Casey Kasem was one of the kindest and most generous people I've ever encountered. He never let his celebrity separate him from giving back and helping someone else achieve their goals. When I sent him a note in the mail with my voice demo asking for a critique, he called me within a week, left a message on my machine, and when I called him back, we spent 20 minutes on the phone together as I took notes from him.  When we finished, he told me to call him whenever I was out in L.A.   When I did finally make it out there, he invited me over to his house to visit and follow up on the changes I had made to the voice demo!  He truly lived out his catch phrase, "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars".  He was simply one of a kind.  Rest in peace Casey.
p.s.  If you ever want to hear the longer, unabridged story sometime, I can tell you that in person. : )

Jay Leno's departure from the Late Night landscape in February left us looking at Dave wondering, "How long is he gonna do his show?"  Well now we know.  Letterman will say goodbye sometime in 2015. 

I am seriously going to miss him.  Not only as a viewer, but as a celebrity voice impressionist (please see my impressions demo). I guess the selfish reason is, I don't really want to add Dave to my list of retired guys I imitate...although Regis could use a buddy. So for all you morning radio shows, animation web video producers, and anyone else who needs a Letterman impression over the next year, don't hesitate to call...and if you call right now, I'll throw in a Paul Shaffer voice impression for free!

We hear a lot about Celebrities lending their voices to animated films and television commercials.  In fact, it's become so popular to use celebrities for major advertisers, I usually play a game when I'm watching TV at night, trying to guess which star voicing what product.

A few years back, Robert De Niro did a recording for a television promo centered around the Tribeca Film Festival, an event that he co-founded a dozen years ago, which starts later this month in New York.  De Niro is known for his shyness and sometimes awkward interviews. It's apparent from this recording that he didn't enjoy the suggestions the director was making, or he was just in a bad mood.  Either way, I could listen to outtakes like this all day. (Upon listening to this more closely, it may have been an on-camera shoot, but you get the idea!)

And here's your bonus Celebrity outtake...the late Mr. Jack Palance!