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

To be clear right at the outset, I like my voice just fine but I am in no way comparing its power to the Almighty.

What those in the voiceover, broadcast and event planning worlds might know (but you, gentle reader, may not) is that the term “Voice of God” merely refers to the (usually) off-stage announcing voice you often hear at:

• Award shows and gala banquets
• National sales and marketing meetings
• Charity fundraisers and auctions
• New product introduction events
• Live game shows

…and a myriad of other events where the announcer (me!) helps guide the event flow (I refer to it as Chauffeuring the show from behind the mic). The announcer adds either some necessary excitement or sensitivity to the proceedings. Usually these Voice of God announcing jobs are live and in-person but they also can be pre-recorded and inserted into the production as needed by the event producers.

I have done Voice of God Live Announcing jobs both live and pre-recorded for many years.

But I have been a little remiss in getting my Voice of God announcer demos out there…it is my hope to have rectified my omission with the production of my latest Voice of God Live Announcing demo.

For decades, Peter K. O’Connell has served as a professional live event / “voice of god” announcer, emcee / live host for a myriad of events.

You know that I also do Live Hosting and Emceeing for events (just like the ones listed above) especially if you’ve been to my webpages for Voice of God announcing and live event work (those webpages are audioconnell.com / peterkoconnell.com).

Most recently, I flew to Chicago a few weeks ago to serve as Emcee and Live Host for the WoVOCon Voiceover Unconference (similar to the FaffCon Voiceover Unconference from some years ago). I doing those type of hosting gigs for many years as well and still enjoy them.

Watch / Listen to Peter’s Voice of God – Live Announce Demo Below…..

Tags: announcers, live announcing, voice of God by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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My friend and fellow voice actor Mara Junot will be the announcer for the live broadcast on the Screen Actors Guild Award on Saturday, February 24 at 8pm ET on Netflix.

That statement may surprise you (not that I have a friend but that…well, OK maybe you are surprised I have a friend that’s a real person but…oh shut up).

Anyway, Mara is an extremely talented and versatile voice talent, that’s the whole point.

I have known Mara for many years and while I would not be so arrogant to say we are close friends (we live very far away from each other, also she is young and I am as old as death), if I were to see her next week, we would start talking like it had not been over 4 years since I last saw her.

She’s just that friendly, kind and open. She’s just Mara…I think she’s like that with everybody.

It’s a gift.

While I am (of course) extremely bitter that I did not get the live announcer gig for yet another major award show (my perfect record of “not invited to audition” remains safe) 😉 if anybody else should get the live announcer gig, it should be Mara.

I know my fellow friends in the VO industry who know Mara share my inordinate joy for her on securing this great gig. 🙂

When you see the show and hear her work, you’ll understand. She deserves all good things.

Tags: announcers, live announcing, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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As you know, with me, there’s always a voiceover story.

Even at a Little League baseball game.

It was last weekend at one of my children’s games…but this was more than a regular game. This was part of a kind of baseball festival at this really nice baseball facility in Cary, NC.

I am not a coach of my son’s team but just one of many Dad helpers there to support the Manager (mostly during practices). This day, the Assistant Coach asked if I would take the team lineup to the facility’s pressroom because as a special part of this big baseball event, the players are introduced over the PA for each game. For the young players, this is a really special treat that does not happen at regular games.

As instructed, I went up to the press room which is on the second floor of this kind of hub structure at this multi-field park that looks a bit like an airport control tower – from the 2^nd floor deck you can see all the surrounding fields. I walked in and handed a person our lineup sheet, told them which team it was for and the field we would be playing on so they could do the introductions.

“No, no,” the person said. “You have to come up just before the game starts so you can do the announcing. We have someone from each team do the intros,” the person said.

I took a second to make sure I understood what they just said, as it was a surprise to me.

“Someone from our team does the actual team intros on the PA?” I asked? He confirmed I had heard correctly.

I thought the town would just have an employee do it or hire a radio guy for the weekend. Nope. A parent.

As there were four parents including me helping out on my son’s team and three of them (not me) had jobs on the field during the game, I knew how this story was likely going to end.

I went down to my son’s coaches and I said, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is they want someone from our team to do the team intros on the PA. The good news is I do live announcing for a living, so if you want, I can do the intros.”

They thought that was a swell idea.

So back up I went to the airport control tower/baseball complex HQ to await my instructions from the Town of Cary employees (all very nice folks).

Things happened pretty quickly once I got back inside.

The audio setup was very, um, practical. The speakers outside were pretty good. The microphone, inside the fairly large, mostly glass walled room, was a very low end desk mic with a push-to-talk switch….kinda like I used to have on my CB radios in the 70’s.

But it all worked.

My son’s team was the home team, so the parent from the away team did the intro’s for the away team first. I was instructed that, because I went last, my job after I read the coach’s name on our roster, I was to say “Play Ball”.

It was very hard to hear anything going on outside which led me to believe this must have been much more than single-paned glass I was surrounded by. I knew I was going to be louder than the previous parent (or probably most parents announcing during the event). I knew I’d have to back off the mic a bit so I would not sound distorted.

Make it exciting, I thought. Make it memorable, I told myself. Make it sportstacular!

On second thought, I may have been just solely focused on name pronunciations.

In any case, at the last minute I had the good sense to grab my phone to record it. The camera work wasn’t pretty (nor was/is the subject) but the announce went just fine and the kids (and coaches) were thrilled.

Tags: announcers, commentary, live announcing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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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.

Tags: announcers, live announcing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The American Legion Band of the Tonawandas, Post 264 with Master of Ceremonies Peter K. O’Connell at Basset Park, Amherst, NY on July 29, 2015. Photo courtesy of Michael Wesolowski

So another Buffalonian has left our city to find his fortune in Hollywood, CA.

My friend and fellow voice talent Dan Lenard has moved his family out to California which is a loss for our area but also a loss for The American Legion Band of the Tonawandas, Post 264, where Dan has served as Master of Ceremonies for a while now.

The band is very successful. They’ve won state, national and international band championships. Heck, they’ve even played Carnegie Hall in New York City.

But now with Dan going off to pan for gold in Cali, the band needed a new MC.

So the band asked if I would do the live announcing for their shows (Dan told them about me). Last night was my first show and everyone said it went well.

All I remember was that it was hot. Like 90+ degrees hot and the sun was blasting the stage. At least I got to go backstage between my on-stage parts, the poor band members were out there the whole time but they didn’t miss a note.

It was nice to do some live announcing again and it’s nice doing it with a talented group of people.

Tags: commentary, live announcing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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