The most famous plumber in the animated world has perhaps the happiest actor in the performing arts world.
Charles Martinet (pronounced Martin-ay, as the French would say) can't help himself. At the mere mention of the name Mario he cuts into character, his hands and feet just as expressive as his facial expressions and voice tones. He's inhabited the Nintendo game character for almost three straight decades - and Luigi, and Wario, and even Donkey Kong's utterances as well - so he knows the moustachioed hero like his best friend.
"It is so fun. I'm always in character. It's always so close to my heart. I absolutely love Mario and Luigi, they're just so fun to do," said Martinet on the phone, only a couple of days ahead of revealing the man behind the voice at Northern FanCon.
He almost wasn't the voice at all. Martinet was on a path through academia, on a course towards the legal or political science industry, when fate threw a speed-bump under his tires and he lurched into acting. He couldn't get the courses he wanted one semester at the University of California-Berkeley. A friend suggested he bide his time in an acting class.
He reluctantly signed up and the joy of the craft burst in on him like a flash of sunshine.
He got a few small parts in shows like Matlock and The Dead Pool, and he was enjoying himself.
Perhaps it was his natural optimism that gave the green light to an urge to drop in uninvited on an audition he got wind of.
The casting people were already packing up, finished for the day, when he came through the door with a "give me a quick try, wontcha please" approach.
They shrugged, gave him the shortest of instructions, and told him to start talking.
The instruction he was given at the audition was "you're an Italian plumber from Brooklyn" and he could have acted on a million variant choices, but his snap instinct was to make this blue-collar tradesman a bubbly, sunny fellow. It was an instant hit with the casting directors.
"It is from the seeds of happiness that you really find your dreams," Martinez said.
"You're the hero of this wonderful game (of your own life). It is resonant causation rather than cause-and-effect."
He had never heard of Mario before that audition day.
He had never heard of Nintendo. He was only vaguely aware of video games at all, since the industry was only a few years old at the time. It was impossible to predict, even for the inventors, where all the sector would go and that Mario would still be a popular character in 2017.
"I'm such a huge believer in following your heart and pursuing your dreams," he said, but devoid of the naive connotations that might accompany that statement. He is well aware that the world is not peaches and princesses and people don't always end up where they fantasized about. But if you put in work to get to one dream, you will more likely end up finding the things that make you happy, wherever you end up.
"I didn't know I wanted to be an actor, but I wanted to be happy," he said.
His success as a voice artist and actor has afforded him the time and resources to travel extensively.
New food and cultures are his passion.
His favourite travel experiences so far are Chile, all over southeast Asia, and China.
He has gone well off the beaten track, there, and loves the people and experiences he encountered several layers beyond the tourist level.
He also bears another key message about life in general.
"People will tell you 'oh, the world is so scary, things are so bad these days' but it's just not true. People are wonderful, and everywhere you go they are full of love and full of welcome."
One of his favourites, too, is Canada.
He's been to several of the bigger Canadian cities, and this year he is going to smaller centres like Niagara Falls a bit later this year and Prince George this weekend at Northern FanCon.
He will be available in person to talk about all the characters he's played over the years and meet the fans who've been touched or motivated in some way.
"I'm so lucky that I've absolutely loved every opportunity I've ever done," he said.
"I've had some small television parts, some small movie roles, those are a blast. I did theatre for 10 years, that was a blast. I've done corporate videos and training films, TV ads, getting to play all these wonderful characters. I got to be Paarthurnax in the Skyrim video game, I got to play nine characters in the Lord of the Rings video game. Honestly, though, I love playing Mario most of all."
One of the times he got to step into the live-action realm of filmmaking was portraying Michael Douglas's father in the thriller The Game. There's that word again.
"Oh my goodness, isn't that funny? You know, I never put that together, but there it is, the story of my life. The game."
