Rewind my crazy life just about two years ago. I was far
from home and on the East coast (New York to be exact…). And I was literally
living a dream. I spent a week standing behind microphones, getting my voice
recorded, being coached professionally by actors and sound engineers and
technicians. I was faking accents over five-star dinners with other students
who had also traveled great distances for the same experience. I sat in on
talks by big names in the dramatic audio industry learning techniques in sound
design, script writing, and voice-over, among other things as well. It was
seven full days of pure pinch-me-I’m-dreaming hysteria. Even though I was miles
and miles from home, away from my life-long friends and most of my family, I
just didn’t want it to end. Not ever. But I knew it would. I knew I would have
to leave that dream and I didn’t know if I’d ever make it back someday. My only
hope, my only chance of returning to that utopia after the plane touched down
at the airport in my home-state, was making a big enough impression on the
people around me while I was there, that they’d remember me. In the middle of
some casting crisis they’d think to themselves, “Who was that kid with the
great Scottish accent?” And boom, my portal would be open and I’d be able to
return to that dreamland. So while, yes, I learned a lot and soaked in all I
could, the biggest opportunity that was open to me for that week I spent at a
world-class mountain house in the Hudson Valley was meeting people who could,
in a way, change my life.
I wanted a career in Voice-Over, I wanted to be a
Voice-Actor. People would ask me, “Voice actor? What is that? Not just an
actor?” They’d tell me I was funny, and I’d tell them I’m not that pretty. Then
they’d tell me I could make it, and I’d laugh and shrug. But I never thought it
was me that made people laugh. It
wasn’t my mannerisms or the weird way I used my hands to spell everything out. “Voice
actor, huh? Okay… so, what, you act with your voice?” Because that was what
made people laugh. That was my hook and line, my light bulb attracting
attention. My voice and those phony accents I could switch to like flipping a
light switch. So easy for me and so enchanting for those I was entertaining.
I know exactly when the bug bit me. Our family had been
invited over to dine with some friends of ours. Their kids where all very nice,
but apart from their two oldest, they were all quite shy. By the time we had
all eaten supper, I’d only really spoken with the parents and their two oldest
children, because their other kids had made themselves a little scarce. I’ve
never been immensely out-going, but hamming around was always a great way for
me to break the ice and somehow a lot easier than just opening a conversation
and attempting to play small talk. As pivotal as this memory is, some of the
details have been lost with time and I can’t remember why or how we started
playing cards. I do remember that my older sister used to take a deck or two of
cards with her everywhere, just tossed into her purse, so it isn’t so odd to me
that in this particular memory, we were playing a game of golf (The card game -
duh.). Another detail I can’t remember is why I started speaking in accent, but
I did. The kids we were playing with thought it was awesome. They, like me,
were accent enthusiasts and as far as they were concerned, I was really good.
They kept bringing up movie titles and character names, telling me I sounded
like this person or that one. And I just ate it up. As long as the laughs kept
coming I kept talking in accent. And then I realized something. Little heads
were poking around corners, with little faces smiling and laughing too. The
laughing at the table had attracted the attention of the shy kids, and now they
were involved in the conversation too.
“You should be a voice actor!” One of their older kids told
me. And my mind’s jets ignited. My brain careened down a runway and blasted
into the sky. A voice-actor.
After that evening, I was never the same. I wanted to be a
voice-actor. Thinking back, I’d see those shy kids’ faces all lit up and happy
and I’d wonder how many people I could touch like that. It was something that I
loved to do, something that was somehow so natural… could I ever make a living
doing that? Really?
Now, please put me on the record as believing in miracles. I’ve
seen them happen. But to be realistic, I don’t see me making enough money to
support myself through VO. If it does happen, I’ll be a very happy guy. But I’m
not going to invest my entirety in a dream as frail as that. Still… it is something I love, so at the very
least it’ll remain a hobby that I pursue. Two years ago I got a taste of what
it would be like to voice act… and that experience was a dream I’ve always
wanted to return to.
Last Friday I was able to live that dream again. I was sent
to a studio to record lines for an audio drama. Two years ago I met a young man
at that mountain house who, just like me, had dreams and aspirations. Today, he’s
creating his own production company, with the goal of producing audio dramas
and films. And somehow along the way, through crossed connections and friends and
auditions he had my name. I forget exactly how long, but a while back he got a
hold of me and asked me to audition for a character in the audio-drama project
he was working on. He recently finished the script for that drama, the first
for his company to produce, and sent his actors to studios to record their
lines professionally. What’s funny, is I’m not playing that character in this drama.
I was scheduled to record Friday and headed to Seattle where
my producer had made arrangements. It was a nice sunny day and I took Matty
along as a sort of caddy. Murphy went with us too, and where Murphy goes his
law follows, so basically everything that could go wrong did. When the session
ended, Matty and I left the studio, but no more than ten minutes into our drive
and my producer called me, informing me as politely as he could that the
session was utterly bombed. He said he’d asked the studio when we’d be able to
re-schedule a session and they’d offered Sunday. I told him I’d be available
after church, and he made the appointment. So Sunday would be our chance to
amend the nightmare that Friday had turned out to be. I stressed out up until
the recording session, at which point I mellowed out long enough to record all
my lines. My producer reviewed the recordings and told me I’d topped his
expectations and that was that. Riding home was heavenly. I was overwhelmed by
a feeling of victory. The experience had been stressful at times, sure. But
over-all it had just been incredibly fun.
I don’t have a date as to when the production will be
released, or even finished. I just have to sit back and let my producer do his
thing. But even now, it’s so crazy thinking that my dream came true. I’m a
voice-actor. I may not be famous, or starring in the biggest production of the
year, but I’m a voice-actor. It feels so crazy thinking about it that way, but
it’s true.
Two years ago, at that mountain house, one message was
taught in every room. “Give everything you have to Jesus… everything… and He
will bless you.” Well let me tell you… I’ve never felt more blessed.
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| (Big shout out to my brother for the pictures in this post. Thanks so much, Matty, for being my personal photographer. You rock, dude!) |
