Tag: interview

Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest tonight on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club, Charlie Toro! Charlie is known for his epic voice overs and basically for epicness in everything he does, and tonight he shared his journey with Marc and the Clubhouse audience.

Charlie started out as a musician, and for a time, was doing voiceover without realizing it when club owners would ask him to read scripts during sound checks that he would hear later on (not knowing that he was being recorded!) After getting paid for reading a commercial for a friend’s invention, he decided to pursue VO, which for him included lots of research, research, research.

He watched commercials and studied, “iSpot.tv was my coach for a long time,” he said. He also found resources online from people like Bill DeWees, and he practiced a lot on his own before working with coaches.

Last fall, Charlie was the winner of the 2021 CBS Audition Spotlight at the That’s Voiceover Career Expo, and I remember the excitement of watching him and the other 5 finalists perform live during the final auditions. Charlie’s win took his career to new heights, and his recent success with NASCAR was celebrated tonight. Here are some highlights of the conversation with Marc and the audience and some tips from Charlie:

• On his routine before getting behind the mic: “I do a lot of yelling,” he said, adding that he gets his whole body moving, goes outside and walks, stands in the sun and absorbs some sunlight and energy then brings all of that back into the booth.

• When he gets into the booth he is confident, he thinks “pure badass,” and he imagines the mic as an extension of himself.

• Did coming from music help him in VO? Charlie said that knowing keys, notes, and tone were all helpful, especially tone. When recording, if he hears the music he can get right into the tone of a spot.

• He practices reading commercials, records them and adds music, and then when he gets a similar audition, he pulls out those recordings for reference.

• His brand is “epic” and every day he thinks about creating new ways to bring that to his social media and marketing. “I wanted to separate myself from the pack a little bit and bring my brand out there.”

• And regarding social media posts: don’t expect to get any work from putting your stuff online. Charlie says that his plan is to try to stay relevant. “Just post stuff of you being you,” he says. Also, he doesn’t rely on email to reach out when marketing — he prefers to call because they hear your voice instantly.

During a discussion on finding work, the topic of certain online casting websites came up, and it was great to hear Marc shut down the idea anyone having “ruffled feathers” or feeling shame in looking for work on online casting platforms. “Everybody has every right to go about their business their own way,” he said. Bravo, Marc!

Thanks so much to Marc and Charlie for the amazing conversation, and for the insightful audience questions that furthered the discussion! Check out the Marc Guss Voiceover Club every Wednesday night on Clubhouse at 8:30 pm ET or catch the replay later.

Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest tonight on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club, Julia Bianco Schoeffling! Julia shared a bit about her background working in the video game industry, and how it prepared her for the role of co-founder and COO of the Halp Network, which connects creative professionals in the entertainment industry.

Julia and Marc offered really valuable advice to the many people who read scripts and showed off their characters. Here’s just some of the insights and tips that we heard tonight:

–On slowing down your performance for video games, Julia said, “For games, you can slow it down — milk it. For animation it’s more fast paced, but for video games we want a more grounded performance.”

–We heard several really excellent reads for characters in fantasy games. Julia said, “There’s a demand for fantasy accents, such as in Zelda Breath of the Wild, where it’s not not quite British, not quite Irish but an interesting accent.” She said to think Lord of the Rings or The Princess Bride as archetypes.

–Putting a nonverbal effort at the top of a line is a good way to distinguish your performance from the hundreds that casting directors hear for each role.

–About improv: Julia said that it is a great skill to have as an actor. In an audition, she recommends to “just pepper it in,” don’t overdo it. She added that when you’re booked for the job, you’ll know how receptive they are to it as you work with them.

Look for Julia’s upcoming book, called The Art and Business of Acting for Video Games, coming out this April/May. Sign up for her newsletter to find out when the pre-order date is available.

Thanks so much to Marc and Julia for their awesome feedback and conversation, and for everyone who read tonight!

Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club last night, Dave Walsh! Dave is a respected VO talent, coach, and creator of the TrueTell™ Method. With 32 years in the business as a talent working in nearly every VO genre, and 14 years as a coach, Dave’s credentials are evident right from the start of the conversation.

Dave shared an interesting part of his background when he talked about how after a vocal injury, a coach told him that he was using his voice inauthentically. As he worked with a speech pathologist, he learned that he was trying to artificially create voices instead of using his true voice. Dave realized that this wasn’t only a problem that actors face – it can affect anyone. We use different aspects of our voice depending on who we are talking to, for example.

Dave spent four years working as an apprentice with a doctor to understand this more deeply, and he developed his coaching program that lets him hear right away when someone is speaking inauthentically. What a level of dedication to gain this kind of understanding of the human voice!

As Marc pointed out, Dave’s journey took him here, to teach people authenticity in this business, adding “authenticity is inescapable” and it’s what people want.

Dave said that the client is looking for a point of view, not just a nice voice. And when you audition, “you’re sending in your own opinion and not worrying about the way your voice sounds.” He added that they don’t just want the pretty voice, they want the story, and that “your sound just supports your point of view.”

We listened as people read their commercial copy for Dave and he guided them to that place of authenticity. He encouraged readers to personalize the copy for themselves, to find a way to connect to it, and hearing the transformations in people’s performances was incredible!

One note that he gave to several people was that when you trip on words, it’s a red flag that you aren’t connected to the script. That can be a chance to reset and start again.

Marc had a great way of summing up the evening by saying, “Success in the VO industry is a combo of authentic read, confidence, luck, a break here and there…and working with Dave Walsh.”

And although I was having technical problems with Clubhouse and wasn’t able to join the stage, I still enjoyed listening to Dave’s insights and everyone’s reads. I had planned to ask Dave a question, and I’ll ask it here for him or anyone reading to answer:

“Can you talk about some turning points or moments when things clicked for you? It may have been a piece of advice you got or maybe a certain insight you gained from a job, coach, or student, for example…?”

Feel free to leave your answer below!

I had the pleasure of meeting Dave several months ago when I was a part of the Top 40 Callback for the CBS Audition Spotlight held by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences and Dave was the lead judge. It was a great experience and I appreciated his kindness and humor. I hope to work with him in the future!

Thanks so much to Marc and Dave for the amazing conversation, and for the insightful audience questions that furthered the discussion! Check out the Marc Guss Voiceover Club every Wednesday night on Clubhouse at 8:30 pm ET.

Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club tonight, Marc Preston! Marc Preston is a VO talent, coach, founder of the VoiceOver Community Club on CH, and founder of The Voiceover Community on Facebook (with a membership just shy of 23K!)

Marc Preston is known for being a kind and helpful source of information to people of all levels of voiceover talent. He says, “It’s like raising a child; I made all the mistakes so you don’t have to.”

When the idea of “getting rich quick in voiceover” came up, he pointed out that, of course, it doesn’t work that way, but that he could understand why people may get that impression. With a combination of the low cost of entry equipment-wise, the promise of tons of auditions on pay-to-play sites, and the sales tactics of some unscrupulous coaches and demo producers out there, he says he gets it.

The bottom line, he says, is that if you’re looking for a side hustle, look elsewhere. VO is a craft, and if you’re passionate about it, if can be a profitable hobby, but if you won’t find success without putting in the training and the years of experience.

Marc & Marc talked about the importance of being adaptable as a voice talent. “Don’t lock yourself into one genre,” says Marc Preston. “Be willing to explore other genres.”

Marc Guss wants to see someone who is open to all the different aspects of the business, and to genres outside of their specialty. “It’s a volume game,” he says, and 2022 and beyond is not the time to pick and choose which audition you try for.

As Marc Preston said, “Be open to happy surprises.”

He also shared with us his four C’s:

• Craft
• Capable (to bring script to life)
• Consistency
• Confidence, which he says is probably the core principle for his coaching

“Confidence lets you manage your nerves like a Jedi, hopefully,” Marc Preston says.

He also shared the two most powerful words, and this goes for on camera or voiceover auditions: “fuck it.” He says to give it your best and don’t stress about it. Let it go. He believes that negative self-talk is a real issue, and something you should avoid.

One of his favorite quotes is from Sanford Meisner: “Act before you think, your instincts are more honest than your thoughts.” He also invoked Al Franken’s SNL character Stuart Smalley, saying, “You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you!”

Fellow quote lover Debra Stitt took the stage and shared one of her favorites: “Until it’s my turn, I will keep clapping for others happily.”

And Marc Preston offered another gem: “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The conversation wrapped up with Marc Guss echoing the many thanks that tonight’s speakers expressed for Marc Preston’s willingness to help others and share his knowledge with the community.

“People recognize you as a genuinely nice person – you have something nice inside you that just radiates,” Marc Guss said.

Marc Preston said that he is happy to have a positive impact on the VO world, and added that he avoids a snarky, acidic vibe because negativity chips away at your subconscious and the work that you try to do. He sticks with positivity because “it’s going to spill over onto you, too.”

Thanks so much to Marc and Marc for the amazing conversation, and for the insightful audience questions that furthered the discussion!

Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club last night, Jeff Bell! Jeff has been the voice of Ford for 20 years, and last night talked about his first career in radio before getting into VO.

We learned that Jeff doesn’t follow trends, and he focuses on being himself. His authenticity comes across because stays true to who he is, and says that “even as a DJ, I wanted to be the guy sitting in his living room, playing records, and talking about weird shit.” As a voiceover artist, he always tries to being some levity in the studio, and to be fun to be around. “I’m a rock and roll DJ and that’s how I approach life,” Jeff says.

His work in radio has given him an innate sense of timing that serves him well in the voiceover world. I loved his suggestion for anyone to practice improving their sense of timing with an electric toothbrush. If your brush has a sequence of four 30-second cycles for example, try to get a sense of what 30 seconds feels like by trying to predict when those cycles will stop. For him, he knows that he’s a bit hyper or a bit slow that day based on how ahead or behind the timer he guesses.

Moving from having a sense of time to focusing on the body, I loved the care and thoughtfulness that Jeff puts into his physical and mental health, and the time he has spent learning his instrument. “You cannot neglect your physical health. It’s the most important thing you can do to maintain your business,” he says.

His daily routine of singing as loud as he can stretches out his ribs, opens up his chest, and warms up his diaphragm and lungs. He discussed how he can’t reach certain parts of his register after he eats, so he has found that eating once a day in the evening works for him. Even the way he half-sits on a bar stool and arches his back to reach the “really nasty low notes” is something that he has discovered about himself and incorporated into his craft. As Marc said, “You know the intricacies of your body.”

And in terms of promotion and hustle online, Jeff says, “If you feel like social media is wearing you out, pull off the road for a bit and take a minute. Take care of the most important asset: you.”

Jeff’s laid-back confidence was a refreshing contrast to the neurotic hamster wheel of doubt that my brain sometimes gets stuck in. What I took away from what Jeff shared is that he knows who he is, what he’s capable of, and what he’s worth. I think it takes a combination of experience and of paying attention to oneself in order to learn and grow to that level. This is something I will try to be more mindful of going forward.

Thanks so much to Marc and Jeff for the amazing conversation, and for the insightful audience questions that furthered the discussion!