Maurice LaMarche

How you doing out there? It's me Tigger, I am dark Wayne Duck.
It's me Bunker's keep Bobcat. All right, y'all, did it right?
Your favorite firefly you design? Hold the old knock out. My name
is Jim Cummings and welcome to tune Jin. But yeah, ladies and gentlemen,
one of my truly oldest buddies in the business. That's true. And
yes, that is actually true. And Maurice sa Marsh by the way,
you know I'm better as the Brain. You know, I'm better as many
things. And one of my favorite things was the movie where you played Marlon
Brando. Oh you mean Utopia? Yeah, and that was Yeah, that
was fun. And you know, the Brain is loosely based on well,
two people. It's based on on Tom Minton, who was a writer and
his partner Eddie Fitzgerald. They're both writers at first hand of Barbara and then
Warner Brothers. Well, that's true, the look and the look, and
I had no idea that's where they based the character. The sketch of the
character on basically made them mice and so. But having never met Tom,
I just saw Orson Wells in that face, rowy cheeks the dour expression I
just saw, come Pinky back to the lab. We must plan for tomorrow
night, where we'll do the same thing we do every night, try to
take over the world. You know. But I you know, you know
this because you were there that I got I got doing Orson Wells because Phil
Proctor, uh, and then later Neil Ross gave me copies of outtakes of
Orson Wells doing the Falls and Peace commercial and the Palms on Wine commercial.
They had him on video too, they had and so I mean I got
hold of this. All this great stuff was Wells being himself, which to
me was even more fascinating than the characters. Oh my god. And at
the time, folks, I don't know if you would remember this, but
he was Gallow Gallow Palms mess On vintage, dated and fermented in the bottle,
and like the best champagne. And you know he's kind of he's kind
of out of it in the shot, Yes, you know, of of
you know, one, not two take two. The French champagne has long
been celebrated for its excellence. There is a California champagne inspired by that same
excellence, and like the best champagne, he's vintage dated fermented in the bottle
and cut. Yeah, that's that's tone perfectly, that is note perfect,
so funny. We remember watching that with you when we were doing Animaniacs,
Yes at Soundcast Soundcastle Studios. Yes, and uh. And then following in
the next cut on the tape was William Shatner doing she Backed My Bags last
night pre flight zero nine am I'm gonna be as a guy by the and
a rocket man talk singing rocket Man, And I think we were both on
the floor literally we sunk to the floor out of our chairs. Oh yes.
And then they kept cutting back and forth too. Uh if you remember,
I guess what was that the Grammys or something, But anyway, they
kept cutting back and forth to Mark Hamill. Yeah, and he was in
the audience going, yeah, it was this nineteenth Well was great because it
was Bernie Toppin and he comes out and makes the introduction and he says,
oh yes, he says. And now in nineteen seventy eight at the Science
Fiction Film Awards, my rocket main as interpreted by William Shatner, and he
just seemed like it was so painful and Chattner, you know, you gotta
give him credit because I'm sure he was, like he went to the directions.
I was in New York and I saw this thing called Performance Odd,
and I want to do it for rocket Man, because I mean there were
three Shatners, you know. There was there was there was a rock It
Man, the party guy. There was right sullen rocket Man, the one
who knows his fate is sealed. And then there's giant heads Shatner, you
know, and I think it will be a long long time as though he's
fate, you know, as though he's God. Oh God. Those were
and we always, you know, we had to when we were doing like
Tasmania, Yeah, and any number of the other shows. If someone said
any given thing that's set off any any orson Welly and Response, we got
to hear the whole full thing. I had no I had no filter.
I just knew. I just had to get that voice down more and more.
I don't know why. It's almost like I was on a collision course
with brain and I had to perfect that voice. And Miriam Flynn would say,
all right, this is gonna take about two or three minutes. I'm
just gonna see here. Go ahead, you kids talk amongst yourself, rolling
round and I have no more time you join on what I'm up against.
It's come to the point now where frozen peas actually means any any outtake,
any moment of audio verite. People just use the term frozen peas And does
dude, does the audience know that due to your your proclivity to falling into
that at any given moment? Was there ever an Animaniacs show based on that?
There was? See how I was that subtle enough? In season In
season one, actually they just decided they thought it might, you know,
kind of scratch the itch for me, So they built an entire episode where
Brain goes in. It's called Yes Always Brain goes in, and it's like
it's like a peak behind the curtain. And now we show you how the
recording process. Brain will record a frozen peas commercial? Can we go in?
And then then there's Brain up there on the on the thing on a
stool and he does we know remote farm in Lincolnshire where Missus Buckley lives Every
July peas grow there? Do you really mean that? And then Pinkies No,
Andrea Romana, Andrea Romano playing herself, goes Harry and Harry, our
dear Harry, and parted Harry Androws Life Engineer, and they drew them as
they as they looked in Life and the caricatures. But you know, she
came in and directed me and said, could you do it in July?
Wow, that doesn't make any sense, which sorry, no known way of
saying an English sentence, which you begin a sentence within and emphasize it.
Get me a jury and show me how you can say in July and I'll
make cheese for you. We cleaned it up because in the original cheese can,
it's just a in the original the true orson I'll take it. He
goes, show me how you can say in July and I'll go down on
you. It's such a idiotic if I say so, yeah, yeah,
so, God, unbelievable. It's just the best. Those were fun times,
man, means it was. It was. You know, now we're
so controlled, we're all doing it from our home studios, and you know
there's so many protocols in place. Full casts aren't assembling anymore. Yeah.
Last show that I ever did, God, that's depressing because now I realize
it's been years. But the last show I ever did with the full cast
was Star Wars Clone Wars. Oh, so you would do full cast recording
for that. Yeah, it's just like that, so don't you. I
just like that so much better. You get synergy and yeah, just you
get a sense of you feed off each other. Yeah, it's it's unbelievable
and it's one of the one of the casualties and our business of of you
know, the dark time that we don't get to do that. And I'm
hoping it'll make its way back. I will say that Futurama, which is
back on Hulu, new episodes drop every Monday night. We managed to give
us Monday nights on Hulu. We drop over of our new season. It's
the third time we've come back from the dead. So even Lazarus, we've
got him being but we we've got to the point where we would have half
the cast. They would allow four people in the studio at La Studios and
uh Billy would be in the main studio, and then three of us would
be in a satellite room but with the sliding doors so we could see each
other and work off of each other a bit. But you know, we
used to be in that you know, wonderful sort of semicircle horseshoe pattern and
just all eight of us there, and just eight of us doing fifty two
voices, you know, amongst ourselves. That's so and I yeah, Dearly,
my favorite way to work. Oh yeah, you know, oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, I know. Well, you know it's it's like
you can't play catch with yourself. No, there are the things you can
play with yourself. But that's true exactly. And yet you've worked enough for
Disney that you know the Disney model, especially the feature model, is to
always have you alone, totally isolated. That's how he did Utopia, and
that's how mister Big you know, came. But there's still that synergy because
the directors in the room with you and the writers in the room with you
throng out ideas, you know. And like mister Big was originally a very
sinister character in Zutopia, but as Rich Moore uh and I worked it out
and batted it back and forth, he became funnier. You know. We
want we must have gone back. Of course, when you've got five years
and so many millions of dollars to work on things like that, you know,
just we probably worked on mister Big for six months, you know.
Yeah, good Richard coming in with great ideas and you know the whole skunk
butt rug thing. Yeah, you might you get Grandmama skunk, but rug
a rug made from the butt of a skunk. We buried Grandmama on that
run. You know, it was like that was just all just riffing with
rich and and us trying to, you know, make each other laugh,
trying to riff. Oh yeah, but that's the luxury of doing feature film.
And again you're not You're not alone alone in there because rich is wonderful
director. He can read in the other characters. Uh, you know,
gosh, we've got who's who? Name won't come to me. No face
faces there, Kravit was in Greece. Was in Greece. Ah not John
Travolta. No, no, no, uh damn oh oh he's gonna kill
me. Oh blonde here, Yes, we're both old. No no,
no. Kelly Ward, Kelly Ward, God bless him. Sorry, Kelly,
I don't know why. I mean, your face was him. I
was in my head the whole time and the name would not come. So
weird. So Kelly Ward is actually one of those people that can read you
in and he does every voice on the show. We did a show called
The seventy which was like a kind of a j Wardish take on the Seven
Dwarves. Tom Rueger, you know, head honcho and Animaniacs developed this and
it's the Seven Dwars twenty years before they meet snow White. And he would
read with Yeah, he would read with me. And he did all other
of the Seven Dwars, including Kevin Michael Richards, a happy character who was
just the most ridiculously happy character you've ever met in your life. He could
read them all and you would feel like they were in the room. That's
how good. Oh wow, that's that's good. Directing is is just means
so much. Yeah oh yeah, yeah yeah. I work with him all
the time. He does the latest iteration of Mickey Mouse fun House, Right,
I get to play more of a mouse every fifth episode of that closest
thing there is to a villain. He's not really a villain. He's just
kind of clueless and rude and then he loves a lesson. Yeah yeah,
yeah, yeah, Well Pete's not really a villain either, well okay,
maybe a little bit. Yeah, but it's just cranky. Yeah, he's
just cranky. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he's just pissed all the
time, continuously pissed. So that's great, man. So so let me
ask something here. We are at a comic con. We are as we
record this, and you guys tell where we are by any chance. We're
in the world famous Tampa Bay. We are. It's the actual bay.
Yes, we're not kidding around here and sitting on the dock of the exactly
bay. Yes, and it's beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah, setting.
We just we feel like we should just have a cup of tea.
Yes, you know, I agree. Yeah, it's slowly yeah, I
do, I agree. Yeah. I love these cons though. I mean
this is you get to meet people who tell you that somehow, somehow,
something you did change their day on a very dark day, or maybe many
dark days. And I can't tell you how many people have told me that
they were going to do the dark need to themselves and they flipped on an
episode of your show, yeah, my show, and the laughter that came
from it dispelled the thought, you know, because we you know, whether
we you know, whether it's the endorphins that come from laughter or just you
know, poof the thought goes away and you can you realize, I can't
believe I was going to do that to myself, you know. And that's
the fact that I get to deliver that that shot of endorphin and you do,
and he goes even further back with you. Because when Winnie the Pooh
they meet, they meet Winnie the Pooh in their babyhood, man Oh in
their DNA from from if you ever decided, will turn evil and and start
the world with subliminal messages as Pooh it's time for them to rise up.
They follow him more readily than they follow the brain. Ye yes, yea,
and conquer the world. Here, let's take over the world. What
excuse me to go? But I must take over the world. Oh,
but Pooh don't pick of it. So I don't know. But it's yeah,
it's it's it's very gratifying because I've had so many people say that that
I have babysat them or gotten them through a lot of tough times. Pooh
is like a healing bomb. I will say that, you know, he
really Uh, it's a blessing. And one of the more touching things is
a twin. It it was a boy and a girl twin. Set of
twins told me that I raised them and that I kept them literally off the
streets because by the time they got home from school, the Disney Afternoon was
on and they would record. Their mom was a nurse and she couldn't get
home till like six, and so she was at work. My wife,
my wife's mom was a nurse, so I know this. Oh yeah,
well yes, oh yeah, well you know she she u. They would
set the VCR video tape recorder video casette recorder from three to five every day
and uh, three, three thirty, four, four thirty and then you
know, they would record the Disney Afternoon, those four shows and then they
would watch them. And by the time they were done watching them, after
they got home from school, mom was home. So I literally kept him
off the streets yea, and kept him safe and uh and I thought,
really yeah, and he was actually crying and he was just so sweet about
it. And he goes, and I have to record something from my sister
because she's my twin sister and she and she would it would is worse for
her and blah blah blah. And I thought, oh god, you know,
every now and then you meet somebody, Yeah, I get a little
gooey. If you feel like you've got to make it good. Yeah,
this used to be the best, the best voice I ever did. Yes,
yeah, who has to say something super profound? Let me quote the
Dolly lamaz boo. Yeah yeah, yeah, and uh and and and you
realize that, you know, guys like us, we can't take ourselves too
seriously. No, but you have to take the work seriously. Of course.
It's a technique and you can't be lazy fair about it. It's gotta
you've got to You've got to go into the world that you're whatever the world
is that you're that you're helping to create. Very often we don't have the
sketches, we don't have the backgrounds in front of us. So I mean
I just had a vague sense of what brain looked like, or you know,
any of the characters on Futurama look like because you knew Tom Minton.
Well, I didn't know Tomy character sketch stayed in my head. Oh yeah,
and so but I mean I didn't know, you know, so you
I kind of draw the cartoon in my mind's eye and project it around the
words on the script, and you know, and that's you've got to go
into that world. It's that it uses imagination almost well, I think the
most of any of the acting, you know, the stage or film.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's a it's a it's a real technique.
And while you don't have to, you don't have to be distracted by
hair, lighting, makeup, costumes. You also don't have those things to
help you along. You know a lot of actors like that, and oh
sure it's it's yeah, it's great. And you don't have to memorize either,
you know, for the most part, that's my favorite part, not
memorizing. Yeah, and then you know, in my case, I had
lived so much that it's like, yeah, scripted because you can't read,
you know, I can't, so I had to make something up. But
yeah, it's it's my favorite thing. It's my favorite thing in the home
wide world. And you know, I always say, this is this kind
of thing. You used to get me kicked out of class. Same here,
you know, same here. The jokes on system Mary Agnes now has
been for almost forty years. Take that mister Bean was my vice principle.
And in mister Bean not a different no, he'd be he funny, yes,
not not. He had the name of a British comedian's character. He
had the face of mister space Ley from The Jetsons. He looked just like
him. Oh wow, right down to the little, you know, kind
of Hitler mustache. And but mister Bean said, well, we've got to
We've got to let you go. Sorry, you haven't attended enough classes.
You spent so much time down in the cafeteria holding court. And listen,
we walk by, We hear your jokes, we hear your impressions. You're
very too, really good, and we hope we get to come see you
perform at at you know, at the time of the O'Keefe was the O'Keefe
Center was the big theater in Toronto at the time. We hope we get
to come down and see or go to Las Vegas and see you perform.
And I have I have been an opening act in Las Vegas. And next
March March thirtieth, my birthday, I will actually be at the Roy Thompson
Hall with Rob Paulson and Randy Roguel He and the Animaniacs Live show my home
team. That date again is that March thirtieth, twenty twenty four, my
sixty sixth birthday, and I will appear on stage in front of the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra. What yeah, doing the music of Animaniacs with Rob Paulson and
Randy Rogelli. We will do a brain song. There's a beautiful there's a
hilarious sketches and I'll probably you know, do a little extra pattern in the
middle, because I'm sure you will. Yeah, that's one that's pretty great.
Yeah, because I remember one of the Roy Thompson Hall went up and
it was this new acoustically perfect hall that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's new home.
And it isn't that the one where it's kind of like, uh got it
the Disney Theater where I don't think Frank Annon this one, but oh okay,
it's very much but you can hear a whisper and the balcony acoustically fantastic.
Yeah. I love stuff like that. Yeah, I really, I
really do good for you, man, Thanks man, that's good to thank
Rob Paulson and Randy roa for that. Yeah. Are you going to do
a drum solo? That's where that's where you come into that worked out in
perfectly in your back pocket. That's exactly what I was just gonna say.
Yeah, Oh wow, that's awesome, buddy. Yeah, thank congratulation,
thank you, thank you. Listen. Should we go back to work?
I think we gotta we got it, We got to. I've got at
least a fan waiting for me at the at my table, and I should
probably go put some smiles on something. Yeah. I agree. Well you've
done it here, buddy, thankk you so much. Oh Man driving me
on the show. Not orson Wells, No, but the brilliant, brilliant
imitation. Yes, Maraice LaMarsh, everybody you know Eman love him. Thanks
coming to a con near you. That was awesome. Coming to a near
getting out of everybody awesome. Oh that was so cool. Thanks, Yeah, buddy,