That’s what I feel like saying to every new person that calls me about the Voice Over Workshop and wants to get started in voice over. But I don’t say it; I try to be honest with people but I try not to be brutal.

Everyone….everyone is entitled to their dream and I am not the final arbitrator of talent or career choice. It’s just a dumb vocational decision fraught with lots of challenges, which can prove insurmountable to many. I think a VO newbie might enjoy a career in bomb disposal more.

But today, a Sunday of all days, I got two calls from folks wanting to get started with voice over training. Sunday being a day of reflection for many, these two folks may have reflected on voice over. Or maybe it was a rainy Sunday and they had nothing else to do except search the web, I dunno.

But because they seemed a little unsure of my training process (in spite of my wordy web exposition on the site), let me – again – briefly explain how this works.

1. I’m going to initially send you to www.voiceoverentranceexam.com and tell you to read my free book. I do this not as an exercise in ego but to give you a sense of how honest I will be as a voice over consiliere.

2. Then if you want to go forward, we will pick a Saturday and work for 2 hours on whatever voiceover topic you choose. Yes, YOU pick the agenda (I’m a voice over talent…planning to is too much like work…kidding!).

3. There are no minimum classes – you can do one class or one hundred…there are no discounts for multiple classes. My knowledge bank does not decrease the more frequently I work with you – hopefully you see even more value with more visits…that’s the feedback from my learners, anyway.

4. Yes, the guarantee is still in place…if we go through the lesson and I think you do not have what it takes to be in voice over, I’ll stop the first session, tell you why you suck as a voice talent in my opinion and you don’t pay me anything.

5. No, I really don’t just want to talk with you about voiceover for a few minutes. I know you are a nice person, so am I but I am also a very busy person and I have to draw the line somewhere. Family and finance come before sitting in a coffee shop giving free career advice to someone I’ve never met before. I know, I’m such a jerk even though I say I’m a nice person.

So there, that’s how the Voice Over Workshop operates. Wherever this information ends up on the web, hopefully that gives you a sense of how we would work together…and I hope we do get that opportunity.

This week I sent out my fairly irregular Voice Over Workshop Kick In The Pants eblast.

It’s a simple little newsletter to my voice over friends about things I think will be interesting and some information about available dates I have for the Voice Over Workshop

At the most, I hope the people who read it find something of value.

Well I got the nicest, simplest note from voice talent Brian Haymond who told me he wrote a blog post about the newsletter.

I completely did NOT expect that but I was really pleased that he found something so of interest that he wanted to blog about it.

Not to crow too much but only to say it was a nice feeling.

Here’s a scenario: you get a call from a commercial client and it’s a rush deal, they need the spot done yesterday. You will have very little time to digest the copy before you have to record it and send it back. What are you going to do?

For many folks, they will scan the script and hit record. After all, the client needs it NOW and they are in panic mode, not quality mode so it won’t reflect on you if the read isn’t perfect.

Stop. Don’t do it. Back away from the script and the microphone. Breath.

You can still get the spot done quickly but also get it done right.

Step 1. Grab a pen or pencil

Step 2. Read silently. Mouth CLOSED, no lip movement. Read only with your eyes…don’t speak a word of that script….not one word.

“What?! That’s crazy, I need to practice how this will sound!!!!”

I told you to be quiet when you read the script for a reason. You need to dissect the script as you read.

So read this :30 second script 3 times – this will take you about 2:30 all totaled.

On the 1st read: Read for comprehension – this is vital. VITAL! You need to grasp the copy writer’s intent going beyond script direction (cause often you won’t even get that!) Are they going for humor? Drama? Silly Sublime? Are you a character or just an announcer? What kind of character or announcer? What kind of sell are they going for? Knocking them in the head with a sledge hammer kind of sell (“Sunday! SUNday! SUNDAY!!!”). Is it a scare tactic script (“is your computer data backed up or could you lose it all with one power surge?!”). All these things and more you need to be able to identify after the first read through. Take/make notes on your script.

On the 2nd read: Is there a change in tone or intensity from one part of the script to the next? Does it start softly and build in intensity? Is it suble all the way through? Is it hard sell all the way through? Where is the critical sales message (you likely found that in the first pass but you should confirm your assumption here).

One the 3rd read: Start reading the script out loud, making your announcer marks as you go. Check the copy for time (notice – this is NOT something I advise in the first two read throughs – to do it earlier would take your mind away from critical interpretation notes.) Now your natural voice over abilities and acting talents can take shape and make the script your own.

By now you understand the script a lot more than you would if you just started reading. You’ll have a better chance of properly conveying the message the client needs the listener to hear. You’ll have a comfort level with the copy, intent, sales message and pacing of the script so that not only will you cognitively understand the script, your mouth will have wrapped itself around the words and give you a better shot of cutting the spot in a shorter amount of time…maybe even in one take.

Well I bet of all those seven words, you never thought you’d see “expert” near my name.

Me neither.

But I am this week’s Voice Over Expert on Voices.com‘s regular podcast.

Stephanie had been after me for almost a year and maybe longer to host one of their podcasts and there was no good excuse for not having gotten around to it except to say life got in the way.

But I look at it this way: THIS was the time the podcast was supposed to come out and so it did. Fate now, explanations later.

The topic is “The First 15 Seconds” and while you might think it a review of my wedding night, it is, rather, an overview of how to look at voice over auditions in a more critical way.

Specifically, to try and tie in all that you can about every aspect of the script and your performance into the first 15 seconds of your audition; that’s likely the amount of time it will take for a producer to listen to your audition and know if your voice is the right voice for the project the producer is working on.

This is stuff I work on all the time with folks at the Voice Over Workshop but the overview in the podcast will give you a good start if you want to work on this on your own.

Voices.com was very nice to include me and while I don’t believe listenership to my podcast will be so large as to fry their servers, I hope it gives the Voice Over Experts podcast a good start to the new year…please give it a listen. Thanks!

Animation Voice Director Stevie Vallance may or may not have purple hair

Animation Voice Director and Emmy Award winner Stevie Vallance has two October “Tooned In!” workshops on ‘Animation Voice-over Acting”. I know her to be a patient teacher cause she taught me.

In New York City, her Tooned In! 1-Day Original Workshop will take place on Sunday October 17, 2010 from 12:00pm to 5pm at the Edge Studios.

Crossing over in to her native Canada, Stevie’s Ottawa, Ontario Tooned In! 1-Day Original Workshop will take place on Sunday October 24, 2010 from 12:00pm to 5pm at the Raven Street Studios.

For more details or to sign up, click here.

Depending on your point of view, technology is either a help or a hindrance. For me it is mostly a help.

It’s also a help now for my voice over friend Mahmoud Taji who called me all the way from Cairo on a new low cost internet phone service he found.

Smartly, he’s expanding his contacts in the US so they know him as a person and not just a web presence.

It was a nice surprise and I appreciated his kindness.

That is just one quote from one of the many ‘can I be in voice overs too?’ emails I get each week. All of them sincere.

I’m honored that these folks think I’m somehow worthy of the note, thinking that I may be able hand over the magic keys to the voice over kingdom. I’ve not the heart to tell them that no one has yet told me where the bathroom is in this kingdom let alone handed me the kingdom’s keys.

What I always do is direct them to my free e-book “The Voice Over Entrance Exam” which discusses what I believe are the real keys to beginning a career in voice over. It is rarely a fast turnaround career and it is mostly not a highly lucrative business for the thousand who practice it in earnest…it takes time and patience and that erases most of the newer contestants early on.

If today, this is you…you think you’d like to try your hand at voice over…OK.

1. Read my e-book, read other people’s books (there’s a list of some in my book) then decide.

2. If you are serious (and please read and think about those words again) you have options. One of many options is this one.

3. If you’re not serious about being in voice overs, now is the perfect time to realize and admit that – you are obviously an honest and courageous person if you can.

If you are currently a voice talent, feel free to reference this book and share the link with those who inquire to you if you feel the book is worthwhile.

If you would like to become a fan of the book on Facebook, click here and thanks.

As always, I hope this helps.

FRONT ROW: Jill Perry, Pam Tierney, Kara Edwards MIDDLE ROW: Peter K. O'Connell, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth BACK ROW: Bob Souer, Rowell Gorman, Alexander Vishniakoff, Debra Webb, Beth Whistler, Robert John Hughes CUT OFF ONLY DUE TO PHOTOGRAPHER ERROR: Mike Stoudt

So I packed a bag on Friday and flew down to Atlanta for the Marice Tobias workshop on Commercial and Narration voice over at the very nice Captive Sound Studios. My friend Bob Souer has been singing her praises for a long time; Kara Edwards and I were talking about maybe attending about 6 weeks ago and since I could see some family while I was there, I decided to pull the trigger.

Kara Edwards, Bob Souer and Melissa Exelberth

It was completely different than ANY other voice over workshop I have ever been to and I have been to many.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and learned much. And while I participated in the workshop, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to effectively summarize it because I think unless you’ve been through it, it’s very difficult to understand it. So my first piece of advice would be to take a workshop with Marice.

Rowell Gorman

A lot of internal performer analysis (as it relates to vocal performance) for each student went on during her seminar. I think we all came away with a specific understanding of how effective personal analysis greatly affects the performance a voice talent gives. That kind of analysis helps performers to get out of their own way. The performance improvement was immediately evident and we (each workshop participant) all witnessed it and experienced it time and time again.

Now, you’ve likely just read that and had no understanding of what it meant. Well, some things must be personally experienced, not just read about. I’m not being coy or mean but instead honest.

Kara Edwards, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth, Robert John Hughes

Each voice over talent (as does everyone) learns in different ways and her seminar needs to be personally experienced, not read about. I would recommend you look at Marice’s schedule and if it’s possible for you, take the seminar.

And if you are especially lucky, you’ll get into a class with as many incredibly talented voice over performers as I did. This might be a record because we had 6 of us – about ½ the class – who’ve been long time friends from the VO-BB. There was an immediate and invaluable comfort level learning, working and performing among friends.

Jill Perry and Pam Tierney

When I signed up for Marice’s workshop, I knew Bob was going and I knew there was a chance my friends Kara Edwards and Caryn Clark were coming (they did attend) but what I didn’t know for sure until I saw the list just before I came that the great character voice actor Rowell Gorman would be there, my pal Melissa Exelberth from New York would be there as well as the lovely and talent Pam Tierney from the toddlin’ town of Chicago. What a gift to have my friends there!

Mike Stoudt, Debra Webb and Beth Whistler

The voice talents whom I had never met previous to the workshop really capped off the experience for me and I am so grateful to have been included among them for a few days: Robert John Hughes, Alexander Vishniakoff, Beth Whistler (thank you for driving to the airport!), Debra Webb (who, I found out in setting up this link shares the same agent as me), Jill Perry and Mike Stoudt (who also shares mine and Debra’s agent).

Two VO folks who couldn’t make the seminar but who kindly came out to join our group at various times throughout the weekend were Smith Harrison and Craig Crumpton.

Not to put too strong a point on it, but there were certain voice over suspects who shall remain nameless (Karen Commins (complete with brand new web site), Lance Blair, September Day Leach) who call Atlanta home but had something (anything better) to do than visit with Team Tobias Atlanta after hours at our various pubs, taverns and dives (sometimes known as the mini-bar)! Hurmph!

And finally, my most special thanks to my family in Atlanta who were so kind to let me stay with (or near) them. They had fresh hay in the stable for me to sleep on and let me borrow the mule’s blanket to avoid frostbite.

I hope you get to enjoy a training experience at least once in your career a unique as the one I just enjoyed.

If you’ve trained with Marice, I would love to hear your general impression of the experience. And if you have already with any professional voice over teacher, tell us about it here.

PS. Here is a shot of the WHOLE group, (including and ESPECIALLY Mike Stoudt) courtesy of Bob Souer’s camera:

FRONT ROW: Jill Perry, Pam Tierney, Kara Edwards MIDDLE ROW: Peter K. O'Connell, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth BACK ROW: Mike Stoudt, Bob Souer, Rowell Gorman, Alexander Vishniakoff, Debra Webb, Beth Whistler, Robert John Hughes

Female Voice Talent and Voice Over Coach Deb Munro

Just got pinged by Deb Monro following her high seas voice over adventure that she’ll be in Toronto on November 7th and 8th with Dave McRae (voice talent and coach I’m told) and Roger King from PN Agency (Roger wasn’t able to make it to our class when I studied with Deb a few years ago).

The two days will cover Selecting Styles & Talking Audio Voice Workshops. The weekend will cost you $395 but she’s told me that you’ll get a discount if you tell her I referred you AND she told me I’ll get $25 for every person I refer who registers for the event until October 23rd.

BUT because I am a nice guy, ask Deb to please credit MY $25 to your tuition on top of the discount she gives you. I do not want price to be a barrier to your training opportunity. Contact Deb via email (workshops@micnme.com), phone (604-459-5559) or web (www.MicnMe.com).

Enjoy your training with Deb, I know I did. And tell Roger I said hi.

Two words that have popped up in my on-line reading during the past twenty-four hours are motivation and inspiration. I don’t know why they showed up either…in my web reading, on my social media networks, I have just seen those words so often in the past day I feel like it’s a theme I should address presently.

Possibly I am more attuned to those words having just come off of Pat Fraley’s event on Saturday. There was great insight there, new approaches to auditioning and performing as well as critical reminders that I find so valuable. I put those tools to work right away in my Monday auditions. I was pumped (i.e. motivated and inspired) about that.

My “pumpedness” could be because I made my payment for Marice Tobias’ Commercial / Narration Weekend Workshop in October in Atlanta (in addition to training with Marice, I’m looking forward to seeing friends and fellow voice talents Bob Souer, Rowell Gorman, Kara Edwards and Caryn Clark there as well new friends I’m sure). Bob, Mary McKitrick and Bobbin Beam are just a few of the voices I respect who truly adore Marice; however Marice may quit training altogether after trying to work with me for a weekend, lesser teachers have tried and cried.

Finally, I got to thinking over the weekend about the Voice Over Workshops I hold for voice talents. From the beginning, I have been bugged by me using the words “teacher” or “coach” for what I do with other voice talents. They are great key words (mine is primarily an internet business after all) but I kept feeling they do a disservice to the work that more true and more accomplished teachers like Pat and Marice execute.

The Voice Over Workshop is very informal…the students who work with me decide a session’s agenda, I don’t. They pick a topic or topics and off we go. I offer insight, history, perspective, evaluations, critiques, direction and advice….but not a formal, structured curriculum like a true teacher would (at least in my experience). So I thought about it some more and I think I came up with a better description for what I do that also better respects what true voice over teachers do.

Best described: I am a voice over consigliere, a voice over counselor. I talk, I prod, I cajole, I direct, I motivate and I teach a little bit. The consigliere part is more about marketing, being memorable but I think the counselor is pretty spot on and feel much better about that moniker than coach or teacher…there are folks more worthy of those titles than me.