Stand-up comedy At the age of nineteen, LaMarche took his high school act to an
open mic night in
New York City, performing to a reaction in which, as he describes, "they just totally ignored me". This reaction was coupled with the criticism LaMarche received from fellow Canadian comedians who LaMarche describes as discouraging him from pursuing a career outside of Canada. He returned to Canada, continued to do stand-up, and also started a career in voice work. Three years later, LaMarche moved to
Los Angeles to further his stand-up career. This move, LaMarche says, would always be something he regretted doing instead of moving to New York: "... in retrospect, I thought it was a mistake. I think that a couple of years in New York would have made me a stronger comedian." Over the next five years, LaMarche's career progressed, playing comedy clubs throughout the US, with several appearances on
The Merv Griffin Show and
An Evening At The Improv. In spite of such interest, LaMarche believed that, while his impersonations and stage presence were professional, he needed to develop funnier comedy material. LaMarche was asked to be part of the 1985
HBO production
Rodney Dangerfield Hosts the 9th Annual Young Comedians Special, on which
Bob Saget,
Rita Rudner,
Louie Anderson,
Yakov Smirnoff also appeared, and included the breakout first appearance of
Sam Kinison. Although he was received and reviewed favourably, in looking back on his own performance in that special, LaMarche believed he was "probably about five years away from going from being a good comedian to being a great comedian" and being the "only impressionist that actually comes from somewhere". During his standup career, LaMarche opened for such acts as
Rodney Dangerfield,
George Carlin,
Howie Mandel,
David Sanborn, and
Donna Summer, usually in the main showrooms of
Las Vegas and
Atlantic City. On March 9, 1987, LaMarche's father was murdered, shot to death by a lifelong friend in a Toronto hotel lobby in front of dozens of witnesses. This sent LaMarche into
depression and
alcoholism for the next two years, effectively stalling his stand-up career. After getting
sober on January 20, 1989, LaMarche returned to stand-up comedy in the early part of 1990. As he was regaining self-confidence, his 18-year-old sister was killed in a car accident in September of that year. At this point, though he remained sober, LaMarche decided to retire from stand-up comedy. He said, "at that point I just threw up my hands and went, 'Oh, that's it. I don't have any funny left in me. I'm done'". He also was a regular voice performer on Toronto's pioneering cult TV hit
The All-Night Show, which debuted in September 1980; a continuing feature had the lips of LaMarche inserted into a photograph of a famous person, and having LaMarche imitate that person to deliver a show promo or announcement. When LaMarche left the show in 1981,
Jim Carrey was recruited to take his place as a voice actor.
Television (left) with LaMarche in
Dragon Con, 2021. It took a few years after his 1981 move to Los Angeles for LaMarche to establish himself in the American voiceover industry, which he initially pursued as a side endeavor during his full-time standup comedy career. LaMarche began on
Inspector Gadget with that show's second season in 1985, and went on to
Dennis the Menace,
Popeye and Son and
The Real Ghostbusters where he played
Egon Spengler. After
The Real Ghostbusters, LaMarche became a regular mainstay of the voiceover industry, appearing in such shows as
Tiny Toon Adventures,
GI Joe,
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series,
Taz-Mania, ''
Where's Waldo, The Little Mermaid, Batman: The Animated Series, and Bonkers before landing perhaps his most recognized role in 1993 as The Brain on Animaniacs and later its spin-off show Pinky and the Brain. Following this, LaMarche worked on The Critic, Freakazoid!, and The Tick before then reprising his role of Egon in Extreme Ghostbusters. The stretch of two years after this saw LaMarche portray characters in such shows as Hey Arnold! as Big Bob Pataki, Queer Duck, and The Chimp Channel. During this time LaMarche became the voice actor for Mortimer Mouse, whom he voiced in the television series Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse. It was at this time, 1999, that LaMarche began work on Futurama, and since Futurama
, he has continued to work steadily in television, including guest roles on The Simpsons (where he once again parodied Orson Welles). His most recent regular role came as Hovis the butler on the Nickelodeon series Catscratch. LaMarche was the voice of antagonist Father in Codename: Kids Next Door'' and was also the voice of Victor in Playhouse Disney's
Handy Manny 2007 Halloween episode. He also played the voice role of Grumpy in the 2014 Disney XD series
The 7D, a reimagining of
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. LaMarche has done various voice work for many
Warner Bros. Animation and
DiC Entertainment cartoons. He also delivered the protracted belches for the "Great Wakkorotti" shorts on
Animaniacs, in which
Wakko Warner performed various pieces of music. After hearing his work on
Animaniacs, the producers of 2003's
New Line Cinema film
Elf hired LaMarche to perform Buddy's belch (for which he says he still receives residual checks). In 2011, LaMarche reprised his role as
Yosemite Sam in
Cartoon Network's new series,
The Looney Tunes Show, and its spin-off,
New Looney Tunes. LaMarche made several appearances in
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic where he voiced Chancellor Neighsay.
Pinky and the Brain LaMarche plays the character of The Brain in both
Animaniacs and
the spin-off. In creating the voice for Brain, LaMarche says he looked at a picture of the character and immediately thought of
Orson Welles, although the character was not modeled after Welles. Voicing Brain gave LaMarche the opportunity to make use of his signature impersonation of Welles. Many
Pinky and the Brain episodes are nods to Welles' career. LaMarche won an
Annie Award for his role as the Brain, and was nominated for an Emmy. LaMarche later used this accent to voice Father in
Codename: Kids Next Door.
The Critic While working on
The Critic, LaMarche once voiced 29 characters in one 30-minute episode. His time on
The Critic also afforded LaMarche the opportunity to once again parody
Orson Welles, this time after a video reading of a will. He also occasionally served as an uncredited fill-in for main cast member
Jon Lovitz as
Jay Sherman.
Futurama , on a panel for
Futurama Much of his best known voice work is from
Futurama where he voiced
Zapp Brannigan's beleaguered assistant
Kif Kroker, melodramatic soap acting unit
Calculon, the Nero-esque
Hedonismbot,
Morbo the news anchor, and
Lrrr, ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8, among numerous others. He has also done his
Orson Welles impression on the show, winning a 2011 Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Emmy for his portrayal of Lrrr and Orson Welles in the episode "
Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences". He won another Emmy the following year for the episode "
The Silence of the Clamps".
Heroes LaMarche acted, voice only, in the second episode of the hit NBC show
Heroes, "
Don't Look Back", as the villain
Sylar. His voice is heard in a recorded phone conversation on Chandra Suresh's answering machine. The role of Sylar was later played by
Zachary Quinto.
Film LaMarche appeared in many films, including dubbing the voice of Orson Welles over
Vincent D'Onofrio's on-camera performance in
Ed Wood;
Pepé Le Pew in
Space Jam; supplying the voice of the
Alec Baldwin puppet in
Team America: World Police, and reprising his roles from
Queer Duck and
Futurama in the
direct-to-video films
Queer Duck: The Movie and ''
Futurama: Bender's Big Score'', respectively. More recently, LaMarche was the voice of Mr. Big, the Tundratown crimeboss in Disney's 2016 film
Zootopia. His one on-camera theatrical film performance was in the 1981 Canadian feature
Funny Farm, not to be confused with a later Chevy Chase vehicle of the same name. The film follows the story of a young standup comedian's attempt to break into the big-time on the L.A. comedy scene. LaMarche played Dickie Lyons, an impressionist who befriends the main character, Mark Champlin. The film also starred
Howie Mandel,
Eileen Brennan, and
Miles Chapin. In
Mark Hamill's 2004 film
Comic Book: The Movie, LaMarche made a rare live appearance to be in the special features of the
DVD alongside
Pinky and the Brain co-star
Rob Paulsen. Among other gags, he re-enacted his impression of
Orson Welles' famous frozen peas commercial outtake.
Commercials LaMarche has also lent his voice to commercials. He voiced
Kellogg's Froot Loops spokesbird
Toucan Sam, the animated
Willy Wonka character in
Nestlé's
Willy Wonka Candy Company commercials, and the narrator for
Lexus commercials. He has also appeared as himself, doing the voice of
Popeye the Sailor for the
Long John Silver's restaurant chain in the early 1990s, reprising the role from the TV series
Popeye & Son. On 8 September 2018, LaMarche was featured in the commercial for the open world driving game
Forza Horizon 4.
Theme parks LaMarche provided the voice of
Yosemite Sam for the
Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure! dark ride at
Six Flags Over Texas, which opened in 1992. ==Personal life==