Dear Stephanie,
I began my subscription to Voices.com about two years ago and in the beginning it was a struggle.
I would get up every morning, check my invitations and away I would go auditioning for as long as my voice could hold out in the heat of my small studio. It went on like that for 6 months, audition after audition with no results, sometimes the feedback would indicate I had come close but not close enough. I tried every voice nuance I could think of, every possible angle to make a breakthrough in the business but alas no such breakthrough was forthcoming.
Then one day, in the middle of a particularly loud and energetic read, I hit the red line and I just gave up.
I asked myself "Why am I doing this, why would I torture myself this way and all for no gain, no encouragement, just rejection."
In a total fit of anger and frustration I ripped my script in half and threw it on the floor and unbelievably began to jump on it , like an animated ape in a cartoon. What a sight I was, ripping, jumping, yelling at the world at full throttle.
Eventually the moment passed and I picked up the shreds of my script and deposited them in the garbage and I prepared to change the scenery a bit and go out for a walk.
As I pulled on my sweater and laced up my shoes I heard the familiar sound of an incoming email. I had no idea whom that email might be from but I poked my head in the my studio, just to take a peek, and there it was, my first paying gig, on the screen for all to see and, not just any voice over, it was a sign from above.
The client's name was Stacy Cobb and he ran a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in Alabama called the Foundry. His ministry reached out to the homeless and the helpless and without judgment of any kind it would offer food, clothing and love to those in the most need.
What they had chosen me for was to be the voice of God in a television commercial.
The voice of God.
It was very humbling particularly in light of my previous tantrum and it served as a reminder that the universe is a wondrous place and if your heart and mind are open and you can keep your own faith and belief in yourself and your inner talent then keep on auditioning and working with your friends at Voices.com because every now and then miracles do happen, and you can take that from the voice of God in Alabama.
