Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
I first started imitating Mike Judge’s characters voices toward the end of 1993 I was 12 years old and in the 7th grade, Middle School. I felt like a ball of wet toilet paper being thrown against the wall. I struggled with Social Anxiety and I had virtually no Self Esteem, I lacked confidence. I wanted to be funny but I was too weird and kind of a fat kid. I was spoiled and immature, I knew nothing of the world outside of my suburban neighborhood and elementary school.
For the first half of the 7th Grade in 1993 I was bullied, I lived in fear, I thought that everyone in Middle School hated me, I even got kicked in the face once. I was in a fight, me and the kid I was fighting fell to the ground and his friend kicked me in the face, have you ever been kicked in the face? It hurts.
I was one of those kids who mapped out their day through the halls so that they did not run into their bullies, clinging to a small group of friends that I constantly worried would drop me
That is when I discovered Beavis and Butt Head.
I found comfort in Beavis and Butt Head to me they were just like me at the time but they were not afraid to laugh at everything they saw, they made a joke about everything that they saw and it did not matter if the world wasn’t laughing with them, they just laughed at the world around them, I wanted to be them.
I started trying to imitate their voices and their laugh, I absorbed their personalities, it was like Mike Judge’s sense of humor was my sense of humor and I accepted it because it all made sense.
I did not imitate what they did. I only imitated their voices and humor.
I stared imitating them around my friends and at School, it made people laugh. Imitating Beavis and Butt Head helped me restore my confidence, and because it restored my confidence I kept on imitating them at home and at school.
Through my impression of Beavis and Butt head I felt that I could express myself and so I began constantly practicing my impression to the point were I rarely used my real voice.
I remember my first “Hater.”
I was on a Field Trip to see a Play for School and one of my Classmates turned to me and said “You’re so stupid you don’t sound anything like Beavis and Butt Head, you don’t sound anything like them. You’re pathetic!”
He continued to lay into me pretty thick, I don’t remember all of what he said but I always remember those words and the expression on his face. It was pure hatred in response too me constantly trying to talk like Beavis and Butt Head with a slight sense of sympathy for me as if he were disappointed that I would not give it up..
He probably knew that I could not stop myself from doing it because it was the only place where I felt comfortable mentally.
I did not stop imitating Beavis and Butt Head for almost a year, I did not stop until I met one of my lifelong Friend Mike, who would eventually become more like a brother to me.
We would talk on the phone for hours and I would only talk in my Beavis and Butt head voices. Mike was one of the “Cool Kids” at School and he was paying attention to me and I did not want to disappoint him, I often wonder if he never said anything about me not using my real voice because he appreciated it or if he just wanted to see how long I would keep talking like Beavis and Butt Head.
I eventually stopped talking like Beavis and Butt head all of the time but my appreciation for Mike Judge’s style of humor never went away.
Mike and I are still friends to this day.
When “King of the Hill” came out in 1997, I was 16 and a junior in High School, my Beavis and Butt Head obsession had faded but still remained an important part of me. I watched “King of the Hill” with a skeptical filter at first but I kept watching until my interest faded.
Life went on and I caught an episode here and there.
Then in the early 2000’s when DVD’s were at its peak I rediscovered “King of the Hill” and that is where my obsession began.
Like I found comfort in Beavis and But Head I found comfort in King of the Hill, I had seasons 1-7 on DVD and I watched them obsessively.
Eventually I attempted to imitate Hanks voice and it came so naturally to me that I surprised myself.
When King of the Hill became available on Netflix I became addicted, I couldn’t eat or sleep unless I was watching king of the Hill, it became part of my daily routine. When Netflix got rid of King of the Hill I began DVRing it off of Adult Swim, I called it my “stash.”
Then my wife gifted me the entire series on Apple T.V. and I was able to stream my own play list of King of the Hill.
I had been watching King of the Hill consistently every day for over 25 years but I don’t consider myself an expert on “King of the Hill” I am just a fan.
I did my voice impression for only friends and family but on September 16th 2023 all of that changed.
I was at a low point in my life, I was experiencing financial hardships and my Fathers health was declining, he was a Marine and a Vietnam Vet. He had been battling Cancer for years and the inevitable loomed over my family and it only grew thicker as the days passed.
As my Dads time ran out, I felt like my time to make him proud of me was running out.
I always wanted to be a Comedian and Actor, my Dad always supported me.
I won an award in Highschool for a Comedic student film that I made and went to Community College for Journalism and Acting, I dropped out.
Years later I went back to School, but not a Major School it was more like a Vocational School for local Radio and Television.
Although I knew that it was offer me any legitimate credentials unless I paid fro them I I went through it and I turned a longshot chance into a 6 year run as a Sound Board Operator, a Producer, Youtuber, Blogger, Podcaster and Mascot for special occasions.
At the same time I was performing Stand-Up Comedy at Open Mics and acting local film productions.
Nothing had ever worked out for me, I had never succeeded by any “official” standards.
On September 16th 2023 I decided to reveal my Hank Hill impression to the world.
The local Halloween Stores had opened up for the season and I had the idea of finding a cheap pair of fake glasses and making a video of me doing “the voice” dressed as Hank Hill just to see how people would react.
I took my 11 year old son to the Halloween Store and let him look around and as he did I looked for a cheap pair of fake glasses and I found one for 7.99.
Later that night I wrote the first two episodes, I did not want to just quote King of the Hill, I wanted to Cosplay Hank Hill reacting to Modern Day Culture..
Hank reminded me of my Father and Grandfather on my mothers side, I often wished that I could be Hank Hill because if I were it would make both my Mother and Father proud.
I knew how to write Hank to the best of my ability, I knew that I could look like him and sound like him, all I needed to complete the assumable was that pair of fake 7.99 glasses.
That night I wrote the first two episodes of Propane Man Confidential.
My idea was that Dale was secretly recording Hank, that is why I don’t look into the camera in the first series of videos.
Out of respect for Mike Judge I made sure that I was true to the character that he created in what I said, I also decided that I would not talk about other characters in the show outside of what the show had already established.
I would also not talk about Politics, because I knew that I was just a Cosplayer impersonating a character created bye Mike Judge. I did not want to recreate Hank Hill or “give my own spin” on the character, I wanted to pay tribute to Mike Judge and show him how much I have learned from him by showing him my impression.
I chose “Social Media Challenges” and “Unreal Meat” because I thought that those topics were trending enough that my videos would be relevant. The next day I went to my parents house where I knew that there was a wooden fence that I could stand in front of, I grabbed an empty can Ginger Ale for a prop and I made my son record me on my phone, I did not even bother to comb my hair. I just wanted to shoot the video, I pretty much did it on a whim…
And there you have it, I did not start making these videos because I had some kind of statement I wanted to make, I had no real plan or goal. I just wanted to see what would happen if I did it.
American A.I. 