VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Philip Banks]

Why am I trying to pay the bills as a voice over artist? A combination of things but what planted the seed was seeing a short film on how commercials were made. I would guess this would've been in the very late 1960's or early 1970's. It was a Kodak commercial and the voice over artist also presented a show on BBC Radio 1 every week. He was first and foremost a musician.

For getting me this far, a public thank you from me to the late, great Alexis Korner.

http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/alexis_korner_page.htm

www.thecorporatevoice.com/alexiskorner.mp3

[bobsouer]

[Bruce]

Alexis Korner certainly had an amazing voice!

My voiceover influence came from people like "Happiness" Harry Scarborough, "Your Little Bitty Soul Buddy" Buddy Scott, "The Pimply-Faced Anemic" Bobby Shannon, and all the disc jockeys at the rival Top 40 stations in town, KRIZ and KRUX. In my high school days I would sneak out of the house late at night not to see girls or go drinking, but to visit the d.j.'s who'd let me sneak in and chat, and who were glad to pontificate in front of "the kid". Man, the things these guys could do behind a microphone! I got on the air shortly after high school, and the rest is history.

My acting influence came in large part from my family. My grandmother played the mother of Rudolph Valentino's character in two of his films (and also acted other films of the silent era). Her stories were wonderful. And there was my mother's cousin Getta. She was in her 50's when I was a teen and did industrial films and TV commercials as a lark. The day she told me about shooting an industrial film at the local drag strip where she played a drag racing granny and did take after take gunning a hot Mustang down the raceway. I was hooked.

Bruce

P.S. Okay, yes, I also snuck out late at night to see girls and drink.
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[audio'connell]

For me...two words:

Ernie Anderson

http://www.ernieanderson.com/audio.htm

I had heard his voice on the Carol Burnett Show and on Z100 but I remember specifically standing on a balcony in Singer Island, Florida in 1983 with a radio early in the morning listening to Sonny Fox on Y-100 and that top of the hour ID and the voice that actually made their jingle sound even more exciting (to me anyway).

"DOUBLE U - EHCH - WHY- EYE.....Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and the Palm Beachessss..WHYYYYY-ONNNNE Hundred!"

I've judged every station voice against that which I considered to be the gold standard and I've not heard anyone come close, most especially me.

But we keep on truckin' and maybe someday WE'LL have an impact on some kid listening to the radio....
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- Peter
audioconnell Voice Over Talent
Your friendly, neighborhood voice over talent

[jrodriguez315]

Last year, I bumped into an old friend from back when I was trying to be a stand-up comic about 15 or so years ago. She currently works for a production company and teaches an improv class in NYC.

I went to her class and she liked me enough to offer me a voiceover job for the 2005 GLAAD awards show. It's the kind of thing Joe Cipriano does live only this was taped. They were doing a segment on Gay Latinos and how they are represented in the media. Well I'd never done any voiceover work before, but she was confident that I would be able to do the job. She originally thought the job was in Spanish but as it turned out, it was to be done in English with a Spanish accent.

I arrived at the studio, she introduced me to the producer, said good luck and left me. When I did the first script, the producer looks at me and says "you don't have an accent". I immediately replied "what kind of accent do you want, Nuyorican, Ricardo Montalban or Speedy Gonzalez? So I did a passable Nuyorican Ricardo Montalban for the job and got paid a nice fee. Probably tiny by the standards of the pros on this board, but it was a nice introduction to the wonderful world of voiceover for me.

Since then I've taken a Cartoon / Character / ADR class with Pamela Lewis (whom I love) and many copy-reading / coaching sessions at an NY studio. I started working for a company in NJ doing ADR work for their Turkish TV shows in English, which I still do whenever they call me. So here I am on about page 25 of 83 in the Archives of this forum looking to go to the next level. I've learned so much here already and I am still not even half-way through!!

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's back to the archives I go . . .
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Joe Rodriguez, Bilingual Voice Actor | The Voiceover Thespian Blog

[bobsouer]

[steveanthony]

It wasn't a person, but the studio that got me going (and brought me back after a 5 year hiatus). I like playing around in a production studio. The first time I walked into a radio station, it was cool watching the DJs. But when they showed me the production room, that lite the fire . . . that's what hooked me. As for early influences, Bobby Ocean at KFRC was the first guy I really started to pay attention to. And the production/writing/voicing on the "Last Contest," that was something.

[Hart]

[billelder]

For me it was Gary Guntor and Joel Godard. (Yes, Conan's announcer) I replaced Gary when I was 15 at a local radio station and Joel was a mentor to me. He is the consummate professional and a very decent guy. I never really thought about voiceovers until years later when Joel went to work for NBC. Things he taught me I use today. His professionalism and example has stayed with me through my 30 years in broadcasting, and now.

Steve, The Last Contest was voiced by Jack McCoy wasn't it? What a contest. Those were great years as we made it up as we went along.

Banksey...nice post. Thanks for allowing me to think of those who helped me and believed in me along the way.

[Frank F]

For me it was a combination of things that started my career in VO.

I was set to be an Olympic swimmer, had the credentials and near the amount of points necessary to get to the selection committee - then on to the Olympics. Problem was, my parents could not afford the fees that were charged to compete and the hotels and travel expenses, and our local community was of no help... my family was not in the 'clic'. So I thought I could earn enough money to offset the expenses. I had listened to the radio stations on 'skip' and thought that it might be fun to become a disc jockey, Surely, they make big bucks? (Oh, so naive I was at 15 years old).

So, I bothered a couple of DJ's at local stations and one finally helped me learn how to get my First Class License (anyone remember those?). Further he helped me get a job working part, part, part, part time (whenever someone wanted a day off at an automated radio station),

Thus it began, I drove my little Honda 50 motorcycle to and from the statiion via the back roads every day after school and the Program Director, a great guy named Leslie F. Bagley, taught me a lot about doing VO. But, I didn't make the Olympics as I was too busy playing on the radio... LOL and not enough money to make that dream happen.

What I did was start and Advertising Agency with the (now) former P.D. He wrote the spots and I helped with design on print ads and voiced the commercials and narrations. For a kid with braces on his teeth and just in High School this was pretty neat.

The rest is history... and I still have not found out how I can get the sacks and sacks of money delivered to my doorstep. Any clues?

Banksey, thank you for letting me wax poetic and this little trip down nostalgia lane... Don't do it again.

Toodles

Frank F
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[tackerman]

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[jrodriguez315]

[steveanthony]