{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","title":"Virtuoso voiceover artist Billy West pipes up with a podcast","description":"LOS ANGELES (AP) — Odds are, the voice of Billy West is ringing in your ears. Or rather, voices. A leading voiceover actor, West has spoken up for title characters in \"Doug\" and \"Ren & Stimpy,\" for latter-day revivals of Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Popeye, for a broad swath of the \"Futurama\" crew, even Red M&M. Now West has brought his virtuosic yackety-yak to his own podcast, speaking for himself on \"The Billy West Show,\" with five editions posted on his website and iTunes of a series he hopes to build on every couple of weeks.\n\nThe freewheeling format unleashes West with his vocal cast of thousands, accompanied by the singular voice of Jim Gomez, a veteran director-animator and, here, a stabilizing influence who keeps this whole enterprise from flying away.\n\nOffering a seamless 30 minutes or so of sketches, mock-interviews and other foolishness, \"The Billy West Show\" aspires to be \"ALMOST good college radio,\" says West, while it draws on classic comedy influences including the 1960s-era Firesign Theater.\n\nThe episodes are recorded in the repurposed garage of West's home nestled on a cozy cul-de-sac in the Hollywood Hills.\n\nWith the garage door opened to a perfect L.A. morning recently, West and Gomez are hashing out a future episode amid a crush of audio equipment, keyboards, vintage jukeboxes, a carpenter's work bench and a riot of random artwork on the walls.\n\nThe show gives West free reign to draw on his encyclopedic treasury of voices, dialects, sound effects and pop-culture references.\n\nWhen was the last time you heard a perfect imitation of Paul Harvey advertising Kava coffee?","author_name":"Latest Stories from The Associated Press","author_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4277258-latest-stories-from-the-associated-press","provider_name":"Audioboom","provider_url":"https://audioboom.com","width":480,"height":95,"thumbnail_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/16844031/600x600/c","thumbnail_width":600,"thumbnail_height":600,"html":""}