John Moschitta, Jr.

John Moschitta Jr. (born August 6, 1954), also known as "Motormouth" John Moschitta, "John Mosquita" and The Fast-Talking Guy, is an American actor, singer and spokesman. He is best known for his rapid speech delivery. He appeared in over 100 commercials as "The Micro Machines Guy" and 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.

Born in New York City to an Italian-American family, Moschitta had been credited by Guinness World Records as the World's Fastest Talker, with the ability to articulate 586 words per minute. His record was broken in 1990 by Steve Woodmore, who spoke 637 words per minute and then by Sean Shannon, who spoke 655 words per minute on August 30, 1995. However, Moschitta questions the legitimacy of those who claim to be faster than he is.

Career

FedEx commercial

In 1981, Moschitta appeared on the ABC TV series ''That's Incredible!'', where he recited the lyrics from "Ya Got Trouble" from ''The Music Man''. The appearance led to many other television offers, such as ''The Tonight Show'' and ''The Merv Griffin Show''. 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; the package-delivery company was then still known by its original name, Federal Express. 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. 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." ''Advertising Age'' ranked the ad number 11 among its "Top 100 Campaigns" in March 1999. According to Moschitta, he did 29 flawless takes of the final scene of the commercial, prompting the director to remark that he is "like a machine" who never makes mistakes. In response, Moschitta deliberately fumbled on a line, which was ultimately the take that was used in the final cut.

Other television work

He was a contestant on ''Pyramid'' in the 1970s and then was a production assistant on ''Pyramid'' producer Bob Stewart's game show ''Shoot for the Stars'' in 1977 and later played two weeks of ''Pyramid'' as a celebrity, 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.

Moschitta also appeared in a number of movies and television shows. For example, he voiced the character of Blurr in '' The Transformers: The Movie'', and reprised the character on '' 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'' on FOX as a part of the challenge "Fast Car" in which he rapidly explained the various prices of three different vehicles to mental calculator Mike Byster, who had to calculate the sticker prices of each one correctly. The episode aired on 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''.

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
* ''Blankman'' (1994) — Mr. Crudd
* '' John Bronco'' (2020) — Himself

Television

* '' Nickel Flicks'' (1979) — Host
* ''Madame's Place'' (1982) — Larry Lunch
* ''Matt Houston'' (1983) — Myron Chase
* ''The Transformers'' (1986–1987) — Punch / Blurr / Blowpipe (voice) (as John Moschitta)
* ''Sesame Street'' (1989) — Porter Pepper of Peter Piper "P" Products, a new baby with names from the alphabet
* ''Saved by the Bell'' (1989) — George Testaverde
* ''Mathnet'' (1991) — Johnny Dollar
* ''Garfield and Friends'' (1992) — Super Sonic Seymour (voice)
* ''Pinky and the Brain'' (1997) — Kurt Sackett (voice)
* ''Hollywood Squares'' (2003–2004) — Announcer
* ''Balderdash'' (2004–2005) — Announcer
* ''Robot Chicken'' (2007–2012) — Elrond, Azmuth, auctioneer, NASA crew member, hostage, Micro Machines Man, Trap-Jaw (voice)
* '' Transformers: Animated'' (2008–2009) — Blurr (voice)
* ''Family Guy'' episode: " Fox-y Lady" (2009) - FedEx Guy (voice)
* ''Adventure Time'' (2010) — Key-per (voice)
* '' Oddities'' (2013) — Himself

See also

* Fran Capo, fastest female speaker
* Tachylalia, term for extremely rapid speech

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moschitta, John, Jr.
1954 births
Living people
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American people of Italian descent
Contestants on American game shows
Game show announcers
Male actors from New York City