When I was in college, I approached projects as any self-respecting student would: I waited until the last possible moment to start my research, then craft a lengthy essay on the lesser-known works of Chaucer, or argue the merits of Kant’s moral theories. It did not go well. At the crack of midnight, I was bent […]
At the start of each new year, the number of attendees in my yoga class doubles from the usual 25 devotees. Swarms of earnest wannabees clutch sticky mats, and aspirations for inner peace. Welcome to January, that aspirational time, when we re-commit to the virtues of hard work, achievement, and re-invention. Just as the would-be yogi comes […]
Conferences are like a ‘box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.’ The reviews are in for last weekend’s VO Atlanta. Outstanding! Moving! Better than ‘Cats!’ More than 600 voice over actors, producers, agents and managers assembled in one hotel. That’s a lot of talking. But the weekend was about more than […]
About ten years ago, I awoke with two things I never experienced before: a sinus, and ear infection. Neither my PCP, nor even an ENT could see me, so I drove to Emergency Department of my local office. There was no quick remedy or pixie dust cure — In fact dust was one of the […]
Trigger warning: This post is packed with sports analogies and clichés. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” Wayne (The Great One) Gretzky This past weekend, an audition came through my email which demanded my attention. It was for a high-profile client, with a rate over minimum wage. How special. How rarified […]
Silence is always beautiful.* Said no business owner ever. The absence of a ringing phone, or pinging email means: A. You’re in a remote location – perhaps against your own will– severed from your electronic lifeline. Or, B. It’s January, the season that inevitably follows the joyous holiday season, also referred to as Fourth Quarter. […]
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. – Maya Angelou Looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind gift for someone special? How about: your voice? Our ability to employ speech to express human emotion is a gift. We are empowered to tell […]
You can’t be everything to everybody. A truism because it’s, you know, true. In life, we are many things to a variety of people: Spouse, partner, parent, sibling, employee, manager, cook, athlete, artist, voice actor. It’s exhilarating. And exhausting. Why do we insist on being some many things in our voice careers when, let’s face […]
“I found these in the front yard.” My son, grass stained, and sweaty from mowing the lawn, dangled a heavy set of keys, and dropped them into my hand. Among myriad car and house keys was half of a small plastic bar code card, its other half probably chewed away by the blades of our […]
If you’re one in a million, there are at least 7,500 people just like you. So goes the joke/factoid. I thought about it as I recently perused a P2P site, which advertised access to ‘over 200,000 voice actors.’ Still feel like buying that Powerball ticket? If mere numbers don’t make question your pursuit of this […]