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Voice Coaches Radio #507 – Happy Turkey Day

Voice Coach's Radio. Everything voiceover. And welcome to this week's edition of Voice Coach's Radio. I am Josh Ellish, he is Marissa Lanczak. We are delighted to have you joining us. Uh, it's... Hey, hey, hey! The day after Thanksgiving. How was your Thanksgiving? It was good. Good, good. Um, I know you had like a Friendsgiving before that.

Yeah. Terrible. No, that is a great Tom the Turkey. It's a decent gobble, I won't lie. That one was not great. That was bad. That was not great. But, um, yeah, they were pretty good. Thank you. I don't know if you know this, but I'm really good at, uh, drawing turkeys. When I trace my hand. Yes! Is it because you have a, he's five year old, right?

Five? Uh, my son is five, yes. That's probably why, right? Uh, no, I've been, that's one of the few things I can draw my entire life. That, stick figures. Artistically, I'm not, uh, I'm not what you would call talented. Oh. Well, see, I'll take all that from, for you then. Cause I've got the fine arts degree. Wait, you can draw?

I can paint, I can draw. What? You didn't know that? You paint me like one of your French girls? Um, no, I would not paint you, I would draw you like one of the Get the quote right! I mean, come on, it's Titanic! Whatever, I've never seen the movie! What?! Yeah, I've never seen did we talk about this? I've never seen that movie.

No, no! How have you never seen of my favorites! I've seen parts of it. Do you want to know what part I saw? What? I saw the iceberg part in ninth grade earth science class. We were talking about ice, iceberg ice. I'm stand ahead. Uh, that is the only part that I have seen. Uh, I have seen none. Uh, none. None, nothing.

I've never seen the movie, honestly. It is like in my top five. I don't have that much time. movie is a commitment. Yeah. But it's such a great commit, fun story. No, it's a commitment when you watch it on tv. Well, yeah, that's true. 'cause then it's like six hours I went on, I I was, this was in, I was in middle school when it first came out and uh, I remember this, it was.

Seventh grade? Eighth grade? I don't know, I probably had braces or something. Anywho, uh, I, I was dating, uh, a girl. It was middle school dating, so it was like, not really. Uh, her name was Jen. And, our first date we went to, we went on a movie. And, Titanic was an option. But we were like, that's a first date, that seems like a lot, and so we ended up seeing Mr.

Magoo. Oh. And that should accurately describe how our relationship went. It didn't. Almost immediately thereafter, and I get it, I get it. It was just goo from there. I get it. Um, it was not a great movie. It was not a, not a, not a great movie. Um, but no, I've never seen Titanic. So, sorry. Uh, and I also didn't know you could draw.

So that's super cool. That's why I haven't ever seen your drawings. What do you draw? Unicorns? Well, honestly, can I tell you? 2020, like, so, I I was living with my parents briefly and everything that I owned was packed because I had been in this process of moving from, you know, Boston to Hartford and then apparently back to New York because look at where we are now.

But, uh, so I was living out of boxes, but I took the trip to the craft store and grabbed some art supplies and I was like, well, I'm just going to waste some time. I'm going to paint, but I was like sharing things on my Instagram story and all of a sudden people were like, Oh my God, could you do one of like my pets?

And all of a sudden, it turned into a booming business during the pandemic. So, like, that was a side gig for me all last year. And, like, I was doing stuff for Christmas. Like, from probably about April through the end of the year, I was painting. Like, almost non stop. And you know the paintings in this room are painted by Danette.

Yeah. And so you guys should... Paint, I don't know. I should have a paint and sip. Oh, I love drinking And painting no, I mean just no just just wine That's cool, I'm gonna have to check out your your your portfolio Yeah, I think I deleted the Instagram account I had for it cuz I'm like if somebody else orders a painting I really have no time to do it So I'll have to see what I have saved in my my Google photos So there you go.

And then now you can you can tell all our fans about Uh, if you want, have something painted by, by Marissa. No, I don't have any time. Still do it. I really don't have any time. Please don't order anything. She said she's really excited to do it. I am, I am not excited at all. Please do that. Please, please do that.

Please don't order any paintings. Um, cool. Um, cool. Sorry. Uh, yeah. Anyway. Uh, it was, uh, so yesterday was Thanksgiving. Um, and today is Black Friday. Now, and, and it's Christmas, so, and I, and I will say this, and I will, I will fight this. Today, if you want to put up your Christmas tree and your lights, God love you.

Go for it. Go for it. It's the day after Thanksgiving. Go for it. It's your season now. Give me Thanksgiving, would ya? Yeah, just give me two Thanksgiving. Well, you know, it's just till dinner and we eat dinner early So just like till till, you know, Thanksgiving afternoon, but you know, what's crazy though, like even like October You couldn't even find Thanksgiving stuff in stores.

It was automatically Christmas. Yeah, they went right from, right from Halloween candy to, to Christmas stuff. It was crazy. Yeah, uh, there's someone at the, uh, at the gym I was at who was, uh, she's a teacher and was taking everyone's, you know, unused candy that they had for, that they were giving out and, you know.

uh, putting it together and sending it to the troops and I mean it was a cool thing and I was like, oh you know what I'll do? I'll go to the grocery store, buy some of the, you know, extra bags they have, like they're usually mad cheap and, and do that and literally it was just Christmas candy and I was like, oh okay, well that's, what happened to Thanksgiving?

Like it's a whole, it's a holiday, right? It's a big one, I mean it's a, it's a holiday You think so? A day off, like it's good Um Yeah, especially someone from, I'm from Boston. My folks live in Plymouth. So I mean, like, like, come on now. I've not been to, have you been to, uh, the, the rock? Have you been to Plymouth Rock?

I don't know. I don't, well, maybe when I was in school. It is so... Unbelievably anticlimactic. It is beyond description. It is a rock. It's a rock! And it's not even the rock that they stepped on, they don't think. And it used to be much farther out in the water, and they had to move it inland, because it was covered in water, and when they picked it up, they broke it in half, so now there's a big cement line down the middle, and someone just carved 1490 no, uh, yeah, 1490 no, uh, what was the date?

I don't know, Google it. There's a date. It's 16... 16 something. 16 something. I should know this. Um, 16 something. Something in the 1600s. 1492 was, was, was... The Columbus sailed the ocean blue. There's no fun rhyme for this one that I'm aware of. In

1686, we did not use chopsticks to have turkey. I don't know. I'm trying. Okay, hold on. Hold on. I'm looking it up. 1620. It says 1620 on it. There you go. Uh, the year the pilgrims landed the Mayflower. So, that's... Well, I'm so glad that we've got that figured out. In 1774, the rock broke in half during an attempt to haul it to Town Square in Plymouth.

One portion remained in Town Square and was moved to Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1834. It was rejoined with the other portion of the rock, which was still at its original site on the shore of Plymouth Harbor in 1880. The date 1620 was inscribed at the time. The rock is now ensconced beneath a granite canopy designed by McKim, Mead White.

What a fancy word. Ensconced? Yeah. No, literally, it's like a, there's like a cage around it. Like, you can't touch it. You can throw things at it if you want to. I wrote that. I would have just said, there's a cage around it. Ensconced. It was Wikipedia. Take that for what you will. I know, but that's like, it's like French or something.

Oh, ha ha, ensconced. It is a fancy word. It is a, you are ensconced in the booth right now. I am, you're right. And so that's, you know, that's not something I would normally say, but I will now. So, uh, so Thanksgiving is, uh, is, uh, is turkey. I love turkey. Aye. You know what? What? Okay. Stuffing. For me, love stuffing.

Could eat stuffing 365 days a year. Um. What? I'm not a big stuffing person. I'm not. You're not a big stuffing person? What? Give me, give me mashed potatoes and give me um, I don't know what it is about smothered in butter carrots, but I want all of them in my belly. Like cooked carrots? Yeah, like, just like, mushy, like baby carrots that are just in butter.

What's wrong with you? I don't know. I like healthy food. I'm gonna go ahead and say, smothered in butter does not equal healthy. And mashed potatoes, I mean, does not equal healthy. No, but, they're the healthier, I think they're the healthier alternative. I don't know. To pie. Like, come on. Well, I mean, that's true.

Now, uh, pumpkin pie, yay or nay? Oh, yay. I know that you were a nay up until like a year ago. I was, until last year, yeah. 100%. And now I'm down with it. And pumpkin bread in my house is... Oh my god, it smells so good. It smells so good. Um, so yeah, so happy Thanksgiving everybody. Hopefully you had a very nice, uh, a very nice Thanksgiving, uh, and you enjoyed it with, uh, with family and friends and loved ones and ate to your heart's content and then continued to eat more after that because that is the American way.

Yeah! Gain 30 pounds, do it! It's the holiday season! I mean, they make elastic band pants for a reason. And the reason is not for me to work out in, it is for me to eat in. Heck yeah. Eat that food. Um, so, yes. And so now it is fine, it's the Christmas season now, I'm fine with it. But literally, there has been Christmas music 24 7 on stations, on the radio dials, in my wife's car.

Basically since after Halloween. Before! But the week before Halloween. And listen, I'm somebody who's worked in radio for 17 years and I've never ever thought that was a good idea. Ever. Oh. Actually, fun fact. From a rating standpoint, it's a great idea. Oh yeah, I mean it does. It kills every year. But I will tell you right now, I am so glad that I've never been on a station that is Christmas all year, like all season, because I...

There's literally like five Christmas songs. They're just done by different people over and over and over again. And if it's not NSYNC or Mariah Carey, I almost don't want to hear it. Yeah, I mean, I celebrate Hanukkah. And we have like three songs. We got the Adam Sandler. We got the Adam Sandler song. We got the Dreidel song.

And we got, uh, Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah, come light the menorah. Yeah. Let's have a party. We'll all dance the

Hora Anyhoo, and that which actually by the way starts this weekend starts on Sunday Sunday night So for those of you who celebrate Hanukkah very a very happy Festival of Lights to you all And and have a very happy Hanukkah so so it's Thanksgiving well, it was Thanksgiving yesterday, but Figure it's close enough.

So let's talk about what we're thankful for in in in well, I guess in general voiceover as well You know what I'm thankful for Uh, I'm thankful that I found a, uh, uh, another permanent co host. Hey! That's you! And, uh, you know, I was always thinking it was, uh, You know, I worked with Sam for a while, I worked with Bethany for a while, Um, but in betwixt those, I worked by myself, and that was awful.

That's And there's only so much I can talk to myself. Yeah. Like, it's, it's a bit. I won't lie. I, I don't want to see you all lonely. Thank you. You and, you and your beard. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Um. But yeah, and so, so, you know, and they were like, well, we're hiring someone and she has radio experience.

Maybe she could do the podcast. And I was like, maybe, we'll see. And, uh, and it's, I think it's worked out well. I don't know. The listeners could disagree with me. That's very, very thoughtful. Um, I think it's gone well. I don't know. Um. And so I am thankful that I, that, that I've been able to share the pod, I've been able to share the, uh, the, the, the voice coaches radio waves, uh, with, uh, with, with you.

So thank you for being willing to do that and, uh, and putting up with my shenanigans. Of course. Um, because they are and, uh, and thinking of topics to talk about, which can sometimes be daunting. Uh, yeah, that's a good word for it. I was going to say a nightmare, but yes, daunting is good. Um. Because we realize we like I mean we've done 500 episodes.

Yeah, it can be difficult, but at the same time It's like, you know, sometimes the students come up with some pretty good questions that they do that we haven't heard before and it's like, okay I'm gonna answer that for you now, but I'm also going to definitely be talking with this Josh about this on Friday Yeah, like thank you.

Thank you for that little piece of heaven Yeah, no, that's a fair point. That's a fair point. But but again, thank you Marissa for for Joining the podcast. You know, you could have, you could have been like, no, I don't want anybody in my studio. Nobody in my space. This is a COVID free space. I don't need her muddying up my space.

Yeah, I mean, that's fair. I mean, and then I thought about it. I did. That thought crossed my mind, but it's alright. But then you locked me in this booth over here and you're like, eh. It's all safe, it's fine. We'll need to use the other, the other studio now that, uh, that we know how to do podcasts in the studio.

Yeah, right. The AKA podcast studio. Where I could actually look at you. Well, I am looking at you, but you're not looking at me. No. That's why if anybody has ever heard Josh say something and then there's like a slight pause and he's expecting a reaction from me, sometimes I don't know if he's talking to me or if he's talking to you.

Let's just face it. I just don't know. I just, I'm going to me. I just talk. I just talk. Whoever wants to listen can listen. I'm just, I'm just talking. I do it for me. I do it for me, um, but, uh, yeah, so that is, uh, so that is something I am, I am thankful for. Uh, what else am I thankful for? I'm thankful for, um, you know, the, the opportunity to continue to, to pursue this.

As I've, I've told many of you, uh, this year was a, it was a big year for me voice over wise. Um, you know, with, uh, with some of those audio books I've been able to do and, uh, and finally being able to, uh, uh, to, to take my family on vacation using only. money that I made doing voiceover work, which was super cool, super cool and felt really accomplished doing that.

And that was, that was awesome. So I'm very thankful, uh, that I've been able to, uh, to, to do that and to, uh, to, you know, uh, have that opportunity and then hopefully continue to have that opportunity. Yeah, those are all good things. What about you? thankful for? I have a couple things. I mean, first of all, I'm, you know, very thankful that my family, myself, you know, your family, like we've all continued to be happy and healthy.

Um, you know, that's been obviously a challenge for the world now going almost two years. Uh, I am also thankful as much as I loved being in Boston and, you know, it does, it's like my other home. You know, very thankful to be home again here in New York. Uh, you know, the world has been a little, like I said, it's been crazy.

Um, so to be back here and, and be close to, you know, family and friends instead of, like, alone somewhere else is, uh, is very nice. And then, you know, I'm also thankful the way this year has gone, you know. I, I feel like getting, getting myself here at Voice Coaches was just one giant step in the right direction because as the year has gone on, I've had so many opportunities come my way that honestly, I mean, when I look back and when I'm talking to students about, you know, my, my history and my experience, like in 2020, I kind of thought everything was done, you know, like radio looked like it was imploding on itself.

Uh, you know, I thought that industry was just kind of kaput and here I was, everything that I had worked for was just. Um, you know, and it felt really, uh, unsettling, you know, because I'm like, well, I don't like anything else. What am I supposed to do? Um, so the pandemic, if anything, it's, it's brought me here and it allowed me to spread my wings a little bit.

Not that I ever. Didn't do more than just radio, but now I definitely do more, uh, than just radio, and I'm here, and I'm on four different stations, and I do commercials, and I dabble in audiobooks, and, you know, here we are doing this podcast, and I have my own, so it's like, I get pulled in a million different directions, but it's all beautiful stuff, you know, it's all the stuff that I love doing, and, um, it never really feels like work.

That was, that was something. I like that. Yeah, but that's, I mean, to go, like, that's, like, I am a, a true pandemic, like, survivor story of, like, going from rock bottom right back up, you know? And, uh, like, everybody that hears everything that I've kind of dealt with in the last year, they're like, holy crap. And then, like, to be here, where I can say, like, I've got like 10 jobs, like I never thought that would have happened last year.

So like, I'm super, super thankful to be, um, really back where I belong in a lot of ways. Wow. Cool. Um, and, and, and again, I think I mentioned this like a month or so ago, like, like you've been on the, you've been with us for like a year plus now. Like, no, not really. No, no. It's only been, I mean, I've been on the podcast, I think since March, I think I started here in February.

Let's see. This is a Marissa intro. Was March 19th, 2021. Uh, Marissa's second class is entitled...

So it goes, Marissa intro, that's uh, that's episode 471, followed by episode 472, asthma. Yeah, well, hey, that's the best way to know me right there. Hi, my name is Marissa, I have asthma. That's actually, funny fact that you guys may not know is literally, Moments before we started this podcast, uh, she was taking hits from her, uh...

Yeah, you hear that? That's me shaking my inhaler. Yeah, she was taking hits from the inhaler, so, uh... Yeah, I mean, it's this time of the year where I get, like, really, like, I sound almost like Smoker, kind of, like, rasp in the back, without even trying, you know, it just happens. Yeah, well, the weather is, uh...

Frightful? Yeah, well, it's after Thanksgiving, I guess I'll let you have that one, um... Only because. Um, so yeah, so and you know what else I'm thankful for that I wanted to mention? What's that? All of our listeners. Yeah. Every one of them. Every last one. And that means, hey, hey, you listening? That means you.

That means you. No, I'm not talking to you this time, Marissa. I'm talking to them. Yeah. I'm talking to you. Me? No. No. Them. Yeah. You. Agreed. So, if you're listening... Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. My favorite thing, by the way, is when we have a class, and I mention, because I can see ahead sometimes, and I can see, like, if you're going to be their coach next time, you know, I'm like, oh, well, you know what, get a little introduction with Josh and check out the podcast, because I do that with him.

And Some people come in and they've already listened, and they're like, Oh my god, wait, you're Marissa? Or like, oh my god, I had Josh last class, and now I have got you? Like, this is so fun! Like, and uh, it's just, it's And it's funny, because I have to tell them, like, Hey, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, we're not It's really not that We're no big deals, uh, but, you know, thank you for being excited.

Yes, thank you. And, no, we're just, we're just thankful that, you know, you enjoy listening. Uh, because that's how it seems, anyway. Um, you know, and we have fun doing it, so. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, so, so thank you all for, for tuning in today and, uh, and, and, and each week and, uh, and obviously each week we got, uh, the holidays coming up, we're going to have some fun episodes coming up.

Um, let's see, we got a podcast dropping on December 24th. We got a podcast dropping on December 31st. So we're going to have some, uh, some fun with the holidays, a little Christmas Eve episode, a New Year's Eve episode that you can, if you really want to listen, uh, uh, in fact, what we should do for that episode is we should time it out.

Right, so that if they turn it on, maybe like 10 minutes at like 1150 that we can then like count them down. Three! Like, yeah, count them down to that. That'd be cool, right? We could do that. Um, so, uh, so yeah, so, uh, we got some fun stuff coming up over the next, uh, over the next few weeks and the holidays.

But, um, uh, again, thankful, uh, for, for all of you for tuning in each and every week. You! And you! And you. And you. And you. And Josh. And me too. Uh, and Marissa, thanks so much for, uh, for everything. We love having you here. Right back at you, buddy. Thank you, thank you. And so, uh, yeah, so we'll be back next week.

Same bad time, same bad channel. Again, hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. And, uh, now... As it is Friday, hopefully you're enjoying one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving, which is turkey sandwiches! Yes, turkey sandwiches. Little, little turkey, right? A little, a little cranberry sauce. A little, a little uh, mashed potatoes and stuff in between some bread.

Ah yeah, I think so. I think so. Uh, so again, uh, thank you each and every week for tuning in. Thank you for tuning in this week. And a little heads up, thanks for tuning in next week too. If you do, just because we hope you'll, uh, so, uh, stick around. Like I said, we've got some fun stuff coming up, uh, over the next few weeks with the holidays coming up.

But hopefully, uh, you and your family is doing well and as happy and healthy as the holiday seasons fully kick off from all of us here at Voice Coaches. So, uh, for Marissa, I'm Josh. Until next time, so long, everyone. Visit voice coaches.com for more voiceover news and information.

On the day after Thanksgiving, Josh and Marissa get into the holiday spirit. Both inside and outside of voice over, the two discuss who and what they are thankful for this year.