VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[SheSpeaksCopy]

I was surfing the web last night and was LMAO at some of the out takes and bloopers of those who make a living talking for the camara. This got me thinking that there are probably a few here that have had a similar experience. Sooooo, what's some of the funny experiences you've had behind the microphone?

Just to make this a level playing field for embarrassing experiences I'll go first.

One of my first radio spots was for a car dealership the line was suppose to read "This sales ends Saturday at midnight so, shift your old car into high gear..." I misprounced "shift" (left out that all important "f") and discovered a bodily function can now take your car to the next gear! I know I did a full body blush on that one!

Anyway, we all got a good laugh out of it and after a few minutes of uncontrolable laughter from the crew, I recorded the spot correctly.

[Spacegypsy]

When I used to do jingles in the olden days in the UK, the production company would enlist up to 8 singers at a time to sing those multi-layered radio ID super duper harmonies.

Getting all 8 of us to sync perfectly was not always easy, so Alan the producer would conduct us, emphasising with a huge pointy flourish when we should all end the note.

On one particular session, we had a very sweet innocent newbie in our midst, and she was having difficulty with the timing. Because she had witnessed Alan's conducting style earlier in the session, and she just wasn't getting it right, she said "Alan, I'm just not getting it, could you bring me off with your finger please?" which of course, caused mayhem with the rest of us.

She just kept saying "What, what did I say?" which of course made it worse.

We did get through the session, but not without a few suppressed giggles and scrunched up faces....

[kgenus]

Check out Marc Graue's Studio Bloopers and Outakes for a goooood laugh.

Kevin
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Genus

[Frank F]

For those of us who did our stint in radio you know that we each have to do a myriad of postitions - from DJ to sales to news. It was my turn to "fill-in" for the morning news guy after working until 3:30 a.m.

A little foggy, I put together the news and was working on a story about a fire in the Northwest U.S. and how thousands of Smoke Jumpers had been called in to help. On-air it read something like this, "... to fight the forest fire, Fourty Thousand Fire Farters have been called to ...".

The Morning Man had left his mic on, as was the normal case in our station... listeners heard a loud laugh and lots of thumping and more laughter, and the chairs falling over, and... - well, you get the picture...

I kept on reading the newscast as if nothing had happened.. I added seven more stories... and I kept rambling... on and on and on. Finally the Morning Man gained his composure enough to get back on the mic and - through the laughter, he made it through the end of the break and back into normal programming.

The moral of the story: next time you think about Smokey Bear, remember - only YOU can prevent Fire Farters... (Pretty picture, huh?)

Frank F

[Jim Barton]

I went to school at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and stuck around after graduating, working at the local CBS-TV affiliate. I remember a gentleman running for Coroner and I had to voice some spots for him. His name was Stanley B. Weaver. Somebody got me saying Stanley Wee Beaver, and it was all downhill from there.

Jim

[Drew]

Had to substitute for the weather guy at a TV station I worked for in Ohio some 25 years ago. There I was doing a pretty good job on the key wall. Then suddenly, out of the blue I pointed to Florida where a hurricane was looming and said, "Jesus, those poor folks in Florida are in for it!" :oops:
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www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

[johnbailey]

This one wasn't my fault...

I cut a holiday spot for a mall imploring viewers to come on out and see "Santa, his reindeer and Elvis!" I didn't think anything of it, and the producer was satisfied, so we wrapped up the session after a few takes. The client was none too happy, however; it was supposed to read "Elves" -- not "Elvis"! The next day I got an emergency callback for a recut. The producer had a sense of humor about it; he actually re-cut the video and popped Elvis into the spot, which was hilarious! Unfortunately, it was the "Elves" version that actually ran.
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John Bailey Voiceovers

[Jeff McNeal]

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[allensco]

Boy can I relate to this one! I have one from back in my early radio years. Just to set this up, I was on the air at a small AM station in my hometown and I was getting ready to read the news. The control room is in the center of this small building and has a window on every wall, making it like a surround movie screen where you never know what you'll see.

My co-worker (and still best friend) Wayne Caylor, was out in the lobby, in plain view from my position, when I started reading the news. During my most professional newscast, he takes one of the old glass Coke bottles from the rack hanging on the drink machine, unzips his pants, and sticks the bottle inside the zipper. He then proceeds to parade back and forth in front of the window wiggling this bottle. I was just getting into reading the OBITUARYS when he starts his glass wanker parade! I almost died! I was trying so hard NOT to laugh...but just couldn't hold it back. Laughing during the OBITUARYS is NOT a good thing. Needless to say, I was severly embarrassed and was barely able to finish the newscast. I didn't get in trouble for it (nor did Wayne). I never knew if the GM heard it or got any calls about it. Nothing was ever said.

That's not the only time he's done something like that to make me lose my composure. It was just a few years ago that he did it again..but this time without the glass wanker. Just a stupid facial expression and imitation of someone we both know. I literally sat down in the floor of the control room with a LIVE mic laughing my ass off.

[Gregory Best]

My weirdest on-air moment was also in radio in 1975 at WEEO-AM in Waynesboro, PA (It doesn't exist anymore.) I did afternoon drive and at a small station like that you often did it all - DJ, news, production, live spots, etc. One of the sales people was getting married and my news guy was throwing a bachelor party for him. It just so happen that he brought in a porn film (and I do mean "film" - 16mm - in those days). His news desk was behind me in another room with a window between us. When you were in the control room seated at the board you faced another window where the transmitter was. He said I can't do the newscast Greg you have to do it…so I launch into the 5-minutes news when I see him covering the window in front of me with white paper and then set up a movie projector on his news desk. The secretary comes in and turns off the control room overhead lights. All I have is light coming in from the hallway through a small window in the door as he starts projecting the film on the white paper in front of me. I continue reading the news like nothing was happening (I was known to be unshakable) when the secretary starts rubbing her hands up and down my body. I finished the news, the rest of the lights were turned off and I adlibbed the weather...my unshakeable reputation still standing. I still don’t know how I did it, but I did wind up dating the secretary. They were always pulling pranks trying to shake me or make me laugh. I’ll have to think of some others.

Greg

[mcm]

These stories are absolutely priceless. Clearly, the farther you get from home & the more "live" you are the more vulnerable you are, but even home isn't safe (Santa & Elvis - too funny).

Thank-you for this thread, one and all.

[Bruce]

I was a newscaster at KRIZ in Phoenix in the early 70's when the station was bought out by Doubleday and they brought this hotshot (arrogant) program director in. He was very strict with the jocks about only playing music on the playlist, nothing else. Well it's afternoon drive, he's on the air and decides to play something off-list from the Woodstock album.

I should add here that one of the p.d.'s great ideas was to put reverb on our audio so everything sounded echo-ey.

I hear him talk up the cut and say "and now here's something special from Country Joe and the Fish". In the newsroom with me is Charlie Fox, who went on to great success as an RKO jock. He knows what's coming up on the record and apparently the p.d. does not. Charlie starts frantically waving through the window between our studios to get the p.d.'s attention and when he does gives him the cut signal (cutting the throat) and the p.d. looks totally confused. Suddenly Country Joe yells: "I understand there are 300,000 of you motherf***rs out there!" The p.d. cuts the audio to the record right on that last word so it goes: "I understand there are 300,000 of you motherf***rs out there, there, there, there" and then SILENCE for 30 seconds as he fiddles to put another record on. We got only a handful of phone calls, all to the effect of "Whoa, cool man."

One of the greatest radio bloopers of all comes from Lowell Thomas. He was a big voiced, big time newscaster and commentator for CBS in the 50's and 60's. He was famous for cracking himself up and laughing all the way to the end of the newscast. A classic example is his trip over "fatal heart attack". I've found it on-line. Here's the link:

http://www.btmemories.com/sounds/sound_index.htm

Go to the bottom of the page and click on the "Fat Lady" cut. The "Hershey PA" one isn't bad either.

Bruce

[Philip Banks]

The worst possible failure in technology. A few years ago a friend was working for a UK TV station as a "continuity announcer". The role was to sit and watch TV and introduce programmes over a staion ident, plus a number of other voice duties.

When the new automation arrived, the management were thrilled, the techies in awe, the on-air staff cautious and largely ignored.

Station ident rolled with music and cut to programme. The technology was set so that the audio followed the picture source. If the announcers hadn't finished speaking they were cut off in their prime. Regularly the last syllable in progamme intro's was chopped. Regularly the presentation controller and announcer flagged this problem to the managers and the techies. Regulalry their cries for help were ignored. Suddenly their was a flurry of activity, angry phone calls between managers at the most senior level and the techies sprung into action. What prompted this change of heart? My friend tried to introduce the programme "A Christmas home in the country".

[SheSpeaksCopy]

It really is amazing that missing just one single letter or sylable in a word can change the entire context of the message... :wink:

Don't you just love the "human element" of this business?

[mcm]