INTERVIEW: John DiMaggio

Bender from FUTURAMA sits down to have a chat with OWF!

Michael Edwards talks to John DiMaggio... With the forthcoming release of Futurama: Bender's Big Score, we've been lucky enough to have the voice of Bender himself, John DiMaggio, pop over for a chat about the show, voiceovers, cartoon hotties, and Al Gore. I should warn you however, this interview contains transcriptions of many many strange noises - be prepared for some gibberish... So, what did you do for the four-year break?
Well, um, there was a lot of touching myself which i'm not very proud of. It was very very difficult, a lot of chafing. A LOT of chafing. It sucked... Nah, but I also did a lot of other cartoons really. Futurama opened the door for me a big way as far as voiceover animation was concerned, it was really big. I did a lot of stuff for Disney and I'm doing stuff for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. A lot of kids shows, which is really fun... Yeah a lot of other cartoons, some video games... I lost a bunch of weight, ummm and uh, did some on camera stuff here and there.
How does working on video game voiceovers compare to work on cartoons?
Actually video game voiceovers can be really tedious. Because of the amount of dialogue and the amount of efforts you have to make. They have to cover every sound of every line at three different volumes - "you have to say a line like this, Then You Have To Say a Line Like This, THEN YOU HAVE TO SAY A LINE LIKE THIS!" It's brutal on your voice, and plus you have a stack of papers to read during these things and after a while if you're in a studio for three hours talking into a microphone the words just become woooorrrds and it's just mush. You say something over and over again and it just becomes 'BLAH-BLA-BLA-BLA-BLAH-BLAH" it goes to shit and you're trying to figure it out. So it's difficult. It's a lot more tedious to do a video game, but rewarding just the same. And I get to play games and be talking to myself so...
So you're now moving on to try and equal Frank Welker's work record...?
Oooh, Frank Welker. You know he is unbelievable. He is the original Freddie from Scooby-Doo, alright? Frank's been around forever - nicest guy in the world. He can do like an entire flock of birds and one bird will have a cough in it, and he'll do the whole thing. He did a movie once with Elvis in the '60's and he used to do this dog bark thing and Elvis was like "Hey Frank, do the dog bark - everyone, check this out - Frank, do the bark" He has been around forever. He's a pilot too! He's amazing. I got to do an episode of Scooby-Doo with him once, fucking awesome. I'm telling you, it's awesome.
When you got the call about this, were you surprised that they could get the whole Futurama team together again?
You know it's funny, I had a feeling that we'd be able to do something again, I really did. I knew there was gonna be life back into it, and now with straight to DVD movies it's got an infinite life span i mean as long as everyone's still alive and there's stories being written it's totally cool!

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Was there anything in BENDER'S BIG SCORE that you weren't expecting? A real twist that made you go 'ahhh'?
You know it's so far out there, the plots for these four movies. I mean this one: Alien nudist internet scammers. You put that one out and you know, what kind of crazy plot twist are you supposed to not anticipate? They just say anything and you're like "all right, i'm cool with it, whatever... as long as I get a washcloth after I record this because it's eeeeeeeeeooooo it's gross" Yeah but, I mean I trust those writers man, I trust those writers. Trust them with the funny cos they'll do it, they always do. People ask if we ad-lib or anything like that but we don't, there's things within the character that we'll know like the 'startled noise' or Bender singing like "DOO-DOO-DOO-DA-DI-DOH-DOO-DA-DOO!" you know that's me, that's one of the things I get to contribute. You can always try something and say 'on this take i'm going to do exactly what you told me to but then, can I get a try' and they'll be like 'yeah, sure, give it a try' and sometimes it'll work, sometimes not. It's all about being able to let it ride, and with this bunch of people you really can.
Do you know how Al Gore reacted when he saw the gag where Bender destroys his ballot box at the Florida elections?
He must've just laughed pretty hard cos I mean it's silly. He' a friend of the show because his daughter Kristen is a writer and when they approached Kristen about maybe having her father appear on the show, which of course was when he was still vice-president, they recorded him at the vice=president's house... I guess it's the off-white house or something like that, or the mauve house, I don't know what they call it... I think it's in Indiannapolis or something like that but uhh... they recorded him at his residence and then he came back in and recorded for us a couple more times and I got to meet him and I must've been like "Hi, Mr Vice-President, I'm John DiMaggio and I play the voice of Bender, I'd just like to say it's a pleasure to meet you on the show" and he goes, "I know you, I know you." Shakes my hand, goes into the studio and I was like . Anyway, it might as well have been a Beatle I was just like "OH MY GOD HE TOUCHED MY HAND" but he was just really cool. And then we did the Inconvenient Truth advert for the internet which was cool - getting my ass kicked by Al Gore was pretty fun... yeah that was pretty pimp. It's just such a fun show I could talk about it all day...
Well, then let's continue! I read somewhere you had an alternative voice for Bender that was actually going to be the Professor's, what's with that?
This is what it was: I auditioned for both the Professor and Bender and they had me audition for the Professor as Bender, so if you can imagine "Good news everyone! We're going to Obus 9 today!" It wouldn't have worked. I did have another voice for Bender though, but that voice actually became Earl, the robot cop.
And what deep recesses of your mind did Bender's voice draw on?
Now this is a classic, it's been told before and I'll tell it again. It's 3 things: 1, The drunk at the end of every bar , then it's Slim Pickins from Blazing Saddles or Doctor Strangelove Thank you Mel Brooks, thank you Mel. And the third was this guy I went to college with his name was Ralph Columbino and we used to do a character which we used to riff on called Charlie the Sausage lover. It was just a guy who liked sausages in a really obsessive way So you put all 3 of those voices together in a blender and you have Bender. Very silly, very ridiculous and yeah, you need lots of booze coming up with that one!
Do you have a favourite episode of Futurama?
Yeah, the most depressing one. The episode where they're trying to get Fry's dog back - yeah see! You just went "awwww" . And the last shot is just him resting his head on his paws, it's just brutal. That one, and Luck of the Fryish is also great. But I love them all. I'm so biased, I love this gig, I love them all...
Apart from Bender who's your favourite character?
Zoidberg. Definitely has to be Zoidberg. I mean he's just so funny. "Look at this! I found a delicious raccoon in my shell!" I mean just so "Woob-woob-woob-woo-woo!" . Billy's so funny when he does it, and plus we get to do duelling Zoidberg's! I love Zoidberg. And the Professor's always funny too. It's ridiculous, it's just too much fun.
But can you sit down with your friends and watch episodes of Futurama or is it too weird?
Actually, I have to stress that they always start talking. I'm like "dude! Can we watch... I don't wanna pause this yet... did you go to bathroom? Go to the bathroom then!" for crying out loud. Yeah, my friends are bad. As soon as I turn it on they're like "So did I tell you about..." and "SHUT UP! I just turned the thing on..." My friends are awful, they're really awful people. "My-friends-are-awful". But I shut them up for other people's parts too, it's not just "listen to Bender's bit" i'm always like "Shut up, you'll miss the Morbo bit. You missed the Morbo bit? You missed the Morbo bit!!" God.
Finally, we have to ask this, who's hotter, Leela or Amy?
Amy is such a slut. I think I'd say Amy. She's such a slut. Amy, definitely Amy. Leela's hot as shit but Amy, yeah, gotta be Amy. "You wanna put it there? Ok.", "Whaat? Huh? OK!"... I hope you got all that. "You wanna put it where?" Eeeend scene.
I hope you all found that as entertaining as I did! For more DiMaggio-fuelled mayhem check out the new Futurama DVD which is out in the UK on 7th April 2008 and read my review of the set HERE.
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Michael J Edwards hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.