Trish Basanyi is the voice of Trump Taj Majal. She’s a former DJ, veteran voice talent and busy voiceover teacher. She’s hired me for a couple projects in the past, actually one is ongoing –  thanks Trish –  and she’s definitely a fun client. We also follow each other on Twitter.

So here I was checking out some of her tweets when I noticed a link to VoiceoversByTrish’s channel on JustinTV.   Trish has been streaming video on some of her recording sessions and also some Q&A sessions with other talent. That’s just fun to watch and informative. I’m not sure I’d be able to focus on a voice script if I had a web cam pointed at me, but Trish manages it pretty well!

See Trish in all her purple-headed glory. Check out her JustinTV channel. You can also visit her web site VoiceoversByTrish to hear great voiceover demos.

My good friend Erik Sheppard decided that he could no longer keep his opinions to himself. (Well, it is an election year.)  So he launched a blog over at Voice Talent Productions. His posts are wise and funny and I’m not just saying that because he wrote a glowing one about my design work. (Love you too, Erik!)

Rumor has it the blog site will also feature Erik’s podcast, hosted by him and the very talented September Day Leach, with some top names in the business stepping up to the mic.  I’ll be listening!

One job lead wanted a Mae West voice for museum video narrations; another audition asked for the copy delivered like Madonna’s sound in Justify My Love. A lot of voice actors have the ability to impersonate some great voices. They just need to prime the pump. Like other voice artists, I can mimic a couple old standards, like Kate Hepburn. (Who can’t?) I can generally attempt her cold. Certainly voice actors who have specific character voices in their repertoire can call those voices up in a pinch.

For other voices, every now and then, I need a key phrase or audio clip to get that particular sound in my head. Then, I can attempt to reproduce it. And for that, there’s YouTube, a great online video archive that was doing so well Google bought it up. It’s free to browse and free to join if you have something you want to download: like a quick animation with your terrific voiceover.

If you’ve never checked out YouTube, definitely give it a try. Go head. Run a quick search for Mae West . . . or Madonna’s Justify My Love.

Of course, voice acting isn’t about impersonating voices; it’s about interpreting copy, providing a particular spin that enhances without upstaging the message; and it’s hugely subjective and incredibly fun.