Allow me to introduce myself

    

 Hello everybody! My name is Michael Valice and I am a voice actor. Well I use that term loosely. I am more of an aspiring voice actor. Although I have received professional training, I still have not landed that much anticipated first job. So I have a hard time referring to myself as an actual "voice actor." That's the other problem, I am a horrible marketer so far. Like anything, I am still very new to all of this, so it's going to take me some time before I become a regular Don Draper. And that's basically the purpose of this blog.

    This blog is not about voice acting or the voiceover industry. It's about one mans day-to-day life as he enters his journey into the world of voice overs. So far this industry has been pretty exciting even though I haven't figured out how to generate a dime in this business yet. But that brings me to where I am in my journey to voice over success. 

    I am obviously in the early stages but I have accomplished some great things so far. I received 16 weeks of professional training. I converted a walk-in-closet into a soundproof home studio.  I also received 8 weeks of marketing training. And I have submitted somewhere around 100 auditions. Oh! and I almost forgot the most important piece, I got to go to a sound studio in Seattle and record 2 demos. That was an absolute blast and that really got things rolling for me as far as my passion goes. It sucks, I feel like I blew an opportunity in a way because when I was going through my initial 16 weeks of training, my passion for VO just wasn't there yet. I remember almost dreading the times my coach would call me. I was really second guessing myself for going into voice overs and found it kinda boring. But once I went to Seattle to record my demos it was like a switch went off in my head and now I love it.

    Why voice overs? Well to be completely honest with my valued readers, voice overs wasn't something that I had this huge passion for and wanted to get into. I didn't just wake up one day and say, "you know, I think I have a solid voice and need to become a voice actor!" It all started when my wife and I took and very uneventful trip to Las Vegas. We rented a car and drove it down to Vegas from the Seattle area. It was a horrible drive down. Our GPS went out right outside of Portland and we must've missed a major turn because we didn't see a two-lane highway until we were only 2 hours outside of Vegas. You know you are lost when you are driving down the middle of a 10-mile dirt road in Oregon at 2 AM. It got worse from there, about an hour later when we were finally on some pavement and going at a high rate of speed when a herd of jack rabbits sprinted across the street!   I had to mow over at least 8 of them and I felt horrible about it. I love animals but what could I do? We finally made it to Vegas and thought we were gonna have a wild blast by just winging it. Unfortunately we mostly drank by the pool and rarely hit the strip and didn't go to any shows or clubs. We both agreed that Vegas was overrated but we really didn't experience it. We finally returned home after being down there for a few days
and I returned the now damaged car from the jack rabbits to the rental shop and the same nice lady that I received the car from was working. I walked into the office and she didn't recognize my plain, dumb looking face but once I spoke she immediately remembered me. She then said, "You need to get into voice overs, you'll be a millionaire!" Well, I didn't believe her. I thanked her for her nice compliments and walked out. Luckily she didn't catch the damage to the car. It took probably about 10 people to compliment me on the uniqueness of my voice to realize maybe that kind lady at the rental shop was right?

    My favorite compliment I received was when I was doing stand-up comedy. A fellow comedian approached me after I did my set and told me that she loves listening to my voice and that she can listen to my voice forever. But she never once mentioned that I was funny! 😆 I always get a kick out of that when I think back to those fun times. Preforming comedy was so much fun but dealing with the other comedians for the most part is insufferable. The jealousy that I would see and hear was crazy.

    I hope I don't come off like I am bragging about having a cool voice. This wasn't like a dream of mine. My dream was to be a professional athlete. Preferably an NHL player and let me tell you right now that I didn't close to accomplishing that goal. Sports and music are my true passions and I am not very skilled in any but I sure do have a blast being a fan. I still play hockey from time to time but Covid derailed that. So now my only passion is Voice Overs.

    That's gonna be all for now. I hope you find this blog entertaining and lighthearted. I have plenty of stories about my life and breaking into the VO industry. If you're interested in checking out my demos please go to www.michaelvalice.com thank you and I bid you a farewell.