Interview with the voice of Trundle, Joshua Tomar, at MAGFest 2017
Dignitas Novalas meets up with Joshua Tomar, voice actor for Trundle, at MAGFest 2017.
There's a lot of work to be done in the creation of a character in any anime or game that you may watch or play. Part of the step of completing the character is finding the perfect voice over for the them. Joshua Tomar is one of those talented individuals who help give life to the characters with their voice overs. Joshua is best known for his part in Detective Grimoire as Officer James, reworked Trundle in League of Legends, and Greyor the shopkeeper in Howling Abyss. I caught up with him at MAGFest 2017 to get some insight on the process, his love to troll, and his goals for the future!
How are you enjoying MAGFest?
Joshua: I'm having a great time. This is my second year here. I got asked to be a guest just because I happened to be coming and they wanted to pad out the voice actor panel. I always have a great time here. This is... coming to MAGFest reminds me of my first experience with a Con. Everyone's super close. There's a big sense of unity here. I feel like I don't get that sense at a lot of other conventions in general. I also love the 24 hour aspect of it. You could just be listening to music and playing games, doing whatever. No matter when you're up.
How have the fans been treating you?
Joshua: The couple people who have recognized me have been super nice, haha! I'm always happy to stop and talk to people. Everyone's super friendly. I don't think I've ever had any bad experiences with fans here.
How did you get started in voice acting?
Joshua: Well, it was late in highschool or maybe even early college when I started taking it seriously. I was doing a lot of stuff online. Newgrounds.com, which was really booming at the time, in like 2006 is when I felt that everything started to click for me and I decided "Wow, I really love doing this stuff." I love doing stuff for cartoons and games. I decided that, when I'm done with college, I'm moving to LA and doing voice overs. Six years after that, I was booking some of my first roles. Actually, Trundle was among those first roles. I can't remember if it was Trundle or Greyor that I got first. I know that I auditioned for them really close to each other. It all happened all in the same couple of months. That was kind of my introduction into professional VO in LA.
You mentioned Trundle. Trundle is one of the characters that you're well known for. You said you auditioned for it. How many other applicants were there? How'd the process go?
Joshua: So I had very little insight into how many other applicants there were for the role. A friend of mine (who is super, super cool who I owe a lot to), Cristina V... She got me in on this dub of a Chinese live action show called "Return of Princess Pearl". I went in, I did my stuff, and the director kind of picked me out and said "I don't know you. But you're really good at this. I want to give you a general audition." This was at Bang Zoom! which was the studio that was also doing League of Legends casting at the time. I had my general audition the next month and they added me to the roster. One of the first things I got in my email was "New League of Legends champion remake!" and there was also Greyor, a shopkeeper in the Howling Abyss.
I expected to audition for months before I got anything so it was super exciting for something that early on to work out. Next thing I know, I'm in the room and there's five reps from Riot Games, I'm nervous as hell, but it was actually a really fun time. Everyone from Riot was very, very supportive.
You did a phenomenal job on Trundle as well. Do you play the champion on League?
Joshua: I do! Usually when I play, I play as Trundle. I don't try to get snarky and be like "Hey, I'm this guy!" but I secretly know in the back of my head... "Yeah... I'm Trundle." I'm not super good at MOBAs. I won't pretend that I am. But whenever I play League, I always play as Trundle and I always have a good time.
How does it make you feel that you helped contribute to a character that's become a meme in the League of Legends community (e.g. It's time to Troll!")?
Joshua: I think it's super cool! At the time (when I did the VO for the rework), Trundle was the second least played character in the game which is why I think they wanted to rework him. So I'm glad it worked out. I remember feeling really down because people don't like change. There were a lot of people complaining saying "Oh! Why'd they change Trundle's voice? I want the old Trundle's voice"! That's fine. I think the old Trundle sounds pretty cool. I like it. But I'm glad that people embraced it and got used to it and forgot there was an old Trundle, maybe. I know the classic skin was available for everyone who purchased Trundle before the rework. But yeah, I think it's great. I have a lot of friends who work over at Riot. It's a really cool company and I wish them a lot of success with their game. They're still huge and it's been 7 years. Trundle was a cool start to the beginning of my career!
Any gigs coming up that you're excited about?
Joshua: I can't think of anything specific. I keep doing other MOBAs or well, I don't know if it counts as a MOBA per se but I've been doing a lot of stuff with Paladins but I think most of that content is already out. Hi-Rez, they keep hiring me for stuff so I keep doing stuff with them! I'd love to do more League stuff. I have gotten the opportunity to audition for more League characters. They now cast through Formosa instead of Bang Zoom! but fortunately I have an agent now so I still get those audition opportunities. I can't think of anything coming up right now that I can openly talk about though!
Who would you say owe the success in your career to?
Joshua: I feel like that'd be to my other voice actor friends. I owe it to Cristina V, Lucien Dodge, Xander Mobus, Michael Johnston; all people who have done amazing work in VO and Michael who has done amazing work in Live Action too. The first two are people who recommended me to studios when no one would listen to me cause that's how it is when you go out there and you're new. Nobody really knows who you are. Nobody cares. Nobody accepts cold demo submissions. You really need a friend who's got an in to really have somebody hear you. Michael and Xander, they're really the people who just motivated me the most to get off my butt and really pursue things a little more actively than I had been when I first moved out.
What game or what anime would you really want to be involved in right now?
Joshua: I'd say One Punch Man but I already am! Haha. That was huge. I had literally just finished that show a few weeks before the auditions went out for the English dub and I was super excited. I didn't get the part of Puri-Puri Prisoner. That was definitely the part I wanted the most. Getting to be Tank-Top Black Hole though and getting to be part of that iconic scene where everyone's shouting at Saitama to give up... It was a really cool experience and I'm really glad I got to be involved in that anime. I know Mob Psycho just got cast. Little bummed I didn't get a chance to audition for that. That was another anime I watched recently and really liked. I got to do some additional voices for JoJo. I'm hoping to get to audition for some main characters when they dub part 3 and 4. Getting to be in part 4 of JoJo is the thing at the forefront of my mind right now.
What about games?
Joshua: What's in my head is that I'd love to audition for a new Overwatch character. Blizzard, in general, I'd love to work with them in anyway I could. I'd love to get more chances to do more League champions. I'd love to be an original League champion where there's no first voice, haha! Greyor was that and Finn was that (from the Bilgewater Howling Abyss event). I think he's gone from the game now though. Those were super fun. Getting to play shopkeepers. But I'd love to be an original champion!
Any last words?
Joshua: I'm having a really fun time at MAGFest. This is my first time being a guest here. Thanks everyone for your time and thanks for this interview!
Make sure to check out Joshua Tomar's social media for updates on his VO career!
Joshua Tomar's Twitter
