VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #536 – Lets Bring To the Stage, Tone-X!
Voice coaches, radio, everything voiceover. Welcome to a brand new episode of voice coaches radio. My name is Marissa. Hoping this is finding you well here on this Friday or whenever you may be listening as we like to say, uh, but recording here midday Friday, because I just got done doing a demo session with one of our students.
And you may know him because he's done comedy for years. His name is Tone X and he's in my booth. What's going on, man? Peace and blessings, Marisa. How are you feeling? You know what? I'm feeling pretty good. And like I was saying to your wife, I'm like, I got the Allstate guy with me, which is, so you're in good hands.
Yeah, exactly. I'm in definite. I'm definitely in good hands and you're in good hands over here. I hope you feel that way. Uh, but how are you feeling right now that we just got done with your demo? I'm feeling great. I'm feeling like I am now an official voiceover artist. That's a good feeling to have. I mean, give me a little bit about your background so people understand what you've already experienced within your career.
Because, you know, when we have people come and do the voice coaches, program, um, and, and you learn, you know, the tricks of the trade almost here, you know, everybody's coming in with different backgrounds, different work experiences, different, um, you know, career paths, you know, we'll have people come in as an accountant who has never been in front of a microphone before.
And, you know, they, they barely feel comfortable giving presentations or whatever, but they've always wanted to try this, but you are a little bit different of an animal. You've experienced a lot of different things. So give me some of your background here. Um, I've been doing comedy for nearly 30 years.
I'm a national comedian, uh, Deaf Comedy Jam, BET, Comedy Central, Kings of Comedy. I'm currently touring with Monique, um, was a writer on the Monique show for BET. I've been doing radio for nearly 20 years in Charlotte, North Carolina. Um, have my own clothing line, uh, do a incredible podcast with my wife called Grown Man Conversations.
We have the Grown TV Network. So I've been doing this for a minute. Yeah, just a minute. Yeah. And I've always heard about my voice. But now, like I told Marissa, I feel like I've got the tools in my toolbox where I can go now and be a quote unquote official voiceover artist. You proved it today too. I mean, you know, you were following direction very nicely.
Um, you know, and you took that 13 hour drive to get here. You feel like it was worth it? Oh, it was very well worth it. Um, number one, I love to drive. So the 13 hours was a comfortable drive. And I'm great at taking direction because I have a wife and I've been with her for 24 years, 14 marriage. So I'm, I'm real good.
Yeah, you're good at listening is what that means. You're good at listening, uh, you're, you're good at reading, uh, between the lines, uh, right. You better be. Yeah, you gotta be. So when it comes to everything that you have done, what made you want to get into the business in the first place? Because for so long, especially dealing with radio and comedy, I've heard about my voice.
Oh, you have a nice voice. Uh, you have a voice that, uh, commands attention. And that was nice, but voiceovers was a way where my nice voice... Could turn into a income stream. And so I never really approached it like that from a professional standpoint. It was always just complimentary. Oh, you have a nice voice.
And then I keep doing what I was doing. And it was on a whim, actually. It came down my algorithm one night, and this is about one in the morning. Came down my algorithm. That is the best, that's, that's like, I feel like that is the most 2022 thing that has ever been said in, in, in, well, in this year so far.
Okay. It came down my algorithm, and I saw the class opportunity, and it was at a discount, and I said, I'm, First of all, I said, this is one of those little dumb ads. Okay, that's not even meant for me. It's just coming on my phone. I'm not even going to tap on this. So I let it go. And then about 30 minutes later, it came back again.
And I said, well, let me look into this because they're talking about voiceovers. And this is something I've been wanting to do. This is the only time, by the way, that your wife is, uh, like, accepting you tapping something. Uh, I'm just, I'm just putting it out there, uh, and letting out faster for a moment.
She was asleep. That's why I couldn't. Listen, so I'm back on the algorithm and I'm like, yeah, let me see what this is about. And so I went on. And I signed up and I was like, if I like it, cool. And the price that they were giving it for, I was like, okay, this is, this is a worthwhile investment. Cause it's not like you're spending a thousand dollars and you don't like it.
So I took the class. Once I took the class, once I got into the class, I knew right away. Before they even said, so if this is something that you think you'd like to do, I knew this was something that I wanted to pursue. And then that night after they got off of the. The zoom call off the class, they would call you back individually and you would do a read and the feedback that I got from my read that night, but then the next morning they would call you back to, I was like, this is it, this is it.
And the way I really knew that this was it is because everything that I do when it comes to money. There's two things that goes on. I'm gonna procrastinate before I make a final decision. I'm one of those cats that see something in the store and then I want it, but I'll put it back. And then I'll tell my wife, listen, You're that guy?
Oh yeah. No, my best friend is that way, so let me just tell you, I don't want to interrupt you, but I got a quick story. He went out to visit me when I was in Boston, right? And we're at the ThinkGeek store and he picks up this Spider Man keychain. And he's looking at it. And we're in that store for like a solid 10 minutes, man, right?
We're in a solid 10 minutes. We leave the store without it. We walk around the mall. We come back. We still leave the store without it. We leave the mall. We go back two days later. He looked at it again. Still didn't buy it. To this day, still hasn't bought it. But I'm glad that you're here. Uh. Yeah, right. My wife always says if you want it, get it.
And I'm like, if it's there next week, then it's meant for me to have it, Yolanda. So, that's one thing that happened. The other thing that happened is I run it by my wife. And when I run it by my wife, that means he really is not trying to spend this money. But he is going to be cordial and run it by me so that I'm in the equation.
And so my wife is always like, listen, if it's something that you want, if it's something that you want to do, you do it. Cause the best investment is investing in yourself. And I did neither one of those things. Then. They were like, we're going to do something special for this class. I said, Oh, this is a gift from the universe.
And I was like, tone, if you don't do it, you're going to feel so bad. And I did it. And after I did it, I came home and I told my wife about it and she could see the excitement and she was like, great. That's what I'm talking about. You wanted to do something, you invested in it, and now we are here, 13 hour drive, because I wanted to come here, because you and I do the Zoom calls, but I was like, Yolanda, I wanna see Marissa in person, I wanna see the people that I've been talking to, and I wanna be in the building.
Yeah. Because I think it'll be a different feel. So it was one of the best algorithms to ever come down my phone, and I'm glad I paid attention to it. You said something very important, and it's something that I actually hit on a month ago on the podcast, which is you have to invest in you. Yes. And a lot of people are scared to take that dive, right?
Sometimes it's a little bit more money than they'd like or, or, you know, maybe they're just they're questioning themselves all around, you know, and they're, they're questioning how successful they can be at something, or they're questioning their own, um, like dedication to something, I guess is what I'm getting at.
And, you know, what I talked about in that episode. It's something that is completely come full circle in, in that, you know, back in the, it was Christmas time. So I went and I dropped about like 900, almost a thousand dollars on a new laptop at Christmas time, uh, which I'm already spending more money than I need to on gifts.
And I remember my mom said, Are you sure you want to do that? And i'm like at the time it was because I had one radio station that I knew I was going to be doing Fill in on for about six months and I wanted to make sure I could run their program smoothly So that's what I was buying that for but I said to her i'm like I don't know what this could turn into.
This could stick, this opportunity. They could utilize me for something else. They, they could know that I'm going to be able to service whatever needs they now have coming through the pipeline. This could lead to other work down the line. It will pay for itself, and it did. In a month's time, it paid for itself.
And, because of that, I'm now doing the two stations in Detroit. So, It just it took a second, but like you need to invest in yourself so you can keep growing and keep building on You know your goals, you know get lead yourself to that and that's exactly what you just did here, right? I think you need to invest in yourself also because what you just said You're investing in yourself.
I mean, you can't learn how to drive a car with it parked in the driveway. You got to get in it and you have to drive it. And I think a lot of people don't understand when you're working for someone else, you're helping their vision come into fruition. When you're working, I don't care what company you're working for, if you don't own the company, if your name isn't on the outside of the building, you're temporary.
And what you're doing is you're making the vision of that company And I used to always say you can work eight hours at a company and go home and not give one hour to yourself. Something's off because everyone has a vision, but your vision will not come into fruition. You will never chase it. Whatever dream you have, because you think your vision.
Is a part of where you are. You think your vision is a part of what you're doing now, but that's their vision. And what happens if they ever come in there and tell you, Hey, we're going in a new direction. Hey, we got budget cuts. And now what you thought was your vision is gone. And now you have to rely on doing something else.
So I think a lot of people, especially with the pandemic, it should have showed you that, listen, nothing is promised. All right. And life changes on the whim. So if it's something that you want to do, do it. And like start it now because you never know where it's going to go. It's again, I can't even talk about how glad I am that I made this trip and I came here because I know that just me doing that is going to turn this into something incredible.
And that is the gospel from Tone. No, for real, man. I mean, You and I have very similar backgrounds, similar, um, paths of, of ways things have, you know, kind of taken us off of our path for a moment and then, you know, Gotten ourselves back on and everything that you just said is 100% accurate. A hundred percent.
Um, so I'm just glad that we can have you here. I'm glad that we can knock this demo out of the park. I can't wait to hear the final product. Um, where can people find you? Cause you have a comedy special out. You're on social media. Give us some details. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at tone X comedy T O N.
Comedy. That's Instagram as well. I have my own clothing line. It is called Grown Fit. You can go to grownfitwear. com and check that out. I am a published author. The name of my book is called Grown Man Tips. Every person should have it. You can also go to Showtime. Go to Showtime. If you don't have a subscription, just get the seven day free trial so you can see the comedy special and then cancel it.
Okay? That's how you work it. And the Showtime special is called Monique and Friends. It is hilarious. So make sure you go check that out as well. And then cancel it. And then cancel it. Alright? And that is how you promote. Right. It's an attic experience. Spence that you don't need, cancel it. I'm on my Dave Ramsey right now, but you definitely need to see the special.
You can get the subscription on Monday. Watch the special Monday night. And then Tuesday morning, you can cancel it. Okay. I love it. Listen, if anybody has any questions or anything that they want to throw my way for. future episodes of Voice Coaches Radio, info at voicecoaches. com. Uh, that is it for this week.
More episodes coming. And in fact, actually next week, it's my big birthday episode. I don't know what the heck we're going to be doing. Oh, happy early birthday. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, but we're going to do something. Uh, I might just be sitting here in the studio having ice cream with my, myself. It's fine.
Uh, but more episodes coming again next week. Be safe, everybody. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news, Haitian news.
And you may know him because he's done comedy for years. His name is Tone X and he's in my booth. What's going on, man? Peace and blessings, Marisa. How are you feeling? You know what? I'm feeling pretty good. And like I was saying to your wife, I'm like, I got the Allstate guy with me, which is, so you're in good hands.
Yeah, exactly. I'm in definite. I'm definitely in good hands and you're in good hands over here. I hope you feel that way. Uh, but how are you feeling right now that we just got done with your demo? I'm feeling great. I'm feeling like I am now an official voiceover artist. That's a good feeling to have. I mean, give me a little bit about your background so people understand what you've already experienced within your career.
Because, you know, when we have people come and do the voice coaches, program, um, and, and you learn, you know, the tricks of the trade almost here, you know, everybody's coming in with different backgrounds, different work experiences, different, um, you know, career paths, you know, we'll have people come in as an accountant who has never been in front of a microphone before.
And, you know, they, they barely feel comfortable giving presentations or whatever, but they've always wanted to try this, but you are a little bit different of an animal. You've experienced a lot of different things. So give me some of your background here. Um, I've been doing comedy for nearly 30 years.
I'm a national comedian, uh, Deaf Comedy Jam, BET, Comedy Central, Kings of Comedy. I'm currently touring with Monique, um, was a writer on the Monique show for BET. I've been doing radio for nearly 20 years in Charlotte, North Carolina. Um, have my own clothing line, uh, do a incredible podcast with my wife called Grown Man Conversations.
We have the Grown TV Network. So I've been doing this for a minute. Yeah, just a minute. Yeah. And I've always heard about my voice. But now, like I told Marissa, I feel like I've got the tools in my toolbox where I can go now and be a quote unquote official voiceover artist. You proved it today too. I mean, you know, you were following direction very nicely.
Um, you know, and you took that 13 hour drive to get here. You feel like it was worth it? Oh, it was very well worth it. Um, number one, I love to drive. So the 13 hours was a comfortable drive. And I'm great at taking direction because I have a wife and I've been with her for 24 years, 14 marriage. So I'm, I'm real good.
Yeah, you're good at listening is what that means. You're good at listening, uh, you're, you're good at reading, uh, between the lines, uh, right. You better be. Yeah, you gotta be. So when it comes to everything that you have done, what made you want to get into the business in the first place? Because for so long, especially dealing with radio and comedy, I've heard about my voice.
Oh, you have a nice voice. Uh, you have a voice that, uh, commands attention. And that was nice, but voiceovers was a way where my nice voice... Could turn into a income stream. And so I never really approached it like that from a professional standpoint. It was always just complimentary. Oh, you have a nice voice.
And then I keep doing what I was doing. And it was on a whim, actually. It came down my algorithm one night, and this is about one in the morning. Came down my algorithm. That is the best, that's, that's like, I feel like that is the most 2022 thing that has ever been said in, in, in, well, in this year so far.
Okay. It came down my algorithm, and I saw the class opportunity, and it was at a discount, and I said, I'm, First of all, I said, this is one of those little dumb ads. Okay, that's not even meant for me. It's just coming on my phone. I'm not even going to tap on this. So I let it go. And then about 30 minutes later, it came back again.
And I said, well, let me look into this because they're talking about voiceovers. And this is something I've been wanting to do. This is the only time, by the way, that your wife is, uh, like, accepting you tapping something. Uh, I'm just, I'm just putting it out there, uh, and letting out faster for a moment.
She was asleep. That's why I couldn't. Listen, so I'm back on the algorithm and I'm like, yeah, let me see what this is about. And so I went on. And I signed up and I was like, if I like it, cool. And the price that they were giving it for, I was like, okay, this is, this is a worthwhile investment. Cause it's not like you're spending a thousand dollars and you don't like it.
So I took the class. Once I took the class, once I got into the class, I knew right away. Before they even said, so if this is something that you think you'd like to do, I knew this was something that I wanted to pursue. And then that night after they got off of the. The zoom call off the class, they would call you back individually and you would do a read and the feedback that I got from my read that night, but then the next morning they would call you back to, I was like, this is it, this is it.
And the way I really knew that this was it is because everything that I do when it comes to money. There's two things that goes on. I'm gonna procrastinate before I make a final decision. I'm one of those cats that see something in the store and then I want it, but I'll put it back. And then I'll tell my wife, listen, You're that guy?
Oh yeah. No, my best friend is that way, so let me just tell you, I don't want to interrupt you, but I got a quick story. He went out to visit me when I was in Boston, right? And we're at the ThinkGeek store and he picks up this Spider Man keychain. And he's looking at it. And we're in that store for like a solid 10 minutes, man, right?
We're in a solid 10 minutes. We leave the store without it. We walk around the mall. We come back. We still leave the store without it. We leave the mall. We go back two days later. He looked at it again. Still didn't buy it. To this day, still hasn't bought it. But I'm glad that you're here. Uh. Yeah, right. My wife always says if you want it, get it.
And I'm like, if it's there next week, then it's meant for me to have it, Yolanda. So, that's one thing that happened. The other thing that happened is I run it by my wife. And when I run it by my wife, that means he really is not trying to spend this money. But he is going to be cordial and run it by me so that I'm in the equation.
And so my wife is always like, listen, if it's something that you want, if it's something that you want to do, you do it. Cause the best investment is investing in yourself. And I did neither one of those things. Then. They were like, we're going to do something special for this class. I said, Oh, this is a gift from the universe.
And I was like, tone, if you don't do it, you're going to feel so bad. And I did it. And after I did it, I came home and I told my wife about it and she could see the excitement and she was like, great. That's what I'm talking about. You wanted to do something, you invested in it, and now we are here, 13 hour drive, because I wanted to come here, because you and I do the Zoom calls, but I was like, Yolanda, I wanna see Marissa in person, I wanna see the people that I've been talking to, and I wanna be in the building.
Yeah. Because I think it'll be a different feel. So it was one of the best algorithms to ever come down my phone, and I'm glad I paid attention to it. You said something very important, and it's something that I actually hit on a month ago on the podcast, which is you have to invest in you. Yes. And a lot of people are scared to take that dive, right?
Sometimes it's a little bit more money than they'd like or, or, you know, maybe they're just they're questioning themselves all around, you know, and they're, they're questioning how successful they can be at something, or they're questioning their own, um, like dedication to something, I guess is what I'm getting at.
And, you know, what I talked about in that episode. It's something that is completely come full circle in, in that, you know, back in the, it was Christmas time. So I went and I dropped about like 900, almost a thousand dollars on a new laptop at Christmas time, uh, which I'm already spending more money than I need to on gifts.
And I remember my mom said, Are you sure you want to do that? And i'm like at the time it was because I had one radio station that I knew I was going to be doing Fill in on for about six months and I wanted to make sure I could run their program smoothly So that's what I was buying that for but I said to her i'm like I don't know what this could turn into.
This could stick, this opportunity. They could utilize me for something else. They, they could know that I'm going to be able to service whatever needs they now have coming through the pipeline. This could lead to other work down the line. It will pay for itself, and it did. In a month's time, it paid for itself.
And, because of that, I'm now doing the two stations in Detroit. So, It just it took a second, but like you need to invest in yourself so you can keep growing and keep building on You know your goals, you know get lead yourself to that and that's exactly what you just did here, right? I think you need to invest in yourself also because what you just said You're investing in yourself.
I mean, you can't learn how to drive a car with it parked in the driveway. You got to get in it and you have to drive it. And I think a lot of people don't understand when you're working for someone else, you're helping their vision come into fruition. When you're working, I don't care what company you're working for, if you don't own the company, if your name isn't on the outside of the building, you're temporary.
And what you're doing is you're making the vision of that company And I used to always say you can work eight hours at a company and go home and not give one hour to yourself. Something's off because everyone has a vision, but your vision will not come into fruition. You will never chase it. Whatever dream you have, because you think your vision.
Is a part of where you are. You think your vision is a part of what you're doing now, but that's their vision. And what happens if they ever come in there and tell you, Hey, we're going in a new direction. Hey, we got budget cuts. And now what you thought was your vision is gone. And now you have to rely on doing something else.
So I think a lot of people, especially with the pandemic, it should have showed you that, listen, nothing is promised. All right. And life changes on the whim. So if it's something that you want to do, do it. And like start it now because you never know where it's going to go. It's again, I can't even talk about how glad I am that I made this trip and I came here because I know that just me doing that is going to turn this into something incredible.
And that is the gospel from Tone. No, for real, man. I mean, You and I have very similar backgrounds, similar, um, paths of, of ways things have, you know, kind of taken us off of our path for a moment and then, you know, Gotten ourselves back on and everything that you just said is 100% accurate. A hundred percent.
Um, so I'm just glad that we can have you here. I'm glad that we can knock this demo out of the park. I can't wait to hear the final product. Um, where can people find you? Cause you have a comedy special out. You're on social media. Give us some details. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at tone X comedy T O N.
Comedy. That's Instagram as well. I have my own clothing line. It is called Grown Fit. You can go to grownfitwear. com and check that out. I am a published author. The name of my book is called Grown Man Tips. Every person should have it. You can also go to Showtime. Go to Showtime. If you don't have a subscription, just get the seven day free trial so you can see the comedy special and then cancel it.
Okay? That's how you work it. And the Showtime special is called Monique and Friends. It is hilarious. So make sure you go check that out as well. And then cancel it. And then cancel it. Alright? And that is how you promote. Right. It's an attic experience. Spence that you don't need, cancel it. I'm on my Dave Ramsey right now, but you definitely need to see the special.
You can get the subscription on Monday. Watch the special Monday night. And then Tuesday morning, you can cancel it. Okay. I love it. Listen, if anybody has any questions or anything that they want to throw my way for. future episodes of Voice Coaches Radio, info at voicecoaches. com. Uh, that is it for this week.
More episodes coming. And in fact, actually next week, it's my big birthday episode. I don't know what the heck we're going to be doing. Oh, happy early birthday. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, but we're going to do something. Uh, I might just be sitting here in the studio having ice cream with my, myself. It's fine.
Uh, but more episodes coming again next week. Be safe, everybody. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news, Haitian news.
This week on Voice Coaches Radio, Marissa chats with comedian and student, Tone-X!
