Impersonations - Episode 18

Summary

The Musers The Podcast: Episode 18 – "Impersonations"

Original Air Date: October 22, 2025 | Host: Craig Miller (with George Dunham & Gordon Keith) | Special Guest: Frank Caliendo

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Episode Overview

In this especially spirited episode, The Musers (George Dunham, Craig “Junior” Miller, and Gordon Keith) dive deep into the wild and witty world of impersonations. They’re joined by legendary impressionist Frank Caliendo (MADtv, Fox NFL Sunday, Frank TV), making for a jam-packed hour-plus of comedic insights, tales from the trenches, and behind-the-scenes breakdowns of how some of radio and TV’s most recognizable voices are conjured, twisted, and brought to life. The quartet explores the artistry, psychology, and sheer absurdity of impressions—with memorable voice showcases, philosophical banter, and lots of self-deprecating asides.

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Main Discussion Points and Insights

1. Impressions vs. Impersonations: Breaking Down the Art

[06:30 – 09:03]

• Frank Caliendo explains nuances between an “impersonation” (close mimicry with accuracy) and an “impression” (a performance that may caricature, exaggerate, or add comedic invention).
  • “Impersonation is very specific and almost like impersonating a person. … Once you get into it and create the character around it, and get it further and further… that’s impression.” (Frank Caliendo, 08:20)
• Gordon Keith offers a concise analogy: “It’s like the difference between photorealism and a caricature or a cartoon.” (09:03)

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2. Origins: The First Voices & Inspirations

[09:21 – 15:38]

• All four reminisce about their first attempts at impersonations—ranging from family members to sports broadcasters to schoolmates.
  • George was “seven or eight,” copying Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell for laughs.
  • Gordo started “really young” imitating relatives, especially on car trips after family reunions.
  • Frank describes being a shy kid but picking up on people’s quirks and realizing in middle school that comedy and voices could win attention, even with girls—referring to school as a “prison setting” where joking could break the monotony.
• Physicality is key: Stances, mannerisms, and facial quirks were as vital as the voice itself.

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3. Forming an Impression: Technique, ‘Hooks,’ and Musicality

[15:39 – 21:06]

• Frank details how physical tics, facial expressions, and “musicality” (pitch, cadence, rhythm) guide him.
  • “The mouth tells you how the person talks. The eyes tell you how the person thinks.” (Frank, 16:40)
  • “Is it a musical thing for you guys?” George asks, noting he often approaches an impression as “trying to hit a note.”
• The team discusses how over time impressions can diverge from the original, becoming their own comedic “characters.”

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4. Dead-On Voices: The Ones They Nail

[22:12 – 28:16]

• The hosts and Frank assess each other’s best voices:
  • George’s Nick Saban: “With Saban, he’s got a cadence… a note he hits and it doesn’t really change much.” (22:40)
  • Gordo’s Nolan Ryan and Bruce Bochy: “Nolan is always talking, and he’s always flattened out right in there…” (Gordo, 23:16)
  • Frank’s favorites: John Madden, Gruden, Charles Barkley, and especially George W. Bush, with an off-the-charts accuracy:
    “On a scale of one to five, it’s somewhere between 15 and 12.” (Frank on Bush, 31:13)

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5. The Process: Practice, Persistence, and ADHD

[32:30 – 34:13]

• Frank and Gordo describe the obsessive practice required—sometimes repeating bits all day, often spurred by their own ADHD-like fixation (“vocal stimming”).
• “If I don’t say it out loud, it drives me even crazier. … it’ll drive you crazy.” (Gordo, 33:44)

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6. Developing and Workshopping New Voices

[34:14 – 37:36]

• The trio dissects how, after hearing a press conference, they can spot a unique “hook” in someone’s speech and obsessively play with it until it becomes a usable impression (e.g., Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett).
• Frank, drawing on experience collaborating with other impressionists, explains “workshopping” voices in tandem helps explore different comedic directions.

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7. Physical and Emotional Toll

[57:28 – 62:10]

• Impressions aren’t just vocal—body posture, facial expressions, and even standing versus sitting can affect performance.
• Gordo recounts physically injuring himself (tearing a knee ligament) performing a wrestling persona: “I have to be the only guy who tore a ligament in my knee while doing the voice of a wrestler.” (59:20)
• The hosts reflect on how aging and years of vocal strain have made certain voices harder to sustain:
  “Now I notice my voice just does not bounce back from characters like it used to.” (Gordo, 60:35)

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8. Changing With Time & Staying Relevant

[62:13 – 63:05]

• With changing public figures or deceased celebrities, the group discusses updating impressions to reflect the person's current reality or intentionally putting a “from-heaven” echo on the voice to signal passing. This is treated with tongue-in-cheek respect.
• Frank: “It’s weird if a president isn’t president anymore. … That’s why non-impression characters are so great—they’re evergreen.” (47:23)

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9. Ethics & Social Boundaries: Impersonating Women and Minorities

[63:05 – 64:08]

• They candidly discuss feeling odd about impersonating voices of the opposite gender or other races, even recounting being directly asked by Black fans why they didn’t do Black voices.
• Frank: “If you can nail a voice, you can nail a voice. … I’m just gonna do everybody and then take whatever flack somebody throws at me.” (50:35)

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10. The Human Reaction & Notable Anecdotes

[52:03 – 54:06]

• The group swaps stories about celebs reacting to their impressions:
  • Frank: “Jim Rome—would not make eye contact. Not cool.” (52:11)
  • On Jerry Jones: “He said ‘hey, do the fake [Jerry].’” Even people being lampooned usually love it.
  • John Madden, however, was less than thrilled but eventually came around:
    “I finally made [Madden] laugh, and he’s like, ‘I get it now.’” (56:11)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the difference between impressions and impersonations:

  • “Impersonation is photorealism. Impression is a cartoon.” (Gordo, 09:03)

• On annoying themselves with practice:

  • “It’ll drive you crazy. If I don’t say it out loud, it drives me even crazier.” (Gordo, 33:44)

• On aging and voice changes:

  • “[My voice] just does not bounce back from characters like it used to. … I’ll be hoarse for the rest of the day.” (Gordo, 60:35)

• On doing impressions of Black people or women:

  • “If you can nail a voice, you can nail a voice, and I think everyone enjoys that.” (Frank, 50:40)

• Imitating Jerry Jones from heaven:

  • “We put echo on their voice and … make them from heaven. We don’t want to waste a good impersonation.” (Gordo & George, 37:51)

• Celebrity reactions:

  • “Jim Rome—would not make eye contact. Not cool.” (Frank, 52:11)
  • “Jerry just thinks it’s hilarious that someone imitates him.” (Gordon, 55:24)

• On the practice and internal dialogue:

  • “That character is just with me for the day, and they’re narrating everything I’m doing.” (Gordo, 33:44)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Impersonation vs Impression, Definitions: 06:30 – 09:10
• Earliest Attempts—Childhood Origins: 09:21 – 15:38
• Physicality and “The Musical Note” in Impressions: 15:39 – 21:06
• Showcasing Dead-on Impressions (Nick Saban, Nolan Ryan): 22:12 – 28:16
• Practice, Obsession, and Vocal Stimming: 32:30 – 34:13
• Workshopping, Press Conference Hooks: 34:14 – 37:36
• Physical Toll & Aging Effects on the Voice: 57:28 – 62:10
• Deceased Celebrities & 'From Heaven' Gags: 37:49 – 38:11
• Celebrity Reactions (Madden, Rome, Jerry Jones): 52:03 – 56:29
• Imitating Across Gender/Racial Lines: 49:05 – 51:00 / 63:05 – 64:08
• Promoting Frank’s Live Show: 65:34 – 66:15

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Funniest & Most Memorable Moments

• Frank’s totally deadpan “On a scale of one to five, it’s somewhere between 15 and 12,” when rating his George W. Bush impression. (31:13)
• Gordo injuring his knee in the act of doing a wrestling impression—ultimate method acting. (59:20)
• The team’s playful “from heaven” echo effect for beloved but deceased impression targets. (37:53)
• Frank’s playful jabs about the “creepy Jerry” and the rivalry over who owns the best Jerry Jones.

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Final Thoughts and Takeaway

This episode is a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the mysterious alchemy of impressions: the blend of mimicry, musicality, caricature, and sheer goofball joy. The dynamic between three veteran radio wits and a legend like Frank Caliendo makes for both an inspiring how-to and a giggle-filled reel of “best of” voice moments. They aren’t afraid to discuss the subtleties and sensitivities of the craft, the weirdness of celebrity reactions, or even the toll taken on their own bodies and voices.
Frank closes by promoting his upcoming March show at Choctaw Casino (details at frankonstage.com), with the Musers promising him more plugs on future shows.

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For more Musers madness, check out their weekly podcasts and stay tuned for next week’s special football-centric guest!

Transcript

[Frank Caliendo]

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[Gordon Keith]

And yeah, after the cowboy game, I guess he comes on and tries to do highlights why they're letting an 80 year old struggle through these.

[George Dunham]

It's been going on for 30 years and it has.

[Gordon Keith]

It can't understand what he's saying.

[Frank Caliendo]

The age doesn't really matter with Terry.

[Gordon Keith]

It's all a bunch of vowels, no consonants.

[Frank Caliendo]

Gotta be. And it was. There was a time and my grandpappy used to tell me he fell off a pole, landed on the dog. The dog survived. My grandpappy didn't make it.

[Gordon Keith]

Thank you for that story, Terry. That was really relevant to the football game.

[Frank Caliendo]

Prescott touchdown.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, you told the grandpappy story when we just watched a pick sticks on the, on the tv.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, I thought it was important, Gordo. I thought there's, there's always stuff. Am I, am I getting even more so I've been watching Landman. You watch Land Man? I was Landman. Jerry was on Landman. The other thing is like, how you doing? There he is.

[Gordon Keith]

There he is.

[Craig Miller]

Save all this gold for the actual podcast, guys.

[Frank Caliendo]

We're doing the podcast.

[Gordon Keith]

No, no, no.

[Frank Caliendo]

The Musers the podcast. Episode 18 impersonations with our special guest, Frank Galliendo.

[Craig Miller]

Welcome to the Musers the Podcast. I'm Craig Miller, aka Dr. J. I'm George Dunham.

[George Dunham]

I don't have a nickname.

[Gordon Keith]

And I'm Gordon Keith, aka Dr. J. A little confusing.

[Craig Miller]

This is episode 18. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun with this episode because we're gonna talk about the art of impersonations. But before we dive into today's topic, and before we are joined by today's special guest, let's award our letter of the week trophy. And at some point between now and Christmas of 2030, this segment might actually be sponsored.

[George Dunham]

That'd be something.

[Gordon Keith]

That's what we're aiming for.

[Craig Miller]

We got so much great feedback on episode 17 when we talked about riding things out in life. Most of the time, for little or.

[George Dunham]

No reason at all, we found out we're not alone.

[Craig Miller]

Oh man.

[Gordon Keith]

We touched on a topic. We grabbed a live wire on that one.

[Craig Miller]

And our letter of the week comes to us from Justin Musers. Loving the podcast as a 20 year listener to your radio show. I'm enjoying listening to you explore new spaces. The you, the writing it out episode, I'm sure resonated with many people. The wife and I have been talking about doing the financial Barnacle audit for about the past two years. This weekend we actually sat down, got out the laptops and logged in to all of our credit card accounts and fought through the drudgery of the password twister. You have to play password twister to log into and on all of the accounts to cancel. We had dual gym memberships, duplicate streaming accounts, and we were paying for storage for a relative that we helped downsize. Long story short, we saved about 350 bucks a month by doing the exercise. As parents of three teenagers staring down the barrel of college, saving $4,000 annually is going to go a long way, Craig. It made us feel imminently, as you say, squared away. But before you think I'm on my high horse, don't worry. I have fence gate instability like George ice maker issues and a taped up hole in the ceiling of my master bedroom where I stepped through the attic.

[Gordon Keith]

Oh, gosh.

[Craig Miller]

And that's been that way for two years now, he says. I think another factor is we have decision fatigue. Think about the hundreds of micro decisions we make every day as a spouse, parent, professional. By the time I get home, I just want to eat a cheeseburger and drink an ipa.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Why do decisions wear us out so much when we know it's a decision that we want to make? You know, like, yeah, I don't want this service anymore.

[Craig Miller]

Right.

[Gordon Keith]

But yet you put off. I don't want to think about making the decision that I already know what I want to decide.

[George Dunham]

I've got to work on that. I just got home from work.

[Gordon Keith]

I just got home from work.

[George Dunham]

I'm good.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Craig Miller]

I don't know.

[Gordon Keith]

I'm just so ready for humans to be over with.

[George Dunham]

I'm glad that he taped the ceiling, though. That makes me feel better stepping through it.

[Craig Miller]

That's like a sitcom. Yeah. And remember what Nick Saban said. We're probably going to hear from Nick Saban here momentarily. But what he said was that he ate the same thing for lunch every single day. So that's one less decision he had to make.

[Gordon Keith]

Steve Jobs used to do that, too. Making sense he would wear the same thing all the time and not acknowledge the same kid every single day.

[Craig Miller]

So thank you to Justin for our letter of the week. If you'd like to email us, please do so. Our address is the muserspod themuserspodmail.com Indeed. Now to the topic of this episode, 18 impersonations. We're going to discuss the art of impersonating somebody, what goes into developing one, what kind of ear you need, etc. The three of us have been doing a radio show together for 30 years, and I have had the great fortune of working with these two guys, George and Gordon, who have the ability to do some phenomenal impersonations. Gordo's catalog is massive.

[George Dunham]

Huge.

[Craig Miller]

George has a very solid list of great voices that he does as well.

[Gordon Keith]

But not as impressive.

[George Dunham]

No, it's not. I'll admit that it's not nearly as impressive.

[Craig Miller]

And the three of us have, over the years, gotten to know one of the best impressionists in the business. And we thought we'd invite him on this podcast to join this conversation about impression impersonations. We've had him on the radio show many, many times. You've seen him over the years on Fox, NFL Sunday, Mad tv, his own show, Frank tv. We say hello to our old buddy, the great Frank Caliendo.

[Frank Caliendo]

All right. Always introduced like a magician. The great.

[Craig Miller]

How are you?

[Gordon Keith]

Great.

[Frank Caliendo]

Can I jump in on that? Riding it out the episode, too. That, I mean, that hits home for me, too. And I know that's not the. That's what this. That's not what this episode is about, but we just did some of that. Like, I had double car washes. Yeah. I mean, there were so many things, financially that I looked at, and I. Part of it was. And I was. I was listening to your intro. Part of it was I, you know, you have to make that decision, but you don't want to deal with it. Like, you just put it off and put it off and put it off because you don't want to see how stupid you are for spending all that extra money. And it's literally hundreds, if not thousands of dollars you end up looking at. And then, like, I have times where I don't even look at the credit card bill because I just don't want to know how long I'm going to.

[Gordon Keith]

Be married for, how badly you've mismanaged it.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, it's not so much me, but I.

[George Dunham]

Somebody else. Yeah. Yeah, I've got that problem, too.

[Gordon Keith]

Let's talk about that sometimes.

[Frank Caliendo]

But I just want to say that even hit home for me is pretty cool. And Craig, as far as it's funny, because you called it the impersonation episode, and then you said impressionist Frank Caliendo. And I always think of impressions to be different than impersonation. Okay, impersonations and. Well, I'm going to use this for your listenership. That would make 100% sense. When Gordo does fake Jerry, there is an original fake Jerry that's very. That's. That sounds exactly like Jerry Jones. And then there's the creepy Jerry, which goes off on a bit of a tangent, if not a massive tangent. That creepy Jerry is the impression. To me, the first one can be considered an impression, but it's more of a replica. It's more of a sound alike. But once you get into it and create the character around it and get it further and further, further, further and further and further. Impersonations fit inside of the, you know, the impression world. But impersonation is very specific and almost like impersonating a person. Like when you go to Vegas and you see the guy doing the Cher impression for, you know, impersonation for a whole show, there's so, to me, it's a little bit different. There's more of adding character of your own to the voice when it's an impression overall, a really funny impression, as opposed to impersonations just kind of doing the person exactly as they are.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, it's like the difference between photorealism and a caricature or a cartoon.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that was a very quick way to say exactly what I said.

[Gordon Keith]

I thought I'd come in there and save you some words. Yeah, much better.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, much better. I tell you what, my grandpapping used.

[Gordon Keith]

To Bradshaw telling us an irrelevant story.

[Craig Miller]

So all three of you, take us back to the beginning. Do you remember how old you were when you started trying to impersonate famous people or people you knew?

[George Dunham]

Yeah, for me it was around seven or eight. And it was probably just a funny bit for my parents and their friends to see a seven year old impersonating Keith Jackson or Howard Cosell, which back in our day, that's who everyone impersonated. And you talk like this and then you'd go, oh, Nelly. That's all. You didn't have to have content and you fast forward. And I know Gordo did this a lot growing up, but when Gordo joined our show, he brought an element that Frank has had in his act from the very beginning and that is content to the impersonation for, you know, for me, I never really had content. It was just, hey, do you know a local sportscaster? And Craig and I would do that impersonation and everyone would laugh. You didn't need a joke to go along with it.

[Gordon Keith]

He Just had the one line or the one sentence that sounded like him. Yeah, yeah. And that's kind of what Frank was talking about with impressions. You know, you just expand the cartoonish level of it or the caricature of it. So you take some. You try to find a few hook points in there where you can sink in, and, okay, what does this guy sound like? It's like the fake Greg Olson that we've been doing lately. To me, he sounded like kind of that enthusiastic kindergarten teacher. And, you know, so you just. You lean into that when you find the hook on the impersonation or the impression. Yeah. And then you lean into that. Good example is Dana Carvey's George. George H.W. bush, where he just got more, you know, more and more exaggerated, and you just keep amping up the heroine of the ridiculous feature that you've chosen to magnify on that person.

[Frank Caliendo]

What age did you start at, Gordo?

[Gordon Keith]

Man? I started really young, and I started impersonating, like, family members. We'd go to family reunions, and I had a big family from Mississippi, and so we would imitate these great uncles and aunts, and. And so we started impersonating them, and. And that's where we got into that. Picking out one little trait of someone and just seeing how far we could take that one trait to the maximum.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

And. And it would crack up my parents and, of course, my brother and sister. We always. They were good at voices, too. And so we would just. The whole car ride back home from Mississippi spend, you know, imitating the people we had just left because they all had ridiculous voices.

[Frank Caliendo]

So that's what you're like, five, six years old?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. I just want an age so I can have the youngest. I started at two.

[Gordon Keith]

Oh, my goodness.

[Craig Miller]

Did you really.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, I just heard other kids crying. I was. And I would imitate their cry. For me, I think it was probably. There was a little bit of it. The first I can really remember was in probably middle school to high school, though, really getting into it more. I'm sure I did it before then, but I remember just making fun of friends. There was this guy, Darren Barsh, who's. His nostrils always flared when he combed his hair, and he had that comb in the back pocket, and he'd feather his hair back. And he just. He had this cool guy breathe in thing that happened, and the nostrils flared. And then I had a coach. He was the geography teacher. U.S. history teacher. We would get into geography. He was also the basketball coach. Mr. Christensen, we're going to run some laps. We're going to shoot free throws after we run laps because you're tired. That's simulating the game. I would do that in our class. He'd be like, we're going to go to our resident map expert, Mr. Caliendo, Mr. Calendo, can you show us where the United States is? I'd point to the blue. Sit down, Mr. Calendar. That's enough. So there was. I mean, I think. I think I remember watching Saturday Night Live and see you guys all probably have crazy Southern or Texas types of relatives. For me, I guess I had. I was kind of. I have the Chicago Italians, but we were kind of shielded from everything we. To see, you know? But I go back and I had an uncle that. My Uncle Phil, who would. He was like the Mafia with dairy. He'd be like, getting angry. You can't get cheese in Chicago. We're not going through, like, why are you upset? Right? They're trying to get the cheese for Ingi. So there's. There was some of that, you know, but to me, it really got. It got going more in middle school, high school, to where I really. I'm sure there was more before that, but I was a very, very quiet Wyatt kid, early and shy until somewhere around fifth, sixth grade. So I wouldn't. My relatives were always like, I can't believe you do this for a living. You were just a weird little kid. I'm like, I'm still a weird semi adult, so.

[Gordon Keith]

Well, part of it is also, I mean, puberty kicks in and in middle school, when you find that you can crack people up or command an audience and get female attention with jokes and.

[Craig Miller]

Yes.

[Gordon Keith]

And humor. And then school is just a prison setting. So you're captive in there, and if you can imitate the guards, I mean, you're gonna bust up the prisoners, right?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, well, we. We used to, you know, traveling baseball teams, and then we'd be in the lobby. I was. I remember being in the lobbies of the hotels when we were playing baseball, and I would. I would kind of hold court there. It was more just me being an idiot thinking back and not tons of impressions. But I would do the batting stances of guys. I remember doing that. We would always do Willie McGee and, you know, remember for him from the St. Louis Cardinals, where you try and hit the ball to hit the plate and then beat it out. It was that awkward stance. So, yeah, I mean, I remember doing that. My. My brother used to throw batting practice to Craig Council in. In Milwaukee. So we would do Craig's stance got.

[Gordon Keith]

Weirder and weirder and weirder, but I.

[Frank Caliendo]

Remember doing little bits of that when we were younger, too. So it was a lot of physical stuff to go with the voice, which I. Which I always think, you know, you guys have to do theater of the mind as your primary goal all the time.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

For me, a lot of times, even when I don't have the voice of an impression, I can find the face and mannerisms to. To fake it well enough that it'll work on stage and sell. And it's even a bigger cheat when you can dress up like the person and make the face. You know, that's. Half of sketch comedy is just on tv. It's. How many times have you watched something on Saturday Live, Gone or. Or any sketch TV show? And gone. Well, that's a pretty good impression, but, man, he looks exactly like him. That really sells it.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. And you're. Of course, your w face is just. Always cracks me up, because.

[George Dunham]

Squinted eyes.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's one of them, man. It's a triangular fication of the.

[Gordon Keith]

And I bet you it's like once you get that W face down. For someone like you, who's so good at facial impersonations, it's like you can't do the voice unless you do that two seconds before. Go into the face and squint the eyes.

[Frank Caliendo]

See, to me, it helps set up the character.

[Gordon Keith]

The.

[Frank Caliendo]

The mouth tells you how the person talks. The eyes tell you how the person thinks. So when you watch a person's mouth, how their mouth forms, what they do in between the words, if they make little sounds or have a little. A tick of some sort, that really helps you to learn how the person, you know, articulates their words. And then the eyes. I'm talking. That's just getting into the character of the person. If it's Jeff Goldblum, it's looking like a painting in a haunted house. And the eyes are darting back and forth, looking, watching you. You know, when you watch somebody do Donald Trump, what do they do? What do they do? They do the fishy face. It's the. The like in my act. It's like looking into an aquarium and mimicking the fish. So.

[Craig Miller]

Right.

[Frank Caliendo]

Fishy, fishy in the brook. Now Nemo. He's a bad guy. He's a bad guy. We're always trying to find him. We can't find him.

[Gordon Keith]

Sure.

[Frank Caliendo]

Is it a. I just thought of a joke that I wasn't gonna know. We got a way to find him? No.

[George Dunham]

Oh, geez.

[Frank Caliendo]

We could find Him.

[George Dunham]

Is it a musical thing with you guys too? With me, it was like I was trying to hit a note.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

Like that I got in school was. I was asked something about why I didn't have my homework and very dated reference did Curly from the Three Stooges because I'm a victim of circumstance and everyone just died laughing.

[Frank Caliendo]

You did not break that.

[Gordon Keith]

That is gonna come back.

[George Dunham]

It killed back in the day. I mean, but the fact of that.

[Frank Caliendo]

That you did that just to pull that out and use that. That's like a movie.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

And then square dancing. I would do the Curly. Backup. Backup kick. He would back himself up by kicking and. Yeah, destroyed.

[Gordon Keith]

But, yeah, you're right in that there is such musicality, I think that goes along with impressions. Because if you can get the pitch of the person's voice.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, that is huge.

[Gordon Keith]

To be able to pitch match someone's voice.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, I define that or even called it that. It is like playing music. It's playing the notes of the person. It's playing a melod. How. What are the. What are the notes? Are they eighth notes, quarter notes, whatever? You know, that's how I break things down for people, like on the Internet. If I do the. The Robert Downey Jr. Which is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And in the middle, there's a burp, you know, so that.

[George Dunham]

Cadence.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, the cadence. The speech pattern of the person. How many Christopher Walkins have you heard? You've heard low, you've heard high. You've had it in the middle. But you know where. You know who it is just by that. So the pitch can be a little bit off when you nail the pitch. That's like when you're at the. At the upper echelon of the. Of somebody doing an impression. But you don't even have to get that all the time. Case in point with the, you know, the. The fake Jerry, or for me, Madden became that way, too, when I was just doing that. You know, those types of things where it's the sounds and the goofiness that happens within it. So did Madden ever do that? Not. Not really, but he kind of started that a little bit. He'd get into it, and then I would just, you know, push it, push it, push it to the point where it was. There was this actually a show that was in Chicago called the Giggle Snort Hotel. It was like, public.

[George Dunham]

I used to watch that show.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, you did watch a Giggle Snort. Well, there was a character named Blob that came in on, like, a pedestal.

[George Dunham]

Blob.

[Frank Caliendo]

Was like this.

[George Dunham]

Hey, can I talk like this? I remember Blob.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's Madden. That's my Madden. I didn't realize it until years later, but it came from Blob. Upgrade your laundry routine with a durable and reliable Maytag laundry pair at Lowe's.

[Craig Miller]

Like the new Maytag washer and dryer.

[Frank Caliendo]

With performance and enhanced stain fighting power.

[Gordon Keith]

Designed to cut through serious dirt and grime.

[Frank Caliendo]

And what's great is this laundry pair is in stock and ready for delivery when you need it the most. Don't miss out. Shop Maytag in store or online today at Lowe's.

[George Dunham]

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[Craig Miller]

So along those lines, I'd like to know what each of you think is your most dead on impression. Just from a pitch standpoint, from having the voice down because I have an idea for all of you.

[George Dunham]

Okay.

[Craig Miller]

Like for George and Frank. I don't know if you've heard George do his Nick Saban, but he recently dusted that off on our show and it's so perfect that I got blown up after that bit aired on our show.

[George Dunham]

Well, let me cut you off right there because with Saban, he's got a cadence, all right, and he puts a lot of K's and all right in there. All right, so there's the cadence. That's number one. That's number one with him. And you got to repeat that. Stop some things, correct people while you're talking and kind of swallow your words just a little bit. And then you got Nick Saban. That's a note. He hits that note, and it doesn't really change too much.

[Craig Miller]

God, so good.

[Frank Caliendo]

I love that.

[Craig Miller]

That is dead on, Gordo. I've always thought your Nolan Ryan was it. It's like talking to Nolan.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. On the phone. I always like masking these things with the phone. That's the trick that we always do on the radio station. But Nolan is always talking, and he's always flattened out right in there and talking. I can't exactly sound like him right now. But, yeah, Nolan, that worked because I'd never listened to Nolan talk before until we ran into him at whatever that event was, and he told us that crazy story about battling snow monkeys, which was such a. It was such a collage of insanity that I left that place, you know, doing the Nolan voice and. And that. But. But yeah, most of my impersonations are not very accurate, I would say. Not like.

[Craig Miller]

I don't know about that.

[Gordon Keith]

I don't know.

[George Dunham]

You can nail the tone and the cadence so many times, though.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah. I think you have Greg Olson down. It sounds exactly like him. I think you have Jason Kidd down. I think you have Bruce Bochy down. I think they all sound really.

[Frank Caliendo]

I hear Bocchi. When I heard you bocce, I was like, that's been like most of the things Gorda does. I'm like, wow, that's. But you fought. You have a way with words, too, Gordon, that you have such access to such a vocabulary. Like, my. Most of my stuff, it remains pretty simple. I think it's just because of who I am. Are you a reader, by any chance?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, I was a reader in my former days.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. So I stopped at Clifford the Big Red Dog. I turned that book report in, like, nine times. So I do think when you have access to more words, which I'm proving I don't right now, explaining this more words Word. Yeah, we're trying to find the next. The next word. I talk about that in my active. That's. I like to just compare and contrast people, and I'll get to my. Probably my best impression, but with, like, the jokes I do. And I always try to stay middle line politically, just not to make anybody mad, and that's just the way I like to do it. But we went from George W. Bush to President Obama, who could try to talk you into anything. We are articulating this in a forensic matter that will seem contrary to what we're trying to ascertain in perpetuity. You're sitting there just. And you start. You turn into Owen Wilson. Yeah, that's really, really great. Which Opposed, you know, which was just the opposite of Bush. Like. Well, yeah, I. Whatever he just said. Yeah, yeah.

[Craig Miller]

Three came to my mind when thinking about you, Frank. One was. Was Bush. Another was a guy you just did Robert Downey Jr. And the third I thought of was your Al Pacino. I think all three of those are just so dead on.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's a pretty good one at times. Even though I was just doing a podcast with Jay Moore, and Jay crushed it, and I was just trying to get stuff out quickly, and his sounded so much better. I got a lot of feedback. It's like when I do. And I always text Gordo when I hate trying to do a Jerry Jones somewhere, because everybody in the world, it seems, texted there are. I can't believe there are that many P1s guys. And then they start arguing with. Amongst themselves about how much better Gordo's Jerry Jones is than mine. So it's not just that it's better, which it is, and I have no problem with it. When somebody has something that great, you just go, go, oh, you know, bow down.

[Gordon Keith]

But, you know, I doubt very seriously my Jerry's better than yours. I think people being.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, I think it is. I know I've you because you have.

[Gordon Keith]

Underdog syndrome, is what it is, because you're the great one and there's. Oh, there's this other guy.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, I can. I can fully admit when somebody has something better that I. I find almost every impression I have, somebody has one that's the same person that's better. But it's like, you know, when it's like having just a ton of them in your bag kind of helps you. I always think, too, if you can do five different impressions of people from the same show or same movie, that's way harder to do than five random impressions that could be from anywhere. Because you have to narrow it now. So back to mine. I would say Gruden is. That's become one that, you know, I could pretty much talk like him any time I want. Right, Guys, get into the angry ones. I tell you what, man. It's driving me crazy, man. So that there was a time where Barkley. Cause I was doing so much Charles. There was really, really a lot of time where I was doing that over.

[Gordon Keith]

And over and over.

[Frank Caliendo]

And that got. First of All Ernie, first of all, Ernie. It's always first of all. First of all, Ernie.

[Craig Miller]

Second.

[George Dunham]

Always bringing Ernie into it.

[Gordon Keith]

The second thing is also first of.

[George Dunham]

All, first of all.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, it's five first of alls in a row. First of all, Ernie. Second, first of all. Third first of all.

[George Dunham]

Fourth first of all.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, that's the fourth of all. No, it's the fourth first of all.

[Craig Miller]

It sounds just like him.

[Frank Caliendo]

And then there's the different Madden versions. Madden was, you know.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

You say the things that he tried to say and do the things that he would do. And between those two sets of things, you pretty much hit everything. So that's the. That's the impersonation of men, where. And then it became these guys doing these kind of great. You know, so there's, there's. I once did a. With a friend who's an incredible impressionist as well, John Holmberg here in Phoenix, who's one of my best friends and we once did. On the release of Madden, I called in as John Madden, acting completely real, talking about, you know, this game. It's a great game and we really put a lot of time into it. And then I called in two minutes later. He's like, frank, you just missed Mad. And I'm like, I can't believe it. He sounded like this. No, he was much more subdued and the audience had no idea it was me. As both of them.

[Craig Miller]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Frank Caliendo]

So there's that element of. That's how. Just to prove how different it is to people. And he never told his audience that. So it's, It's. It's a fun kind of thing you can do. I'm trying to think so there. Over the years, those were. Pacino was originally one of my favorites that I really worked hard enough to care about and wanted to get it different and just get it to the highest level. And it's. A lot of times it's just kind of lazy. Now, the way the Internet works, to me, this is very different for you guys on the radio because you have to expand. When George was talking about using almost sound bites of people, I always looked at it as like being a producer on a radio show that could just press a button and that's where you throw the line in, you know? Yeah. Boom, there you go. Like, you just throw that in as a piece to get an extra laugh in a story. And as opposed to a gordo call in character. I know George, you do some of them too. But the call in character, that really just goes for four Minutes, and you're just kind of taken into this other world of this character is just blowing me away. It's almost. There's a woman by the name of Marcella Lenz Pope that I've met through stuff on social media who does all these impressions of women, and she calls it being fluent in a character like you can talk as much as you want and say whatever you want as the charact, as opposed to just being able to mimic a couple lines. And that's what I do online a lot in the social media world is just saying the same word, you know, 20 times in 20 different characters and then in. In, you know, a hundred takes of each one, then finding the best one and then editing it down. That's. That's way easier to do than talking as a character for four minutes.

[Gordon Keith]

How do you rate your George W. Bush? Because I think that one, to me is just.

[George Dunham]

You can fool poop.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

On a scale of 1 to 5, it's somewhere between 15 and 12. Yeah, I think that one. I think that one, especially if I don't practice it much. So it would be one if I really honed in on it and started just trying to.

[Gordon Keith]

To. To.

[Frank Caliendo]

To nail it as much as. As good as I, you know, I. You're saying it is. Which I appreciate. I think it could be even better. But it's just that it's. It's, you know, it's kind of old, so it's like.

[Gordon Keith]

Right.

[Frank Caliendo]

I don't want to take that.

[George Dunham]

These people.

[Frank Caliendo]

People don't realize how much time these things take. Yeah, you, You. You walk around just talking as the person trying to say the line for hours, if not days. When I used to do shows, you know, in colleges, when I was performing in colleges, when I was, you know, in my early 20s, mid-20s, somewhere around there, I know early 20s, I would just be in the car alone just talking and just saying things and working on voices as I drove. And that's when I got. Most of my voices was as I was alone, just driving around. Now you get a family and the kids are running around or whatever. It's not as much of that practice.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah, that was going to be. One of my questions for all of you is how much time do you spend on a particular voice? I know probably differs in what you're getting ready for, but how much work goes into it.

[Gordon Keith]

So I. I'm kind of curious as to. Frank. I don't know if you've been. Have you ever been diagnosed with ADHD or anything like that.

[Frank Caliendo]

I believe I 100% have it.

[Gordon Keith]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

Like reading. But we talk about. If we talk about reading. Anytime I've ever tried to read, I'm about three pages in, and I've done 45 other things with my brain.

[Gordon Keith]

Right.

[Frank Caliendo]

Like, if I try to read, it even happens with audiobooks. That's when I knew I had a real problem. Like, how's my mind wandering while it's talking to me?

[Gordon Keith]

That's a bigger deal because I've noticed that, like, one. One part of adhd, a lot of times people have stems. You know, people rock or they rub their leg or they do something. And there's also vocal stimming where you just keep repeating a phrase over and over again or you keep singing the same bit of a song over and over again. And. And I find myself doing a lot of voices that. Like a voice for whatever reason. I don't know what causes it, but that character is just with me for the day, and they're narrating everything I'm doing, and they're talking, and then I just. I have to keep talking in their voice.

[George Dunham]

And I think that's the best way to do it.

[Gordon Keith]

It's just on repeat in my brain.

[George Dunham]

It'll drive you crazy.

[Gordon Keith]

Drives me absolutely crazy. And if I don't. If I don't kind of say it out loud, it drives me even crazier. So I'm trying to offload it by saying, by talking out loud as that character. And a lot of times it'll be, I just watched a press conference of some dude, and he had such an identifiable way of speaking to me that I have to keep talking like him the rest of the day. And then, lo and behold, an impersonation will come out of that. Yeah.

[George Dunham]

Then once you find that pitch, then you can recall it. But until you've had that day.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. And I've noticed Giorgio will do. You and I have talked several times about when the Cowboys will get a new coach, defensive coordinator, whatever. And we listen to a press conference with him, and we'll both perk up and look at each other because we hear something in that dude's voice, and we go, there's something there. Somebody. There's this guy's impersonate.

[George Dunham]

And somehow, because I kind of talk like this. Anyway, I came up with Wade Phillips.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, Wade Phillips.

[George Dunham]

Hamburgers are good. Like, hamburgers mean credit.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's so funny because you started the voice, and I immediate got the. Immediately got the visualization of Wade Phillips. I saw him. Well, like, that's.

[George Dunham]

That's a compliment coming from.

[Frank Caliendo]

You know, those are the ones where when you see the person as. As the impression is. Is being spoken. That's. Those are my favorites, when you know exactly who it is. I always tell the person, always tell the audience what's coming. I didn't used to do that. I used to let them discover it and figure it out. But the laughs would come and trickle in and take too long, and I wanted the boom laughs. I tell them what I. I did the speech. I'm going to tell him what I'm going to tell him. I tell him, and then I tell him what I told them. And it just worked for comedy better that way. But that one, that's one of those impressions where I hear that and I just immediately saw the belly and the pants, maybe slightly.

[George Dunham]

Maybe hitch them up a little bit there while you're talking. And. Yeah. And then Gordo hit the note of Jason Garrett, which was very monotone.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. I didn't think he was impersonateable. Yeah. I don't know why. I guess y' all challenged me to do that one.

[Frank Caliendo]

But you have a Jason Garrett. I recently thought about doing him.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. I don't even know how accurate is because I haven't heard him talk in a while. I know he's like one of these big broadcasters now, is on all the time, but I haven't tried to talk louder now.

[George Dunham]

So do a loud.

[Gordon Keith]

He's always talking loud, and he's always has the voice where he's always talking and he's trying to. Trying to talk to you. And then he comes down like this. He always stops, starts up, and then he's talking. He's really excited. Comes back down.

[Frank Caliendo]

He's got the John C. Reilly bubble throat, right?

[Gordon Keith]

Yes.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's in here. It's in there. Like, I always talk about that. If you can find. If you can tighten up the middle of your throat. Did you touch my drum set? That's in there. Jason Garrett's in there somewhere, and he's trying to sound. I don't know if he's trying to sound, but he's trying to have some gravitas.

[Gordon Keith]

Right.

[Frank Caliendo]

So he's really pushing it, and he.

[Gordon Keith]

Doesn'T naturally have it.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, right.

[Gordon Keith]

Pushing it too much.

[Frank Caliendo]

So he's got to really push it. That's it. Close. Ray Romano was in there a little bit. He's.

[George Dunham]

And George.

[Frank Caliendo]

Right.

[Gordon Keith]

He. He also does that repeat thing. Garrett always talks about. He talks about process. And when we talk about process, what do we mean? We mean a process.

[Frank Caliendo]

Process.

[Gordon Keith]

Process.

[George Dunham]

Pro.

[Frank Caliendo]

A process.

[Gordon Keith]

You know, that's the thing when you get around.

[Frank Caliendo]

When you get around other people, you can workshop it so much that that's what my friend John and I do all the time, is we just go back and forth and then they kind of diverge again. But we have something like when we're doing Romo, we're both doing Romo. Oh, Jim. Jim. It's the revving up the car.

[Gordon Keith]

Here we go, Jim.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, Jim. It's amazing. And incredible. Incredibly amazing. Here we go, Jim.

[George Dunham]

Boy, that's spot on. And okay, we talked about old impersonations. What do you do? We do the really cheap trick on a radio show where if we're impersonating someone and then unfortunately they pass.

[Frank Caliendo]

Indeed.

[George Dunham]

We put echo on their voice and.

[Gordon Keith]

They just make them from heaven.

[George Dunham]

From heaven.

[Gordon Keith]

We don't want to waste a good impersonation. So they can still join us.

[Frank Caliendo]

Because you do it kind of tongue in cheek though, too, right? I mean, everything. Yeah, it's very tongue in cheek. You know, if you're trying to pass that off as this is our current content, like, it's almost like you're making fun of yourselves for doing it.

[Gordon Keith]

It's a parody of a radio show at some point.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. And people get that. I mean, that's. That's the fun of what the show is. There are people who try. That's the. That's, you know, Rich Little today is still doing those same impressions he did 50 years ago and trying to sell them as current. You guys, you're not doing that. You're like, here's our little wink to the audience. We still want to do this. Here's how we're gonna. I don't know.

[George Dunham]

We've had Larry carry on several times just because Harry's been gone for, you know, like 20.

[Gordon Keith]

Just his relative that has a similar name.

[Frank Caliendo]

I've done that too. I've done that too. I said that I got an uncle. He just sounds a lot like Al Pacino for some reason. It's just a way to do an impression that, you know, to pretend that it seems. But Larry Carey. That's very funny. Thursday Night Football is on and it's only on Prime Video.

[George Dunham]

That's gonna be porn.

[Frank Caliendo]

This week, the Minnesota Vikings head west to face the Los Angeles Chargers.

[Gordon Keith]

They'll take that.

[Frank Caliendo]

All day coverage begins at 7pm Eastern.

[George Dunham]

With football's best party, TNF.

[Frank Caliendo]

Tonight, presented by Verizon. Not a Prime member. Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. It's The Vikings and the chargers. Thursday at 7pm Eastern only on Prime Video. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com amazonprime for teachers. When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn [e-mail].

[Craig Miller]

So if each of you were going to the world championships and you had to take one voice, which voice would you take?

[Gordon Keith]

I would take my own, Craig, because I'm the only person in this world.

[George Dunham]

I guess I'd take this one, baby, because I won a national championship in 91. That's right.

[Craig Miller]

You know this story, Frank.

[Gordon Keith]

Is that Biden?

[Frank Caliendo]

Who?

[Gordon Keith]

Is this who you're doing?

[George Dunham]

I can't believe you're doing. We're in a safe space here.

[Gordon Keith]

I know, I know, but I just.

[George Dunham]

Didn'T know the rules and we're not going to do that today.

[Craig Miller]

Frank, did you know that George won Dick Vital national sound alike contest?

[Frank Caliendo]

I didn't. I. Maybe, maybe.

[George Dunham]

Well, it was ridiculous. We just.

[Gordon Keith]

It's in college, right?

[George Dunham]

No, I was out of college. I was in radio and I was I guess in my mid-20s or something like that. And I was doing a basketball game and they had a camera there that said ESPN on it and said do your best Dick Vital. So I did like a two minute routine into the camera and thought nothing of it. And then I got notified that I won a trip to the final Four, that I was the national champion and a chance to compete against other winners. And then I won that one too at a bar. And it was, I was up, up against a guy from Michigan. So he had home bar advantage, I guess because he had all of his buddies there rooting for him. But I beat him, baby. I got a year supply of Diet Pepsi and I met the AHA girls too, man.

[Gordon Keith]

And didn't your impersonation involve the eye falling out?

[George Dunham]

No, that was you that always wanted to have his eye shooting out. And now, see, I feel weird about doing Dick Vital now.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

Because he's been in the right battle with health.

[Gordon Keith]

So way to go.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, you do just. Do you just do it when he was younger. You just do an impression of when you don't do current. Yeah, but I was, I was doing, I was on with Jim Valvano's. Brother in Louisville, and I. I had never really pulled off my dick Vital before, and magically, I was on with him, and it was the. He's like, that's the best, you know, dick vital I've ever heard, other than that guy George Dunham. But it's. You know, he's got that rest. That's incredible. It's amazing, you know?

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

But I. I. I had a. I had a Saban for a little bit, and it goes in and out, and then I lose them. If that's your problem.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, that happens.

[George Dunham]

You got to solve as a. As a human.

[Gordon Keith]

Some days you'll have an impersonation. Then some days you don't. At least for me, that's the way it is.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, it's.

[Gordon Keith]

Some days I can.

[Frank Caliendo]

No doubt.

[Gordon Keith]

And other days I'm like, gosh, why did I ever think I could do that?

[George Dunham]

Yes.

[Frank Caliendo]

And then.

[Gordon Keith]

But then you.

[Frank Caliendo]

You hear, like, you hear, I hear her George's. And I don't want to copy George's. So you got to make sure you.

[George Dunham]

Do a different picture for you.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's the other thing. You know, Joey Molinaro does a really great Nick Saban, too. And I don't want to do his. You know, I was starting to work on it. This was back before COVID and then I heard her. His. Heard his. And I kind of quit even working it, because it was just taking over the Internet for a while or my algorithm. So I was like, I don't want to do something somebody else is. Really? No. Like, if I were to come in and do Saban on your show, people be like, what a jackass calendar that didn't get. It's like doing Jerry.

[George Dunham]

I mean, they probably say, finally, we have someone that sounds like Nick Saban on the show.

[Craig Miller]

Okay, so George would take Vital to the world championships. Frank Gordo, who do you guys take? What voice?

[George Dunham]

I don't know.

[Gordon Keith]

On mine.

[Craig Miller]

You don't think there's one that you do better than the others or that you're. That you're most proud of?

[Gordon Keith]

You're thinking of Ed Cohen. That's the other thing with me, Frank, is, like, a lot of my impersonations are people that no one knows about just because they worked up here for, like, two weeks, for some reason, I was able to impersonate them.

[Frank Caliendo]

You don't take characters.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

If you. If you. If you talk about them enough of. If you give a bigger setup. An impression is just a character that everybody already knows the basis of. Everybody knows the point of View of the person and stuff like that. If you, if you don't, if it's a unfamous person, you just have to set up the situation and their point of view and all that type of stuff first. And then you, you can, you basically can do it as an impression. But it takes some background.

[Gordon Keith]

Right.

[Frank Caliendo]

Defining for the audience first. Oh, that's good.

[Gordon Keith]

See, we could use a big head code. You're gonna give away some fan fest chickens.

[George Dunham]

See, it's dead on.

[Frank Caliendo]

Everybody knows. But everybody knows a guy like that. Everybody knows somebody like that. As soon as you set it up and once the audience has heard it a couple times, then they start to just go, oh, that. So it's not an impression at that point. It's a character, even though it is an impression. You know, half of the impressions of Saturday Night Live. Remember when Mike Myers was doing I'm Vehklempt, that was his mother in law, right?

[Gordon Keith]

Linda Richmond.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, Linda Richmond. So for me to get back on track, which I always take is off track, but I'm actually gonna go. I thought of one that I hadn't done. It's been a long time since I'd done. But the one I would have taken back in the day is still Robin Williams because I did a serious one. You know, just trying to talk as him regularly. Not really going over the top or anything like that. Just trying to emulate exactly what he sounded like. You know, where you grow a beard and try and win an Academy Award, that type of thing.

[Gordon Keith]

And then I heard Frank in the middle of that, do the little Robin Williams mouth swallow. He always does a little lip curl back in.

[Craig Miller]

Really good.

[George Dunham]

You would have to do Jerry Gordo.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, no, it's been.

[Gordon Keith]

Well, publicly, I think that I would do the fake Nolan Ryan. I think that the Nolan Ryan. If you give me a phone, Nolan Ryan calling someone, I can do that. That's probably the most accurate.

[Frank Caliendo]

There's a difference between what you would want people to hear and what is the best one. If some other people would probably have to choose for you.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, true.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

Because I would pick something. I would pick something other than a Madden or something because I just don't want it to be mad. When Madden would be one through three, probably, if not one.

[Craig Miller]

Right.

[Gordon Keith]

So the mad one was so fascinating because I had just not heard and I'm not as plugged into sports as you guys are, so I don't know, I just not heard people imitating Madden.

[George Dunham]

I had either before I heard Frank.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, I don't think I mean there were, there were some people in local radio in D.C. there was a guy that kind of did, but nobody really hit it. They just hit the essence of Madden and they didn't have the, you know, the. I explained it as like he's got something in his mouth. He's like, it's a giant lemon that he's sucking on. He's like, you know, and he's talking around a lemon and trying to figure out.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, it's almost like he's got a ping pong ball right in the center back of his throat, but he's got a bigger mouth.

[Frank Caliendo]

So it's a lemon, you know, a lemon flavored ping pong ball. That's what it is. There's a ping pong ball. There's a ping pong ball inside a lemon inside a cantaloupe and that's the ping. And nope, it's like it's Turducken, but it's without love.

[George Dunham]

Talking about Turducken or any food. Yeah, but have you changed that since he passed? You know, back to when someone's no longer here. How do you handle that?

[Craig Miller]

He puts an echo on his voice, start doing that.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, I just, I explained that the way I use mad nowadays because people want to hear. When I go on stage, I just say the people. The impression people know me the most for is probably the John Madden. And then I talk about people asking me to do John Madden. I just have a reflex which is boom. And that's enough for most people. So without doing the whole bit. That's. That's basically what it is. It's kind of a. You people know me from this. Here's a little taste of it. And I could still go back and touch on a little bit. But it's weird if a president isn't president anymore. If, if a person passes away, it becomes old. That's why characters are so great non impression characters because they're evergreen. Nobody knows their tenure or lifespan at all. It's not in your, you know, stuck in your brain. Oh, that person passed away. It doesn't even matter how big was.

[Gordon Keith]

Barclay for you, for the general public, I would think after Madden passes away, you know, Barkley is so present on TV in such a. Yeah, they used.

[Frank Caliendo]

To have me on TNT some when I would go on with Charles. That was the best. There was a time where it was going back and forth and I, I was like, that's pretty close. I'm not sure which one of us is talking right now. That's. That's that's when I'm like, okay, I'm. I'm pretty good at this one. When you can, when you can hear that. But Barkley was massive. When I had the show on TBS and he was at TNT or, you know, so that, that really, that, that was really big. And the. I'm trying to think of Madden, that Gruden. Those are probably the biggest ones.

[Gordon Keith]

George does Michael Irvin, y' all both can do a black guy. And this is. You're doing Barkley and he's doing Michael Irvin. Do you ever feel weird about doing that?

[George Dunham]

I do.

[Gordon Keith]

George feels weird about doing Michael.

[George Dunham]

I don't know if Frank does, but I do.

[Craig Miller]

I do.

[George Dunham]

But, you know, I always bring it back to Troy and then it's fine, you know.

[Gordon Keith]

So once again, Michael Irvin has the two modes. The sensitive, quiet talking mode.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, very sensitive. You know, stumbles a little.

[Gordon Keith]

And then he has. When he gets excited mode and he starts.

[George Dunham]

Don't you talk about the Cowboys like that. You have to go a little bit off mic if you're going to do something. Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

And then there's the talking business.

[George Dunham]

And that's why we turned them into a jet boats. Trying to. Trying to start a.

[Frank Caliendo]

I'm right behind J. Tony R. Almost right behind. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just trying that Robo tempo. This is that Robo.

[Gordon Keith]

Jo, calm down. Michael calm down.

[George Dunham]

As quarterback, though.

[Gordon Keith]

He is.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah. But Frank, you said you've done Barkley for Barkley. I know. George has done Irving for Irvin.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

He's not offended by it. He thinks it's hilarious.

[Frank Caliendo]

And most guys, most people, I mean, I mean, I guess there's a weirdness. Have I felt. Yeah, but there were black people that actually it said, why don't you do any impressions of black people? To me.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

And that's kind of what made me turn it around and go, I'm just gonna do everybody and then just take whatever flack somebody throws at me.

[Gordon Keith]

If you can nail a voice, you can nail a voice. And I think that everyone enjoys that. Well, okay. Another one that you do, Morgan Freeman is, I think, one of your great voices too.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, that's one of those that you go back and listen to. And there are times where I might be able to fool somebody.

[Gordon Keith]

So great. The voice of God.

[Frank Caliendo]

But his voice is completely changed as well. I mean, he's, he's. He's 80 something years old now. If he. That's the same with like, if you listen to all. Most of the Trump impressions right now. Trump Sounds nothing like what the Trump impression. He's very quiet. It's very library. You've been to the library.

[Gordon Keith]

That's good.

[Frank Caliendo]

Tremendous books. They've got great books. And inside those books they have great words. Some of the best words filling up the books. They're very. It's so. It's like, what does the person sound like currently? I mean, a person in their 40s. You can listen to Trump 40 years ago. Sounds nothing like what he sounds like today.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

You know, not as. Nowhere near as whispery. Raspberry, Raspy. Even when he ran. The first time I did a sketch with him for Fox before he ran for president was one of his, like, I've decided to run for president. I've decided to not run for president. I've decided to not, not run for president. I've decided to not, not, not run for president. I'm not really sure if I'm running, probably going to win. Even if I don't run, I'm going to win.

[Craig Miller]

Have any of the three of you ever had someone react negatively, come up to you, or get a hold of you and say they didn't like it?

[Frank Caliendo]

I've had a person who wouldn't look at me in the eyes. How great is that? Jim Rome. Incredible. Just looking at the super bowl and would not make eye contact. Wow. Not cool.

[George Dunham]

Gosh, that's so good.

[Gordon Keith]

That is so good.

[Frank Caliendo]

Great, great. That's got me there. Great, great, great. Take, happy take and don't stop. Gonna grab the fish wrap. You're in the jungle. And he had the great thing where he would just have people back some stuff. But it was. It was fake faxes. It was like, no more OJ Jokes.

[George Dunham]

Okay?

[Frank Caliendo]

Okay, we got a facts here. Dear Jim, what is up with Orenthal? Guys, I said no more faxes about Orenthal. Let me finish reading the entire facts slowly.

[Craig Miller]

That's a good voice.

[Frank Caliendo]

He would put it off.

[Craig Miller]

Such a good voice.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

And it's staccato and it's up here. What a great way to do this, by the way. I noticed, you know, there's similarities too. And when you're doing Greg Olson, which you take a little bit and go caricature you with it. But that kindergarten teacher is so perfect because it's exactly. That's exactly the point of view of who he is. But he is to me, I'm trying to think of the right word words, my words. But he's kind of. He's kind of to me, entertaining Tom Brady. Like Tom Brady. When you listen to him. He's got almost the same voice. Yeah, it's a very similar voice, but it is. If you took Tom Brady and turned him into a kindergarten teacher. Which I obviously can't use because that's your thing, Gordo. But that is.

[Gordon Keith]

Use it. I don't care.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's footnote Gordon Keith. But that is a. Gosh, that's one of those. When you said that, like, over. What'd you say? Over excited. Kindergarten teacher. He's like an over excited. He really wanted to make that, but he just wouldn't quite get there. Romo has a little bit of that. Like, he's just. He's so exasperated.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

He forgets, though. You know, he doesn't have the reference. That's like a car going. That's like going zero to 60 in a car that goes zero to 60 really, really fast out there and doesn't get to it sometimes.

[Craig Miller]

George and Gordo ever had anybody say they hated the impersonation?

[Gordon Keith]

No.

[George Dunham]

You know, I think most people are flattered. Like Jerry. When you're around Jerry, he said, hey, do the fake.

[Gordon Keith]

I'm surprised that Jerry finds it flattering. I don't get it.

[George Dunham]

Because the fake Jerry says.

[Gordon Keith]

I have never quite understood that whole phrase that. That imitations is sincerest form of flattery.

[Frank Caliendo]

I think that's such.

[Gordon Keith]

Like, somebody came up and was able to do a really accurate me, and they caricaturized it a little bit.

[Frank Caliendo]

Right.

[Gordon Keith]

And they took some of my features and everything. I think everyone would feel a little bit. That makes me self conscious. Yeah.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

Right, right. It's the other thing.

[Gordon Keith]

Right. Always saying.

[Frank Caliendo]

Right. I think there is a little bit of that, but it just depends on if you have the. I don't want to say. Maybe it's the confidence, but it's. It's just people, like, Jerry doesn't care.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

Jerry loves it. And he just thinks it's. It's hilarious that someone imitates him.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. I watch him. Every time I watch him, I just. I'm watching Landman. I saw him on Landman. I'm like, this guy's the greatest guy in the world unless he runs your foot. But he owns your football.

[George Dunham]

Right.

[Frank Caliendo]

But he. I mean, I was watching the same thing. I was watching America, America's Team, and I was like, that's what I talked about on Rich Eisen. I was like, man, I just wanted to be Jerry Jones after this.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Isn't it crazy how much charm?

[Frank Caliendo]

So he's incredible. Like, you're watching him and Going, man, I just. How does anybody dislike this guy? How could you possibly have find a person who dislikes this guy even a little bit mad find you funny?

[George Dunham]

Did he? Matt?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, I thought Matt.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, Matt didn't like me at all. No, I was gonna say that too. Madden didn't like me, but I finally made laugh and he's like, I get it now. It was like that kind of a thing his son and his son wanted me to do. His 75th birthday After I met him, I was like, well, you should ask John that first. And then it never ended up happening.

[Gordon Keith]

But so apparently he asked him.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, it was, it was one of those things where I think he was kind of okay once he met me, but he just didn't want it around. And I think he told so many people he didn't like it because I remember him talking to getting. I heard a story where he's talking to Aikman. You ever get calientoed? Oh really? Where caliento, you know, starts to talk like you and people think that what he's saying is what you're saying and you're not saying those things and then they say you said those things and you don't remember saying them and then you look like an ass.

[George Dunham]

I would Troy respond to that?

[Gordon Keith]

I don't know.

[George Dunham]

Oh my gosh, he's bailing out from it.

[Craig Miller]

You guys have talked about the, the, the physical aspect of doing a voice. Frank, you mentioned the facial expressions and I'm interested to know how physical it is. Like, do you guys need to contort yourself, your body, do you need to be standing or sitting or to make that voice appear?

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, we touched on it slightly before, but with the mouth. But it does help if you get into the physicality of the character. To me, it 100% starts to. It puts you in a mode to just think like you are that person. I see the person in front of me. So if I'm doing, it's almost like I'm looking in a mirror and they're looking back. That's why whenever I see video of myself I'm like, that's not very good. Because I see the actual person while I'm doing it.

[Craig Miller]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

And I look at it. It's almost like an out of body type of thing looking down on it. So yes, if I contort my body a certain way, I'm like, okay, now everything else, all the other physical traits including stuff in throat and mouth, that all gets into place and it, it triggers it to be able to go.

[George Dunham]

Right away Well, I think that's a good question, because sometimes I do stand up, like with Saban. I try to stand up because I envision him talking to his team or a press conference or something like that. So with me, posture is a. A big thing that I don't. I. I don't work on it enough.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. And I know when I do fake Jerry.

[Frank Caliendo]

Wait, you do a Jerry?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

Unfortunately, I've never seen any comments about that online.

[Gordon Keith]

Always have to do the sideways My House and talk. You know that smile that he does that we saw all throughout that documentary?

[Craig Miller]

Smiling?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, I'm smiling when I say that. And he always does that. That crooked smile on one side of his face. He just makes a big O with one. It's like a Popeye face or something that he does.

[Frank Caliendo]

But, yeah, I am Popeye the sailor man.

[George Dunham]

I do.

[Frank Caliendo]

I live in a frying pan. Strong to the finish because I eat my spinach. I'm Popeye the Cowboys, man. Hold on a second.

[George Dunham]

Not even close.

[Frank Caliendo]

Squirt away. Better.

[Gordon Keith]

He's already writing the tweets to him. Right, right. Just.

[Craig Miller]

Gordo, you've hurt yourself doing voices.

[Gordon Keith]

I have. I actually. I have to be the only guy who tore a ligament in my knee while doing the voice of a wrestler. It was very strange. Yeah, that was one time. That was a character that I always had to do standing up. It was a wrestler character. The official wrestler our show. Big Dick Glover is his last name.

[George Dunham]

Oh, my gosh.

[Frank Caliendo]

And Big Dick Glover.

[Gordon Keith]

And that's not cheap at all. And so, yeah, when I do him, I'm standing up and everything. And his big. I forget what his catchphrase was.

[George Dunham]

Do you hear the words?

[Gordon Keith]

Do you experience. What was it? Do you olfactory. Since the experience that the Big Dick lover is some take off on what the Rock always says. But it was overly worded and full of 50 cent words. But. But, yeah, I have to stand up and I'm yelling at the top of my lungs to the ceiling. And I bent back so far and twisted my leg at the same time and popped a ligament right in the middle of a bit one time. It's crazy.

[Craig Miller]

Also, in the physical realm, how much do you notice, as we all age, your voice changing? And does that hinder you from doing some voices?

[Gordon Keith]

Absolutely. For me.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

The. Because I never took care of my voice, we would do these impersonations and half the characters are always screaming. And I just. I never thought about it or cared about the protection of my voice, even though that is our primary instrument. Being broadcasters and. And yeah, now I notice my voice just does not bounce back from characters like it used to. And I'll be hoarse for the rest of the day after some of these characters.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, the high notes. The high notes for me are harder to hit than they used to be. Trying to get up to some of those. And a raspiness hits earlier with some characters. Like, it's interesting because I'll talk for a while, and then my voice. Right now, I have. I have a good. I don't know what the word is, but. Which seems to be the theme of half of this because words are so hard. But I can. I can have a crispiness in my throat right now where I can get this stuff. And in a little bit, it'll be gone where there's only the rasp. So, like an easy one. Like a Jack Nicholson. There's a crispness to it. Just trying to get through it here, but you can hear this part of it. And then later. Later it'll be. You know, it'll have more this. This in it, and it'll still sound similar, but it won't be as sharp. And that's happened with age as well. I used to be able to just say and do whatever I want for as long as I wanted. And there was a time where I would wear my voice out doing an impression. It was almost like I'd wear the muscle down so much that I wouldn't be able to talk for a couple days. I'd come back and I'd have the impression almost 80% there because I drilled it so much.

[Craig Miller]

Wow. Interesting.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, it does change. And do you change the character as they get older? Like, if that. You're saying that a lot of people do Trump from 10 years ago. When you impersonate him, do you try to do 20, 25 TRUMP?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, I just do current. I do current. I do. Well, there's a lot of people doing. And you gotta find your own. You gotta find your own way and I'm finding I find my own way. I found my. I found my way I got away and away My way a way, my way in the jungle It's a quiet jungle.

[George Dunham]

He does try to rhyme.

[Frank Caliendo]

The lion sleeps tonight.

[Gordon Keith]

Always bluffing through a book report, isn't he?

[Frank Caliendo]

We got a lot of. We got a lot of great people.

[Craig Miller]

Great.

[Frank Caliendo]

Paper peas are good, too, Pete. They're important people. Tremendous people.

[Craig Miller]

How do you guys feel about tiptoeing into the area of trying to do a woman's voice? I know Gordo used To do Michelle. We.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. I don't know what you're talking about there, Gordo.

[George Dunham]

Sing like a church a woman.

[Gordon Keith]

He's talking about losing high end. I can't sing those high notes anymore.

[George Dunham]

Yes, you can.

[Gordon Keith]

No, it's like, Like, I can't do it.

[George Dunham]

You can still do Blessed Assurance. That's pretty amazing, though.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's incredible. I. I can't do any real female. I can't really do any female impressions. I've tried. I've tried. I got a friend, Terry Fader. You know Terry?

[Gordon Keith]

Oh, yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

He can sing like so many women. It's incredible. I'm like, I don't have that skill. This is not. Not even there.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, no, me, it's too Muppet voice just to. Yeah. Talking like this.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[Craig Miller]

Or is it you turn into like the Monty Python guys just doing a woman.

[George Dunham]

No, can't say it like that.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's kind of. It becomes kind of effeminate. But not a woman. Right. I mean, it's. It's, It's. It sounds effeminate and people are like, are you doing a gay man's voice? I'm like, no, that's my lady voice, which is. Are you in that? I get offended. And then.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, you gotta be careful on that one.

[Gordon Keith]

Are there any new ones that you're working on now?

[Frank Caliendo]

I mean, there's always. There's always a. A ton. I'm trying to think of who are.

[Gordon Keith]

Some of the people that someone captured your imagination.

[Frank Caliendo]

I mean, I'm still trying to. I'm still trying to find that save. And again, I. I still want to get Nance to go with Romo. Hello, friends. Jim Nance, along with my pal Tony Roman. You know it.

[Craig Miller]

Not bad.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, you can get into it, but it's. As soon as I do more, it starts. You start to realize it's a fake or I'm faking it. Trying to think. Olson was one I wanted to look at because he's just. I think he's really, really good. I think.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

The pro. The difficulty. The difficult thing for Greg Olson is his voice is high. He's got a natural high pitch. If I were him, I would tell him to watch what Matthew McConaughey does in Wolf of Wall Street. That. Get in. Get in here. That's right. Get in there. Find that. Get deeper, you know, like time. Life like time, or wait, like time is a flat circle in the air. And because a high point, a high pitched voice is tougher to listen to, in my opinion, than a deep. Because Greg Olson, I think, fills the Gabson is like the best, but his. His higher pitch gets me sometimes, but I'm willing to take it. It. Because he's so good at what he does.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Craig Miller]

And, Frank, you've got a big Choctaw gig coming up. We wanted to let you promote that.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, Choctaw Casino. Thanks for waiting till the very end of the podcast.

[Gordon Keith]

We forgot to do it at the beginning. Sorry, Frank.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, then I'm just going to beg you to do it on the. On the radio show while you will.

[George Dunham]

We will.

[Frank Caliendo]

FrankOnStage.com for tickets. It just went on sale. I believe it's in Grant, Oklahoma, which I believe is two hours from you guys.

[George Dunham]

Maybe I know where he is, man. There's.

[Frank Caliendo]

There's a.

[George Dunham]

It's called seven to five Pastor Red. It's right there.

[Frank Caliendo]

I don't know. I looked it up. It was about two hours from you guys.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like 90 minutes away. Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

Okay.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah, it's a great place. We do our show up there two or three times a year. Yeah, it's awesome.

[Gordon Keith]

Oh.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, I didn't realize. Okay. Very cool. Well, I see you guys at the super bowl or something. Yeah, Super Bowl.

[George Dunham]

Hope so.

[Gordon Keith]

Of course.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah, for sure. San Francisco this year. If you're there, let us know. We'd love to hook up with you. Yeah, I don't mean hook up with.

[Gordon Keith]

You, but Tom Brennaman described San Francisco. Didn't he describe that city? Okay.

[George Dunham]

Stay away from Grant. Stay away from it.

[Craig Miller]

I got him in trouble. Frank, thank you. As always, it's a treat to visit with you.

[Frank Caliendo]

Awesome. Thanks, guys.

[George Dunham]

You're fun of Frank.

[Gordon Keith]

Thank you, Frank.

[Frank Caliendo]

Funnest stuff, guys. Funnest.

[Craig Miller]

The great Frank Caliendo. Thank you so much for being with us. That does it for episode 18 of the Musers, the podcast. Don't forget to subscribe or follow us on Apple or Spotify, wherever you're consuming us. And don't forget, our entire back catalog is Also there available 24, 7, in case you missed any episodes. And a reminder that this week, George and Bob will bring you another special Dallas Cowboys weekly edition of the the podcast. Those drop every Thursday morning. Thanks to our producer, Peter Welpton, thanks to our special guest today, Frank Caliendo, and thanks to you for listening. Don't miss next week's episode when we visit with our favorite football friend of all time.

[Gordon Keith]

Time.

[Craig Miller]

It's gonna be fun. Not Terry, although he knows Terry and he's got a similar resume to Terry, so be sure you're with us next week for episode 19 of the Musers the Podcast.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yes, thanks for listening. And don't forget Frank Caliendo's show in Grant, Oklahoma, happening in March of next year. You can get tickets just search Frank onstage for pre buying your tickets now. The Musers the Podcast is a tired head production. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. soccer Podcast. Searching for an inside look at the people, stories and passion that fuel the state of soccer in America.

[Gordon Keith]

Who's going to be the key man for the U. S Men's national team?

[Craig Miller]

First and foremost, they need to win.

[Frank Caliendo]

There's something so fun about being the underdog. You're playing with house money almost. But what does this success mean for the future of you and soccer?

[George Dunham]

Oh, you're getting deep now.

[Frank Caliendo]

This is where soccer will come to life.

[Craig Miller]

The U.

[Frank Caliendo]

S Soccer Podcast. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.