Ask Futurama Star Billy West About...?

In case you haven't heard, Futurama is coming back — in like 2008, so don't go channel-flipping in hope quite yet. This is the first interview Billy West (who voices Fry, Prof. Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, Zoidberg, and other Futurama characters) has done since the announcement. Realize, too, that Billy has also been the voices of Ren and Stimpy and hundreds of other animated characters over the years, and old-school Howard Stern fans will remember that part of his career, too. Ask Billy about anything you like; we'll send him 10 top-moderated questions (and maybe he'll answer a few extra ones of his choice, too). We expect to post his answers Wednesday, the day after Freedom Day's 21st Century predecessor, the 4th of July (which, sadly, is not known for nude hot tub parties). Meanwhile, to tide you over, here's a little MP3 voice montage Billy did in his home studio just for Slashdot.

PLEASE read his FAQ first

[at-b]

Good news, everyone!

If you read Billy West's FAQ before asking a question, you won't repeat things that he's been asked before, and make us all look like a bunch of uneducated monkeys without cooling hats!

And that wouldn't be good news at all!

http://www.billywest.com/index4.htm [billywest.com] is where you find his FAQ. I've already seen a post moderated to 5 that asked questions answered there.

Re:Getting in the Biz

[Hogwash McFly]

From Billy West's FAQ:

What advice do you have for someone trying to get into voice acting?
"Have a recording studio do a professional demo tape of straight reads and character voices. They usually have all the stuff for you work with on your demo. Always consider critiques of your performances. You take the demo and try to get an interview with a commercial talent agency for them to listen to. Try everywhere. I started in radio and got a job doing VO's in 1980 after the star of the morning show heard it. I worked for free at first and then it turned into a paying part-time job. Try stations to see if any of the shows need a good voice person. Radio shows are most likely to use a person that can do political figures or celebrities. They mostly rely on their on-air talent to read the straight stuff or let the production director do it. It's a good idea to think about re-locating to where the industry is, namely New York or LA, even though it's frightening.

When I left my hometown there were a few guys that called me after they heard me in a cartoon or saw me on TV or in a commercial doing voices. "Wow man, what's it like to have a job like that? Must be nothin' but tits and ice cream!" All I said was "Hey, I took the risks you guys never did. You got married too early and had kids and got steady jobs and took the safe path of least resistance. I had the balls to get in in a business of 90unemployment and bet on myself. I did real well but there were no guarantees of even a small success. I was a gunslinger that wouldn't listen to advice and got lucky. But so could you."

Re:Ren and Stimpy

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

When the studio fired the show's creator, sure. That was when it sucked. Hardly his finest hour.

You obviously didn't see the infamous Son Of Stimpy episode which played some role in the decision to fire the creator. I've never in my life seen a sorrier piece of animation than that episode. The episode was created only to stick it to Nickelodeon. Anyone who thinks this episode has any merit at all is quite blunty an idiot. Had I been an executive at Nickelodeon at the time and seen this episode, I not only would have fired creator John Kricfalusi for it, I would have tried to sue him to recover the costs of making it.

For those unfamilair with Ren And Stimpy you can consider this episode to be the forerunner of Mr. Handy on South Park , but made as devoid of humor and entertainment as possible.

Amy

[Phoz]

If you listen to the DVD commentaries for Futurama, Billy mentions several times how he has a crush on Amy :)
(and Natasja from Rocky & Bullwinkle for some reason)

Save Me From Myself

[Anonymous Coward]

Hate to respond to my own post but I'd like a few of my questions omitted after reading The Billy West FAQ [billywest.com] (as mentioned in a later post in this thread [slashdot.org]).

I would like to omit the fourth question or at least the first half of it as he answers on his FAQ:

Of all the characters you've played, which one is your favorite?
Fry on Futurama and Stimpson J. Cat.

And he kind of answers my sixth question:

Did you always want to be a voice actor, or is it something you just fell into?
As a child I was always able to do little voices and unearthly noises with no encouragement. I was an imp that blurted out anything, anywhere. I guess I was pre-disposed for it.

What I would also like to ask him, though, is why his homepage is a bloated Shockwave interactive Flash presentation? I know it's artsy but it's expensive both in money and memory.

-eldavojohn

Yes, according to a recent interview.

[Thad Boyd]

Via TV Squad [tvsquad.com]:

JK: Did Zapp Brannigan change much? Because I saw the first episode he was in and it sounded pretty much like how he sounded later.

BW: Did he change? Um, I don't know, I try to keep it pretty consistent. Phil Hartman was supposed to do that character, and I was imitating Phil Hartman. I knew Phil Hartman; when I came to work with him on some commercials and stuff out here in Hollywood, we both had this real fascination and love for these big, old-time dumb announcers. You know, the guys who have their balls in a wheelbarrow and think that every word is so precious that it's hard to give birth to it, like everything comes out in four syllables instead of one. Guys who think far and away that of everything else in this universe, he loves his voice. So that's what was going on with him. He's modeled after a couple of big dumb announcers I knew.

Fry was named after Phil. Phillip Fry.

Somebody go correct the Wikipedia entry.

Re:Well...

[Thabenksta]

He's done them both. (fry and zap)

Re:Copyright permission?

[toastyman]

Just so this doesn't become a whole sub-topic of its own... I'm the guy who suggested to Billy that he do an interview on Slashdot, and hooked him up with Roblimo.

Billy and I had some doubts if you guys would believe it was really him answering the questions or not. So, I got him to call me, record his voice through some Asterisk fun over our T1 PRI, and quickly edited what he did into something that didn't have as many noticeable dropouts or crackles since he had to call me on a cell phone due to the very short notice. (This is why the audio quality is so bad.) I whipped it up, added a few second of the theme, and gave it to Roblimo. So, don't blame Billy for the use of the theme song.

However, I believe this would fall under fair use. And even if it didn't, I think it's unlikely that the company that owns the rights to the theme (which I really doubt is an RIAA member) would go after someone for using a few seconds of a song in connection of directly promoting the show when one of the cast members is directly involved.

Good question, but nothing to do with Billy I'm afraid. :)

Re:Your projects

[ClamIAm]

http://www.billywest.com/index4.htm [billywest.com]

Shameless Billy West plug

[Gudlyf]

<shameless plug>
We did the last interview [tvsquad.com] before the announcement over on TV Squad. :) He was very cool enough to do an intro for one of our podcasts [tvsquad.com], too, complete with most of his voices. You know, to hold you over and stuff.
</shameless plug>