#145 The Many Voices of Jim Meskimen

CTS Announcer 0:01

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:31

All right, Ashley, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. And you get this show going each and every time and this one was no exception. Welcome, everybody, to Episode 145 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. I'm here to keep the conversations classic. That's what I do. I've got a great one for you today. Oh, yes, I do. Jim Meskimen is here. That's right. Jim Meskimen, actor, improviser voice artist star of TV and film loved him and Whose Line Is It Anyway? Five Ron Howard films classic show called impress me personal friend with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Kinda. You gotta listen to the interview. Jim is a master impressionist, he had a viral video 1 million views reciting Shakespeare passages. Just using a million different celebrity voices is absolutely incredible. I'll put a link in the bio you gotta check it out. Jim comes from a very famous family. His mom is Marion Ross. That's right. Mrs. C from Happy Days. was Jim's real mom. Those out there like Wait, she was my mom too. Well, she's actually Jim's mom. If you want to hear more from Mary and Ross, check out episode 114 of classic conversations. Anyway, you're gonna love my conversation with Jim He's amazing.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:57

Also amazing episode. 144. Don't miss it with Peter Macon from the Orville Lieutenant Commander bortus. I love that show. I love talking to Peter. You're gonna love Peter and the show after if you don't watch it. You're just gonna gobble it up. It's on Hulu. We gotta do it. Well, we're gonna try things a little differently on the show.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:15

Now we're gonna get right into the interview. Some of your like, that's quick the rest of your life. Well, it's about time Jim Meskimen was on the set of Happy Days. The jump the shark episode where he Oh, you're gonna have to I don't want to ruin a boy. Yeah, here's my interview with Jim Meskimen. Enjoy. Alright, everyone. I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest. You loved him and Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter and True Romance.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:36

Welcome to the show Christopher Walken. Hi.

Celebrity Voice (JM) 2:39

Hi. Nice talking to you, Jeff. It's an honor. I would say if it was I love that watch. Where

Jeff Dwoskin 2:46

did you get it?

Unknown Speaker 2:47

Oh man, watch this. What do you want to know about this? Watch? This watch is gonna read story and sandstone. I want to go into painful memory.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:56

Painful. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just kidding around. I am excited to introduce you to actor impressionist voice talent speaker director, improvisational comedian dubbed the world's greatest impressionist by the Australian today's show, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. Jim Meskimen Whoa, hey, Jim.

Jim Meskimen 3:16

Hey there, man. Thank you. Yeah, it's uh, you know, the people, we really depend on the Australian today's show to let us know who the greatest categories of entertainer are. So that was nice to them.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:26

That is nice to them. And I think I read on your website or somewhere Seth Green's like, yeah,

Jim Meskimen 3:32

old buddy Seth Green. I met Seth Green when he was about 10. And we were working on an animated series together in New York, and he was a precocious 10 year old. He's still precocious. And a dear friend.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:43

Do you do Robot Chicken voices for him?

Jim Meskimen 3:45

I did. I did an episode a Robot Chicken. Yeah, I would love to do more at sci fi on a show. When a show it's very insufficient. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 3:53

Jim, you've got an amazing career and background I'm always interested at first just to kind of find out like what kind of sparked not necessarily like I'm interested to hear like what sparked the acting I'm guessing living in a household with a famous TV mom but like, but also when did you like discover the voices inside you? Because it's not like you just do two voices. I mean, you have a million voices in you like when did you start to discover that as a talent to and then just started to put all this to work?

Jim Meskimen 4:22

Jeff, it was a hobby with me. Like a lot of kids. You know, some guys like to I used to like I was one of the kids used to draw, I'd sit and do cartoons I copy Mad Magazine, how Hirschfeld and try to draw like these wonderful expressive characters, you know, and for my own amusement really. And then, you know, if you get slightly good at something when you're a kid, whether it's soccer juggling, or magic or or art, people start to identify you with that skill, and you become the kid who draws and you know, like, who's gonna make the poster? Well, Jim should do the one who's going to do the cartoon. Well, Jim should do this. So I became, you know, the guy that you would turn to if you needed something, a cartoon or something, and that had its own, you know, benefit, of course, it's nice to be competent at something nice to be rewarded and, and all that. And I thought really that that was going to be my main career. That was what I was most interested in. At the time when I was 1011. And 12 years old. As I got older, I realized, well, you know, I also like to do voices, and I like to act and I like to make people laugh. And I didn't really commit to having a career in that for quite a while it really all these things sort of developed slowly over time, I was like, allowed to indulge in the things that I was really interested in, gained in touch of proficiency so that eventually someone said, hey, you know, we will we will pay you for that. And when I moved to New York City in my early 20s, after after really pursuing an art career, or at least art training, not so much the career but the training to be a painter very intensely in New York, as in any big city, you sort of bring out everything you have that you can do that might get you a job, that's better than being a waiter. So I I basically worked as an illustrator cartoonist, and I schlepped my portfolio all over Manhattan and Brooklyn and got little jobs and finally got a job designing characters for Thundercats of all things Thundercats TV show all along the way though, I was still entertaining myself and my friends with voices and my ability to change my voice and impersonate different people and then as soon as I could I offered it for sale basically, I you know, I went did auditions i i put together cassette tapes and demo tapes and send them out all over the place and, and eventually started working in that area. So you know, it's just the path of life leads you in a lot of funny directions. But I've always been able to have the great advantage and honor of being able to permit it to follow my own path of interest.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:43

That's great. That's really cool. That's the Thundercat kind of glad I did Sandra cancer. Okay. To go back to that first day. So that was with Rankin bass.

Jim Meskimen 6:53

Yes. Rankin bass. Yeah. Jules bass hired me and initially to do storyboarding, and then that that didn't really fly too well. So he gave me another chance. And I got to do a character design. And that was more up my alley. Anyway, I'm, I didn't know anything about storyboarding. At the time, I really didn't. But I knew I knew about characters. I knew about costumes. And I knew about drawing stuff. And, and I it was a very fruitful time i It helped keep us, you know, in our apartment in New York and, and making a base from which we could begin to grow on I say, We my wife and I were both in the theater and doing other things that don't really pay. So it was nice to have that that weekly salary, and it was very creative. Actually, I still get work in Thundercats reboots mostly on the basis of the fact that I had something to do with the original series. So

Jeff Dwoskin 7:39

So that's cool. Do you ever do comic cons or anything like that with some of the stuff

Jim Meskimen 7:42

I've gone to Comic Con in San Diego twice. I've been invited to speak at a panel by Mark Avenir. And I've gone twice for that. But I've not I don't star in a lot of animated series. I'm a guest guy that comes in Ultron is probably my biggest claim to fame in recent years in the comic con thing is not a big part of my not a big part of my life.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:03

I was thinking like GEICO should probably get something going where they pull all the characters from all those GEICO commercials. Jam was George Washington and the most recent one. That's right. And that would be hilarious, right? They could sponsor comic cons and bring you in because people I think they'll go oh, that's recognizable because they create like these amazing commercials. What is it with insurance companies that have the funniest commercials on TV?

Jim Meskimen 8:25

I you know, I think they must be trying. It's a very competitive world insurance world. I think they're trying to cut through with humor. And it's great. The bigger brands do that. You know, it's actually probably expensive to do because anybody can can write a crappy commercial but a really funny commercial like those GEICO spots. You got to have a brain trust there. You gotta have a really good team of people. That's that's not cheap.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:46

Do you get recognized from that? Or is it too much makeover

Unknown Speaker 8:49

now? Right? It was a lot of makeup.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:52

You have a video on your website. Job. Hezekiah was like me, Jim. George Washington from the get go. I

Jim Meskimen 8:59

was very kind of him. Somebody pointed out is somebody told me Hey, Joe Piscopo has been talking about John on this on Fox and he has and I found that that clip and yeah, it's a gem Escom. and.com and and we've become friends. I've been on his show a couple of times. When I go to New York, I usually say Hey, Joe, I'm coming to New York. Oh, you're gonna come in, come in and be on the show. Come on. That'd be great.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:19

He's always had an impressionist. Yeah, no, that's why he

Jim Meskimen 9:22

appreciates what I do. He understands and he has a terrific impressionist. It's incredible. A very sweet guy

Jeff Dwoskin 9:29

back to Thundercats. The Rankin bass thing to me is exciting because as a as a little Jewish boy, those were the only Christmas shows I watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer vases come into town Frosty the Snowman. That was were like still staples in the house.

Jim Meskimen 9:42

Well, we you know, my wife and I like to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer every year is a very funny speaking of Jewish it's got a lot of Jewish comedy in it. I think I really, you know, snappy, snappy, high quality comedy in it and that and when I worked in the office, they're there in a little glass case. was Rudolph frosty those little figures for all kind of moth eaten, you know, they got manipulated a lot by people twisting their wires and moving them around and putting them nailing them down. And so that was a little worse for wear. But it was like me, it was like seeing a celebrity in a glass case, oh,

Jeff Dwoskin 10:17

I'd freak out if I saw that little Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with the red nose or with the little black thing on his nose.

Jim Meskimen 10:27

So he's not covering it.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:30

Right. So the other thing I was excited to see that you were in is the Whose Line Is It Anyway, but not the Drew Carey version, UK version. And the reason I was excited about that, that was like a staple. When I was in college, like in the apartment, we had kind of whatever the comedy channel was at that time. And like that was running all the time. You are, you're a great professional comedian.

Jim Meskimen 10:51

Oh, well, I got a lot of really good training when I was in New York. And we tried a lot of ambitious projects. And in fact, in that to sound egotistical, but the who's one who's aligned people came to us, by the way, we had no understanding or knowledge of the show, or we had no convergence with it, because it was a British show that we didn't, didn't run in America at the time. And these guys came over and said, Hey, we've got this show. And it's improvised, and we'd love for you to be part of it. And, and, you know, they showed us a cassette of VHS cassette of a show. And we're like, a, okay, this is what we teach in our classes. This is nothing special, you know, go to work at all, but we were doing improvised Broadway musicals, we were doing massive, ambitious projects. So this thing was like, literally, like a walk in the park for us. But fun, you know, and I enjoyed working with almost everybody on the show. It ran for just years and years. So I would get recognized from it quite a bit. And and of course, the show went on to have tremendous impact. And that has been rebooted many times with different hosts. And I did audition for the American version that Drew Carey version. But in the end, you know, I think he did what anybody would do. And he hired his pals. And I was not a friend of yours. Oh, my mother played his mother on The Drew Carey Show. Apparently, that didn't really cut much ice. Yeah, you think that would make that was something but no.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:09

It was very, it should have called Drew and given my work, too, you should have, she should have bought them out. Just want to take a quick break. And thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting Assad classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. Now back to Jim Metzger, man, we were talking about Mary and Ross.

Jim Meskimen 12:31

She's been a lot of mothers to people's that's so I have to share her with many, many celebrities and with people that come up to me and say, you know, your mom raised me go, Okay, if you say so what was

Jeff Dwoskin 12:41

that? Like? I mean, it's probably a different experience now. But what was it like when you were just a young kid, and here's your mom, and I read your mom's book. And so I know, she worked. Like she had a work discipline like crazy, right? And so like, very intense, very focused. And so he or she is the greatest mom in the world on TV, and everyone loves her. It's gotta be hard as a young kid, even if you know, the home life is the greatest life, it's still you're sharing your mom, it's there's so much it's like, what is that even? i It's hard for me to fathom. But

Jim Meskimen 13:17

yeah, you know, luckily, I wasn't like a real little kid. I mean, by the time Happy Days rolled around, I was well versed in the reality of a working actress looking for a good opportunity, we were always happy when she got a job, because it meant that the bills get paid to the single mom, you know, my parents got divorced when I was about eight and Happy Days rolls around. And I think they shoot the pilot when I'm about 12 or 13, maybe. And so it doesn't really become a hit until a little bit, you know, I'm starting to be a teenager. And then by the time I'm old enough to drive 16 years old, in LA, I can drive to Paramount and watch them shoot on Friday nights. So I'm not delighted and not confused at all about the identity of my mother or what that means or anything like that. Because I knew that she was a working actress and I knew that what we were what we were trying to accomplish as a family, I was more confused about my own attraction to her worlds, the world of being an actor on television, you know, where you have all this fame and stuff, because it was obviously very shiny and attractive. There was a poll there, I sort of distrusted it, because I didn't really see what it would have meant for me, like deeply, you know, for life choice. So I had to kind of work out for myself, well, what's honorable about this career, you know, is it just as flashy and it's money and new cars and attention and girls, you know, or whatever? Or is it something that's really going to, I don't want to paint myself as being a really wise old soul, but I was looking for something that had some some meaning. You know, I've been a painter and I studied painting a lot. I thought, well, that that seems pretty honorable to so what's the difference? You know, and it took me a while to sort it out and I eventually I decided to focus on acting, and because it was more so shoulda done painting it was more more people involved. And indeed there been a lot of people involved in my my life. It's fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:05

So I don't remember if I jotted this down from your mom's book but you were in the jump the shark episode. I am the one who announces That's right. You scream. It's a shark. Can you do it here? Do it for me.

Jim Meskimen 15:18

Guys dark out there. Yeah, I got it pinned up until Marineland can come and pick it up. So funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:23

I did it feel to be part of what became like, such an iconic phrase.

Jim Meskimen 15:30

Yeah, of all the episodes. That's the one that's that's quoted. And it's really my line. Also, it's come to me. And somebody pointed this out to me not too long ago that it's come to mean like a point in a show where it's so kind of tired that they're resorting to stunts, right, and stunt casting and weird story plot twists that aren't really organic to the show. But in fact, happiness wasn't really at that point. It hadn't jumped the shark yet. They were literally jumping a shark. But that was season five of 11. So they had a ways to go before they actually or maybe there are degrees of shark jumping. And that was just the first degree.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:10

Yeah, no, it still had a long life after that. I think in hindsight, looking back, we were like, Oh, that was it's out of context. It is kind of crazy. Yeah. But yeah, it's funny how that all all happen.

Jim Meskimen 16:22

Yeah. And at that point, I hadn't really, it's not an acting. I don't do a real job of acting in my episode of Happy Days at all playing a 17 year old on a beach and I was a 17 year old on the beach. But you know, I had not made a real commitment to being an actor. I was still kind of dancing around it and trying to

Jeff Dwoskin 16:38

don't don't knock yourself I was watching that but I did not believe that was a shark and tear like it's a shark and I'm like,

Jim Meskimen 16:44

That is a shark. Yeah, that guy says it's a shark. Oh God, it

Jeff Dwoskin 16:47

is a shark. I

Jim Meskimen 16:52

think it was a diver with a fin.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:55

I always thought it was funny that he kept his jacket on the leather jacket. Yeah, he

Unknown Speaker 16:59

kept his jacket on. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 17:01

I mean, that's your mom and I interviewed her invited me to come to Happy Days farm so I might just show up one day, I think I'm sure she invites everyone but I'm one day I'll be like Hello.

Jim Meskimen 17:11

She does she invites everyone.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:14

I did feel special that you tell her I was special.

Jim Meskimen 17:17

I will I will well and she won't she won't turn you away. So there is a gate there now but

Jeff Dwoskin 17:23

there is a gauge but you're more than welcome to

Jim Meskimen 17:28

turn off your electricity

Jeff Dwoskin 17:30

close the blinds. I one of the shows I saw that you did which I thought was really cool. And really cool. You did it with impress me with Ross or quad. Yeah, he's is also an extremely talented impressionist from The Walking Dead. I met him humble guy to really nice guy. We were walking into a Comic Con at the same time at my press pass. I was a back door the same door as he was walking in. And he opened the door for me. And I was like, yeah, he says Hi, dude. Hey, how you doing? You know, he was like,

Jim Meskimen 18:01

he just likes to use that hands. Because

Jeff Dwoskin 18:03

Oh, it's chapter I write? How did that how did you meet Ross and like, the kindred spirits with the many voices each?

Jim Meskimen 18:10

Oh, it's a fun story we had met Ross is one of these people that intersects with a lot of other actors and a lot of other people. I'm always meeting people. Oh, you know, rice. Yeah, you know, rice, all these connector type guys. And we met on a short film. And we didn't spend a lot of time together. But we spent enough time together to know that we were kind of kindred spirits, and particularly in the in the voice and accents and stuff. And we were kind of messing around. And we found that we could both play with voices. And we had a nice introduction of one another. Dan, I don't know year later, we met on another short film or another short project that somebody was doing. And I was like Ross and Jim. And we again goofed around with voices and stuff. And then I happened to meet a director and work for a director that was doing a series called on YouTube called the flip side, which was kind of like a Twilight Zone ish kind of YouTube series web series. And his name is Ben Shelton. And in you know, he contacted me because I had a viral video out doing impressions, and he was looking for people to be in his shorts that had some following. And anyway, we struck up a friendship. And then I was looking at some of his past work past episodes of the flip side. And so there's Ross, mark one. So when I met Ben, I said you worked with with Ross. And he went, Oh, yeah, like Ross was, I began to I met with Ross. And I said, you know, we we both do impressions, there's something we ought to, we ought to do, like, kick around some ideas and come up with some rough ideas for YouTube or for whatever. He said, Great. And then the two of us, we kind of didn't sort it out. We didn't sort of solve it. But we met with Ben and Ben salt. He said, I think this is a show about two guys like you who do impressions, but who want to be serious actors. And he wrote this this eight episode web series that he got SoulPancake at that time was he was working with them, and they bankrolled it wasn't very expensive, but we shot eight episodes. They like those very much. And they said, Well, why don't we expand these we could just expand each of these episodes and make it into a TV series. And they wanted to get into TV. And so Ben wrote extra padded it up and found new things. And we had all kinds of interesting other Impressionists involved. Christina Bianco was involved in Dana de Lorenzo, who's on another zombie show ash.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:22

Yeah, I love that. Ash vs. Evil Dead. Yeah,

Jim Meskimen 20:26

I'm dead people. And she was charming and wonderful, and a bunch of others. And we put together this series and it actually ran on a channel called Pop, and then it ran. And then it was silent, dormant for a long time. He couldn't find it anywhere and then was on amazon prime. And now sadly, it's silent and dormant again, I think because SoulPancake has been taken over by another entity, and they're sorting out all their properties. And anyway, I'll be very happy when it's available to be seen again, because it was a very charming show.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:53

Kevin Pollak was in it at full episodes, who's an amazing impressionist also. Yeah, he's terrific. And then the other person, just the name that popped out Melissa villas and your

Jim Meskimen 21:06

Yeah, that's right. Melissa Villasenor. Yeah. from Saturday Night Live.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:10

Yes. I was aware of her just prior to Saturday Night Live. I'd seen some videos she had done and she is incredible. And I think one of the most underused people on Saturday Night Live. I was happy to see her in your in your thing, because she's so good. She's so good.

Jim Meskimen 21:25

We underused. You're also but she Yeah, no, she's terrific. I like her very much. And she's very, very talented. It's just a good actress.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:33

Really, really, really good. Oh, you are Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen Father and our lips are sealed.

Jim Meskimen 21:39

Yeah, got us down to Australia for the first time. I one of my many trips to Australia was to be their father. That was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about the Australian accent down there. The dialect and Sydney everyone talks like this kind of come up at the end. Not sure why.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:54

But I thought I thought I was talking so I thought someone took over the chauffeurs hugging.

Unknown Speaker 21:59

Me got to just elbow my way in here. But she was going very well. But

Jim Meskimen 22:03

why Jeff, terrific podcast and we're going to move in a slightly different direction and talk about watch repair.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:12

Love it. When did you get to know Willie Garson on there? Right. May he rest in peace.

Jim Meskimen 22:16

But we worked together one day Yeah. So I got to know just a tiny little bit. I know he was that guy. All right.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:23

That was awesome. So many awesome things that you mentioned your viral video that went viral it was Shakespeare impressions is that the one we're talking about right now

Jim Meskimen 22:30

those the first one that went legitimately viral and that was a big surprise. It was a bit that I've been doing for years on stage clearances Dream Speech from Richard the Third done in celebrity voices and what I used to always do was have the audience call out names and in the in the middle of the speech I would just change on a dime and do the next celebrity and when I made the video myself the hardest part about it was determining and remembering the order of the celebrities myself because I had nobody yelling out anything. I was just doing it in the comfort of my own studio. So I eventually got that done to my to my liking and put it up on YouTube and and miraculously watched these numbers just sale it was it was a real thrill i have to say if you've ever had a viral video it's like I imagined it's what stock market people Wall Street people must look now we're worth 25 cents now now we're gonna be shares were 28 cents

Jeff Dwoskin 23:22

any good here now? Hey, bro, chameleon, right?

Jim Meskimen 23:25

Eventually. Yeah, it kind of raced towards half a million very briskly and then it kind of tapered off and now it's it's I don't know that up to date with it. But it is it passed a million dollar

Jeff Dwoskin 23:34

check every morning. I would.

Jim Meskimen 23:38

One 1.28

Jeff Dwoskin 23:40

It's okay, between us. I do the same thing I used to get about impressions because I saw the deepfake one on your website, which was incredible, where they actually put the people's faces over as you did it. But when you do an impression anyway, like you're doing dinero, or any of them, you do kinda and most Impressionists do this, if not all of them, like you kind of become that person a bit as much as you you mold your face. Like how much is it being an impressionist? And doing these voices actually kind of morphing a little bit more of your body? Not just your voice? Like how much of it have you actually throw right into each one?

Unknown Speaker 24:16

So it's a good question,

Jim Meskimen 24:17

Jeff. It's it's a lot of people ask this. This is something I've talked to Ross Marquand about it and he's of the same mind that I am that it's an acting job. So you are you're exactly right. We see you becoming that character. That means the way they sit the words they use, you know what they do with their hands, they move their hands, they don't you know, they they breathe, you know, there's a lot of components to it. What I do is I again, I It's such a lucky thing, it's just my my interest is I go to a movie and I watch like when I was a kid, Woody Allen was very big. And we go to the movie theater to watch a movie out a Woody Allen movie can you know come out at the end of the unit completely immersed in this personality? You know? I suddenly have a number of foibles and neuroses that I didn't have when I walked in. And that's just the factor of like, Wow, I love this performance I love, there's something I love about this personality, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna wear it out of the shop, I'm just gonna try it on. And I think the difference between me and other people is that I don't mind indulging that and I will act like somebody for an hour. Or, you know, if I if I feel like now is because it's justified, I may have to play this character, I have to do a job to keep my the food on the table. And it would be great if I really could sound like this person. And so if I go and see Patrick Stewart and something that watch him on a video, there's something so attractive about that, that way he has expressing himself that I'm very comfortable just behaving like him for a while. That means it changes the way I

Unknown Speaker 25:48

hold my body. And the the sort of words I'd use,

Jim Meskimen 25:51

but it's acting, it's what we do as actors, it just as a more of a I guess it's a bit of a novelty, you know, because it's a skill, but doesn't have super wide applications, but enough so that it actually exists as a profession.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:05

Sorry, I didn't interrupt his amazing conversation with Jim McMahon. Gotta take a quick break. And now we're back with Jim has come in about to ask him a very important impressions question. So how much? Do you randomly go into voices around the house? And does your wife like it or hate it?

Jim Meskimen 26:26

You know, when when it's appropriate, you know, when it benefits someone other than me, I think it's appreciated when it's just me effing around, maybe it's not so appreciate it. But I like not having any kind of a governor or a limit on my expression. I think most people want to feel free to communicate, we want to be able to express our ideas. And if I if I need to talk like someone else to get something across fully, then I don't stop myself. You know, unless it's unless I realize that nobody's going to appreciate it and it's not going to really land. My wife is very patient and we've been married almost 35 years. That's amazing. Oh, are very much in love. I respect her and I try not to ever use my my impressions or any of my acting to irritate her,

Jeff Dwoskin 27:12

obviously, but I would think it would be the great like, I look I don't I wasn't questioning your love when I brought it up. I just know if my wife was like screaming at me it something and all of a sudden gonna shatter its seams. Yeah. But yeah, it is i They think I would use that and then you know, just to escalate or elevate, just divert. It. Just seems like if I had that skill, if that was a superpower I had, Jim That's one of the ways I would use it. Or restaurants. You ever do it at restaurants? Where do you live? Hey, what would you like? Do you just order someone else and see if they get it? These are the things I would do.

Jim Meskimen 27:48

The only time I've done anything like that

Celebrity Voice (JM) 27:49

I've got to do to a Colonel Sanders voice for KFC burger and so I do a lot of commercials for radio and TV for KFC. And occasionally I have just for a gag, I drive go through the drive thru and are an order my chicken like this. And I can't say that they really noticed. They just think I'm just some crazy old codger ordering a one of those fine chicken sandwiches,

Jeff Dwoskin 28:10

right just some 16 year old that just isn't right. I don't know I can barely understand this verse. Any fun well, ways to use or use your voices.

Jim Meskimen 28:22

I use them all the time. I you know, I create projects. For myself. I have a YouTube channel, I feed it every day I do a thing called celebrity fortune cookie where I've got a wheel of impressions and a bowl of fortune cookies. And I opened up a cookie spin the wheel and I read the fortune and a celebrity voice and then usually you have to interpret it because very we've discovered the very few fortune cookies actually contained fortunes. They contain little jokes and little little palms and little pieces of advice. But there's not like today you will, you will find no money on the street. You know, there's no actual not a lot of actual fortunes going on out there. So I have sometimes have to massage it a little bit so that it is a fortune for the viewer. So I do that every day. And then I also do got just any project that comes to mind like I did one day I was like obsessed because I realized the only Beatle song I can think of that could have been a Tom Waits song is from Sergeant Pepper's being for the benefit of Mr. Kite. And my head. I could hear it. I was like, wow, that would make I don't make an interesting little snippet. So my daughter, like my daughter learned how to plunk it out on the piano. I said can you play this? Because she plays a little bit and she said I think so she worked it out on the piano and I got all made up and we got the green screen out. We produce this little what is it? 42nd long snippet of Mr. Kite has sung by Tom Waits and it just made us feel great. And a bunch of people saw actually Ron Howard saw it and he contacted me I was like that's really good. I really like this has its benefits.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:51

Does Brian Howard love when you do Ron Howard to Ron Howard.

Jim Meskimen 29:54

I don't think he loves it. I don't know how much he's actually heard it actually but If he did here at one time, but he didn't know his me, there was a tribute. I got hired to do a recording for a tribute to Ron and to imagine entertainment. And I went okay. And they said, Can you do Ron Howard's voice? And I was like, yeah, yeah. And I get down there to record and it's like a description of imagine. And I'm, like I said, Ron, I'm gonna be at this banquet. And they said, Yeah, oh, yeah, helped me there. And I'm like, Why? Why don't you get him to read it? And they couldn't. I don't know. It wasn't available or

Jeff Dwoskin 30:26

so people were supposed to believe it actually was him. Yeah, it

Jim Meskimen 30:28

was. That was the conceit. And so later on, when I heard about it, I asked Ron about I said, Did you go to a, an award ceremony in LA? And he said, Hey, I, you know, I listen to that. And I thought, Oh, when did I record that? And did I have a cold? I still to this day, don't know why they just didn't get him to do it at his own tribute, describing his own company. But there you go.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:54

A good prank to pull to pull on Ron Howard would be to take Season One Arrested Development and episode and redub his voiceovers was just some ridiculous thing and then just play it and see if he notices so it's,

Jim Meskimen 31:06

I think it gives him pretty fast.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:08

I don't know. You're in five Ron Howard films. And then five so far, I hope to do many more. That's awesome. And he's he makes the greatest film so far.

Jim Meskimen 31:17

I've been in some of the best I have to say I really are all his films are good. But Apollo 13, for me is a real high spot. It's one of those films that if it's on TV, and I happen to flick through, I gotta watch it. Because it's just a really great, it

Jeff Dwoskin 31:31

does fall in that category. If one of those like we just you stop doesn't matter which part it's just kind of watch it. Right. So you're in How the Grinch Stole Christmas Ed TV, the paper, Apollo 13. And Frost Nixon. So cool. Yeah, that's right. So you've known Ryan a long time, because if you were 1213 46

Jim Meskimen 31:50

Yeah. He was probably about 18. Yeah. So he's got a great book out now, by the way, a memoir called the boys about that he and his brother, Clint wrote, and Clint is another really fascinating person. The story of those two young boys and their family is amazing. I really enjoyed the book. It's very well put together. It's very conversational, but just very enlightening. The boys, I recommend it to anybody, and they did the audiobook version too. So you can hear them, they did not hire me to do the audiobook version, which is very wise.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:25

His daughter is amazing to Ron's daughter,

Jim Meskimen 32:28

Bryce Dallas Howard. Yeah, I've known her since she was a little thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:32

actor, actress, and then the directing. I mean, she's like, she's making a real name for itself. Right now, specifically, and all those Star Wars stuff. She has been doing incredible. Jurassic Park. So yeah. So cool. So cool. All right. So I so your impressions, so the Shakespeare impression, viral video, million views, and then you find yourself on America's Got Talent?

Jim Meskimen 32:56

Yeah, that the viral video got me all kinds of opportunities. And one of them was went up to speak at a conference that was kind of like a TED talk kind of deal. And at that thing was a producer, there was a man who was kind of scouting for America's Got Talent. And he invited me to be part of that. And I, after some convincing, I said, Okay, I didn't really see how it applied to professionals. But it turned out that, you know, it's not just an amateur show, that's people that have been working for years or whatever. And for me, it was just a way to sort of introduce my, my talents to a lot of different people. And that was an interesting experience. I didn't win but I got to perform for 6000 people at Radio City Music Hall, which has a lot plus a TV audience. So it's good challenge, you know, because it was it's kind of nervy especially only have 90 seconds, you know, it's like, it's like a mad sprint, but fun and interesting. From there, you know, things have just continued to grow. And I do my one man show from time to time of course, it's been shut down when we didn't have the ability to have people in the theater starting up again, and, and then just doing a lot of TV. A lot of opportunities come up in the TV area. I still have to audition like most working actors. That's fine. And I've worked on an episode of hunters, which will be coming out this Sunday summer, but a series is launching that I have a couple of episodes in and that's gaslit with Julie Roberts and Sean Penn.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:19

Oh, I saw that in the Starz network that looks amazing. Yeah, I think that'll be really good. Oh, and so you're in Hunter season two. So there is a season two coming. So now I'm excited that you're you're gonna be in it and that they even made a sequel. I'm all about more Nazi hunting. I'm totally on board with

Jim Meskimen 34:36

Yeah, no Nazis were actually harmed in the making.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:40

The big door prize

Jim Meskimen 34:41

big door prize. Yeah, that I just wrapped working on that series. And that's a really fun comedy from the makers of or one of the one of the creators of shits Creek, David West read Chris O'Dowd, comedian love Chris,

Jeff Dwoskin 34:55

shut down an actor.

Jim Meskimen 34:56

You love him too. He's fantastic. He stars in it. And he's wonderful. Actually, I really enjoyed working with him because I laughed at him so much, it seemed on YouTube on chat shows, and he's just charming and funny. And I really liked working with him. So that is called the big door prize. It's doesn't have a door prize, not a game show. It's a little bit of a confusing title. But it's about a small town that has this very high tech kind of Zoltar machine drop in the middle of it. And it purports to use, you know, all these modern kind of metrics to determine people's true destiny. And that, of course, creates a lot of chaos in the small town as people discover their true destinies quite distant from what they're actually doing with their lives. So that's going to be coming out I think, in the fall, maybe October.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:39

That sounds amazing. You're one Burson show, Jim pressions. Yes, I just want to make sure we say the now. So I watch a lot of clips on your website. And just on YouTube, in general, your YouTube channel, you do a Bohemian Rhapsody thing, which was incredible. I had a question though. Like, even with America's Got Talent, we were just you know, they're naming names, right? They're just, you know, Howard Stern has thrown a name at you. They hit you up from Twitter, write a name from Twitter. And then you just from bubble you're talking about earlier where it's just it's an acting you're putting everything into it? How hard is it especially in like you said, that was 90 seconds to like, switch on a dime from a complete different voice to another completely different human being slash voice? It's got to it is is it that you just make it look that easy? It's gotta be all different tones. You gotta get in mind. Yeah, like,

Jim Meskimen 36:30

Yeah, I mean, that's the game. But I mean, you know, I luckily, I spent all this time in New York, doing shows on the weekends with my group. And one of the routines that we did was, you know, let's get a famous man in history. And we're gonna do a biopic about that person, and who are all the different stars that could be in this. And so we would change, change, change the audience, we call out different actors names. And so I got very fluid on making these changes very quickly. Because there was instant gratification, I would do it change, and they would laugh, and then we get another one. And they would laugh. And so I knew that the audience was really having a great time. So as fast as I could go, I tried to really push it. So now I can I can, I can do it pretty fast.

Unknown Speaker 37:13

You know, it doesn't take long it's really takes about as much

Jim Meskimen 37:17

time as decision, you know,

Unknown Speaker 37:19

because there's really no gap. For me. It's just a complete leap.

Jim Meskimen 37:24

I don't hold back or evaluate myself. No, in fact, is Joe Biden speaking, I don't even have to

Unknown Speaker 37:33

rehearse or something. Why is it time for soup?

Jeff Dwoskin 37:36

Mr. Schwarzenegger, which came first the chicken or the egg, the chicken

Celebrity Voice (JM) 37:40

came first because he was pushing their head across the road. And that's what caused the accident. There was a hammer that came and swerve to get out of the way of the birds and Dag and went over the embankments. And there was an explosion. You can see it all on the news.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:56

Mr. Casey case, I'm How do I get a Sesame Street?

Celebrity Voice (JM) 38:00

How do you get practice? You get to Sesame Street by continual practice of the ABCs your numbers and all the capital cities in America?

Jeff Dwoskin 38:09

Excuse me, Mr. President, George W is the hot dog a sandwich

Jim Meskimen 38:14

is a it's a species of sandwich. It's, it's actually the hot dog is kind of the spinal column of the of the sandwich and you can put anything else you want on it. These little extras accessories, and but it's not considered sandwich but I think if you look medically you'd have to determine that that's what it is.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:36

Mr. Gervais? What is the name of your Wi Fi?

Jim Meskimen 38:39

Wi Fi my Wi Fi Do you want to know my Wi Fi code? Yeah, not gonna give it up. But I'll tell you what.

Unknown Speaker 38:46

It's it's,

Jim Meskimen 38:47

it's not. I'll tell you what Chris Rock says Chris rocks. Wi Fi right now is Don't hit me again.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:54

Mister Sir Ian McKellen? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Unknown Speaker 38:59

If a wooden chuck actually could chuck wood which they can't you know, they don't have opposable thumbs. If it should be rewritten that if a wood Chuck had opposable thumbs, it could in fact, chuck wood and almost anything else.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:15

Your voices are in ratable I could do that all day. But clearly, someone needs to get a hold of you. Oh, my God, you were George W. Bush on jib jab. That's like the greatest. Oh,

Jim Meskimen 39:31

yeah, was that a lot the singing George Bush I didn't singing

Unknown Speaker 39:34

George wish I had to figure out how he had sound when he was singing, which I don't think anyone's ever heard on Earth.

Jim Meskimen 39:41

We did a lot of videos together. I still worked for those guys that spirit Ellis is they've got a beautiful show. For kids right now on Netflix called Ask the story bots and my wife does voices for it. And my daughter sometimes does voices for it. And it is the most creative sweet show. I'm just not too bad. It's called Ask the star Robots if you've got a six or seven year old kid, man, plunk them down in front of the TV, they'll learn something. They'll be delightfully entertained and inspired after check it out. Grownups like it too.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:10

I bet it sounds like

Jim Meskimen 40:13

it is. It is truly amazing. It's one of my favorite favorite jobs.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:18

Well, I can't thank you enough for hanging out with me. This was so cool. Pleasure. I love to hear your voices and your stories, and I'm excited for all your upcoming projects.

Jim Meskimen 40:28

Can I ask you a question? Yeah, you can't. You've got a frame thing that has jaws on it behind you. What is that? Is that a

Jeff Dwoskin 40:34

book? That is the jaw xlog written by and signed by Carl Gottlieb. Carl Gottlieb. Yeah. And okay. He's nice. Above it is a Joe elves autograph. He's the guy. He's the guy who designed it. Oh, design. He designed jaws and like all the everything when you think of like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That's him. So I'm a big jaws fan. Big Jaws fan.

Jim Meskimen 40:59

Me too. Me too massive, massive, great movie.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:02

I let's we'll do another episode. And we'll just do a deep dive into jaws and you can do all that.

Jim Meskimen 41:08

You might be you might like the I did. Quint Robert Shaw doing a speech from Jaws only. It's COVID related. That's on my YouTube channel. If you type in Robert Shaw and COVID on my channel, you'll find

Jeff Dwoskin 41:21

it. I am looking forward to hearing that very much.

Jim Meskimen 41:25

Appreciate it. All right. Well, Jeff, thanks so much. I really enjoyed it.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:28

I really enjoyed you too. I will say I do have Ross's autograph on my wall. So if you sent me a headshot I'd have the entire impressed me. top line cast on my wall.

Jim Meskimen 41:37

Yeah, I'm just saying I'm just saying. I mean your address. I'll be happy to

Jeff Dwoskin 41:43

it. Thank you so much. I can't it this was a lot of fun. I appreciate welcome. All right, Jim Meskimen, everyone. How amazing was Jim those voices incredible, huh? George job you and Jib Jab. Come on. I am slightly obsessed with people who can do voices. I just I think it's so cool. If I could do voices, I would do a non stop non stop couldn't stop me. That's what I'm saying. You could try to stop me. But then you would fail. Annie who? Jim Meskimen, I'll put a link to some of the cool videos he's done in the show notes. You can check those out or just Google them on YouTube.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:22

Well, now that the interview is over, I can only mean one thing. That's right. It's time for another trending hashtag and the family of hashtags it hashtag round up download the free always free hashtag roundup app at the iTunes App Store or Google Play Store tweet along with us and one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of Classic conversations fame and fortune awaits you.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:49

The hashtag for this episode is hashtag my superpower would be brought to you by row tags. Of course I mentioned I was obsessed with being able to do impressions and during the interview I kind of mentioned that was my superpower how I would use it. So we're going to explore what other people would love to have their superpower be with the hashtag #MySuperPowerWouldBe and here's some to inspire you tweet your own. I'll retweet ya t Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter and let's do it. Dr. Works #MySuperPowerWouldBe converting likes to read tweets. Paul #MySuperPowerWouldBe eating Twinkies without gaining weight. That's a superpower and a best selling book waiting to happen. hump day hashtags. #MySuperPowerWouldBe ending world hunger way to keep it real bro pace. Hi, I'm Mike. #MySuperPowerWouldBe finding what I'm looking for in the refrigerator. Oh, I feel your pain on that one. Miss Reade's. #MySuperPowerWouldBe having the power to turn gold into silver Wade Watts. That's a curse. JJ my superpower would be online shopping for hours and hours and hours. That sounds like a threat to someone's credit card. Sherry #MySuperPowerWouldBe the ability to teleport to avoid traffic. That's not a bad idea. X Hudson my superpower would be a superhuman tolerance for alcohol shares to you my friend Jerry #MySuperPowerWouldBe being correct like all the time. Wait a minute. Yeah, the same superpower as my wife. And our final #MySuperPowerWouldBe tweet comments from Michael my superpower would be making everyone fall in love with the library as man loves books. And so should you.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:45

All right, another hashtag in the books and other interview in the books. That can only mean one thing. Episode 145 is coming to a close. I want to thank my special guest Jim Meskimen and I also want to Thank all of you for coming back week after week. I can't thank you enough. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 45:08

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai