Entries Tagged as 'voice actors'

very nice! rodney saulsberry nominated for NAACP image award

Actor Rodney Saulsberry

I saw the news on Voiceover Universe today that the wonderfully talented Rodney Saulsberry has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for his acting work on The Bold and the Beautiful.

He is nominated as Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series.

Folks, there are hundreds of talented actors that cruise through the soap opera world every year and get nary a mention let alone a nomination – this nomination is a BIG deal.

My congrats to Rodney and the team at The Bold and the Beautiful.

faux-ditions time: unofficial voice over casting call for the price is right!

Editor’s Note: If you don’t subscribe to this blog, you miss all the cool stuff like this faux-dition. Click here to subscribe. And please promote this via social media to all your VO pals. Thanks!

You know how new products come out with a new version and say “It’s Better Than Ever!”?

Well, with this year’s unofficial announcer’s audition (faux-dition), it’s true because we have one doozy of a prize for the winner.

GREATEST GAME SHOW EVER
This year, I picked the most amazing announcer supported game show in the history of broadcasting for our unofficial casting call: “The Price Is Right”.

A staple of CBS mornings since the late 1700’s, this perennial ratings winner has had only two daytime host in its modern version (Bob Barker and now Drew Carey) and three announcers: Johnny Olsen (my hero), from Buffalo’s Big 1520 WKBW Rod Roddy and most recently Rich Fields.

But the show has been doing on-air auditions for a new announcer and so it seemed only fair that we collectively throw our fake hat into the ring for this great announcing job.

As always this event is for fun (“this is not a competition, just an exhibition; please, no wagering”.) No one…but NO ONE who enters this phony audition event is in line for the announcing job on “The Price Is Right” and no way is ANYONE associated with “The Price Is Right” endorsing, condoning or otherwise support this annual announcing fantasy. They also own all the copyrights to name, music and everything else to do with the show. I make no money on this but merely am promoting one of the coolest VO jobs in our world. Let’s all dream a little together.

I’ll grab 3 judges and we’ll whittle all the contestants down to 10 finalists and then we will vote (but not until I call the vote).

You as the participating voice over talent are responsible for the mixing and audio quality (which has been a factor in past judging and voting); your audition needs to sound broadcast ready which means the mix should sound as great as your voice. If you want to be a pro you gotta sound like a pro…completely.

Here’s my demo – again just as an example – perform the announce in whatever way you think would be most likely accepted by “The Price Is Right” producers if they were auditioning you as a new announcer (which, as far as I know, they are not).

LISTEN:
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/110103_TPIR_Auditions/OConnell__Unofficial_TPIR_Audition.mp3]

THE PRIZE
But here’s where the NEW & IMPROVED part comes in – the winner by votes will win a grand prize: a complimentary registration to Faffcon 2 Electric Boogaloo – The Voiceover Unconference, taking place in Atlanta, GA from February 25-27, 2011.

This donated prize includes:
* Registration for the Faffcon 2 Conference ($199.00 value)
* A Complimentary Faffcon 2 T-Shirt ($20.00 value)
* A Private Studio Tour of CNN with your fellow Faffers on Friday, February 25, 2011
* A Complimentary Dinner Dinner at Max Lager’s Wood-Fired Grill and Brewery, including tax and tip (beverages not included)
* A one year FREE membership to VoiceTweet! ($75 value)

The winner (who must be 18 years of age or older as of today’s date) is responsible for ALL other expenses involved in their participation in Faffcon 2 including but not limited to travel, lodging, taxes and bail money – in case you enjoy yourself too much in Atlanta.

The idea with this prize is if you’re great enough to be judged to be the best in this forum, you should have the opportunity to learn with and among the best in our industry at Faffcon.

There were a bunch of people who chipped in to support Faffcon and the spirit of this annual unofficial casting call and I am truly appreciative of help in creating a complimentary Faffcon registration including but not limited to (and in no particular order) Bob Souer, Liz de Nesnera, Dave Courvoisier, Diane Maggipinto, Melissa Exelberth, Trish Basanyi, Natalie Stanfield Thomas, Amy Snively, Pam Tierney & Todd Ellis. If I have forgotten anyone…please ping me.

THE SPECS
Remember – although it is not – treat this like a real audition. Give us your best performance.

>> Here is the script – do NOT deviate from the script – enhance it vocally as you wish (that’s the fun) but stick to the copy:

Here it comes!

(Pause)

From the Bob Barker Studio at CBS in Hollywood! It’s The Price is Right!

Mary Thomas! Come on down!

Hugh Merriweather! Come on down!

Clara Jones! Come on down!

And Ben Smith! Come on down!

You are the first four contestants on The Price Is Right!

And now, here’s your host, Drew Carey!!!!!

HERE is your music and sound effects bed (right click on the link and click “Save Link As” to save it to your computer).

Do NOT deviate from this bed, do not create your own and do not substitute another version of music or sound effects. There will be a lot of entries and the judges can’t listen to auditions of varying lengths because you think you can produce a better bed.

Email your audition to peter at audioconnell dot com. MP3 file only.

File name: YOURLASTNAME_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition

LISTEN TO ENTRIES HERE.

I’ll allow submissions until it becomes tedious or boring so stay tuned. Only one entry per voice talent, please. Have fun and enjoy the ride.

P.S. The script has been altered from its original form. This now contains the most updated script.

faffcon savings END TODAY!!!!!

OK look, every since we had kids, I have been a coupon slave. When I was single, I was careless about such things but when you have kids you start seeing this free money via discounts and you realize you’d be NUTS to ignore it since it was something I was GOING TO BUY LATER ANYWAYS.

So the Faffcon2 early bird discount is $169 until midnight, December 31, 2010 – meaning on January 1, 2011 the price will be $199.00.

Using both my toes AND fingers (with a little abacus help) I see that means you can save $30 on your Faffcon registration fee until midnight tonight.

$30 dollars! FREE.

If I put three ten dollar bills in front of you right now and said “take them, they’re free” you’d be pretty happy.

Well that’s what Amy has done. I took advantage of the discount and I didn’t even need a coupon.

I hope you’ll sign up for Faffcon today and join your talented peers (with one notable exception, ahem)

Please understand, I’ve got no financial stake in this event…none of the attending voice talents do…we just believe in the event and know its success is based on having the brightest, most talent professionals in our industry attend and most importantly participate.

The sharing of knowledge, insight and experience, as Doug Turkel has wisely noted, is the very reason for this unconference.

You absolutely can sign up for Faffcon after today and you’ll be very glad you did, but the price goes up.

As the ad slogan once said: “you could pay more, but why?”

audio’connell in raleigh

Voice Talent Peter K. O'Connell in Raleigh with Debra Stamp and Donovan Corneetz

The only reason my friend Rowell Gorman gets a pass for blowing me off on my trip to Raleigh is because he was a good son, going to visit his Mom.

While I missed seeing him, I hope to see him at Faffcon in Atlanta in February. But two great voice talents, one an old friend and one a new friend were kind enough to spend some time with me in this fine city.

If you’ve not had a chance to work with the great Female Voice Over Talent Debra Stamp, well then it’s your loss cause just about everybody else in the world has. She’s an awesome voice artist and a good friend. She used to live in Buffalo, NY and then moved down to Raleigh – she likes it there quite a bit too!

Donovan Corneetz (aka “The Voice of Cool”) started in voice over about 5 years ago and is already doing promos for TBS and PBS among others. As unpretentious a man as you’ll ever meet, he was gracious enough to have breakfast with me during a snow an minor ice storm in the city. Carolinians do not know how to handle such weather – but the former New Yorker did and I was very honored he made the trip.

Great to see these talented friends.

bid on the chance to have joe cipriano, paul pape, and george delhoyo be your personal man servants

Do I know how to write a headline or what?!

No I’m not pimping out Joe, Paul, George or any of the former Beatles (ba-dum-bump) but each of these three amazing voice talents ARE donating three unique voice over experiences for you to bid on during the The Screen Actors Guild Awards Auctions which benefit the SAG Foundation.

According to my friend Michael Woodley, the auction began on December 10th and runs through December 17, 2010. The SAG Awards Auctions benefit the SAG Foundation to help make possible the Foundation’s public children’s literacy programs: BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) and Storyline Online. The auction also supports Foundation programs providing emergency relief to SAG members in economic distress, video and audio preservation of the creative legacy of SAG members, scholarships for performers and their children, emergency funds for members with catastrophic illnesses and The Actor’s Center.

For the voice over talent in your life, these would be three pretty cool gifts to receive from three very generous guys. Grab your check book or credit card and visit the auction web site to place your bid today.

welcome oregon voiceover talent to the blog

Another example now of the value of Google Alerts (I don’t know how many times I am going to have to remind you people!) 😉 is the alert I saw featuring the blog for Oregon Voice Over Talent. This seems to be a group of voice talents (in Oregon…imagine that) who have conjoined their marketing strength into a supersonic, lalapoloooza web site and blog.

Because of social media, some of the names seem familiar to me, especially Vicki Amorose. I’m surprised they haven’t connected yet with their newest VO resident, my friend and the great voice talent Dan Nachtrab, who now enjoys a close personal relationship with actress Julia Roberts.

At any rate, now I am a subscriber to their blog and I hope you will be too.