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WEST BOUNTIFUL — Mike Hohl is on a mission to lose weight.
That mission includes a daily 5-mile walk, which takes him past several cows in a pen.
"I came across these cows who immediately came over to me and began mooing like crazy. I pulled out my iPhone and took video to post, as I found it so funny," Hohl said.
Since he was so tickled by his first experience with the cows, Hohl couldn't help but think about them during his next walk. It was then he decided to talk to them and maybe make a friend or two.
"I imagined a kind of scene from old movies with Romans in them that you would see on Turner Classic Movies. They always had a British/continental accent," he said. "Immediately the lines Marc Antony exclaims from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar rang in my ears (Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears), and I worked it out from there during the walk. I also thought of Maximus from Gladiator and what he might say."
He tried the speech, and the cows took to it like ducks to water. Hohl even did us a solid by filming it and posting the videos on YouTube. In the video, the cows appear to gather round on cue, mooing their seeming encouragement and "amens."
If Hohl seems well practiced and in fine voice, it's because he is. Hohl is an actor who has worked with his wife's family theater, Utah Children's Theatre, and he's performed in plays at the Hale Center Theatre in West Valley. All that experience is really paying off with the cows.
"I love great movies and theater, so I throw in little quotes from scenes I love, Hohl said. "It's a nod to my fellow actors and friends who would pick up on it and hopefully laugh."
So far Hohl has posted five videos with his new cow friends — that he loving calls his cow legion — and he's planning on posting more every week. You can follow on his YouTube channel for updates by clicking here.
"I actually love these cows. They listen to me and seem genuinely interested in what I have to say," Hohl said. "Sometimes they moo at the perfect time as almost an acknowledgment of what I'm saying."
