Voicing a script still adds joy to my challenging life

Is it Me or is it all voice actors who have been at it for so many years....a script doesn't come in and the thought is "What the hell is going on, uh oh!" It's so easy to personalize it all..."they must like younger voices now" "they have a young creative team that doesn't appreciate a trained voice" "that current commercial on Brand X voice talent totally sucks, I could've done better" The ups and downs of being a Voice Over talent. I really don't think I stand alone. Have I mentioned the voice talents that are on those pay to play sites, getting paid a quarter of what an Agent can get them and because they do a tagline for a small market for a huge product, they blast on Social Media that they "Have landed a National gig"...geez, what is it that irks Me in it all? It just plain and simple does. But then I check my email inbox and there sits a work order with a script. My day becomes complete! Read it over, add some commas, print it out and set it up in my portable booth in my personal studio. Label the file and hit RECORD. Oh the glory of the script that comes in.How it can change my day in an instant is amazing. I LOVE this craft. I still take classes periodically to get the feedback I need, and I still yearn to land that National with residuals before I die. What a dream come true that would be.It's been a long journey that I am so joyful I went after it. It always comes back to the same thought, thank God I did what I loved in my lifetime. My health has had it's challenges with my 2 cancer diagnosis, my first marriage was a horrible heartbreak filled with disillusions and a forever changed vision of love, my current marriage is one tough road to be part of, living with an explosive personality is so challenging, and still concerned about our 26 year old son's happiness and health, are daily distractions, but to walk into my room and find that script in that email can change it all in an instant. I take a deep breathe, close my eyes and think what my Agent said in a class one day..."always remember to appreciate the Voice Over opportunity, your style was one that they wanted, whether it's an audition, or the real deal booking the script". I guess I will never get this out of my blood, because damn it this voicing a script brings me all the joy I need. Thank you God for my life today.

Radio for Me was a Love Affair played out

It's no coincidence that my Radio career journey was like a true love affair: finding passion, chasing it, being loved in return, being dumped, and forced to reinvent myself each time. The excitement of the new gig was like a brand new relationship in it's early stages: excited beyond belief, determined to put my best foot forward, be loved in return and hope it lasts for a long,long time. Yet Radio broke my heart like a love affair gone bad. I managed to be on air in all genres of radio, and in the 4th largest market in the USA: San Francisco. Adult Contemporary, Album Rock, Shock Rock, Soft Rock, Urban Jazz, Smooth Jazz, News and Traffic and Nostalgia Standards Every ounce of passion was put into every gig I had. Yet, dealt with egotistical Program Directors who for the mere hell of it, decided they wanted someone different and blind sided Me with their break ups. I cried many a time the whole way home from work. I carried my box full of show prep up San Francisco city streets only to cry on my BART ride home. I would feel embarrassed and ashamed to have to say "I lost my gig". And my heart would only break further when someone would say "I don't hear you on the Radio, what happened?" Go to the movies by myself to cry in the theatre alone, walk to clear my head and journal to sort my thoughts. Yet,there was one gig that surprisingly became one of my favorites. For Lovers Only at KKIQ, triple casting on 3 stations at a station 10 minutes from my home. The ultimate love affair gig!Funny that it was a platform to feel love and heartache and silliness all through music. This gig ended as one of my worst break ups...10 minutes before going on the air, the Program Director said "we don't want the show anymore"...the same feeling when a lover blindsides you when it's time for them to move on. I managed to go on the air, and pull off the show, but when the clock struck midnight, I pulled off my headphones and wept in the studio alone. The worst break up ever. I have snippets of my shows from every genre, but the snip you will hear posted shows my love for my audience, for the music I picked, for the passion of Radio. Just a few classic calls, with added photos to celebrate love. And yes, when I listen and look at this it tugs at my heart strings just like any past love affair will do and to this very day years later I sit and cry. Yes, Radio was my love affair, I yes like a lost love, I will always keep it in my heart.

This is the house I brought our son home to, this was the house of 26 years

Today everything gets boxed up. I woke up at 5:40 am and opened my near empty closet and grabbed my robe. I headed down the stairs and into my office where piles of Radio and Voice Over binders are waiting to go into a box. I check my voice over work orders and remember I booked out because of tomorrows move. After 26 years I say good bye to our home. The sadness builds up inside of Me and I begin thinking: the moment we knew the Dublin house was it 1 1/2 years after marrying. Those French doors out to that beautiful huge backyard. The court where families barbque out front for 4th of July, and Labor Day, the great location to BART or commute into the city for my terrific Radio jobs. It was big for the 2 of Us but it was it. 1 1/2 years later baby Adam was brought home to this house. The huge tree in the backyard that shaded the lawn that we sat with Adam as a baby for months is now gone. The parties in the backyard were endless: Easter Egg hunts, baby showers, graduation parties, fire pit nights, entertaining family and friends.The inside went through its endless remodeling transformations and they all were worth every fight, dime and and time.The events associated with time living here are endless: Radio hiring's and Radio firings, Jeff's career job at EBMUD, deaths of our parents, recovering from cancer,Adams high school Football parties, deaths of friends far too young, raising a few cats and now a dog. It all happened in this house of 26 years. We now set our sights on the condo I bought decades ago, blocks from a beach. A place where I created earlier memories in my life. It is scary, it is exciting and it is so bittersweet. Tomorrow our sweet neighbors will bring the coffee over and pastries and send us off. We leave this home of 26 years, the home we brought our only son home to. This was a good house for 26 years,yet I am sad to say good bye.

Networking is non stop in the VO world mixed with everyday life

My journey in voice acting should be a movie. I actually have written a screenplay about it, my life, the ups and downs the triumphs and setbacks. If anybody thinks they can be successful at this voice acting business without marketing and networking, keep reading. When I first started out, after a year of VO classes, creating the demo, setting up my home studio, I started the networking journey. Cold calling was not fun, I was constantly faced with the "Huh?!" when I would ask for the Creative Team, Production department at any corporation or production facility. Trying to give my 30 second elevator speech: "Hello, I'm a voice actor with a home studio with classes taught by the Masters under my belt and a terrific booking record, I have a demo I would like to get to the right person, I also have a website, who can you direct me to?"...Silence...Me squirming and praying I have the in. It then is logged as a contact and the follow ups and networking now begins. I attended an Open House over the week end at Giraffe Space in Livermore. A cool visual concept created by 2 Producers I have voiced for. I knew it was the right thing to do to attend, though I was totally exhausted from prepping my house for a sale, living in a staged home for a week, and voicing in between the nails being pounded, painting being done and phone calls of endless appointments. The creators of Mitch Eason and Tito Hamze deserved to be honored as they used my voice talents for a few projects in the past. I drove on out and entered their space. There they were: Mitch- Multi Media Producer at Robert Half and Tito, who not only provided the food, the beverages and the tour, but reconnected Me with mutual colleagues! Jody Amos - Production, doing the sound, who I voiced an apartment complex tour, Jerry Pentin - Producer/Director who I voiced a few 30 second cable TV spots for, Chad Caines-Multi Media producer who I voiced the awards for the California Independent Film Festival, Steve Alt- Director Media Services at Robert Half who I have been reaching out to for years to get in that production studio door. There it was, all the hard work I have done to stay top of mind. Will it be a one time gig or will they hopefully be new gigs from reconnecting? I don't know. I do know it is so cool to know all these talented people and I know it was the right thing to do. So if you think you can sit back and hope the gigs come to you, I don't think it's true..It's allot of work, and perseverance and hope to land that next gig. I still love my craft and know networking is the right thing to do. Thanks guys for the gigs, I hope you know how much I appreciate them and you appreciating my talents

The only relief I find is voicing a script and singing to Sinatra

Where do I even begin? I was driving back from Pleasanton's Main Street which provided Me with a much needed stroll with my Olde English Bulldog, LugNut, when I popped a CD in my deck and Sinatra began to belt out "That's Life", I couldn't help but sing along.LOUD. This comes after, scurrying out of the house after voicing a few scripts, and making a phone call for a local hauling company to haul my huge out of date ET center away. After 26 years in one house, accomplished raising a good son who finished college and is ready to get out and yet can't find a reasonable rental, and a husband raging he can't take it anymore and turned in Retirement papers, we are moving to my condo in Capitola which is half the size. Don't get Me wrong I want to return to the beach for sure. In the past 48 hours we were told: my husband has an anuerysm below his kidney, needing risky surgery, the floors need to be refinished for $7,000, the furniture needs to be off the floor, I will have to book out of the studio - thus no voice over work, appointments are being booked for interior painting, landscaping and a 4 night stay at an Extended Stay Hotel along with the dog AND cranky cat. LugNut was then attacked by a Pittbull at the dog park with Jeff, Friday night, while I began to cry with a much needed meltdown. I have no other choice than to pull it together "and pick myself back up and get back in the race!" just as Frank belts out. Needless to say, I am overwhelmed, and to not buckle again I continue to say to myself "you've survived 2 cancers, you have friends dealing with cancer, other people are in horrible pain-look at the frickin' news, you can do this." But I chuckle because what brings Me solace is tackling a script and going the extra mile by editing some copy and pleasing the client only to receive a nice compliment like "appreciate your extra efforts Trish" I have no idea why God gives us so much to handle. Breathe deep is my mantra. Time to find a script to record, organize the garage more, and take a ride to hear Sinatra again. Yep that's what I need.

The Never Ending Struggle With The Belief In Myself

So in the past 7 days, I sent out half dozen auditions from my Agent and didn't get a bite. Today I stroll through the TV room and hear an ad I auditioned for a month back completed for the hospital in our Metro area. I come back to my files and find the audition. I was off. I then rummage through my scripts and find the direction given...I gave them what they asked for: the usual: approachable, warm, sense of authority...blah, blah,blah, blah. I can picture it now, the young Creative Team throwing out every adjective they can think of to have their own ego input.. The booked talent did something different. She stood out, she booked it. I analyze the script again...I try to come up with a simple mantra that I can continually use before opening the mic and voicing the script. This is where the struggle starts brewing in my mind. What the "F" am I doing wrong? Then I go to Youtube and stumble upon some guy telling his audience who has a home set up, how for $5 they can get voice over work. WTF?I can't wrap my head around people doing this. Actors spend years training, it's how they get to Hollywood. I don't know how someone can think they can cut a corner. Maybe I am a sore loser. Maybe the little voices in my head are ruining it for Me. I'd like to think I am honed at my craft. I'd like to believe that I am better than someone who was told they have a nice voice so therefore they can set up a system and then record for $5 increments! I am baffled by it all. Something has to give here. I do voice for small companies, and I am forever grateful to them. I wonder whether they realize how much training I've had and how long I've been at this craft. They have got themselves a damn good deal. So I pull up an ad I did and think to myself that is f-ing National quality work. Somebody on one of these Creative Teams made up of young gradsone day will recognize I'm their voice, and if they feel the need to give direction I can take it and deliver it with no problem, because......I am a trained voice actor. So I search for that ad and post it here so that I can melt in it and give myself kudos that I need so that I won't falter with those crazy little voices inside my head. Tomorrow is another day and I wait patiently for more scripts so that I can knock the ball out of the park and land that damn National.

I believe in the power of Prayer

When I was diagnosed with my uterine cancer in 2010, I was scared and very confused. I remember letting the cat out of the bag and suddenly friends and family started praying. Friends came to my house and in my front room and prayed. Some prayed over the phone with Me, some sent cards with a prayer. My son,Adam, attended a Christian school here in town, yet I wasn't one of those Bible thumping, scripture quoting women. I just knew everybody there had no reservation of saying I will pray for you.In my weakest moments I would reflect on so many people praying for me. I didn't even pray for a cancer cure, I prayed for trust and strength. After all, our disease is in the hands of Doctors, lab techs, anesthesiologists, researchers and who knows else. I ended up Stage 1 Uterine Cancer, no chemo, no radiation, just surgery...but then the polyp was discovered, and that rascal was cancerous and stage 3. 6 grueling months of stupid chemo wrecking complete havoc on my life and yet more prayers. Then the discovery of the DNA gene positive, which means for the rest of my life I have to be on watch for cancer to visit me again...Since all that, I've prayed for great Voice Over gigs, prayed for the ability to understand some Radio mixing board that I was terrified of each time I started a new on air Radio job, prayed for my son when he travels, when he was broken hearted over a relationship ending or being injured in a Football game, thus scrapping his goal of playing all 4 years at college. My heart was broken for him. I pray like anyone else when a friend dies and for their remaining relatives and loved ones, for their sadness that they will endure for a long time. I am not spewing the versus, I just find myself saying a blanket statement "I pray everything gets better and lessons are learned".I am praying over the flooding tragedy in Houston right now, the images on the TV screen are baffling. I am not minimizing this news, but the prayer that is surfacing now is needed for my adorable, crazy, stubborn Olde English Bulldog, LugNut. He has developed horrible pain in his back and hips. The wallow he let out the other eve was astounding. I was sickened by it, along with Adam and Jeff. I have no idea where this came from. Did he trip at the dog park? Is getting in and out of the Jeep too hard on his joints? A visit to the Vets told us one thing...he needs to be put under for X-rays. These short snout pups are a big risk while sedated. My mind is running wild, all of us, and yes LugNut was trembling and very scared at the Vets. He was a bad boy, he wrestled the muzzle and today they have told Me to sedate him I have to place the muzzle tomorrow. In between recording my voice overs, I have been practicing with him, letting him lean on Me and telling him everything will be good, maybe it's just muscle strain. So what am I getting to? I need prayer for this little guy. Alot of prayer. So my mind is racing I am hanging with him and tomorrow is a big day. Please keep LugNut in your prayers in more ways then one..I know there is power in prayer.