VOICES | Interview with Tony Daniels.

In 2005, Dose had me profile several voice actors for a series called “behind the voices”. Most of my work went to waste because the profiles were cut down more than 90%.  For the purposes of this web series, I am including the longer interview content in full.

Who’s behind the voices?

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! No, wait, do. Much like the Great and Powerful OZ, the voiceover people at some of Canada’s biggest networks play a major role in how those stations are perceived, and I’m here to give you the skinny on who they are, what they do, and what they look like. They’re the people you’ve probably heard, even if you’ve never heard of them. And you get to see them here first. First up: Tony Daniels, 45. Phrase often heard: “Lotto 649. All it takes is a toonie.”

Jen Selk for Dose: How different is your voice-over voice from your regular speaking voice?

Tony Daniels, voice actor.

Tony Daniels: You know, I don’t really have a regular speaking voice. Man of 1000 voices. That’s what they used to call me when I worked in radio. I know it sounds weird, but I really don’t.

I do everything. Impressions, characters I’ve created. You name an actor, and I could probably do him. One of my favourite guys to do is Sean Connery… but you know, everyone can do him [laughs]. I did George Takei from Star Trek for George himself once. He cracked up laughing. Finding obscure characters to do is great. There are people that everyone does, and those are the easy ones, but it’s great to find some one different ones.

How did you get into this business?

It was weird. I was a guitar player since I was little, and started playing seriously, even professionally when I was about nine … before I was eleven, anyway. I used to learn the songs really quick, and I would get bored and start messing around, doing voices and stuff. I had the ability to mimic or imitate.

You started working professionally really early, right?

Yeah, when I was about 13 or 14, I got involved with a radio station here, CHUM. I kind of wanted to do that . . . one thing led to another and I ended up on Q107. I worked with Brother Jake [Jake Edwards] in Vancouver, and Jesse Dylan, I was the voice of MOJO radio. I did funny comedy voices.

I knew radio was changing, and my agent started me down the road of doing animation. That was my all-time favourite thing. I wanted to be Mel Blanc – Bugs Bunny. How do you get to be someone like that? A good agent, connections in the business, and some luck.

So you can better your odds?

With anything in life you can cut down the odds by doing the right things. The first thing you’d have to do is do a decent demo. For the most part though, you have to luck out and fall in with the right people.

How do you like being at the CBC?

CBC is pretty cool. I lucked out with them. The animation side of it – I do the voices on lots of cartoons. I was in LA looking into that, and ended up hearing about a change at CBC. One of the voice-over guys they’d hired wasn’t able to fulfil the job. So I ended up getting the call, because I kind of sounded like him. I’ve been there for three years and it’s really good.

The CBC is our national voice. It’s supposed to be the best representation of Canadians. What I like about it is they see what I can do and they do allow me to have some different voices. I have friends who didn’t recognize that I was doing that – one guy doing multiple voices. It’s good.

One of my other favourite things about CBC – I’m a Coronation Street fan, I love it. It’s been on for 40 odd years all over the world. And we were doing a promo for CBC, and I wanted to do a Manchester accent, so I get to do that.

Do you feel like radio is dead or dying? Obsolete?

I don’t think so. The great thing about radio is that it’s theatre of the mind. You get to have fun. I wanted to find a way to mix all my talents instead of having to work for a company.

Do you have any favourite characters or past jobs?

There’s so many. I’ve been lucky. I did a character on Chilly Beach a year ago. And I got to play this character last year who was a cellphone salesman. He was starting to lose his hearing. That was pretty funny.

Gosh, every time I work on animation stuff, there are usually some good, really funny lines. I’m working on a new Disney series now. One of the characters is named Crouch and he’s a toaster. And being him, I get to say some really funny stuff. Every day there’s something new. You can never fall asleep on it.

I’ve done so much stuff. 99% of my stuff is voice. Gambit and Wolverine on X-Men. Bob and Margaret. Did a couple hundred voices on Sailor Moon. For MTV I did Jackie Chan, Patrick Stewart … And I worked on a bunch of series for Stan Lee. The Accuser, The Seventh Portal…

Sounds like a solid job. Good money?

No, with any performing arts job, it’s pretty much a crapshoot. I try not to think of the cash. And I hope I make enough money to stick with it. I have something to fall back on if I need it, being a musician as well, but I don’t want to see myself doing something else. I really enjoy the promo stuff, actually. I was lucky enough to do a lot of radio and radio comedy for CBC as well. I hope I never have to leave the business.

You’ve done work overseas as well, right? It sometimes feels like animation is more respected in other places. Do you think North Americans don’t value voices enough?

X the Owl (left) on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

North Americans don’t appreciate voice work very much, but the Japanese do. Voice-over people can be huge stars in Japan – almost as big as film and TV artists. We need that in Canada. There are a lot of really gifted animation actors here.

A version of this piece appeared in Dose on August 4, 2005. See clipping below. More from this series:

Behind the voices: Carl Armstrong.

Behind the voices: Tamara Plener.

Behind the voices: Don Berns.

Behind the voices: Lee Marshall.

2018: 13 years after this piece came to be, Tony Daniels remains a significant figure on the voice-actor landscape. Since I have a toddler, I’ve lately enjoyed his work as X the Owl on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

Published in Dose, August 4, 2005.