Chris Greene and Tess Spangler take instruction from Toni Silveri at The Western New York Voice Actors Workshop

Performance ruts are the bane of any actor: stage, television or voice.

Yet left to our own devices (and ultimately ALL of us are) we can mindlessly fall into these ruts… a kind of “sameness” in performance that hurts a script, a vocal tic that we ourselves don’t notice, a subtle elocution mistake…or anyone one of a myriad of other problems that a producer might not be bothered by, a client wouldn’t even notice but is stuff that we as performers are responsible (if only to ourselves) for avoiding or fixing.

You might say – ‘well if the producer or the client doesn’t care, why should I?’

My short answer is: because it’s your job as a voice over performer.

My longer answer is: if that’s you’re attitude about your voice over performances, this post and probably this blog are not for you.

Smart performers know that in addition to guts checks and their own eyes/ears, they need omniscient observers. Call them coaches, trainers or whatevers, be it individually or in a group, this resource helps keep performers honest.

My life schedule does not always allow for regular voice acting classes but when it does, I have a wonderful place to go.

The Western New York Voice Actors Workshop is an amazing resource in our area, similar to the many architectural, geological, artistic, historical and human treasures with have in our area (aside from civic pride, there are facts and history on each of those areas to back up the “treasure” claim).

The Workshop exists because of one person but is successful because of many. For me, this is how my journey with the workshop began and how the art of voice acting is reinforced for me.

Toni Silveri, who has held her weekly Workshop for many, many years prior to my involvement, hosted a local workshop starring Pat Fraley some years ago. That was the first time I met her (as well as Pat) and it was also about the time she was starting her voice talent agency, All Coast Talent. At the end of the Fraley seminar, she asked if she could sign me to her agency and I did.

But I didn’t immediately join her classes. Not sure why (probably time constraints) but eventually I did that too. As Robert Frost once wrote “…and that has made all the difference.”

So what’s the difference and why does it benefit me? I’ll gladly tell you but to what effect I don’t know because learning is a deeply personal and individual activity. How this class impacts me might cause a different reaction for you (not better, not worse, just different). You have to find what works for you.

For me, I need the omniscient listener…that’s Toni. Whether I am not delivering on a performance or whether she has a new idea to insert or whether she has just one minor note to give me – it registers. In my head it usually clicks and allows me to both do as she’s asked of me and also make a mental note to hold onto that nugget for another time. Her ability to crystallize her direction for a performer is a gift. By it, Toni is sharing the tools she’s collected over her years of performing and taking stage acting and voice acting classes. As just one example, I find it a bit more credible taking character voice direction from a former Smurf. Yup.

Also of great value are the insights I get from the fellow students. There is an important point to make here – while Toni can bring everyone together, (barring some sort of crazy extreme circumstances – holding a class outside when its -40F, etc.) it’s the students that create the learning environment. They/we do it by our professionalism, our abilities, our willingness to learn, our willingness to support each other and (the big x factor) our personalities. Presently, it’s a joyous mix and Toni is the mixologist.

I sort of feel at the end of a class like it restores my faith in voice acting. It’s not that I’d lost the faith but rather to be around people who understand such a niche area (ever try and talk about voice acting at a cocktail party – blank stares followed by the ever famous “oh, look at the time!”), who have “been there” (are there) and can speak the (albeit somewhat self-fish, poofy and sometimes a bit odd) language that a voice actor needs to hear to get an evocative performance (whether its a :10 second commercial or an hours long audio book) is very helpful to me.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Ultimately, wherever your place in the world, I hope this post incites you to seek out training, to find the individual or group instruction that helps make you a better, stronger performer in your art. Today I have mine and I am grateful for everything it gives me.

My friend, the great Canadian voice talent and singer Jodi Krangle, will lead an all-star group of presenters at the first ever Voices of Vision event for voice actors September 23-25 in Toronto (yes, my favorite city in the world).

Backing up Jodi (who didn’t ask for this star billing but I’m giving it to her anyway and SHE can explain it to her fellow presenters ) are Deb Munro (another of my favorite Canadians – it was at her seminar that Jodi and I first met), M.J. Lallo, Pat Fraley, Bill Holmes. The event will be hosted by Elley-Ray Hennessy.

I hope if you have the chance that you will attend.

Actor James Gammon (photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Which end?

THE end.

The thought was brought to the fore when I was reading the New York Times obit of actor James Gammon.

Clearly a talented performer what caught my eye was the end of the story when actor and writer Sam Shepard said:

“This was a guy who could act circles around most other actors,” Mr. Shepard said, “and he never pretended to be other than a working kind of actor.”

When “The Late Henry Moss” was first produced at the Magic Theater in San Francisco in 2000, he recalled, it had a starry cast that included Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte and Cheech Marin.

“I mean, a bunch of notoriously famous guys,” Mr. Shepard said. “And every single one of them would come up to me, alone, and say, ‘Who’s that Jim Gammon guy? Where did he come from?’ ”

How is your work and your work ethic viewed by those around you now?

What will be the legacy of your work in the mind of others?

It’s not your primary goal of course (performing, working, paying bills are more immediate concerns) but it does give one pause to reflect.

Now is the time that you are/can shape that legacy.

He’s performed hundreds of different characters in commercials, cartoons, and video games, but now Wally Wingert has hit the big time as the voice of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The South Dakota native was recently interviewed on a trip back home.

Maybe I should be more specific.

Two weeks until the end of the world for voice talents who want to enjoy the amazing discount on the FIRST EVER voice over unconference: Faffcon.

Two full days of voice over learning, growing, troubleshooting, connecting, and faffing about for just $149–how awesome is that?

Sure, you can always go next year– but dontcha want to be one of the cool kids who was there at the very first one?

If your not sure what it’s all about, I’ll refer you to this post I wrote about Faffcon a while back. I hope you’ll attend.

Male Voice Talent Michael Minetree

As a world, we seem to be mostly a proud bunch.

But too much pride can be a bad thing. I know because I am better than you – smarter, better looking, more successful – so I know pride can be a bad thing and conceit is even worse.

Wait a minute…

Anyway, I mention this because I got an email blast from Michael Minetree of MineWurx Studio. In addition to voice work, he’s overseeing a myriad of other projects including voice over directories, isdn directories, voice coaching and web hosting.

It was the web hosting part that he was emailing about. I’ll let you read the whole thing because I think it’s a really great example of how to adapt and change in a transparent way that builds credibility.

We all have to change and we all make missteps. How we make ourselves accountable can determine success or failure. I think the way Michael did this was a major success. Really well done.

In this newsletter:

1) A total slash on pricing – things have gotten El Cheapo – like Unlimited Web Hosting for $4.95 a month…

2) A total shift in policy – now we don’t have one.

3) A complete change in our course of business.

4) A total redesign of the site.

Our hosting site, www.artistwebhosting.com, has been made anew.

1) A shift in Pricing: We have completely removed all limitations on the hosting accounts – now everyone can have unlimited disk space and bandwidth for as little as 4.95 a month. On top of that – unlimited emails, databases and FTP accounts. Now – we are just like the big boys – and even better in some instances. Your web hosting has never been any cheaper. Add free setup and free site transfer to that and you’re looking at a winner.

2) A massive shift in Policy: Gone are the setup fees, gone are the account limitations, gone are the confusing “Tiered Hosting” accounts. All of it – GONE. Now – there are just unlimited accounts – with all the backend server features activated for all of them. No more junk. No more clutter. Wide open accounts. Period.

3) A complete change in course: We’re always ready to admit we made a mistake and change things. The first approach was old and out-dated. We goofed on the concept and figured people would have the time to figure it all out. We were wrong. So we changed it. There’s always room for improvement – so we hope that our new course for the future is the right one. We’re certainly convinced that it’s a whole lot better now.

4) A complete redesign of the site: Last week we sat and looked at the site and realized that the original test design was a bust. Too much data, too many choices and much like most of our newsletters – too much information. The whole damn thing was wrong – from top to bottom. So we scrapped it and went to work on making it better. Because we sit and look at data all the time we kind of lose sight of the fact that not everyone else wants to. This led me to make the site WAY too detailed and forced a lot of the important information off to the side. Not any more. All of the important stuff should be there. Right up front.

We encourage you to go by and take the new site for a test drive. Any of your comments and input will be greatly valued, so valued in fact that we’re offering an additional $3.00 per month off any monthly account to any one of our newsletter subscribers who sends us a little note with their feedback about the new site. $3.00 may not seem like much – but in the world of web hosting – it’s absolutely huge.

We look forward to hearing from you. And look forward to your comments about our new course of direction.

Michael Minetree

MineWurx Studio

www.minewurx.com

(blower) 703-293-8906

ISDN 703-766-1048/1049

Find Great Voices at:

www.minewurx.com/voiceovertalent

Find ISDN Voice Talent at:

www.voiceswithisdn.com

Find Great Web Hosting at:

www.artistwebhosting.com

Find Voice Over Coaching at:

www.thevoiceovercoach.com

Keith Carson of Top Hat Productions presenting at VOICE 2010

I am ashamed of myself for the length of time it has taken me to properly thank Keith Carson of Top Hat Productions. Were my dear Mother alive she would rip me a new one for taking so long with a proper thank you. That was always a big deal to her and she was/is right.

Here’s the story:

Thursday at VOICE 2010, I pop into Keith Carson’s presentation “Your Voiceover Demo” which not surprisingly was packed. I was sitting on the floor against the wall in the back of the room listening and working on my laptop (busy day).

He’s talking about some good stuff when Keith holds up a CD (which I couldn’t see cause I was in the back on the floor) and says something to the effect of “what a great example of branding this CD has, this is Peter O’Connell’s.”

My head pops up like a gopher in heat cause I have no idea what CD he’s talking about as I hadn’t sent one out in about 5 years. And yet there was one of my CD’s in Keith’s hand as he continues to say how unified and perfect my branding is.

He held on to it…for years!

So with this gracious public compliment I repay him by waiting over a month to say thank you for the kind words. I’m not worthy but I am grateful and I do want to publicly say thank you to Keith for his compliment and his very generous presentation.

Thank you Keith!

Best always,
- Peter

In my YouTube searches recently, I came across some great videos on radio studios from John Melley because, well, he works in radio and his station just moved into new facilities.

It seems this is a blog you have to sign up for rather than get an RSS feed delivered directly to your reader but its good stuff so check it out.

UPDATE: John HAS now added an RSS button on his blog so you can get it delivered right to your reader. Thanks John.

With thanks to my friend Ralph Hass for the tip, Andy Boyns has been added to the blog roll.

I believe Andy was at VOICE 2010 and we didn’t get a chance to hang out and I’m sorry for that.

But at least you can read all his cool stuff like I now will.

I was scrolling through my RSS feeds and noted a post on Voiceover Universe from one John Matthew regarding the door of fame in his studio.

This VU post was originally a post on his blog which until that moment I hadn’t known existed, now I do so now John’s blog is on the blog roll and I am a subscriber.

If you need another reason to subscribe, John describes his blog as “an exploration of the symbiosis between voice acting and everyday life.”

I believe that is the first recorded use of the word symbiosis on any voice over blog anywhere. That alone makes it worth the read.