00:00:08
Speaker 1: Life audio.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: Find inspiration as close as your phone. Download the Jesus Calling app and get started today for free. Look for the Jesus Calling app in both the Apple and Google Play stores.
00:00:24
Speaker 3: I grew up watching Sesame Street. It was one of the very first television shows that I had ever seen, and as a kid, I didn't realize that I was watching puppetry. The characters on the street were my friends. And actually to Sesame Street the birthday party when I was three years old and got to meet Oh Well you Kicking Muster. And when I was a little bit older, that's when I realized that puppetry was something that you could learn and something that you could do for other people and do for kids.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we'll hear from Megan Pypus, a puppeteer and ventriloquist known for playing Gabrielle on Sesame Street. She'll share how a childhood spent in her father's church letter to an opportunity at the Jim Henson Company, and how she since used puppetry to teach kids about God's love. You'll also meet her puppet, June Buck, who joins in throughout the conversation and occasionally jumps in to help tell the story. Next, we'll hear from legendary voice actor Jim Cummings, whose iconic performances as Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck, and countless other beloved characters have brought comfort and joy to generations. Jim reflects on discovering his gift at a young age, the surprising path that led him into voice acting, and the unforgettable moments when the work became a source of hope for people facing difficult circumstances. Let's begin with Megan's story.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: I am Megan Pifez and I am a puppeteer in finchiloquiz. I started puppetry when I was very young. Oh yeah, very young? What are you doing? I think I help you out? What did you think I need you? I know, yes, you're super shy. She's very shy. Guys, don't glorry. I'll talk to you.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: No, I can talk myself.
00:02:08
Speaker 1: Are you sure?
00:02:08
Speaker 3: Yeah? I was just telling them how I got into puppetry, and Eventulo goes, oh, I know, I know. How did I get into puppetry? And ventulas rare? She started talking to puppets because she didn't have no fans. No, that is not true too. I was very shy and I had a hard time opening up and sharing my voice. Yet she had a hard time talking to fans. So I started talking with puppets and I found my boys. I first started puppetry and Ventchulouism when I was ten years old. The church was at the center of my community. My dad is a pastor and my mom is a teacher, but she also worked in the church as a teacher and a pastor. So I grew up going to dance ministry, children's choir, and when I was ten years old, the puppet ministry. And that's how I was exposed to puppetry as an art form was through the church. There was a lady who taught vacation Bible school found a conference that taught churches how to do puppetry, and she assembled a group of teenagers and preteens together and I was one of them, and that was my first exposure to puppetry as a craft. As a kid, I was performing at schools, churches, festivals, birthday parties, funerals, nursing homes wherever I was asked, And there was a point when I realized that something was different when kids actually fell in love with you. Jim buck Reel. Yeah, there was a certain magic that I could see in Kids' eyes would completely light up and they would forget that I was there and they would fall in love with you. And at that moment, I realized that I was sparking the imagination of kids because they fully believed in you.
00:03:53
Speaker 2: Do you believe in me?
00:03:55
Speaker 3: I believe in you any anticip.
00:04:02
Speaker 1: Thank you.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: I grew up watching Sesame Street. It was one of the very first television shows that I had ever seen, and as a kid, I didn't realize that I was watching puppetry. The characters on the Street were my friends, and actually had a Sesame Street thing birthday party when I was three years old and got to meet oh Well and Cookie Master. And when I was a little bit older, that's when I realized that puppetry was something that you could learn and something that you could do for other people and do for kids. So after I started puppetry, I always aspired to the level of puppetry that Sesame Street did, but I never thought I would make it on the show. Actually never applied to our audition for the show, actually sent an audition packet to the Jim Hinson Company in twenty seventeen, when I was working full time in a completely other industry, but I still had hope that I could someday be a full time entertainer in children's entertainment. So I sent them this packet and I didn't expect to hear back because it clearly said on their website we are not accepting auditions, but I sent it anyway, and three years later, in twenty twenty, in a time where I at least expected to hear a response from anyone, I got a message from one of the producers at Sesame Street and said we had to stop production because of the pandemic. And I have access to the letters and packets at the Jim Hansen Company. By the letter that you wrote, I think you would be interested in learning our style of puppetry. And from there I was invited to join Sesame Street's mentorship program. And so I joined with just the hopes of learning from everyone on the Street and being trained by the best in the world who were on the show. And within three months of being in the mentorship program, I got the opportunity to audition for the role of Gabrielle, and so I've been playing Gabrielle since twenty twenty and it was absolutely incredibly fulfilling to play the role of Gabrielle. My first role and playing her was for CNN's town Hall on Racism as a response to the George Floyd protin, so my very first performance as Gabrielle was something incredibly meaningful for our communities and for our kids to understand what was happening in the world. I believe that God's timing is perfect and divine, and I knew very early that I had a calling to use those gifts to teach kids about God's love, but the timing for me to be able to do that full time didn't come until much later, and so there were times where I felt like maybe I should give up, or maybe this isn't the path for me. But I was so blessed to have a persevering spirit and people around me that would encourage me to keep going and to keep trying. And I'll never forget. There's a day just I felt completely down and felt like I wasn't walking in my purpose full time like I wanted to, and my sister sent me a Bible verse and I wrote it down and I pinned it on my wall along with my big dreams, my dreams for sharing hope through puppets to kids, the type of shows that I wanted to work on, and that verse was songs one, twenty six and six. Those who go out weeping, caring seed to sew will return with the songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. And so everything that I had sewed into the ground came back with so much beauty and joy and of course all the crazy, beautiful Sesame Street songs that we sang. And I also ended up doing two children's albums after I started working with Sesame Street, and it's been a beautiful harvest that came by waiting in God's defying timing. I released Cinderella Sweep and it was one of the most fulfilling projects that I've ever worked on. We recorded the album with over sixty girls across the US through a nonprofit called Saving Our Daughters that mentors girls and the arts and they pair them with different leaders of different industries, and so, as a god parent within the organization, I thought, what if we did a whole album with the girls and gave them a recording experience, and so we went to Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago and brought the girls into the studios. They learned how to record and sing together as a choir, and for many of the girls it was their first time ever singing or singing as a choir and the possibilities for what they could be just exploded. And surprisingly, after the recordings, the girls didn't say, oh, we all would be singers now. They were just beaming with excitement about anything that they could be. So in every city we line them up one by one and said what do you want to be when you grew up? And after the recording the girls would say, I want to be a CEO, I want to be a judge, I want to be a chief financial officer. I want to be a baker. So by teaching them something new, they were inspired to be anything. It is so important for young girls to see them represent it in the most diverse spaces and unique spaces. I'm in the career i am in today because I saw representation of women in a very unique field. I'll never forget the first time that I saw women ventuloquiz on stage singing songs and talking about God. And Bible stories. And when I saw that combination of puppetry, storytelling, and song, I immediately knew that I wanted to do the same. And I was so blessed to gain mentors that were women in the field and Christian ventuloquist that helped mentor me and guide me. And so I'm a firm believer in representation for young girls. And that's why we did Cinderella Sweep, because I was beneficiary of that support and it's now our turn to give it back. Oftentimes kids are told, well, I don't know if you can do that, or I don't if that's possible, And so as we get older, our world slowly confines into a space of what we see is possible and what the world tells us is possible. But what I loved about puppetry is it kind of broke a lot of those rules. It broke the walls of what's possible. I will be reading a part of Jesus' listeners reading. Can I read too short? Jing Book? You can wait, June book. You're still learning how to read that. I believe in amazing Greece. Okay, all right, I'll help you, ogy go ahead.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: Those are the words. Jesus listens.
00:10:43
Speaker 3: Good job you gotta ask me. Oh okay, January three.
00:10:47
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll hope you some more.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: Compassionate Lord, you tell me and your word, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I've drawn you with loving kindness. I didn't think it's good job. I can't draw. Let me just keep going. Okay, okay. And this means that you knew me and loved me before time began. Yet, for years I swam around in a sea of meaningless, the hell long long time, searching for love, hoping for hope. All that time, you were pursuing me, ready to embrace me in your compassionate arms. Oh it is so nice. I'll get you a hood. You need another hook yet, hey, oh thank you too. When the time was right, you revealed yourself to me. You lifted me out of that sea of despair and set me down on a firm foundation. You sang me a love song whose beginning and are veiled in eternity. You infuse meaning into my mind and harmony into my heart. I want to join you in singing your song. Please use my voice and whatever way you will as you call people out of darkness into your marvelous light and your brilliant name, Jesus a theen Go.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: If you want to see Megan and Junebug together on video, please visit the Jesus Calling YouTube channel, and of course you can tune into Sesame Street on PPS to see Megan's buddy Gabrielle. Stay tuned to Jim Cummings story after a brief message. With more than fifty million copies sold, the original classic edition of Jesus Calling is your daily guide to living a more peaceful life. Experience a deeper relationship with Jesus as you savor the presence of the one who understands you perfectly and loves you forever. With scripture and personal reflections, Jesus Calling is your year long guide to living a more peaceful life. Its price and size also make it the perfect gift for anyone who needs encouragement. Find Jesus Calling wherever you buy books. Our next guest is voice actor Jim Cummings, who is behind some of the most iconic children's characters, including Winni, Depooh, Checker and others, and now looks back on the first time he realized voices could become more than a childhood fascination and the surprising realization that his work was reaching people in ways he never imagined.
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Speaker 1: Hi, folks, Tim Cummings here.
00:13:28
Speaker 4: I am a voice artist and voice actor and a singer. And it's the kind of thing I've been doing since the age of five.
00:13:38
Speaker 1: Believe it or not.
00:13:40
Speaker 4: And I've been called the voice of your childhood. So I'll take it, and I'm glad to be here. I remember when I was about five years old watching the Jack Benny program and mel Blank, the Great Melt Blank, he was on there and he was a regular, and my dad says, you.
00:13:59
Speaker 1: See this guy. See this guy? I said, yeah, he goes.
00:14:01
Speaker 4: He's the one that does all that bugs Bunny and the Daffy Duck and the taz and YadA YadA that you watch on Saturday morning.
00:14:07
Speaker 1: He does the voices. And I was thinking, well, he doesn't have to stand in the corner for being strange. I'll do that. Everybody likes him, so I'll be him when I grew up.
00:14:17
Speaker 4: So I did my best. And you know, I was always in a lot of plays as a child, and I didn't want to be you know, the student prints or this and that. I wanted to be the troll that lived under the bridge or you know, something like that. And I was inadvertently doing research for what I was going to ultimately do when I grew up. You know, I started off. I made a demo tape that was Day one and it was basically a tape of I made it sound like a guy from India and a guy from Ireland sitting down to watch television and then flipping through all the channels, and I was both the guys and I was also all the TV commercials that they listened to.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: You know what.
00:15:00
Speaker 5: I was no county, wish to bailor there and hey we fake you every day.
00:15:06
Speaker 1: Record that was.
00:15:07
Speaker 5: Ever coworking and another one was a good guy kind of slapped Saint MAXI kind of took too many punches, cut ahead and you know, and I just went down the line with this one and that one.
00:15:19
Speaker 4: That was my intro into the business. It was about five years after I was in the business. Luckily, knock on Wood got my first job that I auditioned for and that lasted a year and a half, so that gave me a good hold. I was able to make a living and still I didn't have an agent, which is kind of unheard of. So uh, at that point I took advantage of the moment and got myself an agent, made a professional demo tape, and then one after another. I was there, fortunately when the Disney Afternoon was getting ready to take off, and so uh, I auditioned for this job and that job, and Bunkers and dark Wing and Jazz and Pete and Hondo Naka and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and all of these projects were starting up in Earnest and I was there. So I was very grateful for that. And now I'm here and I'm grateful for that. You look at the drawing, like dark Wing, for example, he's not super big, he's not super small. So a big giant boy who had a little pity place, you know, that wouldn't do. So you meet right in the middle, and then from there you inform it the vocal quality with his characteristics, like he's got a huge ego, he's very sarcastic, his boiling point is fairly low. You know, it doesn't take much to get him kicked off. And you put all those things together and there you have it. The terret that flaps in the night, Duck Wake Duck with Winnie.
00:16:54
Speaker 1: The Pooh and Tigger.
00:16:55
Speaker 4: They were established already from the early sixties. They made those first three shorts that they put together to make a feature length, and they won an Academy Award, and inexplicably they did nothing for the next twenty plus years.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: Which was fine with me because it gave me a chance to grow up.
00:17:17
Speaker 4: And then at one point I had my agent, and it was right when I was very like the first year or so I was in the business.
00:17:24
Speaker 1: They said, well, you know, they're casting for the whole hundred acre Wood and I said, oh gosh.
00:17:29
Speaker 4: So I auditioned for Eyor and Tigger and Pooh.
00:17:33
Speaker 1: And oddly enough, I thought I really nailed Eyor. And I called my agent.
00:17:39
Speaker 4: She says, oh, you think you nailed e Oh yeah, yeah. So I'm waiting and waiting, waiting. Ten days later, I get a folk up. She goes, well, I have good news and I have bad news. And I said, okay, what's the bad news. He goes, You're not Eyor. I said, you're kidding.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: Who's Eor?
00:17:52
Speaker 4: She gives, well, Peter Cullen And I said, well, Peter Culin, the Great Peter Culor.
00:17:56
Speaker 1: You know, you lose a job. To Peter Cullen, you didn't lose it. He just won it.
00:18:00
Speaker 4: He's good, he's it. And I said, so, what's the good news? She goes, well, you're winning the po and Tigger too. I went e or shmi or so I had to console myself with being Winny the Pooh and too. You know, Pooh's a good comfort. He's like comfort pood for the soul. Winny the Pooh is you know, you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. And he's got a lot of that sort of folksing wisdom that people rely on to get through tough times. I've just been very, very fortunate to be a part of that. I think the keyword with Winny the Pooh and the whole hundred Acre Wood Gang is sincerity. They're not tied to a greeting card line. They're not selling toys of any type. He's not even really selling honey. So it's all just the interaction between friends, and it's that bonding time and it's a celebration of the time in life when everything's magical, you know, when you're five or six or seven, and it's not a bad.
00:19:04
Speaker 1: Place to be trans imported too.
00:19:06
Speaker 4: He's just comfort food for the soul for sure. Twenty five years ago, I'd been contacted to perhaps speak with autistic little guy, and he wasn't overly reactive. He didn't interact with a lot of people. He was very much in his own world. God bless him. And his dad arranged through my agent to have me call on a weekend so that there was no pressure for work or whatever. And so I gave him a call and his dad said, well, are you the Rustolium guy And I said yeah, oh yeah, the TV commercially.
00:19:48
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker 4: He goes, are you the Valveline guy too, and I go yeah. He goes, wow, yeah, well he picked you out. I said, no kidding, Well that's pretty good. And you know the sun and we'll.
00:20:00
Speaker 1: Call him Ronnie.
00:20:01
Speaker 4: Ronnie's here and he wants to talk to you, I hope, and my his mother and I we have two video cameras up, so we're gonna see what happens if that's okay.
00:20:11
Speaker 1: They go, yeah, that's fine, that's right. You know, they couldn't see me anyway. I was on the phone.
00:20:15
Speaker 4: And so he gets on there and he goes, okay, good, now I think that you should do the voice of Bunker Steve Popcat, who is of course the first tune detective in Tune down in the Hollywood Tuned Division.
00:20:26
Speaker 1: Now, I think that you should do the voice of Lucky Piquel, who.
00:20:29
Speaker 4: Is of course his very first tune and he was the human kind of part to the Lucy who was in the Hollywood Toned Division. Well, okay, boll good, Now I think that you should do the organ Gride, who was in the third episode of The Mask, and I believe he was of Norwegian descent. Uh yeah, I said that though as a right. Good, Now, I think that you should do the voice. He did this for almost an hour straight, and so I finally I said, we know this is fun everything, but I'm just wondering, can I speak to your dad again?
00:21:00
Speaker 1: Can we get him on the phone.
00:21:01
Speaker 4: And he gets on there and he goes, holy crumb, you know I know what to say? I don't know, And I go, oh, yeah, I don't worry about it. Oh, well, hey, his mother wants to talk to you. So his mother gets on the phone and she's crying. She's crying, she's crying, and she says, I'm so sorry.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: We didn't.
00:21:19
Speaker 4: We didn't have any idea that this was we're videotaping this and and I just can't believe it.
00:21:26
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, don't worry about it. I mean I would have done the same thing.
00:21:30
Speaker 4: If I was nine years old and I talked to you know, mel blank or something like that, I would have done the same thing.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: She goes, oh, oh, I see what you mean. No, no, no, that's not it. Ronnie doesn't speak.
00:21:42
Speaker 4: I said, this chatterbox, this little guy that I couldn't shut him up. He he's the one who doesn't speak.
00:21:51
Speaker 1: She goes, we heard him when he was three. That was the last time we heard his voice. He was nine.
00:21:59
Speaker 4: And I went, Holy and she's crying and I'm just about crying.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: And I go, oh, my lord, getting back on this phone right now.
00:22:08
Speaker 4: You know, we chatted and talked and talked, and to this day he's a buddy of mine. He's out there in the world. He still has his cross to bear, but he's doing fine.
00:22:19
Speaker 1: Knock on wood.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: To learn more about Jim Cummings, visit jimcummingsworld dot com if you'd like to hear more stories about using our gifts to inspire others. Check out our interview with ray Lynn. Next time on the Jesus Calling podcast, we're joined by author, counselor and professor Chuck de Grot, who has spent decades helping people navigate pain and change. Chuck shares the truth of what it really looks like to reckon with the second half of our lives and the questions we may ask ourselves.
00:22:55
Speaker 6: What I thought I needed to chase after That usually comes with a lot of shoulds, and we've got to trace that story back off into early childhood. Where do those shoulds and oughts come from? And what was the deeper dream? What was the deeper longing the deeper vision.
00:23:17
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week we'll bring you stories from people who share their journeys of faith and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives. Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a review so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally, you can find encouragement resources and more on the Jesus Calling website at jesuscalling dot com,
Speaker 1: Life audio.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: Find inspiration as close as your phone. Download the Jesus Calling app and get started today for free. Look for the Jesus Calling app in both the Apple and Google Play stores.
00:00:24
Speaker 3: I grew up watching Sesame Street. It was one of the very first television shows that I had ever seen, and as a kid, I didn't realize that I was watching puppetry. The characters on the street were my friends. And actually to Sesame Street the birthday party when I was three years old and got to meet Oh Well you Kicking Muster. And when I was a little bit older, that's when I realized that puppetry was something that you could learn and something that you could do for other people and do for kids.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we'll hear from Megan Pypus, a puppeteer and ventriloquist known for playing Gabrielle on Sesame Street. She'll share how a childhood spent in her father's church letter to an opportunity at the Jim Henson Company, and how she since used puppetry to teach kids about God's love. You'll also meet her puppet, June Buck, who joins in throughout the conversation and occasionally jumps in to help tell the story. Next, we'll hear from legendary voice actor Jim Cummings, whose iconic performances as Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck, and countless other beloved characters have brought comfort and joy to generations. Jim reflects on discovering his gift at a young age, the surprising path that led him into voice acting, and the unforgettable moments when the work became a source of hope for people facing difficult circumstances. Let's begin with Megan's story.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: I am Megan Pifez and I am a puppeteer in finchiloquiz. I started puppetry when I was very young. Oh yeah, very young? What are you doing? I think I help you out? What did you think I need you? I know, yes, you're super shy. She's very shy. Guys, don't glorry. I'll talk to you.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: No, I can talk myself.
00:02:08
Speaker 1: Are you sure?
00:02:08
Speaker 3: Yeah? I was just telling them how I got into puppetry, and Eventulo goes, oh, I know, I know. How did I get into puppetry? And ventulas rare? She started talking to puppets because she didn't have no fans. No, that is not true too. I was very shy and I had a hard time opening up and sharing my voice. Yet she had a hard time talking to fans. So I started talking with puppets and I found my boys. I first started puppetry and Ventchulouism when I was ten years old. The church was at the center of my community. My dad is a pastor and my mom is a teacher, but she also worked in the church as a teacher and a pastor. So I grew up going to dance ministry, children's choir, and when I was ten years old, the puppet ministry. And that's how I was exposed to puppetry as an art form was through the church. There was a lady who taught vacation Bible school found a conference that taught churches how to do puppetry, and she assembled a group of teenagers and preteens together and I was one of them, and that was my first exposure to puppetry as a craft. As a kid, I was performing at schools, churches, festivals, birthday parties, funerals, nursing homes wherever I was asked, And there was a point when I realized that something was different when kids actually fell in love with you. Jim buck Reel. Yeah, there was a certain magic that I could see in Kids' eyes would completely light up and they would forget that I was there and they would fall in love with you. And at that moment, I realized that I was sparking the imagination of kids because they fully believed in you.
00:03:53
Speaker 2: Do you believe in me?
00:03:55
Speaker 3: I believe in you any anticip.
00:04:02
Speaker 1: Thank you.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: I grew up watching Sesame Street. It was one of the very first television shows that I had ever seen, and as a kid, I didn't realize that I was watching puppetry. The characters on the Street were my friends, and actually had a Sesame Street thing birthday party when I was three years old and got to meet oh Well and Cookie Master. And when I was a little bit older, that's when I realized that puppetry was something that you could learn and something that you could do for other people and do for kids. So after I started puppetry, I always aspired to the level of puppetry that Sesame Street did, but I never thought I would make it on the show. Actually never applied to our audition for the show, actually sent an audition packet to the Jim Hinson Company in twenty seventeen, when I was working full time in a completely other industry, but I still had hope that I could someday be a full time entertainer in children's entertainment. So I sent them this packet and I didn't expect to hear back because it clearly said on their website we are not accepting auditions, but I sent it anyway, and three years later, in twenty twenty, in a time where I at least expected to hear a response from anyone, I got a message from one of the producers at Sesame Street and said we had to stop production because of the pandemic. And I have access to the letters and packets at the Jim Hansen Company. By the letter that you wrote, I think you would be interested in learning our style of puppetry. And from there I was invited to join Sesame Street's mentorship program. And so I joined with just the hopes of learning from everyone on the Street and being trained by the best in the world who were on the show. And within three months of being in the mentorship program, I got the opportunity to audition for the role of Gabrielle, and so I've been playing Gabrielle since twenty twenty and it was absolutely incredibly fulfilling to play the role of Gabrielle. My first role and playing her was for CNN's town Hall on Racism as a response to the George Floyd protin, so my very first performance as Gabrielle was something incredibly meaningful for our communities and for our kids to understand what was happening in the world. I believe that God's timing is perfect and divine, and I knew very early that I had a calling to use those gifts to teach kids about God's love, but the timing for me to be able to do that full time didn't come until much later, and so there were times where I felt like maybe I should give up, or maybe this isn't the path for me. But I was so blessed to have a persevering spirit and people around me that would encourage me to keep going and to keep trying. And I'll never forget. There's a day just I felt completely down and felt like I wasn't walking in my purpose full time like I wanted to, and my sister sent me a Bible verse and I wrote it down and I pinned it on my wall along with my big dreams, my dreams for sharing hope through puppets to kids, the type of shows that I wanted to work on, and that verse was songs one, twenty six and six. Those who go out weeping, caring seed to sew will return with the songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. And so everything that I had sewed into the ground came back with so much beauty and joy and of course all the crazy, beautiful Sesame Street songs that we sang. And I also ended up doing two children's albums after I started working with Sesame Street, and it's been a beautiful harvest that came by waiting in God's defying timing. I released Cinderella Sweep and it was one of the most fulfilling projects that I've ever worked on. We recorded the album with over sixty girls across the US through a nonprofit called Saving Our Daughters that mentors girls and the arts and they pair them with different leaders of different industries, and so, as a god parent within the organization, I thought, what if we did a whole album with the girls and gave them a recording experience, and so we went to Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago and brought the girls into the studios. They learned how to record and sing together as a choir, and for many of the girls it was their first time ever singing or singing as a choir and the possibilities for what they could be just exploded. And surprisingly, after the recordings, the girls didn't say, oh, we all would be singers now. They were just beaming with excitement about anything that they could be. So in every city we line them up one by one and said what do you want to be when you grew up? And after the recording the girls would say, I want to be a CEO, I want to be a judge, I want to be a chief financial officer. I want to be a baker. So by teaching them something new, they were inspired to be anything. It is so important for young girls to see them represent it in the most diverse spaces and unique spaces. I'm in the career i am in today because I saw representation of women in a very unique field. I'll never forget the first time that I saw women ventuloquiz on stage singing songs and talking about God. And Bible stories. And when I saw that combination of puppetry, storytelling, and song, I immediately knew that I wanted to do the same. And I was so blessed to gain mentors that were women in the field and Christian ventuloquist that helped mentor me and guide me. And so I'm a firm believer in representation for young girls. And that's why we did Cinderella Sweep, because I was beneficiary of that support and it's now our turn to give it back. Oftentimes kids are told, well, I don't know if you can do that, or I don't if that's possible, And so as we get older, our world slowly confines into a space of what we see is possible and what the world tells us is possible. But what I loved about puppetry is it kind of broke a lot of those rules. It broke the walls of what's possible. I will be reading a part of Jesus' listeners reading. Can I read too short? Jing Book? You can wait, June book. You're still learning how to read that. I believe in amazing Greece. Okay, all right, I'll help you, ogy go ahead.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: Those are the words. Jesus listens.
00:10:43
Speaker 3: Good job you gotta ask me. Oh okay, January three.
00:10:47
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll hope you some more.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: Compassionate Lord, you tell me and your word, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I've drawn you with loving kindness. I didn't think it's good job. I can't draw. Let me just keep going. Okay, okay. And this means that you knew me and loved me before time began. Yet, for years I swam around in a sea of meaningless, the hell long long time, searching for love, hoping for hope. All that time, you were pursuing me, ready to embrace me in your compassionate arms. Oh it is so nice. I'll get you a hood. You need another hook yet, hey, oh thank you too. When the time was right, you revealed yourself to me. You lifted me out of that sea of despair and set me down on a firm foundation. You sang me a love song whose beginning and are veiled in eternity. You infuse meaning into my mind and harmony into my heart. I want to join you in singing your song. Please use my voice and whatever way you will as you call people out of darkness into your marvelous light and your brilliant name, Jesus a theen Go.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: If you want to see Megan and Junebug together on video, please visit the Jesus Calling YouTube channel, and of course you can tune into Sesame Street on PPS to see Megan's buddy Gabrielle. Stay tuned to Jim Cummings story after a brief message. With more than fifty million copies sold, the original classic edition of Jesus Calling is your daily guide to living a more peaceful life. Experience a deeper relationship with Jesus as you savor the presence of the one who understands you perfectly and loves you forever. With scripture and personal reflections, Jesus Calling is your year long guide to living a more peaceful life. Its price and size also make it the perfect gift for anyone who needs encouragement. Find Jesus Calling wherever you buy books. Our next guest is voice actor Jim Cummings, who is behind some of the most iconic children's characters, including Winni, Depooh, Checker and others, and now looks back on the first time he realized voices could become more than a childhood fascination and the surprising realization that his work was reaching people in ways he never imagined.
00:13:26
Speaker 1: Hi, folks, Tim Cummings here.
00:13:28
Speaker 4: I am a voice artist and voice actor and a singer. And it's the kind of thing I've been doing since the age of five.
00:13:38
Speaker 1: Believe it or not.
00:13:40
Speaker 4: And I've been called the voice of your childhood. So I'll take it, and I'm glad to be here. I remember when I was about five years old watching the Jack Benny program and mel Blank, the Great Melt Blank, he was on there and he was a regular, and my dad says, you.
00:13:59
Speaker 1: See this guy. See this guy? I said, yeah, he goes.
00:14:01
Speaker 4: He's the one that does all that bugs Bunny and the Daffy Duck and the taz and YadA YadA that you watch on Saturday morning.
00:14:07
Speaker 1: He does the voices. And I was thinking, well, he doesn't have to stand in the corner for being strange. I'll do that. Everybody likes him, so I'll be him when I grew up.
00:14:17
Speaker 4: So I did my best. And you know, I was always in a lot of plays as a child, and I didn't want to be you know, the student prints or this and that. I wanted to be the troll that lived under the bridge or you know, something like that. And I was inadvertently doing research for what I was going to ultimately do when I grew up. You know, I started off. I made a demo tape that was Day one and it was basically a tape of I made it sound like a guy from India and a guy from Ireland sitting down to watch television and then flipping through all the channels, and I was both the guys and I was also all the TV commercials that they listened to.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: You know what.
00:15:00
Speaker 5: I was no county, wish to bailor there and hey we fake you every day.
00:15:06
Speaker 1: Record that was.
00:15:07
Speaker 5: Ever coworking and another one was a good guy kind of slapped Saint MAXI kind of took too many punches, cut ahead and you know, and I just went down the line with this one and that one.
00:15:19
Speaker 4: That was my intro into the business. It was about five years after I was in the business. Luckily, knock on Wood got my first job that I auditioned for and that lasted a year and a half, so that gave me a good hold. I was able to make a living and still I didn't have an agent, which is kind of unheard of. So uh, at that point I took advantage of the moment and got myself an agent, made a professional demo tape, and then one after another. I was there, fortunately when the Disney Afternoon was getting ready to take off, and so uh, I auditioned for this job and that job, and Bunkers and dark Wing and Jazz and Pete and Hondo Naka and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and all of these projects were starting up in Earnest and I was there. So I was very grateful for that. And now I'm here and I'm grateful for that. You look at the drawing, like dark Wing, for example, he's not super big, he's not super small. So a big giant boy who had a little pity place, you know, that wouldn't do. So you meet right in the middle, and then from there you inform it the vocal quality with his characteristics, like he's got a huge ego, he's very sarcastic, his boiling point is fairly low. You know, it doesn't take much to get him kicked off. And you put all those things together and there you have it. The terret that flaps in the night, Duck Wake Duck with Winnie.
00:16:54
Speaker 1: The Pooh and Tigger.
00:16:55
Speaker 4: They were established already from the early sixties. They made those first three shorts that they put together to make a feature length, and they won an Academy Award, and inexplicably they did nothing for the next twenty plus years.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: Which was fine with me because it gave me a chance to grow up.
00:17:17
Speaker 4: And then at one point I had my agent, and it was right when I was very like the first year or so I was in the business.
00:17:24
Speaker 1: They said, well, you know, they're casting for the whole hundred acre Wood and I said, oh gosh.
00:17:29
Speaker 4: So I auditioned for Eyor and Tigger and Pooh.
00:17:33
Speaker 1: And oddly enough, I thought I really nailed Eyor. And I called my agent.
00:17:39
Speaker 4: She says, oh, you think you nailed e Oh yeah, yeah. So I'm waiting and waiting, waiting. Ten days later, I get a folk up. She goes, well, I have good news and I have bad news. And I said, okay, what's the bad news. He goes, You're not Eyor. I said, you're kidding.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: Who's Eor?
00:17:52
Speaker 4: She gives, well, Peter Cullen And I said, well, Peter Culin, the Great Peter Culor.
00:17:56
Speaker 1: You know, you lose a job. To Peter Cullen, you didn't lose it. He just won it.
00:18:00
Speaker 4: He's good, he's it. And I said, so, what's the good news? She goes, well, you're winning the po and Tigger too. I went e or shmi or so I had to console myself with being Winny the Pooh and too. You know, Pooh's a good comfort. He's like comfort pood for the soul. Winny the Pooh is you know, you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. And he's got a lot of that sort of folksing wisdom that people rely on to get through tough times. I've just been very, very fortunate to be a part of that. I think the keyword with Winny the Pooh and the whole hundred Acre Wood Gang is sincerity. They're not tied to a greeting card line. They're not selling toys of any type. He's not even really selling honey. So it's all just the interaction between friends, and it's that bonding time and it's a celebration of the time in life when everything's magical, you know, when you're five or six or seven, and it's not a bad.
00:19:04
Speaker 1: Place to be trans imported too.
00:19:06
Speaker 4: He's just comfort food for the soul for sure. Twenty five years ago, I'd been contacted to perhaps speak with autistic little guy, and he wasn't overly reactive. He didn't interact with a lot of people. He was very much in his own world. God bless him. And his dad arranged through my agent to have me call on a weekend so that there was no pressure for work or whatever. And so I gave him a call and his dad said, well, are you the Rustolium guy And I said yeah, oh yeah, the TV commercially.
00:19:48
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker 4: He goes, are you the Valveline guy too, and I go yeah. He goes, wow, yeah, well he picked you out. I said, no kidding, Well that's pretty good. And you know the sun and we'll.
00:20:00
Speaker 1: Call him Ronnie.
00:20:01
Speaker 4: Ronnie's here and he wants to talk to you, I hope, and my his mother and I we have two video cameras up, so we're gonna see what happens if that's okay.
00:20:11
Speaker 1: They go, yeah, that's fine, that's right. You know, they couldn't see me anyway. I was on the phone.
00:20:15
Speaker 4: And so he gets on there and he goes, okay, good, now I think that you should do the voice of Bunker Steve Popcat, who is of course the first tune detective in Tune down in the Hollywood Tuned Division.
00:20:26
Speaker 1: Now, I think that you should do the voice of Lucky Piquel, who.
00:20:29
Speaker 4: Is of course his very first tune and he was the human kind of part to the Lucy who was in the Hollywood Toned Division. Well, okay, boll good, Now I think that you should do the organ Gride, who was in the third episode of The Mask, and I believe he was of Norwegian descent. Uh yeah, I said that though as a right. Good, Now, I think that you should do the voice. He did this for almost an hour straight, and so I finally I said, we know this is fun everything, but I'm just wondering, can I speak to your dad again?
00:21:00
Speaker 1: Can we get him on the phone.
00:21:01
Speaker 4: And he gets on there and he goes, holy crumb, you know I know what to say? I don't know, And I go, oh, yeah, I don't worry about it. Oh, well, hey, his mother wants to talk to you. So his mother gets on the phone and she's crying. She's crying, she's crying, and she says, I'm so sorry.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: We didn't.
00:21:19
Speaker 4: We didn't have any idea that this was we're videotaping this and and I just can't believe it.
00:21:26
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, don't worry about it. I mean I would have done the same thing.
00:21:30
Speaker 4: If I was nine years old and I talked to you know, mel blank or something like that, I would have done the same thing.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: She goes, oh, oh, I see what you mean. No, no, no, that's not it. Ronnie doesn't speak.
00:21:42
Speaker 4: I said, this chatterbox, this little guy that I couldn't shut him up. He he's the one who doesn't speak.
00:21:51
Speaker 1: She goes, we heard him when he was three. That was the last time we heard his voice. He was nine.
00:21:59
Speaker 4: And I went, Holy and she's crying and I'm just about crying.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: And I go, oh, my lord, getting back on this phone right now.
00:22:08
Speaker 4: You know, we chatted and talked and talked, and to this day he's a buddy of mine. He's out there in the world. He still has his cross to bear, but he's doing fine.
00:22:19
Speaker 1: Knock on wood.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: To learn more about Jim Cummings, visit jimcummingsworld dot com if you'd like to hear more stories about using our gifts to inspire others. Check out our interview with ray Lynn. Next time on the Jesus Calling podcast, we're joined by author, counselor and professor Chuck de Grot, who has spent decades helping people navigate pain and change. Chuck shares the truth of what it really looks like to reckon with the second half of our lives and the questions we may ask ourselves.
00:22:55
Speaker 6: What I thought I needed to chase after That usually comes with a lot of shoulds, and we've got to trace that story back off into early childhood. Where do those shoulds and oughts come from? And what was the deeper dream? What was the deeper longing the deeper vision.
00:23:17
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week we'll bring you stories from people who share their journeys of faith and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives. Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a review so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally, you can find encouragement resources and more on the Jesus Calling website at jesuscalling dot com,
