Good morning on this non-sub-freezing day! Man, am I glad that’s over…
Folks, this is going to be a full-blown rant. Prepare yourselves!
So I went to a recording studio last week for a regular client. This particular project called for a round-robin recording session of both grown-ups and kids. We were called into the studio in various combinations which is a nice change and it’s very social so yay fun all is well. Until I got in the booth with one of the grown-ups.
For storytelling’s sake, let’s call him John. John is the type of voice actor we all have worked with before: he can’t shut up. Not won’t, can’t. John has this clinical condition that he is so desperate to impress & entertain everybody that he will blurt out a joke or comment in response to anything that anyone says no matter how banal, cliche, or just plain dumb it is. And when some people laugh (I hope they’re just trying to be polite) John thinks, ‘They love me! I’m gonna give ’em more!’ and the cycle continues.
What did he say exactly? Once he started his standup routine I quickly drowned him out so I honestly don’t remember much, except for one thing: he called New Jersey “the armpit of the universe”. Oh, did I mention that this studio was in New Jersey?
Let me tell you something, folks. I was born and raised in New Jersey. If you’ve never been here, it is a beautiful place. They call it “The Garden State” for a reason. We have farmlands, orchards, wineries, the Jersey Shore, skiing, hiking, great restaurants, great theater, we’ve got it all here. Sure, we have parts of some places that are, well, scary. Every state has crime and every state has squalor. If you got mugged in New Jersey (BTW I don’t know anyone that has), got screwed by some new tax law, or something else ratty happened to you here and you wanna hate the place, fine. Just don’t go around horking out insults because you saw half an episode of “Jersey Shore” or “The Sopranos” or whatever and think the whole place & its people are like that, because it’s not and we’re not. I love it here and there is no other place I’d rather live.
What was that, how do I know he wasn’t from New Jersey? His Australian accent gave him away.
BTW even if I wasn’t from New Jersey, I still would have been peeved. You just don’t go around putting down people or places, especially when you have the potential to offend the client, the talent, and the owners of the studio, and ESPECIALLY a state that was just devastated by a natural disaster.
So what did I do? I kept my trap shut. As much as I would have like to have torn this clown a new one, we were in front of new producers, children, and my #1 client. And you know what? He probably would have thought that I was being a jerk. Sigh.
End of rant.
TIP OF THE WEEK: Now, I’ve hung out with many of you, and you know that I like to talk. A lot. And I like to goof around. A lot! How-eh-vuh, there are three things I don’t do at a recording session and you should NEVER, EVER do either:
Don’t make fun of the script
Don’t make fun of the session
Don’t make fun of someone or something that could potentially offend somebody, especially when you don’t know everyone in the room
John was a master. He did all three in one session.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your ignorance. Thomas Sowell
STUFF!: I saw “Pirate Radio” again and I LOVE this film! Absolutely nothing happens and it tanked in both the UK & US but it is just plain fun. Go rent it!
From Tom Dheere’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere: GKN News…