Impressionist Jim Meskimen Performs Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8PGBnNmPgk

Impressionist Jim Meskimen performs Clarence’s speech from William Shakespeare’s Richard III in a bevy of celebrity voices from Harvey Keitel to Woody Allen to Droopy Dog. This has been making the rounds, but I noticed it via an approving tweet from Craig Ferguson (@craigyferg), who Meskimen impersonates in the video.

Meskimen is an American actor and improviser who has appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including the British Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and is also a voice actor for JibJab animations, amongst many others. He’s the son of actress Marion Ross, who played Mrs. Cunningham on Happy Days (Ron Howard is another voice in his Shakespeare recitation).

He has a YouTube channel that includes a series of short videos called “Elbows On The Table”, parodies of a 1950’s interview show. They are pretty funny, improvised shorts. Though it’s surprising to learn that they are actually promos for the fiction of L. Ron Hubbard. Each one features characters from one of his stories, and they are sponsored by Galaxy Press, the publishers of Hubbard’s fiction. Here’s one:

http://youtu.be/nZNMbrDKmvU