His stories are as legendary as his voice-over characters. He’s too humble to tell you just how much amazing voice work he’s done (but we’re not!). He’s just a quick sample of some of the cool work Rowell has done.

It’s difficult to cite my Most Unusual Voice Job, since I’m not “usually” cast as the type of voice you “usually” hear, even when it’s a straight-ahead script.

I’ve been a grouchy germ in an employee training video, complaining about all the things Sonic Restaurants do to keep their place clean. I was a world-weary seaman narrating a series of animatic pitches to the U.S. Navy for disney i.d.e.a.s. I voiced several jubilant “toes” for a New Balance radio spot…did an old coot chicken farmer in a series of animated TV ads for Taco John’s (even sang the jingle in one of them).

There was that crazy Ludwig von Drake-style professor I did in a narration for IBM…and the “real person” old widower character I did for a Hospice radio spot that nearly got all of us in the session a little “misty”. I am even the voice of “The House” in an audio tour of the Vanderbilt Family’s summer mansion, “The Breakers” in Newport, Rhode Island.

Ironically, the most unusual job of my career so far had little to do with my voice/voices: serving, literally, as a “hired hand” on two movies with Jim Henson’s Muppets. The company was using the Wilmington, NC movie studios, and put out a call for regional puppeteers to help with crowd scenes and other work. My previous stint as a puppeteer on a local TV kiddie show had prepared me for the Muppet style of working with a video monitor, and I made the cut with an audition using one of the six puppet characters I performed and voiced on that program.

We didn’t get a lot to do (we nick-named ourselves “The C-Stand Puppeteers”), but were always welcome on set, had our own trailers and everything. On “Elmo in Grouchland”, my visiting daughter was more impressed with meeting “Maria” than what Daddy was doing. Most of us were invited back for “Muppets From Space” the next year with Kermit & Company. Of course, except for any surviving “crowd walla”, anything we said or sang with our assigned muppets was later overdubbed by the Henson pros.

It’s not everyone who can claim they were a voice on the cutting room floor. But, as the Frog is fond of saying: “What the hey….”

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The world of professional voice over certainly has its perks, but this was one I wasn’t expecting.

About 2 years ago while driving home (or perhaps racing home) from my girlfriend’s, I was pulled over by the police for speeding. Was I speeding? I was 30km over the limit. Yes, I guess you could say I was speeding.

The police officer asked for my insurance, drivers license and ownership. As he looked over my information, he happened to look down inside the car and catch my business card in my wallet. My card is stylish and different, with my signature promotional shot on it.

“What do you do?” he asked.

I contemplated telling him I was a nuclear physicist… but I decided not to.

“I’m a voice artist” I said.

Unless you’re in the entertainment industry in some sort of capacity, or are a voice artist yourself, there is inevitably an explanation that has to come with it.

He looked at me, perplexed. I took a breath and began telling him exactly what a voice artist is and what exactly it was that I did for a living.

The police officer’s demeanor changed.

He became much more relaxed and casual. One could say he even became more… human.

At one point he leaned on my car, smiling and laughing as if we had been friends for years. He was a big fan of the travel and adventure channel Travel and Escape (T&E) for which I am the promo and imaging voice for. His wife was also a fan of Four Weddings Canada for which I did the narration for.

While laughing and becoming engaged in my stories he then said to me…

“You know, I’ve always wanted to get into that myself.”

He must have stood there for another 10 minutes telling me his aspirations for getting into the business and asking questions regarding the industry. I kept thinking to myself…

‘If he gives me a ticket now, he’s up for the biggest a** of the year award.’

Don’t get me wrong, he had absolutely every right to still give me that ticket, and perhaps he should have. But I think it was that potential awkward transition that prevented him from doing so more than the “celebrity” of what I do.

“Amazing. Thanks so much for all that information Mr. McRae. Oh.. and here’s the $350 ticket and 3 demerit points. Have a nice morning!”

Needless to say he didn’t give me the ticket, but rather a friendly warning and reminder to slow down. I did however, give him my business card for which he was grateful for. One could even say… excited.

I’m still waiting for his call.

The post Inside The Voice-Over Booth: Voice Talent Dave McRae Proves How Valuable a Well Designed Business Card Can Be appeared first on Male Voice-Over Talents - The Voiceover Guys!.

One of my top five, all time, desert island sessions was the first of several ones I did as the Narrator for the remake of the classic adventure game Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards.

I was in my studio at home, patched in with Randy Ryan, my director, in Austin, Josh Mandel, the lead writer in Washington, and the legendary Al Lowe, the creator of the game, and part of the original crowd at Sierra Games.

So, having a total fanboy moment getting to work with Al, and not wanting to disappoint, I researched every reference in the script, and I was confident when we began.

Except for the part where I skipped a page during my prep.

So when we got to a reference to “lutefisk,” I was completely taken aback, but somehow stayed in character, and trying to cover my butt, I broke the fourth wall, saying, “What the f— is a lutefisk* anyway, an old catcher from the major leagues playing an ancient guitar??”

About three seconds of silence. Then I heard a burst of laughter from all three, and Al couldn’t stop for nearly a minute.

We ended up keeping the outtake as a great moment of self-aware humor, and because I made Al Lowe crack up.

*EDITOR’S NOTE (again)

Lute: Any plucked string instrument with a neck (either fretted or unfretted) and a deep round back

Fisk: Carlton, retired Major League Baseball catcher. Best known for “waving fair” his game-winning home run in the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. At the time of his retirement in 1993, Carlton Fisk held the record for most home runs all-time by a catcher with 351. 

Venable’s improvised wordplay score during a live session: 98/100.

Perfect 100/100 improvised wordplay scores are only achieved during live broadcasts.

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MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ PETER K. O’CONNELL was recently invited by fellow voice talent MIKE LENZ as a guest on lucky episode #13 of Mike’s podcast “A Journey into Voice Acting” Lenz created the podcast as a way to provide new voice talents or those who would like to start a career in voice-over information and advice from experienced professionals.

During the very light-hearted and fast paced discussion, Peter discusses how he got started in voice-over via radio, many of the clients he’s worked with and some points of advice he’d offer to folks looking to get into the business.

You can listen to the podcast HERE.

Peter was not of the first Voice-Over Guys to be featured on the well-regarded podcast. MVO: The Voice-Over Guy’s BOB SOUER was featured in episode #4 and DAN FRIEDMAN was the guest on episode #9.

These Voice-Over Guys are EVERYWHERE!

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As a voiceover talent, one of the first things you realize is that timing is everything.

As in “the early bird gets the worm?”

In the past year no experience has underscored that concept more than my latest network television promo contract.

You see, I’m the network promo voice for Star World and FX….in India.

Where the timing comes in, is the fact that India is nine and one half hours ahead of my eastern time zone in the US.  For me, that means getting up at 6am and checking email as I grab a cup of coffee, then heading straight up to the booth to record the latest promos for “The Goldbergs”, “The Simpsons”, “MasterChef”, “Modern Family”…the list goes on.

My early deliveries to the editors in Mumbai have them busy in their editing suites by about 5pm, their time. By the way, just to throw a cool number out there, Star World is the largest English language network in India with a potential audience of over a billion. Makes it that much easier to roll out of bed…and right into the booth.

What a way to start the day!

The post Inside The Voice-Over Booth: Chuck Davis About TV Promo Work for Star World appeared first on Male Voice-Over Talents - The Voiceover Guys!.

One of my favorite moments in a session was an anime ADR session at FUNimation. I was in for a session for ATTACK ON TITAN, which is the new must-watch show, and my character is basically all talk and cowers at the first sign of danger. Think Bill Paxton in Aliens.

So Mike McFarland, the shows ADR director, is rewriting a line that didn’t originally match the animation, and we joke about the Aliens parallel, and so he writes the line as, “that’s it, kaput, game over!”

It was dead silence in my headphones after I did the line, and I turned my head to see what was wrong, and there’s Mike with his head thrown back, laughing so uncontrollably that he forgot to hit the talkback.

It was like an album’s liner note in that moment! A real fun shared moment that you just had to be there to get.

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