Episode 044 – Bill Farmer

 

Stories of the Magic, Episode 44

Interview Guest: Bill Farmer

Welcome to Episode 44 of Stories of the Magic! I’m Randy, your host. Thank you for joining me!I am beyond excited to bring you this episode! On the very last day of this year’s D23 Expo, literally as we were leaving the show floor and walking out of the convention center after the whole Expo was over, my wife and I saw Bill Farmer and his wife also walking toward the doors. We approached them so I could tell Bill that I appreciate his work as the voice of Goofy, my favorite of Disney’s “Fab Five,” and ask if I could get a picture with him. 

Well, we talked for a couple of minutes and as we did, I mentioned this podcast and told him that I’d love to be able to interview him for it sometime. It took a bit of doing to schedule it, but we got it coordinated, and I am privileged to bring you that conversation today!

 

In case you’re not familiar with Bill Farmer, he does much more than just the voice of Goofy. He began his career in standup comedy, and his voice-acting resume includes thousands of leading and supporting roles in film, television, advertising, consumer products and more, working with such leading studios as Pixar, Warner Brothers, Universal and MGM, to name a few.

 

Not content to just do the work and keep his experience to himself, Bill helps others reach their performance potential, teaching voice-acting students, producing voice-actor demos and offering private coaching through his own production company, Toonhouse, Inc.

 

Now, unlike many of my interviews, this is a single-part interview, so you’ll get the whole thing right here in this episode. I’d love to have Bill back on, though, so if I get enough response to this show, we’ll see what we can do.

 

In this episode, Bill talks about…

• How he got started working for Disney;
  • Links to other interviews: Team Wayfinder, Career Opportunities, Tiara Talk)
• What else Bill does, or has done, for Disney—there’s a lot!;
• A couple of the strangest jobs he’s done;
• The only attraction he’s both written the script for and performed;
• His preference between voice doubling vs. creating a new character;
• Whether Goofy ever “sneaks out” when Bill’s not working;
• Whether his dream was to work for Disney as he was growing up;
• How he came to the realization how big what he’s doing is;
• What he loves most about what he does;
• A couple of favorite stories of interacting with guests;
• What he would do if he could have any job working for Disney (along with being Goofy)–it wasn’t what I expected;
• What he never gets asked that he wishes people would ask him;
• His advice for what not to do if you want to get into voice acting—and a bit of advice for what to do;
• What inspires him;
• His advice to you for following your dreams.

 

Find Bill Online:

 

• Tales from the Mouse House
• Take Him With You