 Hey, it's time for voiceover a body shop. How's everybody doing out there tonight or this afternoon or whatever time you're watching it? George and I are thrilled to have as our guest this week the one and only Rick Wasserman. Hey, hey, hey How you doing? All right, we're doing just great if you got a question for Rick or for George and I or Whatever put it in the chat room Jeff Holman is there and we've got lots of stuff to talk about about how to make yourself more Bookable when it comes to your auditions. Yeah, stay tuned for that coming up now. It's a thing over body shop. It's on Stop that. That's right. We'll be right there. They came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a Professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world Bring you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com Where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training JMC demos when quality matters and voice over extra your daily resource for VO success And now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Thought we just throw that one in there. Hey building a new intro. Yeah, something a little bit different I gave Jacob a task animate this And he did it. He followed he did it's like, uh, you're still working on it. Oh, yeah, I gotta work on that animation Busy kid. What can I say? Anyway, I'm Dan Leonard by the way, and I'm George Woodham and this is voice over body shop or VO BS Alrighty Yes, it is. That's right. Jeff. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Okay. That's enough Jeff. Thank you. That's enough and cut all right It's only the thing the only thing he understands anyway attention. He's being on HBO just isn't enough for Jeff That's right being in an academy award-winning film. It's like You know suddenly it's gone. Yeah Anyway, uh, we're here to talk about Voice over that's what our job is. George and I are voice over people Engineers, I'm a professional voice actor and we like to talk about voice over But the best thing we can do is bring on the people who are the top people the people who make a difference the innovators in this industry the people that Make a difference and so let's introduce our guest tonight Rick Wasserman is perhaps best known as the 12 year signature voice of amc network and for voicing Thor and hulk for a marvel animation Rick can also be heard on popular video game series such as cull of duty Diablo Starcraft and Batman Arkham Plus rick is is a very successful voice acting coach His business is called bookable dot bookable vo dot com and along with mr. Woodham here Built the tri booth which we'll talk a little bit about a little bit later on Let's welcome to our show once again the one and only rick Wasserman. How are you doing? I'm very well. Thanks for having me I think what is this my Okay, thank you George really please my egos already Uh, what my third or fourth time here with you. I think it's the fourth. Oh boy Wow, you were on with with lori allen once. Yeah, I was out of town and you've been on with Me twice. So yeah, and and then you came in and you built the tri booth in here once. Yes, that's right. That's right That's four. That's four. Wow. What do we get for the fifth one a toaster or what do we get? Will they will we consider you friend of the show or yeah, that works at this point? I'll pin him up on the wall. Please. I'll sit on the shelf behind you. There you go Yeah, so welcome to welcome back rick. I mean, thank you. You're you're a busy guy as as we all know And of course if anybody else has a question for for rick just put it in the chat room and please He'll be thrilled to answer but I got a lot of great questions For him as well that you're a well-rounded actor you stage screen voice over What came first? What came first? Uh, I am a trained theater actor first So I know people that do vo come from all areas, right? There's uh people that do radio There's a lot of radio people. There's stand-up comedians Uh, there are people that just wanted to start doing voiceover, right? In fact, I recall when I was on the Avengers Many of the we recorded the Avengers all together. So all the Avengers are in the room at the same time There's 15 mics. It's very exciting and when you're not reading when you're not in a scene, you're sitting down and I'd say More than half the people When they sat down we're reading comics like this This was the life. This is what they wanted to do, uh, which is very exciting But me I came from theater did theater first Mm-hmm. So like just basic theater, you know musical theater shakespeare Basic theater Not basic basic there. I mean, you know crossing all of the oh no no sure You know, I think I found that I was in more musicals Than not although I'm not I'm not the world's greatest singer. I can schmaltz my way through a number I was in uh most popular show was I was in lion king on broadway for three years So I was doing that and while I was doing that I was also doing HBO and amc voiceover So, uh, and I got to do television shows during the day So I did my requisite law and order and I did all that kind of thing So I really was kind of multimedia at the time now. I'm in uh, los angeles I have kind of calmed down a bit mostly doing voiceover. I do a show once in a while um And of course I am coaching every day and building the tri booth Yeah, yes, literally doing just that Believe it or not everybody. Yeah, he's tying them all together. We'll talk about what you get has Rick's fingerprints and his wife's We do wipe them off first just so you know Yeah, there's a little hand sanitizer. I do it's just it's really important so One of the things that you've been doing that, you know, that we've always been noticing is Your coaching business a bookable vo dot com. Yeah, how did you I mean everybody's like, you know, once they do voiceover like Oh, I got a coach But you're very successful at it and and you know just the name I think says it all that You know people want to be able to book work and there's hundreds of auditions just flying in and out of there And what is it that makes the difference? How is it that somebody books over somebody else? Even if they don't have a great voice because as we know Having a great voice has very little to do with voiceover these days. You're so right Yeah, especially now when the trend is highest authenticity because voiceover is a performing art like singing acting dancing It is subject to the whims of trends and the trend has been for a while highest authenticity most natural most real and uh and because of that I think I don't know about you dan, but it's harder for guys like you and I who have what sounds like You know, I wake up in the morning and I sound like I'm hosting a game show My voice just sounds like this and a little harder to Book some of the work nowadays. Now, certainly there's a place for us and that is promos and narration and trailers and stuff And that's been great um But I think uh what keeps people working. What what is the trick? What books work? No one knows No one knows it's impossible to know what they want So I tell everyone that works with me give up on that divorce yourself from trying to please people because chances are Most producers don't know exactly what they want until they hear it All I can train you to do all anyone can train you to do is to do your best work. That is tell the richest Most vivid specific clearest sort of you centric story you can that's your job And then as soon as you leave the booth and you've done whatever editing you're going to do sort of you Say it again. It was so good. I said it. Say it three times Make sure but once you're done and it's all edited You let go of it. You let it go. It's done. You don't ask your agent about it. Hey, what did Kleenex think about my don't ask them It's done. It's finished if you happen to book it You'll know your agent will call you and you can have a little party But until then the next thing you do is work on the next audition Yeah, and ultimately you'll book Yeah, how many times you know if you're you're coming back from the studio after doing an audition and you're like Halfway, you know down Burbank Boulevard, and it's like why didn't I do it like this? Yeah, and they'll say is that all you want to do is you know anything else? Well, I think I got it It's like never yeah, it's impossible to know you just do you you just do your best And someone will like it some producer out there. It's just waiting to hear your voice Just got to give it to him and be ready right a lot of times you hear people say that What is it one of the things that helps you book is Not doing it like everybody else, but then again if you're just being yourself and you're not like being it like everybody else. That's right Dan, I think that's brilliant advice for anyone I tell people if I could give you one piece of advice to keep your head above the throngs in this incredibly saturated industry, especially since the pandemic where everyone who was on stage had to find their way into a closet and start recording to earn a wage You should embrace Your voice and your read. It's the best thing you can do embrace Give up on trying to sound like anything you've heard before Don't do your don la fontaine. Don't do your let go of all that and just embrace who you are Be that singular color in the big box of crayons. Somebody wants that color right now They're just waiting for you to do it. They're just waiting for you to just be you Unfortunately, we have either directly or indirectly been listening to voice over our whole lives And we have in our head how it should sound and as soon as you say commercial to someone They might engage their commercial sound and we don't want that anymore We just want you to sound like you talking to someone, you know So if you can get back to that and kind of wipe off that shellac that that varnish You'll book you'll book because you will be your own sound Yeah, gotta sand it down a little bit. You gotta sand it then. Yeah, of course. Get rid of the sheen. Just yeah Just a little bit. That's right Once again, we're talking with rick wasterman if you've got a question for him We're gonna get to your questions. So write them in the chat room and jeff Jeff will get them to us somehow jeff holman is in there He is like reading all of them and he's typing madly into our into our notes So we know what you're asking and uh, that's really important. So You know, it's one of those things about voiceover. You know, you audition you Goes off into the ether and you're like Um, but why you know, you wait to see and usually as they say no news is good news But why do people not book in your opinion? What what are some of the the major mistakes that people make? I mean, aside from the obvious of not knowing what the hell they're doing. Yeah Um, I think um, you don't need any tricks I think let go of tricks people that do that thing like when they slate I have a real pet peeve with this when they slate it sounds like hey, it's rick wasterman coming at you Hope you're having a good day. Here we go take number one. I mean, you're not you're not setting up, you know top 40s Let all that go just say your name like you're introducing yourself rick wasterman, that's enough and by the way, I have in my lifetime I don't know if you've ever done this but I have booked work off of my slate and by the way I'm not tooting my horn there. It was because they didn't like my audition, but they liked my slate they thought They thought my slate sounded authentic like I was introducing myself and then all of a sudden I'll start doing a voice. No, no don't do any of that You've got a great voice just talk, you know, so sometimes it's just that the other pet peeve I have about slating and I think this gets people in trouble is that their slate does not match the world of what follows So you don't want to hear something like like rick wasterman at st. Jude's cancer hospital for children You know, yeah, right. Yeah, it's it's distasteful. So your slate should match the same universe as what follows Makes sense So how can people change those odds? I mean, they're they're sending out I mean some people just audition audition audition audition audition and you know and and get nothing in return Yeah, you know, and as you know, it's the the law of diminishing returns How do you change those odds? Well, there's four things you can do There's four things you can do that will better your chances I mean, there's a lot more than four But but the four things I could tell you so that you can earn a living wage The things you can do right now is one Train Don't just think that it will come to you. Don't just think that voiceover is merely a gut driven impulse Driven art. No, you need to study. You need to train. You need to have A routine and we'll talk about that in a second. You need some sort of process like all artists do Someone hands you a script. Now. What do you do? What steps what steps can you take to get from this analog this paper with words on it to A recorded audition that as I said is rich and vivid and specific and clear and sounds like you either to be turned into your agent for consideration for A booking or maybe it's a booking itself ready for broadcast. So you need training You need a good demo, right? An actor has a real model has a portfolio voiceover actor must have a demo that is up to date And it must demonstrate two things. I think first of all, it's not about how long you can make it I know even 90 second demos are not in vogue anymore now 60 seconds and nothing probably you can get away with 20 seconds Because it's not about how many spots you have It's really about It should look or not should look but it should sound like you On your best day like your head shot should look like you on your best day Um, it should It should sound like you which you think well, that's obvious. It'll sound like you but I don't mean putting on voices I mean, it should sound authentically like you and it should feel like you So I believe that if you have nailed your demo when someone listens to it instead of saying Uh, oh, that's dan doing some good commercials. That's nice. Instead. They'll say listen to that That is classic dan. That is so something dan would say did he write this now? You know, you've nailed it because you've not only Tapped into what you sound like but it's what you feel like your rhythms your sense of humor your opinions all of that captured On your demo. So who cares if it's 90 seconds or 60 seconds. It's not about the quantity It's about the quality and that uh is the same for auditions I don't care if you're auditioning 400 times. You can have 400 awful auditions If you have five good auditions and you book one You'll make rent And yeah, that's the thing. It's usually like one one's job is going to pay for an awful lot of stuff If it's the right job and may lead to more jobs and they usually do and it always does and that's the most important thing Once you get a job make them a client for life for sure You know, and that's that's a whole nother story in itself How many demos do you have and how many different categories? Do you do you put out there? I have a demos. Well because I have a demo company. I have demos in all areas Oh, of course And at this point my demos, uh, I am proud to say they're filled with all produced work So they're not, you know, fake spots. They're they're all You know, real work, which ultimately yeah, real exactly. So that's what you want ultimately The only thing I don't have is an audiobook demo and there's a reason for that because because I can't read no It's because I'm not in life a very good reader That is when left to my own device is sitting down to read a book. I'm just too fidgety That's hard for me to focus And I would be miserable in the booth that long when I do documentary narration. I'm fine. I just did something for shark week That's fine. You know that but but audiobooks for whatever reason It's I I can't keep it together to stay still that long. So it doesn't work for me I don't put myself out there for audiobooks to be sure there are people out there that are born for They love to read and I always say well if you love to read why not read for other people and make a dime while you're at it When you did the the shark week work, is that directed all directed? It is directed. Yeah, it is directed That's nice to long but the time passes because that's right. It's it's almost like a conversation, right? It's yeah, that's absolutely right and I like having that Quiet space by yourself. Yeah, that's hard for ours But having a little collaboration always feels more like theater to me and that's the kind of thing I'm always wanting. I want that kind of collaborative art experience Yeah, I would think for sure for shark week. You'd actually want to be in a shark cage That's a that's a new idea for for a try booth 2.0 Once again, we're talking with rick wassen and if you got a question for him throw it in the chat room And jeff holman will get that question to us is Auditioning and and and book and work is I mean that's essentially what we do some people say it's our job is to audition and then the other stuff is that I mean, it depends on who you are That's true You know, there are some people who they audition over their iPhone and suddenly, you know, and they're just book and work But that's true. They're well-known people and I won't mention any names But uh, you know, it's it's really really hard when you audition and audition and nothing comes your way And then once in a while Some copy will come in front of you and you're like Uh, this one's for me And you just know it and you know and when the phone rings or the email chimes in it's like I knew that Yeah, you knew it. You felt it. Yeah, I wish that happened more often for everybody You know, we we all should have that but in the meantime, that's the grind and I agree That is the work to me. The work for me is the auditioning Yeah, because that's the that's work. That's easy. Yeah That's you know, that's when you really have to do it So why don't we go through because we were talking about consistency Yeah, talked about you have a routine and we can put up a graphic here So we can oh, yeah, please go through it and then you and I can run through something. Yes, exactly and we'll try that Okay, let's do that. Let me share my Let me share this particular piece of uh, amazing stuff here And there it is. Hey, look at that. There it is for bookable voiceover a vio workflow And here is a routine. Now, listen, this is not the rick wastern method This is a method of storytelling and to be sure you could apply this to other art forms of theater Screen acting writing poetry, but here it's focused on voiceover and for voiceover people. So What I'm suggesting is if you have routine, it doesn't have to be this one It doesn't have to be in this order. I'm saying the only mistake you could make is not having routine That is like getting a script in your hand and just having at it chances are you're not going to book very often It's just too wild. Just too haphazard Waiting for the muses to descend on you. Don't wait for that. Let's do the work. So The green box at the top is where you begin your routine begins when you receive a script as soon as you have it in your hands Bing you're in phase one, which I would call work during this phase. It's your research and rehearsal I recommend this be done outside of the booth. Don't do the work in the booth. You might be too tempted to just record it I'll just record it. No Take the time Go outside sit down Have it in front of you on a tablet or a piece of paper and be prepared to work through this This phase ultimately should take five to ten minutes still a lot of people won't do it They'll get the script in their hands and they want to jump right in the booth And I think that's a big mistake if you want to book Phase one work if you were a stage actor, this would be called Rehearsal dramaturgy research right for voiceover actors. This is where you do your script analysis process I outline here 10 steps 10 by the way, that wasn't me trying to be clever like the commandments. It just worked out to be 10 10 steps to get you from I don't know what this thing is. It's just a bunch of words on paper to I know exactly what I'm going to do in the Booth. I'm ready. So you do all this work. You do the work So that you have the luxury of going into phase two And playing and when I say play I mean to perform and record the voiceover inside your booth Okay, so phase one works script analysis. You got the script in your hand There are 10 steps here. These then are scaffolded steps Now you may decide to do them in a different order, but I put them in this order For a reason if you want to know the complete ins and outs of it Let's train together come take a class with me But I'll kind of briefly go through them now The first step is read number one and Dan I would like to do read number one with you in just a moment, but I'll move on Okay, the first thing you want to do is read it. The second thing is to warm up Or not and the reason I say that is because of the trend we're in this incredibly authentic this incredibly Um naturalistic trend that we're in right now I find that with a lot of voice actors, especially those who used to be stage actors or film actors The more they warm up the more they sound like voice actors Yeah, and all that stuff that makes you sound authentic goes away So it's something I think we should preserve So before you start doing all of your tongue trills and lips I say you only warm up those things that are causing you issue today I can't get enough air underneath me. My articulation is off Or they want me to have a dialect or they want me to have more texture in my voice Or I need to resonate from a different resonator fine then warm up, but otherwise you don't have to okay Step three classify. What is this? It's a 30 second television commercial You need to classify your script first every script you get and that gives you everything you need to know Now that you know it's 30 seconds, you know the range of time you have to play with Once you know if it's television or radio, you know how dynamic you have to be Remember radio is like doing a solo A television commercial commercial in this case is like doing a duet It's you the picture equally telling the story. So you don't have to do as much as you might have to do on radio Step four product in this case for commercials. What is the product you're selling? But we're not done Once you identify the product you've got to ask yourself What's its brand remember a commercial is just a little story whose purpose is to sell a product or service It's advertising. So you have to consider its brand or if you don't want to call it brand, which I don't like calling it brand I call it its personality if that product was a person What's his personality like? Okay, once you identify that we move on to why this is a great question If you don't ask yourself start asking yourself. Why does this voiceover exist? Why was this commercial made? Why did mcdonald spend money to have this commercial produced? Why what is the core takeaway? Why is that important because when you're in phase three Review when you listen back to your work that core reason why better be crystal clear. Otherwise you failed the brief Step six is specs and direction. I like not considering the specs and direction until right now That means you've had the first half of this script analysis process to just let you be you And trust that the sound you make and the story you have to tell is right You don't know if it's what they want, but it's right. It makes sense to you Now we look at the specs and directions the way I handle them as I tell people to play the got it needed game The same way that you had baseball cards with friends and you'd lay them out and you play the got it needed game Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it needed you're looking through the specs and directions for the needed For the outlier What don't you have as opposed to trying to think you have to layer every spec and direction on top of your voice Assume you have them assume your agent did their work And now all you have to do is find the one two or three specs or directions that don't fit your wheelhouse Right and a lot and a lot a lot of times people go for the specs first. That's like that's right I I wouldn't I don't recommend it And then uh seven and eight I believe that's the difference between booking and not booking the technical perspective that is Looking at this script technically. It's a voiceover script written by a copywriter. I'm a voice actor I'm going to add my voice to it. There'll be a director an engineer and a producer We look at it technically like what's under the hood? What's behind the curtain? And then step eight is looking at the same script, but not technically now. It's not a commercial. It's just a story Who am I who am I talking to? What do I want from them? How am I going to get it? Okay, uh Nine scoring the script. This means notation doing a little john madden on your script Uh, and I mean very little again. We should use our scripts like sheet music We need them. Don't look away from them. Stay with them. Stay at them I don't put too much notation because I don't want to get confused just enough to help me on the fly And then finally step 10 is read number two now. You're going to read it again But this time you're informed by the previous nine steps And I find that at that point and by the way when I say read number two It really could be read number two three four as many times as you need stopping and starting However, you want to do it. This is for you. This is the bridge step to get into the booth So that when you're in the booth, you know just what you're doing You know who you are and who you're talking to what you want from them the action you're going to play Uh phase two you perform and record And then you get out and then you listen back to your work and you ask yourself this this is important Did I tell the desired story? Did I tell the story is the reason why in this case a commercial Is it clear if it's not go back in it's okay. There's no shame in that right? That's what you do Here's what you don't do when you get out of the booth listen back to it and go it was great or it sucked Don't do that neither one of those will do you any good It's nothing that doesn't help you whether it's a good job or a bad job. It was funny It wasn't funny who cares about that in fact, that's not up to you to decide Someone else is going to decide that all you can ask yourself is did I tell the story? Was it clear? Were there any glaring mess ups where I flubbed a word or you hear a big mouth sound or or maybe there was a I didn't even a billboard or highlight the name of the product. Oh, I got to go back in That's all your job is there Then you select your takes Put them in whatever order you want Maybe do a little light editing if necessary re-record if you have to label the sucker and send it And then you're at the end and that little red box at the bottom says your routine is finished Let it go It is a stoic exercise when you're finished this process Be done take a breath. Don't wonder if it was as good as it could be will they like it? You don't know who who knows let it go and move on to the next audition or get something to eat You know relax, which I do after every audition There you go or or go to the bathroom, which is in the house meaning let's talk about that Yeah, I mean those Most people don't think about this stuff I mean if you've been training as a voice actor and you've taken lots of classes You know these are these are all important points and I think those of us that have been doing this for years and years and years It's all You know, it's it's part of who we are. That's right Yeah, it's under your skin now Dan, which is the best way to be You know once you work through a routine enough, then it's just part of you I don't even know that when I work on scripts now, I'm actually thinking. Okay step one I'm gonna right now for me It's like that movie the matrix when you see those screens and the kind of digital green letters dripping down They look into it and they can just see it now when I get a script in my hand I just see it and most of the work's been done, but that's a quarter century worth of work right there Um, you know, but but get to that point get to it's wonderful It's a really lovely place to be where you don't have to think so much just enjoy right once again We're talking with Rick Wasserman and we were talking about how to book more What's it gonna take to get you to book those auditions you work hard to get them You know it was like back when I sold life insurance. It's like you're making an appointment. You got to go to it Talk to somebody. Uh, anyway, so you you gave me a script here for the dc lottery. Yes radio spot Let's go through that and let's see if you can make me do it better than I might normally do it So here's what I'd like to do Can I just be a heckler over here? I'd rather you didn't Um, here's what I'd like to do. Um, I don't know if you could put the script on screen That would be ideal. That would be terrific and get rid of george. We know what he looks like. Yeah, that's true You could heckle from afar, right? Okay, share And there it is Bang there it is the dc lottery. Okay, then here's what I'm gonna do We don't have to run through this whole process All I want to do is step one of the script analysis process Which is read number one Just gonna read it But the first read that you ever do is maybe the most important step in my estimation This is your introduction to these words. You're gonna spend the next five ten minutes with these words You're hoping to earn some money Saying these words out loud in in another phase You're gonna be in the booth recording this and hopefully making it sound like you coin these words So you need to get you need to get friendly with them real soon So I have five conditions That you should take on in order to make this first read as effective as possible And here they are and you're gonna do them. Okay. The first one is You read out loud. I know that's obvious, but a lot of people don't they'll read in their head And I think it's a big mistake. You you you need to engage your instrument from the beginning Remember when you're when you're in the booth recording it, you're gonna be saying out loud Why not start right now? It does you know good to read it in your head besides as you know Some copy not all but some copies got some problems spelling grammar syntax Punctuation or long run-on sentences and there's no place to breathe. Listen if you read inside your head You won't know that you won't know it until you say it out loud and you're gasping for air So you say it all out loud now so that before you leave this step you can correct everything Make it so it makes sense to you not for anyone else just you you're the only one there No one's looking over your shoulder unless you're training with me then I am just for that time But then you're on your own so you read it out loud. That's the first condition The second condition is you read everything on the page everything. Don't just read the scripted part out loud Read everything out loud. Why? Because when you say it out loud remember we never have to memorize these scripts That's a good thing. You don't have to memorize it But the kinetic nature of saying everything out loud will help you remember Important information for the future steps coming up three four five six all the other steps in this script analysis process It sort of puts all that information on a little waiting room bench in your head Just waiting for you to figure it out. So when you get to the step that asks How long is this commercial? You'll go 30 seconds. Well, how do you know? Because I read it out loud I said rescue dog 30 seconds. So you will have had that sense memory of it so The third condition is that you treat this as a functional cold read That means you don't skim you don't go. So name I went Lottery today what you heard you've heard people do this today one four hundred and fifty nine with the perfect Don't do that that doesn't help anyone. You're never going to record it like that Don't read it like that A functional cold read is you are making sense of these words As you read it How do you do that like a miracle, right? How do you make sense of it while you're reading? Well, you know You do a little deducing, you know, you sleuth your way through it If the script was at the top it said pampers Already your brain should be engaging your pampers gear and you know that it should probably be soft and And kind of caring and empathetic And it changes your read and then you read the first line. You love your baby. Oh, well now I know I'm probably talking to a parent. Maybe the baby's in the room So it you adjust your read as you go a functional cold read The fourth condition is you endeavor to make this sound Conversational why because that's the trend we're in right now Now you may get down to the specs and they say we don't want to conversational We want it to sound like an announcer, but as you know, that's going to be rare these days, right Never So I say a parody of an announcer. That's right. That's exactly right. I just some lampoon But for now endeavor to make it feel conversational. How do you do that? Well, I recommend you just give yourself a little generic pre-life at the beginning like hey dan Someday I might win millions. There it is. Hey dan was enough to make it feel more like a conversation than just starting abruptly Someday I might win millions, right? Just a little pre-life like, you know, I don't know if I've ever told you this But someday there it is, right? I find myself feeling more conversational because I'm in a conversation And the fifth and final condition is an interesting one You don't have to do it, but you should be able to say this script in your own words You should be able to if someone snatched it out of your hands You should be able to basically say the conceit in your own words I'm not going to make you do it. You don't have to do it, but you should be able to Okay, so let's do this now You just going to read this script So you're going to read everything on the page. You're going to say it out loud And when you get to the scripted part the part you would record Say it to me have a conversation with me. So instead of someday I might win millions playing the dc Not that Okay, I of course, you know, all right. Here we go dan in your own time Okay, we're going to read it once we're going to take a break and then we're going to make it even better So, okay. All right So rick someday I might win million no no dan from the top read everything on the page That's right. DC lottery radio one rescue dog 30 seconds. Thank you. Yeah. Hey rick someday I might win millions playing the dc lottery today I won $450 and the timing was perfect because just the other day I came across a six month old rescue dog and even though it was love at first sight I wasn't sure about the extra expense. Thanks to the dc lottery I won a new best friend and I was able to make a donation so that other people could have the supplies They need when they take their new friend home Which goes to show that no matter the size of the prize you win from the dc lottery Every win is a win dan. It's like you've done this before. It's beautiful. All right read the specs Keep going. Read the specs spec men 45 to 65. I actually fit that at this moment. Yeah Unique down to earth a friend authentic Generally these spots are supposed to feature real people. So they want to hear folks being Super conversational not polished not necessarily clean The more stammerers are searching for words you do the better Well to a point great. Anyway, all right. Let's take a quick break. Go ahead. Yeah, I was just gonna say that is a Brilliant first read Do it like that everyone. That's it. You made sense of it. You played through it It sounded like you you didn't put on a voice over voice You made everything incredibly clear now you have set yourself up to do the rest of this process great. Well Let's take a break and let's do it even better next time We'll be right back after these important messages with rick wasum and don't go away Hi, this is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on The voice over buddy show Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice 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 bmw 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 A harlan hogan vo1a microphone Now perhaps you didn't know this but almost all of the equipment we use in voice over was designed for making Music the vo1a is the only microphone specifically designed and tuned for voice over and you're hearing me on it right now Now obviously the vo1a is very popular at voiceover essentials.com and harlan has been running low until now Harlan placed an order for a new supply of vo1a's from mxl quite a while ago Now manufacturing them wasn't an issue but getting them to the us was between covet and shipping constraints and of course skyrocketing costs Well happy day voice over people Mxl informed harlan that his order had arrived in long beach and was going through required quality control testing of each mic Today and by the way, although it's difficult harlan is keeping the price the same despite inflation and logistics costs So if you've wanted one now's the time to order your harlan hogan signature series vo1a voiceover mic today Go to voiceover essentials.com Hey there, i'm david h laurance the 17th and with my company vo heroes and my team of coaches and my community of voice over talent We guide voice over Actors along their journey and you may be watching vobs here and not nearly As far along as many of the other people who are watching you may not even have started yet And we actually specialize in helping you do just that So if you're watching all the stuff going on here on vobs and going i have no idea what they're talking about I don't know, but i really want to do this I'd really like to help you Please go to voheroes.com slash start That's a voheroes.com slash start and you can take our getting started in voiceover class Which tells you everything you need to get started as a voice talent And i'd love to hold your hand along the way and help you with that journey Again voheroes.com slash start That's voheroes.com slash start This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham vobs.tv All right, we're back with rick waserman and we're gonna take another stab at this after going through this process That we shall be going through whenever we get a script, you know read it good, but Get it right Here's something else. I want to try with you for this next read. Um, I was doing a little bit of it during your first read Uh, I think it's a really good tip or trick to uh, consider that this is not a monologue Think of it more as a conversation So i'm going to be the other guy in this conversation So you just say this say it as you are and i'm going to react to it and let my reaction Effect your read. Let's just try it. Okay. No, that's very effective I mean, it's always like if you're talking to somebody it would you know, I've even done that like Oh, what about that and you know, yeah, but if you want to play that game, that's that works for me Yeah, so i'm gonna start i'm gonna start i'm gonna say dan So why would you even bother playing the lottery unless there's a huge jackpot? Well, you know someday I might win millions playing the dc lottery today. I won $450 which it's perfect timing because explain the other well But just the other day I came across a six month old rescue dog Even though it was love at first sight. I wasn't sure about the extra expense. Oh, yeah I see thanks to the dc lottery. I want a new best friend Oh, that's great to make a donation so that other people could have supplies They need when they take home their new friend you paid it forward That's right Which goes to show that no matter the size of the prize you win from the dc lottery. Yeah, every win is a win I love it I love it. I think it makes it more interactive I think it makes what you say more purposeful because you're not just saying it because it's on the page You're saying it because it's in response to something it creates a need We may not know what that need is, but we'll hear it. We'll hear that there is a need and that's everything Excellent. All right. Well, did I book it? Yeah, you booked it. Okay, Dan. You are bookable We we got a bunch of questions here for you now rick, please but george go for it First one in the queue comes from terry brisco Um, I've heard you get 10 seconds to make an impression on a commercial audition Should you lead with your bold take or your straight read? Wow? That's a great question. That's so good Obviously, there's no one answer for this But I think it is important to turn in my first take is usually my gut take the one that makes the most sense to me The way I would say it if I had the opportunity to direct myself Then if they're asking for something that maybe doesn't make as much sense to me I might put that second But having said all that when i'm in phase three review, right work play and review when i'm listening back and i'm reviewing I try to be objective I try to think like the producer and just listen to each take and then just pick the one that draws me in the most The one that tells the clearest story. I don't care what I was thinking during each of those anymore Now i'm not the actor anymore. I'm the editor and i'm trying to think of what's what's going to make the best impression What tells the clearest story that goes first? All right, excellent From uh, get the one there from from mike max goldberg. I got it Um, is it more attractive to a talent agent when a voice actor is union when trying to get on the agent's roster? What does that even matter to an agent if a talent has a professionally produced demo? That sounds great and is non union. Yeah, that's that's another great question with these all these great questions You know, obviously the great audience Uh, it would depend on the agent from agent to agent. There's no kind of one answer for that But I do know that it is important for you to be union. That is agents want you to get into union work It is sort of rarified air and the payment of course is usually more impressive and it's uh, Usually guaranteed that is if they don't pay you right away the union gets on them and you know, they're they sick them on there And and support you and get you your money. So, you know, you want that kind of work Especially if you're not dabbling in voiceover, it's not a hobby if you're looking to earn a living wage doing this I would join the union and I would think an agent would want you to be in the union Yeah, that's the thing about a lot of people try to you know when they come into the business Oh, i'm gonna get an agent I don't I don't have to don't have to work about getting all that work Well, they forget that this is an entrepreneurial business and you really have to go out and find that work Yourself at first. Yeah, and if you're doing really well the agents will come find you sure absolutely No one and this one's from j. Horace black. Sure. He says hey rick how's your schedule looking for coaching? Time for a checkup for me. Good to see you my man. Yeah, jay's a tremendous guy and a client and Uh, he's you know, he uh, well, apparently well, he's he's at the audio body shop. Uh, I think um Jay, uh, obviously he got in touch with me today and I'm happy to to chat with him Jay's one of these guys that has a natural voice He just has a gorgeous voice and nothing to do about it and something I don't know if he was aware of it when we first met but he is a vocal doppelganger for obama without trying Without trying now if he could try he could sound more like obama, but the cool thing is is because It's not an exact match, but it's there when you listen to his voice If you felt good about obama you feel good about listening to his voice It sort of has a a built-in warmth for a population. Uh, he's lucky Well, that's cool. Yeah, I have to think about next time I talk to him. Yeah Um, this one's from terry abrisco Terry again. Yeah, and it says I have a joke And it says at dan. I just wanted to say thank you for your recommendations on my specimen sample I really feel like it helped out my sound a lot. This is not a paid Well, maybe maybe Fresh cash in the mail. Yeah Last one in the queue and then maybe we'll get to talking about the tribus a little bit. Sure roll out Um Jeff holman our very own jeff holman in the chat room who says do you ever add a Lead in to the beginning of the copy robert clot worthy at Kalmanson and kalmanson used to advocate that 10 years ago or so Well, we sort of did that didn't we? Yeah, we did For our first read I recommend what I would call instead of lead in some people call it the moment before I call it pre-life. Uh, that's what we would call it on stage. I would call it pre-life What's your pre-life? What's happening just before that way? Like I say it doesn't feel like a cold splash in a big pool, right? It's not so abrupt You kind of find you get a little momentum and find your way into it with a bit more ease and authenticity But for sure when I'm in the booth I'm using pre-life and I have a little Template for pre-life, uh, and I recommend it my template is I make sure to include the name of my partner So if it was george, I'd make sure to say his name and I'd make sure to say the action That I'm going to use remember you are voice actors Okay, and an actor must be in action. That's why you're called an actor because you're in action You must have a verb. You must be doing something to calm to assure to intrigue To seduce to tease you must be doing something and I'd use that word So my pre-life might be george. I think you're going to find this pretty exciting So as soon as I say his name I see him and my ears asks me Is that how it sounds when you talk to george and if it is and I got a green light in my head I keep going and I say my action out loud george. I think you're going to find this really exciting to excite I need to be doing that action now not later not somewhere deep into the commercial But right now so that when I start the commercial, I'm already doing my action. I'm already exciting someone That's my little template use your character your partner's name and use an action Save them out loud and make sure you take a breath before you begin The actual copy so you don't have a big editing headache on your shoulders Yeah, I mean that was the follow-up But he was saying you you record it, but you don't you don't do you submit that and in the audition Nope, and leave that out right and for the days where you had to audition in front of someone Then you have to do your pre-life in your head. Hey george. I think you'll be excited about this and then say out loud Yeah Now one of the other things that you've been you've been working diligently on is this Thing called a try booth that we we set one up here a couple of years ago before the pandemic when we get like Being a small compressed space probe. Yeah, that's right Uh, how's that been doing and tell us a little bit how that came along george Was telling me before we started it started with some straws It did it started with some some plastic drinking straws It started when I was you know A voice of amc and it already been like a decade and my career had been I was doing theater and a little bit of Voice-over and then those things swapped and I was doing a lot of voice-over and a little bit of theater And then theater completely went away because I was so busy doing voice-over. I'm not complaining But that was the case But inside this booth for so long I started going a little bonkers and I told my wife I I have to get outside of this booth I have to go and be I'm a social animal. I think I discovered that being alone for so long I need to talk to people. I need to be on stage so I talked to george my friend and engineer and I said I need some sort of Traveling booth so if I get a job out of town I can bring it and I think we bought something We found something that we had to have shipped it was heavy tried several different things along the way and Yeah, exactly. It was awkward and the good news was I had george who has tried a lot of products and you know Knew what worked and what didn't work So it was a real crapshoot. I was in the middle of colorado not near anything else not near a studio It was either going to work or not work I was either going to lose my job at amc or hold on to it and it worked I got to do a show and I got to Do my voice over consistently in fact many of the producers didn't even know I left town This big thanks to george building a filter for me. That was a big part of it So anyway, I come back and we have a little post mortem. How did it work? It worked well But it could be better and each show I did after that george and I would now on our own build a new booth And at one point I built a little rectangular Booth out of straws and I was thinking how can I make this light enough so I didn't have to ship it I could bring in on an airplane with me, but still step inside it and be fully enclosed and Almost a mistake. I just pulled one of the straws out So instead of having four legs it had three and the top and bottom were equilateral triangles instead of squares And the other thing that I didn't know and couldn't possibly know is that When you get inside and you speak inside this equilateral triangle The acoustics just seemed to be great instead of being in a box The fact that you're talking into a corner I'm sure there's some brilliant side, you know, uh technological scientific reason for that but just sounds good And george and I Were lucky that we finally got to bring this thing to vio atlanta. We did that a week ago Two years delayed, but we two years delayed. We've been selling this really well for two years And everyone who's purchased it had to buy it sight unseen No one's actually been able to be in it before they bought it So finally at vio atlanta. We had over a hundred people go in it And senheiser was kind enough to lend us a beautiful microphone and they got to speaking to that and And this is on an expo floor and they were coming out going it sounds great I said if it sounds great on an expo floor imagine how it will sound in your hotel room and with a filter by george the tech Now you've got something special Yeah, the filter is like a compliment, you know We we do everything we can to find quiet obviously that's you still need to find as quiet an area as you can It's not always going to be perfect though, especially when you're traveling if you get stuck in the Maybe the side of your hotel has a perfect view. Well, unfortunately, that's also facing the city and the street and You know, it's a little noisier than you'd like Then um with a little bit of the right This and that the processing Uh, you could get a cleaned up file that your client will Be happy with um and it's a delicate balance of how much filtering how much processing etc that we use it's very It's a very delicate balance But we try to make that happen and every time you get a booth you you can either get that a filter Or you can also just do a 30 minute consultation with me That's another option if you're not even ready for the filter you just know That you don't know that you don't know what you need to do You're not sure how the mic should be Where if you really want to have someone go through the final setting up of the booth and the placement and all that stuff Then you have access to me as well So yeah, so that was sort of the ace of our ace of our sleeve that not only would you get a booth that would work While you travel or at home, you know when the pandemic happened You know, originally this booth was for people who wanted another booth. I I need a booth on my yacht Well, okay. Well, then you take the try booth with you But then the world shut down and you couldn't go to a studio the studio shut down So people started calling saying listen, I don't need to travel, but can I just use the try booth as a booth? Yeah, it's a booth. You could use it as a booth so our clientele changed and um, I'm very proud that we were able to Have a product available for people. Uh, that wasn't thousands of thousands of dollars that that they could put up Or put away in less than 10 minutes and that weighs 40 pounds Yeah, that was a tricky thing, you know, we had to figure out the perfect like the goldilocks, right between Something that was truly functional that really did perform well But still could be packed away and checked and know you're not going to get an over overweight fee on your bags Or something like that How to make it just under 40 pounds or under? Yeah. Yeah In the bag and everything we had to go, you know, obviously under 50s So we wanted to keep it so we've we have added weight in one area the blankets We actually added more weight to them over time gotten them heavier And then we removed some weight from the interior framing We found thinner wall tubing so that we could Shave a little bit of weight off the booth and and still keep that weight So it it it's every finding over the years a lot of r&d So the booth that was on your show is a different booth than we sell now. It is a bit sexier like you dan Oh, thank you. Appreciate that As always it's a pleasure having you on this show and this was this was a very fast Hour of a lot of information if people want to get a hold of you Where can they get a hold of you to get some coaching or to get themselves a try booth? All right. Where's the bottom third? Come on. Put it up there. There it is. Get in touch. So if you're interested in the try booth You can email at info at try booth.com. There's a phone number for try booth It is the same for bookable and there's the try booth website. Check it out. We have uh, we frequently have discounts Uh, we're selling internationally. Uh, we've got there's some socials going on here. How nice The try booth everywhere Yeah, so you can find us that way and then of course if you're interested in coaching That company is called bookable voiceover and you can find us at bookablevo.com You can contact me at rick at bookablevo.com. Also, I've got some webinars coming up Uh, two webinars coming up. There's webinar one on june 14th The four things you need to know to earn a living wage doing voiceover There's more than four and we'll go over those and then uh, the second webinar In october right near my birthday. So you can all celebrate that And george george's birthday too Things you can do right now to get more bookings to increase your your booking rate And you can subscribe and we'll let you know when those things are or you just sign up anytime you want How it's standing. Well rick, that was that was just a great hour. I really appreciate that and people should get in touch with you And uh, good luck with the try booth. Good luck with everything else you're doing and we'll talk to you again real soon Good to see you dan. Thank you. All right, george and i'll be right back to wrap things up and get ready for tech talk Right after these messages You're still watching vlbs 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 voice over career flourish They'll 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? It's time Yes, it is for a little spot for source connect source connect is Amazing tool created by source elements that allows you to connect to your studios Their clients around the world and do it with very high consistent quality It's very very Loved by producers and engineers because the audio that they receive from you Is recorded directly into the session Real time the the client can be listening in and they can make approvals and they can edit the thing on the fly It's all about workflow everybody and this is a tool that's now Firmly entrenched into so many workflows at the top level Of the paying gigs of voice over so if you want to get set up with it Head over to source dash elements calm and get a 15 day free trial Give it a shot on your system and if you need help reach out their support is second to none Best in the business i'm telling you. Thanks so much source elements. Let's wrap this up Yeah, hi, this is carlos. I was rocking the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Yes, you are and uh if you're watching us live right now hang out for tech talk That's the really fun stuff not that rick was great. I mean that was a fabulous. It was a firehose of information A drink for the firehose kids Anyway, next week on this very show, we're gonna have tech talk number 77 which we're about to record so hang out if you're watching live and you get to ask your question. So anyway, uh Who are our donors of the week? Hey, I see a few a name or two in there that's new. I see robert ledham steven chandler kasey clack, that's a new one jonathan grant thomas pinto shelly avaleno patty gibbons rob writer Greg thomas A doctor voice ant land productions uncle roy and martha. Yes, I con con. Yeah Alrighty, make sure you join our mailing list too. Uh, we're over 800 people on that list now It's slowly growing but you can you can sign up on our website v obs dot tv and you can Let's see what's going on email still works. That's right. It's amazing You know and you can find us at the guys at v o b s Dot tv Uh, we need to thank our sponsors to harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc Demo's don't forget you can find dan lennard online over at home voiceover studio dot com And i'm george the dot tech That's right. All right. Let's stay tuned for tech talk in the meantime Hey, look, this is not an easy business But we're here to help you out and make sure that you get it right because if it sounds good It is good. I'm dan lennard and i'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vio b s All right, thanks to jeff holman in the chat room and sumer leno for all the work She does and definitely lee pinney for just being lee pinney. We'll see you next week guys Thank you