John Moschitta, Jr.
| John Moschitta, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 6, 1954 New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Spokesperson, singer |
| Years active | 1979 - present |
John Moschitta, Jr., also known as "Motormouth" John Moschitta (born August 6, 1954, in New York City), is an American spokesperson and singer best known for his rapid speech delivery. He appeared in over 100 commercials as "The Micro Machines Man,"[1] as well as in a 1981 ad for FedEx.
Moschitta had been credited in The Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Fastest Talker,[1] with the ability to articulate 586 words per minute. (His record was broken in 1990 by Steve Woodmore who spoke 637 wpm[2][3] and subsequently by Sean Shannon who spoke 655 wpm on August 30, 1995.[4]) Raised with five sisters, Moschitta said that he needed to talk fast "just to get a word in edgewise."[5]
Contents
FedEx commercial
In 1981, Moschitta appeared on the ABC TV series That's Incredible!.[6] This appearance led to many other television offers, such as The Tonight Show and the Merv Griffin Show.[6] Also, after seeing the show, Patrick Kelly and Michael Tesch, employees of the Ally & Gargano ad agency, hired Moschitta to appear in a FedEx commercial (when the package-delivery company was still known by its original name, Federal Express).[7] In the ad, "Fast Paced World", directed by Joe Sedelmaier, Moschitta played a fast-talking executive named Jim Spleen. The commercial garnered six Clio awards, including Best Performance–Male award for Moschitta and earned him the nickname "Motormouth". Turn-of-the-century polls named it the Most Effective Campaign in the History of Advertising and named Moschitta the Most Effective Spokesperson.[citation needed] The 40th-anniversary issue of New York Magazine (October 6, 2008) listed it as number one in "The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold".[8] Advertising Age ranked the ad number 11 among its "Top 100 Campaigns" in March 1999.[9]
Other television work
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In addition to his commercials for Federal Express, Moschitta completed over 750 television and radio commercials, including national campaigns for Minute Rice, Quality Inn, Northwest Airlines, Olympus Camera, Mattel, Post Cereals, Tiger Games, Continental Airlines, Burger King, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, HBO, Micro Machines, and JetBlue. The "Great Cable Comparison" spot for HBO, in which he played a dozen characters, earned him his second CLIO recognition and a Silver Medal from the International Film and Television Festival of New York (1985).[citation needed] In 1996, Moschitta was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the Emmy organization) for his contribution to outstanding commercials.[citation needed]
Moschitta also appeared in a number of movies and television shows; for example, he voiced the character of Blurr in The Transformers: The Movie,[6] and reprised the character in Transformers Animated.
Moschitta has been an announcer on two television game shows: Hollywood Squares and Balderdash.
Audio recordings
In 1986, Moschitta recorded a spoken-word album entitled Ten Classics in Ten Minutes. In this recording, Moschitta summarizes ten classic literary tales in one minute each. The collection includes stories such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby; Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind; and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.[6] Soon after, the team produced a second recording, Professor John Moschitta's Ten Minute University. In it, Moschitta delivered 60-second lectures on various subjects, such as comparative literature, physics, economics, psychology, and football. Both were originally released on audio cassette in the 1980s; they were released on CD in 2004, with accompanying books.
Selected filmography
Film
- Young Doctors in Love (1982) - Complaining man
- Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985) - Z'Gork (voice)
- The Transformers: The Movie (1986) - Blurr (voice)
- Going Under (1990) - Defense Contractor (as John Moschitta)
- Dick Tracy (1990) - Radio Announcer (voice)
- Blankman (1994) - Mr. Crudd
Television
- Nickel Flicks (1979)- Host
- Madame's Place (1982) - Larry Lunch
- Matt Houston (1983) - Myron Chase
- The Transformers (1986-1987) Punch / Blurr / Blowpipe (voice) (as John Moschitta)
- Saved by the Bell (1989) - George Testaverde
- Mathnet (1991) - Johnny Dollar
- Pinky and the Brain (1997) - Kurt Sackett, senior supervisor of the Hackensack Socko Kicky-Sack Sack Kicker Factory
- Hollywood Squares (2003-04) — Announcer
- Balderdash (2004-05) — Announcer
- Robot Chicken (2007-2012) - Elrond, Azmuth, auctioneer, NASA crew member, hostage, micro machines man, Trap-Jaw (credited as John Moschitta in one episode only)
- Transformers: Animated (2008-2009) - Blurr (voice)
- Adventure Time (2010) Key-per (voice)
- Oddities (2013) - Himself
See also
- Fran Capo, fastest female speaker
- Tachylalia, term for extremely rapid speech
References
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Further reading
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External links
| Preceded by | Hollywood Squares announcer 2003-2004 |
Succeeded by N/A (series ended) |
