The VO Meter… Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. The VO Meter is brought to you by voiceactorwebsites.com, VocalBoot2Go, podcastdemos.com, Global Voice Acting Academy, and IPDTL.
And now, your hosts, Paul Stefano and Sean Daeley.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to episode 38 of The VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. We’ve got a great episode for you today. We are so excited to have voice acting legend, Pat Fraley, on our podcast.
Pat has been a long-time friend and mentor for me. I’ve been to a number of his workshops and have benefited from a lot of his home study courses. So I’m really happy that he was so generous to come on and share his decades of experience and insight into the VO business with us.
So you finally were able to wear him down, huh?
Oh yeah, definitely. Only took two years.
Our listeners will notice a theme with our upcoming episodes because several of our guests have come about in the exact same way with just sheer force of will from URI and making sure that we gave them plenty of reasons to not say no finally.
Yeah, seriously though, Pat is usually pretty… He’s been on a number of different podcasts and interviews. He’s always happy to share his knowledge, and he’s a real ham.
He likes to tell jokes.
With him, it’s just he’s so busy, and we appreciate that.
That’s true, that’s true.
So we’ll get to that interview in just a second, but before that, a word from one of our sponsors. Now you all must know about Vocal Booth to Go by now, but just in case you don’t, Vocal Booth to Go’s patented acoustic blankets are an effective alternative to expensive soundproofing. They’re often used by vocal and voiceover professionals, engineers, and studios as an affordable soundproofing and absorption solution.
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All right. Thank you so much to Vocal Booth to Go for being our sponsors. You guys know that Paul and I are huge supporters of all their products.
And but aside from that, it’s time to talk about current events. So what’s going on in your VO world, Paul?
Cool stuff. Always cool stuff. I bit my tongue really hard today.
That’s actually not so cool.
Sounds like a personal problem.
Yeah. I’ve been coaching my son’s baseball team and have the habit of chewing sunflower seeds. And I think I was trying to talk and chew at the same time, which is never going to be good, especially if you’re a voice actor and took a big chunk out of the tongue.
So that’s not good. But other than that, I have been working on a lot of e-learning. Picked up this great client a couple of weeks ago, and they’ve been throwing me tons of work every day, really.
This company’s been great to me. I’m doing a bunch of corporate training for sales staff. Two different companies, so I’m working with an intermediary who’s doing the production of the e-learning.
And they have some pretty big international clients, and I’m doing their corporate sales training. So that’s been pretty cool. Also, I’m proud to say I finally crossed the 4K, or 4,000 titles plateau with ACX.
So that was pretty cool to see. And so…
So is that 4,000 individual books? Or…
4,000 individual sales. So what that number is…
Gotcha, gotcha.
It’s books for which I’ve done royalty share. ACX tracks how many you sell daily, basically. Sometimes it’s a little buggy, but generally daily.
And I’m up to 4,000. So it doesn’t include any books I’ve done on a paid per finished hour basis. But 4,000 books just on royalty share.
And I was pretty darn proud of that, because I haven’t been doing this that long as we’ve talked about. And I wasn’t expecting to get there that quickly, honestly.
That’s great. Well, congratulations on both projects.
Thank you very much. And then other than that, I also was just at the audit laryngologist, actually technically the speech pathologist. We talked about this a couple episodes ago.
I’ve been doing the ongoing training, and I’m happy to say that we’ve seen some improvement with my stamina, vocal stamina, and ability to do more work at a time. I was having some real trouble with getting through some of the audio books I was doing, mostly because I was doing so many at a time. And some of the exercises we’ve done in stretching and warm-ups has really helped.
One thing I hadn’t really thought about is cool down. We talked about that today, which was sort of an epiphany for me. The pathologist said, what kind of cool down do you do after you’re done working?
And I said, nothing. I basically just crashed on the couch with a bottle of water or a glass of water.
I was about to say, or a beer.
Usually not when I’m working, sometimes on the weekend, but generally not when I’m doing voice stuff, because it’s really bad for you as far as your vocal health. But I had never thought about doing a cool down like you do when you’re going for a run or biking or any exercise where you’re physically exerting yourself. I guess the same holds true for the muscles in your throat.
And that was really something I had not thought about and something I think will help a lot to do exercises like you do for a warmup as a cool down, not as intense and they’re a little bit different, but basically trying to let yourself rest in a gradual fashion as opposed to just crashing when you’re done working. So that was really something that I had not thought about and I think will help a lot.
I’m so glad that you made that comparison of treating it like any other physical activity because I mean, granted, talking is not the most physically taxing thing the human body can do, but if you’re doing an exceptional amount of it, like most people we know record upwards of six hours a day, if not eight, I mean, having a proper warm up and cool down routine will only help you have longevity in your career and will prevent any horrible polyps or any kind of tissue damage from happening. So if you don’t already have a routine, there’s a lot of different things that you can look on, or like there are a lot of free programs you can look online, there’s a lot of great books on the subject, and of course, like there’s nothing like actually making an appointment with your ENT or auto laryngologist, or laryngologist if I said that correctly, and finding out or getting a diagnosis on what your current state is, and if you have any problems that need to be addressed.
Yeah, I highly recommend seeing a professional. I mentioned that when I first went a couple of episodes ago. And if you have somebody who specializes in performers, like I found here at Johns Hopkins, that’s just fantastic.
Although I will say I was getting a little geeky. We were doing some recording of the warmup routine, so I would have it for reference later. And I was like, oh, what software are you using?
And it turns out it’s the specialized medical software that allows them to analyze all the aspects of the voice so they can measure resonance and the amount of air that you’re putting through as you’re talking. So it’s not something we’d use as vocal performers, but I still have had it pretty cool.
Interesting. E&T Pro Tools.
Yeah, kind of, yeah, I forgot the name, but that’s basically what it was.
That’s so cool.
So what’s happening with your VO world, Sean?
Well, lots of stuff. It’s that time of the month again. But one of my largest client, or one of my largest eLearning clients, all of his stuff is always due on the, at the beginning of each month.
So now I’m just kind of making, I’ve got all the material recorded, now I’m just making the final edits, and we’ll send that in over the next couple of days. So on top of that, I followed up with a couple of clients who I had done a project with a month ago, because I hadn’t heard with them for several weeks, and they were a client through Bedalgo, and they didn’t know that only the casting aspects of the interactions are handled through Bedalgo. Once you kind of reach out and select the talent, all further interactions are between you and them.
So I followed up with them, I was like, hey, just wanted to make sure the status of the project. He’s like, oh yeah, it aired like two weeks ago. I was like, okay, why didn’t you tell me?
He didn’t ask for pickups or anything, so I just wasn’t sure. But anyway, so I just sent him the invoice after that, and he’s like, oh yeah, thank you. It worked out just fine.
It was like a local radio spot, but I got to channel my inner Wayne Campbell and do a little bit of a Wayne’s World spoof. It was a lot of fun. And then on top of that, let’s see, you’ve just been preparing this month’s workouts for GVAA.
We’ve got a great lineup. We’ve got our usual workouts with Joyce Castellanos doing promo, David Rosenthal kind of doing, we call it our Anything Goes workout because he’s kind of a jack of all trades and does commercial and character and narration and everything else under the sun. And then we also have an audio book workout with Carol Monda, and we’re actually gonna talk about kind of the mindset and answer any questions people have if they’re going to be participating in the APAC conference or the upcoming Book Expo that are happening in like middle to end of the month.
And other than that…
The end of the month completely. It starts on the 20 or some of the 29th.
Oh, okay. Got you, got you. So at the end of the month, excuse me.
And then like I said, mindset, how to approach authors, how to prepare for it, much like some of the other industry conferences that we’ve talked about in the past. And speaking of Carol, I’m actually gonna be working with her today on some audio book auditions, because after talking with you and after VO Atlanta and talking with some other compatriots, I really want to try and pursue it more earnestly, but I was just…
I’m sorry, we’re full.
What’s that? Sorry, we’re full.
Sorry, we’re full.
Oh, come on, but nobody sounds like me. You know it, but anyways. And she was really helpful.
She said she liked my most recent stuff, but she feels like there’s just one or two tweaks I could make that would make me much more bookable. So I was looking forward to that.
So it’s funny you mentioned Bedalgo. Did you see the new thing that Armand threw out into Facebook a couple of days ago? Yeah, I admit it.
I’m intrigued, but I don’t understand it.
Yeah, I’m a little confused too, but from what I understand, it looks like he’s starting another casting site completely free for talent. And he’s putting it on voices.net. So he bought the very popular domain voices.net.
Oh, that’s right.
And is trying to just completely disrupt everybody by making a completely free platform for talent. And that just sounds amazing. I’m really interested to see where that goes.
Yeah, definitely. He’s always a forward thinker, and he tends to have talent’s best interests at heart. So I’m interested to see where it goes.
Yeah, me too.
Very cool. Well, thanks for bringing that up. So other stuff that happened, some other cool training opportunities that I did recently.
I actually had this amazing documentary narration workshop with today’s guest of all people, with Pat Fraley, and a local Seattle talent named Debbie Harada. And she’s a wonderful, wonderful actress, wonderful, especially with documentary narration. I got to work with both of them in the booth, and it was just so nice, because I mean, we don’t, a lot of people don’t understand how little help we can get from directors sometimes, or if we’re just working on our, or buy our lonesome.
So it’s always so nice to have some other person to work off of or to give you ideas while you’re in the booth. And I always feel like it, like the rates are just exponentially improved when you have that resource. So in lieu of a VO Meter stick this month, I want to do a little humble brag showing of the documentary narration demo that came out of that workshop.
So I will say that there are many, like you should be incredulous of many demo, or excuse me, of many workshops where you get a demo at the end, but someone with the kind of credentials as Pat Fraley has, I’m willing to make an exception in that case.
Yeah, agreed. One other thing I forgot to mention, I’m actually doing some training with Tom Pinto right now.
That’s right.
And we are working towards a demo pretty quickly. And our last session, I did some records with him, and he said, if you want to even use some of these as a rough cut for the demo, and take them to the demo producer and say, here’s where we were going with these, it would be a good idea. And again, if you trust the person you’re working with, that’s definitely a viable option.
Very good. And I figure, I mean, if your booth is good enough to record your tracks, why not record some with your coach and then send it off to a trusted engineer to produce or something like that?
Oh yeah, definitely. I’ve recorded two of my demos right here in the booth, and I think that’s the way to go, like you said, if it sounds good.
That’s what I plan on doing with my next commercial demo, and it’d be great, because I’d love to have that opportunity to showcase, like, hey, guess what? I made that in my studio.
Yeah, it’s definitely something to do when you’re pitching it to a client, because they’ll say, what is your sound like? And you’ll say, well, you just heard it.
So before you guys humor me on my latest narration demo, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to one of our great sponsors, Podcast Demos, from makemyintro.com. So let me tell you about Tim and his Podcast Intro team. They’ve produced over 1,000 podcast intros for some of the biggest podcasts on the planet.
Each demo includes custom written scripts and hand-selected music, and is guaranteed to showcase your voice and talent in the best light possible. With a finger on the pulse of what podcast producers want, you can be sure your podcast demo will sound professional, current, and competitive. We’ve talked about this before on the podcast, but Tim actually produced Paul’s and my podcast demos.
And all I can say is that he and his team were absolutely amazing. His script writer created original scripts that were perfect for my voice and personality, as well as reflective of current popular podcast genres. I recorded in the comfort of my own home studio, and Tim worked his mastering magic.
The whole process only took a couple of days, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result. Tim is a consummate pro, a good friend, and so easy to work with. Thank you, Tim, and podcast demos.
There’s a mysterious ritual that dates back thousands of years. No other creature has survived it except the penguin. They have wings, but cannot fly.
They’re birds, but think they’re fish. Many penguins will mate with the same member of the opposite sex, season after season.
Wow, that was really cool. I can’t believe you got that out of that one session with Pat. He’s really fantastic.
The audio engineer was absolutely amazing. He had his headphones over one ear, and was mastering us while the workshop was done. So during the last hour, he was actually able to play back everyone’s tracks.
I couldn’t believe it. I’d never seen someone work so fast.
Yeah, I had a similar experience when I did my first demo. I did it at a studio, and as I was walking out, the engineer was like, do you want to hear it? And I said, really?
He hadn’t done the same thing. He was putting it together. I guess they’re so used to this pumping out so many sessions at once that that’s how they work.
That’s how they get their work done in time. So it was pretty cool. Okay, so we’re actually going to go into our Questionable Gear Purchase.
But before that, a word from our sponsor, IPDTL. IPDTL is the Cost Effective ISDN Replacement. It’s great for interviews, outside broadcasts, voiceover, and of course, podcasts.
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And thanks again. All right, so time for Question O’Gear Purchases. So what itch do you need scratching this month, Paul?
I’ve been booth shopping again.
Me too.
What a coincidence.
Yeah.
I’ve been looking at some of the same models.
Oh yeah, which one were you looking at?
Well, there’s a couple that were in Washington that I was looking at. Both are kind of in like about 2300 to 2500, so about half off. And they were vocalbooth.com booths.
So you know that the materials are definitely high quality. Unfortunately though, one of them was massive. One was like eight by eight by eight, or like so eight feet.
It was so huge.
That’s like the entire size of the room where I have my booth. I have in a spare bedroom and it would take up basically the whole bedroom.
Pretty close to mine too. I mean, I could just move out and then live in there. That would work.
Yeah, but what would you do for like food? Could you put a hot plate in there?
Maybe, maybe it would be battery powered. It would be solar powered, I don’t know. I’m worried about utilities though.
Yeah, and maybe get some plumbing, you know.
You could just use the ventilation. No, nevermind.
No, no, it would smell horrible in there. Maybe just get one of those little like honey buckets outside. I’m sure we can make it work.
There’s another one in your area I saw. They had a broken window.
Yeah, it’s not, I don’t know. They were willing to replace it, but I mean, I’m kind of worried that it might affect the sound quality. So, I don’t know.
Like, I would prefer something that was in better shape. And I just remember it like, ah, I remember you were kind of gear pressuring me last summer, and there was these two boosts that were so affordable. There was one that was like 850 bucks.
Oh, I bought that one, remember? I actually bought it on eBay.
Oh, you did, but then you couldn’t actually move it to where you were.
And then I tried to sell it to you before I ended up returning it through eBay’s process and got my money back. But I actually paid for it. Oh, too bad I couldn’t pull it together.
Yeah, yeah, that was before the whole room redesign with the new carpeting and stuff. And it probably would have fit in here now. It’s about the same size as my current booth.
But it’s still pretty small. I don’t know… I’d recommend if you are…
It was like a 3x3x5 or something like that. Or 3x5x7, something like that. And kind of tiny.
It’s a little bit about as small, if not smaller, than my current setup. So I’d recommend if you’re trying to get your own ISO booth, at least starting with a 4×4. Maybe 4×6 if you can help it.
Yeah, that’s what I’m in now. I didn’t mind a 3×3 when I had the VocalBooth2Go booth here. That was 3×3, just like yours.
The same dimensions as yours. I could fit in there pretty well. And especially since it was flexible, I could kind of push the back leg of a chair out the side.
But then it does kind of defeat the purpose. But you can’t do it in a hard spot.
Yeah, how does that affect the soundproofing? But yeah, I mean, I’ve even had one other talent in here and we’re like shoulder to shoulder, but it gets real cozy. But yeah, so these are, I don’t know, for the moment until I find that one…
Like if I find another sub-$1,000 booth though, I will probably pull the trigger, I gotta admit.
Yeah, on the same way. I think I mentioned the reason I was looking the last episode, but if not, I had a studio tell me there was something wrong with my sound for the first time, really. They said they were hearing the highway rumble that has been the bane of my existence since I started.
Yeah, so I thought, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. So I started looking at moving everything into the basement. I thought about that anyway.
I have a fully finished basement down, well, in the basement, I was gonna say downstairs, duh, in the house, it’s an east coast house with a fully full basement that’s the whole footprint of the house. So there’s room down there. My only reason for not doing it before was because the main thing I was trying to keep out the time was the pitter patter of little feet because of all the childrens I have in the house and the dogs.
That’s right. But now that issue has moved upstairs because the kids are older, I have a teenager now, and they’re spending more time in their rooms, either talking to their friends, or my son is playing video games with his friends over voice chat and screaming and yelling. They play Fortnite all hours of the night, and he’s right next to me.
His room, the wall of his room, connects to the room where my studio is. So the noise from inside the house is actually more of an issue now. So I actually had a contractor come over here and look at maybe building something in the basement, and that’s still on the table.
But in the meantime, I’m still shopping for something that might be a more turnkey solution, and I think that’s the long-term answer, is to get into the basement. I had this great space with concrete surrounding everything. I may as well use it.
Mm-hmm.
Wish I had a basement.
But… Oh, man.
Oh, man.
Grass is always greener, or quieter in our case. Oh, that’s good. I mean, they’re one of the larger purchases that you can make.
And just a reminder, you don’t need one when you start, and you might never need one, depending on how quiet your environment is, or if you have the wherewithal or the budget to build a space, like one that’s specifically designed to be soundproof. I know Paul Stracverda actually has a great book on that, Building a Booth on a Budget, that you can find on his website on nethervoice.com. So if that’s an option that you’re looking into, that’s a possibility.
A lot of people do like ISO boost because of the modular aspect, the fact that you can disassemble and assemble them in different locations. It’s not that easy, but it’s possible.
They call it modular, even the Whisper Room I’m in. But I think I’ve mentioned that that was the most, that was the hardest physical labor I’ve ever done in my life.
I can’t believe you did that by yourself. I’m still amazed.
Because I’m huge.
I’m huge, yeah.
No, it wasn’t that. It was sheer force of will and several double hernias.
Oh God, I hope not.
No, I’m just kidding.
Now you gotta go to another doctor.
Well, enough about our questionable gear purchase.
More like questionable window shopping, you mean. Luckily, we didn’t buy anything this month, but I mean, when we do, it’ll be a doozy.
Yeah, exactly. So, we have a fantastic guest. We shouldn’t waste any more time.
Without further ado, let’s get to our interview with the fantastic Pat Fraley.
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This is Crang from Dimension…
Psh!
Are you there?
Yes, I am there and trying not to laugh myself silly because we have a very special guest today on the VO Meter. This is a man with over three decades of experience in all areas of voice acting and animation and audio books and corporate and e-learning, any kind of VO genre under the sun. We are very happy to bring you Mr. Pat Fraley.
How are you doing today, sir?
God, I was only sleeping myself because I had to. I think it’s more like four decades, Sean.
Four decades? Well, yeah, I was trying to be… Didn’t want you to date yourself, right?
Oh, yeah, really, put a bullet in my career. I hope I can slide over to the fridge to get some tapioca.
Well, you’re still standing, so don’t worry about that. But anyways, we have so much to talk about because you have so much experience. So first off, for people who might not know who you are, tell us a little bit about some of the characters you’ve played and how you came to be a voice actor.
Oh, my goodness. Well, first of all, I’ve done about 4,000 characters over the last 40 years in LA. I’m a Seattle boy, and you’re from the Northwest, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Where are you?
I’m in Port Orchard. It’s near Tacoma on the other side of the Narrows Bridge.
Hey, I lived in Bremerton.
No kidding, yeah, 20 minutes away. That’s crazy.
Yeah, I lived there for a while in Bainbridge Island, but a lot of time in Lake City in Seattle, and I’m a Seattle boy. I love going back and teaching there. You know, over the years, so many different characters.
I did nine years working with Tim Allen doing Buzz Lightyear to Infinity and Residuals. But don’t tell him, because it’ll make him grumpy. I did 200 shows of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the original, where I was the evil body that’s craaang.
And Sean, no matter what I do in my life, you know, we used to call it, it’ll be on my epitaph, it’ll be on my Wikipedia, craaang. It’s like one of my students, Nancy Cartwright, just brilliant, done so much work, guess what? She’ll always be known as the voice of Bart Simpson.
That’s the way we get it. But over the years, tailspin, doing Wildcat, well, who was that to rank you, Banana?
Doing Max on The New Centurions.
I mean, I started really doing Scooby-Doo’s, when I came to town here, and did the villains and, you know, over different decades, doing commercials and documentaries. But me, they kept coming back to me for cartoons. They loved me doing, you know, like my friend and comedian Brad Garrett says, Pat Moore’s not enough.
And apparently, you know, I was big enough that I fit into doing the characters for animation. And I don’t know, how I got into it was really, I never thought of doing voices. They paid me for the voice only, but when I arrived at the studio, and to this day, they get the whole performance.
They just don’t pay to see me.
Well, that’s really interesting that you mention that, because I mean, I’ve been blessed to be able to interview great actors like you, and I’ve watched a number of other voice actor interviews for my own research, and a lot of them come into voice acting that way. They are either character actors, or they were writers or producers, or some other area of the entertainment industry, but very rarely was voice acting the ultimate goal.
Yeah, you know, basically, we’re all failures at some other media. No, really, I mean, or they transitioned. I’m old enough that I got to work with the first generation of voice overs.
You know, Mel Blank, Dawes Butler, Don Messick, June Ferre, and they all came from radio, or they didn’t have a successful on-camera career. Me, I was doing Shakespeare when I realized that my career would be with cartoons. And yeah, so we came from other areas, and most of those areas included seeing us.
And so we really… And even the guys like Bob Bergen and Corey Burton, that wanted to grow up and be voice over guys, they still bring a lot to the party, physically.
So let’s talk about that, because you mentioned that you started with stage, correct?
Yeah.
So how do some of those performance skills translate into voice acting, and what are some differences that you had to adapt to?
Well, there’s a list of pros and cons. First of all, on the con list, you don’t have makeup to help you. If you’re in a movie, you don’t have location, but you don’t have to be that loud and hit the 25th row of the morosco.
And so there’s a pro and con list. But mainly, I came from theater, because when I was in Seattle and training at Seattle and Whitman, there was no other way for a middle-class white guy to learn than theater. We didn’t have improv classes or comedy classes.
And so I went that route all the way up until going through Cornell and getting an MFA and really emigrating to Australia to do Shakespeare. Well, I found out that I wasn’t as good at Shakespeare as I was doing Duck Voices. Really, you know, the transfer from, say, French farce, Fideaux, La Biche, you know, I was great because they wanted really vibrant big characters.
But when I got done a checkup, the pilot light kind of went out.
Mm-hmm, just that subtlety and…
Did you say a word called, like, subtlety?
Yes.
Yeah, it’s foreign to me. I’m incapable of being subtle.
You’re pretty gregarious. I’ve met you a couple of times in person.
Yeah, I’m gregarious, but it’s difficult for me to be subtle because I’m an exaggerated human being.
Mm-hmm.
I grew up in and around the deaf. My grandfather taught the deaf all his life in state schools in North Dakota and Idaho. And we’re an exaggerated kind of people.
And my family was very exaggerated. And here I grew up in, you know, Seattle, which is Scandinavian-influenced and very, very kind of dour.
Oh, my goodness. Couldn’t wait for the Fraley’s to get there at the barbecue.
They’re a hoot and holler.
It reminds me of my girlfriend. She often talks about her Scandinavian relatives. It’s always so good to see our Yumpen and Yali, Aunt Udi and Yuli.
Yeah, well, you know, Scandinavians aren’t known to raise their hands above their shirt pocket, except to shade their face from the sun.
And that don’t happen either.
You know, they always talk about the Seattle freeze. It’s not the most friendly place to live. It takes a long time to get a good friend.
And it’s not like, you know, LA., where the plumber is like your best friend. Hey, hi, dude.
Seattle is a really interesting place, because it’s filled with good and wonderful people, but there’s this layer of formality that you kind of have to break through first.
Yeah, at least it was that way.
I think it still is. But I’m glad that you brought out that exaggerated personality, that big personality, because I work with a lot of aspiring voice actors, and one area where they struggle is with confidence. They might be more comfortable in a performance, but in their everyday lives, they might be a little bit more soft-spoken, a little bit more shy or quiet, and it can be difficult to get them to go that 150 or 2,000 percent necessary to create these larger-than-life characters.
Yeah, Sean, you’re so right. I have lots of students, and I call them the who am I this time student or axe-murderers.
Oh, gee, he was so nice. I didn’t know.
He took his garbage out on time. Well, and then all of a sudden, right? Well, there’s that aspect of people, and I think a great deal of it has to do with fear.
Mm-hmm. Now, I grew up with no fear whatsoever. I was encouraged.
I was the kid. My mom would go, Oh, Pat, go downstairs and put the tea cozy on your head and do your Chinese, man. And I’d go up and, you know, entertain either our guests or our family.
I never heard a discouraging word, the perfect Western family. And so I didn’t know fear, and that’s a great deal of it, to be in front of people, because really what we’re doing, and forget about being paid eventually somewhere along the line, from four years old, I started getting paid for it. I don’t remember.
But you are lying in front of people, and I think your conscience is somewhere telling you you shouldn’t be lying.
Interesting.
And also just being kind of wild and woolly in front of people is unusual, and you see that more in theater and with performers.
It’s this really interesting paradox of having to convey authenticity and honest emotions while, like you said, being deceptive. You’re not in these circumstances. You’re not really experiencing these things, but you have to convey that.
Yes, and part of it is this. Is that actors or performers get into business to do either one or two things, either to reveal themselves or hide themselves. And I got in to hide.
I wanted to be anybody but me. Well, if you keep doing that long enough, you get better at revealing while you’re in character, and that’s what happened to me.
Well, that’s funny because, like I said, I’ve been studying a lot of voice actor interviews, and they talk about, like, so many people are like, oh, I can’t portray this character because I’m not like this character. It’s out of character for me. And the truth is, we all know what most emotions feel like.
We’ve all experienced anger or sadness or pain. So if we remember what that feels like, if we’re open to experiencing those comfortable emotions while we perform, we can channel that and create more engaging performances.
Absolutely. And the thing about it is, and of course, you just tapped into the fundamental skill of acting, is to bring yourself and your emotions to the party. But along the way, we get confused.
I mean, the other thing, and this is really true, Sean, it helps not to be really bright.
So that’s my problem.
Exactly. You’re too smart. I went to Whitman and Cornell, and I was around really bright people, much brighter than I.
And there is a hesitancy on the part of a smart person to commit to doing a 200-pound Scottish duck with a lisp. They think about it too much. When in fact, God gave me a gift of just being able to commit to anything.
And that helps. And a lot of actors and performers are not brain trusts. We think they’re smart because they’re given really smart words, not so.
And that’s another thing, is that like, brightness or otherwise, a lot of people just tend to overthink the character. And that just, like, it pulls you out of it, because you can’t be spontaneous if these things aren’t stream of consciousness, if you’re thinking about them while you’re doing it.
Yeah, you know, when I was at Cornell, I studied with a guy named William Sadler, Bill Sadler. And we were both kind of hicks. I was from Washington state.
He was from south of Buffalo on a farm. And while we would be thinking, we’d go into a scene, and we’d be thinking, you know, I’m going to piss this guy off, right? And other people would be thinking, you know, I think I’ll allude to the first folio of Shakespeare.
They were trying to do things they couldn’t, and overthinking the process, because acting is really simple. We’ve been doing it all our lives.
And I think another issue with what you just mentioned is it’s like, they’re trying to satisfy some internal need when you’re really trying to get a reaction from the audience.
Well, or a reaction from the person next to you. And I will agree that that was how I started. How do I make the audience like me or hate me or whatever?
But really, when you get deeper, and I work a lot and teach a lot with the audiobook narrator Scott Brick, who was 10 years in a Shakespeare company, and his focus is on affecting, well, really, when he does audiobooks, he’s affecting himself. He’s got that heckle-jide, jiggle-and-hide thing, right? But usually, it’s more important, and it helped me as I learned about acting, to try to get a rise out of someone I’m talking to or affect them.
And that gives me a focus which makes the listener or the audience more of a group of voyeurs. Interesting. Like we watch a movie, Robert De Niro, call me Bob, is trying to get a rise out of another person or affect them emotionally or intellectually.
And we happen to like watching that process. I never get the feeling from good actors that they’re trying to get a response from me as a listener or an audience member.
Interesting. So like I said, I work with a lot of aspiring talent. And as you said, you and Scott and a number of other voice actors came from some form of acting performance.
But I work with people who say might just want to focus on corporate e-learning or just commercial work. And some people even say, I’m terrified of character work. But I’m curious because you have this versatility and this adaptability about you that you’ve done just about any genre under the sun.
So I’m curious, like how has that ability to act helped you in genres that people might not expect, like say e-learning and corporate narration?
Well, good you bring that up. There’s only three things we ever do in any performance medium. Doesn’t matter what it is.
We touch, we teach, or we amuse.
Or we do a combination of them. Now, when you’re doing e-learning, for example, which is a difficult category for a lot of people because it’s just you teaching. And so it’s more about me like I’m talking to you.
That’s it. That’s all it is. And so what I’m doing there is I’m thinking of the audience member or the listener as a human being wanting to listen to me as a teacher.
That’s it. And so what I’m doing is I’m doing my best job at being a good teacher. In other mediums, it’s about how we go about the planet and, for example, amuse.
Now, the way I amuse, and I’ve got no choice in this, is I exaggerate. You know, bye, Barbara. Oh, I hate her.
You know, that’s funny because it’s exaggerated. That’s my personal style.
But again, you need that exaggeration because we don’t have any of the visual cues that you might get with on camera things.
Well, yeah, in some mediums you do. But when you do like video games, you better pick up your Oscar. You know, you really are acting and you’re affecting another character when they put it together.
And so there is that aspect to it. But there is a recognition and an acceptance of what God gave us on how we teach touch and amuse. And when you tap into that, then you can move from one genre to another almost, almost seamlessly.
Except for promo for me. I can never do promo. It always feels phony and I’ve been unsuccessful in that area.
Is it because it is such a structured kind of delivery?
It’s bad acting.
Oh really?
Yeah, Pat Duke says never use earphones except if you do promo. Because in promo, you need to love your voice.
Oh really?
Come here, she’s the sheriff.
And then a very special BJ and the bear.
You know, it really has less to do with acting in any other medium.
Interesting. That is too cool.
And you know, the joke is all the money is in promo.
So step one, become a great actor. Step two, throw it all away and then do promo.
Yeah, probably so. I don’t know. Something about it, somewhere inside me, I’ve got a little voice going, you’re phony, you’re being phony.
And it stopped me from being successful at all in that medium. The other mediums, I’ve had my modicum of success.
And you’ve done, like I said, you’ve done so many. And just wanted to thank you quickly because you’ve already touched and amused us today. But let’s talk about your teaching because you’ve got some of the best educational materials available for voice talent.
And you offer basically any kind of… Wherever people are at, you have different affordable options. You have different, say, more passive learning options, either with books or with follow along audio lessons.
Yeah, home study courses.
Exactly, home study courses. And like I said, they’re in so many different genres. I mean, you have documentary narration.
You have e-learning, character creation. You’ve got an entire curriculum on that. And accents and dialects and audiobook work.
So let’s talk about that. I think you mentioned it a little bit, that you came from a bit of an educational family, but I’d love to know just how you kind of transitioned from acting to providing these wonderful resources.
Well, it was always there, Sean. I always had a passion, and due to this day, for teaching and performing. And it started when I was young.
It’s all a gift. You know, when I was four, I was the kid playing army, and they all wanted to shoot because I died so well. That’s the performing part.
And then after I die, I go, okay, here’s how you die.
You roll over, arch your back, foam in your mouth.
I was teaching. And so I… I think it all comes from our early neuroses I had about trying to control the uncontrollable, which is your life.
But I found I could control characters. I had my little band like Jackie Gleason or Red Skelton especially. And I could control them.
And I not only loved doing them, but I loved saying why do you do them and what are they like? So there’s two aspects of me. One is the creative side and one is the analytical side.
And of course, to teach anything, you must deconstruct the skill. So you can take people a step at a time so they get better. You can’t just throw it at them.
That’s directing, you know. So that’s always been there. And I have a joy of deconstructing things and teaching.
And on my website, patfraley.com there’s everything. Free lessons, inexpensive, expensive. You know, in the context is my email and my own home cell phone.
Hey, I’m available till I go to heaven, then I won’t be available.
But it’s amazing because I mean, I first found out about your home study courses when I was in Japan. Or when I was teaching English over there. And so obviously I didn’t really have an opportunity to work with anyone else.
And this was five or six years ago. And the number of educational resources and voice over coaches that have exploded since then, it’s really difficult to decide what kind of materials you should work with. And then you get some people who are like, oh, there’s no benefit to online courses.
You should really just get yourself to a theater and there’s really no benefit to it. But I disagree wholeheartedly. I mean, whatever your circumstances are, wherever, like, maybe it’s based on location or, like I said, budget, they’re really…
Like, you shouldn’t be afraid to try something like this if it interests you, if it’s something that you’re passionate about. Because like I said, I was just like, I want to work on characters and accents. What do you know?
Here’s a whole curriculum on it.
Well, you know, Sean, it does have to do with where do you live, how much money do you have, but it does go back to what you’re talking about, and it really is a passion for an area. And, you know, people that study character and they live in the middle of the country and don’t have the opportunity to do cartoons, they still can enjoy it. You know, it’s like music.
I have no ability at music, and yet I have a huge collection of music because I love it. So there is that aspect. But I always think that a person should start with their passion.
Because the money will come and go. You know, you never know. But passion doesn’t.
Passion usually is there. You can get highly practical, but it’s kind of difficult to study something you don’t like. Then homework is a drudgery rather than a joy.
I’ve been struggling with this for myself for a while, because like I said, I always had a passion for characters and accents and stuff like that, but as I learn more about the voiceover industry, you see that’s a fraction of what the work available is. So you’re like, alright, I need a commercial demo and a narration demo, and then started pursuing those and became successful with narration work, but less so with commercial. And I was like, you know, I’m not so passionate about that.
Maybe that’s why.
Well, you know, there’s a lot of factors. One is, of course, we’ve mentioned it’s where you live. But, you know, and here, I’ve made my career in an area that’s a little teeny piece of the pie.
And as I mentioned to you, the big slice for money promo, I can’t do. Never could. So who knows?
I mean, you know, here, again, I grew up in Seattle. No character work. But I made my living doing character.
And, of course, when they said, you need a demo, a commercial demo, it was a necessary evil. And I did it. Because, you know, hey, you might as well put all the poles in the…
You know, you bait up all of the poles. And if the salmon are running, and you want the salmon, good. But if they’re not, it’s trout.
Guess what?
You land trout.
Well, that goes back to what we were talking about before, with voice over not being the ultimate goal, right? And kind of just being receptive to the opportunities that come your way.
Yep.
God has a plan, and we try to fit into it. We don’t know. I mean, we have no idea what moves us about the planet, and where we’ll be blessed, and where we weren’t, won’t.
But we do the best we can. You know, there’s no… There’s only notions, no rules.
I do think that people need to be encouraged and not be frightened. I think fear messes us up in all areas.
I agree completely. And like we were saying before, there’s a huge amount of vulnerability that happens when you perform, that people might not be aware of or expect.
Yeah, well, if you’re good, there is vulnerability. I was teaching on Saturday, and I have some really good performers, and I say, okay, in the middle of the performing, because you’ve got all those skills, you’ve got to give me a little chunk of you. And I’ve been working with a guy you know well, Jonathan Cotton, who is up in the Northwest.
Wonderful, versatile, creative guy with a lot of different voices and stuff. But the last time I worked with him, I said, yeah, but there’s a little chunk of you you have to put out there.
You know, it’s great to be a Scottish duck, you know, with a leash when he’s huge. But when you’re angry, you’ve got to put on all of that stuff. But underneath, if I scrape it all away, you hear Pat Fraley angry.
And that’s important, that the audience gets a sense of reality, even if it’s covered with a whole bunch of conventions and performance skills and dialects and, you know, pitch characteristics.
So this is something that took me a long time to discover myself, too. And it’s really funny that you brought up that story, because, like you said, a lot of us try and do character accents or voices to kind of like hide either our voice or ourselves. And we were talking about that fearlessness, that strong personality that so many actors seem to have.
And do you feel like you just need to have a strong sense of self before you can start layering characters on top of that?
No. I think, you know, in my experience, I didn’t give them anything but performance techniques and skills. I could do an old guy, I could do a dialect, but they weren’t getting anything.
As I got older, I realized the importance, and as I studied acting, I realized how important it was to bring myself to the party. But I was afraid. I didn’t want to show myself.
I wanted to hide. Well, as you get older and you don’t need money or a date, you go, why not? It’s my phrase, which I use in Barbara Harris, the ADR queen of casting of all time, loves this, and so does Brad Garrett.
And here it is. Why not? They’re already not hiring you.
What have you got to lose? Right.
There’s so little to lose. I mean, what are they going to do? Hate you?
No, they’ll love you, actually. That’s the reverse part. The more you throw it out there, the more impressed and have more appreciation for you, because it’s tough.
Yeah, definitely. But like I was saying before, I had the pleasure of working with another great character actor, James Arnold Taylor, recently. And I was trying to challenge myself by doing two very different characters, and my voice tends to be very high and sweet, so I was trying something a little bit lower and down here.
He was like, do it again, but do it in your voice. I was like, really? I don’t want to.
But he was absolutely right. I was able to emote more. I was able to immerse myself in the character.
And like you said, inject some of my own personality into those reads.
Yeah, you know, what you said reminds me of my friend, and I’ve done so many cartoons with him, Rob Paulson.
Oh, love Rob.
Yeah, now Rob is a high tenor. Just his voice is really high. Well, when we do Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together, there would be a thug.
And Fred Wolf, the producer, was so chief, we did everything. We had no guests. And so he’d point to me, you’re a thug, and Rob, you’re a thug.
Well, easy for me, because I’m a baritone.
So I could do a thug like that, no problem, right? Rob couldn’t.
If he did, it would sound phony.
So what he do is he do a high thug like that. Hey, boss.
And he found a way of bringing himself to the party and the casting event.
Very cool. So let’s… in your courses and in some of your…
even your free materials, you have this wonderful… I love the way that you describe creating a character, because it’s… like you said, you’ve adjusted from theater, and you know you don’t have that time to really immerse yourself in the world.
Who am I? What is my motivation? All of those things.
So would you mind telling us about how you go about creating a character or a voice for a character?
You know, I’m sort of like a plumber who’s done it so long. I could shift out a floater and a cistern in two minutes, and you’d go, Wow, wow, anybody who does it that long does it quickly. But when I was younger, I’m not historic for creating much of it all, but I am the first person in the world to deconstruct the character voice.
Because, again, I liked… I knew I could do it, but I’d go, What are you doing, Pat? So I broke the character voice down to its six elements.
Really, it was just a matter of… It was my first teaching job in Australia at a university, Flinders University. And I’d go in and go, okay…
And they all knew, my students, that my day job was an actor. And they go, Oh yeah, what you did today? Well, I did Walter Brennan.
Oh yeah, okay.
Well, give us a taste.
I went, well, I was Walter Brennan. I was low.
Need I get high?
And they go, no, no, mate.
What’s your throat?
What are you doing? And I went, wow. And so, the character voice was broken down to pitch, pitch characteristic, tempo, rhythm, placement and mouthwork.
There’s no more other elements. And the mixing and matching of those helped me get to the source fast. That’s what happened to me.
Later on, I started just imitating people and then make a character or I just talk to myself in a kind of notion of a character and develop them so they had an inner life. So my journey is different than others, but I do think it’s of great value to understand what you’re doing because it helps, it helps me.
And it’s helped me too, believe it or not. But you were just talking about imitations and impressions, and I know that you’re full of them. But I want to talk about that.
Because I know a lot of people, and myself included, got started pursuing voice acting because it’s an opportunity to create or to do, for lack of a better word, funny voices, fun accents. But I’m curious, for people who have a pension or a passion for impressions, what kind of work is available and are there any misconceptions about that ability, that mimicry that you’d like to dispel?
Well, first of all, there’s no money in it. Right? And second, we live in a litigious society.
Is that correct? Litigious?
I’ll take your word on that.
Let’s put it this way, you can get sued.
Ah, I see. Got you.
Right. So you got to be a little careful about that, but we all delight in impressions. And James Taylor is so phenomenal at that, by the way.
And it’s fun to do. It breaks the ice. I mean, I probably made, you know, two cents doing Jack Nicholson.
But if I come in and do Jack Nicholson, people adore it. You keep telling me about the good life, Sean, because it makes me want to puke.
You know, we love it. So the misconception is… Well, there’s no misconception.
All art starts with copying. That’s what we do. Then we get…
If we copy the right people, eventually it becomes part of our work and we don’t get caught. The creative process, in other words, is a finely honed skill at plagiarism. I mean, I was inspired as a young man by Charles Lawton, Ruth Draper, Lord Buckley.
But if anybody knows those people, they’ll hear some of that in my work. And Scott Brick… Oh, he’s a big William Shatner nerd and Charles Lawton.
But because his personal equipment is so different, you don’t catch him. And that’s sort of what happens along the way. But copying is a very good thing to do to begin with.
And impressions are very good. It’s just that at a certain point, somebody has to tap you in the shoulder, even if it’s you, and say, you gotta move on. You gotta make your own characters now.
Very cool. So something that I’m fond of thinking or saying is thinking of it as like, imitation is fine, and like you said, it’s an okay place to start, but move to emulation. Like pick a part, like use your own voice and maybe like, oh, I like the cadence he used, but I’m not gonna try to imitate his voice because I don’t like, we have different equipment, like you said.
So I’m so glad that you kind of blew that apart because there are a lot of celebrities who are like good at impressions. Like I just, like you mentioned James Arnold Taylor, and I just saw Ross Marquand at Emerald City Comic Con, and I’m a big fan of Jim Meskiman, but it’s a very, it’s a very small group. And it’s not necessarily, they might use these impressions as starting points for characters.
I mean, how often do you see like a muscle building like just a super strong athletic character who sounds an awful lot like Arnold, you know?
Yeah, that’s right.
It sounds like that. It sounds like he’s trying to make his voice low.
A little bit. And sometimes you have a nice, charming character who’s like… Yeah, like Sean.
No relation.
Well, we all delight in it, and I love doing it. It’s very rare I make any money. Now, Jim makes money at it because he does impressions.
Meskiman. But few do at impressions. And you’re right.
The emulating is important that moves you away from imitating. But I certainly started my career by imitating others.
Wonderful. So let’s talk about that, because I mean, you came into voice acting when it was so new, and like you yourself were a fast student. So can you talk about how you kind of threw yourself into the deep end and use that experience of working with other actors to kind of just learn the craft yourself?
Well, working with other actors, I can put in a different category. That’s acting, affecting other people. But I remember I was doing Shakespeare in Australia, and I was okay.
You know, Shakespeare was pretty good, Jack got bad. I went to a studio and did a commercial. I was some kind of rat dog.
Jimmy Cagney, rat dog, you know. And as I left, one of the producers said, oh, we like you. And I said, really?
Why? Oh, you’re so big. We can’t get the other actors to be that big.
And I thought, oh, that’s when I knew I needed to go to somewhere where I could do the best I could. I only wanted to be a performer, so I didn’t care. And that was my own gift.
Other people will find their own personal gift, but I think, for me, it was never doing a voice. I never thought of doing voices. I always thought of doing characters.
When I’d first start off doing Walter Brennan, I’d go into the studio with suspenders. I’d be dressed up like the character.
Very cool. And that’s something that people who don’t come from, like, an on-camera or stage background might think of. I mean, I know actors who will have props or will play music or do other things to create the atmosphere or just to…
or any little tips or tricks to just add that extra flavor to that performance.
Absolutely, because, you know, as I go back to the list of pros and cons, one of the cons, of course, is you don’t have any makeup or costume or other actors and you’re in the studio. A couple things. I think of Scott Brick.
When he has to do audio book narration on certain characters, he’ll get little action figures and put them around him. Wow. And he would look at one, and that helps him get into that character.
For me, you have more freedom in a studio in front of a mic than a two-button shot in a video or film. So I move around a little bit, and I have my hands up in front of me, and it’s as if I’m doing kind of symbols or of action. I can’t throw my arm out because you’ll hear my shirt, but I can see my fingers, and that helps me.
And again, when I first started, I was kind of dressed up like it. I know Scott, and I keep mentioning Scott because we worked together and we’re such pals. He went in to do a detective for me, and he came in with a 40s tie on.
It helped him. It helped him get into that character. And there’s really no rules about it.
You can do what you want.
And that’s another thing. A lot of people… There’s that fear complex that we were talking about again.
A lot of people are like, Oh, am I doing it right? And there really is no… Performance is very much a personal journey, and you really have to kind of carve your own path and follow your passion.
You’re so right, Sean, and especially in auditions. I’ve never done an audition that I didn’t ad lib within it. And Scott Burns, who lives up your way…
Oh, yeah, good friend….
does the same thing. He even produces some of his auditions because they don’t know what they want. They’ll know it when they hear it.
Even casting people are that way. And so the idea of breaking rules, which, by the way, like you said, intimated to, there are none. That’s the only stories I’ve ever heard of successful auditions is people breaking rules.
You know, showing up at the audition in a costume, sending a dozen roses to the director day by day until he gets the role. It’s breaking rules. Tom Wilson has a great story about doing Biff from back in the future.
You know, the bully Biff?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, he was taking his wife down to see a Bruce Springsteen concert downtown. He gets a call back on his cell phone in his car, you have a call back for that role. He’s mad.
You know, he wants to take his wife to the concert. He gets there, and poor Christian Glover, who is like 120 pounds is there, his scenes with him, there’s a long table, a dais, with all these directors and some producers there. Tom goes in, he’s six foot five, at least.
He grabs Christian Glover by the shirt, lifts him so high that he goes through the ceiling, you know, one of the best those things, or wherever they are, and he puts him on that table, the dais, and does his lines, and it’s meaner now, and wipes off all the notebooks and coffee and everything as he takes that poor actor down the dais or the table, props him up and says, is that it? Okay, bye. Tom is walking down the hallway way, he’s thinking, what have I just done?
I was up for a major movie, maybe three movies, and look what I did. Well, he got in the car, and before he managed to get his wife down to the Springsteen concert, they called and said, you got the role.
That’s amazing.
Little did Tom know, and I have no idea of what was said, but Steven Spielberg was at the table because he was a producer. And I’m sure when he left, people looked at each other and said, well, there’s no choice. That’s the guy.
And like you were saying, here he was. He was frustrated. He was probably a little bit angry, and he just drew from that and then didn’t give a dang about how he would be perceived.
And he just kind of gave his best performance and then left the room.
Well, you tapped into something that I haven’t done a lot, but I think it’s really good for movie work. And I just heard a story about an actor who didn’t know how to do something. It’ll come to you later.
And the director said, well, if you’re angry, use that. If you come in happy, use that. In other words, why not be a little more of what you actually feel like?
Now, that’s getting pretty heady. A lot of times, you know, if I’m supposed to… I’ve had an argument with my wife, Renee, and I’m driving to the studio, and I go, Pat, you’re gonna have to be funny in 10 minutes.
Well, I can’t go in there and be angry at Renee, but movie work’s a little different. But putting that aside, that aspect is interesting, about you use what you have and what’s going on.
So I wanted to… I’m gonna change gears just a little bit, but since we’ve been talking about such, like, strong human emotion, there’s been this fear recently of the improvement of, like, artificial, like, vocal performances, like, created through such places like Vocal ID or these, like, speech…
Virtual voices.
Yeah, yeah, virtual voices, synthesized voices, things like that. Do you think this is something that we should be concerned about as it becomes more sophisticated, or is there always going to be a place for voice actors in the marketplace?
Well, I don’t know about the word concerned. I don’t think there’s much we can do about it. A few years ago, a virtual voice sounded like this.
Hello, how are you?
Good to see you.
Well, it’s not that way anymore.
So convincing.
You hear it, and it’s astounding. But, see, here’s the big deal, and it’s about the money. We, voiceover people, are cheaper at telling a story.
You get into telling a story, and that’s the only reason they need us, by the way. It’s we can wind a story. We know that central to all story is conflict.
And so when we work the conflict, chances are we bump into or know the story. That’s what’s important. The day we are not as cheap as a virtual voice winding a story, we’re cooked.
I don’t know when that’ll be. Five years? Ten years?
You tell me. I never thought that I would be reading articles and watching cars driving without drivers.
Yeah, it is pretty insane.
It makes me think about my grandfather, who literally, his father was a cartwright. He literally spoke to wheels, covered wagons, and he grew up around horses. What was that like?
When it went to, oh no, horses, we don’t use those anymore. So, in a way, we can’t be concerned about it, but we do need to know how to tell a story.
Wonderful. So don’t be too afraid about it. Obviously, we can’t stop the technology.
People tend to push that forward, regardless of whether or not it might be a good idea.
It’s all the money, isn’t it Sean?
Yeah, yeah.
They’re looking to save money. Well, they’re saving it with us, and they probably will for quite a long time.
Okay, so just focus on being the best storyteller and the best performer you can.
Yeah, because they got everything on their own, don’t they?
Absolutely. So, if people want to improve their storytelling, improve their performance, how can they get a hold of you, either to work with you directly or do some of your home study courses?
Well, they can go to patfraley.com, and there they are. Or if they go to thecontacts.com, there’s my personal email, and I email people back. But what comes to mind is what Scott Rick often says.
He says, tell a joke. It’s all there. The beginning, the middle, the end.
All the timing, the pauses. It teaches you how to tell a story. And that can apply to voice over, in commercials, video games, animation.
Everything is about telling a story. By the way, if you get a commercial and there’s no conflict in it, you don’t have a story to tell. It’s only a description.
You have to decide when do I get to the point where I lose credibility because I’m so interested in mattresses.
And like you’re saying, the importance of conflict, like every commercial, should have that problem that needs to be solved by the product you’re trying to sell.
Well, you know what? That’s the case most of the times. It’s a problem, and the product or service solves it.
But we all know that on occasion, we get commercials that are just singing attributes. And that’s… What are you going to do?
You can’t add conflict. But you do look for conflict like a heat-seeking missile as a voice over in any medium, and you exacerbate or play it. We have a tendency to soften problems.
No, don’t soften them. Make them stronger. Because they’ll be a solution.
Wonderful. I mean, Pat, I can’t thank you enough for joining us today. You’ve been so generous with your experience and your insight.
It’s my pleasure.
So thanks again so much. Like you said, if you want to get a hold of Pat, or if you want to take advantage of some of his home study courses or his other materials, you can go to patfraley.com. And I highly recommend Pat.
I’ve done his home study courses. I’ve met with him at his in-person workshops. And it’s an experience you’ll never forget.
Thank you.
And I’m going to be up seeing you, I think, April 20th up in the Northwest.
Oh my gosh.
So we’ll have a visit. And really just have lunch or whatever you want. But it’ll be good to see you.
You too. Thank you so much, Pat. So thanks again, Pat, for joining us today.
I hope you have a wonderful day, sir.
You too.
How many times has this happened to you? You’re listening to the radio when this commercial comes on. Not unlike this one.
And this guy starts talking.
Not unlike myself.
Or maybe it’s a woman that starts talking. Not unlike myself.
And you think to yourself, jeez, I could do that.
Well, mister, well, missy, you just got one step closer to realizing your dream as a voice over artist. Because now there’s Global Voice Acting Academy. All the tools and straight from the hip, honest information you need to get on a fast track to doing this commercial yourself.
Well, not this one exactly.
Classes, private coaching, webinars, home studio setup, marketing and branding help, members-only benefits like workouts, rate and negotiation advice, practice scripts, and more. All without the kind of hype you’re listening to right now. Go ahead, take our jobs from us.
We dare you. Speak for yourself, buddy. I like what I do.
And you will too when you’re learning your craft at Global Voice Acting Academy. Find us at globalvoiceacademy.com.
Because you like to have fun.
Wow, I mean, you guys could tell how much fun I was having over the course of that interview. And it was just a blast. And just to thank you again to Pat for being so generous with your time and experience.
And every time I see him at a workshop or just via email, he’s always so friendly and helpful. And if you’ve never worked with him, I highly recommend it. Either as home study courses or if he’s ever in a workshop in your area, just do it.
I mean, he’s one of the few voice acting coaches or teachers that everyone approves of, I think. So what have you got to lose, really?
Yeah, thanks so much for doing that on your own, too. I could not make it because that was the day I first went to the auto laryngeologist to have my laryngeal stroboscopy done.
Nicely done.
Duty call, as they say.
So thank you again, Pat, so much for being on the podcast. We’d love to have you back. And like I said, if you’ve never worked with him before, fix that.
So that’s really it for this episode of The VO Meter. We actually have some pretty cool things coming up. Our very next episode is going to be another…
I was going to say quadcast like we did with Anne and Gabby, but I guess it would be a tri-cast because we were guests on Rich Miller’s audiobook, Speak Easy, and that was really fun.
It was a lot of fun, partially because drinking was involved, but hey, he’s got a tight ship.
Hey, if people are going to make me drink, I’m going to listen.
I’m highly influential.
As am I. But it was kind of cool to just talk off the cuff and just enjoy the company, and that’s really what that show is all about. I’ve been a big fan since he started it, and it’s cool just to have a casual conversation as if you’re in a Speak Easy, and I think he really pulls off that schtick well.
So that’s coming up next.
After that episode of the audiobook, Speak Easy, we also have the un-announcer, the most non-announcery voice over talent you can find, Doug Turkel, who’s also a great, I don’t know, like a voice over paladin, I guess. He really kind of takes newer talent under his wing and kind of tries to guide him in his helpful but snarky way. So we got a lot of love for Doug on the podcast, and I was very happy to see that he was actually a nominee for the Unicorn Grant at View Atlanta this year.
I think he definitely encapsulates the spirit of what that award is about, and I was just very happy to hear that nomination. And we can’t wait to have you guys hear from, like straight from the unicorn’s mouth.
Yeah, he’s another one I mentioned at the beginning of the show that I basically had to wear down for the last two and a half years, but he finally said yes, and we’re so grateful that he did.
He doesn’t do public appearances.
And then following that, we have none other than the keynote speaker from this year’s VO Atlanta, Kay Bess.
Woo! Man, I cannot wait. I mean, where do you keep finding these people, Paul?
How do you get them to talk to us? It’s amazing.
Mostly drinking.
Mostly drinking. I see. Soften them up a bit.
I like it.
Exactly. We talked about how the community is so giving, and as a show is in the way people are willing to give back to us on this show. Mm-hmm.
And they’re just amazingly interesting people, too. I love hearing their stories. Well, that pretty much wraps up this episode of The VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
We’ll see you next time, and hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for listening to this episode of The VO Meter. To follow along, visit us at www.vometer.com.
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