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Voice Coaches Radio #483 – To Err is Human…

Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. And welcome to this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. I am Josh Heller, she is Marisa Lanczak, and we are delighted to have you joining us. Marisa, how are we doing this morning? I'm good, how are you? I'm fantastic, you sound great. I, haha, we were just... Making fun of me for this because it's like, oh all of a sudden she quit smoking.

Why is her voice sounds so good? I know Have you talked anytime recently? Uh, yeah, I've done a lot of classes and stuff. I don't know I um, I think it's because I've caught up on sleep. Maybe. Oh, what's that like? I don't it sounds awesome But I feel like I still need more. So always yeah, always that doesn't change that doesn't change.

Happy adulthood. Oh Yeah, well it's even better when you have a, a, a child that jumps on you at six o'clock in the morning and it's like, Daddy, get up! And I'm like, what? No, you go to bed. Yeah, I don't have a child. I, I have a cat, though. Same thing. Same thing. Yeah. Similar thing. Needy. So needy. Very. Um, my cat this, my cat this morning, um, he does, he's a big, he's a, he's a big ol big ol fatty.

Uh, this is Pretzel. And he's a, he's part Maine Coon, so he's a big boy. And he, he likes to, um, if you scratch him in the right spot, he will put his head on your foot and then flop down and for you to keep petting him, it's, it's amazing. And he did that today, except when he flopped down, he hit the carbon monoxide detector and set off the test and scared the crap out of all of us, including himself.

And when I left for work today, he was still nowhere to be found. Oh, that's funny. Nowhere to be found. So, um. Yeah, that's, that's the life of the cat. It's always interesting when a big cat like that can find a place to hide and you just have no idea where they are. I mean, I'll go like a day or so without seeing one of them and I'll be like, I don't think they ran away.

I'm pretty sure they didn't, but... Yeah, mine, mine Lyric, he, he's also probably part Maine Coon. I, I don't... actually no, but at one point he was 20 pounds. And then when I changed his diet, we got him back down to a normal weight. So, but he's still, I mean, he looks like a puma. His paws are gigantic. Yeah. Uh, yeah.

Pete's got those small little legs, like little stumpy legs and just massive paws. When we got him, that's about a little over a year ago, he was just under 30 pounds. Oh my goodness. He's down to about 22, 23. He's, uh, that's a big cat. Yeah. No, he big boy. He, he's big, big fluffy boy. Um, him and his brother, they were, uh, they were both massively overweight.

Massively overweight. We got them. They're getting there. They're getting there. Wow. We're all, we're all, you know, we're all watching our diet. It's, you know. Did you name him pretzel 'cause of carbs? Uh, no we did not. So, uh, so they were, they were seven years old when we got them. They're brothers. Him and, uh, him and his brother who, It may have part mane coon, but it doesn't look like it.

It looks more like a tabby. And his name was Sam, or Sammy. And the other one, uh, was named Big Boy. That was it. That's what they called him. So, when he went to the shelter, they didn't want to name him Big because it was an older woman who took care of them and overfed them and then had to unfortunately go into a home and give them up.

And so she had just called him Big Boy. So they changed his name to Sosa. So it was Sammy and Sosa, like Sammy Sosa, the baseball player. But I could care less about Sammy Sosa. Now, there's a television show based off a book that my son watches. It's called Hello Ninja. Uh, it's on, um, Netflix, I think. And it's, it's a, it's a cute show.

It's about, uh, this, this kid and his, uh, and his friend. And, you know, they encounter problems and, you know, to deal with them, they become ninjas. Because, yeah. Because why not? And their cat also becomes a ninja, um, sort of. And uh, their cat's name is Pretzel. And my son enjoyed this thoroughly. And we said, okay, when we get another cat, we'll name it Pretzel.

So we thought, well, Sam's already Sam, so big boy slash Sosa. Who doesn't know that name is gonna be Pretzel, and now he's Pretzel, or Mr. P. Mr. P. Mr. P. Depends, depends how we're feeling. I love it. Depends how we're feeling. And sometimes Big Boy. Sometimes I do still call him Big Boy because he is Yes. In fact a big boy.

Um, so, uh, big news, big news in the world of, of, in the world of me. Oh, give me news. I like news. I got a, uh, an audiobook offer. Ooh, for a science fiction novel. Look at you. Yeah. I have never done fiction, let alone science fiction. Uh, and this is gonna be interesting. This is gonna be interesting. It's about a 16 and a half hour novel.

Um, and, uh, I don't, I'm, I'm excited slash terrified. Of it. Well, I feel like that's how you should be with any project. It's exciting. Yeah. It definitely is. It's, uh, it's, uh, I just started it. It's, uh, it's so far. It's, it's fun. Uh, it's different, man. It's different. Cause most of my stuff has been kind of non fiction stuff.

Um, you know, biographical stuff, um, you know, more, more of that kind of straightforward. This is, uh, this is different. This is, this is out of my comfort zone a little bit, but, uh, but I'd love to have it to my repertoire. It's, uh, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun, so I'll keep you guys updated. I have to finish it by the beginning of July, uh, so I will keep you all abreast of the situation and, uh, and let you know how it goes, but it's, uh, yeah, so I'm just gonna push ourselves a little bit.

Try something different. Try something a little bit different. One day you're just gonna leave us cause you're gonna get all this voice work and you're gonna be like, screw this podcast. Yes. I'm done. That's exactly what's gonna happen. Drop the mic. Leave the studio. That's exactly what's gonna happen.

Probably soon. Probably soon. I'm in high demand. High demand, uh, something like that, something like that. So, uh, I, I was working with a, with a student the other day and, um, it was, uh, a, a kind of a refresher class of sorts. They had gone through their first three classes, their demo was coming up, and then a funny thing happened, uh, the pandemic.

And everything got kind of thrown into flux, as it does. And so, you know, she was unable to, to move forward for some time. And it had been almost a year. Wow, what a bummer. Almost a year since her, uh, since her last class. So obviously we were like, well, okay, don't just jump into the booth right now. Let's talk first.

Let's go over some stuff. Let's, uh, and so we did. And we spent a lot of time, you know, we obviously went over pieces and things like that. But we also spent a lot of time just kind of. chatting a little bit because she had a lot of, you know, reservations at that point. It had been a while. She felt like she was starting from scratch and, and, um, you know, she, she was concerned.

One of her concerns was that, you know, she was, you know, she was like, I'm, I'm starting from, from scratch again. And I was like, okay. And she's like, you know, I'm, I, I feel like I'm behind the ball. I feel like I'm behind the curve of everybody. And I found that very interesting because she's not, you know, she's probably my age or so.

I'm in mid thirties. Uh, you know, she's not old. Although, even if you are, it doesn't, that's the beauty of this, it doesn't matter. Right, we have people come through this program who become voice actors who are, you know, in their 70s. Because it is something that you can, you can do like that. So I was like, don't...

Don't ever worry about that, right? You're not. There are people at all points of their lives and careers jumping into this and that's the beauty of it. That's the absolute beauty of it. But the other thing that she brought up and what I wanted to at least touch upon today was she was, you know, concerned because it had been a while.

She was like, well, what's going to happen when I, you know, if, if I make mistakes? And I said, what do you mean? She said, well, what's going to happen if I make mistakes? And I was like, uh, we're going to fix them. Because that's what we do. You must be perfect. Right, well, and that's the thing, and you know, look, a demo notwithstanding.

Like, there is no point in your career where you are going to be able to do this perfectly. You are going to make mistakes forever. Um, even the, even the, the, the best of the best do. Yeah, we're human, you know, like, I mean, we're not, even if we are robots, like nobody wants to hear a robot. They want that human, that human touch.

Absolutely. And, and I think that was, you know, I, I think that's something that. I don't know if people, you know, grasp that, but it is, I mean, you're going to make mistakes. It's not an if, it's a when. And by the way, that's expected. Forget about the demo, right? Obviously the demo, sure, um, you know, working with us, but, you know, in your jobs.

You know, it almost sounded like she was like, at what point do I need to, you know, go from being this kind of raw voice actor to the professional that, you know, walks in there, one takes it, and walks out. And I was like, that's gonna happen in Neverwary because it doesn't happen. Well, I actually just said to somebody yesterday, I was like, Nobody is a one take Sally, and even if you are, we're still going to make you do a second take, you know, just to make sure.

At least for our own safety. Right, it's making sure that the audio sounds good, that, you know, everything is, is done the right way, and what we're looking for, and that we have that backup. You know, and, and, and I've, and I've mentioned this to people, look, your first take may be perfect. It might be. And we may use it.

We're still doing another take. At least another take. And we may do two or three takes and realize, nope, that first one was definitely the best one. We're keeping that. Cool! We did use your first take. We're not just doing one take. No chance. No chance. Right? And no, and no producer's going to do that in a session.

Right? You're gonna, and you know, she had questions like, what happens, you know, will I be able to do the piece multiple times? Yeah, you will. They'll want you to. They'll want you to. And that's, that's what it is. Don't be afraid that you're going to make mistakes. You are going to make mistakes. That's expected.

Now look, if you're tripping up over every other word, okay, we need to make sure that that's not happening. But in general, you're gonna make mistakes. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't get caught up in that, right? You make a mistake, you take a breath, you go back to the beginning of the sentence, start it back up.

Easy peasy. Yeah, the biggest thing to do and to understand is like, you are going to make these mistakes, so when they happen, just don't let... yourself get in your own way after it, you know, because it's so easy. Like if you have you ever watched like say the evening news and one reporter like stumbles over something on the teleprompter and then it's just like a domino effect and they all start it, start doing it.

Just don't get in your own way with it. Take that breath, allow yourself to relax and understand that you're human and that it happens. Yeah, and that relax is a big point because we naturally get frustrated when we make mistakes. I do. Yeah, we all do it. That's, that's totally understandable, but unfortunately, frustration makes the sound.

It's a, there's a tightness to the voice that, that we, we, we can't have, right? There's a tightness to the voice that's going to stick out. So, you know, take that breath. If you listen to me, you know, when I'm, when I'm recording myself, you know, I'll absolutely make mistakes, go back to the sentence, start it back over, sometimes multiple times.

And usually I'll make a mistake and I'll make some weird noise. It's a different noise every time. Sometimes it's like, ugh, or like a, get it out of your system. Shake it out. I literally shake it. I tell and I tell students that all the time like literally shake it off because there's like Something about it where it does feel like you're letting go of something.

Yeah, T. Swift Yes, I was about to start singing but I won't. No copyright. Yeah, that's We'll go with that's the reason why I'm not doing it. Not for my own. I'll just make you do it later. That's fine That's that's fair. That's a visual that everybody wants me singing Taylor Swift. It'll be on my IG story later.

That's a good, that's a catchy song, all right? I don't care what you say, that song, super duper catchy. It's a bop. It is, it is, man, that, it absolutely is. Um, so yeah, so again, you know, You're gonna make mistakes. That's okay. That's expected. Don't worry about it. And, and, and like you said Marissa, don't let it affect, you know, your next sentence.

Don't let it affect, you know, the sentence after that. It can snowball. It absolutely can. And I'm pretty sure it's happened to all of us at one time or another. Right? Very much so. Take a breath. Think happy thoughts. Whatever works for ya. Right? Shake it off. Do some... Burpees, I don't care. Whatever you gotta do.

Don't do those, those are the worst. Those are the worst. I will, uh, God, that was my least favorite thing about CrossFit. Yeah. Burpees, burpees hate you as well. They're awful. Yeah, they're, they're, they're awful. I have to do some later today. I don't want to talk about it. Burpee box jumps too. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Anywho. Um. But uh, so again, that's going to happen. Accept that fact. Be prepared for that fact. And know full well that it's not just you. We're all making mistakes and every single producer expects it. expects it. So, it doesn't reflect poorly upon you. It doesn't, again, if it's all the time, every time, okay, well then, you know, obviously we have more underlying issues.

Again, it's gonna happen. It's okay. It's okay. Shake it off, shake it off. Can you get like a whole dance involved in that? Um, I could. Can we do a whole video later? I could. No. No, I am, uh, dancing is not my, uh, not my strength. Not my strength. I am, uh. You never know until you try. I have tried. Okay, fine. I should tell you.

I have tried. Weddings are not my friend. Weddings are not my friend. Um, because I do dance at weddings, because it's a wedding. You gotta dance at weddings. Um, and usually I have some encouragement of the liquid variety. And things take a turn, things, things take a turn, and there are pictures, and there are videos, and it's incriminating, and uh, It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Oh, is it? Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. All evidence to the contrary. All evidence to the contrary. Well, alright. So, uh, speaking of mistakes, that was one. Uh, so, uh, awesome. Well, thanks to everyone for tuning in this week. Hopefully we are all doing well. The weather is getting warm. It's actually super muggy outside, which I could do without, but that's neither here nor there.

gots it.

And, uh, we will, uh, we will chat with you next week, and we'll chat with each and every one of you next week as well. You can always reach out to us, josh at voicecoaches. com, quickest and easiest way to reach out to any and all of us, myself, Marissa, Sam, anyone else you need, josh at voicecoaches. com, to let us know what you want us to chat about.

What, uh... Guests you'd like us to bring in. We're working on some, uh, some big things coming up and, uh, hope you're around for them. So hope everyone is doing well. Thanks so much for tuning in. Marissa, we'll talk to you next week and each and every one of you. So long everyone. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.

This week, Josh and Marissa discuss mistakes in the booth. Will you make them…yes you will. Is that ok…yes it is. In truth, it’s how you respond to those mistakes that will make the difference.