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Back in business!
For voiceover, acting, or presentation…
…with or without a beard
Andy Boyns is ready
and waiting
to bring added value to your projects.
For demo and showreel visit: andyboyns.com
After a short break for back surgery, Andy Boyns is back and ready to be part of your forthcoming projects!
Get in touch now!
Voiceover
For voiceover / dubbing projects, Andy Boyns continues on a freelance basis. Please contact him directly to discuss your project.
Cinema, television, corporate videos, and presentations. Andy Boyns is proud to present his first on-camera showreel. With 10 years experience as a voice actor, and over 5 years in front of the camera, see below how to book him for your next project.
Representation
Acans Entertainment
Address: Meşrutiyet Cad. No:27 Kat:3 Tepebaşı Beyoğlu İstanbul
Working in both English (Andy is originally from London, UK) and Turkish (Andy has lived in Turkey since 2000, and has dual nationality), be sure to add these details for your next casting needs.
I happen to love çığ köfte, so it was especially fun to have this role in the recent Avea advertisement featuring the English guy who doesn’t know how to make it…
Hi, I’m John.
I’m English, and I’ve lived in Turkey for 4 years.
I don’t know how to make çığ köfte, but I do know how to use to the internet using Avea!
Known and loved for writing the series “Leyla and Mecnun”, as both writer and director Burak Aksak brings “Bana Masal Anlatma” to cinemas with a star quality cast.
Released in cinemas on 9th January 2015, here is the trailer which includes my cinema début:
Riza (Fatih Artman) is a minibus driver universally loved by the folk of Surici, the neighborhood of Istanbul where he was born and raised. Ayperi (Hande Doğandemir) on the other hand is the outsider who will turn Riza’s life upside down, as well as everything he knows and is familiar with. This is the story of two young people nestling under the wing of timeless friendship in an ordinary neighborhood. Actors such as Cengiz Bozkurt, Devrim Yakut, Sadi Celil Cengiz, Andy Boyns together with Yılmaz Erdoğan, Gökçe Bahadır and Gürkan Uygun in guest roles, appear in this film.
Whether you’ve been naughty or nice, you’re going to want a piece of this awesome technology specially designed for the voice actor on the go!
This summer, having worked hard on their development, Mehmet Onur and I took the Peepers for a spin, and as you can see from the clip below the user experience and results are both awesome.
Guided by the voice of our very own Anne Ganguzza, the Peepers have taken into account all the voice actor’s needs from providing an easy to read script, voice activated recording, payment delivery, and most importantly, providing a reward at the end of a voiceover session.
Our main concern while testing was that being able to recreate a studio quality recording while walking along the street could have a negative effect on the pro studios and engineers we know and love. Fortunately coinciding with the release of this clip, the VO Peeps meetup in Orange County, (streamed via UStream, and now archived and available here) had as their guest Steve M. Savanyu of Audio Technica who will no doubt enjoy resolving these issues.
We gave the Peepers a huge thumbs up, and are now working on that other essential for voice actors, the streaming food transporter, so that we can fully enjoy the VO Peeps meetups, and the legendary culinary expertise of Jerry Ganguzza!
Getting out of the car, my friend Flavio said, “Next time we come to the cinema, I’ll lend each of you a white cane – that’ll really freak everyone out if they think the driver is blind too!”
Flavio had lost his sight in a road accident aged 15, but twenty years ago was an excellent example to me of how he was still higher functioning than most people I knew. Parachute jump fundraisers perhaps pushing the limits further than I’d want to go, he’d just started a Fine Arts degree at university, specialising in tactile art – after all he used to ask me to check his socks were in matching pairs…
It shouldn’t be surprising that he also enjoyed television and cinema, but if even then there were accessibility tools for the hard of hearing (closed captions, signing) the age of audio description had yet to come.
As a teenager I’d had the chance to assist for a short while with a project for an audio newspaper for the blind, and in 2010 enjoyed catching up with Herb Merriweather at the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service.
Herb, and the crew at Audioeyes are the driving force behind a project bringing accessibility to the blind audience, in a way that would have hugely benefitted my friend Flavio’s experience all those years ago – audio description.
Here’s news about an online event on May 14 (date to be repeated!!) through which you can learn more about this exciting voiceover niche, and facility for the blind. I know it’s exciting, because in a recent Skype conversation with Herb Merriweather, I had to scrape my tablet off the ceiling!!!
What happens when you put blind people, entertainment professionals, and educators in one place? Video Description Magic! That’s what happens.
SAVE THE DATE
May 14, 2014, Audio Eyes, an accessible media company, will make history, and you can be part of it! The first ever, live, crowdsourced description event will allow you to contribute, in real time, to the magical process that will make a feature film accessible and enjoyable for people with vision loss. Ask questions, make comments, influence the final script!
Never heard of description? Learn how TV programs are made accessible for people who cannot see the screen. Did you know that video description is available on your TV every day? If you tried to share a YouTube video with a blind friend or relative, how would they know what was on the screen?
Educators and entertainment professionals may wonder about the cost and time required to make a video accessible. Log on and hear answers from the blind professionals who are making a difference in the media industry.
All blind consumers are encouraged to log on and help demonstrate how your opinions can make description better.
Join Audio Eyes and the Described Captioned Media Program for this
ground-breaking, live web event, and make magic happen:
Inside Video Description: How Pictures Become Words
May 14th, 12:30 – 2:30PM PDT
Crafting any voiceover demands far more than just reading the words off the page. Focus, creativity, imagination, interpreting the character in the copy, attention to detail, and much more besides. This is especially true for audiobook readers, as they work to find the right mood for the narration, and worry about how many chapters can be finished before bedtime.
However, in spite of this concentration on completing what for many has been described as a marathon work, it has become apparent that many are forgetting to record a vital piece of the manuscript. The page numbers. Recent research, as found from BOMUS.org (the Bureau of Made Up Statistics) demonstrates that at least 99% of audiobook narrators fail to include page numbers in their submitted recordings.
Together with my son William (his 8th birthday at the end of this month) we have devised a new service to assist already over-burdened narrators to compensate for this oversight.
In preparation for the recent VO Peeps meetup with Simon Vance we prepared this video demonstration.
We are already grateful to Simon for being one of the award winning audiobook narrators who reviewed William’s first recording of a book three years ago (http://andyboyns.com/2011/01/audiobook-stars-hail-new-reader.html) so were delighted to help him on this occasion. In fact Simon subsequently admitted publicly on Facebook, “Little known fact: William is my backup when it comes to the page numbers”. So, there you go!
The VO Peeps meetup with Simon was a blast – even though based in Istanbul it meant waking up at 4.30am. Anne Ganguzza, as ever, put together a great programme, and if you haven’t joined eith in person (for those close to Orange County), or online, I thoroughly recommend watching out for the next event she organises. No excuses, especially if you’re in the same or close time zone! (They usually aim to start at 6.30pm PST)
In my last post, one of the videos I featured was a great clip featuring the voice talent of Lisa Biggs and some toys she voiced, together with Diane Merritt as they fortuitously passed through a toy store. It was purrrfect! The monkey was unavailable for comment (he’d been sold out!) but happily Carolina Now took the opportunity to bring these two Voxy Ladies together for an interview this week, and the monkey has lots to say!
A little bird tells me that a couple of the toys which Lisa has voiced will be featured in this Monday’s broadcast of the Ellen Show – hopefully I’ll get the chance to see it here soon in Turkey, but a thought came to me: wouldn’t Lisa Biggs be a great guest for the show!
On the one hand if Ellen is indeed going to have the toys on the show, then as the voice Lisa would bring an extra dimension, or as the French might say a “je ne sais crois” to the spot. What a great and inspiring story she has to share (as we heard in my “Person Behind the Voice” interview from last year). Lisa has it all – perfect Ellen material! (I hope Lisa will forgive me for that, but as she says, “I mean, you have a gift. You have a dream… Anything you want to do, you can do! You got to make it happen.” )
Cuddles the Monkey & Daisy the Kitty sing a Duet for Ellen DeGeneres
Well, it’s a blog, so we didn’t really stop the press, but here’s a NEW, and SPECIAL message from Lisa to Ellen!
Cuddles, Daisy, and Lisa’s Voice!
Yes, Ellen… make the gang complete, or do a follow up to talk with Lisa about the great things she’s accomplished and the great projects she’s involved with to help kids – look forward to seeing the show
What an amazing weekend it was: just one or two hours’ sleep and global interactions. Sharing news, a recording session, and the opportunity to hook up live with Joe Cipriano’s book launch party – with a simultaneous international side party too boot!
Taking part in the VO Peeps “Living On Air” book launch with Joe Cipriano!
If you didn’t already know, I’m excited, and feel privileged, to have such great friends – in the real, not just “Facebook” sense – around the world, and constantly amazed that technology enables us to keep in close and very real contact with each other. Apart from facilitating some fun and creative opportunities, this also provides inspiration to keep me moving forward.
Back to Saturday, a couple of weeks ago now… starting locally (probably while all in the US were still asleep) I came across this great example of Mehmet Onur’s work for the “YouTube Music Awards”. Don’t worry if you don’t understand Turkish – just enjoy his voice!
It has to be said that although we often do communicate via various messenger apps, I’m very fortunate to be able to easily visit him as when recording he always makes me sound great, and he makes a great coffee!
No trouble with language with the next clip, especially if you speak cat, as this is a wonderful conversation between Lisa Biggs, and a toy cat with Lisa Biggs’ voice – caught live in a toy store which she just happened to visit with Diane Merritt on a road trip to Nashville.
Yes, Lisa and Diane are always purrrrfect, and I just love the synergy they both produce. They’re both a constant reminder to me that you get out of something what you put in to it. In short: they rock! Thanks to Diane for uploading this to YouTube…
Then came a message from my buddy Ted Mcaleer in Seville, Spain, wondering if I was available to record a short dialogue. We hooked up on Skype, recorded our two voices locally, and then he edited them together. A fun little job, and I decided over the coming days to use this to experiment with the animation software Muvizu. I plan to write a separate blog about this in a day or two, but it would be cruel to keep the results from you here, so here it is (this was my first attempt at animation, so forgive that it’s not more polished!)
The big event of the day was to happen several hours later – in fact in the middle of the Turkish night.
VO Peeps, organised by the wonderful Anne Ganguzza, hosted the launch party of Joe Cipriano’s new book, “Living on Air”. As the first honorary international VO Peep I’d love to be more involved with all the wonderful activities and events which Anne organises. With our time zones (for events set in the evening PST) so much in conflict this isn’t always easy, but I was determined to be there to support Joe for the launch. In fact it was a great time hooking up with the live stream on UStream, and given an extra dimension with a separate Google video hangout joined with Ted Mcaleer, Suzanne Roberts, and Mehmet Onur.
As you will have seen from the photo at the top of this post it was like being there in person, and here’s the pre-recorded shout out I sent.
Now was it just me, or does Joe Cipriano look like he’s hanging on my every word in that clip?
Q: What’s the best way to explore a country? A: Make a TV series!
A month or so back many were vicariously travelling with me along the Black Sea coast, along the north of Turkey through my Facebook photos. Well, for those lucky enough to be here now, you can now watch the series every Saturday at 10am on Ülke TV.
In fact, Çay Molası has confirmed my role as a professional tourist, having played a tourist earlier this year in the two TV series Seksenler and Umutsuz Eve Kadınları (Desperate Housewives)!
This was a tremendous experience, and a great way to get to know the region where my wife and so many friends grew up. Also interesting to have the opportunity to be co-presenting in Turkish – quite a challenge, but exciting to discover that I now have yet another string to my bow!
An Englishman, Andy Boyns, and a Turk, Gözde Şerbetçi, jump into a caravan and start to explore Turkey. Visiting the beautiful sights of Turkey, their share their exciting moments with you – beautiful images with two different perspectives.
Travelling along the Black Sea coast, first discovering the walking sticks of Devrek, then continuing through Zonguldak, Amasra, Sinop, Ordu, Rize, and beyond to get their fill of this wonderful region.
Discovering history, nature, people, culture, and daily life the duo who explore with excitement from start to finish …
Follow their adventures through Turkey’s 81 provinces.
Every Saturday at 10am on Ülke TV
0 Comments on Çay Molası – TV series travelling round Turkey as of 9/5/2013 5:51:00 PM
Congratulations to Dan Leonard and George Whittam for 100 episodes of EWABS!!
Since it’s the “East West Audio Body Shop”, and Istanbul, Turkey is known as the bridge between the East and the West (according to most of the corporate videos I record!) seems like we have a close affiliation!
Sunday Nights at 9:00 pm Eastern 6:00 Pacific on UStream.tv
To honour the occasion here’s a quick shoutout to the programme
EWABS is the first interactive, online talk show for voice actors with their own voice over studios.
Dan and George answer your questions and solve your home voice over studio problems.
Weekly features include “Studio Pix and Clips of the Week”, “Dan’s Tip of the Week”, and special guests ranging from celebrity voice actors to agents.
Last year we had some fun with a short series of unofficial promos for VOICE 2012, and the guys generously helped by producing a spoof mini episode. Watch it here (original blog post here)
With the glass next to my computer, I’m wondering whether George has worked out how to stream the celebratory champagne to the viewers…
The comedy-drama series “Desperate Housewives” is reaching the second series finale in its Turkish incarnation “Umutsuz Ev Kadınları”. Andy Boyns joins the cast for Episode 78, broadcast on Fox TV (Turkey) on Sunday, 9th June at 7.45pm (*Please note this was rescheduled).
Desperate Housewives
Filming scenes for two days earlier this week, this was a interesting opportunity to visit the huge film set in Beykoz, as well as performing on location in Kuçukyalı, Istanbul. Here part of an American family, Andy plays the part of a father (Tom) visiting the family of his son’s girlfriend with his wife. Mark, the son, is played by Cristian Chistol. Wife, Katherine, by Katharina Weithaler (www.katharinaweithaler.com).
Family photo: Andy with Cristian Chistol & Katharina Weithaler
A great pleasure to have the chance to perform with the main characters, too, among others: Bennu Yıldırımlar, Özge Özder, and Levent Can.
Bennu Yıldırımlar & Andy Boyns
Andy Boyns & Özge Özder
Levent Can with the visiting Americans – Katharina, Andy, & Cristian
If you want to pay for cloud storage, don’t read this. If you love amazing free opportunities read on!! Last year I blogged about a 50GB cloud storage offer from Box, but thanks to a great heads up from Dave Courvoisier, here’s an offer which is potentially huge in comparison (as if that wasn’t enough). Copy.com has recently launched, is a service not dissimilar to Dropbox, and their current sign-up deal is amazing…
Copy.com is currently offering 15GB for sign up plus an extra 5GB for installing the Copy app on either your computer, tablet, or phone. If you refer the service to others you’ll also earn 5GB for each referral who installs the app.
First, cloud storage is a great way to back up data, either for security or to enable you to access your files from different computers or devices. Flash drives are great, but can you really trust them? External drives are sometimes incompatible between different computers… DVDs… well, they take up room and are hardly mobile. Furthermore I once had a colleague who after losing data on numerous occasions to viruses, and accidental deleting, religiously backed up onto an external device. This was fine until a burglar stole both her laptop and external drives.
One of my favourite features to have come to the phone apps since then is the ability to automatically backup photos from my phone when I’m connected to wi-fi. Of course the draw back is that photos quickly use up memory space, and this emphasises the benefit of using more than one service, and snapping up all the free storage space you can! I see it as an investment. It’s inevitable that one day I’ll use it, so gather you cloud while you can!
First of all a huge thanks to the 1000+ people who checked out my article last week, “Andy Boyns Goes Back to the 80′s in TV Role!”, and especially those who were able to watch the broadcast on Tuesday and sent their generous feedback.
For those who weren’t able to catch the broadcast on TRT1 (the episode will be reprised this Tuesday, 9 April at 7.50pm on TRT1), MinT Productions have made it available on YouTube, so here it is in its full glory!
Seksenler - Episode 57 (Full)
The visiting tourist (me! See below for approx entry times) appears to have lost both his bag and his way…
As he, and the locals, struggle with a language barrier see how helpful and friendly they are – even bringing out the best china for the first time in his honour…
For those of you reading this who have never visited Turkey, you may not appreciate the brilliance of the script. Oftentimes the best comedy is adjacent to reality, and in the 12 years I’ve lived in Istanbul I’ve experienced the generous hospitality shown to foreigners here, alongside the humorous misunderstandings!! Even yesterday when I was visiting a neighbourhood in the heart of the city and asked directions (at a balloon shop!) explaining that I couldn’t check from my phone because its charge had finished, I was invited to sit a while, put my phone on charge and enjoy a cup of tea and a chat. Fortunately I now know Turkish well enough to do that. I love it here!
To help those of you who are linguistically challenged, but would like to see my role in Episode 57 of Seksenler (from the video above) here are some approximate timing to help you… I would however encourage you to watch the whole video, imagining yourself as a visitor, and see how much you can understand from body language and tone of voice. Since when I came here I spoke no Turkish, these were skills I had to rapidly acquire… it’s not so hard, really.
Approx Entry times (Scenes with Tom the Tourist):
03:56
10:23
16:18
22:00
29:32
34:06
37:22-51:46 (very short gaps between scenes)
53:24-56:04
57:06
58:28-1:00:39
Links
Catch new episode of Seksenler every Tuesday On TRT1 at 7.50pm
Book now to attend the latest TEDx Reset event in Istanbul, taking place on April 12 and 13, 2013 at the TIM Show Center, Maslak.
The theme of this year’s event is “Critical Crossroads”, and I am certain it will be a thought provoking experience. Having attended the previous two events, I’m looking forward to attending again this year to be both challenged and motivated. Don’t worry about language problems – with simultaneous translation everything will be available in both English and Turkish!!
It’s been more than three years since TEDXReset adventure has begun. In 2010 we started out by “resetting our minds”, where we questioned all that we know, all the we’ve assumed to be true, all the rules, all our beliefs and we asked ourselves “What if?” in the year 2011. In 2012 we decided to set foot on new directions, while we were listening to those who had the courage to start the journeys, to overcome obstacles and those who came back and restarted their journeys the puzzle in our minds was “Quo Vadis?”(Where Are You Going?)
For the past year and actually for years, centuries, for many lives on end we’ve been travelling. The journey didn’t start just yesterday and certainly it is not over yet. Every day we take new steps, sometimes forwards, and sometimes backwards, sometimes to the right and perhaps to the left. And every day we make new decisions, about which path to take. But this time it seems a little different…
This time the transformations/change is fast enough to make us dizzy, and it is happening in such close proximity, that perhaps we might even be at the very center of it.
All around the world, in the Middle East, in our own land there are sweeping winds of transformation. Ideas, forces, beliefs, societies, cultures, power structures, frontlines are changing. There is no way we can stop the time; change is imminent. Technology is no longer limited to smart phones, tablet computers, or the tools we use, there is much more it and it’s constantly transforming us in the process. Everyday we create new versions, and then even newer versions of ourselves and of our lives. New social lives, new ways of working, new spaces, new forms, new designs. This transformation is so rapid that sometimes we don’t even get a chance to “stop”, “to think”, “to understand the alternatives”, “to choose”, until we decide to create our own alternatives. Therefore, we believe that, this time we are at a much more “Critical Crossroads’!
I look forward to seeing you on April 12 and 13, 2013 at the TIM Show Center, Maslak.
Fresh from winning 3 television awards, and last week releasing its soundtrack album, it’s a great pleasure for me to have a guest role in the highly successful Turkish television comedy show “Seksenler” (The Eighties) this week. Broadcast on Tuesday, 2nd April on TRT1 at 7.50pm (Episode 57) a foreign tourist arrives on the scene…
A Lost Tourist in the Middle of Çınaraltı Neighbourhood!
A tourist who loses his way and finds himself in Çınaraltı neighbourhood becomes the local centre of attraction. Confectioner Sami, record store owner Ergun, and Ahmet first and foremost, and virtually everyone in the neighbourhood joins forces to help the lost tourist find his way. However, there is a major problem: nobody knows English…
While Ahmet and Ergun’s attempts to speak in English with the tourist provide a laugh, Fehmi’s reaction, after meeting the tourist back home, is an object of interest… Meanwhile, how will Rukiye hide the new dinner set that Boutique Ali coerced her into buying, from Fehmi?
With his love for Gülden growing with every passing day, Ahmet will finally declare his love for her at the first opportunity and thus put an end to this uncertainty. Days of great animation await a resolute Ahmet…
If you’ve had the impression that life on the set is one of a big happy family, then you’ve understood the passion that goes into creating this remarkable series. In the five weeks since the filming of this episode I’m been nervously waiting to see the final results, and look forward to watching with you – wherever you may be – on Tuesday evening.
A big thank you to all those in the cast and crew for making me so welcome… check out this and more photos on my new Facebook page at http://facebook.com/andyboynscom
About “Seksenler”
ROMANTIC PERIOD COMEDY (A JOURNEY TO THE 80′S)
Starring in The Eighties (Seksenler) TV series is Rasim Öztekin, Özlem Türkad, Yasemin Çonka, Şoray Uzun, Ayşe Tolga, İlker Ayrık, Pelin Akil, Serhat Kılıç and Vural Çelik.
Covering the early 80′s to the present day, The Eighties series is the story of the last thirty-two years’ history and change in modern Turkey. Aimed at exploring the effects of such change on a typical Turkish family, this entertaining period sitcom brings to light the transformation experienced in social life and the influence upon us of the innovations entering our lives.
The Eighties is a charming journey aspiring to reintroduce new generations to the human values that we have lost. The Eighties TV series serves to intrigue children and young people, just as much as it does those who lived through those very years.
With a rapidly developing business profile, my new Facebook page is now launched to provide a more concise view of all the exciting things going on. Many were surprised that I hadn’t previously done this, but now the time is right, and if you haven’t done so already, please head straight over and add your definitive “Like” to show your support and interest.
I greatly appreciate the encouragement of folk like Terry Daniel, with his recent blog article “Are Facebook Business Pages the key to Survival?”, and Voices.com Social Media Manager Ashley Rose Davidson for her advice in getting started.
In fact the biggest hurdle in getting started was to decide whether to create a page as a “Business” or, as I finally decided, to represent me as an “Actor”. Curious to learn how others had created their pages I asked what had been the main influence in others decision making… and was surprised not to discover a concrete reason for most.
However, thanks to recommendations to take the individual approach, I’m pleased with the result, and I hope you’ll find it an informative additional way to keep up to date and be motivated to use my voice for projects, or my acting / presentation skills for other work.
One of the questions frequently asked is “What’s the point of a business page?”, and that’s a good one. To my mind questioning the “ROI” or “Return on investment” is unnecessary, as it’s free… so the investment is simply one of a little time. Another good question (which was asked) is “Does anyone actually get work from their Facebook pages?”
It’s actually a great question, but in my marketing mindset the wrong one to ask. Just as the “Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy” initially suggests the answer to the meaning of life is “42”, the answer to these Facebook page questions probably results in equally nonsensical results. The fact is that my business page is not the sum total of my marketing efforts. It is just one facet of the whole picture. I constantly remind myself that the big companies, while fully in control of their marketing efforts with huge budgets going through skilled marketing agencies, probably don’t ask whether displaying the product name on the window of my local store actually results in physical sales. As much as anything this is simply part of building the brand.
A few minutes ago I had a call back for a role in an advertisement. This will play on TV, in cinemas, on the internet, and public transport. No doubt if I’m confirmed in the role the company’s profits will immediately soar, but joking aside, who will see the advert for the first time and suddenly make a life changing decision? Brand exposure must surely be much more a case of reminding potential clients that the brand is available, and building confidence in those already using the brand that they made the right choice, and should continue to do so.
STOP PRESS! Just as I’m about to post this, I notice yet another great article from Paul Strikwerda, and it’s especially pertinent to what I’m trying to say here. Check out “Creating a Wave”. As he rightly says, “You and I, we walk a fine line when it comes to drumming up business.” The page is a place to do this in a recognisable dedicated space without constantly being seen as a viscious self-promoter. Indeed while the page is inevitably about “me”, I hope it will be a place where we can engage and make things happen on a wider scale. Thanks Paul for the timely caveat! You’ll be pleased to know I wholeheartedly agree!
That said, check out my demos direct from Andy Boyns on Facebook (thanks Terry for the app head up), see many of the great people I’ve been lucky to meet, and shortly see other albums of me at work in various studios, and filming locations. Enjoy these and please share to help spread my brand.
First and foremost my page is to show you how much I love doing what I do, how important the people I work with, so come and enjoy… I hope it might also encourage you to want to work with me and join in the fun.
With so many great events for voice artists, I need a private jet more than ever!! Several folks have asked to be collected en route for these travels, so this could be the start of something big… if only…
Voices.com have put together a great event almost on their home turf, and here’s the info you need to read. A stellar collection of presenters – looks like it’ll be a great event!
VoiceWorld Toronto Conference
Are you looking to get started in voice acting or take your voice acting career to the next level? Then this is the event for you! VoiceWorld Toronto is the voice-over industry’s premier conference being held in Toronto, Ontario on Saturday May 4th, 2013!
Prepare to be educated, equipped and empowered at VoiceWorld Toronto:
Audition like a pro — understand the do’s and don’ts of auditioning in person and online.
Learn the ins and outs of the voice acting business, and what it takes to be a successful voice-over talent.
Get into business — explore ways to turn your voice acting talent into a business.
About VoiceWorld Toronto
VoiceWorld, the industry’s premier conference, being held in Toronto in 2013, is an immersive experience focused on engaging voice actors from across Canada and the United States. Connect with amazing, influential people who can change your life through courses in artistic development, business and technology preparing you for success in the exciting world of voice acting. A breath of fresh air, VoiceWorld sets out to invigorate and intensify your love for the art of voice acting as never before with an action plan for you to take your business to the next level.
The goal of the conference – to inspire those who are just getting started and renew the passion of seasoned professionals. A breath of fresh air, VoiceWorld sets out to invigorate and intensify your love for the art of voice acting as never before with an action plan for you to take your business to the next level. Prepare to be educated, equipped and empowered!
VoiceWorld Toronto Speakers
Pat Fraley – Man of Four Thousand Voices, CESD Talent Los Angeles
Elley-Ray Hennessy – Award-winning actress, Director and Producer
Deb Munro – International Voice-over Talent and Coach
David Ciccarelli – Co-Founder and CEO of Voices.com
“A World of Opportunities” — that’s the theme of VoiceWorld Toronto. There are few things in life that bring more satisfaction and joy than taking part in the creation of something. Creating opportunities to succeed in business is at the heart of the entrepreneurial spirit. The industry resources, cutting-edge tools and proven strategies presented will aid you in opening doors you may have only dreamed of.
Would love to be there, as I have the feeling some great things are going to happen thanks to the terrific organisation of Gerald Griffith and Voiceovercity.com
VO2013 ATLANTA is the largest event of its kind in the southern United States. It’s designed to connect with the industry’s most recognized talent, coaches, and producers as you gain the skills needed to take you career to the next level. Anyone interested in learning and growing their voiceover career are welcome.
Get off to a positive start with Penny Abshire in just a few minutes – hopefully the live streaming will be available!
Go visit the VO2013 ATLANTA website immediately for more details!!
Ultimate story teller, Scott Brick gave me goosebumps relating an incident which was a turning point in his life. From his Hollywood home and studio, here’s his wonderful story or creativity and opportunity.
In conversation with Scott Brick
For subtitles, click the CC button (Closed Captions which uses the transcription below)
Andy: So here we are just north of Hollywood, California and we’re at the home and studio of Scott Brick. And joined with Scott and Cookie. It’s great to see you again, Scott.
Scott: You as well. Cookie can’t you say “Hi”? Are you going to be anti-social? You aren’t going to say anything? It’s good to have you here. It’s great to see you again… was it two years?
Andy: Two years.
Scott: Yeah.
Andy: Two years ago at VOICE 2010, and again this year at VOICE 2012.
Scott: Yeah. Exactly. Nice to have you here. Welcome to the house.
Andy: Thank you. It’s a beautiful house, and it’s kind of funny, it actually feels like a Hollywood house, which is cool. It’s funny that you’re right in the middle of the film industry, and yet you’re the audiobook guy.
Scott: I know. I’m almost across the street from Universal Studios. I actually live on the street where “Eight is Enough” was filmed. All the exteriors were filmed just down the street from me. All these movies and TV shows that have been in production around me, and yet I’m downstairs in my studio recording audiobooks. It’s kind of a nice change of pace.
Andy: That’s cool. Scott, just before we talk about some of your more current projects, and your current work, can I throw you back before you ever got behind the microphone, or before you ever got into a studio. What the heck got you started… got some sort of bug in you to do this?
Scott: At some point in my youth, in my childhood, people would notice – I think it was the fact that I told jokes so often. I actually think that’s a valuable skill to learn, and I always tell my students: learn to tell jokes, because it really helps with storytelling, because you’ve got a beginning, a middle, and an end. And I think if you can do it on the short, on the small micro level, you can do it on the macro level as well. And I did it constantly when I was a kid. And any time I had a chance at a captive audience, and I had a good story that I knew I could affect them with, I took it. I was always the kid would tell ghost stories around the fire at camp. I just… I’m passionate about storytelling, I always have been. That’s why I became an actor; I think to one extent or another, anybody who works in entertainment industry we do this because we want to tell stories. And whether you’re a cinematographer or a set designer, or a makeup technician, we’re all telling stories. With audiobooks it just turns out that this is kind of the most pure form of that. And I think it was that, the fact that I was a story teller as a kid, plus the fact that I just read voraciously… passionate about books. I think… I didn’t spend my youth thinking, “Boy, if only I could do audiobooks one day,” and yet by the time I got here I realised that all of those skills definitely helped me along the way.
Andy: OK. So were you involved in theatre at school?
Scott: Yeah. I got involved in theatre, I guess my freshman year of high school. I did it just for fun. But my intention was to be a comic book artist.
Andy: Really?
Scott: Yeah. I was going to be a graphic artist, and when I got to be a senior in high school I moved to Huntington Beach, a couple of hours from where I had been living, and we had terrific theatre teacher named Mike Frym, and he had a tour where he would take some of his students to Broadway. And we would… in a week, we’d see eight or ten Broadway shows. And he encouraged me to take this trip. Encouraged me to a great extent. He went out and met my parents, met my family, encouraged everybody – when I told him I couldn’t afford the trip – he convinced my family to give it to me for Christmas that year.
Andy: Fantastic.
Scott: And I didn’t know why, until finally we got to New York, it was December 1982, and Cats had just opened, so we were literally in the theatre watching Cats in the Winter Garden Theater in New York, and at intermission they allowed you to come up on stage. And he, as everybody is running up to the stage, Mike just kind of nudged me with his elbow and says, “Come on”. So I follow him up there, and he takes me down stage centre, in this Broadway theatre, puts his arm around my shoulder, and with the other arm gestures dramatically out at the crowd, and he says, “This is what I wanted you to come to New York to see. I wanted you to see what life was like from this perspective”.
Scott Brick & Andy Boyns
Andy: You’ve just given me goose bumps!
Scott: Well, I… it was one of those moments. It was a goose bump moment. And I realised at that moment my life was different now. My life changes from now. Everything before now is prelude, is prologue. From this point on my life is different. Right at that moment, my entire life shifted. I said I’m not going to be an artist, I’ll be an actor. But I didn’t really see myself as having the talent, the abilty, anything really all that special. But I trusted that Mike saw what I didn’t. And I said I’ll just trust the third eye, that I can’t quite provide the situation myself. So it’s been… yeah… it’s been different ever since then.
Andy: So, it’s great that you had some milestones in your mind like that, and somebody like Mike, who showed you the way.
Scott: Yeah… it absolutely does.
Andy: That’s very cool. And… so you continued with theatre.
Scott: I continued with theatre. I toured with the Shakespeare company on and off for about ten years. It was called Will and Company, we would do hour long versions of maybe about a dozen of Shakespeare’s plays, or other classics, and…
Andy: I saw “Shakespeare for Dummies” on your bookshelf…
Scott: Yes! Yes! You did! Absolutely! And so yeah, I did stage work and whatever film or TV roles I could get. Even a couple of voiceover jobs, although I wasn’t really pursuing it. But then about ten years after I left college, I was playing baseball with an old friend of mine, Bob Westal – there was a bunch of us who had all gone to UCLA together, and we would get together every Saturday morning and play baseball. And Bob happened to work for Dove Audio, which sadly doesn’t exist anymore, but while he was there, you know, he’d seen me in a number of my stage productions, and told me I would be good. Got me an audition. I booked my first job… And while I was there doing my first two short stories, Dan Musselman was there – it was his last day, and my first day. Dan was leaving Books On Tape… he was leaving Dove Audio to go build a studio for Books On Tape, and become their Executive Producer. And so as I was coming in, he was on his way out. And gave me his card, he said, “I’m going to have my own place. I’m going to make my own narrations. In about a month, why don’t you give me a call?”. And you know, I think by the time – Dove went out of business about a year later, and I think I’d done maybe eight jobs for them – in the twelve years since that happened, I’ve done maybe 350 for Dan. I mean I wonder… I think I’ve done about 600 audiobooks altogether, but about 350, or round about there were just for Dan alone. Books On Tape, Random House Audio. I wonder what my life would be like everyday… And I found his card recently. I have it over here. I was cleaning out my garage, and there was all these old magazines…
Andy: It was in a special place in the garage.
Scott: Yeah! Exactly. I honestly have no idea how it wound up getting into that box, because it was just old magazines. A magazine that I used to write for. And somebody gave me these two boxes, and they said some of your issues might be in here. And I held on to it for years – I don’t know why I did that – I finally just said, “I need this space!” And so I started… I almost just chucked the two boxes, but instead I went through issue by issue. Pulling them out. Pulling them out. Throwing them in the recycling bin. Ink stains all over my hand, you know. Finally I get two issues from the bottom of the box, and there’s a business card. Upside down. And it’s the only thing in this box that wasn’t magazines, and I thought, “Whose business card ? What would this be?” And I flipped it over. It’s Dan Musselman’s card from when he worked at Dove Audio. And I just stared at it, and my girlfriend, and another friend of ours were there helping me get though my stuff, and they saw how still I was. They said “What is it? What is it?” And I said, “It’s my career!”
Scott Brick ready to read...
Andy: Wow!
Scott: Yeah. So, I framed it and we’ve got it over here on the table behind us. I think when Dan retires I’m going to put it in a nice frame, maybe put it in acrylic, and give it to him.
Andy: That’s very cool. And so most of your work, I know, is audiobooks.
Scott: Yes.
Andy: But you’re not just sitting n your booth all day and being a hermit…
Scott: There’s a lot of that!
Andy: OK… You need to spend time there, don’t you…
Scott: Sure.
Andy: …to put the words down on the tape, so to speak. But you also doing many other things: writing, and teaching, and speaking at conferences, and so on. You’re very pro-active, I think.
Scott: Yeah, well… part of it is just… you know there’s such a cliché… in America they always talk about giving back to the industry… and it’s become such a cliché that people kind of roll their eyes when you hear it. I do when I say it. But things are clichéd for a reason. It’s because they’re true. And this industry has been very, very good to me. It’s embraced me. It’s given me a career. It’s given me a home. Literally all the best things that I have in my life are because of audiobooks. So, I’m passionate about speaking at conferences, and talking about the industry. You know, I think 36% or 37% of American people have listened to an audiobook. Which is great. But there’s at least, you know, 63% who haven’t, and we want to expand the conversation we want to get to know them. We want to expose the industry to them. So I go talk at conferences round the country. Talk with librarians, whomever… and…
Andy: It’s one of the fastest growing sectors of production, isn’t it?
Scott: Well, certainly of publishing, it’s the fastest growing. e-books and audiobooks are really the only growing part of publishing at all. Print publishing has been slowly dwindling for a number of years now. But audiobooks are going great guns. But also from a voiceover perspective. From the perspective of people who want to break into the industry as a voice talent. Audiobooks – well I think audiobooks and video games are the two fastest growing aspects of voiceover… categories of voiceover. So I want to help the new narrators coming in. I see it constantly. People come into the studio for classes – I teach with Pat Fraley – when they come in and they sit down for the first time, even if they’re experienced behind the microphone, they’re petrified. They give me that kind of deer in front of the headlights look, that kind of “You know… what am I supposed to do now? How does this work?”. And it’s really simple. It’s like a quote from Alice in Wonderland. “Begin at the beginning. Then go to the end. And stop.”
Andy: OK
Scott: You just… you go from Chapter One to the end! But people are nervous because they’ve never done it. So that’s what I try to do.
Andy: They don’t know the rhythm…
Scott: Exactly.
Andy: I’m thinking with the audiobook – series of audio books – I’m about to produce, how the heck am I going to juggle all the technical side with the performance side, but that’s something you get in to a rhythm of, of course.
Scott: You do. And it happens through experience. If only there was a way to short cut experience! If I could fake authenticity, I’d be made!
Andy: You’ve quoted one Lloyd Webber, it’s another musical…. Starlight Express…
Scott: Sure!
Andy: Has the line – well, had the line in the original production which I saw in London: “The sad thing about experience is that by the time you’ve got it, it’s just about all you’ve got…”
Scott: That’s true!
Andy: That was the rail cars. OK… Let’s just draw everything together with two questions. First of all, what makes you, Scott Brick, good at audiobooks, and why is that your preferred genre? And do you have anything great coming up that you can share with us?
Scott: As for what makes me good, I kind of blush at that…
Andy: I know, it’s a horrible question! I shouldn’t ask it.
Scott: But, you know, I think the reason that I’ve been really blessed to work so much is every time I work on a book, all I can think about is the context, because you can go about this – and you know from doing voiceovers – you can read things very slavishly as they’re written on the page, or you can try to understand the author’s intent. And we don’t change… we don’t change the words on the page, and yet you have to understand the context in which they are written in order to really bring it to life. And that’s what I try to do in my readings. You can be slavish to punctuation. But if you did an entire book that way you would… you could very conceivably read everything wrong. For instance, the line could be read, “Who do you think you are, anyway?”
Andy: Yes. Which doesn’t make sense.
Scott: Exactly. It’s technically correct, but in context makes no sense whatsoever.
Andy: That was the thing that struck me downstairs, when you were showing me one of the scripts you are working on right now. That you hadn’t marked anything up on it, that you must be living the story.
Scott: I try to. Every narrator really needs to know the story. And I always tell people, you know for new narrators you definitely have to read the book ahead of time. There’s… I will do it to an extent. I want to know what’s happening in the story, and yet I want to be surprised in the way they are. So, I will make sure that I’ve… that, you know… that if it’s a whodunit, I know who done it, but I want to make sure that every action takes place in the book is something I can imagine myself doing as it’s happening, and I’m going to be surprised by it. I try to live through the experience.
Andy and Scott at VOICE 2010
Andy: So, You’re creating films in Hollywood in your mind.
Scott: Exactly.
Andy: Just not outside.
Scott: Yeah. Exactly.
Andy: And the other part of my question was: what’s coming up?
Scott: What’s coming up? Well, actually there’s a lot of books I’m working on right now. I’m actually juggling three or four at the moment. What really excites me the most is when I get done narrating, and I come up at the end of the day, and I start working on something that I’ve been writing for about a year now. I don’t get to teach as often as I want to, so in order to make myself feel a little less guilty I started writing a book called “Narrating Audiobooks, Brick by Brick”, and it’s basically about how I do it. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. You know from doing voiceover, there’s only the way that we do it. But I want to share the way that I do it in case it is in any way illustrative for students, and hopefully get rid of that deer on the headlights look. They wonder… they’re scared because they don’t know how it’s done. I want to give them this to show them how it’s done. So when they go in they can be a little bit more relaxed, and just let the process flow. And again, maybe they take something that I do… I’m interviewing other narrators to ask how they do it as well… so maybe a new narrator gets something from me, and he gets something from Barbara Rosenblat, and something else from John Lee, but then they go off and they find out what works best for them, and they do it their way.
Andy: And maybe it’s a conglomerate of some or all, or something totally new.
Scott: That would be nice.
Andy: Well, thanks so much for inviting us into your home, Scott. It’s an honour.
Scott: It’s my pleasure. Thanks for being here.
Andy: Pleasure to be here.
Scott: Thanks so much.
Andy: Thank you.
About Scott Brick
Actor, screenwriter and audiobook narrator, Scott Brick definitely gives new meaning to a hyphenate career with credits in film, television, stage and radio.
Born on January 30, 1966 in Santa Barbara, California, Brick studied both acting and writing at UCLA, and joined the ranks of working professionals upon leaving school in 1989. He then spent ten years with the LA-based Will and Company, a traveling Shakespearean company which performed for schools throughout California, in addition to acting in such roles as Cyrano, Hamlet and Macbeth at various playhouses around the country.
Brick went on to become a freelance writer and published articles in magazines such as WIZARD, CREATIVE SCREENWRITING and TOYFARE.
In 2000, he was hired by Morgan Freeman and Revelations Entertainment to adapt Arthur C. Clarke’s classic science-fiction RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA for the big screen.
Also in 2000, Brick ventured into narrating audiobooks and quickly found himself embraced by the audio world. To date he’s won over 50 Earphones Awards for his narrating skills, as well as two Audie Awards for his work on the DUNE saga. After recording 250 titles in his first five years, AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE named Brick “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy,” and proclaimed him a Golden Voice, but it was the WALL STREET JOURNAL that sealed the moniker with a front-page article in November, 2004. Having now recorded over 600 titles, including such classics as MYSTIC RIVER, FAHRENHEIT 451, IN COLD BLOOD and HELTER SKELTER, Brick has no intention of slowing down. He obviously won’t be happy until he’s recorded every book ever published.
Most recently, he collaborated with famed sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card to adapt a collection of Card’s short stories for the stage, which resulted in the play POSING AS PEOPLE. Brick also completed the production draft of RAMA, set to be directed by David Fincher (SEVEN, ZODIAC).
Brick recently completed his first novel, a modern-day supernatural thriller based on an 18th-century murder in New England. No word on which celebrities will be asked to record the audiobook (but I’m checking my in-box daily – Andy).
Hi Andy, Great interview with Scott Brick. Scott is a great Story Teller and I love listening to his narrations. I’m currently listening to “The Panther” and now I know why he loves doing the John Carey role as John is full of one liners! I just finished my first narration and I don’t think I would have done it prior to my being one of Scott’s students with the “Dear in headlights” look I had in the session he taught. He was so kind and understanding, and when I was finally done with the piece, he gave me some good feedback along with great encouragement. He and Pat Fraley are great audiobook coaches, teachers, and mentors.
Again thanks for doing this interview.
with love and respect,
Gene Dixon
This evening (Tuesday, 12th February 2013) Pat Fraley and Scott Brick will be hosting a special benefit webinar to raise funds to assist one of his students afflicted by an incurable disease.
If you missed it, fear not here is a message unashamedly plagiarised from Pat Fraley’s website:
Click link to go to Pat Fraley's appeal page
The voice acting community is well known for its caring and support of colleagues and their families in need. Prime example: Patrick Fraley, Voice Over Teacher and Performer is raising money for voice over performer and student, Nicole Nielson of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Last year, Nicole was diagnosed with a very rare and horrible incurable disease, Parry Romberg Syndrome.
“Nicole’s needs are staggering,” explains Fraley. “Those of us blessed to be part of the North American voice over community need to do what we can to ease her journey. Nicole shared with me that her indescribable pain is only balanced by the indescribable love she is receiving from her voice over family.”
It’s a personal challenge, a bit of fun, some learning opportunities, a different way to engage, and an encouragement to look around for a different purpose. Yes, it’s all those things and also, just possibly a change to experiment with marketing through a different medium (watch out for those subliminal voiceover or production related pictures!!).
Not sure who to blame for this, whether it’s Mehmet Onur for persuading me to use Instagram, my son William for always being so photogenic, or LA based voice artist Rebecca Davis for having her own 365 day photo challenge last year (and again this) and obviously having so much fun. Whichever, I decided to pick up the gauntlet and see if I could do my own daily photo in 2013.
Pictured are thumbnails of the photos from January 2013, with two exceptions taken on the day they were posted – this for me a self imposed rule. As for the subject matter, well a quick Google search led me to a daily list on the interestingly named Australian website Fat Mum Slim, hence the #FMSphotoaday hashtag on my posts which are sent from Instagram to Twitter and Facebook direct (I’m too lazy, or busy to repost!)
Sometimes it’s easy to find something interesting, other days more difficult, but I hope you’ll join me on Instagram, or take a regular look at the pictures via Facebook, and please feel free to leave your comments.
Lots of fun here catching up with Dave Fennoy in his Los Angeles home studio. Great story of determination leading to success: if anyone’s told you “no”, or that voice over is already saturated, you’re not the first to hear that! Big thanks to the Voice of Hulu, games, and cartoon voices which my son loves!
In conversation with Dave Fennoy
For subtitles, click the CC button (Closed Captions which uses the transcription below)
Andy: Here we again in sunny Los Angeles, and we’re at the home of Dave Fennoy. It’s great to meet you, Dave.
Dave: Well, actually we’ve met! Come on, let’s be serious!
Andy: OK, we’ve met a few times. We actually met 2 years ago, and again last week at the VOICE…
Dave: Spent some time at VOICE 2012…
Andy: That’s right.
Dave: And we’re Facebook friends.
Andy: And we are Facebook friends, and that’s something we can talk about later on because I think that’s changed some of your perspective on the voice-over world. But we’ll come back to that. Dave, could you just throw us way back to before you did any recordings. As a kid, what was the seed… was there a seed in your childhood that got you started? How did that all get going?
Dave: Well, you know, I think one, I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid. Two, my mother made sure that I spoke English properly, and had me… as a child when we were driving down the street… read the signs on the billboards, out loud.
Andy: OK, which city was this?
Dave: This was Cleveland, Ohio…
Andy: OK
Dave: …The armpit of the nation. Or it was… I think it’s no longer the armpit – that might be Cincinnati, now.
Andy: OK
Dave: But I think because my mom was an educator, my father was a veterinarian, and they want the best for their kids. So, speak well, read well. So I got that from mom and dad and watching cartoons, or I played the… You know, I imitated Deputy Dog and all the popular cartoons at the time. But I kind of went the direction… I was a theatre major when I first went off to college, but I also played music. I also went to school for a couple years as a theatre major… dropped out. Went on the road as a musician. Went back to school, finished up in music. Got married. Had a kid… And realized that I wasn’t going to grow up to be a rock-and-roll star after all. So I went into radio.
Andy: Right.
Dave: Radio really introduced me to voice-over work… and really up until that point I guess I’d never really thought about it, considered it, saw it… There was a buddy of mine, at a radio station I was working at, was leaving one day and, “Hey! Where you going man?”. He said, “Well, I’m going over to…” this was up in the Bay area, and we were in Berkeley. “I’m going over to the city – San Francisco – to do some voice over work.” And I said, “Voice-over work?” And he said, “Yeah! I make more money doing that than I do on the radio!”
Andy: OK
Dave: And I scratched my head, and said, “Well, how do you do that?”… “Well, you’ve got to get an agent, a demo tape… you know… voice commercials, and cartoons and stuff. It’s a gas!” And I’m like, “Wow! Yeah! That’s perfect!” Well, I’d already been voicing commercials for the radio station…
Andy: Sure.
Dave: But this was even early in my radio career, so I hadn’t done a whole lot, and… it was actually another couple of years before I started knocking on the voice-over doors. And it took me a while to get started but once I got started out I was hooked!
Andy Boyns & Dave Fennoy
Andy: So, how did you get started? Did you do…? Did you just go into the studio and do jobs, or did you have any training?
Dave: Well… I eventually got training, but I did all the wrong things first. I was a disc jockey, so the first thing I did was I put together a bunch of commercials I had recorded at the radio station – in the radio station, with the radio station microphone – that were all like… local retail spots, and put together like a five or six minute tape. Send that over to an agent, who I’m sure when she heard it… Joan Spangler in San Francisco if you’re still living, Joan… I’m sure when she heard it must’ve shaken her head and said, “Jeez, who is this guy?” But…. and then, of course, I was expecting a call in the next day or two after she received it. Didn’t get one, and I called and called, and about a month later somebody actually let me speak with her. And… she had me come in and take a meeting and she told me, “Well, you know, you don’t want the retail stuff on there… you know, you seem like a nice young man… little bit talented… Come back and see us in six months.
Andy: So, she was like your mentor?
Dave: In some ways, yeah. In some ways, yes… so I pared down the tape – she told me to do that – to three minutes which was the standard length at the time. I got rid of some of the retail stuff… the more offending retail stuff. Added a couple things. By this time some buddies of mine had had a band. I did a commercial for them, and a couple of other things that were less “selly”… and… got the tape back to her, and she signed me. I also, and I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this to many people, I had my first voice-over lesson about the same time. Somebody told me that I should get a voice-over lesson, and I was fortunate enough to meet Lucille Bliss, who was the voice of Smurfette. I mean, I think she’s still alive. She’s like 96, 97 now… But the voice of Smurfette in the Smurfs and tons and tons of other work, and we had one lesson, and she says, “Uh! You don’t need a lesson, you’re ready. Just do it!” So I struck out on my own to seek my voice-over fortune.
Andy: Marvellous.
Dave: But I got signed, finally, with Look! and Joan Spangler in San Francisco and one of the very first jobs I auditioned for I booked. It was California Lottery, and I was still on the radio and I became the voice of Marine World Africa USA for their concert series. I did those every summer for several years and I made up my mind that when I made as much money doing voice-over as I was making in radio, I would quit. Now we’re kinda telescoping down several years. Also at that time close to 1990… I guess it was about 1988, ’89, a buddy of mine and I who got in the business about the same time – we were both booking about one job a month – and suddenly he started booking a job a week, and I wondered, “What’s going on?” And he told me about a class he was taking, with a woman named Samantha Paris up there, who had been a voice talent down here. I tool a weekend seminar with her. She brought her agent Lee Gilbert up from Los Angeles to the Bay area, and after that weekend seminar Lee said, “Well you know you’re really talented. If you ever want to come to LA, look us up at SPB, and we’d be happy to sign you.” I had no idea how fortunate I was then. And I went, “OK. Great.”
Well, a few months went by. I was a morning man. OK. Swell! The number one station in the market. Working under the Billy David Ocean… Why am I confessing that? But… One day, as radio stations are wont to do… they fired the whole staff.
Andy: Great!
Dave: I believe the date was January 9th, 1990. And I called Lee Gilbert and said, “Well, were you serious when you said you would sign me if I came down there?” And she said, “Yeah. Put together a new tape.” So I did, and in May I drove down to LA to get representation. I should tell you another story, in the meantime…
Andy: OK
Dave: … about how badly I wanted it at the time. A friend of mine, John Kafka – I’d gone to high school with him – and at the time he was the cartoon director of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – and I a got in contact with him, and told him I wanted to do voice over and he said, “Well… Put together an animation tape, and I’ll play it for some people… Maybe we can get you started.” Well, I’m still living up in the Bay area, but I did the tape at the radio station – this was before the firing, and everything – and sent it to him, and he called me back a few days later, and said, “Wow! I didn’t expect it to actually be good!” I don’t really feel bad about sharing this with people, and we’ve all been there… you have the friend that… anyway! So, he got me some auditions. But for the auditions… of course they were in Los Angeles, and I was in northern California, in Berkeley, and this was not in the age of mp3s, and computers, and the internet. This is 1990. Back in the old days! So, I got in my car… I’d have an audition, say at 2 o’clock, and I’d get in my car six hours later, and drive to LA. Audition. Get back in my car, and drive back to the Bay area. I did that three times and you know how many of those jobs I booked?
Andy I’m guessing none.
Dave: None! No, not one of them. But I still had a lot of confidence, and I still came down and when I first came down to the… to LA… I was married at the time, had a house up there… I would drive down on… you know… Sunday night or Monday morning stay all week and drive back home on Friday or Saturday. I stayed with an uncle for a month. I stayed with another buddy one of the Kafka Brothers – John and Tom, they were twins. Stayed with Tom Copper for a month, and finally I got an apartment that I shared with another voice-over friend of mine from up north and we shared the apartment. He came down from time to time. I was there most of the time and that’s kinda how it got started, but I took the leap of faith and knock on Formica, it worked out.
Dave Fennoy & Andy Boyns
Andy: Yeah. So there’s quite a… lots of interesting bits… the connections, the networking, the making connections with people and being very patient… I’m sure you were impatient…
Dave: Oh! I wasn’t very patient! I wasn’t patient at all!
Andy: Well, maybe patient is the wrong word.
Dave: I was determined.
Andy: Patience is the wrong word. Determined, and seeing it through… that’s what I mean… the antithesis being, “Oh, it didn’t work today, so I’m going to give it up.” So you believed in yourself enough to keep going forward.
Dave: And I had people that actually told me I wasn’t going to be able to do this, and you can’t do this, you’re not good enough. There’s something wrong with your voice. Had a guy from Grey Advertising, up in San Francisco, tell me “Oh! We’ve got enough people in voice-over.”
Andy: OK. Yes, there is… yeah!
Dave: You’re going to get one more dammit!
Andy: So now you’re doing a whole range of stuff from promos, and games, and…
Dave: Narration, and commercials, yeah.
Andy: Is there anything that’s particularly of interest to you? What’s your favourite aspect of voiceover?
Dave: I like the variety. Voice of Hulu, love doing that. But I really like doing the games. Right now I’m doing the Walking Dead which was named the number one game on Playstation in May of this year. So… I like it all! I really do. There are some things that I don’t go after… audiobooks… not that interested in doing audiobooks although I like narration and long-form, but not that long.
Andy: It’s a different use of time, isn’t it?
Dave: Yeah.
Andy: I get the feeling you like the instant creativity.
Dave I kinda do… I think things that are under a couple hours are better for me. My attention span is not that long. I cannot imagine going in the studio nine to five everyday, reading the same book until it’s done, you know, a month later or however long it takes.
Andy: And you have a very nice home studio here which I’m jealous of…
Dave I do. I do. And I’m kind of a “do it yourself” guy, so I built a lot of this myself. Of course that’s a Whisper Room that I bought used. Found it online in Chicago, and had it shipped. And even with it’s being shipped it cost me about half the price of a new one. So, I like that. Rather than the put the foam in, I’ve got the Owens Corning 703, that I wrapped myself in black burlap, and Velcro-ed to the walls, and it actually is a superior sound absorber than the foam. Put my nice red carpet in there…
Dave Fennoy recording Mehmet Onur
Andy: It’s very swish…
Dave: Charmng.
Andy: Metallic chair, glinting in the light.
Dave: Oh yes!
Andy: But the home studio takes you… we were talking about the home studio is taking you away from meeting people. Earlier we were talking about community and social media, and Facebook. So how has that changed the way that things work for you?
Dave: Well, you know that everything changes, and when I got in the business you had to have an agent, you had to go to your agent’s to audition, and you went to a studio to work, and little by little people started getting home studios. ISDN became popular, and of course as the internet has grown… and how much information you can send down the internet, and that has grown, but it took you away from being at your agent’s. Seeing other voice people there… Away from meeting people at the studio and you kind of became a hermit at your own home studio, which I kind of am now, but thanks to Facebook… I was able to reconnect with a lot of my old voice-over homies… and new homies, like you… I mean, we met on Facebook long before we ever met in person.
Andy: Absolutely.
Dave: And it really gives you an opportunity to get to know people a little bit… your co-workers, as it were… without meeting them. And do you do have community I have found that I have learned a lot from my Facebook friends who do voice-over. They help me solve problems with ProTools. Given me ideas for marketing… because… like anything else you have to stay fresh. You have to keep reinventing yourself. You have to, you know, let the marketplace know that you’re there. I’m amazed by the number of voice-over people who don’t market. What is it that you do? You’re a voice that markets products. You are a product! You have to market yourself!
Dave Fennoy & Mehmet Onur check the edit...
Andy: Even Coca-Cola advertises and that’s a pretty well-known brand.
Dave: Well, you know what? I think if Coca-Cola stop advertising, pretty soon we’d forget about Coca-Cola. The public is very fickle we don’t have long memories which is why they have to keep writing history books to remind folks.
Andy: Yeah, just how special they are. Well, I’m sure you’re going to be in many history books about…
Dave: Laughs!!!
Andy: Yeah! We’re stroking now!
Dave: That’s called one smoke at the end.
Andy: It’s very interesting to hear about where your road to where you are now, and we can learn a lot more about what you’re doing daily from elsewhere, and catch up with you online, and check in. Thank you so much for your time and it’s been a great pleasure to come and meet you in your home here.
Dave: Well, thank you. It’s an honour. I truly am honoured that you would come all the way from Istanbul to do this.
Andy: Yes. We did indeed. Yes, it’s nice to meet real people. Thanks very much, Dave.
Dave: Thank you.
Andy: Thank you.
About Dave Fennoy
Dave Fennoy has been a pre-eminent voice working in Los Angeles since 1990 and one of the most versatile voices in the industry providing voices for Commercials, Narrations, TV Promos, Award Shows, Animation and Games.
Lately he is known by 30+ million Hulu viewers as “The Hulu Guy”, the omnipresent voice of HULU.COM. His promo clients over the years include ABC, The WB, Fox, CBS, Showtime, Starz, ESPN, The Disney Channel and TV One. His campaign spokesvoice credits include Lexus, McDonalds, Corona Beer, KFC, Toyota, Chrysler, and ATT, Time Life Music R&B/Gospel and Southern Company. Gamers enjoy his work on STARCRAFT II, Metal Gear, That’s So Raven, Ultimate Spiderman, Delta Force, Star Wars, Laura Croft Tomb Raider, and many others. Narration credits include programs for National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Science Channel’s popular series, “When Earth Erupts”. His various film voices include “Ghost Rider”, “Happy Feet”,and “King’s Ransom”, and he has proved a cartoon favorite in such series as The LeBrons, Kim Possible, Ben 10, Darkwing Duck, New Kids on the Block, Pro Stars, Johnny Quest and Sonic the Hedgehog. Dave has been the show voice for several TV and Award shows, among them Late Night with Gregg Kinnear, The Billboard Music Awards, The Teen Choice Awards, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, and for the past 15 years The NAACP Image Awards.
If advertising slogans like “The impossible is nothing” sound a little glib, watch this and see that perhaps it really is true. Beautiful cinematography, and a story which should make you think.
Meet Tommy Carroll. He has been skating since he was ten, but has been blind since the age of two…
He says, “There’s always a way to overcome an obstacle if you want it enough.”
Thanks to British female voice artist Natalie Cooper for bringing this to my attention!
0 Comments on Brave… There’s always a way as of 1/22/2013 10:24:00 AM
Having Joe Cipriano give me a personal tour around the Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab was one of the highlights of my visit to Los Angeles in 2012. Here we discuss how he grew into voice over – a remarkable success story starting while at school (“Radio show was good, homework not so good.”). Also some background from him on Don LaFontaine, the man and friend, and the lab built in his honour.
In conversation with Joe Cipriano
For subtitles, click the CC button (Closed Captions which uses the transcription below)
Andy: Here we are today at the Don LaFontaine Voiceover Lab and I’m joined by Joe Cipriano. Welcome Joe. Thank you for taking time out to meet with us today, Joe.
Joe: Thanks, Andy. I appreciate it. It’s good being here with you, and welcome to the lab. This is it! This is what we have done to honour Don LaFontaine.
Andy: That’s fantastic. Well, just in a little while we’ll talk about that, but first of all I’d like to learn a little bit about you… and apologies for my voice, it’s the air-conditioning of LA that’s just got to me! You’re first and foremost known as the promo voice, and you’ve been the promo of Fox for quite a few years now…
Joe: Yeah I started in ’88, so it’s been twenty two, twenty four years.
Andy: OK!
Joe: Wow! Yeah…
Andy: So that’s been a while, and you’re on several other networks..
Joe: CBS… I’ve been with CBS since 1997, and that came about… and a lot of voice-over – and you’ve probably experienced this is well – is through relationships and I had been at Fox for nine years from ’88 to 1997, and one of the heads of marketing moved over to CBS to kind of change around their marketing stance and their image. CBS at the time was known as kind of like the blue haired, old lady network, you know… And so they were going in with new programming and a new idea to change that image and make it younger and through the relationship that I had established with Ron Scalera, who was the Head of Promos at Fox, moved over to CBS. They started looking for different voices and he called me one day, and he goes, “You know what? Everybody we listened to, we compared to you, and we said why… it’s too bad it doesn’t sound like Joe… And would you consider coming over?” So that… I thought that would be the end of my Fox years…
Andy: Sure.
Joe: …but I was able, thanks to Don LaFontaine, who also at that time was working at Fox, at CBS, at NBC… He was all over the place. So… it wasn’t so strange that there might be a voice that was on two different networks. So I was very lucky to be able to have that.
Andy: OK. So he’d set the scene before that. OK, so you started 1988, you say… Before 1988, what were you thinking about?
Joe: Well I started as a kid in radio… as on-air presenter: “Disc Jockey”, that’s what we call them here…
Andy: And in the UK as well, but kicking back before that, what… why did you go into radio?
Joe: You know, growing up, as a kid I knew I wanted to do something that had some sort of connection with entertainment. Mostly it was television, or radio, I kind of really wanted to do TV. And what happened was when I was in fourth grade…
Andy: What’s that mean in English?
Joe: Fourth-grade would be… ten years old.
Andy: OK. Thank you.
Joe: When I was ten years old we went on a field trip, our class, to a radio station in Hartford, Connecticut. I grew up in Connecticut. And as we were touring – it was on a radio and TV station – we toured the TV studios first and I thought I was very impressed with that, and to see those big cameras… You know, I was really starting to dream big about that. And gosh, wow! You know this would be something I’d want to do… And as we walked down the hall we came to this big window looking into the studio, and there are two men in this studio behind microphones and there were speakers in the hallway, and there were about thirty five of us – you know kids, ten years old – and they were just having a blast. They were having such a fun time. And I thought… okay… this now, this is really fun. And I bet that if I do really good and get into this room, that I can get into that other room over there too, at the same time! So… that kind of stewed for me for four years and at fourteen years of age I called a disc jockey at the local radio station and said: “You know it’s all I think about is radio and I want to get into radio.” and he invited me to come down to the radio station in our local town, and that began… from fourteen years of age to sixteen years of age… two years of me going to the station every week. I would go every Saturday. I’d file records I’d go get the disc jockey’s lunch. I’d do whatever I could and… in return they would let me go into one of the studios and make believe I was on the radio, and do my own radio show.
And eventually, when I turned sixteen, I got hired at that station, and that began my career in radio. I went to full time in radio… I was still only in, what, eleventh grade – twelve grades altogether, going through high school. I worked on the air while I was going to school during the day and I would do my homework at sixteen years of age while the songs played! You know… My books out over the console, and I’d do my homework… Homework suffered… Radio show was good, homework not so good. Then when I graduated they gave me the afternoon slot there, because I thought about college and I thought college is just going to slow me down four years and so I went right into it… head first… feet first and uh… grew in the radio business, which led me then to voice overs, as well.
Andy Boyns & Joe Cipriano at VOICE 2012
Andy: OK. So it’s very much you followed… you had a seed planted there, and you followed that passion. That’s wonderful.
Joe: Yeah.
Andy: And wonderful that you had the guts to get out and do that.
Joe: Yeah. I think I was… When you’re that young, I think that you probably don’t think things through too far ahead and thank goodness, because… You know, that’s what happens when you get a little bit older you might have a dream. You might think you want to do something, but then your mind starts to work, and you go “Gosh… If I do that, what’s really going to happen? And how am I going to do this?” And when you’re young, you just do it… and it worked out.
Andy: And… I guess your parents supported you through…
Joe: My parents were extremely supportive. They loved that I had found something that was a passion for me. They used to pick me up… I would take a bus to radio station – you know before I i was working there – and they would pick me up at midnight and then take me back home on Saturdays. And then eventually when I turned sixteen I had my driver’s license and I was able to drive in. And you know, I went from sixteen years of age on the air up until about twenty years of age… where I finally found a job in a major city. Washington DC. The nation’s capital and worked there. Was hired by NBC to work there as a disc jockey, and about six months into it I met my wife, Ann, who was also working there as a news writer. She was… her very first day of work and I bumped into her in the hall and that was beginning of our relationship and we were married three years later… three-and-a-half years later.
Andy: Wonderful.
Joe: And she and I are both broadcast kids, so she understands what voice over is, she understands what radio is and very supportive… and so nice to have somebody that’s your best friend and that is your spouse who understands what you do… And you have this common interest as we both came from broadcast. So we always have that.
Andy: Sure… and as I’ve seen with trying to fix up this time with you, you’ve had… you’ve been on and off a couple of times thinking that you had a job coming up. Of course she has to be very understanding about that.
Joe: Oh yeah. She’s amazing. She is amazing, and it’s always been like that, you know. Radio was a little bit more steady. Once I got in to voice over you never know when you’re… Like late tonight… When we were speaking here… it could have been that I had a session right now. It was on hold and then I found out that it was released and moved to tomorrow… my buddy Scott Rummell who was going to be here at the lab today for a meeting… he thought he had a session, that got delayed, and that’s moved till tomorrow. So you’re constantly… there are so many times you’re putting your coat on, and getting ready to go out to dinner, and you get a call. It’s like: “Oh! We’re not going out to dinner… yet.” You know. But… the nice thing is, in voice over which I love, every time you work, you get paid. So… You know it’s not so bad!
Andy: It’s not, is it!
Joe: It’s not so bad! And then Ann will go back, and she’ll maybe start to pick up a book she was reading, and we’ll be delayed a half hour, and then we go out to dinner.
Andy: That’s cool. So you managed to make the transition from radio into voice over. Was it a natural progression for you to be…. actually, maybe I should ask you, did you go straight into doing promos and…?
Joe: Yeah… Not really. Although it was the genre of voice over that I was most interested in. I was in radio, in Washington DC, and I was very much interested in voice overs and I started… We didn’t have agents there. You really marketed yourself.
Andy Boyns & Joe Cipriano in DLF Lab Classroom
Andy: OK
Joe: …and you sent out your demo tape. And I made my own demo tape, and I sent it out to the actual ad agencies looking for work.
Andy: Is this is something that… I don’t know the American market, but that’s how I’m working in Istanbul.
Joe: You’re doing without an agent.
Andy: After six years I left my agent. I’m working solely freelance now. In the States, can people work like that now?
Joe: Well, you see it depends at a certain level… that was in a local market, and this was back in the 70s, late 70s
Andy: Sure.
Joe: There wasn’t really… it was a union work, it was AFTRA and Screen Actors Guild work. The radio station I worked at was an AFTRA station, but it just wasn’t set up to have talent agents there. They had a couple of casting companies, and you could solicit them and go to them, but there was no agent that would represent you.
Andy: Sure.
Joe: And it wasn’t like it needed to be negotiated. At that point in your career, you’re working for scale and so you know it’s like you get the job. Scale is x amount of dollars, and that’s what you get paid, and it goes through the union. So, I did pursue that and it was about that time that I became aware of people like Bernie Anderson who was the voice of ABC, and Danny Dark who was the voice of NBC, and because I was in broadcasting and working at NBC, I thought “Wow! This is really an interesting… again, another way to get into TV… to be a voice of a network.” And that’s something that really sparked an interest in me, and that was something that I was going to go after. But my first voice over gigs were regional, east coast, local… jobs for maybe department stores, or car dealerships, and things like that. But I knew… Ann and I both knew… that if we wanted to do the big gigs – and she was in television by then as a news producer and writer – that we either needed to go to New York City or Los Angeles.
Andy: OK.
Joe: And so we took a trip. We did a ten-day trip. Five days in New York City. Five days in Los Angeles… and we looked at each other once we got to LA – we went to New York first – and we said, “Los Angeles… that’s the one.”
Andy: Yes!
Joe: So then it was a matter of trying to get a job out here in radio. Took me about a year and a half, and I got a job. Because that’s something I always tell young people in voiceover, or in any business. Don’t move to a new city without a job. Have a job waiting for you, because – especially coming to LA – to be just another starving actor doesn’t set you apart from the masses, and when you go into an audition, and you need that audition… desperately, either for breakfast tomorrow, or to pay your rent… that stench – and I’m sorry use that word – of desperation… it wafts through the room. I’ll tell you: it puts you in a very bad situation.
Andy: I think that’s an important thing to bring out, that people look at you now and they see the work that you’re doing now, and the history of the recent years… although it’s a long recent years… and they… it’s very easy to think that you’ve always been like this.
Joe: Yeah.
Andy: That’s really why I wanted to learn, to hear about your ten year old experience, because that’s so… that’s part of the story, and it’s so easy for us just to look at somebody where they are today and forget about where they came from.
Joe: Sure. Everybody has to struggle… and you know what? It’s not worth the journey unless you do struggle a little bit.
Andy: Sure.
Joe: Because you have to experience the downs and those difficult times so that you can really appreciate the successes, you know. So… and I truly believe that. Yeah, I mean you look at anybody, anyone in pretty much any profession. There are those times when perhaps there is a struggle or there’s a decision that has to be made. “Am I going to go this way, or am I going to go that way?” And it’s that turning point a lot of times that can change somebody’s life, for the rest of their lives. So yeah… You know it’s a matter of… for me in voice over, I knew radio so well. I had to learn how do you become a success in voice over? What do you do? And there weren’t at that time… we didn’t have facilties like this, where people can come here free of charge and take seminars, workshops and be taught what you do to get into voice-over, it’s such a genre.
Joe Cipriano & Andy Boyns at the Don LaFontaine VO Lab
Andy: And let’s just talk about the DLF Lab, the Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Laboratory. Obviously Don was somebody who played an important role in your life. you mentioned a little bit earlier. So…. could you summarise maybe that, and what happens here?
Joe: Yeah, sure! Don, as you know was the King of promos and trailers. He also did commercials, as well, although he really truly excelled in marketing: being that voice that markets films not just run of the mill films, but the biggest of the big films… and all the television networks. So he was kind of like the state of the art, you know, when it came that he almost invented that genre of what we hear today, what we do today, for movie trailer announcing. You know, those reads are so Don… He wrote that copy “In a world…” I mean that’s something that he penned, and that is still used today… Because he came from a marketing background himself he would write these commercials for films and one day the voice over guy didn’t show up. And they said, “Well, why don’t you do it?” and boom, a career was born!
He always did something that was truly remarkable. He was a good friend of mine, of Paul Pape who’s a co-founder, George Whittam, and all of our advisory board members who also are in promo trailers. He would… you know… you probably heard the stories, he would go from session to session in his limo. It’s the days before ISDN and he literally could have two, three sessions within an hour… so you had to speed around Hollywood. At least the studios were relatively close.
Andy: Sure.
Joe: So, to stop himself from going absolutely crazy, he always had Clinton, his driver, waiting for him in the limo and he would bound out of the studio, jump into the back of the limo, and they’re off to the next. And in those days I would see Don four times a day. I’d see him a Woodholly. I’d see him at Fox. And I’d catch him over at CBS, and back at Woodholly! Because we were all doing that thing. You know, I might have five sessions today, he’s got like fifteen, seventeen sessions a day, or more.
Andy: You were sprinting between the two…
Joe: Yes! Exactly! I was schlopping… or schlepping… between the two. So, the thing that Don used to do in that limo was he would take people with him on a ride along, to ex… people who wanted to get in voice over… to experience what it’s like for… to be around somebody who’s at the very top of voice over.
Andy: Yeah.
Joe: And also pick up all of that experience of: How do you relate to the director? How do you relate to the mixer? What do you do? What does copy look like? I mean, you were actually reading the picture? How do you do that? Do you practice? There are three beeps before you start talking? I mean, there’s so much to learn in promo and trailer, and it was like an advanced course in one day. People like George DelHoyo who is now one of the most popular voice-over artists there are in the world… I mean he does English speaking narration for promos, trailers, commercials, and he has an entirely different career in Spanish. He’s, you know, fluent in Spanish. So… he went on a ride along. So many people that are now a success in this world of voice-over went on a ride along with Don, and learned how it’s done.
When Paul came up with the idea, Paul Pape, of doing something… he came up with the idea of this lab… that would be like a virtual ride along with Don. Don’s no longer with us, but Don’s… you open up the door. You’re in Don’s place now. You’re going to experience what it’s like to do voice over… what it’s like to do promos and trailers and commercials and narration and ADR and looping… all the different genres and we have the people that are at the top of those professions, they come in here and teach. They donate their time, and fourteen people at a time come in for this one on one sort of an experience. They get into the booth and they’re directed and taught, and they get to experience what it is, and… which makes it a lab. It’s a laboratory… it’s an experience.
Andy: And it’s a way of you giving back yourselves in the way Don did.
Joe: Yes.. the way Don did.
Andy: He paid it forward to you, and you’re paying it forward to others.
Joe: Yes.
Andy: So, if somebody wanted to learn more about the lab, where would they find that out?
Joe: You can go to SAGFoundation.org and you click on the little tab up there for the Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab. We’re also on Facebook, and we have a Twitter feed as well. But the SAGFoundation.org website is probably the best place and we welcome everybody to come and check that out.
Andy: Excellent.
Joe: Yeah.
Andy: Well, thanks very much for sharing your…
Joe: Thanks, Andy.
Andy: …your experiences with us today, Joe, and a pleasure to spend this time with you.
Joe: I appreciate that.
Andy: Thank you so much.
Joe: Best of luck to you.
Andy: Thank you.
Joe: Alright, thanks.
About Joe Cipriano
Joe Cipriano is probably best known as the voice of FOX-TV Network – a post he’s held for the past 24 years. He is also one of the signature voices at CBS, where his voice is closely associated with some of CBS Television’s brightest comedies, including “Two and a Half Men”, “Mike and Molly” and others. For the past two years, Cipriano has been the announcer for NBC’s hit show, “America’s Got Talent,” he’s one of the promo voices for ESPN and is the “voice” of Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America. He has been the signature voice of “The Food Network”, “Hallmark Channel,” “Lifetime Channel” and NBC, where he vocally represented their lineup of Dramas, including “Heroes,” “ER” and “Law and Order.” Cipriano has been the live announcer for many of television’s biggest events, including the Grammy Awards, the Emmy Awards and “VH1 Honors,” among others. He has worked as an on-air personality at radio stations including KIIS-FM, Los Angeles; KKHR, Los Angeles; KHTZ-FM, Los Angeles; WRQZ, Washington, D.C.; WKYS, Washington, D.C. WDRC-AM/FM, Hartford, CT; and WWCO-AM/FM, Waterbury, CT.
Thank you SO much for sharing this interview. Joe is one of my all-time favorite voices and an idol of mine in this business. I had the pleasure of meeting Joe and getting a picture taken with him at VOICE 2008. It was the highlight of my trip to LA. To hear his story and to know he started by paying his dues like everyone else is inspirational and motivating. He is such a celeb to us all in VO, but he’s so humble and willing to share, just like Don was to him. Great job Andy, and thanks again for sharing with us all.
Download mp3 version – Demo Mix
Links
Book now to attend the latest TEDx Reset event in Istanbul, taking place on April 12 and 13, 2013 at the TIM Show Center, Maslak.
For the past year and actually for years, centuries, for many lives on end we’ve been travelling. The journey didn’t start just yesterday and certainly it is not over yet. Every day we take new steps, sometimes forwards, and sometimes backwards, sometimes to the right and perhaps to the left. And every day we make new decisions, about which path to take. But this time it seems a little different…
A few minutes ago I had a call back for a role in an advertisement. This will play on TV, in cinemas, on the internet, and public transport. No doubt if I’m confirmed in the role the company’s profits will immediately soar, but joking aside, who will see the advert for the first time and suddenly make a life changing decision? Brand exposure must surely be much more a case of reminding potential clients that the brand is available, and building confidence in those already using the brand that they made the right choice, and should continue to do so.
Thanks for the shout-out Andy! Love the article!
Dave Courvoisier