Need a Voiceover? Know Someone Who Does? I Can Help.

New side gig, same hustle.

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I’m out of town this week, but working on getting some writing done in my down time. In the mean time, I wanted to let you know about a new business venture I’m trying to get started.

Writing is and always will be my first love, but I dabble in other creative arts, and one thing that’s been on my bucket list for many years is to get into voice acting.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with radio. At some point, I stumbled on old radio dramas, vintage radio commercials, and the awareness of what they did with Foley effects. My dad had a stereo with an external microphone hookup and a cassette recorder. I never saw him use the microphone, but I used the hell out of it. Making little audio dramas, laying background music from his extensive collection as I narrated adventures I came up with. Later, Hector, the somewhat creepy but often kind downstairs neighbor, gave me an old beat up boombox. I’d sit in my room and make shows, do voice effects by speeding up or slowing down the recording by depressing the buttons only part way, etc. I’d also borrow video cameras from any relative who had one and use them to make short films. We’re talking the big honking VHS rigs that weighed 20 lbs.

But I loved it. All of it.

At one point, I scored a copy of the 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds. It was utterly fascinating to me. I also found a bargain bin cassette recording of “50 Famous Commercials From Yesteryear.” Ads for Carter’s Little Pills, Pepsi Cola for a nickel, Winston Cigarettes, and Rich, Chocolately Ovaltine. As I listened to these things over and over, I picked up a love for the power of the spoken word, but also specifically for the Mid/Trans-Atlantic accent used by the broadcasters of yore.

The first paid voiceover gig I ever got was a few years ago, when someone discovered this demo of mine on YouTube, doing that old radio voice:

This led to me doing the opening of the 2021 “SoCal Oscar Special,” which aired on television:

Of course, this is not the only voice I do. I can do naturally-voiced commercials, like so:

Or the classic movie trailer voice, like so:

I don’t really know the full extent of my range yet, because I’m just getting started. Sadly, I got a tentative offer from an agency to do a well-paid voiceover for a client that was going to air in the Boston market for the next couple of weeks, but they ultimately decided to show my “old time radio voice” to the talent they normally work with, and I missed out on the job.

Still, it proved to me that the 2021 job wasn’t a fluke. There’s a market for this kind of thing. So I put together a brief demo reel and am actively marketing this service to prospective clients.

If you or anyone you know need voiceover work and you think I’d be a good fit, please hit me up for a bid. You can contact me through Substack, the contact form on my website, or directly at steve at steveskojec dot com.

Thanks for your consideration!