Curiosity Creates Opportunity

Ding Tut sleeping on pile of papersI was thinking about the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” today as one of my cats climbed up on a pile of empty cardboard boxes that were piled high on a work table to see what was going on and everything came down in a huge, yet rather quiet crash – except for the startled yelp of the cat as he was propelled into the air.

Most of us know what curiosity killed the cat “means.” Poking around can have dire consequences. But I was curious as to it’s origin, so I did some Googling and found this info on Wikipedia. It started out as “care killed the cat.”

Ben Johnson, an English playwright in 1598 used something like it one of his plays – followed by Shakespeare in 1599. It evolved into the […]

2018-02-06T06:48:06+00:00May 23rd, 2015|Categories: Auditioning, Business, Musings|Tags: , |

Doing it for a live audience

After a two-year absence from the stage, I was cast in a show at one of my favorite theaters here in San Diego. Scripps Ranch Theatre. I played Rose, the aging neighbor in a Brooklyn apartment near Sunset Park (also the name of the show).

Marley Sims, one of the writers was able to come to the Preview and Opening Night. She hadn’t seen the show in 10 years since it premiered in Los Angeles and seemed to be pleased with our interpretation. And for me as an actor, it was fun to have her in the audience.

It wasn’t a huge part, so I was able to enjoy the process without the stress of being in every scene. A perfect way to get back on the boards.

That meant a lot of time backstage with the three other actors with minor roles and the stage manager. The interaction has […]

2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00May 16th, 2015|Categories: Musings|

Time for a Kick Start

I am a working voice talent. I make my living doing this. And as with most voice talent outside the major markets I find that I rely more and more on my own abilities to self-direct. Especially at the audition phase.

As someone who has been doing this a long time, I have lots of repeat clients, referrals and direct leads from my website – most of which don’t ask for an audition because they know me, or they simply like what they hear on my demos and don’t ask for an audition.

But, oh those auditions…

It is true that the booking to audition ratio is getting worse. More agents receive the same copy – which means many more people end up auditioning for the same spot – where in the past one or two agents would submit just a few of their talent.  This is ancient history. And if you are […]

2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00July 9th, 2014|Categories: Auditioning, Musings|Tags: , , |

June Came and June Went…

What the heck just happened? The month of June just sort of disappeared in a vortex of VO work. Which is a good thing, but makes it hard to find the time to compose something interesting, relevant or amusing as a blog post.

And that is the goal of keeping a blog – at least as I understand it.

My class blog is easier to keep up to date, but can become a tad boring and even repetitive for people who are not active students in the class. If there was a way to filter OUT the homework assignments, and only keep the interesting videos and articles that would be different, but I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet.

One of the things I talk to my introduction to voice acting students is that just because you are hired to record […]

Success is all in your head – and maybe in the ear of the listener

I have had a bunch of cool things happen in the past year or so. It hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine, but that is what makes life interesting.

Business has been good. I found that balance of marketing, work and another word that starts with “f” – Facebook. No, fun! (OK, maybe both Facebook and fun.) And I think my work has improved too.

A Free-lance Life for Me
For someone who is and always has been risk averse, you might wonder why I chose to be an independent business person where there is no steady paycheck.

Actually, because most of the people who read this blog are voiceover people too – or independent business people – you probably know the answer.

I don’t think I chose it, actually. My first real job was at a TV station in Iowa. I was a part-time graphic artist in the days just before computers and character […]

Is a monthly blog enough?

Just squeaking in under the wire to get a post completed before the end of March…

I don’t know about you, but this has been a very busy month – filled with many highs and a few lows. Moments of self-doubt. Moments of reaffirmation. Moments of utter confusion. And moments of crystal clarity. Invoicing for large $$. Writing checks for large $$ for taxes.

Pretty much a normal month, I guess…but I did find myself starting a post more than once and simply abandoning it to something else, promising myself that I would return to the keyboard and write something brilliant.

Best laid plans!

So, to return to the question at hand. Is it worth keeping a blog alive if you only post once a month or so? Or will that actually be detrimental to social media standings. I don’t know the answer to that and frankly, my blog isn’t all that popular, so […]

2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00March 30th, 2014|Categories: Musings, Technology|

Brain freeze

So, how is 2014 shaping up for you?

The rugged winter is certainly presenting challenges for my friends who live in the Arctic blast zone. I really haven’t heard a lot of whining though, so they must be a heartier stock of human than I. When I lived in Iowa and Indiana, I KNOW I was a whiner. Especially when I was in grad school trying to be stylish, because I was doing some on-camera work for WTIU. I wore thin leather coats and un-insulated boots with slick leather soles. Scraping the ice off the windows in that get-up was a numbing experience.

When I was in college in Cedar Rapids Iowa, there was not even the slightest attempt to be stylish – dark blue parkas with bright orange fuzzy lining in the hoods. Heavy boots. While I wasn’t much of an outdoor winter sports enthusiast, I don’t remember being cold walking […]

2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00February 22nd, 2014|Categories: Musings|

Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions?

That planning thing I mentioned in my last post – that’s still a plan, but after Kara Edwards posted that she was going to take a photo every day, I decided that I would draw a little picture every day. I’m up to day 5 and so far so good. Last night I was having dinner after a hike and decided to draw day 4’s picture on the napkin at the restaurant. (Day 3 is hidden under Day 5.)

20140105_192422

It has been a heck of a year for a lot of people and the past few months have seen loss after loss. Some losses come with a sense of relief – that suffering is over. Some losses come with outrage and disbelief. Some come with pain and terrible sorrow. If someone you know has […]

2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00January 5th, 2014|Categories: Musings|

A Plan for the Future

I think I have mentioned it before, but I have never really planned anything significant in my life. It has been one foot in front of the other with common sense, curiosity and initiative forging a steady yet unexpected path.

Last year, my new year’s resolution was to start to plan. By that I didn’t mean a business plan or a marketing plan, though I am constantly reminded by my compadres, blogs, experts that I should probably do that – especially a marketing plan.

No, it meant planning to meet people for dinner, or the movies, or a dinner party. Yes, that basic people kind of planning. My usual MOO (method of operation) is to be hard a work doing whatever I do all day and suddenly look up at the clock and realize that it is about 4 PM and wouldn’t it be nice to go out to dinner with someone? […]

2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00December 29th, 2013|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|

Never Assume – and you know why…

I don’t know about you, but when I get busy, and I start to tackle a new project that – on the surface – resembles so many of my other projects, I tend to slip into auto-pilot mode. I just KNOW what the producer wants. Well, maybe. Maybe not. Remember that old adage – “never assume – because it makes an ass out of you and me?” Slipping into what has been called Stage Four Learning can sometimes mean getting a project off on the wrong foot. Sometimes it can mean losing a client.

Here is a quick refresher on the Four Stages of Learning…

  1. Unconsciously incompetent
    You don’t understand how to do something – and probably don’t even realize that you don’t know how to do it. Relating this to voiceover work – you have been told you should be doing voiceover work, but you don’t know anything about the business, or […]
2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00December 8th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings|
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