Midway’s NBA Jam was released on arcade in the United States in April 1993, and the console versions followed on March 4, 1994. One phrase that stood out in the game was “Boomshakalaka”. The phrase was voiced by Tim Kitzrow, who earned around $800 for that iconic commentary. The game eventually made over $1 billion.
Kitzrow recently shared his experience with The Escapist. In the interview, he admitted that there was no way of knowing how successful the game would be, and if he had known, he would have renegotiated his contract.
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Before working on NBA Jam, Kitzrow recorded voices for pinball games and earned around $50 per hour, which, according to him, was the standard wage at that time. He recorded voices for The Twilight Zone, Gilligan’s Island, Popeye, and Judge Dredd, spending around 10 to 15 hours in total.
“You might only do two, three, four hours total on a pinball game,” Kitzrow said. “You’re making a few hundred bucks at best. You’re not going to make a living on that.”
“It was $50 an hour. Same as the pinball. I’d go in, do a couple of sessions, maybe 15 hours total, and that was it. I wasn’t smart enough, savvy enough to know the business, to go ‘gee, these games make a lot of money, maybe I should make more than $50 an hour’. I didn’t have an agent at the time.”
“When the game came out and I found out it made a billion dollars, that’s when I realized I’d made like $800 and change, maybe something like that,” he laughed. “I thought ‘well, I’m probably being underpaid, I might want to raise my rate’.”
How Boomshakalaka found its way into NBA Jam
Kitzrow has continued to lend his voice to games. He provided commentary for Mutant Football League 2, which leaves Early Access on December 10. During the interview, Kitzrow recalled how the word boomshakalaka found its way into NBA Jam.
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“A fellow in the studio, John Carlton, was listening to Sly & The Family Stone,” Kitzrow said. “The song I Want to Take You Higher. The chorus is ‘boom shaka-laka-laka, boom shaka-laka-laka’.” Carlton asked Kitzrow to try saying that while recording his lines for NBA Jam.
“Now, me being a basketball guy – I watched every game on TV with Marv Albert – I’d never heard anyone say ‘boomshakalaka’. I’m just trying to get the reference, like, ‘What the hell are you talking about? This is not a basketball term.’ I said, ‘What is this?’ He goes, ‘Just say boomshakalaka… like that. So I go, ‘Boomshakalaka…?’ And that’s kind of it. We turned basically a nonsense phrase into one of the most memorable lines in games.”
What do you think Kitzrow would have done when he realized how much NBA Jam had made? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
