With his uncanny ability to do accents and make almost any noise you can imagine, how on Earth does Winslow keep out of trouble? He has an enormous capacity to create mayhem in almost any situation.
“I’m very close to being in trouble,” he says with a laugh. “I have to resist doing a Russian accent while I’m in Bulgaria. I want to be able to leave the country in one piece.” He then launches into a monologue where a Russian talks to a Ukrainian who talks to a Turk who talks to an Englishman and I’m lost. Our interview is punctuated by sound effects, mechanical, natural, and musical, and characters and voices and interruptions until I’m dizzy and can’t write for giggling.
Winslow’s been banned from imitating the sound of flight attendant call buttons on planes. “They hear the call button but the seat number doesn’t show up on their panel, so they go up and down the aisles looking for who pressed it. It’s good for half an hour.
“I’m going to open the window,” Winslow says. “Nice view,” and I hear the sound of a sash window being raised and then the crashing of surf waves on the beach. Didn’t know Sofia was on the coast? “It is in my imagination,” he says.
Is Winslow preparing anything special for his Australian audiences? “I’m just working on that right now,” he answers. “I familiarise myself with what’s going on. Learn what those things are.” It’s not a big leap for him as he’s been here 20 times already during his decades-long career. He reckons he’s determined to meet with some lyre birds and teach them beat box. He’s also considering a visit to the casino to mess with the croupiers’ heads. With his stand-up show for MICF, The Man with 10,000 Voices, Winslow reckons for an hour he just wants to make people forget about paying their rent. It’s guaranteed.
With the sort of success he enjoys, is there anything he still wants to do? “Some people have a bucket list; I have a barrel list,” he quips. “I want to make my own movies, video games, and children’s television. Technology has finally caught up to me. I can make things, get them out there, and compete with the big boys. The gratefulness is there,” he adds, about his life. “I’m still learning, still picking stuff up. My job is to listen.”
What’s the naughtiest trick he’s done with sounds? “I can’t tell you!” One thing he enjoyed was pretending to be a French waiter at a restaurant. When a couple ordered chicken he went out the back and imitated a chain saw and a chicken squawking in its death throes. “They were horrified; they ran out of the restaurant! I had to go and catch them, explain it was a candid camera situation. They came back and watched me do it to the next customer. It’s funny as all get up when it’s happening to someone else.”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
