Speaker 1: Hey Christy, Oh hi Will, how are you? I feel
Speaker 1: like a hot pile of garbage. Oh that's great, Well,
Speaker 1: if it makes you feel any better. You look like
Speaker 1: a hot pile of garbage. I mean kidding you. Look,
Speaker 1: I've never seen you not look amazing. You look awesome
Speaker 1: even now you're sick, aren't you? I am? I am
Speaker 1: so basically I had you know, I stayed behind, which
Speaker 1: we should definitely talk about because we haven't touched base
Speaker 1: on how San Francisco went um, and we're such a
Speaker 1: tag team that I don't know how do you survive
Speaker 1: without me? I barely did? Everyone used you so much? No, really,
Speaker 1: you have no idea how. The fans were really bummed
Speaker 1: you weren't there, and we're so looking forward to it
Speaker 1: and really wanted to see you. So, not to make
Speaker 1: you feel guilty, but you ruined lots of people's lives
Speaker 1: more garbage on top of garbage, just throwing garbage on
Speaker 1: a dumpster fire. Everybody understood. Everybody, of course understood. That's
Speaker 1: what you do when you have, you know, little kids
Speaker 1: and family and everything going on around you. I totally
Speaker 1: understand that. But there were people were bummed. You couldn't
Speaker 1: be there. Yeah, people were bumping, but tell so, tell me.
Speaker 1: Let's review. So you went to San Francisco. I went
Speaker 1: to fan Expo San Francisco, which was the first year convention.
Speaker 1: And sometimes first year conventions are hit or miss. You know,
Speaker 1: they're trying to find their audience. Sometimes it was great.
Speaker 1: The people were so I mean, like every convention we've
Speaker 1: been to, the people were incredibly friendly, um so accepting
Speaker 1: and loving. I've always said I wish the entire world
Speaker 1: could be like a convention. I recorded an episode with
Speaker 1: Steeve Blue. It was so much fun. We had the live,
Speaker 1: a giant live podcast room. It was, i would say,
Speaker 1: by the end full once again, the audience stepped up,
Speaker 1: Joe Wos drawing for us live, everybody doing the voices.
Speaker 1: It was We had I'm not gonna say who, but
Speaker 1: a very special voice over guest who popped in in
Speaker 1: the audience who then jumped in line. Uh, we had.
Speaker 1: It was a ridiculous amount of fun. Not to make
Speaker 1: pile even more hot garbage on top of your hot garbage,
Speaker 1: but I'm just happy for the It was great, No,
Speaker 1: it was great. It went and we we we gave
Speaker 1: you several shoutouts in that we were mean to you
Speaker 1: saying we were glad you weren't there. I'm sure I
Speaker 1: can't expect that that's what happens if you don't know,
Speaker 1: we missed you a ton, but it was, it was
Speaker 1: don't we'll figure we'll figure out. We always do your
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's not a problem, but we
Speaker 1: um it was. It was really a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: It really, that's really but that's seriously, that's so good.
Speaker 1: It's it's really like we're in this place right now
Speaker 1: with our podcast here that we're trying to get the
Speaker 1: word out. And so you know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've been an avid listener. If you have, you are, yes,
Speaker 1: you're ting. And if they're avid listeners out there that
Speaker 1: do want to like you know, promoted and throw up
Speaker 1: a hashtag and at and get the word out. I mean,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate that. I appreciate a good review right
Speaker 1: like on Apple or wherever. But it was no, I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole thing was nuts. For instance, and you'll hear
Speaker 1: this in the interview, but Steve Bloom holds four Guinness
Speaker 1: Book of World Records when it comes to sober what. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he didn't know three of them really. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: because his man, no, I did my work. But then
Speaker 1: his manager also came up was like, you know he
Speaker 1: holds it was like most times ever playing Wolverine in
Speaker 1: in video games and blah blah blah. Most prolific voice actor.
Speaker 1: He's done something like six voiceover roles. I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's insane. Yeah, So he held all these kinds he
Speaker 1: was And of course I've also known him for fifteen
Speaker 1: twenty years and he's my D and D buddy. So um.
Speaker 1: And his real life wife is my D and D wife.
Speaker 1: But our characters on Critical Role are married and have kids.
Speaker 1: Um so uh. But he married her in real life
Speaker 1: as a as a woman, a beautiful woman. I married
Speaker 1: her on D n D as a tie fling um,
Speaker 1: which is a lf for something Christine. Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 1: You have to do when you see that, look, you
Speaker 1: know what? I am in love with Critical Role and
Speaker 1: what they're doing. I actually, um, I've known Sam Recal
Speaker 1: like my whole life, and his sister Eden that we
Speaker 1: she was my Spanish tutor and Sam was like always
Speaker 1: this like really cool older brother type. And Sam Recal
Speaker 1: doesn't have that. He totally does. I mean, he went
Speaker 1: to Harvard and he was such a smart guy and
Speaker 1: just such a good person, always always, always, always, and
Speaker 1: it's so great to see him. Like literally we're talking
Speaker 1: about a guy who was like I went to Harvard,
Speaker 1: like I said, really wonderful son, really wonderful brother. And
Speaker 1: then on top of that, he was like in the
Speaker 1: Acapella cup like group at Harvard and they were like
Speaker 1: really they were like almost famous, they were so good.
Speaker 1: So it's so weird to me that Sam's got this
Speaker 1: whole new life as not that, but he's not just
Speaker 1: the role, but he's an incredible voiceover director. That's I
Speaker 1: was saying, like it's that was what was really strange
Speaker 1: to me that I just bumped into him and I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is really weird. He's a director. I saw him
Speaker 1: at the studios, not l A studios, but those other
Speaker 1: studios that they're using now Magnolia. Which ones are the
Speaker 1: that is it called Magnolia. There's some that are Magnolia Studios,
Speaker 1: there's some that are Bang Zoom, there's some that Outlook.
Speaker 1: But there's there's you know, there's probably seven or eight
Speaker 1: that you go to mostly ye know, it's usually you'll
Speaker 1: get it's like you're going to Out Loud or you're
Speaker 1: going to Magnolia, or you're going to Bang Zoom or
Speaker 1: you're going and it's like, um, yeah, after a while,
Speaker 1: you're kind of like at the same five or six.
Speaker 1: But there's hundreds, you know, there's it's always and then
Speaker 1: you'll always hear you'll do some project that you don't
Speaker 1: know about it, and it's like you end up in
Speaker 1: somebody's kind of garage and you're like, this is certainly interesting.
Speaker 1: Um but no, it's yeah, the whole thing they're doing
Speaker 1: over there, critical role and and everything that's going on.
Speaker 1: Um but no, we're it was fun. It was fun.
Speaker 1: We miss We certainly missed you. The fans certainly missed you. Um,
Speaker 1: but we had a blast. But so here's the thing
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about a little bit on this
Speaker 1: very special episode of I Hear Voices, not like a
Speaker 1: very special episode of Different Strokes, but a very special
Speaker 1: episode of I Hear Voices, um where for the first
Speaker 1: time we realized Christine and I have never really talked
Speaker 1: to each other about our voiceover gigs. If you don't mind,
Speaker 1: I'd like to start Christie with the spotlight pointed at you.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Okay, sure, that's cool. We'll do we'll we'll
Speaker 1: be we know each other well, enough will be brief
Speaker 1: for both of us. This will be well, those are plants.
Speaker 1: Your plants are going well, he made he makes fun
Speaker 1: of me because we do zooms as well here and
Speaker 1: so I I usually I've moved into a new house,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have any pictures on the wall, and
Speaker 1: then I put pictures on the wall one week and
Speaker 1: then I literally put this tree behind me. It's this
Speaker 1: fake ficus tree and um hashtag fake ficus and now
Speaker 1: I'm getting my head caught in it as an attempt
Speaker 1: to make it home. It's good because when you first
Speaker 1: the first time you recorded in there, it looked like
Speaker 1: you're being held against your will. So this is and
Speaker 1: I don't even have the light on anymore. Got anyway,
Speaker 1: we're good. I think we're good. So Christy Carlson Romano,
Speaker 1: I'm very curious what was the first voiceover gig you
Speaker 1: ever did, and how did you get into the world
Speaker 1: a voice over? Interestingly enough, I started doing voice acting
Speaker 1: when I was very young. Um, I have still to
Speaker 1: this day, I have a recording of me doing my
Speaker 1: first audio book when I was about twelve. Wow, do
Speaker 1: you remember the book? What was the book? M I
Speaker 1: think it was Junie B. Jones Um And I think
Speaker 1: it's like, I think it's like a children's like it
Speaker 1: was some sort of a children's history anthology. And I
Speaker 1: remember a lot about that experience because I had done
Speaker 1: a lot of theater, and I had done a lot
Speaker 1: of even some independent films and stuff like that, twelve thirteen,
Speaker 1: but being caught in sort of this little room, this
Speaker 1: padded room, where it's so quiet and it's so calm. Yeah,
Speaker 1: isn't it wonderful? It was a really interesting experience and introduction.
Speaker 1: And then like you you're very you know, when you're
Speaker 1: a little performer, like you've got a lot of energy,
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of thoughts, and then, like you said,
Speaker 1: you're put into a room and your task with reading
Speaker 1: an entire book. Now, mind you. I guess I was
Speaker 1: a pretty good reader to be like twelve and doing
Speaker 1: like you know, sure, but it was I don't think
Speaker 1: it was advanced enough. And I had been reading scripts
Speaker 1: my whole life since you know, I was like seven
Speaker 1: or so. So I think that I think about my
Speaker 1: kids and she's just about to turn six, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: we're not there yet. She couldn't possibly she's not reading really, Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I think, um, you know, twelve is a
Speaker 1: really good age. I think as a as an early
Speaker 1: introduction to even something as simple as, you know, some
Speaker 1: sort of small book reading experience or I here's the thing.
Speaker 1: So when people ask me about like, okay on camera,
Speaker 1: are you gonna put your kids in the business and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, obviously it's a complex issue. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I think when it comes to voice acting,
Speaker 1: and we've talked about this in the past, the voiceover
Speaker 1: community is so positive and it's very very sweet. Like
Speaker 1: I remember Tim Ditlow, I'm going to say a specific name.
Speaker 1: He was the head of Random House Books on tape
Speaker 1: and they had just started to emerge as a sort
Speaker 1: of force for audio books. Audiobooks started to become something real.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we're going back how many years,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty eight, you know, Um, And so this was new,
Speaker 1: you know, this was kind of a new technology. The
Speaker 1: voice recording was not, but for the purposes and the
Speaker 1: protocols of sitting down and reading a book that was
Speaker 1: sort of becoming a booming business at that point. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I just remember sitting there and drinking tea because I
Speaker 1: drank a lot of tea even from a young age,
Speaker 1: from being like a singer and doing theater, and I
Speaker 1: just remember, I think somebody got me a croissant. So
Speaker 1: here's the interesting thing, right, Like I think there's this
Speaker 1: saying of like I think a therapist on me this
Speaker 1: once up at a time, when you go into a
Speaker 1: room and you sit in a certain chair, you're more
Speaker 1: than likely when you re enter that room, even if
Speaker 1: it's a different day, to sit back in that chair,
Speaker 1: that same chair, you tend to like repeat. I've noticed
Speaker 1: that that that you know, people are creatures have have it.
Speaker 1: So for me, the tea and like a croissant, if
Speaker 1: it's like a long record, there's certain things that actually
Speaker 1: help that may not help say your voice, um, but
Speaker 1: they help sort of activate my abilities to like focus
Speaker 1: on the work. So it's almost Pavlovian for you, where
Speaker 1: it's like you sit down, you're in the chair, you've
Speaker 1: got the tea, you've got the questal as they say it,
Speaker 1: and with the perfect lamination because the butter has been
Speaker 1: folded in just right or right or something hells to pay,
Speaker 1: you know exactly, and so that brings you right into
Speaker 1: like like like voice over mind. I think so. I
Speaker 1: think that like when I'm in the booth, which we
Speaker 1: really have never talked about, UM, I feel very safe.
Speaker 1: I feel very almost like um, I'm in in Uteroe. No,
Speaker 1: that makes sense, it kind of. It kind of makes
Speaker 1: sense because it is in a way, it's almost like
Speaker 1: a working sensory deprivation tank because it's it's you know,
Speaker 1: usually not really bright. Sometimes it is, but usually not
Speaker 1: really bright, especially now after the pandemic, when I'm one
Speaker 1: of those people were even during the pandemic, I went
Speaker 1: to the studio. I observe all the protocols, but I
Speaker 1: do not like recording from my house. I like recording
Speaker 1: podcasts from my house because there's a homey, comfy feeling
Speaker 1: about being in my room in my booth here and recording.
Speaker 1: But when I'm working, I want to feel like I'm working,
Speaker 1: and I don't feel like I'm working when I'm working
Speaker 1: from home. That's what I like about the podcast because
Speaker 1: I don't want a podcast to feel like work. I
Speaker 1: wanted to feel like a conversation when I'm getting I
Speaker 1: want to work, and so I want to put on pants,
Speaker 1: I want to put on shoes, I want to get
Speaker 1: in my car, I want to drive to a place.
Speaker 1: I want to get out. I want to put on
Speaker 1: my headphones. I want to work. I think that do
Speaker 1: you think that Kevin um conroy, who has since passed,
Speaker 1: do you think that that sort of protocol and sort
Speaker 1: of do you think that that influenced you in terms
Speaker 1: of very much? I think not only that, but it's
Speaker 1: also it was before I even met Kevin, who was
Speaker 1: obviously my my my voiceover guru. Um. I've been working
Speaker 1: with William Daniels, Mr Feeney on on Boyd's World, and
Speaker 1: and he he taught us professionalism, Like you are a professional.
Speaker 1: You are there early, you are prepared to go. You
Speaker 1: do not keep other actors waiting. It does not matter
Speaker 1: if you are twelve. This this is what you do.
Speaker 1: This is you are a professional. So I took that
Speaker 1: to every aspect of the industry. So voiceover, I mean
Speaker 1: voiceover so of the greatest actors in the world, but
Speaker 1: you do meet some that can show up a little late.
Speaker 1: I haven't read the script um that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, that's one way to look at it.
Speaker 1: It's just not how I look at it. Um so
Speaker 1: I But I get what you're saying exactly about that feeling,
Speaker 1: especially now, as I was saying with the pandemic. I'm
Speaker 1: still going to the studio, but you're no longer in
Speaker 1: the giant studios that they're used to house fifteen actors.
Speaker 1: Now you're in a much smaller studio and they shut
Speaker 1: that door behind you, and there's like it's like part
Speaker 1: of the air gets sucked into the room and you're
Speaker 1: like and you're like, oh, I'm here to work now,
Speaker 1: I'm here in the door shuts and all the sound
Speaker 1: goes away. You're focused on the screen in front of you,
Speaker 1: or the pages in front of you, the microphones in
Speaker 1: front of you. The only voice you hear comes through
Speaker 1: your headphones. It's like a distant kind of echo. And
Speaker 1: I get exactly what you're saying. If you are in utero,
Speaker 1: it's the doctor. You hear the doctor through you know,
Speaker 1: as you're being born, going like all right, get ready
Speaker 1: to push, Like that's the voice and your head um.
Speaker 1: But the joy is when it's all done. You don't
Speaker 1: have a stupid kid. You've got a great car um.
Speaker 1: So that's the that's the awesomeness. So yeah, I was
Speaker 1: very young when when we think back to it, and
Speaker 1: it's like I just have a very visceral memory of
Speaker 1: what that felt like because and and then and and
Speaker 1: honoring my love of that experience, I was, I felt
Speaker 1: even more and more blessed to be in rooms in
Speaker 1: l A. Because where I was doing this was all
Speaker 1: in New York. I was doing a lot of my
Speaker 1: recording and yeah, where I was living, well, where we
Speaker 1: were Connecticut kids. So that's that's where you went. That's
Speaker 1: where you went to work. You went to New York. Well,
Speaker 1: and I also went to performing arts school, so I
Speaker 1: was already in New York. So it would be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to cut school or I leave early and
Speaker 1: I go to my recording session, um, you know, down
Speaker 1: on ninth or tenth or wherever the because like the
Speaker 1: recording area is in the valley in Los Angeles, but
Speaker 1: it's very different where they'll record in New York City. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like soho had a lot of voice kitchen did too,
Speaker 1: write like around like that whole kind of area. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that unitel video around there, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: You did a lot of stuff around there too. Yeah
Speaker 1: it got a bit more scattered, but yeah, absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and and also to in New York, it's
Speaker 1: more like ad mad Men kind of add stuff. I
Speaker 1: remember going on voice acting auditions which were mostly not jingles,
Speaker 1: but they were mostly commercials and stuff like that for
Speaker 1: a long time. I think that's what my introduction to
Speaker 1: voice acting was. But we've talked about it a lot
Speaker 1: on the podcast, and I think that my initial way
Speaker 1: in two turning a phrase or trying to get a job,
Speaker 1: which I started to get pretty good at UM, even
Speaker 1: in my younger years before going to l a UM.
Speaker 1: I think it it's just a matter of being a
Speaker 1: singer and knowing that intonation is helpful. It's like a
Speaker 1: one for one. It's a song and it's and there's
Speaker 1: another thing that when I started acting, they say, well,
Speaker 1: reach your script as many times as possible, right like
Speaker 1: at least ten times before you even start trying to
Speaker 1: memorize the lines or perform it. And I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: some method, but I don't know which one it is,
Speaker 1: And so I didn't necessarily read a ton of times,
Speaker 1: but I think I had a natural inclination to sort
Speaker 1: of honor the sing song nous of a script. So
Speaker 1: I think even if you don't have a ton of training,
Speaker 1: you can in your singer. I think you can probably approach,
Speaker 1: you know, points acting easier. Yeah, that's yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: that whole read your script ten times that I read
Speaker 1: my script obviously every time. But I don't want to overread.
Speaker 1: I don't want to over rehearse. I don't want to
Speaker 1: read a script ten times. I want to read it
Speaker 1: once and then I want to keep it fresh. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, do you stop? Do you stop at
Speaker 1: a certain point, and you're saying, I'm doing this too much.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. There's times where some of the worst auditions
Speaker 1: I've ever had in my life were things that I
Speaker 1: over rehearsed. It's just, oh my god, I want this
Speaker 1: so bad, so I'm gonna I'm gonna rehearse fifteen times.
Speaker 1: And then you get in there and your mind is like, wait,
Speaker 1: I didn't do that in the rehearsal I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Why did I Why is that beat different? Why? And
Speaker 1: then you start second guessing yourself. For is if it's
Speaker 1: still fresh, you're still finding the beats and you know,
Speaker 1: that's like one of the the first um pieces of
Speaker 1: advice I was given as an on camera actor as
Speaker 1: a kid. I was, you know, eleven, whatever it was was.
Speaker 1: I don't care how many times your audition for something.
Speaker 1: Always hold your script because in the mind of the
Speaker 1: people watching your audition, it means you are not yet
Speaker 1: off book. So there's more places to go with the
Speaker 1: performance than just what you see in the room, as
Speaker 1: opposed to you walk in your off book. Hey, this
Speaker 1: is what I got there. In their minds, they're like,
Speaker 1: this is all we're ever going to get because this
Speaker 1: is as rehearsed as we're gonna get with this kid. Um.
Speaker 1: So that kind of always hold your script always resonated
Speaker 1: with me because it is it's that psychological like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's still more to come from this actor because they
Speaker 1: have yet to reach the potential of this character. You
Speaker 1: can tell they're still on book. Wait, so but are
Speaker 1: you actually off book holding the paper? It would depend
Speaker 1: on the role. It would get anxiety when I hold
Speaker 1: the paper. Oh really, I love holding something. I love
Speaker 1: not having to think about my hands. So having something
Speaker 1: to occupy my I'm a I'm a big fan of
Speaker 1: that too. You know what, I'm actually interested. What is
Speaker 1: one of your worst auditions? I know my exact worst
Speaker 1: audition ever. It wasn't it was for on camera though,
Speaker 1: it wasn't for mine was for theater, and okay, I
Speaker 1: have I have to one that was funny, one that
Speaker 1: was horrifying, so funny, okay, good. So the funny one was.
Speaker 1: I was a huge Family Ties fan, like I love
Speaker 1: my Michael J. Foxon Family Ties was all I ever
Speaker 1: wanted to be. Michael J. Foxon Family Ties and and
Speaker 1: Alan Alda and mac in Mash were like the reasons
Speaker 1: I became an actor. So Gary David Goldberg, who created
Speaker 1: um uh Family Ties, was creating a new show called
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Bridge, and I was going to New York to
Speaker 1: audition for Gary David Goldberg himself. And I was mortified, excited,
Speaker 1: every superlative you could think of. And in my audition piece,
Speaker 1: I had to walk downstairs and the character playing my
Speaker 1: mom said, Hey, what do you want for dinner? And
Speaker 1: I was supposed to say, come on, it's eight o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning. It's a little hard to get excited
Speaker 1: about dinner. So I'm rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing, and
Speaker 1: I get walked out, you know, get into the room
Speaker 1: and they say action and the woman reading from my
Speaker 1: mom says, hey, what do you want for dinner? And
Speaker 1: I say, it's eight o'clock in the morning. I can't
Speaker 1: get hard about dinner. And the room was dead, silent,
Speaker 1: and it was thank you very much, and I walked out.
Speaker 1: That was it. And I was like, that was my
Speaker 1: one shot in front of Gary David Goldberg, and that's
Speaker 1: the line that came out of my mouth. I can't
Speaker 1: get hard about dinner. Oh no. And it was because
Speaker 1: of that that they did it well, no, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it was just but it was just it was so
Speaker 1: out of left field, and so like, what the hell
Speaker 1: was that rehearsed? No. I went through the rest of
Speaker 1: the scene, but by that point it was the room
Speaker 1: was dead. Um, there was no air left in the room. Um.
Speaker 1: So that was my worst funny one worst as a kid,
Speaker 1: but my worst audition ever. And it was strictly and
Speaker 1: it didn't even want this role all that badly, if
Speaker 1: I'm honest. Um, it was strictly from over rehearsing. It
Speaker 1: was I rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed because I wanted
Speaker 1: to walk in and nail it. I didn't care about
Speaker 1: the role. It was more about me wanting to nail it.
Speaker 1: And it was for a role in that really turned
Speaker 1: out to be not great. UM disaster movie The Core
Speaker 1: o the where the Earth, the core of the Earth
Speaker 1: stopped spinning so they have to go to like the
Speaker 1: center of the Earth. Stanley Tucci was brilliant, but you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't the best movie in the world. Um. And
Speaker 1: I read for the part of a rat who was
Speaker 1: the computer hacker guy. And the guy they ended up
Speaker 1: casting has always played the computer hacker and is brilliant,
Speaker 1: so they would have cast him anyway even if I
Speaker 1: went in and nailed this thing. This was obviously the
Speaker 1: guy that was supposed to play the role. UM. But
Speaker 1: I just I couldn't get through it. I kept stopping
Speaker 1: and starting myself to the point where the woman, the
Speaker 1: casting director, stopped the recording and walked up to me
Speaker 1: and was like, are you okay, Like you need to relax,
Speaker 1: and I and this, but I had already done Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World, Like I've been an actor for years by this,
Speaker 1: But I had so overrehearsed it that I just I
Speaker 1: couldn't get through that, and I remember going kind of
Speaker 1: like thank you, and like, I'm not sure I ever
Speaker 1: even finished the audition. UM, it was just harsh. So
Speaker 1: those are my two. What do you got? Cool? So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm trying to think of if I've ever
Speaker 1: had a bad voice over audition, and I can't say
Speaker 1: that I have because I really feel like when you
Speaker 1: go in UM, especially if you go into a studio
Speaker 1: and they have a director there and they really are
Speaker 1: rooting for you to do a good audition, Whereas I
Speaker 1: feel like when you go into a theater audition or
Speaker 1: a in person camera whatever audition, I feel like you're
Speaker 1: wasting their time, you know. And it's like I can
Speaker 1: see that that's kind of an interesting way to look
Speaker 1: at it. Yeah, you do get that vibe sometimes totally.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like they've got a problem. And then
Speaker 1: I say, in an acting class, they're always like cool,
Speaker 1: just act as if you're there to solve their problem.
Speaker 1: It's like I can't do the mental gymnastics. It's hard.
Speaker 1: So that's why voice acting is so freeing even in
Speaker 1: the it's it's also so validating even in the process,
Speaker 1: the audition process, it's it's like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: did my best work, And I think when you take
Speaker 1: out the stress of all that for me in particular,
Speaker 1: I can give my best performance or a better performance
Speaker 1: more consistently, or at least that's what I think. Um, oh,
Speaker 1: you know what I think. Okay, trying to think. There
Speaker 1: was only one time I did a voice acting audition
Speaker 1: with the lady who is a big she casts for
Speaker 1: all like the McFarland shows. Anyway, she she was very um,
Speaker 1: she was very specific about me coming in and auditioning
Speaker 1: for something, and she was really trying to help me,
Speaker 1: but it almost seemed like she was almost trying to
Speaker 1: reinvent my voice talent, and she was trying to kind
Speaker 1: of really quote unquote dig deep into me becoming a
Speaker 1: sort of a different voice or finding a voice inside
Speaker 1: me bringing out. Now that being said, I appreciate that
Speaker 1: she took the time to do that on a casting level,
Speaker 1: But when you think about somebody who's trying to cast
Speaker 1: versus somebody like Andrea Romano who's literally able to pull
Speaker 1: something out of you, Because I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: her philosophy about life. It's a different style. It's just
Speaker 1: a different You get that with on camera actors too.
Speaker 1: I mean you get some on camera directors, you know,
Speaker 1: they just have different styles. And know George Lucas, who
Speaker 1: does all the Star Wars movies and everything else, famously
Speaker 1: does not like actors, has said if I could replace
Speaker 1: all actors with robots, I would. So there's some people
Speaker 1: that just they don't have the It's not even a talent,
Speaker 1: it's just the the capacity to pull that out of
Speaker 1: an actor. I mean there's certain I always use it is,
Speaker 1: but it's also how you have to work with him.
Speaker 1: I I use Arnold Schwartzenegger as an example. Like Arnold Schwartzenegger,
Speaker 1: people are like, God, he's really not that great an actor.
Speaker 1: But if you watch Arnold Schwartzenegger in a James Cameron movie,
Speaker 1: he's awesome. So it's like, for some reason, James Cameron
Speaker 1: can pull a performance out of Arnold Schwarzenegger. So there's
Speaker 1: certain directors and certain actors that when they work together,
Speaker 1: you're like, that's that's great chemistry, that works really well.
Speaker 1: And Andrea has that, you know, Lisa Lisa Shaefer has that.
Speaker 1: So I would argue Sam Regal has that Collette Sunderman
Speaker 1: has that there are some people that you just when
Speaker 1: you when you work with them, they are supportive and
Speaker 1: they know you as an actor well enough to maybe
Speaker 1: say what you need to hear, maybe say what you
Speaker 1: don't need to hear, but need to hear, if that
Speaker 1: makes any sense. Um, and they can they can get
Speaker 1: what they need from you. Yeah, I'm still I'm still
Speaker 1: dying to know, though, what you're bad. Show audition was
Speaker 1: to have one, and actually both of them were theater. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's interesting. The first one was Westport Playhouse, right,
Speaker 1: They in Connecticut where we're from. They have Shakespeare there
Speaker 1: and they have they had Romeo and Juliet, and I
Speaker 1: was so excited and I really tried to understand. I've
Speaker 1: never done Shakespeare. I wasn't trained in this whole different beast, dude,
Speaker 1: so hard to remember those lines. Oh yeah, Shakespeare. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I've been doing and I had done you know,
Speaker 1: Broadway productions and theaters and stuff like I've done a
Speaker 1: different thing. Yeah, I go, and I try so hard,
Speaker 1: and just like you said about that one audition, I
Speaker 1: stumbled through the entire Juliet. You know a balcony scene
Speaker 1: and I literally light through window breaks. No, I can
Speaker 1: see that's not English, that's not the East. And Juliet
Speaker 1: has the sun arise fair Son, and you can do Shakespeare.
Speaker 1: I can do that scene. I mean that's it. I
Speaker 1: can't do Shakespeare at all. No, I can't. I cannot
Speaker 1: do Shakespeare at all. And it is it is a
Speaker 1: different language. I mean it's quite it's a different language. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That I basically walked into another country and tried to
Speaker 1: speak the language like I've been speaking it osionally. That's
Speaker 1: a perfect way to that's a perfect analogy for Shakespeare.
Speaker 1: It was devastating and also humbling. I think it was
Speaker 1: really humbling, and it gave me so much more respect
Speaker 1: for people because I think that I had thought as
Speaker 1: a young performer, I must have been like sixteen seventeen.
Speaker 1: It was before Disney, though, so maybe what's it before Disney?
Speaker 1: I think it was about sixteen, and I was just
Speaker 1: cocky and I was like, you know, I've done theater,
Speaker 1: and then you go and you try and do the
Speaker 1: Shakespeare thing and they're like, oh no, this is not
Speaker 1: this is not the same. Totally different, totally different things.
Speaker 1: And then I also was super humbled on my birthday
Speaker 1: of all days, I know, happy birthday. There was this
Speaker 1: play called Vanityes that was really popular and ended up
Speaker 1: going I think, like the Broadway something like years ago.
Speaker 1: I think I was turning like twenty four and it
Speaker 1: was my birthday, and I hadn't really gone out for
Speaker 1: a lot of musical theater auditions. Like just being in
Speaker 1: l A, you don't get a ton of them, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, Okay, this is a big deal.
Speaker 1: They're out here in l A. I'm gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna I'm gonna go to the juice bar
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna get like a special drink or whatever
Speaker 1: and make sure my voice is all good while I
Speaker 1: get this special drink. And it's my birthday, right, So
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I'll get this drink. It'll just put
Speaker 1: me in the mood to really like have energy and
Speaker 1: I'll feel like clean. Well, it has cayenne pepper in it,
Speaker 1: oh no, and some people, I think in terms of
Speaker 1: their vocal like working, some people do really well with
Speaker 1: kyenne pepper. But it has to be I think a
Speaker 1: certain amount, and I think it has to be counterbalanced
Speaker 1: in terms of the acidity or the you know, like
Speaker 1: you have to have slippery elm mixed in with you know,
Speaker 1: a throat coat or whatever with a little kayenne pepper.
Speaker 1: Maybe because I think I had remembered there was a
Speaker 1: really amazing singer on a show I did called Parade
Speaker 1: on Broadway, and he had this throat coat that he
Speaker 1: would mix with some kay and pepper, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: kay and pepper will help. And it turns out that
Speaker 1: it took my voice like completely away from me. I
Speaker 1: tried to do my best and I just botched that
Speaker 1: whole audition. I botched the music. I botched music I prepared,
Speaker 1: I forgot the words. It was like just such a
Speaker 1: cluster f and um. And I think, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think maybe in retrospect it humbles you and in
Speaker 1: terms of being an artist, and I think there's something
Speaker 1: to be said for you know, being an artist is
Speaker 1: a very like um, it's not the best. You are
Speaker 1: tortured in one way or another. Yeah, again, it depends.
Speaker 1: There's obviously certain things in my career that I look
Speaker 1: back at and would do differently and everything, But to me,
Speaker 1: being an artist is the best. I love it. Um,
Speaker 1: even the horrible parts of it I love, but I
Speaker 1: have to imagine that's life, you know, it's it's there's
Speaker 1: there's good and bad and everything you do. Um. I
Speaker 1: always joked about never wanting children. I'm guessing since so
Speaker 1: many people are doing it, there's good parts in that
Speaker 1: as well. UM. I don't know what they are, but
Speaker 1: they're they're they're probably there. Uh So, I mean I
Speaker 1: think you know, it's one of those things where I
Speaker 1: was never see It's so funny because I never considered
Speaker 1: myself an actor, if that sounds strange, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I always consider myself an entertainer because I like to
Speaker 1: entertain people. The idea that I'm going to go off
Speaker 1: and my goal is to go star in some movie
Speaker 1: to try to win an Academy Award. That ain't never
Speaker 1: gonna happen, nor was it ever gonna happen, nor was
Speaker 1: that every my goal. I don't have those skills to
Speaker 1: go in Wow, like you say Shakespeare, I don't have
Speaker 1: I can do Shakespeare. That's not your calling. It's a
Speaker 1: whole different interesting um. And I can't wait for you
Speaker 1: to hear the Steve Steve Bloom interview about how he
Speaker 1: got started and his first job he literally worked went
Speaker 1: from a mail room and he worked did this voiceover
Speaker 1: job for a friend of his, making sounds for pizza.
Speaker 1: That's what he got paid. He got paid pizza to
Speaker 1: go to go to do his first job ever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's uh, you know, it's in some good pizza.
Speaker 1: You don't know where where people can start or what
Speaker 1: they can do. But but then it's interesting, like when
Speaker 1: you say, like, in terms of what your goal was,
Speaker 1: your calling, so to speak, like you knew you had
Speaker 1: a relationship to your art form in a very intimate way.
Speaker 1: My art form consisted of until I really learned how
Speaker 1: to how to make people laugh the right way. My
Speaker 1: art form as a kid consisted of walking to a
Speaker 1: room and essentially yelling everyone look at me. That was
Speaker 1: that was my art form. I wanted to be the
Speaker 1: center of attention. I wanted to make people laugh. I
Speaker 1: wanted to use the comedy I saw on TV and
Speaker 1: the Michael J. Fox's timing and al and all this timing.
Speaker 1: That was until I until I really got on the
Speaker 1: set of Boy Means World and had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: work at the craft every week, and to find out
Speaker 1: that it was a you know, it was comedy as
Speaker 1: a song, and and so the second I started to
Speaker 1: hear it and not only could play on beat, but
Speaker 1: play off beat, that's when I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: get this now, But that took me years. I was
Speaker 1: twenty by the time I figured that out. Um so,
Speaker 1: uh yeah, it's and then and then there's a whole
Speaker 1: different song with voiceover to bring it back to video,
Speaker 1: there's a whole different song with vo And you see
Speaker 1: people you stand next to, men and women that hear
Speaker 1: the song louder than you do, can interpret it better
Speaker 1: than you do, can play it better than you I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just if you're in any talent business, talent related business,
Speaker 1: there will always come a time where you're standing between
Speaker 1: two people who are better at whatever you're doing the
Speaker 1: way it is. But I guess that's what you do
Speaker 1: with that humility, Like it seems like you had the
Speaker 1: stick tutiveness, especially having been contracted to continue to show
Speaker 1: up and be on that show that you had to
Speaker 1: fill upwards. Oh yeah, well, I'm I just loved it.
Speaker 1: And it's to me, I never saw it as failing,
Speaker 1: even though it was. I mean, you know, you you
Speaker 1: every we always talk about how in this industry you're
Speaker 1: you're you say no with everyone says no a thousand
Speaker 1: times before you hear yes. Um it was you know,
Speaker 1: there was a I've talked about this kid. His name
Speaker 1: was Mike Moran. He was like my my commercial nemesis
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, because he booked every single
Speaker 1: commercial in New York named it, and this kid booked it.
Speaker 1: And I'd walk in and I'd see Mike Moran and
Speaker 1: I'd be like, well, there's no point in me staying
Speaker 1: here anymore. He's gonna be I have not. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I love doing that sometimes where I'm like, where are
Speaker 1: they now? Where are the people that I grew up now?
Speaker 1: I want to look at Mike Moran? What what what
Speaker 1: state was he in? Well? This was in New York
Speaker 1: at the time. I don't know where he was from,
Speaker 1: but he booked Were you guys like friendly? Did you
Speaker 1: just have ye? It was always kind of like the hey,
Speaker 1: how you doing thing? But he was always booking like
Speaker 1: he got the big Michael Jordan's coke commercials, Like Mike
Speaker 1: signed in on the chart. Yes, You'd see the signing
Speaker 1: sheet and be like, oh, Mike Moran, I'm twelve years old.
Speaker 1: How do I have a nemesis already? But it was
Speaker 1: so funny. A sheet or not a signing sheet is
Speaker 1: what you do when you walk in and I was
Speaker 1: just a sheet that you have to sign in your
Speaker 1: name agent, and you look at you do you look
Speaker 1: at everybody else, and you have to keep in mind
Speaker 1: for a lot of the stuff I was auditioning for
Speaker 1: back in the late eighties early nineties in New York.
Speaker 1: The names on the list were Leonardo DiCaprio, maybe McGuire.
Speaker 1: It was that whole crew really, so you saw them
Speaker 1: in the I didn't know that. Of course, these were
Speaker 1: all you know, we were all auditioning for all the
Speaker 1: same thing, the same age. Yeah, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know Leo at all. I'm not sure I've ever
Speaker 1: other than hey, what's up. I don't never shook the
Speaker 1: man's hand or set, you know, been in the same
Speaker 1: room with you know, oh, sure of that same kind
Speaker 1: of crew. So weird, wacky world. So we would be
Speaker 1: remiss though, Christie if we because unfortunately we've got this.
Speaker 1: This episode is not gonna be very long, um, but
Speaker 1: we need to talk about some very important things. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we have someday we'll have to talk about, like how
Speaker 1: we got Kim and Ron and all we'll get. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do an entire episode about Kim and Ron. That's
Speaker 1: another one we're gonna do. But but when you know
Speaker 1: we're you know when we're gonna do that. We're gonna
Speaker 1: do that. We're gonna do an episode. We're gonna bring
Speaker 1: on as many people from Kim Possible as possible, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna all talk about Kim Possible, so everyone will
Speaker 1: be here. Yeah, we'd like to talk about the super
Speaker 1: awesome contest to become the next big voice over actor
Speaker 1: because we're still, as you must imagine, figuring out all
Speaker 1: the legal stuff because um, there's so many moving parts.
Speaker 1: You say, why is it so legal, Well, it's legal
Speaker 1: because there's so many things you're gonna win. We've talked about.
Speaker 1: You get flown out to Los Angeles, you're having lunch
Speaker 1: with us, you win a thousand dollars, you're recording stuff
Speaker 1: for I hear voices, you win And this is just
Speaker 1: the most insane thing in the world. A one year contract.
Speaker 1: And any time I talked to another voice over actor
Speaker 1: and I tell them that that's one of the prizes.
Speaker 1: They freak out, are you kidding me? You are giving
Speaker 1: away uh one year contract with a voiceover agency. Getting
Speaker 1: an agent in Hollywood is the most difficult thing to
Speaker 1: do in any part of the business. Look, I want
Speaker 1: to call it a big break, but Will doesn't want
Speaker 1: to call it a big break. It's because it's it's
Speaker 1: a possibility of your big break, because you've got to
Speaker 1: still make your break. We can, that's sure, but he
Speaker 1: can't give you your big break. You've got to earn
Speaker 1: your big break. There's no such thing as a big break.
Speaker 1: But if there were, we are you. You're gonna earn
Speaker 1: your your stripes. But we're going to open the door.
Speaker 1: That's how I look, and I think I'm doing. The
Speaker 1: contest is part part of the earning. Absolutely absolutely, it's
Speaker 1: going to be so much fun. But until then, as
Speaker 1: Christie was saying, first of all, I think I can
Speaker 1: speak for everybody in the audience Christie when I say
Speaker 1: feel better. Um, you are a super mom and super
Speaker 1: wife and you had everything going on and so you
Speaker 1: still you did it all while being sick. But now
Speaker 1: you need to take care of yourself a little bit
Speaker 1: because we've got big things happening, you know, so you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta take care of your health. I'm bouncing
Speaker 1: back and we're gonna. We're gonna. We're gonna find a star.
Speaker 1: We're gonna find we are, we are. We're going to
Speaker 1: find the next big voice actor. We really are. We were.
Speaker 1: We are not looking for a contest winner. We are
Speaker 1: looking for a colleague. So that is what we are
Speaker 1: out there trying to find and we will So until then,
Speaker 1: if you think you have what it takes to step
Speaker 1: up to the microphone, then put your voices where your
Speaker 1: mouth is. It's coming people, get ready. I Hear Voices
Speaker 1: as hosted by Wilfred l and Christy Carlson Romano. Executive
Speaker 1: produced by Wilfredel, Brendan Rooney, Amy Sugarman and Vicky Ernst Chang.
Speaker 1: Our executive in charge of production is Danielle Romo. Our
Speaker 1: producer is Lorraine Vera Weez and our editor slash engineer
Speaker 1: is Brian Burton. And that was my announcer voice. Some
Speaker 1: side effects of listening to I Hear Voices are sore
Speaker 1: abs from hilarity falling down the Coco melon rabbit hole,
Speaker 1: sneezing due to mass nostalgia and hugs. Follow I Hear
Speaker 1: Voices wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any of the amazing voices. Be sure to follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok at I Hear Voices podcast. You
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Speaker 1: you about the Internet, the who