 Hey, it's Monday night and tonight on our show even though the Constitution says you cannot have any royalty in this country We have animation royalty with us boo-hoo nice. Thank you very much. I was a social studies teacher Bob Bergen will be with us tonight We're gonna talk about all sorts of cool stuff about animation and porky pig and all the other tweety bird and The Union and all the cool stuff that he's doing fantastic. Plus. We got some good tech tonight Yeah, I got a few tech news pieces to talk about and we have a question that came in Client said 9-1-1 guess what we're gonna answer her question here on the show Monday night 9-1-1 and we're gonna talk about Preamps. All right. All right all that and more more than you can handle on voiceover body shop coming up right now two men Twin sons from different mothers with a passion for voiceover recording technology and the desire to make Recording easy for voice actors everywhere together in one place George Whittem the home studio engineer to the stars a Virginia tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in voiceover today Dan Leonard the home studio master a voice actor with over 30 years experience in broadcasting and recording and a no-holds-barred myth-busting attitude for teaching you how Easy it is together to bring you all the latest technology today's voiceover superstars and Leaving the discussion on how to make the most of your voiceover business This is voiceover body shop Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go go comm everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites comm where your voiceover website won't be a pain in the butt and voiceover extra your daily resource for Vio success And now live from their super-secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are George Whittem and Dan Leonard Good evening. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whittem and this is voiceover body shop or V.O. B.S. All right. Well, welcome to another festive Monday night Here at the body shop it's festive because you're wearing that shirt. It's one of my yeah, or I'm working at Trader Joe's I have exactly sure that's where I should go to get my shirts Trader Joe's. There you go Let's get a job there for a change. I spent the weekend in Chicago land. Mm-hmm. What I that is a city's city Did you enjoy any deep dish? It says didn't get any pizza. Did you have a hot dog with what did they put on it? coleslaw and No, I had I had a real bratwurst with onions and I said hold the sauerkraut Yeah, yeah, why you don't like sauerkraut? No, I don't like sauerkraut. Does it make you toot? That number of other things But that loves me some sauerkraut. Yeah, no Chicago was nice. Thank you Chicago 20,000 steps in one day the pedometer smoke was coming out of my eye It's fantastic. So you didn't hurt yourself at all this weekend riding your bike I primarily stayed off the bicycle this weekend gave myself some time and so some time to heal Before I go to Colorado tomorrow where you were intend to go and get hurt again on my bicycle Yeah, okay. No, not not the intention at all folks. I've got the proper protective gear now I've got knee pads and I've got elbow pads. Yeah Lacrosse helmet and I have a chin bar on my I mean, I'm ready man. All right That's good to know ready. Well, anyway tonight on the show Bob Bergen is with us and Bob's he's been doing this a long time, but he's been the voice of porky pig and Tweety bird and a lot of other stuff that maybe didn't realize was it man. Watch the credits and movie sometimes You'll see how many see how many times you see this name, especially that other other voices Dude called gets called in a lot for that stuff. So we'll talk about that kind of work Yeah, and we'll talk about creating characters and we'll talk about the Union because everybody's always asking questions Even I'm asking Bob questions about the Union and you live here and I do It's like if you live in LA should automatically by osmosis know about the Union, right? It's there. It's everywhere the SAG credit unions right around the corner Um, also, we're gonna be talking about some technology stuff and you've got some cool stuff, but first it's time for It's time for the news your aging voice Okay, it's confession time Are you acting your age at the microphone? Well, you don't have to you know Training and experience overcome lots of barriers to what happens to our voices as we age But the aging voice doesn't have to be a problem either at either as voiceover pro Kim Handysides points out in a new article on voiceover extra One of the reasons I love voice acting is how it shatters the barriers of age Kim writes over the past year She's been hired to perform the voice of 22 year olds and 62 year olds plus multiple ages in between In many ways, she says the microphone is much more merciful than the camera But an aging voice can also be advantageous Kim explains that the pitch of her voice doesn't change much as we age until about 65 or so the pitch of an untrained voice that Golden age generally goes up for men and down for women other changes that age include slower speech it elongated symbols and more frequent Pauses for air and even a long ago gated syllables to I do that. Anyway, that's anyway, but trained voices can Can work around that Kim says that's good to know Yeah, and good things to keep in mind are that as we age we gain more control over our vocal instrument Plus gain more confidence in our performances Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to sound like a senior when the need arises and so lately Kim observes a surge of work Calling for middle-age and senior voices especially in the business-to-business sector Think Morgan free him or Bill Nighy or Francis McDormand Meryl Streep or Allison Janney So when approaching narration or a character to connect with seniors in a voice read Kim uses descriptors like confidence empathy respect and peer-to-peer Technically she'll relax her throat and drop into the lower register But not always and it depends on the character Watch for this demand in older voices to grow Kim ads. It's still a largely untapped market Check out the details in this article and hundreds more now at voiceover extra.com your daily resource for voice over success You know when seeing as I'm on the verge of being Ancient of that age bracket. Yeah, I mean mentioned. Yeah, I can't wait for Medicare, but that's just a couple of years away Um, you know, I I know I can do a younger voice. Mm-hmm. It's just up in pitch, you know and a little bit and Brighter what a little brighter? Just a little bit brighter. Yeah, that's sort of thing But I can I also learned I remember drama in high school It's like you want to be old just let the energy go out of your belly button suddenly you're a lot older It's that where the energy goes that's apparently so works great on stage I'm gonna plug the belly button from happening. Yes. So what's new in tech this week? Uh, boy, so Not in any particular order here. Well, I just got an over the weekend a long-time client had problems with her audience ID 22 and You know, man I've been such a fan of the audience products and the ID 22 was their first product to market in terms of an audio interface With the preamp But maybe it's just this is just what happens when you release, you know when a pop product is popular Right the Scarlett 2i 2 comes to mind The more that they're that are out there the more chances something's gonna go wrong with some of them Mm-hmm That just seems to be a trend with the audience ID 22 with a you know, a few of them are starting to fail and You know, it's one thing when it's a hundred fifty dollar project product It's another thing when it's a six hundred dollar product, right? It makes it harder for me to want to continue recommending it, but perhaps they just haven't built them Through the long haul. I don't know. They're not quite as heavy-duty as they say. Yeah, I don't know I the I Still I still have yet to find a single flaw with the ID for that's the little brother of the ID 22 it's much more simple much less going on inside the box and Likely because of that should be more reliable hoping so but anyway ID 22s keep you know, keep an eye on yours make sure it's You have a backup make sure you got something else ready to plug in in case yours starts to give you trouble Speaking of backups and maybe something that you might want to have with you when you travel that mixer face from Centrance We mentioned it last week. They are reportedly in the wild Apparently everybody that did the indiegogo campaign that supported them and Pre-ordered one four and a half years ago now has one So they're out there. I reportedly have one waiting for me at home sitting on my porch Had I been there today? I would have brought it today But I'm gonna bring it with me on my trip to Colorado to see Maxine tomorrow and I will Shoot something while I'm there. I'll at least use it for something. I'll use it on the show or what's a nice remote unit It's this isn't what this thing was built for it was for remote use It's got belt built-in batteries and it works on an iPhone which I don't have but it should also work on an Android So I am curious to try it on my Android phone. See how well it works kill So there is a review currently up by Bo Weaver He was the first one to get one and get a review up and as far as I know the only place You'll find it is at the voiceover prose Facebook group. I'm not sure if it's anywhere else But we'll have one of our own soon and speaking of other new stuff. Yeah, we have a microphone coming It's coming right here to the VOBS shop right to the body shop here It's the one I mentioned earlier the towns and labs fear to one L 22 This is one heck of a piece of this is one heck of a toy and Dan's gonna have some time to play with it while I'm out of town This may be the last mic you ever have to buy. I'm just saying we've said it before I'm just saying but it's something to something's gonna be fun to play with. It's it's a mic with many faces but not only does that many faces it can be arranged and Aimed and shaped and everything all inside the computer So this is gonna be a lot of fun Thomas Machen good friend of the show He he hooked us up with this. So can't wait to try it. You should be here in the body shop soon So that's exciting. It's gonna make me sound like God. Well If God had a elam 251, which he probably does he probably does That's just one of the many mics that thing can emulate extremely well And that's a particularly expensive mic So if it was me and I had one of these I'd probably start with the most expensive mic on the list See how I sound on that and I'd keep working my way down the list until I find the one that I like I mean, you know, this thing's emulating mics that are now used on the use market like the u47 The seat VV CV 12, I think it is from AKG. These mics are worth 10 grand plus So this thing's supposed to do a dang good job of it. Yeah And the last thing I worked on very very very very recently was setting up a VO booth for Joe Cipriano He and his wife and have a new home in Encino and don't mention the address I will not Encino is a big place so you don't have to worry about that too much But it's we just put together your classic PVC and moving blanket booth gotta love it because he needed something ASAP and We're gonna get a nice booth ice with isolation, you know all the fixings eventually here But we were able to I went to went to gosh this morning I had drawn out wrote down how many tees elbows how much pipe I need here's the thing When you draw it all out on paper and you're thinking I need so many lengths of ten foot pipe So many lengths of eight foot pipe thinking they're gonna have either eight foot or nine foot pipe When you get there and the rack says that the pipe is nine feet long Then then you're like ah because now everything doesn't measure out, right? Well, you get a little extra and you gotta buy another which is it right? Is it too long or too short then when you get to the job site and find out it actually is ten feet long That the sign was wrong on the thing. It's like oh, I found out that ten feet of PVC fits inside my Subaru Forester Precisely from the windshield and the dash right diagonal across the car to the rear window It just fits inside a Subaru forster But we've got a video online in our YouTube channel of us building Yes, who's yes my mom's backyard and garage right and we started the prep in your in their yard Right, and then it was finished at Angan Goose's. Yes house It's a great video. It is a great video, but it came together. Well, and he's um, he's recording work right now in there So it's working out man works. That's he does All right Well, we got lots more if you got a tech question for us Jack Daniel is sitting by as our social media Is our tonight in the chat room and he will relay those questions to us and also if you got a question for Bob Bergen also a good time to be nuts to not be asking questions tonight The guy loves to answer questions like Bob. Absolutely. All right, so stay tuned. We'll be right back here on voiceover body shop And now we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear and we find our heroes sheriff Dan and Marshall George on a dusty Stakeout at voiceover Gulch. Let's see what drama is about to take place There are two types of people in the world Those just getting started in voiceover and those who are established but want more work Vio to go go has got you covered if just getting started in voiceover Vio to go goes getting started in voiceover class is a deep dive into exactly how to do it, right? With video lessons taught by David H. Lawrence the 17th with downloads homework quizzes and actual on-cam work And the price is right. It's absolutely free. How does he do it? Just go to vo to go go comm forward slash Start and you'll get instant access to the class. That's vo to go go comm forward slash start Now if you're already a working voiceover talent and you want more work and who doesn't then vo to go goes pro programs for you This is the most comprehensive complete voiceover support system in the world with classes workouts private coaching demo production and more teaching you the art the commerce and The science of voiceover if that sounds like it was built for you It was and you can get instant membership at vo to go go comm forward slash pro That's vo to go go comm forward slash pro Getting started or going pro go to vo to go go comm now It's everything you need to be a successful voiceover talent 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 comm like our name implies voice actor Websites comm 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 voice actor websites comm where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? and we're back here on voice over body shop and And now it's time for totally unrehearsed discussion because with Dan and George talk People listen and sometimes they pay us for it. Should we sell them how they do that? We can If you'd like to pay us to do this although some people hey Can you give me some advice now? We just got a 911. I got a text 9-1-1 text from a client who happens to have worked with both of us So because our show is getting ready to go in the air is like do you mind if we answer actually answer your question That's what we're gonna do go for not normally what happens But if you're gonna pay us to work not doing it on the show live Yeah, you can get us through our websites. I'm at George the tech comm And that's where you can book my services and Dan you're over at home voiceover studio comm That's right great URL that God. I was lucky to get but There's all sorts of things that we can do for you help you set up a home studio I think it's really important that we teach you how to do it right because Someone once said better to teach someone to fish Then give them a fish and feed them for a day. That's right. I it's when it comes to audio engineering I teach them how to fish for the right fish with the right tools instead of Go forth into the Walmart's and come back with things and never do that now It's like you need this this this this never walk into a retail store not knowing what you want That's right because especially if you go into banjo and pouring them they're gonna say you're gonna see Hawaiian vacation Written across your forehead. I'm a voice actor and I want to I want to hit my own studio never a good idea never never a good idea anyway, so We were gonna talk a little bit about preamps in a second, but let's solve Amelia's problem here So she's engaged both of us. Yes. Well, she she got some new gear. It finally came I think she expected it to come more quickly But she's got a demo to record tomorrow, so she's under the gun She's got a new sure KSM 32 mic I recommended to her because it should be a little smoother sounding not too bright or harsh and a good old Steinberg You are 12 which I've been having a very hard time finding a fault in that little sucker She's got the two of those and she's got a recorded demo tomorrow She's having trouble kind of just learning how to dial it in so in like five minutes When someone's got a new mic and interface, what do you tell them? How do they get started and this is a mic that has a few switches on it, right? So we got to make sure they're in the right place as a pad and there's a Roll-off switch and how do you make sure it's pointed in the right direction? So you start with the mic side I'll start with and then I'll finish up on the interface side. All right. Well So what's the question? How do I set it all up? Well, I think she's already had gear But this is a step up for her So okay, she's not familiar with the way it sounds to her in her headphones. Well number one don't listen to yourself Yeah, now now Bob Ergon will say well, of course you wear headphones if you're listening to a director Yeah, but if you're not listening to a director who you listening to if you listen to your own voice with a little Maybe a tiny little bit of latency. It might throw you off Plus you become enamored with the sound of your own voice and we all know that it's more important to tell the story Right and trust your voice that out of the way though She of course is setting up something new right she needs to make sure she can hear something while she's setting it up I guess right well you my process would be set it up the way you normally would proper mic technique the right acoustical environment and Record something yeah, and then let somebody who knows exactly what it's supposed to sound like listen to it Right instead of well I sound great the fact of the matter is is she doesn't hire herself, right? But if you just got the gear just now Yeah, and you're recording a demo with some producer in the morning with your own equipment in the studio, right? Obviously very very last-minute stuff here, right? What the heck should we she do I? Just got some new stuff. Mr. Producer. Can we do this a little later? That would be one that would be one really good option. Yes. I agree with that totally You know because if you she wants to do it, right? Yeah, and she wants to make sure it's all working Yeah, she doesn't want to use him as a test market. I agree completely So that's one way the other way is okay You can listen on headphones, but what you're hearing might not necessarily be what they're hearing on the other end It's true It's true when you're setting up your own gear and trying to listen to yourself Even now when I hear my own self on the show in my headphones It's quite different than what you guys are probably hearing out there It's it's I'm hearing an impression of what I sound like because I'm hearing my own voice transmitting through my jaw You know, it's just it's a weird sound Especially with sealed headphones, but if she knows how to set proper levels and she understands proper mic technique set it up the way her old mic used to be yeah, and Talked to the producer. She's doing a live. How does this sound? Yeah Yeah, he says it's not a live gig is a demo. You're hiring them. You're they're not hiring you You're hiring them So take the time with them to help make sure your sounds dialed in if they don't want to start the project until it's dialed in Then go ahead and reschedule it if they're a reputable demo dealer demo dealer demo producer They they should they should be understanding of a situation like that But just make sure the pad is on zero the low-cut switch is almost always on Well, I think it's what depends on the studio. I think it's for women's voices in any home studio Why do they need anything below 100 Hertz right turn it on and then the you are 12 You've got a gain control on the far left. That's the gain control for your mic started at about three o'clock It's a really good start. That's the sweet spot. It's a good place to start for most condenser mics and That direct monitor button turn that off, right? That's what that's what's letting you hear yourself while you're recording and that's gonna screw you up Leave your headphones off record and play it back once you get everything functioning If it still sounds weird to you check the mic placement, is it facing the wrong direction? Don't assume anything because talking about a new mic if you're not familiar with it Sometimes the mic can be facing the opposite direction from where so make sure it's facing the right way If it's facing the wrong way one way to tell really quickly is it sounds like you're far away? Even when you're close and it sounds very kind of muddy sounding like it's like you're Filtered somehow like you're talking with your hands over here on the other side of the room. Yeah, it means you probably If you sound like you're in the other side of the room then definitely check your settings She's on twisted wave right go into audio input and make sure it says Steinberg You are 12 is the input right do not let it say system setting Because it will do the Mac will record whatever input it sees and that could be the mic of your Mac That would be really bad. Yeah, so double check those settings Send us a sample. I'll give a listen to it You know first thing in the morning or tonight and we'll let you know if anything's totally out of whack All right Gerard Gerard McGuire. Yes, sir question. Yes, she's while I was away. I left my duet to at home Needing an interface. I took George's advice and bought a Yamaha AGO 3 which I happen to use here in this very studio I love it. Now at home. Should I go back to my duet to is the more expensive duet that much higher quality? My ears aren't good enough to hear it. Thanks Gerard. I Don't know apples to apples. You'd have to set them up in the same room and do an AB test. I Don't know. Do you I think maybe the AGO 3 maybe is slightly noisier, maybe I haven't heard a sound Except my golden tones. It's very it's a very clean piece of kit I I would use whatever you're familiar with and what's what you're comfortable using in your home studio So if it's still a duet to keep using the duet to as soon as your duet starts causing you any trouble Which it can Not saying it will But it can Then maybe that's a good time to switch over to the Yamaha, you know Just but just stick with what's working for for now what you're familiar with what has been consistent for you Just keep using it. Don't worry about which one is slightly better sounding right use the one you like Usually somebody at the other end can't tell the difference in a hundred years as long as you're the right acoustics Right mic technique and all that other stuff. So preamps. We got a few more minutes. We're running out of time But let's talk a little bit. We talked about actually several preamps tonight But all of them were baked into audio interfaces, right? So you're you are 12 you're a GO a GO3 your ID 22 your scarlet 2i 2 I mentioned ton of them Yeah, all of those have mic preamps in them, right and so usually very good ones Yeah, these days man, I'll tell you the preamps. They're baking into these little interfaces is getting better and better I mean, it's really quite I mean apparently reportedly the mixer faces preamp is really great The ones in the audience are really great the you are 12 never had a complaint from anybody about that thing So when do you buy a box a standalone box that you stick on your $1,200 They're rocks. Yeah, when when does that happen when you say when you are Making a lot of money one you can afford one of those because as we like to say you don't buy great equipment to get work you work to get great equipment and Generally, if you if you're a good voice actor your voice is going to carry properly over a properly set up Regular digital interface with the right preamp. If you have a condenser mic something that has a decent amount of sensitivity, right? Anything with at least 45 50 DB of gain should be fine, right? So why do some of your high-end clients like Mr. Sipriano and various other people why do they go for these big expensive preamps? Does it help them perform copy better or? You know as some of it may be slightly, you know psychosomatic I mean what but also when you start getting into the nitty-gritty once you've learned the way your voice sounds the way your studio Sounds and you've heard it a thousand times and then you get to try recording your voice in other studios I think that's where it starts to come into play, right? You start hearing you on another commercials or a commercial studio and you hear yourself through those monitors And you go, what is it? They're using I think that's what starts to plant that seed of I need better gear I need more gear and I need you got to get into those studios to hear that right, right? Which is those folks use that gear because they can because they've used gear like that all their lives and their careers in other studios So they want to have the same stuff They they they also use it because sometimes they want to have some special sauce on their audio that is going down the line on IPD-TL on source connect on ISDN, right, you know, so they want to send out a pre-sweetened sound That's we're having a standalone preamp Channel strips sometimes we call it is you know becomes a lot more important. Cool You know, so all right don't get caught up in it too much until you've already dialed everything else in It's like the seventh thing on the list of things that make a big difference in your sound in my opinion I love it when people say I've got this USB mic. Will a preamp help? Oh, guess what? No, it's baked right in if you have a USB mic the preamp is in the box Some of them are better than others. Yeah. Anyway, Bob Bergen is sitting by patiently He is he's going to join us in just a couple minutes And we're gonna talk about all the stuff that he wants to talk about And some stuff you probably want to talk about and all the stuff that you want to talk about one Yeah, you guys better be asking questions lots of questions get in there. Come on up here on voiceover body shop We'll be right back Are you confused about how to set up and maintain a professional quality voiceover studio? No wonder the information out There is mostly Mythology, this is the best microphone to use. You have to have a preamp. You need a soundproof booth This software is the best your audio must be broadcast quality Consult with someone who knows the truth someone who's been there in the trenches doing voiceover for over 30 years someone with unparalleled experience with voiceover studios who's worked with hundreds of voice actors and Designed hundreds of personal studios He knows how to teach and cares about your success in one of the harshest environments known to voiceover your home Dan Leonard the home studio master Separate myth from fact and get a handle on your personal voiceover studio Contact the home studio master at home voiceover studio.com. Yeah, we'll stop Hey everybody, I'm supposed to talk about one of our sponsors and do this camera So I'll do that now. This is We're about to talk about our favorite Audio technology for connecting your studio to others around the world and that is source elements the creators of source connect source connect now Vist en all sorts of they have an unbelievable selection of Connectivity tools the one you're probably the most likely gonna need in the near future if you don't already have it is source connect Source connect now you should have now you should absolutely know how to use it. It's totally free Go get it. No excuses Source dash elements comm slash live or where's a live dot source dash elements comm one of those Go get not live But now go get those from source elements get it up and running that is totally free The standard version of source connect is not free, but you can get a 15-day free trial That is what you're gonna be using to connect to all the big studios in the world If you're playing up to the next level, you need it get it Go give it a try. Don't need to have an I lock key thing. I'm a jiggy. Don't worry We'll help you out and so will they source elements. Thank you so much for your support We'll be right back over here with Dan and Bob Bergen. They're right over there This is the Latin lover narrator from Jane the Virgin and Tony Mendez and you're enjoying Dan and George on voice over a body shop You know Bob Bergen is the current voice of Warner Brothers cartoon characters Porky Pig and Tweety Bird and formerly hosted Jep a kid's version of it the popular game show Jeopardy He's also known for voicing characters in the English dubs of various anime He's also very active a very active member of SAG after advocating for the rights and benefits of union membership And let's welcome Bob Bergen. I just want to hang a Christmas ornament right there. Yeah, just like yeah You can see my son's bird. He just has to pull out right the time anyway. Welcome to the show. Thank you It's great to have you here. You've been on Many years ago a long time ago back when we were back when we were e-wads over a telephone. Yes Yeah, yes, and well you're on camera was I you were all right here. He remembers it well I do I watch it daily give myself a residual Anyway, so you're originally from st. Louis. I am how long you've been out here in LA? Oh gosh, my dad took a job here on it when I was 14 I had no choice. I know if I wanted to stay with a family But I really wanted to be here because this is where voiceover and cartoons were right So how early were you interested in doing that? Oh my god since I was like five I wanted to be porky pig when I was a five-year-old kid and my mom said you can't be porky pig or Jewish And I didn't know what that meant because you know, I wanted to hang a Christmas ornament on your mustache So that's how Jewish we were But I I we moved here when I was 14 and I figured on no blanks old I'll just call him up and say buddy. Listen. I know I've seen you on TV. You're not you're not a spring chicken right I want to be your pig right and I found his phone number in the in the phone book His phone number in the phone phone book and I called him up. I taped the conversation, which is 100% illegal I don't recommend people do that. You still have it. It's on my website. Yeah, I got a good battle Yeah, um, so you're 14 year old me saying I want to do what you do and during the course of the conversation He mentioned the name of the studio. He was working at that week He didn't say the day at the time, but he mentioned the name of the studio, right? So when I hung up with him, I called the studio pretending to be his assistant And I said hi, mr. Blank I'm calling from mr. Blank and I and I'm confirming his appointment for Thursday at 11 and they said we've got him on the books for Wednesday at 9. I went I'm looking at the wrong day in the calendar I'm so sorry. So I said to my mom. I'm skipping school on Wednesday. We're gonna watch Mel blank work So when we got to the studio My mom was really cool about that. We got to the studio I told the receptionist that we were guests of Mel blank and she said he's right in there And I walked into his booth and I said to his producer Hi, we're really good friends of the receptionist and she said we could watch so I watched him work And I realized he's still doing this and I'm still 14 and my voice hadn't changed So I left that studio and I called Hannah Barbera and they referred me to Dawes Butler And I studied with Dawes and everybody else that that taught voiceover at the time and to make a long story short When I was 18, I got my first agent. I got my first job But what's your first job my first job was spider-man and his amazing friends. Oh, I was an amazing friend And and then I spent five years as a tour guide to Universal Studios going look at the shark because I had to eat I had to feed myself exactly. Yeah, so it was a nine-year journey from first voiceover class to working actor Well, I see people need to learn to be patient. It's got an overnight thing It depends you want a career. Do you want to work and I wanted a career? I didn't really care. I would I'd be I'd be thrilled to wait tables to wait for the big job I didn't care about how many jobs I was doing. It was the quality of the work that I really cared about right So a time frame seems to be consistent to this day. It was talked to a lot of voice actors who are currently successful There seems to be a like a nine to ten year sort of ramp up I don't think it's like it's like in stone this nine to ten years But I think the people that hey if I take a class and make a demo I'll work No, if you're brilliant you'll work But if you're if your goal every time you audition is to book the job It's a bad goal to have your goal should be to have fun number one Yeah, doing what you love and number two be the best actor you possibly can That's right makes sense. Yeah, so so you did this Steven Spielberg thing essentially you just sort of moved in Yeah, yeah kind of and it takes puts but to do that I think people need to understand if you've got to make yourself known, you know when you get there The worst thing we do is put limitations on ourselves And I think because I was a kid picking up the phone calling Mel blank and calling Dawes Butler I didn't think this was an unusual thing to do and then you become an adult with with common sense and I guess Nerves and shame and you're like I can't do that. That's overstepping. Well, the worst thing they're gonna say is no Right, so who cares you're nowhere soft than you were without trying exactly Good lesson to learn there learning to take rejection. I'll get you anywhere Well with voiceover or anything as an actor I mean as a voiceover actor you're auditioning a lot more than on camera, right? And I always tell my students you weren't rejected. You just weren't selected, right? There are so many reasons why that brilliant read didn't get you that job But today's audition is an insurance policy for another one So if the client didn't buy you the casting director might think you're brilliant Dan, you're really good I'm gonna get you something somewhere. So I'm gonna keep sending you stuff I'm gonna keep sending you auditions and I I really want you to book something All right, uh, if you're just joining us boy, you've missed a lot already in the misty miss Christmas ornaments on a mustache Bob Bergen's our guest if you got a question for him throw it the chat room and maybe Someone will be watching the chat room. I am. I am I'm trying yeah, but you in front of it. Oh, yeah, but the word the letter Q You for question. I know that'll help throw it into the chat room and George is watching it until Jack Daniel finishes a session or whatever it is. He had a working voice actors. Yeah, chase already So how'd you get to be perky pig? I was fortunate. I had a great agent Mel blank passed away in 1989 they held auditions and I had an agent who got me in For for the auditions. I had about a dozen callbacks How many how many other people have auditioned all I'm sure hundreds I mean, I don't know, you know, you audition at that time in your agent's office and then callbacks, etc I had no idea what my competition was by the way, I've had to re-audition five times in 28 years So they just didn't trust the fact that you've been doing it You know those of us who do classic characters don't have a lifetime contract So you get a brand-new producer brand-new show. They're like, well, let's let's see who else is out there Right, so I'm doing a new series right now, which I had to audition for and my philosophy has always been if somebody's better They deserve it. I know that I'm gonna go in there and kill it. I know I will I won't kill everything But I know that I will kill right and I'll have fun with it And I'll be able to bring things to the character that 28 years of experience Allows me to so if somebody else is better than that God bless them at 28 great years Have they changed the characters at all? I mean especially the Warner Brothers characters you've worked on depends on the on the producer and depends on the job I will tell you that Mel blank passed away in 1989 before the internet before cell phones before uber So we do situations now where's porky has a cell phone porky was an uber driver in a cartoon I think they called it a goober driver in that particular episode. So we're doing its pop culture references that Mel blank never did So I've got to find ways to Refer to today and still keep the integrity of the character by the classic nature of the character exactly. Yeah, all right So what goes into you do a lot of other shows? I mean you're you're constantly working Character voice actor. Yeah, the majority of what I do is not Classic characters. It's creating new new ones, right? Yeah, what's your process for doing that? I mean you'll get a script and it's like, okay, Bob Make something out. Yeah, you get a script with a picture a short description and a few lines a few scenes of dialogue One of the things I tell my students is don't think of these as lines Think of these as scenes a scene has a beginning a middle and an end and a scene also has an unheard scene partner in the audition We don't hear the scene partner, but your character is relating to that scene partner Here's the mistake people make they pick a funny voice and they read funny lines in funny ways, right? Well, you're not acting. You're just reading what's the intention exactly who am I talking to right? What is our relationship? Where are we in this scene? It's in and the microphone is the ear of your scene partner where you are on that mic from scene to scene Corresponds with the scene. So that variety that audio variety is actually an audio illusion of your versatility as an actor So it's it's the same choice as a non-camera actor has to make when you create a character for for animation Physically play the character the voice will follow act and react think about the in-between and that information isn't there on the script Make it up because if you don't make choices You're just reading lines right it doesn't you can't make a wrong choice because nobody's in your home studio to tell you What you're doing is wrong exactly. It's all about making choices. Yeah, so Do you have to add live you've got a you've got to come up with all sorts of stuff in your head and Not be afraid to try you got to take risks I'm a big fan of ad-libbing as long as you don't try to improve on the writer Right. Yeah, you know you want if they're in the booth going well They probably won't be because your audition your first round will be in your own studio Right, but you have to respect the writer if you have something so outside the box Make that take two but take one is exactly what they're looking for It's been through so many layers of approval to get to this point where they're auditioning you That you have to give them what they have in their head and then try something else I will tell you that oftentimes it's that creative take two that gets me the callback But at the callback they redirect me to take one take one. Yeah, that's neat Yeah, that's the way the West the way they think sure you caught their attention with that's right And and it's like okay, but we know you can do this and that sort of thing now You're an established talent here in Hollywood to some to some. Yeah, I mean you've been here a while People who are trying to break in from what I've noticed. It's not a closed set There's Occasionally people filtering in but there's an awful lot of people looking from the outside. Yeah What do you tell people like that then what's what's gonna make the difference for them the cream floats to the top Yeah, brilliant everybody wants to hire the next brilliant thing, right? I've been teaching 30 plus years I can count on less than two hands brilliant that has come to my class We're at the first time at the Michael just a matter of time, right? Bottom line is are you willing to do what it takes to try to even compete in this business? If you want animation, you got to live in Los Angeles if you want animation You got to be in the Union cartoons are going to be Union right because they hire celebrities So but whether it's a series or a feature they still hire celebrities Therefore you've got to be in the Union and your characters have to be original Nobody needs a valley girl. Nobody needs a witch. Nobody needs an old man. They need an original old man They need an original witch so it's not how many voices you can do how many solid original characters Can you do and when you make a demo? I mean I didn't have the internet when I was starting out I could go to Atlas CESD SBV DPN William Morris and listen to the working actors animation demos and go well if I was starting today That's what they don't need. They already represent. I've got to give them originality So if you're just going to regurgitate what they already represent you're wasting your time makes total sense All right, let's get we're talking with Bob Bergen here on voiceover body shop And if you got a question for him and I'm sure there are plenty get it in the chat room They are flying. Oh good. It's good to know. Good. We even got the question. Oh, you'll know about the question That question. Oh, yeah, I'm scared. You'll know that one. Yeah, which ornament would look best on this nostril Little technology, what do you have a home studio? I do. What do you got in your home? I have no idea I have no idea. I have no freak. I can tell you press the red button go Touch the red one into my studio. So my homestay. I own Randy Thomas's acoustic systems booth All right, okay I had that booth in my office for over a year before I had the nerve to hire somebody to plug it in because I was terrified of technology I painted it. It's pretty it's got it's green and white like my office. Um, I have no idea what I have in there I know that Pat Fraley gave me my current microphone. He called it the Chinese Neumann. I'm sure you know what the Chinese Neumann is There's there's so many of them. Okay. He said they don't make it anymore because they they got sued or something like that And I push record and I go and if it ever breaks, I'm I call George So so far it hasn't broken and we're to keep it that way. It's been pretty reliable I am just not a techie person. Right. Well, you don't have to be a techie person Well, I mean, I guess you kind of do if you want to be I really don't want to be I don't have source connect. I don't have ISD and I don't want to produce from my house I want to act right. That's that's what the promo guys do Yeah, and that's that's what they have to do when you're hired You're going into a big studio for animation. Sure. Yeah, and and and what do you do when you go in there? I mean, it's like coffee. Yeah, you know, I mean, you know food there and if you're lucky. Yeah Yeah, Pixar has better food. They have great. They have yes. They have great food all throughout the day I you know, every every job is different. Every studio is different for the most part They usually will email me my scripts and storyboards before so I can prepare It's becoming very common for episodic or TV animation where you as you work You have you can watch the storyboard on a monitor So you can see the writers and the and and the animators intent the body language the facial expressions It's it's just it's um, it helps influence your performance in the old days You would get the script when you got there, right? It was an eight-hour session up to eight hours You would do a table read take a break and record and we don't do any rehearsal really anymore They rehearse on on tape, right? But for the most part we're just kind of weighing it and the second or third time you ever say those words That's a print. Let's move on right and and you it's just you usually the studio. It depends. Is there like, you know You know you have a bunch of people in the studio I think for episodic they have as many cast members as who are available that day I mean, I did a session this morning and it was porky and Daffy and it was me and Eric Bowser Um You know somebody Sam was busy. So we skipped that episode today. Um, you know, he had things to do Um, but for features you you're by yourself, right and it's you and the director And you don't even know what the whole script is you work on the pages that you're in that day So you need a director who really understands the other characters and can feed you lines As best as they possibly remember the other actor playing it. So it's um, it's a whole different thing But yeah, you have to have a good imagination Well, you're professional. I try I know and they pay you the good bucks to do it on occasion. Yes the One of the things that you're really active with is with sag after yes with the union Yes, why should people join union? How can they join the union? It's not like a It's not just an easy thing to do you gotta you gotta earn the opportunity to do it Why should they join the union? It depends what they want out of their career or if they want a career, right? I would say the majority of people going into voiceover today don't want a career They just want to work which is why they're taking crappy offers And that's why they're buying a microphone then taking a class and then trying to get work I wanted a career. I wanted a pension. I wanted, uh, uh, health benefits and I wanted residuals I don't make a living at my session fees. I can't make a living at session fees It is the residuals and the I would say the majority of my annual residuals are from animated features So that is what keeps you going during the slow months That's what keeps me from waiting tables and that's what keeps me from Doing online voiceover for a hundred bucks a job because I don't have a job this week Right, uh, it's the residuals that keep coming in. So for me, that's the reason to join the union Okay So how does one do that? Well, you you need to qualify to join the union and you can't get that job to qualify unless you're in the union It's a catch 22. I know it's hard to get an agent if you're not in the union And if you're not in the union, how do you get an agent? Well, let me just say this everybody who is in the union today at one point wasn't everybody with an agent today at one point Wasn't I think people want it prematurely if you I networked with everybody And during the time I was taking voiceover classes I was also in an all-day saturday workout group and the people in that workout group were seven Eight figure voiceover actors. I mean tremendously And I'm like, why are you guys working out and the reason they're working out is because they want to stay there Right and I rubbed elbows. So when I was getting to the point where I was ready for an agent Everybody knew who I was and I was referred by everybody. I allowed it to happen organically So a lot of this business is definitely who you know, and of course it's timing Put the whole thing together and add talent and you've got a winning combination Yeah, right place right time the opportunity comes You got to deliver every agent wants to represent the next brilliant thing The problem is 99 of the demos that are submitted are not brilliant The demo might be but the but the cover letter isn't the subject line Sometimes the subject line prevents the agent from even listening seeking representation You might as well say agent would you dump this I suck You don't say seeking representation You say referred by and that referred by had better be somebody influential Right and advertising executive a casting director a producer a promo producer Not another actor, but somebody who hires talent referred by Steven Spielberg Problem is you really have to know Steven Spielberg to use that name Yeah, but that's going to get you an immediate listen But seeking representation you go into the pile of the two three hundred other demos They've got that are also seeking representation All right Now you also teach I do As you've been saying you've been teaching for 30 years over. Yes. I'm old You're not as old as me. Yeah, but I'm getting there. I'm working on it. You're never going to catch me I hope I do no anyway, the Teaching is a is a really important thing now you're doing it for 30 years. I'm sure you have you've refined your techniques and What do you look for in students? I mean not just somebody says I want to do animation You're not just going to take anybody that's going to say I want to do animation Yeah, they have to have an acting background. I don't even care if that's high school drama They have to have some kind of an acting background. Um, you know, it is acting. It's called voice acting for a reason So what do I do with my students? I teach them how to Create sustain and remember original characters That is basically my job And I've got a three Step formula how to create characters how to remember them how to sustain them Um, how to categorize them how to uh, draw upon them You know, there's a disease called in the car syndrome when you're driving away from that audition going Exactly. Yeah, and there's no cure for this But if you if you know how to go into that little File a cabinet that rolodex in your head of characters and traits and personalities and just mix and match You'll be able to create something original from something you've already done right Yeah, I mean usually if I if I'm calling on a newer character, it's Yeah, somehow I always end up doing a new york accent and which is the kiss of death I know I and I've been told that yeah, it's like whenever I go on to an old person If I suddenly talk like this Yeah, and you know what here I could take it up a little bit is I talk like this But here's what's really interesting. Look at look at film today and look at somebody who's like, uh, Jane Fonda is 80 Yes, doesn't look it doesn't sound it either. Right. So old person is just that generic stereotype that you have in your head Where Jane Fonda is an old woman. I love you, Jane. You're not old. You're just 80 But that's listen 80 today is Jane Fonda. Right. I'm 54 This is 54 today 54 a generation ago was not this 54 So you need to think outside the box. You need to think personality and character and not generic and stereotype, right? Good point. Once again, you got a question for Bob Bergen throw it in the chat room Now, uh, you're doing some really cool stuff with your classes. Oh the classes. Yes. I am. Yes. I am. Yes I mean, you we can talk about some of the cool stuff you're working on looking at beer on the floor that I'm not having Because I have a gluten problem, but I really really want The uh, it's not fair. Well, I can get you some wine if you want. Not what I'm not what I'm working. Okay. Okay. How can that possibly be it smooths it out? Oh, I was doing I'll tell you what happened Okay, tell me I was at margarita mix, which is a fabulous studio in Hollywood. Yeah, and they serve margaritas And I'm doing a looney Tunes session and I just what the heck and I took a couple of sips Just a couple of sips and I get to the mic and instead of it. Well, where's Daffy? I was like Like a car that won't won't start right and they're laughing and I'm like, I'm serious guys. I can't do this right now Do it again I lost all dexterity And the VP of Warner animation goes well, what do we do and I said, I'll make a deal coffee. No, no No, no, I saw make a deal Um, we keep drinking and eating and then marker the fajitas and whatever I said, I'll come back tomorrow and I won't charge you a second day and like cool So we just made a party out of it Haha, that's great. I like that. I think on your feet. Yeah, I have no idea if you asked me a question But I told you about no that was that was that work just fine. Okay. It's it it shows people what goes on in this teaching It's acting acting. Yes and teaching. Yes. Uh, so speaking of teaching You got a big cruise coming up. Tell us about the cruise. So only a couple of space spots left there I I I'm doing a class on a on a boat on a cruise seven night cruise with maryland wissner Oh, great teacher. I did she's awesome. I did a uh, uh, voiceover cruise in 2006 just me And it was all all animation and that was only three days with one day one class This is seven seven days seven nights on the ship one full day of animation one full day of commercial and one full day of Marketing and the business of the business. I think we have three spots left However, that said my workshop producer marion will be taking names in case we get cancellations So we have a a list to draw upon and if people are interested they can go to my website bobbergin.com and I think on the home pagers information they can they can get to me or email me or i'm on twitter I'm i'm so easy to get in touch with people get in touch with me all the time. I like being touched It's important. It is important. All everybody A little bit. That's right. No, so where is the boat going or doesn't it matter? It actually means everybody's going to be shoved into a cabin. Well, here. No, here's the thing No, it's a california coastal cruise. So, you know up and down the coast or the dirt during the sea days We're doing classes. Mm-hmm during the port days. You're you're going to baha You're doing whatever wherever the ship goes and you get off and have fun and go pear sailing and Do snorkeling and do all the things that you do on a cruise. Um, I'll be getting massages and drinking cocktails with funny umbrellas um, and and it's it's going to be intense and Mary Lynn and I are going to make ourselves available during the cruise for for you want to You know, let's go over to this bar and ask questions about the business. I've got specific, you know I need advice on what we're going to be there. We're going to make ourselves available and it's a cruise, you know We're gonna have fun. Yeah, that's all I know about cruises as I'm sitting there and I'll be just looking at The girls going by and the wife will go would you like something to read? Well, the thing is the thing is here's the deal. I mean, they're there. You don't want to disappoint them, right? Yeah, exactly Dress like that. I'm gonna look at you Ask them about their mic technique I've tried that. Oh, is that it actually works. There you go. All right. Um So and you've got a workshop coming up in san diego. Yeah, that will actually This is the this is the platform that we're really announcing it for the first time I started talking you heard it here for that's right So so Colette Sonderman who is an animation voiceover casting And and voice director and I will be teaching a class in san diego I think the third and fourth whatever that weekend is so saturday I will be prepping the students to showcase for colette on sunday. We've done the class in LA We did chicago. We did it in new york and so this is the first time we're doing it in san diego And I think we only have two or three students signed up for that one. So there is real excellent There's more for advanced people. It's not a beginning class It's more for advanced people and it really gives students a really nice opportunity to um to to work with uh A casting director and a voice director, right? So if someone wants to attend that one same thing same thing Get in touch with me. I'll pass them on to maryon. I might my producer makes it a lot easier. Yeah All right. Well, we're gonna take a quick break here. Our guest is Bob bergen and uh, I'm sure we have a ton of questions. I hope so which mister with him will lay on us After this break it fake it. That's what I thought that we'll be right back here our voice over body shot All new iphone reserve your disney world season pass now through all the runny noses Three in the morning coughs An all new american crime story tonight on fx this week only it's pasta fest at all of garden heart rate crime blood pressure Perfect. I grew up with the classics and now with stup hub. 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We'll be right back Hey guys, this is tom also known as the voice of spongebob square pants And you want to fill your ear holes and your eye holes with dan and george and the audio body shop Ah And we're back with bob bergen talking about animation and porky pig and the union and all those sorts of things But i know there are tons of questions out there that are vast Live interactive audience all across the fruited plane and across the globe want to ask you right now hurt me hit me With your rhythm stick. There we go Mr. Wood. All right. All right. All right. All right. We got a bunch of them and they're flooding So i'm gonna see if I can manage them all first one that I see here is from Jace actually there's no one above it. Sorry thomas mation one of our lovely regular viewers. Thank you thomas Are you producing? In your own home studio or do you go to other studios to do your recording at this point? I think that was pretty well answered but yeah, and the reason is i never got into this to be a producer And as that trend started happening I just decided i i'm an actor. I don't want to produce. I'm too busy acting So I audition for my home studio and you know some of the things like When I do radio imaging, you know, I bet it's it's raw records But I don't really uh do much to it other than record it to record the one you read the liners Yeah, maybe two or three times, you know if it's a brand new station you want to establish the brand So you give them options and then you get the The brand down so you just kind of do one take and move on but no i'm not a producer I dig it. All right Uh next one's from jay soyer. Hi jay bob Jay Is it true that animation studios Will not allow talent. This is geeky now. Yes, it is not allow talent to use equipment that uses tubes Mics and any processors with tubes. Oh, that is something you've heard never It's this yeah, this this never comes up in a studio. I've never seen an actor say may I bring my tube Um, no, this is that I don't know. No Sorry jay. Yeah, I mean nobody's ever asked for anything to be Yeah, I mean i'm sure it from the talent perspective what goes on on the other side of the glass is a total mystery I will tell you this that I know that I sound better on certain microphones for instance Sure, um, I really wish Warner Brothers would record us on rca ribbon mics Because that's how they were originally, but they were also recorded in sound stages back in the early days much bigger rooms much Somebody sam yell you hear the echo, you know, and and of course booths and mics are so Wonderful today. They're too wonderful. They're too dead. The room's too dead So you lose a little bit of life with the characters But hey that that studio is going to be used for a commercial in an hour or a promo So they can't keep changing locations and mics Um, I like uh, the the u87 the best for me, uh, the the the sennheiser the shotgun I sound too tinny But I don't go to a studio and say change that microphone. Will you I just use whatever they give me Let me ask about mic placement because then in When you're recording animation the rooms aren't those cavernous spaces anymore, but some of them are relatively Like the do you usually have you know four or five feet of space above your head in most cases Yeah, and if it's a feature, it's a giant room. Right. It's a giant room and then mic placement I mean you see how far away this is. Is that more common than being You know like up here for doing animation. I will work the mic for the scene So if i'm doing a scene where the character is, you know, it's like a like one of these I will get up to the mic Yeah, because if you do that far away, even though they can adjust to make that work It's not going to have the same presence if you don't work the mic. So if you were to watch uh tom kenney or or um Jim Cummings or Tara Strong watch these who don't even think about it working the mics from line to line from scene to scene it is a dance it is a choreography and It's intuitive. It's not something we're thinking about but we're telling the story with our voice on our body And we're giving the animators ammunition. We're giving them ideas and and and uh I guess influencing them and they're influencing us. It's a it's a collaborative thing I've even seen occasional setups where you get to see that cool behind the scenes video of you guys working Yeah, where they occasion will have a close mic and a far mic for features. Absolutely. They do that on features Oh, yeah, absolutely. They just want to get it on the first take Yeah, I mean when i'm working at disney doc kane god bless him. He is the world's greatest mixer for animated features Um, he knows the mic. He knows where you should be Um, I take his direction as much as I take the director's direction. I trust him um But those rooms are are magical and you know what they do behind closed glass I I don't want to touch it. I I can't touch it. It's it's a it's it's genius not my job. No kidding. Yeah, exactly Tom mation has a great question. Tom. Yeah, he says Do you still get coaching or mentoring? Sure? Of course I mean, so do Broadway actors who are doing, you know, Broadway at night during the day They're doing dance and and movement and singing and whatever absolutely Uh, most oscar winning actors have in their contract that their acting coach will be on the set for them For some reason voice-over actors have this arrogance that i'm a working voice-over actor I've got an agent. I've got a demo. I've got a website therefore I don't need to grow or learn and that is the that that's the secret to failure Of course, I say coach. I will whether it's an acting coach that I want to get, you know, a little I get lazy and I want somebody to kick my butt a little bit or it's I um, it's a new promo Uh, uh station or network and they're looking for a voice. I want someone to be a little bit more objective So sure of course all smart artists still can learn Absolutely, and that's how you stay. That's what professionals do. Sure I mean insurance agents have to do continuing education doctors and lawyers. There you go There should be a state license for I think so. I think so If you see e-credits, there you go. We this may have been covered. I apologize. That's okay Did you mention at what point precisely in your career? Did the union come into play for you? Uh, I had studied voice-over for four years with every person that offered a class in los angeles And through a connection I made when I was 16 when I was 18 I got a call from this connection who said if you really want to work in cartoons, I might have a job for you I'm casting this spider-man cartoon. Yeah, I went down. I auditioned. I got taft heart lead Which enabled me to get my my union card. I already had an agent So I called the agent. I said you get 10% of this job You did nothing for me to get and he was thrilled because he didn't have to make a phone call on my behalf But he still got 10% so that is how I got into the union just You know not without going down the rabbit hole too far Taft heart. Yes What does that mean? What does that mean? Tattarly basically means that the producer will send a letter to the union that says of all the people I have Auditioned or thought of for this part the one who's most qualified. I feel is non-union So that allows that producer to hire the non-union actor and that enables you to join the union At that point is it now mandatory as the actor to join you. You just have to join before your next job I believe before your next union job. Okay, cool. I learned a lot of stuff just then. All right T-man asks an interesting question here Because I don't think it it sounds like he's living, you know in madmen. Yeah, he says Do you still audition in your agent's office or on a speakerphone? Um, most agents in Los Angeles are kind of weaning away from the in-office auditions Some of them actually insist on you going in to read, right? But no, uh, I auditioned 99 percent of the time in my home and and there's never been a speakerphone. So yeah, we never did that All right, Jordan's from Dave Dave Hello, i'm a vo from nyc animation character. Vo is my niche and here's the question. Yes Can I make it without going to la so my question for Dave would be you tell me buddy How many people are making a living in animation in new york? Um, there is animation work in new york. I think pbs kids is in new york I think nicolodian does some stuff in new york. There's some anime in new york but Cartoon network is out here nicolodians out here disney's out here sony's out here boxes out here. So um You got to go where the work is if you really want to work in animation Not only come out here but train out here because the people training you in new york are not working every day in animation You might be a terrific voiceover actor, but you come out here and When it comes to the demos, I hear demos. I heard one this morning The actress was so versatile. It was just her doing funny voices. I didn't hear Bob's burgers. I didn't hear adventure time. I didn't hear archer. I didn't hear robot chicken I'm not asking for her to sound like curtain certain characters or current characters. What makes her different No, what makes her relevant relevant. Okay. I want I want to hear in that demo that you know What they're buying today at nick kids at pbs kids at disney channel at disney xd That you're aware of what the current programming is that if you have an audition for colette sunderman or christy reed or charlie adler You know their product. You know what they're looking for in superheroes versus cartoony. You know that uh Uh, we bear bears is looking for is not looking for cartoony voices. So it's very conversational You need to know what the industry is demanding what they're not demanding is someone who can do 5 000 voices They're looking for brilliant actors who know how to adjust what they do for today's market It's sort of like commercials. Yeah, if it was 1978 when I started studying voiceover commercials were all And I didn't have that I I I wish I was waiting for my voice to change I'm still waiting for my And I don't have that lovely deep rich voice that was in back then and then all of a sudden became conversational And guy next door. Well, that's when I started working because that's who I am. I can't be I can't be inauthentic. I can't not I can't be what I'm not So for animation, man, I gotta just turn the tv and watch the product that that's what they're looking for But again when I hear those demos, whereas the same characters over same little elf Over and over and over maker elf original and how does that fit in today's market? That was a long-winded answer to probably not new york Yeah, but it's legit. It's a good answer. I mean, it's it's not that simple Um, thomas mason also Boy, he asks a lot of you'll ask a lot of questions. It's free But we appreciate it. We ask you to ask your questions and bring it on. We appreciate you do Um, he says you do so many different voices for many different programs How many other vo actors have been your students that we might actually recognize Very good question Uh, roger craig smith Um, max middleman Uh, quintin flinn Misty lee That's off the top of my head. That's pretty good. But the thing is it's not gonna be many Yeah, but again when each one of those actors came to the mic And I never tell them this on the first day of class because I don't want to swallow their head Right, right, but I'll hear of them when when a teacher hears brilliant talent Whether it's a sculpting teacher or a writing teacher or a dance teacher when you see brilliance It is so exciting and and when you see one of your I mean, uh, jp. Carlyak Uh, was a student. I think about 10 years ago and in the last loony tune series He was doing wily coyote next to me. Wow, that was really really that's what teaching feels good It feels amazing and the thing is he was another one first time at the mic. I'm like, oh, it's just a matter of time You know, it's the it factor. You know the it factor from the moment they start talking Some people just got it. That's right All right, jv. Martin asks was that uh, I moved that one jv. Come back. Please we're going we're going right to dug Okay, bye jv. I love you. I mean it. We'll come back to that. All right Uh, uh the unannouncer. Hi, Doug. Mr. Doug Terkel says I'm a long time union member. Yes, but I understand the difficulty that successful non-union talent face When trying to make the transition to union Yeah, is the union doing anything to make it easier for folks to make the leap MPS thank you for all you do with support talent and the union. You're a mensch and a mensch Um, oh, it's such a loaded question So when I got into the business, you couldn't get work unless you're a union, right? You can agents wouldn't wouldn't listen to you. You couldn't get you couldn't even audition for a job unless you're a union So much of voice over today is non-union. It's a vicious cycle um I look at it this way I remember when I first started teaching 20 years ago around the country and I would see people Not interested in the union. I'm like, what do you mean you're not interested in the union? Don't you want a pension when you're 65? Don't you want health benefits? Don't you want residuals? And it was like I was talking a foreign language to them because all their auditions were non-union They saw very few union opportunities. Well animation is still union So I still teach the union aspects of animation, but I was like guys work with me here I don't understand this because a professional actor wants a career in this and that career means benefits It took five six years for them to educate me that well, we don't see many union opportunities and They were trying to communicate with the union. The union wasn't interested in them In fact, they the union treated them kind of nasty because they were like, oh, you're you're you're scum You're scabs. You're non-union blah Um, and we're living the results today where the majority of voiceover is now non-union Um, I don't know if it's going to change. I would like to see it change. I'm going to try I've got a proposal in in play. I don't I don't know what's going to come from it But it's it's in the hands of the powers that be we'll see what happens Um, here's my concern. My concern is it is this machine. We're looking at right now that made everything non-union It brought the non-union voiceover industry to everybody on a silver modem So let's say we bring in more people to the union more work to the union But every day somebody brand new pops up and goes I'll do it for 50 bucks. I make minimum wage I make $15 an hour. I can speak into a microphone for less than an hour and get 50 bucks that I hit The I hit the lottery. How do you compete with that? The answer is you can't you really honestly can't I think we have to come to that conclusion that if you want to be a union professional actor There is that option for you. You cannot have it both ways So if animation is something that you want you want to do do network promos There there's certain things in this industry if you want to be in a disney feature You're going to be a union actor you work in voiceover. There are other things for you I'm not I haven't thrown in the towel yet But I got my hand on it because it's going to take both sides to say yes I'm willing to do that the problem is I don't see the non-union side willing to compromise Because both of them have to right so it's a tough one. It's a tough one. Yeah, and it's grown so much I mean there's so much more work out there. Technically the business grew and it grew without the union doing anything about it But this is not new right. This is not new way back many decades ago sound Took silent movies away Silent movies took vaudeville away every time technology brings the next thing everybody doing the last thing says it'll never change I'm not gonna let and they and they don't adapt with it and they die off Well, the same thing is happening today with voiceover Logically, but the concept of making a living at voiceover is relative today I live in la. It's an expensive area to live in If I lived in Iowa I might be able to make a fraction of what I make and have a much bigger house So it's all relative But what is it you want out of your career and what does career mean to you? It means something different to everybody. Right. Yeah, so it's a very it's a very Layered, uh, Doug we could talk for hours I wish I could crack that beer That's so true. T-man says if one were to voice for anime Would that be union work? I'm just curious. It's not my forte It's like saying if someone were to do a commercial would that be union work? If it's a union commercial So if it's if it's a union anime job categorically one correct, correct But I will tell you that you know anime even union the contract's not fabulous Um I I don't really I don't even know what it is right now because I don't do a lot of it But I want to guess like 60 70 dollars an hour guaranteed two hours work Uh, do you think that's something that's trending in any direction? No, is it not really? No, I mean, I think No, I mean, I don't think they've renegotiated that contract for years And before that contract they were getting paid five bucks an hour So, um People don't go into anime to get rich they go into anime because it's fun It's really cool. They'll make their money on the weekends at conventions And the anime fans Are the most wonderful loyal diehard fans in all of animation I will sit at a fan convention and I will have you know, looney tunes and disney stuff and whatever But loop in the third or no face from it from what was that spirited away Um, and they go crazy and I started bringing those pictures because I didn't even know they were Worthy of bringing until people would say do you have anything from akira? I'm like Did I do that? Yeah. Oh Give me let me ask you. I like the cure. I'm not a huge fan of that. Don't you ask me if I was in Can you possibly remember what you played on that? Okay? Do you remember the movie? Yeah Do you remember there was a scene with a boy in a floating bubble? Yeah Yeah, I gave him sort of a marlin brand of voice I just saw the sound of like his big cheeks all the time that sort of sounded like marlin brand Even though I think he was like nine, you know So that was I want to say his name was mitzubishi Rada Hari Yeah, something emi. Yeah, I wouldn't know the characters. It was like 80 something. It was a long time ago. Yeah All I know is that roger ebert listed it as one of his all-time favorite movies and that was blew me away Yeah, because I was like people see these things. I mean that's back then people's I was a fan of speed racer I didn't know speed racer was anime when I was a kid. It was just a cool cartoon where people didn't pause same here Yeah, and their mouth was very very small and for and for no reason they'd go ha because there was an extra flap That they had to fill with something We got time for two more questions here. Oh man. Okay. Did we get jv jv back? Well, we have two more questions and jv gets the last card. Well, you get the last two questions and a statement um, this one comes from J horseback black, this is a short one actually But do you teach a coach commercial or only animation only animation? I tried to teach a commercial class gosh about 20 something years ago And on week three of a six week class. I was so bad I refunded their money and took them out for dinner because I was just There's so many really really great commercial classes in in la and I was not one of them All right knowing your specialty is important through and dave smith's question Dave's uh, does bob offer skype resume sessions for your workshops or one on one Sessions, I don't strictly a face-to-face. I don't I can't do it through a computer screen I need this you know, I need this and that's just me. I think Richard Horvitz does skype I think uh, mcwingard described to be dairy berry. They're all fantastic But I really need this one-on-one sort of connection. Right. Um, it's me. It's not the the actor And I don't even do that many privates because my my schedule doesn't allow it. So yeah, I'm sorry. Okay Well, let's just say jayden Come on jayden, there better be goosebun on this show Javy's awesome. We love javy. He said it's not a really a question. It's really a comment. What salute It's a salute to mr. Bergen from all the voice actors who were Underrepresented at the academy of television arts and sciences prior to your arrival as governor Oh, that's sweet of the performers peer group. Thank you For all you've done on our behalf voice actor group hug Well, that's really sweet in the middle. Thank you. Well, here's the deal the the the tv academy actually did have a voiceover emmy Um before I joined but uh, what I was able to do we had the voiceover emmy which included everything So you've got so gorney weaver who is doing a wonderful narration competing against Uh, dan castellanetta doing 20 voices Tony carrot, I was like oh, I was like these shouldn't belong together So I was able to separate narration and character voice. Um, I brought in this year. I brought in uh Commercial voiceover. I brought in announcers promo announcers. So um, yeah, but so thank you javy. I really appreciate that And if he hadn't said that I would have known that about what bob does There you go. It's really cool to hear that there you go part of behind the scenes stuff You're doing for the business. Yeah, it's cool. Go over to the academy too with all those great statues The academy is fun and you know go to the website People will be surprised that they qualify to join at least one of the tiers and it's it's a nice little community There's only 2000 plus over 2000 performers in at who belong to the tv academy. Excellent. Well, bob, thank you so much for being with us It's great to see you without beer. I had no beer whatsoever neither did we I know but we will All right, um froze your mustache. Yeah, it does help Um, so again, if they want to get a hold of you go to your website Go to my website bobbergin.com or at bobbergin on twitter Uh, if they can remember this vo class booking at gmail.com That is maryon my producer who does all my out of town classes and she'll take care of everybody Excellent. All right, cool. Well, we'll see you again soon. Sounds good Nate ears Me All right, we'll be right back to wrap things up right after this Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover 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 Voiceover 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 voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com All right Hey, thanks everybody for your questions. I knew I could get a lot of questions from our vast audience and They didn't disappoint. They did not they did not well that was fabulous Next week who's on we've got paul peyton. Now if you don't know who paul peyton is you're gonna learn He's been on the show before guy is really an active guy Who unlike bob? also became a producer And he's gonna talk about all the stuff he does and he was active with the union and he does a lot of cool stuff Like adr and some other things so we're gonna talk about some cool stuff with him next week Uh on august 27th here in the studio Uh the voice caster in burbank Uh catherine haran will be here. She is the casting director and a coach and that'll be more stuff on How to improve your performance and get hired. Got to like it. Uh, september 3rd It's labor day despite the fact that we've done shows on labor day. We're not doing a show on labor day this year Yay And then september sorry guys and we got reruns. Yeah and september 10th It's russia shawna. Mrs. Leonard will not let me do a show No matter what but i probably wouldn't anyway and then on september 17th way in the future cat crescent will be here All right, so we've got we got it lined up and some time off, which you and i badly need Anyway, who are our donors of the week? Man, we got a loud familiar names folks These guys keep sending money because they subscribe like tracy h reynolds and andrew kaufman kaufman Sorry andrew who i'm gonna see in colorado in a couple days. That's fun ant land productions. We know our buddy uncle roy and uh also on that list skipping down the list Down down down graham spicer thanks graham brian roush and also eric erigoni Thank you, eric. Thanks for everybody Erich who? Jack Tagolia even still sending us money stop it jack gotta love it. You're doing a podcast I am it's called the pro audio suite. It's extremely geeky, but we also geeky. Yeah, but we really uh Get to do some cool interviews with some pretty big time uh non-voiceover sometimes Really more into the world of music and video and audio production and we cover a lot of ground So check it out the pro audio suite right and if you watch the show on youtube If you're not if if you happen to be watching the show on youtube now Six weeks from now The show log is there jack Tagolia and dan Sutton are out there today. They were writing a lot Everything could possibly be said because Bob said a lot There was a lot to it And it will help you get right to the answer that you're looking for that was discussed on this evening show Uh, we're here every monday night most of the time except for the first two weeks in september and uh If you'd like to be here in our audience You can do that. That's right. Just write to us and send us an email the guys at v obs dot tv and write audience in the subject line and that will get you in here if we like you Uh, let's see here. Oh show us your booths This is whose booth is this That's howard parker howard parkers guy. You probably don't know but he you know you you definitely heard his voice Nice digs. It's really nice. Wow. It's like a fish bowl in the middle of his living room Yeah, we want to see your booths, you know that your creative creations out there because hey, you know, you've You've you've made your home voiceover studio. We want to see how creative you've been with that I went on definitely proud of that. You should be quite a cool project. That is quite the v o palace Uh, let's see here. Uh What else we got here? Oh, we need to thank our sponsors Yes, like harlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra uh source elements v o to go go voice actor websites.com and jake m j michael collins demos. Thank you everybody. All right Well, we need to thank of course the dan and marsy lennard foundation for the betterment of live webcasting Uh, our producer catherine curin for getting great guests like bob burgan And uh jack daniel on the chat room duty and all his help on youtube our technical director who's got it down It's dialed. She's dialed it in sumer lino did a great job tonight Uh jack to golea dan Sutton on the show notes and of course lee pinney for being lee pinney He was in the chat room tonight. He was he was he was hanging out with us to come out and hang out with us Lee for crying out loud All righty. Well that's gonna do it for us this week We're here to help guys technically with the performance stuff with the business stuff You need to learn it. We're here to help you out here on voiceover body shop every monday night And we'll be back next monday night with more stuff with paul pape So that does it for us tonight. I'm dan lennard. I'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vo bs And remember week. Yes, if it sounds good, it is good. Hey, I remember it