If you watched any animated show at all in the 90s and late 80s, chances are you’re familiar with at least one of the characters that has been voiced by Maurice LaMarche. The Toronto-born voice actor has dozens of credits to his name from shows such as “The Real Ghostbusters,” “Animaniacs,” “Inspector Gadget” and “Futurama,” to name just a few.
But LaMarche is perhaps best known for his role as “The Brain,” an evil mouse genius bent on taking over the world with the help of his hapless sidekick, Pinky on “Pinky and The Brain.”
LaMarche took some time to chat with CP24 ahead of his appearance at this weekend’s Fan Expo Canada, his first time at the event.
NOTE: Responses have been edited for space
CP24: I asked who was coming to Fan Expo this year and they told me ‘The Brain!’
ML:I’ve decided that we must take over Canada and then from there take over the world. Do you know how The Brain takes over Canada?
CP24: I’m curious now
ML:He goes to Justin Trudeau and says ‘May I please take over Canada?’
CP24: That seems relatively easy. Do you still hang out with Pinky?
ML:Of course. We get together in L.A. every now and again. We talk on the phone probably every week and we text with each other almost every day. We text each other in a cockney accent.
CP24: That’s impressive. You grew up in Toronto?
ML:I was born here and my parents immediately moved up to Timmins, Ont. because my dad had a job opportunity at a small television station up there. In his younger day he was a radio and TV announcer. Then we moved to Ottawa where my dad was an announcer on the same newscast as Peter Jennings and Alex Trebek and then we moved to Toronto.
CP24: How did you get your start as a voice actor?
ML:Well I think you have to have a certain narcissistic drive that says ‘pay attention to me.’ Even the humblest performer – and I find voice actors the humblest of the crop of people who invade your TV set every night, even we all started out being something else. I was a standup comedian. I started at Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club in Toronto. I actually was on the slate of comedians that opened the club in 1978, the very first night. It was at the corner of Bay and York Street, where there’s now a huge, multimillion dollar condo.
And then a few weeks later along came this kid called Jim Carrey. I was 19 and he was 15. I remember his first night very well. When he tells the story and he was leaving the club and feeling a little dejected because his first set didn’t go very well, he will say ‘they came out and told me come on back, don’t give up after one try.’ And ‘they’ was me.
CP24: Wow
ML:Does Jim Carrey owe me his career? Certainly not. Jim has drive and talent beyond the stars. But I kind of feel like it’s nice to be part of his story. We’ve remained friends over the years. He came to California and hung out at my house the first four days and then came back and got his own place. We’ve always remained friends.
CP24: It’s nice to know that our Canadian-grown talent still hang out together.
ML:Howie Mandell did the same for me. Howie moved down the year before and said ‘Mo, you gotta come down here. This is the land of opportunity.’ He put me up at his place when I first went down. All the Canucks, we all hang out down here.
CP24: So what neighbourhood did you grow up in?
ML:I grew up in North York. I grew up just a stone’s throw from North York General Hospital, which was a handy thing because my mother had a terrible heart condition. So it was always good to be able to just rush her down and they saved her life a couple of times.
CP24: We seem to have this culture of producing comedic talents. Do you think there’s anything particular to Canadian culture that lends itself to comedy?
ML:There’s a certain reserved dryness to Canadian comedy that seems to be selling well. Every region of the world has its own humour.
The generation of the Yuk Yuk’s comedians – we really owe it all to (Yuk Yuk's cofounder) Mark Breslin because he’s the guy to give standup comedy a voice in Canada. You can’t get in shape if you can’t go to a gym or a dojo or whatever and Mark provided the first set of weights for us and we got to exercise our comedy muscles on those weights at Yuk Yuk’s.
CP24: How long have you lived in L.A.?
ML:Since June 1, 1980 – that’s when I took possession of my first apartment down here.
It’s been a while and yet every Canadian I know down here will tell you they never stopped being Canadian. I’ve been here much more than half my life and I still feel Canadian. They still catch me saying things in a Canadian accent when I record commercials. You can take the boy out of Canada, but you can’t take Canada out of the boy.
I still celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving every year.
CP24: Did you ever set out to become a voice actor?
ML:I was always told it was a closed door. I had done two cartoons in Canada for Nelvana Films – their second and third releases when I was 19 years old. I had fallen in love with the magical feeling that you can only get if you’re the actor, watching your performance on animated show -- hearing your voice come out of these drawings’ mouths is the closest thing to magic that there is.
CP24: Do you remember those films?
ML:Yes. One was called “Easter Fever” and I got to work with John Candy and Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin – they used all the SCTV people and they were just starting to ramp up and get some popularity and the second was called ‘Take Me Up to the Ball Game.’
And then nothing until 1985 because I was told down here that animation was already locked up by a certain group of 20 people who do every show.
But I was at The Comedy Store. An agent saw me do all my impressions and said ‘you can do voiceovers, I’m a voiceover agent and I can send you out.’
I auditioned for a year before I got a job – I lucked out and got “Inspector Gadget.” I played the chief on “Inspector Gadget” for the second season and then went right into “The Real Ghostbusters” with the same company and played Egon for 106 episodes.
CP24: When you come up with the voice for a character, what’s the process you go through? Does it just come to you or do you consciously just craft it?
ML:It’s a little bit of both. With The Brain, I looked at The Brain and immediately began channeling Orson Welles, because to me he just looked like Orson Welles. Even though it seemed a strange choice for a two-inch-tall lab mouse, it just felt right. Brain has the ego, Welles had the ego. Brain wanted to take over the world, Welles wanted to take over the film world.
Other times it’s just been impressions. When I was doing Ghostbusters, they said ‘don’t do the people from the movie.’ But I had no other ideas! So when they said ‘rolling take one,’ (Harold) Ramis’ voice just came out of me. And for some reason, the two producers who were there said, ‘alright, yeah. The new rule is no one else can do the guys from the movie; He can do Ramis.’
Sometimes it’s a mystical experience; sometimes little tricks.
CP24: Have you been to Fan Expo before?
ML:This is my very first time at Fan Expo Canada. I’ve never been before and I’ve always wanted to come. It’s a real thrill for me to get to come home. I’m hoping there’ll be a good reaction to my being there as a hometown boy who did sort of good. I’m very proud of ‘Pinky and the Brain,’ very proud of my work on ‘Futurama’ and ‘The Critic’ and ‘Rick and Morty,’ a new show I pop up on frequently.
CP24: Any chance that we’ll ever see The Brain again?
ML:Well soon we will hear him because Rob (Paulsen) and I love to schtick as Pinky and The Brain whenever we do our panels. So come on out to Fan Expo and you might hear Pinky and The Brain reading “Ghostbusters.”
CP24: Any favourite spots you like to check out when in Toronto?
ML:My brother’s farm. Whenever I’m here I’ve got to go up to my brother’s farm and spend down time with all his kids and all of them. I’m not much of a nightlife person. I would say the only place I hit absolutely every time I’m there is Barberian’s Steakhouse. Barberian’s is my favourite steak in North America and I make sure I go there every time I’m home.
Maurice LaMarche will appear on a panel at Fan Expo Canada at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Saturday, September 3 at 11 a.m.
