VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Mike Harrison

In the course of a VO interview I heard the other day, a recommendation that surprised me was made to any newbies listening.

While practicing – in and of itself – can never be wrong, this recommendation seemed to go against the reason why newbies are strongly cautioned against making and distributing a demo until their abilities reach a competitive level.

The recommendation was that auditions could/should be used for practice.

And, to be clear, it wasn't stipulated that those auditions be used only to practice reading aloud and interpreting copy, so one would conclude that the recommendation was to submit these practice reads.

Is that not the same thing as making and distributing a demo that screams "I'm not ready yet?"
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Deirdre · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 5:46 am Post subject:

I think the idea behind that is using the urgency of an audition to make yourself work and to do the very best you can. Otherwise "practice" can entail a great deal of faffing about.

Having a coach can keep someone new to the biz from submitting (too many) junk auditions. And I listen to or coach my own students' auditions quite a bit, and there's nothing "new" about those folks.
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paulstefano · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 7:09 am Post subject:

Good Morning Mike,

Coming to you from Ocean City NJ today! I think that's pretty nearby you based on your signature.

I am a newbie out there auditioning for "real" right now. It may not be the best idea. Perhaps you have seen my other thread where I put myself on a spinning wheel to let everybody throw daggers?

Anyway, I have taken the advice to stop putting my crappy demos out there to any professionals, but I am doing auditions on Voices.com everyday while I look for and sign up with a coach. I think it's tremendous practice. In my opinion knowing there is an actual chance at landing a job makes me really strive to get better. I don't think I'd personally be motivated if I were just reading practice scripts to myself with nobody else listening.

Plus, you never know if you strike that moment of brilliance you may actually get paid!
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Philip Banks · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 10:13 am Post subject:

Working in a vacuum is never a good idea and most people who give recommendations appear to have a vacuum between their ears.

Auditioning for gigs on voices.ca is a bit like punching a Holy Man in Mumbai, not a good idea but the rest of India is unlikely to ever find out about it.

If you record a bad audition and submit it the realistic impact on your future career is at worst minimal. Nobody cares what a nobody thinks.

Learn how to do your job.
Do your job.
Spend the pay.

Next week we'll investigate how many people need to unfriend people on a certain social media website in order to destroy the fabric of civilisation.

Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:01 am Post subject:

Mike Harrison · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:41 am Post subject:

What Jeffrey said, and I have first-hand experience with just that. I don't particularly like it when a client wants a "radio" read from me because that's exactly what I'm working on, trying desperately to get away from.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

paulstefano · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 3:19 pm Post subject:

Bailey · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 8:13 pm Post subject: