Joan Baker - “Secrets Of Voice-Over Success” - Book Review

For actors there are countless recourses available that promise to improve your skills, but as a voiceover it can sometimes be more challenging based on the fact that voice-over is a specialized skill within the acting field with a smaller pool of talent than mainstream acting circles. So when Joan Baker compiled her book Secrets of Voice-Over Success: Top Voice-Over Actors Reveal How They Did It I was inclined to read it and hopefully glean some wisdom from those more successful than I in this field. I must say the mere idea of compiling a series of “how I did it” short stories written by top voiceover talent is a great one. It would be assumed you could learn many a trade secret from the best of the best, and a few gems were found, but I had to do a bit of digging to find them.

First off, the list of talent that contributed to this book is a very well accomplished group of voice actors. It should also be said that, “virtually all of the interviewees, writers, and editors of Secrets of Voice-Over Success are freely and lovingly contributing their time and words, with no consideration whatsoever to monetary gain, in the interest of benefiting the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.” Ms. Baker has really done a wonderful thing by providing the much under served voice-over community with a tool to aid in growth as a performer, and by raising money for a terrible and often forgotten disease. She deserves to be commended for her efforts. As do the people who gave their time and name to this project.

Some of those people were, of course the “Don” of voice-over, Don LaFontaine, who wrote a chapter. As did Joe Cipriano, George DelHoyo, Nancy Giles, Stephen Newman, the late Fred Collins, and more. All worthy to be named “top voice-over actors.” The premise allowed the contributors to tell their story and from that the reader would pick up some helpful “secrets.” The only problem was that most of the “secrets” were either basic, common sense, or just to broad to mean anything to me.

For example “To gain access to auditions for the top brands, you will need to have a good relationship with an agent. Think of your agent as your business partner and remember, that job isn’t easy either.” If you’ve been in the business five minutes you’ve learned that having an agent, and not just any agent but one of the top agents, is vital to accessing the prime jobs. Also, “Rejection? No experienced professional going to an audition expects to be chosen for the job. The word rejection is replaced by the word elation on those rare occasions when one wins the audition.” Should that really be considered a “Secret of Voice-Over Success” or should it just be common sense?

Now there were, like I mentioned before, a few diamonds in the ruff. “Don’t try to be something you’re not, and you may not even know you’re trying. The real you is what they want. The trick is to find your authentic voice and own it, be it.” If you’re a voiceover talent and you can really grasp the depth and insight in this sentence from George DelHoyo’s chapter than you have learned arguably THE most important “secret” to success in this business, in my humble opinion. I can’t tell you how many auditions I wasted trying to sound like the guy instead of just being the guy that I am. Once I learned who I was, and this may sound strange to those who came into this business as something other than an actor, I flourished and the work doubled. As an actor you’re trying to be someone else and in voiceover the more you can be yourself and create a brand around that the more you’ll work. Honestly, just to read George’s chapter in this book is worth the price of the whole book. Maybe I can relate to him since we both came into the business the same way, but I found comments like this to be profound: “However absurd that little spot may seem or sound, I know that everything I’ve ever done and learned on stage, and everywhere I’ve ever been, and everything that’s been taught to me by my teachers is all a part of what I’m offering now.”

Also, George’s stories about making his first demo, his range as a voice actor, and his philosophies on approach and style carry all kinds of truism’s that I wish I had read years ago. Every voiceover can extract several career long success secrets from George’s chapter. The reason is because he isn’t just telling his story like so many others. He is telling his story and pointing out what he learned in a layered way so we get to skip past his mistakes and stand on his shoulders. Thank you George DelHoyo for making this book worth the read!

Other chapters were a complete waste because the contributor literally just listed off what they did and how they got there. I don’t mean things like “I changed my read from a pushy sell read to a soft and understated read and then booked HBO promo jobs.” That would be helpful. What I mean by wasted chapter are stories like “I was on the air here, and this person heard me and hired me for this, and that person changed stations and brought me with, and now I do promos for NBC, CBS, and WB and I’m rich.” OK, not very helpful and unfortunately a large part of the book. Another fruitless quote was “…take a workshop or classes with somebody good.” Right, as a pose to paying money for a class with somebody bad. Does anyone intentionally take a class for someone bad or does that just happen because there are bad teachers out there?

Nancy Giles chapter rivals DelHoyo’s in my opinion. Her bit about getting “annoyed at actors who read their scripts out loud in the waiting room” is a really good point because most people don’t want to hear your choices. They’re too busy trying to make their own choices. Also, she mentions some practical remedies for a sensitive throat and since the condition of our throat directly effects whether or not the rent gets paid it’s welcome advice. She also makes a great point about demo production: “People interested in doing voice-overs might spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on classes to get a really professional sounding demo tape that ends up not sounding anything like them.” This can be dangerous because it may play you off as more experienced than you are which leads to bad sessions and clients that never hire you again. The goal is to build a large book of repeat clients.

Overall I would give Joan’s book a B-. If you’re a beginner you may miss some of the value because it kind of caters to the people in the business with agents already. It doesn’t cover the beginning steps as well as VO: Tales and Techniques of a Voice-Over Actor does. If you’re experienced it’s a must have even though it only has a few nuggets of wisdom worth finding. I would say BUY IT because, frankly, there haven’t been that many voice-over books published and the money is going to a good cause. Who knows, for you it could be the most ground breaking voice-over book available today.

Some memorable quotes:

“It’s all in the words. I merely translate.” Don LaFontaine

“The first step in any case is, hopefully, to get an idea of the intent of the writer or client as to the personality of the copy.” Fred Collins

“I often look for more than one way to read a commercial so I have alternatives in mind for the client.” Janice Pendarvis

“For the most part, if the client wants an old man, they’re going to get an old man.” George DelHoyo

“Most spots are a sort of conversation where questions are being answered, so it’s my job to answer the questions.” Rodd Houston

“I believe you can program yourself for success or failure by what you think.” Dave Fennoy

I’ve said this in previous posts, but Joan Baker has phenomenal voice-over demo’s. Head to her website for a lesson in what a great demo should sound like.