General

With thanks to my friend Jeff Kafer for posting about it, Dan O’Day has posted a brilliant essay on his blog about generosity in the voiceover world. Dan’s summary comment perfectly illustrates the whole post.

I learned this a long time ago:

If you have a dollar and I have a dollar, and we trade dollars…We each end up with one dollar.

But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we trade ideas…We each end up with two ideas.

And while I agree with the thoughts Dan remembers from Steve Morris, I think there’s another layer to the story. It’s not just that the odds of booking the job are small, because that’s also true of film and television acting auditions; it’s because the voiceover talent is almost always not in the spotlight. Gigantic egos and intense self-interest are characteristic of performers who spend their time in (or striving to reach) the spotlight. The sort of folks who are drawn to voiceover work tend to be cut from a different cloth.

My friend Connie Terwilliger is featured as the voice in several animated New Yorker cartoons now on the web. Here are direct links to 3 examples: Dial M for Mattress, The Portrait and Boys Club. Wonderful work, Connie.

A hearty congratulations to my friend and fellow voice actor, Darren Eliker. I highly commend Darren’s blog post on being a Dad on Father’s Day for the first time. Good stuff, Darren. Thank you.

My friend Jeff Kafer, along with his voiceovers, works in the video game industry. He notes on his blog that he and some of his friends have started a podcast about gaming. The first episode is now released and available at the podcast’s main page.

OK. I know, that’s not the way the line actually goes, but sometimes my addiction to puns is just uncontrolable. Sorry.

More to the point, while my friend David Houston does in live in Texas, he’s actually in Austin, not his namesake city. I noticed this morning that Dave’s main web site has just undergone a rather lovely remodel. Very nice, Dave. I noticed this, by the way, because he blogged about it on his voiceover blog.

The eyes, it is said, are the windows to the soul. Maybe so, but for me at least, it’s the human voice that is most revealing. I’ve just added Tavia Gilbert’s blog to my blogroll. Given my all ready stated intention to have every voiceover blog in the world linked here, that was a given when I was emailed a link to her site today by Nancy Wolfson.

But, I have to say that I would have linked to her regardless. Tavia’s brilliant post titled Revealing is breath-taking in it’s honesty. You need to take a few minutes to read. Really.

I love telling stories. If you’ve done any digging in the archives of this blog or if you’ve ever met me in person, you probably already know that. It’s the single greatest reason I love doing voiceovers professionally. There are an endless number of stories to tell. Some are very short. Television and radio commercials, for example.

Some take longer. Narrations for documentaries, training films and e-Learning projects. I really enjoy working on long stories. Finding ways to bring a long, technical story to life is a genuine delight.

So, if you’re searching for a voice for your e-Learning (or do you spell it eLearning) project, I’d love to be part of what you do. And if I don’t have the voice you need, you can find a number of other highly professional men and women at the new e-Learning Voices.com site. It’s just launched and I’m delighted to be part of their talent roster.

My friend, and very talented voice actor, Brian Haymond has posted an interview with Buzz Brainard on his blog. It’s filled with interesting bits. I hope you’ll enjoy it, too. And if you want to know more check out Buzz’s site.