VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Don G.]

I listen to a fair amount of audiobooks, as I have about a 1 to 1.5 hour commute to work each way, every day. To be honest, I actually enjoy my time in the car, largely because of the audiobooks. The only downside is the rising price of gas, but that another story.

Anyway, I have quickly come to appreciate the value of a good narrator. I have a couple of favorites, and I am nearing the point where the narrator will determine whether or not I even listen to a book. I am fortunate in that the authors I really like tend to choose the narrators I really like. But maybe that's a chicken and egg kind of thing.

All this preamble is simply leading to a mini-rant, if you will. I'm about halfway through a book written by an author I really like. The narrator, while not one of my half dozen or so favorites, is one whom I've heard before and I remember as having done a good job. But this time, he has decided to attempt an (unattractive at best) Boston accent because the lead character is based in Boston. But he's not pulling it off. He drifts in and out of it once in a while and it's driving me crazy! If he would do the while book in a normal accent it would be far more enjoyable. And it would not diminish the story at all, in my opinion. This is a novel by a major best-selling author and a narrator who otherwise is doing a very admirable job on the other characters in the book. I am tempted to bag this and get the physical paper book and let my own imagination do the work.

I'm not sure why I even wrote this. I guess I just had to vent. But it does speak to the fact that if you can’t do the accent right and consistently, please don't do it at all.

That is all.

[ccpetersen]

Which part of Boston?

Seriously though, I hear ya on that. Even though I lived in that area for 13 years or so, and could tell the difference between somebody from Southie and somebody from Methuen, and I even picked some of it up on my own (even now, occasionally, I'll catch myself saying "pahk the cah" or something like that), I don't audition for anything that requires a Boston regional accent. Just not convincing enough. "Yah naht from arand heah, ah ya?"

Now, if they want me to read it straight... hey, yeah.

[Lee Gordon]

This reminds me of something that bugged me about the otherwise excellent National Parks mini-series by Ken Burns. Most of the time, Burns uses actors to serve as both his narrators and the unseen voices of his historical characters. But every once in a while he'll use a historian/author/expert instead.

The guy who provided the voice of John Muir in National Parks was an author who was probably the leading authority on Muir. Not only had he written the definitive book on the man, he even wore his hair and beard like him. But Muir came to America from Scotland as a young man and probably maintained at least a vestige of a Scottish accent, Burns' expert is from Maine or NH and the accent he affected while playing Muir was a bizarre amalgam of Down Easter with his not very convincing Scottish brogue that consisted mostly of clipped syllables and rolled Rs. The end product was unlike any known accent and I found it exceptionally distracting, almost to the point of not wanting to continue watching the show.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Diane Havens]

I totally agree. While a bit of a bad accent won't bother me in a minor bit of dialogue, any extended use of one better be authentic. Anything that puts attention on the narrator and not the story is not a good thing.
Sometimes a narrator can just pick up the flavor of an accent while not really using one by speaking in the cadence of the language -- that way it's not obtrusive enough to be jarring, yet different enough to fit the character.
First person narration, however, must be perfect, and if it's that necessary to the text (sometimes an author will try -- horror of horrors! -- to write in the accent) then the book should be cast accordingly.
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Diane


Veni, Vidi, Voci
http://www.dianehavens.com

[Mike Harrison]

Some of the audition notices I get remind those considering submitting to do so only if they know they are right for the part. While it seems many consider only the gender, age, and maybe comfort with the subject matter, I've declined to submit a number of auditions knowing - even though I could come close or even nail an accent - that I could not guarantee being able to sustain it faithfully for any length of time. I've been asked why a few times, and my reason is that I don't want to waste everyone's time knowing there are others more qualified.

One example was an audition for a radio spot that was going to air in the Chicago area, and a Chicago accent was requested. When asked why I didn't submit, I politely explained that in such a case, local listeners would know in a split second if the accent was done by someone other than a true Chicagoan (and would either laugh uproariously or be insulted; neither of which is a good response to an ad campaign). My suggestion was that they look for a Chicago-area voice talent (a suggestion I thought was a no-brainer).
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

In defense of narrators, there's always the burden to get the accent "right" (even though there's no such thing. An accent will have minor differences from person to person within the same region).

However, even if I can nail that Boston accent, I might move on to a book that requires a Michigan accent. In essence, any audiobook narrator must be able to do all accents flawlessly in order to get work.

This is an impossible feat, which is why narrators shouldn't necessarily try to nail all accents. but as mentioned above, just flavor it. It's about the characters, not the accents.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[whalewtchr]

Dialects are difficult-even the best actors have dialect coaches-but we are in an era of self direction where it is difficult to tell yourself that your accent sucks.
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jonahcummings

[Bruce]

I'll bet you didn't enjoy Kevin Costner in Robin Hood, with a different bad to non-existent British accent in every scene.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Diane Maggipinto]

the only two-tree real boston accents among celebs: matt damon, markie mark, ben affleck. they're all southies aren't they? and it's not at all authentic without cussing, like go the f*ck to sleep and all that
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www.d3voiceworks.com

[Deirdre]

Ha ha!! Wikkid pissah.

Yeah, one of my favorite readers, Joe Mantegna, read the Spenser novels and there were books in which he got pronunciations wrong. I sure don't blame HIM. Someone should have done their due dilligence.

Copley Square has a short "O", fuh the rekkid.
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DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Lee Gordon]

It may be a short (or shot, as the locals would say) "O" but there's a little something extra in there -- sort of like KwOP-lee SKWAY-uh.

I remember one episode of Cheers that was loaded with local references (Peabody, Woburn, Billerica). Unfortunately, all of them were pronounced unlike the locals say them, which for the record are:

PEE-b'dee
WOO-bun
bill-RICK-a (or, if you want to get technical, bill-RICK-er)

There may even have been a Haverhill in there.
HAYV-rull
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Don G.]

Finished the audiobook on my home today. Good book, and I was able to get past the inconsistencies of the accent. Wouldn't have been so annoying if the main character weren't the offender and if it hadn't been written in the first person. It was an unfortunate combination in this instance. I will say this, though. All his other characters were extremely well done and varied, and there were a fair number of them.

[ccpetersen]

Lee, we lived in Groton (GRUAHton), MA for 13 years, not fah from Ayuh, and just up the road from Lemstah. Westfudd was a few miles away, and Nashuarh a 20-min drive away. We breakfasted in PEPP-rill, often went to WUSS-stah on our way to NYC, and Mark played in the KAWN-cudd community band.

Sometimes I really miss that accent.

[PJHawke]

CC: Loved your post. You spelling those names like that... Too funny. It's like I could hear my friend Chris talking... The producer/frontman of the podcast I'm on lives in YAHmuth... well, Soth Yahmuth, actually, in Cape Cuod, but he grew up in Boston. He gives me a lot of the character voices and all the impressions to do because he can't lose the accent completely. And yes DB, I've heard him use the phrase "Wikkid pissah!" a number of times, just for laughs. I've asked him if he thinks a little bit of voice training could get him to scrub the accent, and his usual reply is something along the lines of "Whattya retadded? Just do the f**kin' ka'actuhs!"

[ccpetersen]

Getting off topic, but before I moved to the Boston area, somebody gave me a "How to Speak Boston" book, and I was trying it by reading it aloud to another friend who lives in Newton. When I got to "bubblah" he just about died laughing as I pronounced it straight. I had NEVER heard that term before.



But hey... I can order ice cream with jimmies on it there with the best of 'em.