美国国家公共电台 NPR A Top Impressionist, Melissa Villase?or Is Finding Her Own Voice On 'SNL'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The new season of "Saturday Night Live" debuts² tonight. Stand-up comedian³ Melissa Villasenor will debut¹ as a full cast member. She's been called an impression machine for impersonations of celebrities⁴ both real and imagined, including "Pokemon's" Ash Ketchum...

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "MY FAVORITE VOICES TO DO - MELISSA VILLASENOR")

MELISSA VILLASENOR: (Imitating Ash Ketchum) Hey, Pikachu, get back in the Poke⁵ Ball. Be careful, Pikachu.

SIMON: ...And Bjork.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "BJORK'S VLOG - MELISSA VILLASENOR")

VILLASENOR: (Imitating Bjork) I have a cat, and sometimes I like to follow her around and pretend that I am a cat, too.

SIMON: NPR's Elizabeth Blair has this profile.

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE⁶: This summer, Melissa Villasenor performed at Montreal's Just For Laughs festival. She greets her audience with a warning.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VILLASENOR: Thanks for being here. I hope you know what you're getting into. This is my voice.

(LAUGHTER)

BLAIR: Yes, that's her natural speaking voice. She thinks it sounds a little like Kermit the Frog, and she loves it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VILLASENOR: It makes me happy. I like waking up in the morning and hearing it and going, oh, yeah, it's going to be a good day.

(LAUGHTER)

BLAIR: Villasenor is Mexican-American. She's from Whittier, Calif. Her parents own a fencing company. It was her dad who turned her on to comedy - Rodney Dangerfield, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey. When she was 12, she started imitating pop singers to make her friends laugh. It worked. Here she is years later at LA's Laugh Factory.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VILLASENOR: I don't like how the singers sing on sports games. You know, they sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." They just want to show off their voice. You know, they're just (singing) oh, say can you see - oh, yeah.

It's like, stop it. You're annoying.

BLAIR: There's a seemingly endless amount of Villasenor's material online. She's got homemade videos, stand-up clips. There's her breakthrough performance on "America's Got Talent." She also does voices for animated⁷ characters.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "OK K.O.! LET'S BE HEROES")

VILLASENOR: (As Mega Football Baby) Hey, Rad, wanna play me in Pop-A-Shot?

IAN JONES-QUARTEY: She's just got really amazing range.

BLAIR: Ian Jones-Quartey is the creator of the Cartoon Network show "OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes."

JONES-QUARTEY: We can kind of just throw her at a situation, and she can create something really hilarious⁸.

BLAIR: Jones-Quartey first saw Villasenor a few years ago at a comedy club in LA. Then he started watching her videos online.

JONES-QUARTEY: Her Owen Wilson impression is legendary⁹.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "MY FAVORITE VOICES TO DO - MELISSA VILLASENOR")

VILLASENOR: (Imitating Owen Wilson) The other day, I was looking up at the sky, and it was so blue. And it was like, wow, hey, sky, you match my eyes. My eyes are blue, too.

BLAIR: Villasenor says she has affection for all of the celebrities she chooses to mimic¹⁰.

VILLASENOR: They really inspire me and I would say help me feel less alone and make me feel like they're my friend. Like, Owen Wilson, he's so soothing¹¹ and silly and peaceful, and that makes me feel comfort.

BLAIR: On "Saturday Night Live" last season, she co-wrote a sketch¹² in which she played a cartoon voice actor. Kenan Thompson played the director.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

KENAN THOMPSON: (As character) Then we have Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a bat.

VILLASENOR: (As character, imitating Julia Louis-Dreyfus) You know, I'm a bat, so yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

BLAIR: After it was announced that Melissa Villasenor would be joining "SNL," the triumph was somewhat diminished. Bloggers noticed that she had deleted some old tweets they considered racist¹³. She isn't the only comedian whose Twitter past has been scrutinized¹⁴. Old jokes by Trevor Noah and Sarah Silverman, for example, were deemed offensive when they resurfaced years later. Villasenor says those old tweets were her trying to be edgy¹⁵, but she doesn't regret deleting them.

VILLASENOR: I'm flawed like everyone else and, yeah, I just wanted to make sure I was perfect.

BLAIR: She says the online attacks left her numb¹⁶. She got some advice from more seasoned "SNL" cast members.

VILLASENOR: And they're just like, you got to - you got to get tough and get used to it.

BLAIR: With just one season under her belt, Villasenor says the "SNL" family has already taught her so much. She says when writers like Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell have worked with her on sketches¹⁷, they'll do impressions of her.

VILLASENOR: So they're just going oh, oh, oh (unintelligible) and so they're trying out different things in my voice, and it makes me so happy. Comedians¹⁸ - we just love picking on each other, and it just makes me feel at home.

BLAIR: Melissa Villasenor is trying to develop original characters for "SNL." She says that's much harder than doing impressions but that we might see one this season. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 debuts   

演员首次演出( debut的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He never really debuts the idea of taking money from his parents any longer. 他从此就再也没有认真起过向父母要钱的念头。
• This young soprano debuts next month at the metropolitan opera. 这位年轻的女高音歌唱家下个月将在纽约大都会歌剧院举行首演。

3 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

4 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

5 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

8 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

9 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

10 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

11 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

12 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

13 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

14 scrutinized   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The jeweler scrutinized the diamond for flaws. 宝石商人仔细察看钻石有无瑕庇 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop. 我们一起把甜食店里买来的十二块柠檬蛋糕细细打量了一番。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比

15 edgy   

adj.不安的；易怒的

参考例句：

• She's been a bit edgy lately,waiting for the exam results.她正在等待考试结果，所以最近有些焦躁不安。
• He was nervous and edgy, still chain-smoking.他紧张不安，还在一根接一根地抽着烟。

16 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

17 sketches   

n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概

参考例句：

• The artist is making sketches for his next painting. 画家正为他的下一幅作品画素描。
• You have to admit that these sketches are true to life. 你得承认这些素描很逼真。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句