Was Puppeteering My Gateway Drug to Voice Acting?
I first decided that I wanted to be a voice actor around 2005. I had been working as a puppeteer (yeah, you read that right) for a company called Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre, based out of Vancouver, WA. For that job, another puppeteer and I would travel around the Western US states in a GMC Savannah van filled Tetris-style with scenery, props and puppets. Since it was just the two of us doing a live-action show, it was just the two of us making the voices for the puppets. There were about 10-12 characters in a show, which means I was voicing about 5-6 different characters in each show.
After almost every show, inevitable someone - students and teachers alike, would approach me and ask if it was difficult syncing up the movements of the puppets with the audio. We had music that accompanied the show, so many people assumed that the soundtrack also included the pre-recorded dialogue of the puppets. One of my favorite things in the world was watching the faces of disbelief when I’d inform them that it was, in fact, my partner and I making all the voices for the show! Generally the inquirer would stand there looking dumbfounded, or try to tell me I was wrong, that couldn’t have possibly been my partner and I making ALL the voices. I’d then proceed to run through the cast the was voiced by me and bask in the awe and amazement of the people listening.
At around that same time, Adult Swim started to gain popularity on Cartoon Network. If you’re not familiar with Adult Swim, it was later at night, I think it started at 10pm? And it would show mostly dubbed anime. It was my first real exposure to anime and I was hooked! Like most kids I watched my fair share of cartoons when I was young, but as I grew older they didn’t have the same appeal to me. I’m not big on cartoons themselves, primarily because the plots and characters are usually two dimensional and not very creative. I always thought it was a pity because animation had such potential to do amazing visual storytelling, but it was being pigeon-holed into children’s entertainment.
The first anime I saw was Princess Mononoke, and I was awed by it. Here was an adult story that was animated, and it used the animation in such a brilliant way! I didn’t go hard down the anime rabbit hole at that point like some did, but I was very impressed and wanted to see more. That finally happened while I was living in Portland, OR and for the first time in my life I had cable TV. My mom was staunchly against cable TV so I never had it growing up, but the apartment I was renting included free cable, which was mostly schlock TV, but it gave me access to Adult Swim, and that’s all I needed!
Ok, back to the puppeteering! One thing being a puppeteer taught me was that I wasn’t all that keen on being a puppeteer - it had some awesome aspects to it but it was also not what my soul was telling me to do, but the voices on the other hand, I LOVED making the voices for the characters, and I loved the looks on faces when I’d prove to people I was actually making the voices! I started to understand that not everyone could do what I was doing. It’s an interesting concept that most people don’t value what they’re good at too highly, because they assume everyone can do it! I was surprised to learn that it was less common than I thought!
So I decided I would be a voice actor! But the opportunities weren’t really there for a would-be voice actor in Portland, Oregon in 2005, so I wasn’t able to pursue my dream until much later. Sometimes I lament that I didn’t just follow the dream back then, but it would have required me to move to LA and I don’t think I ever would have done that. But I’m thrilled that I now live in a world of remote recording that allows me to follow my dreams not even just in my current city, but in the comfort of my own apartment! I would love to get to go into an actual studio one day and record, and I believe I will! But in the meantime, I’m happy to continue providing exceptional remote voice over projects to my clients out of my home studio.
It’s pretty amazing how life can guide us. If I had never been a puppeteer would I have discovered that voice acting is my jam? Well either way, I’m here, and I’m right where I want to be.
