A Team of Impressions

Growing up in the Olney section of Philadelphia, Joe Conklin often dreamed of becoming a sports announcer. Although he never did realize that dream, Conklin has played an announcer on the radio. Actually, he’s played several.

For fans of WIP Sport’s Morning Show, Conklin needs no introduction. Over the last 20-plus years, he has made a name for himself on the Delaware Valley airwaves with his dead-on impressions of local sports celebrities like Charles Barkley, Harry Kalas, Andy Reid and Cole Hamels. He will be bringing those voices and more to Warminster this Saturday for a performance at Church Hall (685 West Street Road).

“I basically lampoon the Philadelphia sports teams – coaches, players, GMs,” Conklin says. “I deal with the local sports fans, do some of my own characters in relation to that stuff, but the act is not limited to that. I do a lot of politics, national celebrities like Barack Obama. I also do some humor based on growing up in Philadelphia.”

Conklin, who currently resides in Queen’s Village in Philadelphia, graduated from Cardinal Dougherty High School in 1980 and went on to earn a degree in communication from Temple University in 1984. He bounced around doing various voices on morning shows (“voices and morning shows go well together,” he says), until a tape of his imitations wound up in the hands of Joe Wechter, a producer at WIP.

That led to a weekly appearance on an afternoon drive show with former host Jody Mac, and then, ultimately the morning show with Angelo Cataldi, where he signed on to become a regular in 1994. Other than a three-year stint at WMMR from 2003-2006 brought on by money disputes with WIP, the station’s morning show has been Conklin’s home ever since.

“It’s the perfect marriage with WIP, and working with Angelo is great,” Conklin says. “Nobody lays it on the line like that guy does, allowing himself to be so vulnerable and self deprecating.”

Conklin isn’t even sure how many voices he can do anymore. During his earlier years in radio, he kept a master list so he could send it to different stations, but he doesn’t use that much anymore. He estimates somewhere over 200 voices, settling on 215 as a nice-sounding number.

“I try to imitate just about everything and everybody,” Conklin says. “I meet someone, and then while I’m walking away, I’ll be talking to myself, trying to get them down. I talk to myself a lot.”

The landscape is constantly changing, and so Conklin is constantly developing and refining his imitations. He indicates it takes a few months to get a voice down, but usually he’s urged to introduce a voice as soon as he begins working on it.

“Angelo encourages me to unveil the voices right away; over the years, there’s actually been pressure on me to get the voice of the Eagles coach as soon as possible,” Conklin says. “I remember when Ray Rhodes arrived and [Rich] Kotite left; I had to get Ray down and it took a good two to four months. Then Reid came and there was another mandate. The voice evolves over time – it took me about six months to feel comfortable with my Reid voice – and that process happened live on the radio.”

But developing a voice is only the half of it. Once that’s done, Conklin needs to write comedy bits, whether it’s a parody song, a send-up of Cataldi, or an amusing interplay between Eagles announcers Merrill Reese and Mike Quick. Conklin says he takes an "observe and report "approach when shaping his comedy.

“I always trust what I see, because I just figure everyone else is looking at the same thing I’m looking at,” he says. “If I see something that’s underplayed, it’s not going to get as much legs as something else. Like the Allen Iverson press conference – that was in everybody’s living room, so I got a lot of mileage out of that. If you’re a diehard Eagles fan, you’re always looking to TV or radio for Reid’s post game. You’re enraged and looking for a Monday explanation, but it doesn’t ever come. I use that and run with it.”

Obviously, being in the sports business, Conklin has occasionally run into the very sports figures he lampoons. Although one might think it would be awkward, Conklin indicates that it’s often an exciting and positive experience.

“Surprisingly, most of them are flattered and think it’s cool. Cole Hamels is a great sport about it; he actually hired me for an event he held last year. Chris Wheeler’s got a bit of a beef about some of the stuff I do, so those relations are great, but, generally, these guys know what they’re in for with the jobs they have. It’s probably a little ego-gratifying too.”

Most comedians spend a good deal of time finding and then honing their “voice” – the stage personality that will distinguish them from the millions of other comedians. Although Conklin is a man of over 200 voices, he still finds a way to inject his own personality into all of his shows.

“I talk about growing up in Philadelphia, and I have three daughters, and some of my interactions with them make it into my act,” he says. “I talk about how when we used to go through the drive thru, and I’d order in different voices to entertain them. I do a routine about how nothing punches up a bed time story better than Jack Nicholson.”

After all this time in the business, Conklin says he’s still happy to be doing voices on the radio – something he loves in the profession he went to school for, all from the comfort of his hometown.

“Growing up, I wanted to be a play-by-play announcer. I wanted to be Harry Kalas,” Conklin says. “That’s not the road I took, and I went a different way in radio. But I “do” Kalas, and he’s been my most requested voice over the years. It’s probably my signature. So it’s still kind of a dream come true, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Conklin will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at Nativity of Our Lord. Doors open at 6:30pm. Tickets are $40 and cover the show, draft beer and a buffet, as well as a DJ before and after the show. Admission can be purchased in advance at www.nativityofourlordcyo.org/joeconklin.htm