Check Out Jim Meskimen’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Meskimen.

Hi Jim, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was raised in a household with a single mom who was a working actress. My dream was to become a cartoonist, like Al Hirschfield or Paul Conrad, or one of those guys who illustrated MAD magazine. I drew constantly all of my childhood. Early on, I discovered that I was equally interested in the performing arts, including voice work.

I did plays in high school and college and was under a lot of self-imposed pressure to choose between acting and the visual arts, which I also continued to practice; I lived in Spain for almost two years studying realist oil painting with a Spanish master.

Eventually, I had an epiphany and decided to move to New York to pursue acting full-time, as it was a more social art form that I felt would lead to a more satisfying existence.

For several years I auditioned and trained in acting and improv while working days as a cartoonist/illustrator. I was a full-time character designer for Rankin/Bass and created designs for characters, weapons and vehicles for the original Thundercats animated show.

After about two years in New York, I was able to quit working as an illustrator and act full-time in TV commercials and live theater with the improv group Interplay. I also did voiceovers for TV ads, some animation, and a lot of radio.

In 1993, after ten years in New York City, married and with an infant daughter, I moved back to my hometown to continue to work in television. My first real job in TV was on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as Will Smith’s Western Philosophy teacher…

Since that time, I have done a wide variety of jobs on commercials, TV series, animated shows and video games, and a long list of other curious assignments. There is practically no legitimate job in acting that I haven’t done at least once, except perhaps opera.

Today I am featured in the AppleTV Plus series, The Big Door Prize, where I play the father of the lead, Chris O’Dowd.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My struggles have not been too tremendous, as I was raised in a middle-class environment in a peaceful area in LA. My parents separated and divorced when I was eight, so that was a source of insecurity.

As well, like many in my generation, I had a period when I relaxed my attitude about self-preservation and consumed drugs that did nothing to bring order to my thoughts. I think of those years as a period of wasted opportunities and an unnecessary postponement of a productive life.

Luckily, with the help of Scientology, I was able to set myself right and get busy with a happy life that I have found to be very fulfilling and pleasant, without the use of drugs.

I don’t think any of us really exist without struggle, and I like a good struggle as much as the next fellow. But wasteful, foolish struggle, when it is so easily avoided, does strike me as unnecessary and out-of-date.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m most happy when I am bringing some joy to audiences onstage. In my Jimpressions show, of which there have been many iterations, I use my talents as an impressionist to create the illusion that other people are suddenly occupying my body. Audiences are very receptive to that, and their laughter is a great reward.

My ability to do impressions begins with an affinity for the person or celebrity I am imitating; I want to see if I can “be” them, as any actor does, and then present that to other people. When they recognize who I am being, they experience something that brings them joy, and the full circle of affinity is completed.

If there is anything that sets me apart from others with this skill, it’s that I honestly try to depict the viewpoint of my subject, to be them honestly as possible, not just from a technical standpoint, and to render something that is artful and also true.

I don’t focus on using my skills to lampoon or ridicule the figures that I imitate; I do it to enjoy their persona.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
My industry of acting in general and voice acting in particular is going to go thru some rather chaotic changes, and as I write this, AI is already disrupting the whole of my field. However, I am secure in the belief, however self-serving, that there will always be a place for live performers with a distinct point of view and something interesting to say. God knows where we will be in ten years! I hope to still be doing what I do that audiences appreciate and get some relief from.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jimmeskimen.com
• Instagram: @jimpressions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063491981026
• Twitter: @jimrossmeskimen
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMEV7kNfLED3O_LqNNDNjAA
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jimmeskimen