As a voice talent and vocalist, very often, I talk with people who say, How fun that would be! Isn’t it glamorous? Maybe I should go in to show biz! I could make big money! I’ve also discovered that many people love to have a microphone in their hand. This is why karaoke clubs have become so popular.
But honestly, if you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme, show biz may not be for you.
I love what I do or I wouldn’t be doing it whether it be recording in my little home studio or performing on stage, and yes, I do have fun with it. But there is a lot of work involved that noone sees unless you are really looking behind the scenes.
Most voice talents have their own studios now which means that we can be called to work at any time whether it be weekends or even late at night For those of us who have clients emailing scripts from European countries that needed to be completed yesterday. This has been called a 24 7 business. The recording portion is a minor portion of the work involved. We are now audio engineers as well as Marketing Directors. You have to market your business in order to build it up. Right? We are required to wear several different hats.
Besides all of this, in order to keep our skills sharp, it is also recommended that we spend some time on a daily basis doing cold reading. By cold reading, I mean, picking up a magazine article or newspaper article that we’ve never touched and reading it out loud. What is the purpose of this? When we are called in to a recording studio or when we are called to read in front of an agent, and we are handed scripts on the spur of the moment, our jobs are to put ourselves in to the character as quickly as possible, and make our reads as conversational as we can. In other words, when we are in studio, time is money, and you’ve got to hit that home run in as few takes as possible. If the client gets what he’s looking for in a reasonable amount of time, then you end up establishing good relationships and getting more work.
There are also classes to attend, voiceover workout groups to become a part of, and social networking sites to be affiliated with.
All of this being said, I wouldn’t be doing anything else other than what I’m doing now. You do it for the love of it.
So I say, if you’re thinking about pursuing this type of career, give it a try, but before you go soaring off in to the clouds, remember, there’s no business like show business, but it’s still a business.