I just returned from a trip to NYC this week with Randy Thomas (www.randythomasvo.com). Randy's been an absolutely wonderful mentor and coach to me; she is seriously the "creme de la creme" of voice over talent. She's professional, talented, and composed.  

I'm helping Randy and Peter Rofe' (www.pdrvoicecoaching.com) with their book, VOICE FOR HIRE (Billboard Books - due out in Fall 2008). Why me? My previous work background had me proofreading and editing a great deal, so I'm fortunate to have the skills to copyedit their book.  So, we went to NYC to work with Peter on the book, as well as record audio for a CD that will accompany the book.

Our days were jam-packed.  We arrived on Sunday afternoon.  That evening, we went to Nobu with voice over talent Steve Kamer (www.stevekamer.com).   I'm honored to have been able to meet such an outstanding vo talent. He's one of the best in the business, being the voice of Inside Edition and the New York Yankees, just to name a couple of his many credits.  And, he's simply a nice guy. 

Since Randy is the voice of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, both daily entertainment news shows, she has to track promos every day, at random times of the day.  To do this, we were either at the Paramount offices in the dubbing room, where they had a whisper room set up with an ISDN codec, or we were on the new set of The Insider down the street.  (On a daily basis, Randy does this from her home via ISDN.)

Being on the set of The Insider was very very cool, I have to admit.  I met the hosts Pat O'Brien and Lara Spencer, and all of the people who make the show.  What a group of hard working folks.  Though, I have to admit, Barry the teleprompter guy has the hardest job there.   They're constantly changing the stand up scripts, even as they're being read, and Barry has to find the right script and change it on the fly. 

I also got to see footage that was brought in by their freelance video guy on Monday morning. He worked on the weekend taping various celebrities around the city, and brought it to them first thing in the am to view and dub.  It was used on the show that night.  Pretty cool. It's amazing that each day's show is created and written that same day.  Incredible!! 

On Monday night, Randy and Peter were invited to a client "party" at the offices of Atlas Talent.  I was lucky enough to get to tag along.  I met most, if not all, of the agents. They were truly down to earth and real people... again, just simply nice folks.  Ok, no, they didn't pull out a contract and have me sign on the dotted line <insert smiley face here!!>, but we had great conversations about things ranging from voice over to music to nail polish.  I also met Isiah Whitlock... who is the Dad on Verizon's "Dad Got Hosed!" commercial that ran last year. I wouldn't have known it if Peter hadn't mentioned it.  Very cool! 

Tuesday night, we were in Peter's studio with some of his students to record some audio for the audio CD that they're going to turn into the publisher with the book manuscript. We focused on promo and trailer reads. It was a great class... Randy and Peter are superb coaches. And, I never tire of hearing stories about Randy's live announce gigs.  Everyone in the class did a fantastic job... as you do in classes like that, we all learned a lot from each other.  No two of us sounded alike, and we each brought something different to the table to learn.  It's always fun to do something outside the realm of what you normally do, like trailers. 

Want to know the one thing that really surprised me on this trip? Everyone I met on this trip was a real person - not pretentious... but nice people. Nice, kind, friendly, real people.  It was refreshing!