I think
@dwayne1115 will like my next few quotes since Elmo seems to be his favorite recast.
Joe Hennes: Do you remember what the audition process was like or did the Sesame people say "We trust this guy cause we know he can get the voice right"?
Ryan Dillon: It was a little bit of both. I've never done the voice before. I never thought of playing that character, or being Elmo or anything like that. But I was in the fold at that point at Sesame Street, I was there all the time, I knew all the guys and girls, and had kinda proven myself as someone who wasn't gonna mess things up. And they did a very small internal set of auditions cause, they didn't wanna look outside, they felt very strongly about keeping in the family. And I wasn't necessarily the person they would have considered to be Elmo, but a couple of us went in and I was like "I don't know what to do." I worked side by side with Kevin all the time though. I right-handed for him, he gave me plenty of opportunities, he was there all the time and he was really my teacher. So I was like "I'll try and pull from that but, I have no idea." So I did the first audition and felt like I totally blew it, I just felt terrible, and went to the next one and was surprised as anybody else when I got the call saying "We think we're gonna go with you." And it was very scary and because it was so unexpected, and all came so quickly it was just a lot. "You're now at the front of the show and it's your responsibility to don't mess this this up." And the first 2 years of it, those shows, I can't watch them because it's pretty bad, but it took a long time for me to get comfortable enough to feel like "You don't have to focus on the voice so much, you can just portray that character." But it's been a fun, interesting ride.
Joe: I'll say from the fan's perspective, the fact that you're an incredibly talented performer and the voice is so similar, it seems seamless to us, and everyone's just really impressed with your work, so I think even those first couple years are okay with us.
Ryan: Thank you, that's very nice of you. I think some of those first 2 years are things that only I will notice, but there's a difference in vocal quality you can kinda hear. You can hear an afraid, scarred puppeteer.
Joe laughs: Well, anybody would be! That's a lot of pressure!