Stephanie Ciccarelli Guest Blog

Dave Courvosier's blog just featured a great guest column from Voices.com's Stephanie Ciccarelli. It deals with understanding your brand, and how in these days of online social-networking, the face you show your friends and family is inevitably the same face you show your clients. Whether you mean to or not! Your best bet is to be careful about what you put out there, while being true to who you are.

Okay, that's the teaser. Click over to the Stephanie Ciccarelli Guest Blog for the full meal deal.

A Voice Over Historical Landmark - The Voicecaster Demo Wall

The days of reel-to-reel may be gone, but this wall-of-demos is worth preserving. Check out the star-studded collage at Voicecaster studios in Burbank, California. Great blog post from Some Audio Guy!

Go, Speed Racer, Go. Godspeed.

Peter Fernandez, the voice of Speed Racer, has passed away. He was 83 years old. Learn more about Peter's interesting career in radio, on broadway and in the military at Animation World Network.

Demo this advice

I'm not sure where I heard this advice recently, but it makes so much sense that I had to share it with you (in an illustration no less)!

What does this mean? It means that if you're doing audio book narration, and you want to do commercial work, you should include some commercial examples on your demo! Nobody is going to listen to your genre demo and think to themselves, 'this guy (or gal) should really be doing this other genre.' No one is going to discover you that way. You have to make them see you! Find a few scripts in the genres you want to tackle, and start recording. Good luck!

Will the real Donald Duck please stand up?

I was searching Twitter for other voice-actor "tweets" when I stumbled across a gentleman calling himself VActor4Disney. It caught my attention. As it turns out VActor4Disney is actually the page of an aspiring Disney voice-actor. Still intrigued, I gave one of his videos a looksee. You know what? He's good! Check out his impression of

"Dice" TV commercial for Northern Quest Casino

Here are a trio of commercials from Hanna & Associates for the Northern Quest Casino in Eastern Washington. I think they did a terrific job with the creative, and I'm proud to play one of the die in the second spot. I'm the guy who gets the last punchline in.

Keep an eye out for the ad during Mariner games on FSN.

By the way, if you ever find yourself near Spokane, check out the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights. Among other things, it's got a sportsbar with the games projected onto the biggest screen I've ever seen in a sportsbar!

John Wayne: Voice Actor

Is there any other actor that is more closely associated with America and her ideals? John Wayne had a great career, and an interesting voice... Often imitated, never duplicated. In honor of our Independence Day, I give you the Duke himself, reading the Pledge of Allegiance as only he can.

God bless the U.S.A!

The Real Life Story of a Disney Princess

Obituary: Ilene Woods dies at 81; voice of Disney's Cinderella - latimes.com

FREE! Comic Books for Actors

When I was a kid, I loved book-and-records; especially those Power Records releases that included a comic book, with a fully produced drama. Music, sound effects, and voice actors told the stories of Spiderman, Superman, and other childhood heroes.

My favorite of these was an adaptation of Planet of the Apes. I had the whole thing memorized.

My dad loves to tell the story of our long car rides and how I would keep myself entertained in the back-seat by re-enacting the entire Planet of the Apes script-sound effects and all! This was pre-in car DVD, pre-iPod. We kids had to have a little more ingenuity in those days! Looking back, this was my first experience as a voice-actor.

The 'Dark Side' of Voice Acting

Something fun from the folks at TomTom GPS.