VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio Episode #691 “The Types Of Work Out There”
John: [00:00:00] All right. I am John.
Tina: And I am Tina.
John: And this is Voice Coaches Radio. Nice. Uh, and we're doing, this is take two for this episode. We, we were trying to do an episode and we're gonna do it. Mm-hmm. Uh, I don't know what's happening out of the blue. Just stop recording. And I, I was paying attention. I stopped paying attention and then just stop recording.
I don't know why, but I gotta figure it out. There's a reason I'm sure. Uh, but this is, uh, yeah. Uh, we're doing an episode on the type of work
Tina: Yes.
John: Type of voice of work that's out there, because I think when people get. Into voiceovers or they want it. Mm-hmm. They're interested, let's say, yes, they have the type of voiceover work they wanna do.
Tina: Yeah.
John: They know like, Hey, I wanna do audio books. Right? Yep. But they don't. Think of the scope of mm-hmm. It is such a big scope of work in voiceovers, right?
Tina: Oh, absolutely.
John: And so they don't think of that. And, and I have, I have that happen all the time. Mm-hmm. Where after my webinar people will go, I did not even know, I didn't even know that was, I didn't even think of that.
Tina: I think the two that they think of. Audio books, commercials, commercials. Yep. Absolutely. Those are the two. Absolutely. That is it right away. Yeah. But there's so many. Yeah. There's so much [00:01:00] out there. Like, uh, we were talking about the public transportation. You know, you go down to the subway in New York City, there's somebody talking Yep.
That's a voiceover. Airports, that's a, you know, see something, say something.
John: Yeah.
Tina: That is a voiceover.
John: Yep. The one where they, you know, the, the one, again, I, I don't. I understand why they do it. The one where they go, if someone approaches with a bag, do not accept it and alert security immediately. I'm always like, who's accepting someone's bag?
Hey,
Tina: can you take this down the plane? My grandma's
John: gonna get it. What are you talking about? I'm not carrying your bag. First of all, I I, my bags, I'm not carrying your bags. You can't even go on the plane with more than two bags.
Tina: I know, that's what I gonna say. I'm like, listen, dude, pay for the bag. All right.
John: Yeah. But, uh, also corporate training, which you have done.
Tina: Yeah. That's the corporate training, which you think of, you know, when you get hired for a job, all those HR videos you have to watch. You watch the video, but there's a voiceover, it, there's trainings, you know, new trainings come in and new policies.
I do a lot of those. Definitely do a lot of those. Wow, that's cool.
John: Yeah, I, [00:02:00] I, I had one in, uh, I was doing voiceover work. This is way back though. Uh, I, I was, uh, doing consistent voiceover work for this company in Philadelphia. It was an international company that had headquarters in Philadelphia and then a headquarter somewhere in Germany and.
They called me outta the blue and they said, Hey, we, for the first time ever, and this, this isn't corporate trading, this is, um, PowerPoint.
Tina: Okay.
John: Presentation. Right, right. And so they called me and they said, Hey, for the first time ever. We're having our international yearly meeting in Philadelphia. Mm-hmm.
And so we would like you to voice the PowerPoint presentation. Another one. People don think that's fantastic.
Tina: Yeah.
John: But then they said, this is the, this is where it got weird. They said, and we would, because this is in Philadelphia, we would like you to do it as rocky ba boa. And I said, uh, who told you I do that?
Tina: Yeah.
John: And they said, well, no, we, we just think, you know, you could probably do it. I go, I don't, I'm not sure. They go, just try it. And I go, but I, but I don't do rocky Babo. Just try it. I go, just, just do it. Yeah, just do it. I go, okay, so now I. They gimme the, [00:03:00] the driest copy ever. You know, it's basically about their yearly earnings and all that.
Tina: Yeah. In this
John: quarter, uh, Adrian, you know, yeah. This year we made, yeah. It's like, it's the worst rocky, by the way, worst rocky bubble ever. I have a friend that is a character voice actor. I send it to him. Mm-hmm. I go, Hey man. Listen to this. Tell me what you think. 'cause I know it's bad.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Or, but again, we bad talk ourselves, right?
So I'm thinking, oh, our
Tina: worst critics, we are our worst critics.
John: I'm thinking maybe it's not bad. I think it's bad. He goes, worst Rocky Bobo I've ever heard in my life. He
verified.
John: Yeah. I go, okay. So I, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to kind of contract this out to this guy, but I send it to them and I expect them to say, Hey.
Tina: That's a thanks, but no.
John: Yeah, thanks. But no, and I'm gonna say, Hey, I have this guy that can do it. Yeah, they go, perfect. I'm like, what? Perfect, perfect. I go, okay. Yeah. All right. So, you know, the, the, uh, their international meeting in Philadelphia comes and goes. They contact me and they go, we just want to compliment you.
The people from Germany absolutely loved it, and I'm like, oh my Lord. I'm like, but I'm like, but [00:04:00] they like, or they like David Hassel halt, so they know, you know, but, but I'm like, all right, that's cool. I got paid. It was great. Yeah, but it was a weird one, but yeah. Like a PowerPoint presentation
Tina: people. Yeah.
You would never, you don't think about that. Yeah. There's, there is a voice, you know, think about going to, um, like a fundraiser and they're talking about, um, bringing someone onto the stage. You know, that's, that's an yes, you're saying announcer, but most of those time that's recorded ahead of time. They just pre that's, that's the announcer.
Think of those, um, award shows. That's a voiceover. Oh,
John: yeah,
Tina: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
John: Yep. And, and even just television shows in general. Mm-hmm. Reality shows, you know? Yes. Uh, the, you know, uh, my wife got me stuck in that show, love Island. Right. And, and, uh, the first like, I think it was three seasons, maybe first three seasons, they had an American voice actor who was.
Incredible. I mean, that's what got, 'cause I, I, you know, I know that a lot of times people get stuck on these shows. I do not enjoy love I own very much, to be honest. But the voice actor was incredible. And I said to her, I'm watching this for that voice actor. [00:05:00] For just for
Tina: that.
John: Just for that. Yeah. He was so funny.
So good. And, and then, uh, they switched for some reason. Well, I know they sold the show to another network. So I think a different company had it and they, and they switched the voice actor to a UK voice actor. I think he's Scottish, I think.
Tina: Okay. Yeah.
John: Um, he's good too.
Tina: He
John: is good. You could, he's good. I too, but I'm not exactly positive.
Mm-hmm. Or sure. Why they would put a Scottish voice actor on the American version of
Tina: Yeah.
John: Love island. But
Tina: yeah, I
John: mean, he's,
Tina: well, I think it's, the Americans love those accents.
John: We They do. Yeah. Americans love accents. It's true. It's true. Uh, so, but yeah, I was, but I really love the old voice actor too, but I got used to the new one.
Mm-hmm. Used, he's good too. Uh, so there's that. But like, uh, amazing race. They have a voiceover on that.
Tina: Uh, yeah. Oh, think of those shows. All of them. All of them have some type of voiceover.
John: Yeah.
Tina: Yeah.
John: My wife and I, my wife and I went to Cozumel and we did The Amazing Race, not the real one. Don't get excited.
Don't look for that episode. Yeah. Oh, come on. Yeah. No. But they have the amazing race in Cozumel where you can, you can do that. It's [00:06:00] like an activity, right? Mm-hmm. And we're the people that yell at the tv. You know, I'm that person. I read the clue my son hates. Like, read the clue. How could you not read the clue?
I'm always doing that like, like I just don't get it. I'm like, what is wrong with you? Did have you not seen the show? You know that if you don't read the clue, you're gonna make a mistake. Well, um, my wife and I set a record on the Amazing Race in Cozumel. They said it was the all time record. Yeah.
Tina: Oh, which is good.
John: Yeah. For taking the longest to finish the race. Yeah. So, by the way, we were in first place, excuse me. We were in first place. Um, which, uh, we, we knew at the time we were in first place.
Tina: Okay. We got this.
John: Yeah. Oh, we got it. We're like, we're, we're, and so now we did. What we didn't know is the cl this race, this is how this race works.
You get a clue when you get to wherever you're going, whatever the answer is, sends you to your next clue. Mm-hmm. Right? That's how it works here. So our clue was the statue in the square. The woman, the woman's statue in the square is wearing [00:07:00] something on her head. Mm-hmm. A fruit on her head. What fruit is it now?
You have to go and find it and you have to,
Tina: yeah. And then
John: you answer it.
Tina: Yep.
John: Yeah. We're guessing as we're going, we're, we're on our way there, but we're guessing, and I'm, I guess grapes, she guessed bananas. Um, we get there, it's grapes, so you have to circle the answer and that answer send you somewhere else.
So she circles the answer. The next clue is across the city. Mm-hmm. So we go all the way across the city. And, um, the place we're supposed to find, and it should have been a clue that this was a false clue. Yeah. The clue that we're supposed to find is at ice cream and more. Which does not sound like a name of a place that would be in Cozumel.
Tina: No,
John: but I didn't think of that at the time. No. '
Tina: cause ice cream. Yeah,
John: it's gotta be. So I'm looking and there's no place of cold, cold ice cream and more and we're looking and looking and I'm asking people to look. It's like we're crazy. And it just went on for a while. Uh, and it was so hot and it eventually it guy plus up on a moped, he goes, Hey.
I'm from the amazing race and, uh, [00:08:00] yeah, we're all waiting for you at the finish line. Uh, we've been there for a while. Yeah. And I said,
Tina: whatcha guys doing?
John: Yeah. And I, and then they said, uh, do you guys just wanna call it or do you wanna finish the race? I go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I said, we're finishing this race.
So we walk all the way across the city and we get there. By the way, the finish line is about 200 yards from our last clue. We would've easily won.
Tina: Yeah, it definitely
John: easily, and people are clapping for us ecstatically. Oh. Like, like, we're people, you have to feel sorry for, you know, like they're doing the, the pity clap.
Like, oh, good job guys. Yeah. And I'm like, you have, and, and at the time I didn't know what happened, so I said, I, I said to the guy, what is going on? There's no ice cream. But anymore what happened? And, and he's like, I don't even ice cream and more, I don't even know what you're talking about. And I said, there was a clue.
It led us to ice cream and more, and as my wife unfolds the clue I see that she circled pineapple, she did not circle grapes. And so it sent us to the completely wrong clue across the [00:09:00] city. And uh, there's an example of where I should have checked her work. She should have checked mine. And so I'm yelling at the TV at these people and I'm like, we are.
Those people have, like, we're the people that if this was televised, they'd be screaming at us going,
Tina: have you forgiven her?
John: Oh no. I was, I was not mad at her at all. Oh no. It was still fun and
Tina: Oh, it sounds like a lot of fun though.
John: It was fun and, and you know, uh, and believe me, I couldn't have been more mad at her.
Yeah. And she was, she was like mad at herself. She's like, why would I circle pineapple? I, we didn't even like we're guessing. Yeah. She guessed bananas. I guessed grapes. We never even mention pineapple. No pineapple. No one guessed it. And then when we got there, it was grapes and she still circled pineapple.
She has no idea why. There's no rhyme or reason, but yeah, we, at least we set a record. They'll never forget us. Yeah,
Tina: no, never, never
John: forget us.
Tina: There's even, there's probably a trophy and a plaque with you guys left.
John: Blast Trophy. Yeah. And she's so, but she's so competitive.
Tina: Oh yeah.
John: She said. She wants to go back to Cozumel
Tina: just to,
John: and do the amazing race again.
And I'm thinking, and I'm like, they're probably the same clue. She's like, I [00:10:00] pitch that. And she goes, exactly. She wants to do it like, 'cause almost like cheating. Yes. Yeah. She wants to do the same race because we know all the clues already. Just so we can destroy everyone and like, and, and you know. And like, uh, get some kind of pride back, you know, it is an ego thing, so Yeah.
Tina: You'll, you guys will turn the qu they go, oh, that's that couple.
John: Exactly. You guys aren't allowed to do this. No, we're not sitting here for five hours again.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah.
John: He'll somehow still come in last.
Tina: Yeah. Yep.
John: So, uh, which, uh, yeah, so funny. Now let's talk animation. Let's talk about animation and video games.
Oh, yes. Because there's a misconception about this, which you and I talked about. Uh, off air, uh, which, which is people think you have to do character voices to do that. Absolute. Which by the way, absolutely. If you do character voices, that's awesome. Lovely. Include them.
Tina: Mm-hmm. But you don't have to. No, absolutely not.
They could think that your regular, like my, just, this is, this is my regular voice. My regular voice could be in an animation character show, anything. Yep. 'cause they just think, oh, that's perfect for that character.
John: [00:11:00] Absolutely. Yeah. And
Tina: it's just my voice.
John: That's it. Yeah. There's so many of that. Mm-hmm.
Nolan North is a great example. There's Nolan North. For those of you who do game out there, know who Nolan North is. Nolan North does a ton of video game voiceovers. He doesn't do character voices. He's always just a south he Melbourne, north, just so much so that gamers like. Hate him. Now they're, they're like, every time he does another voiceover, they're like, Nulin North again.
But this is fantastic for him, and you should appreciate it if you're in a voiceovers because it's a, because
Tina: it's just his voice. That's it.
John: It's his voice and it is so recognizable. Mm-hmm. Like, you see, he's so much, and it's just him that during an episode of Haven, if you remember that show, it was a few years old at this point.
Mm-hmm. Um, but there's an episode of Haven where it was kind of that quirky show where like, it was like sci-fi sort of, you know? Mm-hmm. Where, uh, everyone who was in a coma woke up and everyone who was awake. Fell into a coma.
Tina: Coma, okay.
John: And. This guy woke up in the back of an ambulance and he started talking and immediately I go, that's Noel North.
I have no idea what he looks like. I go, that is Nolan North. And I looked it up. Sure enough. Yep. Nolan North, that's him. So you don't have to do character voices to do those things? No. So don't, don't [00:12:00] think that you, you can get into, you can get into video games, you can get into animation mm-hmm. With your voice.
Tina: Oh, absolutely. I, when we start the, when we go to do the evaluation and when, just in the beginning of it, we talk about all the different avenues of voice acting and one of the. It's animation, character, voices. You ask it just to see if you're interested in it. And I'll say animation, character voices. And I, I will say 95% of the time I get, oh, I can't do any voices.
That's okay. Are you, that's something you'd be interested in, that's all you know?
John: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And um. There, there's a lot of things that people don't think of, uh, like, uh, crosswalks for the blind.
Tina: Yes.
John: Great one. No one thinks of that, right? No, absolutely. You go, you go to cities and, and you'll hear
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: You know, walk now or you know,
Tina: whatever. Yes. Yep. You hear that the, um, a lot of the cities are doing that more and more of, you're hearing that at the, at the intersections there. It's just all over the grocery stores, you know, in the mall. You're hearing something. Yep. Mall's gonna be closing in five minutes.
Well, they had to have somebody announce [00:13:00] that. Yeah. It's not somebody right there. It's a press, a button play. It's recorded.
John: Philadelphia has a wild one. I dunno if they're still doing this, but I always thought, this is funny. Philadelphia had trash cans that, thank you.
Tina: Oh my.
John: You'd throw something out and would say thank you.
And I was like, that's uh, I mean that, that's
a
Tina: little creepy too.
John: You're like, wow. We, you know, people just won't throw things out unless we thank 'em. Yeah. Like, I don't know. It's, we gotta do it. Yeah. There's just so much work out there. And again, like, uh, uh, you know, things like biographical narrative mm-hmm.
Documentaries.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And by the way, when it comes to, I guess we, uh, before we move on from that, and I should have mentioned this, when it comes to video games and animation, don't get stuck on like, these big animated films or Yeah. Or these big
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: Like Assassins Creed, like national or inter International video game releases,
Tina: those big ones.
Yep.
John: There's a lot of indie game makers out there, lot, a lot of indie animators.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So when you're starting off and, and you're gonna start off on a local and regional level there, this work is available.
Tina: Yes, absolutely. [00:14:00] Just you, A lot of it's, you don't even need to, I mean, having kids, you see the games that they play.
Oh, yeah. Or just even think of those, um, apps, educational games. Yeah. Yeah. That's a voice. Absolutely.
John: A lot of apps. There's a lot of app companies. Mm-hmm. And there's startup companies making apps, and there's Yes. All these app companies making things and they need, and a lot of times they need voiceovers.
Tina: Yes, they do. Just doing the instructions. Yeah. Step one.
John: Yep.
Tina: That's it.
John: Yep. So there's a lot of cool things like that. Um, what else? What do they think of? Like, elevators too?
Tina: Yeah,
John: elevators. I've, I've, I I had one. What a weird one. It, what city were we in? New York. Yes, New York, uh, we were in the bus, uh, the, um, financial district.
Mm-hmm. My wife and I. And my wife. She's d my wife has gotten over so many of her. She has a lot of kind of like these little fears. Mm-hmm. Um, but not anymore. She's really gotten over 'em. But she used to have this thing where she hate elevators. Like she, she, when she was a little girl, she got stuck in an elevator.
Tina: Oh, that's understandable.
John: Yeah. So she had this thing, so we are on the fourth floor. Mm-hmm. Right. [00:15:00] And. She goes, I'll take the stairs. And I go, all right, well I'm taking the elevator. Yeah, I'll take the luggage and we'll take the elevator. And I'm not kidding it, the voiceover went like this. It was a woman.
Mm-hmm. And I went first floor.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Second floor.
Tina: Yes. Yep.
John: Third floor, just like that. And then fourth floor. I'm like, what in the w? I was like so freaked out by it. Yeah. I made my wife get on the elevator and she, I'm like, you know, they're like, you gotta hear this, you gotta hear this. And she went down, did the same thing.
I'm like, this is wild. Why would they do that? I, I was like, it makes me wanna stay on the third floor. Yeah. Like, honestly, that's the best floor, like third floor. Like w why is that different than every other floor? And only thing I can think of, you know, from my perspective, like, you know, 'cause I'm in the industry, I'm always thinking like, they did that afterwards.
Like, they, like maybe it messed like they did. They recorded all of it.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And then like, they're like, oh, the third floor one doesn't sound good. Let's have her do third floor. And she. Third fly. You just stick it in there. I have no idea how it happened, but it was so funny.
Tina: Yeah,
John: so funny.
Tina: There is so many.
I mean, and also think of your on hold [00:16:00] messages. You pick up a phone and call the doctor's office. I've done so many of those on hold messages for companies all over the place, but that's my voice is you pick up the phone. I'm sure you probably heard my voice somewhere.
John: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, so there's just so much of it out there.
So don't. Be too narrow in what you're thinking. Hey, have the thing you wanna do. Yeah. I always say that. Have the type of voice of work. Mm-hmm. You wanna do, but open your mind. There's so much mm-hmm. Voice of work out there and, and there's so much available to people. Yes. Even when you start out. Mm-hmm.
There's just a lot of it out there. So. Um, just, just be open because especially if you start really taking those steps towards being a voice actor mm-hmm. Uh, you know, be open because your voice might be appropriate for a lot of work and you might be leaving some money on the table if you're too rigid in what you
Tina: think you're gonna do.
Yeah. Say, Nope, that's, I don't wanna do that. No, no. Definitely try it.
John: Yeah.
Tina: You never know.
John: Yep. And even just like. The voice on your phone. Right. They had a Siri voice. But now you can pick the voice on your phone.
Tina: You Yes, you can. Yeah.
John: [00:17:00] Right. So there's, there's, there's so many options out there. Mm-hmm. Uh, just even your computer.
Tina: Yeah. Your computer is a
John: voice. Yeah. But there's just so much out there. Well, also, I, you know, I think we, we could go on forever just talking about the type of voice of work that's out there, but I think we gave you a, a, a few ideas that maybe some people haven't thought of.
Tina: Yes.
John: And, uh, and there's just so much more.
But, uh, be open. Be open to the type of voice. There's work for you out there, believe me. Again, if you wanna get into this, do it. And, and yeah, be open. There's a lot of work out there. And, uh, and, and also, don't get too discouraged if you don't get, I, I find that your career takes you where it takes you.
Tina: Yes.
John: You know, don't be, don't get discouraged if you don't get, like say you're someone who says, I wanna do audiobooks. Mm-hmm. That's what I wanna do. Don't be discouraged if that's not the first job you get. Yeah. Right. No, don't be discouraged if you get corporate training, you're like, oh, believe me. Mm-hmm.
Voiceovers is awesome no matter what kind of work you're doing. Yeah. Um, so yeah, be open. Be open to, to whatever comes your way and, and keep working towards the thing you wanna do, of course. But
Tina: it will come
John: be open. Yeah. It'll
Tina: [00:18:00] definitely come.
John: Awesome. Well, I wanna thank everybody for listening. Uh, yeah.
We're, I think we're, you know, every time I say we're getting this down, uh, we're not. Every time.
Tina: Nope.
John: Nope. Not at all. Every time. That's all right though. This is only our, this is only our third episode at this point. Is it? We're trying to get this down, but, uh, we keep not recording ourselves. Yeah. Even though this is what I do.
Mm-hmm. Um, somehow it bu me, and I, and Tina could tell you it's not me. I, I'm sitting in front of the control board, not touching anything, just talking. It's not him. And all of a sudden I look and it's not recording and I say, I haven't figured out why. I still haven't figured, so it's going to happen again.
Or so I need to just stare at this. Yeah. I have to stare at it and know. That is still recording. It's working. Yeah. All right. Well listen, I wanna thank everybody very much, uh, for listening. I'm John.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: We out.
Tina: And I am Tina.
John: And this is Voice Coaches Radio. Nice. Uh, and we're doing, this is take two for this episode. We, we were trying to do an episode and we're gonna do it. Mm-hmm. Uh, I don't know what's happening out of the blue. Just stop recording. And I, I was paying attention. I stopped paying attention and then just stop recording.
I don't know why, but I gotta figure it out. There's a reason I'm sure. Uh, but this is, uh, yeah. Uh, we're doing an episode on the type of work
Tina: Yes.
John: Type of voice of work that's out there, because I think when people get. Into voiceovers or they want it. Mm-hmm. They're interested, let's say, yes, they have the type of voiceover work they wanna do.
Tina: Yeah.
John: They know like, Hey, I wanna do audio books. Right? Yep. But they don't. Think of the scope of mm-hmm. It is such a big scope of work in voiceovers, right?
Tina: Oh, absolutely.
John: And so they don't think of that. And, and I have, I have that happen all the time. Mm-hmm. Where after my webinar people will go, I did not even know, I didn't even know that was, I didn't even think of that.
Tina: I think the two that they think of. Audio books, commercials, commercials. Yep. Absolutely. Those are the two. Absolutely. That is it right away. Yeah. But there's so many. Yeah. There's so much [00:01:00] out there. Like, uh, we were talking about the public transportation. You know, you go down to the subway in New York City, there's somebody talking Yep.
That's a voiceover. Airports, that's a, you know, see something, say something.
John: Yeah.
Tina: That is a voiceover.
John: Yep. The one where they, you know, the, the one, again, I, I don't. I understand why they do it. The one where they go, if someone approaches with a bag, do not accept it and alert security immediately. I'm always like, who's accepting someone's bag?
Hey,
Tina: can you take this down the plane? My grandma's
John: gonna get it. What are you talking about? I'm not carrying your bag. First of all, I I, my bags, I'm not carrying your bags. You can't even go on the plane with more than two bags.
Tina: I know, that's what I gonna say. I'm like, listen, dude, pay for the bag. All right.
John: Yeah. But, uh, also corporate training, which you have done.
Tina: Yeah. That's the corporate training, which you think of, you know, when you get hired for a job, all those HR videos you have to watch. You watch the video, but there's a voiceover, it, there's trainings, you know, new trainings come in and new policies.
I do a lot of those. Definitely do a lot of those. Wow, that's cool.
John: Yeah, I, [00:02:00] I, I had one in, uh, I was doing voiceover work. This is way back though. Uh, I, I was, uh, doing consistent voiceover work for this company in Philadelphia. It was an international company that had headquarters in Philadelphia and then a headquarter somewhere in Germany and.
They called me outta the blue and they said, Hey, we, for the first time ever, and this, this isn't corporate trading, this is, um, PowerPoint.
Tina: Okay.
John: Presentation. Right, right. And so they called me and they said, Hey, for the first time ever. We're having our international yearly meeting in Philadelphia. Mm-hmm.
And so we would like you to voice the PowerPoint presentation. Another one. People don think that's fantastic.
Tina: Yeah.
John: But then they said, this is the, this is where it got weird. They said, and we would, because this is in Philadelphia, we would like you to do it as rocky ba boa. And I said, uh, who told you I do that?
Tina: Yeah.
John: And they said, well, no, we, we just think, you know, you could probably do it. I go, I don't, I'm not sure. They go, just try it. And I go, but I, but I don't do rocky Babo. Just try it. I go, just, just do it. Yeah, just do it. I go, okay, so now I. They gimme the, [00:03:00] the driest copy ever. You know, it's basically about their yearly earnings and all that.
Tina: Yeah. In this
John: quarter, uh, Adrian, you know, yeah. This year we made, yeah. It's like, it's the worst rocky, by the way, worst rocky bubble ever. I have a friend that is a character voice actor. I send it to him. Mm-hmm. I go, Hey man. Listen to this. Tell me what you think. 'cause I know it's bad.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Or, but again, we bad talk ourselves, right?
So I'm thinking, oh, our
Tina: worst critics, we are our worst critics.
John: I'm thinking maybe it's not bad. I think it's bad. He goes, worst Rocky Bobo I've ever heard in my life. He
verified.
John: Yeah. I go, okay. So I, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to kind of contract this out to this guy, but I send it to them and I expect them to say, Hey.
Tina: That's a thanks, but no.
John: Yeah, thanks. But no, and I'm gonna say, Hey, I have this guy that can do it. Yeah, they go, perfect. I'm like, what? Perfect, perfect. I go, okay. Yeah. All right. So, you know, the, the, uh, their international meeting in Philadelphia comes and goes. They contact me and they go, we just want to compliment you.
The people from Germany absolutely loved it, and I'm like, oh my Lord. I'm like, but I'm like, but [00:04:00] they like, or they like David Hassel halt, so they know, you know, but, but I'm like, all right, that's cool. I got paid. It was great. Yeah, but it was a weird one, but yeah. Like a PowerPoint presentation
Tina: people. Yeah.
You would never, you don't think about that. Yeah. There's, there is a voice, you know, think about going to, um, like a fundraiser and they're talking about, um, bringing someone onto the stage. You know, that's, that's an yes, you're saying announcer, but most of those time that's recorded ahead of time. They just pre that's, that's the announcer.
Think of those, um, award shows. That's a voiceover. Oh,
John: yeah,
Tina: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
John: Yep. And, and even just television shows in general. Mm-hmm. Reality shows, you know? Yes. Uh, the, you know, uh, my wife got me stuck in that show, love Island. Right. And, and, uh, the first like, I think it was three seasons, maybe first three seasons, they had an American voice actor who was.
Incredible. I mean, that's what got, 'cause I, I, you know, I know that a lot of times people get stuck on these shows. I do not enjoy love I own very much, to be honest. But the voice actor was incredible. And I said to her, I'm watching this for that voice actor. [00:05:00] For just for
Tina: that.
John: Just for that. Yeah. He was so funny.
So good. And, and then, uh, they switched for some reason. Well, I know they sold the show to another network. So I think a different company had it and they, and they switched the voice actor to a UK voice actor. I think he's Scottish, I think.
Tina: Okay. Yeah.
John: Um, he's good too.
Tina: He
John: is good. You could, he's good. I too, but I'm not exactly positive.
Mm-hmm. Or sure. Why they would put a Scottish voice actor on the American version of
Tina: Yeah.
John: Love island. But
Tina: yeah, I
John: mean, he's,
Tina: well, I think it's, the Americans love those accents.
John: We They do. Yeah. Americans love accents. It's true. It's true. Uh, so, but yeah, I was, but I really love the old voice actor too, but I got used to the new one.
Mm-hmm. Used, he's good too. Uh, so there's that. But like, uh, amazing race. They have a voiceover on that.
Tina: Uh, yeah. Oh, think of those shows. All of them. All of them have some type of voiceover.
John: Yeah.
Tina: Yeah.
John: My wife and I, my wife and I went to Cozumel and we did The Amazing Race, not the real one. Don't get excited.
Don't look for that episode. Yeah. Oh, come on. Yeah. No. But they have the amazing race in Cozumel where you can, you can do that. It's [00:06:00] like an activity, right? Mm-hmm. And we're the people that yell at the tv. You know, I'm that person. I read the clue my son hates. Like, read the clue. How could you not read the clue?
I'm always doing that like, like I just don't get it. I'm like, what is wrong with you? Did have you not seen the show? You know that if you don't read the clue, you're gonna make a mistake. Well, um, my wife and I set a record on the Amazing Race in Cozumel. They said it was the all time record. Yeah.
Tina: Oh, which is good.
John: Yeah. For taking the longest to finish the race. Yeah. So, by the way, we were in first place, excuse me. We were in first place. Um, which, uh, we, we knew at the time we were in first place.
Tina: Okay. We got this.
John: Yeah. Oh, we got it. We're like, we're, we're, and so now we did. What we didn't know is the cl this race, this is how this race works.
You get a clue when you get to wherever you're going, whatever the answer is, sends you to your next clue. Mm-hmm. Right? That's how it works here. So our clue was the statue in the square. The woman, the woman's statue in the square is wearing [00:07:00] something on her head. Mm-hmm. A fruit on her head. What fruit is it now?
You have to go and find it and you have to,
Tina: yeah. And then
John: you answer it.
Tina: Yep.
John: Yeah. We're guessing as we're going, we're, we're on our way there, but we're guessing, and I'm, I guess grapes, she guessed bananas. Um, we get there, it's grapes, so you have to circle the answer and that answer send you somewhere else.
So she circles the answer. The next clue is across the city. Mm-hmm. So we go all the way across the city. And, um, the place we're supposed to find, and it should have been a clue that this was a false clue. Yeah. The clue that we're supposed to find is at ice cream and more. Which does not sound like a name of a place that would be in Cozumel.
Tina: No,
John: but I didn't think of that at the time. No. '
Tina: cause ice cream. Yeah,
John: it's gotta be. So I'm looking and there's no place of cold, cold ice cream and more and we're looking and looking and I'm asking people to look. It's like we're crazy. And it just went on for a while. Uh, and it was so hot and it eventually it guy plus up on a moped, he goes, Hey.
I'm from the amazing race and, uh, [00:08:00] yeah, we're all waiting for you at the finish line. Uh, we've been there for a while. Yeah. And I said,
Tina: whatcha guys doing?
John: Yeah. And I, and then they said, uh, do you guys just wanna call it or do you wanna finish the race? I go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I said, we're finishing this race.
So we walk all the way across the city and we get there. By the way, the finish line is about 200 yards from our last clue. We would've easily won.
Tina: Yeah, it definitely
John: easily, and people are clapping for us ecstatically. Oh. Like, like, we're people, you have to feel sorry for, you know, like they're doing the, the pity clap.
Like, oh, good job guys. Yeah. And I'm like, you have, and, and at the time I didn't know what happened, so I said, I, I said to the guy, what is going on? There's no ice cream. But anymore what happened? And, and he's like, I don't even ice cream and more, I don't even know what you're talking about. And I said, there was a clue.
It led us to ice cream and more, and as my wife unfolds the clue I see that she circled pineapple, she did not circle grapes. And so it sent us to the completely wrong clue across the [00:09:00] city. And uh, there's an example of where I should have checked her work. She should have checked mine. And so I'm yelling at the TV at these people and I'm like, we are.
Those people have, like, we're the people that if this was televised, they'd be screaming at us going,
Tina: have you forgiven her?
John: Oh no. I was, I was not mad at her at all. Oh no. It was still fun and
Tina: Oh, it sounds like a lot of fun though.
John: It was fun and, and you know, uh, and believe me, I couldn't have been more mad at her.
Yeah. And she was, she was like mad at herself. She's like, why would I circle pineapple? I, we didn't even like we're guessing. Yeah. She guessed bananas. I guessed grapes. We never even mention pineapple. No pineapple. No one guessed it. And then when we got there, it was grapes and she still circled pineapple.
She has no idea why. There's no rhyme or reason, but yeah, we, at least we set a record. They'll never forget us. Yeah,
Tina: no, never, never
John: forget us.
Tina: There's even, there's probably a trophy and a plaque with you guys left.
John: Blast Trophy. Yeah. And she's so, but she's so competitive.
Tina: Oh yeah.
John: She said. She wants to go back to Cozumel
Tina: just to,
John: and do the amazing race again.
And I'm thinking, and I'm like, they're probably the same clue. She's like, I [00:10:00] pitch that. And she goes, exactly. She wants to do it like, 'cause almost like cheating. Yes. Yeah. She wants to do the same race because we know all the clues already. Just so we can destroy everyone and like, and, and you know. And like, uh, get some kind of pride back, you know, it is an ego thing, so Yeah.
Tina: You'll, you guys will turn the qu they go, oh, that's that couple.
John: Exactly. You guys aren't allowed to do this. No, we're not sitting here for five hours again.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah.
John: He'll somehow still come in last.
Tina: Yeah. Yep.
John: So, uh, which, uh, yeah, so funny. Now let's talk animation. Let's talk about animation and video games.
Oh, yes. Because there's a misconception about this, which you and I talked about. Uh, off air, uh, which, which is people think you have to do character voices to do that. Absolute. Which by the way, absolutely. If you do character voices, that's awesome. Lovely. Include them.
Tina: Mm-hmm. But you don't have to. No, absolutely not.
They could think that your regular, like my, just, this is, this is my regular voice. My regular voice could be in an animation character show, anything. Yep. 'cause they just think, oh, that's perfect for that character.
John: [00:11:00] Absolutely. Yeah. And
Tina: it's just my voice.
John: That's it. Yeah. There's so many of that. Mm-hmm.
Nolan North is a great example. There's Nolan North. For those of you who do game out there, know who Nolan North is. Nolan North does a ton of video game voiceovers. He doesn't do character voices. He's always just a south he Melbourne, north, just so much so that gamers like. Hate him. Now they're, they're like, every time he does another voiceover, they're like, Nulin North again.
But this is fantastic for him, and you should appreciate it if you're in a voiceovers because it's a, because
Tina: it's just his voice. That's it.
John: It's his voice and it is so recognizable. Mm-hmm. Like, you see, he's so much, and it's just him that during an episode of Haven, if you remember that show, it was a few years old at this point.
Mm-hmm. Um, but there's an episode of Haven where it was kind of that quirky show where like, it was like sci-fi sort of, you know? Mm-hmm. Where, uh, everyone who was in a coma woke up and everyone who was awake. Fell into a coma.
Tina: Coma, okay.
John: And. This guy woke up in the back of an ambulance and he started talking and immediately I go, that's Noel North.
I have no idea what he looks like. I go, that is Nolan North. And I looked it up. Sure enough. Yep. Nolan North, that's him. So you don't have to do character voices to do those things? No. So don't, don't [00:12:00] think that you, you can get into, you can get into video games, you can get into animation mm-hmm. With your voice.
Tina: Oh, absolutely. I, when we start the, when we go to do the evaluation and when, just in the beginning of it, we talk about all the different avenues of voice acting and one of the. It's animation, character, voices. You ask it just to see if you're interested in it. And I'll say animation, character voices. And I, I will say 95% of the time I get, oh, I can't do any voices.
That's okay. Are you, that's something you'd be interested in, that's all you know?
John: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And um. There, there's a lot of things that people don't think of, uh, like, uh, crosswalks for the blind.
Tina: Yes.
John: Great one. No one thinks of that, right? No, absolutely. You go, you go to cities and, and you'll hear
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: You know, walk now or you know,
Tina: whatever. Yes. Yep. You hear that the, um, a lot of the cities are doing that more and more of, you're hearing that at the, at the intersections there. It's just all over the grocery stores, you know, in the mall. You're hearing something. Yep. Mall's gonna be closing in five minutes.
Well, they had to have somebody announce [00:13:00] that. Yeah. It's not somebody right there. It's a press, a button play. It's recorded.
John: Philadelphia has a wild one. I dunno if they're still doing this, but I always thought, this is funny. Philadelphia had trash cans that, thank you.
Tina: Oh my.
John: You'd throw something out and would say thank you.
And I was like, that's uh, I mean that, that's
a
Tina: little creepy too.
John: You're like, wow. We, you know, people just won't throw things out unless we thank 'em. Yeah. Like, I don't know. It's, we gotta do it. Yeah. There's just so much work out there. And again, like, uh, uh, you know, things like biographical narrative mm-hmm.
Documentaries.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And by the way, when it comes to, I guess we, uh, before we move on from that, and I should have mentioned this, when it comes to video games and animation, don't get stuck on like, these big animated films or Yeah. Or these big
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: Like Assassins Creed, like national or inter International video game releases,
Tina: those big ones.
Yep.
John: There's a lot of indie game makers out there, lot, a lot of indie animators.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So when you're starting off and, and you're gonna start off on a local and regional level there, this work is available.
Tina: Yes, absolutely. [00:14:00] Just you, A lot of it's, you don't even need to, I mean, having kids, you see the games that they play.
Oh, yeah. Or just even think of those, um, apps, educational games. Yeah. Yeah. That's a voice. Absolutely.
John: A lot of apps. There's a lot of app companies. Mm-hmm. And there's startup companies making apps, and there's Yes. All these app companies making things and they need, and a lot of times they need voiceovers.
Tina: Yes, they do. Just doing the instructions. Yeah. Step one.
John: Yep.
Tina: That's it.
John: Yep. So there's a lot of cool things like that. Um, what else? What do they think of? Like, elevators too?
Tina: Yeah,
John: elevators. I've, I've, I I had one. What a weird one. It, what city were we in? New York. Yes, New York, uh, we were in the bus, uh, the, um, financial district.
Mm-hmm. My wife and I. And my wife. She's d my wife has gotten over so many of her. She has a lot of kind of like these little fears. Mm-hmm. Um, but not anymore. She's really gotten over 'em. But she used to have this thing where she hate elevators. Like she, she, when she was a little girl, she got stuck in an elevator.
Tina: Oh, that's understandable.
John: Yeah. So she had this thing, so we are on the fourth floor. Mm-hmm. Right. [00:15:00] And. She goes, I'll take the stairs. And I go, all right, well I'm taking the elevator. Yeah, I'll take the luggage and we'll take the elevator. And I'm not kidding it, the voiceover went like this. It was a woman.
Mm-hmm. And I went first floor.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Second floor.
Tina: Yes. Yep.
John: Third floor, just like that. And then fourth floor. I'm like, what in the w? I was like so freaked out by it. Yeah. I made my wife get on the elevator and she, I'm like, you know, they're like, you gotta hear this, you gotta hear this. And she went down, did the same thing.
I'm like, this is wild. Why would they do that? I, I was like, it makes me wanna stay on the third floor. Yeah. Like, honestly, that's the best floor, like third floor. Like w why is that different than every other floor? And only thing I can think of, you know, from my perspective, like, you know, 'cause I'm in the industry, I'm always thinking like, they did that afterwards.
Like, they, like maybe it messed like they did. They recorded all of it.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And then like, they're like, oh, the third floor one doesn't sound good. Let's have her do third floor. And she. Third fly. You just stick it in there. I have no idea how it happened, but it was so funny.
Tina: Yeah,
John: so funny.
Tina: There is so many.
I mean, and also think of your on hold [00:16:00] messages. You pick up a phone and call the doctor's office. I've done so many of those on hold messages for companies all over the place, but that's my voice is you pick up the phone. I'm sure you probably heard my voice somewhere.
John: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, so there's just so much of it out there.
So don't. Be too narrow in what you're thinking. Hey, have the thing you wanna do. Yeah. I always say that. Have the type of voice of work. Mm-hmm. You wanna do, but open your mind. There's so much mm-hmm. Voice of work out there and, and there's so much available to people. Yes. Even when you start out. Mm-hmm.
There's just a lot of it out there. So. Um, just, just be open because especially if you start really taking those steps towards being a voice actor mm-hmm. Uh, you know, be open because your voice might be appropriate for a lot of work and you might be leaving some money on the table if you're too rigid in what you
Tina: think you're gonna do.
Yeah. Say, Nope, that's, I don't wanna do that. No, no. Definitely try it.
John: Yeah.
Tina: You never know.
John: Yep. And even just like. The voice on your phone. Right. They had a Siri voice. But now you can pick the voice on your phone.
Tina: You Yes, you can. Yeah.
John: [00:17:00] Right. So there's, there's, there's so many options out there. Mm-hmm. Uh, just even your computer.
Tina: Yeah. Your computer is a
John: voice. Yeah. But there's just so much out there. Well, also, I, you know, I think we, we could go on forever just talking about the type of voice of work that's out there, but I think we gave you a, a, a few ideas that maybe some people haven't thought of.
Tina: Yes.
John: And, uh, and there's just so much more.
But, uh, be open. Be open to the type of voice. There's work for you out there, believe me. Again, if you wanna get into this, do it. And, and yeah, be open. There's a lot of work out there. And, uh, and, and also, don't get too discouraged if you don't get, I, I find that your career takes you where it takes you.
Tina: Yes.
John: You know, don't be, don't get discouraged if you don't get, like say you're someone who says, I wanna do audiobooks. Mm-hmm. That's what I wanna do. Don't be discouraged if that's not the first job you get. Yeah. Right. No, don't be discouraged if you get corporate training, you're like, oh, believe me. Mm-hmm.
Voiceovers is awesome no matter what kind of work you're doing. Yeah. Um, so yeah, be open. Be open to, to whatever comes your way and, and keep working towards the thing you wanna do, of course. But
Tina: it will come
John: be open. Yeah. It'll
Tina: [00:18:00] definitely come.
John: Awesome. Well, I wanna thank everybody for listening. Uh, yeah.
We're, I think we're, you know, every time I say we're getting this down, uh, we're not. Every time.
Tina: Nope.
John: Nope. Not at all. Every time. That's all right though. This is only our, this is only our third episode at this point. Is it? We're trying to get this down, but, uh, we keep not recording ourselves. Yeah. Even though this is what I do.
Mm-hmm. Um, somehow it bu me, and I, and Tina could tell you it's not me. I, I'm sitting in front of the control board, not touching anything, just talking. It's not him. And all of a sudden I look and it's not recording and I say, I haven't figured out why. I still haven't figured, so it's going to happen again.
Or so I need to just stare at this. Yeah. I have to stare at it and know. That is still recording. It's working. Yeah. All right. Well listen, I wanna thank everybody very much, uh, for listening. I'm John.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: We out.
John and Tina talk about voice over work people think about and work many people don’t.
