The late great Canadian Friends star Matthew Perry nicknamed his buddy and fellow actor Hank Azaria “the freakish mimic” because Azaria can pretty much replicate any voice he hears instantly. While you may remember Azaria’s face from his roles as dog walker Nat on Mad About You or Phoebe’s scientist boyfriend David on Friends or the titular down-on-his-luck baseball announcer in the criminally underseen Brockmire – you certainly have heard his voices on The Simpsons as Moe the bartender, Chief Clancy Wiggum, Comic Book guy and yes, Apu, which he insisted on retiring after criticism over negative stereotyping.

Unfortunately, Perry will never get to see his friend’s latest voice work. Azaria, a New York native, spent the last couple of years painstakingly perfecting Bruce Springsteen’s vocals, and performing as The Boss at charity events. On Nov. 14, Azaria brings his act to Toronto’s Koerner Hall, backed up by an all-star Canadian band (including members of Sum41, Billy Talent and more) as part of a benefit thrown by The Matthew Perry House, the foundation Perry’s family set up after he died to help others through recovery and change the conversations around mental health in Canada. 

We asked Azaria, who recently celebrated his 19th year sober, about the importance of both Perry and Springsteen in his life. But first we talked baseball.

Shanda Deziel: What did you think of the World Series and our Toronto Blue Jays? I know you’re a big baseball fan. 

Hank Azaria: Well, I’m a big Mets fan, there’s a difference. I kinda stopped caring once the Mets were ousted. But I was pulling for the Jays. Mostly because I hate the Dodgers. But that was an amazing Game 7, I gotta say. Unbelievable. One of the greatest games I’ve ever seen.

SD: Now, you’re coming to Toronto and combining a tribute to Matthew Perry and an homage to Bruce Springsteen. Was Matthew a Springsteen fan? 

HA: You know, it’s funny you ask, because no, he wasn’t. But nobody can be friends with me and not have their face shoved into Bruce Springsteen. Back when Matthew and I were first getting to know each other, in the late ’80s, there was a club in L.A. called The Boss Club. And every Tuesday night above Imperial Gardens Restaurant on the Sunset Strip, they played only Bruce’s music. And Matthew and I and a bunch of other people would go every single Tuesday night. Matthew was dragged along. There were certain songs that he did like; he liked the Tunnel of Love album in particular. I actually dragged him to see Bruce with me on that tour in L.A. So Matthew was a reluctant Bruce Springsteen fan. He really loved love songs, soft love songs, like soft rock was his jam – even yacht rock was a little too muscular for Matthew. He really liked sappy love songs.

SD: Are there songs that you hear that make you think of him? 

HA: At his funeral, they played one of his favourites, which was Rainbow Connection [from The Muppet Movie]. So that should give you an idea of Matthew’s musical taste. 

SD: You’ve probably seen Bruce perform quite a few times? 

HA: Twenty-six times, but who’s counting. 

SD: And have you met him? 

HA: Twice. I made an absolute fool of myself because I fanboy-ed so hard. I couldn’t help it. The second time, I knew a little better. But my voice, literally, went up four octaves when I said, “Bruce, it’s so good to meet you.” I can’t help it. My friend calls it Bruce Juice – the insanity that overtakes one when they meet Bruce Springsteen.

SD: You did your first Springsteen tribute concert at your 60th birthday party? Did that age have something to do with you taking on this side project or was it just going to be a cool party trick? 

HA: It had everything to do with it. I’m not someone who felt any way about a number birthday-wise. But 60 was really kind of hitting me almost to the point where I couldn’t deal. And I got this crazy idea to throw a huge party, which I never do, and have this reverse surprise party where I told all my friends, invited 550 people to City Winery in New York City, and said I got this great Springsteen tribute band coming, but didn’t tell them I had been working for months to front it. And so I kind of focused, I gave myself this vocal mimicry project like I haven’t done in ages, to try to sing like Bruce to front this band, to distract myself from turning 60. 

SD: What’s the hardest song to master? 

HA: One of the hardest songs was Backstreets. It’s a really old-school song. It goes from really low to really high. Also, She’s the One because it fits so many words into such a small space. It was really hard to get the hang of that. When I kind of unlocked those two songs, they’re almost like a Rosetta Stone. If I could get those two, I could sort of get every Bruce song.

SD: What has been your connection to The Matthew Perry House foundation, started by his family?

HA: Matthew brought me to my first AA meeting. He helped me so much the first year I was sober. And I watched him help so many people. Matthew really was forming his American foundation right around when he passed away. And so his sister, Caitlin Morrison, was really psyched to do this in his memory in Canada for him. And I knew Caitlin through Matthew, of course, when she was little. Then, I met her as an adult at his funeral. And she spoke so beautifully there. I had no idea she was in recovery as well. And I had no idea that she devoted her life, way before Matthew passed away, to doing things just like this, recovery organizations. So we became friends at that funeral. And I’m so glad to be collaborating with her on this concert. 

SD: It could be a very emotional night.

HA: It will certainly be for me. Absolutely.

SD: You’ve talked a lot about becoming a father later in life and how that has helped you and prompted many changes in your life. It reminds me that a big part of Matthew’s memoir was how much he spoke about wanting to become a dad. Did he meet your son? Did he talk to you about wanting kids? 

HA: He did. My son, Hal, was born 10 weeks early. He was in the NICU at, like, two pounds and he was in the intensive care unit for seven weeks in L.A. Matthew visited me a couple of times during that time. And, yeah, he knew my son. We moved away from L.A. when my son was three but Matthew knew him when he was little. And I tell Hal [who is now 16] all about Matthew. He likes the Matthew Perry stories because they’re hilarious. One of the sad things about drugs and alcohol hijacking Matthew’s life was that he never got to be a father.

SD: What is one of the stories you’ve told Hal? 

HA: I mean there are so many funny Matthew Perry stories. He had so many crazy running jokes. One of my favorites was, and I just told this to my son because we love going to the movies together – my son especially loves horror movies. L.A. has wonderful movie theatres, these beautiful, state-of-the-art movie theatres in L.A. And for a while, about 30 years ago, 25 years ago, they would have ushers at the theatres who would come up before the show and announce: This is the movie, it was directed by blah, blah, blah, it’s running time is this many minutes. And they’d give you little facts about the film. They’ve stopped doing that now. But it would be like an 18-year-old kid telling you about this movie and they were often nervous. And for a while there, Matthew, every time we’d go to the movies, he would get up – and this is after he was very famous on Friends – and he would stand next to this poor kid who’s announcing the facts. He stood there with his pants down, in his boxer shorts and he wouldn’t say a word, he would just smile at the audience. Please imagine Chandler Bing standing there in just his boxers while this kid tries to get through his intro speech. 

SD: Did Matthew have any favourites when it came to your Simpsons voices? 

HA: Matthew loved my The Birdcage character [Guatemalan housekeeper Agador Spartacus] most of all. Yeah, he called me “the freakish mimic.” But you know, we helped each other develop our whole comedy personas at a very young age. I miss him.