People

Tracy Pattin sent me some questions the other day. I replied with my answers and now they are appearing on her blog. Thank you, Tracy.

(Update: The second part of the interview has now been posted.)

I had the delight of visiting for a short while today with Laura Lynn of Redfire Creative Services today.

Laura is such a delightful and creative lady and was a very gracious host during our visit today. I look forward to next time.

I had a delightful visit today with two very talented and very nice people while I was in New Hope, Minnesota. Veronica March and Terry Daniel are both based in Minnesota with their voice acting careers. Both were willing to carve a bit of time from their busy schedules so we could meet together.

I’m so glad we were able to work out some time together.

My thanks to Terry Daniel for tweeting the link to this video.

It’s not about how you sound … it’s about how you make the listener feel … a great quote from … Harlan Hogan

Michael Rankins offers some interesting reflections about his experience with any audition today. (Thanks for tweeting the link, Michael.)

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)

I’m in New York this weekend for some more training with Marice Tobias. I’ll write more about that as the weekend goes on. However this afternoon I was able to spend some very pleasant with friends.

Here I am with the lovely and talented Liz de Nesnera and new voice talent Mark Stewart.

After my pleasant visit with Liz and Mark, I was picked up by Melissa Exelberth.

Melissa used her great driving skills to get us into Manhattan with a minimum of fuss and bother in spite of the heavy Friday evening traffic and a wonderful dinner of pizza with Michael Schoen and his wife Diane Diamond.

After dinner Michael, Diane and Melissa walked me around the West Village, a part of New York City that I’d never visited before. It was great fun and we were able to find a by-stander who was nice enough to snap a photo of us.

I’m standing here with Melissa Exelberth, Diane Diamond and Michael Schoen in the West Village on a lovely night in June. Now, some rest and tomorrow and Sunday we’re going to play full out with Marice.

My friend John Taylor demonstrates his mad skills behind the mic and at his workstation in this video.

Kotaku has a video interview posted with Nolan North.

My thanks to Erik Sheppard for tweeting the link to this video.

My friend Mary McKitrick has launched a fabulous new look for her web site today. Wow!

The LA Times has a very nice feature story on voice actor Scott Rummell. My thanks to Donna Reed for tweeting the link to this article.

Rodney Saulsberry tweets this morning that he’s working on the second edition of this book.

Bettye Zoller Seitz posts this evening on the Yahoo! Voiceover group that Doug Saye died earlier today following a stroke.