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Samantha Kelly & Kenny James: Princess Peach, Toad & Bowser Tell All (Nintendo / Mario)
Oct 13, 2025
The voices of Princess Peach & Toad (Samantha Kelly) and Bowser (Kenny James) sit down with Tales From The Collection for a fast, funny, and super insightful chat about the Super Mario franchise.
What’s inside:
How Samantha moved from commercial VO to Nintendo and landed Peach & Toad near Nintendo’s Seattle base
Kenny’s late start in acting, his first Super Mario Strikers session, and evolving Bowser from spoken lines to expressive creature vocals
Nintendo’s audition process, secrecy, and code names — plus how directors coach very specific reactions and efforts
The “reacts” problem, anime-style efforts, and the Mario Kart celebration sound that made it into the game
Galaxy-era Bowser emotions, Meowser strain, and the art of protecting your voice
Why Mario characters connect across generations, and how conventions made the scope of their impact crystal clear
Theme-park talk (Universal), Princess Peach: Showtime!, and dream projects (Kenny votes “Bowser-led game”)
Practical advice for aspiring voice actors: acting first, reading aloud, community theatre, taking direction, and meaning every line
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0:00
So, put your hands together and please welcome our two incredible guests. We've got Samantha Kelly and Kenny James.
0:11
Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Get cozy. At least these
0:17
aren't the director chairs. You know which ones I'm talking about. So tall and uncomfortable. Terrifying to sit.
0:22
Like this. Every time I get into one, I'm like, is this the day it collapses underneath me? We'll see. So, we always start these the
0:31
same way. Someone out there is here to charge their phone. They have no idea what's going on. So, who are you? What
0:38
do you do? Okay. Samantha Kelly, I do the voices of Princess Peach and Toad in Nintendo's
0:44
Mario games. Um, and I love them. This is Kenny James, and he has the hiccups today. Then there's like a guest star on
0:52
the panel, and it's the hiccups. The hiccups are my nemesis.
0:57
I've had hiccups since yesterday. So, off and on. So, if I hick in the
1:04
middle of a sense, forgive me. But, uh, it's funny now that the pressure's been
1:11
put on, it seems like they went away. Yeah, I knew it. You guys did that. Congratulations. And
1:17
thank you. You locked in, as they say. You're ready to do the panel. That would be Yeah. And Oh, uh, yeah.
1:24
I'm Bowser. And he does a lot of anime stuff. He does a lot of anime. Yeah. I love it. I So, we I have 10,000
1:31
questions of my own and then we're going to get to all of the amazing questions that you all presubmitted. So, this is
1:37
our first time ever talking to each other. So, I got to know the basics. I need to know how did you come to be a
1:42
part of this franchise? Paint that picture for me. How did that happen? Okay. So, when I was a little kid, how
1:49
many of you guys are introverts, would you say? Okay. Me, too. super shy as a
1:56
kid and um one of the things that I found that was really helpful for me was when I started doing voice acting I was
2:02
like god no one's gonna look at me and I can be as big or as weird or whatever and I always loved voices because I was
2:09
pretty introverted and shy so and um so that was just I I fell in
2:15
love like I fell in love with voices with um you know the magic of it and
2:20
then um I was doing voices for more grown-up things like commercials uh for banks and Amazon and things like
2:26
that. And my agent goes, "Yeah, we have I live in Seattle area, which is where Nintendo is based." And she goes, "I
2:32
have an audition for you." And I did it. And they go, "Can you do this voice?" "Yay." "Can you do this voice?" "Yeah."
2:38
And I was like, "Okay, you have the job." And then afterwards, I'm like, "I have the job." I'm like, I mean, oh my
2:46
gosh, I It was crazy because I hadn't played the games a lot. Then I started playing them and I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever." So
2:53
yeah, 2007, 2005 around then. So crazy. Oh yeah. For me, um I really I never
3:02
been able to figure out when my first session was, but well, the game Super
3:10
Mario Strikers was my first title. Uh, it released in November of 2005,
3:18
but because it takes them so long to put everything together, I think I may have recorded in 2004.
3:24
Not sure. Um, but my story is a little bit longer. Uh, I have the I have the
3:31
story of I was in the right place at the right time. I love that. Um, I I used to work for a propane
3:39
company and uh yeah, I used to sell propane and
3:47
I'll tell you boy. Dang it, Baldi.
3:53
But no, I really did. I was a propane service tech for 13 years. Uh, and
3:58
during that time period, uh, I had decided to start acting. I didn't start acting until I was 40.
4:06
um both theater and voice acting and I went and took a class at the
4:14
University of Washington. I used to live in the Seattle area. I live in Denton now. So
4:20
I'm one of you guys. So but uh I had taken a class and the
4:28
instructor of the class also produced demos. So, I had him produce a demo for
4:34
me. And if that hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't be sitting here. Maybe, maybe
4:41
not. But uh at this job that I was doing, this client, customer, whatever
4:50
you want to call her, she uh she heard me talking to my service manager about
4:56
um doing these lines for this guy in Canada who's paying me like eight or
5:02
nine bucks a line uh to do answering machine things. A lot of you don't know
5:09
what an answering machine is. But, you know, I I was, you know, doing
5:15
Scooby and Shaggy and stuff. So, it's like, "Hey, Scoob, answer the phone,
5:21
man." You know, it's like, you know,
5:26
you know, you know, whatever accents, whatever he asked for, I would just do it. I was like, "Hey, I'm a professional
5:32
voice actor. I'm getting paid." Well, this customer lady,
5:39
turns out she was a part-time producer at the studio that Nintendo used in
5:47
Seattle, Bad Animals. And she goes, "You do voice work?" And I go,
5:54
"I'm trying." Second thing she said was, "Do you have a demo?"
6:01
And I went, "I do." you know, or
6:07
so, uh, I gave her the web address. I had built a I had built a website, uh,
6:14
using coffee cup 9 that I pirated on master.
6:22
FBI, there'll pass.
6:28
So, so anyway, she listened to it. She had her 14-year-old son listen to it. They
6:35
went, "H, seems okay." She sent it over to the studio. They started sending me
6:41
auditions. And when they recast Bowser after Sunshine,
6:47
uh, I got an audition request and I did my audition and I guess I nailed it.
6:54
Come on. But it was it and it was Scott Burns. It
7:00
the audition was the lines from Sunshine and they actually sent me his raw
7:08
tracks. So I assumed that they wanted a voice match. Okay.
7:13
They didn't specify. Yeah. So I did my best Scott Burns. I was Mario, how dare you disrupt my family
7:20
vacation. Yeah. Nailed it. And then I go in the studio
7:26
for the first time and they go, "Yeah, you're not going to be talking." And I was all like,
7:32
so I evolved, instantly evolved the character from sounding,
7:40
no offense, Jack Blackish or, you know, uh, Scott Burnsish.
7:46
And and I I rolled him into a, you know,
7:54
Because all they wanted me to do was speak Bowser, right?
8:01
Mario Peach
8:06
like that. Long answer. There you go. I love literally like the happen stance
8:12
the one domino knock you down the next thing and the next thing. Now you said that they had sent you so like Exactly.
8:18
They sent you like the clips and everything. because you clearly knew what you are were auditioning for. Was it like that for you too? Yet see I know
8:26
sometimes especially with these like with Japanese companies they get very very private.
8:31
What did you how did they describe to you what you were auditioning for to get
8:38
these voices out of you? They did play a reference for me from Jen Taylor. So she had done those toad
8:45
and peach before. So I was following her reference. Um, but they are very top secret about all the games. Like they
8:52
will have a code name. We won't know what it is. A lot of times we won't know the pl the plot until we get in the door
8:58
and they go here's the concept and um we're, you know, under penalty of death
9:03
not to speak of it, you know, and so we're very, you know, we sign things and um they're fantastic. Like it's it's
9:10
it's every time it's pretty magical to us because we're finding out about it right when we're there. And as an actor,
9:15
I mean, I don't know how many of you guys think you want to try voice acting or you've tried some acting. Okay. So,
9:21
yeah, it's just like being able to improv and go, you know what? I'm gonna try this on my head, and my heart and
9:26
see what we can bring to this with just right in this moment. What did they tell you as far as like the cores of your
9:34
characters? Did they give you any traits, any like, we really want Bowser to be boom, boom, boom. We want Peach to
9:40
be bang bang bang. Like what what were those things that they told you? I had nothing
9:46
really. Wow. They pretty much just let me go. That's great. Okay. Uh Super Mario Strikers was the first
9:53
title that I recorded and I had no idea Well, first of all, I had no idea
10:01
what the game was. Um for example, I think I think Odyssey was Tulip or Red
10:09
Tulip or something like that. They had code names even for the for the game title. Um, and they just they just put
10:18
me in the booth and turned me loose. Yeah. So, I was able to
10:25
kind of develop Bowser as I went along. Beautiful.
10:30
And uh, what's his name now? I feel bad.
10:36
Uh, Bill Dorf. Um,
10:41
that's Nate Bill Dorf. Yeah. He was my first director and he was just, you
10:46
know, and I went, "Uh, you know, I can speak English and he's all like, you're not going to
10:53
be talking." I think Nintendo has some really good directors and they are able to coach us
11:00
and a lot of times it'll be um I mean like like what Kenny's saying is these characters have evolved over time but
11:06
also in a in a given game or with a given line they'll go look let's imagine
11:12
that but imagine that even though she's happy she's also like super nervous and
11:17
it's almost like they'll give you coaching. Um, Wonder was an amazing game to be coached through because they had
11:23
so many of these really interesting power-ups and things happening. It's like, "Okay, you're gonna become an elephant." Oh,
11:30
and I remember um there was some one of the directors was coaching me and she was like, "You know what? Like, imagine
11:36
that instead of blowing up a balloon, you have a balloon, but it's full of air. It's in your mouth and as as you're
11:42
you're about to say something, all the air comes back into your mouth, you know? I mean, so think about that and
11:47
how you're going to make a sound. would be like, you know, like you can imagine. So these guys are geniuses at helping to
11:54
pull out of it, you know, what they want and and they're very specific. They know what they want and they coach it cuz
12:00
with all of these the video game thing in general, right? I know that you said they do a lot of anime
12:06
stuff, but it's like the reacts, right? All these reacts for video games and all
12:12
the powerups and all the blah blah blah. I can only read so many, right? I'm like
12:17
like what does that even mean? Did you ever run into Did they coach you through like do they end up sounding the same
12:24
where you did you ever read one that you were like what in the world does that mean and do you remember it
12:31
all the time? Um and I started laughing because um
12:38
reacts which is reactions uh in anime it's my nemesis.
12:45
Yes. Oh my gosh. I'm like, uh, it's like CT
12:52
a or something. And you're like, okay, that's clinch teeth.
12:58
And then you want me to make what noise? You know what? But, you know, it's like you do
13:06
one or two takes and it's all good. But yeah, um, I I really don't like
13:11
reactions. I don't I don't like doing reactions. I like speaking. Understandable. Understandable. Yeah.
13:17
Did you ever run into once that you were like truly like what is Yeah. Always you're you're wondering
13:23
because how do you write a sound? You know, you just consonants and you're like what? Um but I think it's it's uh
13:30
that's where the teamwork comes in because you're going to have a director, you're going to have writers, you're going to have, you know, a bunch of people, six people sitting there and
13:36
they're going to give you feedback and um so it helps. And Japan. Yeah. in Japan too. Sometimes they'll be
13:43
in Skype or whatever show or Zoom or whatever. Um, and so, uh, I think it's
13:49
it's also like being bold enough to try something. And I think that's the hardest part for me is, you know, I'm a
13:55
little more reserved. And so, it's like, oh, I'm going to just try to make this sound, but I feel really inhibited. I
14:00
don't know how this is going to be. And to just give yourself permission to go, I'm going to try something. I'm just going to try it. And then they'll tap it
14:06
into shape or they'll tell us how to do it differently. And to trust them, you know, you trust your team. You're like, and we bounce back and forth and before
14:13
long some of the cutest things were between Nate and just like coaching back and forth and going, "Okay, that's
14:18
adorable." I mean, uh, with Wonder, you know, I think we came up, he came up with the phrase, you know, "Wow, Zoe."
14:24
That wasn't written, but it was like, "Ah, how adorable is that? Wowee, Zoi's, you know, Zoe is adorable."
14:31
And I think I think Nate was shy guy, wasn't he? Was he? Yeah, I think so.
14:37
Yeah. So, he had his little bit of voice acting for Nintendo as well. Yeah. Um,
14:44
it's a strange thing to go into a studio and do what Sammy is saying and
14:54
they want something and you go, I don't know exactly what you want, but I'm
15:01
going to try something. Um, yeah, I recently
15:06
I've done a in a few episodes of uh to be Hero X. Oh,
15:13
it's good. It's good, Kenny. It's very good. You guys watch anyway. Very good.
15:19
You know who the angry big Johnny is? Yeah, it's me.
15:25
I know. But however, another monster.
15:30
Go figure. But um as far as on the topic
15:36
um making sounds, I was actually cupping my hands sure enough
15:42
for that. Um I was like I don't want to sound like you know
15:49
didn't want to step on any Nintendos. So I made that up.
15:55
We'll write that one down. I've been using it for a few years. Thank you. But uh I uh I wanted him to sound
16:03
different. But even though he's huge, he's this huge canine thing that's he's
16:08
got black skin and neon green markings. He's really cool. A lot of teeth. Uh but
16:17
uh so I cuped my hands. You know, you in the studio cupping your
16:23
hands. And the director had no problem with it. And I was all like, "Cool. Do
16:29
you like the way that sounds?" And they're like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Cool." And there was uh there was one part
16:36
where it was part ticker. Uh well, there was this there was this
16:42
character that was calming him down and that ticker growl, you know, was
16:48
like a but I was going more like
16:56
Oh. Oh.
17:01
And I watched that episode and I went, "Oh, that sounded cute."
17:06
So again, long answer, short question. I love it. Cuz it is. We We listen to these games
17:13
and like I I know I'm sitting on the other side of the screen. I'm watching the shows and playing the games. I'm like, "How did they even think of coming
17:19
up with that?" But I love what you said. Yeah. It's partially your wonder, your imagination. you're shooting for what
17:24
they think they want and then them coaching you along. That makes perfect sense. Um Oh, please go ahead.
17:30
Well, it's interesting too cuz sometimes we don't know how cool it's going to turn out and all but we're trusting
17:35
them. They're like, "Yeah, that's perfect." And you're thinking, "No, it wasn't. That wasn't perfect." And then later you play the game and you're like,
17:41
"That was perfect. It was good." And so that's that trust that your team is going to tell you, "Ah, yeah, that was
17:46
it." Right? Because you don't have the full scope of like what we see, right? like we're seeing the whole story, the whole
17:52
game put together and you trust your team to be like, I hope this is all going to come together.
17:58
And sometimes they use an ad liib. Okay, sure. uh Mario Kart Wii.
18:08
They wanted celebratory winning the race things and I ran out of steam
18:16
cuz they just kept going and kept going and kept going and after a while you're like that all sounds the same.
18:22
But then I went
18:28
it's in the game. I and I didn't know until I was playing
18:33
it one time. I had my little plastic Wii steering wheel thing and I win this race
18:40
as Bowser and he went and I went to
18:46
I was like I was just goofing around, you know. But hey, sometimes you never
18:52
know. Uh I agree with Sammy about the directors and the producers at Nintendo.
19:00
They're very good at what they do. Wonderful. Um especially with me because I'm just making a bunch of noises basically.
19:07
Yeah. But they want specific noises to elicit something.
19:12
Yeah. And I remember in Odyssey they wanted some emotion out of Bowser and I was like, "Are you kidding me?" And
19:19
they're like, "Oh, no. Yeah, you're fixing to throw this hat, but you're sort of sad
19:25
and angry at the same time." you know, and I had to come up with that. So, anyway, I I don't even know if that was
19:33
part of the question. No, but is the ever you mentioned earlier? I just like I just like talking about myself.
19:39
You talking a lot a lot of people hear you talk about this because your job is awesome. So, of course, it sounds cool,
19:45
but what you're talking about is the ever so important part of voice acting,
19:50
the second word, acting, which everyone forgets. Like, you have to be able to come up with this stuff on the spot. is
19:57
just so important. But everything through your journey with a tit through
20:03
these characters, what was the moment that you realized the scope of what you
20:10
were doing? Cuz it's one thing to just be in a booth recording with some suits and then you come to stuff like this and
20:15
you realize like how many people are affected by what you do. Was there a
20:20
moment in time that you kind of just Whoa. Affected or infected? Literally,
20:27
I don't know. Uh I think for me it was when I started doing conventions, okay, that's when I realized how big this
20:33
actually was because I had to keep working my jockey job
20:40
for years after I got this part. Uh we don't get residuals. So
20:47
um when I started I went to my first convention I was like whoa
20:54
people really like me they like me you know so hey that's that's what it was
21:02
for me uh I knew the character was big but I'm laying on somebody's carpet in
21:09
their living room fixing their gas fireplace and
21:15
that and uh I look over and I go, "Oh, you
21:20
guys have a Wii?" Yeah, that's cool. You know, I'm Bowser. And they're like, "Okay."
21:27
And I'm like, "No, I am. You know, you I can sign the jewel case.
21:33
They don't believe you. You know, I'm I'm a gas service tech." Yeah,
21:40
I like for me it's when you hear stories because I think that like stories connect with your heart. And so when
21:46
we're here and we get to to talk with friends and we realize, wow, you know, these are games that have for some
21:52
people it's they've grown up with it. And so how many times did they hear these voices and then it's a part of
21:58
their life and there's just nothing better. And like people who go, you know, I played this with my dad and then I lost my dad and so every time I play,
22:05
I think of my dad or, you know, just stories of I was really sick and I didn't know, you know, I could get through chemo, but then when I saved you
22:12
in Odyssey, I knew that I could do anything. You know, things like that where you go, these aren't just like a
22:18
game. It's it's it's a life that you get to live with a bunch of people that you've never met unless we get to come
22:24
here and meet you. And then we just we love your stories and we treasure them. Like we keep them. So when you share
22:29
them, it's it really matters a lot to us. Yeah. The full scope of of the work
22:35
that you do. Yeah. And it keeps and it keeps getting passed on. Absolutely.
22:42
Uh last weekend, I think it was this little bitty character that I was like,
22:48
he doesn't play yet. And they go, no, but he thinks he plays. Absolutely. Yeah,
22:53
he holds a controller and he thinks he's playing and they just let him sit there and you
22:59
know he's like, I'm doing I'm doing good, you know. Yeah, I'm doing good, you know.
23:06
It is it is a rare thing. We we talked about this in one other um oh it was at one of our Pixar panels this weekend of
23:12
being the multigenerational things are kind of few and far between. But the
23:18
fact that I could be at a a family gathering I could turn a Wii on and be like who wants to play and I'm going to
23:24
have like my dad me my little cousin. It truly does span in a way that not a lot
23:32
of stuff does. So those those stories and those games and those things we can do together. It
23:37
makes it that much more special. I think my Yeah. My last special my last question before we go on to their
23:43
fantastic questions because before I moved to Dallas, I lived in Orlando. I'm a theme park kid through and through and
23:49
I always will be. So when the Nintendo World started coming to the US, we got
23:57
it in California. Now we've got it in Orlando. I was so stoked cuz I was like, I get to be inside of the game. Like I
24:05
get too I like to live it and I'm going to eat this food that has a bunch of Red 40 in it because I love the feeling and
24:12
I I'm just such a sucker for it. But the these characters are popping up everywhere.
24:18
If you had full control and you could say here's what's next for my character.
24:23
Here's what I want to see them do. Whether it's a different theme park, a musical, what would you love to do with
24:29
your characters? Wow. Well, I would like something
24:36
uh that fits with the fandom where they're like, "How come there's never been a like just a a Bowser
24:44
based game?" Whole Yes. Whole game. The closest thing probably was Bowser's
24:50
Inside Story. Sure. But and that was a very popular game. It
24:55
was uh it was great. But yeah, it would be cool if they could do
25:01
something storyline centered on me. Yeah. Would you guys like that? Would you like
25:09
to have my dreams come true? I mean, to get to do Showtime was so special for me. We're not talking about Showtime.
25:16
I know. He really wants his own home. Bowser. Bowser said Showtime.
25:23
He feels like they hijacked that. that she actually her character hijacked my catchphrase.
25:29
But you did get the game and it was wonderful. It was so fun. That game was really beautiful because I felt like it's time
25:35
for Peach to like express all the parts of her personality and she's such a role model for young women that it's like
25:41
yes, you can be a princess and ice skate and you can also um like just really
25:46
beat up bad guys. Like you can totally take on your deal and you don't have to be rescued. you know, you can rescue and
25:52
you can be the one. And that's what I love that. You worked super hard on that. Yes, I worked hard on it because it's
25:59
such a big deal. It was so special. I would come in every day and they'd show me a new transformation and I was in awe because
26:06
each time I was like, there's more, there's another one. And um so what a delight. Yeah. It took us about two
26:12
months to record all of that. And it was fabulous. It was so fun. So that was my dream come true. I'm sure like everybody
26:18
out here agrees with me like I never I played these games growing up or whatever. I never thought that that was
26:24
going to happen for Peach because I was just kind of used to being like especially when I was a young kid. I
26:30
wanted to be an actor and I was like, "Oh, the the females are always the side character. I hope I get to be a side character in something. That's the
26:36
biggest thing I could ever dream of." And then she got her own game and she was still everything that Peach was.
26:42
Yes, it was huge. And I will tell you about the ending of that band too because it was we saved a lot of the really high
26:49
energy sounds for the very end because sometimes it can blow out your voice. It also takes a lot of you know lung capacity and effort and stuff. So the
26:56
end of this thing you know and I don't know I won't spoil it if you haven't done it but there was this big victory that was supposed to happen and they
27:02
were like okay this is going to be hard. It's going to be I think it has to be about 10 seconds long but it's going to
27:07
be this exertion this this power sound that Peach makes in the very final victory that she has. you know, and can
27:13
you do it? And I sat there for a second and I was thinking about all the things in the world that make me really angry
27:18
right now. No, that if I could go and just and just kill them, I would just do it. Like I would I would put my like
27:25
Yes. You know, I thought of all those things and then it just it just came up from the debt that I just did it and
27:31
they're like, "Okay, yes, we're good." It was like that. But it was it was so
27:37
meaningful to me just going, "What bad guy do I want to take? You know, how do I want to do this?" and just pull it up
27:42
and do it. It was a delight. So, and that red that red. Yeah. I love it.
27:50
And then when you hear moving on, you're like, yay. Yeah. They give you the thumbs up. Yeah.
27:56
Because there's nothing worse than you put your whole self into something like,
28:02
you know, why don't you try a different That was a good first take. Okay. You know,
28:07
you remember I was I was on pins and needles about me. Yeah. Um, Meowser was so difficult. And
28:14
I went in for a follow-up session and I went, "What about the Meowser stuff?"
28:21
And the director goes, "We're translating an email from Japan right now." And I was like, "Oh, boy."
28:30
10 minutes later, they're like, "All right, you're all good with that. Let's keep moving along."
28:37
And I was like, cuz I did not know what I was going to do if I had to do it again.
28:42
Yeah. So I cuz Yeah, I did. I pushed it as far as I could push it. I could taste blood
28:48
when I finished that session. I tore my throat up just a bit.
28:53
Yeah. Go. Just a little bit. About that much.
28:59
Three days later, I was singing though on stage. if he didn't.
29:05
Oh my gosh. Oh, I'm glad. I hope you had a very small break in between that.
29:10
Actually, you were down to the count for a couple of days. Two or three days. Jeez Louise, man. That is crazy. I do
29:17
also need I want to put this out in the universe. I think you will agree. Another thing I need to see from this franchise. I love escape rooms. I'll
29:23
always have an escape room. And I need like a Bowser castle themed escape room.
29:28
Would that be so cool? Yeah. Oh, please start tweeting that. It's actually like
29:34
if he gets angrier as you get closer to like escaping. It would be so much fun.
29:39
I need that. Um we are going to go into our questions from our audience. Uh we
29:45
have If you're here, make some noise. If not, pretend that you are then. I'm fine with that too. Lie. I don't know. Yeah.
29:52
We're going to start with one uh for Samantha. Um I like this one. This is from Michael from Houston, Texas. Hello.
30:00
Michael asks, "Voicing both Princess and Mushroom humanoid requires very different approaches. How do you
30:05
mentally switch between Princess Peach and Toad? And which character feels more natural to you? Which is more
30:10
challenging? Okay. Um, Peach to me is more like my regular speaking voice. It's just a bit
30:15
higher. Um, and so, and then her her uh persona is uh she's under control. She's
30:23
very controlled. She's also uh delightful and she's also fierce. And so
30:28
I have all of those things in my mind. And so the voice is like it's higher. It's up here. And then Toad is um try
30:35
Toad is crazy telling Toad's out there, you know. And so he's just more Do you want me to not do it? He dislikes it
30:41
when I do the You want to hear the Toad sounds? Yes.
30:50
So it's like Toad is just like fun. So I love them both, but they're both just
30:55
so, you know, like part of yourself. You got your part who's like, "Now I'm going to be buttoned up and ready to go and
31:00
now I'm going to just like Yeah, I love them both. I love them both
31:07
so much. Like I just like it. It's just great. I love that." Yeah, it is. So I could
31:14
never get sick of the dove voice. I love it so much. I love it. This next one is
31:21
going to be for you, Kenny. It's from Dimmitri from Dallas. This one is Bowser has evolved. Oh, we kind of touched on
31:26
this. So, this is great. Bowser has evolved from a simple villain to a more complex character, especially in games
31:31
like Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser's Inside Story. How has your approach to voicing him changed?
31:38
Uh, it's kind of the same thing that I was talking about earlier. Uh, I was
31:44
almost forced to change uh from going from a speaking character
31:51
to somebody who had to emote everything through noise.
31:56
Uh, and Galaxy. I'm glad that was mentioned because it's still one of my
32:02
favorites. Uh, one of my earliest and one of my favorites. Um, but they the
32:10
whole thing about going from the the speaking, you know,
32:19
Bowser talking blah blah blah, you know, to not being able to talk.
32:25
Um, it it did it sort of forced me into
32:30
uh coming up with something different and that's where the
32:39
came from. And I don't know how I do that. Uh people ask me that a lot. They're
32:44
like, "How do you make your voice do that?" I don't know. I have no clue. Um I'm just glad I'm
32:52
able to do it, you know? Uh, I think that's sort of an answer. Absolutely.
32:58
I don't I don't answer questions. Good. You do just fine. I digress.
33:04
These ones are for both of you. This one is from Wanda from Dallas. Wanda asks, "The Super Mario franchise spans
33:10
generations and cultures worldwide. What do you think makes these characters so universally beloved?"
33:18
Universally is. That's the word. Yeah. I could wear a Bowser shirt anywhere and
33:24
people will be like Bowser. Yeah, it's
33:31
I think a lot of it Well, at least with Bowser, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he doesn't really
33:38
speak. Uh when he does speak, it's Bowser and then there's a speech bubble and
33:46
they put it whatever language it needs to be in. I've had
33:51
Five jillion. I don't know how you're going to say jillion.
33:57
Yeah, there's I've had so many times I know. I was looking at that. Yeah. Like
34:04
uh I've had so many times where people have asked me about have you met the
34:09
Japanese Bowser and I'm like there is no Japanese Bowser. You're looking at him.
34:16
I am global Bowser. Cool. So, and I think that that I think that that
34:22
has a lot to do with it. The fact that the characters are their speech is acceptable pretty much
34:29
throughout the planet. Sure. Uh I mean, English is a second language for almost what almost every country.
34:38
So, I'm sorry I went on. Did you want to answer? I totally agree with you. No, I I agree
34:44
with you. And I think it's also just the um accessibility of these characters. So, not only with the speech, but also
34:51
they are um you know, we can all relate to them and they're and they're they're comfortable and they and we own we all
34:57
own them. Like when you race Mario Kart, you're like today I feel like this. I'm going to race this or maybe I'm your
35:02
go-to. But there's this joy of going I'm you know, we can all own these characters and be a part of these
35:08
characters and identify with them. And I think there's a sweetness to that you can do it at all ages. you know, they're
35:13
family friendly. They're, you know, so you can have three-year-olds pretending to race and you can grow up through it
35:20
and um there's a delight to that and an innocence that I think is we're hungry
35:25
for that now. Yes. I like her answer better. It's a good one. She's so good at Oh,
35:31
she's good at it. Um you actually talked about this earlier and I know some
35:36
people some people raise their hands out there. So, we're going to go with Xavier's question from Austin. Xavier
35:42
asks, "What advice would you give to aspiring voice actors who want to work in video games? And how do you maintain
35:49
your distinctive character voices over long recording sessions?"
35:57
Luckily for me, I don't have long recording sessions. Love that. Nintendo is very Well, Nintendo is very
36:04
kind about it. Uh they they don't want to record me more than two hours a day. Okay.
36:11
Um, right now my voice doesn't sound normal to me already and that's just
36:16
from two days of growling at the table, you know. Uh, but
36:25
the the thing about becoming a voice actor,
36:30
I usually always preface it with if you want to be a voice actor, first be an
36:36
actor. area. Uh, I profess theater
36:42
a lot. Uh, community theater doesn't really cost you much if and maybe
36:48
nothing to do and you learn to develop your character and you learn to take
36:54
direction because you're going to have to do all that in a booth. Um there's
37:01
too too many people out there that are aspiring that um they think that oh standing in a
37:07
booth reading something is easy and it's really not that easy. Uh it's daunting.
37:15
Um kind of scary. Um another thing I tell people is to
37:21
read out loud a lot. You know, if you want to if you
37:26
want to do this, you need to be able to read out loud and make it sound like
37:32
you're not reading out loud. If that makes any sense. Um cuz there's a big
37:39
difference, you know, between going, I reading this book, you know, and
37:46
going, yeah, I'm reading this book. I've done audio books and I hated it,
37:54
but that doesn't mean you have to hate it. But yeah, um, learn to learn to act and
38:03
it doesn't necessarily mean you have to spend a, you know, a bunch of money
38:08
getting lessons and stuff, even though that's there's nothing wrong with that. I took classes.
38:14
Um, but just don't think that you can just walk into
38:20
the booth and and it's going to be easy peasy, you know? Try to try to go
38:26
through the steps. I'm not saying it's difficult. It would be scary, but not difficult.
38:34
Um, I had a lot of stage time in uh, rock bands and stuff and so I was
38:42
exposed to people looking at me a lot and then when I started acting,
38:49
it wasn't until I was 40 years old and uh, first show I auditioned for, I got a
38:57
pretty meaty part. So, I was like, "Okay,
39:02
I think I'm pretty good at this." And then turns out it's like, "Uh, yeah, that worked out." But I'm rambling. Stop
39:10
me when when I do this. Why Why haven't you hit me? I'm fascinated.
39:16
No, you know, I agree. But what what he's saying? I mean, like the And I I love what you're talking about. No hit
39:23
you. um the the idea of reading it and meaning it like with your with your full
39:28
self. Um a lot of times what we'll do is bounce our eyes. And so like if you're in a a session, you're going to never
39:35
have seen that script before. So you have to be able and you can practice at home with this is you just
39:40
read ahead with your eyes, but your brain is back here. And then you're meaning it with your whole self. And if
39:46
you can say it and mean it with your whole self, anyone who receives that is going to it's irresistible to them. Like
39:52
you're so attractive. you can mean it 100%. And um that's a heart thing. It's a brain thing. It's a it's a wonderful
39:58
exercise. And it's not just for acting, it's for anything you do in your life. Like if you fully can bring your whole
40:03
self to it and just mean it with what you got, um the world will open up for you.
40:09
See, she always brings the human part into like But exactly what you're saying, the
40:14
concept of of meaning it. But it's like that human nature, that genuine is why
40:22
we love these stories cuz even though we're not in the booth with you, we can feel it like we receive it on the other
40:27
end, which is easier said than done cuz like it's acting, it's performing. I was like, and the performance of it is make
40:33
sure you can feel it genuinely and live it truthfully. So, I love it. And you're both doing I
40:40
don't know if you know this, you're both doing a great job of it. Yeah. Oh my gosh, you're so welcome. We love you.
40:46
My friends, can we please give it up for our two incredible guests? Thank you guys. We love you. Oh, you
40:53
want to come by the table? One more hour. One more hour. Yeah, we're here till 5. Are you here till the end?
41:01
I'm going to stay to the end. I'm part two. I live in Den. She's going to drive. She stay to the end, too. If you guys if you haven't got
41:08
a chance to come by the table and say hi. Come by, say hi. And um if you buy anything like I'll we'll just throw in a
41:13
selfie for free. So we just want to see you guys. Oh, go head over there. It's right next door, gang. Thank you both so much. That
41:20
was awesome. I appreciate you. You're amazing. Is she amazing?
41:30
Thanks, T. We'll see you. We got one more left.
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