Hello and Happy Post-Thanksgiving/Hanukkah Agida Day! Do your pants still fit?
NEWS AND NOTES!
Sadly, Voice Over Virtual has come to an end. I want to thank John Florian for asking me to be the Marketing Consultant for this daring endeavor and all of the wonderful folks who hung out in Tom’s Tiki Lounge. See you in 2015!
I wrote another article for Edge Studio. This one is about the dreaded New Year’s Resolution! You can read it here.
The Voice Over Cafe Holiday Bash is this weekend!
SQWEEE!!! I am so psyched. There is still time to RSVP. Just go to the Facebook Event Page. It starts at 8 PM but it will go late into the evening so show up whenever you can!
The Bash is is one of my favorite times of the year. It makes me so thankful for my career and all of the wonderful people I’ve become friends with. While I don’t believe that what you do for a living necessarily defines who you are, it is one third of your life and I’m thrilled I can do something that brings me joy and a way to express myself.
One of the best things about having good friends that are also voice talents is that they understand you. I have lifelong “regular” friends who love and respect me, but they’ll never understand what it is we do. I decided to become a voice talent in 1994 and to this day some of them still suggest that I should teach or ask when they’re going to “see my name in lights” (that one drives me nuts).
Let me make something clear: I have no interest in being rich or famous. Seriously. I live comfortably, I’m saving for retirement, I take care of my friends & family when they need help, and I’m having fun along the way. Making more just makes stuff complicated. It also makes it harder to tell who your friends are!
As to being famous, what does that even mean? How many famous voice talents are there anyway? Less than 10,000 of us do this full-time (I made up that number, but it sounds about right) and how many people off the street even know that our profession even exists?
TIP OF THE WEEK: If you’re obsessed with being a rich voice talent for status purposes, you’re in the wrong profession. If your overriding need is to be the world’s most famous voice talent, congratulations. You wanna be the world’s tallest little person. Or employee of the month. Or whatever. However, if your goal is to be the best listener in the voiceover industry, or maybe the voice talent that takes direction better than anyone else, now you’re onto something!
Oh, and if you’re going the Bash with the intent of smashing your business card into as many hands as possible and cornering agents until they rep you, well, good luck. Read last year’s entry to see what I’m talking about!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
STUFF!: Remember last month when I told you about the amazing experience I had watching my dear friend Carly Johnstone perform for The Moth at the New York Public Library? Well, now you can watch in on YouTube! Here’s the link. She appears at 1:04:00 but I encourage you to watch the entire show. It’s wonderful!
From Tom Dheere’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere: GKN News…