Peter O’Connell over at audioconnell.com recently posted a challenge– to do a faux-dition (fake audition) for the announcer job on The Price Is Right. How could I resist such a challenge? The answer? I could not!

[audio:http://www.cyclometh.com/audio/Snow_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition.mp3|titles=Corey Snow unofficial TPIR Audition for Faux-Ditions]

Here is my attempt, which I just sent to Peter. We’ll see how people like it- I sure as heck had a lot of fun doing it. I had to warn my roommate that I’d be making a lot of weird noises like “DREEEEWWWWW CAREEYYYY!” for a while.

Listen, enjoy and tell me your thoughts.

It has been mentioned in the comments to my previous post that it seemed as though I wanted Ted Williams to fail. While I can understand how people would reach that conclusion, I wanted to make it clear that I harbor no such ill-will toward Mr. Williams. He’s a talented guy who made some bad decisions in his life and I hope he can put this second chance to full use.

My ire is directed not at Mr. Williams but at the media and the people piling on to get a piece of the latest viral sensation. The result of the way his story is presented is to devalue a lot of hard work put in by a lot of really talented people.

As the very talented voice artist Mercedes Rose puts it on a video response, for the vast majority of us, becoming an overnight success isn’t a matter of being “discovered”. We’re not going to become successful by standing on a streetcorner with a cardboard sign, we’re going to get there by hard work and diligence.

In the end, I think it may be that my annoyance at how his story trivializes a lot of very talented folks’ hard work came through as being directed at Williams himself, which is not true.

Happy New Year, everyone! I’m back in the swing of things and glad to be doing the voice blog again. I was extremely busy over the holidays and had a lot going on in my “real job”, but I have done my utmost to continue my practice and develop my craft.

In tonight’s episode I talk a bit about the upcoming Voice Actor’s Circle meeting this month; I’m really amped about that, and you’ll hear more about it both before and after. I also discuss Ted “The Golden Voice” Williams- the homeless gentleman who has become an overnight sensation due to his excellent radio voice.

What I have to say is not very positive, though. Ted’s story, while inspirational, does a disservice to voice acting and voiceover work in general by making it look as though the only requirement to be a success in the business is a “good voice”, which is total bull. It’s a damn hard business to be in and a seriously difficult one to be successful at- it requires a lot of hard work, a pragmatic outlook and a real willingness to REALLY devote yourself to both the craft and the art of voice work.

I know a lot of other VOs are sort of nauseated by the media coverage of this guy, and I’m worried that this whole thing will simply destroy him. I hope not, but we’ll certainly see.

Anyway, give it a listen and tell me if you agree or not. I’m always interested in hearing your opinion on the matter.

I have a couple of radio spots I’m working on the copy for, with an eye toward using them in a demo reel. I read two of them tonight, both totally cold. I’d love to hear your feedback on them. Oh, and I’ve made a bunch of changes to my setup and audio chain settings; I’m curious to hear if you think it sounds better, worse or you can’t tell any difference.

I’ve also been working on a new website to showcase those demo reels and other content I’m putting together. This site, when it’s ready (and it’s not yet) will be my commercial showcase, and I’m looking forward to getting it launched with the new year!

For this voice blog I did something that is at least an interesting experiment. I recorded myself with my iPad reading a chapter of Dzur to my son. We do a nightly storytime and Brust’s novels are currently on the menu; he’s been absolutely loving Vladimir Taltos and his reptilian friend Loiosh. Frequently I get to the end of a chapter and he asks “Can we continue? Please?!”

This recording is pretty raw; it was done with the iPad sitting on my lap as I was sitting in a rocking chair reading to him. You can also hear a question or two from Alex, some stumbles and even a sneeze from me. Very un-polished. It’s also longer than my usual fare, about 30 minutes.

The reason I’m using this as a voice blog entry is to provide an insight into how I read longer-form fiction and an opportunity for any critique of the voices, characters, etc. I would probably have used slightly different voices for one of the characters- Domm- if I had read the end of the chapter where his voice is described more clearly, but that’s a consequence of essentially reading it “cold”. I’m actually quite proud of my ability to take a book or long-form piece and read it with no practice. I am very good at cold reads which is a skill I have cultivated deliberately.

Your feedback, of course is always welcome and desired!

First, apologies for missing the last 2 days of voice blogs. I had a lovely hacking cough that kind of kept me from doing any useful work behind a mic, and then yesterday I can only plead a combination of fatigue and a break in rhythym.

It’s very difficult to establish a routine, but once you do, be sure not to break that routine without a very good reason; it can be even harder to get back into it. Look for a new voice blog tonight!

Tonight is the final cut of the Sears ad from Harlan Hogan’s book VO. Next week will be a new commercial. If you have suggestions for some copy, send it my way!

Oh, and by the way- the recording sounds kind of odd tonight. I didn’t realize until I was done that the microphone was actually in the stand backwards! However, I’m not going to re-record it, as that would go against the philosophy of making this unscripted; I prefer to go with the first take, even if it’s not technically brilliant. 😉

Thanks again as always!

I’m ten episodes into the voice blog, and I’ve realized that I would benefit from some more structured use of the process. Basically this far has been feeling things out, and just doing whatever comes to mind; leaping in and running with it. That’s by design, of course- I wanted to be able to improve my improvisational skills, which is still something I’m working on, but I think there’s more to be done.

content rhythym

For lack of a better term, anyway. What I’m going to do is break my voice blog up into the days of the week and use each day to focus on a specific area. For a given month, I’ll repeat the same copy or subject each sucessive week. That way, I can track my progress on something over the course of time and then reset with something new.

 For example, I’ll be doing commercial copy, like a radio or Internet ad, on Mondays. For a given month I’ll be focusing on improving my read of that copy on my Monday edition. Then on the following month, I’ll choose another piece of copy to work with. This gives me a rhythm and also lets people who are kind enough to listen and provide feedback an opportunity to hear how my delivery changes over time.

course schedule

Here’s how it’s gonna be laid out:

• Monday: Commercial copy, such as a radio, TV or Internet ad.
• Tuesday: Audiobooks. The same passage each Tuesday.
• Wednesday: Character voices. I will choose a character at the beginning of the month, such as “old Irish woman” or “crotchety Japanese guy” (maybe I’ll come up with a D&D-type table and roll dice for the characteristics), and focus on developing that character for the month.
• Thursday: Commercial/Corporate Narrations. Presentations, product demos, that sort of thing.
• Friday: Improv. Ad-hoc improvisation, exposition, general wierdness. This will probably be the most challenging part for me.
• Saturday/Sunday: Potluck. Whatever I feel like, or nothing at all if I don’t.

This process will give me a range of content to practice with. I think this will be a very good addition of structure to what has been pretty wide-open thus far.

Ok, I recorded this 2 days ago, in the dark sitting at my kitchen counter during a windstorm that knocked out power and downed a line in front of my house. Power was restored late last night, but I didn’t have an opportunity to record another episode. Sorry for missing an episode, but barring any further weather related issues, I should be back on track.

Edit: For some reason, the player is having problems, so I’ve removed it and opened a ticket with my podcast host. In the meantime you can download or play the episode directly from here:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/coreysnow/VoiceBlog7.MP3

Hey kids. Power’s out and the transformer asploded. Oh, and the power line is down in front of my house.

I recorded a voice blog but I can’t simply upload an mp3 with my iPad. I have spent the last 3 hours trying to figure out how to accomplish the simple task of sending a file from one system to another, and have given up, mostly because my battery won’t last much long.

I will post the entry I recorded tonight as soon as I can. Sincere apologies for my failure to deliver the recording tonight.