VoiceForAnyChoice

I got started when I was pretty young. I tried my hand at standup my freshman year of high school, and had always done voices messing around (my dad used to do it around the house, lots of times at restaurants would order in an accent). I just sort of had a knack for it, like playing an instrument by ear, I can do with my voice for other people's voices. But an agent saw my TERRIBLE standup, but loved my voices. Said, "hey, that was awful, but great voices, do you have representation?". And that was that.

As for needing one...it is crucial if you want to get big national campaigns, but I'll be honest, it's becoming less important because of the viability of the Internet. I get a lot of my jobs on my own and you really can make a decent living doing enough small-time jobs without an agent. You probably wont be doing major TV spots or cartoons without one, but you can definitely swing some local radio/internet spots and supplement your income pretty nicely.

It used to be weird at first, but people get pretty used to it after a while, so much so they don't even think about it. I get the occasional Facebook post or text like, "I heard your Keystone ad in Florida!" or "I was traveling in TX and heard a Colorado Board of Tourism ad that I SWEAR was you", but for the most part, people know it's what I do and have heard enough that its just like, meh.

As far as my regular voice, I have a weird thing about it, and have NO idea if this is true for other VO people. I am SUPER self-conscious about doing my regular voice. Give me a character, and I am superbly confident, even say, "give me Joe Everyman", and I will concoct a reg. sounding dude, but if I am ever asked to do ME, oh man...I hate it. I can control the characters and the voices, I don't know how to control ME. UNCHARTED TERRITORY.

As shallow as it seems, most of what I've turned down has been money related. Usually anything through my agent is ridiculously lucrative (and my agent will charge prices I would NEVER DARE DREAM to do on my own), but for my own personal stuff, if I get a bid from someone, the only way I turn it down is if it's not enough financial incentive. If I get a 10 page script with a thousand different directions in it, and am offered 40 bucks, I will say thanks but no thanks. After that, I am a voice prostitute in every sense of the word.

As long as I don't go full Harrelson. You never go full Harrelson.

You assume I don't. That would be a mistake.