Kevin Lively and Mickey Wright are two wisecracking men who take their craft seriously –- so much so that they’ve been vetted by Disney executives to represent the Anaheim operation at a Tokyo summit.
This professional conference –- Friday through March 6 –- will be a lot more entertaining than most.
Disneyland is sending Lively and Wright, two of its Jungle Cruise skippers, to Tokyo for a nine-day round-table forum on “jungle humor” with skippers from three other Disney theme parks.
The Jungle Cruise, of course, takes passengers in a boat around a winding, vegetation-shrouded river filled with animatronic jungle animals and spear-wielding residents. The skipper spouts off a continuous stream of corny jokes.
(SEE VIDEOS BELOW TO WATCH KEVIN AND MICKEY IN ACTION.)
“You can’t lose with cannibalism,” Lively said on picking the right note of humor for the ride. “I like when we have kids on board, because to them, the ride is 100-percent real.”
Lively, 23, of Fullerton has worked at the park since summer 2007. He said he likes working with kids — he helped direct childrens theater in college.
Wright, 58, of Lake Forest started in November 2007 after he got hired at a Disney job fair. Though he said his friends figured he’d be a natural when they found out he got the job, Wright struggled with the script at first.
“The truth is, I actually had a hard time with the spiel,” he said. “I have a little ADD and all the distractions were hard to deal with.”
He’s a pro, now though, as evidenced by his selection for the Tokyo visit.
In Tokyo, skippers from Disneyland, the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, the Tokyo Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland will tour the park there and trade tips on the best spiels and practices for running the Jungle Cruise.
The trip is part of a promotion by the company that operates Tokyo Disney — it’s the 25th anniversary of that park. The company decided to fulfill 25 employees’ wishes this year. This conference is a result of Kenichi Ito, a supervisor for the Tokyo Jungle Cruise.
The competition began in January from among the 60 skippers. Feb. 6, the six finalists had to do their act before a panel of execs, including Pixar chief John Lasseter and Imagineering chief Tony Baxter.
The majority of the skippers speak English, but a translator will be available for those who don’t. Also, the skippers will get to experience the Tokyo Disney Ride in Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese.
The Disneyland Jungle Cruise is one of the park’s original rides — it opened with the park in 1955.
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- Jungle Cruise skippers pun-tificate in Fullerton
- What’s new today is a classic tomorrow
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Could you please tell me why Mickey Wright’s Skipper video has been soooo very rudely interrupted??? Unbelievable!!! You promised us we would be able to see the DisneyLand Jungle Cruise Skippers…and here you go breaking that promise. Shame on you!!!!!
Suzy — I’m sorry you have been having trouble with Mickey’s video. I just tested it on my computer and it seems to work fine. Perhaps your computer may be having some network trouble? E-mail me at atownsend@ocregister.com if you continue to have trouble.
That goes for any of you readers.
What a waste of money in hard economic times.
I love the jungle cruise and the corny jokes and even had a similar job driving a mine train and guiding tours at the haunted shack over at Knott’s many years ago. For the money being spent these guys could all accomplish the same goal on a video conference call. It is just a spiel with a little improve and acting involved and not rocket science.
To accommodate these types of trips Disney will now raise ticket and concession prices I am sure.
Didn’t Disney just lay off a whole lot of hard working people? And look what they spend their money on. Amazing! In these hard times does Disney really think they should be sending these two to Tokyo? I think the Jungle Humor Joke is on the poor people who were let go.
Why would Disney lay off all these people, and then send two people to Tokyo to represent the Jungle Cruise. They need to find a better way to spend their money. I feel sorry for the people who were let go, and then read somethign like this. What a waste of money!!!
Adam, thank you so much for your response. The page looks great and both videos are working perfectly! I have always loved the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland and both of these Skippers are awesome! They deserve a pat on the back and this award for doing such a great job! Hopefully you’ll do a follow up story to let us know all about the Tokyo experience!
Sure sounds like the Oriental Land Co is footing the bill for this - not Disney. Maybe some people should learn to read better - or at least question first before they jump on Diz. Although I know how stylish that is now…
hey guys, specifically SicknTired, junglenet and fantab27, Disneyland isn’t paying for this trip. Please learn to find out information before you are so critical. That is just a lesson in human courtesy and humility. None of us know EVERYTHING about ANYTHING. Be careful. These skippers that you so easily dismiss, SicknTired (bitter much??), are also people affected by the “hard economic times”. It seems very unkind for you to belittle their work. They don’t get paid a lot and are struggling to make a living just like you and me - there is no harm in someone treating a group of hard working people to a fun, informative forum. Get your facts straight, curb your jealous rants and stop whining. Go Kevin and Mickey!! I’m proud of you guys and hope you have a FABULOUS time. Represent Disneyland with joy!
Adam:
I just want to thank you for the great job you did in covering these 2 crazy guys! The article is very well written and explains perfectly the motive of this trip. What a fun thing for Kenichi Ito to wish for - totally outside the box and will sure bring the world of 8 lucky people alot closer together! Kind of reminds me of a song I one heard, “It’s a Small World After All….”
I also love the footage you took of Kevin and Mickey. It makes me laugh outloud everytime I play it!
One of my favorites.
I do apologize for my comment I made yesterday. I have to admit I only scanned the article and did not read the whole thing (my bad). I do understand that these people are hard working, and for what they get paid, I think they do A LOT for Disney and deserve this trip. My grandmother retired from Disneyland after working there from the year after they opened until 1988. All she ever received from them was a couple of Mickey Mouse watches and some 12″ brass figurines of the seven dwarfs, tinkerbell, and Jiminy Cricket.