Could somebody hand me my bow, please? I have another string I’d like to add to it.

When I thought about posting this pic and blogging about the fact that I spent the morning laying down some demos for some recording work, my first thought was to my sisters who can be pretty irreverent in their mocking of my accent. Which is pretty ironic because it’s the one who sounds like a cockney chimney sweep after a couple of drinks, who mocks the hardest. (Love you, JK!)

I talk very proper like. On purpose. Because people associate eloquence with intelligence, competence and professionalism. I figured that out a long, long time ago. In the mid ’80s to be more precise. Around the time Mrs Pollard was giving us elocution lessons and we’d chant, in our finest impersonation of the Queen’s English:

I do declare,

I’m Paddington Bear

I run over here,

I run over there.

I do declare

I’m Paddington Bear.

Of course the smoothest talker is not always the sharpest tool in the box. You just have to look at the financial meltdown in every part of the globe to know that a shiny suit and smart turn of phrase does not a savvy entrepreneur make. But I do posh it up sometimes, when I need to, because that’s the way to get things done. Superficial? Yes? But is it really any different from putting on make-up or your best shirt before an interview?

Back to the voice recording: I did it today. And felt quite good about it. I recorded an ad for a kids’ toy. It was funny because I felt like such a goober standing alone in the tiny studio, over-enunciating and waving my arms around like a lunatic. My opening line was:

“Hey kids!”

It took about 4 takes to get it right because first the producer said I was pitching it too high and sounding too excited. Then that I wasn’t pitching it high enough and I needed to be more animated. Tricksy, tricksy stuff. In the end I said to myself: Imagine how a creepy perv would say it, and then do the opposite of that.

Worked like a charm.

freelance, voice recording, voiceover, voiceover artist