I catch you in the middle of any production or just full Little Demon Push?
At the moment, no. We are in the middle of our preparation Little Demon shows. I like working with demons. Lucy, Jake and I call the creators, Kieran [Valla], Darcy [Fowler]and Seth [Kirschner], the demons. And they are young and wonderful.
Apart from the family aspect, what made you want to play the devil?
Well, Lucy and Jake called me. We were looking for things to do, and he had these theater friends in New York who had an idea for a show and pitched it to me. And it turns out that Lucy was going to play the Antichrist, and they said, “You’re shoehorned in like the devil.” [Laughs] And I said, “Yeah, man!”
By the way, playing the devil is a very great thing, because the idea is that the devil has his problems in his spheres. His name kicked him out of heaven and there are so many complicated monsters, beast challengers. He has friends who make Tony Soprano look like a choir boy. And so this guy has a lot of obstacles. I’m a little rough around the edges, a little coarse, and have a lot of learning to do, but I’ve got a business to run. And I need my daughter. I only take her every other weekend, but I’m not a deadbeat dad — I’m doing my best!
We’ve already seen so many versions of the devil in pop culture. How did you manage to differentiate your man?
I wanted to make it like he’s good, nice, nice. I mean, he’s extreme, he runs the show, but he takes care of his people. So there’s a bit of mwah-ha-ha to it. But people have always blown this out of proportion when it comes to the devil. Look at yourself! Do you want to see a devil? Look in the mirror baby! [Laughs] Well, let’s not say too much Lee Strasberg here, but why not?
You’ve had so many memorable voice credits: Space Jam, Hercules, Look who is talking. Do you think there’s something specific about your voice that resonates with people?
And I did The Lorax! It was so much fun. Philoctetes at Disney’s Hercules, that was the best, i had to sing a song. It’s really interesting. I’ve always had this thing about my voice where if you were in the back room getting dressed to go out and a bunch of friends come in and they’re like, “Hey, I’m here,” I’m the one they go to. , “Hey, Danny!” Even if they haven’t seen me, they know the voice.
And a lot of it has to do with pronunciation. I have a Brooklyn accent because my father is from Brooklyn, but I also have a Jersey accent because I was born in New Jersey. And then when you go do It’s always sunny, you talk a little more like the people of Philadelphia, which are kind of like the people of Baltimore. I just made a movie, Poolman, with Chris Pine— directs and stars. I did some monologue and he says, “You’re starting to sound British.” I said, “What the hell do you want from me? [British accent] It’s not British. [Baltimore accent] He’s from Baltimore, I’m from the lower coast. [Jersey accent] I’m from New Jersey!” Anyway, it was funny.
