John Moschitta, Jr.

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John Moschitta, Jr., also known as "Motormouth" John Moschitta (born August 6, 1954, in New York City), is an American spokesperson and performer best known for his rapid speech delivery. He appeared in over 100 commercials^{[citation needed]} as "The Micro Machines Man", 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,^{[citation needed]} with the ability to articulate 586 words per minute. (His record was broken in 1990 by Steve Woodmore who spoke 637 wpm^[1]^[2] and subsequently by Sean Shannon who spoke 655 wpm on August 30, 1995.^[3]) Raised with five sisters, Moschitta said that he needed to talk fast "just to get a word in edgewise."^[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", 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 (10/06/2008) crowned it "The Most Memorable Advertisement Ever".^{[citation needed]}Advertising Age ranked the ad number 11 among the top-100 advertising campaigns of the 20th century.^[7]^{[unreliable source?]}

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Other television work

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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 Jet Blue. 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^[5], and reprised the character in Transformers Animated.

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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.

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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

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
Transformers: Animated (2008-2009) - Blurr (voice)
"Adventure Time" (2010) Key-per (voice)
"Oddities" (2013) - Himself

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References

^ Mathews, Peter (1992). The Guinness Book of Records 1993. Guinness World Records Limited. p. 64. ISBN 9780851129785.
^ Callihan, Jon R. (Feb 2002). "Here This (Or Try To)". Popular Science 260 (2) (Bonnier Corporation). p. 76. ISSN 0161-7370.
^ "Faster Talker". GuinnessWorldRecords.com. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
^ "Timely Quotes". Daily News. November 14, 1984. p. 3.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Gervais, Marty (8 November 1986). "Motor-mouth led to his rapid success". The Saturday Windsor Star. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
^ Walker, Ben (6 March 1983). "Quick quip: Actor talks his way into Federal Express commercials". The Daily News (Kentucky). Retrieved 9 January 2013.
^ "TV Acres Advertising Mascots". Retrieved September 18, 2008.