Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the voiceover world!  It's my hope you will visit often, and use this site as a place for tips and resources as it grows into an eventual repository for voice over.  And of course, indulge me in a little bit of shameless self-promotion when it's called for!  As of the date I write this, my first blog entry, this site is a small and tiny thing, fragile by comparison to many websites.  Thus,  I haven't really shared it to others, because it's a mostly a skeletal frame of logos and blank spaces.  But it won't be for long, I promise!

I am determined to see this site grow, and become something I (and you) will be proud to participate in.  I have a ton of ideas and I've been reading and practicing quite a bit, and studying everything I can get my hands on.  While I do not yet consider myself an expert, I do think I  have acquired enough knowledge to have an informed opinion.  And I want to share it with all of you!  And since I am still a beginner in many ways. I want to share this process with you. You will be able to read when I triumph, and see when I fail. And make no mistake, I accept failure is huge part of this process.  Although I hesitate to use the word "failure" - I instead think of it as more like "lessons learned".  

Granted, anything I share here is still no substitute for personal experience.  I am however hopeful that knowing that someone has been where you are is a comforting thought.  And make no mistake, despite my studies, I am still a beginner in many ways, and am joining this battle at middle age. But you know what I say to that?  So what!  Let's do this, let's run into the fires of VO war together and give our best and go all in.

Anyone in this business, no matter what is shared and where will still have to do the work and study and gain experience; we all do.  Some people may bemoan this part of the process.  But I say they shouldn't.  There is a joy to hard earned discovery, as well as the satisfaction of a strong day's effort in the acquiring of knowledge for the joy of it.  For me (and I hope for you), that feels pretty darn great.

So how did I start getting into this?  Well, I'm new to this as a profession, starting the middle of  this year. However I've been creating voices and characters for as long as I can remember, not just because I enjoy it, but it's a part of my family tradition.  My family has always been a little strange to most "normal" folk  - our household was full of the use of humor as important as air or water.  We weren't a gag lot - we didn't like hurtful humor. Rather our stock and trade delved into sarcasm, irony and self-deprecating humor.  Part of that wonderful tradition was the use of voices and characters in the household.  It's how we made each other laugh when things we were in otherwise rough times.  

I was a very shy child, and it took me a long time to overcome that.  But inch by inch and day by day I slowly discovered I could use my voice to smooth talk myself out of bad situations. Shortly after I found out if I could make people laugh by doing strange character voices or imitations of people famous and local, I might not have to fight the school bully after all, if I could set them at ease and give them a chuckle.

Eventually I grew up, at least physically!  But I never stopped with the voices and the imitations and flirted with acting in college.  When I left college,  I had to try to be a regular, " normal"human being. I tried, really tried, but guess what?  I couldn't.   It just bubbled out, and I delighted in suppressed laughter by others at (supposedly) inappropriate times.

Eventually, I hit my middle-age crisis, and through circumstance and environment I realized working forever for things and people I didn't like or doing things I didn't love doing would just leave me poor in both my bank account and in spirit.   I needed a change, and luckily, my wonderful wife supported me in it.   So we moved to the West Coast a few years back. We put it all on the line, and came out here, with no job, nor prospects, we just did it.

After 9 months of scary time in the SF Bay, we got employment at very nice places! We survived, and met kind and caring people that that helped us thrive!  I was content in many ways, but still, I was not living an artistic life. This is what we came out here for. The desire to live art kept calling.  

The SF Bay is a wonderful place  geographically, culturally and artists abound. I increasingly decided the next stage of risk had to come.  I had to join the artistic community again, and become part of their reindeer games.

As part of the process of unleashing my creative mindset, the voices started to get louder. And yet, deep down I still think I was that shy kid. How could I do this? Why me? What could I possibly have to offer compared to such skills and talent?

My answer to myself was this: Why not me? I didn't know if I could do it, but I had to find out.  And so I started studying voice acting on as serious a level as I could with my time and resources.  I have been listening to hundreds of podcasts, reading at least a half dozen books, and have bought a dozen more.

I do something with voiceover at least 2-3 hours a day on weekdays, and 8-10 hours on weekends. It has become in short,  an obsession. I can't stop the ideas. I go to sleep thinking about it, and wake up wanting to do more. This is something I remember in my youth, being an artist.  When I had my desire submerged for over 20 years (never completely mind you, the impulse was too strong), I despaired.  I never could forget.  But I wasn't sure if I could bring my dreams to fullness once more.

Now, I have the desire again. And I will not let go. Why? Because being an artist, being a creative  makes me feel like I've come home.

Thanks for reading along!
- Rhett