I've been hosting Cartoon Voices panels at Comic-Con and WonderCon since 1997 and the two we did at Comic-Con this year might have been the two best. I'm a semi-impartial person since I pick the panelists but can take zero credit for how brilliant and/or hilarious they turn out to be on stage. Lemme tell you who I picked this year for the Saturday panel…
On the very long list of skills I lack, right up there with Prostate Surgery and Interpretive Dance, you'll find Doing Impressions. Never mind not being able to sound like Christopher Walken and Robert DeNiro, I can't even do a recognizable Mark Evanier. But I'll tell you who can do a spot-on Walken or DeNiro or just about anybody else famous: Jim Meskimen can. One of the reasons I love having him on the panel is because I get to watch audience members stare open-jawed at his ability to not only sound exactly like the people but to crawl inside them and ad-lib in perfect character. You've gotta hear this guy to believe him. Here he is in the photo demonstrating his uncanny Leonard Nimoy.
This was the first time we had Benni Latham on the panel but not the last, even if I have to recruit her at gunpoint. What a funny, versatile lady. We did a reading of Beauty and the Beast with her as Belle and she got a laugh on every line. Every single line. After the panel, an attendee thanked me for getting Benni and said that her performances as Dot Malto on one of the Transformers series was their favorite bit of acting on a recent animated program. I'm not surprised.
That's Audrey Wasilewski, who I first worked with on The Garfield Show. She was the voice of Garfield's lady friend Arlene and you've heard here on dozens of shows and seen her in a lot of commercials. One of those folks who never stops working — and speaking of folks who were on The Garfield Show and who never stop working…
Gregg Berger was the voice of Odie and many, many other characters on The Garfield Show and before that, on Garfield and Friends. You've also heard him voicing Eeyore (on Winnie the Pooh) and Grimlock (of The Transformers) and Cornfed (on the Duckman show) and a long list of other programs. Gregg holds the record for the most appearances on my Cartoon Voices panels. I've done 63 of them (here's the list) and Gregg has been on 22 of them.
I was delighted to get this guy on the panel this year. That's Dana Gould, who I consider one of the brightest, funniest stand-up comedians working these days. If you're not familiar with his work, click here and become familiar with his work. Dana does voiceovers too so I pounced on him and he did not disappoint.
And lastly, that's Fred Tatasciore, who is the voice of The Hulk in Hulk cartoons and of The Beast in X-Men cartoons and I'll have to do a whole post here one day and tell you all about Fred. One of the great talents and a helluva nice guy.
If it seems like overkill that I'm praising these people…well, if I didn't think they were real good at cartoon voices, I wouldn't have asked them to be on my Cartoon Voices panel, right? Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the terrific people I snagged for the Sunday Cartoon Voices Panel.