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The Man of 1,000 Voices: An Interview with Voice Actor Tony Daniels
401 Plays3 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik chat with voice actor Tony Daniels, who has given a voice to many characters that now sit on our toy shelves as the voice of Gambit, Jadeite, Tony the Tiger, X the Owl, and COUNTLESS others.
Follow Tony on Instagram @thetonydaniels
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Toy News and Culture
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi, this is Gambit from the X-Men, and you're listening to Adventures in Collecting. Take care, Cher. Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast.
00:00:29
Speaker
I'm Eric and I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture and halls along with our journeys as collectors.
Meet Tony Daniels, Voice Actor
00:00:41
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hello, Dave. Dave, we're back. We are. Today is going to be tonight or tonight, this episode, whenever you're listening to this.
00:00:56
Speaker
Uh, this is going to be a, uh, I think this is going to be a fun one as particularly fun one. Yeah, I think so. Um, it is, it is another special episode, although the special episodes are becoming the normal episodes. Yeah. I think so. We might need a new bit for the beginning of these episodes. Oh, well, Dave, uh, joining us on the pod today is a guest with a much different background than any of our previous ones.
00:01:23
Speaker
Actor Tony Daniels has given a voice to countless characters over the years, but most notably the iconic and very toyetic, Tony the Tiger and X-Men's
Collector's Passion: Comics and Guitars
00:01:35
Speaker
Gambit. Tony, welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Come on, get to the chopper. We're not going to make it. Sorry.
00:01:44
Speaker
It's practicing for, you know, some ADR for Arnold, whatever happens. Hey, man, that's this is gonna be this is gonna be a treat, isn't it? Actually, yeah, you know, the frosted flakes treat where you crush them all up and make them into with peanut butter. So good.
00:02:02
Speaker
I mean, breakfast cereal in every, I mean, all the, the major companies now, like with their offices, when, when, hopefully when we can all get back to places with those breakfast cereal bars, cereal culture is like a big thing. So it's true. It's true. So before we, we jump into the, uh, the meat of the episode and learn more about you and, and, uh, your career, the first thing that we ask all of our guests, do you collect anything? And if you do, what are you a collector of?
00:02:31
Speaker
Well, let's see.
Journey from Music to Voice Acting
00:02:35
Speaker
I've got some first books like my wife and I have the first Flintstones comic book, believe it or not. And I've got the first Backstreet Boys comic book, which was given to me by Stan Lee and Tony Pastor. When I worked for them, Tony was like, we lost Tony to COVID. And he was my all time
00:02:59
Speaker
craziest favorite director and best buddy. I used to spend months at a time with him and his place in Palm Springs, we create and write and do all kinds of stuff. But yeah, they gave me, I was voicing, I was one of the first guys to do this. I mean, internet was, you know, 56k modems. And Tony's on the phone with me, he's in Florida with Backstreet Boys and they're going live and they go,
00:03:25
Speaker
And he goes, Tone, we need this intro to the show now. And I'm like, OK, so I recorded it. And then waiting for a WAV file. Because back then, there was no MP3s. You're waiting for the WAV file to upload. Finally, it gets over there. And they pop it onto the thing and right onto the stage, ladies and gentlemen, the Backstreet Boys. All that stuff. So it was pretty cool. But my biggest collection is guitars. Oh, hey. I have a couple of those.
00:03:55
Speaker
What do you got? So I have a... Oh, hang on. Sorry, folks. Guitar players, as soon as anyone has more than one, it's like a big thing. Go ahead. So I have an Epiphone Dot. Beautiful. I have a 90s Mexican Strat, which is... Me too. That's really kind of my go-to over the years. What color is your dot? The dot is cherry red.
00:04:26
Speaker
Um, the strat is black. And then my other, uh, my other guitar is a, um, I have a Gibson Les Paul studio. That's a, um, uh, blonde with a maple neck. Mine's tobacco Brown with special pickups put in by Darrell Gilbert at Gibson. Oh, awesome. And they're the, they're kind of like the P 90s without the soap on the front. Um, that's really cool. Um, you're going to hate me. I've got 55.
00:04:56
Speaker
That's that's a lot of guitars, but hey, you know, it's that it's a collection. Yeah, but I've got cool cool ones. Hey, you have any more or and then the other one I have is a. What is it called? It's not a Jaguar jazz master. I have a jazz master. Yeah, I have I have a jazz master. Oh, the guitar. Yeah, not a bass. OK, not a bass with like the three little switchy things on it. So the one that I have is actually like a it was a short run.
00:05:26
Speaker
of like a watered down version of it. So it has the three knobs, but it doesn't have any of the switches on it. Oh, no, it's wicked. It's cool. So it's kind of, it's a little more of a streamlined version and, you know, you don't have as much control, but at the same time, you know, less to, less to muddle with. No, it's fine. So, so what are your, what are your favorites? I mean, I'm not going to make you list all 55. We'll be here all night. No, I got some special ones like,
00:05:50
Speaker
And I'm going to include some of my other things like my mandolins like my wife was betting betting. She was betting on me to come through. No, my wife was she was involved in the Julian's auction when Les Paul passed. And I had a friend actually at the auction and some of the guitars were going for like 100 grand under 20. We're not gonna spend that kind of money on a guitar. And in fact, one of the gents was he dropped at least a million
00:06:16
Speaker
And he's a very famous guitar player, but his guy was there buying all the guitars. So there was a mando that came up, and it was valued at like 3,500. So we got it for 38. And then they called and said, dude, they made a mistake on the value. It was 10 times that. I'm like, well, cool. So I actually used it on a couple of records. And it sounds amazing.
Voice Acting Challenges and Humor
00:06:39
Speaker
It's old. And I never even changed the strings because he was the last guy to play them. So his epithelials are on there. So it's kind of cool.
00:06:46
Speaker
And then I had, years ago, I had, this is a cool story. I was working on radio. Radio. Listen, he's got a radio voice. Fantastic sound right there. You know, and so I answered this ad in the papers for a used Dobro knockoff.
00:07:01
Speaker
So I drive like, I don't know, hours and hours and hours. It was like really far. It's like, man, maybe I shouldn't have done this. But I get to the guy's house and he's like, dude, I'm a huge fan of this on air, you know, you come up on the skip, it's like six hours away. So I get there. And I said to him, I said, Hey, dude, can you can you open the door right away, though? Because I smell a wolf. His face freaks out. He's like, What? What's going on? I said, No, I'm telling you, I smell. How did you know? I said,
00:07:28
Speaker
I do, I smell it. So he lets me in, takes me over to this kitchen. He's got a Dutch door. He opens the top door. There's a full grown wolf in his kitchen. And he freaks out. I'm like, oh, shoot, he's going up to get a an axe or something is going to kill me. You know, he went up and grabbed a transcript of a book he was writing and said, dude, here's the guitar. Play it. If you like it, it's yours. So I play it. I go, yeah, it's great. And he goes, it's yours. Take it. I go, no, no, it's a fair price. You're asking.
00:07:55
Speaker
He says, well, okay, you just gave me the ending to my book. The guy, his Native American friend said.
00:08:01
Speaker
If a guy shows up at the door and tells you that he recognizes the wolf, it'll give you the ending to your book and he got it. So yeah, so yeah, little shivers going on. Anyway, and he said, how did you know about the wolf? And I said, when I was a kid, I was stuck on this ice thing way up north. And there was a bunch of wolves and you can smell them. They have this really cool, like musty, musky, I should say smell, unless it's like a dead wolf and then it'd be musty.
00:08:30
Speaker
can be musky will be Wolverine. But anyway, um, so he goes, Okay, all right, I'll take the money for the guitar, but you have to accept a gift to go with it. Okay, yeah, because there was he had no slides, I was using a Coca Cola bottle. So he goes upstairs, he walking down with this, this box, a fender box, I saw that. And he says, you have to take this and I go, What? He goes,
00:08:53
Speaker
take it, but you have to promise you don't open it before you get back to the city or you can't have it. I'm like, all right. So I promised him and he says, thanks, man. He gave me the ending. I'll make tons of money. Don't worry about it. So I back to the city. I get to the city limits. I open up the thing because I promised I wouldn't do it till I got to the city limits. Open up. It's a 1971, 72 custom telecaster, not a mark on it and not a remake. It was an original. Wow.
00:09:22
Speaker
Dude, like, okay, I win. That's it. I win. Yeah. No kidding. Yeah. And I, I called him after and he's like, dude, that's yours. I'm a big fan. And this is a good way. I don't play it anymore. I'm so glad blue, blue, blue, you know, so I'm, I'm really happy. I still have it to this date. I love it.
00:09:39
Speaker
And then I've got a bunch of other ones. And then one of my best friends is a guy named Rick Emmett. You know that name? You guys are kind of young, but there was a band out of Canada called Triumph. And they got a bunch of hit songs like, lay it on the line, you know, it's a ton of songs. And so I recorded, I, you know, co-produced and produced roughly 12 records with him. So every time we had this deal, instead of paying me, you know, tons of money to produce, you know,
00:10:04
Speaker
You always give me a little stipend, but then at the end of the session, once we finished the record, there'd be a guitar waiting at the door for me. Oh, nice. Yeah. So I've got quite a few Yamaha's that I actually love. They all came from the custom. So they're pretty darned cool. So how did you get into the career of voice acting?
00:10:25
Speaker
Music, believe it or not. And I know a bunch of other performers who became actors and then voice actors. But I was playing in a club. I was 11 years old. I was making more money than my folks, and they had two full-time jobs. But I was just like child prodigy, goofy, guitar playing, singing guy. And I had the deep pipes, which was really weird, because try and sing top 40 with deep pipes. It's not going to happen.
00:10:51
Speaker
unless you're doing, you know, Superman never made any money. That's the only guy that has a Brad is the only guy I know that the boys, you know, and then, you know, John, whatever, what's the name? Tom Waits. Hey, man, let's like get high and say,
00:11:11
Speaker
And Tom Waits has just gotten more and more gravelly over the years. Oh yeah, it sounds like he's eating glass and then started singing. I had a voiceover one time where the guy's like, I just love the depth of your voice, but I need a little more.
00:11:26
Speaker
grit and gravel in it. And that day I was like, it's very smooth. It's lovely, smooth. It's FM sounding. So I went upstairs to my cabin. I said, Give me two minutes. I go upstairs to my cabinet, but pour myself a little glass of something. I come back down. And I go, All right, guys, let's get this done.
Voicing Iconic Characters
00:11:45
Speaker
And he's like, What the hell? Wow. That's amazing. What did you do to your throat? I said, I took a shot of Highland Park 18 Scotch.
00:11:55
Speaker
And it just it just tears you up, you know, you can like sing and do all kinds of naked stuff. But is it out loud? So, yeah, so I was playing in the club and this guy came and he goes, I am Tom Rivers. They call me shotgun. I go, yeah, I listen to you all the time on radio goes, I want you on my radio show. So I ended up going and doing radio with him and.
00:12:17
Speaker
I played guitar and sang and I had this, you know, I had this love for this guy named Rich Little who was like an old time impressionist, you know, and I'll fast forward. I finally get to meet my hero, the guy that got me, you know, like, kegged into doing
00:12:38
Speaker
Voiceover and impressions cuz I do roughly I don't know like a thousand I've done. God. I think I've been paid for over 600 celebrity voice matches, you know from Kristoff waltz to Schwarzenegger to you know Pacino, you know, hi guys, it's al
00:12:59
Speaker
It's great to be here. So it's really cool to be able to go in and do other people's voices. One of my favorite was Ken Watanabe from Last Samurai with Tom Cruise and stuff. And I found him really interesting. They were calling me Phoney Shalhoub for a while because I was filling in for Tony Shalhoub on, I think it was Ninja Turtles, right? What's the name of the character?
00:13:27
Speaker
it wasn't he uh he was splinter right splinter i am splinter you know so and it's great you know peter cullen um i'm optimus prime it's time you know so i get to you know uh fill in some big shoes yeah wow yeah it's pretty cool um but yeah um i started doing that and then i got into this other radio station
00:13:50
Speaker
It was a new station and I ended up, you know, this guy was there, a writer.
00:13:58
Speaker
producer. And he goes, Hey, man, can you do Elvis's voice? And I go, Yeah, I got on my slight playing, you know, and I ended up playing I actually ended up playing Elvis on the Erie, Indiana, the other dimension, the series, you know, and they wanted the big fat Elvis. Yeah, man. And they made me gain like 80 pounds. I'm not kidding you. Like not they didn't enforce it. But it happened because they were like, Oh, you want the fat Elvis. So I actually gained 22 pounds at a weekend to play the fat Elvis on Monday. And you walk in and you're like half dead going,
00:14:24
Speaker
All right, where's the gosh dang camera? Come on. I'm hungry. That was one of our favorite series, both the next dimension. Fox Kids, right? Fox Kids. I owe a lot of my life to Fox Kids with the X-Men and with the Avengers and everything else that came after it. And then, of course, Erie, Indiana, the other dimension. The original Erie was awesome. So I was happy to be called in to do it.
00:14:53
Speaker
and uh it was cool one one day we were shooting and we must have did like 20 takes and they had me eating every single take i had to eat this peanut butter banana um uh had all kinds of crap on it um mustard bacon
00:15:08
Speaker
There was bacon and mustard and it was disgusting but good, right? And I ended up because we did like 17, I ended up eating all 17 and like halfway through I go, guys, I got to go to the bathroom for life. So I go in there and I, you know, let me go, you know, let me out of here. And it was like disgusting. And I remember I was carrying that weight for such a long time and I went back to work with Howard Stern.
00:15:31
Speaker
And Robin saw me and she goes, oh my God, you look like a big fat pig. I'm like, what? And she's like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that you gained a lot of weight. She said, but I want to help you. And she did. She and Tim Sabian helped me lose like 70 pounds. Like I just.
00:15:47
Speaker
because I'd gained so much from that and then never lost it right away. So it's not good to put on. So back to the voice acting career. I mean, I was an actor first, one of my Rick Emmett's brother, speaking of triumphing guitars, Rick's brother Russell, God rest his soul, he passed away. He had a small theater company where we were in high school together. He says,
00:16:09
Speaker
Hey, I heard you know electronics and stuff inside out. And I go, Yeah, why? Because I want you to come and do tech directing on my one of my plays. So I ran to the thrift store, and I found an old I guess receiver and another another receiver. And then I was working part time at this, this cable company and the guy had thrown out all these cool headphones with mics built in.
00:16:37
Speaker
And I go, What are you doing with these? He goes, They're garbage. You don't work. I can't fix them. I'm like, Okay, I'll take them. I fixed all five of them. And I took him there. And we set it up so we could talk backstage and director could. And he goes, This is unreal. So he says, I'm doing another play next month. And you're in I go, Cool, I'll do the same thing. He goes, No, you're not. You're going to be acting in it. And that was it that started it. And then I went back to radio.
00:17:02
Speaker
And like I said, this guy asked me to do Elvis, so I did Elvis. And then the next day he needs another spot. And he goes, hey, we're doing the spot on Monday. You got to learn Dudley Moore's voice. So I spent the whole weekend learning Dudley Moore. I was a little drunk.
00:17:20
Speaker
Anyway, I get on Monday, I start doing Dudley Moore to the script that looked really odd. And he goes, hey, dude, what the hell are you doing? And I go, Dudley Moore. He goes, oh, no, no, no, man, I asked for that cartoon, Dudley Do-Right. You know, I don't remember that.
00:17:36
Speaker
He goes, Oh, my two different duddlies. Yeah. And I said, What? I said, No, you said Dudley Moore, dude. I even asked you the English guy. And he's like, Oh, no, no, no, I meant that. I'm like, Well, let's just do it. And he goes, You can do it. I go, Yeah, yeah. So and that was the start of it. And that's how I ended up. I started doing that. And I got into this regular morning show, which by the way, was, you know, it paid really nicely. And but they kept calling me the man of 1000 voices. And I did at the time, like 20.
00:18:03
Speaker
And so every week they're going, okay, learn this, do this. One day I walked in, I started doing Eric Roberts. And he goes, who's that? I go, what are you, stupid? I'm like, forget about it. So we ended up doing a bunch of stuff. And then I started working with different stations and doing dial-ins and funny impressions and stuff for people. So that's really how it got going. But it started on stage and it was great.
00:18:30
Speaker
Um, and I'm, you know, I'm more of a character actor, so I prefer it because, you know, I don't, I mean, I'm not the, Hey, I'm not your leading man type guys. You know, so, so, so speaking of, of characters, you know, in the past 18 minutes, I mean, the year you're, you really are living up to the, the man of a thousand voices thing we've, we've heard, we've heard a ton of voices.
00:18:53
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about the process of when you're given a script and you have to come up with a voice for a character. How does that happen?
00:19:02
Speaker
Oh, well, a lot of times they'll give you what's called a breakdown and then the breakdown they try and explain what your character's supposed to be. And I was lucky enough to work with directors that could go, hey, you know what, this guy's a, I don't know, this guy's a mole. So give me some kind of thing you think is a mole. And I do it and I go, perfect, let's do it. Did you guys ever see the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Ben Stiller?
00:19:27
Speaker
Yes. OK, so you know the part where Sean Penn's reading his own letter while Ben's holding it and you hear Sean's voice? Is that not Sean Penn? Not all of it. Not all of it.
00:19:41
Speaker
You know, I really enjoyed working on that one, but it's not going to sound like it right now because while we're in the studio, I'm looking, you know, I did, I got the booking through my friend Dan who was casting and he's like, you know, Tony can do it. Trust me. And so when I did it the first time,
00:19:59
Speaker
I realized that Sean Penn is not a big – I've got a huge chest. I've got a 50-inch chest. I sang opera for a while. So don't even start. Anyway, so I've got this 50-inch chest and I'm looking at Sean Penn. It's like, man, he's got like a 22-inch chest if anything. So well, I didn't know this. We get into the studio and we were doing it kind of remotely at the time.
00:20:27
Speaker
they said, you know, it's not it's sounding a little heavy. And I'm like, Oh, we were working on Tony the tiger that day. So I said, Hang on for a second. I just want to change mics because this was set up for something else. And they go, Okay, so I get the sand engineer Danny, he came in, I go, Dan, I said, it's not the mic, because it was a manly reference mic, which is like a $5,000 mic. And it's absolutely stunning. I said,
00:20:51
Speaker
roll off the bottom end from 300 down because it's Sean Penny's got no chest. So he talks up here, you know, you know, we rolled off the bass and everybody was like, Oh my god, okay, that was great. Good call. Nice to change the mics. So I didn't want to tick them off. But you know, it's just like, you know, that when I did the audition, I had the the wherewithal to roll his roll his audio off his EQ because it was he's, you know, I'm not a big statured man.
00:21:20
Speaker
And it sounded great. And then they said, Oh, hang on. Somebody wants to direct you for one more pass. I'm like, Okay, the guy gets on, he goes, Tony, I go, Yeah, he goes, All right, let's go from the top. So I do it. And he goes, Hang on, who's the engineer? Danny, Dan, could you let Tony know we're doing from the top? He goes, he just did. He goes, That wasn't the recording. No, dude, let's go again. So he didn't need to change a couple lines.
00:21:41
Speaker
All right. And then he gets off and he goes, thanks. And so the producer gets back on, she goes, Oh my God, Mr. Stiller loved you while ago. That was Ben. So it's cool. And then fast forward, I'm at the red carpet for Zoolander 2. And I'm talking to his ex wife, Christine. And it's really funny, her brother and I, we just like hit it off. I thought we were going to start dating or something. Anyway, so I'm standing there and she goes, What's your name? And I said, Tony Daniels. And I hear Tony Daniels. Why do I know you? And I turn around, it's Ben. I go, Oh, Ben, hi.
00:22:11
Speaker
I was your Sean Penn and Mitty and he goes, oh my God, he jumped into my arms. I kid you not, I'm not lying. He's like, he's not a big man. And he ended up in my arms. He goes, you were amazing. Thank you, dude. And I go, well, thank you. You know, it's always nice to work and nice to work on really cool shows. So that was cool. Anyway, I'm talking to you.
Gambit and X-Men Connections
00:22:30
Speaker
That's fine. As you know, as long as there's talking, it's good radio. It's the dead air you got to worry about, right? That's what I say.
00:22:40
Speaker
So one of the characters I mentioned at the top of the show was the iconic Tony of the Tiger who famously originally was voiced by Thorell Ravenscast. Wrong answer. Originally recorded by Dallas McKinnon.
00:22:58
Speaker
I didn't do my prep right. I thought it was Thoreau. No, because Thoreau did it from I think it was from 1953 to 2000. And well, he died in 2005. So right till then. And Dallas did it the year before that. So 1952 53. And Kellogg and I guess at the time, it would probably still be the same.
00:23:23
Speaker
The same agency. I don't know if it was but or if they changed agencies anyway, so they brought in Thoreau and you know, you know Thoreau's voice from something else, right? Well, we're big I mean
00:23:36
Speaker
He also did the you're mean one mr. Grinch, but you're a foul one mr. Grinch. We're also Disney fans So we know that he did a lot for the haunted mansion and yeah, you know, but so on and so forth He was incredible. So I'm working with him. I was doing like I was the young young dude at the time doing the
00:23:56
Speaker
doing the voiceover tagline. So it's like, try to do Tony's turbos and specially marked boxes, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we did like four takes and they go, Oh, hang on for one sec. Because we've got thorough, we only get him 15 minutes today. Because at the time, he was like, 93 94.
00:24:15
Speaker
And he's not really, he's not really doing, doing well. So he gets in and I could hear, he was like, yes, you are my son. You know, he never, he never said that. But he was, he was on oxygen. So they get him up, he goes, try new Tony's turbos. They're great. You know, he does it like 10 times. And they go, well, that's it. He leaves and they go, man, we didn't get a clean Tony's turbos. And I go, you mean Tony's turbos? They go, holy snap.
00:24:45
Speaker
And that was it. And they said, well, if anything ever happens, and then I got the call about a year later, it's like, you know, good news and bad news. And I go, what's the bad news? Thirls pass. You know, and it was really neat because you're, you know, just to be a part of him, another guy that passed that I loved was Don Pardo. It's Saturday Night Live. You know, I got to work with him before he passed and he was really incredible, just like
00:25:11
Speaker
I love good people that are not full of themselves and it's funny because Jim Cummings is now doing it in the U.S. I did it a couple of times in the U.S. but when Lee wasn't available or I never knew Tex, but Jim and I have done Comic Cons together and he's a good dude so I don't complain.
00:25:31
Speaker
Yeah, I was actually gonna say like, yeah, Lee Marshall used to do it too, who was, Eric, I know, you may know him. WWE. Yeah, he was doing WCW for a while. Yep. And yeah, he was, I never really met him. My uncle was Joe the Giant. He was a wrestler, professional wrestler out of Detroit. And, but that was way back before there was a W, you know,
00:25:59
Speaker
before there was a WWE. He was he was way back in the old wrestling days in the 70s and 80s. And then you know, then you got the WWF came in with under Vince and then they had to change the name because the world wildlife fun sued them. So
00:26:18
Speaker
Um, but yeah, um, so I never got to know Lee, uh, that well, but, um, but he worked with a few friends of mine. And so he was apparently a really good dude, but he died young. I mean, he was only 64, right? Yeah. Yeah. So sad to hear. So, so when you were, when you were working, you know, kind of alongside, you know, somebody with, with the, the pedigree of, of, you know, Thrall Ravenscroft, who,
00:26:45
Speaker
Was there any kind of overt teaching going on? Was he giving you pointers or was it more so just kind of observational stuff? It's more observational and because of his state at the time, I wasn't really able to talk to him too well.
00:27:00
Speaker
I mean, I got to I was doing a cartoon one day called yin yang yo, I don't know if you've ever seen that. And the director, Steve Marmel, brilliant comedian, great guy. He's like, Oh, Tony got to sit down. We've got a friend of mine is going to be doing a couple of voices here. And he'll be doing them with you. But we're gonna start with him, then we'll do something together, a scene together. I'm like, okay, and we're doing it remotely. And
00:27:27
Speaker
So, uh, and it's funny cause the guy starts talking and I'm like, okay, sounds like South North Ireland. Uh, that's it was, you know, and it's funny too. Cause I actually did ADR on Ted and Ted too. And for him. Yeah. Yeah. That was great. You know, so it was really cool. Um, and I got that again, you know, you learn from just listening, you're learning a lot that you try not to ask questions cause some guys get really ticked off. So I didn't want to ask anything, but.
00:27:57
Speaker
But yeah, with Thoreau, it was more like, wow, listen to that. Listen to the way he's just like rounding the words. So when I ended up doing it, I started, you know, and then I can even do, remember when he had Tony Jr., his son was in the commercials? I don't know if you're a person of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he would squeeze his face, Thoreau, and go, you know, Junior, it's so nice to be here. You know, and I'd just crack up because it was such a cool thing. And I actually sang.
00:28:24
Speaker
before he passed, I actually sang something in his voice for one of the producers who was presenting it to the agency. And they went, they were like, wow, how'd you get them to do that? And they go, that's Tony Daniels. He's like, God, it sounds like him. And they go, cool. So it was pretty cool. So from a breakfast cereal mascot to a card slinging Cajun mutant, how did you wind up the voice of Gambit?
00:28:53
Speaker
Well, it's a cool story. Chris Potter was the original Gambit in the series. And I auditioned for Gambit. But the director and one of the producers were like, dude, you can do any voice. We'd be better having you do a bunch of characters. And I'm like, yeah, but I wanted to be him. And they go, no, no, no, no, no. You do a bunch of characters who make more money. I'm like, oh, OK.
00:29:22
Speaker
So because you know a lot of times if you do and end up doing like a lead they go and we don't want to burn out our leads or we don't want to have them do too many because they you know a lot of guys can't do different voices in the same tone and stuff you know because there's always giveaways to a lot of people.
00:29:40
Speaker
I've been lucky because I mean, I've done, there's a series called Ned's Newt and there's a scene where I do nine different characters and you cannot tell it's not the same person. And it's cool. So I ended up playing Bobby LeBeau, which was Gambit's brother, right? So I played Gambit's brother and Chris Potter was Gambit for the first three seasons. And then Chris decided he wanted to leave and go to LA to do some on camera because that was where his love was.
00:30:08
Speaker
You know, I fell in love with acting and then fell in love with being in the studio and being a voice because he didn't have to look at my crazy face. So I ended up, you know, when he left right away, they re-auditioned, but Sid Iwander, who was the
00:30:26
Speaker
Um, he was the, um, go between, you know, sort of the liaison for Fox kids. And then, um, my casting director, Karen Gura and Dan Hennessy was just absolutely brilliant director. I loved working with them.
00:30:40
Speaker
And all my guys at the time it was Sounds Interchange and then became Dave Audio. And now it's Technicolor. They were all like, dude, we need you. And it ended up being, Sid was like, well, we don't have to hold these auditions. We're just going to make it you. And I was happy because the Lee Waltz were really good and Larry Houston and all the people were just really good to me.
00:31:00
Speaker
And then so I ended up doing gambit and then when the series wrapped they came to me. And they asked me to do gambit. So I did it. We're gonna we're gonna step on some toes here. So they said, Oh, by the way, can you do Wolverine? I go, I sure can, bub. And they're like,
00:31:19
Speaker
Great, because Cal's not available. I go, what do you mean he's not available? Well, he's he's sick. I go sick. I said, well, why don't you just do a why don't you just do a phone patch session?
00:31:31
Speaker
And I know they're back then they were really expensive, like to do an hour would be a few thousand dollars. And they said, No, no, no, we don't want to do that. We don't want to spend that kind of money. We don't do this. So if they said, so you don't want to do it. And I go, Yeah, but you know, was Cal's voice and they go, Look, either you do it, or we'll get Lawrence Bain to do it. And I'm like, I mean, I'll match it better. No offense to Lawrence, because I love Lawrence.
00:31:56
Speaker
I said, but he's gonna be okay with it? Oh yeah, he wasn't. But everybody's lucky they make you...
00:32:06
Speaker
the character you are when you're acting because they can just give it to any actor. And if you do it nicely and great and the writing's good, it's gonna fly and it doesn't matter. That's why I laugh at all these awards shows sometimes. Because we're rewarding these great actors for doing something amazing when it takes a really good writer, it takes a really good producer, and it takes a really good team to put it together. You just feel a part of it and you're happy because you've done a good job and able to
00:32:32
Speaker
make what they've done shine just that little bit more you know you're the kind of like the icing on cake and to make it any much more of that it's kind of silly but um i was just you know proud to to take the reins from chris and uh it was cool so when you're voicing somebody like gambit for television um do you get the opportunity to voice the character when it comes to something like a video game
00:32:56
Speaker
When that's what happened, so they said, so we ended up doing, oh man, I can't remember all of them. I can't remember all of them, but I guess if you go to the voice actors page, you'll see I didn't have it proper longer than anybody.
00:33:12
Speaker
I ended up doing I think five or six video games. And I didn't just do gaming again, Wolverine and Toad and a couple other characters. And it was great because, you know, if they know you can pull it off on the on the series, they bring you in and do that. I ended up doing but it wasn't, you know, they were they were long sessions. They were fun and great.
Cultural Adaptations in Voice Acting
00:33:35
Speaker
Longest session I ever did was for the Black Mirror where I played Samuel Gordon, which was kind of like a almost like a
00:33:43
Speaker
Hi, it's me, Captain Picard. You know, he had that type of range. And I did that for Patrick one day. We were at the same agency and he's like, hello. And I go, have Wesley Crusher meet me in my ready room. Tell him to bring a wet towel. And he goes, oh, that's very good.
00:34:01
Speaker
He's a sweetheart, man, I'll tell you. He's a good dude. Anyway, so, yeah. And I mean, I always loved that when, you know, when I was a kid, like, you know, watching something like X-Men or, you know, any cartoon, you know, and then you go to the video game and it's like, oh, that's the same voice. Like, you know, you pick up on it. You did Street Fighter versus X-Men? Definitely played that. Oh, yeah. Okay.
00:34:25
Speaker
All right, man, that's all me, right? So anyway, um, so the best part of that, though, I got to tell you, I for nine years, I did this thing through one of the radio stations I was working for. And it was called the dreams take flight or with they take
00:34:40
Speaker
400 children on a plane, usually a 747 fly down to Disney World. And these kids mostly were well, the groups I always was with was terminally ill. And it was really hardest thing that I'm gonna cry in a sec. It was the hardest thing to do. But I wanted to do it because if you can make a kid smile, just before they go, it's it's kind of
00:35:07
Speaker
It's kind of heart-wrenching, but you feel like at least you made a connection. So I had this group one year. My friend Danny and I, Danny's gone too. He was great. He was a game show host, and we had a radio show together. It was just a sweetheart. Anyway, so we had a group of kids that were all blind from cancer, and they were all terminal. And it was the hardest day. So I had this one child.
00:35:37
Speaker
he held my hand and we're walking. And he asked me to do a bunch of the voices. So I did Gambit the way I did in the video game, and Wolverine and a bunch of characters. And I said, but yeah, it's not gonna come out till I don't know when probably, you know, end of the year, because we just voiced it like three months ago. And we're walking along, I swear to God, guys, I hear him go, Mr. I go, Yeah, he goes, you're over there. And he's pointing.
00:36:05
Speaker
And I look where he's pointing, and it says, arcade. So I said to the doctors, I said, can we walk over there? This? I don't know. This is weird, man. So we walk over. And there it was the brand new Street Fighter versus X man, he could hear my voice from like 500 feet away. And I believe, well, dudes, I cried, man, I was like, trying not to let them hear me because they know he's got this amazing hearing. And as you know, the senses do take over.
00:36:31
Speaker
And when I went back the next year, I got a new set of kids and I asked about that set of kids because they were some wonderful ones and they'd all gone. And it was like, it was really hard, but you know, if you can just touch somebody, it doesn't matter who in their, you know, in that much time left, especially when, when they're terminal, it's, it's really, it's, it's hard, but it's also, it makes you feel like, okay, I got to be a part of that soul for a bit, you know? I mean, it's, it's amazing to hear stuff like that because
00:37:01
Speaker
Regardless of what level the fandom you're in, these characters do make connections with people, whether it's a character that they've read in a comic book or
00:37:14
Speaker
went from comic book to TV show or video game or film. I've seen people in line at Comic-Cons meeting people like yourself that have lent their voices to these characters and given these characters life and just the amount of joy in a non-terminally ill person when they get to meet somebody like you. And I mean, I'm sitting here right now, and Dave is a half hour away from me, but I can
00:37:43
Speaker
hear it in his voice when he's speaking, like, when we hear you clip into some of these voices that, you know, we both know and love. I mean, I've got a smile ear to ear, because it immediately takes me back to the moment like sitting on my, you know, mom's carpet, watching Saturday morning cartoons, and it's like, you know, oh, gambit's flirting with rogue again, you know, like it like I'm right, I'm right back there. So
00:38:09
Speaker
I love that you said that. And it's funny because when I go to, I've got a couple of Comic-Cons coming up. And when I do them, it's like a lot of guys that are in it for the dough, I don't care about the money, it's not that. I mean, you do it anyway because sometimes I like to take the money and put it into a, like we donated some money to the World Wildlife Fund, not that long ago. And it was money I'd made from the Comic-Con. But what I love is exactly what you say. You're sitting there and somebody says, do you know what you did for my childhood?
00:38:38
Speaker
And I'm like, man, thank you. Thank you to the person standing in front of me. Thank you. That really makes my day. And it does. I love it. And, you know, and again, like I said, I don't care about these award shows. I'm more blessed that these people recognized your talent, brought you on board to enhance their talents. And it's something spectacular happens. For instance, there was one, I think we were in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
00:39:08
Speaker
where I met my boy Steve, by the way. But we're in Albuquerque and there was a couple that came up. The one person was dressed as Gambit and was really cute and awesome. I loved it. And the other person was dressed as Sailor Moon. So I said, by the way, I really like your Sailor Moon outfit. And the person said, you know who Sailor Moon is? And I go, I'm Jedi.
00:39:34
Speaker
Boom, head hits the ground, blood everywhere. And I'm like, oh my God, medics, let's go. They came over and the person had split their head open a little bit and crying and all, my life is up. I'm like, I'm sorry. And their partner had bought a couple of gambits off me and stuff and I was really happy. And I didn't have any
00:39:58
Speaker
Sailor Moon stuff out because I did Gambit, The Wise Man, Baby Jordan. I think there's a kid out of, or not a kid, he's probably like 50. Anyway, there's a guy out of Australia that asked me to recognize my voice in a bunch of these episodes. I think we're up to like 100 and something, 180 years, something like that. I think I did even more.
00:40:22
Speaker
So I went through my stuff and I went, whoa, look, I found a couple of Jedi and a wise man. So I signed them and just gave them to the person. And here's money. I got how I want money. You've already got to take care of a big scar on your head. It was really cool to see that happen. Not cool for someone to get hurt, but just the amount of emotion overwhelming and causing that. But that's what it was.
00:40:51
Speaker
And now a word from our sponsors. So speaking of, uh, of, of Sailor Moon, you know, it's widely considered to be one of the most important anime, you know, uh, stories of all time. Uh, and, and clearly, you know, something that resonates with, with people all over the world. How did, how did you, uh, you get a chance to work on that, that English dub?
00:41:19
Speaker
I just wanted to thank you, Queen Beryl. That was pretty cool. I mean, I have a really funny story about that for the first day. The Japanese with their vast wisdom. I had a great Japanese teacher when I was a kid and I adored her and I just loved the culture.
00:41:40
Speaker
Um, so this thing came and it was, they were talking about dubbing and talking about, uh, you know, uh, Japanese anime was like in its infancy at the time, um, in, in North America. And, uh, my agent got me this audition. It was to do dubbing. And just so you know, dubbing is like horrible money, but it really gets your chops going. Cause you've got, especially on Sailor Moon, we had what's called rhythmo band, which is,
00:42:08
Speaker
For the people at home trying to picture this so you're in a studio you're watching a screen with video on it and then you're just above the screen there's a film strip with the script handwritten going by you to a bar which marks time which lines up with the lip flaps and
00:42:30
Speaker
So you have to read this thing while watching the screen and try to match the number of flaps because the Japanese mouth flaps in anime are totally different than North American flaps. Yeah. And so you're trying to make the words fit and everything. So and I was as a musician, I was able to do it like nothing. So I think that's what what got me in. But the very first day, Roland Parliament, who played Melvin and myself, who gambit, we were in this callback.
00:42:56
Speaker
So we got the call back at least. So we're in the call back. We're sitting there is probably 50 to 100 other actors. And we're hearing okay. Thank you. Next. Next. Next. They get down to me and Roland. They're going, Who are you guys? Tony Daniels and Roland Parliament. Well, you guys are already voice cast. You're you're in. You're done. You're great. You didn't even have to come back.
00:43:17
Speaker
I'm like, what? And we had the same agent. So that was handy. So we were happy.
Fan Interactions and Collaborations
00:43:22
Speaker
And then on the first day of record, I'm there and we had executives from I believe it was CBS. They were sitting there and I'm playing the, you know, I'm doing Jedi, but I also I am because they could, you know, I could do so many voices. There was a thing called the the Oracle. Right. And so they had the Oracle.
00:43:38
Speaker
And the video stops. And I go, Hello, can you roll the video back by about, you know, six seconds and 10 frames or something. So they roll back and they go, Yeah, I go now roll it forward in slow motion, please. They do. And they're going,
00:43:54
Speaker
What is that? And I go, well, to me, it looks like a large phallus and testicles. And they go, oh my God. Because it's like my club. Yeah. It's like they wouldn't have recognized it. So they said, I can't put my voice on this because it's going out to children. And they said, look, we promise we'll change the visual, which they did. And I was happy about that. But that's why I say the Japanese culture, something like that is acceptable.
00:44:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean if you look at the early like the early cuts of I've been I've been recently Revisiting Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball with with my daughter who is gonna be six in September and they play to help And we'll get to be blade we will um, but I had it's been so long since I had watched them I completely forgot how much like how many episodes there are just moments of like little go on just like peeing off of a cliff and
00:44:49
Speaker
And my daughter's like, what's going on? I'm like, he's got to go. When you got to go, you got to go. Yes, in America, you know, we, you know, what that wouldn't happen. I mean, no, we wouldn't even have exposed breasts on a movie for years. You know, it's just it's just kind of, you know, something we take for granted with other other cultures. And it's not that it's bad or good. It's just, you know, that's the way it is. Yeah.
00:45:13
Speaker
So they were really happy that I didn't do anything stupid or that I let it go by. I had to say something and they were really good and they did change it out. There were a few. I got really upset with one where the sailor girls were in a hot tub and I go, excuse me, are these men in the hot tub with them because they're obviously not clothed and we're watching the Japanese version.
00:45:40
Speaker
Are they related? And they're like, oh my God, no. I go, well, that can't go. And so they made a note of it and they, they changed it out. I think they zoomed it in so you can only see the heads, um, talking rather than, and I was really upset about it, but you know, it's part of it is just, but you know, I gotta protect kids. I really believe that it's something, uh, I'm very aware of. Hey, listen, as, as a parent, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate it.
00:46:07
Speaker
Oh, listen, I can break the rules with the best of them. But when it comes to that sort of thing, I don't, you know, like, I try, I try not to swear in the studio when I'm doing children's shows. And I'll tell you a funny one. I was working on Little People, you know, from Fisher Price. Yeah. And it was a Friday afternoon. I'm working with some of the greatest voice actors. I was the only guy in the room and it was six women who I adore. Every one of them, they're all phenomenal actors. Very cool voice of people.
00:46:35
Speaker
And I had walked in, they're all inside the studio and I'm coming in now because they started me later, half hour later. And I get inside and my voice engineer, sound engineer, Bobby, he says, Hey, dude, I've got Fisher Price, like on, you know, the guy that's the head? Yeah, he's on the line. And I'm like, Oh, okay.
00:46:57
Speaker
And I know – because when we're alone and we're having a good time – so I always made a rule not to really be gross. So I'm in there and they're all joking. It's Friday afternoon. It was hot out and everybody's like blah, blah, blah and they're dropping sexual innuendo and stuff. So now it's my turn to sing the song and he got really upset, the head of FP.
00:47:21
Speaker
He was really upset. So they released the girls and I have to sing a song on my own. I think it was a policeman Patrick or something. And he goes, Tony, I want to thank you for not participating in that spectacle. And I said, I'm not going to lie to you. I said, I knew you were on the phone. I said, you know, it's a Friday afternoon. Everybody's blowing off steam. And I would have participated and said some rude stuff, nothing
00:47:45
Speaker
nasty, nasty, but some rude stuff. And he's like, Really? I go, Yeah. I said, So please don't don't come down on these actors. You know, we work hard. And you know, it's Friday afternoon is really tough. And at the time, it was like, those are the hey days. I'm telling you, I was working probably
00:48:01
Speaker
I'd say 15 hours a day in studios. It was amazing. Yeah. And so, you know, Friday was great because, you know, going to blow off some steam. And he goes, well, thank you for being honest. And it was fine. So he never really got upset with the ladies. I was really happy about that. How does your voice hold up after 15 hours of work like that? I mean, that's
00:48:21
Speaker
That one's not bad, but I'll tell you right now. So going back to video games, I was working on the Black Mirror playing Samuel Gordon, the Patrick Stewart sound. And I look at the script and I'm like, holy crap, I've got 17,000 lines.
00:48:39
Speaker
And I'm not lying. I don't even think I'm exaggerating. So we're on the first day and the person directing says, OK, we'll just go right through this. And I go, no, we're not. I said, what do you mean? I said, well, you've got, at the end of this one portion of stuff, you've got all the reactors. And why is that a problem? I said, if we do that on the first day, I won't be talking by the third day. Really? I said, mm-hmm, trust me. I've done enough video games.
00:49:09
Speaker
Let's do all the reactives on the last day. So we finished all the lines on the Wednesday, Thursday, and on the Friday, we did all the reactives. And then I stopped talking for four days. It was that bad because it was, you know, lots of. You know, yeah. And that was just from the bathroom. But anyway. Well, I mean, I always think about that whenever I'm watching, you know, especially going back to Dragon Ball Z. I mean,
00:49:36
Speaker
So much of that show when they go into fight mode is literally just a series of grunts screaming. Yeah. And I always like I wish there was more behind the scenes footage of voice actors just grimacing and screaming into a mic, you know, some of it's crazy. I one time I was doing a commercial for I was doing it as Steve, you know, Steve Owen from Australia, you know, the the croc hunter, right? Yeah. And I was doing kind of his voice. They didn't want exact. I'm like, Oh, I got off.
00:50:06
Speaker
budget, so it doesn't sound exact. And we're doing this thing, and I had my friend Mike. He's doing Lay's potato chips, you know. We're somewhere on a crocodile reserve, and I'm going, we have to be very quiet. There are massive crocs around here. One of them attacks, you're done, right? And I'm like, oh my goodness, look at these Lay's potato chips. Let me try.
00:50:29
Speaker
And then you hear the Crocs going crazy, right? I'm like, ah, it's caught me up. And so we did like a whole bunch of takes when we finished the session. There were Lay's potato chips everywhere because I didn't want to swallow any of them, but there were potato chips. The whole studio was covered in them. And Mike goes, well, I'm glad this session's over.
00:50:54
Speaker
Sorry, Mike. There's potato chip in your hair. And he's a lovely man. He is a lovely. He is a lovely. He didn't go. He's a lovely man. But you guys know I did Hello Kitty. Uh, yes. Yup, yup. Coropian peckles. So we got to get the kids on that because those are cute. Some of them are really cute.
00:51:16
Speaker
So speaking of Hello Kitty, many if not all of the characters that we've talked about today have transcended their original mediums and have been immortalized in plastic. Do you own any of the toy versions of the characters that you have voiced?
00:51:31
Speaker
I'm being plastic right now, that's why I didn't answer right away. I have a couple of gambits, and I have... Oh, I got a really cool Hawkeye from the Avengers. I got him, and then I have...
00:51:47
Speaker
I got a couple of Tonys. I was doing a bunch of Funko pop Tony Tigers and this guy gave me one of those big Tonys and I'm like, dude, you know, this ain't cheap. And he goes, thanks. I'm like, wow. And I liked it. What else?
00:52:04
Speaker
I was gonna say you probably get a ton of card backs and toys to sign, you know, at these things. It's probably tons. Yeah. Yeah. Tons of those. They're fun. I like the Funko Pops. I was hoping I'd get some Funko Pops from some of my other stuff like Daniel Tiger's neighborhood, you know, X the owl. I just love doing X. He's so cool. That that's our so in my house right now, Daniel Tiger is is the top of the heap for
00:52:32
Speaker
for the aforementioned six-year-old, yeah. Well, then I'm going to have to record something for your little one. She'll lose her mind. We'll do that after we finish recording here, OK? All right. Yeah, I'm sure I can confirm she would. There's been a Mr. Rogers pop, so I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line they start making some Daniel Tiger ones. That wouldn't be far-fetched.
00:53:01
Speaker
I'd like it. I just did a new Daniel Tigers about three weeks ago. It was great. And when I was a kid, I started, like I said, I was playing guitar and then I also worked at a cable station and I was editing, directing, doing all this stuff, camera. And then my boss came in and says, hey, dude, I'm paying you four bucks an hour. Wow, minimum wage. And he said, listen, for the summertime, I need somebody to do some special installations of cable.
00:53:31
Speaker
can you do it? And I go, Sure, why? And he goes, Good, I'll pay you 12. I'm like, Okay, I'll definitely do it. He says you can still do your $4 an hour nighttime thing for your editing and stuff. He said, But I'll pay you to to install some special cable during the day. And one of the ones I got and I went to this house and was this older woman
00:53:48
Speaker
And I get in there and I'm like kind of freaked out because I'm only like 16 years old and there was a shrine to Fred Rogers. And I'm like, okay, is she going to go and get a steak knife and take my eye out? I didn't know what was going on, you know.
00:54:04
Speaker
Uh, sent me on fire with some candle wax and stuff. Anyway, so, um, I install everything's working great. And she goes, Oh, I can't wait to watch Fred. And I'm like, okay. And she goes, Oh, let me explain. Cause you probably think I'm weird. Fred Rogers is my nephew. I'm like, what? And then she showed me all these really cool pictures and stuff. So I was like, okay, this is cool. I get, you know, I got to meet Fred Rogers, aunt.
00:54:27
Speaker
And that was really neat. I had a couple of really cool ones I had. In fact, I was I think I was just barely 16. I got a call to you're gonna freak out when I tell you Cal Dodds house who you know was Wolverine in the X-Men. Yeah. In the cartoon. So I installed Cal's cable at the time he wasn't an actor, he was a singer. And he had a TV series called circus. So I ended up fast forwarding a few years later and he looks at me goes, Hey,
00:54:56
Speaker
I know you, right? And I go, Yeah, yeah, I installed your cable. He goes, Wow. Because that was like 10 years ago. I go, I know. So it was pretty cool. You know, so we posted on Instagram, we posted a story and as well as a post to collect some, some questions from our our listeners and our followers.
Q&A with Tony Daniels
00:55:16
Speaker
So we have a brief Q&A prepared for you here. Okay, I'm liking that.
00:55:21
Speaker
Um, so our, our first question comes from, uh, from very good friend of the pod, uh, at creepy NJ. And, uh, he asks, um, what's the strangest place you've heard your own voice? That's a good question. Strangest place I've heard my own voice. Uh, well.
00:55:45
Speaker
I don't think airplanes are strange places, but they could be. So, you know, you're on an airplane and you're, you put the thing on and you're just like, yeah, I brought to you by whatever. And you're like, Hey, that's me. And then, uh, uh, I was, uh, I did, I did a commercial for Modell's. Right. And I was in some, I don't know, a couple of weeks later or something, I was in some restaurant and it's like, there, there, there was like a little diner and they just had like one of those little tiny radios up there. And then I hear.
00:56:13
Speaker
You know, come down to Modell's and I'm like, oh, hey, that's, that was really cool. And then, uh, I think one time in a men's room, but we're not going there. No, you're, you know, they have playback and you're, you're, you're, uh, you're taking care of business. Then you hear, you know, I don't know what the, what a commercial, it was a commercial for something. And I'm hearing myself going, Oh boy, that's so weird to, you know, uh, doing this. So that's a good question. Thank you. That was cool.
00:56:40
Speaker
Next question is kind of a combination of questions or a combination that we got from many people. If you could voice any character, who would it be and why? Oh boy.
00:56:53
Speaker
That's I'm the wrong guy to ask that because I do so many. Right. And a lot of my work is replacing other people because it's what I do. But then I'm creating stuff of my own that I love. I'll tell you, I would wish they would bring back the manly bee.
00:57:11
Speaker
Have you ever seen that? The Manly Bee, no. Okay, I want you to YouTube it. And I'm doing like, on the series, if there's 100 voices, I'm doing like 89 of them. All right, and we had like a couple of female and maybe a couple other guys voicing a couple of characters, but I'm doing everything.
00:57:27
Speaker
Welcome to Seaside City. Oh boy, I think I hurt myself. And he's an old man who became a superhero who's now trying to be a superhero old man. It's pretty funny. And these guys wrote it, and they're really smart guys. So I'd love to do that again if I can voice any character.
00:57:50
Speaker
It's hard to say who has not been done in the comic book world yet that I'd love to do. Any guys you like, gals?
00:58:01
Speaker
I mean, it's just kind of top of mind right now because it's been with all the new toys and everything. I'm actually staring at one of them right now. I know Mark Hamill just took over as a Skeletor, but I feel like that's a, you know, like Skeletor and He-Man, you know, with the relaunch of Masters of the Universe. You know, that's kind of an interesting concept. You know, there's a whole boatload of new G.I. Joe action figures. So who knows? Maybe they'll get, you know, a new G.I. Joe show. G.I. Joe would be cool.
00:58:32
Speaker
I wish they'd bring back Iron Man and have me audition for that. First of all, I loved working with Stan and my friend Dorian Harewood played, it's so funny, he played James Rhodes and Jim Cummings, who we talked about the other Tony and he played, what's the name of the character?
00:58:57
Speaker
Modoc. Yeah, he played Modoc. So that'd be kind of cool to be doing the cartoon version of that. Again, I don't know who played Iron Man. Oh, it was, what's his name? From airplane. Oh, what's his name? Hayes. Robert Hayes. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna put you on the spot. So if you were doing Iron Man, what would Tony Stark sound like?
00:59:26
Speaker
I am Tony Stark and I'm going for puberty. I think Tony Stark would be here. He'd be probably really cool and like I'm together. Sure. Stark Industries is my place. I like to think about stuff, you know, because it's really hard now because Downey's in my head, you know? Yeah, I was going to say it's because he kind of redefined that character.
00:59:50
Speaker
He really did and he made it so cool. When I was a kid, I don't know if you remember the old, because my pal passed away, Paul Soles. He was in the original Spider-Man series. Remember the Spider-Man series? And then I think there was an Iron Man even before the 90s, wasn't there? I'm sure he probably made an appearance at least on Spider-Man and his amazing friends.
01:00:17
Speaker
I think so, right? And I remember there was, there was a voice there. It was kind of a cool, yeah, 1966 guys. See, I knew it, I knew it existed. Trust me, nothing's new again.
01:00:30
Speaker
Wow, there it is. John Vernon from Animal House. Dean Vernon was the voice of Iron Man. No way. Yeah, I'm just looking it up now. That's crazy. I got to go back and watch this. Oh, we got to see this. Because I remember seeing this as a kid. There was some sort of retro TV show thing in the 70s, and I think they brought it back.
01:00:57
Speaker
And I remember seeing it because I knew the song. Oh, yeah. And they did it, believe it or not. They did it out of Canada because Paul Sills was Happy Hogan. And John Vernon was Iron Man. Ed McNamara was a titanium man. Oh, this is so cool, dude. I got to go back and watch. I got to find the show. I got to watch this. I've never seen this. Well, let's hop to the next question. So another friend of the pod at Toy Farce asks,
01:01:26
Speaker
Do you ever listen to the voice actors who do the same characters as you, but in other languages? The French Tony the Tiger is pretty awesome.
01:01:35
Speaker
Well, people send me stuff once in a while. So yeah, I'd say yes, I do. And I do get a kick out of it. It's really cool. Like, I've heard the Spanish Tony the tiger. I've heard some of the X men stuff. There's a really cool French version of the X men. In fact, Eric Lee Wald sent me the French art of gambit and it's really cool. I have it on my phone. I wish I could send it to you guys.
01:02:01
Speaker
Uh, and it's, it's so cool. Um, but yeah, I, I really enjoy it. I love listening to it and it's like going back and watching movies, um, being dubbed, uh, in Italian and listening to, um, you know, American actors being dubbed in Italian that you go, Oh my God. And like.
01:02:21
Speaker
That's Al Pacino, but they're doing it in Italian, and it sounds nothing like Al Pacino, but it's kind of a cool voice. And with a lot of the anime stuff, they'll actually send us the anime, and they'll send me the Japanese and go, can you match this, but with an English accent? And you're like, yeah, cool. So yeah, that's a good question, too. Yeah, I like doing that, and I like listening to it in other languages, like English, which I'm not good at. So who are some of your favorite voice actors?
01:02:51
Speaker
Well, you know, Mark Hamill's amazing. Marisa LaMarche, Rob Paulson, you know, they're all really cool. Jeff.
01:03:04
Speaker
My buddy Jeff Wright. There's Jess Harnell. He's amazing. My friend Ellen Dubin, who were really close. She was in Napoleon Dynamite and she's a great voice actor. E.G. Daly I've worked with.
01:03:21
Speaker
God, there's so many. Out of Canada, I have, like, Julie Lemieux, Jamie Watson, Susan Roman, Lenore Zahn. One of my best friends is Allison Court. She was Jubilee in the X-Men, and she was... Do you guys remember the big comfy couch? I sure do. Okay, that's Allison. That's right. Yeah, she's the... Lunette the Clown. Yeah, Lunette the Clown. Yeah. Yeah, she's cool. And in fact, when I was working for Howard Stern, Gary Delabate says,
01:03:50
Speaker
can you get me a erotograph?" And I go, of course. And she sent it right away. And she sent him a couple of pictures of him and his, at that time, I think it was Lucas, his son. They were together in the photo and it was really cute. I was loving that. That was kind of neat. And then there are guys like Jim Cummings and just like so many great actors out there who I also look up to as well.
01:04:18
Speaker
Um, and especially if they're, if they're nice and they're honest and they're cool people, I don't mind sharing a time and a spot with them. I mean, you know, Seth MacFarlane just. God, just incredible. I mean, that guy is, you know, he's a cut above a lot of people. His, uh, his Christmas album is, is, is a big, big hit in the household every, every holiday. So.
01:04:44
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, we're talking like primo, primo, primo talent there. And there's a like, I know there's a whole bunch of people that I'm missing, of course, just so many good actors out there.
01:05:01
Speaker
And people that you wouldn't know that were great actors who did voice that are just really amazing. Like I said, I mentioned Dorian Arowood. He's not just a really close friend, but an incredible actor. One of my best buddies is Dominic Kianese, who played Uncle Junior in the Sopranos, and I just love working with him. I was trying to get him some voice work because
01:05:26
Speaker
Uh, you know, he's, he turned 90 this year. So it's like, come on, we got to get a few more things in before, you know, before you go to the great, uh, which I don't think he will for a long time. You know, but, uh, yeah, it's cool. Uh, so the last question of our Q and a comes from at power of X-Men. Um, and they ask, this is, this is a, this, this one could be interesting here. Um, who would win in a fight? Tony the tiger or Jedi?
01:05:59
Speaker
Well, Tony's kind of a pacifist. But I don't know. I'm stuck in the negaverse, you son of a gun. Boy, that's a funny question because Tony is pretty passive. But he's also ripped.
01:06:18
Speaker
He's ripped. I mean, and he's got claws, you know, and the only claws that Jedi has is in his contract, you know, with Green Barrel that he gets put in stasis. And I think Jedi was probably, you know, it's probably Jedi because he fights dirty and he would just, you know,
01:06:38
Speaker
he would probably have Tony neutered or something weird like that, you know. But I think also he might be able to get under Tony's fur, as it were, and maybe bring out the tiger in him. And that's the thing. I mean, if Tony gets pushed to the limit, nobody knows yet. See, this is the thing. So maybe let's go with Tony, because Tony might snap back and, whew, Jedi is gone. Claws across the head. A full-on, full-on Siegfried and Roy attack.
01:07:09
Speaker
All right, there you go. You heard it. Tony the Tiger takes it on that one. So we end every one of our interviews with the same question. So Dave fulfills his role as this podcast's James Lipton to bring us home with the final question. So Dave, go ahead.
01:07:30
Speaker
Favorite swear word? Oh, no, that's the... No. It's in the style of Lipton. So the final question is, what is the strangest and or favorite piece in your collection? It can be either one or both. Wait a sec. A collection of... Anything. Of anything I collect? Yep.
01:07:56
Speaker
I've got a couple of weird ones because I've got, believe it or not, I've got a Sailor Moon Jedi card encased in plastic, which I don't think anybody else has, because I think the person who made it was a one-off. And then somebody made me a little Jedi pin before it was popular. Not Jedi, sorry, it was a Gambit pin that I loved.
01:08:20
Speaker
And I hope the person's not listening. I lost it or somebody took it. And that was kind of cool because it's different. So I'm going to say, boy, probably my 1971 strat that was given to me by Ronnie Hawkins. Hey, I kind of assumed that after the beginning of this interview, we would be headed back to guitars for the answer.
01:08:48
Speaker
And tactically, even more so I have a 1966 Hoffner thin line that my parents gave me that they actually bought for me when I was a baby and held on to it. My dad actually had to take
01:09:06
Speaker
over time work and part time extra work to be able to afford it back then. And because from the time I was born, I could play. And he wanted me to have an electric guitar. I had a crappy old acoustic. I think it was a Kent. Anyway, so he got me an amp and in this, and you guys are gonna freak. I still have that guitar to this day. So it's not the most expensive guitar I have. But it means the most because they put their blood, sweat and tears into it to get it for me. And
01:09:36
Speaker
And Hofner went on to famously make the...
Commercials and Iconic Voices
01:09:39
Speaker
The Beatle bass, but I don't know who you're talking about. Yeah. I mean, if you really wanted it, you could have, you could have had it. I flew down to LA one time to shoot a commercial as John. Yeah. I actually shot a commercial as John Lennon was really cool. And, uh, yeah. So, I mean, I, I, I studied because, uh, a lot of times, you know, guys do John Lennon's voice. They go, hi, it's me John Lennon way up here.
01:10:04
Speaker
Actually, John, if you listen to him in a talks way down here, I mean, I lived in New York for a while, you know, it's great. And then George,
Comic Books and Industry Legends
01:10:13
Speaker
like one day came over and he, he did something weird with bacon feta cheese. It just made me sick, you know. But yeah, it was an honor to do that. But yeah, I think it.
01:10:28
Speaker
It's so hard because, you know, I love, um, I love like the, you know, the first Flintstone, uh, comic book and the first, uh, Backstreet Boys comic book. And I have one of the original spawn comic books given to me from, uh, Todd McFarlane, right? Previous guest on this podcast, uh, Todd McFarlane. Love Todd and he's a great guy. I loved his, his dad and I, man, we hit it off. I, uh, I really liked him. He's a, he's a cool dude.
01:10:54
Speaker
And I met him through my friend Steve Spaz Williams, who was one of the lead designers on, you know, like when they redid, um, um, well, he did spawn with, with Todd. Um, but, and, uh, John Legizamo, who I met back then.
01:11:11
Speaker
But he was also the lead designer for Lucas when they redid all the Star Wars, you know, like when they did Job of the Hut, you know, like he redesigned it and did all the animation. Oh,
Name Mix-Up with Anthony Daniels
01:11:25
Speaker
awesome. I'd phone him up and go, Steve, how are you?
01:11:34
Speaker
Oh, hey, man. Great. You know, it's like, the hell are you doing? I don't know. I don't know. I just said I wanted to shoot guns with you. I actually like the little salacious crumb. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I always thought that.
01:11:56
Speaker
And then when he's tearing out, oh, my eye! We don't go there though, because I used to get some of the, because I'm Tony Daniels.
Star Wars Stories with Gary Kurtz
01:12:04
Speaker
I actually got a call one day from Anthony Daniels saying, Tony, is it okay if I use Anthony Daniels with SAG-AFTRON? I said, sure, you know, I'm Tony, you're Anthony, it's fine with me. So it was kind of cool. Fast forward, I'm working on a series called, okay, maybe we don't want to air this, but I'm working,
01:12:23
Speaker
But he's gone, so it's okay. I was working on a series called Friends and Heroes, and I was working with Gary Kurtz. You know that name, don't you? And I said, hey, Gary, this is so freaking cool. I'm your second Tony Daniels. He goes, no, you're not. You're my first. I'm like, really? He goes, yeah. He says, I think, I think, you know, I get along better with you. I'm like, wow, cool. That's kind of cool.
01:12:53
Speaker
So we don't want to knock the other guy down, but yeah, but Gary has left this world and he was a great guy to work with. I really enjoyed that and told us some, you guys would have loved this. Some of the stories I heard about shooting and, you know, empire and the, you know, the original, it was just, just amazing. Well, if Anthony Daniels is listening to this podcast,
01:13:14
Speaker
Hello! Please! Hang on! Oh my god! We're going to die! And he wants to come on and defend himself. He's more than welcome. No, no, he was- Join us. I have no problem with him. Alright, thanks guys.
Convention Appearances and Promotions
01:13:27
Speaker
You've ruined my life. Where to go? No.
01:13:31
Speaker
Oh, man, Tony, this this was amazing. This was amazing. It was it was so great having an opportunity to talk to you and hear about your history in the industry. Please let our listeners know where can they find you on the Internet? Let us let them know what you're working on and and where they can find out more from you.
01:13:51
Speaker
Oh, okay. So at Tony Daniels at all the socials, we got tonydaniels.com. And coming up in September, I'll be in, let's see, the first one I think is Erie, Pennsylvania. At the Erie Con, Erie, it's very Erie. It's down to 10 to 12. We're at Erie Con and then I'm
01:14:16
Speaker
at Ancient City Con in St. Augustine, Florida on the 17th. I'm trying to get on with my bro Noah Hathaway, you know, from Never Ending Story. Oh, yeah. He's a great dude. You guys would love him. And so I'm trying to get into a con with him and I'm supposed to go to England for another con, but I'm just waiting on that one.
01:14:37
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, um, socials at Tony Daniels. Oh, I screwed that up at the Tony Daniels. Oh my goodness. That would have been horrible. People have been sending me notes like, Hey, you're an idiot. All right. Well, Tony, thank you again for, uh, for joining us on adventures in collecting.
01:14:59
Speaker
Thank you, Tony. Thank you both. It was fun. Thanks for the questions, you guys out there. That was awesome. Caught me off guard on a couple. But other than that,
Podcast Farewell and Listener Engagement
01:15:09
Speaker
I'm now going to go and play doing a Scandinavian accent because I really like doing it late at night, you know, or during the day or anytime early.
01:15:21
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:15:38
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:16:01
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.