Opened my mail today, this last day of November to receive my first voice-over holiday (read: Christmas) card! I thought it was a great one! My poor photography skills don’t do the card justice.
Congrats to my friend and fellow voice-over talent Christy Harst on her design and message. And Merry Christmas!
My challenge to stay over night in all 50 states continues!
Remember, the rule is you cannot just drive through the state, you have to stay over night.
I had forgotten a state I stayed in many years ago when I went to a Notre Dame home game…Indiana!
Plus, last night I stayed in Kentucky for the first time overnight!
So here’s the updated count of the states I have officially visited in my life:
1. Arizona
2. Arkansas
3. California
4. Colorado
5. Connecticut
6. Florida
7. Georgia
8. Illinois
9. Indiana!!!
10. Iowa
11. Kansas
12. Kentucky!!!
13. Louisiana
14. Maine
15. Massachusetts
16. Maryland
17. Michigan
18. Minnesota
19. Missouri
20. Nebraska
21. Nevada
22. New Jersey
23. New York
24. North Carolina
25. Ohio
26. Pennsylvania
27. South Carolina
28. South Dakota
29. Tennessee
30. Texas
31. Utah
32. Vermont
33. Virginia
34. Washington
35. West Virginia
36. Wisconsin
Thus, I am left with only these 14 American states still to visit:
37. Alabama
38. Alaska
39. Delaware
40. Hawaii
41. Idaho
42. Mississippi
43. Montana
44. New Hampshire
45. New Mexico
46. North Dakota
47. Oklahoma
48. Oregon
49. Rhode Island
50. Wyoming
If you’re going to travel, you might as well make it fun!
The above pictures proves either:
a) I have too many baseball hats
b) I have a kind of a off-kilter smile
c) I stay BEHIND a microphone and AWAY from a camera
Or d) it’s Movember (and it is) so here is the evidence that I am supporting improvements in Men’s Health initiatives.
If you would be willing to donate (with my sincere thanks) you can do so HERE!
Some people would be content to rest on their professional laurels rather than try something new. Most folks don’t like to break out of their comfort zone.
Most people aren’t Randy Thomas.
Likely America’s most famous female voice-over talent, her talents have taken her from radio dee-jay to the voice of Hooked On Phonics to the first woman to announce The Academy Awards©, The Emmy Awards©, The SAG Awards©, The AFI Awards© (to name a few) voice of Entertainment Tonight for almost a decade, years as the station voice for countless local TV and radio stations, author….look, you get the idea.
Where you hear women announcing on live award shows a lot now, Randy is the one who broke through the male dominated field and paved the way for them (when on the rare occasion she’s not actually the one doing the voicing).
She’s still actively working on voice-over (most recently having done promo work for a well-received CNN documentary series) but she isn’t satisfied with just that.
Last year she created a new voice-over educational series called VO Mastery in her hometown of Fort Meyers, FL. The event is open to all voice talents and even folks considering joining the industry (mostly, though, the attendees include people working in the voice-over business).
In 2014 and again this weekend she brought together a series of accomplished voice talents and industry professionals (many of whom are not often seen at these kinds of voice-over conferences) to cover the gamut of performance, technology and business topics.
Last year, three highlight speakers were Joe Cipriano, Melissa Disney and Chris Corley who each offered some terrific insights into how they manage their careers and how what they’ve learned (good and bad) might be applicable to the careers of those listening. It was a great weekend of networking and I picked up some helpful information too.
This year I had a scheduling conflict with a family event so I couldn’t fly in for VO Mastery’s Friday’s reception. I grabbed a 6:30 a.m. flight Saturday via Washington, D.C. to Ft. Meyers and got there a little after noon.
I arrived in perfect time to grab lunch with longtime pals Doug Turkel, Dan Friedman and Celia Segal. What was especially nice about this lunch was whom they had brought along…Jonathan Tilley, who was speaking at the event (on Saturday morning, so I unfortunately missed the talk). But we had a very nice time at lunch. If you’ve not seen any of Jonathan’s videos including his Tedx Talk, you should check it out.
Another person whose presentation I was looking forward to David Lyerly, former Atlas Talent Promo Agent and now New York’s premier voice over coach for network promos. His panel presentation was interesting but what was especially fun was his performance class, where he guided about 20 of us through cable and network promo scripts. Then he and I got to have dinner afterwards.
There were of course other fine speakers as well including Susan Bennett, Peter Rofe, “Uncle Roy” Yokelson, Simone Fojgiel, Pilar Uribe, Zu Rek “Rick” Party, Carol Monda, J. Michael Collins, Don Abbott, Ronald Magaut as well as Doug, Celia and Dan.
Of course, truth be told the BEST part about these conferences is seeing my friends like Doug, Dan, Celia, Roy, Simone, Zu Rek and Randy. But there were other friends there too (most of whom didn’t know I was even coming to VO Mastery) and all of whom I wish I had more time with including Jackie Bales, Rosi Amador, Bev (Come to Welland) Standing, Shelley Avellino, Faith Coons & Kerri Donovan.
Of course, with my old brain, I have likely inadvertently omitted someone – for which I apologize now, no offensive was intended – but I am grateful for all the people I got to meet in my all too brief visit for #vomastery
Getting up on a stage was never something I strove towards.
I really much prefer being in the back of the house in a closed off space or room with a microphone, which is pretty much the set-up for most of the live announcing I have ever done.
But this past Veteran’s week, in my live announcing duties for the area American Legion Band, there I was, coming through the curtain of a tightly packed stage (full of talented musicians, mind you) in a very handsome theatre to guide the hundreds in the audience through a night of memorable, emotive songs.
Of course, I’ve done more of my share of MCing (emceeing, being an MC or emcee – grammar rules and spelling always fail me on this word) and that’s basically what this gig is for this enormously talented band. But of the majority of those many other emceeing events I’ve done over 30+ years, the events have historically been held at a hotel banquet room or similarly bland location.
When you’re on a stage, in a fully functioning theatre with a marquee outside and inside you see a proscenium arch, giant stage curtains, lighting grids, dressing rooms, spot lights – the whole shooting match – it’s a bit more real. For me it feels less like “emcee” or “live announcer” and more like “stage performer” – something I NEVER wanted to be.
Except I was. The spotlight squarely on me. Oy! I should have polished my shoes or something.
Thank goodness there’s a script for me to read on stage because memorization, in my finest hour, was never a strong suit and today at my age, it just ain’t happening.
I made it through, my part went fine and everyone said they were very happy with my ‘performance’.
That’s kind, but I would have been just as happy if I’d simply been called a fine “live announcer”, left in a backstage room with a reading light and a live mic. The stage is not the place for me.
But hey, it’s all good. I must remember that it’s just nice to be invited. And above all, I AM appreciative.
A screen shot of the audio’connell Voice-Over Talent Commercial Demo page featuring a new demo player
As you can see from the screen shot above and from THIS LINK to my Commercial Voice-Over Demo page on audioconnell.com, my website has new demo players that will make listening to the demos easier and downloading them more effective for producers.
This player allows you to listen not only to the entire demo but also individually demo segments – in ANY order you prefer.
Check out the new voice-over demo players….
PETER K. O’CONNELL COMMERCIAL VOICE-OVER DEMO PAGE
PETER K. O’CONNELL NARRATION VOICE-OVER DEMO PAGE
PETER K. O’CONNELL TV PROMO VOICE-OVER DEMO PAGE
PETER K. O’CONNELL POLITICAL COMMERCIAL VOICE-OVER DEMO PAGE
PETER K. O’CONNELL MESSAGE ON-HOLD VOICE-OVER DEMO PAGE
PLUS you can now DOWNLOAD either the entire demo or just the voice segment you like to share with whomever is making the voice-over decisions on your media production.
All this will make your voice-over production duties that much easier.
Enjoy!
