Speaker 1: Hey, Christy, Hey, what's going on? Will? How are you? Oh?
Speaker 1: But can I can I be real? Can I be real?
Speaker 1: It has been a while of me just being um
Speaker 1: inundated with entries. Ye yep, we've got which is which?
Speaker 1: Which is a great transition to what our episode is
Speaker 1: about today. We are we're doing a smaller, shorter episode
Speaker 1: because this is all contests we want to talk about.
Speaker 1: You know, people like when we talk together, so it
Speaker 1: makes its weird a longer episode. I'm like, we talk
Speaker 1: each other in time, and I don't like talking to
Speaker 1: you at all, so it like getting like people loving
Speaker 1: us talking is strange considering we hate talking to each other.
Speaker 1: We like talking about love. It's uh, it's time, people,
Speaker 1: It's time. Next week we are starting the contest what's
Speaker 1: it called, Christie? Really, after all the entries you've had,
Speaker 1: some contest become the next big voice actor. Yeay, yay,
Speaker 1: I did it. And that was from looking at all
Speaker 1: of the amazing subject lines that you guys put in
Speaker 1: your audition tapes or your reels. Yeah, and in your videos,
Speaker 1: and my god, can we just can we please talk
Speaker 1: about it? Like? Can we just talk about it? Okay?
Speaker 1: So now we can actually talk about Okay, who there
Speaker 1: are so many talented people out there first, a ton,
Speaker 1: a ton. Yeah, let's start it to beginning. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, so, here's what I would start with.
Speaker 1: I would start with a thanking everybody who who entered
Speaker 1: the contest, but be thousands of submissions, thousands, thousands of submissions,
Speaker 1: which is awesome. Um, we are thousands. So there are,
Speaker 1: just like you said, some incredibly talented people out there.
Speaker 1: We set out with one goal, which is finding somebody
Speaker 1: who could be our colleague. Day one, put you in
Speaker 1: a booth, here you go, go and from I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna be able to do it. I honestly think
Speaker 1: we're gonna be able to find exactly that there are
Speaker 1: some super talented people out there. I know, I know.
Speaker 1: I mean my expectations were were It wasn't that they
Speaker 1: were low. I just didn't have any expectations. I just
Speaker 1: I went in with a completely clean slate, saying to myself,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, there are a lot of amateurs and
Speaker 1: like and talking about your first experience of putting yourself
Speaker 1: in front of an you know, a new environment. You're
Speaker 1: putting yourself in front of a microphone or a recording device,
Speaker 1: or you're putting yourself on a video that you're not
Speaker 1: normally doing that right, and you're and you're putting yourself
Speaker 1: out there. I felt so proud of all of you guys.
Speaker 1: I felt so inspired, honestly, like, I want to redo
Speaker 1: my animation reel. Like I'm not even kidding you seriously,
Speaker 1: because you know, I've been really shy for a really
Speaker 1: long time about using my voice. We've talked about it
Speaker 1: a little bit, but yeah, I just want to I
Speaker 1: just want to stop you right there, very quickly, because
Speaker 1: I always found that odd. I mean, I don't find
Speaker 1: it odd because you're an actor and actors were insecure people.
Speaker 1: But when, especially when we would do the live shows,
Speaker 1: when I would occasionally turn to you with one of
Speaker 1: Joe Woe's pictures and I was like, now you go,
Speaker 1: and you're like, I don't want to, but then you
Speaker 1: do it. You're always great. So it was just it
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with talent for you. It was
Speaker 1: just you were nervous about kind of stepping up and
Speaker 1: doing it, which is similar to the people that are
Speaker 1: entering the contest. I completely empathized with that feeling that
Speaker 1: they were having as they were probably likely pushing send.
Speaker 1: A lot of people would say, Hey, this is me,
Speaker 1: and I hope that you like what I do hear,
Speaker 1: you know, and I was just like, yes, like let's
Speaker 1: give you a shot, let's give you a listen. And
Speaker 1: there was just it was just amazing. It was a
Speaker 1: really beautiful experience. Yeah, I think it was. I think
Speaker 1: exactly exactly what you said is I agree with you
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. It was. It inspired me, It truly
Speaker 1: inspired me to It also made me think about my
Speaker 1: first ever voiceover audition. Do you remember the first time
Speaker 1: you audition for anything? Vio actually curious about yours because
Speaker 1: I started doing audiobooks when I was very very young,
Speaker 1: and so I kind of remember just being in the booth,
Speaker 1: so to speak, at a very young age kind of
Speaker 1: thing where that to me was where I was learning
Speaker 1: like the techniqus of oh my gosh, I'm in a booth.
Speaker 1: It's so quiet, you know, you're this little kid, and
Speaker 1: then like you have this like microphone, which is very
Speaker 1: like strange, you know. And I still to this day
Speaker 1: I have a love or hate relationship with the presence
Speaker 1: of a microphone and a camera. Really, but I have
Speaker 1: a love part of me of the camera of the
Speaker 1: not the camera of the microphone, because the microphone can
Speaker 1: truly bring out even the type of microphone that you use,
Speaker 1: which we should get into in reviewing some of these
Speaker 1: um the type and quality of microphone that you're using
Speaker 1: can change. It can pick up certain parts of your voice,
Speaker 1: right like some microphones that engineers use. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys know this pick up like tenier sounds
Speaker 1: tinier means like, I don't know the more nasal parts
Speaker 1: right of your of the voice. So if you're singing
Speaker 1: recording music, it'll sound tinier, or if you're in an
Speaker 1: animation focused character, it might just sound a little different
Speaker 1: if you're if the quality of just your voice is
Speaker 1: being amplified. And then there's other ones I think that
Speaker 1: are more basy and some of the more older vintage
Speaker 1: microphones have more grit to them. It's yeah, it also
Speaker 1: depends on how they record them. Some of them are
Speaker 1: ribbon microphones, some of them are I mean sophone. It's
Speaker 1: like it's I wish I knew. I don't know enough
Speaker 1: about microphones, but I'm sure Brian or somebody would know this.
Speaker 1: But it's it's it's the actual ribbon is inside. I
Speaker 1: think that vibrates that picks up your voice. So there's
Speaker 1: different ways that different types of microphones that pick up
Speaker 1: different things. And so Corey Burton, who is a legendary
Speaker 1: voice over actor, is a microphone nerd, like to the
Speaker 1: point where I mean he literally has the pictures on
Speaker 1: his phone like most people a pictures. Pictures are their kids. Literally,
Speaker 1: And he said to me one time, you know, he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I bought this one. This is from the nineteen thirties
Speaker 1: and this gives me this kind of resonance and this
Speaker 1: one does this. And he said to me one time.
Speaker 1: So I said to him, what should I get? And
Speaker 1: he said, always just find the microphone that loves your voice.
Speaker 1: He said, you won't know, you might not know what
Speaker 1: it is, but if you're so the microphone I'm working
Speaker 1: on right now, for instance, is everyone's saying, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's so expensive. It's not. It's the X. It's an
Speaker 1: MXL nine thousand. It's an older microphone, is probably twenty
Speaker 1: years old, twenty five years old. Jason Marsden bought this
Speaker 1: for me as a gift. I think it was one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty bucks. One hundred and sixty bucks back
Speaker 1: in the day. And I've all he's used it because
Speaker 1: it just it works for my voice. It loves my voe.
Speaker 1: Really is a factual representation of your voice, like when
Speaker 1: I'm with you. Yeah, I think that. I think that's right.
Speaker 1: I think it really does. It just this microphone loves
Speaker 1: my voice and so and I will say that like
Speaker 1: in reviewing these, we had to not play casting agents
Speaker 1: because casting agents are so critical that if something isn't like,
Speaker 1: you know, professional grade, they're immediately clicking off and so us.
Speaker 1: But we didn't do that. And I know because you
Speaker 1: know and I know that Will was extremely extremely thorough
Speaker 1: even the way that you documented um all the different
Speaker 1: um qualifying people. You know what I'm saying. But like
Speaker 1: it's it's and it's also really beautiful because not only
Speaker 1: did we kind of even the playing field through keeping
Speaker 1: an open mind and listening to all of your auditions,
Speaker 1: but we also kind of read your backstory. There are
Speaker 1: some fantastic people out there that are really taking a risk,
Speaker 1: and I mean, we couldn't be happier with all the
Speaker 1: talent that we were exposed to. Yeah, No, it's very
Speaker 1: very very exciting and we're getting into it. We are
Speaker 1: getting into it. It is starting next week. Before we
Speaker 1: get there, though, I do want to give a big
Speaker 1: shout out. We've been making sure we do this because
Speaker 1: a lot of the people that entered the contest came
Speaker 1: because of Critical Role, because our friends a Critical Role,
Speaker 1: and there are some some incredible GMS, DMS, RPG players,
Speaker 1: tabletop players that have been doing voices for their parties
Speaker 1: and their friends, and so we want to give a
Speaker 1: huge shout out to our friends a Critical Role who
Speaker 1: really helped us get the word out there and remind
Speaker 1: everybody that season two of the Legend of Oxmachina is
Speaker 1: on Prime Video. If you haven't seen it yet, if
Speaker 1: you're a fan of animation and you're like I just
Speaker 1: haven't gotten into this one yet, go start at the
Speaker 1: beginning started season one. It will suck you in instantly.
Speaker 1: It is a wonderfully written, acted, animated show. It hits
Speaker 1: on all cylinders, and you know, it makes it so
Speaker 1: much better because it's done by some incredibly beautiful people.
Speaker 1: They really are wonderful. So thank you to everyone at
Speaker 1: Critical Role and everyone at Prime Video two who helped us.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, everybody at iHeart who you know,
Speaker 1: they really helped us make this possible. This was a
Speaker 1: dream Christy and I had from the beginning and we
Speaker 1: certainly could not do it by ourselves. And so yes,
Speaker 1: a definite shout out to everyone at iHeart Prime Video
Speaker 1: and Critical Role, So thank you so much. We are
Speaker 1: starting the contest next week officially, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: give you a quick breakdown because people are like, well,
Speaker 1: what is the contest And we're not going to get
Speaker 1: too specific, but here's what it basically is. We've talked
Speaker 1: about this. We are going down from our thousands of
Speaker 1: entries of submissions to sixteen those sixteen It's gonna be
Speaker 1: crazy and it's going to be Here's how it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Here's how we're gonna try to do it anyway I'll
Speaker 1: say so, we are going to go head to head
Speaker 1: two contestants an episode. We are going to have one
Speaker 1: of our friends come on, one of our voiceover friends
Speaker 1: who has been in the industry for a long time.
Speaker 1: That is going to help us judge. We are then
Speaker 1: going to go again one on one for an episode.
Speaker 1: So say you know, episode one is going to be
Speaker 1: contestant A against contestant B, and we are going to
Speaker 1: play some games. We are going to make up some characters.
Speaker 1: We are going to maybe read some ad copy. We're
Speaker 1: gonna throw some stuff at our contestants. They're going to
Speaker 1: go back, Oh I am too, and they're gonna go
Speaker 1: back and forth, and then we are going to very
Speaker 1: nicely ask them into our waiting room where they're going
Speaker 1: to sit, and then the three of us, you and I,
Speaker 1: Christie and our guests are going to discuss who moves
Speaker 1: forward and that person then to the next round. So
Speaker 1: we you know, are gonna go head to head until
Speaker 1: we are down to the final two. The competition is stiff,
Speaker 1: it really is, and to have to go from thousands
Speaker 1: of entries to picking sixteen is a very difficult thing
Speaker 1: to do. And there are gonna be let's be honest,
Speaker 1: there are going to be some very good, very talented
Speaker 1: people who didn't get picked, and we are going to
Speaker 1: discuss who moves forward until we get down to our
Speaker 1: final winner, who again we've talked about our prizes, is
Speaker 1: going to get flown out to Los Angeles. You get
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars spending money, You get to record some
Speaker 1: promos for I hear voices. You are then going to
Speaker 1: come to lunch where you're gonna meet Christy and I
Speaker 1: and your new agent from cees D, as well as
Speaker 1: having a session with Sam Regal or Mary McGlenn from
Speaker 1: Voxmachina and Critical Role. It is gonna change somebody's life,
Speaker 1: and we're very exciting. That's the aim. And I and
Speaker 1: say that based on the talent that we have to
Speaker 1: pick from, that's definitely gonna happen for someone. I think,
Speaker 1: So I really do. I think, you know, again, we're
Speaker 1: gonna pick somebody talented to where they're going to meet
Speaker 1: their agent. They're gonna start, you know, nowadays it's after
Speaker 1: the pandemic. You do all of your auditions and everything
Speaker 1: from home, so it's not like you got to move
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles. It's not like you got to do
Speaker 1: any of this kind of stuff. And so they're gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, I imagine, I'm not not trying to make
Speaker 1: this up, but you're now signed with an agent. You're
Speaker 1: gonna start getting copy that you're gonna have to start
Speaker 1: auditioning and reading, and then it's up to you. Then
Speaker 1: it's up to you and your talent. Nobody's going to
Speaker 1: hand you anything after that. Once again, I want to
Speaker 1: just run down the list of thank you's, because we
Speaker 1: have a bunch. Thank you so much to iHeart for
Speaker 1: helping us. Obviously, we also of course want to thank
Speaker 1: Prime Video who has helped bring critical role on board,
Speaker 1: and thank every all my friends over their critical role
Speaker 1: for being responsible. And all the actors that have come
Speaker 1: on our show as guests, all the actors that are
Speaker 1: going to come on our show as as guest judges. Um,
Speaker 1: we this is it really takes a village. Sam and
Speaker 1: Mary who have you know, Sam, Sam Regal and Mary
Speaker 1: McGlynn who have volunteered their time to the winner, ces
Speaker 1: D who has uh stepped up and said heck yeah,
Speaker 1: well we'll sign the winner. You got it. Um, Just
Speaker 1: one person after another that has really come on board
Speaker 1: to help make this contest possible. We're so excited and
Speaker 1: again we are as excited, if not more excited than
Speaker 1: the person that's gonna win. We really are because I
Speaker 1: can't wait. It's gonna be so much fun. It's a
Speaker 1: ton of work on our end, It is a ton
Speaker 1: a ton a ton of work, but it is so
Speaker 1: worth it. Thanks everybody. Remember we're we're getting there, and
Speaker 1: tune in because it is going to be a wild
Speaker 1: ride to see who is going to take the title
Speaker 1: of the next Big Voice actor for one last time,
Speaker 1: at least in this version of I Hear Voices, because
Speaker 1: the contest is starting. And man, do I now mean
Speaker 1: this more than ever. If you think you got what
Speaker 1: it takes to be one of us, step up to
Speaker 1: the microphone and put your voices where your mouth is. Yes,
Speaker 1: thanks everybody. I Hear Voices as hosted by Wilfordell and
Speaker 1: Christy Carlson Romano. Executive produced by Wilfredell, Brendan Rooney, Amy Sugarman.
Speaker 1: Our executive in Charger Production is Danielle Romo, Our producer
Speaker 1: is Lorraine Verawez, and our editor slash engineer is Brian Burton.
Speaker 1: And that was my announcer voice. Some side effects of
Speaker 1: listening to I Hear Voices are sore abs from hilarity,
Speaker 1: falling down the Coco melon rabbit hole, sneezing due to
Speaker 1: mass nostalgia, and hugs. Follow I Hear Voices wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts so you don't miss any of the
Speaker 1: amazing voices. Be sure to follow us on Instagram. And
Speaker 1: TikTok at I Hear Voices podcast. You can also check
Speaker 1: us out on my Space, omigl Vine, LimeWire, Hey I'm
Speaker 1: a napster. Okay, well let's teach you about the Internet,
Speaker 1: the who