 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop and bore you in for a treat tonight because George isn't here our original guest broke two ribs So he couldn't be here, but we have David H. Lawrence with us tonight who is going to act as co-host what yeah I didn't wait a really. Yes. I get to do that. Yeah, you do fantastic. All right All right, if you've got a question for David about acting voice acting or Just voiceover work or any of the things that we're gonna talk about throw them in the chat room I know that our good friend Jeff Holman is sitting there wherever it is that he watches the show from and we'll relay those questions to us He's running it down with a quill pen. Yeah, and somehow it ends up over here and so Stay tuned. We're gonna talk about voice Acting which is what we're all supposed to be doing anyway right here on voiceover body shop right now Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials calm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect JNC demos when quality matters The oh heroes calm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training Voice actor websites calm where your voice actor website shouldn't be a pain in the butt Voice over extra your daily resource for voice over success and by world voices the industry association of Freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George So I have to play George. No, no, you can be yourself. Hi. I'm Dan Leonard David Lawrence David H. Lawrence the 17th The hell's my name, I don't know. I've I almost forgot to this is voice over body shop or vio Bs You've been watching a while. How did I do that? You've been watching. We've been doing this for 11. All right Figured it out Well We didn't even rehearse that. Yeah, we don't need no stinking rehearsals. We don't need that. All right. Cool. Yeah, but anyway See originally, you know George wrote me last week said I have to go to England I have to go to England had to go to England. All right go to England. Yeah, whatever reason and I guess He's spending some time with family in England or his girlfriend's family or something like he didn't go for the food No one goes to England for the alright if you say so from my understanding. Yes, and then We had Scott Park and originally scheduled for tonight We're gonna have a great time doing improv with him But he unfortunately got hit by the rudder of his surfboard yesterday and apparently broke two ribs Oh likely excuse So that's from what I understand. Wow. So he had a cancel out and So our good friend David H. Lawrence the 17th was more than happy to come in and co-host with me tonight So we can talk about more voice acting stuff. Yeah, Dan thinks he jiu-jitsu'd me He think he said well, I would have asked you but it's the last minute. I don't know if you're available I'm like sure. I'd be happy to I actually wasn't doing anything this afternoon. Wow, so Mike We all we all benefit nice. That's great. I was gonna go surfing, but I Don't think so. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I Scott owes me a surfing lesson. I want a surfing lesson from him a couple of years ago He goes, so what are we gonna do the surfing lesson? I'm like the sharks out there. I'm like I'm not going out there So then he goes and he breaks two ribs and I'm like Maybe I shouldn't be taking surfing He just ruined the whole thing for him. I know. All right. Yeah, anyway But then then it got better Then our director Sue Merlino who usually directs our show came down with COVID. She's like I should be able to do it But no, she's like really sick You know drink plenty of fluids Tylenol stay horizontal, right? Don't go near voiceover body shop tonight and we'll be fine so we're doing the show live and I'm directing it and I gotta be I gotta be honest. I'm really impressed with how You're able to actually run this, you know, it used to be called combo when we worked in radio, right? You're running this combo and that's pretty cool, especially since it's video. I know. Yeah See we originally we're just gonna do a podcast when George and I first are decided to do this Yeah, and he's like well we got webcam. So why don't we do it as a webcam? Oh, that was the bad the suggestion on his part. It was yeah originally and then You know, we're like, well, how do we do that? Well, there weren't a lot of streaming networks in 2011 we had to figure out how to do it ourselves and paid to the nose for it for a while and then You know and then things got better. Yeah, and the technology got better and we got better If you ever go back and watch episode number one, I wouldn't go that far, but it's fun Anyway, yeah, but our guest host tonight is the one and only David H. Lawrence the seven so am I a guest host or am I a co-host? Yeah, you're a guest co-host guest co-host. All right, best of both worlds. All right So like in the old Mike Douglas shoot exactly. Yeah, I'm gonna be Arthur treacher for Merv Griffin But will you do the Virginia real? No, okay. No, and I won't play what was the name of the woman that was always in the audience Mrs. Miller. Mrs. Miller Hello, Mrs. Miller. How are you? Oh good Yeah, and we've just lost everyone under the age of 58 They're gone. What what are they talking about? Oh my god Let's talk about voice acting because you're a voice actor. I'm a voice actor But you're also an accomplished screen actor. I mean We've seen you in heroes where you were the legendary puppet master Uh, where you got to work with Hayden Hayden Panatier, Zachary Quinto Uh Milo Ventimiglia All these all these low-level stars. Yeah, the people that someday I think they're gonna make it. Yeah, you know, you know, uh, yeah How did how did you get that particular role? That's a great question I'm asking that that's a question that demands a complete and thorough answer one that provides the person asking the question with a feeling of being taken care of and being Uh serviced so I'm I'm hoping that that happens for you at some point No, I I have I have absolutely no idea other than It is incredibly indicative of exactly what our business is all about Uh, we have no control over What happens once we Do our audition we have no control over what happens and I remember The the audition that I I did for that was on the the grounds of the universal studios. Have you heard of them? Oh, yeah I've been there. Yeah So I'm in the casting office for heroes, which is on universe a lot and I go in I walk in And They have this big huge waiting area with like 20 25 chairs all in a big circle just outside the door of where we're auditioning and I had never felt so Small in my life because every other chair in this room was filled And it was filled with an actor that had scared the living crap out of me at some point How so just I recognized them as being intimidated by the fact. Yeah, and I'm like, why am I here? Who made the mistake of inviting me to this party, you know And I I actually did something that my friend Michael Kostrov taught me Which was to sit in such a way if you can where you can see Into the casting room when they open the door just to get an idea of what you're going to encounter when you walk in there And I was seeing that there were lots of people inside the casting room You know, usually there's one two maybe three. Maybe there's a writer in there There were 11 people In the room like they had You know stadium seating going on this isn't the casting in the casting what you're actually in there when they're filming you Yeah, yeah, okay, and and I watched and I was like I'd signed in and I was like 30th on the list or so who knows but I'm watching people walk into that room where they're going to do the work and being Struck by the number of people in the room and and like you can see them visibly Reacting to it and I'm like, oh, okay And so when I walked into the room, I said, well, look at this. Look at you guys all showing up for my audition. Thank you And it just broke the tension in the room. I didn't have to worry about it I did my first take And apparently it was the director that stood up and did this I remember because he told me about this the rap party He goes, yeah, you were doing great But you were too far away the the microphone was on their camera And we couldn't hear very well what you were doing I could hear you in the room, but I wanted to make sure we could see it on tape So he had me pull my chair right up To the camera and do it exactly the same don't change a thing one more time And I remember at the point when I got my creepiest I noticed just off camera There was a woman who turned out to be the head of casting for nvc who shuttered And I'm like, okay, either it's cold in here or Maybe I did something good there And this was late morning on a thursday I went home took a nap because that's what I do And I was awakened by my agent at about 230 who said you should call your kids because you're gonna be on heroes And that's how that happened and I'm like you're out of your mind. You're out of your ever loving mind So I don't know how it happened. I just had fun with it. I you creeped them out success I creeped him out. Yeah. Yeah. That was a creepy character. He was creepy and he got creepier as it went on Right, you know, it was pretty cool. Yeah, I really enjoyed that. That's great. I enjoyed that show too Yeah, it was kind of a new type of thing that oh my god I was a fan from the very first moment when claire fell off the scaffolding and then put herself back together And I was like What is this? How did they do that? You know, I didn't know about final cut pro. What did I know? Anyway It it was it was it was a great show But let's talk a little bit about about acting itself because you know that people forget that voice acting is Acting yeah, I mean a lot of people just think well, I just read for a living It's not that you've you've got to become somebody else. Yeah, it's interesting how people will uh Clearly understand that acting on stage and acting on camera are very very similar There's just some adjustments that you make based on What I call the collector device, you know, is it a camera? Is it a live audience? and that gets extended into voiceover as well and Going back to the the the the hero's um Audition I asked them as I was about to do my audition. How tight of a shot do you have on me? And they said hey, you know head and shoulders and I'm like, oh, this is great Because I'm going to drop my voice down here And it was it, you know, we tend to as voice talent be much more aware of vocal distancing than People who are just getting started in on camera work and certainly stage work But the people that do really well in on camera work They get the whole notion of the bigger the shot the louder you can be The smaller the shot the softer you should be And that spills over into voiceover as well when you start to think about Who are you talking to? What are you trying to help them do? You know, do you need to put on The superhero armor of being a professional voice talent? And you know, I I see my clients sometimes I see people that I coach Making the mistake of thinking that Unless they become a better version of themselves right away Nobody's gonna pay them Right. Why would I use the voice that I? Wake up within the morning in any way shape or form, you know, if the line is I don't know They're going to elicit that They're going to enunciate that I don't know or I don't know Yeah, is that does that work for the script? Maybe you should consider that Just like you would with any other form of acting so I think we forget that the acting part Oh, that's the acting part I see not the recording at minus 12 to minus 60 b occasionally peeking in the red Yeah, you think about those things much more often it it feels like anyway Then you think about What your job is in the script what the words are asking you to do And once you do realize that and you kind of get your tech into auto mode You know, you know how far away you need to lean from the mic if you're going to raise your voice or Whatever you're going to do or if you're running a compressor, you know, you you can rely on that Um, but but I think that the the notion of acting is lost because people think commercials You act in commercials Yeah, you do you act in commercials And you certainly act with audiobooks You even act with ivr You act informative But you still are acting you're you're helping somebody get their they want to know How close they are to the limit on their credit card as they're standing in line at target with a Cart full of stuff And your job as an ivr person is to make sure they understand That they've got 58 dollars in room on their card and that's it so It's still acting right Yeah, oh and then and you thought I was not going to have much to say Oh, no, that's why you're here. I see. All right fine. All right great Plenty to say if you're just joining us our guest tonight is david h. Lawrence the 17th We're talking about voice Acting which by the way voiceover body shop is about in case you've been wondering over the last few years about that Yeah, uh, if you've got a question for david and I'm sure you have probably plenty Throw them in the chat room whether you're watching on facebook live Whether you're watching on youtube whether you are watching off You know some satellite somewhere, you know some You know some satellite from spacex and it's beaming it down to you Put it in the chat room wherever you are and that question will get relayed to us And we will ask david that question in the next segment of our show I hear that starlink makes us both sound so cool So awesome. Yeah, I want to try starlink. If you try if you look at Uh, I may have okay. I may have um It's kind of half baked at this point. It's gonna get better. It's gonna get better You kind of have to have you know direct line of sight You know, but you know, it's kind of like the the first parts of when 5g was kind of available You know because 5g isn't 5g 5g is whatever people want to call 5g it it appears um I want to make sure that people Really like smash The like button I want the like button on your computer to be unrecognizable When you're finished liking what we're doing and sharing With the other social media members that you happen to know if you would do that for me, I'd appreciate it All right, David H. Lawrence is our guest. So How did you get into acting because you and I started in radio? I think yeah, but uh, which was Acting yeah, it's acting. You know Yeah, it's a little pukey in terms of acting but yeah, you know, in fact, it got me fired That pukey Really? Oh my god. I wanted you to be more natural and I wanted you to be more pukey No, no, what did they want all I could do when I first started doing radio was be my heroes Imitate my heroes The real bob james john lannigan don imus Uh, and don imus didn't puke. No, it was down here. Yeah, it was just he was just very forward He was mumbling when he was at wgar in cleveland He was like, how are you doing this morning because I was an overnight guy and I would like make sure that his stuff was Prepped for the first half hour and sometimes run it for him because he would get in when he decided to get in anyway, um I could not do anything But that really back of the throat kind of thing that I thought was going to get me Hired in the big markets and I was in columbus, ohio And it was 1978 august of 1978 for those of you that are catholic. You might remember we lost a pope That that month pope john paul the first and he was the guy that was in the pope's office For about 30 days 30 31 days and he really affected me You know little jew boy from from cleveland, ohio, but here's this pope who on st. peters square asks a An altar boy to come over and sit next to him so that he can talk to him about honoring Your mother and father and I thought to myself as i'm watching in columbus ohio when they're showing You know tape of this on on the cbs evening news. I'm thinking that kid is going to go to his Village or neighborhood in rom or whatever And he is going to be Pre sainted like he touched the pope the pope talked to him. He's special, right? And you know popes were very like hands off before that, you know, they were very like detached So he had affected me. He passed away on a thursday. I had a saturday midday show It's really embarrassing I had a saturday midday show and at the time On our playlist was a song by billy joe that i dedicated To the memory of pope john paul the first and i dedicated it just like this Going out to pope john paul the first he died too young for us billy joe only the good die young w n c i Okay, fast forward about 48 hours Those of you that know the lyrics to the song you're already ahead of me 48 hours I get a phone call at 7 30 in the morning on monday morning from my program director who says to me Mike metzger says to me Uh, yeah, hey man, um, could you come down to the station because we're changing the locks and we gotta like Get everybody's keys and give out new ones What he didn't say was you're not getting a new one You're being fun because i had to walk past these protesters who i had i had no idea what they were protesting You know they were protesting me And they were and they and the thing was that the w n c i knew that only the good die young was on The catholic diocese do not playlist And they were like don't listen to that station because they're playing the devil's music apparently So and i just made it worse And it was partly because of the way i presented myself It was almost like a joke and it wasn't i really felt that But you you never know who's exactly when you're on the radio or when you're doing anything for that so acting For me didn't really play into it until much later in my career When i started doing talk radio because within 15 minutes of starting a talk show Unless you're rush limbaugh you drop the whole dj thing right you just talk with people right you're just talking and when i decided i wanted to be An on-camera actor it was some really crazy like You know brain-eating worm that got up into my head and made me think That with this amazing face and this gorgeous physique that i could possibly add On-camera work to my My my quiver. Yeah, you know and part of it was the weather in washington dc I wanted to get as far away from it as possible and i thought all right fine I'm gonna try this and i was 49 years old or 40 46 years old and i got my first gig when i was 50 and that was heroes So here we go back to heroes again. Do you like me to tell you more about all this? No, that's okay. No, that's fine, but you but you got into acting and Yeah Yeah, but the only acting i'd done before that was when Some Organization in washington dc or new york or wherever i was working in radio Wanted me to promote their thing On my show so they'd give me some walk-on role Hoping that i would talk about hey i'm gonna be at the ford theater this thursday night You know or i was i played the kennedy center. I was the narrator for the john philip susa Extravaganza on the fourth of july those are always fun. Yeah, those are great and and you know, but Acting i had to learn from scratch And boy, i loved it. I just loved it. How did you get yourself immersed in it? Well, i first of all i asked i asked some people who were already successful some of whom i had on my show And um, i said where did you study? How did you figure out how the business works? And i gave myself plenty of time to figure out how the business works I tend to talk about the abraham lincoln method You know he once famously said if i had an hour to chop down a tree i'd spend the first 45 minutes sharpening the axe So that's what i did. I i do that all the time in my life. I study what works What doesn't work who are the gatekeepers? Who can say yes who can say no who has the power? You know, what do you need to do to be successful? And i really took the time to study. I interned at casting offices. I interned at agents offices one man band agents big agencies Uh, i interned in writers rooms. I interned at a network You just walked in and said i will do this for nothing. You need some help Well, they all have intern programs that you can you know, um, i i went to all kinds of casting workshops Uh to learn not to be cast in fact, i didn't even try like There are times when i wouldn't give my head shot because i'm like i'm not ready to audition I'm not looking i'm not looking to get you know brought in for something. I just want to learn from you How do you run your office? What is this all? So that's the kind of person that i am and i took four good years And i did a play And i think i'm the only actor in los angeles that's ever gotten his agent from doing what's called black box theater It's the little tiny 49 seat theaters. Nobody else has ever gotten an agent. I did I don't know how I was doing a play called bucowsicle Which was about charles bukowski and it was a comedy About charles bukowski sounds like somebody i was in a fraternity with yeah Yeah And then some agent, you know was brought there by his uh his clients celebrities started coming to this thing And he waited for me out in front of the sacred fools theater here in los angeles And he said do you have an agent and i'm like i'm not ready for i'm still training i'm not ready for an agent And he goes oh, yes, you are and then he and i've been with him ever since Well, it's been like Almost 17 years And he's apparently done well by us. He's he's he's a great guy. He knows what he's doing. Yeah, absolutely To want to be an actor I like to say Yeah It's got to be in your gallbladder because you got it's got to be who you are and when That's why my gallbladder feels the way it does Oh, okay. Yeah now I understand. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's got to be who you are you have It's got to be what you want to do and nothing's going to stop you because I i've been in the casting lounges here in la and i'm like All these people i'm competing against and that's the guy they're gonna hire because he looks like the person That the the role fits you think and then two months later you sit in there watching tv and a commercial comes up Yeah, that was the guy they'd be playing you'd think sometimes that's the way it happens um, I think that people want to be actors for uh Appropriate reasons and sometimes Some very inappropriate reasons like they want to be famous Or they want to be wealthy, right Yeah, then why are they going into voiceover? I mean, you know, if there's one thing actors know It's the taste of ramen They understand and yeah, what and what and mac and cheese and mac and cheese exactly and look at me so, you know, I I feel like um, yeah, I actually Remember all the way back to when I was six or seven years old The very first time I thought maybe I would I would want to be an actor was when I watched this film called guizhou gigot Bob of Jackie gleason Jackie gleason exactly as a is a clown type figure in paris Not a clown, but a mute. He was a deaf mute, right and he was an apartment manager who was uh Very badly mistreated and was accused of of uh molesting this little girl Um, I mean and no lines, right just that face that face And I think Jackie gleason is One of the most underrated actors in the history of our business Because he made me as a six or seven year old laugh and cry and wonder And why can't he talk? Not that guy isn't talking on that movie But that apartment manager. No, he didn't do that. Why are you accusing him of doing that? He didn't do that, you know And and I I just remember being affected by it And that I wanted to do that And it happened for me with audio. It's happened for me with video And I think you're absolutely right. I'm going to go in for some tests on my gallbladder now that I know That this is what you think what are they gonna find in there? That's right a little there's gonna be a little lock box. I think you know Once again, we're talking with david h. Lawrence the 17th and we're talking about acting and has it relates to voice Acting which is You know, there's a lot of actors out there that you know, they're screen actors Some of them just have great voices and you hear them on commercials and you and you hear the narrating stuff And then there are some guys that They they they try to make this transition and trying to voice act it which of course a lot of happened But during the pandemic sure and they didn't get it. Yeah, why do you think that that was that some people weren't able to make that transition Well, I think some people take care of all the different facets that go into your acting your look your movement your understanding of drama comedy scripting uh production right um and uh Then you go into voice over and you think How hard can this be? It's you just talking. Yeah, you know And and they find out very quickly how hard it can be and then the inverse of that is true as well I think if you look at your your absolute favorite actors, you're gonna say to yourself. Wow, they've got a distinctive voice I get it. I understand and it just adds to things You know, uh, if an actor can if somebody can do an impression of an actor Then they've got it all going on, you know, right? And I think that we as voice actors there are plenty of voice actors who kind of push back at the whole notion Of uh doing anything on camera. I urge you to do something on camera so that you know That you are an actor because it's too late You're already an actor. There's no There's no there's no escaping it even if all you do is work on mic You're still an actor. Sorry Hate to break it to you I have found when I when I start working with people and I've worked with a lot of actors who are You know, they're like, well, I gotta now I had to do voice over Yeah, which because you know acting sort of went by the wayside for them but The one I try to teach them is is that the microphone is it's a camera And the fact of the matter is is when you're doing a scene with somebody You're working with that other person you are playing to them. You are not playing to the camera unless you're like doing a Depends. Yeah tied commercial. We won't mention any names and uh And and you have to look in the camera and and talk to the camera, but Forget that the microphone is there and just be present in what it is that you're doing Yeah, I I have a variant on that theme. It's like you have to be aware Of where you are on on mic. You also have to be aware of where you are on camera There are so many things that people don't know About working on camera. So I'm now on a on a One shot. I'm on a uh, what's called a cowboy shot if I was standing up And if I'm talking to somebody on camera My head is actually tilted toward the camera even though I'm talking to their camera side eye And that opens my face up to the camera if they're over there I'm not looking that way because it changes what the camera sees And when you're on mic, the same thing can be happening depending upon what the axis of the pickup pattern is and And you if you if you're not wearing your earphones If you're not wearing earbuds or headphones, you can't hear this But you can adjust yourself Just like you can on camera and just like you can on stage You know, you open yourself out to the audience when you're hosting or when you're working in a play There's all of these things that actors do that. Hopefully nobody ever notices And it's not just on camera actors. It's not just on stage actors. It's voice talent as well Right. So you're absolutely right dan 100 I totally agree And I hope that that first question that really deserved an amazing answer a satisfying one is someday going to be answered for you We'll get to it eventually But we're going to get to your questions in just a minute. We're with david h. Lawrence the 17th Again, if you have a question You can ask that question in the chat room in facebook or in uh, youtube And we will get to those questions right after these important messages So don't go away here on voiceover body shot Now I have to figure out where to go in here And go to the break like that. You're still watching vlbs Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio Well, okay, we're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone But it's so much more. It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song It's the end of the road for red When hope is lost the i8 from vmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish Hey, it's j michael collins bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email It's j michael at jmc voiceover.com now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute. We'll get back to the show Hey there hero. It's david h. Lawrence the 17th, and I have spent the last few months Updating bringing right up to the minute all the information in my free course. That's called mastering home based Voice over and it begins this week. So if you want to be notified when the first free lesson drops Uh, which will be on thursday Go to vio heroes dot com slash go This course is a very deep dive. It's about 10 hours long a very deep dive into the business of voice over the equipment you need The artwork that you need to understand different categories of voice over and your mindset And I want you to have all the preparatory Information and strategies and tactics that you need. So join me from mastering home based voice over Go to vio heroes dot com slash go. That's vio heroes dot com slash go You know, I used to live in buffalo, new york But now i'm in sunny southern california But no matter where you are when you need equipment strictly for voice over There's only one place to go and that's voiceover essentials dot com And right now is the time to get with harlin hogan's signature series vo One a voice over microphone They also have the fabulous sentrance mic port pro 2 with limiter in stock In fact, it's the only version they sell now a limiter is a must have especially when recording oneself with no engineer to ride game for you By the way, it's the most amazing limiter. They've encountered it's impossible to detect and it's incredibly quiet And they've upgraded the portabouth pro quick script led light Now it has two goose necks all the better to read your script Go on over to voice over essentials right now to get these great voice over essential products Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voice over body shop. It's great And we're back With david h. Lawrence the 17th For a moment. It's like what was his name again? No, I remembered your name You look like a deer in the headlights there for a second. What what do you need? What can I do for you, Dan? I'm just amazed. I know Did you move on here for the same reason I moved out here because of the weather on the east coast? Uh, yeah, january and february. Okay, great. So you're you're from cleveland. I'm from buffalo But I wasn't in cleveland. You were in I was in washington dc where it's hot as hell there What but not then oh march They have absolutely no idea that they're sitting on the chesapeake bay And they have exactly the same issue that buffalo and cleveland have lake effect weather. Yeah. Yeah So I got out of there. I got the hell out. Well, we have a ton of questions. Let's do it Let's see if we can get to some of these uh verne pringle. Hi verne and youtube question i'm 65 That's not how we're at the club. It's how verne pringle sounds. I know um And starting out in vo should I gravitate towards audition scripts geared more for older voices? I don't know. I should if I should do a script geared for a younger voice Yes opinions. Yes That's all for tonight The number here listen, um, you know, I don't know what age I mean, I know you've just mentioned how old you are physically But I have no idea how old your voice is Uh, I will tell you that I am going to be 64 in about three weeks 64 my voice doesn't appear to be 64 years old just yet So I tend to uh get auditions for 30 to late 40s 30s years old to late 40s And I tend to be cast in just straight ahead adult things not older adult and so on So without knowing what your voice qualities are I couldn't tell you but I would definitely say To start with whatever category you end up discerning what your voice age is And then going one up and one down I'm sure you can make yourself sound a little bit younger. Maybe sound a little bit older But that's kind of the range that I would work on in terms of scripts Interesting We don't realize how old we are or how young we are for example When I was a kid You know, my parents would have friends over And I'm like who are all these old people here that are hanging out here And then I was invited to some friends house in oxnard a few a few years or a few weeks ago And suddenly he's mixing cocktails and it's like Why am I hanging out with my parents friends? And and then suddenly I look at the mirror and I'm like That's why Yeah, and that and when you start looking in your news feed and it's There's a lot more like um so said Sally passed away And sally was who you took to the junior prom. Yeah, and you're like, uh, But that's not what we're talking about here dan. It's not no But I was just relating the fact that we don't know how old we actually are Yeah, but we and the other there's a dark side to that and that's also that wasn't dark enough Well, is there are people especially older people who Are pushing back as though it's an insult When somebody says no, man, you don't look that age anymore. You look this age You know, um And they tend to be upset by that. What do you mean? I'm 65. What are you talking about? What do you mean? My my voice sounds like I'm 70. What are you talking about? You know or not? So, you know, we want to be sometimes what we're not remember when we were young all we wanted to be was older Right, we would read up when we were tweens. We'd be like, oh boy's life instead of uh Cub Scout magazine. Okay. Cool. Yeah, I'm gonna read that and girls same thing You know, they're not teens yet, but they're reading teen beat Whatever tiger tiger beat. Thank you Lloyd Dachstin's tiger beat nice Nice Steel trap memory for really stupid stuff. All right. Okay Let's get on to the next question. Jim Frank asks. Okay. This is actually a tech question Which I can probably answer. All right. Uh, I says, um What's a good interface? I have $500 to spend. Wow. Well, you have about $300 to spare there to spend on something else. No, you don't believe me You you absolutely have a budget that I don't know who set your budget But become friendly with that person for the rest of your life because you can skim off the top Yeah, go for it. Exactly. I just happen to have one of these guys sitting around Uh, you know, here's a focus right to i2 $150 And it will do everything you need it to do. Yeah, and it doesn't sound any better or any worse than something that is $500 more. Yeah, so I think people get caught up on the idea of features And stuff that will make you sound That can try and enhance your sound Or they figure spending more money. Again, this is this is a very interesting position Price versus value Right, right This is a great example of if you have $500 to spend on an interface Well, sure if I spend 499 on a really expensive interface, it's going to sound better than the $150 interface, isn't it? No Uh price and value aren't necessarily locked but our impressions of them are right. Yeah, that's a really important part Yeah, yeah, I have found there's no interface and no microphone out there That will change the way you read copy Or perform copy yet people I got a heavy u 87. No, you don't yeah, don't need one of those It's not going to make you a better voice actor What's going to make you a better voice actor is taking that extra 300 dollars and taking a couple of voice acting lessons That would be that would be great or vio heroes.com or just the free course that I have starting this thursday as we're recording this Which is monday Thursday the 25th of august. I'm Doing a course called mastering home base voiceover. It's absolutely free It will take you through what I consider to be the four keys Of voiceover including the performance of the different categories of voice work and so If you go to video heroes.com slash go, I'll let you know on thursday when the first lesson drops But again, it's absolutely free. It'll be across nine days. I've been working on it for a couple months now And yeah, mr. Frank, you don't have to spend that extra 300 dollars We could go to like mortons or something. Yeah, yeah, or can't canter serve. Oh, yeah Went to the deli exhibit at the skirbel actually was very interesting the deli exhibit Now exhibits about delis. Okay. All right. Okay They show you how they corn the beef. No, it was more of the history of I got you. All right. All right. Terry briscoe asks How do you harness that same energy when there is no one in To to interact with when you're acting because it's just you and your mic Yep, it's just you and your mic and it's just you and your camera when you're auditioning for television And it's just you and the casting director if you go someplace to do that You don't have an audience. You don't have a crew You don't have a director or an engineer like you might be if you were going to a studio And it's all about paying attention to two things Who are you talking to? And what are you trying to help them get done? They have a job The job may be getting their clothes clean. The job may be getting a new car The job may be this talking commercials here. The job may be Serving their family, but there are higher goals with all of this You don't want to just serve your family a nice hot meal You want your family to love you? You want your family to rely on you to have confidence in you that you know you're taking care of them So who are you talking to? Are you talking to that mom or that kid or that co-worker or whatever? And once you do that once you determine who it is that you're talking to Then you simply go about the notion of helping them get their job done Whatever that job is and the script will tell you now if you need outside influence I think usually what I ask my clients to do is to reconsider that just reconsider that for just a moment and think How do I think to myself without outside influence? How do I determine what I'm going to do? With the day or the week or your life? Without somebody, you know, leaving me down some path, right? So there's all kinds of really easy ways To generate internal energy when you're doing this sort of thing And that's what I do All right. Yeah Next question we have Let's see. Terry had a second part says Had to become and come to the realization that voiceover is acting Duh Hey, be nice It's my audience. I can do whatever you want Uh, I don't want to be labeled as an actor when I first started because I don't want to be misleading After doing both I now realize that both are acting and they just I have different methods Yeah, I think that's do they I think that's an inculcation of the uh imposter syndrome You think to yourself well, I'm just starting off. I'm not an actor yet. No, sorry the moment The moment you begin in any Any part of this business too late. You're an actor. Now. Are you an accomplished actor? Are you a veteran actor? Are you a union actor? Are you an actor with credits? Man, maybe not But you're an actor And If you would Celebrate that enjoy that internalize that Feed on that Excellent max goldberg asks uh on youtube by the way. Thanks for watching on youtube Smash that like button max. Absolutely What steps does david take when evaluating a script before recording an audition? That's a great question It's It's kind of a variation on the theme. Who am I talking to? What kind of job am I trying to help them get done and it and it covers all categories of voice work all categories of voice work um Cold reading self-direction These are things that require That you trust the writer And the problem is some of us come from radio and there Often the writer is a salesperson who's working from a formula Part of which includes repeating the phone number 15 times at the end of the spot right and which nobody ever pays attention to Yeah, it depends. It depends if they need what you're offering them, right? That's true And and that's a self-selecting group of people if you're not in the market for detergent The best detergent spot in the world is not going to sell you detergent may make you laugh It may make you go. Oh, that's interesting. But if you need detergent, oh, that becomes the most important thing in your life At that very moment, right? Think about when you need a product and you go searching for it on amazon All of a sudden, you know, that's what I need so the words to me always Should be given the the heft of doing the heavy lifting So as I look at a script it is Have faith in the writer Admire what they've done look for what their goal was. What are they trying to get accomplished? What do they want you? How do you fit into the story? Because sometimes you're a number of different Actors doing the same thing, you know, how do you fit in in the story? And then do your best to really carefully identify who you're talking to And it's never All of you people in the broadcast studio audience. It's never that it's one person Arthur Godfrey Changed everything long before Phil or Paul Harvey Changed things Arthur Godfrey Was complained about to congress Because instead of the typical broadcast Announcery and now let's talk about Tetley T for those of you sitting in your kitchens all across america Wait, here's how to know Arthur Godfrey was he was how I how I that's he was he was listen I know exactly how you feel You got your your husband off to work. You got your kids off to school It's not even 9 30 in the morning and you're exhausted Am I right? I'm not asking you if I'm right about Arthur Godfrey That's what he would he would say. All right. Am I right and and you could just feel Housewives across america going. Oh my god. Yes And and then the next thing you would say it up on your shelf. It's the third shelf up on the right That's where the Tetley T is Go check it out or Lipton T. He was the Lipton T guy because the Tetley T company complained to congress That Arthur Godfrey was hypnotizing america's housewives No, he was just talking to them the way they wanted to be talked to he was talking to the way. Yeah, you know, we think There's this massive audience millions of people But they're listening one at a time. They're not sitting in a stadium somewhere Engaging in this in a group thing kind of thing, right? All right. So anyway, that's why that's how I approach it I hope that's helpful Right. It's a one on one conversation. Absolutely. We're not talking to a million people You're talking to one person sitting in a car somewhere going Okay, yeah, and that's not even the person you're talking to right you have an archetype That's who you're talking to and that person identifies with that archetype. So All right next question is I love these questions. These questions are great. Can we stay on until nine o'clock tonight? We can I got to eat dinner eventually. All right Uh, let's see Jonathan Graham. Hi, David. Can you offer some tips and tricks to transition from a linear mindset to the more abstract Creative mindset required for consistent authentic reads for nerdy recovering programmers. Well, have you told yourselves a bunch of bull? Okay, first of all, I have a very linear mind I I am a right brain person trapped in a left brain body I love Step by step. There are two types of people in the world. Here we go. Okay, two types of people in the world There are options people and there are process people and you're probably a process person Because you framed this question in a way that you think I'm going to answer But I'm about to do something called reframing watch this and lp So options people most artists have some and we're all on the spectrum between options and processes But I am way toward processes. You good? So, uh process people Options people want to know what palette can they draw from what kind of colors do we have All the different things that they might be able to use to solve the problem I want to know what all my options are. Maybe I'll decide at that point what I want to use But I want to know even more process people You give me step one through step ten to go from I know nothing I know bupkus to I'm a world-class expert. Here's what you do step one step two step three step four And if you're a programmer, you're very aware of this now If you're an object oriented programmer, you may have expanded beyond that Where things are kind of waiting to be used not necessarily being done in a step by step order And the funny thing is is that storytelling is still a step by step process There's a reason why pick your own endings Are not very popular with audiences audiences don't want to be Uh, given that burden of trying to decide what the story should they want to be washed With the the colors and the decisions that the writers have made Same thing with a voice talent. You want to go from the person that you're trying to help with whatever job Remember we talked about that or the person that you've identified as the person you're talking to You want to get them from not being able to do their job To having done their job, which is purchasing that product or service or crying because the hero died Or whatever it is that you're trying to do to help them do their job Don't lose that linear thought process From the introduction to the hero's journey to the side trips to the sequel to all this is still a linear process Don't tell yourself that you're doing something wrong because you're not Okay So there's your hall pass I hope that helps that that worked for me Alrighty, well, thanks everyone for your questions And our just goes that's it. We're done. All right, not not quite We still have to take a break. Okay, and then we'll come back and then we'll say goodbye And then you get to read some of the stuff that I read every week. Oh if you can see it from here I can't see anything. I'll bring I'll bring it closer to all right. All right David H. Lawrence We'll be right back and finish things up right after these very important messages. So don't go away This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to live online In a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com for your via website Shouldn't be a pain in the you know what No, we got to go to a two shot because you want to have to talk about source connect ah Because source connect is that software that allows you to talk to Another studio a big professional studio without actually having to go to that studio This is technology that's been around for 15 years I mean it's been around for a long time, but over the internet Source connect by source elements is what you need in order to Get yourself into those studios and a lot of agencies have been saying you gotta have the paid source connect if you want to get voice work Um, you know and I have I have it I know I don't know if you have it. Do you have it? I use source connect now Okay source connect now it's a free version of of source connect so you can learn how to use it and when An agent calls you and says you got booked this spot, but you got to have source connect The paid version you can have the paid version and now they have all sorts of different ways you can get it You can buy it monthly you can buy it by the time you want to use it All these cool things so they understand as a voice actor You have to be flexible and that's one of the great things about source connect Is it allows you to use it when you need it? And you can get a free trial of it learn how to use it get it all set up properly And they have really great customer support to make sure that it all works Really really well. Where do you go for that dan? You go over to source elements dot com or source connect dot com Wow, try it there. Look at the different packages they have It's important stuff to have and it certainly is important stuff to know about so go over there and check it out source connect Anyway That's going to do it for this week. Believe it or don't But we do have to thank a bunch of people. All right For example, we have to like to thank the academy Well, eventually when when we get nominated for something which never seems to happen But we have to thank our donors of the week. Okay, we can read these in in you know one at a time like 949 designs Wait, wait, I here. Oh Okay, uh, jonathan grant kc. Clack christopher epperson sarah borges philip Sapir tom pinto tom pinto really Uh, shelly avilino bright page. Is that right? That's shelly. Uh patty gibbons rob rider rob rider. Wait. There's more wait Greg thomas a doctor voice Antland production isn't that uncle roy? That is uncle roy. Okay shanna pennington baird martha con don griffith Trey mosley diana birdsaw and sandra manwheeler. Oh sandra. Thank you We have supporters all over the world. That's lovely even in canada. How'd I do with that? Uh, you did okay Yeah, I was trying to help somebody get their job done. Exactly, you know We also need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vo heroes.com. Oh, that's you. I'm familiar. Yes Uh voice actor wipes websites.com jmc demos and world voices organization the industry association of freelance voice down That's right. Uh, thanks to jeff holman for getting all the uh, the questions in there Maybe I'll go by just like that Uh, sumerlino feel better. Please don't die I And of course li penny for simply being li penny. Well, this is not an easy business voiceover is a very complex You know, there's a lot of things you got to learn. It's about acting. It's about performance. It's about technology It's about business and marketing and all those things and we're here to tell you all about these things Hopefully george will be back from england one of these days and we'll We'll we'll get back to it, but I want to thank you david for joining me tonight and wow You're working on making sure that he comes back. That's good Yeah, well, you know can't do tech talk this week without it. I see so we'll try and get it done next week or the week after or We will make sure that you will get tech talk next week in the meantime I'm dan lennard. I'm david h. Lawrence the 17th and this is voiceover body shop or vo B s. Have a great week everybody