I was checking my emails on the plane coming back from Charlotte, NC (before take off, of course, lest my little Treo discombobulate the plane’s 25 cent navigation system and we end up landing in the wrong place) and was pinged by Kara Edwards with whom I had dinner last night (our pal Bob Souer blew us off for a “holy” different reason 😉 ).

She advised me that after a bit of a voice job drought (which we all go through at various times) she today booked two jobs for Thursday and her business line was ringing off the hook. She has christened me her good luck charm. With Caryn Clark having booked a session during our meeting a few weeks ago, this is turning into a bit of a trend.

My challenge now is to figure how to touch myself to enjoy some of this good voice over luck I seem to vibe towards others without getting strange stares or possibly being arrested. I think I’ll just stick to my original marketing plan.

The truth is with both of these VO pros, it’s not at all a matter of luck. Their clients (and ours, hopefully) just needed to come to the realization that they needed their voice services.

Kara is a hoot. A real character who’s a well respected character voice actress. She had been working in radio since she graduated high school and subsequently has a boatload of great radio stories which are always appreciated by those of us who have “lived the life”. Ask her to tell you the story of the final meeting at the last radio station she worked at before going full time into voice over.

It was great to meet her and if you need a great character voice, Kara’s a good place to start.

Tags: character voices, commentary, radio, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Not one to shy away from blatant, crass commercialism (what commercial voice talent would?), I have been Simpsonized for your viewing pleasure.

The home of the Whopper® has sponsored this little device that supposedly takes a picture you submit and reproduces it in the style of a Simpson cartoon.

The movie employees voice actors so I suppose their is some connection to this blog.

Well, they got the hair right.

Tags: character voices, commentary, marketing, peter o'connell, silliness, technology, voice actors, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Character voice acting is becoming very competitive if for no other reason than sheer quantity- if character voice actors had to each be processed through Ellis Island like many of our immigrating forefathers did years ago, the lines to get through the character voice acting doors would seem longer than ever before (“Give me your tired, your hungry, your poor…” that would be your average voice actor).

And as challenging as it now is for a voice actor to be heard over the other voices competing for a role, the challenge for casting directors must be even worse. There is no way a voice over casting director cannot become numb at some point to the hundreds of demos they get…and likely they are missing out on some great talent too.

So in my opinion it becomes even more important to find out what voice over directors are looking for (and listening for) when working with a voice actor. Nancy Cartwright (she of Bart Simpson fame) has conducted a variety of interviews for Animation World Magazine and in late June she published an interview she conducted with voice over director Ginny McSwain.

Pay special attention to Ginny’s criteria for animation voice over. Great stuff there.

Tags: character voices, commentary, tv, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I do love the tv show Family Guy.

The first time I heard Stewie’s voice in a Fox Network promo, I laughed out loud and usually the promos aren’t THAT funny.

It was a treat for me to come across this footage of the “Family Guy” voice actors working on a show. I hope you enjoy it too.

Tags: advertising, character voices, commentary, media, tv, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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While on business for the past week in Boston, I had the opportunity to visit with my voice over colleagues Deirdre Cooper and Mary McKitrick who live in the area. “Area” is a vague term because both were at least 90 minutes away from my location near Boston Harbor.

But bless them both, they took the time to travel and have dinner with me in the city and boy did we have a grand time. I’ve known them both “virtually” for some time on the VO-BB and through some voice projects that we’ve collaborated on.

It is said you can’t really know someone until you’ve spent some time with them and these two voice actors are great ladies in addition to being amazing voice talents. While one might imagine conversation coming easily to people who talk for a living, our conversations were the very definition of effortless, full of both professional insight and shared challenges. Social networking at its finest.

There is no 12-step program for voice over talents because we can call our shared addiction a profession, but it’s nice to be able to discuss similar trials and tribulations with people with whom you can both commiserate with and learn from. And I’m not sure who was the first to pull out the pictures of the family first (usually I’m guilty on that count) it was very funny to learn again how parenting challenges are universal.

My sincere thanks to them for taking the time to become my friends in addition to my colleagues and making Boston an even more hospitable place.

Tags: character voices, commentary, peter o'connell, silliness, voice actors, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
10 Comments »

This wonderful animated short from a talented Italian animator reminded me again of just how great a cartoon Calvin and Hobbes was!

Tags: character voices, commentary, silliness, voice actors by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on yet another reason why i miss “calvin and hobbes”