Voice over actor and teacher Pat Fraley teaches his seminars around the country when he’s not working on a voice project in LA. If you’ve been in voice over for anytime, you’ve likely heard of Fraley’s classes and how wildly popular they are.

Well there’s a wonderful, well-known voice actress and teacher in Western New York named Toni Silveri who has worked with and been friends with Pat for many years. That friendship coupled with their mutual professional respect and the Buffalo Niagara region’s storied broadcasting/voice over history has encouraged Pat to visit Buffalo numerous times with his wonderful always sold out classes.

This summer, Pat Fraley is coming to Buffalo again. Saturday, August 16th and Sunday, August 17th, 2008, Fraley will be presenting a two day workshop on The Silly, The Serious and The Subtle.

Download the Fraley Voice Class brochure here.

The classes will allow voice talents to hone their skills at creating and delivering character voice performances for the specific demands of the top three mediums: animation, interactive gaming and audio books (audio books will actually get a full day master class available only to VO professionals).

Class sizes are limited and are already filling up fast so contact Toni via email: tonisilveri at g mail dot com (figure it out).

Full disclosure: Toni is my voice coach and one of my agents (All Coast Talent is one of the few agencies that actually works at getting voice talents work). I have also studied with Pat before.

I am attending his August session and paying full boat because I know what a great teaching environment Toni establishes and what a great teacher Pat is. I have no stake in this presentation whatsoever except as a repeat student.

If you are a voice talent in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Fort Erie, St. Catherines, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Erie, Bradford, Cleveland and all points in between, I suggest you reserve one of the very limited spots for this voice talent training weekend.

If you miss because you’re slow to respond then shame on you. Get in touch with Toni today.

Thanks for reading.

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Tags: animation, audio books, character voices, commentary, narrations, peter o'connell, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I like reading books, but I don’t do it a lot (it’s the time thing).

When it comes to book reading for my own entertainment, I am not a huge novel fan (except when someone’s paying my to produce an audio book of their novel…then I jump in feet first!) Unless the writing or a character really grabs me very early on, I lose interest.

I’m more of a biography guy. Reading about the lives of people whom I find interesting is more entertaining to me. I also enjoy certain business books as well.

But like many high schools students, I had to read the late Kurt Vonnegut, specifically Slaughterhouse-Five. I didn’t like the book and thought the story poorly told (but he’s sold more than a few copies so what do I know?). Part of the process of learning in school is accumulating a list of likes and don’t likes so I slogged through it.

And I get that Vonnegut is talented, sharp and witty. And through some of his interviews, he also struck my as a bit of a pain in the ass (something I have never been accused of being!;)

But courtesy of Tim Ferris’ blog today, I had the chance to read part of Vonnegut’s final interview (originally in US Airways Magazine of all places…and who knew they bothered to put that mostly advertorial rag on line?)

In that interview, Vonnegut brilliantly summarized a thought I have had for sometime regarding our society’s scary and growing dependence on the electronic media (of which, I admit, I help foster with my business). What made his quote brilliant to me was that he said it and I only thought it.

If you want people to know you’re brilliant, you’ve got to show them the evidence. Here’s Vonnegut’s Exhibit A:

Q: We live in a very visual world today. Do words have any power left?

Vonnegut: I was at a symposium some years back with my friends Joseph Heller and William Styron, both dead now, and we were talking about the death of the novel and the death of poetry, and Styron pointed out that the novel has always been an elitist art form. It’s an art form for very few people, because only a few can read very well. I’ve said that to open a novel is to arrive in a music hall and be handed a viola. You have to perform. [Laughs.] To stare at horizontal lines of phonetic symbols and Arabic numbers and to be able to put a show on in your head, it requires the reader to perform. If you can do it, you can go whaling in the South Pacific with Herman Melville, or you can watch Madame Bovary make a mess of her life in Paris. With pictures and movies, all you have to do is sit there and look at them and it happens to you.

Other than soap and water, we shouldn’t let other things we experience , like electronic communication, simply wash over us. Our brains and those of our children become sedentary and nothing good can come from that.

We shouldn’t let things just “happen” to us. We’ve been given the gift of thoughtful participation and I think we all should use it alot more!

Make it a novel or a biography, but read a book…right after you’re done reading with your children.

Tags: audio books, commentary, media by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Remember, voice over talents are like professional golfers…VO’s and golfers don’t compete against each other. Voice talents compete for the ear of the producer and golfers compete against the golf course superintendent (well, the course itself actually, but I’ve always felt most superintendents didn’t get the proper credit).

But as performers of a kind, both for voice actors and for golfers, ego “occasionally” rears its ugly head.

There is a “heady” gentleman in the UK who by most accounts as a voice talent who has always been well respected; through his web postings on various voice talent message boards, his thoughtfulness usually appreciated and his humor is sadly lost on a few…but not on me.

His name is Philip Banks and if you need a wonderful, truly British announcer (or some funny character voices too) you should simply call him and stopping your shopping at once. Having spoken to him and corresponded with him at various times over some years, he is quite a thoughtful gentleman. And he reminded a few of us the other day of a phrase he has used before with equal effectiveness each time:

“It’s not about me.”

For a voice talent, no matter the specialty, these are simple words. But their stunning, almost epiphany-like impact because of what they mean to the very core of our professional lives cannot be ignored. Why?

While voice talents are cognitive tools for producers and directors, we are still tools….voices through which messages are conveyed. But it’s the cognitive and emotional part of we “tools” (sentient & egotistical) that sometimes do not allow us to “get out of our own way.” Sometimes we put OUR interpretation of a script, or a line or a character ahead of the writer, producer or director. We can be inflexible.

Note well, I do not mean to say that any voice talent shouldn’t share an opinion if its welcomed. But ultimately, we can take our insights and interpretations too personally so that when a director says finally “do it my way” we feel in some way slighted. Cognitive tools made up of oversensitive wiring with an ego on top; that’s a recipe for a voice talent sundae.

But what we forget sometimes is that the director has a goal, a vision and we’ve agreed to take part in it using our tools (voice over abilities) to help “get him there”. So with her critique or alteration of our vocal performance, we need to remember is not a means to our end, it’s a means to her end. It’s about him or her.

It’s not about us. And that is as it should be.

Tags: announcers, audio books, character voices, commentary, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I have been asked to quote on a character narration voice over project for a documentary that involves the voices of some of America’s founding fathers. As an expert in this topic I am an abysmal failure but I have, none the less, always been drawn to the writings and lives of some of these extraordinary men.

There are far more erudite students of American history who can share better insight than I can on the lives of John Adams or Thomas Jefferson but because this voice over job got me to thinking about my peculiar fascination with some of these historical figures, I’ll share with you how I have come to enjoy American history, my way.

If you’ve never been to Washington, DC, shame on your sorry ass. If you’re an American citizen, double shame! Yes, it’s a town with a grossly high concentration of liars and thieves but it is also the place where most of the important people and important decisions that have impacted America’s existence have taken place. The monuments, the documents, the very seed of your inalienable rights are in Washington, DC and you must go.

When you do, speaking of inalienable rights, you must go to my favorite monument, The Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It is magnificent by day and it is magical at night. It is said that when it was built on the Potomac River Tidal Basin during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, he wanted the statue of Jefferson to face towards the Oval Office and the residence balcony in the White House so that FDR might be inspired and draw strength. It worked, I think. And oh, could Mr. Jefferson write! Some of his marvelous writings adorn his monument and they are thrilling. Rush to get there, stay as long as you can.

One of the finest audio book voice talents I know of is Edward Herrman. I know this because I didn’t particularly care about John Adams until Herrman’s voice talent and David McCullough’s writing talent combined into the great audio book John Adams. Take a ride, get caught in traffic and enjoy.

David McCullough’s talents as a writer about things American need no endorsement from me. He’s already got a Pulitzer Prize for his book Truman, on the life of President Harry Truman. For the audio book, he did the narration and did a fine job. Everyone under estimated Harry Truman, don’t underestimate this book.

Tags: audio books, character voices, commentary, narrations, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Some of the more market savvy of readers of this blog (you know that’s you, not those “other” readers ((sarcasm dripping))) have likely come across Seth Godin’s blog which is creatively entitled “Seth Godin’s Blog.”

Seth has written a number of fairly successful marketing books and I enjoy his daily insights into our world and how we all market within it.

As a published author, Seth has a unique perspective allowing him to wax philosophically (and with a degree of “been there done that” credibility) about audio books and their value in the marketplace. As a voice talent / voice actor who narrates audio books on occasion (when I’m not waxing floors), I’d really like to see the audio book industry shaken up a bit too (only for the good).

Some of the most recent books I’ve enjoyed have been audio books, experienced primarily on long car rides. For those folks with interminable commutes, audio books can be a great educational tool or getaway…all the while not ruining your eyes or wrecking your car.

But the expense and the dearth of titles have not allowed the genre to flourish. Seth’s idea may help that situation. At the very least, let’s hope it starts a discussion.

Tags: audio books, blogs, commentary, marketing, media, narrations, technology, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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