A Goofy Episode with Bill Farmer
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For 25 years, Brightview Senior Living has been dedicated to creating an award-winning company culture so residents and families receive best-in-class services. Across our 50 communities, Brightview associates help deliver peace of mind, safety, security, transportation, daily programs, delicious food, and high-quality care if needed.

Discover how our vibrant senior living communities can help you live your best life. Visit brightviewseniorliving.com to learn more. Equal housing opportunity. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage.

I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm also Lacey Lamar. Just kidding. I'm Amber Revin. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs,

Most of you have probably never heard the name Bill Farmer. But to Disney, he's a legend. As much as Robin Williams or Betty White.

He is one of the most wonderful and prolific voice actors out there. He's done the voice of Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester the Cat, Pluto, and most famously, he is the voice of Goofy. But it's how he approaches his work. He views it as an act of service where his goal is to bring joy and happiness to all his audiences.

Don't you agree, Goofy? Gorsh! This sure is a bit of optimism. Oh!

Bill Farmer, you are one of the more unusual guests that we've had on this podcast, simply because everybody knows who you are, but very few people know who you are. Right. Yes. Yeah. I get to hang around with some very famous characters, but no one knows me. I say Goofy's famous, I'm not, and I like it that way. So a lot of people who are in show business-

They dream of being actors. They dream of being musicians, rock stars and the like.

Very few people that I know of dream of being a cartoon voice. How did you get on this path? Yeah, it's very unlikely that I would have wound up in this line of work because I grew up in a little town, Pratt, Kansas, which is a small town of about 7,000, about 70 miles west of Wichita. We had wheat and tornadoes. That's all we had out there.

But ever since I was a kid, we'd go to the one movie theater in town and see the old double features and stuff like that. And I kind of just,

Fell in love with the whole business. I think it was actually the seventh Voyage of Sinbad. I was probably seven or eight years old. You know, there were monsters and cyclops and dragons and stuff, and it was animated. And I thought, oh, that would be so, that's so cool. People do that for a living. So that was the first inkling that I would love to do that kind of stuff. I found out later on, I had a propensity from just these characters, not just animated characters, but live action actors.

I would do impressions around the house of them, just, you know, kind of running over in my mind, for example, for example. Well, you know, like I say, the old Westerns were on a big time in those days. So like I'd come to my parents at dinner and I'd start doing things like, you know, John Wayne or something. Well, let's put those mashed potatoes in a circle pilgrim. And where's that gravy? And, you know, my parents thought I was crazy and something's wrong with that boy.

So I would just kind of impersonate those as a little hobby. And I finally got asked to perform at a church talent meeting.

And I was so shy. I was a shy kid. My dad and mom really didn't know I did these voices and not that I'd ever done them in public. I was way too shy to do that. And so one guy came up to my dad and said, oh, your kid was good at this church meeting the other day. Well, what did he do? And I did an impression routine. Oh, really? Did the voices in public? But it kind of became a known thing. And then I went off to college and got into journalism was my major.

The closest I figured in Kansas that I could ever get to show business was radio. So I kicked around for about three or four years in radio where they were little podunk stations that they didn't care what I did as long as I played the commercials. And that was about it and read the news at the top of the hour. And I could do whatever I want. So I would start inventing characters. And since they were country stations quite often, I would...

I'd do things like Mr. Haney off of Green Acres and, well, Bill, we're going to go out there and sell them hogs at the market and just, okay, it's good to see you, Pat. Or at the time, there was a DJ, Wolfman Jack, who had to

very deep kind of thing. Oh baby, we're going to be doing some rock and roll. Hey Wolfman, thanks for coming on the show. You know, that kind of thing. And long story short, I finally got out of radio because there wasn't any money in it. So I actually, and I remember the date, it was March 17th of 1982. I was living in Dallas and there was a comedy club there.

And I went and they had like an open mic night where anyone could get up and do like five minutes. So I'd signed up. And so over the week, I wrote a little impression routine and went up and terrifying. You know, first time I'd really done that.

in a comedy club. And the host, he said, you know, you ought to try this. So I started going back and back. And within a half a year, I was starting to travel to different comedy clubs around Texas. And I actually did that for my living until on the advice of an agent I had in Dallas, they said, well, with all the voices that you do, you ought to go out to Hollywood and give it a shot.

I got an apartment out in Hollywood here. And then about five months later, my agent said, do you do any of the Disney characters? At the time, there were four or five Goofys and four or five Mickeys, and they all sounded different. They wanted to settle on one voice for each of the main characters. I said, well, I can kind of do a Mickey because if you could do that falsetto, you know, gosh, oh boy, you know, that's about all I can do. But, um, gosh, Goofy was my favorite. So

So I, uh, I tried to match the original as best I could and they sent it in. And about a month later, they found out that about a thousand people tried out 1200, something like that. And they picked me. So I did the job and I had no idea that 36 years later, I'd still be doing it.

So I'm bubbling with questions here. Let's go back some, okay? Sure. You said you were a shy kid that your parents didn't even know that you did this church event. What got you over the shyness? It was just a self-awareness that if I want to do anything in Hollywood, I got to get over this being too shy. You always hear, you know, sink or swim. Maybe the best way to learn to swim is for someone to throw you in the water. I felt, well, I can't, you know, they're not going to attack me. They're not going to kill me. So...

doing this show, I just see what it was like. And I got some applause and that's very gratifying. Oh, they like this. Okay. Well, I might try this again.

It turned out that the several years of doing standup, which is very difficult and nerve wracking, is the best kind of training to get over yourself, to learn how to say a joke, to learn how to say a line, to interact with an audience. Because in the world of animation here, you're in a booth with a microphone like we are right now.

And you've got to bring these characters to life. You got to make those words jump off the page with the emotion that this character. Well, if you're getting in your own way with your head thinking, oh, I hope they like me and I hope that I'm doing this right. Is that good? And everything you can't go there. I got to put bill over here on the shelf and let goofy and all these other characters come in and just go.

go for it. There's so much rich stuff there. What I love is that you took a safe risk, right? Which is you didn't want to be humiliated in front of your family. And so you didn't tell your family because you may never live that down, right? Yeah. Yeah. What if I really stink? And yeah. But with strangers, as you said, I'm not going to die. They're not going to attack me. At worst, I'll be humiliated. I'll

I'll get over it. They'll forget me and it'll be over and my family will never know. And so I love the idea that you pushed yourself and you took a risk, but it was a mitigated risk. And I think it's a great lesson learned for a lot of us, which is we don't have to announce what we're doing. We can just go do it and experiment. It's a safer way of taking the risk. And I love how you put yourself on a shelf. I love how you said that. I put myself on a shelf

And it's not about me anymore. I'm not worried about it. People like me. Am I doing a good job? And it's, it's, it's goofy, goofy or any of the other characters. It's their time to shine. And it's about them, which I think is so nice to disconnect yourself from your character. I'm not in the script. Goofy and these other characters are. So I've got to do something to get me out of the way.

It's really the acting that's the most important thing that I've learned over the years about voice acting. It's not voice acting, it's voice acting. That's the important part. A lot of people can do voices and sound like characters, but

Are you that character? And I learned that especially from Goofy. The audition was matching the original voice. So it was an impression. It was a mimicry kind of thing. It was a little tough, but I kind of had to get into then discovering who Goofy was. And once I kind of got it,

Then everything that I said in that voice sounded like it originated from the character. It just had a depth to it that it didn't have before. It had a life to it. I've talked to actors and they always talk about how you have to find a little bit of yourself in your character. You said you love Goofy. What is it about Goofy that you see yourself in Goofy?

I admired his optimism of life. I mean, here he's kind of a klutzy guy and falls down a lot and things go wrong for him, but he always kind of dusts himself off and gets back up on the horse.

And that I think is an important thing to people that want to do this or any endeavor in life is that we get dissuaded so much and there's so much rejection in Hollywood. You have to learn to deal with it. One of the little life lessons I try and teach is that I have this quote and I say, you can never ensure success, but you can always ensure failure.

by not trying. That turned out to be a very important lesson I learned early on. As a kid, I was more drawn to Goofy than Mickey or Donald. And now that we're talking about it, I never really connected. I never really thought about

why I like Goofy. Yeah. Thinking about it now, I've built a career out of inspiration and spreading optimism. I mean, this podcast is called A Bit of Optimism. Right. And it is Goofy's optimism, of course, that I'm attracted to like you, but it's also that he has confidence in the failure. If somebody falls, you go, oh, I fell. And Goofy sort of says like, well, I fell down. Yeah. Oh, well. Gorsh. I hope I don't next time, you know? So you just, you get up and try her again. You know?

And I just love the confidence in the failure, which is to accept that falling down is part of life. And I hope it doesn't happen again, but it might happen again, that we can speak about things that go wrong with confidence and just own it. And that's what I think Goofy represents, which is just owning the things that go wrong. And the fact that he is so klutzy,

I think is actually more like us than any of the other characters. Oh, absolutely. And I always thought he was the funniest anyway, and I've always loved comedians and comedy. And so I'm very fortunate with all the great lines that they give me to say, but it's been a joy ride. I'll tell you that. Are there characters now that,

That you do at home just for your friends and family that have never seen the light of day? Oh, yeah. That have names and personalities? Not that I've created. Usually they're impressions. Of course, when I was growing up, my favorites were the Warner Brothers characters with Mel Blanc because I watched those. And so Bugs Bunny, everyone knows, you know, oh, brother, ain't I a stinker? And you're an aspicable. Woo-hoo!

Or, you know, fluffering fuckatash. They're mom stars, which is a line I said in Space Jam. I love Sylvester. Sylvester was one of my favorite. Foghorn Leghorn is probably my favorite of the Warner Brothers characters. He's big and blustery. I'll say that boy, that boy's about as sharp as a bowling ball.

And so it's just playing with these voices. But most characters you do don't have a name or they're incidental characters. And some things in voiceover are very obscure. Someone asked me not too long ago, what's the most obscure voice I've ever done? And in the movie Beauty and the Beast, the original animated one, they had Gaston singing in the bar, talking about decorating with antlers and all this kind of stuff. And he throws three eggs up in the air and swallows them. And they're like,

That's me. I'm eggs. I got to do that in the session, but there's a group of actors that for the, all of those movies that's called ADR additional dialogue recording. And it's, they're adding little incidental voices in the back that really don't have names. Like when the people attack the castle and beauty and the beast, I was a lot of the villagers going up the hill and kill the beast and that kind of thing. And a lot of other movies, toy story, toy story to Shrek to, you know,

all this stuff, the Lorax, Sing. This is so illuminating to me that of course, someone has to do the, like somebody has to record that. Somebody has to be the burn her, like all of that needs to be recorded. And it's probably not the multimillion dollar star. No. And there's a group of us actors on a big soundstage over at Disney that do that. And we'll go through these pictures like Bugs Life. You know, I was a,

a snail and a, an ant. And, uh, you never know what you're going to be. My son and I went to the movie Shrek two, which I had done. And toward the end of the movie, they're going to have a big party and ball at the castle. And then there was an announcer that came out and said, ladies and gentlemen, introducing princess Fiona and Prince Shrek. And my son goes, Hey dad, that was you. Uh,

Yeah, I guess it was. I'd forgotten, you know, because several of us did that line when we were recording and they picked mine to put in the movie. I didn't know until I saw the movie in a theater. So you never know. What was the most unusual, unexpected, inappropriate place where you did a character? Well, as far as Goofy goes, my son and daughter-in-law, Kaylin and Austin, got married about a year, year and a half ago, and they asked me to officiate.

And so I paid the $40 to become, you know, almost like a preacher, you know, but I did the ceremony. And of course I gave them away. You may now kiss the bride, you know? So they're the only couple that I know of that's been married by goofy. So that's very odd. When that comes to mind, a lot of times at Disneyland, if there's a kid that's like sleeping on his dad's shoulder and they're in line for, you know, pirates of the Caribbean or something, I'll just kind of just,

Oh, Gorge. And the kid perks up and looks around and they just see me and they don't know. Well, I heard goofy and I heard goofy daddy go to sleep. You know, who knows? But yeah, you play with those things occasionally on the phone. I've, I've done a lot of voices on the phone before. Have you ever called, you're just frustrated and you've just called customer service and

And you just like where the rest of us are losing our cool. And all of a sudden, you know, Sylvester is the one saying, seriously, I've done that when I've gotten a phone calls for like, you know, Hey, you know, would you like to replace your roof or one of those kinds of phone calls you get all the time? If I don't want to talk with them, I'll get in a mood sometime and I'll just do a

A weird like, hey, I got to go outside. There's nothing they can say to you. Well, thank you, sir. Okay. And they'll hang up. Sometimes you do that when you're in a mood. I have to say this is bringing me back to college. I had one friend who did the most brilliant old Jewish man. We would call the Home Shopping Network.

And it was usually him and we would sit around and giggle. And he would just start asking questions. We'd see how long we could keep them on the phone. And he'd be like, I'm...

I can't do the old Jewish man, but I'll put Simon aside and we can see if this works. I just remember this one thing. He'd be talking to the guy and he'd be like, I want to know if this product is made in America. It's very important to me. We came here when we escaped the war and it's very important to us that everyone, Miriam, get my pills.

Is it very important that we, everything, and we just see how long we could keep it going, asking all these ridiculous questions about the product that they were selling on television. I completely forgot about all these things that I think as kids, voices are, like we do it all the time. And for some reason we stopped doing it. You get to be a kid for a job. Absolutely. Yeah, that's what's so great. And I think it, uh,

You don't have to retire. Your voice doesn't change as much as your body does. I started in 1987 and I certainly don't look like I did back then, but I still sound the same. So I can technically, I guess, do this until I don't sound like goofy anymore. I want to have a little fun.

I'd like to say at your expense, but I think you're a willing participant here. I want to have a little fun. Zach, in the background here, has found some things to say, things to read that should not ever be read like a cartoon character. Okay. But we're curious, for example, what if Hamlet were Foghorn Leghorn?

If Foghorn Leghorn was doing Hamlet's soliloquy, it would sound like this. I say, boy, to be and not to be, that's the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I say, boy, or to take arms against the sea of troubles and by opposing...

in them to die, to sleep no more. As long as I can get a cheeseburger. Perfect. Love. By the way, do you know how many more kids would love Shakespeare? If we taught you in school like that, Zach, let's have another one. Sticking with Hamlet, sticking with Hamlet. Yeah. What if Sylvester? That would be, that'd be a good one. You know? Oh, wow. Poor York. I know.

knew him Horatio a fellow of infinite jest of most excellent fancy he hath borne me on his back a thousand times and now how abhorred in my imagination it is I

Perfect. And I think we need to close one more with Goofy because Goofy is your favorite. Of course, my head goes to Emerson. If Goofy was a transcendentalist. Oh my gosh. Okay. Here we go.

Gorsh, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and little teeny philosophicers and divines. With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. How was that? That was so good.

So good. I think that's the first time Goofy's ever gotten literate. That's so good.

You've reignited all these little childhood loves. I love voice. Like I'm the one, my friends make fun of me because like I'll be watching TV and a commercial will come on and I can recognize the actor's voice. Yeah. You know, I'd be like, oh, that's the guy from that. I'd be like, what? Yeah. And that's what happens when I get introduced to people. Different reactions from different people, but usually they're taken aback. And I mean, even celebrities are taken aback. I remember I was in Florida and I got to meet John Denver.

you know, God, he's a massive star. And he was so overwhelmed with Goofy. He even found me the next morning in the hotel and he had a little plush Goofy doll for his daughter. And I signed that for him and everything. But I'm thinking, God, I'm signing an autograph for John Denver. And probably one of the most insightful things I think any celebrity has ever said. I was in Florida and I got to meet Muhammad Ali, which was like incredible to meet him. Wow.

I told him what I did and I'm honored to meet him and everything says, well, do you talk to kids in hospitals? And I said, yeah, from time to time, make a wish foundation, things like that. If they call up and they want to talk to Mickey or Donald or goofy or whatever, we'll, we'll do that. And he said, man, then you're my hero and shook my hand. And I've never forgotten that because that's what he wanted to know.

And it's amazing the power these characters had. It's brought to home by talking to kids in hospitals because normally it's a kind of a solo thing. I'm in a booth by myself. We don't record ensemble anymore. We did in the early days, but now it's just, I go in and do my lines on one day. Mickey will do his lines another day and they put them together. So you have to do it in your imagination, kind of create the scene. But there was a woman whose child had, I think it was leukemia and

And she wanted to talk to Mickey Mouse. And I do Pluto too. So, you know, whenever Mickey's around, you know, but Pluto doesn't talk, but I still get to bark a lot. So Mickey and my bad Mickey voice said to her, you know, gosh, you know, when Pluto takes his medicine, he feels a lot better. And the mother had said that the child was kind of resisting treatment and everything and had a bad outlook just from that.

We got a call later on that the child went into remission because her whole attitude changed because Mickey told her that Pluto got better when he took the medicine and that did it. That changed her attitude and she was more willing to take the chemotherapy and stuff. Now, whether that actually helped her go into remission or not, it couldn't hurt, but it made that attitude change. And I've never forgotten that.

And I know that these are very special characters to a lot of people and to kids. It's like being Santa Claus, the real Santa Claus, you know, there's a real power with them. And I never take that lightly. And I always think about that when I'm doing a, you know, a show and maybe I'm tired or something, you know,

I'm able to pull out a little bit more of the performer in me when, because there are some days you go in, you're not as happy and you're not as upbeat or you didn't get enough sleep or whatever, but it helps you kind of pull it out and do your best by remembering stories like that. Bill, here's what I've learned from talking to you, which I am totally inspired, you know, which is,

When we make ourselves the center of the universe, when we make it about ourselves and our fear of being humiliated or our fear of tripping over or bombing, it inhibits us from taking risks and doing things that, forget about ourselves, will have an impact on other people. But the fact that you privately took the risk and you learned the skill of putting yourself on the shelf, you live a life of service. I mean, you literally bring joy into our lives. I've been smiling like this stupid grin on my face the whole time we're talking and I

The fact that you can make a kid want to embrace their leukemia treatment and change their attitude. I mean, I'm thinking about even in my work, which is to put your own ego and yourself on the shelf and say, look, I'm the leader of this organization. It's not about me and my promotion. It's about doing the right thing and serving these people. The work you do

is an act of service. And it sounds like you show up to give, that you're not there to be celebrated or cheered, but you're there to make us smile and to give us something. And the result is we literally carry you with us

for our whole lives. And you're changing life. It's just, it's just magical. It's all about the audience. It's all about the fans. It's all about the people that want to watch your performances and can enjoy it along with myself. I enjoy it. I enjoy entertaining. And I'm just so glad that people care about what we're doing.

And as Wayne Allwine, who did Mickey for the first 25 years until he passed away in 2009, always said, you know, we're just carrying the torch for a little while with these characters. They'll be around here a lot longer than we will and have been around a lot longer before. So we're just trying to do a good job in the time we've got with it and get to hang around with some very interesting characters in the studio.

And I'm just so glad that people enjoy that. I love that. And if I replace what you call the audience with the customer or the employee,

That we're here for them first. And we're renting our titles. That to your point, which is somebody has given us a torch. We have a service. And hopefully this organization will survive us. And someone else will replace us at some point. And then we will pass the torch on to them. And that by bringing joy into other people's lives, by taking care of other people, that is in fact where you get your joy from your work.

Bill, what an inspiration. Such a joy to meet you. And if I ever get married, I'll be sure to call you to come and officiate my wedding. That would be great. I'd be glad to do it. I could do it as Billy Graham. Horror's goofy. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please subscribe wherever you like to listen to podcasts.

And if you'd like to learn more about the topic you just heard, please check out the Optimism Library at simonsenik.com, where you can get access to more than 35 Undemand classes about leadership, culture, purpose, and more. Until then, take care of yourself. Take care of each other.

For 25 years, Brightview Senior Living has been dedicated to creating an award-winning company culture so residents and families receive best-in-class services. Across our 50 communities, Brightview associates help deliver peace of mind, safety, security, transportation, daily programs, delicious food, and high-quality care if needed.

Discover how our vibrant senior living communities can help you live your best life. Visit brightviewseniorliving.com to learn more. Equal housing opportunity. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage.

I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm also Lacey Lamar. Just kidding. I'm Amber Revin. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs,

answer your listener questions and more. The more is punch each other. Listen to the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen, okay? Or Lacey gets it. Do it.