That old adage about beauty being in the eye of the beholder comes to mind as I sit down to write this blog about demos..
The art or performance that appeals to me or you may not trigger any response in the next person. The whole process is so subjective, opinionated, and couched in experience, expectation, interpretation, and understanding.
And yet, there is no more important calling card the Voice Artist can present to a prospect beyond the “DEMO”. Good auditions are essential for getting you the job, but a demo can get you in the door.
Which Demo?
Anymore, accomplished voice artists have MANY demos. Corporate narration, IVR, E-Learning, Gaming, AudioBook, Animation, Promo, and the list goes on. And yet, it’s the traditional COMMERCIAL demo that seems to be the de-facto standard.
And yet, even that may be changing. People approaching a career in Voice-Acting are smart to realize their abilities (or limitations), and play to the genre that epitomizes their strength…then focus everything on that.
As a renaissance guy with fractionated interests in everything from archeology to paper airplanes, it’s been hard for me to accept the fact that I may not be so good at certain specialties. I want to conquer them all. Realistically, though, I’m beginning to scratch off the ones that I either don’t appeal to me, or that I can’t reasonably achieve in the time I have left on this earth.
The commercial demo is not one of them. I just know I’m gonna hit it big.
Where to Post?
I’m actually not a big fan of posting my latest demo to peers. I see it done a lot on the Social Media groups and forums, and I like to listen to them, but I’m not sure it achieves a lot. On the other hand, it IS a statement of one’s latest work. You also never know when a fellow voice actor might hear something in your demo that would then earn you a referral when THEY see a job posted that reminds them of something YOU did in your demo.
In that spirit, then, I’m posting my latest commercial demo below. I will tell you that there are many talented directors, producers, engineers, and coaches who deserve your demo business. I talked to quite a few of them in deciding who should do my next demo. I’m not going to name names, but if you want a copy of my short list, I’ll be happy to email it to you ([email protected]).
The VO Doctor
I decided to go with Bill Holmes. Bill has been on my radar for some time. He keeps showing up at 
Voice-Over conferences, and has gushing testimonials from many a respected coach and producer.
Bill is an accomplished stage actor, producer, voice actor, director, and all-around fun guy. He’s also a closet psychologist with a great understanding of what is marketable these days… something I find is a valuable asset among demo producers (Nancy Wolfson is certainly tops in this category, too, and produced my last demo).
Bill is all over the web, but here are his two most-traveled sites:
I’m very happy with what Bill came up with from our sessions. Please feel free to offer any feedback. I mean it. I wanna hear it, and so does Bill. So comment below if you’re so moved. Or not. After all, VO beauty is in the ear of the beholder, too.
CourVO
