So I live in Southern California where everyone talks like they live in Simi Valley, Sherman Oaks, or Encino. And when my buddy Joe Wheeler (pronounced WEE-LUH) came to California for a visit and was so gracious to shoot a PROFESSIONAL exercise tutorial for me while he searches for aliens in space or whatever’s going on in that mind of his, I couldn’t help but notice his English (he calls it ‘cockney’) accent and how it made him even more intriguing. He’d shout, “Action!” and I swear I’ve never heard it said that way before except when (I think) I heard James Bond circa 1970’s say it. When I tell him to say the Number Three, he pronounces it, “numba free.” It’s funny because I ask him to spell “three” (just to check his phonics) and he says, “t-h-r-e-e.” I tell him to say the word, but he STILL says, “free“! Eh. I guess you’d have had to have been there. Trust me; it was hilarious.

But the whole accent thing got me wondering who else is a sucker for accents? My ABSOLUTE weakness is English (why? because why they speak The King’s English, us Americans speak The Bastard’s English). Even more mesmerizing are the Italian and Spanish accents in which a man like my buddy Nicholas Russo from Parma, Italy could read me a grocery list and I’d be in rapt attention. Finally, the foreign language that I can most understand (Spanish) doesn’t sound nearly as melodic than when my ace, Ivan Lopez recites the results of his college exams.

So now you know what accents I go to absolute mush for, what are yours? Don’t know if you noticed, but the French were conspicuously absent from this list–they’re entirely too snooty. BUT! And honorary mention of accent deliciousness goes to the islands boys from Jamaica, Trinidad, Belize…all those accents are a rich as rum.