Starring Earl as Earl in Toilet Chase

As the video above explains, I'm playing the part of myself as I appeared in Toilet Chase, an unproduced screenplay from the early 1990s. I'm unsure, as of yet, how to critique my own performance, except to say that I need to keep Brendan Hunter's advice in mind: this is a more intimate performance format than some others, so I need to be cautious about overplaying some moments, as I feel I have here. I also noted some engineering issues - I clearly have to figure out how to properly set the microphone, my own position, and my own volume levels.

Even with the hiccups, this was a fun exercise. Wouldn't it be cool if Jeff, Ron, Susan and Allan recorded their parts? Then I could create a real radio play, and the dream of producing some version of Toilet Chase would be reality. Heck, Jeff could animate it! 

A Graphic Interpretation of The Villain and the Chimp

To my surprise and delight, my friend Jeff has drawn upon his bottomless well of talent to interpret my performance from yesterday's post. I hadn't realized that there was enough meat in my work to create this lively vignette, but I attribute that more to Jeff's genius than my neophyte attempts at acting. Check it out!

This is as good a time as any for a plug for Jeff's work: I've actually commissioned a couple of pieces from Jeff, and I've been absolutely thrilled by the results every time. Jeff consistently performs beyond expectations and has a remarkable gift for taking a client's ideas and turning them into pure gold. I'd say that even if Jeff weren't one of my oldest friends.

Here's the custom playmat Jeff painted for Gaming & Guinness IX. It was a huge hit. Here's the playmat he made for Sean.

I could go on and on, but I really encourage readers to visit JSVB: Jeff Shyluk's Visual Blog. Start by reviewing the Showcase section, where Jeff has grouped a small selection of his best stuff. As you'll see, he's incredibly versatile.

The Villain and the Chimp

Before you play the video, please read below for context. 

Last Sunday I participated in my very first voice acting class, overseen by the talented and melodious Brendan Hunter, a professional actor and voice talent based in Calgary. Each student was asked to read two parts for a hypothetical Honda Civic radio commercial, the announcer role for that same commercial, and the protagonist of a short snippet of animation.

The video above captures my performance of that third scenario. In this exercise, students were asked to read the role of one of two characters in the scene, and to react to various sound effects noted in the script. Rather than playing off another actor in the booth, we had to imagine how a non-present actor might read the other character's lines and use that to inform our own interpretation of our dialogue. So you'll hear me reacting to lines and sounds you can't hear.

Before the engineer started recording, I informed Brendan that I interpreted my character as a "Disney villain fallen on hard times." Brendan threw a monkey wrench into the works - so to speak - by having students read the part a second time, but this time as a random archetype; in my case, I had to interpret the role as if I were a freezing monkey.

Play the video above to hear how it all turned out!

While I have no illusions about the challenge of turning this into a career, I had a great experience. Brendan is a very knowledgeable and encouraging coach, and I look forward to future classes.

If you're interested in voice acting, I encourage you to visit www.brendanhunter.com to sign up for classes. You can also follow Brendan on Facebook at facebook.com/brendanhunteractor.