11th Hour Online

Talking in circles: 11 Questions for Joel Godard
By Chris Horne
macon@11thhouronline.com

Recognize the smile, the wide-eyed expression and that voice. It’s Joel Godard, the mainstay announcer on the Conan O’Brien Show. As you’ll read below, Joel is man of many talents, interests and loves. A member of MENSA, he graduated from Emory University and was accepted to Emory Medical School, but he chose to pursue show business instead. His path to the bright lights of New York City started in Milledgeville, Georgia, where he was born, and wind through Macon along the way. And contrary to poplar belief, Joel doesn’t have “a thing” for young, Asian men. However, he does have a couple funny stories. – Chris Horne

1.) People see you on the Conan O’Brien Show and they have no idea about your roots in Middle Georgia. How much of your career actually started here?

I was working in Atlanta for a while and would come to Macon, where I also worked for WMAZ radio. Bill Powell ended up being my supervisor. I was there from ‘67-70 and then I went out to Channel 13 when it was on the Cochran Short Route. In ‘72 or so, I moved to Decatur, but I kept working at WMAZ. I was also giving flight lessons. I was living on about three hours of sleep a night. I was at WMAZ at 4:30am till midnight. Freelance was getting good in Atlanta, but I was checking around in both markets. I knew I’d have to pick one to survive. I ended up taking the job at WOTA in Atlanta, and let my instructor ratings run out. I gave my last flying lessons in January of 1975. Two or three years later, though, people from Macon were still calling me to fly them.

2.) Do you remember what your first big gig was?

When I was still with Channel 13, I got the Big Star Food Store account, and ended up with it for ten years. Now, I’ve probably preached to you before that life is a series of complete circles. I’ll give you two examples. My wife Tedi and I met and fell in love, and now we live four blocks from where she grew up. The other thing is this. When I was born, my father was manager of a Rogers Store in Sandersville. Rogers Store became Little Star; Little Star became Colonial Store, and I worked there. Many years later, Colonial Stores were bought out by Big Star, which was my account for ten years.

3.) Even though you went into show business, you graduated from Emory with a degree in Chemistry. How are these sides of you married?

I was a double major—Chemistry and Pre-Med. Although I can’t remember when I started wanting to talk on the radio. I can remember when I started being fascinated with foreign languages and flying. I have not made my first talent. Language is my first talent, entertainment is my second and flying is my third. I have made my life in my first love though.

Chris: Do you ever think about what would have been if you’d decided to be a doctor?

Joel: I would have made a bigger name in the world if I had stayed with Language. I would have been published, I believe. Again, though, what I’m doing is my first real love.

Chris: Seems like you’ve done okay though.

Joel: I’m very grateful things have gone as well as they have. My wife, Tedi, has been a big part of that. She worked during some very scary times in order to keep us here in New York until my career got back on track. She spent 15 years working in the Gift Building because she wasn't willing to be away from me, by going back out on the road to follow HER first love: acting, singing, and the theatre. This was after having co-founded the Southeastern Savoyards in Atlanta in 1980, a professional musical-comedy company, still very much alive today, at The Atlanta Lyric Theatre.

4.) You also served in the Navy, but I’m guessing that the outfit you wore in a recent sketch on the show didn’t come from your closet.

(Laughs) I have served as an officer in the Navy. I was telling them, “Gee, you can’t make me anymore than second-class petty officer?” Nah, I have the utmost respect for them. I think petty officers actually run the Navy. That was fun, but no, it wasn’t my old uniform.

5.) Jack McBrayer, who grew up in Macon, got his start in TV on the Conan O’Brien show. Was that a strange, small world moment for you guys?

Yeah I know Jack. He’s a great guy. He’s hilarious, and I’m glad that he’s doing so well on 30 Rock. He’s a very sweet, very nice guy. He plays yokels a lot—you know, clueless people—but he’s not. He’s a sweet, Southern gentleman. Once when I came down to Macon, I brought him back some RC and Moon Pies back, just to remind him of where he came from. Our set designer was Bobby Berg whose uncle was Len Berg of Len Berg’s Restaurants. And Al Lowe who owned WNEX is another one of his uncle. You talk about circles again. I kept them aware that I remembered my origins.

6.) You don’t sound Southern at all, which I know you can’t in your line of business. How did you get rid of that?

I just listened. When I was on the air I didn’t think about competition with Macon or Atlanta. I wanted to compete with New York. And you just couldn’t have an accent, any kind of accent. The guy who broke me in on the board, was Tony Senaker, from Chicago. Back then, you couldn’t have any accent. Now you can. It’s part of what your selling now. Back then you couldn’t have that. Someone said if you are going to succeed in this business you’ve got to lose the accent. I said, “What am I supposed to speak?” And he said, “General American.” I regret that. I’m sorry my voice didn’t ring quite as true to my grandmothers who were born in the 1800s here. I could have probably learned my “General American” as a third language. I was already fluent in Spanish. I could have just learned this speech as another language and kept the accent.

7.) When did your role on the show evolve into what it is now, with you portraying a parody of yourself?

Years ago, around 1980, I was in a movie called “Guyana Tragedy: the Story of Jim Jones.” So, they were running a rerun of this, and I guess Conan saw it. He went to the writers and said, “I was watching this movie, and I heard a voice that sounded like Joel. When I looked up it was him, but he had jet black hair!” So around then, I guess, he saw I could act. One of the writers came up with something called “Sad Joel”, and I was supposed to say all these terrible things on camera—“I can’t wait for the warm embrace of the grave”—but I said it with this stupid grin. It was her idea, her fault. It got me into all sorts of things.

8.) Do you ever hesitate at the skits they present you with?

My character is supposed to be really into Asian toy boys. They had me in Toronto one time marrying this guy. I even wore a wedding dress. I never hesitated. My wife would tell you that my feelings for Asian boy toys are just a joke. She once told someone that she was embarrassed about it all the way to the bank. I guess I feel the same way.

Chris: Has anyone ever approached you under the assumption that you’re actually “into” young Asian men?

No Asian guys, but when we were in Toronto, a very nice looking young gentleman asked me out at one of the functions. He asked me if I had a lover. I said, “Yes. Here she is right here.” Tedi said he looked a little crestfallen. 99.9% of our demographic knows it’s a joke. They get it.

9.) Have you and Conan and the staff discussed the move to replace Jay Leno in 2009? Are you going with him?

It looks like I might be going. I have let them know that I’m interested. I don’t know that they have made a final decision yet. It seems like Max is going. The other members of the band say that they haven’t heard anything.

10.) You came back to Middle Georgia for a visit a couple weeks ago. What was it like?

It was great. Milledgeville topographically is in sort of a bowl. Atlanta’s elevation is about 1,000 ft. Milledgeville is around 380 and Macon is about 460 or something, as I recall. To people who weren’t born there, it’s like breathing soup. When we were living there as children, we were on the second story of a house with a red tin roof. Neither my sister nor I remember having a fan, but even today, the heat doesn’t bother me. We came down with a friend of ours, and Tedi had been with me before. It’s rather scalding to people who aren’t used to it. She was bracing herself for that, and we were preparing our friend for it. For some weird reason Milledgeville was in the 60s most of the time. But you don’t want to make bets that that will happen very often.

11.) What do you try to see when you visit?

We haven’t been there much since my parents died and my sister died. But, well, for example have you ever been to the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds? People have a tendency not to visit tourist sites in their own town. They visit the sites in towns they visit. So I had never seen the Old Governor’s Mansion in Millegville. Tedi and I got to see that. And I recommend it; it was wonderful. They completely restored it. So much of it is exactly like it was. Even the carpeting in one of the rooms is an exact duplicate of the carpeting that existed there in the 1840’s. The company in England that made it still exists, and they actually had them make it. That’s how dedicated these people were to history. Also, I went to the high school division of Georgia Military College. They’ve totally redone that. They made a wonderful museum there on the first floor, the floor where I had chemistry. They’ve totally restored what we knew as the auditorium to where the legislature was held, and where the secession meeting was held. I recommend both tours to you. It was wonderful to get to see those things. We also got to see the two houses I lived in and so forth. It was really great.

Comments by: 11th Hour Admin on 02/28/2008

Great Article