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Curated playlist

American impressionists (entertainers)

  • Fred TatascioreAs of March 2, 2017, no one had voiced more superhero video game characters than Fred Tatasciore.
  • Amy PoehlerAmy Poehler plays a fictional city official who invented a holiday for the 13th of February, and real people now celebrate it. The holiday is Galentine's Day. It began as a single storyline in the second season of Parks and Recreation, and…
  • Jason SudeikisJason Sudeikis was born Daniel Jason Sudeikis on the 18th of September 1975, and his surname is pronounced suu-DAY-kiss. He was born with anosmia, which means he has no sense of smell. Comedy depends on noticing the details of a room, and…
  • Maya RudolphMaya Rudolph is an American actress and comedian, and one of the first places her name appears is in a song sung by her mother. Near the end of "Lovin' You", Minnie Riperton repeats the word "Maya". You can hear it in her performance of…
  • Martin ShortIn March 1972, Martin Short landed his first paid acting job. He played a plastic credit card, tucked inside a woman's purse, in a television commercial for Chargex. It was a speaking part for a piece of plastic, and nobody watching could…
  • Sammy Davis Jr.Sammy Davis Jr. once answered a simple golf question with a line that became his signature. Playing a round with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. Davis replied, "Handicap?" and then went on: "Talk about handicap. I'm a…
  • Eddie MurphyEddie Murphy opened Saturday Night Live on the 11th of December 1982 with a boast: "Live from New York, it's the Eddie Murphy Show!" The host booked for that Christmas episode, Nick Nolte, had become too ill to appear. Murphy stepped in.…
  • Seth MacFarlaneSeth MacFarlane was handed $50,000 by Fox and a strange deal. Make a pilot for a prime-time cartoon on a budget that barely resembled a real one. Most animated prime-time episodes of the era cost at least $1 million each. He later…
  • Robin WilliamsRobin Williams was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" by his high school classmates in 1969.
  • Kevin SpaceyLate in the 1995 thriller Se7en, Kevin Spacey walks into the story as the serial killer John Doe, and most of the audience had no idea he was coming. His name was missing from the opening credits. It was missing from the film's…

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