When Tom Kenny was growing up as one of five kids in East Syracuse, New York, he never dreamed that he would end up providing the voice for one of the most famous and recognizable cartoon characters in the last 20 years—SpongeBob SquarePants.
Prior to becoming the voice for SpongeBob, though, Kenny was expecting, for a number of years at least, to make his career as a stand-up comedian. Which is ironic because he says, “I was too shy to be the class clown. I was the class clown’s writer.”
“I always characterize it as the shy show-off,” explains Kenny. “I was always funny to a select group of friends, but I wasn’t like the class clown with the lampshade on my head.”
No, that would have been Kenny’s best friend, the man whom you know today as Bobcat Goldthwait. They were both bad at sports and good at being funny. That’s probably one reason why they’re still friends to this day.
For about eight years, Kenny made his living performing stand-up comedy around the country. “I enjoyed it while I was doing it. The road comic thing was fun,” says Kenny. He admits, though, that he didn’t think he quite had the personality type that flourishes at it.
That’s where the voices come in.
From the time he was a little kid, Kenny was aware of the voice artists of the time—Mel Blanc, June Foray, Stan Freberg, and the like. When animation exploded in the 1980s, and there were a lot more cartoons looking for voice artists, Kenny got involved. While he had a few animation gigs beforehand, his first series was “Rocko’s Modern Life” for Nickelodeon. “I was recommended for it by Carlos Alazraqui, who was also a Bay Area stand-up comic like me and wound up being the voice of Rocko,” says Kenny. Joe Murray, the show’s creator, chose Kenny to be on it.
Another guy working on “Rocko’s Modern Life” was Steve Hillenburg. Kenny says that Hillenburg was also just getting his feet wet in the animation business. And a few years later, he would go on to create a character that would change Kenny’s life: SpongeBob SquarePants.
Even though Kenny is the voice of SpongeBob (and the voice of Gary the Snail on the show), he still provides voices for a number of other series. Earlier this year, his daily schedule was as follows: Monday, “Miles from Tomorrowland” for Disney; Tuesday, “Adventure Time,” for Cartoon Network; Wednesday, SpongeBob SquarePants, and “The Fresh Beat Band,” both for Nickelodeon; Thursday, “Uncle Grandpa” for Cartoon Network and “Brickleberry” for Comedy Central.
“That’s just a very typical week for me,” quips Kenny. He also provides voices for his characters’ products like talking toys and for video games as well. “I was so busy working, I didn’t realize how prolific I am.” Kenny also does serious work such as voicing a commercial for Honda.
“I get to do SpongeBob, the biggest cartoon in the world, and then I can do these other kinds of weird, oddball things. Some of them become big and popular, and some of them won’t. But there’s always something new to do,” says Kenny. He’s also gotten to voice some iconic characters he remembers from growing up such as Bullwinkle, Elroy Jetson, and Rabbit in “Winnie the Pooh.”
One thing that Kenny loves about being a voice artist is that folks usually don’t recognize him. “The fact that you can be a part of the pop culture fabric, but invisible is great,” says Kenny. “You can be ubiquitous and invisible at the same time, which really is the best of both worlds, certainly for me. It’s like you get to be in shows that are popular and big and have a lot of viewers and a fan base, but your life belongs to you. When you’re out walking around in the world, your life belongs to you.”
“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” is scheduled to be released on DVD and Blu-ray June 2, 2015.
Michele “Wojo” Wojciechowski is the award-winning author of the humor book Next Time I Move, They’ll Carry Me Out in a Box, writer of the award-winning humor column, Wojo’s World®, and a not-yet award-winning stand-up comic. Like Kenny, Wojo has been so busy writing that she didn’t realize how prolific she is. For more Wojo and lots of funny stuff, check out her website at www.wojosworld.com.
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