 Hey there, it's time for voiceover body shop and our guest this week is David Arrigo, Jr. The voice of verb. Yeah, he's there honestly Anyway, we got lots of cool stuff to talk about if you've got a question for David throw it in the Facebook chat room I know Jeff Holman is sitting in there waiting with baited breath whatever the heck that means to write down your question and get it to us so we can ask him a little bit later on in the Show, but we got great stuff tonight. So stay tuned for voiceover body shop coming up right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world Bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com Where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VOheroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training JMC demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Hey, hi there, I'm Dan Leonard. I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or VO Bs We miss the crowd. We miss having a studio full of people yelling BS You know, but we do but we do is there a dog in there at least that we could No, no, no, no Mishka and Ari went back in the house. So all right anyway So it's it's good to be back live with you guys and George. It's good to have you home You were off in the outback somewhere. Yeah breaking all the rules. Don't go traveling during COVID Actually, the secret is the best time to travel. Yeah. Well good. Yeah. No We had a great time went up took a little flute assault lake and then did a big loop up through Yellowstone and back again Yeah, and We saw a bison Wow and thousands of bison and we got there's a picture of one I took know that is not from a website I actually took that with my Actually with a camera I borrowed from a good friend I put a post online saying anybody want to send their camera to Yellowstone and I'll I'll take pictures with it and somebody actually Let me there. I had a little camera. Yeah, but yeah, it was magical being there in Summer having it go from 90 to 25 in a day Whoa, it's no was shocking and interesting and It was really cool if you're gonna go to Yellowstone's a great time to go And that this is this is this is mind-blowing. What's this is called? What? It's part of the grand prismatic Spring area, and it's just yeah, it's it's a gurgling steaming living It's most bizarre park and it's one that makes you want to come back because Things move around, you know, you come back in five years that thing that was always Going off might be dead and something else is happening the next time because things are constantly changing and Really a remarkable place my girlfriend fear is a she lives here. She came here from Iran eight years ago It was the one place she knew she wanted to go some day before even getting to the US And we finally got to go and it was awesome. I guess it's all downhill from here then Well that Shows to go to Yosemite for a fourth time. Oh, you've been there three times and I haven't been there yet It's amazing what we have here in this country and go in a visit there Anyway, we have a great guest for ourselves tonight If you're a fan of Phineas and Ferb, which believe it or not I am because my kids watch that stuff, you know, they're in my proxy or really really a fan, Dan No, I thought it was cute. I thought it was well-written But a movie just came out recently and the guy that's playing Ferb is our guest David or ego junior David Welcome to the show. Welcome to voiceover body shot. Thanks for having me great to have you in here And I haven't seen it yet. So, you know, don't you know, don't be a spoiler I will not ruin anything except to say that it is awesome. I well, I would hope so Anyway, uh, so you've had a very interesting career and I you arrived in the voiceover world after a very successful Early career in New York City How did you start in showbiz and What have you I actually started in showbiz After a concert that I went to with my dad when I was a kid I went to a Springsteen concert with my dad who's from New Jersey And I'm pretty sure if you don't like Springsteen and you're from New Jersey, they don't let you come home Which tour was Was that the born in the USA tour I can't remember. I was 12 or so 13 maybe and I looked at my dad's face And he had this big grin on his face and I literally that day said that's what I want to do for people and That shifted all of my focus I thought I wanted to be a comic book artist when I was a kid stuff like that But when when school started up in the fall, I started taking choir drama Whatever I could so that I could Develop those skills got a degree in theater from the University of Montana in Missoula And then I just was pursuing musical theater like gangbusters Did some summer stock did some regional theater down in Arizona right after school For a couple of years And then moved to New York and I was fortunate enough to work for Disney cruise line and Do some off Broadway stuff some off off stuff Never did break that Broadway thing, but always had fun auditions and eventually that all sort of led me to a manager and that manager got me a meeting with Paradigm agency for on-camera commercial stuff And after talking to Doug their on-camera agent for like 45 minutes and talking to him about how much I loved doing avenue q Regionally and and things like that doing the voices He was like just you come with me and he sort of took me by the shoulders And walked me over to the other side of the office to a guy named matt smith And sat me down and says you guys talk And they sort of picked me up as a as a sort of freelancing client or a hip pocket client And I started getting these auditions and I was like Uh-oh This is cool And that got me involved in uh picking up a mic so that I could rehearse at home and try and try and do stuff and and learn and Listen to talk in tunes podcast and and Vio buzz weekly and go to d bradley baker's website I want to be a voice actor calm and pick up uh terra plat and uri lo and thall's book voiceover voice actor I like that book so much that i'm actually a testimonial in the second edition I just took all of that information and was like I Get in my brain and started pushing directly toward voiceover because Through that I wound up with an audition for an animated feature that was a dubbing project and I just woke up that day smiling took the subway Grinning did the did the audition beaming left glowing and I got on the phone with my dad once again talking to my dad and I said I think I found the thing i'm supposed to be doing and um Wow, sorry, there's some very loud Maybe somebody's making a steel drum Exactly um I think I found the thing i'm supposed to be doing and I was able to look backwards to and find that like I was spending all of my money That was sort of discretionary income on figuring this thing out and I wasn't Spending anything on dance classes or voice lessons for singing or or any of the acting stuff for theater It was all voiceover centric and I was like, ah If I follow where i'm spending my money It is very clear that this is what I want to do Um, and that that just got me In the door. I did a lot of dubbing stuff in new york, uh, because that's a lot of what's available out there Not a lot of original animation There's a fair amount of commercial stuff promo all that but I mean promo is as you guys know is so Possible to do pretty much anywhere if you've got the right, uh gig Yeah, still a small cadre of people who really dominate that part. Right. Yeah, so um, so Having listened to talking tunes having listened to vio buzz weekly I said, I gotta move to la and luckily my wife was like, yeah I don't mind moving to la And she's a personal chef who specializes in vegan and vegetarian cooking. So sounds like a good move. Yeah This is a fine place for her to be Um, which that is not what she sounds like by the way Is that your shits creek voice? Who's the guy who shits creek man? Ew david, ew Yeah, we definitely like to watch the show and congratulations, annie on your emmy Exactly awesome man So when did you come out here? So we moved out here in uh, the fall of 2016 Uh, I was lucky enough to sign with spv talent who were my Ideal agency a wonderful woman named mary mcdonald lewis who has been in the industry for a while gave me a great reference to them and uh, they picked me up in december of 17 And I've stayed with them because I love them That helps if you love your agency it does it really does I trust them implicitly and uh You know I think that that's very important when when you're an actor as well is to to have that relationship where If you feel like you can communicate with your representation and I totally feel like I can communicate with my representation that is Really awesome as opposed to being afraid to reach out. Yeah, that's great. If you're just joining us Where have you been? Uh, our guest is david origo jr. Who's uh currently uh starring as the voice of furb Who doesn't really say a whole lot in the new uh finneas and furb movie And he's been part of the irony about loving the role Makes it easy I suppose but uh, if you've got a question for him throw it in the facebook chat room Where jeff holman is standing by and we will get that question to him in a little bit But after you listen to him, you're gonna go I want to know more about this I know want to know about how we did this well, which is why I get to ask these questions as well like Now you've you've done a fair amount of animation work I said you you're a detective pikachu And I was cuban. Yes. Yeah, and and a number of other things now Did your agency say, you know, you're good at this and we're gonna push you or did you say I want to do this and you're gonna find this for me. How did that all work? um I actually think there was a little bit of skepticism about me doing animation initially because You got to think about it logically For for an agency to sort of break someone who's relatively unknown into animation That's a lot harder work than to get somebody into commercial stuff, right? Because the the turnover is just not the same The the opportunity for things to come along in commercial not a campaign per se But even just a one-off right like how often do you hear the same customer on that mcdonald's commercial? Pretty rare. You get the same Announcer maybe But you know the person who's like hey, is that uh, is that the new quarter pounder with cheese? that person rotates or It's so much easier to think that you can make money off of someone with commercial Or with someone. I don't want to make the agencies sound predatory um with commercials than it is With animation right because there are so many incredibly talented people in the business Who are able to do not just one voice not just five voices not just 20 voices So if you develop a relationship with those people, why wouldn't you want to keep using them? So there was a little bit of I think Eh Well, we'll we'll take him on and we'll we'll see if it works for animation But I made sure too that I expressed to them that this was not short game for me That if they took me on I will do what they tell me in terms of how do I Meet people and improve my skills in this arena But You know, as I said, I think in the meeting I didn't move here to cater So what I will do Is as much work as I can To make this happen and fortunately, uh, uh, a couple of things Broke relatively early on and commercial was the first thing that I booked from them It was a like two months after I signed with them. I got this really great campaign for um cox communications and Went into bell sound, uh, or bell studios. Is it bell sound? I think it's bell sound And did 11 tv commercials in one afternoon and that was the first thing I booked through sbv and I was like I like it here Yeah, that's always fun when they're like, by the way, can you do this one? And there's they start handing out the scripts and like, yeah, I could do this one. Oh my gosh That makes you want to stick around. Yeah. Yeah, well and I think it also It really did help me that I had the information from the podcasts and things like that I wound up having a conversation with one of my agents Uh over drinks at a bar near the near the uh agency And one of the things he said was we were so surprised that someone so new to town Had the insights into the industry that you had In our meeting. We didn't know how you knew certain things But what that showed us Was that you had an investment in the career and in the field and in the history of it too I think it's so important to have a reverence for what came before So that you can also Sort of know a little bit more of what's going to come and I'm not saying that it makes you a psychic but You have access to trends and you you can sort of accept that Things come in cycles, right because you've seen it um And What are they saying knowing is half the battle, right? Um I also like to just mine from what I heard ages ago. Well, oh this worked. This worked really well Uh, oh that kind of character was really popular for a while, but it's kind of fallen out of fashion right now Or has for the last decade or so. Maybe I can bring Uh A tweaked version of that and capitalized because nobody's doing it I know it works. I know it has worked Can I make it new again? Yeah, yeah, it's it's fascinating how you know, a lot of people think oh, I can get into animation I can do funny voices, but it's not about doing funny voices. It's about Having, you know being able to move characters And and change who they are by changing tone and things like that and then being able to maintain that Sustain it. Yeah, well and beyond that too Sort of a dirty little secret You don't really have to sound all that different You have to sound like you think differently That is so much more important than like I can make my voice sound like this Oh But that guy has to sound like he thinks differently From the guy who says I can make my voice sound like this that's When I would go into the agency to do my auditions, uh, I would often ask our our engineer Uh Hey, did those guys sound like they Had different worldviews. Do they sound like they thought differently? Which shout out to you avan. I hope you're catching this and I miss you. Um And She was always very forthcoming and would let me know if they did or if they didn't because that's that's more important, right? You can you can make two guys that Sound exactly like me think completely differently and you've got really great takes look at somebody like lorenzo music, right? Yeah, how much did he make use of essentially one sound? Yeah That's right. Oh, this is carlton your doorman. Yep Know that one well So you you you you got this role somebody else was playing for before. How did you get thrown into doing? This somewhat quiet character who just is more like turning his head and stuff like that Right. Um, well actually that's one of my favorite things He always said because like early on people were like you don't talk much Well, actually and then they would just continue with the conversation and he kind of just got like And then it you know, obviously became that he was this sort of cool philosopher kind of guy, but um When dan and swampy created Another show called mylo murphy's law They always had this idea that it was taking place in danville Um, which is where finneas and furb lived. So they always had a mind or an eye toward having a crossover episode and When it came time to do that at the top of season two, they asked the cast back and i'm not sure Exactly why uh, thomas Didn't return. I don't know if it was because he was busy or not interested. I I have legitimately no idea. I'm sorry that I can't spill the tea there um So what they did was they said, okay Well, we got to figure this out because you got to have a furb voice and they sent out the auditions um spv sent it to me, uh Took a listen Regurgitated the sample to the best of my ability Uh had my wife listen to it and she said well If you don't get this one, I'm really confused about what your job is Um, so I was like, okay, I will I will take that as a weird vote of confidence, but Uh and I did another round of auditions after submitting it a couple weeks later and They they hired me and one of my favorite stories about that day is walking in and dan bovenmeyer going with it before you say anything Are you from england? We all think you are except swampy Who had he's lived he lived in england for a long time? Uh, and I said Oh, no, no, no, I'm I'm from North carolina and other places if I wasn't thinking about it I'll probably talk to you like this because I grew up for a long time about an hour below alabama Uh And he was like But then we we did it and uh that first session was essentially an ad r they had scratched it in I think swampy had scratched it in because he's you know He's got pretty good facility with it with an english dialect, which is An amazing uh safety net when we do the sessions because I know that I can trust him Uh to call me out if I make mistakes or if it sounds wrong to the ear, uh, that that Trust is just so helpful Absolutely So I take it it was probably a lot of fun working on that. You know, oh my goodness Were you familiar with with the character or with benes and furb beforehand? I was I actually I got turned on to the show back in 2012 I was doing a production of a show called the happy elf in bethlehem, pennsylvania And uh the happy elf was written by um Harry conic jr. And we got to work with him, which was fantastic and uh A little bit of trivia in the animated version the character I played of the happy elf ubi Was played by one of my idols rob poulsen Ah, um, so that was pretty cool, but I was doing a homestay during this job and uh, there was a young man there who It was it was his home, right? I was his parents were hosting me and he was just gaga over the moon for, um Phineas and fervor and was like you have to watch this thing And I watched it and just fell in love with it. I watched tons of cartoons though So it's not a surprise that I would love something that is so great um I loved it so much that I actually wound up making perry my text tone That little noise that he makes and it has been my text tone on my iphone Since 2012 so it was meant to be essentially Kind of yeah, it was one of those things that also going back even further when I was in college I loved the movie um uh, uh, uh, love actually and um Thomas brodie sangster was the kid In love actually and olivia olson was actually the girl that he falls in love with Uh, so it's kind of funny that in in phineas and ferv they wound up getting Paired together as well as ferv and venessa At least toward the end of the of the series. I think that's pretty confirmed Cool now one of the other things, you know, we have a lot of people who watch your show Who are you know very interested in you know in in your career and the stuff you're doing but as voice actors They may not necessarily understand Some of the contractual things that have to go on when you're a voice actor A lot of people a lot of times it's just a handshake, you know a virtual one most of the time You know, it's like will you do this for me? Yeah, sure fine. Here's how much I'm going to pay you It I take it you think that perhaps people should pay a little bit more attention to that and why I I absolutely do. Um You know, I I can't speak too much to the handshake things. I do think that there are resources out there for like rate guides and things like that um I don't know if you guys give people guidance on that kind of stuff to somewhere But I know that those resources are out there But I will say once you go union and once you're working on union contracts I advocate to anyone that I know To get familiar with those contracts so that you know What can be asked of you what you can expect in a session? um And you just find ways that you can then advocate for yourself and protect yourself and others Sometimes by by being intimately familiar with those contracts. I think Being educated about what is expected of you and I think this would go across the board honestly Is is incredibly important before before I joined sag after I did a couple of things for for Friends, uh, where I would do a commercial or something like that and I quickly learned that like I need to establish some Guidelines some rules Even as simple as like Pickups will be charged at this rate For blah so that what I'm not getting is someone writing a version of like a uh an online spot, right and then having to record Five more versions of it because they hadn't sorted out what they were Trying to say and not getting compensated right so making sure that you Sort of get yourself A workflow right to if you're gonna have those handshake deals make sure that you're not letting people take advantage of you um And make sure that you have something that they're going to Have upfront and agree to so that you can point to that when they're saying oh, but come on It's only changing like four sentences out of the whole thing. It's gonna take you 10 minutes. Yeah, right Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that and that does happen Our friend connie to williger is always talking about when you're dealing in the situation always look at ears and eyeballs Uh, who is it that's watching? Where is it going to be watched that sort of thing and really get an understanding for what it is That you're doing and who you're doing it for and where it's going is it going to be broadcast? Is it going to be just on the internet and what are the guarantees that you're that's where it's going to be And they're not going to take it and put it somewhere else and not compensate you for it. Yeah I mean, I lean I lean very heavily on my union for those kinds of protections um, I'm somebody who who stops doing non-union work. Um, just because I I couldn't conscientiously continue doing it once I was a member. Um, but I I know that there's there's all kinds of reasons that people do it and I'm not trying to vilify anyone but for me as a military brat, uh, I came up with sort of that structure and the uh integrity factor really Built into me. So with global rule one stating don't work without the benefit of the contract I lean very heavily on on the union to be like, oh I don't have to worry about where it's going if it goes there Also, I'm able to file a claim and maybe get more money if they don't just automatically do it Which is great. But you know when you're when you're in those handshake deals, unfortunately You deal with some unscrupulous people potentially And then you have no real recourse Right, uh, and I feel for people when that when that happens, right? If you're doing something that's non-union and they tell you that it's going to be played in Tallahassee for three weeks And then you wind up seeing it all through the uh football season Um being played at every commercial break and all you got was 200 dollars Yeah, that's crappy. Yeah Yeah, I think it's also important Perhaps sometimes a lot of people are working with people who aren't really familiar with working with voice actors And it's incumbent upon us to educate them. Look if you're going to do this if you're you know This is what I charge if you're going to rewrite the copy you're going to have to pay me again And you're you know on that sort of thing and that and that does happen and sometimes they appreciate it And other times they'll just go find another talent who who doesn't know what they're talking about Uh, which is kind of important one of the other things that that I found fascinating you did for when We talk about demos a little bit here on the show And everybody needs to have a demo, you know a commercial demo and that sort of don't get it too soon But don't get it too soon, which I think is you know your point But you did your own animation demo So I did I I I did I wound up um Having a conversation with a director that I worked with a lot in new york and I said You're pretty familiar with what i'm capable of. Um, we just did a show where I did three characters for you If you were to receive a demo from me, what would you want to hear? What kinds of characters would you want to hear from me? And he gave me a list of like, oh the young dad the teenager the Uh, fantastical creature throw in some dialects. Da da da da and I wound up writing myself some copy. Um And while I was doing a production of avenue q in phoenix between new york and la I had doctored up my closet and recorded My demo with a shore pg 42 usb mic great mic and then Brought that over to a friend who has a career in radio um in phoenix and he basically put um music and sound effects to it and Just sort of Rolled from there and it's it's worked for me Okay, I mean I was able to pick up the agency that was my number one choice agency things like that um, but my my commercial demo was professionally produced. Um I've gotten two of those done over time. Um My my big thing for people is really trying to advocate like Don't don't rush into it Don't decide yesterday that you're gonna be a voice actor and sign up for the Two-week course that gets you a demo at the end of the course Yeah, um, yeah have faith in yourself and your ability to grow And just take a little bit more time take a little bit more time so that You don't spend a crap load of money because demos are not cheap um And you don't want them to be cheap necessarily you want them to be quality you you don't need to pay a car for it but Find something that is of a level find demos from from a demo house that you like Ask your friends who are in the industry who they refer Or prefer Just recently I wound up emailing my my commercial agent to say hey are there Um commercial demo companies that you love. I've got some friends who are looking to get commercial demos done Um, and I got a list from him Then you get people who have experience in the industry who have thoughts on it, right? but if you jump in premature or if you Give kind of a crappy quality or not because you didn't try but because you don't have the knowledge And that's what you're sending out to people uh You might be doing yourself a huge disservice because you only get one chance to make a first impression. Absolutely. Um And if they if they hear it and they're like, oh my god, this person Is incredibly green then even if you get Remarkably good you dedicate yourself for six straight months to studying every day And studying with the best teachers and reading the best material and listening to the best, um podcasts and everything like that And and you just rise above right you've gone from from crawling to sprinting in terms of your talent level You've got this elephant in the room Of that first interaction that they had with you where they're like, uh, I don't even know if I want to listen to this It's only been six months and da da da Yeah, our guest once again is david origo jr Who talks too much. Well, that's okay. That's why you're here. You're the star of the show That's the most important thing. We're here because we want to hear what you have to say If you've got a question for david, uh, throw it in the chat room right now and well, we'll get to that in our next segment And, uh, we could talk about some other cool stuff too. So stay tuned. We'll be right back with david origo Here on voiceover body shop and we'll be right back after these messages Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice to announce her guy on your new orientation training for snapchat, were you? Stick around. You don't want to miss this Power 1039 at target. We want you to come as you are be comfortable. Okay. Maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices Sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys Time is up Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos dot com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom Oh, hi You know as voice actors We need to hear the clear transparent and honest sound of our voices without artifice and affectation Now harlan hogan's voice optimized headphones 2.0 provide both that accurate transparent sound with enhanced midrange audio Less bass and the creature comforts voice workers deserve And then be one of the best informed voiceover performers in the universe by getting an autographed copy of Vio tales and techniques of a voiceover actor for free when you buy our acclaimed voiceover optimized headphones 2.0 And here's how go to voiceover essentials dot com sales page Click the add both to cart button and put them both in your shopping cart and enter free book in the promo code field And click or press the submit promo code button Your discount will appear immediately. This offer is valid only while supplies last so don't wait Thanks harlan for creating the best headphones for voice actors out there Getting into vo is quite an accomplishment and accomplishing anything in the world of performance can be really tough Getting great information is tough getting the right advice and mentoring is tough Simply getting ahead is tough and the best way to get ahead is to simply get started Let's make it simple to get started in voiceover. The best way is with vo heroes free online course Getting started in voiceover You'll learn everything you need to know to create a successful satisfying and profitable voiceover career The link is really simple. Here it is vo heroes dot com forward slash Start again, that's vo heroes dot com forward slash start Get ahead in voiceover simply by Getting started go to vo heroes dot com forward slash start This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shot Our guest is david origo jr Currently starring in the new finnish and furb movie and all sorts of other stuff. Have you done any games? They asked you to do any gaming voices um, I have I did this game with Tom keegan who's one of my just absolute favorite directors. I think he's brilliant. Um Called archangel v r and I played the the voice of the ai in that game and uh That was a sort of model after um Oh Alan tuttuk in eye robot Am I supposed to have feelings? You know that's sort of AI that's great. Um learning to Become more human throughout the game. That was the fun challenge of archangel was that this AI starts out cold And then because he's mind melded with the uh player character um He becomes more and more human in terms of his experience in the world Uh, I also did a game. It was another vr game with tom Uh through skydance interactive. Hey, love him. Uh called walking dead saints and sinners um If you are a how to train your dragons fan, I was the player character in Dawn of new riders, I think it was called um, which came out for the major platforms and the character was called scribbler and that was a fun one because uh There there was very there were very very few bits of spoken dialogue. So it was all Huh That's the fun stuff in games is like, could you at least like die for us a couple times? It's like, yeah um, I was one of the player voice choices for um final fantasy seven No 15's expansion comrades, which was fun um I was the narrator voice for a gigantosaurus video game um Over here in the savannah We we finally see all of these dinos. You know, that's sort of fun stuff. Uh, very Happy narrator type thing, but that was a cool project. I kept seeing uh, margaret tangaefer who is the director do posts of different languages because they they translated this thing into I want to say eight or ten other languages and so I did the english recording first and then she she Would post these these videos of of people speaking other languages on instagram And so I kind of knew what the tone they were going for was because they were trying to match my vibe But then hearing it in a different language. She was like, this is neat We got a lot of questions here from our vast worldwide audience. You ready to pick on some of these? Yes, okay, george taking away Alrighty first one in the queue that our great chat room moderator jeff has put in there is from someone That's got a lot of questions. So we'll see even get through all of them from nicolas clements Uh, first one is how do you get over the stigma of listening to your own voice? Oh, um I think exposure almost like what do they say immersion therapy or what is um Where if you if you listen over and over and over and over and over and over eventually I don't want to say you go numb To the problems that you hear But you would something is likely to adjust in your brain To where you go. Oh, okay It's not so bad. It's not so bad. It doesn't sound like what's in my Head, but it does sound like me and the me that i'm familiar with now because the only reason that Excuse me. I assert that the only reason people don't like hearing themselves is because they're so used to a different version That they've got in their brain. So if you can expose yourself to Your actual voice as it's heard out in the world You will start to acclimate Um humans are are incredibly capable of of mental adjustments, right and behavioral adjustments even look at how quickly People decided they could stay home and it was okay. Yeah At least a handful anyone. Yeah It's good to get out once in a while, but yeah, it's okay here Another one from nicholas. Um, is it more difficult to replace the voice of an already established character? I guess versus creating a new character um Yes, uh, i'm not saying that it's impossible, but it is more difficult because You're trying to honor someone else's choices. You're trying to honor someone else's vision of something and I think that that's really important You know when i'm when i'm playing ferv i'm trying to think Is this how thomas might do it and that's why i've watched the series a couple of times so that i have a familiarity with sort of some of the rhythms some of the cadences uh The pauses that he might make or you know instead of him being like ouch ouch is funnier and more in character for uh for him, but if you're Creating something out of the ether if you're the guy right that the person who comes up and You know, it's gonna be the character. He's gonna be like this Yeah, you get to do it. However, you want to do it every time and it's being informed by your little noggin You're not trying to match somebody else's version of it That answers uh veronica attis's question, which is can we hear you speaking characters first? So well done. Yes You've done you've answered questions before they're being asked a few times, which is awesome The perks is talking too much Exactly. Um, I know this one's from meli grant. Um, and she this is it's a question for all three. So I don't know It's a character on scandal. Sorry. Oh, really? Yeah, she's messing with the president's wife. Well, there you go That's funny. Um, and this is something we this is gets a little more. This is techy stuff But you know you deal with this as well as everything else Um, dan george dan you've spoken before about studios making crazy demands of their actors so We're going to get into that. Yeah, we're going to talk about that later I've run into a number of projects that only want actors submitting if they're using specific stuff like this mic and this interface Um, in animation, we do like having a consistent sound Across the talent, but how much is too much to ask for a work from home actors? So We're going to expand on this later, but what what are you seeing come at you and Even now that you've been doing this a while do you do you get demands that are like Really you guys like Seriously, do you get that kind of thing? You know, I I have seen some of that stuff But I've also been incredibly fortunate that I've kind of leaned into it a little bit um when all of this happened I Purchased a booth in march. Um this is an icer 416 that you see me speaking on was a Purchase during this because for me, I thought uh commercial is probably going to work faster than Animation during this whole pandemic because there's going to be a lot more learning curve for figuring it out for animation So before that, what did you have? What did you go from to to the to where you have now? I was in my closet using a sure pg 42 That I mentioned earlier and I used this bad boy for eight years um But the pandemic hit and I I picked up The Sennheiser I picked up an omen u 87 ai I picked up An apollo twin I picked up an advanced audio cm 87 because I was curious about the clones and how they sounded And by the way, I recorded them side by side and they sounded exactly the same For a $360 mic, thank you very much hundred dollar mic Um But the reason that I made those choices was sort of twofold They were they were purchases that I was likely to make eventually anyway because I I I like gear I like to play with stuff. I like to uh have fun with it if I can justify it I didn't feel like I could justify it yet And then of course we all started working from home and I was like well I'm going to buy it eventually I'm just going to go for it and I'm going to hope that that helps from a psychological factor From the client side because you know, we do have places that are sending out auditions that say we prefer a u 87 or a uh or a 103 um for any any of our games or whatever what what have you and uh I thought you know Not everyone is as interested in the technology as as the guys that are here obviously so knowledgeable But some of these clients will hear buzzwords, right? They'll hear Neumann and they'll assume that that's quality whether or not it is ideal for a home setup or or whatever so you're sort of Playing a little bit of that psychology if they're not doing the research to know That you can get away with a cm 87 And you can sort of set yourself apart by having the official Neumann microphone It's an expensive way to hedge your bets But it is a way To hedge your bets for some of the less educated folks that are Actually able to stop you from getting a job unfortunately, right? I mean I I have found that they said do you have a tlm 103? Well, of course I have a tlm 103, you know, I'm not telling them that it's sitting on a shelf But you know, it's uh You know They can't tell the difference and if they you tell them, you know, my favorite thing is tell them you have an alfanzo decredenza And and and see if that will you know like oh that's pretty impressive Because if it's just the sound of the name of it then but if it all sounds the same who cares And I mean the time we the time you don't want to fart around is probably if it's like a The audio producer from said AAA game That may be the time you Right get the real thing, right? Well, I had I had one uh game studio that was far more persnickety Once they had hired me and we had to do a lot of adjusting To to get them exactly what they wanted Yeah, yeah All right, jim mcnicholas. This is a very interesting question because you talked about this a little bit uh earlier Uh, this is for an aspiring voiceover talent. How does one get the initial agent meeting? I usually say be by making a lot of money But I take it there's probably more to it than that I mean, I I think that that's an incredible Help right if you can if they can look at you and their pupils change to dollar signs That's gonna be a really really Easy Now right, oh, yes You are already working and we don't have to work that hard to get you more work But if we do we might get you even more work and we can have money from all of it. That's awesome um But Beyond making a ton of money having a solid body of work I think can help because some of the stuff that you can do Uh before you're making a ton of money Is Reasonable quality right and if you've got a few great things that you can you can Mash together and tell them like yeah, I did this and I worked with This person know who's in the industry establish relationships with people in the industry um in terms of casting directors and and directors and things like that and if they can give you a referral That's going to be one of your best best ways to get that agent right if you're in a workshop with uh Collette Sunderman and and or or Meredith Lane or someone like that and they Say oh my god, you're really good. Who are you what agency are you with? Oh, I'm I'm Not with I'm not signed with anybody. Uh, oh Okay, um, I'm gonna make some calls for you. That's where you want to be Because then the agents are going ha ha The person who referred them is that much more likely to hire them Which means we're that much more likely to make money together Right, then if it's done in a vacuum and we don't know who you are um And if you don't feel like you could show up and compete in those workshops then As hard as it is to say You might not be ready for the agent Because once you get the agent you're going to be competing at the highest levels. You want to make sure that when you show up You you are conditioned and you are ready to play in those pools Absolutely, so don't rush it. Don't worry about getting an agent right away Make sure that you're getting good and then when you are so good that you are undeniable when you have that meeting You know, you're in the right spot Yeah, we got one last question here from South Africa It's very early in the morning South africa. Is that how you say it? South africa south africa. Yeah Um, do you do vocal it's from Jacques Arland? Do you do vocal cord warm-ups? um I do I sing classic sinatra. There is an album that I have uh, Basically used as a warm-up for years and I used it when I did musical theater too Because it's it's easy on my chords, you know, I've got the world on a string Sitting on a rainbow, you know, and I'm just singing along with that And it's gently getting things moving around in there And if I know that I have to do a particularly high voice once I've done about I don't know five or six of those songs I'll switch over to some of the higher musical theater stuff that I know because uh A vocal coach named katie agresta Um, who's a vocal coach to rock stars. She was the vocal coach for the guys who did jersey boys Um, when I was auditioning for that show one of the things that she really truly advocated was um Know your music backwards forward sideways upside down every which way from sunday Because then you'll know how to sing it if you ever have a problem And that vocal familiarity Creates really great pathways for the warm-up because I know if I'm pushing in a weird way or what I need to address or Things things of that nature. So I stick to classic sinatra, especially if it's just going to be conversational Um, and if I have to go a little higher I'll pick some of the songs that I used to use for musical theater auditions that were Higher up there and that helps me to navigate making sure that I'm Up and awake. All right Well, yeah, you are one intense guy, David You and you are a consummate professional because you're showing everybody that if you want to be in the game You got to study it. It's you've you've got to understand what it is that you're doing where I think Go ahead. No, I was just saying it's quoting that line work work. Yeah Oh got somebody ruined uh part of this for me not ruined, but it's very funny. Um, whenever you hear, uh, uh Hamilton no Alexander Hamilton Alexander say adam sandler and that is Very funny way to listen to the album Oh think adam sandler whenever they say Alexander adam sandler, you know Um It's might ruin it and I'm sorry You got to work your butt off. Yeah, I mean study study work work You know, we we see it too with with various fields in acting right people get into it not to be actors, but to be famous and That's that what it's about Smell those people in the room right because they don't have a respect or a reverence for the work that other people have done to get there Uh, and for for the work that it takes to truly get there and thrive Yeah, um If you love this that's the that's the really funny thing and this was something that I learned in my transition If you love what you're doing None of it will feel like work Everything that you're doing will just be Honing tools developing, uh Ways in developing different approaches to things as opposed to I'm not gonna lie when I was doing musical theater because I I didn't It wasn't the thing that I was supposed to be doing Taking a class would have been a burden Right on my time on my finances. That's how my brain would have processed it But everything that I do for voiceover Feels like it's what I'm supposed to be doing I used you you hear that that adage in in performance. You have to learn to love auditioning You're full of it. Um That's how I thought when I was doing musical theater. I was like nobody likes to audition you are a confused person and um Then I started auditioning for voiceover and whether it was um Jack gentlemen for a PayPal commercial or Well, we're gonna go down there to the moon or whatever I loved it. Yeah anytime I could get in front of a mic I loved it and I still do I I get that um christmas eve feeling when I know I work tomorrow, you know what I mean Um, I think of music that way. I came from a music background, but I knew I was not destined to be a performer I I've heard him play I knew it wasn't destined to be a performer because I didn't have joy every time I picked up the trumpet I played I enjoyed it when I was in an ensemble. I got to play with some people and that was fun But the guys that I know that are great musicians and and I can translate into voiceover the ones that love to pick up that horn and would What do they call it chop wood or wood shed or shed? Get in your thousand hours a day. They love they they can't do it. Can't not do it They that's what it is. Yeah to love something. Yeah. Well, David It has been a pleasure having you on the show. I can't wait till we can actually all meet in person one of these days But yes, we're all stuck here in our cages. But uh, thanks so much for being on the show You've been a great guest and very interesting and uh, and I know people got a lot out of it And we look forward to having you on again Thank you so much for having me I would love to come back and I'll be listening for all those tech things because it's worth it guys It's another way to learn. All right, and you can wind up saving yourself some money That's the most important thing Alrighty, all right. We'll be back to wrap things up right after this You're watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I'm gonna go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich As a voice talent, you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do They break or don't look right on mobile devices. They're not built for marketing and seo. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites.com like our name implies voice actor websites.com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700 So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voicehactor websites.com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know, what? Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer that place is voice over extra Whether you're just exploring a voice over career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voice over extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books Auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voice over success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition It's all here at voiceover extra.com. That's voice over x t r a dot com Hey everybody, it's the time of the show where we get to talk about one of our long running and great sponsors source elements the creators of source connect and a laundry list of actually other tools that are on their website if you Go to source elements calm Create your account. First of all, I got an account once you have that free account start poking around on the website Source connect is of course the thing they're known for that allows you to work with all the best studios and Producers in the world from your studio at home But they have a lot of other interesting tools including a meeting tool Which is you know, if you're sick of zoom for whatever reason just don't even like saying the word anymore They've got a tool in there for free that will do what essentially zoom does Um, there's they they have a lot of interesting solutions, but the thing you need to have at this point if you're Serious about voice over and you know that you're going to be gunning for those bigger bigger budget jobs Very good chance. They're using source connect to produce that so they want to record you real time And hear you as you sound right off the mic And so you got to have that ready And get it going by going to source dash elements calm getting a 15 day free trial You don't have to buy it right now Just get that trial going so you have all the the machinery in place and the systems dialed in and the Ethernet plugged in and those things so you're ready to go when the session does pop up But anyway, we appreciate that Support now from source elements after several years of their support of the show Thank you guys and we'll be right back to wrap up and tech talk, right? Before time began there was v obs dot tv watch or else All right, we're back To say goodbye. We got tech talk coming up after this if you're watching live We'll have it on for you next week because next week. It'll be tech talk number 41 believe it or don't Of course, I can't believe it's the middle of september for crying out loud It was just may Anyway, uh, who are our donors of the week? You got it. Well top of the list is our old pal larry Hudson. Hey larry Natasha moshuka Murshevga, sorry. I will not get that right will I uh thomas pinto Trey moseley philips appear Christopher epperson michelle blinker ant land productions graham spicer michael kerns nine four nine to nine designs. That's a lee penny shana pennington baird stephanie sullin teresa daniel not very but teresa daniel patty gibbons And george wittem. That's george. Hey, my dad. Thanks everybody. We really appreciate that support. Yeah, absolutely Well, uh, we need to also thank our amazing sponsors like harlan hogan's harlan hogan's voiceover essentials A voiceover extra source elements vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and j mc demos Alrighty, well, thanks again to jeff holman doing a yeoman's job in the chat room and sumer lino Just pecking at that keyboard and making it happen Over at the control room, which is about three feet from me Uh, she does a great job at it. We thank her for that and of course lee penny for being lee penny Well, we're racking up tech talks. So stay tuned for that and uh You know, this is not an easy business, but we bring you great people like david origo jr Great advice there. So you know, you're gonna get it here on our show So that's gonna do it for our interview this week. I'm dan lendard I'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shot or vio bs Have yourself a great week everybody. See you for tech talk. Good night