Dave Roberts (Dave Thomas) on WKBW-TV's Rocketship 7

Who’s Dave Roberts and why does his retirement coming up on December 11, 2009 have anything to do with this blog?

Well it has nothing to do with this blog really other than I have been a fan of Dave’s for many years and that’s why I am writing about it here.

A native of Buffalo, NY, Dave has worked in broadcasting for 56 year and for the last 31 years he has worked at WPVI-TV/Philadelphia (ABC 6). He worked there with another Buffalo turned Philadelphia broadcaster, the late Gary Papa.

But during some of those 56 years, he worked in Buffalo, NY at WKBW-TV during its heyday. Specifically as I was growing up he hosted a morning TV show called Rocketship 7 and a morning game show called Dialing for Dollars with the semi-retired Nolan Johannes.

The reason this is so memorable is because it was the first time in my memory I recall a TV personality leaving a market. I was in 8th grade and kinda thinking there might be something for me in this radio and TV thing. But I never considered that people moved around.

Dave’s was a pretty good move — to the number 4 market in the country at a well respected station. In addition to his broadcast legacy (and folks, there are fewer and fewer people who can legitimately claim that title) Dave is also the father of the Buffalo-born actor David Boreanaz.

So congrats Dave on a stellar career. Here is a quick summary of Dave’s broadcasting career.

Tags: commentary, tv by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The life of a voice actor is an arduous one. Creating a voice, setting a mood, transmitting a message within only a finite time period. Lesser performers would quake and fall under the pressure.

Not yours truly.

When called upon by my agent in a recent audition to portray fear, panic, intense medical distress and possibly public mortification I rose the occasion…well, for this role, I actually sat down. It was but a brief utterance I had through which to convey all those emotions.

I played the part of the “Man” in this audition:

VO: When diarrhea hits…
MAN: Uh-oh.
VO: KAO. Kaopectate stops it fast.
Powerful liquid relief speeds to the source fast,
to stop diarrhea and get your system back to normal…
Woman: Fast.
VO: Kaopectate. Stop the uh-oh fast, with Kao

And I did so with various choices thusly:
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/PeterOConnell_KMale.mp3]

You may stand in awe of my voice acting greatness. And you’ll laugh at me a little less if I get the job cause for that one phrase I’ll cash a very healthy check.

Feel free to pick your favorite uh oh.

Tags: commentary, commercials, silliness, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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New York Voiceover Mixer 2009

My sincere congratulations to Eric Sheppard at Voice Talent Productions for putting together the upcoming 2nd Annual New York City Voiceover Mixer that will take place on December 5, 2009. Special congrats to Lindsay Reiss, Eric’s associate at the company (and his fiancée) for her work in selling out the event.

There are 205 people on the list and they had to stop there….three weeks away and its sold out! I am assuming all the guests are related to the world of voiceover either as active performers, producers, agents or wannabes in any of those categories. Of those 205, I am long time friends (personally or on-line) with the following attendees: September Day, Liz de Nesnera, John Florian of Voice Over X-tra, Philip Banks, DB Cooper, Lee Gordon, Melissa Exelberth, Tom Dheere, Moe Egan, Bob Souer, Pam Tierney, Dave Courvoisier, Mandy Nelson, Patrick O’Connor, Elaine Singer, Doug Turkel and Mary McKitrick.

Then there are those whose reputations I wouldn’t sully by branding them a friend of mine as ours is more of a social media kinship but I am still very much looking forward to meeting: certainly our hosts Eric and Lindsay, Bob Bergen, Ron Levine, Diane Havens, Michael Schoen, Terry Daniel, Bobbi Owens, James Lorenz, Julie-Ann Dean, Chip Joel and Linda Ristig.

As for everybody else, I don’t think I know them know but I very much hope to know all of them by the end of the event which I predict will last long over the 10:00 p.m. closing date on the invite. I hope if you are there and you see me before I see you, you’ll all say hi.

Tags: announcers, social media, social networking, voice actors, voice over podcast, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Canada's Gemini Award

It’s a big weekend for my friend Debbie Munro as she serves as the announcer for the 2009 Gemini awards on Saturday, November 14th (tomorrow), live from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Nationally, the Geminis are a big deal and living in a border city with Canada and having watch Canadian TV growing up, I can attest to that. The Gemini Awards are Canada’s Golden Globes/Academy Awards.

If you want, use this link to check out the show on the Global TV network at 9PM (ET/PT) or on Showcase.

Congrats Deb!

Tags: announcers, commentary, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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These are quickies:

* My Tierney, Nachtrab and Lachey post marked my 500th post. I can’t get those hours back and neither can you 🙂 . Thanks for reading.

* The VO-BB is a must read for voice over talent information and most importantly for me…wonderful friendships. It’s celebrating (as of November 10th) its 5th Anniversary! There is NO other resource as respected like it on the web. DB Cooper founded it, runs it and deserves all the kudos in the world for it (are you listening VOICE 2010 awards committee, I am speaking to YOU!!!)

* I’ve said before that Dave Courvoisier is the best looking man in voice over (and he sounds great as well) but as usual he’s also ahead of the curve by sharing his significant and impressive on-camera techniques with those of us using web cams (or who soon will be, anyway). CourVO’s suggestion to me on improving my on-air look was two paper bags (the second was in case the first one ripped).

* From the man who is powering Voice Talent Productions towards a force to be reckoned with on the agency stage, Erik Sheppard is organizing his 2nd Annual Voice Over Mixer on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. at White Rabbit, 145 E. Houston St., in New York City. It’s free to get in but you need to send an email to lindz@voicetalentproductions.com to save your space. If’n your wantin’ to see the guest list and raffle prizes updated, pop over here. Yes, I am going to try and make it.

* Thank you God somebody in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences got it right by including legendary NBC-TV announcer Don Pardo into their next Hall of Fame on January 20, 2010.

* While in Des Moines, IA, I got the chance to meet Jay Weiss of the Radio Garage and he couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. There was an ISDN project that popped up then fizzled out until next week and I stopped by Jay’s studio to see if he could help out. At the time, I thought the project was going to take place ASAP; Murphy’s Voice Over Law states that as soon as you have ISDN backup on the road, the job won’t immediately happen. Jay was a total class act and a fine voice talent in his own right; thanks Jay, I hope we get to work together soon.

* John Florian’s Voice Over Xtra is promoting a “Business of Voice Over” Webinar on November 19th.

Thanks again.

[Read more →]

Tags: commentary, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I was able to visit the Voice Actor Workshop where my friend, teacher and agent Toni Silveri was up to her wonderful tricks again. As happens on occasion at the end of class sometimes, Toni, myself and another student, Kevin Iuzzini, just started talking and it ended up being 11:00 p.m.

By the way, Kevin is a helluva good voice talent, er, voice actor (as well as a great conversationalist) who you should absolutely check out.

But that above nomenclature was my mind as we all talked about voice training and methods and styles. Toni and Kevin are much more studied in the way of stage acting training and I just tried to shut and listen as I was waaay out of my league. Strassburg, Method Acting and Stanislavsky…plulease. I am a lazy voice over fella who just wants to know what time it is, I don’t need to know how the watch is made.

Their insights did cause me to think about the idea of actors training and whether, at its very root, stage actor training is that much different than voice actor training (stage direction and the much greater focus on physicality and movement for stage acting aside). My decision was it really isn’t and that’s probably is a good thing.

Then my next thought veered towards the name, the descriptions if you will: voice actor vs. voice talent. Why is one performer called a voice actor and another called a voice talent? Certainly both titles are part of the industry’s vernacular with those performers who do character voice work most often called voice actors. I refer to myself as a voice talent but I do lots of character work. Should I be calling myself a voice actor?

Does a voice actor get paid more than a voice talent? I don’t think so. Is there greater prestige having “actor” in the title? Nah, I don’t think so, or is there?

So my question is: which are you and why?

Tags: voice actors, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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