Granny’s Got a Brand New Bag.
It wasn’t an easy decision. It wasn’t a happy decision. But it came to pass that it was the only possible decision.
I know. Dramatic.
Listen to MamaCat Chews Through the Leash for Good! by Granny Has A Podcast on Audible.
https://www.audible.com/pd/B0FMT3837W?source_code=ASSOR150021921000O
Or on Spotify:
LMK what you think: grannyhasapodcast@gmail.com
Or, show me you love me the good old-fashioned way, with tips:
Identity is a Real Bitch but I’m going to Texas
Well I was planning to thank you, my supporters, for the lovely wok you bought me, but I hadn’t even finished unboxing it when a huge miracle occurred, right here smack dab in the middle of Modern Times. Just when all of the scholarships had been handed out for the upcoming One Voice USA 2025 in Dallas, voila! Café au lait! Yves Montand! Our good friends at the National Association of Voice Actors, who have been instrumental in helping me survive this leap of faith I took, are footing a rather hefty pass to one of the finest professional voiceover conferences going. Which means, in light of my recent flight from an abusive marriage (with a Beagle and a 16-year-old car, $300, and no destination or blood kin), that my industry and my community is making it possible for me to:
1. Attend at all!,
2. Network and rebuild relationships
3. Enjoy many free educational offerings
And here comes the biggie…
4. Collect and distribute multiple hugs with the greatest group of colleagues one could ask for.
So essentially, this scholarship means more than just a professional grant. It means that the voiceover community is real. We extend, and receive, one another’s support. This — unemployed, without a home to call my own, and in the early stages of what promises to be an epically ugly divorce — is my definition of success. See also, George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” when he opens his Christmas gift from Clarence.
No man is a failure who has friends.
Between your support here, and the generosity of NAVA, I have never felt so supported and friended (friended?) in my life as I have come to feel since I ran away from home. We’ll tear into the dynamics of abuse over time and how that can come to create feelings of friendlessness and unworthiness, but this isn’t that post.
This is a post about how very grateful I am. To you. To NAVA. To a man named J. Michael Collins. To my friends Shannon and Phillip and Jane, all of whom put a roof over my head now and again. But mostly to myself. Hubris? Ego? Nope, it’s just that I got to thinking. I never would have received this abundance if I hadn’t trusted myself sufficiently to have the hysterics, feel the mortal fear, and pack up the car and the dog anyway. Well done me.
That said, identity is the focus right now, in both the literal and figurative senses. I have to get my Enhanced New York Drivers License asap, as I have to fly to Dallas! And in the process of getting that little item, I have to scrape up all my name changes since birth, because I am a woman and I am breaking up my third marriage. The husbands never have to do this. But three times, with stars in my eyes and love in my heart, I’ve changed my name to “his” and back again.
So yesterday I found myself searching out how to find and order the documents from my second marriage, in New Mexico. And in the end I wound up spending in excess of $60 for overnight postage to and from and let’s not dwell on that part because $60 would have been a pretty decent Happy Hour in Manhattan.
And of course, sometime in the coming months, I will have to do it all over again, because I will be divorced, and changing my name one last time.
I’m just gonna be Diana Wilde. 😉😸🦄
#HattitudeOfGratitude🎩
buymeacoffee.com/grannyhasaa/diary-mad-mamacat-chapter-7
A Happy Cat Ranch Productions Testimonial.
The world of voiceover is vast and filled with brilliance. There are so many good coaches around, that when one really resonates, really connects more than the others, you should really pay attention to that.
When I first met Rachael Naylor at MAVO 2022, her vibrant, joyful energy was already filling the room before we entered. I had zero awareness of characters for video gaming; no idea how to approach the genre or what its world is. An hour later, as I was leaving for the airport, I was exhausted from doing battle to the very last breath with dragons, forces of evil, acting method and technique, and my own emotions. Talk about getting value out of a paid session!!!
Here’s what Rachael does: she draws out the truths you haven’t revealed yet, and turns them into superheroes, monsters, NPCs, and better work than you’ve ever heard yourself doing. WHAT TRUTHS??? Well if we start from the premise that every character in every D&D, Fortnight, etc., is at its base a real person or creature with three dimensions, we can move anthropomorphically towards realization. Or, in plainer language: everyone has a story. Everyone has emotions and experience. And in the Gaming world, Rachael has a knack for helping those three-dimensional beings to step out of your head and flow into your mic.
Supportive. Imaginative. Enthusiastic. Brilliant. Funny. Rachael has mad coaching SKILLS, yes, and they are well-developed over time with an astonishing background. But you can’t teach the kind of soft skills, people skills, interpersonal intuition skills, that Rachael Naylor brings to the table. She is so focused, so present, that the student or client never feels anything but held up, sustained, while out there on an invisible cliff raising that heavy broadsword ONE MORE TIME against the creature as the storms blow and the fate of your people’s very survival depends on your summoning that ancient power from deep within… in front of like 12 of your peers in a hotel conference room.
I next trained with Rachael at an all-day intensive in Manhattan, where an elite group worked DEEPLY into scripts, character building, truly visualizing the scenarios while truly embodying your role. It was exhausting, fulfilling, challenging! And in that small-group context, we were all able to make enormous strides under her guidance. I love a day full of surprise and discovery.
That was also the day Rachael and I came up with “Customized brain” as a new nomenclature for my brain damage. I have since moved on to also calling it a gift basket. But I am including this anecdote because WHO takes the time, on potty break, during a professional daylong event; WHO ELSE TAKES THE TIME to also be a one-woman support group for a colleague who is actively adjusting to a full-plate diagnosis of What The Thing Is With My Brain? This is beyond business. This is Human Connection.
That night there was also a delightful cocktail party for the Voiceover community. But that’s networking; back to coaching and working with Rachael Naylor.
The process of recording my demo was so fascinating, and such a joy! The Elements Demos team was open to working with me on ideas and characters as they developed my scripts. The client’s wishes are, apparently, Job One at Elements, and Rachael’s team worked hard to get my range, style, humor, and “moments” just right on the page. When recording day came, it felt far more like a party than a work session, and yet we made some amazing audio. The Elements Demos team was also so easy to work with in post-production! We tried different edits, different ways, until we were all thrilled with our work. Does that sound weird? Well… neither Elements, nor Rachael, nor I, want to call a job done until we’re officially, professionally, Delighted. And we all are.
Because I just came home from the One Voice Conference USA, where that gorgeous, beautiful, yummy demo we made, was nominated for a One Voice Award. Out of FIVE THOUSAND entries, my Gaming VO demo from Elements Demos, was one of those nominated by peers and their ears.
Next up: I’m traveling to join Rachael and her guests at Get Your Game On L.A. Because where Rachael Naylor goes, Brilliance comes along. Come along.
Ready, Player One?
Some weeks back, I had the amazing experience of cutting my Video Gaming demo with Rachael Naylor and Elements Demos. I couldn’t possibly love it more.
When I returned my focus to voiceover a couple of years ago, I was shocked at the difference between the way I’d been doing business as a voice actor, and the way the great big wide world of international voiceover was doing business. And among the many things I knew I’d need was new training. So when I met lovely Rachael Naylor at MAVO 2022, and we clicked instantly, I knew I’d have to coach with her more. And after I did, I realized that I simply had to do my Gaming demo with her.
This fall, I’m attending Get Your Game On Los Angeles 2024, because I have gone from being utterly ignorant of games and gaming, to obsessed. Alice, meet Wonderland!
So here’s what I posted on my LinkedIn page:
And here’s the information for GYGOLA24:
GET YOUR GAME ON LOS ANGELES 2024
And here’s to taking a chance and stepping through new portals!! 🎉🍾🥂
Meow, darlings.
They say don’t meet your heroes. But then, they say a lot of things.
My friend Roy B. Yokelson is someone whose sound existed in my world years before we met. Some of my favorite movie sound design, commercials, rock music, all feature this guy’s sound design, his hands-on audio nerd pro work. He runs a little outfit called Antland Productions. He’s the real deal. Seriously, go look at his IMDB if you think I’m being hyperbolic. I’ll wait.
I just about groupied the guy the first time I saw him, at the Mid-Atlantic Voiceover Conference in November of ’22. I saw this guy across a lobby, back turned to me, long snowy hair, tie-dye t-shirt, and I believe my actual words may have been — in my typically demure manner — “OMIGAWD YOU GOTTA BE UNCLE ROY!” I really know how to make a first impression. 🤣
So anyway… I just wanted to mention this man, who has become a friend, while we’re all still walking the earth. Uncle Roy has worked with giants in several industries, and he has also loaned the likes of me equipment. He has live-produced rockstars, but he always makes time for bagels with pals. And he just happens to be on my mind today because in the last two weeks he’s given me a really cool reference in the podcasting and sound design world; and pointed me towards a great microphone at a great deal. Nobody makes him do these things. He just helps people who are helping themselves, with advice and tech support and humor.
That’s it, that’s all. Just a little note about one of the very cool friends I made when I went out to meet colleagues. I’ll be down in the studio if anybody needs me. 😎
#HattitudeOfGratitude🎩
Or, “The continuing story of MamaCat Always Has a Plane to Catch”
Here I sit, in my least favorite part of the airport: on the tarmac “for about a half an hour.”
The weather has been hammering the east coast, and there are ever so many flights delayed all over the country. I was very excited to be aboard, 40 minutes ago… when I boarded. I had illusions. Illusions of being home by 1am. Now my connection in Chicago is supposedly delayed until 12:54am. Oh, goody.
But no worries, really. Flight delays are a total pain, but I’m willing to face a little pain for the privilege of being with my VO family. This was my 3rd VOAtlanta, and to call this conference “life changing” is no small claim. It’s also no exaggeration.
I first heard of VOAtlanta back in early 2022, when we were all beginning to come out of the coma. The Covid coma. The pandemic. The shutdowns. I had sustained what I cheerily refer to as my “Tragic Career-Ending Dance Injury” while rehearsing “Menopause the Musical” in Manhattan just six short months before we shut the world down. So personally, I was already six months worth of stir-crazy before everyone else was.
I had stepped away from voiceover as a career focus when I became aware that the so-called school of voiceover where I was on the coaching staff was actually what we in the trade call a “demo mill”. If that phrase makes you think, “puppy mill,” you’re not far from the truth. Just as puppy mills are what we call unscrupulous dog breeders, demo mill is a term used for the unscrupulous folks who decide that a good business plan is ripping off dupes who fall for tales of glory. A fool and his money are soon parted, and a demo mill producer is in the business of parting them.
Say what now??
Let’s say you have recently discovered a love of recording your own voice, and are a little bit “excited & scared” (thank you Sondheim) about maybe trying to do it professionally. So maybe you look up local coaches, try to see there is some sort of training program available. And perhaps you hook up with a program nearby, because the people were nice, welcomed you in, made you feel like a budding talent in a world where you’re needed.
You’d like that, wouldn’t you?
Please, who doesn’t like to be romanced a little??
See, fellow kids, I’d you’re new to the industry — or not in it! — these are the sorts of places which lure you and your money in, praise you too high too fast, give you false hope, cut you a crap demo, and tell you to find your fortune on Fiverr.
And in so doing, they contribute to the degradation of the rates, the business, and the market worth of talent. It cuts our power as a group of independent contractors who control our own businesses and lives.
AND IT’S BASICALLY ANTI-UNION.
All of this made me flee. And I really didn’t do much regarding voiceover as part of my work for years, preferring theatre and film. I actually have a couple of pretty decent quirky roles in feature films! And then came that pesky injury.
So just as thousands of Co-VOs, aka Covid Voiceovers, were flocking to podcasting and voiceover as activities that can be done from home, I was wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. And that’s when I found out that three people I know, two of whom I’d coached, were now successful voice actors and were attending this “VO Atlanta” thing. I took a chance, went, and yes, it was a key step in completely changing my life.
So now I’m sitting in a closed bar at Chicago Midway, we’re two hours behind, and all the bars here closed before we landed. Oh, the pain. But the Doritos were good. Anyway… we allegedly board in 35 minutes. To take off at 1:14am.
Next year I hope I have direct flights! 🤣🤔😜
Meow, darlings.