Voice Actor Jim Cummings Fills Room At The Fan Expo Canada

On Friday at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto, voice actor Jim Cummings shared stories of his extensive career. Despite being scheduled opposite the director of Ralph Wrecks the Internet, he still managed to pack a room of multiple hundred people.

When a Captain Hook cosplayer recounted Don Karnage’s battle with Hook, Cummings asked “are you making this up?” He wasn’t, it was a reference to an appearance the oft forgotten Raw Toonage. After an impersonation of Karnage, Cummings suggested that the air pirate was “the first Monty Python character in a Disney cartoon. He had no business being there whatsoever.”

(Whoever Hook is, he has an delightfully absurd ability to stay in character. Year-in-and-year-out, he portrays the villain with panache, asking questions in other panels including a previous year’s panel with Bill Farmer.)

One of the stories Cummings told was of a cartoon where he voiced a haunted dry cleaning press. The plot described seemed to be a reference to Stephen King’s The Mangler, adapted into a series of live action films, but apparently was written by another author, left unnamed. Cummings said he was happy to see his name misspelled as “Tim Cummings” when the program aired.

Note to animation directors, he seems game to voice almost anything. Ask what sorts of characters he’d like to try playing in the future, his answer was a come-what-may “I dunno.”

Voice actor Grey Delisle was also at the event. She’s expanding into stand up comedy now, producing not only her own special, but programs for a variety of new talent.