Those of you who have been curious enough to follow the many links on the sidebar and footer of the blog may know of another venture of mine. In addition to this blog, a mortgage-paying day job, and a family (with two children under 5), I also have a side business as a voiceover talent to fill those remaining few minutes of my life.
One of the talent agencies with which I am affiliated is in Canada, Vox Talent. Through Vox I receive audition notices when a potential client has selected me for an audition that is to be recorded from my home studio. The audition email has the project name in the subject line. I received two such emails yesterday. One of them immediately caught my eye — subject: Fw: MP3 Audition “NHL”.
The details for this audition were to sound 28-45 with high energy but not to cheesy, authentic, exciting, call to action, mature. If you are selected this will be for 2 spots — 2 NHL teams. Then comes the audition script to be recorded. My stomach turned at the first sentence . . . here is the script:
PITTSBURGH FANS, THE PENGUINS ARE THE 2008 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!
CALL NOW OR LOGON TO SHOP.NHL.COM AND GET THE OFFICIAL LOCKER ROOM HAT AND TEE WORN DURING THEIR POST GAME CELEBRATION!…
THESE COLLECTORS ITEMS ARE AVAILABLE TO FIT EVERY SIZE, AND THE DVD CELEBRATES THEIR INCREDIBLE RUN TO THE STANLEY CUP!
TO ORDER THIS CHAMPIONSHIP PACKAGE, CALL 1-800-555-1234 NOW!
AND FOR THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF CHAMPIONSHIP MERCHANDISE EVER OFFERED, LOG ONTO SHOP.NHL.COM
THE PENGUINS ARE CHAMPIONS!
SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED SO ORDER TODAY!
Why couldn’t the audition script have 2 different words — Detroit and “Red Wings” instead of Pittsburgh and Penguins? This spot will obviously run every 10 minutes on the NHL Network; as a hockey fan and blogger who is also a voiceover talent, it would be quite cool.
Here now is my Stanley Cup prediction: If I am selected to record these two spots, the flightless fowl will win the cup — fate tends to have a sick sense of humour in these matters. At least my Capitals’ season ticket renewal will be paid.
I wonder, though . . . will they send the recording of the losing team to needy countries, too?
15 Comments
Can you add in…GO CAPS!!!!
LOL….Thats a bad spot for a Caps fan. Kinda like the ultimate jewish dilemma – free ham. And Im jewish, so I can make the joke!
If it’s just an audition tape, why not substitute “Washington Capitals” and “SE Conference Champions” where appropriate? Granted, you probably won’t get the job, but sometimes…sometimes…isn’t it worth it?
I’m humming the score from “Damn Yankees”…you, sir, are faced with a Faustian bargain.
Never mind who wins the cup, I do want this gig. It would fun for my voice to be the one to annoy everyone on the NHL Network. That, and it is a paid gig (though the money would basically go right back to the NHL via the Capitals).
It’s just “funny” the sample script was the Pens and not the Wings. Perhaps a VO talent in Colorado got to record the Wings spot for audition.
I suggest embedding subliminal messages of some kind, some Zeppelin-esque backwards recordings that influence Pens fans to shave their heads (or Malkin to defect from Pittsburgh and join his Russian comrades in D.C.).
The REAL SpartyCuse did not post comment #2. Somebody else is posting as my alias name.
Sparty,
I removed your name from the 2nd comment. It had your correct email in it, though. I wonder if WordPress messed up?
If it’s just a sample:
Delete pens,
Insert Caps!!!!!!!!
SpartyCuse, please accept my apologies. Number 2 is my comment, and I’ve just noticed your screen-name & email were in the form in my browser and I’ve no idea how that happened as I don’t believe you work near the World Bank (I’ve deleted them for this reply.). Gustafsson should be able to compare IPs on this and the number two message to confirm it really is me.
Again, I extend my apologies to OFB & its readers in general, and especially to SpartyCuse in particular.
Victor,
No worries, it wasn’t your fault. I have amended comment 2 to reflect your info. The IPs did match.
What is of concern was why the comment fields were pre-populated with information from a different session and completely different location.
I’ll have to check the WordPress forums to see if anyone else has had this problem.
Thanks to both Victor and SpartyCuse for the info. If anyone else experiences this “feature”, please let me know.
I noticed someone else’s name and email were pre-populated in my Name & Email fields last week (didn’t make note of them, sorry). I also thought it was very strange. I have never posted here, just a daily reader.
Just thought you’d want to know.
Thanks dcrock.
I definitely have some investigating to do as something’s afoot at the Circle K.
No worries…..
haha. my comment form has dcrock’s info. Everybody, back in the phonebooth.
Gustafsson, best of luck with the VO spot, but I really hope there’s a way they’ll pay you even if they don’t use it.
Of course I hate the Red Wings, but I hate the Pens even more…
It’s looking a lot like 1998 though, I don’t think you’ll even have to clear your throat for this one.
At least we had a goal by now in that series.
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