So I got a LinkedIn ping the other day from my friend and fellow voice talent Jerry Reed over in Syracuse that he’s got a sparkling new web site. Take a look!
And if you’re wondering where those COOL demo players came from, my friend Bob Merkel of VoiceZam can hook you up.
If you saw the Super Bowl, one of the ads you probably watched was for Ram Trucks and featured one of my true broadcasting heros….one of the people whose talents I would quickly exchange for mine, Paul Harvey. Even after his death his talent – which is one the greatest successes in radio and possibly ALL of broadcasting – still resonants.
One small example comes every Friday on Facebook when my friend and great voice talent Vance Elderkin posts “Hello, Facebookians. It’s Friday,” in a tribute to Harvey who every Friday would open his broadcast by saying “Hello Americans. It’s Friday!”
Another more recent example is the recent Meme that has grown from the famous Harvey speech upon which the Ram Truck ad was built – many jobs have been substituted for the Farmers in this Meme so I suppose it should have come as no surprise that voice acting would have its Meme day.
Except there WAS a surprise.
There was a surprise for me in the personal impact I felt experiencing the great writing, quality audio production and perfect performance by John Taylor who clearly sneezes away more talent during allergy season than most of us can hope to attain in our lifetimes. The great ones always make it look and sound easy.
I hope you enjoy his work as much as I have.
Sometimes people ask me what I like most about my job. Some days I don’t have an answer. 😉
But I think on a clear day, I would say I love the community I work within, the other talents, even more so than the clients – who are equally amazing.
It’s the talents, however, who create great voice-over projects and from whom I learn so much (and yes, occasionally steal from).
Also, we sometimes create our own projects for our own artistic enjoyment (and maybe the enjoyment of others). A Christmas audio project I (and other VO-BB’ers did many years ago with my friend Phillip Banks and then later a video project with my friend Jeffrey Kafer comes immediately to mind. And then another project a group of us did for Armed Forces Radio was a hoot.
I really am thrilled to even be considered let alone invited to participate in these projects because the final piece is always fun.
So when my friend and fellow voice talent Corey Snow invited me and a bunch of other folks to participate in a tribute to Gary Owens we collectively couldn’t say yes fast enough.
The above video is that project and I was stunned to be the lead off voice on this thing – I should have, I dunno, worn a tie or something. But it’s just great heart felt video to tell a guy who has entertained so many people how great an impact he had on all of us, including:
Moe Eagan (who got driven to school once by Gary Owens!)
Corey Snow (who was the heart and soul behind this project)
Congrats to Voice-Over Actor Dave Fennoy following his D.I.C.E. win as Outstanding Character Performer as Lee Everett in The Walking Dead.
Probably best known for his recent work as the voice of HULU.COM, Dave’s promo work has also been heard on ABC, The WB, Fox, CBS, Showtime, Starz, ESPN, The Disney Channel and TV One.
His commercial voice-over credits include Lexus, McDonalds, Corona Beer, KFC, Toyota, Chrysler, and ATT, Time Life Music R&B/Gospel and Southern Company.
In addition to The Walking Dead, gamers enjoy Dave’s voice work on STARCRAFT II, Metal Gear, That’s So Raven, Ultimate Spiderman, Delta Force, Star Wars, Laura Croft Tomb Raider, and many others.
Dave’s narration credits include programs for National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Science Channel’s popular series, “When Earth Erupts”.
Dave did a great interview a while back with my friend and fellow voice-over talent Andy Boyns…take a look.
Pat Fraley and Scott Brick will be joining Julie Williams for a two hour webinar: “Billion Dollar Read: How to Make Money Reading and Recording Books”
This one night only event is a total fund raiser for one of Pat’s voice-over students, Nicole Nielson, who has been stricken with a horrible and incurable disease.
DATE: Tuesday, Feb 12, 2013
TIME: 6pm Pacific (that’s 9pm Eastern)
COST $47 (ALL proceeds go to cause)
For info or to sign up click HERE
The extensive Billion Dollar Read webinar, will cover such essential topics as:
– How to bid on a book
– How and when to negotiate a higher rate for your books
– When to accept a revenue share deal
– How to negotiate a multi-book deal
– Which books are good revenue share deals
– How to know if a book has “legs!”
– They’ll also direct some talent through efforts at audio book narration.
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been writing this blog for so long but I’m fortunate to get the heads up on new and unique projects coming from within the voice-over community whether they be blogs, books, webisodes etc. Many of these new projects I try to include here, some I forget about and don’t. It’s not that I don’t want to include most of it, it’s just I either run out of time, plain forget or fall asleep from exhaustion.
I only make it look easy.
This latest notice kinda tickled my funny bone. Marc Cashman is writing a book entitled “We’re Auditioning For a Muse” which will be a collection of really stupid directions talents have been given in a voice-over script. As Marc describes it “You know, the ones that have you scratching your head wondering what the hell they mean.”
So if you have any of these directionally challenged directions, send them to Marc.
The one I remember happened to a voice talent named Margo Davis who was asked by the director if she could make her read ‘sound more paisley.’
Um…yeah, sure.
