On this week’s episode of the Awful Announcing podcast, host Ben Heisler is joined by Brockmire star Hank Azaria to talk the show’s beginnings, where his voice impressions come from, his work on The Simpsons, what to expect from Season 3 of Brockmire (premiering Wednesday on IFC, with some quality sports media content this season) and much more.
Here’s the rundown of what Heisler and Azaria discussed.
- 5:00 – Does he have any optimism for this upcoming Mets season?
- 8:50 – Was Brockmire created as an homage to the older, more personality driven baseball broadcaster?
- 10:50 – On his show connecting with younger audiences and millennials despite baseball’s issues relating to younger fans
- 12:10 – On Jim Brockmire starting off Season 3 sober
- 13:50 – On adding Bob Costas, JK Simmons, Tawny Newsome, Richard Kind amongst others to the mix
- 14:30 – On Costas and Joe Buck and Brent Musburger really showing a ton of personality on the show
- 16:40 – How much of the show is improvisation vs entirely by script?
- 18:05 – The complete and total trust he has for Joel Church Cooper (head writer/creator)
- 19:10 – How long does it take for him to work on a voice to have total control of that voice
- 20:45 – The impact of 31 years of the Simpsons
- 21:50 – The origin of Moe from The Simpsons and the connection he has to Al Pacino
- 22:43 – Has he lever lost a character voice and if so, how would he try to regain it
- 23:55 – Where the voices come from; are they based off friends, celebrities etc.
- 25:05 – Has anyone done voices you do in front of you?
- 26:10 – How he views voice impressions compared to impression comedians
- 28:00 – Story of how he would call Hollywood restaurants to get tables as Mickey Rourke and Sly Stallone
- 30:40 – Any other voices we aren’t aware of?
- 32:20 – His work and volunteering with helping Miami Jewish Health Systems
Thanks for listening, and if you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave us a positive review.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.