David Herman, one of the utility voices: Roberto, Prof. Wernstrom and the mayor of New New York
After the table reading, I went out to get the autographs of the cast. Since Futurama‘s characters have all appeared on The Simpsons (“Simpsonarama”), I asked them to sign these shoes to join the great company I already have on them (namely, TV legend James L Brooks). The first two I scored while they were leaving the Paramount, David Herman and Phil Lamar. They were good sports about it. David is also an Austin Stars fan as we briefly talked about the Stars v. Marlies game from the evening before.
Phil Lamar, the voice of Hermes Conrad, Preacherbot and the head of Thomas Jefferson
Getting to the others was trickier, we had to camp out at the Stephen F Austin Hotel’s bar while Billy West and Maurice LaMarche were guests on some podcast that was being recorded. The wait was worth it. I would’ve loved to get a picture but I chose only to press for an autograph since they had to be somewhere else. I do hope to get my picture in the near future.
Maurice LaMarche, another utility voice: Lrrr, Morbo the News Monster and Orson Welles
I thanked Maurice for his brief lesson via a Simpson‘s commentary on why he was present to imitate Jon Lovitz despite Jon being around. I also told him my wife has a DVD of Rock n’ Rule which is the earliest demonstration of his work; he was a mouse who snitches on the heroes. Maurice said he was supposed to do more but he was bumped out by Howie Mandel. He’s come a long way.
Billy West, the voice of Fry, Professor Farnsworth and Dr. Zoidberg
Billy was an absolute treat! My primary question was when his podcast would return, it stopped on a cliffhanger of him trying to not get murdered by Eastern European mobsters. He said it takes some time and money. I recommended Patreon and I’d chip in a few bucks every month because he weaves a great story. Plus, relay my compliment to Charlie Adler, he does old ladies well. If you get the chance, listen to all 10 episodes. Billy has great guests playing various characters he encounters as himself and the characters he plays.
Hank Azaria! Besides Moe, Superintendent Chalmers and Apu on The Simpsons, he was Uncle Harold Zoid on Futurama
Above is the surprise. Hank Azaria! He wasn’t at the table read, I caught him walking down Congress Avenue while waiting to go to the Futurama event. I hope I didn’t interrupt his life too much but I had to go for it. Getting an autograph from any of the six principle voices of The Simpsons is tough, Harry Shearer required help from Michael McKean in 2009. I figured Hank was in town to promote his IFC show Brockmire.
The list of great voices and writers on these Chucks has almost doubled! I hope it will continue. What will the fate of these shoes be? If I don’t have a relative who will cherish and preserve them, I want to be cremated with them.