John Moschitta Jr.

John Moschitta Jr.

Moschitta Jr. in 2015
Born (1954-08-06) 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, singer and actor 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. He provided the voice for Blurr in The Transformers: The Movie (1986), The Transformers (1986–1987), Transformers: Animated (2008–2009) and two direct-to-video films.

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])

FedEx commercial

In 1981, Moschitta appeared on the ABC TV series That's Incredible!.[5] This appearance led to many other television offers, such as The Tonight Show and the Merv Griffin Show.[5] 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).[6] In the ad, "Fast Paced World",[7] 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. 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

He was a contestant on Pyramid in the 1970s, and later was a production assistant on Pyramid producer Bob Stewart's game show Shoot for the Stars in 1977, and then played two weeks of Pyramid as a celeb, one in 1983 and one in 1988. 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). In 1996, Moschitta was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the Emmy organization) for his contribution to outstanding commercials.

Moschitta also appeared in a number of movies and television shows; for example, he voiced the character of Blurr in The Transformers: The Movie,[5] and reprised the character in Transformers Animated.

Moschitta has been an announcer on two television game shows: Hollywood Squares and Balderdash.

In 2016, Moschitta appeared on an episode of SuperHuman as a part of the challenge, "Fast Car", wherein he rapidly explained the various prices of three different vehicles to contestant Mike Byster, who had to correctly calculate the sticker prices of each. The episode did not air until June 26, 2017.

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.[5] 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

Television

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Bellomo, Mark (September 2010). Totally Tubular '80s Toys. Krause Publications. p. 171. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  2. ↑ Mathews, Peter (1992). The Guinness Book of Records 1993. Guinness World Records Limited. p. 64. ISBN 9780851129785.
  3. ↑ Callihan, Jon R. (Feb 2002). "Here This (Or Try To)". Popular Science. 260 (2). Bonnier Corporation. p. 76. ISSN 0161-7370.
  4. ↑ "Faster Talker". GuinnessWorldRecords.com. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Gervais, Marty (8 November 1986). "Motor-mouth led to his rapid success". The Saturday Windsor Star. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
  6. ↑ Walker, Ben (6 March 1983). "Quick quip: Actor talks his way into Federal Express commercials". The Daily News (Kentucky). Retrieved 9 January 2013.
  7. ↑ "Federal Express "Fast Paced World" commercial from 1981". YouTube. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  8. ↑ Parish, Nick (2008-09-28). "The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  9. ↑ "Ad Age Advertising Century: Top 100 Campaigns". Advertising Age. Crain Communications. Retrieved 4 October 2013.

Further reading

Preceded by
Jeffrey Tambor		 Hollywood Squares announcer
2003–2004 		Succeeded by
N/A (series ended)
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