Gig Bound on a Beautiful Tuesday

Gig Bound on a Beautiful Tuesday, originally uploaded by Jim Edgar Voices.

Fog hovering just below road level.

An Evening With Billy West

Spent Friday evening down in Sausalito enjoying an interview with Billy West, who was in town at an "Inside the Voice Actor's Studio" event put on by Voicetrax. For the non-voiceover-centric among you, Billy West has voiced a chunk of memorable characters - (references here and here to get you started) such as Ren & Stimpy, several members of the Futurama cast, and currently the Red M&M on their television commercials.

Giving voice to cartoon and animated characters is a big chunk of the siren song which has drawn me to this line of work. The characters of Daws Butler, Mel Blanc and June Foray fired my imagination and became real to me because the actors behind the animation brought such depth to the characters (and the writing and situations were such inventive roller coasters of storytelling).

Billy has continued to bring the commitment to craft forward. It was a rare treat to listen to his rapid patter of reminisces and views. Character work is a tricky combination of physicality, mechanics, commitment and above all - acting. To pull all those things together is a bit of a magician's trick. To consistently do that over a period of time is significant work.

There were a myriad of ideas sown which I'm still considering this morning, inspiration which hopefully will carry my own energy forward a bit, and substantial laughter and love for the craft.

Big thanks to Voicetrax for pulling this together!

Knobs & Lights

Knobs & Lights, originally uploaded by Jim Edgar Voices.

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sent from some phone

Monday Night At the Board

Ended up engineering for Mr. TK this evening. Always a delight! Good students, fun takes and met a number of budding new VO actors.

07-26-10_1818.jpg, originally uploaded by Jim Edgar Voices.

Perk of Sunday Engineering

05-23-10_1037.jpg, originally uploaded by Jim Edgar Voices.

It was a beautiful Sunday, but I'd been scheduled to run the board for an excellent teacher for animation. Decent coffee (though not Peets), cornbread muffins, pastries, fresh strawberries and fruit.

Not a bad way to make up for not being out enjoying the sun.

John Muir Health Television Ad

Just got this off the wires this afternoon - here's the John Muir Health ad "Expect Life" which should be starting to run through the East Bay (SF Bay Area) markets.


Yep. That's me doing the voiceover. Fun stuff...

Voicetrax San Francisco Idol Finalists Announced

The finalists for Voicetrax Idol, San Francsico have been announced -

Chris Abell
Ned Clarke
Wes Davis
Roni Gallimore
David Gast
Megan Goldsmith
Dan Greenblatt
Wendy Levy
Rob Sandusky
Philip Adrian Vasquez
Maureen O'Donoghue
Jean Pennington
Liz O'Keefe

Big congratulations to the finalists - they now go on to the final round with individual reads. They are vying for the coveted prize of 6 months of representation with Stars, The Agency, in San Francisco.

It's great to see these folks meet with success - I've worked with almost all of them (some pretty extensively) in classes over the past couple years, and there's nothing like seeing their hard work pay off! You all deserve it - break a leg in the FINALS!