5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent – Randye Kaye
Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Randye Kaye, a professional voice-over talent based in Trumbull, Connecticut.
1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?
Well, I just wanted to be an actress/singer – on stage (big fan of musical theatre from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Sondheim) in film/ TV, in bands – and oh yeah pay my bills that way. Plus have a fulfilling off-stage life too (I eventually figured that one out). So – in 1982 I moved from LA to Connecticut (okay, it’s kind of a a suburb of NYC), got married, and eventually had a couple of lovely kids. While pregnant with my son (1982), I got into voiceovers as a way to keep the acting chops up, and the income coming in. And I never left! I love how it has either supplemented the other corners of show biz I have inhabited (full-time radio, teaching drama to kids, Equity stage work, etc.) or taken top spot. Now, as I also travel to promote my book (yep – wrote it and narrated the audiobook!) Ben Behind His Voices (published a few months ago), voiceover is the perfect accompanying job. Some of my clients have been with me since 1982!
2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?
Marketing is a big part of the job! Even though regular clients are the best (and 90% of what I do is for repeat customers), never be afraid to offer your talents to help a new client. As we used to sing in Girl Scouts, “Make new friends but keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold…” Something like that!
3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?
Probably being tempted to rest on my laurels and not reach out to those new customers who just may need me to take the first step. I am learning that many clients don’t love the casting process; they’d rather find someone they love and not have to hunt again.
Still, making the move can be as scary as introducing yourself to a group of strangers at a party. But, also, exciting – and just as rewarding. Some steps that are helping: I am in a Mastermind Group with other Voiceover talents – we met at faffcon – and we encourage and inspire each other all the time. Also – I break the “cold contact” process into smaller, more reasonable steps. LinkedIn and Twitter heal break the ice as well. Some of my favorite clients are ones I contacted first.
4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?
Personal? Perseverance, belief in myself, insatiable curiosity about this business (well, about just about everything, actually) and a desire to keep learning, keep getting better, all the time. Professional? The friends and colleagues I have worked with along the way; and my experience in improv, musical theatre, radio, and coaching for Edge Studio. It all helps. Every bit!
5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?
Okay, believe it or not, I think about neuroscience and how it affects our learning and performance– how we need the technique/intellect side of things (left-brain) to be well-practiced so we can be even more confident to “jump in and play” with our imagination and emotion (right-brain). Body and facial language can help us access that Right-Brain playground: they really short-cut us to acting places that more instinct than over-thinking. Let your body do the work, so the energy is out to the listener not inward to yourself – but the left brain still has to do some work confidently (like staying on mike, remembering the rhythms/pitch you just used, etc). Knowing this helps with the confidence to jump in and play, have fun – but prepared!
