Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Greg Morton’s Many Voices
‘America's Got Talent' standout comes to WAC
After working as an announcer, a professional football player, an animator, a voice actor and a comedian, it’s no wonder that Greg Morton has been called a “one-man variety show.”
“I was hired at a Woolworths store as a PA announcer when I was about 16 years old,” Morton remembers. “That was my first kind of voice talent job, shall we say?” He laughs. “Clean up on aisle three!”
He says that his first gig really “played into his wheelhouse,” as a cut-up who liked to do impersonations of his teachers and make jokes and funny noises throughout high school in Akron, Ohio.
“One time I did the school buzzer, and we grabbed our books and left,” he remembers. “We got out five minutes early. The teacher did not know the difference. So that was a fun thing. My mom said that I was always imitating or mimicking things on TV commercials and cartoons.”
He credits having to entertain himself for his first nine years of life as influencing his later success in the performing arts.
“When I would play with my toys, I would give them voices and act out little scenarios with my little plastic figurines. Or I would just draw. I was really big on drawing back then. I used to draw cartoons and make up voices for them.”
He took a detour from his voice acting and performing to play football for the Michigan Wolverines in college. Later, Morton played football professionally as a defensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills for a season.
By the late 1980s, he was working as a voice actor and an animator on several cartoon series. Some of his credits included “Police Academy: The Animated Series,” “The Super Mario Bros.” and “Hello Kitty” in the late 1980s and ’90s.
However, Morton is best known for his impersonations from his favorite movies like “Jurassic Park,” “The Wizard of Oz,”
“The Lord of the Rings” and so many more during Season 14 of “America’s Got Talent.” He made it to the semifinals in 2019.
He’s also appeared on “Premium Blend” and “Comics Unleashed” on Comedy Central, has a “Dry Bar Comedy Special” and has opened for Chris Rock, Sinbad, Celine Dion, Dionne Warwick, Harry Connick Jr. and Luther Vandross.
At 70 years old, Morton still finds himself doodling for fun between his regular comedy shows.
“I’m just getting right back into animation again now because it’s so simple with apps that you can have on your iPad. I just make my own little cartoons and put them on social media every time I come up with a gag or something.”
He’s previously performed at the Grove Comedy Club in Lowell and says that he’s good friends with founder and owner Bill Adams.
“In Arkansas, you never know what you’re going to get. I was in Little Rock this past weekend, and I met this lady who was in the mood to share a little bit too much. She told me that she was dating this man across from her for about two years. And I said, ‘Oh yeah, where did you meet?’ She said, ‘We met at this bar. I was celebrating the anniversary of my husband’s death and we just found out — thanks to Ancestry DNA — we’re both related!
“It was like a live Jerry Springer show in front of me. You never know what’s going to happen at a show. I don’t know why people always confide in me. I should have been a therapist!”