What's New?
Breaking/Latest News Items:
Most recently, I booked and shot on November 20th an on-camera role for a new HISTORY CHANNEL program dealing with the Shroud of Turin currently titled RESURRECTING JESUS whioh is tentatively scheduled to be broadcast in May 2010. I will be appearing as an "Older Knight Templar" (pictures of which are now available in my Gallery).
In voice-over news, I booked and recorded the voice of an "Intervention Counselor" for HOT POCKETS CHEESEBURGERS striving to return two children to the ordinariness of family dining. I have also recorded a brand-new demo for "Promos", which is in the final stages of editing and polishing, and am in the process of updating my "Commercials" demo.
My latest work with the New-York Historical Society, the LINCOLN AND NEW YORK exhibition, opened on October 5th. I can be heard as a few of the historical voices (most notably as one of the Anti-Lincoln "Copperheads" and in the special film loop area condemning the Anti-Negro rioters).
2009 has been a good year. In June, I was booked as the voice of a "Male Caucasian Businessman" for a corporate video for INTEL. This was another "cross-the-country" booking, as the client is located in Portland, OR and I recorded (via ISDN) in New York City. The recording session was quick but very pleasant, and it's nice to add another name to my list of contacts!
I also added three new Audiobook demos: Historical Fiction, Comedic/Satirical and Horror Fiction. This brought my number of demos up to 20.
On May 2nd 2009, my run as a "Guest Actor" with The Queens Players of Long Island City, New York as the murderous "King Claudius" in their production of HAMLET at The Secret Theatre ended. It was a lot of fun playing my very first Shakespearean Villain on stage, but I have to say that dying of being both slashed with a poisoned sword and forced to drink poisoned wine is hard on the throat! A short film by Retrovision Media (made during the rehearsal process) can be seen at http://www.retrovisionmedia.com/ourblog/?s=hamlet and the Official Web Press Release can still be accessed at http://www.thequeensplayers.com/shows/hamlet.html.
On April 11th, I made my fourth appearance on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and added a new character to my repertoire: Southern Redneck (the sketch was about attending Gator World in Florida to watch an 18-foot long gator devouring live and dead chckens).
The web commercial of my voice-over as "Scret Agent James Cobb", an animated ear of corn, in a Web PSA for City Harvest spoofing the famous scene in GOLDFINGER, is now available for viewing! Go to http://wleaders.com/; click on "Work" at the top of the screen and their Commerical page should come up first, but you can also click on "Commercials" at the left of the screen. The City Harvest piece is just off the first page; took me a minute to find it, but the scroll icon is a little white square between the words "Commercials, Entertainment, Interactive" and the thumbnails. Scroll down to the 7th thumbnail on the left. It looks great! Other voice-over work included one of the "student voices" for Touro College on 1010 WINS AM and as the Announcer on Evolve Media Productions' TV spots for "Vital Insight Group".
What's been happening?
I'm not certain whether it's unusual in Voice-over work, but this past March I was On Hold for two different Voice-Over spots for the very same product (Scott's Turf Builder) on two subsequent weeks ... and released both times! Well, at least I made it to the finals.
Thanks to actor David Jacks, the finiashed product of an OLD NAVY spec commercial I shot a few years ago can be seen on his web site at http://www.davejacksactor.com/oldnavy.aspx.
On Friday December 12, 2008 I made my fourth one-night walk-on appearance on Bradway in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, playing a "Steamship Passenger" in Act One and a "Transylvanian Villager" in the lynching scene in Act Two! Not only thst, but I was also part of the Cast Curtain Call and took part in the Curtain Call Song! According to Ira Mont, the Stage Manager, I have made history by being the first, last and only Walk-on for YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN since the show closed on January 4, 2009. As in every other walk-on I've appeared in, everybody both on- and back-stage helped make the experience totally magical.On November 1st, 2008 I made my third appearance on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (Guest Host Ben Affleck, Special Guest Senator John McCain) as part fo the "Bleachers Background" in the NIGHT SCHOOL MUSICAL sketch (a parody of the Disney HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL movies). A very interesting experience, as we had to be wanded by the Secret Service every time we came up to the floor where the show was being shot! The video of the sketch can be seen at http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/night-school-musical/810988/.
In May 2008, I was also recently booked as the "Male English Voice" for both the upcoming radio and television PSAs for the WORLD TRADE CENTER ENVIRONMENTAL HEA;TH CENTER; this is a major deal as the voice-overs forthe PSAs are not only going to be both male and female but also multi-lingual, including Spanish, Polish and Mandarin Chinese!My first Voice-over booking for 2008 came as a stroke of good fortune (and as a result of a heavy snowstorm in New York City) when I was asked to dub the "Voice of a Factory Supervisor" for a BIG LOTS TV spot. I was also recently booked as the voice of the animated "Paul the Patriot" for PATRIOT CHEVY BUICK GMC's new TV spot! Other bookings were as a "Student" on 1010 WINS for Touro College of Health Services and another set of spots for the Arizona Smokers Helpline, continuing the work I did with them this past January.
My "Homeless Man" has joined my "Pirate" persona in popularity; in March 2008 I was cast as a "Homeless Man" for the CBS Daytime drama AS THE WORLD TURNS (photos located in the Gallery). My "Pirate" character, created on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, reappeared in both a Corporate Industrial montage for D&G Law Firm and a TV commercial for Slomin's Security (photos of my Slomin's Pirate are now available in my Gallery)!
Thanks to my travel to Transylvania in October 2007 to celebrate Halloween, I've added a new character to my repertoire: Edwardian Coachman, and the photos of him are available now in my Gallery!
In more on-camera news, I appeared as a "Biker/Rocker Bar Patron" in Episode #111 of the new HBO comedy series FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS.
The FRANZ FERDINAND music video "DO YOU WANT TO", in which I appeared as Background Talent, seems to be very popular; everybody has been telling me how much screentime I was given (I personally didn't think that they would shoot me much!); now it can be seen on AOL Music at:
or you can check out the "Uncensored" version on YouTube.com at:
