The amount of times I’ve had to Fire a client …in my case, is less than the fingers on one hand.By the way be gentle with clients…-”I’m not the man/woman for this Job”– is an elegant sufficiency when an over demanding loop the phreaking loop gets on one’s tits.

As voice overs we have a sixth sense though, don’t we??? From the outset we get that hunch that this will be as per the above video…THE VOICE OVER FROM HELL!!!

It could be in the way the client’s initial communication reads… we don’t like instructions without the niceties …y’know when the brief sounds like …well, a bossy brief…Ultamatum-ish –You will do this and that …and then you will do a vocal double tsukahara twist!-

Our antennae goes to alert ,but we’ll delude ourselves the client is busy and actually a real nice person just like ourselves ,after all, we’re all god’s children …NOPE! We coulda and we shoulda made our excuses but now in the tradition of Jim Morrison and The Doors -we are wallowing in da f&*#ing mire…Big Time!

And note: the Big Timers/producers will account for very little of this kind of stress,as they have decent budgets and have worked out precisely what the VO should say.

Oh no! It’s the folk with a crappy budget who give the most grief.Also it can be a case of one’s ego ….OF COURSE MISTER CLIENT I CAN MAKE THE SOUND OF THE ELEPHANT MAN GOING BACKWARDS THROUGH A CAR WASH ….72 Takes later …you will have learnt the hard way… the moral of the story, obey that initial hunch.OK,that said we’ve all been there ,gone out of our way and eventually get to the win win .That’s Great ! But here’s when a voice over should Fire a client …

When the return on your investment …is a bad one.

Our currency is time ,it’s money after all .I’m sure many of you have gone through a vocal Vietnam only for the next client to offer a lot more money for easy work.Sheesh…why did I put myself though all that ?

Attitude is important from the get-go .Nobody minds a read and a re-read and nothing upsets clients/producers more than a prima donna with wafer thin skin when it comes to constructive criticism.Don’t take it personally ,you’d be surprised how many VO types do….but DO take it personally when someone’s quest for the Holy Grail of voice artistry is at your expense.Be a nice guy or girl always …but know when to bow out o the booth with your XLR cable between your legs.

Now about the video …I got to know Jonathan Kydd top UK VO a few years back,his late father Sam was a 50/60s english actor (and a war hero).Jonathan plays himself here when he’s not doing lucrative voice overs for The Beeb and Discovery Channel or More4 …as you’ll see, there outta be a photo of him under the word Patience in the dictionary.

Love and Only Love and a Happy New Year to you all 🙂

Marko

Mark Manning is an Irish voice over artist,author and radio presenter

you can find him at https://markmanningmedia.com/

His debut novel THE MAN WHO CHASED JOGGERS is available on Amazon Kindle here : amzn.to/2bJ3XTE