With the Olympics being in town, us voiceover types are reminded that, unlike our athletic counterparts whizzing around on various forms of frozen water in Vancouver, our victories are slow, delayed, cautiously celebrated. When an athlete wins their gold medal, it’s a definite thing. You’ve won. The competition is over. You stand on the podium and the world cheers for you for 5 minutes, you return to your home country a hero and are further rewarded with lucrative sponsorship deals and TV appearances.
But in the voiceover world, you work for years to gain the skills necessary to book a job. And eventually, your agent calls to check your availability for a job. So, you call your friends and relatives, tell them the good news, put a down payment on that cabin in Aspen you’ve always wanted and invite everyone over for cake.
But then, your agent calls. You’ve been released from the avail. Yuck.
Sometimes, you do the job – and it’s a big job. Like a national commercial. And you’re thinking about all those residuals and the cabin in Aspen. But, advertising is fickle. They decide to go a different direction. The spot doesn’t test well. Or, as just happened to yours truly, Toyota announces a massive recall three days after your session.
Maybe you’ve got a series. Maybe you’ll have that series for a few years or more. But you know from experience that the job can end any time. So you keep your fingers crossed, keep doing your job the best you can, and wait.
So, caution takes away our podium moment. We celebrate after the fact, when the series ends, or a year after the commercial session when all the residuals have been delivered and deposited. Then and only then do we dare to venture from our homes waving huge flags that read “I was the narrator on the Food Network Challenge for 3 years!” or “My Cheerios commercial ran for 5 cycles!”
So what do we, as needy, attention-hungry actor types, do to satisfy our cravings for celebrity? Join a band. Do theatre. Throw ourselves a big birthday party. Or maybe try out for the Olympics.
Ultimately the real satisfaction in voiceover work comes from the honest effort you put into the craft. Working hard to be good at what you do. The friends you make. The knowledge that of all the people your agent could have picked to represent, they picked you. And of all the excellent actors who auditioned for the job, the client chose you.
Not a loud, flashy victory – but a good one.
copyright 2010 John Matthew
