I pause here to gripe that these blog entries seem to be getting longer and longer. I don't seem to be able to stick to one succinct topic anymore, but must delve into all aspects of my subject and recount tales only peripherally connected. I'm making this one into two separate entries--you've probably already seen the second one. Maybe this fit of long posts will pass; until then, strap in and hold on.
As mentioned seemingly endlessly here, I've been taking voiceover classes for the past year or so. The school is called Voicetrax, run by the amazing Samantha Paris, who is quite nearly the sweetest person I've ever met. She's had a bizillion voiceover credits, most famously as Roxie of the Misfits on from Jem and the Holograms, a delightful '80s cartoon which I've actually never seen but which seems to be a perfect representative of the genre (thanks, Hasbro!). She's one of those people who seemingly never sleeps and will wear herself ragged working for her students. She ran the San Francisco Voicetrax school for nearly twenty years and tried to retire to Palm Springs, but couldn't hack relaxation so started a second school in Rancho Mirage about two years ago. It is there that I attend classes about once a month on various aspects of voiceover work--animation, narration, radion and television commercials, video games, and a great many others. The emphasis is always on the idea that voiceover is just another form of acting, only one in which your appearance can't count against you (and a good thing, too...). This means that most of the classes are much like acting classes, which are wonderful to be a part of again.
I came to Voicetrax through a miraculous set of circumstances, actually. I was driving to a day of summer school last year, feeling burnt out and desperate because it just seemed like I wasn't doing what I was meant to in this life (see my previous entry on this subject if you're a masochist with a lot of time on your hands). I prayed as I drove that God would show me what He had for me, would lead me in the direction I was meant to go. I even had the gall to pray that He'd give me a sign that day (patience is only occasionally one of my virtues).
I arrived at Valley, walked into my office, turned on the radio, and suddenly I was listening to an interview with Samantha on our local NPR affiliate (KVCR (run out of our school, actually) about her school in the desert and an introductory seminar being offered later that week. I felt like I'd been smacked with a 2x4 upside the head. I attended the seminar and was hooked. Joanna knew I was serious when I reported that I had volunteered to be part of a demonstration during the seminar without knowing what I was going to have to do. That's a big deal for a cautious fellow like myself.
The miraculous turns of events continued and have done since. I really wanted to attend the school but the classes can be pricey (they're fairly inexpensive by industry standards, actually, but they would set us back a significant amount. I wasn't sure where that money would come from and I was feeling nearly frantic, trying to figure out what I owned that I could pawn or what organs I could sell when a calm came over me, and the thought occured to me that if God had really lead me that far, He'd find a way for me to take the classes.
Lo, and the very next week I heard from Community Christian College, offering to let me teach a class there once a week. The payment wasn't much, but it was just about enough to cover my classes. They've asked me back four times, each time providing the funds for further courses--and I've finally gotten to teach some lit classes, so that's nearly worth it on its own.
Go ahead, skeptics--scoff. Feel free. Doesn't bother me. Attibute it to chance and serendipity if you'd like, but I know from whence these blessings came.
On top of all that, for some unaccountable reason Samantha believes like the dickens in me. Can't quite figure that one out, but she's gone out of her way to help me along and seems to think highly of my prospects. She's also had me start training on the engineering, which is pretty useful and fun--it also lets me sit in on other classes without having to pay for them (which, I suspect, may be why she suggested I do the training in the first place, as funds were pretty short this summer).
As well as Samantha, I've had classes with a good many famous (well, in the industry, anyway) folk, including Susan Blu (who was Granny Smurf[!] and appeared in seemingly in every cartoon from 1980 to 1990, including The Transformers and James Bond, Jr. and now produces a thousand other cartoons), Pat Fraley (Cousin Itt from the Addams Family movies and many cartoon credits, including The Tick), Thom Pinto (of a whole load of national commercials, Batman: The Animated Series, and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law), Bob Symons (narrator extrordinaire--his is the voice of the audio tour of the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas), and a gaggle of others. I've made some great friends in the classes and I've not had a bad one yet. I even recorded a commercial for local radio out in the desert which played on a dozen or so stations, so I've got one non-union acting credit to my name.
I'm not positive where all this is headed. I know that performing has been fantastic and that I've gotten a lot of encouragement; Bob really likes my narration and Pat has been terrifically enthusiastic about my potential for books on audio. But like everything in my life, I'm uncertain. I've had my bad days and my setbacks. My constant prayer throughout this process has been for God to help me keep my eyes on Him and not on the outcome of any particular class or audition. I'm just far too unstable to be ruled by my feelings or personal desires, so letting each day's successes or failures guide my decisions would be madness.
My major goal is to produce a demo CD and get an agent, from whence I can (Lord willing) begin getting parts. And Sam doesn't think that is too far away. I'll keep you updated.
No comments:
Post a Comment