In today’s episode:
Henderson pleads his case to Captain and Chiefy while Havner gets cozy with the consul!
Listen to episode 15 of this exclusive series from Pendant Productions:
After 3 years and 160 weekly posts, I’m gonna take a vacation!
(wheeeee!)
I’ll be back in early 2016 with more Songs, Comedy, Animation and Business advice.
(though, you might get a visit from Henderson while I’m out…)
You can also search our archives to find rubber chickens, future tales, and tons of other nonsense!
Or, click here for something completely Random 😉
So, behave yourselves while I’m away…
And I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday Season!
Yakatchasoon,
Joe
The Adaptability Problem
Adaptability has enabled humans to rise to the top of the food chain, and individuals, groups, companies and governments to accomplish amazing things.
So… Where’s the problem with adaptability?
In short, when we adapt to small, incremental negative changes, the end result is that, over time, we’re putting ourselves in a worse position than where we started.
Let’s take “Pay-To-Play” services for voice over jobs as an example. Incrementally, these services have slowly limited the number of auditions available, lowered the pay per project, restricted access to information, and taken a larger fee for renewal and other charges. Had they implemented all these changes at once, they would have been rejected outright. But by staging these changes in gradual steps, it gives individuals time to adapt and hides the trend that the company is headed. Worse, those joining now who don’t research the history think that the current state of affairs is the norm.
This same strategy is employed by companies, governments, political parties and religious organizations. As we blindly adapt without standing up for ourselves, we allow them to gain a greater control over our lives. We even adapt to things like climate change, political correctness, a rise in violence, and a decline in our living standards. Without even thinking about it, we accept the current state of affairs as normal.
For me, this is unacceptable.
But there is a solution.
We must look to the past to see if we’re improving or declining. And we must plan for the future before blindly accepting what we’re told as being the only truth.
As individuals, we can wield an amazing amount of power and control over our own future, and the future direction of our companies, our society, and even our planet.
All it takes is a willingness to be aware. To stand up for ourselves and others. And to take action when needed.
True freedom requires individual responsibility.
In today’s episode:
It’s a chase through Los Angeles, and sometimes it feels like every person in town is a cop or a reporter!
Listen to episode 14 of this exclusive series from Pendant Productions:
Comedy to Cash
or
Mockery to Moolah
A couple weeks ago, I was on “This American Life” on NPR.
The segment was on Volkswagen’s recent emission scandal, and was written to sound like a Frontline documentary, or like a stereotypical NPR or PBS spot. A really cool gig…
But that’s not where the story begins.
I listen to a lot of NPR. My wife got me hooked a while back. Being a natural mimic and seeing the comic potential, I wrote a parody called “This United States Life” in 2013:
Just by playing and doing what comes naturally to me I was also unknowingly preparing myself for a real gig!
Here’s the real “This American Life” spot:
So, go out there and hand some fun with the things you hear every day. Play with it, script it, record, edit – do whatever it takes to turn your playtime into a new character for your repertoire. You never know when one might turn into a real job!
See you in the booth!
Joe
Alone Again, In The Booth
a ballad for voice actors
written and performed by Joe J Thomas
(parody of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again, Naturally”)
Lyrics:
… Continue reading
a short poem by Joe J Thomas
in honor of holidays in California, 2015
It’s one week after Halloween
No chill is in the air
With temperatures in the eighties
And skies sunny and fair
Although the tinseled trees displayed
At stores across the town
I just can’t feel the spirit
With two months counting down
Each year the holidays come sooner
I’m pretty sure we’ll see
December having fireworks
And May with Christmas trees
So here’s a plan that I’ll enact
I hope you’ll follow suit
All holidays are on my house
From the basement to the roof
St Nick is on the rooftop
Skeletons by the street
The Easter Bunny’s in the yard
With Dreidels by his feet
A Leprechaun is by the fountain
With American flags in his gold
The New Year’s baby crawls on the porch
And a turkey leg he holds
With all the other holidays
Displayed around my house
The grass will wither soon and die
That’s good news for the drought!
In today’s episode:
H and H regroup, but Captain and Chiefy overhear and the game is afoot!
Listen to episode 13 of this exclusive series from Pendant Productions:
Is it your brand? How about mass emails? SEO? Blogs? Cold calling?
These may be pieces of an overall marketing strategy, but they are too often mistaken for all of marketing. Or, worse yet, “marketing experts” may sell you classes and consulting about one of these… but not really help you with true marketing.
Let’s take a look at how the American Marketing Association defines it:
Marketing:
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
~~~ and ~~~
Marketing Research:
Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information–information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their implications.
I’ve included both of the above definitions because they are a related and integral part of an overall marketing plan. Much more than any single effort, true marketing involves knowing your product, your audience, the target segment, how to reach them, etc. Perhaps most importantly, it includes all of the follow-up needed to know if your campaign is working, and the data needed to tweak your efforts or scrap them and start fresh. It is an involved ongoing process, but if you’re not doing the research and follow-up, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks.
Recently, I was involved with several colleagues in an in-depth discussion about social media and marketing. The conversation was fascinating, and provided a number of different perspectives. I’ve quoted much of it below, along with my thoughts on each quote…
Every fall, auditions for Halloween and Christmas voices are certain to stream in. Although I’ve got solid impersonations of Karloff, Lorre, and Lugosi, Vincent Price’s voice had eluded me. This year, I’ve decided to pay homage to the “Master of the Macabre” by imitating his voice from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.
I’d had the privilege of seeing Vincent Price in person when I was a teen. He was in the Cleveland area to attend a Sherlock Holmes film festival (featuring Basil Rathbone). After the film, Mr Price did a reading of Poe’s “The Raven”. What an amazing voice and delivery… I was awestruck.
To approach such a unique and memorable voice, I took the time to listen to his original recording of “Thriller” (hear it at the bottom of this post). The audio reveals the many complexities of his voice. Pacing, accent, enunciation, delivery and musicality of the phrases. Add to this his baritone/tenor range, age and the effects of smoking and you’ll begin to hear the many layers involved.
After a few hours of analysis and trial mimicry takes, I felt ready to make my own mix…
Here is my homage to Vincent Price’s voice from “Thriller”:
… And here are Vincent Price and Michael Jackson from the original vo recording session, with a bonus verse in the middle:
Now it’s your turn!
What voices do you do during the holidays? Maybe it’s Santa, elves, or Scrooge. Perhaps some of the Haunted Mansion vo, the Grinch or Charlie Brown.
Let me know in the comments below…