Round Nine!

Hi Christy, Hi Will. How are you pretty good?

How are you? I'm good, I'm as you can tell.

I am back in our wonderful, amazing state of Connecticut. I'm back home right now. And do you know how I knew that?

Because you had a hockey stick on top of your window and it is not aesthetically positioned. It's like narthonically just thrown up.

There with tax. That's exactly right. That's how it's done. When you're fourteen and you have the only sports team you have in town is the Heart for Railers.

That is a Dave Tippett original hockey stick.

Nine people in the audience just went, oh, my god, Dave Tippett.

So yes, I'm back home.

I used to tell him to like tipp it when he would make a shot or something or no.

Oh, I have no idea, I don't. I barely remember that at all. My mom.

I want to say that my mom worked for the whalers.

Really yeah, honestly, my godmother worked at the whaler's store, so she had like all of the she had all the all that stuff.

I wonder if if they knew each other, that would be cool, because honestly, my mom was at the Oilers. Okay, looked at the Oilers when she was in Ohio, and then she moved over to the Whalers. Now, for anybody who's from Connecticut, the Whalers Stadium, is it still standing?

Well, we didn't have a stadium. Remember, it was a It was in a mall. They called it the mall. It was at the Hertford Civic Center. Yeah, it was in the Hertvard Civic Center.

Mail.

Oh no, no, no, that was I don't think that was ever. Was that a thing when I was growing up, we had to go to the Heartford Civic Center. It was just in a mall.

Okay, well, I need to google this then, because I'm growing up distinctively and remembering there being a hockey rink with a whale on the top of it.

Oh god, no, but one of us could be. I have no idea. You could totally be right.

My connecticuttiams us Nutmegers.

Anyway, welcome to a wonderful episode of I Hear Voices. I'm very excited because we are officially speaking of sports and sports metaphors officially in the Elite eight.

Now we are in round two.

Wow of our super awesome contest to become the next big voice actor.

We're here, we are forging ahead. I mean, the people that have been with us for a while listening to this show, they know just how committed we've been as judges and as co hosts. Yeah, to get to this point. Any of milestone that we have on this show, I feel like is a really big win for you know, you, me,

Thank you absolutely, and to keep the thank yous going.

Of course, every week we like to thank everybody who helped to make this possible for us, you know, including Prime Video who helped us out with a whole a whole lot of a bunch of stuff over there with the people at Critical Role. Don't forget season two of Vox Mackin. It is for download now. I say this every week. Check it out, not just because the guest stars are amazing. I'm on that show, but also because it truly is a gorgeous animated series. So go check

You kidding me? You win an agency contract?

I mean you but does just an agency. It's like CSD has been around for a long long time, and that's that's I mean, in the video game, I've literally been with William Morris, William Morris's vo department like didn't fail, but they like they like changed hands and like everyone got thrown. That's when I went to CESC the first the first time, and generally speaking, CSD is like, really, who you want to start your career with?

Yeah, if you can, They're they're great. So this is amazing and we are you know, the first sixteen were great. We had some weeks where it was so difficult to pick who was going to move on. It was just it was crushing to us to have to say goodbye to certain people because they were just so good.

But somebody was better.

Yeah, definitely, But you know, I think that's why I mean to our credit we're doing a really great job because and our judicators are doing wonderful jobs as well. I'll see, they really are, and we're also getting to know them a little bit, so it still has like a little bit of an interview aspect to it. Are you friendly with our judge today?

I am, I'm everybody. I am.

I've worked with this man for many, many years. He and I did ThunderCats together back in the day. He started as an animator and an artist, so I mean he would come in and I mean, like on the original ThunderCats, he was this guy was bringing in artwork while we were recording. That was amazing. But one of the reasons we brought him here today is because you hear this man all the time doing all different ad reads, which is what this round is going to be about.

And we will explain it all when we get there.

Because we said we were looking for a completely well rounded voice actor and as voice actors, did you get it? Christy killed the book? Nice it's starting for you.

I'm sorry I had to kill a book.

Good for you. No, that was a good snack, good one, but no. So we said we want a well rounded voiceover actor, and what we do a lot of times as voiceover actors. The vast majority of the auditions we do are ad reads.

I'm got to be honest. Have you done ad reads before?

I have?

Yeah? I absolutely have.

Oh not. Christy's knocking everything over. The bug is coming back to haunt you. That's what's happening. It's so fun. Oh no, I have done plenty of ad reads. That's you know, you read them in bulk and you get there and you're it's it's really can be an amazing aspect of the career of a voiceover actor. And some of the biggest voiceover actors in the world, including this man we have today, are I'm going to let him tell you some of the campaigns that he's done, because

Jim maskimin, guys, Jim Maskumin's coming in.

Let's bring him in. I can't wait.

Oh, there he is, Hey, Jim, good morning, Thank you so much for joining us.

And this is Christy Carlson Romano here.

Hi, Jim, Hi Christy, nice to see.

You, I see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

We are here for a little background Jim, because then we want to get into you know you and what you're doing. But so you are going to be our first judge adjudicator of round two of the Super Awesome Contest to become the next big voice actor. So we had forty five hundred entries around and we narrowed it down to the final sixteen, the Sweet sixteen, and we

Well, I'm also fangirling. I'm fangirling about Big Door Mid Door Prize because I've watched you on that and I love you on it. So thank you for entertaining me on that.

Oh glad you like it. That's great. It's a new series on Apple TV, the Big Door Prize. Yeah.

We just got finished filming season two about two weeks ago.

Your character is wonderful. I love your character.

Thanks.

That's I get to play Crystal Dowd's father, So that's a great pleasure.

It was like, there's a noticeable different dialect in interviewing right now.

Whenever. Oh yeah, Chrysto Doud, I like to evoke the.

Great Crystal Dowd because he's charming, much more charming than I am. So it'd be you know, you'd be well well positioned to invite him to your show sometime.

We'd love to.

But the thing is, so you mean just the accent right there, one of the things, the jimpression stuff that you do and the stuff you are doing right now on the social media machine with the just reading different. Is it your daughter who comes in and says, hey, you know it's your daughter?

Who's my daughter?

Taylor, who's also a voice actress and an audiobook narrator, but she helps me with the social medias, so we think up things to do to throw out there.

I'm glad you like it. It's incredible.

So I don't know if you've seen it, Christy, but somebody he'll be reading, like, you know, a manual for a new tool or something like that, but then you just hear his daughter throwing in like now do it from New York. Now do it, Irish, now do it, and he's just switching from one to the other after. It is truly incredible thing to watch. It really is is a masterclass. Yeah, jimpressions, it's great.

Yeah, yeah, all right, I'm following you now. And I think I have seen them come up on my algorithm, and I think that's so great that your daughter's also in the biz and you guys are collaborating in that way.

Yeah, I'm a very lucky guy. I have my family supports me so much, and my it's it's.

Encouraging my daughter.

I got her into doing audiobook little roles years ago when she was just a kid, and so she's grown up around a microphone and now she's in front of it all the time.

I could get behind that, you know. Will I always talk about how I would I probably wouldn't put my girls on camera.

But voiceover would voiceover, okay, that would be That would be phenomenal.

And for the inner child. Heal fill me later anytime.

And I get to see Jim quite often and randomly because his mom and I are actually neighbors.

So I will neighbors with everybody.

Because it's the easiest.

Yeah, it is a long street, That's what I say it because it's a long street. That's true. So Jim, can you tell us a little bit about the some of the major campaigns that you've done when it comes to these huge national chains and kind of the the ad reads that you do.

Well, this really was kind of at the very beginning of my career, which I started in New York City, which is a big ad town and a big radio town. And when I started off, it was doing yeah, radio ads for different campaigns, and many companies are still in business from that time.

But this is a long time ago.

It's in the eighties, and I kept very, very busy doing TV and radio campaigns.

Of various sorts.

I mean everything toothpaste and cars and you know, fast food.

And I was going to say, not just fast food. You were the voice of KFC. You're the Colonel forever, weren't you.

Well, I am the Colonel, That's what I meant. Yeah, unless you've heard something.

They do a lot of.

Different on camera kernels as like I done lately, haven't they They did like something like that, yeah for a Super Bowl or Yeah.

They recently changed agencies.

They were with Widen and Kennedy, which is the people that have originally hired me.

And I'd worked with him before on a.

Voiceover campaign for Sony and they were looking for a colonel and I, you know, I grew up listening to and seeing the Colonel on TV, and so that boy one, I just can't even race out of my head, plus a viewpoint and character itself asia rather indelibately tide to my own destiny. So I felt like, you know, I've got I've got a good leg up on this, and

Rehire Daryl Hammond.

I think there was a problem of some kind scheduling or who knows what.

So they decided, oh, well, we better go with another celebrity.

And they got into this as I understand this sequence of well, let's maybe it's just that the Colonel changes.

Every year or every six or eight months, and he.

Becomes a different celebrity, and we keep people guessing, which

So it's very nice and I.

Enjoy it, oh man watching. I just watched a video not too longo about with you actually going through the drive through at KFC and ordering as the Colonel, which was asking about the spicy chicken sandwich, which is great.

Chicken schandwich, and which which kind as you get because you have a variety of flavors.

That was flavor.

The thing that I do is is on my own, just on my own time and my own probably own for content I put I always once a week I pair make an archival phone call, you know, as if it's an unearthed phone recording of Colonel Sanders talking to some other celebrities. So I've got a ton of those on my YouTube channel.

Everybody please go check that out and we will make sure that we get those out there to make sure everybody knows where to find you.

Honestly, well, he's the best. We couldn't.

I told you this, I told you to start round two. I was like, jim Meskamon has to be the first one. We have to start round two. I told you this is it's.

Well the way to do it. Absolutely, thanks for coming on, let's get into it.

Thank you so much. Fun. I'm sorry I have to leave, but.

No, So what we're going to do, if it's okay with you, Jim, is we're going to bring in our two contestants. We bring them in one at a time, okay, and we've given them each they have two essentially fake.

Ad reads that they're going to have to do two radio spots.

So they'll do one. One of them will come in do one radio spot, and then, if it's okay with you, we give them some notes, you know, give them a little bit of direction. Then they do it again, and then we bring in the other contestant. They do it. They'll do that for two rounds, and then the third round is a cold read. It is an ad that neither of them have seen yet, and we'll have to kind of do on the spot if for some reason we get to the point where we are saying, wow,

We got to have cute now that there's only eight, we have to have like cute little like monikers for them or something.

You know, Hannahbama works for me Obama. That's good marketing right there.

We got to brand every contestant when they come on there she is he Hello, you are You're Hannahbama? Nowanna, how are you?

I'm well, how are y'all?

We're good?

Welcome back, congratulations on making it once again to the Elite eight trademark. And I hope that you are ready for round two, which is titled Extra EXTRAE read all about it. So we are going to do straight ad reads this time sounds no games like last time. No picking numbers, no doing everything anything like that. We're just going to see your chops when it comes to your

Oh yeah, Ah's oh yeah, we didn't even get into that. We can get into that later.

We're talking.

You know, Apollo thirteen, he's been in everything.

So Hannah right now, it is about Hannahbama right now. Uh so, Hannah, just very quickly, are you are you ready? Do you have you the two lines we sent you. I've got the two lines. I must I must comments on one thing. I'll see that hockey stick behind you.

You do?

I do? I play hockey too.

So this is from hardred Whalers.

This is an old school I'm back in my hometown, Connecticut, so this is the heart for whalers. That's so cool. I appreciate that we will you were here first, so, but we are going to say very a quick hello to our contestant number two. We're being back to you for round one. End line one, Hannahbama, thank you so much, Thank you so much. We'll see in a bit. And now we are going to be welcoming in and welcoming back. I should say, uh, Contestant number two, Christy, what should

Dylan? Oh gosh, he's from Layette.

Right, Dylan laugh and Dylan yeah laughing, Dylan yet laughing, Dylan laughing.

Wow.

We will work on marketing that name a little bit more.

Because that's that's a bad versions.

Hey, Dylan, welcome back.

Hey, thanks for having me.

He's got it. Yeah, he's got a moniker, Dylan Duck. Dylan's I love it. That's what we're using. You are, Dylan Duck. How are you? Dylan?

I'm doing just fine. I'm I'm excited to be here. Got a little bit of the pre show jitters, but I'm ready to rock and roll.

That's okay. The day you're no longer nervous is the day you've been in the industry too long. That's how I always look at it. So welcome back, Congratulations once again on making it to the Elite eight, and we're all about ad reads today. So as I was telling your other fellow contestant, there, you know, the games are done. The fun kind of picking numbers, all that's finished and we're just going to be seeing your chops when it comes to it can still be funst but seeing your

So are you all set with your your lines dialogue?

Yes?

I do, all right? Sounds good, Dylan. We are going to be back with you in just a second.

You know, we take people as they come and contest and number one was first, So we will come back in just a minute to start round two, which we are calling extra Extra read all about it, So we'll see in.

A bit in a minute, seeing a bit Dylan Duck All right, everybody were ready, Here we go.

We're going to start with round one and we are going to be bringing Hannah back in. Hey, Hannah, Hello, Hello. We are all super excited to see what you can do. And just remember, like a straight ad read, if you could read line one for us at your pleasure.

All righty, we take twelve bounces of fresh lean beef, lay it over an open flame, then cover it with a blanket of cheddar cheese, bacon, and hallapangnos. Then we put it down for the night on a bed of hot and crispy French fries. Good Luck Falling Asleep, The new Nightmare Burger only from Burger Place, Sweet Dreams, The Nightmare Burger.

I like it, Jim, do you have any notes you know?

I think that was a lovely read. The thing about boys silver and all performance, in my opinion is, you know, it's an art form. There's no right or wrong, So I think the choices that you.

Were made were good.

I had not seen the script ahead of time, so it took me by surprise. I was trying to figure out a little bit more about the copy.

I think the thing good Luck going to sleep, That's an odd way to try to sell your food.

Then I realized, oh, yeah, this.

This is all me.

Yeah, Jim, probably sleep walk tonight or have a lot.

Of acid reflex.

I liked it.

You know, I would say from a professional viewpoint, which you will discover to your own displeasure, I'm sure, is that they would probably have you do that copy quite a bit quicker, right, sure, which I'm sure you could do. So the trick is always to put the nuanced and the feeling that you have when you're describing those things into a more compressed, condensed form. But for this the point of this contest, of course, the clock is not really running. So yeah, I think that was a lovely read.

Jim, I would disagree to it. I would say that the clock is running. We do want to see her or be able to go into booth the second shoe wins right and work, So sixty seconds. If they're hiring you and they need you to do it faster or we need it, you know, what is it? Thirty second spot. Fifteen second spot? How does that work? Jim? Is it fifteen seconds sometimes?

Thirty fifth, thirty sixty Yeah, and six six seconds as well.

Wow its superest Instagram.

I mean, yeah, I don kernel stuff that is just like I'm going to kind of put up there on.

The sandwich.

To be the if there was a tie breaker today, that might have to be what we did exactly.

I agree.

I think I think I think we should try to do it as as as quickly and as a speech speech friendly as possible. I think you misspoke a word. I heard place instead of palace, and.

So yeahs Burger palace. Ah, it is.

Just to make sure. Yeah, I think accuracy is definitely a part of this.

Plus, if you're yeah, if you're going into sell you know a specific product, and you certainly in the audition don't want to mispronounce the name of the place that's selling the product. That is totally fair. So that was going to be one of my notes. I agree with with both of the other ones. I think a little

And I think that take was good.

Okay, let's try the second take a little quicker and maybe just a little more of your natural voice, and see what that sounds like. Perfect, all right, and then so act your pleasure.

Please.

We take twelve ounces of fresh lean beef, lay it over an open flame, then cover it with a blankket of cheddar cheese, bacon, and hallapang is. Then we put it down for the night on a bed of hot and crispy French fries. Good luck falling asleep the new Nightmare Burger only from Burger Palace. Sweet.

I thought that was great, Thank you so much, Hannabama, will be right back with you.

Ah lover a lot of personnelity know, I afraid to laugh, and it sounded her.

That was great, right.

I love loved the little the some of the ad libs that were in there, and and kind of the yeah, the laughing at the end.

I thought that was a great second take. Agreed.

Yeah, okay, best of the best. Now I'm remembering why these people.

Won, why they made it, because again it's yeah, the.

Little direction they now they have a good microphone setup, like, oh boy, this is for really what.

Do they win? I mean, do you actually get.

The Jim Oh geez, Jim. So our winners get flown out to Los Angeles to have lunch with Christy and I. They win one thousand dollars, They win a session with uh Emmy Award winning director Sam Regal and Mary McGlynn from Critical Role, and they signed with CESD for a year.

Get out of here. They signed with CESD for a year. Yep, so Ard agency to get it.

Yeah, this is very legit. So we had a lot of people help us with this contest. So we're we're trying to find the best of the best, because they're signing with the best of the best. I think one of the rules was you can never have been signed by an agent before Jim, so I think seeing as you had kind of a career to this point, you might not be able to So it's.

Not very Yeah, you're right, gracious, Yeah, unbelievable.

I love it. Butt man. Oh, we're going to find somebody. So if we can bring Dylan back in and see what Dylan can do with our Burger Palace spot. Hey Dylan, Hey, let's just jump right into it. See what your instincts are. Line number one, Please, at your pleasure.

We take twelve ounces of fresh lean beef, lay it over open flame, then cover with a blanket of cheddar cheese, bacon, and halapenos. Then we put it down for the Nile on a bed of hot and crispy French fries. Good luck falling asleep The Nightmare Burger only from Burger Palace, Sweet Dreams.

Jim Any notes, very nice.

Well, again, this is a TV spot or radio spot. I think it'll probably you know, if you were hired for such a thing, you'd have to probably pick up the pace a little bit more while making it sound natural so to fit into the you know, the arbitrary designation of fifteen.

Or thirty or whatever it happens to be.

Plus they've got other effects and bumpers and legal and who knows what that has to also share the same space. So probably for the purposes of sounding like a commercial, which I don't know, may not, may not actually be what we're going for here, but you want to, you'll.

Want to, you want to tighten it up a little bit.

I'm guarantee that they would ask you to do that, because it seems to be a default kind of direction to could you do it a little faster.

I've heard it for.

The last thirty five years, and I don't think it's going to ever stop. So that's that's all I would say. I mean, you're finding what you're finding in it, and you know it's it's a script about burgers. The one thing I guess that you could take a look at it. And again, this is an art form. There's no right or wrong way, absolutely no right or wrong way right. It is your creation and your decision, and you may make you make.

A great choice.

Some other actor makes a great choice and they decide, well, let's go with this great choice. There's infinite variety, but you can always think about something in terms of like a story that has a beginning, the middle and an end, has a bit of an arc. There's a progress of the idea of what's happening.

You know, first you do this, then you do this, and then you do this. You know, I don't know.

It's just a sequence. There's no again, no right or wrong way to do it. But it's something to think of, well, what's the first part, what's the second bird, and how does it all wrap up? You know, as if it was a story, you know, or something like that, something to look at. If it helps, If it doesn't, I would jettison it. But that's just like a something I think of when I'm when I'm working with scripts and or when I'm directing.

Gotcha, Christy.

I definitely think pacing would have to be up at least fifty percent energy, maybe even eighty percent. But when I say energy, I think I'm like wanting to crave the burger. I maybe sounding less like the actor's approach that Jim knows how to take, and I may be sounding more like a client, but I definitely want to crave the burger more by using more of like language that almost feels a little bit more alluring about the you know, the product that you're selling.

It's a nightmare burger, or you could.

Do something different in that it is a nightmare burger and you could play with it being a scary burger because you have base in your voice. So what do you think, Jim about making bold choices like that, because we've seen bold choices done when we create animated characters in our last round.

I'm in favorable choices because I think what cuts through. I mean, at the end of the day, clients, whether they know it or not, or can articulate it or not, what they want is something that cuts through and attracts our attention.

So if it's the same sort of delivery, I just don't think it works.

They may feel confident and more safe choosing that person, but you can wrap your head around a million different ways. I think it's always safe to be decisive in your choices and to just own it, you know, and not feel like you have to sound like every other freaking radio commercial you've ever heard in your life.

Right, So definitely faster for me that we both concur But then in terms of making a bolder choice, I don't know. I leave it to Will.

Well, what do you think I have nothing to add to that? I think that's exactly right. I think because every we're kind of all saying the same thing definitely needs to be quicker. But that's easy. Then it's just a matter of how do you want to do it? And sometimes as exactly what Jim is saying, it's a strange business. Sometimes reading it exactly how you think it should be read will get you the job, and sometimes reading it a way that nobody else has thought about

So Dylan, yep, take two Dylan, at your pleasure.

We take twelve ounces of fresh lean be We lay it over open flame. Then cover with a blanket of cheddar cheese, bacon, and halapennas, and then we put it down for the night on a bed of hot and crispy French fries. Good luck falling asleep, the new Nightmare Burger only from Burger Palace, Sweet Dreams.

Thank you very much. We'll be right back with this nice adjustment. That's fun.

Thank you.

It was fun.

I thought it was fun too.

Took a hard ride there, that was he did, which is kind of what we asked him to do. He did it on the spot. Now, Jim, we always kind of do this just just for our own edification, to keep it kind of straight in our head. Is there anybody for you that after the first round stands out that they're they're a bit ahead.

Yeah, I mean I do agree that that Hannahbama had seemed to have a little more coloration, just a little more she'd made more choices, okay that I thought supported the the script. So just on that level, she's a little more confident. You know that that that shows because you know that second read she did had a lot of just nice special nuance and.

And you know, again it's arbitrary. I I liked her read I liked what she did with it.

I also liked the adjustment that that the other guy whose name escapes me, Dylan Dylan did. Of course, Dylan Dylan Duck Dylan made a really nice adjustment. Also would have gotten my attention if I was in my car driving along. It would have made me think about it a little bit.

So they're just like, you know, they have their merits. They both well, let's move.

To second let's move to the second round then, Like.

I don't disagree with you, Frankly, nobody, nobody jumped out at me for you know, for the first round, I thought they both made good adjustments. I thought the reads were natural. I thought they both picked up the pace the second time. So yeah, I I think, uh, I think that's good. So yeah, let's go to let's go back to to Hanabama and and we'll see, uh what the line too brings us? Right, Hey, Hannah, Hello, hello, welcome back. We are moving to line number two. Sounds good?

Yeah.

So one word safety reliability roomy, safety reliar roomy.

Is that a thing?

Well, it is with the new Calenv misted, the Calenv mist the most safety relyar roomy new SUV on the market.

Yeah, it's a thing now, cool, Jim.

I have a little trouble with this one, just in terms of that word roomy, which ran together with the other words. The first time I heard it, I didn't understand the and then I caught on, Okay, it's roomy.

And then what's the name of the vehicle? That'sn't made up vehicle name? Right? It is?

Of course it's the kal missed. Yes, this is all my where we can't use real products, Jim. So my name's not even Will on this podcast, it's it's Rick, just in case.

And you're in a secure location right somewhere, I am. So, what was the name of the car?

Sorry? The CALLANV missed? Okay, Calendi missed. Okay. Yeah, I.

Got the mood very well, of you know, adding on all that and that sort of sequence. I did have trouble with just diction on those difficult words. First of all, the roomy, because roomy kind of ran together with oh yeah. I think he said something like on roomy, and then I didn't know what that meant. Because I didn't it didn't separate out enough. I think that since it's it becomes a big part of the script, the word roomy.

So I think in the beginning, if I.

Was the advertising walk who was direc I would say we need to billboard roomy a little bit more and say, oh, and roomy would be one solution, doesn't have to be the only solution. So because I the first big hunk of that line, I was like, what did I just hear?

So I just didn't quite get that word as easy to fix.

As far as the delivery and the mood and the style, I thought that terrific, great choice, Thank you.

I think that the articulation will help sell it better. I think that we do it is interesting. I never thought about it this way. We dance this fine line of authenticity with our voices, but also with like this like strange sense of professionalism in the articulation of the words, which I think you've already kind of got the training in and I've got Did you have a theater background? Is that I forgot.

Actually, no, I have more opera background than anything.

So I think with opera from what I remember, I was training a little bit for that, and so much of you know, the way that you're positioning your mouth will get the sound out in a particular way, you know. Yes, so it's the same here, but I think with the with the points at which you choose to articulate, like those kinds of things, making it more sing songy, but also hitting those those consonants and those things. Right, I personally have had luck in anytime my booke dad reads

So sounds good, all right, yeah, I would just I would agree. I would say the speed was good, but now enunciate the words and yeah, let's make sure you're bracketing the product. And other than that, I'd love to just see, you know, hear another take.

Sure thing, So.

Any time you would like to go at your pleasure.

When I'm looking for a new vehicle, only one word comes to mind. Safety, well, safety and reliability, Oh and roomy with all of my kids. I need the space.

Yeah.

So one word safety reliability, roomy, safety relyar roomy. Is that a thing? Well, it is with the new calenv Mist, the calend misted the most safety relya roomy new suv.

On the market.

Yeah, it's a thing now.

Thank you very much. We'll be right back with you, Hannah.

Thank you that see.

I thought that that second take to me sounded like young mom wanting the vehicle. I could hear that in my I could hear that while driving in my car like I wouldn't. There are times where you do hear some ads in your car or on Instagram something like that, where you go ooh that was who voiced that that was really strange, where this one I thought sounded very natural. So that was I thought that second she really took the notes and really enunciated, And I thought that second take was great.

Yeah, very very understandable.

Christy.

Oh, I think that we could have done a take three and she would have totally nailed it, because I think from what she was choosing to do with her pronunciation, I thought she nailed that part, but she lost a little bit of the relatability from the first one. But she didn't have as much fun. But I think that she's in the pocket, and I think she's a pro. I think she's a pro.

Yeah, she really is.

She really seems like she knows what she's doing. Very natural. Let's bring Dylan back in and see what he does with the callan v mist the newest SUV on the market.

Ellen, Hey, Dylan, how are you.

I'm doing just fine. How are you?

We're doing great? Thank you. We are moving on to line number two.

All right, And you know we don't like to get in your head before we see what she can do, So go ahead and whatever you like at your pleasure. You got it.

When I'm looking for a new vehicle, only one word comes to mind. Safety, well, safety and reliability.

Oh and roomy.

With all of my kids, I need the space. Yeah, so one word safety, reliability, roomy, safety, relyer roomy.

Is that a thing?

Well, it is with the new calendar missed the calend be missed, the most safety, relier, roomy new SUV on the market. Yeah it's a thing now.

Nice, Yeah, very nice. Jim any notes, good diction, good, good performance. It occurred to me when you're reading this that this sounds like a.

Script that would be more likely to be read by a female because of the kids reference.

But that's not your fault, just an observation. I mean, you can't help it. I thought, Yeah, I actually liked all your choices.

I think at the end there's a little missed opportunity with that last.

Convey what is it safety and.

The triumph for it of descriptors that last time you mentioned it, you might put a little you know something on it, just like here's that crazy word again, kind of the thought. But that's just a missed opportunity that you could easily repair in subsequent takes. But you had many other opportunities that you did not miss.

I thought were great.

You gave us a viewpoint and feeling and humor when it was appropriate, and yeah, I thought you did very well.

Thank you, Christy.

I think I think you did good personally. I think for this next take, I think we want to I think the pacing was really good. I think you definitely learned from the first round. But see, I think that if you're given something, especially on the contest, you have to make the most of it for the sake of you know, when you're in when you're in the audition space, you really can't. You just have to make it your

Gotcha.

That's my two cents.

I thought it was good. I thought it was good. I liked to read. I thought the pacing was good.

I think, yeah, bracket, the funny words, jazz hands, the funny words, if you can. But other than that, I thought it was good. And let's you know, give it another take and see what you can do with it.

You got it at your pleasure.

When I'm looking for a new vehicle, the only one word comes to mind safety, well, safety, hand reliability. Oh and roomy. With all my kids, I need the space. Yeah, so one word safety reliability, roomy, safety relia, roomy.

Is that a thing?

Well, it is with the well it is a new CALENBI missed the Calibi missed the most safety reliar, roomy new suv on the market. Yeah, it's a thing.

Now, Thank you so much. We'll be right back with you, Dylan. Thank you.

His first take was better. I think we got into his head too much. Yeah, I thought the first natural take was the better way to go. Frankly, I think he was a little too frantic on this second one. So yeah, But I thought his first take was great. Frankly, yep, I agree, all right.

I don't know if I thought it was great though. I mean, look, I think personally, I'm I think Hannah's acting it for me. Yeah, I think she feels I think they're both really good. Obviously they would have made it this far, but I do think that she's more comfortable in the room. It feels like, no.

Did they. Yeah, I don't disagree.

But I thought his first take was was the male version of her take. I thought, I thought was it was a very natural read. I thought I did. I thought his first take was a very natural read. And sometimes your first take is the best one because you're you're not in your head, you're not thinking about anything anyone said to you. You're just reading it how you hear it. And I thought it was it was natural.

I do.

I think I think you know so far, I would say she probably is the more natural of the two. That being said, I thought this set his second round was pretty close to her second round, I would say, Yeah, I did. I did. I thought, because again, it's difficult when you do, like Jim said, I mean, the copy does sort of lend itself to a female voice, so you might kind of hear that in your head a little bit going in. It sounds a little more like a mom read. So when there's a man doing it,

Yeah, Jim question.

So it seems to me, just contest wise, there's a little bit of an advantage of Hannah always starts.

It seems like you'd want to stagger that a little bit. We can totally do that. We can.

I don't have a problem with that at all. We can easily bring bring Dylan back. Let's bring Dylan back. I got no problem with that. Hey, Dylan.

Hey, so, as you know, we are going to jump into line number three now and we're switching up who's going first, who's going second, So we're bringing you right back in. And much like last round, this is going to be a cold reading. So the way that we gave you the third character last time out of nowhere the line of dialogue, we're going to do the same this time. And if you look at your chat, okay, you should be able to see it should pop up here any second.

Yep, I can see it.

You got it, and take on, don't you know, Take a little time, and then when you're ready, go ahead and give it a shot.

Seriously, what Sarah, what would I do with all the money? I don't even know, vacation, quit my job, The sky's the limit. I just know I'm gonna keep playing the Freetonia State Lottery. You probably won't win, but what the hell, it's only a buck?

Nice Jim, he got any notes?

He probably won't win because you've been up all night because of that burger, because of the nightmare burger.

And all those kids, so many burgers, and.

So many and so many more Collenby mists.

Exactly exactly, So I thought I lost the top and it may have been a glitch with the zoom. Frankly, seriously, what would I do with all the money? Sounded like what what to do with all the money? Or there was something missing in there a syllable And it may be technical, but I think I think it was a good read. Boy, you see copy like this all the time, and I can't say that I've ever or not lately booked anything like this.

But again, I like to think.

I think I mentioned to you this before that there's there's a sort of a cycle of like it's a sequence.

So does it go somewhere? Does it keep building?

And I would think on this one maybe as a choice artistically, you could build and get more excited as it goes along, so it's not all just one level that's all. Or find a dip in it somewhere if you like. Again, and now this is a cold read, so you didn't really plan ahead like that, but some things it's a good thing to do. It's an art, it's an art form. So but it made me laugh at the end, for sure, Christy.

I have no notes. I think that I think I agree with what Chim said.

Okay, I do too, I would say again cold reading. So I thought the first cold reading, for the first time you saw it, I thought it was great. I thought the energy was good, the pacing was good. I would say, now that you know what you're doing and you've read it, maybe just find a couple of peaks and valleys and you know, give us another another take with it.

Seriously, what would I do with all the money? I don't even know, vacation, quit my job. The sky's the limit. I just know I'm gonna keep playing the Fredonia State Lottery. You probably won't win, but what the hell, it's only a buck.

That was great. We will be right back with you. Thanks, Dylan, Thank you, good adjustment. That was a great adjustment. I thought he was natural.

He's got that kind of frantic voice, which is exactly what those state lottery kind of voiceovers always seem to sound like. We've all read for that stuff.

He has like a really good every band voice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so too.

And I think it's also on the It can be on the younger register or it can be deeper, and there's a nice kind of transition between the two, which is great.

That's true.

Let's bring Hannabama back and see what she can do with it. Hey Hannah, hello, Hello. So we are going to be going into round three, and round three is going to be just like like the last game we played, where you are now going to do a cold read perfect. So if you look up at your chat, we will be sending you a new piece of copy and we will go from there. We won't get in your head at all before you read it. Will give you some time, some time to read it, and then you can you can do.

With it as you will.

Curiously, we would I do with all the money I don't even know vacation, quit my job, and this guy's the limit. I just know I'm going to keep playing the free doona state lottery.

You probably don't.

Win, but what the hell, it's only a buck, Jim, it's good.

I like the acting Fredonia, Free doona. That's a little thing to repair there. And you probably you said don't instead of won't to change the meaning a little bit. But you know, again, this is stuff that you It's a cold read, so a one hundred percent you probably you probably have not seen the famous movie Duck Soup with the Marx Brothers where the country of Fredonia.

Yeah, okay, it's yeahale hail free down. Yeah. I think that's what the gifted copywriter was.

Thank you, thank you very.

Much, Thank you very much. What I liked.

What I liked very much was that you did not cleave to uh, the the punctuation. You ran sentences together in a very natural way. You made you put seriously, what would I do with all the money in the one sentence, instead of giving it a big seriously and giving its own beat.

I admire that. I think that's I like to do away with those, you know, if if it's appropriate.

And I thought that you improved on the script by omitting those couple of places. So yeah, the only place where I felt sort of like bumpy was on that freaking name which is completely unimportant, but which is right so we can see it.

Yeah, Christy didn't have a bit of a lag spike there.

I was like, oh, yeah, well, I've seen us come up against is people. Not really the seriously like the exclamation what.

Is that called.

Exlamatory phrase?

Yeah, just the yeah with the question mark towards the end of it, sort of what I do with all the money. I mean, I'm not I really don't want to line read, but I do think that it does seem like, because we talked about this being sort of almost like a build of excitement, that it seems like that would be like you're asking me, what would I do with all the money? Oh my god, I don't even know. So I do think that the you had a great natural flow to it that you still want to go with.

Okay, Yeah, I don't think we talked with her about building it.

We did not, but I think that we did. We did during the contest, so it's like, Hannah, no, you're fine, but Hannah, you know, like inter of it building. I think you could see that Juke had given a note.

Before Yeah, sure, a shot.

I thought it was good.

I think yeah, I think now that you've seen it, maybe just hit some of the words that are there a little bit more, which they'd tell you just hey, can you clean it up a little bit. You'd get that a lot. That's a typical note, Hey can you just clean it up for us? But I thought the pacing was good and I thought the acting was good, and I think those are the two most important things. So just take another swing and see what happens. Alrighty go ahead anytime.

Seriously, what would I do with all the money? I don't even know vacation, quit my job. The sky's the limit. I just know I'm going to keep playing the Freedona State Lottery. You probably won't win. What the hell, it's only a buck.

I thought that was good.

Yeah, again, the Fredonia is a note, but it doesn't it really doesn't matter. It's a fictional place. So I thought the I thought the reading was good, and we'll be right back with you.

Thank you so so much.

Okay, now we come to the big question.

Has do we believe that somebody has clearly won or do we think we need to go to a tiebreaker challenge?

Jim, I know you hate to judge. I'm sorry to put you on the spot. Oh I yeah, yeah, I mean it's so arbitrary.

But they're very close in experience and in aptitude, it seems, and in you know, performance chops. So it's like female voice, male voice. I think they both have there's a place for both of them for sure in the industry.

This is hard. And I was going to say her and then and then you had mentioned Jim maybe to put him first, and then I gave that an approach, a reapproach, and now I'm suck.

No, I don't disagree. I think they both. And this is the thing that makes this so difficult.

As we said from the beginning, the sixteen people that made it to the finals, could all be signed easily, all be signed by agents, could all work, could all have jobs, and I think will if they pursue it. I think they're especially with now after the pandemic, everything being remote.

You don't have to be in LA, you don't have to do so. I easily see most.

Of our contestants going on to have some sort of career in the voiceover industry.

Unfortunately, we set out to pick one. So the question to do it too.

Yeah, So the question is I would not be I would not be upset, and I'm being totally honest. I would not be upset going to a tiebreaker challenge with these two because I think they're both deserving of it. Some of them made They both at different times, made really interesting choices. They both took direction, they're both have a nice pipes, they both can act. They're checking the boxes that we're looking for. It's it's such a cliche, but it doesn't feel like there's going to be a

These are all the horrible side effects.

I'm not going to tell you none of us are going to tell you how to take this in any way, shape or form. Do not hear you have to match anything on television or anything you've heard. Do whatever you want with this. Just take it however you want to take it, and we will go from there. Everybody's going to read it once, okay, and we were just going to see what you do with it.

May cause hives, rash, migrainhead, explore to vision, deafness, loss of taste or smell, memory loss, uncontrollable salvation, memory loss, flatulence, and death. Do not take if you are pregnant. No anyone who is pregnant or have even met a pregnant person necessitol. Tell your doctor you need it now.

Thank you very much, Hannah. We'll be right back with you.

Thank you.

Memory loss is in there twice, Thank you very much. And now we will go and we will bring in Dylan. Hey, Dylan Hey.

So here's the thing.

We are letting everybody know if this has been a very tough week, and believe it or not, Round two is starting with a tie breaker challenge. So we've sent you another little piece of copy there, got itt me go ahead.

And give yourself some time.

I think you'll recognize it as kind of one of those medical reads at the end of the different pill ads.

Do not feel that you have to read it that way. Read it any way. You choose to do whatever with it you want.

Okay, may cause hives, rat may cause hives, rash, my grain, headaches, blurred vision, deafness, loss of taste and smell, memory and loss, uncontrollable salivation, memory and loss, flatch, onents and death. Do not take if you're pregnant, know anyone who is pregnant or have met or have ever met a pregnant person. That's that's it all. Tell your doctor you need it now.

All right, thank you so much. We'll be right back with you.

So here's I'm gonna I'm going to clear a winner on that one. I agree, And here's why. To me, I'll be honest with you, it has nothing to do with the read. It has to do with the time she took before she decided to jump into it. And I think that matters.

I know she noticed that a couple of times with him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, And it's it's great that sometimes you just want to jump in. But she said, no, I need a moment. She took the time, she took her time with the copy, and because of that, it was a better read. And I think, frankly that matters. That's that's my two cents.

Yeah, I can't can't disagree with that. That was a better a better read.

Okay, it's a shame because we only had two guys in this contest.

I know, we only had two lessons and we are.

Truly trying to be as fair as possible.

The women have been killing it. I've just been killing it. It's interesting.

So we started with an equal number, yeah, full number. Yeah, we did, and were really close to it.

Yeah, forty five hundred people.

We narrowed it down. We tried to be as you know, completely unbiased as we could we and the women have just been slamming it, I mean, really doing well.

So it's uh, it's a shame of losing another guy. But she she was great today.

He was too, but that last round really decided it for me. So why don't we bring Dylan back in and break the horrible news to him? I hate this part, not me, not it.

I'll do it. Thanks Christy.

Hey Dylan, how are you?

I'm doing just for that?

How are you I'm good.

Thanks. Look, we want to thank you so much. You have been doing so unbelievably well. It was really tough this week, it really was. Unfortunately, this is going to be as far as you're going in the contest, but you have done so. We've been talking about this and this is one of the things, as we were saying to Jim, is we truly believe and we're not just

Oh no, I will, and thank you very much for the opportunity.

This has been a lot of funky. Nice to meet you, Dylan, meeting you as well.

We will see you in the future in a booth. Dylan, I can guarantee you that's going to happen. Thank you very much, Thanks my friend, see you again, see you, Hie, Dylan better. Oh it sucks.

I hate this so much, bummer.

I'm just in my head every time I do this, I just think to myself, at the end, we're going to get to give somebody a chance to sign with ced CSD and start their career, and that's going to be so much fun.

But the getting there sucks.

I hate it. But let's bring.

Hannah, and you're very good at it.

And everyone has been so gracious that, like they're so awesome.

Yeah, we haven't had anyone cry yet.

No, Oh god, I don't know what I would do.

Hey, well, well I got your back. I'll do the next round of disappointments.

Okay, Okay, that's fine, all right, I.

Will and then I won't be able to sleep, but I'll call you exactly.

I haven't slept since we started. Hi, Hannah, Hello, how are you?

I'm good.

So we told you this has been a very, very tough week.

It came down to the tie breaker in the first round and this was a really, really difficult one for us, and we just wanted to thank you so much for taking the time and for coming out, and you've been so good, absolutely and so really just thank you, and I hope you don't mind moving on to the next because you are so uh yeah, yes, time I know you fall forward. It's the best I know.

But no, this was I have a bone to pick with you.

I'm going to be totally honest with you, Hannah. You did great this week, but so did your fellow contestant. And I'm just giving you a heads up, and I'm going to give a heads up to everybody moving on. The competition is getting a lot stiffer, Yes it is. So this was not a walk in the park for you. You did great, don't get me wrong. You did great, but so did your fellow contestant. This was really really difficult and we went to the tiebreaker, but you you

Take a breadma.

We will get through round two and you will be onto the next round and going from there. So it's just going to keep the competition's getting getting tougher.

Hannah Hannabama, Hannahbama the next round.

To see you next time.

Thank you, bye bye bye.

Oh man, did you see that she just cutted your chest before she signed off?

She was like, that makes that makes it feel better, That makes it feel better.

This is the worst.

It's getting difficult because we also know. Yeah, I do too.

Jim. Thank you so much for joining us today. We're sorry that we didn't know we were putting you on the spot with all the judger.

Oh no problem, I'll go back and I'm sure it's all over the initial email you sent me, but I.

Apologize it. But but this is why we don't scare Jim.

Before we go, can you let everybody out there know where they can find you, where they can follow your stuff in any new projects you have coming out.

I followed you, Thank you.

Yes, I'm well social media at Jim Pressions. I'm working on the new Live Impression show right now and on TV on Apple TV in the Big Door Prize which is streaming now and gosh, I guess that's and then Jim Meskaman dot Com if you really want to, really want to contact me and get on my.

Mailing list and all that stuff.

I love that. While I was telling Christy beforehand how you were bringing in all that awesome Thundercat stuff before we actually even work together on ThunderCats.

So cool. Yeah, that's right. I've done a couple of iterations of that show. I'm sure there'll be more.

Oh god, I hope so, because it's such a such a rich world, you'd love we could talk about that day.

Oh god, I appreciate that, Jim, it was so awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. You again, I know you you.

We might have thrown a curveball at you, but we could not. When we were going into second round, they said, you know who to the judges do you want? And you were the first name I picked. Nice because you're just you're so good at this and I just I needed you to help us get into the second round. So thank you so much for taking the time that, and everybody who's listening please go out there and follow because the man is a genie and you will be

Very best. Take care of you both of you. Thanks great to meet you all right, like you too, Bye, jim By.

We made it.

We made it.

We made it round. So we're into uh into round two here and Tanabama is our first one going through. And Dylan Dylan was great.

You know, I remember Dylan's audition tape and I think we're doing a good job. I'm really here just to support us right now.

Well now it's good, now it is. It's going to come down to nitpicky stuff. I mean that's why you know, I watch all these shows like Top Chefs I.

Was going to say, like American Idol and souff.

Yeah, and you you get to the point where I'm always watching going like, oh, come on, how you can pick blah blah blah.

But you do, you get down to the tiny, little nitty gritty things where it's you know, well worried.

I'm worried transparently about us having all these women, because then it becomes so nitpicky at them having similar voices, you know, when with what the way that we're doing this is so fair that it's almost like too fair. Whereas American Idol and those other shows, they're visual and so you see everyone all at once and you're like, okay, this is a baritone and this is a tenor, this is okay. I think this person to pair up with,

To we want to find that we do. We're trying to find the best person that we can. And but you're right, and I think that's you know, I don't mind being called out for certain things. I think the thing Jim said to us, where he's one hundred percent right, it's like, well, if one person's always starting, then that might be considered kind of an advantage, so we'll start switching it up.

I don't have a problem with that at all.

I think he was I want to think if that's true, I don't feel like that we've actually done that, But let us know. Maybe people should DM or something.

Yeah, maybe, but I don't have a problem switching it up.

Some persons the first person.

I don't know, no, but I think I think you're right.

You know, I don't think we've certainly always picked the first person, but maybe the person who does. Maybe there is an advantage to always going first. Who knows, So maybe we just switch it up in the future. I don't have a problem that maybe we do flip a coin every time if we're making everything super fair, because that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to be as fair and transparent as we possibly can, because all we're hoping that one day we're going to pick somebody that we work with.

I mean, we're tub.

We said, we're trying to pick a colleague. So we want more than just whoever it wins. You know, at any one of these people could be signed there.

It's there is no reason that an agent or somebody listening to this episode wouldn't hear Dylan and the stuff that Dylan did and say, oh, I'll give that, I'll sign that person for a year. I mean, what the hell, I'll sign that person for a year. Definitely, it could totally happen. He was very good at what he did. Hannah was just she was a little better. And sometimes it's just the day. You know, you have a bad day. That can happen too.

I have many a day where I just woke up and couldn't act.

It.

Just you have those days where you're just off, so you just you hope it doesn't happen on the day that you're recording. Yeah, but you never know.

Yeah. Anyway, thanks everybody for joining us on an awesome yet very tough episode of I Hear Voices. Thank you of course to jim Meskaman, who was our wonderful adjudicator. I love that the adjudicator.

I'm not going back on it.

I know, I think it's great. We're all in on Adjudicator for our episode today. Again, thanking all of our friends over there at Prime Video, everybody over at Critical Role check out season two of Vox Macina. You can download that now. Thank you for everybody, of course at iHeart who's helping us. All our producers are engineer Brian, everybody, Lorraine, everybody.

Who's helped us out.

It's just it's getting more sentimental and more amazing as we're getting closer and closer to crowning a winner. So thank you for everybody, of course who was joining us, and of course I said thank you cest who we mentioned ninety three times during this episode, because it is

So and thank you mostly to everybody who.

Is stuck with us through the whole show, through all of our across the gardens, through everything we did, through all of our guests up to and including this contest right now.

We love you all.

Thank you so much for joining us, and we will be back again next week and moving on. So it's getting real. I miss you Christy, Oh, I miss you too.

By the way, it's Ingles Rink in Connecticut. Ingles. It's I think it's a Yale stadium. But it's really cool looking.

Okay, nice, Yeah, that was I think that.

Yeah.

Because the Whaler's played in Hartford, I got to miss the Whale, I do. They were a terrible hockey team, and then they went off to Carolina and they won like the Stanley Cup champion, like three years later or something like that. Everyone in Hartford was like, ah, I've got to be getting the giants. Yeah, I'm telling you, Dave tippets Stick. Are you a Patriots fan? Are you I am a Patriots fan? Yah?

Okay, well, I mean as much as I'm I'm not a huge football fan, but I love them.

And now that's everything's gone.

I think most people do. It is what it is. Thank you for joining us. Everybody will see you or hear you or everybody next time.

Thank you so much.

Out Nutmeger's out. Thank you, follow us, do all that good kind of stuff, and we will see you in the future. Don't forget if you think you have what it takes to step up to the microphone, put your voices where your mouth is.

Thanks everybody I hear.

Voices is hosted by Will Fredell and Christy Carlson Romano. Executive produced by Will Ferdill, Brendan Rooney, Amy Sugarman. Our executive in charge of production is Danielle Romo, Our producer is Lorraine Viruez, and our editor slash engineer is Brian Burton and that was my announcer voice.

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