Voice of the Holidays

It's that time of the year, the hustle and bustle of the rude, the obnoxious, yes, the holiday shopper. Voice work is at a premium here, everyone wants to advertise their wares and most want to do it without sounding "Christmasy"( is that even a word?). A lot of potential advertisers are writing their own scripts, badly of course and they want you to sell their product in the most conversational way possible. But here's the caveat; the commercial copy is written in bullet points and you are to "ad-lib" the delivery.

Tough call, do you turn it down and risk losing a potential client forever, or do you try and read through it a couple of times to get the feel of the copy and then try to have a conversation with your imaginary muse. Hmmm, the latter would probably drive you crazy with multiple takes but... just imagine how imaginative you can become when you get to improvise and "sell" the product.

Here's an easy way to get into that mode of delivery. If you have children, make up stories and use that to "ad-lib" your way through it, if you don't try volunteering at the local library or you can talk to yourself, (at the risk of people looking at you weird) .

I have found that on more than one occasion, telling a story to a 4 year old is great practice, it's fun and you'll find yourself able to converse in an ad-lib type format for just about any product. Now, as far as the copy is concerned, well, you'll just have to live with that one.