What can you tell us about your earliest boozing experience?

I remember the first time I got really sick on alcohol. It was a pint of blackberry brandy, and I was about 13 years old. It was snowing, and me and my friends were walking around drinking it and then we were up by the train tracks – you know it’s going to go to shit when you’re walking up by the train tracks – and we decided to put a bunch of shopping carts on the tracks. We heard the train coming and we were like, “Oh, God, take cover, guys!”, and it just made mincemeat out of these shopping carts, and I remember sparks flying. Then we went back to my friend Jason’s house and I proceeded to barf my life away. It was horrible.

What would be your favourite tipple now?

These days I like drinking with food. I used to drink a lot. I used to go to the bar and hang out and booze away, but now I find myself having cocktails associated with a meal. I’ll have a Hendrick’s gin martini, and then a glass that’s appropriate with dinner. There’s such a huge movement of really amazing cocktails in the industry and I’m always willing to try new things – who doesn’t like a fancy-pants cocktail?

What’s the strangest concoction you’ve ever guzzled? And what about Bender?

Bender would drink anything as long as it had booze in it. Isopropyl alcohol would do. We used to have this party every year in college (I was in a co-ed fraternity, motto: ‘Incest is Best’) called Nuclear Waste. It was the 80s. We had these garbage pails full of punch made with Everclear alcohol, and we just drank that shit, and as I think about that, Bender would have loved that stuff.

What’s the worst hangover you’ve ever had?

The worst hangover was getting released from jail. That’s the worst hangover. I won’t go into any detail, but I think your readers will get the picture.

Any tips or remedies for a hangover? How would Bender go about curing a hangover?

Bender wouldn’t care about curing a hangover. Bender would just keep drinking. For me, the best hangover recipe is an aspirin or tramadol before bed, and a pint of water. In the morning, a can of Sprite or 7Up. The sugar will help pick you up, and the bubbles will get you going. Don’t eat eggs. Just don’t eat eggs. Stay away from eggs. Do the eggs at 1 o’clock. Sugar, hydrate yourself, and then a really good Bloody Mary. Just have one, and then drink water, and put your feet up above your heart. I’m dead serious, man, I’m 46!

What kind of drink would you be and why?

I think I might be a shot and a beer. Drink it however you want to but you’re gonna get there, and you’re gonna get there quick.

What has drinking taught you?

Keep it down. Try to be conscious of the people around you as you have your good time, because there’s been times when I’ve been having a great time, and there’s a lot of people around me who aren’t, and it’s specifically because I’m having such a great time.

Do you think any of your own attributes have slipped into any of your characters?

I think my days of excess certainly helped to fuel some of Bender’s outrageousness. I remember being at a bar during Futurama’s heyday, and bartenders would give me free drinks so that I would get lit and start to talk like Bender.

Have you had a chance to prop up the bar with any famous faces?

Not really. I’ve tipped some back with Rob Folsom who was Pinky from Pinky and The Brain. That guy’s a nut. You go to conventions and you hang out with certain people and tip some back, it’s pretty funny. Voice artists are a weird bunch. We’re like comics who aren’t doing stand-up anymore but still have jokes.

As a condemned man, what would be your last drink and why?

A big old heaping glass of Louis Treize [Louis XIII de Rémy Martin cognac]. A big glass of that and I would want to hold on to the bottle as they put me down.

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