The Slack Jaw Voice Over

Hello again!  We actually have a podcast coming out on the day it should be coming out!  (We'll just forget that it should have been out last Monday...so just remember....forget that....) Anyway, it's part two on how I put this thing together.  If you are not interested in podcasting or how I put this one together, then just take this message away:  PROMOTE! PROMOTE!! PROMOTE!!! It doesn't matter if you are doing a podcast, project, cartoon, audiobook, whatever.  Promote the BAJEEBUS out of that thing.  (Do keep in mind any non-disclosure agreements you may be under though.)  But outside of that, scream it from the rooftops that you are working.  Not only is it a way to get people to look at what you are doing, but it also helps to have these things as a part of your resume so when you are ready to get an agent, they can see that you have been working your tail off and have been getting work.  They won't take you on if they don't think you are bankable. If you are interested in how the podcast is put together, then check out the podcast.  But either way, when you get work or you are just doing some project on the side, make sure people know about it! As always, drop me a line at [email protected].  You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. Our intro and outro music is from Mevio's Music Alley.  That's David Wilcox's Modern World.  He is one of my favorite folk artists and I highly recommend if you like that type of music to check him out.  Also, don't forget to check out our Patreon page.  Just one dollar a month would be a HUGE help.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello!  Sorry for the delay in the episode.  The schedule is going to be a bit wonky for a few weeks while some "changes" are happening but I hope to have everything on a steady schedule in a month or so.  Until then, we are going to be bit off from time to time. Today's episode is the first of a two part series about how I do this very podcast.  I figured, this is one big way I practice every week (among other things) and if podcasting was something you were interested in, then here is one way you can do it. Part I is mostly about the format, why it changed, and why it can be beneficial to do a podcast.  Next week we are going to talk about the nitty gritty details on how it gets on the web and into your ear holes.  (NOTE:  It is not a requirement to do a podcast to get into voice acting.  It's just a fun way to practice.  AND, you aren't fenced into one particular topic or idea.  I just happen to do mine on voice acting.  You may want to do yours on cactuses.  Cacti?  Whatever.) As always, drop me a line at [email protected].  You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. Our intro and outro music is from Mevio's Music Alley.  That's David Wilcox's Modern World.  He is one of my favorite folk artists and I highly recommend if you like that type of music to check him out.  Also, don't forget to check out our Patreon page.  Just one dollar a month would be a HUGE help.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello all!  I hope you enjoyed your past few weeks.  Things got a little crazy around here as I was out of town, working on an audiobook, among other side projects as well.  But this week we are going to talk about character voices and accents.  It's important to know what you can do, and do it well.  A regular theme in this series is, practice.  And finally DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SHARE WHAT YOU ARE WORKING ON!!!!!  This way, people can help you.  Constructive criticism is extremely important to help you get better. Well that's about the long and the short of it this week.  As always, drop me a [email protected].  You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. Our intro and outro music is from Mevio's Music Alley.  That's David Wilcox's Modern World.  He is one of my favorite folk artists and I highly recommend if you like that type of music to check him out.  Also, don't forget to check out our Patreon page.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello!  Sorry for the delay in the episode.  It's been a busy week.  We are going to be talking about some resources I have used in the past.  Basically I just talk about each one briefly but I encourage you to check them out.  And if you have any resources you would like to share, please pass them along.  I would love to share them in future episodes. Voice Over Basics: Edge Studio The Voice Over Guide Voice123 Blog Vox Daily Voices.com Podcasts Voice Over Times Voice Acting Mastery Talkin' Toons with Rob Paulsen Voice Over Books: Voice Over Voice Actor by Tara Platt and Yuri Lowenthal How to Succeed in Voice Over without Ever Losing by Jack Angel Improvisation for the Theatre by Viola Spolin Business and Technical Links: Adobe Audition Sweetwater Squarespace Zehosting And one little add on: IFTT That's all for today.  As always, drop me a line.  You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. Our intro and outro music is from Mevio's Music Alley.  That's David Wilcox's Modern World.  He is one of my favorite folk artists and I highly recommend if you like that type of music to check him out.  Also, don't forget to check out our Patreon page.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello everyone!  Today we are going to be talking about honesty.  It ties in nicely with last weeks episode so I thought it would be good to shoehorn it in here. The main point I try to get across is, be honest with yourself first.  That will help you be honest with others.  (That sounds like it should be on a motivational poster with a cat wearing a top hat.)  This is true when it comes to your abilities, both in what you can do with your voice, and what you can do with your time.  Wow, that about sums up the episode nicely.  So I'll wrap it up here.   As always, drop me a line.  You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. You may have noticed a new intro and outro music today.  We got that from Mevio's Music Alley.  That's David Wilcox's Modern World.  He is one of my favorite folk artists and I highly recommend if you like that type of music to check him out.  Also, don't forget to check out our Patreon page.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello everyone!  So today we talk about professionalism and customer service.  Frankly, they are one in the same.  As I mention in the podcast, this is one area where I can say I have a TON of experience.  My entire career, save one or two odd jobs, has rotated around customer service and professionalism. So I have some tips to pass along and reminders of ways to provide good customer service and be a professional.  I hope this helps give you some ideas of things you can try.  Also do not hesitate to reach out with other ideas or situations we can talk about on the podcast. One quick note I want to mention.  I will sometimes mention scenarios with clients that I have come across.  I want to be clear that while those situations may have happened, they may not have happened to me AND details have been changed.  I'm sure you can understand why.  These are just examples that I have run into myself or someone else has told me about.  It's a sticky situation to use client examples because I don't want to alienate a client here.  So I wanted to put this disclaimer in there somewhere.  (It will probably make it on the page in permanent place sometime soon.)  I mention this now so you know if you tell me a situation about a client, I will be sure to keep your name, their name, and any "telling" details out of it so you won't get in trouble with a particular client.  I want this to be a safe place for us to talk and help each other. OK, now with that out of the way I will let you go.  Thanks again and I'll be talking to you soon! As always, drop me a line.  You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. Also, don't forget to check out our Patreon page.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello all!  Before I get started I just wanted to let you know there is an announcement below as well as at the end of the podcast so stay tuned!  We have an episode today that covers a lot of topics.  I felt all three of these fit together in their own way so I felt this would be good to discuss each of them.  First up we have "Slowing Down."  Don't rush through your copy, keep it a normal pace.  We also want to make sure we don't rush through the audition process itself.  That would be bad.  Quality is always better than quantity here. I also talk a little bit about script prep.  It's good to take some time with the copy and analyze it.  Figure out how you want to audition.  What direction do you want to take this?  Once you have the figured out then you can go into the booth. Finally I talk a little more about rejection and one thing I do to keep myself from getting down. ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!  Like the renaissance artists before me I find myself in the need of patron.  (I of course speak of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael.)  But unlike those renaissance voice artists Townsend Coleman, Cam Clarke, Barry Gordon, and Rob Paulsen who had Viacom to shepherd them along, I need to get creative.   So, I don't know if you have heard of Patreon yet.  It's basically a way for content creators and artists to get a little financial help to continue to produce what they love.  (See what they did there?  It's a play on the word "patron." Clever huh?)  Basically you can support me by clicking on the below link and pledging a $1 a month.  (You can pledge more if you like.  It's entirely up to you.)  This will help me keep this podcast going as well as start up a few others that I'm currently working on.  If you want to help, great, if not that is perfectly fine.  I just wanted to give you the option.  Also, don't worry that I'm going to rub this in your face each episode.  Just a link in the blog entry and mention at the end of the show.  That's all.  Thank you so much for your support! CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT MY PATREON PAGE! As always, drop me a line.  You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.  Today we talk about patience.  This may seems like an obvious topic but that doesn't mean it's not important to remind yourself every now and again.  Frankly, I thought of the topic simple to be a reminder for myself to be patient. In the podcast I talk a little about Mel Blanc.  I couldn't find a direct link to the interview where he tells the story I recount, but I found a link to another Mel Blanc interview that is just awesome.  I remember, it was an interview like this that I watched with Mel as a young child when I became fascinated with the voices behind the characters I loved so much.  This was before the internet so it was rare to see him do those voices on camera and I love it. As always, drop me a line.  You can subscribe to podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.   To download this episode click here.  If you like what you hear, go ahead and give us a 5 star review on iTunes.  It would really help us out. Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Hello again!  This week we are going to talk more about my voice over booth.  It's pretty basic stuff but it's important to have a starting point with this.  As I say in the episode, this is not inexpensive.  The VO booth is the barrier to entry into this field,  It doesn't matter if you have Mel Blanc's voice, if you plan on getting into VO at home, then you need a good booth.  (NOTE:  Your other option is to move to LA, New York, Houston or Dallas and get an agent.  This is the route I'm ultimately working toward but in the mean time I want to make money doing this NOW and this is one way to do that.) I talk about how I got mine together and what I have.  You can check out this entry here where I had talked a little about it and linked to some of the stuff I talked about.  As always, drop me a line.  You can subscribe to podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.  To download this episode click here.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!

Today we are talking about practice and how important it is.  This seems like an obvious thing but I still wanted to spend some time on it.  While it may same like an obvious thing it isn't the easiest thing to do on a regular basis. I go over some ideas on the best ways to practice, at least for me, and some other ideas you may not have thought about. I also talk about a side benefit of practice that can be overlooked by the beginner.  When you practice you have COMPLETE freedom to try anything.  There is no pressure to make a voice match what some external entity is requesting.  You get to do what you want.  Any, it helps you create new and different voices that you may not have come up with prior to this. So instead of reciting one of the MANY worn out sayings about practice.  I'm just going to say, PRACTICE!  It will only do good things for you. As always, drop me a line.  You can subscribe to podcast by clicking the RSS feed button over to the right there, or you can look us up on iTunes.  To download this episode click here.  Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!  Take Care!