2014 Pendy Award - Best Actor in a Seminar Short

This was reasonably unexpected - it seems that I've won a 2014 Pendy Award for Best Actor in a Seminar Short, for my role as Richard O'Malley in "O'Malley's Media Storm".

We are taking questions from the audience... uh, yes? 

"What the heck is a 'Pendy Award'?"

Great question!  I hadn't actually heard of them before November of this year.  They are annual awards from Pendant Audio - an audio production group which was formed way back in 2004 dedicated to the creation of radio dramas in the style of radio serials from the Golden Age of Radio in the 1930's and 40s'.  They solicit audio scripts, post casting calls for voice actors, and through the magic of elves and computers, pull it all together on a regular basis. They have several shows, shorts and longer-form projects which can be found on their SHOWS page.  Next question... 

"What's a 'radio'?"

Really?  You're going with that?  Ok.  Yeah, a radio is like the internet without pictures?  Naaahhh... It's like streaming audio, except once upon a time, humans used to choose what got played.  And before that, they actually performed live at specific times, and you had to listen then or you wouldn't hear it. Crazy, huh?  Those were the dramas and shows that everyone  kept up with.   Most of the early voice actors came from radio and vaudeville, their talents and characters honed by years of live performances and the glorious creative environment of working with other actors.  Folks like Mel Blanc, June Foray, Dawes Butler and a ton of other folks whose voices you would probably instantly recognize.  These folks are some of my heroes, and I love the idea that audio dramas are being actively produced.

"Can anyone just listen to these?"

Yep - they post them on the Shows Page I mentioned earlier, and they have a regular podcast you can subscribe to (and I gotta put in a quick plug for Instacast here.  Been using it on the phone - iOS is free - and it's pretty solid!) 

"What kind of stuff do they do?"

It really ranges quite a bit - their most ambitious project has been "The Phantom Canyon" (which includes the very talented Lea Gulino among the cast).  

"And what exactly did you do?" 

I played Richard O'Malley, an overblown television host who has an odd and interesting guest on his show "O'Malley's Media Storm".  It was part of the "Seminar - Original Anthology Show" which features short plays and other projects "heard through the lens of lessons in a futuristic post-apocalypse..."  So, it's kind of a unique venue...  This project appeared in Episode Number 59, released in October of 2014.  My bit starts right around 8 minutes.

A big thanks to the folks at Pendant Audio, and everyone who had a part in making this happen!

GamingLives.com Interviews Gene Mocsy - Writer/Designer of "1954: Alcatraz"

GamingLives.com sits down with Gene Mocsy, the designer and writer (and as we learn in the interview a character voice here and there...) of 1954: Alcatraz, which hopefully will be released from Deadalic Entertainment this coming year.   He talks about the inspiring environs he found both on the famous island itself and throughout the city of San Francisco. 

This has been an interesting project to be involved with - seeing it expand from an independent venture to a fully-realized release from a major gaming company.  But through it all (as with the video games which get me most excited) is a dedication to captivating characters and interesting stories.

It's an interesting interview with insights into the long process of creating a game environment.

... yes, an at times creeeeeepy environment!

1954: Alcatraz - Interview with Gene Mocsy, Designer and Writer

Lea Guilino's Floating Studio Newsreel

What a great way to start the week - enjoying fellow voice actor Lea Guilino's retro newsreel coverage of her floating studio!



Another of the supremely talented and creative voice over talents located here in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Sim City Advance Looks At March Delivery!

With EA's recent closed beta preview, it looks like they are in the home stretch for releasing the new SimCity experience.  I've seen a few "real-time" videos of the beta play and it looks pretty impressive - with a gorgeous look and compelling detail.

Here's a quick promo of the city expansion packs and basic setup -


Reviews have already popped up as well - games.com and mashable, for example -  most of the folks seem to have spent their weekends looping back to the limited-to-one-hour beta and going through things again.  Certainly a testament to the quality of this upcoming release.

Can't wait to see it myself!

Mel Blanc Radio Interview - 1971

For many people in voice acting, Mel Blanc is one of the nudges of how we got there. Of course, with Mel's characters, "nudge" might not be quite as accurate as "frying pan to the face"... But, the characters that he voiced (as well as those of Dawes Butler) surrounded me growing up, and still provide inspiration and - at times - moral guidance.

Big tip o' the mouse to Sirenetta Leoni over at Inside Voiceover, who shared this wonderful interview with Mel Blanc over at Speaking of Radio.

Tip O' the 'Trax Talk Blog

Got a nice little mention of the Hitachi video project over on the Voicetrax SF "Trax Talk" blog yesterday! They linked to the one which featured fellow Voicetrax alums Gavin Hammon, Mark Middleton and Aly Casas. I actually got to play two roles in this one - the stressed IT Manager and the concerned Boss. Great fun! Hopefully, I'll get the chance to work with these very talented people again very soon!

Me talking to, uh...Me

One of the projects I've been working on has been a series of product videos for Hitachi. They've been rolling out some IT Operational Analysis software for the US market. If I have the specifics correct, the animations were done for the Asian/Japan market originally, and have been adapted for use in English-speaking markets.

I was lucky enough to land the role of Cary, the IT Manager, who, as the episodes continued, ended up talking with his future self (or past self, depending upon your perspective...). So, in the third of the series, I got to have a dialog with myself:



This has been a fun project, and there should be another episode available before too long.

The other two are here:
Episode 1 - Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer - About Analyzer

Episode 2 - Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer - Simplified Network View

Sue Blu Character Workshop

One of the great things about Voicetrax classes and weekend workshops remains the high quality of the teachers who work there. This past weekend, I was lucky enough to nab a slot in a Animation Character Workshop with Susan Blu - someone who, quite literally, has written the book on Voice Acting. (There are others out there, obviously, but it was actually the first book I ever got on VO, and it has become a bit dog-eared over the years.)

I really love all aspects of voice acting, but animated characters are serious fun. (For those of you who read this, but have little exposure to the different disciplines of voice work, I'm talking specifically about television animation - which can include everything from preschool cartoons to primetime, to latenight, over-the-top, pushing the boundries kind of stuff.) It's all high energy, fast paced work with super focused intensity.

Actually, this clip of Charlie Adler gives you a sense of the difference -


Thanks Charlie! But, back to Susan...

It's truly impressive to be a room with someone who can recall a role from 20 years ago and - without missing a beat - bring that character immediately to life. Susan worked with us on deriving characters from very interesting and non-obvious places. She'd be explaining a technique do create a new character and then say, "well, I used this to come up with..." and suddenly, this whole other person appeared in front of us. It was a stunning transformation which happened a few times.

We all got a significant chance to have her direct us on copy, coax us further on characters and share words of her significant experience with us. There's really nothing like working with excellent directors to help you cut through the fluff and get focused. It was certainly a highly talented pool of students, and by the end of the workshop, everyone had raised their game noticeably. Another high quality weekend honing the craft.

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!