Bill Farmer (Goofy)

How you doing out there? It's me Tigger. I am Dark Wing Duck.
It's me Bunkers Deep Bobcat. All right, y'all, did it rate
your favorite firefly you desire? Hold the old knock guy. My name is
Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned in. Well, welcome everybody to tuned in
with Jim Cummings. Today we have, of course producer Chris Live and kicking.
But wait, there's more. Now, how much would you pay?
None other than the Bill Farmer the goof himself and the crowd went wild,
and the crowd went wild. And it's nice to be here. Good to
see you, Jim. Yeah, it's great to be with you. Pete,
Well, there you go, buddy. Well I really had to yanked
out out of him, didn't I. Well this is great, man,
we're Goofy and Pete together again. Yeah. This is how it all started
at the Undynamic Duo, the Undynamic Due. I like that. Oh well,
this is good stuff. Tell us if you remember the very first time
that we met, because it was like it was last year. No,
no, it would have been eighty seven, because that's when I started doing
Goofy in January twenty third of eighty seven. Maybe it was a show you
were on. It was a takeoff on MTV. It was dtv's it was
called Disney's Dog One. Valentine was the show Wow, And I had to
loop a line of dialogue as Goofy that's right, And it was terrifying.
I'd never looped anything too picture before. Normally we just get a script and
we read the lines, then they animate later. That was two picture and
I'd never done that, so I was totally terrified. Yeah, I hate
doing that. Maybe Roger Rabbit. I did some background voices. I didn't
even do Goofy in that. It was just the kind of Tony Pope was
my predecessor on that, but I was doing the voice. But he had
to finish out his contract with the movie and finish the scenes. So I
did a few background voices in that movie. But I know you were in
it as one of the bullets. Yes, I was bullet number two,
Bullet number two, and I was like two or three weasels. And I
spent an eternity in Griffith Park and Bob Zamechis was there and we're shooting here.
Bob Hoskins, the late Great Bob Hoskins. He was there and he
was a great guy. We sat there and he told me war stories about
how he got in the business, and then they cut the entire thing.
It wasn't it was not in the movie. In the movie, that happens.
That happened. So I went from about forty lines to three. I
think three or four. Somebody in the inner webs will be able to tell
us. And that's what you call is showbiz. And that showed me that's
that happens more than you'd think. Yeah, but I did have a trailer.
You did have a track. I did have a trade. I'm still
waiting for mine. Yeah, well it's it's park next to her mine.
They might have moved it. You better on the way home. You'll have
to pit stop over there. Well that's good stuff. So we started back.
Yeah, maybe Roger Rabbit and I know. The first series we did
was a goof Troop. Oh yeah. That was also a terrifying experience going
in there because that was a hell of a cast. It's like at the
time, it was like, you know, Rob Paulson, Frank Welker,
we had April Winchell, had Dana Hill, and you and Jenny McSwain directing,
it was like wow going into it. And in those days we did
it all ensemble. All of us were in a studio at the same time.
Now it's we like solo and you just how far is Mackey away from
me? What's this scene about? You do your line over and over until
they like it, and it's not as fun. No, well, I
agree, because you have to get that interaction. Yeah, you know,
you feed off each other's energy, and when there's nobody there, there's you
know, you got to generate make itself. Yeah you go, oh,
Mickey's fifty feet away. Oh you're going to say it a little louder?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, no kidding, it's a I don't
like it as much, and I don't think they can tell watching No,
I mean, hope not. It seems to go together, float flawlessly,
I guess. But when I watch it, I'm like, oh, that's
what they meant. Oh, now I get the scene. At the time,
it was just doing a line over and over. Worsh, Mickey,
where you going goorsh, Mick, where are you going? Come on,
Mickey, let's go or just whatever you yeah, yeah, yeah, and
oh take three. I like take three, and that's what usually shows up
in the show. Yeah. Yeah, I just did not a Disney character,
but Taz the other day and there, and it was for a game,
and it's just the most tedious thing in the world. Rewarding. They
paid you. I'm not complaining, please, but it's like, okay,
now Taz is falling ten feet now about fifteen and a half feet? Yeah,
okay. Video games, Yeah, video games are tough. Yeah,
because they always have did they have Taz screaming like usually these kind of things
screaming and at the ends and they say that for the last day. Yeah,
turn me into a mime. I'm glad I can talk right now.
You can test mime the scream on the way down. Maybe give the artists
something to do. I'll give you three good ones and hopefully that's it.
Yeah, because if you don't, you start talking like the Gutfather. That's
true. Yeah, you go home and just coat the throat for a few
days. Yes, yes, Now, a lot of people out there and
we'll circle back as soon as I remember we were talking about. But a
lot of people don't know that you came from a stand up background. Yeah,
that was the best training I ever had. I started doing stand up
in Dallas in nineteen eighty two. It was just on a fluke a night.
I was at a comedy club and anyone could get up a Tuesday night,
kind of an open mic night, and so I went home and wrote
a little routine. Went up the next week, March seventeenth of nineteen eighty
two, and that changed my life. I went up there Saint Patrick's Day
was it? It might have been. I think it's I think it's much.
Yeah, I don't remember being at Saint Patrick's Day, but anyway,
it was lucky for me. Lucky because the house comic, the host was
a guy Bill Ingvall who has gone into a lot of stuff, and he
was a house comic there and he was the first one that said, you
know, I think you ought to try this. I think you ought to
come back and do this more and more. So I did every week for
about six months. Later. I started kind of going around Texas and other
states to as a stand up and started as a middle Usually start off as
a beginner and then a middle and then a headliner. But I started off
as a middle because in Arlington it was Amarillo, Texas. Sam Kennison was
getting kicked out of Amarillo, so they moved the middle act up to headliner
and they needed a new middle act. So I got to go in and
do that, and you got kicked out. Then I got kicked out.
Yeah, And so I did that for about five six years until on the
advice of an agent in Dallas, they said, you do all these cartoon
voices and stuff, y'all, to go out to Hollywood and give it a
shot. I came out and got an apartment, and about five months later
they said, you do any of the Disney characters, you know, and
they like the Goofy and Ocado and yeah, it's been history ever since.
That's right. That is so cool. Wow, good for you. Well,
we have a lot in common because yeah, we've only been in hundreds
of cartoons together. Yeah, and rarely ever see each other because of that.
Do your stuff at your studio and they mix it together, but we
get to work together a lot. Yeah. Well, I liked I loved
working over it. It was called Fidelity Studios in North Hollywood, and one
of my favorite things, and this is we We've had jokes about this over
the years, but one time I have to tell you and forgive me,
he's gonna throw a brick at me. But uh, Bill walked in and
he was a little bit late. He was coming from another job, very
popular guy, and he comes in. He goes, well, Gores,
you know I can't do it. But you walked in. He kept I'll
be right there, and you hit the boom mic and it fell over and
hit the other boom mic, which fell into another boom mic and it went
and we all just sat there and they were just kind of stunning. I
go, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. Goofy
walked in and knocked over every microphone, and of course they're not cheap,
and the engineer's going, they don't like when that happens. Now, I'll
be real careful with this microphone here. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Actually a couple of things have happened like that. I blame it on what
I call the Goofy curse. Oh wow, and absolute true story. I
was in a studio I've got another one coming too, and I had a
Coca Cola and I was going to put it down on a table next to
the board and it started falling. I grabbed for it and I hit the
top of it and it started spinning perfect over the board, over a ninety
six channel board in a studio, probably two or three hundred thousand dollars board,
and the engineer was going, you know, and that has haunted me
for several Another one, I was putting up Christmas lights, had the ladder
against my house. Is a Chevy Chase moment coming up? Absolutely this is
there's a goofy. Addition to this. I stepped off the ladder and I
was in sweats. I stepped backward, my foot hit the riser on the
lawn sprinkler. I started falling back into a rose bush. Now that's goofy
enough. But the first rose bush grabbed my pants and yanked them down totally
bare butted. I fell into the second rose bush. Oh that's the goofy
curse. Ouch unencumbered, but well at least you didn't have any protection on
your butt. Serious, it was like the stooges. My wife was like,
yeah, pulling out the stuff, you know, the stingers and everything.
Yeah, so yes, that's followed me all of these years. Ouch
that thorn bush or or goofy. Oh, I see the goofy. Well,
I remember one time and it was we did, and this has got
to be in the nineties. We were doing something. It was a charity
event and Wayne and Rusie, Mickey and Minnie God rest their souls yourself,
and I was there. I don't recall who else was there. Maybe Tony
and Selm might have been, I don't remember. But there were telephones down
in the courtyard there, and it was for children with various maladies and they
could pick up a phone and talk to Pooh. They could pick up a
phone and talk to Goofy or Tigger or Mickey and they would pick up a
phone. And I used to always travel with drumsticks and I would be,
you know, diddy bobbing in law, you know, just a while away
the time. And you said, well here, you know I used to
juggle, and Rusie is standing there, Russie, who was of course many
miles at the time. And you said, well here, watch this,
and you're standing next to the curtain and it went like this, and you
went a little too far back, so you turned around and stepped on the
curtain and that kind of pulled it down, and the curtain fell over you
and then you were on the floor. And then the stick came down and
hit and Russie Taylor god Rest, he was standing there, and I'm pretty
sure she peed she would she would always laugh like she wouldn't make a noise.
It was like she would laugh until she went facial right, until her
face no longer responded to her will. I'd luckily forgotten that incident. Yeah,
thank you, Oh thank god. We haven't told anyone, no,
no, this secret. It's a secret. Oh my gosh. And and
I think we did two or three weeks ago at a convention just with it
was ten seconds. I think it. I think it hit three million people,
is that right? Yeah, yeah, it's amazing the technology. Three
point five million views on that's what I meant to say, those two bigger
numbers. Anyways, and we've said many more words now. Yeah, so
this will be. This will be everyone on earth, everyone on Earth will
be We'll be invited to this one. Well, on that note, all
right, Brendan, how are you doing down there? I'm doing great.
Yeah. Let's go back to goof Troop because that's that's the show everyone remembers.
Everyone loves goof trop ninety, including myself. Bill. Take us back
to when you first got the gig at goof Troop. How was the show
first pitched to you and how excited were you to finally get to work in
Tannem with Jim on this show goof Troop. Oh, you must have been
incredibly I was. I was totally amazed. I forgot how I even heard
about it, that they were planning a show, and there was little rumors
of it for a while, and then just through my agent, Hey there's
a series and you're gonna be you know, in this series called goof Troop
and Goofy's going to have a son and oh okay, and you just kind
of go dumb faced into this thing. Well what's it like? And as
I say, it was terrifying for me when I come in here and see
the best voice actors in the whole business in the same cast, Frank Welker's,
you know, a kind of a voice over god really with all of
the animals and sound effects that he does, and Jim and Rob Rob Paulson.
It was also flying by the seat of your pants because we didn't get
a rehearsal, we didn't get a table read. We just hear do it
and it was done kind of scene at a time, and so you got
to keep up with everything, and you know in the back of your mind
that if you screw up a line, everyone has to start over, so
you don't want to be the person screwing up a scene. And we would
do an entire episode in about two and a half three hours something like that,
and it was, Yeah, it was kind of controlled terror, but
it became very popular and it still holds up on you know, like Disney
Plus and everything. It was. You know, it was absolutely a fantastic
time. I thought that, well, maybe I will stay in Hollywood because
my wife was still in Dallas about when that came out, and it had
been going for a few months, and I said, maybe this is going
to turn into something. So she came out, moved out to California,
and I kind of got off the road doing stand up because Disney would call
me and they'd say, we need you for a goof Troop this Friday,
and I'm saying, well, I'm in Seattle, I'm doing stand up.
I need can we do it next week? And then they said, well,
if you can't be available, we might have to get someone else.
And I said, I'll quit off the road, off the road, And
from that time forward it was just voiceover. So it changed my life in
the path of my career. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. How important
do you think the show Good Trip was at the longevity of the Goofy character,
because before then he was, you know, he's getting his own show
there. Before then, though, he was sort of like a sidekick character,
but now he's the main star. And I think because of goof Troop
people are still talking about Goofy to this day. That was the first time
I think in the well they had duct Tails before that, but not too
many of the characters. It really led into a Goofy movie, which of
all the things I've ever done, more people at comic cons talk about.
And it started as a goof Troop movie. They did a Duct Tales movie
based on the Ducktails TV series, but then they wanted to do a goof
Troop movie. But then later on it kind of evolved into the father son
thing. And to this day, I mean, without fail, at comic
cons people say thanks for my childhood. That movie brought me and my dad
together. We didn't really see eye to eye, and I kind of saw
things from a different light. And now it's been twenty eight years since that
movie came out, people will say, you know, I used to identify
with Max. Now I got kids. I identified with Goofy's point of view,
and so yeah, it's a big circle of life. Yes, that's
a separate movie that was like that was oh yes, yes, yeah.
Goof Troops kind of started it all. And that's right when Disney was starting
the Disney Channel and so they were starting to do the Disney Afternoon and I
had series and stuff, and so goof Troop was a good addition to that
and kind of that started off kind of the regular working for Disney, and
it's really never slowed down to this day. Well, knock on woods,
yes, one, yes, do you know what the original goof Troop movie
was going to be about? Before it became a father and son project,
we actually recorded at least one session of a goof Troop movie. I don't
remember the actual the plot. I think it was just kind of an extended
version of goof Troop. And that was usually because you know, Goofy lives
next to Pete and their adventures together and Goofy messing it up. So it
was kind of along that lines of the series. But then they took a
right turn and did the father son thing in a Goofy movie, and that
really struck a chord with America. I think followed the open Road, right.
Yeah, some songs got to sing. Didn't get to sing in goof
Troop. Got to sing that. I want to be singing that song on
the Disney cruise ship with my son filling in for Max in about two months,
and that's going to be an exciting thing. So that's old is new
again. Wow, Well, I want to do a cruise ship. I
want to go all right, you can make that happen. We can do
that. Yeah, you got juice? Yeah, I don't get juice anymore
because I spill it. Yeah. Well, you're not brainy, that's true.
He's not intelligent. D he's goofy. Oh yeah, well that's great.
So I'm trying to think when he wouldn't be He can't be the oldest
Disney character, but he's got to be in the top five. Yeah,
as far as I mean from the time they were invented. He was invented
in nineteen thirty two. Pluto, who I've been wasting just as song,
is actually older nineteen thirty Yeah, he's even older. He did some of
the Alice comedies in Silent Days, Yes, and Steamboat Willie, Steamboat Willie.
So yeah, so these characters, and there's no other characters like that,
the Disney characters, because what other character has been around that long and
is still on TV? Or people always say, well, would you rather
do a lot of on camera acting? And I've done some movies and stuff,
but no, what who else is on television from nineteen eighty seven till
today and on every day? You know, you gotta thank your sisters for
that kind of thing. I don't know. I see an old movie where
I'm on camera and I was gonna ask you about that. Yeah, well
hold on and sit us. You are under arrest. Yeah, RoboCop,
RoboCop? How about that? That was actually pre dates Goofy. That was
actually back in my Dallas days. And yeah, when I see that,
I look, God, I'm old. Yeah, Goofie sounds the same.
That's a great thing, that's Trueover voice doesn't change that much. Yeah,
well, it's it's interesting because if somebody told me Chris, I'm a voice
guy. But if somebody just introduced me to you and I didn't know who
you were what you did, I would end up like in five minutes ago.
You know who you sound like because because that's kind of it's an extension
to me. Yeah, and that actually was kind of Goofy from Pratt,
Kansas. By any chance, there's a good question, you know, from
a Goofy movie, if you look at the map that they show he started
in Ohio, that's my only clue. There's no you know, they don't,
oh Goofy was born and you know Haysting's Montana or something like that.
No, there's no origin story that I've been able to find where Goofy's supposed
to have come from. Although people that do the voice, they will tend
to make him more country. They'll kind of put him down there. Well
there, hell are ye? You know, I'll put a Southern accent on
it where I don't. I kind of use Midwest kind of more. Yeah,
that's right. When you say other people who played Goofy, who are
you referring to? Oh, well, Pinto Colvig was the original voice from
nineteen thirty two till he passed away in the late sixties. Then it was
kind of Goofy Douzier for about twenty years. A lot of people, but
there weren't really official voices. Hal Smith, who played on Andy Griffith as
Otis the Drunk, he did it in I think the Christmas Carol, Mickey's
Christmas Carol, and then Tony Pope did it in like the Olympic. They
did some cartoons on the Olympics in the early or mid eighties. But since
nineteen eighty seven, I've been the only voice. So you're the only one
that's still alive and I'm getting older. Yeah, well that beats beats a
well, you know, I'd rather have a mess of birthdays than one funeral.
Yes, i'd so see words to live by or die by, but
words to not die by the same as living. But yes, getting back
to origin stories, Bill, do you still believe that Jessica Rabbit is the
mother of Max? Oh? Uh no, that's my theory. There has
never been one mention of who Goofy was married to or where Max came from.
And so just at comic cons I just you know, people had always
asked me who's Max's mother, and I said, well, you know,
my line was that I think it was Jessica Rabbit before Roger, because she
actually mentions you're better than goofy. So there must have been some kind of
thing going on in the Roger Rabbit movie. He's goofy, he's not stupid,
so he would put a hot date. Wow, Yes, that would
do it. Wow, it's as good as any other theory. I like
it. Well, wow, well you lie and I'll swear to it.
Yeah, when I could see why Jessica might leave Goofy after a while,
you know he yeah, could drop her off at the mall and forget to
pick her up for a few years. That's yeah, but that's a good
way to go. I could see the two of them together. He makes
me laugh. Right, We don't know. We don't know the origin uh
story or the continuing story. Well, and goof Troop Peg was a Pete's
wife. Where'd she go? Yeah, he stole you know, Waffles,
his dog and cat and all of that. Where did they go? We
don't know. Well, we could write a new Frank is still there,
Frank Welker, But I don't know. And Nancy cart right, oh yeah
she did well. Bert Simpson was my son, no way, no pistol,
she was. She was a great daughter. Yeah. Yeah, see
see most young boys in cartoons are women, right, so Bart Simpson,
great, there there you are now there there? Yeah, like the number
one and that was actually was goof Troop before or about the same time as
the Simpsons. Oh, I don't know if she was doing goof Troop before
or after she got the role of Bart Simpsons. Brandon definitely knows the answer
to this. So she got the role of Bot in nineteen eighty seven.
Well that's when. Okay, goof Troop actually started recording around eighty nine,
I think or something like that. So yeah, well the world will tell
us soon. Yeah. Did you ask the question when they were making a
Goofy movie? Did you ask the question where's Pagan? Where's Pistol? Did
you ask the question at the time or was it just, oh, well
they're gone. Yeah, we don't know where they went. That's true.
I miss them terribly. And then he changed careers too. Did you ask
the question to the directors? No. An interesting thing that they are doing
now is and I saw screening of it. It's a preliminary screening of it's
a making of a Goofy movie. I did not realize when we were doing
that that they were filming me and I had no idea, and that they
have the live action actors for the iya I Dance and oh I love those.
Yeah, and a lot of stuff the Kevin Leema, the director,
kept over the years and they are in the process of making a documentary on
that, so hopefully someday come to light on probably Disney plus, I would
imagine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds good. Well, write
letters or do whatever. Yeah, write emails, and it's it's amazing that
you know this long after the movie, it's still as popular as it is.
Last year we went up to Indianapolis to the fun co Oh place and
people know what that is, the funko, the little Yeah. I signed
a lot of those ooh at comic Con. They call them pops or funkos,
right, Yeah. And they have a Goofy movie board game that they
came out with last year. Oh wow, and it's a big seller.
And I'll sign those from time to time. And so only twenty eight years
after the movie, so they got around to it. Wow, is that
I signed something like that? It probably a Goofy movie board game. Yeah,
but this one was really old. Hmmm did you say that? Yeah,
it had the it was kind of the map from the movie. Remember
where I've signed the map from the movie. That is a thing that people
up you know what, that's what it was. Yeah, it was,
but it was hard. It was like a monopoly board. Yeah yeah,
okay, yeah, yeah because one of us. Yeah, I think you
signed it first. And yeah, And that's that's kind of an article that
a lot of people will get. Sometimes it's in a you know, a
poster kind of thing, or an eight by ten or a yeah, I
think a puzzle thing. I think you can put together. The kids were
a lot of memorabilia and my favorite thing though, and I and I I
just it's so sweet and then you stop and look at the person. But
you go to these conventions, you go to Disneyland wherever you would go,
and they sell the traditional old school goofy hat, yeah, the green hat,
and they've got these two ears and you see people coming around and I
thinking, man, you're looking good. You you're you're a true fan.
Yeah. There are some amazing fans at the comic cons that will come up
and they know more. I had one guy say on the third episode of
goof Troope, you had a dinosaur egg and you put it in the front
closet. Why did you put it in the front closet. I go,
I don't know where my wallet is. That's I don't remember what it's a
logical place to put a dinosaur egg. Now, where would you put it
in the garage? I don't know. No, I think the front closet.
It's clear eggs. That's an easy one. Wow, But you never
know what people are going to ask. Yeah, and I was going to
say, what is like the is there one of the most embarrassing questions or
interesting questions that that you get asked as boy, we get him, Oh,
yes we do. I'm trying to think of you did you did you
do this in school? What school did you go to? Yeah, now
you get in trouble, yes, yes, yes, kind of have a
d D. And I spent all sixth grade in the coat closet with a
detention. Yeah yeah, same here. Yeah. I was not not your
typical kid. No, no, well that's that's why you're not a typical
adult. And I guess I'm not either. But but I was right for
this job. Yeah. First, what I do without this? Yeah?
Well, you know I've told him before. I don't want to bore anybody,
but I remember when my dad I was five years old and we were
watching Jack Benny and Mel Blank was a guest on there, and he was
side from Mexico. And my dad goes, say this bastard, and I
said, which one they He goes a guy talking funny. I go,
yeah, he goes his name is Mel Blank. Now you know when you
get up on Saturday morning and you see this show and that bugs bunny and
the dad, Yeah, he goes he's doing all the voices. And the
first thing I thought, he doesn't have to stand in the hall in the
corner because he does funny voices. They're paying in. We have to.
Yeah. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do that then, And I
was five really that I had no idea. It just started as a joke
kind of thing. And then you know fraternity things, they'd have a band
break and they firm er get up and do something. So I started writing
material and developing some characters. And then I did radio for a number of
years as a DJ and developed characters, and I bring in all those old
Western things like Pat Butcher or something like that. Oh yeah, Bill,
it's great to be on your Hey Pat, what's going on? So okay,
let's do the weather. Well, now it's gonna be cloudy, and
just play with those. Yeah, and you develop a little repertoire of those.
And that turned into the stand up and then it turned into a Disney
job. Yeah, wow, that worked. Yeah. I got to meet
Pat, but I was very happy about I did on a goofy movie.
Oh yeah, and that's good. He Uh, we were about an hour
he was going inside. They sound like, did be cousins? Yeah,
sort of, maybe not brothers, but easily cousins. In the In the
movie, he had like one line, you know, he hits the stage
with the Lester's possible here it is, and welcome to Lester's Possum part here
it is that line. Yes, and what a great, great guy.
He was still trying out material on me. Yeah, and uh he was
going to do that night and this was shortly before he passed away. He
was going to do a tribute to Jack Palance. He was going to do
a roast and he was if you remember Jack Palance from uh what was it
with? Oh yeah, he's been in a lot of Westerns and kind of
a tough guy. And uh, Pat said, you know, I'm gonna
go out there and say Pat, it's I mean, it's amazing that you
was out there on the oscars and he was doing one arm push ups and
father time has been very kind to you. But it looks like mother nature
doesn't kick the hell out of your face. Yeah. He was trying out
material on me that day in the waiting room. Yeah, so never quit.
Oh that yeah, no kidding. Yeah. I got to work with
them on Roger Ebbitt and he he said, do you know what give me
six good men and a buckboard means? And I said no. He goes,
I don't either. Gene Autry made me say that in about fifteen goddamn
movies, So yeah, and he said. And then I was over there
at the Sportsman's Lodge the other day and I was fixing to meet him,
and I says to the bartender, so where's gene Autry anyway, and he
says, you're standing on men. So that's my story. Yeah, he
was a great guy, understanding. He lost like a finger and an eye
in a cannon explosion, and Geotry said, don't sue me, and I'll
take care of you forever. Wow. Wow. Don't know if that's true,
but i'd heard that story, so he said, okay, I want
to play for the Angels. That would have been He said, okay,
not that, but okay, I can't quite do that one now, Brent,
do you know who Genautry is coming from? Down under? We are
still a part of the world, so we are aware of But I see
there, it's been gone for it's it's he's it's like almost asking for a
silent movie star. Yeah, it wasn't a long time. Yeah, it
wasn't exactly yesterday, So you're forgiven either way. But good for you,
he was. He was like, didn't he own like the Dodgers at one
time? Yeah? I think no, Anaheim Angels. Anaheim Angels, Yes,
which is a not a football team. What was it in the movie
stand by Me, Stephen King? Yeah, speaking of Disney. Yeah,
people bring that one up, you know. Do you know the scene I'm
talking about? Yeah, where they say why can Goofy talking Pluto can't?
Yes, My original line was, well, Goofy's got a better agent,
but no, I've got the same agent, so it doesn't. That's right,
that's right, Goofy gets more, I guess. And I always say
that, No, Goofy is not a dog. Some people think he's a
cow. I don't know why there's this thing people is Goofy a cow?
No? Maybe because she and Clara Belle had a kind of a little thing
going in a stree Musketeers. But no, he's not a cow, and
he's not technically a dog. He's a canine like a wolf is not a
dog, but it's a canine. Canis Goofus, I think is the scientific
Maximus Goufhus Maximus. And Pluto is a dog dog and that's a dog.
See, yeah, that's and we always say Pluto for the last when we're
doing a session because sometimes you do a lot of that and it's like a
video game. You're talking like that. Oh yeah, yeah, I know
the feeling. Well now now okay, so stand by me. That was
the bit from there. There was something else that they were referencing, the
dichotomy of Goofy owning pets. Yeah. I was thinking, you gotta,
you know, you gotta. But then ultimately it's a cartoon. Yeah,
it's a drawing. You know what is he? Is he a cow?
A dog? No, he's a drawing. Yeah, he's basically it,
and he has a down to it and he has a cow for a girlfriend.
Yes, there we go. It's a natural universe, natural progression.
And I love that because if I'm not mistaken, that's what I was thinking.
April Winchell the Great, she was Clara Belle. Yeah, and then
she and then in goof Troops she was my wife Peg. Okay, yeah,
see you have all of these different roles you can play and this still.
I saw her just the other day we were doing I actually went into
a studio during COVID, I started doing all my stuff at home and my
home studios son's and audio engineers, so he runs the sessions. But the
other day, since they're doing some construction at my house, I went into
the studio and April was there. I haven't seen her in years in the
flesh and it was but she's still doing Claire Bell. These are long running
jobs. Yes, yes, well she's been my wife in a few shows.
And her name is always Peg and now my wife is named Margaret,
which nickname is Peg. He Christopher's mom. That's prophetic. Yes, there's
something like that. Yeah, Well I'm glad. I there's a choke in
there somewhere, but but I'm not going to going to go for that.
I'm not going to excavate it at this particular time, right, Brendan,
So what time is it there in Australia? It is currently nine am in
the morning. So I had to get my parents to company up my children
to take them to school, which my kids won't appreciative of, but they
wanted Daddy to take them. But I'm here with Bill Farmer and Jim coming,
so I'm happy at least. Yeah, are you in Sydney or Melbourne
or I'm in a town called Geelong, which is about a forty minute drive
down from Melbourne. So have you've been to Melbourne? It's forty minutes from
there. Want to be down there in July at a comic con? So
yes, And I've been to Austria. I have a lot of friends down
there, and this would be my tenth time. I think. It's no
kidding. Yeah, wow, well you win. Well I want to go.
Why why's you coming back? I don't know. We're not waiting on
me. What was that one called that's like the then abe? Oh yeah,
it was like a book. Usually this is just to see some friends
really and they're running out of con down there. But usually it's yeah,
two weekends generally was. I did New Zealand with the same company and we
did christ Church and then Wellington a week later, so we got to drive
around the South Island, which is beautiful and I love when we get a
little week off between gigs. Perth. As far as I've gone in Australia,
that's that's a way over there. But it was a lot of fun
and I'm looking forward to going back. Try the Tasmanian Devil. Yeah,
that's yeah, yeah, you know, I had to just very briefly.
We were had occasion to be down Under and we went to a zoo and
uh, Chris will verify this. We saw a Tasmanian devil and he turned
and ran and he went and I went, oh, come on, I
mean he sided. I didn't realize because I'm really just doing mel blank.
You know. He's the original God Rested Soul. But it sounded just like
it, the actual Tasmani Hit Devil. Sounds like the cartoon I was waiting
for. It was pretty idea in the cold, cold ground. You know,
he didn't say that, but but if he did, I wouldn't have
been surprised. Oh man, I love it, but I do love guaucas.
I can't believe we're on this subject. Do you know what aguaca is?
I think I did, but I can't remember. What is the happiest
little rodent you could have ever seen? Okay, Brendan, what can we
look? He knows, he knows Quaka quaka with a yeah, guawka,
I'm thinking of Molly Quawker. Yes, qua c a k. Yeah,
all the animals down there, Okay, everybody that's your assignment, look up,
just start loving on them. Yeah you can't. I mean, it's
it's too amazing. We've had a lot of our friends. You've got a
pet, don't you. I do. But in Australia you'll find the animals
that will either be your best friend or they'll try natcha. Yeah, that's
true. We had a young boy that came to our from Australia, come
to our house and he came in running. He was so excited. Mother,
Mother, I can't believe what I saw. I saw a squirrel and
wow, okay, I said, don't you have squirrels in Australia. Now
we just have dumb old rouse oh man. Yeah, and they could kick
your butt, yes they can. They're bigger than you. Think, yeah,
they sure are. Oh man, that's ridiculous. And they eat them.
They eat kangaroos. Yeah, I saw it in dog food. I
taught at restaurants, so I don't know what that says, but you can
see it at the grocery store. Oh, kangaroo meat. Okay, it
says we have too many of them. That's the problem they are. They're
all over the place. I saw a lot of them there. Yeah.
I always thought that was like their national animal. I think it is.
Yeah, oh gosh, yeah, well what is your national animal? Now
that we're on this riveting subject? I think it is the kangaroo. It
is kangaroo, right, it's it's kangaroo and ay, and that's good eating.
Well, amy is a bird. Maybe that's more likely to taste better.
Yeah, I've had ostrich, I really have. I did try kangaroo
at a restaurant. It's a little tough, little gamy, but it wasn't
bad. Best tune it again that I think would beat it. But you
know, yes, oh god, yeah, Well I've had French fried ants.
I can't believe we're on this subject, but that's pretty good. Ants
ants French and they turned into peanuts. They turned there and I've eaten zebra.
I have not eaten zebra. No, that's not bad. That's on
the the two do list, I guess. And in certain parts of Texas
you can get rattlesnake in a can like tuna fish. Really, yes,
it might not be rattlesnake, might be just snake snake, but it's snake.
How would you know? Yeah, yeah, you can and you find
out. Yeah, but I'm oh my god, well that's insane. Did
you ever question Brendan? I thought I heard you starting up a question I
was going to ask just about Goofy earlier. We're talking about goof Troop,
and I feel like Goofy in a goof Troop was such a different setting for
the character. The character felt fresh and new again. Do you feel like
Goofy has evolved since then? Oh? Yeah, has Givy evolved over the
years, do you think? Or? Oh? Absolutely? Goof Troop was
kind of what I call a Saturday morning type of show. It was high
energy and if you think of the way that Pento Colvig used to do the
voice, it was kind of guttural and world holds me, You'll live,
and it's kind of in the back in goof Troop, I had to kind
of do it up the front of the lips and gorsh oh. The world
olds me you'll live boom, and they've kind of kept that way, I
guess for articulation and in a Goofy movie. I mean that was hard for
me because he'd never had to be a kind of a worried father and his
kid's gonna, you know, go to prison and be in the electric chair
and all of this kind of worry stuff. He's always been happy, go
lucky and goof troops, So that was a stretch to find the softer side
and the you know, sentimental side of Goofy and the fatherly love kind of
thing. So I just kind of thought of my son and it came there,
you go. What were your first thoughts on the new vision for Goofy
when they first Probably the Mickey Mouse because you don't playing Goofy for a while.
I love now, Oh here he is the new and improved Goofy.
Yeah, it's it's different. It's a different universe. And I think he's
more dressed like he originally was in nineteen thirty two, so I think of
him more as dippy dog which was his original name than Goofy, because we
were able to do stuff in the shorts that we could never do on the
traditional you know, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse kind of thing. And I mean I
remember once where, you know, like there was one called dog Show where
Goofy and Pluto We're going to go to a dog show and Mickey puts Goofy
in so he could win something. Yeah, and then there's one scene where
Goofy is scooting across his butt on the carpet and I saw that, Okay,
that's different. That's no, We've never been able to do that.
There was one where Goofy was a zombie and I said, okay, yeah,
that was really different. And yeah, a lot they're very funny.
I love some of those. Yeah, I love doing all those. Yeah,
the scripts were great, and they're just more adult, whereas you do
the ones for the you know, five and under the little kids and stuff,
it can be a little you know, repetitive, but I mean it's
soft, it's not adult enough for what I would like. And so,
but some of the Mickey shorts are just genuinely hilarious. Oh yeah, back
in the day, Yeah, yeah, back in the day when was the
day I keep forgetting. I think it was the nineteen thirties and some of
the books. I've done some books from then, and they were tougher characters,
they were a little they had more attitude. Yeah, Mickey sure did.
Yeah, And Wayne always lamented the fact he said Mickey's too bland.
He says, I wish I had more lines that were a little bit have
more meat on them. And luckily he would have loved the shorts. I
think, yes, he would, God bless him. And I think he
was the longest running Mickey. Yeah, he started in he did it a
few times before. He did it in Mickey's Christmas Carol in eighty three.
He did the Mickey Mouse Club in seventy seven, was the first time that
he did that. And then he died in two thousand and nine. So,
I mean it's twenty two years, you know, twenty two years and
a lot longer than that. It was, Yeah, thirty two. I
don't know. And so, and I'm sorry, how many years is it
for you? Doing this? January will be completing thirty eight years. Yeah,
there you go. Wow. So, and it's going to be a
career if I don't watch it. That's right. Yeah, the next thing,
you know, trip over microphone cave? Wow, you know the sound
effects? Ready? Yeah? Yeah? And is there anything coming up that
we should know about any particular projects that you have? Well, we I
don't know what you can talk about of upcoming series that we're in and stuff.
I never know. I know I've got a cruise to go on in
the summer and a couple of boat things and some more comic cons coming out
that we're doing a series now which I don't if it. And and we're
getting calls. I know a call was coming in that maybe that's a new
job. But you never know. I don't get my bookings usually it's like
I'll get next week's booking like today or something. Yeah. That's about all
the lead time I ever get. So it's just okay, something will come
yeah, sure, sure, I never yeah same here, yeah, unless
it's comic cons. Is there any comic con we should be on the lookout
for? Would that be? Where it probably is? And can I remember
now there you go, Okay, just check it, just check it.
That's right. Well, mailing, well, next weekend I'm doing one actually,
I think it's sack anime in Sacramento. Oh, yes, and that's
the next and after that, who knows, you know, I think I'm
going there. I think I've got that written down. Yeah, I've done
that before. Yeah, anime, which is an interesting it's a whole nother
world to me, but it's very popular. Yeah. The closest way've come
as Goofy characters, you know and Disney characters is probably Kingdom Hearts video game,
which is intensely popular and the longest running series I found of anything that
we've done. Two thousand and two is when the first one came out,
and they're getting ready for number four, so that'll be coming up someday.
Wow, well, buy too many of them? Yeah, actually we don't
get royalties never matter. No, not from the game. No, we'll
have to fix that's that's worth a strike. Yes it is. Oh man,
should we play a game? A voice swap? Chris? Do you
think? Yes? I was read my mind, read my mind. Yes,
we do a character voice swap with all the guests that come on the
show. So, oh, Jim will feed you one of his popular character's
lines and then you'll say them in one of your popular characters' voices. Oh,
and then vice versa. Do you want to do that? Yeah?
It might be an impression, but yeah I can. Okay, okay,
Well, let me see what should I come up with. I got to
think of a really good one here. Well, if you've got one,
go ahead, let a goof ism. I'll come up with a peteism.
Goorsh pete. Well what's going on? Oh? There we go? Okay,
Well here's one now PG Daddy can't miss you if you don't go away.
Well, son, now, daddy can't miss you if you don't go
away. Goofy would never say that, And my line is from a Goofy
movie? Sure, how many cups of sugar does it take to get to
the moon? How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the
moon? That hurts? Oh? Man, oh god, do we have
another one? Yeah, we gotta do a Pooh one. We gotta do
it. I feel like we need to hear we need the Pooh say that
line as well? Right, alrighty well, how many cups of honey does
it take to get to the moon. I've done that. It sounds like
it's not but I could do that, Sylvester. Oh, there you go.
How many cups us sugar does it take to get to the moon?
Well, and what's the answer? Three and a half is what max?
I don't know. A dwing coffee? How many cups of coffee does it
take to bunk to the moon? Oh my god, Okay, stop us
before we kill again. How about how about one more? That's a good
character. I feel like we always we always do Pooh and Tigger dark Wing
dark Wing dark Wing doesn't get his play as much. Yeah, I am
the terror the flaps in the night, the wicked skirts that picks up your
nightmares. Him, dark Wing Duck. I could do that as as fog
Horn. Oh yeah, oh yes, I think I'm the terror that squawks
in the night. It wasn't squaw, I say, bowl, wasn't squawk
close enough? I'm dark Wing Duck. That's pretty good. That's pretty good
fog Horn. He is one of my all time favorite min too, of
the of the Looney Tunes. Yeah, he's my favorite. Yeah, absolutely,
Actually he's second favorite because yeah, well you can get a paycheck.
I got him. Yeah, gotta gotta keep water in that plant. Don't
want to mess that up. Well that's pretty dark cool. Yeah, I
saw a bill on your on your IMDb. You've played George Bush a couple
of times. Wow, that says George Bush, saying I've done a lot
of the presidents over the years. Actually probably the most. This is embarrassing
to even mention. One of the first things I ever did. I needed
the money and there was a guy that looked like Gorbachev and he was doing
a music video called Gorbie and the Red Hats and they needed Reagan and so
well, you know, I went in and auditioned and they said, ye,
it's great, but you won't talk. And I'm well, maybe prosthetic
that might be interesting. Anyway, I did this three days and it was
the most horrible thing that I ever did. I worked. My co star
was a poster girl, Angeline, and oh, if you remember Angeline,
looks her up she I understands, she rocks. She up close. It's
scary because she was old even then and this is in the late eighties,
and I had to hold her leg looking lasciviously as they were singing this song
as Gourbie and the Red Hots. And I'm thinking to myself, okay,
this is show busy, eh, okay, well this is what this.
I won't be here that long and the production company the guy's funding this thing
skipped out of town. Stiffed the production company for about two hundred thousand bucks.
There's not a frame of that movie in existence. You cannot find it,
but thank god, but you have an amazing, wonderful memory, a
good story. They had all of the they had a guy on a ball
that smashed through the Berlin wall that they had thirty five millimeter. It was
a big production and they just skipped out of town because it was so horrible.
Wow, that was the first year I was out here. So I
well, hopefully something will happen. And then the goofy thing did. Yeah.
Yeah, well that that seemed to have worked out for you. Yes,
you got to go through a lot of stuff before you get the good
stuff. Oh there you go. Well that's wonderful, but not necessarily for
you, because once you switched over to voiceover you were cranky. Yeah,
it finally hit. That was twelve years after college. And so students that
I talk to all the time they say, what do you need to be
a voice actor? And I say, get rich parents. Yeah that helps,
especially the first few years. You're gonna need another job. Yeah,
don't leave Nebraska and come out here hoping to be a big star. It's
far few and far between. And but if you're good at parking cars,
that's always a good skill. It's always or like you know, picking up
taking orders at Denny's. Oh yeah, that's a good one. It's a
tough business, it really is, if you think about the number of and
there's still a lot of rejection. I mean, you know, all the
time I'm doing auditions and I never hear anything. Well, the lucky ones
that hit, you know, you're very thankful for. Yeah. Well,
the great Gordon Hunt, he was the voice director at Hannah Barbara Forever in
a Day and also Helen Hunt, the amazing actress. Dad. He wrote
a book called Breaking It, How to Break into show Business, and uh,
it had dancers, it had jugglers, it had musicians, it had
actors actresses of course, and then the one of the chapters was how to
break into voiceover? Don't bother really, kid you not? This is what
you know, wrapped up by about four or five maybe six people in Hollywood,
and they're already there and you're not, so forget that, okay,
next and it was and I was thinking, and of course I was already
working, yeah when I met him, because otherwise I would have never heard
the book. And I'm thinking, I can't thank you enough for giving me
this book after I've already worked for you. Yeah, because you know,
I wouldn't have bothered. If I'd known how hard it was, I probably
wouldn't have bothered. But it's the best lesson I ever learned. I took
classes from DAWs Butler speaking of him, Oh sure, and he does everybody
know who does bear hound on Snaggle Push, all of the big Hannibar America
probably Drama gra and Quick Drama, Graw and Captain Crunch, all hundreds of
them. And he was the thing that it's not voice acting, it's voice
acting. The acting is more important than the voice. The voice will come.
You can find a voice for something, but if you can't act,
don't bother's That's what separates the great from the imitator. The Midland Yeah,
yeah, do you do you have any nuggets of wisdom to Well, that's
the first, because that's pretty good take acting. My best training was a
stand up because you get a lot of honesty. If you suck, they'll
let you know real You can tell how you're doing with a live audience.
So any kind of live performance where you're on a stage, you get feedback
from the audience. You'll learn how to say a line, which is important
in the booth because you just get a script, say it, make it
funny, you know, and you gotta do that. So you have to
have those acting chops. So take acting lessons is the most important part.
So, Bill, what would be your thoughts then on now it feels like
it's even hotter for someone to break into voice acting because it feels it seems
like a lot of a list actors are getting the voice acting spots as opposed
to genuine voice actors. So what's your thoughts on actors now is getting all
the voice rolls it seems these days. Some are great, some are not.
I mean, you know, Tom Hanks is Woody, great choice,
it fit the character. He is a great actor and he's just got that
voice that worked with that character. I always say to my students that,
like, as they say, a camera adds ten pounds, I'm really not
this fat, and but a microphone takes off ten pounds or ten percent energy.
So you gotta find that amount of exaggeration that you put in the voice,
but it's got to be backed up by emotion, so the motion has
to push the words off the page. Once you get that, yeah,
you're kind of right in the ballpark. That's why it's very similar to stage
acting. You got to play to the back of the audience, the bigger,
grander gestures. Yea, they is a little bit brighter and stuff.
That's kind of what animation is. Yeah. On camera, Hey, camera's
right there in front of you. You can be a little bit more subtle
and get it across. That's why a lot of film actors have trouble doing
voiceovers because they're acting oh yeah, stuff like and that doesn't translate. Yeah
it does. Yeah, somebody sits there, goes for five minutes. Yeah,
that's that doesn't play. Yeah, oh god, that is so true.
And I've often said too that you know, if you're way too much,
you're probably right there. Yeah, yeah, you know it's overdo it
over as Yeah, just as long as the emotions make in it feel real,
and as long you know it's easier to push it over the top and
pull it back. Then get halfway there and try to double your enthusiasm or
your conviction or you know fill in the blank. And uh, you know,
Louder as Prouder. Directors would probably not tell you to go bigger.
They might say, cut cut it back a little bit, it's a more
intimate scene or whatever, but rarely would they tell you to make it bigger.
That's just they don't think you can do it or something. Yeah,
And I always say instincts are the best stinks, which because if you which
is kind of iffy as an expression, but but if it feels good to
you and it feels right to you, because I always give them one as
written, yeah, you know, and then I always give them one the
way it should have been written, which is my ad lib, you know.
And of course I'm kidding, no I'm not, but uh, just
be be yourself and be too much. And yeah, I always say instincts
are the best stinks. And if you're if you give too much, it's
just about right that when I learned from you and goof troop because I look
at that's not on the scrip and something you do and then they like that,
oh okay, well go with your ideas. Yeah absolutely, And then
I've got these little gems and I'm sure you do too. If you.
If you do a perfect impression of somebody that no one knows, you have
a new character, right. And if you do a horrible impression of someone
famous they can't even tell who it is, you have a new that's a
new character, right. It's like, yeah, if I was going to
do Lucille Ball, she in her later years she had smokers thing and it
was kind of so I would probably do it, oh ricky, oh you
know, and it's like, it doesn't and it's usable. Yeah, so
just do the Lucille Ball and I got that voice. And then if somebody
goes, you know you're doing it, you know you're doing it perfectly.
Somebody in you say, you've got to explain it to the That's half of
the audience out there going, what's that? What's that from? Where they
get that? Where'd they get that? Oh? Man? A lot of
little acting tips. Yes, we hope you've learned something. Can I sounds?
One final thing you guys voice acting legends. You guys raised us essentially
Chris and I. And you've been in the business for fortyiears you've been getting
paid to do voices for forty plus years or thirty eight years, as you
said, Bill. Do you still enjoy just doing voices or this? Does
it feel up work? No, it's always felt like play to me.
It's never felt like man. I've always said, if you don't enjoy doing
it, why do it? So life's too short. You know, you
should just follow you know what you love. All of my hobbies have become
my career. Radio. I'd done some radio, you know, when I
was a teenager. I got to go out the local radio station do something.
I thought that was cool, that was fun. I played around with
electronics and did kits and stuff like that, and I became a chief engineer
at those radio stations. So I learned about electronics so I wouldn't electrocute myself.
It's always end up. I always love Jack, Benny, George Burns,
all those guys on TV. I would love to do that. I
finally got a chance, and dang it, I'm gonna jump off the cliff
and try it. And it turned into something. Same with Hollywood. I
knew that it was difficult, but I said, yeah, I'm gonna kick
myself if I don't try. Sure, So I came out and see what
happened. If it, you know, I wouldn't be any worse off.
If it didn't, I'd go back home. But it did. So unless
you try. Yeah, And I came up with saying, I said,
you know you can. You can never ensure success in this business, but
you can always ensure failure by not trying out there and try. Yeah,
nothing ventured, nothing gain exactly. Wow, there's a couple of Maxims that
are out there like that. But that puts it very well. You know,
Maxim that magazine that there's a joke in there somewhere better. I don't
trust myself to uh to dive in. Well, Bill, this is so
cool man, Thank you, it's great. It's great to actually look across
and see you at a microphone next to me. It's taken me back to
goof Yes, it's been a long time. And even though I work with
you every week, it's fun yeah sort of. Yeah, you're you're in
one studio, I'm in another, and they mix it all together and make
Disney Magic. This is this is special. This is a lot of fun.
That one coming up on Friday, So I think I do too.
Yeah, Actually to see you around campus, yeah, what do you think,
Brendon fantastic? We take us at Chris all right, there we go.
Well, thank you all again for joining us. On another episode of
Tuned In with Jim Cummings, today we had Bill Farmer. Thank you so
much for joining us. My pleasure, My pleasure, and don't forget to
like, follow, subscribe to us of all social media. You can get
bonus contents on our Patreon page. You can get early access there as well.
Please please check us out. It's been a great time. Thank you
so much for joining us. Thank you, thank you.