Chapter 14 - I felt like 50 percent, but you gotta give 110%, 100% of the time.

I think there is something to be said about my old Scout motto, "Be Prepared". Few days ago I got sick as all heck, and of course with getting sick, I got to coughing, sneezing,... all the things that essentially send my ability to do voice over work into another spiral of chaos. Every morning for a few days I woke up sounding like I had drank Jack Daniels the night before and woke with the feeling that my mouth was the bottom of a birdcage.

So thankfully the audition was able to be moved back a few days while I drank a lot of room temp water and ate honey like crazy.

Woke up this morning, did jaw, neck, and all kinds of stretching exercises, and kept drinking water.

Got in the soundbooth and felt pretty okay, like I was halfway prepared, but I keep remembering what Steve Blum said on VO Buzz Weekly "the audition is the job", and I went for it. Yes my throat was itchy, yes, I am still really dehydrated, but I felt that if I could keep it together for the 30 minute window of takes, and try and give variances on each run, then I might stand a shot at it.

I can't say exactly who the characters were that I did, as the particular things they were for are underwraps at the moment, but I can say that I had to do a variation on a high pitched elven voice, a very "wooden" and angry voice, and a very straw filled sort of voice for another.

I had virtually no higher end in my voice to work with, but there are ways with practice, and understanding how to work in a falsetto fashion, to get around it.

No clue really how the audition went overall from the other side of the glass, it was fun as usual, and it's always reassuring to see people smiling, but I always want that seen injection of soundless laughter to happen, because I feel like if I made them laugh, then I hopefully did my job right, at least in this sort of subject/character matter.

Either way, it was nice to get back in the booth and hear myself through high end mics (I forgot to take a picture of the new one that was in the booth) and full studio gear. A good microphone can certainly bring out the full character, but it also picks up your weaknesses like an out of work cabbie.

For those of you that don't know... that's a $2,500 microphone you see there. I think that's the most expensive mic I've recorded on to date.

Until next time, keep supporting the arts, be kind to your fellow beings, and keep believing in yourself! - Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Chapter 9 - Along came an audition

So, literally, today, I ended up with an internal one hour session, here at work, where I got to chill and chat with two very cool fellows, Chris and Josh, and take a shot at doing some voices for three distinct monsters. Now of course, I can't talk about the scripts or what they were for until, A) I get approved, and B) the actual things utilizing my voice work come out.

BUT, I can touch on something that came to bear today that is super important. Warming up, and practicing. The work I did today, pushed me into some vocal styles that were very gritty and deep resonating sort of hits on my throat. I usually pride myself on being able to hit a wide range of variation and depth, but my limit that I am still working to overcome is to be able to sustain a heavier voice effect or range for a long period of time.

I warmed up and drank tea before I went in the booth, and that helped. But I probably could have stood to have done the voices in practice a bit more closer to the energy level I was putting out today.

Regardless of all of that, it was a lot of fun, and I feel that even though I was a bit out of practice, it came together well. Here's to hoping I find my voice out there again later on, in some new Hallmark stuff.

I think wearing my Oscar the Grouch shirt was a good luck stroke today.