The Thrill of Victory

“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 lawn mower. I recognized the logo on the other side as that of my local yoga studio.

Checking into class that evening, I handed the keys to the studio manager, and told him the story. On my way out of class, he stopped me, and said, “Hey, we found the owner of the keys, and he left you this.”

He slid a small envelope across the counter addressed to me. (more…)

Voice Over by the Numbers

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 business, consider the recent merger in the voice over world. Apparently, many actors have, and it’s raising the anxiety level to code red levels.

It need not. (more…)

Starting Up – Again

In 2004, after working years in radio, I decided to become a full-time voice actor.

A perfect solution to creating work-life balance, the career allowed me to record several hours a day, and be home when my two sons returned from school.  My talented and generous voiceover friend Jeff Berlin provided advice and direction on home studio set up.

I hired an engineer to sound treat a small room in our drafty New England home, installed a Telos, hooked up an mBox, and purchased a couple of mics. With my mantra, ‘If you build it, they will come,’ and a few big auditions, I booked a couple of major projects.  Those, and the smaller ‘bread and butter’ gigs put me on the path of full-time employment. (more…)