KP: It always seemed to me that Fox had a personal vendetta against Groening when it came to Futurama.

LAMARCHE: It would seem that way, wouldn’t it?  If one were a conspiracy theorist or paranoid.

KP: Or able to look at the evidence. There was a very concerted effort to kill that puppy through scheduling.

LAMARCHE: It must have been Krypto the Superdog, because it took them four years to do it.  What do you know, another Superman reference.  Second only to Seinfeld in Superman references.

KP: Yes, I was about to make that observation.

LAMARCHE: Yeah, Jerry and I both have a Superman fixation.

KP: One that you would discuss back in the day?

LAMARCHE: No, actually… I didn’t know Seinfeld really well.  But one of my best friends in the world is Mark Schiff, who is the voice of the little stupid dog in Two Stupid Dogs and possibly the funniest standup comedian I know.  And Mark and Jerry and Paul Reiser and Larry Miller are all great friends.  They all moved out here from New York together back in, like, ’78, and they made a vow that every New Year’s Day they would have lunch together.  And they’ve kept that vow for almost 30 years.  No matter where they are in the world, they all fly into New York, have lunch at the River Café in Brooklyn, and then walk the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan.  No matter how friggin’ cold it is. And they do it. They had a close relationship.  My relationship with Jerry basically amounted to doing him for him before anybody else was doing him.  Back in 1980 we both did Evening at the Improv.  I watched his act, and watched it when it came out on TV and learned his voice.  I just thought it was an interesting voice.  Nobody knew Jerry was gonna be anything. At the time we were just, you know, both two guys starting out and we were both on the first episode of Evening at the Improv with Howie Mandell. And one day I did him for him.  Actually I did him… the doorman, Harris Peete at the Comedy Store says, “Hey Seinfeld, you gotta come here. This guy does you.  Go ahead, do it.”  And I went, (as Seinfeld) “Bob, you’re fattest man in the world.  This guy could lose 2, 3 hundred pounds, wouldn’t even make a dent.” Jerry goes, “That’s good.  Nobody’s ever done me before.”  And that was the extent of our relationship.  That and just, “Hey Jerry.”  “Hey Maurice.”

KP: When you talk about that group, is that part of your regret for not making the move out to New York?

LAMARCHE: Well, I mean, getting in with that group wouldn’t really… it would just mean I know those guys.

KP: Do you think that same kind of solidarity didn’t exist within the LA crowd at the time?

LAMARCHE: It depended.  The solidarity existed amongst the Toronto comics.  Howie Mandell and Lou Dinos and Mark Gluckman and, you know, other people you’ve never heard of, the Toronto connection, we all hung together.  We had that same solidarity.  But you know instead of that, it would have been the New York connection.  But I certainly wouldn’t look at it as a means to an end, you know, “If I become better buddies with Seinfeld, I would have ended up on the show.”  Mark is still Mark.  Mark is still the Little Stupid Dog, and admittedly, by all of the other three, they all tell him, “You’re the funniest one amongst us.” You know? And he is.  Schiff is hilarious.

KP: The definition of the comic’s comic?

LAMARCHE: No, because he’s every man’s comic.  I mean, the common man loves him too.  He just never… you know, and he’s not dead yet.  It could still happen, but he just never hooked in with a hit.  But he’s a terrific comedian. 

KP: Were there ever any thoughts you entertained, especially in Toronto at that period, of going the Second City route?

LAMARCHE: I liked, at the time, the high wire aspect of standup comedy and the fact that if it didn’t go badly, I didn’t get to blame anybody else.  You know?  I couldn’t say, “Well, you know, Peter Aykroyd didn’t pick up his cues, and that’s why it sucked,” or “Catherine was off tonight, you know, and that’s why I…” When you’re up there and it’s just you and that microphone, you know – when it’s great, you know it was you… and when it sucks, you know it was you.  I never held with, “Oh, they were a crappy audience.”  What, did they all stand outside and get depressed?  Skip their Prozac en masse out in the line before coming into the comedy club?  No. It’s all on you.

KP: Is that also, to a certain extent, wanting to keep the adulation to yourself and not have to share it?

LAMARCHE: Oh, absolutely. When it went well, it was my fault.  So I got to pat myself on the back and go, “Hey, that was all you out there tonight, baby.  Listen to that applause.”  You don’t have to share that with anybody. 

KP: What’s it like for you, as a performer, when you’re in a recording studio and working together as an ensemble? Is the energy different when you’re sitting in a room…

LAMARCHE: Oh yes, absolutely.  Cartoon work is all about… I’ve gone from the most egotistical thing you can do to the least ego-feeding thing you can do.  And it’s been very psychologically healthy for me.  And I probably made a lot more money.

KP: Would you say the work is easier, or different?

LAMARCHE: Oh it’s not easier.  Standup comedy is the hardest job there is.  In show business, anyway.  And maybe shit-eater is somewhat more difficult, although I don’t know what company is hiring for that.  Being a standup comedian and being a good one is a tough, tough thing.

KP: Psychologically or financially tough?

LAMARCHE: Well, being good at it’s tough.  Like, achieving goodness at it is a difficult thing…

KP: What is your definition of goodness?

LAMARCHE: Does the audience laugh.

KP: But you said you can be an incredibly funny person and make the audience laugh, but not be financially successful.

LAMARCHE: That means nothing. I  still say Mark Schiff is the funniest comedian I know, and he makes a very good living, but you don’t know his name like you know Jerry Seinfeld’s name.  But he’s still the funniest comedian I know.  He’s hilarious.  I mean absolutely hilarious.  Side splittingly… “Oh my god, I have to stop laughing or I’m gonna vomit” kinda funny.

KP: So your definition of being a success is based on the artistic aspect…

LAMARCHE: Yeah. Heck yeah.  Absolutely. That’s all that counts in comedy.

KP: Would you say that the acts that you saw where that wasn’t the case, where success is the brass ring and the art is hollow, was there a difference in the tenor of their acts and their career? Would you say that there is a difference in the type of performer that you are and what you considered being a success, to the type of performer who might just see it as a financial exercise.

LAMARCHE: And you’re saying is there a difference between financial success and the kind of success I seek?

KP: Correct.

LAMARCHE: I seek both.  I mean, obviously I love financial security. Obviously I’d love if we could move the decimal point over two places to the right.  And get voiceover people paid the way sitcom people are paid. Goodness knows our product is maybe more valuable, because you can recycle it every six years.  You know?  A new audience is spawned all the time, so episodes of Spongebob Squarepants are evergreen. There will always be little kids ready to turn on Spongebob Squarepants, ergo the product becomes more valuable.  However, you know, Three’s Company is dated.  So you can watch it as a curiosity from a particular time, but it’s not timeless.

KP: Even the dreck of the animated lot is still playing well.

LAMARCHE: Yeah.  So, you know, to have people that are integral in churning out that evergreen product that’s gonna make the networks millions upon millions upon millions of dollars and pay them scale, the bare minimum you can legally pay a performer, is somewhat criminal.  That being said, you know, I love the work and I still do it, but I’d love to see us paid $60,000 an episode rather than $600.

KP: What are the blocks towards that, besides just a lack of respect for the craft?

LAMARCHE: Let me continue answering your original difficult to understand question.

KP: My fault entirely.

LAMARCHE: No, that’s okay.  That being said, obviously I’d like to see that, but the true success for me is, will anybody will remember, as you say, Pinky & The Brain in 50 years, the way we’re watching 1950s Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny cartoons -which has as much to do with Chuck Jones as it does with Mel Blanc?  And being as entertained by them today as they were 54 years ago, because I wasn’t around. And will people still watch Pinky & The Brain in 2054, and say, “Gee, this was great,” and laugh out loud, and will they have Pinky & The Brain on Broadway at the Hollywood Bowl with a live orchestra beneath it?  Obviously, I don’t think it’ll be that grand – but I mean, if it’s still around, yeah… whether I make, you know, $100,000 a year or a million or ten million a year is, you know… that won’t matter in 50 years anyway, except to possibly my son and grandson.  But whether or not people are watching the work and still enjoying it, that’s a greater success.  And did I attach myself to, or help bring to fruition, a character that’s got some legs on it?  Yeah.  That’s a mark of success.  Is it good work?  Is it making people laugh?  Are the folks at home laughing?  I wish I could monitor it, but I’m hoping they are.

KP: Well do you think that by attending something like a convention, do you think that’s a way of monitoring just how much of an impact you’ve had?

LAMARCHE: Yeah, to the point that it actually surprises you.  You go, “God, I had no idea that we were this funny.”  You know? And then you start questioning it.  You go, “Is some of that acceptance?  Is some of that because it’s built-in that they love the show and they love the characters, so they’re gonna laugh at anything we do?  Or is it just that the darn thing works?”  Still hard to tell.  I still second guess myself on that.

KP: You second guess yourself even within audio commentaries on the DVDs.

LAMARCHE: Which ones?

KP: Both the Futurama and the Critic set.

LAMARCHE: Yeah.  Well, I kinda made a decision to be a little bit obnoxious about that. I don’t know if you noticed on those commentaries, I’m always going, “Hey, am I in this one?”  Or, “Shhhhh, quiet. I want to hear the show.”  I just decided that my character would be an annoying pain in the butt.  You know, the guy that’s always going away from what everybody else is talking about and making it all about him.

KP: Well, on the Futurama set, it almost seemed like you were slightly uncomfortable being there.

LAMARCHE: Well, I’m always… (sigh).  It’s not that I was uncomfortable, but I was intimidated.  The obvious brightness of our writing staff and of Matt, and I just felt, you know, as though I was a chimpanzee sitting in a room full of MIT professors.  I didn’t feel bright enough to be there.  So if that’s picked up on, that was why.  I just kept saying, “Oh god, I wish I’d say something as bright as David Cohen just said.  Or the insight of…

KP: I wish I had the 14 minute laugh of John Di Maggio…

LAMARCHE: (laughing)

KP: There must have been at least one point that you considered that.

LAMARCHE: (laughing) Talking about an in-the-moment guy! John is so in the moment.  He’s great.

KP: Is there anything that you look at and you think, this is one thing that I still want to accomplish? You said there are some things that don’t concern you, but what does?

LAMARCHE: World domination.  No, I’m kidding. That’s the gag answer.  Now the real answer.  You know, it’s sad.  I would love to do The Tonight Show with Johnny, which is impossible.  That was another dream that had sort of fall by the wayside.

KP: Maybe you can just do a set in front of the curtains, wherever they are…

LAMARCHE: Well, I actually did a couple of impressions in front of that curtain.  I was the announcer on Howie Mandell’s talk show, and he actually had that curtain hanging off to the side, and he used Johnny’s multicolored curtain for guest intros and that sort of thing.  So I actually got in front of the curtain and did a Carson impression, of Johnny, and Howie put the camera on me for 15 seconds while I did that, and that was sort of fun.  Howie did his show out of the same studio Johnny did.  But that… yeah, that would be… in a rub the lamp and have a genie grant me a wish kind of sense, it would be that.  I don’t know.  You know, the first thing that comes to mind is that, and the second thing that’s still possible, doable, would be to maybe one day get on that sitcom. You know?  Like I said, I don’t pursue it, because bit parts don’t really interest me, and playing the neighbor in an episode of, as Rob Paulsen says, Who’s Cooking the Soup – that’s Rob’s great name for every generic sitcom that’s out there – doesn’t interest me.  But you know, if one day I could ever end up in a show where I was the main banana, that would be great.

KP: But it’s not something that you’re going to actively pursue.

LAMARCHE: No, because it’s such a brass ring, that happens to so few people, that I can no longer… it’s like I said, put all my eggs in that basket.  What I’ve got to do is just show up and be the best me I can be.  Be the best cartoon voiceover guy I can be and just trust that if that’s supposed to happen, there’s no way I’ll be able to avoid it. You know, as long as I keep putting my best me forward.

KP: Is it almost a self-fulfilling prophecy by not going out for those roles?

LAMARCHE: Maybe so.  Maybe so.  Like I said, it’s the type of thing that, if it happened, it’d be great. It would also be a friggin’ miracle.  But, you know, if I was to go back to standup comedy, it might happen, and that’s something I still toy with. You know, somebody asked me once, and maybe this is the answer to your question… We were having that standard what-if conversation. “What if you won the lottery?  Would you keep the job?  Would you do what you’re doing?”  And I said, “You know what I’d do? I would leave one day a week open for servicing the contracts of people that can’t do without me.  You know, where I play the character for them, an ongoing thing like Toucan Sam or anything like that.  One day a week for that.  The other four I would take all the millions and millions of dollars, and I would hire the best writers in town.  Pay top dollar, get them all away from whoever they’re working for by doubling their salaries, and write the strongest 45 minutes I could, and go back out and do standup.”

QS: But it’s obviously a dream, to do stand-up again, that you keep coming back to…

LAMARCHE: I don’t have the resources right now, nor the time.  I’m what you call… I’m in the category of what’s known as the barely rich.  You know, I’m just a scooch on the other side of that line that the democrats want to raise the taxes on again and take that obscene amount of money from us.  But I’m just a scooch, you know? ,

KP: So going back to standup is strictly a financial affair for you now.

LAMARCHE: Financial and time.  I make just enough money to support my somewhat, as I said, barely rich lifestyle.  I drive an entry level luxury car but not the top of the line luxury car.  I have a nice three bedroom little tract house in Sherman Oaks with a pool, but I don’t have a 17 room mansion in the Hollywood Hills as some friends of mine who are on sitcoms have.

KP: Or that bastard Billy West.

LAMARCHE: That bastard.  You know, I’m in that level where I need to work five days a week making the very handsome living I make just to support this lifestyle.  So I don’t have the kind of money to lure all these top writers away from the comics they’re already writing for. And I don’t have the time to write a brilliant act for myself because I don’t believe I’m that brilliant.

KP: I think you’re underselling yourself, but okay.

LAMARCHE: But an impressionist especially, I think, needs to be brilliant.  Needs to come from somewhere. Needs his point of view to be a unique place that… you know, because the best comics are the guys that maybe have said things you’ve thought of but they’re saying things in a way you’ve never thought of saying it.

KP: Because otherwise you’re Rich Little.

LAMARCHE: Exactly.  And god bless Rich Little. He’s made a nice little niche for himself, and he’s made a lot of money, but I don’t think he’s made me laugh since the Carter administration.

KP: And you’re being generous.

LAMARCHE: Yeah, it’s more like the Kennedy Administration.

KP: So does that mean we’re not gonna get the one man Mo Show with you doing all your impressions as various characters in a given scenario?

LAMARCHE: Yeah, not anytime soon.  That was pretty much a cheat. For a voice demo tape I just sort of took the Hamlet soliloquy and just every two lines I switched characters.  But it was… at the time I didn’t have any demo… it was my first demo tape. I didn’t have any commercials to put on there or anything.  I just said, “Well, just show the folks how well I do impressions.” So I just kept rapid fire celebrity Shakespeare.

KP: When is that going up on a website?

LAMARCHE: Never.  I’ve got all known copies.  I’ve spent my barely rich fortune retrieving all copies of it.

KP: You’re one of the few voice actors that don’t have a website.

LAMARCHE: Yeah.  Well, I also didn’t get a computer until 1996.

KP: Give it a few years and your son will launch it for you. “MyDadTheBrain.com”

LAMARCHE: Yes, I’m not a genius – I just play on one TV.

KP: So would that be the title of your autobiography?

LAMARCHE: I don’t know.  I don’t know what the title of my autobiography would be, but I know the title of my one man show.

KP: Which is?

LAMARCHE: Don’t You Hate When Someone Murders Your Dad.

KP: And what would be the concept of your show?

LAMARCHE: Don’t know.  I just know that’s the title.  But I know it wouldn’t be a necessarily funny show.  But it would come from everywhere I come from. Including that mean old republican place of truth in sentencing laws and pro death penalty. And lower taxes.

——————————————————

I got a chance to catch up with Maurice a few weeks ago, to “bring things up to date,” as it were…

——————————————————

QS: I was just going through the interview we did, and I guess the big question is, what’s happened since then?

LAMARCHE: Gosh…

KP: I’m assuming that you haven’t yet been offered a part on Who’s Cooking the Soup?

LAMARCHE: No, no parts on Who’s Cooking the Soup.  No, nothing like that.  Nothing’s come up on the on-camera world.  The return of Futurama is the most exciting thing.

KP: Which is huge.  Not entirely unanticipated…

LAMARCHE: Well, it’s one of those things that you just think, “You know, is it really possible?  Could we really rise like a phoenix from the ashes?” And then you think to yourself, “Nah, not us. That happens to other people.  That happens to Seth MacFarlane and that happens to, you know, other folks – but not to me.” And then it happens to me.

KP: And then it happens.  So it must have been a bright shining moment when that happened.

LAMARCHE: It’s nice to know. I mean it still feels that there’s enough that could happen to scotch it in the next two weeks, but no, if all goes according to plan, we’ll be in the recording studio the first week of August.

KP: I mean, it’s surprising that it’s taken this long for the whole “animation resurrection” trend to take off, because the great thing about animated characters is they never age.  As long as the actors are still around, why not go back in, if the demand is there, to do something like this?

LAMARCHE: Mm-hmm. It always seemed as though the show never quite got its due, and it shouldn’t have happened to it.  You know, it was a great show, good viewership.  I think one of the things that’s changed is the way that the industry looks at whether or not a show is successful, with the advent of DVD sales as opposed to Nielsen ratings. They can really track a little more accurately how much enthusiasm there is behind a show – and with that, realize how many butts are gonna be on a couch watching the commercials.

KP: Plus the solidification of online fan bases, and the arrival of the show in syndication and the ability to build an audience that way.

LAMARCHE: Mm-hmm.

KP: It was surprising that it got snatched away from Adult Swim by Comedy Central.

LAMARCHE: Yeah, although I don’t know that Adult Swim could have bid high enough to cover the expense of making new episodes.

KP: Right.

LAMARCHE: I just don’t know if they had it in their budget.  Comedy Central, I think, may actually have deeper pockets.

KP: But I also think that they’re looking to use this as a cornerstone in build their own animation block, which they’ve been trying for years to do.

LAMARCHE: Yeah.

KP: Which is a definitely vote of confidence for the series.

LAMARCHE: Yes.  Yes.  May it last a good long time.

KP: And not just Futurama, you’ve also got the resurgence of Pinky & The Brain thanks to the DVD release.

LAMARCHE: I think that, you know, maybe if it sells as well as we hope, maybe we can see if we can bring that back, too. If you’re gonna go by that, Brisco County, Jr. should come back before us, because apparently their DVD sales are even ahead of ours.

KP: What would be the trigger for Pinky & The Brain‘s return? Is that more a Warner issue, an Amblin issue, or a combination of the two that would have to be propelling that forward?

LAMARCHE: Well, you know, I’m not one of the business cats.  I don’t have a good business head, but it would seem to me that both Amblin and Warner Brothers would have to be up for playing for it to work. We have to see how it does. I mean, presales have been terrific. Somebody has to decide that we can make some money if we bring this back.  Maybe it will mean it comes back in the form of a feature film, although my big fear has always been, if it comes back as a feature film, they would recast our voices with the voices of celebrities.

KP: Surely they wouldn’t do that.  That’s never happened before.

LAMARCHE: No, no, of course not. But it’s certainly a possibility. I don’t want to jinx the thing or put an idea in anybody’s mind.

KP: I’m thinking Kevin Spacey as The Brain.

LAMARCHE: Kevin Spacey would probably like to play The Brain.  Kevin Spacey, from everything I’ve heard, is a big fan of Pinky & The Brain.

KP: I’m sure he’ll start lobbying now.

LAMARCHE: Yeah, I’m sure he’ll start lobbying, and Eric Idle will play Pinky, and  Rob and I will do cameos of sort.

QS: Yes, they can put in the IMDB that the original voices of Pinky & the Brain were featured in a brief background scene as pigeons. 

LAMARCHE: (laughing)

KP: I mean, at this point, who would you say is the character that’s closest to you, that you hold most dear of the ones you’ve played?

LAMARCHE: That I hold most dear is definitely The Brain.  In terms of closest to me, I would say the Garbage Man from Dilbert.

KP: Really?

LAMARCHE: Yeah, I’m most like him.  I really… I’ve got these little pearls of wisdom and a Zen like way of making things work in life that shouldn’t…

KP: So you’re a lemonade from lemons kind of guy.

LAMARCHE: Yeah.  I always liked him.  I don’t know if I’m really truly like him, but I always liked the character.

KP: Is it an ideal that you wish you were?

LAMARCHE: Yeah.  Somebody said he’s the guy that exemplifies inner peace and wisdom, and yet all wrapped up in that package that you just never expected. You just never expect anything to come out of him other than, “Try to put the green stuff in the green can, Mac, and the recycling in the blue one, and the garbage in the black one,” but instead he comes out with these pearls.

KP: And they’re all practical pearls.

LAMARCHE: Yes they are.  And I like him.  I like him.  Uh, I’m probably closer to Yosemite Sam, actually.

KP: In what, the frustration? Or the short temperament?

LAMARCHE: Yeah, especially since I quit smoking.  If I’m close to any character that I’ve voiced, it’d be Yosemite Sam since I quit smoking.  Maybe closer to Yosemite Sam Kinison, actually.

KP: How’s the quitting going? Well, so far?

LAMARCHE: Yeah. The way I see it, I’m either quit or I’m not.  So today, today I’m still quit.  And will endeavor to be so. By the time of this seeing print, I mean to still be a quit guy.  As of this writing, it’s 123 days without having lit up.

KP: Well, that’s quite a stretch.  That’s usually a little bit beyond the drop-off for most easygoers.

LAMARCHE: It’s a third of a year.  Just.  Yesterday marked a third of a year.

KP: So you’re still in the desert of emotional swings at this point.

LAMARCHE: Yeah… I don’t know, though.  I think nicotine addiction is the toughest one of all, because there’s still that sense of euphoria.  Euphoria recall, anyway, where you remember how good lighting up after a meal felt.  The wonderful sense of, “ahhhhhhhh.”

KP: Was it something that you always connected?  Was it that sort of visceral connection, or was it a functionary thing?

LAMARCHE: Well, it’s a little of both. I was just a cigar smoker.  Never smoked cigarettes.  But Welles smoked cigars, and since I was doing a Wellesian character, it sort of gave me a crumb crisp coating on my larynx that allowed me to get that rumbly deep voice that Welles had. But the truth of the matter is actually my voice has got a little more range and gotten a little deeper since I quit, so I guess I’m wrong with that.  But, you know, I had a very visceral connection. Let me put it this way – I did not not have a cigar in my mouth if it was legal for me to do so.  In other words, if I’m in my car, and in my home – Yes. Not in a bank, not in a closed restaurant – although I’d always ask for a patio table. I was as addicted to cigars as some people are to drugs. If I was allowed to smoke, I was smoking.

KP: You mentioned the Welles connection.  Did you come to see it as almost a crutch for finding a character? I mean, some actors will latch on to some iconic thing, like a pair of socks or something like this or that. Did you come to see smoking, in some ways, as a key into that?

LAMARCHE: No, I was just – I was weaned off the nipple at a young age. I had my pacifier taken away from me when I was 2.  I think that’s what it came from.

KP: An attempt to reclaim that.

LAMARCHE: Yes.  An attempt to… it was an oral fixation.  I mean, I did start smoking cigars because of one or two of the characters and the impressions I used to have in my stand-up.  My first impression was Peter Falk as Columbo, so whenever I’d do my stand-up, I’d buy a cigar and have it in my hand, and I’d never light it. Then one night I lit it, and… “Oh, it’s pretty good.”

KP: Did you ever fear that, being a voice actor… that is your primary instrument, your vocal chords and your lungs…

LAMARCHE: Yeah.  I did.  And yet continued to do so, which speaks to it being an addiction. It certainly can’t be terribly smart of me to be sucking on the fumes of smoldering leaves, you know?

KP: What percentage of voice actors today are still smokers?

LAMARCHE: Well, I don’t know.  Not too many, although… (sigh), you know, I wouldn’t like to name names, but I know of at least one very, very prominent voice actor who insists on smoking cigarettes because he thinks it helps his voice.

KP: But it definitely is not a prevalent trend… Compared to the past, when you look at the 30s, 40s…

LAMARCHE: Oh, I would say, in terms of percentages, maybe five percent.

KP: But it was almost…

LAMARCHE: There are no regular smokers in the group I’m with.  In the lobby of the agency I’m with, almost nobody smokes.

KP: But again, congratulations on a third of a year out.

LAMARCHE: Thank you, thank you. And my fellow voice actors who tended to get trapped in small rooms with me also are quite happy.

KP: I’m sure your fellow Futurama actors are gonna be thrilled.

LAMARCHE: Yes, yes… We’re all stoked for very many reasons.  It’s been so great to work with those people. Not only my fellow actors, but the writers. To work with Matt (Groening) and Dave Cohen. I’m not sure who else is back on the project but, we got quite a few of our original guys… Eric Kaplan, Patrick Verrone…

KP: Well, it’s great that it’s one of those shows that engenders a loyalty and affection, so that people would come back because of the experience they had originally. I mean, there’s certainly some shows where people go, “I’m never going back to that thing.”

LAMARCHE: Right.

KP: And Futurama definitely was not one of those.

LAMARCHE: No.  No, it was definitely a situation where we all had fun together.  We knew we were putting out a great product for the folks at home. And if you wanted to go deeper and, you know, solve the mystery of the runes and the language, and go frame by frame and catch all the inside jokes – the background, foreground, midground…

KP: Learn some rudimentary physics.

LAMARCHE: Well, you have to learn some rudimentary physics just to watch the show. Just to get beyond the “Shiny Metal Ass” jokes. It was a rich show for all of us.

KP: So what other projects are you currently working on in addition to that?

LAMARCHE: Well, the Nick film Barnyard, which has yet to be released. The series already has the go ahead on Nickelodeon, so I hope I’ll be in it. My character is a big jersey cow. There are three jersey cows there which sort of get the main character to walk on the wild side a little bit, and quit being such a straight laced guy. The other two are played by John Di Maggio and Scott Bullock, and we actually talked like we’re from Jersey. I’m also currently working on DVD special features for Pinky & The Brain and Animaniacs. It’s a little bit exciting.  I’m hosting the Animaniacs DVDs, both volumes one and two.

KP: Which was a very nice feature by the way.

LAMARCHE: I hope. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hope I did an okay job.

KP: Is there any one that you didn’t get a chance to speak to that you wish you could on a future volume?

LAMARCHE: On a future volume, we’d hoped to get more of the writers involved, so in  future volumes you’ll actually see mini writer’s roundtables, where I’ll be interviewing groups of four of the writers of Animaniacs.  There are 12 writers in all that get interviewed but we broke it down to four, four, and four.  So that’s something you’ll see in future volumes.

KP: It’s a shame that Steven couldn’t do an on-camera for it.

LAMARCHE: Yeah, you know, that’s something that at this point in time hasn’t happened yet.  We haven’t wrapped up on volume three of Animaniacs, we’re still keeping our fingers crossed, but we’re not holding our breath.  It’s okay to get cramped fingers, but we wouldn’t want to asphyxiate.

KP: Well, you can always get a Steven stand-in.

LAMARCHE: Yeah, there’s always that, as well.  He’s a very busy guy. It’s understandable. It would be lovely if it could happen. As I said, we ain’t done yet.

 

 

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Comments: 4 Comments

4 Responses to “Interview: Maurice LaMarche” Denny Says: March 21st, 2008 at 2:48 pm I don’t think Marice did that great of a Puzzle anyway. Dan H did a much better one in the first season. Paul Says: January 4th, 2010 at 3:28 am Thank you for entertaining me over 3 very late evenings (took me that long to enjoy this interview, once I found it was more than one web-page). Long-time fan of Maurice ever since that HBO Dangerfield Special he was on with Sam K and Jerry Seinfeld and Bob Nelson, et al. I can’t wait to see him on the Animaniacs Vol. 2 dvd. I really liked your persistent interviewing style – the way you continually riffed back on what he was saying, asking definitions, making jokes about the Superman references: love the site – keep it up! joanne Says: September 4th, 2010 at 6:17 am I very much enjoyed this 6 Reasons Why it Would Suck to be a Voice Actor – AiPT! Says: September 27th, 2018 at 8:56 am […] how Peter Venkman and Janine Melnitz sounded. So Lorenzo Music and Laura Summer were let go and replaced by Dave Coulier and Kath Soucie. They didn’t sound anything like the previous voices and they weren’t supposed to; they were […] Leave a Reply Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Δ