I recently watched Season 3 of ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘ and it did not disappoint. If you’ve seen the show, you may know where this here blog entry is going… 🙂
SEASON 3 (minor) SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Read at your own peril…
In Episode 7 of Season 3, Mrs. Maisel has to find work since the tour she’s been a part of is on a temporary hiatus. What does she do to make ends meet? Why, voiceovers of course!
Mrs. Maisel and her manager run around New York City narrating radio spots at a number of recording studios. One of the radio spots pays $5. Another pays in syrup while yet another pays in “a lifetime supply of tampons”. If I heard them right, one day of running around town recording radio spots paid her $35. That’s about $300 in today’s money.
Was that what voice actors got paid in 1960? SAG and AFTRA did exist back then and radio residuals have been a thing since the late 1930’s. Is Mrs. Masiel a member of SAG or AFTRA or both?
BTW the thing that always cracked me up was that whenever Mrs. Maisel recorded her spots, she would only use one side of her headphones so she wouldn’t have to take off her hat.
Funny AND classy!
TIP OF THE WEEK
Why did Mrs. Maisel really get paid so little (or in tampons) for her voiceover narration? She and her manager didn’t read the contracts. This is why contract attorneys and entertainment lawyers exist. Sometimes you have to put some money out to get a true professional who is versed in contract law and/or entertainment law to ensure you don’t get hosed like Mrs. Maisel did.
Know your worth and know your limits!
NEWS AND NOTES
The VO Atlanta X-Session registration is OPEN! I’m leading two X-Sessions this year…
Thursday March 26th @9:00 AM EST: (PRE-CONFERENCE X-SESSION) Learning to do eLearning
Friday March 27th 6:30PM EST: eLearning Script Writing & Performance Intensive
These special workshops carry an additional fee on top of the VO Atlanta registration fee BUT you don’t have to attend VO Atlanta proper to sign up for these workshops. Click here to see the full list of X-Sessions offered.
Wednesday, January 22nd @8:30PM EST: The Edge Studio encore presentation of ‘Online Casting Sites’. In this special one-hour webinar, I’ll talk about the pros and cons of online casting sites in general and Pay-to-Play sites in particular. FYI you can read this I article I wrote to get more of an idea of what’s in store. Click here to sign up!
Thursday, January 23rd @8PM EST: my next Edge Studio Marketing 201 webinar will be “4 Words That Will Kill Your Marketing”. We’ll talk about how think like an effective marketer. Click here to sign up!
Saturday, February 1st, 2020 @2PM PST: I will be speaking at the Voice Actors Studio in sunny Las Vegas! The topic is “THE VOICEOVER BUSINESS AND HOW TO ACT LIKE IT”. If you missed my “Get Your **** Together in 2020” workshop, it’s the same content plus a little bit more. 🙂 This workshop can be attended both online and in person. Click here to sign up!
November 6-8, 2020: Are you going to the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over (MAVO) conference in Herndon, Virginia? I have the honor of presenting yet again! In addition to the regular sessions (which will be announced soon) I will also be leading a special 3-hour Mastery Session. The topic: ‘Manage Your Money Like a VO Pro‘. These sessions fill up quickly as there is a max of 12-15 so make sure you get your spot! Click here to sign up now!
HAPPY HAPPYS
Happy Buttercrunch Day and Penguin Awareness Day!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Tom Dheere is a 20+year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.