump here
and there over the years. But residuals yeah, oh well yeah yeah,
residuals and royalties resides? How did they differ? What's what's what's so?
Royalties is residuals is anytime something's played on television you get like a cent or
something, you get a residual Yeah yeah. And then the royalties are the
music or from sales. I wonder how much money my kids are putting in
your pocket? Then the last year watching Disney Plus, well I tell them
to keep up the good work. Yeah, at least two bucks. So,
for example, the Union sent Jim an email and said that he hasn't
claimed or they don't have any claims of jum Jim being a chorus? Is
that what it was called? Back up? Could be? Yeah, yeah,
I've done a few of those, and Jim's done a lot of them,
but he doesn't remember, so um, you know all of them.
So then they sent you know, a PDF and said go ahead and look
over it. And I had to list the songs to Jim and I'm like,
are these you or is it like another Gym Cummings And we literally we
had to start googling because the songs are so old or they're like he's not
credited for it. Um, Like what was that movie the with the alligator
The hook hook hook? Yeah, so what do you singing that? Um?
Just the chant when Dustin Hoffman's coming out, hook hook hook, show
us the hook, give us the hook? Yeah, you know. And
then there was another one and so Jim's never Jim's never gotten royalties for that
because he never signed up as for a chorus or background singer. So now
we just had to go through the process of finding all the songs where he's
not a feature but he's in the song because a lot of them aren't aren't
on Google. Yeah, so that's a whole other story. Yeah, you
could do it. The original, Yeah, the original Little Mermaid. I
was in Fathom's Below Below. I was like in the chorus, you know,
so I was in two out of three Little Mermaid movies. That's just
it's I'm a sitting he just an ol. There's all the stuff. You're
just like, oh, yeah, I did this and I did that,
Like, for example, being part of that Little Mermaid song that's something that
would be somebody's claim to fame forever, you know, But for you,
it's just like, ah, I think I did it. Well. That's
like even like the chorus songs. When he's singing, He's like, now
I don't know who that guy is. And then I'll google the guy and
he's like a famous actor. Um, And then I'm like, you had
to have Jim, like the Union sending this to you. And then he'll
start kind of trying to sing the title of the song, and then all
of a sudden it comes back to him and he starts singing, oh,
yeah, I did the chorus. And then I was like, I'm like,
oh my god, this is just crease. I've been busy. Well,
like I said, it's been lovely to have you on board. You're
gonna come and walk another another show, maybe a couple of weeks time.
We'll get more stories about Jim. Jim's travels and the shenanigans he gets up
to for sure, James rolling his eyes, Chris, thank you for joining
us today. Even though you're quite silent over there, we're just sort of
taking it all in all you more embarrassed by your mum's stories of Jim just
making sure the ship runs smooth, you know, as always, yes,
really indeed, all right, guys, thank you for listening to Tuned In
with Jim Cummings. Don't forget to support us on Patreon for early and add
free access to the show as well as access to exclusive Q and A mail
bags and prize draws, as well as Cummings commentaries where Jim goes back and
rewatches all those Disney Afternoons cartoon shows in character. So we've got up there
right now, a episode of Duck Win Duck where Dark We joins us them.
We're gonna be doing a bonkers one in July as well. But thank
you once again and we'll catch you guys in the next episode of Tuned In
with Jim Cummings, So stay tuned.