Bill Farmer is looking to get Goofy at this weekend’s Dayton Disneyana event

Jim Hill

13 years ago

Gawrsh, has it really been 25 years since Bill Farmer first
began speaking for Goofy?

"Yeah, I better be careful here," Bill joked when we spoke
on the phone yesterday. "Otherwise this might turn into a career."

Goofy and Bill Farmer. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved

This Disney Legend was kind enough to carve out some time to
chat last night. Which – given that Farmer was in right in the middle of
packing for Dayton Disneyana 2011 (i.e. that Show & Sale event which the
"Plane Crazy" Chapter of the Disneyana Fan Club will be presenting this
Saturday & Sunday at the Holiday Inn — Dayton Mall) – was awfully decent
of the guy.

Anyway … Getting back to Bill's big break: Believe it or
not, it was back in 1986 that this then-fledgling voice actor first auditioned
for this role. Bill had only been on the ground in Hollywood for 4 months when
his agent asked Farmer if he did any Disney character voices.

"I told him that I did an okay Mickey, that my Donald Duck
was pretty bad but Goofy … I thought that I did a pretty decent Goofy," Bill
recalled. "So my agent got me this cassette of Pinto Colvig doing the
character's voice. And all weekend long, I listened to that tape while I
practiced Goofy's voice. And then – on Monday – I went into my agent's office
and laid down a track of me playing that character."

Then a few weeks went by and … Well, Farmer thought that was
the end of it. Just another audition that went nowhere. But then Disney called
Bill's agent and said that they really liked his Goofy audition tape. Which is
why they then asked him to come in and voice this classic Disney character for
an upcoming TV special, Disney's DTV Doggone Valentine.

"So in January of 1987, I went in and did my first recording
session as Goofy," Farmer continued. "Like every struggling voice actor out
there, I was hoping that – if I did a really good job at my first recording
session – that they might then invite me back. Maybe ask me to voice this
character one or two more times."

Well, the folks at the Mouse House must have really liked
Bill's vocal performance as that man / dog / whatever it is that Goofy is … For
nearly a quarter of a century (and some 2000 Disney-related jobs) later, Farmer
is the Company's go-to guy whenever it comes to voicing this classically klutzy
character.

Bill voiced both Bugs & Daffy in "8 Carrot," a particularly
memorable sketch from "Robot Chicken" 's second
season. Copyright Turner Broadcasting System,
Inc. A Time Warner Company. All rights reserved

Mind you, it's not just Goofy that Bill voices for the
Studio. If you look over Farmer's vocal resume, you'll see that he does the
voices for all sorts of Disney stars these days. Pluto, Horace Horsecollar,
Practical Pig and Sleepy from the Seven Dwarfs. Not to mention Warner Bros.
favorites like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester the Cat and
Yosemite Sam.

"That's an interesting bit of trivia," Farmer pointed out.
"That – while I'm best known for voicing Goofy – I've actually voiced more
Warner Bros. characters over the past 25 years than I have Disney characters."

So what's the secret of Bill's success? Farmer is quick to
credit the voice acting classes that he took early on with industry legend Daws
Butler.

Daws Butler at an early Hanna-Barbera recording session.
Copyright Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A
Time Warner Company. All rights reserved

"Daws was the one who taught me that – when you're doing a
voice for a cartoon character – it's not just about having a funny or
memorable-sounding voice for that character. You've also got to remember that
you're an actor who's playing a role while you're reading those lines," Farmer
stated. "Which is why you should always try and give each character a little
inner life, some soul or humanity when you voice them."

Bill also credits Daws with teaching him to tailor his vocal
performance for the particular venue that this character will be working in.

"Take – for instance – if I'm voicing Goofy for an ice show.
Given how bad the acoustics can be in some of those arenas, I always make a
point of carefully enunciating Goofy's dialogue whenever I record stuff for ice
shows," Farmer explained. "Which is different from how I do Goofy for 'Mickey
Mouse Clubhouse.' Given that the audience for that Disney Junior program is
primarily 5-year-olds, I always speak slowly and deliberately whenever I record
my lines for that TV show."

So what's the biggest acting challenge that Bill has faced
while voicing this beloved Disney character? Well, it wasn't voicing the Goof
for his 1995 feature film, "A Goofy Movie." Nor was it portraying Goofy for his
1992 Disney Afternoon series, "Goof Troop." Nor was it voicing Goofy and all of
his relations for Disneyland's "The World According to Goofy" parade (which
rolled through that theme park back during the Summer of 1992). No, what really
challenged Farmer was voicing Goofy for last year's "Epic Mickey" video game.

"You see, the challenge there was that Goofy didn't actually
speak over the course of 'Epic Mickey.' He'd just chuckle or react in a
non-verbal way to whatever was going on in that game," Bill said. "Now those
were some really weird recording sessions. I had no dialogue pages to work off
of. The director would just show me a scene on the computer and say 'Now Goofy
needs to make an affirmative noise here.' "

Which should have been really easy for Farmer. Given that
Bill is such an affirmative guy.

"How affirmative?," you ask. Well, when he and I were
speaking last night, it was just days after Farmer had gotten back from Las
Vegas. Where – for the first time ever – Bill had been nominated for a Daytime
Emmy in the "Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program" category for his
vocal performance as Goofy. Only to then lose this award to Danny Jacobs, who
voices the King Julien character of Nickelodeon's "The Penguins of
Madagascar" show.

But did Farmer talk about his Daytime Emmy disappointment
when we spoke yesterday? Nope. Bill only wanted to talk about how cool it was
that he and his fellow Disney Legend Tony Anselmo (AKA the voice of Donald
Duck) had been asked to present at last Friday's award ceremony, what an honor
it was to be nominated and – because Farmer is, in many ways, just like the
ever-optimistic character that he voices – " … there's always next year."

Well, if you too would like the chance to chat with this
very affirmative voice actor, Bill — along with Margaret Kerry (i.e. the
animation industry vet best known for being the live-action reference model
that Walt Disney used for Tinker Bell while his animation studio was prepping
its 1953 version of "Peter Pan") — will be on hand at the Holiday Inn – Dayton
Mall on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. & Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For further information on the "Plane Crazy"
Chapter of the Disneyana Fan Club's annual Show & Sale (which will be
raising funds for the Twigs Foundation for Childrens Hospital), please click on
this link.

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