VAM 167 | Interview with Jon Bailey, Part 2
Welcome to episode 167 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
This is the second and final part of my interview with the epic voice guy himself, Jon Bailey! While Jon has worked in a number of different fields in voice over, including commercials, trailers, games, and animation, he’s probably most famous for doing the voiceover for the hit YouTube series, Honest Trailers. Jon is also a huge Transformers fan and has had the opportunity to play Optimus Prime in Transformers: Combiner Wars, as well as both Shockwave and Soundwave in the Transformers movie, Bumblebee. In addition, Jon voice matches celebrities for trailers and movies including Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, and many other performers!
In the first part of our talk together, Jon shared with me his unique path for breaking into the world of voice over. Even though he grew up in Memphis, Tennessee where there were few opportunities for voice over work, his fascination with the expressive capabilities of the human voice, his willingness to attack challenges head on, and some encouragement from his wife, helped him get the attention of a studio in his area that was holding open auditions. His passion for voice acting and his prodigious abilities helped him book voice over roles much quicker than other performers at the same studio. With an entrepreneurial mindset and a willingness to think outside the box, Jon was then able to expand into other voice over marketplaces including Los Angeles where he eventually relocated with his family.
In this episode, we talk about what inspired Jon to become a voice actor in the first place. What’s interesting is that Jon doesn’t think about his desire to act in terms of formal inspiration, for him playing pretend as imaginary characters was just fun. When he was young, he often had a lot of time to himself. Being alone so much, he had to find creative ways to entertain himself. He read books, played games, and listened to music, all of which helped inspire his creativity. Often while he was reading books or listening to music, he would visualize the stories or make up images in his mind to go with the melodies he heard. This creative visualization would end up serving him very well when it came time to play pretend in imaginary worlds as a voice actor.
Jon also fell in love with the voice over introduction to the classic 1980’s cartoon, Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Later he discovered that the voice actor who performed the show’s opening narration, Peter Cullen, also played the main hero character Optimus Prime in the Transformers animated series. From then on, Jon was hooked on following voice actors and studying their performances. His ability to combine his appreciation of voice actors with his fertile imagination and creativity became a great foundation on which to build his voice acting career. In our discussion, you can hear his enthusiasm for the vast expressive capabilities of the human voice. I hope his passion inspires you to focus on the aspects of voice acting that you find most fascinating.
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #167 Here (MP3)
Hey there, Crispin! I would like to talk about something I thought you could address in a future episode, or even just a comment in response would benefit me greatly. I get that you’re busy though, so no pressure!
So, I am someone who is not really interested in pursuing voice acting as a career, but rather just something fun that I could add to what I like to call my “creativity color palette.”
Whether it’s writing, music, digital art, acting, voice acting, what-have-you, creativity is the goal for me. I mostly listen to your podcast for a fun and educational experience, and it’s always a blast, and I’ve gotten a lot out of it. And even though I’m not actively pursing the business end of voice acting, learning about it has been really fascinating.
My voice is also naturally pretty deep and gravely, like a much less talented Steve Blum, haha. Which is perfect, since that gives me a natural ability to be exactly where I want with voice acting. Right at the hobbyist level.
However, since creativity is the goal, and I always have something that I’m working on, I find that; while creative projects are always fun and they do drive me to an extent, motivation can be difficult to come by. It seems that when I focus on one project, I feel like I’m neglecting the others. But if I do everything at once, I get overwhelmed and get nothing done.
How do you prioritize your projects and allow yourself to be immersed in one at a time? And what have you found to be the best way to self-motivate on those days that just don’t feel as productive as the others?
Any insight is appreciated! I have not fully finished your podcast yet, so if you have addressed something like this already, my apologies!
Thanks so much!