Firsts
January 17th, 2008 Posted in General Info“How would you like your burger cooked?” That was me in my early twenties, lunch waitressing at The Rusty Scupper in San Francisco. My regulars, most of them men in suits, would come in every day and order their usual lunch and sit at their usual tables. Every day I’d entice them with the specials, “today we have a Shrimp Pesto Sandwich, Chinese Chicken Salad and the Scupper Burger with roasted peppers and provolone.” Rich, Ken and Alan always sat at table 23. They were suits from Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency across the street. I knew they had something to do commercials. One day while I was reciting the daily specials, Rich said, “you have a great voice, you should do voice over work.” “What is a voice over?” I asked. “It’s using your voice to sell products. The cleanest money in the business.” I asked him how to get into voice overs. “Call Judy Berlin , take classes, get a demo and an agent.” I followed his advice all the way to a demo and my first voice over job; An animatic (test commercial) for Foote, Cone & Belding! So you never know when and where you’ll be heard and what it could lead to. Sometimes that first experience can give you insight, guidance and even a job. What’s your “first” into the world of voice overs?- Tracy Pattin
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One Response to “Firsts”
By MCM Voices on Jan 17, 2008
Tracy, that is a very fun story!
My first? Not quite so interesting, but I was at the point in my career as a biology professor that I wanted to do something different and I started auditioning careers by browsing books at Amazon. I’ve always been interested in acting but did not like to be seen, so when a book on voice acting popped up I was mesmerised. Vocal mimicry and dialects have always been favorite pastimes and interests for me from an early age, and my career in biology started with research on bird song and dialects. So although my path was circuitous, I think it was my destiny