Bob Souer

When Marice Tobias teaches a weekend on promo and trailer reads, she starts with the trailer reads because that sound informs so much of what else happens in the voiceover world. I will freely admit that I find these weekends of studying with her both terrifying and incredibly invigorating. Terrifying because I’m performing in front of a group of really top notch peers. Invigorating for exactly the same reason.

Today I experienced an exceptionally transformative experience. Now, as you read about it, you may think “thats no big deal” and you’re certainly welcome to your opinion; but each of us walk our journeys at our own pace and for me what took place today was life-changing. I was in the booth reading through my chosen piece of trailer copy. After a couple of takes, Marice says “hold on, I’m coming in.” Now, if you’ve ever taken part in one of Marice’s weekends, you know she’s not shy about coming in to the booth with people and guiding and coaching up close and personal.

The break through came as a direct result of her walking into the booth with me, because she was able to help me truly get out of my own way and just cut loose. Now, that sounds like I suddenly got louder or something but that’s not at all what it was like. The cutting loose in this case was letting go of my fear of ego. For a very long time I’ve been afraid that if I let myself just rest on a foundation of really solid confidence in my ability to deliver that I would turn into some kind of self-abosorbed ego maniac. And that fear was tied, at the same time, for a fear of sounding or looking foolish. Today I realized that I can stand up straight, confident that I am enough. (Not perfect. Not the “be all and end all.” Just “enough.”)

I’m very much looking forward to listening to the audio from today’s session because I think I will learn even more from listening back to what happened.

This is a shot of the group, minus Marice and our wonderful engineer Hollis. It was in fact Hollis, who was taking the photo.

After the day was done, several of us walked a couple of blocks to Pete’s Tavern, a landmark institution in New York. In fact, I noticed a sign near the door announcing that they have been in business since Abraham Lincoln was in the White House.

After dinner, Melissa Exelberth and I and Patrick O’Connor shared some wonderful conversation.

Truly a delightful time, capped off by a chance to met Patrick’s Portuguese Water Dog, Bailey.

Truly a wonderful day and evening. Now, to get some rest (after I finish my assignment for the evening), knowing that tomorrow is going to be another fabulous day of learning and play.

(Edited to fix typos)