JN Entertainment
'What's
Up Doc?
Just Ask Mendi Segal.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
W
hat do the Beatles and Bugs
Bunny have in common?
New recordings featuring
Beatles music.
What brings the Bugs Bunny version
closer to some Michigan listeners? Men-
di Segal, 34, a former Oak Parker who
sings the part of the carrot-chomping car-
toon character.
Bugs & Friends Sing The Beatles, pro-
duced by the Rhino Records division of
Warner Bros., also plays up the voices
of Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Elmer
Fudd and Taz. Selections include "She
Loves You," "Hello Goodbye" and "With
a Little Help From My Friends."
"It's no accident that our album came
out at about the same time as The Beat-
les Anthology," said Segal, who has been
doing the Bugs Bunny voice since he was
a youngster. "Ours is in the children's sec-
tion of all the major record stores across
the country.
"I think Rhino Records wanted to ap-
peal to adults as well as children, but I also
think that primarily it's going to appeal
to children because kids are crazy about
the Warner Bros. cartoon characters."
Segal, who also has been a stand-up
comic and commercial announcer since
moving to Los Angeles 10 years ago, ap-
plied to do the Bugs Bunny voice without
knowing that an album was in the works.
"I put together a tape of Mel Blanc (the
late originator of the voice) and me last
June, and the people at Warner Bros. lis-
tened and invited me in for a reading,"
Segal recalled.
"I soon learned they needed a singing
Bugs and had called in singers from all
over. Some people could sing really well
but couldn't do the voice of Bugs; others
On Bugs & Friends Sing The Beatles,
Mendi Segal rocks with Daffy Duck,
Elmer Fudd and Taz.
The Riny Four ShIg Their Fab Rm.
could sort of do the voice of Bugs
"I was Reggie in 'Rude Dog,' " Segal rem-
but couldn't sing. I just gave it everything inisced. "Shortly after that, I was cast as
I have, and it worked out."
a couple of characters in 'Beetle Bailey."
Cathy Williams, national manager of
As Segal worked his way into enter-
media relations at Rhino, said the record- tainment opportunities, he accepted oth-
ing was made to target Beatle fans who
er jobs that would allow him scheduling
are now parents.
flexibility so he could go to auditions.
"We definitely expected a great re-
For several years, he was a substitute
sponse because the Looney Times char- teacher for Los Angeles schools, present-
acters and the Beatles are both so strong," ing a variety of subjects by using voices
Williams said. 'We made our initial mar- of cartoon characters.
keting push in late summer, when the
`They tell me I was the most requested
recording was released, and our sales in-
substitute in the system," Segal laughed.
creased 200 units a week after the 'An-
For almost a year, the Yeshiva Beth
thology' came out."
Yehudah graduate was one of four im-
Segal, the son of Sunny and Meyer Se- pressionists doing voices for Sid and Mar-
gal, got his show business start at Mark ty Krofft's puppets in a live Las Vegas
Ridley's Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, show — "Comedy Kings." Segal and the
where he did celebrity impressions dur- others backed up John Byner and Mick-
ing his hours away from studying jour- ey Rooney.
nalism and advertising at Wayne State
The voice specialist also did a four-state
University. After graduation and the tour to promote a Hanna Barbera educa-
move to California, his break came with tional TV show, 'Wake, Rattle and Roll."
a CBS cartoon series.
"I appeared in shopping malls, schools
and children's hospitals, talking for a ro-
bot that was 150 feet away," Segal ex-
plained. "The technology was incredible
because I could hear what the kids were
saying and talk to them with the robot's
lips moving exactly as my lips moved."
hi between doing commercials and try-
ing his hand at writing fiction and acting,
Segal has become Bugs Bunny for another
recording. He sings cowboy songs with
Herb Jeffries, who did many albums with
Gene Autry in the '60s. The CD should be
released this year.
"I had a personal treat a few years ago,"
said Segal, who also uses his talents to do
benefits for California synagogues.
"I'm a Rich Little fan — that's how I got
started on the voices — and he was fill-
ing in for a radio announcer. I called in as
Richard Nixon, and he talked to me as
Ronald Reagan.
"The bit went really, really well, and I
have been doing snippets for the station
since then."
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