For this voice actor, releasing a new narration demo feels a lot like opening night must feel for a stage actor.

The anticipation, the butterflies, the second-guessing (and third and fourth-guessing), the sheer panic—it turns out voice actors and stage actors aren’t so different after all! Except voice actors get to have our meltdowns in the privacy of a voiceover booth. Same existential crisis, similar plot line, muuuuch smaller audience.

Oh, one other big difference? Stage actors work with a team on their plays and musicals—other actors, directors, musicians, lighting designers. I produce my own demos, so it’s just me, my producer’s ear and the mic having a very one-sided conversation.

I’ve spent hours selecting pieces that showcase my storytelling range—revisiting past projects, recording new segments, tweaking the edit until it flows. The goal is capturing not just what my voice can do, but the depth I bring to every narration project.

I hope you like what you hear.

I hope you hire what hear.

As Bugs and Daffy sang:

“Overture, curtain, lights, This is it, the night of nights. No more rehearsing and nursing a part, We know every part by heart. Overture, curtains, lights, This is it, you’ll hit the heights. And oh what heights we’ll hit. On with the show, this is it. Tonight what heights we’ll hit. On with the show, this is it.”

PLAY THE DEMO ABOVE

Tags: Demos, narrations, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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So it’s time to unveil the 2025 political commercial voiceover demo from Peter K. O’Connell – because why NOT talk about yourself in the 3rd person (ha!)

It feels like America is constantly in some sort of election cycle…certainly every 4 years on the Presidential election, but then you have Congressional seats, Governorships, State Ballots and then when you get into counties, parishes and local elections…well it gets busy.

My political commercial voiceover work covers all that.

While not aligned with any political party, I continue to voice political commercials solely for candidates who fully support the Pro-Life platform.

That’s not me pontificating or stumping for my issues. This is just an issue I feel strongly about.

The reason I mention it is to make it easier for casting directors, recording studio producers, political consultants and political advertising agencies. These are all busy, talented people who work for a variety of parties and issues and who all move very quickly. It best to address any conflicts BEFORE work starts.

Nobody gets mad, confused or makes a judgement…we’ve merely identified our respective working parameters.

If those media professionals are looking for political voice talent – and their candidate or issue is not aligned with me, they can quickly move on and I’ve (hopefully) helped make everyone’s commercial production life simpler by just speaking up. That’s my only goal on this point.

If you ARE hiring for political spots and it’s within my scope, know that I have very fast turnaround and am available via SourceConnect (look up @audioconnell).

So without further ado (and I hope you have NOT overdone your ado) here is my 2025 Political Commercial Voiceover Demo (please hit the play arrow):

Tags: Demos, political advertising by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It was NOT on my voiceover radar as I walked into the WoVOCon Voiceover Unconference 2024 ( #wovocon2024 ).

Sure, I’d thought about marketing my live announcing and emcee work in the past — but I got distracted by other shiny voiceover objects and never really focused on it.

Even serving AS the Emcee of wovocon2024, I wasn’t thinking about marketing those very services – because I had a show to execute!!

But as I *wasn’t* thinking about my talents in that area and as I was not planning for promoting them…it happened.

Right in the middle of WoVOCon 2024.

As Emcee and from the podium, I was talking about some of the questions / help people were posting about during WoVOCon. I improvisationally mentioned (from what must have been the far corner of my subconscious marketing brain) that if anyone had any ideas or could help me focus on my live announcing and emcee work, that would be great.

I believe I brought it up as an example to help those the audience to understand what questions could be asked of their fellow WoVOCon’ers and to also let people know (and feel more comfortable) that everybody can use help in their VO careers, even the old guys (that would be me).

That was it. I didn’t think too much more about it after I said it and WoVOCon ended.

Except it didn’t end.

I had forgotten about my Live Announcing mention at WoVOCon and was focused on other stuff from the conference. But about a week after I got home, I got an email from my friend and fellow voice talent DEBBIE IRWIN.

Her email, titled “Live Announcing” said “I heard your request for help in this arena… I don’t have a magic wand, but I do have a few ideas and am happy to bounce them around with you.”

We were on the phone the next day…plenty of good and generous ideas from Debbie, many insights and more than a few live announcing war stories….all which led to me getting off my butt. Within the next week and a half, I’d producing a sparkly new (Debbie-approved) Voice of God – Live Announcing voiceover demo.

Marketing is underway and will continue for sometime.

A demo. A marketing plan. Execution.

All 3 came from my WoVOCon 2024 experience in Chicago. A very unique experience meant to build and inspire the business and creative actions of professional voice actors via other professional voice actors.

Mission accomplished.

Tags: commentary, Demos, live announcing, voice of God, WOVOCON by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – November 4, 2024 – – Peter K. O’Connell, America’s Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent, has released a new voiceover demo featuring examples of his live event announcing for awards shows, corporate sales meeting and charity fundraising events.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S VOICE OF GOD – LIVE ANNOUNCER DEMO BELOW:

O’Connell’s off stage, live announcing and pre-recorded announcing work has been heard at events across America and as far away as Korea. This type of announcing work is commonly called the “voice of God” by event industry producers and planners.

In addition to live announcing, O’Connell is also in demand as an on-stage event Emcee or Host at similar live events including awards shows, charity galas and corporate sales meetings.

About Peter K. O’Connell

Voice actor Peter K. O’Connell has shared his voiceover, live announcer (voice of God) and audio production skills with companies around the world.

In addition to his work as a Live Announcer and Emcee for events, Peter’s commercial, narration & web clients include brands like Disney Cruise Line, Tic Tac Mints, iHeart Media, Crest Toothpaste, IBM, SXM Media and AWS.

O’Connell’s company, audio’connell Voiceover Talent, is a Source-Connect equipped voiceover studio that is a division of O’Connell Communications, LLC.

– 30 –

NOTES FOR EDITORS

CONTACT:

Peter K. O’Connell Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent

audio’connell Voiceover Talent

P.O. Box 5493 | Raleigh, NC 27512-5493

PH. +01 716-572-1800 & +01 919-283-1516

EM. peter@audioconnell.com

W. audioconnell.com

SOURCE-CONNECT: @audioconnell

COMPANY MEDIA CENTER:

http://www.audioconnell.com/media

PETER K. O’CONNELL VO CREDITS:

VO Credits Link

COMPANY NAME SPELLING:

Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voiceover Talent

COMPANY NAME PRONUNCIATION:

au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Tags: announcers, Demos, media releases, voice of God by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It promises to be a very active year for political advertising and, as a voiceover talent for political commercials, I am here for all of it.

I voice commercials for local, regional, state and national elections and issues.

For those who might not know, I voice spots for “Introduce the Candidate” political ads (also known as “Biographical” ads); the “Pro-Candidate” political commercials; the “Attack Ad” political spots (similar to the “Opposition” spots which I also voice);  “Issue” ads (focusing on a single issue surrounding an election – sometimes produced by PACs or Political Action Committees); “Ballot Initiative” ads’ “Political Humor” ads; “Patriotic” political TV & radio commercials; “Testimonial” political reads and many more.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S 2024 POLITICAL COMMERCIAL VOICEOVER DEMO (below)

While not aligned with any political party, I voice political commercials solely for candidates who fully support the Pro-Life platform.

For information and rates on political spots, connect with me at all of the usual places or click here.

Tags: Demos, political advertising by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Truth be told, this new commercial character voice demo was a long time in the making.

A loooong time…like 18 years.

You read that right.

Why so long?

I kept getting hired off the 18 year old demo.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’s 2024 COMMERCIAL CHARACTER VOICE DEMO BELOW:

Then the character voice demo evolved – there were character voice demos, then just animation character voice demos, then video game character demos. Then offshoots and collections mixing all that stuff. Oy!

I wasn’t sure how I should roll with these changes. I can do voices and voice acting for all those genres. Heck, I HAVE done voices in all those genres.

I even worked on one of the early famous video games (with a boatload of audio files) – Bioshock. But when I saw the game, I didn’t really like the story and visuals…they creeped me out, honestly. Clearly there was a huge audience for it but that audience didn’t include me.

Plus, I realized if I played in those video game voice acting waters…I’d likely be faced with that same gut/moral conundrum more than a few times. I don’t mind ceeding artistic control on most projects…but video games could get really weird really fast for my tastes. Not judging others but it was not for me.

I decided I was more of a commercial and animation character voice person. Plus there are a ton more talented than me video game voice actors in the world.

Then there was the paralyzing (for me) question of what to include in a new character voice demo. I can do and have done a ton of unique and familiar characters…I became overwhelmed.

It was a terrible but very real feeling about this inconsequential character voice demo (inconsequential when compared to the big picture of life).

I talked to some character voice producers (smart, talented folks) but I didn’t feel confident enough in my choices and the direction I wanted to go in for my demo to make it a worthwhile partnership to invest my money and their time.

Then a few weeks ago, I spent a Saturday doing a deep dive into the archive of ALL the character stuff I have voiced. I sensed a direction and felt a great confidence to begin assembling, writing, voicing, editing and mixing.

One of the great benefits of working professionally in voiceover for over 40 years is that you become friends with very talented people who opinions you respect and who you know will lend a helpful ear and thoughtful, smart feedback.

I am so grateful for the help of my friends Bruce Miles, Steve Pogatch and most especially Rowell Gormon – who together easily total a century’s worth of professional character voice performance and production – for their insights. If you love the demo, it’s in large part because of them. If you hate, that’s on me.

I hope you love it.

And I hope there was a wonderful reason in God’s big plan that I had to wait 18 years between character voice demos. Cause I’m not sure I still be around if I have to wait ANOTHER 18 years for the next one! 🙂

Tags: character voices, Demos, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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